January 26th, 2020 • 3h 0m
Shownotes
Every new episode of No Agenda is accompanied by a comprehensive list of shownotes curated by Adam while preparing for the show. Clips played by the hosts during the show can also be found here.
25 for 45
Impeachment is seeking political power like the eu. Senate should confirm the people’s choice!
Lindsey Graham Says He Would Oppose Effort to Compel Hunter Biden Testimony
Fri, 24 Jan 2020 16:55
Senator Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) on Friday said if Republican colleagues attempt to compel Hunter Biden to testify in the impeachment trial of President Trump, he will vote against the subpoena.
''I don't want to call Hunter Biden. I don't want to call Joe Biden. I want someone to look at this when this is done,'' Graham told reporters on Capitol Hill.
''I don't think it's wrong for us to look at the Biden connection in the Ukraine, the $3 million given to the vice president's son by the most corrupt company in the Ukraine,'' Graham said. However, he added, ''To my Republican friends, you may be upset about what happened in the Ukraine with the Bidens but this is not the venue to litigate that.''
Republicans such as Senator Rand Paul (R., Ky.) have repeatedly threatened to subpoena Hunter Biden if Democrats follow through on their intention to summon former White House national security adviser John Bolton. Paul and colleague Ted Cruz (R., Texas) have suggested the idea of ''witness reciprocity,'' allowing Democrats to call a witness to testify in exchange for a Republican witness.
Graham acknowledged he will need several Republican senators to vote with him to prevent a subpoena of Hunter Biden and that he doesn't yet know of other senators who would join him.
The fate of possible votes regarding Bolton and other possible Democratic witnesses was still unclear. A group of moderate GOP senators, including Susan Collins of Maine and Mitt Romney of Utah, have signaled support in the past for allowing witnesses at the trial.
More from National ReviewLindsey Graham Proposes Expedited Senate Trial without Articles of Impeachment in Response to Pelosi's DelayGraham Backs Trump's Claim That Impeachment Inquiry Represents a 'Lynching'Graham Claims Trump Admin Was 'Incapable of Forming a Quid Pro Quo,' Labels Impeachment Process a 'Sham'
FISA Court Admits Spy Warrants Against Carter Page Were 'Not Valid'
Thu, 23 Jan 2020 15:09
The FISA court's top judge wrote in a secret ruling on January 7 that at least two of the four spy warrants against Carter Page were invalid and not lawfully authorized.
Authority granted to the federal government to secretly wiretap and spy on former Trump affiliate Carter Page was ''not valid,'' the nation's top spy court noted in a secret ruling penned earlier this month. The order from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), which was created and authorized by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), was initially signed and issued on January 7, 2020, but was not declassified and released until Thursday afternoon.
Judge James Boasberg, the current federal judge presiding over the FISA court, wrote in his order that at least two of the four FISA applications against Carter Page were unlawfully authorized. Additionally, according his order, the Department of Justice similarly concluded following the release of a sprawling investigate report on the matter by the agency's inspector general that the government did not have probable cause that Page was acting as an agent of a foreign power. The FISA law states that American citizens cannot be secretly spied on by the U.S. government absent probable cause, based on valid evidence, that an American is unlawfully acting as a foreign agent.
''DOJ assesses that with respect to the applications in Docket Numbers 17-375 and 17-679, 'if not earlier, there was insufficient predication to establish probable cause to believe that [Carter] Page was acting as an agent of a foreign power,''' Boasberg wrote, referring to the final two of the four FISA applications to spy on Page. ''The Court understands the government to have concluded, in view of the material misstatements and omissions, that the Court's authorizations in Docket Numbers 17-375 and 17-679 were not valid.''
Boasberg's ruling noted that DOJ had not yet taken a position on the lawfulness of the first two applications against Page, but was currently collecting information to assess whether those two spy applications were also invalid. The invalid applications specified by Boasberg were dated April 7 and June 29 of 2017. The false and invalid April 7 application was personally signed by James Comey, while the false and invalid June 29 application was signed by Andrew McCabe. Both men were referred for criminal prosecution by the inspector general. Former deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein, who is alleged to have offered to wear a wire against President Donald Trump, also signed off on the false June 29 FISA warrant against Page.
The FISA court order also noted that it is a federal crime for any federal official to ''intentionally'...disclose[] or use[] information obtained under color of law by electronic surveillance, knowing or having any reason to know that the information was obtained through electronic surveillance not authorized'' by law. The following sentence of Boasberg's ruling is redacted, raising questions about whether the government used any information obtained pursuant to the now-invalid Page surveillance warrants in other cases.
The final warrant against Page overlapped with former special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election. The final three-month authorization to spy on Page was signed nearly six weeks after Mueller was appointed, meaning that Mueller may have had real-time access to and utilized nearly five months worth of surveillance of Page during the course of Mueller's investigation. If his office used any of the information in subsequent cases, the declaration that the final two spy warrants against Page were invalid could potentially nullify previous or future convictions sought by Mueller's office.
Surveillance under FISA is not limited to the individual targeted, as the government also surveils individuals with whom the target communicates, and individuals with whom those individuals communicate. That process is called the ''two-hop'' rule and allows the government to spy on and collect information and communications from individuals who are two degrees separated from the actual surveillance target. Therefore, even if Page never personally spoke to Trump on the phone, the government could still eavesdrop on Trump's conversations if Page spoke to someone who had spoken to or electronically communicated with the president. It is not known whether the government used the two-hop process on Page to sweep up information from former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, former White House National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, or even the president himself.
In his January 7 order, Boasberg directed DOJ to retain and sequester all information and evidence relevant to both the Carter Page applications, the inspector general investigation of FISA abuse, and any additional DOJ investigations related to or spawned by the inspector general's report. Boasberg told DOJ to provide all of the required information to the FISA court no later than January 28.
Sean Davis is the co-founder of The Federalist.
Opinion | Trump Acts Like a Politician. That's Not an Impeachable Offense. - The New York Times
Thu, 23 Jan 2020 16:01
Opinion | Trump Acts Like a Politician. That's Not an Impeachable Offense.Receiving a ''political benefit'' does not transform an otherwise legal action (like requesting an investigation) into an abuse of power.
By Josh Blackman
Mr. Blackman is a constitutional law professor at the South Texas College of Law Houston.
Jan. 23, 2020 Credit... T.J. Kirkpatrick for The New York Times The way things look, President Trump will almost certainly not be removed from office. The precedents set by the articles of impeachment, however, will endure far longer. And regrettably, the House of Representatives has transformed presidential impeachment from a constitutional parachute '-- an emergency measure to save the Republic in free-fall '-- into a parliamentary vote of ''no confidence.''
The House seeks to expel Mr. Trump because he acted ''for his personal political benefit rather than for a legitimate policy purpose.'' Mr. Trump's lawyers responded, ''elected officials almost always consider the effect that their conduct might have on the next election.'' The president's lawyers are right. And that behavior does not amount to an abuse of power.
Politicians pursue public policy, as they see it, coupled with a concern about their own political future. Otherwise legal conduct, even when plainly politically motivated '-- but without moving beyond a threshold of personal political gain '-- does not amount to an impeachable ''abuse of power.'' The House's shortsighted standard will fail to knock out Mr. Trump but, if taken seriously, threatens to put virtually every elected official in peril. The voters, and not Congress, should decide whether to reward or punish this self-serving feature of our political order.
The first article of impeachment turns on President Trump's request that President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine announce an investigation of Hunter Biden's role with the energy company Burisma. Mr. Trump wanted to learn about potential financial corruption concerning Hunter, realizing that such an investigation would, perhaps, yield greater scrutiny of Joe Biden. The House argues that this request to potentially harm Mr. Trump's political rival was an ''abuse of power.''
Mr. Trump's lawyers respond that the call was ''perfectly normal.'' Yes, that phrase actually appears in the brief. Regrettably, parts of the brief are written in a far-too-political tone. But the president's lawyers have raised an important threshold issue.
''In a representative democracy,'' they write, ''elected officials almost always consider the effect that their conduct might have on the next election.''
President Trump did not stand to receive any money or property from the Ukrainian president. (The House wisely chose not to charge Mr. Trump with bribery.) As a policy matter, I disagree with Mr. Trump's decision to ask for an investigation of the Bidens. Even if warranted, it should have been avoided at all reasonable costs. The Republic would have been fine if we never learned more about Burisma. But receiving a ''personal political benefit'' does not transform an otherwise legal action '-- requesting an investigation '-- into impeachable conduct.
Mr. Trump is not the first president to consider his political future while executing the office. In 1864, during the height of the Civil War, President Lincoln encouraged Gen. William Sherman to allow soldiers in the field to return to Indiana to vote. What was Lincoln's primary motivation? He wanted to make sure that the government of Indiana remained in the hands of Republican loyalists who would continue the war until victory. Lincoln's request risked undercutting the military effort by depleting the ranks. Moreover, during this time, soldiers from the remaining states faced greater risks than did the returning Hoosiers.
Lincoln had dueling motives. Privately, he sought to secure a victory for his party. But the president, as a party leader and commander in chief, made a decision with life-or-death consequences. Lincoln's personal interests should not impugn his public motive: win the war and secure the nation.
Consider a more recent example. In 1967, President Lyndon B. Johnson sought to put Thurgood Marshall, the prominent civil rights advocate, on the Supreme Court. But there were no vacancies. Not a problem for Johnson, who nominated as attorney general Ramsey Clark, the son of Supreme Court Justice Tom C. Clark. Johnson knew that this move would, as Wil Haygood wrote in ''Showdown: Thurgood Marshall and the Supreme Court Nomination That Changed America,'' raise questions ''about a perceived conflict of interest because [Ramsey] Clark's father sat on the high court.'' Indeed, Johnson hoped that Justice Clark would retire to avoid having to recuse from cases in which Attorney General Clark was a party.
The stratagem worked. Justice Clark soon retired, and Johnson appointed Thurgood Marshall to fill the vacancy. Here, Johnson engineered a move that would have created conflicts that would keep a sitting Supreme Court justice from deciding countless appeals, where the primary purpose was to create a vacancy on the court. (Imagine if President Trump selected Chief Justice Roberts's wife as attorney general!) Ultimately, Johnson did not run for re-election in 1968, but appointing the first African-American justice could have improved his popularity, and perhaps his party's electoral standing.
Politicians routinely promote their understanding of the general welfare, while, in the back of their minds, considering how those actions will affect their popularity. Often, the two concepts overlap: What's good for the country is good for the official's re-election. All politicians understand this dynamic, even '-- or perhaps especially '-- Mr. Trump. And there is nothing corrupt about acting based on such competing and overlapping concerns. Politicians can, and do, check the polls before casting a difficult vote. Yet the impeachment trial threatens to transform this well-understood aspect of politics into an impeachable offense.
What separates an unconstitutional ''abuse of power'' from the valorized actions of Lincoln and Johnson? Not the president's motives. In each case, a president acted with an eye toward ''personal political benefit.'' Rather, Congress's judgment about what is a ''legitimate policy purpose'' separates the acclaimed from the criticized. Preserving a unified nation during the Civil War? Check. Creating a vacancy so the first African-American can be appointed to the Supreme Court? Check. But asking a foreign leader to investigate potential corruption? Impeach.
An impeachable offense need not be criminal. But our Constitution does not allow Congress to take a vote of ''no confidence'' for a president who pursues legal policies that members of the opposition party deem insufficiently publicly spirited. Presidents who take such actions with an eye toward the ballot box should be judged by the voters at the ballot box.
Josh Blackman is a constitutional law professor at the South Texas College of Law Houston and a co-author of ''An Introduction to Constitutional Law: 100 Supreme Court Cases Everyone Should Know.''
The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We'd like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And here's our email: letters@nytimes.com.
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Joe Lockhart on Twitter: "Overheard convo between two Republican Senators who only watch Fox News. "is this stuff real? I haven't heard any of this before. I thought it was all about a server. If half the stuff Schiff is saying is true, we're up shit's cr
Thu, 23 Jan 2020 16:29
Log in Sign up Joe Lockhart @ joelockhart Overheard convo between two Republican Senators who only watch Fox News. "is this stuff real? I haven't heard any of this before. I thought it was all about a server. If half the stuff Schiff is saying is true, we're up shit's creek. Hope the White House has exculpatory evidence
11:13 AM - 22 Jan 2020 Joe Lockhart @ joelockhart
Jan 22 Replying to
@joelockhart Ok maybe I made up the convo, but you know that's exactly what they're thinking.
View conversation · The Babylon Bee @ TheBabylonBee
24h Replying to
@joelockhart Leave the satire to us; we'll leave the fake news to you.
View conversation · Praying Medic @ prayingmedic
23h Replying to
@TheBabylonBee @joelockhart pic.twitter.com/7DBg6NWZWz View conversation · JackiSchechner @ JackiSchechner
Jan 22 Replying to
@joelockhart @JRubinBlogger Did you personally hear this? Is this true?
View conversation · JamieR {ð} Army Girl '¸'¸'¸ TRUMP 88022 @ Jamierodr14
10h Replying to
@JackiSchechner @joelockhart @JRubinBlogger He deleted this
pic.twitter.com/1TvGtEjGaG View conversation · ''¨Rey Skywalker ''¨ @ Rey_Sistance
Jan 22 Replying to
@joelockhart @JRubinBlogger They are not even passing bills - what are they doing with their time ?! Oh yah ... Mar A Lago ...ð
View conversation · Madge @ Madge1428
Jan 22 Replying to
@Rey_Sistance @joelockhart @JRubinBlogger Judges. They are confirming inept, unqualified judges. McConnell is reshaping the federal judiciary so its far more conservative. It's always been his dream.
View conversation · Mark Dice @ MarkDice
Jan 22 Replying to
@joelockhart @JRubinBlogger Of course Jennifer Rubin retweeted this. She's the Queen of Fake news.
View conversation · Autumn Longshadow ðºð¸ð...' ¸ð½'''¸'¸ @ mykeweljewels
23h Replying to
@MarkDice @joelockhart @JRubinBlogger ð¤¥ð¤ð¤--ð'(C)
pic.twitter.com/zUZ99th2Ie View conversation · Chris Carnahan ðºð¸ @ xtrixcyclex
Jan 22 Replying to
@joelockhart Narrator: they do not have exculpatory evidence.
View conversation · Aaron Jay @ DoubleA_CO
Jan 22 Replying to
@xtrixcyclex @joelockhart If they did, they would've been shouting it from the mountaintops long ago.
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Pirbright bags $5.5m from Gates Foundation to establish livestock antibody hub :: Animal Pharm
Fri, 24 Jan 2020 07:28
The Pirbright Institute has received $5.5 million in funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to develop a livestock antibody hub.
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Wuhan
Which democrat candidate will contract the virus?
Wuhan virus. DNA sequence to match with dna data from 23 and me. Panic at the disco
(25) Himalaya Global on Twitter: "Voice message from a medical staff in #Wuhan. "There are more than 100,000 infected. The government provides no medical supplies... People are dying right in front of our eyes...Don't EVER trust the government. We are on
Sun, 26 Jan 2020 07:38
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China's 'Belt and Road' Connects Africa to Deadly Virus
Fri, 24 Jan 2020 16:54
China's years-long expansion into Africa '' and the corresponding flood of Chinese workers establishing themselves there '' has left the continent particularly vulnerable to the spread of a new iteration of coronavirus that originated in Wuhan, China.
As part of China's international ''Belt and Road Initiative,'' the Communist Party has signed deals worth billions of dollars with some of the continent's largest countries, such as Nigeria and Kenya, and some of its least stable, such as Zimbabwe and Uganda. China established its first overseas permanent military base in Djibouti, on the other side of the mouth of the Red Sea from Yemen, in 2017. In Rwanda, Chinese workers have set up camp to build the Standard Gauge Railway, an expensive international project that Beijing promised would connect Rwanda's capital to Kenya and Uganda.
Facing a lack of trustworthy healthcare infrastructure, prior cases of Chinese citizens evading local immigration authorities, and simmering indigenous outbreaks, the potential arrival of the Wuhan virus presents a disastrous possibility for China's African business partners.
Chinese medical experts confirmed on Monday that they had identified the mystery virus as a type of coronavirus, the same type of virus responsible for the 2003 Sudden Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak that killed nearly 800 people. A team of Chinese scientists posited that the source of the virus may be local snake meat, corresponding to Communist Party claims that the virus likely jumped from animal to human at a popular wild game and seafood market in Wuhan.
Wuhan is a city of 11 million in the heart of central China. Chinese authorities have placed it on lockdown along with four other cities in the area, isolating an estimated 20 million people by shutting down flights, public transportation, and inspecting private vehicles.
Reports estimate that the virus first began to affect people in December, placing the Chinese regime's moves to contain it about a month later than when residents were first exposed. The result has been a significant dissemination of the virus. The World Health Organization (WHO) placed the number of infected people at 584 during a press conference Thursday and stated that 575 of these were in China, though the WHO falsely includes the nation of Taiwan and autonomous regions such as Hong Kong in its definition of ''China.'' A total of 17 people have died at press time, all within ''China.''
Outside of China, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Thailand, the United States, Taiwan, Macau, and Hong Kong have all confirmed cases of coronavirus.
While the virus has not yet hit Africa, some of the nations with the closest ties to Beijing have issued health alerts for their residents.
''The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) is currently coordinating a multisectoral technical group that is assessing and managing the risk of importation to Nigeria,'' the top health agency in the country said in a press alert this week. ''The Port Health Services unit of the Federal Ministry of Health in Nigeria has been placed on alert and has heightened screening measures at the points of entry.''
''Nigerians are advised to remain calm. Travelers from Nigeria to Wuhan, China, are advised to avoid contact with sick people, animals (alive or dead), and animal markets,'' the advisory note suggested. ''Travelers from Wuhan to Nigeria, may be asked questions upon arrival by the Port Health Services unit at points of entry about symptoms of illness and travel history, and are advised to report immediately to NCDC, if they feel ill after a trip to Wuhan.''
Kenyan officials similarly set up heightened security alerts, according to Kenya's the Nation.
''All passengers entering Kenya from China will undergo thorough screening for a new flu-like virus before being allowed into the country, the Ministry of Health has said,'' the newspaper
reported on Wednesday.
South Africa's National Institute for Communicable Diseases also published an alert and assurance that it had briefed the nation's doctors and medical staff on the currently available information on the virus. Local media also reported that points of entry to the country had increased security checks on individuals entering the country from Asia, though it remains unclear if that extends to individuals who had connecting flights outside of Asia but originally traveled from China.
China has significantly expanded its diplomatic and business footprint in Africa since the time of the SARS outbreak in 2003, when South Africa identified one carrier of the disease, the only one in the continent. The Belt and Road Initiative has entangled nearly every developing economy in Africa. China has signed deals with Nigeria, Kenya, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, and others to develop lucrative infrastructure projects '' many of them railways to connect cities '' in which those countries take out predatory loans to pay for the project, then use that money to pay imported Chinese workers.
''Africa is increasingly tied into the Chinese orbit that advocates for a new international order and a community of common destiny,'' Yun Sun, co-director of the East Asia program and director of the China program at the Stimson Center think tank, told Congress in 2018. ''China's economic statecraft in Africa has become one of the most prioritized and effective instruments in China's challenge to the current international order.''
More recently, Zimbabwe signed deals with China that granted it $58 million in investment grants for alleged development.
The deals have alarmed many observers in Africa who see their fate increasingly tied to the authoritarian Communist Party. China has exacerbated tensions by using its technology arms to sell surveillance technology to African dictators and sending business representatives and workers that practice overt racism in front of African partners.
Kenyan workers on the Standard Gauge Railway have complained that the Chinese bosses overseeing the construction keep segregated facilities, refusing to eat in the same lunch areas as African workers or use the same vehicles to get to work sites. The Chinese government also refuses to print instructions for the railway construction in English or other local languages and instead only prints them in Chinese, guaranteeing that the Kenyan government will not have the ability to maintain the railway without Chinese supervision and help.
In one particularly egregious instance of racism, a Chinese businessman was deported from the country after calling all Kenyans and President Uhuru Kenyatta ''monkey people'' on video.
These close ties to China have caused alarm.
Kenya is at high risk of an outbreak caused by a new virus lurking in China, if travel inflows from the Asian country are anything to go by. The coronavirus has put the world on high alert with countries increasing fever checks at airports amid fears of a bigger outbreak,'' the Agence France-Presse (AFP) noted on Tuesday. ''Government statistics show that the number of international visitors through all points of entry in 2019 shot up to 2,048,834 compared to 2018, when arrivals were 2,025,206.''
Kenya also has the dubious distinction of being home to Africa's most prominent immigration mess caused by China. In 2018, the Standard, a Kenyan newspaper, revealed that thousands of Chinese workers were illegally using tourist visas to enter the country and take Standard Gauge Railway jobs '' which China had promised Nairobi '' from Kenyans.
''Insiders said besides the official numbers that have applied for work permits, there are hundreds of others behind the walls working using tourist visas who fly back home every six months for a short break, before jetting back in to pick up where they left,'' the newspaper noted.
The track record of Chinese nationals evading the Kenyan immigration system suggests it is possible for many to avoid screening for coronavirus in the future.
Follow Frances Martel on Facebook and Twitter.
Government health agency official: Corona virus 'isn't something the American public need to worry about' | TheHill
Sun, 26 Jan 2020 06:25
Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), said Sunday the American public shouldn't worry about the coronavirus outbreak in China.
''It's a very, very low risk to the United States,'' Fauci said during an interview with radio show host John Catsimatidis.
''But it's something that we as public health officials need to take very seriously... It isn't something the American public needs to worry about or be frightened about. Because we have ways of preparing and screening of people coming in [from China]. And we have ways of responding - like we did with this one case in Seattle, Washington, who had traveled to China and brought back the infection.''
The World Health Organization (WHO) reported on Saturday that there are 1,320 confirmed cases of the virus worldwide, only two are in the U.S. and the majority are centered in China.
Fauci went on to explain that since it is a virus, there are limited remedies to combat it or develop immunity among a population. He said NIAID is working on a vaccine, though it will be about three months until they can begin testing it on humans.
''We've just got to make sure that we are totally prepared [since] infectious diseases will continue to emerge on the human species. And we've got to be essentially perpetually prepared.''
It remains unclear how long the virus will be active in China, where over 30 million people in the Wuhan, China area have been quarantined so far.
On Saturday, it was reported that the U.S. government is preparing a charter flight this weekend to evacuate American citizens and diplomats from Wuhan.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced Saturday that it is moving a qualifying event from Wuhan, China, to Amman, Jordan, over concerns about the outbreak.
John Catsimatidis is an investor in The Hill.
Shanghai Disneyland Closes to Halt Spread of Virus That Has Killed 26 and Sickened 881
Sun, 26 Jan 2020 06:15
A tourist takes a photo with an iPhone at Shanghai DisneylandPhoto: Getty Images Shanghai Disneyland will close its gates on Saturday in an effort to stop the spread of a new SARS-like virus that has killed 26 people and sickened at least 881, primarily in China. It's not known when the theme park may reopen.
Disney's Shanghai location, which first opened in 2016, is the only Disney park in mainland China. Hong Kong Disneyland is still open, despite two confirmed cases of the 2019-nCoV coronavirus in that region, and plans by Hong Kong authorities to turn some vacation campsites and military barracks into quarantine zones .
''In response to the prevention and control of the disease outbreak and in order to ensure the health and safety of our guests and Cast, Shanghai Disney Resort is temporarily closing Shanghai Disneyland, Disneytown including Walt Disney Grand Theatre and Wishing Star Park, starting January 25, 2020,'' Disney said in a statement on its website .
''We will continue to carefully monitor the situation and be in close contact with the local government, and we will announce the reopening date upon confirmation.''
Disney's Shanghai Resort said that it would refund tickets to the park and any hotel bookings. Disney operates two branded hotels at Shanghai Disneyland.
The decision to close Shanghai Disneyland comes at the busiest time of the year, when China's population of 1.42 billion people are celebrating the Lunar New Year and hundreds of millions travel for the week-long celebration. The cities of Beijing, Wuhan, Zhejiang, and Macau have canceled their Lunar New Year celebrations this weekend, the equivalent of canceling Christmas celebrations in the U.S.
The Chinese government announced on Friday that sections of the Great Wall near Beijing would be closed starting on Saturday and McDonald's said it would suspend business at five restaurants in Hubei province, which also contains the city of Wuhan, the suspected source of the outbreak.
Roughly 33 million people are on lockdown in at least 10 cities within Hubei province. Plane and train travel have been stopped from those 10 cities and travel by car has been tightly restricted. At least seven movies in China have had their theatrical release delayed in an effort to keep people out of crowded places like movie theaters.
There have so far been confirmed cases of the virus in the U.S., Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. There are suspected cases in many other countries as far away as Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Finland and Australia that have yet to be confirmed.
The only case in the U.S. so far has been in Washington State and five airports are conducting health screenings of passengers arriving from China in conjunction with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC): Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International, Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, San Francisco International Airport, Los Angeles International Airport, and John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.
John Hopkins University created an online tracker that's updated daily with the most recent figures and the World Health Organization (WHO) declined to designate the outbreak as a ''public health emergency of international concern,'' abbreviated as PHEIC, on Thursday.
WHO warns that this is certainly an emergency for China, but has hesitated to call it an international emergency since all of the 26 deaths and most of the illnesses have been within China's borders. WHO's emergency panel of experts could reconvene at any time if the situation changes.
Coronavirus contagion rate makes it hard to control - studies - Reuters
Sun, 26 Jan 2020 06:10
LONDON (Reuters) - Each person infected with coronavirus is passing the disease on to between two and three other people on average at current transmission rates, according to two separate scientific analyses of the epidemic.
People wear face masks as they select products in a supermarket in Beijing as China is hit by an outbreak of the new coronavirus, January 25, 2020. REUTERS/Thomas Peter
Whether the outbreak will continue to spread at this rate depends on the effectiveness of control measures, the scientists who conducted the studies said. But to be able to contain the epidemic and turn the tide of infections, control measures would have to halt transmission in at least 60% of cases.
The death toll from the coronavirus outbreak jumped to 41 on Saturday, with more than 1,400 people infected worldwide - the vast majority in China.
''It is unclear at the current time whether this outbreak can be contained within China,'' said Neil Ferguson, an infectious disease specialist at Imperial College London who co-led one of the studies.
Ferguson's team suggest as many as 4,000 people in Wuhan were already infected by Jan. 18 and that on average each case was infecting two or three others.
A second study by researchers at Britain's Lancaster University also calculated the contagion rate at 2.5 new people on average being infected by each person already infected.
''Should the epidemic continue unabated in Wuhan, we predict (it) will be substantially larger by Feb. 4,'' the scientists wrote.
They estimated that the central Chinese city of Wuhan where the outbreak began in December will alone have around 190,000 cases of infection by Feb. 4., and that ''infection will be established in other Chinese cities, and importations to other countries will be more frequent.''
Raina MacIntyre, head of the Biosecurity Research Program at the Kirby Institute, at the University of New South Wales in Australia, said on Saturday that it is highly concerning that in recent days the infection has become widespread.
''The more widespread the infection in other parts of the China, the greater the risk of more global spread,'' MacIntyre said.
Australia, a popular destination for Chinese visitors, confirmed its first four cases of the virus in travellers from China, all of whom had been to Wuhan.
''What we need is more data to be published on risk factors, transmission, incubation period and epidemiology, so we can understand what control measures are most appropriate,'' MacIntyre said.
Reporting by Kate Kelland; Additional reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Editing by David Holmes and Sandra Maler
3 Israelis hospitalized with flu-like symptoms as coronavirus fears mount | The Times of Israel
Sun, 26 Jan 2020 06:08
Three Israelis have been hospitalized and are currently in isolation as medical authorities run tests to determine whether they may have come into contact with a new virus that has killed over three dozen people in China so far.
Medical authorities in Israel believe the three do not have the coronavirus but are taking every precaution as they appear to have flu-like symptoms and at least some of them recently came back from China, Channel 12 reported on Saturday.
Two Israelis who were hospitalized earlier for the same reasons have been cleared and released, according to the report.
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Of the three patients currently hospitalized, one is at the Sheba Medical Center in central Israel, one is at Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem and the third is currently at another unnamed hospital.
The Health Ministry expects the three to be cleared and released from the hospital as well within the coming days.
On Friday, the Health Ministry issued a warning for Israelis not to travel to the Chinese city of Wuhan and its surroundings, as Beijing struggles to deal with the new virus that has claimed the lives of 41 people, sickened hundreds and prompted unprecedented lockdowns of cities.
Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses, some of which cause the common cold. Others have evolved into more severe illnesses, such as SARS and MERS, though so far the new virus does not appear to be nearly as deadly or contagious.
The Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer, January 2, 2014. (Gideon Markowicz/FLASH90)
The ministry urged Israelis to avoid all travel to the region unless it was absolutely critical and said it was ''in contact with all the international bodies and experts in Israel and abroad.''
''The public will be continuously updated on developments,'' the ministry said.
The warning comes as China announced Friday that it is swiftly building a 1,000-bed hospital dedicated to patients infected with the coronavirus.
Passengers wearing protective face masks enter the departure hall of a high speed train station in Hong Kong, Friday, Jan. 24, 2020. (AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim)
Chinese health authorities said the number of confirmed cases in China rose to more than 1,200 and the death toll climbed to 41. Australia and Malaysia reported their first cases and Japan identified a third one on Saturday. Singapore confirmed its third and Thailand its fifth. Cases have also been detected in Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, the United States and Vietnam.
In Wuhan, the epicenter of the emergency, 450 military medics were deployed to help treat patients where a seafood and live animal market has been identified as the center of the outbreak.
Wuhan authorities are racing to build a second new hospital within a fortnight, state media reported, adding 1,300 new beds.
''To address the insufficiency of existing medical resources,'' Wuhan is constructing a hospital modeled after the Xiaotangshan SARS hospital in Beijing, Wuhan authorities said in a Friday notice. The facility will be a prefabricated structure on a 25,000- square-meter (270,000-square-foot) lot, slated for completion February 3.
The SARS hospital was built from scratch in 2003 in just six days to treat an outbreak of a similar respiratory virus that had spread from China to more than a dozen countries and killed about 800 people. The hospital featured individual isolation units that looked like rows of tiny cabins.
The crisis comes on the eve of the Lunar New Year. The country's most important celebration has been all but canceled for at least 56 million people as authorities expanded travel bans across central Hubei province to try and contain the spread of the virus.
On the eastern outskirts of Wuhan, police manning a roadblock turned away a handful of vehicles trying to exit the city.
Medical staff members carrying a patient into the Jinyintan hospital, where patients infected by a mysterious SARS-like virus are being treated, in Wuhan in China's central Hubei province, January 18, 2020. (AFP)
But the police allowed some medical workers who had gone home for the holidays to re-enter the city to help at crowded hospitals.
The government says most of the cases have been in Hubei and most of the deaths involved people who already suffered pre-existing health conditions.
Underscoring fears that the virus could spread further, Beijing will suspend long-distance bus service entering and leaving the capital of 20 million people from Sunday due to ''requirements of epidemic prevention and control,'' the official People's Daily newspaper reported.
The National Health Commission also ordered nationwide measures to detect and isolate people carrying the virus on planes, trains and buses across the country.
Xinhua said Saturday that temperature screening checkpoints have been set up in 387 railway stations across the country.
Meanwhile, tourists from Hubei in Haikou, capital of the island province of Hainan, were told by the city government they had to spend 14 days in a hotel for centralized medical observation and were forbidden to leave.
Foreign citizens were set to be evacuated from the virus-hit Wuhan within the next few days.
While the majority of deaths have been older patients, a 36-year-old man in Hubei was admitted to the hospital earlier this month after suffering from fever for three days. He died following a sudden cardiac arrest on Jan. 23.
Many countries are screening travelers from China and isolating anyone with symptoms.
The World Health Organization decided against declaring the outbreak a global emergency for now. The declaration can increase resources to fight a threat but its potential to cause economic damage makes the decision politically fraught.
