[France24] The United Nations chief said he hopes many countries in the world will follow the "remarkable example" of South Korea, which he said has been "extremely successful" in addressing the coronavirus pandemic and is planning to tackle climate change in its recovery from COVID-19.
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres pointed to Thursday's announcement "that there was no new case in the Republic of Korea," the country’s official name.
At the same time, he said, South Korea has presented plans for "a very ambitious green deal" for its recovery from the pandemic, including a ban on new coal-fired plants and a reduction of emissions from existing coal-fired plants.
"We hope that this example of the Republic of Korea will be followed by many other countries in the world," Guterres said at a news conference.
The Koreas Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a statement early Thursday that four cases in the previous 24 hours, all imported, took the country’s total to 10,765, with 247 deaths and 9,059 recoveries.
South Korea’s caseload has been slowing in recent weeks after it recorded hundreds of new cases every day between late February and early March. It has subsequently relaxed some of its social distancing guidelines and is expected to ease up on more restrictions in the coming days if the downward trend continues.
South Korea had its first confirmed coronavirus case Jan. 20, the same day as the United States.
BELLE PLAINE, Kan. (AP) — A federal appeals court panel ruled Wednesday that Kansas can’t require voters to show proof of citizenship when they register, dealing a blow to efforts by Republicans in several states who have pursued restrictive voting laws as a way of combating voter fraud.
The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals panel in Salt Lake City upheld a federal judge’s injunction nearly two years ago that prohibited Kansas from enforcing the requirement, which took effect in 2013. The appeals court, in a ruling that consolidated two appeals, found the statute former Gov. Sam Brownback signed into law violates the U.S. Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause and the National Voter Registration Act, commonly known as the "motor-voter law."
Many experts say voter fraud is extremely rare, and critics contend the Republican-led efforts are actually meant to suppress turnout from groups who tend to back Democrats, including racial minorities and college students.
The law was championed by former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who led President Donald Trump’s now-defunct voter fraud commission. Kobach was a leading source for Trump’s unsubstantiated claim that millions of immigrants living in the U.S. illegally may have voted in the 2016 election.
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/02/2020 15:16 Comments ||
Top||
#9
Why is Utah ruling on Kansas citizens?
the Republican-led efforts are actually meant to suppress turnout from groups who tend to back Democrats, including racial minorities and college students.
Oh yeah, the 65,000 missionaries and their global subjects, and foreign students with an address at BYU, et. al.
#11
Appeal to the Supreme Court, requesting that it be prioritized given the imminent presidential election.
In parallel, pass a law to require photographic proof of identity when presenting oneself at the polls to vote, using language that has already been approved by the Supreme Court for other states.
In case you haven't had enough about Flynn. This has a little dash of Persia....
[EpochTimes] Attorney Andrew C. McCarthy said on Tucker Carlson Thursday night that Flynn wasn’t the target. It was Trump. Flynn was just a “seasoned intelligence professional” (McCarthy’s words) who had to be implicated and put out of the way in order to reach the president, the real bull’s eye.
That’s likely true, but it’s also likely that wasn’t the only reason. Flynn was by himself a target.
During the transition, it is said Obama gave Trump two pieces of advice on whom he considered to be the current greatest threats to the United States, so the new president could be forearmed—Kim Jong-un and Michael Flynn.
Michael Flynn? (I’d add several exclamation points and question marks, but it’s tacky.). Why would he be of anywhere near that importance to be put in the same conversation as the nuclear-armed dictator of North Korea?
The answer, I believe, is a four letter word: Iran.
Trump aides, and a lot of good reporting, long have pointed to a coming review of the entire U.S. intelligence community, but particularly of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. For one, retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, who was a Trump confidante and first national security advisor, had advocated a major re-design of intelligence processes as head of the Defense Intelligence Agency. His ideas were rejected and, famously, for many reasons he was not promoted into the loftiest ranks of U.S. military officers. (In recent months, many intelligence leaders have praised the Obama administration’s recent reorganizations, which aimed to modernize the CIA by adding a digital directorate and to help America’s spy agencies diversify their workforce.)