Report: U.S. planning to evacuate Americans from Wuhan amid coronavirus outbreak | One America News Network
Sun, 26 Jan 2020 05:55
FILE '' In this Thursday, Jan. 23, 2020 file photo, Passengers wear protective face masks at the departure hall of the high speed train station in Hong Kong. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)
OAN NewsroomUPDATED 11:07 AM PT '-- Saturday, January 25, 2020The U.S. government is organizing a flight of out the Chinese city of Wuhan to evacuate American citizens and diplomats amid the coronavirus outbreak. The local U.S. consulate is reportedly contacting American citizens to offer them a place on the plane, which will seat around 230 people and is expected to take off on Sunday.
Around 1,000 U.S. citizens are said to be in Wuhan. However, those who choose to evacuate on the plane will be responsible for the cost of their ticket. The flight will be directly to the U.S. Onboard medical personnel will be present to ensure the infection doesn't spread.
The U.S. government is also planning to temporarily close the consulate in Wuhan.
In this Thursday, Jan. 23, 2020, photo, a staff member wearing a hazardous materials suit hauls a bin at a hospital that reported a coronavirus death in Yichang in central China's Hubei Province. (Chinatopix via AP)
Meanwhile, officials in China are taking on a massive construction project to build a quarantine hospital within 10 days. Authorities reportedly started building the 1,000 bed hospital on Friday. It will be used to treat patients who are being turned away from overcrowded hospitals in Wuhan.
At least 41 people have died and 1,200 others have been infected by the new and unknown virus, which includes pneumonia-like symptoms.
In 2003, a similar building was quickly erected during a SARS outbreak.
RELATED: Second Case Of Coronavirus Confirmed In U.S.
Xi calls situation grave as China scrambles to contain virus
Sun, 26 Jan 2020 00:19
China's leader on Saturday called the accelerating spread of a new virus a grave situation, as cities from the outbreak's epicenter in central China to Hong Kong scrambled to contain an illness that has infected more than 1,200 people and killed 41.
President Xi Jinping's remarks, reported by state broadcaster CCTV, came at a meeting of Communist Party leaders convened on Lunar New Year '-- the country's biggest holiday whose celebrations have been muted '-- and underlined the government's urgent, expanding efforts to control the outbreak.
Travel agencies have been told to halt all group tours, the state-owned English-language China Daily newspaper reported, citing the China Association of Travel Services.
Millions of people traveling during the holiday have fueled the spread of the outbreak nationwide and overseas after it began in the city of Wuhan in central China. The vast majority of the infections and all the deaths have been in mainland China, but fresh cases are popping up.
Australia and Malaysia reported their first cases Saturday '-- four each '--and Japan, its third.
Canada reported its first case Saturday in Toronto. Officials said the man is his 50s and recently flew from Wuhan to Guangzhou, China and then on to Toronto on Jan. 23.
France confirmed three cases Friday, the first in Europe, and the U.S. identified its second, a woman in Chicago who had returned from China.
In the heart of the outbreak where 11 million residents are already on lockdown, Wuhan banned most vehicle use, including private cars, in downtown areas starting Sunday, state media reported. Only authorized vehicles would be permitted, the reports said.
The city will assign 6,000 taxis to neighborhoods, under the management of resident committees, to help people get around if they need to, China Daily said.
In Hong Kong, leader Carrie Lam said her government will raise its response level to emergency, the highest one, and close primary and secondary schools for two more weeks on top of next week's Lunar New Year holiday. They will reopen Feb. 17.
Lam said direct flights and trains from Wuhan would be blocked.
In a sign of the growing strain on Wuhan's health care system, the official Xinhua news agency reported that the city planned to build a second makeshift hospital with about 1,000 beds. The city has said another hospital was expected to be completed Feb. 3.
The new virus comes from a large family of what are known as coronaviruses, some causing nothing worse than a cold. It causes cold- and flu-like symptoms, including cough and fever, and in more severe cases, shortness of breath. It can worsen to pneumonia, which can be fatal.
China cut off trains, planes and other links to Wuhan on Wednesday, as well as public transportation within the city, and has steadily expanded a lockdown to 16 surrounding cities with a combined population of more than 50 million '-- greater than that of New York, London, Paris and Moscow combined.
China's biggest holiday, Lunar New Year, unfolded Saturday in the shadow of the virus. Authorities canceled a host of events, and closed major tourist destinations and movie theaters.
Temples locked their doors, Beijing's Forbidden City and Shanghai Disneyland closed, and people canceled restaurant reservations ahead of the holiday, normally a time of family reunions, sightseeing trips and other festivities in the country of 1.4 billion people.
''We originally planned to go back to my wife's hometown and bought train tickets to depart this afternoon,'' said Li Mengbin, who was on a stroll near the closed Forbidden City. ''We ended up canceling. But I'm still happy to celebrate the new year in Beijing, which I hadn't for several years.''
Temples and parks were decorated with red streamers, paper lanterns and booths, but some places started dismantling the decor.
People in China wore medical masks to public places like grocery stores, where workers dispensed hand sanitizer to customers. Some parts of the country had checkpoints for temperature readings and made masks mandatory.
The National Health Commission reported a jump in the number of infected people, to 1,287. The latest tally, from 29 provinces and cities across China, included 237 patients in serious condition.
Of the 41 deaths, 39 have been in Hubei province, where Wuhan is the capital city. Most of the deaths have been older patients, though a 36-year-old man in Hubei died this week.
French automaker PSA Group says it will evacuate its employees from Wuhan, quarantine them and then bring them to France. The Foreign Ministry said it was working on "eventual options" to evacuate French citizens from Wuhan ''who want to leave.'' It didn't elaborate.
The National Health Commission said it is bringing in medical teams to help handle the outbreak, a day after videos circulating online showed throngs of frantic people in masks lined up for examinations and complaints that family members had been turned away at hospitals that were at capacity.
The Chinese military dispatched 450 medical staff, some with experience in past outbreaks, including SARS and Ebola, who arrived in Wuhan late Friday to help treat many patients hospitalized with viral pneumonia, Xinhua reported.
Xinhua also said medical supplies are being rushed to the city, including 14,000 protective suits, 110,000 pairs of gloves and masks and goggles.
The rapid increase in reported deaths and illnesses does not necessarily mean the crisis is getting worse but could reflect better monitoring and reporting of the virus.
It is not clear how lethal the new coronavirus is or even whether it is as dangerous as the ordinary flu, which kills tens of thousands of people every year in the U.S. alone.
'--'--'--
Associated Press writer Rob Gillies, Associated Press researcher Henry Hou and video journalist Dake Kang contributed to this report.
Wuhan, the center of the coronavirus outbreak, is a major business hub - Business Insider
Sat, 25 Jan 2020 21:33
Wuhan, China, is one of China's largest industrial hubs, and several Chinese and international corporations have business operations in this city.Automotive companies like Dongfeng Motor Group, Nissan, Honda, and General Motors have car factories in Wuhan.Major fast food chains like McDonald's, Pizza Hut, and KFC also have branches in Wuhan, and they are suspending business in response to the outbreak.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.The spread of the deadly coronavirus is likely to have a major economic impact as Wuhan, the center of this outbreak, is a business hub for several international corporations.
Wuhan, a city of 11 million people, is one of China's largest industrial hubs and home to its steel industry. The $9.4 billion Chinese automotive company Dongfeng Motor Corp, which is joint venture partners with Nissan and Honda, resides in this city.
Several suppliers and international business operations are based in Wuhan. For example, massive car factories for General Motors, Nissan, Honda, and other corporations are there. Wuhan is home to the business operations for international corporations like Renault SA, PSA Group's Peugeot, IBM, HSBC, Siemens, Walmart, Ericsson and more. The beverage company Anheuser-Busch InBev SA also brews beer in Wuhan.
WeWork operates co-working spaces there, and major fast food chains like McDonald's, Pizza Hut, and KFC hold operations in Wuhan. Already, McDonald's has suspended business in five cities in China, including Wuhan. Likewise, some Pizza Hut and KFC stores have been temporarily shut down in Wuhan.
The city is currently under lockdown to contain the spread of the coronavirus. Since Thursday, transit going in and out of Wuhan has been halted, coinciding with the Lunar New Year holiday that is usually the busiest time of the year. During this holiday season, billions of dollars are spent on travel, shopping, and food.
Likewise, other countries have also faced economic impact. After the second case of coronavirus was confirmed in the U.S., the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged over 250 points on Friday.
More: Health Asia Wuhan China coronavirus Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options.
How the Wuhan virus could impact the economy, according to past outbreaks - Business Insider
Sat, 25 Jan 2020 21:31
At least nine people have died in China from the Wuhan virus, with more than 440 infections reported in the country. The virus has spread from China to other Asian countries like South Korea and Japan, and the first documented case in the US was announced this week. The spread of the virus has raised fears of a global pandemic, which has impacted stocks around the world. Here's how the Wuhan virus could impact the global economy, based on what we know about past outbreaks. Visit Business Insider's home page for more stories.The spread of the deadly Wuhan virus from its country of origin, China, to other countries in Asia and the United States has raised fears that the virus could lead to a global pandemic, causing stock prices around the world to fall this week.
Here's how the virus could impact the global economy as a whole, according to the economic impacts from past outbreaks.
The SARS virus in 2003
FILE PHOTO: A nurse wearing protective gear walks outside a Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Clinic (SARS) in suburban Toronto Reuters The outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, referred to as SARS, in 2003 was one of the biggest outbreaks in recent history.
Originating in southern China, SARS reached 26 countries and infected more than 8,000 people, according to the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 774 of those cases resulted in death.
Various studies and models estimated the economic damages around the world caused by SARS were between $40 billion and $80 billion US dollars.
SARS' impacted the economy by influencing expenses like medical care, travel, consumer confidence, and investment, according to a report funded by the National Institutes of Health.
The Ebola virus
A health worker dressed in a protective suit talks to medical staff at the newly constructed MSF Ebola treatment centre in Goma. Reuters From 2014 to 2016, the Ebola virus spread from West Africa, causing nearly 29,000 cases and 11,316 deaths in West Africa alone. Outside the region, around 2,500 were infected and 1,597 died, according to the CDC.
Ebola severely impacted Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, causing an estimated $2.2 billion in GDP loss in the region.
The United States, United Kingdom and Germany donated over $3.6 billion to help respond to the outbreak.
What experts say a pandemic could cost the world economy
An official at the Hankou Railway Station in Wuhan, China, screens passengers for an infectious virus that originated in the city. AFP via Getty Images Assessing what the impact of an extreme outbreak '-- a pandemic of an influenza deaths '-- would be, a 2018 study estimated that a pandemic that kills 720,000 would cost the global economy around $500 billion per year of the outbreak.
That's around 0.6% of global income annually, the study by the World Health Organization said. It also said that a $500 billion annual hit on the economy from a pandemic is on the lower end of estimated annual losses from climate change, which it said is around 0.2% to 2% of global income.
A global outbreak would hurt poorer countries the most, the study said, causing a loss of 0.3% in annual income for high-income countries, but a more significant loss of 1.6% in lower-to middle-income countries.
What the Wuhan virus is already impacting
John F. Kennedy Airport, in New York City Reuters The Wuhan virus, like previous outbreaks, has impacted various industries from travel to healthcare.
Stock prices in the travel, retail, and luxury-goods markets fell this week under fears that an outbreak would decrease demand.
The virus has also impacted airline stock prices, with United Airlines and Delta Air Lines falling 2.5% on Tuesday, and American Airlines falling 4.2%, CNBC reported.
But, the virus has bumped pharmaceutical stocks, with pharma stocks in China rising by 10% earlier this week.
More: Features Wuhan China Wuhan Virus Ebola Virus Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options.
Why does the Wuhan coronavirus genome end in aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa (33 a's)? - Bioinformatics Stack Exchange
Sat, 25 Jan 2020 21:30
This question is quite general, so I'm going to attempt to tie it back to bioinformatics.
Background The tree for the current coronavirus is here, showing it is closely related to bat-coronavirus and in particular SARS.
Question The bioinformatics question for the current coronavirus is why this virus appears to be able to infect humans and transmit to human.
Genome size Firstly, you said that 30kb was large ... this is a standard size for a coronavirus genome, albeit it is unusual in that the family Coronaviridae are the largest genomes for a single stranded RNA virus, for example flaviviruses are 10kb. Thus, all coronaviruses are all approximately 30Kb. Some coronaviruses don't infect humans (zero symptoms), some cause very mild symptoms, others are MERS and SARS with 40-60% and 10% morality rates respectively. So, genome size is of little bioinformatics interest in my opinion.
Polyadenylation and capping (5' methylation) enable the RNA to be trafficked and transcribed by ribosomes and the mechanism is widely used by viruses. Methylation would also prevent the innate immune response from the shredding the vRNA. Koonin and Moss (2010), interpreted a given capping mechanism as being common to the Mononegavirales - a viral Order including measles, mumps, Ebolavirus. Its a big statement, but regardless poly-A and capping are simply mimicking the host mRNA which a lot of viruses use. Poly-A and capping per se are not really interesting.
ConclusionThe bioinformatics question is the genome size wierd - no, its standard for a coronavirus, is the poly-A weird - no its generic amongst lots of viruses as is capping. Is the length of the poly-A excessive (33 As), it looks odd but a human genecist/bioinformaticist needs to answer that ... so is it (potentially) linked with its epidemiology/clinical symptoms?
I don't think 33 poly-As are linked with anything bioinformatically interesting. This is because it will likely vary dramatically between genomes (not simply epidemic vs. non-epidemic strains). I don't know the mechanism for poly-adenylation, but I think slippage is a likely mutation resulting in large variations between individual genomes, particularly for poly-A - which notorious for slippage.
So ultimately could poly-As be linked with the ability of the new coronavirus to infect/transmit and could we therefore explore that bioinformatically? I personally think slippage mutations would prevent a clonal lineage emerging, i.e. that the size of the poly-As is not stable between genomes, but that would assume a given given mechanism of polyadenylation. Thus as a bioinformatics question I wouldn't pursue it, because I don't think there is sufficient biological rationale. I agree weird stuff should be questioned and that bit of the genome jumps out ... but I doubt it would go anywhere.
Slippage The definition of a slippage mutation is here, but basically it means this genome has 33 poly-As, however another isolate from the same epidemic could say have 30 poly-As (just an example), another might have 25 poly-As and so on.
Just my 2 cents
Texas Student May Have Wuhan Coronavirus, as Dozens in U.S. Are Monitored - The New York Times
Thu, 23 Jan 2020 23:10
U.S. | Texas Student May Have Wuhan Coronavirus, as Dozens in U.S. Are MonitoredHealth officials said they were keeping the Texas A&M student, who had traveled to China, isolated at home.
Travelers arriving from China at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in Washington on Thursday. Credit... David Ryder/Reuters Jan. 23, 2020Updated 8:51 p.m. ET
SEATTLE '-- A Texas A&M University student was being isolated at home on Thursday as health officials said they were examining whether he could be the second known case of Wuhan coronavirus in the United States.
The man had traveled from Wuhan, China, where the outbreak of the respiratory illness began, and health care providers determined that he met the criteria for coronavirus testing, health officials in Brazos County, Texas, said. They said they would promptly announce if testing confirmed the patient's illness was a case of Wuhan coronavirus.
Texas A&M said in a statement that the immediate health risk to those on its campus in College Station was considered low.
The case marked a growing roster of people being monitored around the United States since officials identified the country's first confirmed Wuhan coronavirus patient in Washington State this week. Officials have been working to contact people who were on his flight home from the Wuhan region, and on Thursday they increased the number of people they have identified as having had close contact with that patient in recent days to 43. Those people will get daily check-ins from medical personnel to monitor their health.
Separately, the state's health officer, Dr. Kathy Lofy, said in an interview that officials have started investigating a few other individuals in the state to determine whether they may have the coronavirus strain.
While assuring the public that there was little threat, officials have said the patient in Washington State would most likely not be the last Wuhan coronavirus case to reach the United States. Dr. Lofy encouraged people to take typical steps that could prevent the spread of illnesses, such as washing hands and avoiding touching their eyes, nose and mouth.
''Currently, we believe the risk to the general public is low,'' Dr. Lofy said.
The strain of coronavirus surfaced in December and has spread through parts of Asia, sickening hundreds and killing at least 17 people. The authorities in China have since closed off Wuhan, a city of more than 11 million people, by canceling flights and trains leaving the city, and suspending bus, subway and ferry service within it. Travel restrictions have been extended to several cities nearby.
The United States has put travel limits of its own in place, funneling passengers who have traveled recently to Wuhan through a handful of airports, including Los Angeles International, that have special screening processes in place.
A passenger who arrived at Los Angeles International on an American Airlines flight from Mexico City on Wednesday night was taken to a hospital for a ''precautionary medical evaluation,'' officials said. Heath Montgomery, an airport spokesman, said he did not know whether the traveler had recently been to China or whether coronavirus was suspected.
State and county health officials declined to discuss the situation in detail, but said they did not have any confirmed cases of coronavirus. They have been providing healthy travelers arriving from Wuhan with information about symptoms and advising them to seek care if they become ill.
The union that represents more than 27,000 American Airlines flight attendants on Thursday called for airlines to institute immediate emergency measures, including procedures to manage potentially ill people. Lori Bassani, the national president of the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, said airlines needed to do everything possible to contain the outbreak and minimize the chances of exposure.
''The health of our crew members and passengers is a top priority for us and we refuse to compromise their health or safety in any way,'' Ms. Bassani said.
Raw Video from Wuhan '' People collapsing on the streets'... '' CITIZEN FREE PRESS
Thu, 23 Jan 2020 23:24
Serious bug!
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January 23, 2020 12:48 pm
Well, as long as it isn't the start of the Walking Dead ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE, we should be good 8-/
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January 23, 2020 12:54 pm
Umm the zombie apocalypse is literally my wildest dream'...'...
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It has already been here in USA alive and well for at least 10 years and has only grown ever more entrenched in thinking processes.
I was sorry to hear about Carl. My condolences to you and Judith.
We already have many milions of walking dead zombies here in USA today, 100% incapable of coherent thinking processes. All brought to you by our education system and of course PRAVDA/MSM, the DEM/DSA propaganda arm ! Nothing new but most people still do NOT recognize these zombies we call DEMs for who and what they really are. Yes they are very dangerous in many ways. To some degree most people are already infected and simply do NOT realize it. Many have accepted this to some degree or another, the garbage thinking that they must follow illegal laws forced on them by the criminals in government ? Ponder that serious reality and it will answer every issue before us. .
http://www.downtoearththinking.com/the-matrix-is-very-real-in-usa-today''.html
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It already started'....I'm watching it on Fox News right now. They invaded the Senate Chambers.
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This is absolute tyranny.
No, you have been living in absolute tyrrany for at least 10 years and did not even recognize it for wht it is.
Realize most people were totally consumed in winning the fake war on terrorism and actually thought wasting $ trillions for 20 years was a very good and necessry idea ? all the whiler the control freaks were tightening up the noose around your neck via the spook agencies you are forced to pay for that created the fake wars ?
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You speak the truth, but are too short on the timeline. The tyranny goes back a whole lot longer than 9/11. I'm thinking maybe all the way to 1860, accelerating in the early 20th century, and at total ''warp speed'' between 2009 and 2016.
In 1913 we got the income tax, the Federal Reserve and the Council on Foreign Relations. Our great grandparents must have been asleep.
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They were lied to and believed the lie. Nothing new there.
Maybe, maybe not. Got proof?
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January 23, 2020 11:20 pm
Most recent analysis says this variant comes from a snake. Perhaps with some of strange and different things Chinese eat, [the animals they consume], the virus can do do a species jump. More research needs to be done quickly. Also we just had a meteor shower which has timing to flu outbreaks down through history.
Damn!! Back in 2001, I wrote a short paper about the propagation of flu viri to be much too quick for it to be passed from person to person, that it had to be coming down from space as a sort of cloud over vast areas. I Sent it to my girlfriend at the time, who has two PhDs and was doing cancer research at LLUMC. She edited out our e-mail addresses, then printed it out and posted it on the bulletin board down at the lab where she worked. She played dumb about it and asked her co-workers what they thought of it. Most of them claimed that they had no opinion on it, one or two said that it was interesting. No one spoke out against it.
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January 23, 2020 11:18 pm
Just saying not a conspiracy: With all the biological working taking place there. It makes you wonder if something got out before it should have.
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January 23, 2020 12:48 pm
China has the most people, pigs and ducks squeezed together in the world. The germs have many opportunities to spread, mutate and make the leap to Homo Sapiens.
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January 23, 2020 12:59 pm
Yeah but it means nothing when they work on level 4 superbugs in the city. Chinese scientists are the most overrated idiots on the planet. I lay money this thing just walked out on some dudes shoe.
Bat soup aside.
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Yeah, the Chinese have been playing with the CRISPR machine, tinkering with DNA. It's possible this new virus threat is a weaponized CRISPR creation that got out of the lab.
Now look out for the forced vaccinations.
During the ShamPeachment, Schiffty will blame President Trump for it as a Russian Plot Conspiracy'...that's his script for everything else under the sun since November 2016.
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January 23, 2020 12:59 pm
EXACTLY Joshua and don't forget the little Pencil Neck Schitt will quote Madison to bolster the nonsense.
Ebola, 3 reasons: 1'...China imports ''science'' animals (monkeys) from The DRC'...Congo. 2'...About 5 months ago scientists (they were Chinese) in Canada got busted and expelled for sending Ebola to China. 3'...Look at the medics and drs'...not dressed for a coronavirus. Please check out number 1 and 2 for yourself. It's the truth.
Or released deliberately as a conrtrol mechanism for various reasons like the protest in HK and other matters in China ?
SF 49er Fans Against Pelosi
The latest victims are Ho Wi Fuk, Sum Ting Wong, Wi Tu Sik, Sum Yung Gi-Di. Very sad.
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January 23, 2020 12:50 pm
Dont forget Wi Fukem Yung
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January 23, 2020 12:58 pm
Don't forget Hoo Flung Doo and Long Duck Dong.
SF 49er Fans Against Pelosi
The latest victims are Ho Wi Fook, Sum Ting Wong, Wi Tu Sik, Sum Yung Gi-Di. Very sad.
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January 23, 2020 12:51 pm
Probably caused by the disinfectant they've been indiscriminately spraying all over the city as much as the virus.
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January 23, 2020 12:51 pm
Interesting. Now seems an opportune time to cut off all immigration from China along with importation of Chinese junk. We don't need China, and now we have a very clear reason not to want anything to do with the communist hellhole.
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January 23, 2020 12:53 pm
I'm furious they didn't kill air traffic with China after they have been caught lying about bugs for years.
Stop eating bats.
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January 23, 2020 12:57 pm
We don't really know what's going on here.
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January 23, 2020 12:58 pm
About the Wuhan facilities, emphasis mine.
''The laboratory will become a base for research on the measures to be taken for prevention and control of emerging diseases in China, A PRESERVATION FOR VIRUS SEEDS, a reference laboratory of WHO and a node for disease network, and finally it will become a core in China's emerging disease research network.''
http://lssf.cas.cn/en/facilities-view.jsp?id=ff8080814ff56599014ff59e677e003d
This is where Anti-Vaxxers will be outlawed universally. Wait until they mandate all Medicare recipients to get flu shots.
see the blood around the guys head on that first video '' probably smashed his head '' instant collapse'...'...'..... as far as im concerned this is a man made bug , deliberately released to push the vaccine bull'...'...'..... seen videos from mike adams about some of the so called vaccines he has analysed '' MMR, Mumps vaccines '' they contain dormant cancer cells'...'...'...'... probably waiting to be activated by a 5G frequency to be transmitted when the globalists are ready to kill us all'...'...'..... im so sick of this globalist crap'...'...'...'..... they are trying to kill us all folks
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I'm soooo sure this is a tinfoil hat virus, because it wouldn't make any sense whatsover for nature+overpopulation+low hygiene standards to equal a new virus mutation. Afterall, we have discovered everything there is to discover on this planet'...
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This mockingbird sing too loud. Mankind always face virus. Have complete Lymph system to fight bad bugs. This fool probably still drinks milk.
Yeah, I think its genocide. There are 2 immune systems, and the main immune system is learned. Measles is the jump start for this and that has been admitted by a leading vaccine researcher. If you never get measles or other viruses then you really only have half of your immune system. Then they put dormant cancer cells in you and wait. I've heard it's already happening, young people getting cancer and dying.
If you really want to be shocked, look up on youtube interviews with Dr Stanley Plotkin. He answered hours of questions in a taped deposition over several days. He was the one of the lead vaccine researchers at the CDC. He said they only tested on people that human in form only: Prisoners, orphans and African tribes, etc.
What about the Chinese guy on the way to China busted at the airport with containers of brown fluid wrapped up in his socks.Maybe somebody else made it thru.
A China guy, a Muslim guy, and a Democrat walk into bar , bar go boom'....who cares?
Oh yea, Take his wife'....please, just like everyone else.
Yes, I'll have the bat soup '' hold the rabies please.
Government run health care'...just sayin'...
And praying for those people
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Thanks, Maggie. I, too, think the Chinese people need our prayers and not our jeers.
It is the Chinese government that is the enemy not the people.
So, we do have that in common.
Oh, by the way another name for the Coronavirus is the common cold. Look it up.
That's an exceptionally irresponsible comment in this context.Spanish Flu infected 500 million people and killed 100 million. Is that 'common' enough for you?This is anything but common. People on here making light of something they know little about and injecting plenty of misinformation into the mix. If that makes you feel safer, have at it.A better tactic is to watch and listen.Quick onset and quick mortality suggests something that can burn itself out quickly. If the incubation period slows, things can go sideways fast.As for the vaccine bed wetters, you can forget it. There won't be a vaccine for something mutating at this rate.Vaccine developers can hardly guess 'normal' flu strains. This? Way to fast of a moving target.There won't be a vaccine.People dropping suggests a cytokine storm. These people don't appear to be children or elderly.If the cytokine storm doesn't overwhelm you the bacterial pneumonia will on the back end.Mutations are a toll of the dice. If this hits a particular Goldilocks change, it could kill a whole bunch of people'...and not just coolies.
When, not if. Remember that. Plan accordingly.
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Thank you Bob Ueker ! He was my favorite on Johnny Carson. Sounds like Pap Smear is invested in big Pharm ! Papers say anything to distract from Demoncrat travesty in Senate. Oh, and Sam could mean Samantha.
Could this be Xi's attempt to cover up the Chinese economic problems and end the HK uprising?
Stay hydrated! It could help save your life if you get the flu!
There is some science to say the DNA of the virus may have started in snakes, jumped to bats and maybe another animal before it's jumped to humans. It is now airborne and human to human contagious. The open air markets with lots of bizarre animals kept live in close proximity along with many many humans crammed in like sardines and it's no wonder why China is the top place for viruses. The 1918 Spanish Flu that killed millions originated in China. These coronavirus' are similar in that they cause massive respiratory inflammation from your immune response and then pneumonia in upper and lower lungs.
Always good to pray, and never too late to ask Jesus into your life'....until it is too late.
come on people, this is NOT a coronavirus'...what does it remind you of? Yep, Ebola.
What have you seen that makes you think this is the case? I'm not saying that the government's of the world aren't beyond lying to us'....but I've havent seen, nor read anything that would make me thinkEbola.
Ignorant comment. The symptoms aren't anything like Ebola. The government already sequenced the viral genome, they have exact knowledge of it down to the nucleotide, they even put it into a family tree with other coronaviruses. A little skepticism of the biomedical establishment is merited, but you need to know what you are talking about.
Phu king dog eaters.
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Test before the massive population reduction to 500,000,000
Georgia guide stones have that inscribed in stone. That is the globalist plan. Thing is there is no implementation date that I know of.
Hang on there buckaroo, Let's do some math. Wuhan is a city of 11 million people so no doubt a few dozen people faint or collapse on the street on any normal day. So a few people post pictures on the internet and ''people are collapsing on the street''. These people are probably not collapsing from the coronavirs because the symptoms start off like a cold and gradually gets worse. So they say.
I don't know why he collapsed but he sure split his head open on the staircase.
In China it could have easily been a communist party baton to the back of the head.
The cities of LA and SanFran are super vulnerable to infection due to the unsanitary conditions, they need to clean up the mess before a massive plague like illness hits
Stop eating VILE SHIT and you won't get sick. The shit the Chinese eat it is a surprise they aren't all afflicted.
This was laid 4 years ago at the feet of Chinese eating habits '' in this province theyroutinely eat bats, bats soup, and a verity of snakes, the disease origins come fromthese disgusting creatures. Think swine flu etc.
Hello? Yes, I'd like to cancel my rat, bat, and snake kung pao order.
I wonder if any of this is genetically engineered by the chicoms.
This will happen on November 4th (or late 11/3) in the US.A whole lot of dims are going to collapse from TDS and hysteria.
I understand bats are on the menu in at least one restaurant in the province this coronavirus comes from.
Bats have and carry rabies. Don't know if cooking drives it out of them '' or not.
Who knows what else is on the menu?
Seems odd that some websites indicate that this virus may have originated in snakes'...serpents. Kind of ''end-timey''
Also, there is a new level-4 germ warfare, er'...research lab light there in the same city that the virus originated in. The lab being built and the training done by the French.
Looks like a typical day in San Francisco with someone passed out on a sidewalk. Just no piles of human excrement are visible.
Some serious dose, whats the betting it came out of a commie party lab by accident (on purpose)
Koreans eat everything that grows. Japanese eat everything that swims.And the Chinese just eat everything.
Umm, corona virus has flu like symptoms. That guys head is in a pool of blood from an injury. I have never even in the worst cases seen FLU cause serious head bleeding.
@crazycloudProbably hit his head on the ground when he collapsed.
Anyone care to discuss the virtues of open borders?
I have no sympathy for a race that eat dogs (among baby koalas and other animals)and beats them to tenderize their meat while they are still alive!
We're well past due for a population reduction by mother nature. It has a way of keeping things balanced.
And with a report of a sick subject in the US that came over the border. SECURE THE BORDER, Mr. President
We Don't Give A 'BabyRatsAss' About 'China', And The Lame, PhonyPropaganda They Sponsor, World-Wide; Now, 'Please Pass The Dog'.
I was hoping for actual footage of people collapsing and hitting the pavement, not of people already on the pavement
Looks like Danny devito in the first vid
Man made virus escaped it's captors.
Translation: '' send us you white devil money.. ''
whatever is leaking out of China for updates, you can assume the problem is 100X worse'... likely a VERY serious threat they would be happy to share with the world. There should something as close as possible to a travel ban'...
This was common in the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918. People would sicken and die so fast they would walk out of their homes healthy and never return because collapsed a few hours later in the street, on trolley cars, in public places.
2020
Daughter of man in '72 Biden crash seeks apology from widowed Senator | News | newarkpostonline.com
Sat, 25 Jan 2020 07:44
Newark resident Pamela Hamill wants a public apology from vicepresidential candidate U.S. Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.), who shesays has repeatedly besmirched her late father, Curtis C. Dunn.
Dunn was the tractor-trailer driver involved in the December1972 accident that took the life of the newly-elected U.S.Senator's first wife, Neilia, and 13-month-old daughter, Naomi.
Dunn died in 1999, but his daughter says she's fed up with Bidenpublicly mischaracterizing him as having been drunk when theaccident occurred.
According to Delaware Superior Court Judge Jerome O. Herlihy,who oversaw the police investigation 36 years ago as chiefprosecutor, there is no evidence supporting Biden's claim.
''The rumor about alcohol being involved by either party,especially the truck driver (Dunn), is incorrect,'' Herlihy saidrecently.
Police determined that Biden's first wife drove into the path ofDunn's tractor-trailer, possibly because her head was turned andshe didn't see the oncoming truck.
Dunn, who overturned his rig while swerving to avoid acollision, ran to the wrecked car and was the first to renderassistance.
Police filed no charges against Dunn, who at that time lived inNorth East, Md. with his wife, Ruby, and their seven children.
Biden has been alluding to alcohol being involved in the crashfor nearly a decade. During a speech in 2001, Biden told anaudience at University of Delaware that a drunken driver crashedinto his family.
He told a similar story during a public appearance in 2007.
More recently, the vice presidential candidate'smisrepresentation of Dunn has found its way into major newspapers,including the New York Times.
It also has been repeated on radio and on television by majornews journalists, including CBS anchorwoman Katie Couric.
Yet Hamill said she had no idea Biden had been misrepresentingDunn until late August.
That's when ''Inside Edition'' producers requested an interviewwith Hamill after the television show's reporters had gatheredevidence contradicting Biden's story.
Hamill says she defended Biden at first, believing that,perhaps, his words had been misconstrued.
But her disbelief turned to anguish when shown a video of Bidenmaking his unfounded assertion during a public appearance.
Biden told the crowd, ''A tractor-trailer, a guy who allegedly '--and I never pursued it '-- drank his lunch instead of eating hislunch, broadsided my family and killed my wife instantly and killedmy daughter instantly and hospitalized my two sons '...''
''I just burst into tears,'' Hamill said. ''The story already istragic enough, why did he have to sensationalize it by saying myfather was drunk? My family is outraged.''
Hamill appeared on ''Inside Edition'' on Sept. 18 to set therecord straight and now, acting as family spokesperson, she iscampaigning for Biden to recant his story and restore her father'shonor.
On Oct. 1, after several attempts to make contact, Hamill sent aregistered letter to Biden's camp, asking him to tell thetruth.
She also asked CBS officials to instruct Katie Couric tobroadcast the real circumstances surrounding the fatalaccident.
As of Sunday, Hamill hadn't heard from Biden's camp.
In an Oct. 21 e-mail, a CBS spokesman acknowledged discrepanciesin Biden's story and explained that he's awaiting word from the''news people.''
Hamill said learning about Biden's false portrayal of her latefather has chilled warm feelings that she once held for thesenator.
In 2001, she wrote a heartfelt letter to Biden expressing herfather's profound grief after hearing Biden make a post Sept. 11speech in which he told the audience that, given his history, hecould empathize with victims.
''Growing up, my dad never talked about it. He always got verysolemn around Christmastime because the anniversary was Dec. 18,and he never wanted to celebrate the holidays,'' Hamill said. ''Whennewspapers had anniversary articles (about the crash), we hid themfrom dad.''
Biden responded in a handwritten note, which, in part, reads,''All that I can say is I am sorry for all of us and please knowthat neither I or my sons feel any animosity whatsoever.''
Hamill says that because she fondly recalled those tendercorrespondences, the revelation of Biden's distorted story is evenmore overwhelming.
''We always felt like our heartstrings were attached to (Biden's)heartstrings. Now we feel stabbed in the back,'' she said.
Hamill wants to clear her late father's name before Biden'sstory is even more widely accepted as fact.
''Suppose he becomes the next vice president,'' she said. ''Moviescould be made about him and books could be written about him, allfalsely portraying my father as a drunk driver. We need to set therecord straight and clear my father's name right now before thisgoes any further.''
Technical glitch results in hundreds of invalid voter registrations in Illinois | TheHill
Thu, 23 Jan 2020 16:33
Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White sent a letter this week saying a "programming error" led to more than 500 non-U.S. citizens accidentally being registered as voters.
The glitch was fixed Tuesday, but state lawmakers and election authorities are just beginning to raise concerns over the integrity of some state elections.
In 2017, former governor of Illinois Bruce Rauner (R) signed the "Automatic Voter Registration" bill into law, requiring eligible Illinois citizens to be automatically registered to vote when they apply for or renew a driver's license or ID. Critics say making it easier for people to register to vote could lead to voter fraud from non-citizens.
It's unclear if any of the non-citizens registered to vote attempted to cast a ballot, and although the non-citizens who were registered to vote did not do so deliberately, the glitch plays directly into talking points surrounding voter registration laws and voter fraud.
"While this represents only 1/10 of one percent, it is still not acceptable and we apologize for the error," White said in a statement obtained by The Hill. "On the same day the programming error was confirmed, it was fixed and won't happen again.
"We quickly notified the Illinois State Board of Elections along with the 574 people impacted - all of whom are in the country legally," he added.
The Illinois State House Republicans said in a tweet that U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis (R-Ill.) is working with state lawmakers to address the glitch.
"Republican state lawmakers join U.S. Congressman Rodney Davis to address integrity of Illinois elections given recent news that more than 500 non-citizens registered to vote under auto-voter registration system," the tweet reads.
State lawmakers have called for an investigation into the Secretary of State's office and for a suspension of the auto-registration system.
Updated: 10:02 p.m.
CBS clarifies report on 1972 Biden crash | News | cecildaily.com
Fri, 24 Jan 2020 10:40
For the past eight months, Pamela Hamill has pushed for a publicapology from Vice President Joe Biden who she claims besmirched herlate father, Curtis C. Dunn.
Hamill is still awaiting Biden's act of contrition.
But she is taking some comfort in a recent CBS News broadcastthat set the record straight, marking a victory for Hamill who,acting as family spokeswoman, has campaigned to clear her father'sname.
In the segment, which lasted a minute and 36 seconds, CBS newscorrespondent Bob Orr clarified that Dunn wasn't drunk at the timeof a Dec. 18, 1972, traffic accident that killed Biden's firstwife, Neilia, and their 13-month-old daughter, Naomi, less than sixweeks after Biden was first elected to the U.S. Senate.
Hamill told CBS during an on-camera interview that the fatalaccident in Delaware haunted her father, who lived in North Eastwith his wife, Ruby, and their seven children, including Hamill, atthe time.
Dunn died in 1999.
Hamill also explained that Biden's public misrepresentation,which was brought to her attention in August and triggered hercampaign, continues to torment her family.
That's why the March 24 CBS News broadcast brought relief toHamill, who lived in Cecil County for 31 years before she and herhusband, Kevin, moved to Newark 13 years ago. Today, Hamill worksas a hair stylist at a North East salon.
''I felt a calming from that national retraction, that myfather's truth was finally out there,'' Hamill explained.
Also soothing was an apologetic e-mail from CBS anchor KatieCouric, who had repeated Biden's erroneous account on the airduring last year's Democratic Convention and again during theinauguration in January.
''I was wrong to repeat it and to trust the sources that reportedit '... I am deeply sorry that I have caused your family additionalpain because I'm sure it was a burden for your father and all thosewho loved him,'' Couric wrote.
Hamill said she treasures Couric's correspondence.
''Her personal acknowledgement has eased our heavy hearts and hasrestored our faith in the media,'' she said.
Biden had characterized Dunn as a drunken driver when speakingpublicly about the fatal collision '-- even though investigatorsfound no evidence that alcohol contributed to the accident andfiled no charges.
According to Delaware Superior Court Judge Jerome O. Herlihy,who oversaw the police investigation 36 years ago as chiefprosecutor, there is no evidence supporting Biden's claim.
Police determined Biden's first wife drove into the path ofDunn's tractor-trailer, possibly because her head was turned andshe didn't see the oncoming truck.
Dunn, who overturned his rig while swerving to avoid acollision, ran to the wrecked car and was the first to help.
''The rumor about alcohol being involved by either party,especially the truck driver (Dunn), is incorrect,'' Herlihy saidlast fall in response to media questions about the crash afterthen-Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama tapped Biden tobe his running mate Aug. 23.
Obama's selection placed Biden, and his erroneous version of thefatal crash, in the national spotlight.
During a speech in 2001, Biden told an audience at theUniversity of Delaware that a drunken driver had crashed into hisfamily.
He told a similar story during a public appearance in 2007.
After Obama tapped Biden as his running mate, the senator'smisrepresentation found its way into major newspapers, includingThe New York Times, as well as accounts of the accident provided byradio and television news outlets.
Swoop
Hillary Clinton Attending Sundance Jamal Khashoggi Docu Debut '' Deadline
Sat, 25 Jan 2020 07:33
EXCLUSIVE: One of the hottest and most anticipated films of Sundance 2020 is attracting some very big names. Hillary Clinton is likely to be among the luminaries at today's world premiere of The Dissident, I hear.
Whether the former Secretary of State speaks at the screening, Clinton's presence alone is sure to add weight to the Bryan Fogel-directed documentary about Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi's 2018 murder in Saudi Arabia's Istanbul embassy. Alec Baldwin is also expected to be at the screening this afternoon at the MARC Theatre, along with Khashoggi's fianc(C)e Hatice Cengiz.
In Park City this weekend to promote her Hulu docuseries, Clinton has repeatedly condemned Donald Trump over the past year for his role in what she has termed the ''cover-up'' of the death of the outspoken Khashoggi, which evidence from the CIA and others indicates was at the behest of the kingdom's string-pulling crown prince, Mohammad bin Salman. ''And we have a president and those closest to him who have their own personal commercial interests,'' the 2016 Presidential candidate told a Toronto audience in November.
Related StorySundance's John Cooper On Exit From Festival Perch, Robert Redford, Inclusion & Film That Blew His Mind
Hillary Clinton Says ''Nothing Was Off Limits'' With Hulu Documentary Series 'Hillary'; Trailer Unveiled –
The powerful MBS has denied he ordered Khashoggi's killing, but has taken responsibility for the murder ''under my watch,'' as he told PBS last year. In seemingly wanting to wash the bloodstains off the Saudis' hands, five senior government officials were sentenced to death on December 23 for their role in the premeditated execution of the posthumous Time magazine Person of the Year. Besides mild words of rebuke, the White House has taken no action against Saudi Arabia for Khashoggi's murder.
Set for seven screenings before Sandance 2020 ends on February 2, the Fogel-, Jake Swantko-, Mark Monroe- and Thor Halvorssen-produced The Dissident is being sold by UTA here. No stranger to controversy, Fogel earned an Academy Award and a Sundance Film Festival Special Jury Prize for his film Icarus in 2017. Becoming an international cause c(C)l¨bre, the Netflix documentary focused on the widespread illegal doping prevalent in state-sanctioned Russian athletics.
Hulu's four-part Hillary docuseries from director Nanette Burstein is set to screen in full with its own Sundance debut Saturday.
USSC
United States National Security Council - Wikipedia
Thu, 23 Jan 2020 19:21
The White House National Security Council (NSC) is the principal forum used by the President of the United States for consideration of national security, military, and foreign policy matters with senior national security advisors and Cabinet officials and is part of the Executive Office of the President of the United States. Since its inception under Harry S. Truman, the function of the Council has been to advise and assist the President on national security and foreign policies. The Council also serves as the President's principal arm for coordinating these policies among various government agencies. The Council has counterparts in the national security councils of many other nations.
President Barack Obama at an NSC Meeting in the Situation Room. Participants include Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, NSC Advisor Gen. James "Jim" Jones, Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Dennis Blair, Deputy National Security Advisor Tom Donilon, White House Counsel Greg Craig, CIA Director Leon Panetta, Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. James Cartwright, and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel
Ronald Reagan's National Security Council. Participants include George Shultz, William F. Martin, Cap Weinberger, Colin Powell and Howard Baker.
History Edit The immediate predecessor to the National Security Council was the National Intelligence Authority (NIA), which was established by President Harry S. Truman's Executive Letter of January 22, 1946, to oversee the Central Intelligence Group, the CIA's predecessor. The NIA was composed of the Secretary of State, the Secretary of War, the Secretary of the Navy, and the Chief of Staff to the Commander in Chief.
The National Security Council was created in 1947 by the National Security Act. It was created because policymakers felt that the diplomacy of the State Department was no longer adequate to contain the Soviet Union, in light of the tension between the Soviet Union and the United States.[1] The intent was to ensure coordination and concurrence among the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force and other instruments of national security policy such as the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), also created in the National Security Act. In 2004, the position of Director of National Intelligence (DNI) was created, taking over the responsibilities previously held by the head of CIA, the Director of Central Intelligence, as a cabinet-level position to oversee and coordinate activities of the Intelligence Community.[2]
On May 26, 2009, President Barack Obama merged the White House staff supporting the Homeland Security Council (HSC) and the National Security Council into one National Security Staff (NSS). The HSC and NSC each continue to exist by statute as bodies supporting the President.[3] The name of the staff organization was changed back to National Security Council Staff in 2014.[4]
On January 29, 2017, President Donald Trump restructured the Principals Committee (a subset of the full National Security Council), while at the same time altering the attendance of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Director of National Intelligence.[5]
According to National Security Presidential Memorandum 2, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Director of National Intelligence were to sit on the Principals Committee as and when matters pertaining to them arise, but will remain part of the full National Security Council.[6][7] However, Chief of Staff Reince Priebus clarified the next day that they still are invited to attend meetings.[8] With National Security Presidential Memorandum 4 in April 2017, the Director of National Intelligence and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff "shall" attend Principals Committee meetings and included the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency as a regular attendee.[9] The reorganization also placed the Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development as a permanent member of the Deputies Committee, winning moderate praise.[10]
On April 6, 2017, the White House Chief Strategist was removed from the National Security Council and the roles of the director of national intelligence, CIA director and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff were restored to the Principal's Committee.[11][12]
Detailed history Edit For a detailed history of the United States National Security Council by year see:
Authority and powers Edit The National Security Council was established by the National Security Act of 1947 (PL 235 '' 61 Stat. 496; U.S.C. 402), amended by the National Security Act Amendments of 1949 (63 Stat. 579; 50 U.S.C. 401 et seq.). Later in 1949, as part of the Reorganization Plan, the Council was placed in the Executive Office of the President.
The High Value Detainee Interrogation Group also reports to the NSC.[13]
Kill authorizations Edit A secret National Security Council panel pursues the killing of an individual, including American citizens, who has been called a suspected terrorist.[14] In this case, no public record of this decision or any operation to kill the suspect will be made available.[14] The panel's actions are justified by "two principal legal theories": They "were permitted by Congress when it authorized the use of military forces against militants in the wake of the attacks of September 11, 2001; and they are permitted under international law if a country is defending itself."[14]
Homeland Security Advisor John O. Brennan, who has helped codify targeted killing criteria by creating the Disposition Matrix database, has described the Obama Administration targeted killing policy by stating that "in order to ensure that our counterterrorism operations involving the use of lethal force are legal, ethical, and wise, President Obama has demanded that we hold ourselves to the highest possible standards and processes".[15]
Reuters has reported that Anwar al-Awlaki, an American citizen, was on such a kill list and was killed accordingly.[14]
On February 4, 2013, NBC published a leaked Department of Justice memo providing a summary of the rationale used to justify targeted killing of US citizens who are senior operational leaders of Al-Qa'ida or associated forces.[16]
Membership Edit The Trump Administration's National Security Council, as per the statute[17] and National Security Presidential Memorandum''4, is chaired by the President. Its members are the Vice President (statutory), the Secretary of State (statutory), the Secretary of Defense (statutory), the Secretary of Energy (statutory), the National Security Advisor (non-statutory), the Attorney General (non-statutory), the Secretary of Homeland Security (non-statutory), the Representative of the United States to the United Nations (non-statutory), and the Secretary of the Treasury (non-statutory).[18][17]
The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is the statutory military advisor to the Council, the Director of National Intelligence is the statutory intelligence advisor, and the Director of National Drug Control Policy is the statutory drug control policy advisor. The Chief of Staff to the President, White House Counsel, and the Assistant to the President for Economic Policy are also regularly invited to attend NSC meetings. The Attorney General, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget and The Director of the Central Intelligence Agency are invited to attend meetings pertaining to their responsibilities. The heads of other executive departments and agencies, as well as other senior officials, are invited to attend meetings of the NSC when appropriate.
Principals Committee Edit The Principals Committee of the National Security Council is the Cabinet-level senior interagency forum for consideration of national security policy issues. The Principals Committee is convened and chaired by the National Security Advisor. The regular attendees of the Principals Committee are the Secretary of State, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of Defense, the Attorney General, the Secretary of Energy, the Secretary of Homeland Security, the White House Chief of Staff, the Director of National Intelligence, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, the Homeland Security Advisor, and the United States Ambassador to the United Nations.[9]
The White House Counsel, the Deputy Counsel to the President for National Security Affairs, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, the Deputy National Security Advisor, the Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategy, the National Security Advisor to the Vice President, and the NSC Executive Secretary may also attend all meetings of the Principals Committee. When considering international economic issues, the Principals Committee's regular attendees will include the Secretary of Commerce, the United States Trade Representative, and the Assistant to the President for Economic Policy.[22]
Deputies Committee Edit The National Security Council Deputies Committee is the senior sub-Cabinet interagency forum for consideration of national security policy issues. The Deputies Committee is also responsible for reviewing and monitoring the interagency national security process including for establishing and directing the Policy Coordination Committees.[23] The Deputies Committee is convened and chaired by the Deputy National Security Advisor or the Deputy Homeland Security Advisor.[22]
Regular members of the Deputies Committee are the Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategy, the Deputy Secretary of State, Deputy Secretary of the Treasury, the Deputy Secretary of Defense, the Deputy Attorney General, the Deputy Secretary of Energy, the Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security, the Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget, the Deputy Director of National Intelligence, the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the National Security Advisor to the Vice President, the Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development, and the Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Invitations to participant in or attend specific meetings are extended to Deputy or Under Secretary level of executive departments and agencies and to other senior officials when relevant issues are discussed. The Executive Secretary and the Deputy White House Counsel also attend. The relevant Senior Director on the National Security Council staff is also invited to attend when relevant.[22]
Policy Coordination Committees Edit The Policy Coordination Committees of the National Security Council, established and directed by the Deputies Committee, are responsible for the management of the development and implementation of national security policies through interagency coordination. Policy Coordination Committees are the main day-to-day fora for interagency coordination of national security policy development, implementation and analysis in aide of the Deputies Committee and the Principals Committee. Policy Coordination Committees are chaired by Senior Directors on the National Security Council staff, or sometimes National Economic Council staff, with Assistant Secretary-level officials from the relevant executive department or agency acting as co-chairs.[22]
See also Edit References Edit ^ Encyclopedia of American foreign policy, 2nd ed. Vol. 2, New York: Scribner, 2002, National Security Council, 22 April 2009 ^ Directors of Central Intelligence as Leaders of the US Intelligence Community, Douglas F. Garthoff, 2007, cia.gov ^ Helene Cooper (May 26, 2009). "In Security Shuffle, White House Merges Staffs". The New York Times . Retrieved March 15, 2017 . ^ Caitlin Hayden (February 10, 2014). "NSC Staff, the Name Is Back! So Long, NSS" (Press release). whitehouse.gov . Retrieved March 15, 2017 . ^ Merrit Kennedy (January 29, 2017). "With National Security Council Shakeup, Steve Bannon Gets A Seat At The Table". NPR . Retrieved January 29, 2017 . ^ "Presidential Memorandum Organization of the National Security Council and the Homeland Security Council" (Press release). Office of the Press Secretary. January 31, 2017 . Retrieved January 31, 2017 . ^ Jim Garamone (January 31, 2017). "No Change to Chairman's Status as Senior Military Adviser, Officials Say". United States Department of Defense . Retrieved January 31, 2017 . ^ Alan Yuhas (January 29, 2017). "Trump chief of staff: defense officials not off NSC after Bannon move". The Guardian . Retrieved January 30, 2017 . ^ a b [1] Lawfare Blog NSPM-4: "Organization of the National Security Council, the Homeland Security Council, and Subcommittees": A Summary ^ Scott Morris (February 7, 2017). "Maybe the Trump Administration Just Elevated Development Policy, or Maybe Not". Center for Global Development . Retrieved March 15, 2017 . ^ Jennifer Jacobs (April 5, 2017). "Bannon Loses National Security Council Role in Trump Shakeup". Bloomberg . Retrieved April 5, 2017 . ^ BBC (April 6, 2017). "Steve Bannon loses National Security Council seat". BBC News . Retrieved April 6, 2017 . ^ Ed Barnes (May 12, 2010). "Elite High Value Interrogation Unit Is Taking Its First Painful Steps". Fox News Channel . Retrieved March 15, 2017 . ^ a b c d Mark Hosenball (October 5, 2011). "Secret panel can put Americans on "kill list " ". Reuters . Retrieved March 26, 2017 . ^ John O. Brennan (April 30, 2012). The Efficacy and Ethics of U.S. Counterterrorism Strategy (Speech). Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars . Retrieved March 26, 2017 . ^ Lawfulness of a Lethal Operation Directed Against a U.S. Citizen Who Is a Senior Operational Leader of Al-Qa'ida or An Associated Force (PDF) (Report). United States Department of Justice. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-08-26 . Retrieved 2013-02-05 . ^ a b "50 U.S. Code § 3021 - National Security Council". LII / Legal Information Institute . Retrieved 2018-01-15 . ^ "National Security Presidential Memorandum''4 of April 4, 2017" (PDF) . ^ "Organization of the National Security Council System" (PDF) . February 13, 2009. ^ "National Security Council". WhiteHouse.gov . Retrieved March 15, 2017 . ^ a b c Office of the Press Secretary (January 28, 2017). "Organization of the National Security Council and the Homeland Security Council" (PDF) (Press release). White House Office . Retrieved March 15, 2017 . ^ a b c d [2] Federal Register National Security Presidential Memorandum (NSPM-4) ^ [3] White House Office of the Press Secretary Presidential Memorandum Organization of the National Security Council and the Homeland Security Council Further reading Edit Bahadır, Åanlı. Journey to the Center of the World: U.S. National Security Council '' Arzın Merkezine Seyahat: ABD Ulusal G¼venlik Konseyi '' Article on US NSC (in Turkish) Bolton, M. Kent. U.S. National Security and Foreign Policymaking after 9/11: Present at the Re-Creation, Rowman & Littlefield; 2007, ISBN 978-0-7425-4847-3.Brown, Cody M. The National Security Council: A Legal History of the President's Most Powerful Advisers, Project on National Security Reform (2008).Daalder, Ivo H. and I. M. Destler, In the Shadow of the Oval Office: Profiles of the National Security Advisers and the Presidents They Served'--From JFK to George W. Bush Simon & Schuster; 2009, ISBN 978-1-4165-5319-9.Annual Report to Congress on White House Office Staff; Executive Office of the President, Wednesday, July 1, 2009Karl F. Inderfurth and Loch K. Johnson, eds. Fateful Decisions: Inside the National Security Council. Oxford University Press, 2004. ISBN 978-0-19-515966-0.James Peck (2006). Washington's China: The National Security World, the Cold War, and the Origins of Globalism. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press. Rothkopf, David J. (March/April 2005). "Inside the Committee that Runs the World" (Archived copy, including missing image). Foreign Policy.David J. Rothkopf, Running The World: the Inside Story of the National Security Council and the Architects of American Power, PublicAffairs; 2006, ISBN 978-1-58648-423-1.Thorpe, George C. (1917). "[Chapter] V: National Organization of Fighting Forces". Pure Logistics: The Science of War Preparation. Kansas City, Mo.: Franklin Hudson Pub. Co. OCLC 6109722. Advocates for a "National Board of Strategy".External links Edit Official National Security Council websiteHistory of the NSC from the White House at the Wayback Machine (archived March 12, 2008)Records of the National Security Council (NSC) in the National ArchivesWhite House Office, National Security Council Staff Papers, 1948''1961, Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential LibraryHomeland Security Watch (www.HLSwatch.com) provides current details on the NSC as it pertains to homeland security.Works by United States National Security Council at Project GutenbergWorks by or about United States National Security Council at Internet Archive This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Archives and Records Administration.
This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the White House.
This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the United States Department of Justice.
This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the U.S. Government Publishing Office. This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the Congressional Research Service.
Space Force
Social media roasts Trump after he reveals Space Force logo looks a lot like Star Trek badge | Daily Mail Online
Fri, 24 Jan 2020 17:32
'Starfleet called. They want their insignia back': Social media roasts Trump after he reveals Space Force logo that looks a lot like the badge from STAR TREKPresident Trump on Friday unveiled logo of new branch of US military Logo bears resemblance to the emblem of Starfleet Command from Star Trek Twitter users roasted the president for plagiarizing the logo By Ariel Zilber For Dailymail.com
Published: 17:36 EST, 24 January 2020 | Updated: 18:26 EST, 24 January 2020
President Trump on Friday unveiled the new logo for the Space Force, America's newest branch of the military, and it looks a lot like the emblem for the Starfleet command from the show Star Trek.
The president was mocked on social media by those who pointed out the striking resemblance between the two logos.
In the Star Trek franchise, the Starfleet is a fictional organization controlled by the United Federation of Planets.
President Trump on Friday unveiled the new logo for the Space Force
Social media users pointed out that the Space Force logo (left) looks a lot like the insignia from the Starfleet Command (right) as seen on Star Trek
Star Trek was a television series that aired in the mid-1960s. It then evolved into a franchise that included films, animated series, theme parks, and exhibits. One of the earlier stars of the TV series, William Shatner, is seen above as Captain James T. Kirk in this 1968 file photo
The Starfleet is the space force through which various species conduct deep space exploration, research, defense, peacekeeping, and diplomacy.
On Twitter, Trump was accused of plagiarism and intellectual property theft.
'Starfleet called. They want their insignia back,' tweeted one Twitter user.
Another Twitter user quipped: 'The only difference here is that the Space Force will be more like Spaceballs instead of Starfleet.'
George Takei (far right), who played Hikaru Sulu in the film Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, reacted on Twitter to the new logo
Takei, a frequent critic of Trump, tweeted: 'Ahem. We are expecting some royalties from this..'
Takei wrote in a subsequent tweet: 'I feel like Melania must have had a hand in copyi - I mean, designing this.'
One Twitter user responded to Takei by posting a meme showing Jean-Luc Picard, the captain of the starship USS Enterprise, putting his hand against his forehead
Another Twitter user wrote: 'Can the first mission of Space Force be launching Trump and his entire administration into the sun? Asking for a friend.'
Spaceballs is a reference to the 1987 Mel Brooks comedy which parodies Star Wars and other sci-fi movies and series like Star Trek, Planet of the Apes, and others.
Another Twitter user wrote: 'The estate of Gene Rodenberry should sue you for every penny you have...'
Rodenberry was the writer and creator behind the Star Trek television series.
George Takei, who played Hikaru Sulu in the original Star Trek TV series, tweeted: 'Ahem. We are expecting some royalties from this..'
Takei, who is a frequent critic of Trump, wrote in a subsequent tweet: 'I feel like Melania must have had a hand in copyi - I mean, designing this.'
Others on social media noted that the logo also bore a resemblance to other insignia used by the Air Force
The Russian space agency also used a similar looking logo, according to one social media user
The reference to Melania Trump was a speech given by the first lady during the Republican National Convention in the summer of 2016.
Observers later noted that the speech given by Melania Trump bore many similarities to remarks delivered by Michelle Obama during her address before the Democratic National Committee in Denver in 2008.
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SJW
Warren promises to fill half of her Cabinet with women and nonbinary people
Sun, 26 Jan 2020 07:36
| January 22, 2020 03:04 PM
Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren promised that, if she wins the 2020 presidential election, she will fill half of her Cabinet with women and nonbinary people.
In a Medium post entitled "Restoring Integrity and Competence to Government After Trump," Warren, 70, said her presidential administration would be committed to diverse racial and gender representation, providing a checklist of goals she intends to accomplish in office. One such goal includes filling half of her Cabinet with either women or nonbinary individuals.
''Our government officials can best serve the American public when they reflect the diversity of the country itself," she wrote. ''I will build a Cabinet and senior leadership team that reflects the full diversity of America, including having at least 50% of Cabinet positions filled by women and non-binary people."
Warren faced backlash from the co-hosts of ABC's The View. Meghan McCain, Whoopi Goldberg, and Joy Behar agreed that she was using the strategy of identity politics. "I know you guys hate when I say this, but I really don't like identity politics," said McCain, the conservative host on the show. "None of us like identity politics," Goldberg responded. Sunny Hostin, a liberal host on the show, disagreed, adding that she likes identity politics. But Goldberg fired back, "This is how people say to you that you're not smart enough to figure out who you want."
Warren's promise echoed one she made during the PBS/Politico Democratic presidential primary debate in December, when she pledged to "go to the Rose Garden once every year to read the names of transgender women, of people of color, who have been killed in the past year."
Warren is not the only candidate to make such a promise. In October 2019, Pete Buttigieg also promised that at least half of his Cabinet would be filled with women.
"Pete will nominate a gender- and racially-diverse Cabinet to ensure meaningful representation across federal agencies and throughout government," his campaign said.
San Anselmo mayor dumps Pledge of Allegiance to protest Trump
Sun, 26 Jan 2020 06:59
San Anselmo Mayor Ford Greene has caused a stir among his fellow council members by unilaterally deciding to abolish the practice of launching every council meeting with a recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance.
About five minutes into the council's first meeting of the new year on Jan. 14, Councilman Brian Colbert asked, ''Did we not pledge allegiance to the flag tonight?''
Colbert said initially he thought it was just an oversight, but Greene, who is starting his third stint as mayor during his 12 years on the council, promptly set him straight.
''No we didn't,'' Greene responded. ''As mayor I made the decision not to proceed with the saying of the Pledge of Allegiance. That was a decision that I made.''
Colbert said in that case he was requesting that the issue be agendized for a discussion by the council. Council members John Wright and Steve Burdo supported his motion. The issue will discussed at the council's Feb. 11 meeting.
Greene said after the meeting his decision to dump the pledge is intended to demonstrate his continuing disdain for President Donald Trump. In October 2017, Greene began taking a knee during the Pledge of Allegiance at any event he attended, including council meetings.
''I've maintained that practice with 100% consistency,'' Greene said, ''whether it has been a Town Council meeting or the Central Marin police agency.''
Regarding his decision to remove the pledge from the Town Council's routine, Greene said, ''For my taste, it's a little too rote an action. It smacks too much of mindless obedience in a time when independent thinking and independent municipal action is at a premium because there is so little happening on the federal level.
''Over the course of the last two years, as I've been taking a knee, I turn around and look at everybody,'' Greene said. ''People's hearts don't really seem to be in it. They're just doing something out of custom. What's the point?''
Greene said the recitation of the pledge at San Anselmo council meetings is not mandated by any resolution or ordinance. He said many governmental entities in Marin '-- including the Marin County Board of Supervisors, the Transportation Authority of Marin, the Marin Telecommunications Agency and MCE '-- have dispensed with the pledge.
''All those other boards have outgrown such a really rather puerile practice,'' Greene said.
Colbert, however, said, ''I think Ford handled it about as poorly as it could be handled. He apparently tried to sneak through removing the Pledge of Allegiance. It wasn't brought up for council discussion, and I'm not aware of any broad conversation which Ford initiated within the community. That's not the way you handle these sort of things.''
Colbert wants to stick with the pledge.
''Oh, absolutely. I'm wholeheartedly in support of it,'' he said. ''I think if we were to have a larger conversation within the community, the community is going to want the Pledge of Allegiance without a doubt.''
''My father is a veteran,'' Colbert added, ''I respect all the men and women that have served our country in the military. I always take time whenever I see someone who has been in the service to say, 'Thank you for your service, thank you for your sacrifice.'''
Newly elected Councilman Burdo, who was attending his second meeting, said, ''To make the decision on behalf of all the council members and residents of San Anselmo that made it seem improper.''
Burdo said he also favors preserving the pledge.
''It means something different to everybody,'' Burdo said. ''People who have served in the military or law enforcement see it very differently.''
Burdo also said he thought it odd that if Greene was acting to protest the Trump administration that he didn't make his intentions known.
Councilman John Wright, who was traveling in Peru this week, wrote in an email, ''I don't believe this should be the mayor's decision alone.''
Councilwoman Alexis Fineman, the only council member to vote against discussing Greene's move, wrote in an email that she has no problem with the mayor determining the protocol of meetings, ''so long as any shifts don't impact public process vis- -vis the substantive issues facing our community.''
Fineman added, however, that she looks forward to ''a healthy discussion of patriotism with the community and my fellow council members.''
Greene said if none of the other council members had challenged his action he wouldn't have called attention to it.
''That was part of what I was going to see,'' he said, ''whether anybody would have anything to say about it.''
When Greene began taking a knee at council meetings, none of his fellow council members asked him why he was doing it. His intent only became known when the Independent Journal wrote a story about it weeks later.
Council members said they had assumed Greene was showing his solidarity with Black Lives Matter protesters. Greene says he will continue to take a knee at meetings when the Pledge of Allegiance is recited until Trump has been removed from office.