#6
According to Circa, Flynn apparently enraged McCabe a few years back after he intervened on behalf of an FBI Special Agent, Robyn Gritz, who had accused McCabe and other top FBI officials of sexual discrimination.
Interesting find.
Flynn’s intervention on behalf of Supervisory Special Agent Robyn Gritz was highly unusual, and included a letter in 2014 on his official Pentagon stationary, a public interview in 2015 supporting Gritz’s case and an offer to testify on her behalf. His offer put him as a hostile witness in a case against McCabe, who was soaring through the bureau’s leadership ranks.
The FBI sought to block Flynn’s support for the agent, asking a federal administrative law judge in May 2014 to keep Flynn and others from becoming a witness in her Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) case, memos obtained by Circa show. Two years later, the FBI opened its inquiry of Flynn.
The EEOC case, which is still pending, was serious enough to require McCabe to submit to a sworn statement to investigators, the documents show.
“SSA Gritz was well-known, liked and respected in the military counter-terrorism community for her energy, commitment and professional capacity, and over the years worked in several interagency groups on counter-terrorism targeting initiatives,” Flynn wrote May 9, 2014.
“Flynn was the first leader to defend me,” said Gritz. “He forwarded a letter to the FBI and I personally think that Comey did not receive it. McCabe knew Flynn and I were friends. I felt that from the beginning it was an issue.”
#7
Flynn and Korea as the two greatest threats? Can anyone not see the validation of how powerfully ValJar was in influencing the feckless President in policies harmful to American interests but helping her homeland? Her actions as a deep penetration agent of a foreign power make Roosevelt and Harry Dexter White seem trivial by comparison.
#8
Michael Flynn? (I’d add several exclamation points and question marks, but it’s tacky). Why would he be of anywhere near that importance to be put in the same conversation as the nuclear-armed dictator of North Korea?
The answer, I believe, is a four letter word: Iran..
Let's be rel the answer, I know, is a six letter word: Turkey. Words that I think could best describe Flynn are toxic, incompetent, unethical, ambitious, and liar. The worst sort of ambitious "retired" " patriot" three star that has always been a democrat that was initially a sycophant for Obama and later humped Trump's leg. Do not trust Flynn...any retired three star from the intel community that took $500k plus from Edrogan's Turkey for "consulting" immediately after retirement is likely on the take. I know the FBI is bad in this case, I have no love for their leaders, but that don't make Flynn into a saint because he was gobbled up by one of his own...
#12
"...it is said Obama gave Trump two pieces of advice on whom he considered to be the current greatest threats to the United States, so the new president could be forearmed—Kim Jong-un and Michael Flynn."
Whew, sure glad there was nothing from Obama on Russia or China.
#13
"...it is said Obama gave Trump two pieces of advice on whom he considered to be the current greatest threats to the United States, so the new president could be forearmed—Kim Jong-un and Michael Flynn."
Ya know in this case I believe Obama was right. Maybe Flynn was worse than Kim...
Flynn was a cancer within...the worst sort. Willing to meet with Edrogan's son-in -law...yearning to cash in on any opportunity. Turkey? Are their checks good? OK!! Saudi Arabia??? Cha-ching... It appears that Ole Mike thought that the only good Muslim was the one that lined ole Mike's pockets. Who knows the amount of damage done to our Allies in the Middle East if Flynn would've remained as NSA? Not a friend of Israel...well maybe I am wrong...maybe, just maybe, if Israel paid...then he would help them too.
Mike's interests came first and foremost - Flynn then even offered to testify against Trump to save himself...and was turned down. I really, really don't like that guy.
The FBI Set Flynn Up to Preserve the Trump–Russia Probe
By ANDREW C. MCCARTHY
Michael Flynn was not the objective. He was the obstacle.
Once you grasp that fundamental fact, it becomes easier to understand the latest disclosures the Justice Department made in the Flynn case on Thursday.
The FBI set a perjury trap for Flynn, hoping to lure him into misstatements that the bureau could portray as lies. In the frenzied political climate of the time, that would have been enough to get him removed from his new position as national security adviser (NSA)...