Asked if he approves of taking a knee during the pledge, Colbert, who became Marin County's first African American council member when he was elected in November 2017, said, ''You never know why someone is taking a knee. For many people, it is a deeply held personal reason. I would take the time to ask each member of Black Lives Matter why they're taking a knee. The only person I've known to take a knee during the Pledge of Allegiance is Ford Greene.''
Former San Anselmo councilman Tom McInerney, who clashed with Greene during his days on the council, wrote in an email, ''I think Ford's explanation is laugh-out-loud ridiculous, and his actions are more of an effort to draw attention to himself. If Ford has an issue with Trump I'd encourage him to join those of us who are actually campaigning against Trump rather than engaging in a silent protest without any explanation.''
Goldman to Refuse IPOs If All Directors Are White, Straight Men - Bloomberg
Fri, 24 Jan 2020 10:29
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FTI Bezos hack report
Pirbright bags $5.5m from Gates Foundation to establish livestock antibody hub :: Animal Pharm
Fri, 24 Jan 2020 07:28
The Pirbright Institute has received $5.5 million in funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to develop a livestock antibody hub.
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Ring Ukraine News Suppressed at Amazon's Request
Sat, 25 Jan 2020 09:40
On November 21, the Ukrainian business publication Vector published a genuine regional success story: An Amazon research lab in Kyiv, affiliated with the company's Ring home security division, was receiving a ''rebrand'' makeover and a broader new role within the company. The office was already involved ''in many other Amazon projects,'' a lab manager told Vector. ''We are no longer part of a small startup,'' he said in Ukranian, ''but a full-fledged R&D center working for one of the world's largest corporations.''
Ring Ukraine has repeatedly drawn scrutiny and criticism over the past year. In November, five U.S. senators, in a letter to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, released the day before the Vector story, had raised concerns about the Kyiv office's access to Ring home security footage and other private information and asked whether a foreign government could access the material as well. The letter cited an Intercept report that many employees in the office were provided blanket, inappropriate access to a web server containing customer video files. In response, Ring revealed that it had fired four employees over ''access to Ring video data'' that ''exceeded what was necessary for their job functions.'' The company did not say what, if anything, it was doing prevent such incidents in the future.
An August 2019 report in BuzzFeed News found that the Kyiv office employed a ''head of face recognition research'' despite repeated denials that it uses such technology.
It was intriguing, then, that an R&D lab synonymous with privacy violation had apparently been rewarded with an expanded role within Amazon, whose projects include a special classified cloud with the CIA and facial recognition services for police departments across the country. I asked multiple Amazon representatives and Ring's head of communications about the Vector article, including specifically what were the ''many other Amazon projects'' Ring's Ukrainian staff now worked on.
Although Amazon ignored repeated requests for comment and Ring refused to discuss the subject on the record, it seems that the company did take action: Within hours of my inquiries, the text of the Vector piece was quietly edited to remove references to Amazon. Most notably, the entire quoted sentence about the ''many other Amazon projects'' the Kyiv office was working on was excised.
The full quote, attributed to Ring Ukraine General Manager Lyubomir Vasiliev, is shown below, as translated by Google, with the deleted portion in brackets:
''It's about reaching a new level. We are no longer part of a small startup, but a full-fledged R&D center working for one of the world's largest corporations. [We are involved not only in Ring's product line but also in many other Amazon projects. That is,] We are a large Ukrainian team of specialists working on the world market,'' explained Vasiliev.
The author of the article, Dmitry Koshelnik, said that Ring Ukraine, after providing him the quotes directly through its publicity department, ''asked us to remove the word Amazon [from] my article due to possible legal problems.'' Koshelnik added that the quotes had been sent to him specifically attributed to Vasiliev, who, according to his LinkedIn page, is a three-year veteran of the company. No note was appended to the article acknowledging any changes or that any post-publication editing had taken place, and even Koshelnik himself said he had been unaware of the changes prior to hearing from me. In an email to The Intercept, Vector editor-in-chief Denis Marakin confirmed that the article had been edited at Amazon's request, and relayed a response from his recent predecessor, Anton Polieskov, who was running the publication at the time:
We published a news about rebranding, later pr-manager of Ring Ukraine called me and asked to take Amazon mention out from the article. Since I had a good relationship with manager, the article got just several dozens of views and I understood that everyone know that Ring is part of Amazon anyway, I didn't even asked questions, said ok and took Amazon part out
Contacted by WhatsApp, Polieskov, confirmed that he was asked to remove the quotes during ''quick phone chat'' with Ring PR: ''The goal was to delete Amazon mention, I don't remember reasoning.''
Vasiliev did not respond to requests for comment sent through LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. Ring declined to address questions about the alteration of the article on the record or Ring Ukraine's ''rebrand.'' The Ring Ukraine home page has been reduced to a message saying ''UNDER CONSTRUCTION'' laid over a music video of the Kyiv office performing an English rendition of ''Let It Snow.''
Here Is the Technical Report Suggesting Saudi Arabia's Prince Hacked Jeff Bezos' Phone - VICE
Fri, 24 Jan 2020 10:25
A report investigating the potential hack of Jeff Bezos' iPhone indicates that forensic investigators found a suspicious file but no evidence of any malware on the phone. It also says that investigators had to reset Bezos's iTunes backup password because investigators didn't have it to access the backup of his phone. The latter suggests that Bezos may have forgotten his password.
The report, obtained by Motherboard, indicates that investigators set up a secure lab to examine the phone and its artifacts and spent two days poring over the device but were unable to find any malware on it. Instead, they only found a suspicious video file sent to Bezos on May 1, 2018 that ''appears to be an Arabic language promotional film about telecommunications.''
That file shows an image of the Saudi Arabian flag and Swedish flags and arrived with an encrypted downloader. Because the downloader was encrypted this delayed or further prevented ''study of the code delivered along with the video.''
Investigators determined the video or downloader were suspicious only because Bezos' phone subsequently began transmitting large amounts of data. ''[W]ithin hours of the encrypted downloader being received, a massive and unauthorized exfiltration of data from Bezos' phone began, continuing and escalating for months thereafter,'' the report states.
A screenshot of the report showing the video the MBS account sent to Bezos. Image: Screenshot
''The amount of data being transmitted out of Bezos' phone changed dramatically after receiving the WhatsApp video file and never returned to baseline. Following execution of the encrypted downloader sent from MBS' account, egress on the device immediately jumped by approximately 29,000 percent,'' it notes. ''Forensic artifacts show that in the six (6) months prior to receiving the WhatsApp video, Bezos' phone had an average of 430KB of egress per day, fairly typical of an iPhone. Within hours of the WhatsApp video, egress jumped to 126MB. The phone maintained an unusually high average of 101MB of egress data per day for months thereafter, including many massive and highly atypical spikes of egress data.
The forensic investigation of Bezos' phone was led by Anthony J Farrante of FTI Consulting, a former FBI investigator who also worked on the hack of the Democratic National Committee in 2016 by Russian nation-state hackers. The digital forensic results, combined with a larger investigation, interviews, research, and expert intelligence information, led the investigators ''to assess Bezos' phone was compromised via tools procured by Saud al Qahtani,'' the report states.
Saud al Qahtani is a friend and close advisor to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, known as MBS. He was also president and chairman of the Saudi Federation for Cybersecurity, Programming and Drones and was known to procure offensive hacking tools on behalf of the Saudi regime, among them tools made by the Italian company Hacking Team.
Some of the investigation's findings were first reported by the Guardian, but has received criticism from information security professionals because the news reports have suggested the tool used might have been developed by the Israeli company NSO Group, a maker of offensive mobile hacking tools. The forensic report does not say an NSO Group tool was used, but simply notes that the company's tools have the ability to conduct the kind of exfiltration that appears to have occurred on Bezos' phone.
''Advanced mobile spyware, such as NSO Group's Pegasus or Hacking Team's Galileo, can hook into legitimate applications and processes on a compromised device as a way to bypass detection and obfuscate activity in order to ultimately intercept and exfiltrate data,'' the report states. ''The success of techniques such as these is a very likely explanation for the various spikes in traffic originating from Bezos device.''
In addition to the large amount of data extracted from Bezos' phone, investigators pointed to the odd nature of two text messages sent to Bezos from the WhatsApp account associated with the crown prince. These included a November 8, 2018 message that included a photo of a woman who resembles Lauren Sanchez, the woman with whom Bezos was having a secret affair at the time. News of the affair had not yet broken when Bezos received the text message and photo.
A screenshot of a section of the FTI Consulting report. Image: Screenshot
The second text sent Feb. 16 arrived after Bezos had been given a phone briefing about an online campaign that was being waged against him by Saudi entities. The WhatsApp message seemed to reference this and told Bezos not to believe everything he hears or is told.
The forensic investigators encountered at least two obstacles in conducting their exam of Bezos's phone. The first related to the encrypted downloader. Farrante's team first examined the attachment alone before deciding they needed to do a full forensic imaging and analysis of the phone's contents and traffic. They used a tool from Cellebrite (Cellebrite UFED 4PC Ultimate and Physical Analyzer) to grab forensic images from the phone and set up a secure makeshift lab to do the forensics over two days.
They did not find any malicious code embedded in the video file, but discovered that the video was delivered via an encrypted downloader hosted on WhatsApp's media server.
''Due to end-to-end encryption employed by WhatsApp, it is impossible to decrypt the contents of the downloader to determine if it contained any malicious code in addition to the delivered video,'' the investigators found.
The second obstacle regarded the password for the iTunes backup.
''During the initial attempt to collect a forensic image of the iPhone, FTI determined that the device had iTunes backup encryption enabled, and that full analysis of the contents of the forensic image would require the encryption password,'' the report states.
They apparently never obtained the password, however, because the report states that on May 20, 2019, the investigators ''tested options for bypassing the iTunes backup encryption password'' and ended up resetting ''All Settings'' on Bezos' iPhone X to restore the device's settings to factory defaults, thereby ''removing the encryption password while preserving the file system and any relevant data and artifacts. FTI received authorization to perform this resetting step, did so, and then commenced acquisition of an unencrypted Cellebrite forensic image.''
A mobile forensic expert told Motherboard that the investigation as depicted in the report is significantly incomplete and would only have provided the investigators with about 50 percent of what they needed, especially if this is a nation-state attack. She says the iTunes backup and other extractions they did would get them only messages, photo files, contacts and other files that the user is interested in saving from their applications, but not the core files.
''They would need to use a tool like Graykey or Cellebrite Premium or do a jailbreak to get a look at the full file system. That's where that state-sponsored malware is going to be found. Good state-sponsored malware should never show up in a backup,'' said Sarah Edwards, an author and teacher of mobile forensics for the SANS Institute.
''The full file system is getting into the device and getting every single file on there'--the whole operating system, the application data, the databases that will not be backed up. So really the in-depth analysis should be done on that full file system, for this level of investigation anyway. I would have insisted on that right from the start.''
The investigators do note on the last page of their report that they need to jailbreak Bezos's phone to examine the root file system. Edwards said this would indeed get them everything they would need to search for persistent spyware like the kind created and sold by the NSO Group. But the report doesn't indicate if that did get done.
Motherboard contacted Farrante to ask if his team had completed those final steps to examine the full file system and will update this story if he responds.
''Looks like [the] experts were not qualified enough,'' Vladimir Katalov, CEO of iOS forensics firm Elcomsoft, told Motherboard.
Update: This piece has been updated to include comment from Sarah Edwards and Vladimir Katalov.
Subscribe to our cybersecurity podcast, CYBER.
Green New Deal
1 Trillion Trees
People will need to plant 1056.3 trees per second,
24/7 for the next ten years to plant 1 trillion trees in 30 years.
My math...
1,000,000,000,000/30/365.25/24/60/60 = 1056.269593801
30 years/365.25 days/24 hours/60 minutes/60 seconds.
Guy Watkins
China
UKansas professor indicted for working for Communist Party of China
Thu, 23 Jan 2020 15:03
Emily Kokot Montana Campus Correspondent Today at 4:12 PM EDT A professor at the University of Kansas has been charged wth fraud for surreptitious collaboration with the Chinese government.Feng Tao allegedly ran a "scheme" wherein he allegedly planned to transfer "intellectual property."Associate professor and researcher at the University of Kansas, Feng Tao, has been charged with two counts of wire fraud and one count of program fraud for not disclosing his work with China. He was allegedly involved in a "scheme" to transfer "intellectual property" from American universities to Chinese universities.
The 16-page superseding indictment filed by the U.S. District Court explains that Tao joined the Changjang Professorship in 2018 which is a ''talent program sponsored by the PRC Government and the CPC'' or Communist Party of China. The People's Republic of China is offering these ''talent plans'' to students and professors in the United States to ''encourage the transfer of original ideas and intellectual property from U.S. universities to PRC Government institutions.
Although Tao was selected for the Changjang Scholarship and a full-time appointment to Fuzhou University in China, he did not inform KU of this commitment regardless of the Kansas Board of Regents' policy that the University must be notified of outside employment. The indictment states that Tao ''did not disclose any financial award accompanying his selection for the Changjiang Scholarship or salary for his appointment to FZU."
[RELATED: Experts fear Confucius Institutes serve Chinese interests...but some colleges are keeping them]
The indictment lists the purposes of the ''scheme'' as being ''to provide the FZU with technical training, scientific expertise, and research capacity,'' ''to obtain funds to which he was not legitimately entitled, specifically funds derived from his fraudulently maintained second full-time job,'' and ''to conceal his relationship and agreement with the FZU so that he could maintain his position, access to facilities, and access to the benefits of scientific research at KU.''
The Changjang Contract required Tao ''to recruit two to three doctoral students and three to four master's students per year.'' Tao traveled to China to participate as a faculty member at FZU and remained there for about two months from the end of May through the first of August. During that time, the indictment states that ''three post-doctoral researchers expressed interest in Tao's research group at FZU." The indictment also later states that ''Tao sponsored at least four researchers and students visiting KU from the PRC,'' and that ''at least one of Tao's researchers at KU joined Tao's research team at FZU.''
[RELATED: NYU-Shanghai quietly adds communist-sympathizing, pro-Chinese government course]
According to the indictment, Tao obtained federal funds to which he was not entitled throughout the course of his alleged fraud. He received ''benefits of $10,000 under federal grants sponsored by the National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Energy, and other federal departments and agencies, embezzled, stole, and obtained by fraud, property worth at least $5,000.''
Upon his conviction, Tao was required to forfeit any property derived from his offenses.
Campus Reform reached out to KU for comment but they did not respond in time for publication.
Roe v Wade
A "Pro-Life Hero"? Trump Becomes First President To Speak At 'March For Life' | Zero Hedge
Sun, 26 Jan 2020 06:35
After the editor of Christianity Today infuriated the president and stunned the American evangelical community by declaring that President Trump should be booted from office, the president has apparently found a way to show this critical constituency of his base that he truly is fighting for them.
According to the Washington Post, in an unprecedented move, Trump is slated to become the first sitting American president to speak at the 'March for Life' - an annual rally in Washington that draws hundreds of thousands of anti-abortion activists. This despite the frequent criticism leveled at the president complaining that he doesn't respect religion, despite having appointed two conservative justices to SCOTUS and hundreds more to the federal bench.
Zero Hedge readers may remember the 'March for Life' as the event where CNN fabricated a story about attendees from a Kentucky Catholic high school bullying a Native American protester. The victim, a student from Covington Catholic High School, was falsely accused of confronting the protester pictured. CNN eventually settled a lawsuit filed by the student for an undisclosed sum.
Notably, Trump announced his plans on the 47th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision.
See you on Friday...Big Crowd! https://t.co/MFyWLG4HFZ
'-- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 22, 2020The first March for Life was held in 1974, the year after the Roe v. Wade decision. It has grown to include multiple associated events, including Catholic Masses, a national prayer service, a conference and an expo, and is a major watershed event for conservatives around the country.
The rally, which will take place on the Capitol Mall, will start at noon. Trump is expected to speak at 1 pm. on Constitution Avenue between 12th and 14th streets. Since the American left is incapable of leaving well enough alone, protesters will gather and march to the Supreme Court in protest of the rally.
Even the Washington Post acknowledged that, despite Trump's personal history, he has undoubtedly established himself as a pro-life hero by agreeing to attend the event. Previously, Republican presidents addressed the march by satellite link. Even a handful of pro-life Democrats from the south praised the president for his decision.
Hopefully, the decision will ensure that evangelicals will come out in force to vote for him in November. But the real question is: If Trump wins a second term, will he be back next year?
War on Cash
Exit Strategy: Cash holder wallet for smartphone
Cashless businesses are now banned in NYC
Sun, 26 Jan 2020 07:33
January 24, 2020 | 11:14am | Updated January 24, 2020 | 11:36am
New York City's restaurants and other retail establishments will no longer be allowed to reject cash payments under legislation passed by the City Council on Thursday.
Supporters of the bill say cashless businesses requiring credit cards and electronic payments like Apple Pay discriminate against poor people who may not have bank accounts or credit cards '-- as well as minors.
''The City of New York cannot allow the digital economy to leave behind the 25 percent of New Yorkers who are chronically unbanked and underbanked,'' said Councilman Ritchie Torres (D-Bronx), the bill's sponsor.
The legislation, which was approved 43-3, also prohibits businesses from charging cash-paying customers a higher price than those using credit.
The bill is also backed by Mayor Bill de Blasio and is expected to become law in nine months.
It is expected to put a severe crimp in the operations of no-cash chains Dos Toros and By Chloe.
Violators would face fines of up to $1,000 for a first offense and up to $1,500 for additional violations.
Similar bans already exist in other parts of the country, including Philadelphia and San Francisco.
The three council members who voted against the bill were Staten Island Republicans Steve Matteo and Joe Borelli and Brooklyn Democrat Kalman Yeger.
New York City bans cashless businesses | TheHill
Thu, 23 Jan 2020 23:34
The New York City Council on Thursday voted to ban businesses in the city from only accepting credit, debit or digital payments, amid concerns such policies discriminate against lower-income customers.
"Whatever your reasons, consumers should have the power to choose their preferred method of payment," councilman Ritchie Torres, who drafted the bill, said at a news conference Thursday, according to ABC News.
"The marketplace of the future must accommodate the needs of vulnerable New Yorkers," he added.
Data from the city's Department of Consumer Affairs released in October indicated that 11.2 percent of residents have no bank account and about 22 percent use alternative banking such as check-cashing establishments.
The measure, which will take effect 90 days after being signed, fines first-time violators $1,000. It includes exemptions for online and phone purchases as well as businesses with an onsite machine that can load cash onto prepaid cards. Stores will also be free to decline denominations over $20.
The bill still awaits Mayor Bill de Blasio's signature but a spokeswoman for his office said he supports the measure and intends to sign it.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), a Brooklyn native and one of the highest-ranking New Yorkers in Congress, praised the measure's passage.
"Cashless stores exclude the often vulnerable and un/under-banked by using a credit or debit card to screen potential customers that just want to buy a salad," he tweeted.
Philadelphia became the first major U.S. city to ban such businesses in March, with San Francisco following suit in May.
EuroLand
Overtourism in Europe's historic cities sparks backlash | World news | The Guardian
Sat, 25 Jan 2020 07:22
A cross Europe, historic cities are buckling. Mass tourism, encouraged by cash-hungry councils after the 2008 crash and fuelled by the explosion of cheap flights and online room rentals, has become a monster. The backlash, however, has begun.
In the past decade, the number of low-cost airline seats available each year in Europe has risen by more than 10% annually, more than doubling to more than 500m.
Meanwhile Airbnb, the biggest but far from only holiday lettings platform, has reported triple-digit growth in several European cities over the past five years, driving 10 of them to ask the EU for help. The cities have between 10,000 and 60,000 listings each.
The net result is that over the course of a year, popular short-break destinations such as Barcelona and Amsterdam are hosting 20 or more visitors for each inhabitant, prompting angry protests from locals and forcing city halls to take action.
It is not always evident, however, what that action should be '' or if it will work. The trade-off between the revenues and jobs generated through tourism and quality of life is a tricky one. So the idea is not discouragement but management, say city halls.
AmsterdamOvertourism in the historic centre of Amsterdam had gone beyond the already extreme nuisance of drunken visitors vomiting nightly on 17th-century doorsteps and urinating copiously in canals, according to city hall.
With more than 19 million tourists in 2018 thronging a warren of narrow streets and alleyways that are home to 850,000 people, it was getting dangerous. ''At times there was a real safety concern,'' said Vera Al, of the finance and economic affairs department.
Tourist numbers in AmsterdamThe most crowded parts of the city '' the red light district and the main nightlife areas of Rembrandtplein and Leidseplein '' were becoming unliveable; in the old centre shops selling wooden tulips, vacuum-packed cheese or cannabis seeds were replacing chemists, greengrocers and hairdressers. Doctors could no longer find surgery space.
More than 60,000 jobs in Amsterdam are directly linked to tourism and visitors to the city spend more than '¬6bn (£5bn) annually.
But over the past two years, the council has adopted tough measures. Tour coaches have mostly been banished to the outskirts and new shops catering solely to tourists have been outlawed by rewritten zoning regulations.
There will be no new hotels once developers have exhausted existing licenses. Pending a possible outright ban in some neighbourhoods, Airbnb-style lets must sleep no more than four and cannot be let for more than 30 days a year.
A tourist tax has been launched: '¬3 per person per night, on top of a 7% levy on each hotel room (10% on accommodation booked person-to-person online). ''Tourists increase the cost of policing and cleaning the public space,'' said Al, who works with deputy mayor Victor Everhardt. ''We say it's only fair they should contribute to them.''
Some of the worst excesses, such as beer bikes '' a pedal-powered mobile bar groups of drinkers '' have been outlawed in the city centre. Tours of the red light district's windows, running once every couple of minutes, are to be banned from 1 April, when all guided tours of the old centre will also require permits.
The new mayor, Femke Halsema, has even tabled four possible options for the historic sex workers' district, known as De Wallen. These include relocating all or part of it to other parts of the city, which would be a big call, politically, for part of the fabric of old Amsterdam.
Somewhat less controversially, city hall has run several successful tourist awareness campaigns, including plastering large posters portraying residentson city centre doors, each bearing the slogan ''We live here.''
The concerted drive involves the mayor and all eight deputies. ''It crosses all departments,'' Al said. ''None of it is rocket science, and we hope that taken together these measures will add up.''
Nationally, said Elsje van Vuuren of the Dutch tourist board NBTC, the strategy is about dispersing visitors to lesser-known but equally attractive towns. The board has stopped promoting the Netherlands as a destination and aims instead to better manage the flow.
Amsterdam has no illusions, however, that its programme will reduce the number of tourists visiting the city '' or even significantly slow a rate of growth due to bring 40 million visitors a year to the Netherlands by 2030.
''The focus is really about restoring liveability for all those who have been affected,'' said Al. ''It's about making residents feel at home again. They shouldn't feel like strangers in their own city. We believe a city is first for living in. Only second for visiting.''
BarcelonaAbout 30 million people will visit Barcelona this year, a seemingly unstoppable tide, which has prompted exasperated residents to resort to ill-concealed irony.
''Don't tell anyone you have been on holiday to Barcelona,'' reads one leaflet recently handed out to tourists. ''They will steal the city from us, and it will stop being attractive to you and liveable for us.''
The city's response is improved management. Its Plan 2020 initiative aims to change ''from managing tourism in the city, to managing the tourist city'' '' although Xavier Marc(C), the councillor responsible, insists residents take priority.
''I'm not interested in managing a tourist city,'' he said. Dispersal is the answer, Marc(C) believes: the problem is not so much that Barcelona has sold itself but that it's sold itself badly. Aware the sector brings in about '¬10bn a year, he said: ''We don't want more tourists but that doesn't mean we want fewer.''
As the city's well-known sites, such as the Sagrada Familia, la Rambla and Park G¼ell are over-subscribed, the idea is to divert people to other areas and activities. The city is in talks with booking.com and others to devise an alternative visitor's package.
Barcelona has also declared a moratorium on new hotels in its most touristed areas, pushing visitors to the periphery (although as Pere Marin(C) of the 120-member Federation of Barcelona Residents' Associations noted, where people sleep ''doesn't make much difference. They all want to go to the Sagrada Familia.'')
Despite trying hard, the city seems unable to control the rise of Airbnb and others. According to a Vic University study, Barcelona has the highest density of tourist apartments in Europe: 12 for every 1,000 residents, compared with 10 in Rome and seven in London.
Tourist numbers in BarcelonaFor residents, this has translated into a 50% rent increase over the past five years. A 24-year-old earning an average wage now faces a monthly rent equal to 114% of their salary. As a result, about 80% of 16- to 30-year-olds still live with their parents.
The battle to reduce the number of available beds will not affect the millions of daytrippers. As many as 20,000 a day disembark from cruise ships to head for the sites but spend little ashore. More arrive by coach, clogging up and polluting the city.
Marc(C) plans to force coaches to park on Barcelona's perimeter and their passengers to use the already saturated public transport network; extra buses will be financed by a new Barcelona tourist tax, he says.
While residents are fed up with mass tourism, Marin(C) says there is no real popular movement for change, partly because tourists mean jobs. A demo with the slogan ''Barcelona is not for sale'' drew 2,000 people: ''That's not going to change anything.''
Ultimately, the city's powers are limited and the Catalan regional government tends to share the hospitality industry's view that more is better. As tour operators survey the growing Asian market, millions more are due to discover Barcelona's not-so-secret treasures. Stephen Burgen
FlorenceSick of the sight of tourists picnicking on the steps of Renaissance monuments, the mayor of Florence, Dario Nardella, announced in 2017 that he would douse the surfaces with water to keep people at bay.
The hosepipe ploy never became permanent, only being used a couple of times on the steps of key monuments, such as the Basilica of Santa Croce, the burial place of Michelangelo, and the Chiesa di Santo Spirito. But the message resonated.
''There does seem to have been a rise in awareness and sensitivity among visitors,'' said Cecilia Del Re, Florence's councillor for tourism and the environment. ''We did a lot of campaigning, telling people not to throw their rubbish on the street and to respect the city, and this is showing some results.''
Hefty fines for people caught scrawling their name on the Ponte Vecchio or peeing in the street in the historic centre, a Unesco world heritage site, have also improved decorum.
Attracting 14 million tourists a year, Florence is Italy's most-visited city after Venice and Rome. Boasting a huge and rich variety of the world's heritage and surrounded by Tuscany's rolling hills, the city's popularity is easy to understand.
But as with Venice and Rome, the growth in tourism has seen residents driven out of town by the rising cost of living and arrival of Airbnb: according to a Siena university study, one in five properties in the historic centre is advertised as a short-term let.
Some measures, however, seem to be paying off. ''One of the main issues is that everyone is so focused on the historic centre, which is only a 5km sq area in a city of 105km sq,'' said Del Re. ''So we are heavily promoting areas outside of the centre.
''We are also close to launching an app that will direct people to other sites if, for example, the Uffizi Gallery is too crowded.'' The city is also working with lesser known, but equally beautiful, towns in Tuscany, such as Arezzo, to promote them.
City leaders are against imposing daily limits on the numbers who can enter the centre, but have increased tenfold the cost of taking tour buses that bring people to the city for a couple of hours. They are also promoting ''congress tourism'', where people visit the city for a conference or business meeting and stay for a few days.
Tourist numbers in FlorenceMeanwhile, Florence authorities have converted some public property into social housing to motivate young people to move in. ''We want to re-incentivise people to live in the historic centre,'' said Del Re. Angela Guiffrida
PragueThe crowds surging into Prague's majestic Old Town Square to witness last year's seasonal illumination of Christmas lights were so vast that ambulance crews and squads of police officers were needed in case things got out of hand.
The packed scene and cosmopolitan nature of the gathered multitudes seemed to attest to a marketing triumph that had assisted the Czech capital's arrival as a first-rank global tourist draw.
Yet the vast number of foreign visitors crammed into the modestly sized square crystallised what has become one of Prague authorities' biggest headaches, prompting a major rethink of its tourism strategy that may eventually include a crackdown on short-term lettings.
The sheer numbers drawn by the beautiful but relatively small medieval old town '' encompassing Prague castle, the 600-year-old Charles bridge and a maze of ancient cobbled streets '' has put a strain on resources and quality of life that many long-established residents find intolerable.
A rising exodus of native residents and the growth of often tacky tourist shops at the expense of those catering for locals finally forced the authorities to act.
The first step is a major publicity campaign to encourage visitors to explore greater Prague, a city of 1.4 million residents, beyond the limited quarter on either bank of the River Vltava, where the majority of its most storied buildings, as well as touristy restaurants and pubs, are located.
''Too many people are coming just for a very small number of purposes, of buildings,'' said Pavel Äižinsk½, the former mayor of the Prague 1 municipality, which includes the historic old town district. ''To disperse the tourists more, I think it is necessary to involve more those who are running the tourist industry.
''The guides must say to their groups, do you want to go through these crowds where everything is twice as expensive, or do you want to go and see something which is maybe half a kilometre from Charles bridge, but which is also nice.''
The local tourist authority has published brochures called Prague Walks promoting the attractions of other neighbourhoods of historic interest, including Vinohrady, Karln, HoleÅovice and Žižkov. For the strategy to work, however, strategists need to succeed in a far trickier goal: persuading visitors to come back for another look.
Tourist numbers in Prague''We are trying to inspire repeated visits to Prague, and to motivate visitors to stay longer,'' said Barbora Hrub, spokesperson for Prague city tourism authority. ''So far 70% of visitors to Prague are here for the first time. It's understandable that the likelihood that they will leave the city centre is limited.''
Compounding the rising volume of visitors has been the growth of alcohol-fuelled tourism spurred by the Czech Republic's deserved reputation as home to some of the world's best, and cheapest, beer.
Lucrative organised pub crawls and stag nights have become the bane of many locals' lives, with high noise levels and rowdy behaviour commonplace in a city centre residential area that is home to about 25,000 Praguers. Robert Tait
' This article was amended on 25 January 2020 to correct an error in the ratio of visitors to residents in Amsterdam and Barcelona.
Syria
MoA - UN Security Council Hears OPCW Inspector Testimony About The Manipulation Of 'Chemical Attack' Reports
Sun, 26 Jan 2020 06:37
January 21, 2020
UN Security Council Hears OPCW Inspector Testimony About The Manipulation Of 'Chemical Attack' ReportsWe have long maintained that the alleged chemical attack in Douma, Syria, on April 7 2018 was faked by Jihadists shortly before they were evicted from that Damascus suburb.
By the end of last year leaked documents and a whistle blower from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) had proven that the OPCW managers had manipulated the report their staff had written about the incident. The OPCW inspectors who had investigated the case on the ground in Douma found that there was evidence that a chemical attack had happened. The murdered people seem in videos from the alleged attack must have died of other causes. The yellow canisters found at the locations of the alleged attack were not dropped from helicopters but clearly manually placed.
biggerUsing the Arria-formula, a procedure to have witnesses testify to the UN Security Council, Russia and China invited other UN members to listen to the testimony of OPCW inspector Ian Henderson. He denounced the false final report the OPCW management had published. Henderson, a South African engineer, was a team leader at the OPCW where he had worked for more than twelve years.
Henderson's testimony can be watched here. Philip Watson transcribed Henderson's speech:
I need to point out from the outset, I am not a whistleblower. I don't like that term. I am a former OPCW specialist who has concerns in many areas and I consider this a legitimate and appropriate forum to explain again these concerns.Secondly, I must point out that I hold the OPCW in the highest regard. As well as the professionalism of the staff members who work there.However the concern I have does relate to some specific management practices in certain sensitive missions. The concern, of course, relates to the [Fact Finding Mission] investigation into the alleged chemical attack on the 7th April in Douma in Syria. My concern, which is shared by a number of other inspectors, relates to the subsequent management lock-down and the practices in the later analysis and compilation of the final report.
There were two teams deployed. One team which I joined shortly after the start of field deployments was to Douma in Syria, the other team deployed to Country X. The main concern relates to the announcement in July 18, of a new concept, the so-called FFM Core Team which essentially resulted in the dismissal of all the inspectors who had been on the team deployed to locations in Douma and had been following up with their findings and analysis.
The findings of the final FFM report were contradictory, were a complete turn-around, with what the team had understood collectively. During and after the Douma deployments and by the time of release of the interim report in July 2018 our understanding was that we had serious misgivings that a chemical attack had occurred.
What the final FFM report does not make clear and thus does not reflect the views of the team members who deployed to Douma. (In which case I can really only speak for myself at this stage). The report did not make clear what new findings, facts, information, data or analysis in the fields of witness testimony, toxicology studies, chemical analysis, engineering and or ballistics studies had resulted in a complete turn-around in the situation from what was understood by the majority of the team and the entire Douma team in July 2018.
In my case I had followed with a further six months of engineering and ballistics studies into the cylinders. The results of which had provided further support for the view there had not been a chemical attack. This needs to be properly resolved, we believe (Douma FFM Team), through the rigours of science and engineering.
In my situation it is not a political debate. I am very aware that there is a political debate surrounding this.
Perhaps a closing comment from my side, is that I was also the inspection team leader who developed and launched the inspections, the highly intrusive inspections, of the Barzah [Scientific Studies and Research Center] facility outside of Damascus. And I did the inspections and wrote the reports for the 2 inspections prior to and the inspection after the chemical facility, or the laboratory complex at Barzah SSRC, had been destroyed by the missile strike. That however is another story altogether and I shall now close.
The Barzah SSRC was destroyed in a large scale U.S. missile attack shortly after the Douma incident. It had been a civil institution concerned with agricultural and medical research. No prohibited substances were found there during intrusive OPCW inspections before and after the U.S. strike.
Barzeh Research center before and after - biggerIn his closing remarks at the UNSC Russia's Permanent Representative at the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, said:
Today's discussions reveal one thing clearly '' that something fishy is cooking in the OPCW. When we point at it, our colleagues tell us every time that OPCW, the 2013 Nobel peace prize laureate, is the gold standard of professionalism, integrity and impartiality. We would like it to be such and we adopted a PRST in November 2019 exactly aiming at this. Unfortunately, the impartiality and integrity of the OPCW TS is seriously questioned, and not just by us and other member states, as today's presentation demonstrated. Members of the ''Courage Foundation'' can hardly be labeled as ''Russian agents''. They are reputable personalities and include such figures as Jose Bustani, first OPCW DG, respectable members of academic community, former senior officials of the US and UK intelligence community, and such names as Noam Chomsky and Oliver Stone to name a few. (You were provided with a copy of their letter and related materials).Why do some of our colleagues so vehemently defend the reports by the OPCW FFM, which some are believed were fabricated? Because any seed of doubt about chemical episodes conclusions would lead to challenging the expediency and legitimacy of already illegitimate missile attacks against a sovereign UN member state. In that light the Douma incident plays a key role. Because if it transpires that the FFM report was made up, it would lead to questioning earlier episodes like Khan-Shaykhun and others, which resulted in the termination of [Joint Investigation Mechanism]. ...Our colleague from Viet Nam asked what to do next, what are the nest steps. I think that this issue must be discussed at the OPCW. Legitimate questions and issues that member states face should be addressed and discussed. The question why the first report of the OPCW FFM was shelled initially, and then disappeared and destroyed should be answered. So far we are denied '' we and other member states '' are denied such an opportunity.Videos from Douma at the time of the incident showed some 30 bodies of dead persons. Most were children. It is up to day unknown who they were and who had murdered them. The OPCW manipulation of the original reports of its inspectors' findings is a cover up for that huge crime.
The manipulation of the investigation of the Douma attack by the OPCW management also raises doubt about other issues, like the Skripal affair in Britain, in which the OPCW was involved. The OPCW needs to come clean. It must fire the managers who were involved in the manipulation of the Douma reports. Other cases the OPCW was involved in need to be re-investigated.
--- Previous Moon of Alabama coverage of the Douma incident and its aftermath:
Posted by b on January 21, 2020 at 13:34 UTC | Permalink
..."The OPCW inspectors who had investigated the case on the ground in Douma found that there was evidence that a chemical attack had happened."Shouldn't that be there was NO evidence?
Posted by: bwilli123 | Jan 21 2020 13:40 utc | 1
"The OPCW inspectors who had investigated the case on the ground in Douma found that there was evidence that a chemical attack had happened."
Shoudn't that be?:
The OPCW inspectors who had investigated the case on the ground in Douma found that there was no evidence ...
Posted by: trind | Jan 21 2020 13:41 utc | 2
the u.s. can veto any proposed action, but at least the representatives had to sit still and listen. they'll probably look hard for some way to kneecap him like the first head of the opcw ("we know where your kids are") or julian assange.
Posted by: pretzelattack | Jan 21 2020 14:07 utc | 4
@b:
This sentence
The OPCW inspectors who had investigated the case on the ground in Douma found that there was evidence that a chemical attack had happened.should read
The OPCW inspectors who had investigated the case on the ground in Douma found that there no was evidence that a chemical attack had happened.Posted by: S | Jan 21 2020 14:07 utc | 5
The Arria meeting at UNSC was skimpily reported. RT and some other sources focused on Russian accusations. Google hits only one western report, The Times of London. I skip here little:
Western nations accused Russia of sowing misinformation ...
Yesterday Russia convened an ''Arria'' meeting, in which the Security Council hears from civilians and experts outside the United Nations. Alexander Shulgin, Russia's ambassador to the OPCW, said that the gas cylinders had been placed on the scene by Syrian opposition groups ''for provocative purposes''.
Showing the council a series of slides, he claimed that a hole in a roof did not correspond to the shape of one of the gas cylinders and questioned how one of them had come to rest on a bed. ''Now, I weigh about 90kg,'' he said. ''If I incautiously throw myself down on the bed I always break something, the strut falls out, the slat falls out or something else.'' Yet here, he said, was a gas cylinder, apparently filled with chlorine, that had rebounded ''at a wild angle'' and came to rest ''like a light swan''.
Russia presented a video featuring Ian Henderson, who worked with the fact-finding team but differed with the OPCW's conclusions in internal emails that were leaked last year. It also presented Maxim Grigoriev, director of the Foundation for the Study of Democracy, who claimed that his group's research on the ground showed that no chemical attack had taken place.
The German ambassador, Christoph Heusgen, said that the Russian intelligence service itself had conducted a cyber attack on the OPCW last year, adding that this ''shows how far Russia is prepared to go'' in its efforts to discredit the organisation.
Mr Heusgen also questioned the expertise of the Foundation for the Study of Democracy, saying that its experts ''belong to the school of Russian scientists that believes Ukraine invaded Russia''.
Mr Heusgen said that, listening to the presentation, ''I was thinking of Alice in Wonderland. This belongs in literature to the genre of fantasy and absurdity. While Alice in Wonderland is a great fiction, what we heard today is a very sad fiction.''
Karen Pierce, Britain's representative at the United Nations, said that Russia had shut down an investigative body that assigned responsibility for chemical attacks after it showed that the Syrian Arab Republic was responsible for a sarin gas attack in Syria in 2017.
Mr Henderson's challenge to the conclusions of the report reflected ''any scientific process'' in which ''there are bound to be robust exchanges of views'' before a conclusion was reached. She added: ''Someone in Russia is a fan of English literature, specifically they are very fond of Lewis Carrol.''
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Jan 21 2020 14:22 utc | 6
It seems that Germany was on the frontline of the fight against "disinformation, misrepresentation and absurdities". Is the population sufficiently insulated from them? I did not see any report of Germans believing that, say, Ukraine violates Minsk agreement, something used within EU to sanction Russia. And lies on chemical weapons justify very acute sanctions on Syria. Are those things approved by 99 percent, 90? Is anyone checking?
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Jan 21 2020 14:37 utc | 8
Free Julia Skripal!
Posted by: el gallinazo | Jan 21 2020 14:56 utc | 9
If you look up "Reported chemical weapons attacks", in what wikipedia/cia calls the "Syrian civil war", you'll find 80 claims--80! That's breathtaking lying by the allies of terror.
Posted by: SharonM | Jan 21 2020 15:00 utc | 10
@Arch Mangle #3@all
Wikipedia is what we make it. Please register as a Wikipedia user, and edit the articles, and take part in votes. Keep in mind that there are rules on Wikipedia, it's not a free-for-all. Wikipedia's ''talk pages'' (where the articles are discussed with other editors), are not political rallies, so don't get emotional and accusatory. You have to argue your points like a scientist or, perhaps, like a lawyer. In other words, be polite, follow Wikipedia's procedures, and win by persistently presenting convincing arguments. Prepare for a long fight. The main weapon of anti-Assad Wikipedia editors is Wikipedia's principle of using so-called ''reliable sources''. However, there are now publications on the Douma report forgery in Western media outlets considered ''reliable'' by Wikipedia such as Mail on Sunday, so this principle no longer allows the anti-Assad editors to block the inclusion of this information. You just have to engage in Wikipedia community processes, and argue, and vote. Yes, it's time-consuming, but you will be helping the truth prevail, rather than just voicing your frustration on Moon of Alabama.
Posted by: S | Jan 21 2020 15:13 utc | 11
Time to sue the hell out of these liars and drag them to ICC by Syria. Let them prove their innocence there and it will also solve visa problem when these liars will feel the heat and stop travelling to other countries for the fear of being arrested. State sponsored terror by those who are pretending to fight the terror!
Posted by: Test123 | Jan 21 2020 15:16 utc | 12
A War Crimes Tribunal is awaiting America, Britain, France, and their allies.
The Douma scandal is merely the tip of the iceberg in terms of the American Axis' lies regarding not only Syria but many other nations (Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, etc.) that these war criminal "democracies" have attacked.
Waging wars of aggression based on deceptions like "Syrian Weapons of Mass Destruction" cannot go unpunished.
Posted by: ak74 | Jan 21 2020 15:27 utc | 14
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Jan 21 2020 14:37 utc | 8
Just checked. It is outside of the reporting of German main stream media. Same as wikileaks - they don't mention their leaks any longer.
According to opinion polls most Germans are against German military involvement in Syria.
If you ask people in Germany about "disinformation, misrepresentation and absurdities" most would connect it to Trump not Putin. The German government took the extraordinary step to confirm that they had been blackmailed versus Iran by Trump threatening tariffs for the car industry. There is also the case of Nord Stream II which will be built though the US threw everything they had at it.
There is a German-Russian community and they watch Russian media. There used to be a push by Russia to "protect" "our Russians" against immigrants in Germany but after some stern talks this has stopped. I guess Russian support for AFD has also stopped.
It is obvious that Germany will insist on trade with Russia and China. All Putin has to do is wait for Trump (and Boris Johnson) to cut the last Atlantic bridge.
There is a German version of RT, I just had a look, they sound pretty mainstream and relaxed on the disinformation front. Actually most of the non-Western stuff nowadays looks like this - Press TV, Xinhua. I guess they feel they can be a contrast to Donald Trump's post fact era - which Bush's "truthiness" for invading Iraq has started.
Posted by: somebody | Jan 21 2020 15:38 utc | 15
>Yes, it's time-consuming, but you will be helping >the truth prevail, rather than just voicing your >frustration on Moon of Alabama.>Posted by: S | Jan 21 2020 15:13 utc | 11
If only this were true! Controversial topics are always controlled by some mysteriously self-appointed cliques. There are enough arbitrary rules and arbitrary enforcement to justify the deletion of "unapproved" facts.
The entry for "myalgic encephalomyelitis" has proven to be exceptionally hard to edit over a period of many years. Actually there is no entry for "myalgic encephalomyelitis": it automatically redirects to "chronic fatigue syndrome". Just try to change that; ordering the sea to retreat would be more fruitful.
I do find Wikipedia to be useful, however it needs to come attached to a giant BUYER BEWARE sign.
The industrial gas cylinder gently lying on a bed is obviously phony. The message is "We can do whatever the F* we want, make up any kind of sh*, and no one can stop us". It is good that these witnesses are testifying in an international forum, so that US sponsored deceptions and crimes are part of the record. Over time, the public record will show that more and people and institutions around the world are standing up and shouting "I Resist".
Posted by: Trailer Trash | Jan 21 2020 15:58 utc | 16
ak74 @ 14 says:
A War Crimes Tribunal is awaiting America, Britain, France, and their allies
in 2011 the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal found former US president George W Bush and former British prime minister Tony Blair guilty of crimes against humanity, so they have a head start, but yeah, you just know that these criminal fuckers are shaking in their boots, what with the way things are trending and all. it'll be psychologically devastating for masses of Americans, though perhaps by that time the worst effects will have been ameliorated by all the writing on the wall.
Posted by: john | Jan 21 2020 16:12 utc | 17
The Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal found Bush and Blair guilty ... and subsequently Malaysia seems to have been forced to pay a heavy price, namely MH370 and MH17.
Posted by: BM | Jan 21 2020 16:33 utc | 18
"... I am not a whistleblower. I don't like that term."
Merrim-Webster:
Whistle-blower nounone who reveals something covert or who informs against another.
A shout-out to Wikileaks would've been more appropriate than running away from the 'whistle-blower' designation.
Wikileaks, the service-provider to 'whistle-blowers', has been key to revealing info to the public about this matter. Especially the fact that it wasn't just Henderson that objected to the final report. The whole staff disagreed.
If not for Wikileaks, Henderson would've been dismissed as a disgruntled employee, a nutcase, and possibly a depressed loser (after his "suicide").
Corporate and government officials have tried hard to make 'whistle-blower' into a pejorative.
!!
Posted by: Jackrabbit | Jan 21 2020 16:46 utc | 19
The Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal found Bush and Blair guilty ... and subsequently Malaysia seems to have been forced to pay a heavy price, namely MH370 and MH17.Posted by: BM | Jan 21 2020 16:33 utc | 18
Yes, apparently the final straw was when the President refused to accept US aid, rebellions ensued and a S compliant and apparently quite corrupt govt is now in place.
Posted by: frances | Jan 21 2020 16:59 utc | 21
re my 21 post: that should read US compliant
Posted by: frances | Jan 21 2020 17:00 utc | 22
Posted by: BM | Jan 21 2020 16:33 utc | 18
The Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal found Bush and Blair guilty ... and subsequently Malaysia seems to have been forced to pay a heavy price, namely MH370 and MH17.The youth in the Norwegian labour party advocated for boycotting Israel in 2011. A few days later about 70 of them were slaughtered on the Ut¸ya island, supposedly by one man (even though survivors told there were more than one). The head of the party at that time was Jens Stoltenberg, now head of NATO.
Posted by: Norwegian | Jan 21 2020 17:16 utc | 23
Thanks for keeping this issue in the spotlight, b! The Outlaw US Empire continues to lie about Douma and the OPCW:
"The world will not forget the Assad regime's use of chemical weapons to kill dozens of civilians in #Syria in April 2018. Neither will the Syrian people. The Assad regime has a clear history of using these horrific weapons. Ask @OPCW."
The time has come when anything uttered by the Outlaw US Empire must be initially assumed to be false until evidence is produced proving what was said to be correct--and I mean everything.
Posted by: karlof1 | Jan 21 2020 17:18 utc | 24
Kudos b, for a valiant attempt to get the Truth out regarding the testimony at the UNSC re OPCW's 'alternative facts' pertaining to NATO's Douma conspiracy to smear Assad. According to DW News, this week marks an important anniversary for 'Holocaust Survivors' in Germany. Thus the likelihood that the UNSC testimony will be the subject of truthful reporting in the "Israel Influenced" Western MSM is close to Zero. Which is a great pity considering what some of the so-called Holocaust Survivors have been doing in Palestine for 70+ years.
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Jan 21 2020 17:23 utc | 25
Sadly, the Nobel Peace Prize has historically been the exact opposite.It isn't even for show - it is a pure credibility conveyance scam.
Posted by: c1ue | Jan 21 2020 17:37 utc | 26
@ 11 S.... quote "Wikipedia is what we make it." no s.. it's a full on propaganda site funded for that purpose too... sure, people can go sign up and participate.. ask craig murray how that went...
Posted by: james | Jan 21 2020 17:45 utc | 27
As described by Times of London - an extremely poor response by western representatives at the UNSC, all ad hominem attacks and incredulity. This story has been brewing for months, with a fair amount of established detail on the process used to arrive at the published report. To attempt to use the OPCW's own weak retort that it was merely a "robust exchange of views" rather than conscious manipulation, a line of argument long superseded by the collected facts, shows the western representatives are feigning ignorance, and they do so confident that most news "consumers" are in fact ignorant of these matters because they are simply not reported.
Posted by: jayc | Jan 21 2020 18:05 utc | 28
Re Pyotr Berman
Lewis Carroll. How apt!
''Alice laughed. 'There's no use trying,' she said. 'One can't believe impossible things.'
I daresay you haven't had much practice,' said the Queen. 'When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast. There goes the shawl again!''
' Lewis Carroll
Posted by: Harry | Jan 21 2020 18:07 utc | 29
Corruption and manipulation in western influenced and controlled institutions has become the norm in the West. The public has been normalized to blindly accepting lies by the political and corporate elites. The people are easily kept under control by narratives of fear and hate.
Truth and honesty from anything the western elites touch is now rare and precious.
Posted by: AriusArmenian | Jan 21 2020 18:15 utc | 30
A quick note about the chlorine "bombs" that were seen in Douma: Those are 100# propane tanks. ASME, DOT, and UN standards only require they have a burst pressure of up to 400psi (ASME is only 275psi). In normal operation propane only pressurizes the tanks to around 100psi. Because of this the tank walls are usually made of 10 or 11 gauge mild steel... about .125" thick.
For comparison SCUBA tanks operate up to 3000psi and have wall thicknesses of over .25"... twice as thick as a 100# propane tank. They are also made from higher grade steels and not plain old cold rolled.
Large high pressure gas cylinders are fairly rugged items, but even so I have a difficult time imagining one punching through steel reinforced concrete and remaining largely undamaged.
Propane gas tanks are NOT high pressure gas cylinders. They are flimsy in comparison. It is not surprising that the OPCW team that actually visited the site of the supposed bombing dismissed the terrorists' narrative. What is surprising is the number of supposedly non-stupid people who believe that the tanks were dropped from helicopters, punched through steel reinforced concrete, and came to rest in the condition seen in the photographs. It takes habituated suspension of disbelief of a population perpetually plugged into the boob tube to accept that nonsense.
Posted by: William Gruff | Jan 21 2020 18:21 utc | 31
What is "country X" that the inspector refers to?
Posted by: Nikos | Jan 21 2020 18:27 utc | 32
Only one thing need be said about Wikipedia: "Philip Cross"
Until obvious alphabet agency interference like that is openly dealt with, all Wikipedia is good for is looking up famous people's birthdays.
Posted by: William Gruff | Jan 21 2020 18:29 utc | 33
To be clear a Arria-formula is not a UN sanctioned any thing. It has no official transcript, has no legal basis and for the most part is meaningless and less effective than a press briefing on the side walk. This information given in the cafeteria will never be seen by the ICJ or ICC. If they couldn't get this on the UNSC agenda then they should have done it in the UNGA. Then there would at least be a transcript.
Every thing about the UN has been milatarized by the US and the UN need to be replaced by some thing that fits the modern world as the UN replaced the League of Nations.
Posted by: BraveNewWorld | Jan 21 2020 18:52 utc | 35
An update for Flight 752 storey from Press TV:"The accidental and most regrettable downing of Ukrainian International Airlines Flight PS-752, may involve more than human error under incredibly tense conditions. With the plane's IFF transponder switched off, the Tor missile defense system, which had reverted to manual operation because of an unknown source jamming communications, would have automatically identified the plane as ''hostile''. The Iranian missile operator, unable to contact higher-ups for verification due to the disrupted communications and given the high level of alert, had little basis to question the hostile tag applied by Tor to the aircraft.
Given that the US military has known capabilities to alter or mask IFF transponder signals, as does the Israeli regime, it is entirely possible that this tragedy, which led some protesters to blame the Iranian government, may have been deliberately caused by the US in collusion with its Zionist ally in hopes of triggering their goal of regime change. While no clear evidence of tampering with the transponder has surfaced as yet, it is known that the 737-800, whose registration or ''tail number'' was UR-PSR, was photographed at the Israeli entity's Ben Gurion Airport five times since March of 2017, the last time being on October 18, 2019 at approximately 2:40 in the afternoon."
Posted by: Smith | Jan 21 2020 18:53 utc | 36
I don't think the United States belongs on the Security Council of the United Nations. At the very least, this country ought to gracefully step down or recuse itself while impeachment matters are proceeding. I know this might indeed be impossible, but if it does not, that fact ought to be considered by the members of the Senate and Leader Chief Justice Roberts in their assessment of the need to depose the current president of the United States, and his minions.
Posted by: juliania | Jan 21 2020 18:58 utc | 37
Re: 33
Phillip Cross, inhumanely active Wikipedia editor, is a nemesis of Craig Murray. Today I use "free one month" of Times of London on-line subscription, Times being only "mainstream" reporter of the Russian presentation on OPCW at UN. One of the oddities was that German ambassador viewed technical studies of a Russian NGO as unreliable because -- they are friendly to their own government, something unheard of in Western counties? -- No! because they have claims like "Ukraine invaded Russia". But I also clicked to see what other stories they have on Russia. Strangely enough, this was one of the hit
Israel conspiracy peddler Craig Murray to address SNP activistsKieran Andrews, Scottish Political EditorJanuary 21 2020, 12:01am, The Times
TAGS: Nicola SturgeonScottish National PartyUK politicsSyriaMiddle EastLINK: Craig Murray has written on his blog that Israel was more likely to be behind the Salisbury novichok poisoning than Russian agents
A former British diplomat who has promoted a series of conspiracy theories, including that Israelis might have been behind the Salisbury poisoning, has been invited to address SNP activists.
Craig Murray is due to speak at the nationalists' Braidburn branch in Edinburgh on Saturday on the same billing as Joanna Cherry, the party's justice spokeswoman at Westminster. It is understood that Ms Cherry will not be present for his speech.
----The gist is that Craig Murray is a despicable person, and SNPs proves itself to be a non-serious party by tolerating it in a neighborhood forum. This piece of news was a revelation to me, I actually like Craig Murray. In any case, the effort to get one-month-free paid off. Incidentally, it provides some clues how a person or organization can be tagged as conspiracy theory peddler.
Murray did not write that Israel probably was responsible for Scripal poisoning, but that it is a more probable candidate than Russia. From a point of view of German government, that would mean a super-confident accusation of Israel, given that Russia is such a certain candidate. An occasional reader of Murray's blog is aware that he is passionate about many causes, justice for Chagos island natives, independence of Scotland, wrongdoing of Westminster authorities, and Israel-Palestine has relatively very low priority. He used the phrase precisely to describe his evaluation of Russian role. In any case, an isolated remark without much of an intention was selected as a title for the piece. Methodology is clear: download all the posts etc., text search for the most "inflamatory topic", Israel probably for the start, and pull the sentence out of context. Use it for a title or a key argument, if you are a German ambassador.
I do not have tools to do the same, but the best match for Foundation of Study of Problems of Democracy "peddling idea of Ukrainian invasion on Russia" is a series devoted to crimes of "Ukrainian security forces" in Eastern Ukraine (Donbass). In any case, I am pretty sore about German performance. It is typical "liberal moderation". After doing a few of "good deeds", in German case, insisting on Nord Stream 2 being legal and allowed to be built and moment of feistiness defending the agreement with Iran etc., a balance is needed, and the balance is restored by shows of exemplary behavior of an Imperial Apparatchik. Reform healthcare and rape a few countries, that is American model, German version is more passive by comparison.
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Jan 21 2020 19:03 utc | 39
In addition to the falsification of the report, now presented as undeniable fact to the Security Council, b takes note of two other atrocities - first:
"...Videos from Douma at the time of the incident showed some 30 bodies of dead persons. Most were children. It is up to day unknown who they were and who had murdered them. The OPCW manipulation of the original reports of its inspectors' findings is a cover up for that huge crime..."
There should be a thorough investigation of the identities of these victims. I am guessing the atrocities were perpetrated in a school, if most of the victims were children. Was it in this very building? Had some sort of hostage situation been taking place?
Secondly, the building totally destroyed and seen in b's coverage was one which researched medical and agricultural concerns for Syria - a huge loss in itself, not to mention if there were people within. I don't remember seeing news of that, would appreciate a link if anyone has it.
Thanks b, for your coverage here; it is most important. I had mentioned an argument with an anti-Assad person a while back. (Told him to come here and read; I hope he did.) His main point was the lie that Assad had 'gassed his own people.' Maybe I'll encounter him again.
I further think if the UN Security Council ignores this it will take on the same shade of black currently shrouding the USA. It's currently grey in my book.
Posted by: juliania | Jan 21 2020 19:21 utc | 40
@39 Piotr Berman.. thanks for that.. it is a pretty good overview on the msm and where we are in the world today...
Posted by: james | Jan 21 2020 19:27 utc | 41
As I see it the real problem is the UN based in the US. Not mentioned is that the OPCW inspector's testimony had to be given by Tele conference because he could not get a visa to attend. Remember too that the Iranian foreign minister has been refused a visa to attend the UN. Remember that Bustani was forced to resign as the head of OPCW because of vile,naked threats against his family.
Posted by: Robert | Jan 21 2020 19:35 utc | 42
@ Norwegian # 30
Thank you very much for this absolutely disgusting information. Sheds a different light on the Breivik-affair. :-(
Posted by: Paleene | Jan 21 2020 19:38 utc | 43
"What is surprising is the number of supposedly non-stupid people who believe that the tanks were dropped from helicopters, punched through steel reinforced concrete, and came to rest in the condition seen in the photographs."Posted by: William Gruff | Jan 21 2020 18:21 utc | 31
Agreed. I've never understood why the Russians haven't filmed the dropping of a few similar cylinders from helicopters at various heights....onto flat roofs of concrete apartment blocks.....so that everyone can see the result for comparison instead of endless theorising. You'd have thought the OPCW inspectors would have done this....but no mention of it.
Posted by: Guy THORNTON | Jan 21 2020 19:39 utc | 44
Smith@36 - PressTV: "..With the plane's IFF transponder switched off,..."
Civilian aircraft have ATC SSR radar transponders, not military IFF transponders.
IFF aircraft interrogations are ALWAYS military only and ALWAYS encrypted. Their only job, if used by the TOR, is to confirm that a radar target was an Iranian military aircraft. PS752 1) couldn't understand encrypted TOR IFF interrogations, 2) wouldn't be able to provide encrypted replies to any TOR IFF interrogations, and 3) would still be considered "not an Iranian military aircraft" by the TOR. PS752's transponder would need a military IFF encoder/decoder which it does not have.
Likewise, TORs and their acquisition radars DO NOT have civilian ATC SSR radar capabilities to identify civilian aircraft. They do NOT interrogate civilian aircraft for ID, altitude, GPS or any other information, nor do they listen for civilian aircraft ADS-B broadcasts which also provide that information.
Surveillance radars higher up in the air defense network may have civilian aircraft ID capability and can assign appropriate IDs to radar targets BEFORE they appear on the TORs radar screen, but that requires a good data link to the network. That encrypted data link (also used for voice communications) was down at the time, and any ID information that may have been assigned by higher layers of the Iranian AD network wouldn't have appeared on the TOR or been considered by its classification and targeting software.
Sorry - I don't know how else to explain this. PressTV doesn't understand the distinction, nor does it understand the TORs capabilities.
Posted by: PavewayIV | Jan 21 2020 19:39 utc | 45
@42 thank you. This about the visa denial should be amplified also.
Posted by: lindaj | Jan 21 2020 19:50 utc | 46
Paveway we love you, but don't start another technical fill in on this thread! The subject at hand is important enough.
Posted by: juliania | Jan 21 2020 19:58 utc | 47
Having watched the UNSC meeting concerning the OPCW perfidious economy with fact, the British permanent envoy to the UN's 'performance' made it hard to not think the 'woman' would make the perfect character to fill the part of the lead concubine for Star Wars Jabba the Hutt, the demeanour, the ethics (doubtlessly supplied by Integrity Initiative), the appearance. Wondrous things are made on that small island just off the coast of Europe, and some should be best kept there. Poor Europe, so far from heaven, so close to Britain.
Posted by: Formerly T-Bear | Jan 21 2020 20:02 utc | 48
@39 If things go according to the SNP plans Scotland will be needing a lot of new and expensive embassies. Kieran Andrews is probably hoping to become the Scottish ambassador to Israel.
Posted by: dh | Jan 21 2020 20:06 utc | 49
25 Horsey,Check out the Committee on the Open Debate ON the HolocaustCODOHYou can watch the Nuremberg trial, or check out many issues that make up this part of History.Ron Unz himself a Jew has a website Ron Unz which leads the way on this special topic.Be ready to question everything.
Posted by: col from Oz | Jan 21 2020 20:17 utc | 50
Fortunately for us it takes great skill to produce a phony piece of footage that looks real. People like Alfred Hitchcock and Steven Spielberg didn't just pick up a camera and make good movies, they spent years learning those skills before becoming true artists. It's not a skill many secret agents or jihadist will have studied and that's why what they produce is easily picked apart.
It also explains why false flag footage is getting shorter or from a distance, as in the November London Bridge baloney. Soon there'll be no footage at all, they're that poor at producing it. We'll just be expected to take their word that it really happened in the way they said it did. Then more people will recognise a phony event, when there's no more BS footage to "prove" it happened.
Posted by: Michael McNulty | Jan 21 2020 21:24 utc | 51
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Jan 21 2020 19:03 utc | 39
Surely, this is theater?
Christoph Heusgen, by the way, seems to have a problem having friends.
This here is a recent December 2019 Jerusalem Post article on his difficulties.
Germany's foreign ministry made a last-minute attempt to prevent its UN ambassador's inclusion on the Simon Wiesenthal Center's annual top ten list of worst outbreaks of antisemitic and anti-Israel incidents, prompting a flat rejection from the human rights organization.The Jerusalem Post obtained a December 13 letter written by Andreas Michaelis, State Secretary of the German Federal Foreign Office, pleading with the Wiesenthal Center to reverse its decision. ''I consider this a big mistake,'' wrote Michaelis, adding ''The list has not yet been published'...I would greatly appreciate if you were to reconsider your decision.''Heusgen and his boss, foreign minister Heiko Maas, have been under fire for nearly two years for voting against Israel at the UN. In March, Heusgen compared the US and EU-designated terrorist organization Hamas with Israel.Posted by: somebody | Jan 21 2020 21:25 utc | 52
Juliania @ 40:
Based on other online news I have seen in the past, I think it is likely that the dead children shown in the videos had been kidnapped by the takfiris in various villages and other communities, targeted for being Orthodox Christian or Alawite believers, over the years. If the videos have no time stamps on them, then we have no way of knowing how long these children have been dead; they could have been dead for years and the videos themselves of equal vintage before the takfiris decided to make them public. The children may not all be from the same community or school; they could have been grouped together before they were killed or their bodies removed from where they were murdered and then grouped together.
The children may not even have been killed by CWs. I have seen some online photos of Syrian children said to have died from CW suffocation and in some of those photos, there was evidence of blunt force trauma around the hairline near the foreheads and ears.
The only way we'd know the identities of the children is if their families and communities are able to come forward and see the videos and other visual evidence. That's if the relatives are still alive or still in Syria.
Mother Agnes Mariam el Sahib, speaking to RT, on the video footage purporting to show dead victims of CW attacks (August 2013) in East Ghouta:
"... I have carefully studied the footage, and I will present a written analysis on it a bit later. I maintain that the whole affair was a frame-up. It had been staged and prepared in advance with the goal of framing the Syrian government as the perpetrator.The key evidence is that Reuters made these files public at 6.05 in the morning. The chemical attack is said to have been launched between 3 and 5 o'clock in the morning in Guta. How is it even possible to collect a dozen different pieces of footage, get more than 200 kids and 300 young people together in one place, give them first aid and interview them on camera, and all that in less than three hours? Is that realistic at all? As someone who works in the news industry, you know how long all of it would take.
The bodies of children and teenagers we see in that footage '' who were they? What happened to them? Were they killed for real? And how could that happen ahead of the gas attack? Or, if they were not killed, where did they come from? Where are their parents? How come we don't see any female bodies among all those supposedly dead children?
I am not saying that no chemical agent was used in the area '' it certainly was. But I insist that the footage that is now being peddled as evidence had been fabricated in advance. I have studied it meticulously, and I will submit my report to the UN Human Rights Commission based in Geneva ..."
The girls may have been separated from other hostages to be married off to takfiris or used in sex trafficking schemes; or if dead, their bodies disposed of somehow. The extreme religious beliefs of ISIS, al Nusra and other takfiris probably don't allow them to touch the bodies of dead women and girls.
Posted by: Jen | Jan 21 2020 21:35 utc | 53
PavewayIV - please do continue to share your tech knowledge AND your wisdom. Very much appreciated by many of us. For the others - really kids, you don't have to read it if you don't want to.
Posted by: Miss Lacy | Jan 21 2020 21:42 utc | 54
Posted by: PavewayIV | Jan 21 2020 19:39 utc | 45
Paveway, I Dd not believe this is correct. An IFF military ground basedinterrogator integrates the mode 3,C civilian identification protocols.For example, the Buk Telar, not only has an IFF system, but includessafety measures that prevent the lock and launch of the missile in thecase of civilain airliners. All this information is easily researched onthe net.
Posted by: evilempire | Jan 21 2020 21:43 utc | 55
"Check out the Committee on the Open Debate ON the HolocaustCODOH" #50
What I find more interesting still is why we in the West hear and read so little about the 25 plus million citizens of the USSR who perished in WW2?
The number of Jewish victims of the Nazis doesn't seem as important to me as it apparently does to those who use it as a tip of their spear. Indeed there is a lot to be learned, and the stories passed down by those who were actually there during that period can shed considerable light. My parents were in Europe during that period and one of them gave me some insights. The other died from wounds suffered fighting the German Army before I was old enough for him to speak to me of his experiences and perspectives.
Still, I think it terribly unfair of Western media owners, think tanks etc. to purposely ignore the suffering of the people of the Soviet Union while focusing on the suffering of the Jewish people almost exclusively. As my Mother conveyed to me, all Jewish people in that time didn't suffer equally and as there wasn't an anti Jewish bone in her body, I believe and cherish her rare but candid remarks.
I remember the light hearted and often humorous recollections of Mother's encounters with local Jewish people and how she and her Father enjoyed shopping in their establishments, fond memories and the entertainment value of haggling. A positive encounter here and there, while out for a walk, kind words exchanged. A kindly old Gent stopping to admire her new born; "Such a beautiful poy he said..such a phat poy." A rotund child was a symbol of accomplishment and station in past times, their times in the Continents when many didn't have enough to eat.
Then the matter of fact accounts of how rich European Jews who left the Continent b4 the Blitzkrieg lived in her country throughout the war years. I suppose one shouldn't be terribly surprised that money does buy certain privileges, regardless of who has it.
I do however yearn for the underlying respect in all of that, when people are left to decide on their own how to interact with one another. That in a time of great horror, should also be given due consideration by thinking people. By decent people.
Posted by: Bubbles | Jan 21 2020 21:59 utc | 56
Thanks for the OPCW follow up b.
The only problem that I have with it coming up at the UN is the timing being within the US Senate trial of Trump. If I was a conspiracy type I would say it was timed for during this period to provide max distraction.
Maybe instead it is more part of the awakening process that must be going on for some/many during this humanity circus time.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Jan 21 2020 22:19 utc | 57
"Sorry - I don't know how else to explain this. PressTV doesn't understand the distinction, nor does it understand the TORs capabilities."
Posted by: PavewayIV | Jan 21 2020 19:39 utc | 45
But 7 civilian planes had passed that area before. How to explain that?
Posted by: Hausmeister | Jan 21 2020 22:26 utc | 58
Bubbles @56--
What I find more interesting still is why we in the West hear and read so little about the 25 plus million citizens of the USSR who perished in WW2?
Prewar virulent Anti-Communism said that all those people constituted a threat to Western Values, which was amplified by the Cold War slogan: Better Dead Than Red. As such, your genuine concern is extremely rare--it's akin to wanting to know about the fate of all the Native American children who were stolen from their parents and raised in WASP homes, or being at all concerned with the US Citizens placed into Concentration Camps during WW2. Humans deemed non-people end up ignored like the coyote in the Road Runner cartoons--nobody weeps for Wil E. Coyote.
As for stories about the survivors, I know many exist in Russian. There are a few in English that detail the siege of Leningrad, for example. Some of the latest newsreel compilations of Russian Front battles depict civilians caught up in it all. I recall one about the Battle of Kursk where the civilian population greatly aided their soldiers in constructing fortifications and such. But many at the outset in 1940 were merely crushed. Of the Allied leaders, Henry Wallace came away with the greatest admiration for the Soviet peoples, but then he was the only one to actually visit the USSR during the war. In today's context, few have shown any concern for the Outlaw US Empire's targets with only Code Pink and its affiliates I know of as helpful.
Posted by: karlof1 | Jan 21 2020 22:49 utc | 59
I read the comments at this site quite often, more now that I have become a refugee from one on the most prominent trump propaganda sites where I spent the last year or 3 calling out trump's lies, the troll army and the rich Bulgarian who runs the site to publish ongoing trump biased spin. Profit for the Bulgarian being the reason detre, who might just be part of trump's dirty Russian Oligarch connection. The Yeltsin crew. The International Vultures.
That said, what I find missing here is not what the blog / site owner posts, it's what the commentariat focus on. The small ball.
Allow me to quote my step father who has long since passed from this earth.
"All the ins and outs of a pigs arse"
Never mind the pigs arse, see the big picture and if you so choose, discuss that please.
Putin isn't looking to blow up the world, trump is a tool, America's secret weapon is ?? 330 million people dictating who can trade with who and how in a world of 7 plus billion? How long do you suppose that can last?
ie Dimitri Firtash might well be in the pocket of Semion Mogelivich, but how does that mafia differ from Cheney being charged by Nigeria for corruption and his past employer Haliburton paying several hundred million dollars to make the problem go away? And that's one floater that came to the surface.
Keep your eye on the ball...not the pigs arse.
Posted by: Bubbles | Jan 21 2020 23:06 utc | 60
@ Posted by: Bubbles | Jan 21 2020 23:06 utc | 60 who wrote"Keep your eye on the ball...not the pigs arse."
Welcome to the MoA bar. Some of us here try to make big picture sort of observations while staying on posting topic or over on the latest Open Thread. If you have been here long you have seen comment streams that get into the weeds and reduce the posting related adding of value.
I have taken to finding out the commenter first and then decide to read or not....life is short.
Back to the OPCW truth outing which b has done such a good job on.....
Posted by: psychohistorian | Jan 21 2020 23:23 utc | 61
Paveway, here is further confirmation that the Tor's IFF systemdoes have the capability to identify civilian aircraft:
"William Mackenzie, a research associate at the Center for a New American Security in Washington, says air-crash investigators will have to determine why ''Identification Friend or Foe'' (IFF) technology failed. The Tor-M1 is normally fitted with an IFF system to discern whether a suggested target is a civilian aircraft or a military foe. A civilian aircraft's transponder normally broadcasts a signal that can be read and processed by corresponding technology on the air-defence system. ''If either wasn't properly utilizing IFF, the chances of a mistake drastically increase,'' Mr. Mackenzie said."
Posted by: evilempire | Jan 21 2020 23:37 utc | 62
Posted by: evilempire | Jan 21 2020 23:37 utc | 62
Did you not read my posts? About focusing on a pigs arse? Are you totally oblivious of the reality that surrounds you?
The reps of the Empire will tell you what to think, the Reality TVee stah trump will howl, his Far Far right billionaire vicious backers will spread anti rational propaganda far and wide.
Resist their hate. Keep your eye on the ball.
Posted by: Bubbles | Jan 21 2020 23:57 utc | 63
Thanks very much, Jen @ 53! I hadn't seen that report and it certainly does make sense.
I myself do go to the pertinent thread for information, or if there isn't one, to the open threads. And it is a good idea when looking for specific posters to check the righthand column, which I do each day. I'd certainly have a look for such as Paveway there, for instance, each time I come, and several others also. I did not mean to say he shouldn't post, just that there are other places more suitable. (I have to confess to having erred myself in the past, when a subject has attracted my attention, but b has gone to the trouble to put all of this together, so I think we should have a conversation about the topic. It's hard to keep track when many are introduced, unless the forum has been declared an open one.)
And there, I've done it again! ;(
Posted by: juliania | Jan 22 2020 0:07 utc | 64
Hi B,if those containers had several 10's of kilograms of liquid chlorine, wouldn't we expect everything to be bleached white? Common household bleach releases chlorine and it basically makes everything white when a applied in small amount to cloth, wool or wood. Surely if 90kg of liquid Cl2 was released in a small room everything, the linen, the bed and the bedboard would be bright white. The OPCW scientists are correct in blowing the whistle. From a scientific point of view the whole OPCW report is an embarrassing joke. I think the scientists are trying to bring the pols back to some semblance of reality.
Posted by: CJ | Jan 22 2020 0:11 utc | 65
I'll ask another question here to redeem myself. Do we know what the process in the Security Council will be after hearing this report? Is there a number of days before they vote upon the issue, or do they vote at all? I do agree with Robert that the visa difficulties would suggest that the UN needs to find a new home in a country that would not bring such matters to that unhelpful conclusion. Very sad, given how instrumental the US Government originally was in encouraging that body to be formed in the first place.
I still hope our long nightmare in the US will dissolve itself somehow. Empires do snuff out...eventually. Or simply come to their senses.
Posted by: juliania | Jan 22 2020 0:14 utc | 66
(That was Robert @ 42, sorry.)
Posted by: juliania | Jan 22 2020 0:16 utc | 67
@ Robert 42 and Juliana 66
UN had best hurry and relocate to Switzerland. Trump is building a wall. As per WSJ
Trump White House Planning to Add Seven More Countries to Travel Ban List - Report
The Trump administration plans to add seven more countries to its travel ban list, namely Belarus, Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar, Nigeria, Sudan and Tanzania, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal, which cited two administration officials who have seen the list.According to the report, not all of the countries would face blanket bans on US travel. Some of the countries could have restrictions placed on certain visa types, including business or visitor vias. The unidentified administration officials also stated that the list isn't final.[.]
The current version of the executive order, also referred to as travel ban 3.0, bars travelers from seven countries including five Muslim-majority nations '-- Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen '-- in addition to North Korea and Venezuela, Sputnik reported.
MIAGA. When will people Wake Up?
Posted by: Likklemore | Jan 22 2020 0:52 utc | 68
The OPCW has put a black stain on its credibility by allowing political interference. Unless there is a complete house cleaning of persons responsible, the organization will never regain its former reputation. Every future investigation will be tainted with the smell of the current deceit, and all previous investigations (ie. Skripals) are now in question.
What truly amazes me about humanity and specifically the West, is how otherwise intelligent people can believe utter nonsense. It seems some expert or government official can appear in the media and make, in my mind, obviously false claims without any evidence and be believed by a large portion of the populace.
"Anybody that the bureaucrats in the US government designate evil is automatically accepted as a devil by the media, and then by the people at-large. It's easy to transform humans into a bunch of hooting and panting chimpanzees who want to kill the other tribe across the watering hole." - Doug Casey
Posted by: Dick | Jan 22 2020 0:56 utc | 69
And the real problem with disinformation being debunked is, that the truth, never finds it's way into main stream news, so the U$A's public can hear it.
99% of MSM"news", here in the U$A, is worthless propganda for the corporate empire.
Posted by: ben | Jan 22 2020 1:00 utc | 70
Posted by: karlof1 | Jan 21 2020 22:49 utc | 59
"As for stories about the survivors, I know many exist in Russian. There are a few in English that detail the siege of Leningrad, for example. "
It's important for people to be aware of history, real history not distorted history. Churchill acknowledged the real history. Must have pained him a bit given his political bent and who he served. But his acknowledgement was a rare moment of complete honesty.
The Soviet Union by hook or by crook, by threat or by forced conscription "tore the the guts out of the German Army" as Churchill once said.
Fast forward to waving Old Glory down at the Courthouse. Astute historians have summarized it all with a few simple words...most wisdoms are conveyed that way, with a few words.
The Soviet Union won the war, the United States won the peace... That didn't happen by accident.
Posted by: Bubbles | Jan 22 2020 1:14 utc | 71
William Gruff @ 31
Hi William, I work in gas cylinder retail and those cylinders do look like chlorine cylinders, or have at least been painted in the correct colour. They could be of South Asian manufacture. See examples at: https://www.indiamart.com/proddetail/new-brand-chlorine-cylinders-1588323062.html
But your point does stand. They are qualitatively equivalent to Propane/LPG cylinders. Sulfur Dioxide cylinders are another hazardous gas that are sold in cylinders that have similar specs. At the very least those fairings that help them stand would have been sheered off by any impact at the cylinders' terminal velocity.
Posted by: Aristonicus | Jan 22 2020 1:40 utc | 72
Robert | Jan 21 2020 19:35 utc | 42:
It's time for the UN to relocate to a neutral location. Ideally the Moon would be great but we're centuries away from that reality. The best solution is to relocate to a nation that's not a permanent member of the UNSC. Nairobi would be my pick.
Dick | Jan 22 2020 0:56 utc | 69:
The OPCW has put a black stain on its credibility by allowing political interference. Unless there is a complete house cleaning of persons responsible, the organization will never regain its former reputation. Every future investigation will be tainted with the smell of the current deceit, and all previous investigations (ie. Skripals) are now in question.Every Western created international organization is now in question. I'm expecting similar behavior with the IAEA in the coming months as the push for war against Iran intensify.
Posted by: Ian2 | Jan 22 2020 1:50 utc | 73
kakistocracy (plural kakistocracies)
Government under the control of a nation's worst or least-qualified citizens.
Posted by: Duncan Idaho | Jan 22 2020 2:48 utc | 74
Posted by: Arch Mangle | Jan 21 2020 14:04 utc | @3
Wikipedia covers scientific and engineering topics relatively accurately, albeit in a mostly useless and pedantic manner. They do this to suggest neutrality, which is then thoroughly abused when dealing with political or religous issues. Wikipedia is used as camouflage for Zionist/Talmudic propaganda.
Posted by: fritten | Jan 22 2020 4:21 utc | 75
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Jan 21 2020 14:37 utc | @8
You are referring to the population, not the government, surely? The government, especially Merkel and her puppets, are thoroughly into the EU/NATO/Zionist cool-aid. The exceptions where she makes political sense is probably the result of relentless pressure from the powerfull industrial/manufacturing-lobbies.
Posted by: trind | Jan 22 2020 4:25 utc | 76
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Jan 21 2020 19:03 utc | @39
Germany gov officials are gutless NATO/EU/Zionist puppets per definition. No unvetted German gets into an influential government position, the country is still under occupation, and you can feel the visciousness of the Anglo-Zionist jackboot on the german neck even to this day. In the former Soviet sector, this jackboot was lifted after the fall of the USSR, which is why East-Germans are more enlightened than the rest, and why many patriotic Germans think that any peace-treaty will be with Russia, and not the "allies".
Posted by: tridle | Jan 22 2020 4:38 utc | 77
UN is a joke. Its only useful purpose is it makes it easier to pull the nation puppets strings from a single location, not to mention boosting the local NYC economy for housing, travel, entertainment and education.
Let it move to Siberia , Gaza or Wuhan , someplace like that, a hardship posting for puppets, but its doing fine for the elites where it is so dont hold your breath.
Posted by: Pft | Jan 22 2020 4:50 utc | 78
It seems that Germany was on the frontline of the fight against "disinformation, misrepresentation and absurdities". Is the population sufficiently insulated from them?
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Jan 21 2020 14:37 utc | 8
You are referring to the population, not the government, surely? The government ...
Posted by: trind | Jan 22 2020 4:25 utc | 76
It seems clear that the government and "responsible media" strive to keep "absurdities" from contaminating the population. What is a German peculiarity is that it actually has an economy with considerable weight, and on top of that, an economy that operates on somewhat different principles that the Anglo-Saxon model. They remain mediocre as a financial center, they shun property bubbles, and they maintain industrial base to a much larger extend. Hence pressure on industrial interest to trade more with Russia, Iran etc.,. In particular, Germany is not so great in weapons, not dominant in consumer goods but huge in industrial machinery, so guess who is potentially a larger importer, KSA, Russia or Iran? Unlike KSA, the other two are actually keen in building industry. The irony is that Germany is supposedly a capitalist country, and CDU/CSU, a capitalist country, and yet the poor capitalist have such a hard time.
Yet, Atlanticism prevails when the push comes to shove, with modest exception. So a naive me would expect that there would be some electoral recoil. But a major part of the electoral upheaval is the increase of Greens who seem to be a very nice and tame Atlanticist creature.
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Jan 22 2020 5:17 utc | 80
Sorry for typos, please be creative readers (e.g. CDU is supposedly a capitalist party).
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Jan 22 2020 5:24 utc | 81
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Jan 22 2020 5:17 utc | @80
The Greens are the German War Party. Confirmed by many astute political observers. They have voted for foreign intervention whenever they could, and resisted detente with Russia. They are aligned with the most rabid Anglo-Zionist positions. They are currently financed by Soros, and probs are a CIA creature oroginally. The Green ideology is used to lure the youth, environmentalists and average Germans who are genuinely concerned about the environment. Classical environmentalist (which is a necessary policy) is purposely conflated with global warming/cooling (which is an ideology). Greens receive massive support from the media which is why their numbers are so inflated. It is estimated that 80% of reporters are Green voters. Its a ruse.
Posted by: gtr | Jan 22 2020 5:56 utc | 82
Thanks very much, Tom @ 79. Fisk is a good writer. So is Abu Tayyib al-Mutanabbi!
Posted by: juliania | Jan 22 2020 5:58 utc | 83
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Jan 22 2020 5:24 utc | @81
CDU was created/permitted by the Axis powers to bind the conservative middle class to the US/West (Westanbindung) and prevent the resurgence of German Nationalism, or the trend to neutrality (Swiss model). The German Free Market era was under Ludwig Erhard, who genuinely understood the concept of Social-Free-Market Capitalism. The so-called Wirtschaftswunder (economic miracle) concided with his stint as economics minister and chancellor. Nowadays the CDU is nominally capitalist, but in reality protects the vested interests of the capitalist class, landowners, monopolists, industrialists, banks etc, and of course the EU/NATO axis. That is not the same thing as being capitalist/free market, and certainly not the Social-Free-Market Capitalism of Erhard.
Posted by: tzin | Jan 22 2020 6:08 utc | 84
b wrote:
"Using the Arria-formula, a procedure to have witnesses testify to the UN Security Council, Russia and China invited other UN members to listen to the testimony of OPCW inspector Ian Henderson.''One can fairly say that this event is not reported or mentioned in the German MSM. It seems not to exist. In every day's life the OPCW does not appear as a corrupted instition. If it is mentioned as such the usual reaction is conspiracy theory.
Posted by: Hausmeister | Jan 22 2020 8:12 utc | 85
Posted by: fritten | Jan 22 2020 4:21 utc | 75
"Wikipedia covers scientific and engineering topics relatively accurately, albeit in a mostly useless and pedantic manner. They do this to suggest neutrality, which is then thoroughly abused when dealing with political or religous issues. Wikipedia is used as camouflage for Zionist/Talmudic propaganda."
No doubt that's a broad-arc purpose of what's certainly a Wikipedia deliberate policy: To have the entries for scientific topics become useless to the general public by having them be maintained exclusively by and for technical specialists.
But I think there are more specific purposes of this. It reinforces the scientism ideology that science is rightfully the province only of system-credentialed specialists and technocratic bureaucrats. And if a non-specialist wants to disregard this authoritarian decree and attempts to do research in spite of it, Wikipedia presents this strong barrier of illegibility in order to discourage that.
Thus, regarding our topic, I suspect a non-specialist would have a hard time using Wikipedia to assess the conflicting technical claims about these alleged gas attacks and who might have perpetrated them if they ever did happen.
In this way Wikipedia works to deter citizen self-education and citizen journalism.
Posted by: Russ | Jan 22 2020 8:33 utc | 86
Nowadays the CDU is nominally capitalist, but in reality protects the vested interests of the capitalist class, landowners, monopolists, industrialists, banks etc, and of course the EU/NATO axis. That is not the same thing as being capitalist/free market, and certainly not the Social-Free-Market Capitalism of Erhard.
Posted by: tzin | Jan 22 2020 6:08 utc | 84
A capitalist party, IMHO, caters to existing capitalists and not some utopian vision of free enterprise -- same for social components. But there seems to be a gap between people who want to produce Germany and sell to any country that invests in its industry and infrastructure, those who wouldn't like to pay more for energy than they have to, and "necessities of Atlantic solidarity" or whatever the slogan is (I imagine a single longish word here).
Then there are little things like a global company vacuuming a percentage of advertising spending in most of countries into some land of no taxes. European would be wise to capture part of it as taxes with no detriment to their own capitalists, not to mention the little people, but the vaguely existing land of no taxes somehow can marshal the most powerful military and most ferocious sanction machine in the history of the globe (the former looms and the latter bites). If EU has any sense, it is to defend its members from such depredations, but even as they are insulted, threatened and sanctions, they shlep to those sad, sad meetings to vilify the Russians, transmit threats to Iran etc. Collective wisdom of EU members seem to add to zero, even with a departure of UK.
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Jan 22 2020 8:40 utc | 87
It is estimated that 80% of reporters are Green voters. Its a ruse.
Posted by: gtr | Jan 22 2020 5:56 utc | 82
I guess Greens should oppose direct military involvement, military vehicles having ridiculous fuel consumption etc. But sanctions, at least in design, tend to decrease carbon emissions, more destitute people having to eat fewer animal proteins, burn less fuel etc., So Green may like sanctions.
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Jan 22 2020 8:48 utc | 88
@30 Nikos.
It was turkey.
The FFM ground team was in Douma Syria, the 'core' team was in turkey.
Posted by: S.O. | Jan 22 2020 9:15 utc | 89
i wonder how many people who try to conflate climatology with warmongering or atlanticism or whatever are paid by the fossil fuel industry.
Posted by: pretzelattack | Jan 22 2020 9:18 utc | 90
the u.s. military is a money machine. it exists to protect the corporations and banks that make life increasingly precarious, and to perpetuate the profits of defense contractors and fossil fuel companies. but hey, let's worry about big green and scientism and anything else in order to ignore this basic fact. war is a racket, and british petroleum and exxon are some of the major racketeers. if you want to support warmongering, support the racketeers and their propaganda.
Posted by: pretzelattack | Jan 22 2020 9:22 utc | 91
Posted by: Aristonicus | Jan 22 2020 1:40 utc | 72"At the very least those fairings that help them stand would have been sheered off by any impact at the cylinders' terminal velocity.''
This is what hits the nail. And it is accessible for any "citizen self-education and citizen journalism'' ( Russ | Jan 22 2020 8:33 utc | 86)
As one commentator at Craig Murrays blog took it: Wikipedia is an excellent source - as long as it concerns South-Malayian tree frogs. For more complex topics like climatic change it is not like this. These are dominated by hidden political interests that can fool the alt right and especially "patriotic Germans" with ease.
Posted by: Hausmeister | Jan 22 2020 9:27 utc | 92
juliania #66
I do agree with Robert that the visa difficulties would suggest that the UN needs to find a new home in a country that would not bring such matters to that unhelpful conclusion. Establishing the UN in one country was fine in the days of poor speed telecommunications. The entire Un should be a multi national establishment and distributed across the globe where technical and administrative mechanisms suit. There is no reason for Un to be centralised in USA in these day of excellent communications systems. Multinational corporations and vast states like Russia that span half the planet can achieve these things.
The blatant hoax of the OPCW Douma exercise is simply an insult to the common sense of humanity. The fact that so many children were sacrificed to give gravity to this hoax is simply macabre beyond belief. The OPCW is complicit in a crime against humanity and refuses to acknowledge it. Each and every one of the scientists that participated should give recorded testimony of what they know of the origins and fate of those children. THAT is an absolute priority evidence collection.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Jan 22 2020 10:10 utc | 93
Posted by: gtr | Jan 22 2020 5:56 utc | 82Posted by: Piotr Berman | Jan 22 2020 5:17 utc | 80
This walks the eternal revolution triangle of freedom, equality and solidarity. The balance is different in European countries but that is the triangle they move in. Freedom is always the freedom of capitalism, solidarity is limiting the freedom of capitalism, same as equality.
You have to follow the history of the Greens back to May 68, which had the function to offer the Western public a left wing movement independent of and opposed to the traditional Soviet Bloc linked Communist parties. Which was overdue.
Green anti-authoritarianism (and the knowledge that Germans had been liberated from fascism and from their own military elite by war) makes them fall for interventionism from Bosnia to Kurdistan.
The framing of conflicts as "humanitarian intervention" is a trick for "Green" target groups.
They did not fall for the Iraq war but were convinced to "act responsible" in Bosnia.
For Greens Russian authoritarianism and the Chinese surveillance state are unattractive models. They fall for cultural colonialism considering their lifestyle superior to other people's life. And some of them are prepared to "liberate" other people with the gun (if it is not them who have to do the fighting).
But frankly, the problem I have with the US are not USians but is Trump et al. So should Bernie Sanders win the next US elections I am transatlanticist.
Posted by: somebody | Jan 22 2020 10:18 utc | 94
@ Russ | Jan 22 2020 8:33 utc | 86 (about the gas cylinder(s).
Any bright high-school kid who's been through the math curriculum and has some calculus can tell you, give you, a range of terminal velocities in air at that elevation. You have to assume that the thing fell in the "best" attitude, and also the "worst" attitude - a matter of aerodynamic drag. Obviously there's a terminal velocity - somewhere about 200 feet per second. There's a minimum altitude above which it doesn't fall any faster because of drag...and it has a krappy drag coefficient. You have to work with the numbers to get a fine understanding...but it's the sort of question you'd see in a university engineering exam.
The mass is assumed to be something like 100 pounds. Do the math.
Then there's the question of concrete quality...it's highly heterogeneous..but you can assume it's top quality, and estimate the rebar density and thickness from the pretty pictures.
And you can assume zero projectile deformation (not even straps torn off!!?) and the hole's not big enough.
The story's bull.
Posted by: Walter | Jan 22 2020 12:30 utc | 95
Posted by: Walter | Jan 22 2020 12:30 utc | 95
Of course. Intelligence services wordwide and their governments knew this as soon as they saw the image.
But Western main stream media does not report on it.
Posted by: somebody | Jan 22 2020 12:39 utc | 96
If one uses a search engine for "Ian Henderson OPCW" there is still no MSM report about it. Only Al-Bab, apparently a smear piece. Therefore in Germany the narrative of the poisonous-gas-Assad can go on and impress the public opinion, including the part that supports the Green Party.
Posted by: Hausmeister | Jan 22 2020 13:37 utc | 97
somebody @96: "But Western main stream media does not report on it."
Of course not. The western corporate mass media does not have among their workforce "Any bright high-school kid who's been through the math curriculum and has some calculus..." that Walter @95 points out as being a prerequisite to see how bogus is the narrative they are tasked with amplifying. The workforce chose to major in Journalism specifically because they had difficulties with basic arithmetic, with such heartless and unyielding topics as addition and subtraction being forever beyond them in the absence of a calculator.
Many think I exaggerate or am joking, but this is literal truth. These individuals of which the corporate mass media are composed get their conception of physics from crappy syfy movies in which spaceship blasters make "Pew-pew!!" noises in the vacuum of space. If it is necessary for the plot that a flimsy canister is able to punch through steel rebar reinforced concrete with barely a scratch, then they are fine with it. If these new age journalists' "contact" in Langley (what we know to be their "handler" or "operator") says it is believable, they won't pause for an instant to question.
After all, earnest delusion and ignorance serves the Mockingbird mass media's handlers in the CIA far better than does cynical and deliberate deception, though that last does have a sizable role to play as well. Deliberate deception is difficult and requires some skill, while any American can do stupidity with the greatest of ease.
Posted by: William Gruff | Jan 22 2020 13:48 utc | 98
I still hope our long nightmare in the US will dissolve itself somehow. by: juliania @ 66 <=The declaration of independence supports your wish but the US Constitution spells out a document designed to deny its success. Thank you for revealing that the claim made by the few Framers at Philadelphia, that they had framed a governmental organization that suited them, and that people they hired [the governors], would take all human and democratic rights from the governed and then turn around and license those same rights just taken back to those it takes them from <=was working quite well.. Maybe you are one of those deplorables Mrs Hillary speaks of? Speaking as a super elite I think the plan the Aristocratic Framers worked out in 1788 is working quite well.
pretzelattack @ 91 <==I thought the defense machine protects democracy, not the profits of corporations, banks, defense contractors and fossil fuel companies from bad or unprofitable experiences> . . I thought propaganda protects them all. by: pretzelattack @ 91.. Thanks for straightening me out.
Posted by: snake | Jan 22 2020 14:21 utc | 99
William Gruff | Jan 22 2020 13:48 utc | 98
That's right. I used to know the guys at Gannet in a major US city. Nice people, but not technically aware, and politically-philosophically innocent. Naifs. Put on nice parties where they chatted about their pasts in foreign places entirely unaware of the objective and obvious exploitation going on right before their eyes.
I might add that the engineering students dread, as a rule, English 1-A, and do, generally, quite poorly. (My wife used to teach that class)
The result is a nice antipodal bar-bell shaped arrangement whereby neither group sees reality, but only a simulacrum of one part or another.
In this regard, Yasha Levine > " Weaponizing Fascism for Democracy: The Beginning " Begins in the DP camps...
I've said before that the plans to nuke USSR were being drawn prior to the Trinity test. Levine's essay buttresses this quite well, though essentially in background...he says nothing about the bomb. He doen't have to...
Posted by: Walter | Jan 22 2020 14:30 utc | 100
Epstein
Jeffrey Epstein's pal Ghislaine Maxwell's private emails hacked
Sun, 26 Jan 2020 06:34
January 23, 2020 | 8:23am
Ghislaine Maxwell's private emails were hacked as the result of the unsealing of some 2,000 secret documents last year related to Jeffrey Epstein, her lawyers revealed in new court papers.
The British socialite's email address appeared in court papers made public in August, shortly after Epstein's arrest on federal sex trafficking charges.
The lawyers for Maxwell, who has long been accused of procuring young women for the dead pedophile, said hackers ''breached'' her computer '-- because her email address was never scrubbed from a document that was among 2,000 unsealed.
In a Dec. 5 letter to Manhattan federal Judge Loretta Preska, her legal team placed the blame squarely on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York, which OKed the massive document dump.
''Despite the Second Circuit's best efforts, it made serious mistakes,'' the letter said. ''For example, it redacted a non-party's name in one location but not another; so the media immediately gained access to that name. As another example, it redacted Ms. Maxwell's email address (which linked to her own domain name) in one location but not another; shortly afterward hackers breached the host computer.''
Maxwell reportedly exchanged emails with Prince Andrew in 2015 about Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who claims she was forced to sleep with the royal on three occasions.
He has denied the allegations, claiming he's never even met Giuffre.
Maxwell set up her own private email server through a New York-based website registered under the apparent pseudonym Jennifer Turner, according to the Telegraph, which first reported the hack.
A judge is expected to rule in the coming weeks on whether 8,600 more court documents filed as part of a civil suit involving Maxwell and Giuffre will be unsealed.
A spokesman for Maxwell wouldn't tell the Telegraph whether her emails had been stolen or if the hackers have been identified.
Maxwell has not been criminally charged, though the feds are investigating her alleged role in Epstein's sex trafficking network.
Epstein committed suicide in jail in August after he was arrested on charges for allegedly sexually abusing young girls for years.
The Base
Revealed: the true identity of the leader of an American neo-Nazi terror group | World news | The Guardian
Sun, 26 Jan 2020 06:32
T he Guardian has learned the true identity of the leader and founder of the US-based neo-Nazi terror network the Base, which was recently the target of raids by the
FBI after an investigation into domestic terrorism uncovered their plans to start a race war.
Members of the group stand accused of federal hate crimes, murder plots and firearms offenses, and have harbored international fugitives in recent months.
The Base's leader previously operated under the aliases ''Norman Spear'' and ''Roman Wolf''. Members of the network do not know his true identity due to the group's culture of internal secrecy.
But the Guardian can reveal that ''Norman Spear'' is in fact US-born Rinaldo Nazzaro, 46, who has a long history of advertising his services as an intelligence, military and security contractor. He has claimed, under his alias, to have served in Russia and Afghanistan.
The revelation of his identity comes after a months-long investigation by the Guardian into Nazzaro and the activities of the Base.
The Base's members stand accused of federal hate crimes. Photograph: Obtained by the GuardianWhile Nazzaro's most recently used address is in New Jersey, there is evidence supporting his claims of being based in Russia, where he lives with his Russian wife.
The Base '' which is an approximate English translation of ''al-Qaida'' '' began recruiting in late 2018. The white supremacy group, which has regional and international cells, extols the virtues of an all-out race war while specifically targeting African Americans and Jewish people.
Using encrypted apps, members of the highly organized group planned terror campaigns; vandalized synagogues; established armed training camps and recruited new members.
The US attorney for Maryland, Robert K Hur, speaking after the recent arrest of three members of the Base, said that they ''did more than talk '' they took steps to act and act violently on their racist views''.
Few traces of him exist anywhereRinaldo Nazzaro has maintained a decidedly low profile: he has no visible presence on any major social media platforms, no published writings under his own name, and no profile in local or national media.
Few traces of him exist anywhere, except where a name is required in official business '' such as real estate purchases and the registration of companies.
Multiple emails and phone calls to Nazzaro went unanswered.
But through a painstaking investigation involving freedom of information requests, the analysis of material provided to the Guardian by a whistleblower inside the group, and cross-examination of information found online and in databases, the Guardian was able to piece together his identity and some of his whereabouts.
The Guardian was able to unravel Nazzaro's identity due to his 2018 activities in a remote corner of the Pacific north-west.
In chat rooms hosted by the Base, Nazzaro stressed the importance of in-person meet-ups and required members to attend training camps. The Base's propaganda videos show young men undergoing combat training together in rural areas.
Last August, an Oregon-based antifascist group, Eugene Antifa,
warned that the Base was planning a ''hate camp'' in the neighboring state of Washington, and claimed Nazzaro (operating under the alias of ''Spear'') had purchased land in Stevens county for training purposes.
This warning came after a leak of the Base's internal chats.
Local media outlets picked up the story, which led local law enforcement to urgently seek information on the group.
In emails obtained by the Guardian via public records request, the Stevens county Sheriff, Brad Manke, is seen contacting the FBI and the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) for advice on the group.
On 20 August 2019, Manke writes to an FBI agent, asking: ''Do you have a name for the actual head of the group The Base or the address where the property actually is?''
In a 20 September email responding to an SPLC researcher, Manke writes: ''I have since learned that 'The Base' has purchased property in Ferry County, WA which is a neighboring county.''
Property record searches revealed that three 10-acre blocks of undeveloped land were purchased in December 2018 for $33,000 in the name of a Delaware LLC called ''Base Global''. In a telephone conversation in late November, Manke confirmed that this was the block of land he had been referring to.
In recordings of two internal Base voice calls provided to the Guardian by the source, ''Norman Spear'' discusses his recent land purchase.
When asked why the land had been inexpensive, he replied: ''Because there's no possibility of getting utilities in there. Ever.'' He continued: ''But to me, that was a good thing for my purposes. I looked at it like it was just naturally secluded.''
In deeds of sale, the address provided for the company was a New Jersey post office '' enough to conceal the purchaser's identity. But separate tax affidavits associated with the purchase give a different address for Base Global.
That address is for a New Jersey apartment that has belonged to an older family member of Nazzaro since 1998. Nazzaro and his wife have also intermittently resided at that address, according to database searches.
The affidavits are also signed by Nazzaro, and dated ''12/21/2018 Republic''. Republic is the seat and the only city in Ferry county, Washington.
According to a source inside the Base, this date coincided with a trip by Russia-based ''Norman Spear'' to the United States, during which time he had in-person meetings with members of the group.
Speculation that Nazzaro was a federal agentThe location of the land is consistent with ''Norman Spear's'' advocacy of a white supremacist strategy called the Northwest Territorial Imperative (NTI), which was promoted by the deceased white supremacist Harold Covington.
The strategy argues for the creation of a separatist ethnostate in the Pacific north-west and encourages white supremacists to move to the region.
In one of ''Norman Spear's'' first public appearances, on a far-right podcast recorded in December 2017, he was introduced as a Northwest Front (another white supremacist separatist group) organizer and went on to spell out a four-state plan culminating in ''achieving independence, realizing the ultimate goal which is an independent nation state in the Pacific north-west, an ethnostate''.
The plan, he said, would trigger the relocation to the Pacific north-west of the white population in the United States.
Around the same time, ''Spear'' filmed a series of short instructional presentations on the tactics and strategy of guerrilla warfare. In an archive of those videos on the far-right site Bitchute, he is identified as ''Defense Studies expert and former CIA field intelligence officer Norman Spear''.
This detail, coupled with other leads, compelled many to speculate whether ''Norman Spear'' was, in fact, a federal agent operating inside the Base.
The Base has emerged at a time when far-right organizing is on the rise in the US. Last year saw a spate of terror attacks by white supremacists. In August, the gunman who killed 22 people at a
Walmart store in El Paso, Texas, is believed to have posted a white nationalist manifesto online prior to the attack.
In April, an attacker who killed one person after opening fire inside a San Diego synagogue killing posted a note online citing white supremacy influences and
naming the gunman who killed 51 in an attack on a mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand, as an inspiration.
''We have a significant increase in racially motivated violent extremism in the United States and, I think, a growing increase in white nationalism and white supremacy extremist movements,'' Jay Tabb, the head of national security for the FBI,
said at an event in Washington recently.
Under the motto ''there is no political solution'', the Base embraces an ''accelerationist'' ideology, which holds that acts of violence and terror are required in order to push liberal democracy towards collapse, preparing the way for white supremacists to seize power and institute an ethnostate.
Members remained defiant following the arrest of seven alleged members of the group in mid-January, calling it ''an unjust political witch hunt'' from the ''Liberal Globalist System''.
Was the Base a honeypot designed to entrap people?Beginning in 2009 and until as late as 2019, Nazzaro billed himself as an intelligence expert working with various government and military agencies.
Nazzaro is the principal of an LLC called Omega Solutions International (OSI), a company offering a range of intelligence and security contracting.
Its website, which was removed from the Internet some time after August 2019, boasted of the firm's ''experience conducting intelligence analysis for government agencies, military organizations, and private businesses'', as well as access to a network of seasoned security professionals with expertise in counterterrorism, counterinsurgency, homeland security, hostage rescue/negotiations, psychological operations, and more.
The firm also has a Cage Code, which is an administrative requirement for military and government contractors.
Materials inspected and sources consulted by the Guardian indicate that Nazzaro, as ''Spear'', has faced persistent suspicions from current and former members of the group that he is a ''fed'', or the agent of a foreign government, or that the Base is a ''honeypot'' intended to lure neo-Nazis out into the open for the benefit of law enforcement agencies.
Former members have cited this as a reason for leaving.
A connection with RussiaNew York marriage records show that Nazzaro and his wife were married in New York City in 2012, during the period when Nazzaro is recorded as maintaining a midtown Manhattan address. At that time, he was recorded as having one child.
A Russian site that scrapes and archives social media accounts had captured a profile, and photos, posted by Nazzaro's Russian-born wife to VK, the Russian social media site.
An early photograph of Nazzaro, dated 1994. Photograph: The VillanovanShe has since hidden that profile, but other social media archives confirm the prior existence of an account in Nazzaro's wife's name (using her married name).
The photographs show the same person who has been presenting himself as ''Norman Spear''.
Meanwhile, a reverse image search yielded a photograph matching public photos of ''Norman Spear'' atop advertisements for English lessons in St Petersburg, Russia.
The Guardian was only able to find one earlier photograph attached to his real name. It appeared above a vox pop in the Villanovan, the student paper of Catholic, Pennsylvania-based Villanova University, in 1994.
At the time of the photograph, ''Ron Nazzaro'' was described as a junior in philosophy, which is consistent with a 1973 birthdate. A source who has met ''Spear'' in person believes that the 1994 photo of Nazzaro is the same person he met.
A ''Rinaldo Nazzaro'' is also identified as a class of 1991 alumnus and donor of the prestigious New Jersey Catholic prep school the Delbarton School.
Nazzaro's approximate age, his Italian heritage, his family's New Jersey location, his background in ''counter-intelligence'', the nationality of his spouse, and the number of his children were relayed to the Guardian as characteristics of ''Norman Spear'' by an internally placed source.
'I am on the terrorism watchlist'Richard Tobin, a Base member, is awaiting trial in New Jersey over allegations that he coordinated the September vandalism of synagogues in Michigan and Wisconsin. In a December custody hearing, the prosecuting assistant US attorney cited Tobin's self-professed belief that ''Norman Spear'' was a Russian spy.
The Guardian has discovered that all of the business addresses associated with Nazzaro's OSI LLCs are ''virtual offices''. This describes a situation where a second company provides a business address, and sometimes meeting rooms and greeting services, for businesses who do not wish to maintain their own premises.
The addresses are often prestigious: OSI's virtual address locations include Fifth Avenue in Manhattan and K Street in Washington DC, an address associated with federal government contracting and lobbying.
Meanwhile, ''Norman Spear'' appears to have had no extended history in the neo-Nazi movement before emerging as leader of the Base.
According to an internally placed source, the only people within the movement who vouched for ''Spear'' were connected to the Northwest Front (NWF). The NWF founder, Harold Covington, was himself the subject of persistent rumors within the white nationalist movement that he was a federal informant, and that NWF was itself a honeypot '' a front organization routinely used by US law enforcement in order to entrap people.
''Norman Spear'' has told Base members that he remains in Russia. Law enforcement sources have indicated on background that Nazzaro is believed by some agencies to be working for the Russian government.
The US government may have been monitoring ''Norman Spear's'' activities for some time. In the April conversation planning a meetup in July, ''Spear'' was concerned that he would not be able to attend.
''I have confirmed that I am on the FBI terrorism watch list. I mean, that doesn't really matter in the context of the training. What matters is that I'm on it.''
The Guardian's investigation of the group continues.
America faces an epic choice... ... in the coming year, and the results will define the country for a generation. These are perilous times. Over the last three years, much of what the Guardian holds dear has been threatened '' democracy, civility, truth. This US administration is establishing new norms of behaviour. Anger and cruelty disfigure public discourse and lying is commonplace. Truth is being chased away. But with your help we can continue to put it center stage.
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"America is at a tipping point, finely balanced between truth and lies, hope and hate, civility and nastiness. Many vital aspects of American public life are in play '' the Supreme Court, abortion rights, climate policy, wealth inequality, Big Tech and much more. The stakes could hardly be higher. As that choice nears, the Guardian, as it has done for 200 years, and with your continued support, will continue to argue for the values we hold dear '' facts, science, diversity, equality and fairness." '' US editor, John Mulholland
On the occasion of its 100th birthday in 1921 the editor of the Guardian said, "Perhaps the chief virtue of a newspaper is its independence. It should have a soul of its own." That is more true than ever. Freed from the influence of an owner or shareholders, the Guardian's editorial independence is our unique driving force and guiding principle.
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5G
5G dekking in 54 steden in Zwitserland: bewoners zijn alleen massaal ziek | JDreport.com
Sat, 25 Jan 2020 16:05
Om een idee te krijgen wat er in Nederland gaat gebeuren als de telecombedrijven de nieuwe 5G-netwerken bij jou in de buurt gaan uitrollen kijken we naar wat er nu in Zwitserland gebeurt. 5G-dekking is daar nu beschikbaar op 102 locaties in 54 steden, waaronder Basel, Bern, Chur, Davos, Gen¨ve, Lausanne en Z¼rich.
Swisscom heeft toegezegd tegen het einde van dit jaar landelijke dekking te zullen bieden.
Zodra de antennes waren ge¯nstalleerd, meldden vele bewoners en hele gezinnen in het centrum van Gen¨ve soortgelijke ongewone symptomen:
luid oorsuizen intense hoofdpijn ondraaglijke oorpijn slapeloosheid pijn op de borst vermoeidheid en zich niet goed voelen in het huis. 5G heeft een stralingsintensiteit die 15.000 keer zo groot is als 4G. Overal snel internet is fantastisch, maar veel mensen worden er dus gelijk ziek van.
Duizenden mensen protesteerden zaterdag in de Zwitserse hoofdstad Bern (21-09-19) over de introductie van een draadloze 5G-technologie in het hele land, waarvan ze inmiddels aan den lijve ondervinden dat het hun gezondheid direct schaadt.
Bron: Earth Matters
(Health Impact News) If you want to get an idea of what will happen in the U.S. when the telecom companies start rolling out 5G networks with new towers in your local neighborhood, take a look at what is happening in Switzerland today, where 90% of the population is now exposed to the new 5G networks.
People are getting sick, and they are marching in the streets to show their opposition to the new networks.
Yahoo News reports:
Thousands of people protested in the Swiss capital Bern Saturday (9/21/19) over the roll-out of a 5G wireless technology across the country, which they fear could damage people's health.
The protesters, many carrying placards, gathered in front of the Swiss parliament building, in a bid to stop the construction of more 5G-compatible antennae.
''The fact that so many people turned out today is a strong sign against the uncontrolled introduction of 5G,'' said Tamlin Schibler Ulmann, co-president of Frequencia, the group that organised the rally.
[C]ritics in Switzerland argue that the electromagnetic radiation the new system emits poses unprecedented health and environmental risks compared to previous generations of mobile technology.
Online petitions have helped persuade several Swiss cantons '-- in Geneva, Vaud, Fribourg and Neuchatel '-- to postpone the construction of antennae as a precaution.
The Swiss Federation of Doctors (FMH) has also argued for a cautious approach to the new technology.
The first injuries due to 5G are now being reported in Switzerland, according to Physicians for Safe Technology.
The first reported injury of 5G in a news report comes from Switzerland, where 5G has been launched in 102 locations. The weekly French-language Swiss magazine L'Illustr(C) interviewed people living in Geneva after the 5G rollout with alarming details of illness.
In their article, With 5G, We Feel Like Guinea Pigs, posted July 18, 2019, they report neighbors met to discuss their many common symptoms and many unanswered questions.
As soon as the antennas were installed, several residents and entire families in the heart of Geneva reported similar unusual symptoms of loud ringing in the ear, intense headaches, unbearable earaches, insomnia, chest pain, fatigue and not feeling well in the house.
29-year-old Geneva resident, Johan Perruchoud, called up Swisscom and was told that indeed the 5G cell towers were activated on the same day he began to feel the symptoms. When others called Swisscom they were told everything is legal and within guidelines.
Dr. Bertrand Buchs, who has also called for a 5G moratorium, states he has seen more and more patients with similar symptoms.
He notes, ''In this case, our authorities are going against common sense '... we risk experiencing a catastrophe in a few years'... no serious study exists yet, which is not surprising when we know that this technology was developed in China, then to the United States. In Switzerland, we could open a line for people who feel bad, listen to these complaints and examine them. Our country has the means and the skills. The debate must be launched because the story is not about to end.''
Are Telecom Giants Influencing U.S. Government to Override Local Opposition to 5G?
As Health Impact News reported back in June this year (2019), local opposition to the installation of 5G networks has been strong here in the U.S. as well, as more than two dozen municipalities, counties, and organizations are suing the FCC and the US Government for forcing them to submit to every desire of telecom companies as they rollout 5-G. Opposition has been strong in the U.K. as well, where one man was sentenced to jail for speaking out.
Paul Bischoff, a tech journalist and privacy advocate, recently compiled data regarding telecom's political contributions to influence policy that benefits their industry.
Internet service providers in the United States have spent more than $1.2 billion on lobbying since 1998, and 2018 was the biggest year so far with a total spend of more than $80 million.
Comparitech researchers compiled and analyzed 51 ISPs' lobbying expenses from the US Senate's Lobbying Disclosure Act database, which dates back to 1998.
Here are the highlights of our analysis:
2018 was the biggest year yet for ISP lobbying at $80 million.Top spenders include AT&T, Verizon, and Comcast, which have amassed lobbying expenses of $341 million, $265 million, and $200 million, respectively since 1998.Since 2011, yearly spending on lobbying across all ISPs hasn't strayed below $72 million.The largest amount spent by any provider in any year was AT&T in 1999, at almost $23 million. AT&T's acquisition of Ameritech Corp accounted for much of this, and the merger eventually led to the creation of America's largest telecom company.Total spend from 2016 to 2019 is set to exceed lobbying expenses between 2012 and 2015, which totaled $295 million.Lobbying in favor of mergers and acquisitions accounted for many of the biggest expenses for individual ISPs in a single year.$1.2 billion has been spent by ISPs on lobbying since 1998.Top 25 ISP Lobbying Spenders in 2018
AT&T$15,820,000.00Comcast$15,072,000.00Verizon$10,489,000.00Charter Communications$9,390,000.00Deutsche Telekom (T-Mobile USA '' 2007)$8,105,000.00Cox Enterprises$3,450,000.00CenturyLink$3,360,000.00Sprint Corporation$3,130,000.00Am(C)rica M"vil$2,270,000.00DISH Network$2,060,000.00Ligado Networks$1,710,000.00Viasat, Inc.$890,000.00Frontier Communications$526,583.00Granite Telecommunications$510,000.00U.S. Cellular$500,000.00Altice USA$400,000.00Puerto Rico Telephone Company$360,000.00General Communication, Inc (GCI)$320,000.00Iridium Communications$210,000.00Liberty Cablevision of Puerto Rico$200,000.00ATN International$180,000.00C Spire$120,000.00Telephone and Data Systems, Inc (TDS)$110,477.00Mediacom Communications$90,000.00Level 3 Communications (Now CenturyLink)$85,000.00What is ISP lobbying?
Lobbying expenses include any money used to influence local, state, or federal legislators and regulators. According to the IRS, that includes expenses incurred to participate or intervene in any political campaign for or against a candidate for public office. Attempts to influence the public about elections, legislative matters, and referendums also count as lobbying.
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FISA
DOJ/FBI Quietly Request Deadline Extension from FISA Court '' Deadline Moved to February 5th'... | The Last Refuge
Sat, 25 Jan 2020 09:44
A quiet (oral) request from the DOJ/FBI is noted in a late Friday release from FISA Court Presiding Judge James Boasberg. [LINK]
The previous deadline was January 28th. As noted the FISC has granted a one week extension until February 5th. [Some Possible Ramifications Outlined Here]
This is a hot mess. Remember, IG Horowitz said he only found evidence of a FISA warrant against Carter Page, no other Trump campaign or Trump administration official was investigated using a FISA application. That statement is a little more important now.
As I go back through my notes seeing if I can identify the downstream consequences impacted by a rather stunning sequestration effort, I find myself wondering if the HJC case(s) for 6(e) material and Don McGahn testimony might even be part of the pull-back material as a derivative of the special counsel probe' use of the Carter Page Title-1 surveillance warrant. After all, there had to be an investigative reason for Mueller to want the renewal on June 29, 2017, long after Carter Page was gone from the Trump orbit.
Remember, the special counsel team used some form of pre-existing warrant authority to capture all of the Trump transition team emails and communication from the GSA, and then lied about it to the Trump White House. Perhaps National Security Letters (NSL's).
The DOJ/FBI previously agreed to ''sequester'' all information and evidence received as an outcome of all four FISA warrants issued against Carter Page. Meaning, all material, in any court proceeding or subsequent secondary warrant on another target, application, filing, motion, prosecution or downstream use of the information gathered and obtained.
The DOJ and FBI stated they will now assemble all materials, from any location, that stemmed from the Carter Page FISA warrants. In essence, the FBI will now look and retrieve any evidence that stemmed as an outcome of the Carter Page FISA warrant. Some of this material *may* (perhaps likely) will be in the Special Counsel Mueller investigation.
[ie. a proverbial search for the fruit of a poisonous tree. Where is it?]
Once the sequestration has taken place, the DOJ will then be able to determine to the court what collateral impacts they have identified.
Worth noting in the second paragraph of the original order: ''pending further review of the OIG report and the outcome of any investigations or litigation.'' This was a statement made by the DOJ in response to the FISC. It is possible the ongoing investigation by U.S. Attorney John Durham is part of this encompassing statement.
The second page of the order by Judge Boasberg is essentially him relaying the law surrounding FISA applications; warning the DOJ that false material submissions -which the DOJ has just admitted- are illegal; and Boasberg wanting to know answers to the same questions many of us have.
Essentially, Judge Boasberg is asking: what did the FBI do with the Title-1 surveillance warrant they received from the court? What material did they collect? Was that material then used in other proceedings and: ''disseminated to DOJ prosecutors and other persons outside the FBI''?
The presiding fisa judge also wants to know what the DOJ is doing. Explain what ''further review of the OIG report'' means? Inform the court what ''related investigations and litigation'' pertains to, etc. The DOJ/FBI now have until February 5th to respond:
.
Unhoused
Baltimore's 'squeegee kid' issue has reached a tipping point; it's time for a break - Baltimore Sun
Sat, 25 Jan 2020 07:29
Baltimore Sun |
Oct 29, 2019 | 1:40 PM
A squeegee kids washes a windshield at the I-83 exit on North Avenue in Baltimore. (Kenneth K. Lam)
When a gun enters the contentious squeegee kid debate, we know the issue has hit a tipping point.
Last week, a 45-year-old woman told Baltimore police she flashed her firearm because she thought a group of young people who wash car windows for cash had gotten too aggressive. A struggle ensued when one of the teens reached inside her car, and the gun went off.
Thankfully, it appears nobody was hurt. But we should all be gravely concerned. The red flags are raised as high as they can go.
No matter whether one believes the woman was justified in her fears of the teenagers or aggressively overreacting, she acted on those feelings, and things could have ended terribly. We might have seen a squeegee kid lying dead in the street or the driver herself wounded by her own gun.
It's time that everybody take a deep breath and hit reset. We propose a 30-day enforcement of city codes 47-3 through 47-5, which ban aggressive soliciting in public, solicitation of drivers in traffic or on a public street, and nighttime solicitation. Law enforcement should tell anyone violating those laws '-- including coaches raising money for their sports' teams and residents selling bottled water '-- to move along. They should also be prepared to refer the squeegee kids, many of whom are simply looking to put food on the table or help their families pay bills, and others to specific programs and services.
We realize this is no permanent solution. But it's a start. It would help clear the streets for a period and give the simmering tensions between motorists and the city's squeegee kids, mostly young men, time to cool down. The mayor's office should use the reprieve to further its ''Squeegee Alternative Plan,'' meant to address the underlying poverty that leads kids to the city's busiest intersections. It is a holistic approach that doesn't just treat the squeegee kids as castaways in the city that is their home, and we support it.
We don't want these kids, or anyone else, arrested. That would do nothing but cause harm, including to their future job prospects. We have compassion for the plight of many of these youth. The city's outreach workers should continue to seek them out and involve them in the Squeegee Alternative Plan, which makes sure the youth go to school, connects them with services and helps them get jobs. The city can also continue reaching out to young people from a database of squeegee workers they have compiled. It might be easier to reach these teenagers when the intersections are not so readily available.
A temporary moratorium will also give the city the time to work with businesses, which sent a letter to Mayor Jack Young about concerns over the window washing, on becoming better partners in the solution. The first meeting of a work group between city representatives and business leaders to brainstorm ideas is not scheduled until early November. Among the city's goals for the group is fostering a greater understanding and empathy among businesses and their employees toward the squeegee workers and the challenges faced by big cities with high rates of poverty.
The city also has said it needs help funding its alternative program, which is actively working with 34 kids, but no businesses have yet stepped forward to contribute. Businesses could also provide mentoring, job prospects and help underwrite non-profits that can work with the youth. Retailer DTLR has already agreed to give kids who go through the program credits for clothes at their stores when they meet certain milestones. We need to see more such partnerships.
Changing the mindset of the kids is one of the city's challenges, and it will likely take time to convince a kid who knows nothing else that there are ways to make money other than hustling on the street. This kind of break should allow the city's program time to develop further and funders to come forward to ensure the alternative they're presenting is better than the unknown of the streets.
One thing is clear: The fraught relationship between motorists and squeegee kids, further frayed by the sound of one bullet piercing the air, cannot continue. No matter what side of the squeegee debate one aligns, everyone should agree it has reached a dangerous level. We were already concerned about the safety of the young people who dart in and out of traffic, we don't want to worry about them dodging bullets as well.
Baltimore Sun Editorial Board
Contact
This piece is written by the Baltimore Sun Editorial Board. Editorials are the opinion of the Board, which is separate from the newsroom. If you would like to submit a letter to the editor, please send it to talkback@baltimoresun.com.
Clips
VIDEO-Sen. Chuck Grassley expanded his investigation into the DOD's Office of Net Assessment - YouTube
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Sun, 26 Jan 2020 07:39
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VIDEO - Episode 798 Scott Adams: Clearview AI app that Identifies Criminals, With David Scalzo, Impeachment - YouTube
VIDEO -47m12- Why Is Call of Duty: Modern Warfare SO AWESOME?! And... BAD?! - YouTube
VIDEO - U.S. Congress certifies Trump's Electoral College victory - Reuters
Sun, 26 Jan 2020 07:06
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Congress on Friday certified the Electoral College vote that gave Republican Donald Trump his victory in the contentious 2016 presidential election after a raucous half-hour joint session punctuated by Democratic challenges.
The Republican businessman, whose presidential campaign was his first bid for public office, garnered 304 electoral votes, compared with 227 won by his Democratic challenger, Hillary Clinton, according to the vote tally read by Vice President Joe Biden.
The electoral votes were opened before a joint session of Congress in what is considered a formality for most presidential elections.
Members of the House of Representatives objected to the electoral tally in states including Alabama, Florida, Michigan, Texas, Mississippi and the Carolinas in a symbolic move that exposed lingering dismay over a contentious election campaign.
Some members complained about long lines at polling stations while others cited concerns over Russian attempts to influence the result in Trump's favor.
''I object because people are horrified by the overwhelming evidence of Russian interference in our election,'' said Representative Barbara Lee of California before being overruled.
Biden denied the objections one by one, at times jocular and apparently determined to finish the tally. ''It is over,'' he said at one point, to laughter from Republicans.
None of the representatives had the backing of a senator, which would have allowed them to suspend the joint session and allow the House and Senate to meet separately to debate the objections.
Although Trump, who is set to take office on Jan. 20, won the Electoral College vote that determines the victor, Clinton won the popular vote by nearly 3 million ballots. The election has been shadowed by concerns about Russian hacking of Democratic groups and other forms of intervention during the campaign.
Trump, who has repeatedly downplayed possible Russian interference, was due to receive a U.S. intelligence report on the situation later on Friday. He told The New York Times on Friday that the focus on the issue was a ''political witch hunt.''
Slideshow (14 Images) The intelligence agencies did not conclude that Russian hacking changed any vote tallies.
But House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said concerns about Russian interference cast a pall over the 2016 vote.
''That's why people have some level of dismay today on the vote ... about the Electoral College,'' Pelosi said at a news conference. ''How much is known about the foreign disruption of our election?''
Reporting by Doina Chiacu and Susan Cornwell; Additional reporting by David Alexander; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn and Leslie Adler
VIDEO - Episode 798 Scott Adams: The Clearview AI app that Identifies Criminals, With David Scalzo, Plus Impeachment - Scott Adams' Blog
Sun, 26 Jan 2020 07:01
Posted January 25, 2020 in: #Adam Schiff, #Clearview ai, #David Scalzo, #Impeachment, #politics, #president trump, #Scott Adams
My new book LOSERTHINK, available now on Amazon https://tinyurl.com/rqmjc2a
Content:Special guest: Clearview.ai investor David ScalzoA search engine for faces, used by law enforcementThere should be a cost for attempting to impeach and failingAdam Schiff claims and harm to national interestAdam Schiff and future crimes of the imaginationThe challenge of cartooning with diversityIf you would like my channel to have a wider audience and higher production quality, please donate via my startup (Whenhub.com) at this link:
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VIDEO - April 30, 2018 dinner with Lev and President Trump. Amazing that they recorded this. - YouTube
VIDEO -3m45- Truth Comes Out: New Evidence Syria Gas Attack Report Falsified - YouTube
VIDEO-Hockey Central on Twitter: "Greenday dropping multiple f bombs on live tv at the NHL all star game ðhttps://t.co/QowBPbVpgj" / Twitter
Sat, 25 Jan 2020 21:57
Log in Sign up Hockey Central @ HockeyCentraI Greenday dropping multiple f bombs on live tv at the NHL all star game ð
pic.twitter.com/QowBPbVpgj 7:19 PM - 25 Jan 2020 Twitter by: Brady Trettenero @BradyTrett ð''ð''ð''ð''ð''ð'' ð''--ð''ð''ð'' & ð''ð''ð''ð'' ð''ð''ð''ð'''ð'''''༠@ forestofrobots
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@HockeyCentraI I AM W EA K OUR KING BILLIE OUT HERE
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@forestofrobots WE STAN OUR KING
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@HockeyCentraI How do i get a video tattooed on me
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@HockeyCentraI pic.twitter.com/lUY29aPpIR View conversation · Carol Grinder @ cg1346
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@HockeyCentraI Usually they delay live event by a few seconds just in case of things like this. They should've learned after the Justin Timberlake Janet Jackson nipslip! Lol
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@HockeyCentraI Nice....there are a ton of kids there.
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@RoninCRs @HockeyCentraI They are words. The kids will survive
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@HockeyCentraI @Alemire26 Awesome
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@HockeyCentraI That sounded like one f bomb man
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VIDEO-Trump on coronavirus from China: 'We have it totally under control'
Sat, 25 Jan 2020 21:35
Published Wed, Jan 22 2020 5:01 AM EST
Updated Wed, Jan 22 2020 8:02 AM EST
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"It's one person coming in from China. We have it under control. It's going to be just fine," Trump told CNBC's Joe Kernen from the World Economic Forum in Davos.The president said he trusts the information coming out of China on the coronavirus, which has killed nine people there and sickened hundreds more.The coronavirus evoked memories of the 2003 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome in China. SARS killed nearly 800 people worldwide and led to an economic downturn in the region.President Donald Trump told CNBC on Wednesday he trusts the information coming out of China on the coronavirus, which has killed nine people and sickened nearly 500 others in that country. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday confirmed the first case in the United States.
"We have it totally under control," Trump told "Squawk Box" co-host Joe Kernen in an interview from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. "It's one person coming in from China. We have it under control. It's going to be just fine."
The CDC on Tuesday said a resident of Snohomish County, Washington, who was returning from China on Jan. 15 was diagnosed with the Wuhan coronavirus.
Trump told CNBC he believes that Chinese President Xi Jinping and health officials there are going to continue to tell authorities around the world everything they need to know about the virus.
"I do. I do. I have a great relationship with President Xi," said Trump, addressing a question about whether he's concerned about transparency in China. "The relationship is very good."
This weekend, the CDC and Homeland Security began screening people traveling to major airports in California and New York from Wuhan, China, where the outbreak is believed to have started. Health officials have also confirmed cases in Thailand, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan.
The coronavirus evoked memories of the 2003 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome in China. SARS, which killed nearly 800 people worldwide, hit Asian cities such as Hong Kong, Singapore, Taipei and Beijing the hardest and triggered a severe economic downturn in the region.
Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that usually infect animals but can sometimes evolve and spread to humans. Symptoms in humans include fever, coughing and shortness of breath, which can progress to pneumonia. Health officials have confirmed that the latest strain can spread from person to person.
'-- CNBC's Berkeley Lovelace contributed to this report.
View the full site
VIDEO-[VIDEO] Bombshell: 3 Dem House Managers Voted "No" Against Ukraine Aid
Sat, 25 Jan 2020 10:09
PoliticsStefanik destroys Democrats by exposing that three Democrat House Managers voted ''NO'' against aid to Ukraine.
Rep Stefanik came out guns blazing after another tiring round from today's impeachment trial.
Stefanik reflected the exasperation and frustration many Americans are feeling when she met the press afterward and proceeded to tear the Democrat's impeachment case apart.
Limb by limb'...
But where she hit the Democrats hardest was by pointing out the biggest piece of hypocrisy yet: three Democrat House Managers voted ''NO'' against aid to Ukraine.
Watch the video:
Day 3 of Adam Schiff's flimsy case for impeachment. This is the weakest case for impeachment of a President in our nation's history.
The facts remain the same. The American people are tired of this charade. pic.twitter.com/3S6zd4ZHeI
'-- Rep. Elise Stefanik (@RepStefanik) January 24, 2020
Yikes'...
How do you think the Dems are going to argue against that?
It's so ironic that they Dems actually have the gall to stand there and accuse Trump of withholding aid to Ukraine when they did the same darn thing!
Stefanik absolutely eviscerated the case from every standpoint, especially with that tidbit about Ukraine and if she were going head to head against Schiff, the entire trial would be done in a matter of seconds.
RELATED: Millennial GOP Rep Elise Stefanik: 'I am Proudly the Opposite of AOC'
Many on Twitter felt the same and showed their support for her argument:
''We ALL love Elise for being a strong voice against the unhinged and increasingly desperate Radical Left!''
We ALL love Elise for being a strong voice against the unhinged and increasingly desperate Radical Left!
'-- HeartlandForTrump (@HeartlandFor) January 24, 2020
''You are terrific! We need more like you in DC.''
You are terrific! We need more like you in DC.
'-- SMH (@StephanieMHahn) January 24, 2020
''They haven't presented any facts yet, just opinion. No documents or witnesses.''
They haven't presented any facts yet, just opinion. No documents or witnesses.
'-- Jason Richard (@pas_bon) January 24, 2020
''Thank you for saying what the rest of us are thinking! #Wadsack4Congress #AZ02 #realDonaldTrump is innocent!!!''
Thank you for saying what the rest of us are thinking! #Wadsack4Congress #AZ02 #realDonaldTrump is innocent!!!
'-- Justine Wadsack For Congress (@WadsackHouseRep) January 24, 2020
We certainly do need more politicians like this in D.C., if so then maybe this sham impeachment would've never made it to trial.
This trial is getting more comedic by the day, with so many ''slip-ups'' that it's starting to make a ''Three Stooges'' episode look tame.
Attn: Wayne Dupree is a free speech champion who works tirelessly to bring you news that the mainstream media ignores. But he needs your support in order to keep delivering quality, independent journalism. You can make a huge impact in the war against fake news by pledging as little as $5 per month. Please click here Patreon.com/WDShow to help Wayne battle the fake news media.
VIDEO - Joe Biden Claims DACA Recipients Are 'More American Than Most' Americans
Sat, 25 Jan 2020 09:47
The children of illegal immigrants are ''more American than most Americans,'' according to Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden.
Biden extolled the virtues of recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program during a campaign stop Thursday in Ames, Iowa, according to National Review.
''These kids have come, they've done well, most of these kids '-- there's a lot of them, and they're not just Hispanic, they're Asian-Pacific Islanders as well, and they in fact have done very, very well,'' Biden said.
''In many cases, they're more American than most Americans are because they have done well in school,'' he said.
TRENDING: Schiff Prison Joke for Senators Falls Flat, Earns Him Ridicule
''They believe the basic principles that we all share. I think they should be, in fact, put on a path to citizenship,'' Biden added.
Not everyone agreed with Biden's remarks:
I did well in school. I served in the Army MP Regiment for 24 years. I stop at stop signs. I adopt pets rather than support pet mills. So Screw You @JoeBiden. I'm an American & you're welcome for your 1A rights. #Dumbpeopletown #USA
'-- Linda C. Rodriguez (@LindaRodriguez3) January 23, 2020
Is this just a Biden Gaffe or does he mean it? In most cases these Daca Kids are more American than American Kids? Really Joe, I think you have a problem with Americans. How about instead of making illegals citizens you pick out kids you like the most, and move to their country?
'-- Tim Horton (@SdaTim) January 24, 2020
I am done with DACA and Dreamers. Ungrateful, entitled, not ready for the privilege of American citizenship. Go home and submit your paperwork, wait for the process. US pays for their education and medical care and they demand more. Biden meant what he said, Demonrats' plans!
'-- Proud&Unaffiliated (@Ziggyfan_1) January 24, 2020
Biden claims DACA folks more American than Americans. What a disgraceful thing to say! DACA folks are illegals who Barry tried to legalize unconstitutionally. SC must so rule this term or we have no nation.
'-- HowardH (@HH41848213) January 22, 2020
RELATED: Trump Fires Back at Hillary Clinton Over Bernie Sanders Comments: 'Nobody Likes Her'
A 2018 study from the National Bureau of Economic Research claimed DACA led to a 2.2 percentage point increase in school attendance of Hispanic immigrants between the ages of 14 and 18.
However, a November 2019 report from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said that in 10.38 percent of 765,166 approved DACA cases, the recipient has an arrest record.
Do you think DACA recipients are "more American than most Americans?"
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It also noted that 38.71 percent of individuals whose application to become a DACA recipient was denied have an arrest on their record.
Biden's campaign emphasizes his support for DACA, which former President Barack Obama created via executive order.
''As Vice President, Biden championed the creation and expansion of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program; the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans (DAPA) program; the Central American Minors program, which allowed parents with legal status in the U.S. to apply to bring their children up from Central America to live with them; and the creation of a White House task force to support new Americans and help them integrate into their new homes and communities,'' his campaign website says.
The DAPA program was ended under the Trump administration.
President Donald Trump announced in 2017 he was terminating DACA, though the issue is now in the courts.
''The Trump Administration made the cruel and counterproductive decision to terminate DACA, throwing into turmoil the lives of millions of Dreamers. Dreamers and their parents should have a roadmap to citizenship through legislative immigration reform,'' Biden's website says.
''But in the meantime, Biden will remove the uncertainty for Dreamers by reinstating the DACA program, and he will explore all legal options to protect their families from inhumane separation.''
''Biden will also ensure Dreamers are eligible for federal student aid (loans, Pell grants) and are included in his proposals to provide access to community college without debt and invest in HBCU/Hispanic Serving Institution/Minority Serving Institutions, which will help Dreamers contribute even more to our economy.''
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
VIDEO - Tom Steyer Admits He Heard Warren and Sanders Bicker. Watch Him Lie About It | SUPERcuts!
VIDEO-Hunter Biden Used Illegal, Encrypted Blackberry Configured for the Iran Nuke Deal | Forbidden Knowledge TV
Sat, 25 Jan 2020 09:04
George Webb began posting on YouTube in mid-2016, investigating the protracted disappearance of Clinton Foundation President, Eric Braverman.
Back in 2016, Webb was a ''Bernie Bro'' but over the course of the past 3 years, his motivation has shifted to stop the illegal coup d'(C)tat against the President, bringing his skills in Big Data and experience with the Intelligence Community.
Webb sometimes uses elliptical language to throw off the algorithms but there are times, every once in a while when he delivers a report of mind-shattering granularity and gravitas. This post is one of them.
Webb livestreamed this blockbuster podcast from Western Florida, where he's researching CENTCOM, the Central Command of the United States military, located at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida and also the home of Special Operations Command or SOCOM.
He's there trying to get as much information as he can on the Afghan-Pakistan Center of Excellence (AfPak COE), which was established in 2009.
The first Director of the Afghanistan-Pakistan Center of Excellence at CENTCOM was Derek Harvey, who was selected by General David Petraeus in 2009 to lead the new organization. Webb says Derek Harvey is the handler and recruiter of Lev Parnas, the star witness of Adam Schiff's impeachment and that Parnas was trained at the AfPak COE.
Originally established as a counterterrorism center, the AfPak COE became a key recruiter of Defense Intelligence Agency informants who were used politically. This includes Henry Oknyansky, the person who lured Roger stone with Hillary Clinton's alleged ''hacked'' emails and Hina Alvi, the main contact for encrypted communications for former DNC Chair, Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
Webb says the encrypted communications established for the AfPak COE on the BlackBerry platform were repurposed and diverted for a spy ring in Congress.
He says, ''When they went off to training from here, in Tampa over to Fort Huachuca [in Arizona], when they did their initial training to be DIA informants, that's where they left these telltale IP addresses.
''We know that Lev Parnas'...shares not only one set of IP numbers with Derek Harvey and one set of IP numbers with Peter Strzok, the key architect of the takedown of Trump, the takedown of Crossfire Hurricane, the CIA takedown before that, the transition attempt to take down Mike Flynn, the attempt to take down with the OCONUS Lures after that, the attempt to take down with the Mueller plan; again and again and again '' all these lures by Peter Strzok.
''We have the key star witness for Adam Schiff, Lev Parnas sharing IP numbers at Fort Huachuca with Peter Strzok. We know Peter Strzok was a key communicator with all of these people, [like Henry] Oknyansky [aka Hank Greenberg]'...we know Peter Strzok was communicating with him through Fort Huachuca, which is a military 111 branch.
''Fort Belvoir [in Virginia] is the headquarters of the Intelligence Command for all the Armed Forces and then the key training branch and development branch is in Fort Huachuca in Arizona for military 111'...that's where ''AfPak 111'' comes from '' maybe that's why there's 111 pages in the impeachment document.
''This is yet another one in the series of these AfPak Center of Excellence informants being used to try to take down Trump, OK, so that gives you the background.
''Remember, the IP addresses'...this is evidence for the impeachment; that we have Lev Parnas with not only one set of IP addresses in Fort Huachuca but also at the Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama also, at NASA-Huntsville and potentially, we're checking it out, NASA-Cape Canaveral.
''These are places to go for missile launches and missile sites. So, we think very much that [Lev Parnas] was the go-between to Iran and Soleimani, through Russia; for missile sales for Russia.
''We're not going to deal with that today '' we're talking just about the impeachment '' just about using encrypted communications; diverting encrypted communications that were intended for stopping people like Osama bin Laden and turning them on presidential candidates, the President-Elect'...the President and now the impeachment.
''That same technology '' that's the key, here that's what we're showing, that's the evidence trail that we have for you. So, Parnas shares three sets of IP addresses with Peter Strzok. We also have Oknyansky, the person who offers Roger Stone Hillary emails at Fort Huachuca, we also have Hina Alvi, the key sidekick to Imran Awan, who is the key IT person in the Congress over a 16-year period'....we have [Alvi's] IP addresses'...
''This encrypted Blackberry traffic didn't travel through a VPN, it traveled through public routers'...the payload of the packet is encrypted but the reason why we know where the 'To' and the 'From' is, there's no way a router can make routing decisions about how to forward the packets unless it has the 'To' and the 'From'. That's how we got this information.
''So, the source of my 'To' and the 'From' information just sent me another connection here and so the the data is definitely coming in. This is not speculation, this is hardcore IP addresses and communications packets and proof. This is not speculation'...
''I discovered a key witness named Andr(C) Taggert [who rented a house from Imran Awan], whose wife was a Navy cryptologist'...We have Taggart's testimony that this set of Blackberrys existed'...Imran Awan stashed Government Blackberrys with Government markings at [Taggert's] house'...
''We know [Imran Awan] kept using the email, the '123 Dropbox' email [address], which I think effectuated the '123 agreement', basically the covert '123 agreement' with Iran.
''We'll get to that later but we're not guessing, here. We have a fact witness that puts those Blackberrys '' again, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz's and Nancy Pelosi's Blackberrys in Imran Awan's house '' *after* he's been banned from the [House] network. No question about this. This is fact.''
Webb describes being contacted by a Biden whistleblower who did IT work on Biden's staff at the Senate and who describes himself as a ''30-year friend'' of Joe Biden's. They met over dinner and he drank too much and accidentally left his Blackberry with him, which Webb returned the following day.
This Biden whistleblower configured encrypted Blackberrys for Biden and his staff. ''Now, the key linkage point here is with Hunter Biden and why Hunter Biden is a fact witness, because if you remember correctly, when Hunter Biden and [former CIA official]'...Cofer Black later go to work for the board of Burisma, Hunter Biden becomes the oldest ensign in the United States Navy.
''At the age of 42, [Hunter] gets commissioned as a Naval Officer. Why? because he's not allowed to carry an encrypted Blackberry with military-grade communications without that being against the law with the NSA. He's given this encrypted Blackberry, because it brings him into an enclave; a secure enclave that only is classified.
''He's given a blackberry [that] maps to Joe Biden. It maps to [the Stratcom Communications Center at Fort Belvoir], a guy named Gonter who is also a Navy cryptologist. Again, you have Navy cryptologists configure your Blackberrys because you're configuring for a classified program'...There is no doubt in my mind, the reason why they made Hunter Biden an Ensign in the Navy in 2014 at the age of 42, which is unheard-of '' normally, no one ever over 40 years old '' is because they're giving him encrypted communications'...
''If they used these same encrypted Blackberrys to do the Iran nuclear deal '' and part of that nuclear deal was missiles, this becomes very important. If their '123' Dropbox, which Imran used terabytes to Pakistan was part of a recipes-for-missiles or specialty metals that went to make missiles, it's very important that we run this down.
''This is not just about the impeachment it has a bigger implication than that'...these Blackberrys, which I very strongly believe were a part of negotiating that deal'...
''If somebody is using encrypted communications, the NSA cannot see'...the NSA is blind to that traffic. That means you could negotiate Iran nuclear deal outside of the US Senate. The US Senate is supposed to do all treaties, right? It means that you could affect an agreement outside of the law.
''Eagle Treaty, right? Remember, in 2014 the CIA spied on the Senate for exactly that reason, because they couldn't get the votes to pass it?
''So, not only do we have probable cause, we have predicate. We have predicate that the CIA spied before. Why wouldn't they spy again? And why wouldn't they use nefarious purposes '' which is what the House Inspector General said the Awans were doing '' why wouldn't they use nefarious purposes to get around the Senate hurdle?
''There is no deliberative body'...in the words of our great'...Chief Justice John Roberts, that wouldn't want to deliberate about its own proceedings, that should have taken place for the Iran nuclear deal '' and we have smoking-gun evidence that Adam Schiff has brought to the US Senate, saying Hunter Biden was probably the key go-between for those discussions.
''Again, we don't have all the dots connected. We have the dots connected up to Hina Alvi being military-grade encryption, military-grade training and military intelligence; Lev Parnas, their key star witness: military-grade training, military-grade recruiting with [Colonel] Derek Harvey'...
''We have the same indications with Oknyansky, another person was used for as a lure, OCONUS lure, an ''Out of Continental United States'' lure, is the technical term that's used.
''We have Peter Strzok talking about the use of the term 'OCONUS lures', we have Lisa Page in the conspiracy talking about 'OCONUS lures'. These are all OCONUS lures, Folks! They're not all Butinas, some of them are Mogilevich crime gang members and had been a part at Brighton Beach crime gang for over three decades.
''Isn't it a little bit odd that Rudy Giuliani would pick out two Mogilevich longtime crime hoods from Brighton Beach, Long Island, when he worked breaking five crime families, 30 years ago in New York? Why would he go pick out the crime gangs? Why? Because that was his linkage to talking to the person who put together weapons deals. Because these guys '' before they were used by Peter Strzok to take down Trump '' did weapons deals.
''Libya, Syria, Sudan, Yemen and Iran. The Iran deal, itself '' it's the same group.
''And who was the key person that they took Rudy to go see? Why are Fruman and Parnas even involved in this whole situation as the star witness? Who did they take Rudy to go see? Not just Zelensky not just a phone call for Zelensky '' they took him to see Kolomoyskyi, their crime boss and they knew Kolomoyskyi didn't just live in a mansion in Kiev. They knew Kolomoyskyi wasn't just sitting by the the intake money-laundering machine in Geneva and HSBC Private Bank, they knew Kolomoyskyi didn't just have a villa in Geneva over by HSBC Private Bank.
''Where did they take Kolomoyskyi? Where do they take Giuliani to go see Kolomoyskyi? They took him to Tel Aviv. We were the first channel to tell you Kolomoyskyi, the key weapons broker for those five big takedowns, right? We were the ones who told you that Kolomoyskyi was actually in Kiev.
''He actually brokered some of his artwork through the Braverman Art Gallery, there but that's '' we're gonna get to that later '' and maybe Abe Braverman might have helped us out a little bit. We don't know. Kolomoyskiyi might want to check that but anyway '' you didn't hear that'...
''They used encrypted communications for Libya. They used encrypted communications for the weapons-dealing; to move the weapons after Libya to Syria. They moved the weapons after that to Sudan and they moved the weapons after that to Yemen. And they paid for it all with the Iran nuclear deal.
Half of the deal '' at least half '' was weapons and some of those some of those weapons were missiles. That's why I believe Lev Parnas'...his IP address is also mapped to Redstone Arsenal and NASA-Huntsville and potentially NASA-Canaveral.
''We believe now'...basically, these private CENTCOM Blackberrys, the private network began in 2002. The Iran nuclear deal and missile placement was actually done before the Iraq war. Soleimani actually helped in the invasion 𤯠; the initial barrage of the Eastern targets by pre-positioning and purchasing Russian missiles on the border of Iran in the initial wave.
''That's why we needed a broker to go between Russia to buy old missiles. Some of them needed to be reconditioned for the initial wave attack on Iraq, going all the way back to 2002. All of these takedowns since 2002, when these when this private network of Blackberrys was put together by P-Tech, which is Jack Lew and Denis McDonough's little private network to effect all this.
''Denis McDonough worked across the aisle '' this is a time when people do work across the aisle! Denis McDonough put together a coalition, if you remember for the ''weapons of mass destruction'' reason of going into Iraq and that didn't go to even a vote until it was all said and done, basically in committee.
''Denis McDonough was the key operative on the Left side of the aisle, with Peter Strzok to make Iraq happen and the key benefactor was Peter Strzok and his dad in the deal with [ODE?] who had a company called Middle East Trading and and you all know the Iraq reconstruction story.
''But even today '' just an hour ago, Adam Schiff says part of the package to get to Ukraine in this supposed deal that was held up by President Trump was radar and night-vision goggles. Night-vision goggles sold by Excelis night-vision goggles, which over a year and a half ago, we told you about the Strzok relatives that had'...an illegal position selling Excelis night-vision goggles!
''Oh! And guess what? Also Oshkosh SuperHumvees were in the proposal. Do you think a few Cruz and Associates missiles were in the missile package, as well? This is going to be one of the biggest repackages of technology and exfiltration of technology in our country's history'...
''We said from the beginning, their downfall would be metadata'...
''Hunter Biden is a fact witness. Hunter Biden is a material witness. Hunter Biden used the illegal encrypted communications. That's why they made him an Ensign in 2014 when he went over to Burisma, laundered Kolomoyskiyi company, laundered the money from Libya and Syria.
''The conflict energy that was stolen from Bolivia and Syria '' and probably also Sudan '' but I'm just gonna say Libya and Syria '' and we said it from the first day '' and who else did we say was the kingpin behind all this?
''Kissinger and Petraeus (KKR)'...established the AfPak Center, right over here, at MacDill Air Force Base, that Colonel Harvey, Derek Harvey, who's the handler of Lev Parnas, guess who established that? You guessed it '' David Petraeus.
''We were right three years ago and we're right as rain today. Thanks, everybody.''
VIDEO - Exposing price discrimination in online shopping (Marketplace) - YouTube
VIDEO-'Take her out': Recording appears to capture Trump at private dinner saying he wants Ukraine ambassador fired
Fri, 24 Jan 2020 22:30
A recording obtained by ABC News appears to capture President Donald Trump telling associates he wanted the then-U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch fired while speaking at a small gathering that included Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman -- two former business associates of Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani who have since been indicted in New York.
The recording appears to contradict statements by Trump and support the narrative that has been offered by Parnas during broadcast interviews in recent days. Sources familiar with the recording said the recording was made during an intimate April 30, 2018, dinner at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C.
Trump has said repeatedly he does not know Parnas, a Soviet-born American who has emerged as a wild card in Trump's impeachment trial, especially in the days since Trump was impeached.
"Get rid of her!" is what the voice that appears to be Trump's is heard saying. "Get her out tomorrow. I don't care. Get her out tomorrow. Take her out. OK? Do it."
File photo of former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch testifying before the House Intelligence Committee in the Longworth House Office Building on Capitol Hill, Nov. 15, 2019, in Washington.
On the recording, it appears the two Giuliani associates are telling Trump that the U.S. ambassador has been bad-mouthing him, which leads directly to the apparent remarks by the president. The recording was made by Fruman, according to sources familiar with the tape.
"Every president in our history has had the right to place people who support his agenda and his policies within his Administration," White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said.
During the conversation, several of the participants can be heard laughing with the president. At another point, the recording appears to capture Trump praising his new choice of secretary of state, saying emphatically: "[Mike] Pompeo is the best." But the most striking moment comes when Parnas and the president discuss the dismissal of his ambassador to Ukraine.
Parnas appears to say: "The biggest problem there, I think where we need to start is we gotta get rid of the ambassador. She's still left over from the Clinton administration," Parnas can be heard telling Trump. "She's basically walking around telling everybody 'Wait, he's gonna get impeached, just wait." (Yovanovitch actually had served in the State Department since the Reagan administration.)
It was not until a year later that Yovanovitch was recalled from her position -- in April 2019. She said the decision was based on "unfounded and false claims by people with clearly questionable motives" that she was disloyal to Trump.
House investigators have been attempting to document '' in part with text messages supplied by Parnas -- an almost year-long effort on the part of Parnas and Giuliani to get Yovanovitch removed from her post. At times, the messages made public by the House Intelligence Committee show Giuliani referencing his repeated efforts to have Yovanovitch recalled from Kyiv, a push that was initially unsuccessful.
"Boy I'm so powerful I can intimidate the entire Ukrainian government," Giuliani messaged Parnas in May 2019. "Please don't tell anyone I can't get the crooked Ambassador fired or I did three times and she's still there."
The identities of others participating in the recorded conversation are unclear. During an early portion of the recording where video can be seen, Donald Trump Jr. appears on the recording posing for pictures with others. Sources say they were attending a larger event happening at the hotel that night for a super PAC that supports the president.
Another clip seen on the recording, according to the sources, is of individuals entering what appears to be a suite at the Trump Hotel for the intimate dinner. The phone that was recording the Trump conversation appears to be placed down on a table with the audio still recording the conversation between the commander-in-chief and other guests, according to the sources. The image of the president does not appear on the video reviewed by ABC News.
In a recent interview with MSNBC, Parnas publicly recounted his memories of the scene at the dinner and said that Trump turned to John [DeStefano], who was his deputy chief of staff at the time, and said "Fire her," he claimed. Sources familiar with the closed-door meeting corroborate that DeStefano was in attendance.
"We all, there was a silence in the room. He responded to him, said Mr. President, we can't do that right now because [Secretary of State Mike] Pompeo hasn't been confirmed yet, that Pompeo is not confirmed yet and we don't have -- this is when [former Secretary of State Rex] Tillerson was gone, but Pompeo was confirmed, so they go, wait until -- so several conversations he mentioned it again."
However, Pompeo had been confirmed and privately sworn in days earlier.
A copy of the recording is now in the custody of federal prosecutors in New York's Southern District, who declined to comment to ABC News.
Trump's supporters have maintained that no evidence has been put forward directly linking Trump to any of the alleged impeachable actions. And Trump has maintained that removing Yovanovitch was within his right.
Trump has distanced himself from Parnas, who is under federal indictment in New York in a campaign finance case, and the president's supporters have questioned his credibility and motives.
Ukrainian-American businessman Lev Parnas, an associate of President Donald Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, exits after a bail hearing at the Manhattan Federal Court in New York, Dec. 17, 2019.
"I don't know him," the president said just last week when asked about Parnas. "I don't know Parnas other than I guess I had pictures taken, which I do with thousands of people, including people today that I didn't meet. But I just met him. I don't know him at all. Don't know what he's about, don't know where he comes from, know nothing about him. I can only tell you this thing is a big hoax."
As ABC News previously reported, Parnas, who cooperated with the House impeachment probe of Trump, began providing materials that were in his custody to congressional investigators late last year.
Just last week, Parnas' attorney transferred more materials after a series of rulings from the judge in his criminal case, granting him permission to share records obtained by the government with House impeachment investigators to comply with a subpoena, including documents seized from Parnas' home and the complete extraction of Parnas' iPhone 11 and Samsung phone, seized from him upon his arrest in October 2019.
Joseph A. Bondy, Parnas' attorney, tweeted at the time that the materials were brought to House investigators "despite every stumbling block placed in our path" since his client's arrest.
The records, which were mostly WhatsApp messages, also included 59 pages of emails and handwritten letters that appear to describe Giuliani's attempts to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and an effort to remove Yovanovitch from her post.
One email exchange appears to suggest Parnas and his associates had Yovanovitch "under physical surveillance in Kyiv," according to the committee's cover letter.
During her congressional testimony, Yovanovitch said she received a call from the State Department that "there were concerns about my security."
Giuliani is a subject of the probe being led by the New York prosecutors, sources said. Parnas' cohort, Fruman was also arrested at the same time and faces similar charges though he is not cooperating with the congressional investigations.
Parnas and Fruman were indicted by the Southern District of New York on charges including conspiracy to commit campaign finance fraud, false statements to the Federal Election Commission and falsification of records as part of an alleged scheme to circumvent federal campaign finance laws against straw donations and foreign contributions. Both have pleaded not guilty.
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VIDEO - Politicking: Alan Dershowitz explains his changing view on impeachment by RT | Free Listening on SoundCloud
Fri, 24 Jan 2020 12:43
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VIDEO - Doomsday clock moves forward 20 seconds bringing the apocalypse closer than ever before | Daily Mail Online
Fri, 24 Jan 2020 10:42
Doomsday clock moves the closest to midnight in its 73-year history: Apocalypse predictor ticks forward twenty seconds amid rising fears from nuclear tensions and the threat of climate changeThe clock is at 100 seconds to midnight, the closest it has been since it launched It has been at two minutes to midnight since 2017 in part due to climate changeThe Bulletin of Atomic Scientists say there are multiple 'end of days' threatsThey say 'new norms of behaviour' are needed to push the clock hands back By Ryan Morrison For Mailonline
Published: 11:55 EST, 23 January 2020 | Updated: 14:36 EST, 23 January 2020
The Doomsday clock has ticked forwards 20 seconds and stands just 100 seconds to midnight - the closest in its 73-year history - due to increased nuclear tensions and climate change, bringing us closer to the apocalypse than ever before.
The clock was founded by the US scientists involved in the Manhattan Project that developed the world's first nuclear weapons during World War 2.
It is a symbolic countdown designed to represent the time to a possible global catastrophe and is maintained by scientists including 16 Nobel laureates.
The group say the change - which is the closest the clock has ever been to the end of days - is due to the dual threats of nuclear war and climate change.
They said if countries worked to resist arms races, limit warming by restricting fossil fuels and create new 'norms of behaviour', the clock hands could be pushed back.
Former California Governor Jerry Brown, Former President of Ireland Mary Robinson, and Former United Nations Secretary General Bai Ki-Moon unveiled the new time. It has moved to 100 seconds to midnight due to the worsening nuclear threat, lack of climate action and a rise of cyber-enabled disinformation campaigns are moving the clock hand forward
The threats of nuclear war and climate change are compounded by cyber-enabled information warfare, according to the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists.
Officials identified cyber-based disinformation as a major setback for society, saying such campaigns sow distrust in institutions and internationally among nations.
They say cyber information warfare also undercuts society's ability to respond in an emergency situation, multiplying the problem.
Even during the height of the Cold War in the 1960s the clock was only at seven minutes to midnight - before 2000 it was rarely below five minutes to midnight.
Since the turn of the century the clock hasn't gone above ten minutes to midnight and has got closer to midnight almost every year since 2015.
The Bulletin identified areas of change that could push the hands of the clock back including Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin restraining from an 'arms race'.
Globally, all nations should publicly rededicate themselves to the Paris climate agreement,and the US and other parties involved in the Iran nuclear deal should work together to restrain nuclear proliferation in the Middle East.
Rachel Bronson, president and CEO, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (at podium) says the world is now 'on the brink' of destruction but can be saved through international cooperation
'We are now expressing how close the world is to catastrophe in seconds '' not hours, or even minutes,' said Rachel Bronson, CEO, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.
'We now face a true emergency '' an absolutely unacceptable state of world affairs that has eliminated any margin for error or further delay.'
Former California Governor Jerry Brown, executive chair, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, said the time to wake up to global problems like climate change is now.
'Dangerous rivalry and hostility among the superpowers increases the likelihood of nuclear blunder. Climate change just compounds the crisis,' he said.
The clock has become a universally recognised indicator of the world's vulnerability to catastrophe from nuclear weapons, climate change, and emerging technologies in life sciences.
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists say that if world leaders like Donald Trump worked together to limit arms races we could see the clock hands go back again
For the first time, experts from the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists were joined in making the Doomsday Clock change by members of The Elders.
Founded by Nelson Mandela in 2007, The Elders are independent global leaders working together for peace and human rights.
Former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, deputy chair, The Elders, said there is a failure to address existential threats facing the world.
'From the US withdrawal from the Paris Agreement and the Iran Nuclear Deal, to deadlock at nuclear disarmament talks and division at the UN Security Council '' our mechanisms for collaboration are being undermined when we need them most.'
The bulletin said the countries of the world should publicly rededicate themselves to Parish climate agreement to restrict warming.
They also recommend the US and other signatories of the Iran nuclear deal working to restrain nuclear proliferation in the Middle East and creating international 'norms of behaviour' to improve trust.
WHAT IS THE DOOMSDAY CLOCK AND WHAT DOES IT MEAN? What is the Doomsday Clock?
The Doomsday Clock was created by the Bulletin, an independent non-profit organisation run by some of the world's most eminent scientists.
It was founded by concerned US scientists involved in the Manhattan Project that developed the world's first nuclear weapons during the Second World War.
In 1947 they established the clock to provide a simple way of demonstrating the danger to the Earth and humanity posed by nuclear war.
The Doomsday Clock now not only takes into account the likelihood of nuclear Armageddon but also other emerging threats such as climate change and advances in biotechnology and artificial intelligence.
It is symbolic and represents a countdown to possible global catastrophe.
The decision to move, or leave the clock alone, is made by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, in consultation with the bulletin's Board of Sponsors, which includes 16 Nobel laureates.
The clock has become a universally recognised indicator of the world's vulnerability to catastrophe from nuclear weapons, climate change, and emerging technologies in life sciences.
The Doomsday Clock was created by the Bulletin, an independent non-profit organisation run by some of the world's most eminent scientists
In 2015 the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, an expert group formed in 1945, adjusted the Doomsday Clock two minutes forward and took it to three minutes to midnight.
That sent a message that the Earth was closer to oblivion than any time since the early days of hydrogen bomb testing and 1984, when US-Soviet relations reached 'their iciest point in decades'.
The closest the clock has ever come to striking midnight was in 1953, when the time was set at two minutes to 12.
It was in that year that the US took the decision to upgrade its nuclear arsenal with the hydrogen bomb, 'a weapon far more powerful than any atomic bomb'.
What does the time on the clock mean?
The announcement comes this afternoon at 3pm GMT (10am ET) and will be streamed live on the Doomsday Clock website.
It is largely moved between two and ten minutes to midnight. During the 1990s it was at its safest.
Many of the threats scientists identified last year have got worse this year.
The closer to midnight the clock moves the closer to annihilation humanity is.
How has the clock changed since 1947?
1947 - 48: 7 minutes
1949 - 52: 3 minutes
1953 - 59: 2 minutes
1960 - 62: 7 minutes
1963 - 67: 12 minutes
1968: 7 minutes
1969 - 71: 10 minutes
1972 - 73: 12 minutes
1974 - 79: 9 minutes
1980: 7 minutes
1981 - 83: 4 minutes
1984 - 87: 3 minutes
1988 - 89: 6 minutes
1990: 10 minutes
1991 - 94: 17 minutes
1995 - 97: 14 minutes
1998 - 2001: 9 minutes
2002 - 06: 7 minutes
2007 - 09: 5 minutes
2010 - 11: 6 minutes
2012 - 14: 5 minutes
2015 - 16: 3 minutes
2017 - 2.5 minutes
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VIDEO-The Doomsday Clock is now set at 100 seconds to midnight / Twitter
Thu, 23 Jan 2020 14:57
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