But why did they do it?
The objective of the Obama administration and its FBI hierarchy was to continue the Trump–Russia investigation, even after President Trump took office, and even though President Trump was the quarry. ..
But how could the FBI sustain an investigation targeting the president when the president would have the power to shut the investigation down?
The only way the bureau could pull that off would be to conceal from the president the fullness of the Russia investigation — in particular, the fact that Trump was the target.
That is why Flynn had to go. ...
The former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency knew how the spy agencies worked. He knew where and how they kept secrets. He had enough scars from tangles with the intelligence bureaucracy that he knew how the game was played — how intelligence officials exploited information, or selectively withheld it.
Someone as smooth as Director Comey might be able to dissuade President Trump from inquiring too deeply into the Russia investigation. But Flynn was different. After 33 years in the Army chain of command, the decorated former combat commander grasped that the FBI, like other executive-branch components, worked for the president. As NSA, Flynn would ensure that Trump ran the intelligence agencies, not be run by them. If Flynn wanted to know what was going on in intelligence investigations, he’d be able to find out — he wouldn’t take Jim Comey’s “no” for an answer. He was loyal to Trump, not to the intelligence establishment or the “policy community.”
... the newly revealed documents include emails between Strzok and other FBI officials from the weekend before the FBI’s January 24 grilling of Flynn.
Most of the press attention has been about the planning for that grilling — about how brazenly the bureau spoke of trying to get Flynn to lie, about the renegade scheme to orchestrate an interrogation of Flynn without informing the Trump White House, as protocol required.
That’s significant, but it misses the bigger picture.
The January 21–22 emails show that the FBI did not start out with that perjury-trap plan. They ended up with the perjury-trap plan because there was no practical alternative if the bureau was to achieve its objective — the withholding of information about Russia from the incoming Trump team, in order to keep the Trump–Russia investigation alive.
#15
/\ Ref #13: Yes, unproven claims which may or may not be true. But a claim for which there is likely no doubt; the man was illegally targeted and nearly destroyed by a crooked FBI leadership and possibly Soetoro himself.
#16
Not a claim, but a fact that ole Mike and his son took over $500,000 from Edrogan. Edrogan!
Why? Why, did Turkey give ole Mike a cool half million?
Flynn destroyed himself and caused great damage to the Trump administration. Not an unproven claim that Flynn lied to Pence either...
The corrupt FBI was rightly concerned about Flynn's connection to Turkey...just as we are rightly concerned about Biden and his son's illegal foreign connections and payments.
The FBI leadership was corrupt and so was Flynn. That man is no "Patriot" he is an ambitious sycophant...not, our friend.
#18
Ref #16: Not a claim, but a fact that ole Mike and his son took over $500,000 from Edrogan. Edrogan!
May be a "fact" but was it an illegal activity? I don't remember any federal charges stemming from Erdogan money. Perhaps I missed something. I miss a lot these days.
Erdogan wanted a piece of Muhammed Fethullah Gülen's arse. Photo above, Turkoman fella here in the States in excile. Perhaps there was a connection. Flynn thought Gülen should be returned to Turkey. Myself and many others thought otherwise.
Now if you wish to discuss illegal activity, there appears to be plenty of that, thanks to the work of Flynn's lawyer Sidney Powell.
#19
B, Whether being on Edeogan’s payroll just prior to being appointed as the NSA is legal, illegal, unethical, or just plain old dangerous to our national security I will leave to the attorneys. Well, maybe not the AUSAs working with the FBI in the NCR... but I know it does not pass the smell test.
I am also familiar with the games that politically ambitious incompetent federal agents and prosecutors play...I really hope that they get the tables turned on them in this whole russiagate deal. Playing with FISAs...and the National tool kit to target political enemies needs to be dealt with as treason. That said, Flynn was a cancer that needed to be removed.
[Washington Examiner] Former Dirty Jobs host Mike Rowe spoke out this week about the "other" victims of the coronavirus and argued, "there is no such thing as a nonessential worker."
"Most of the country is going to come through this with the realization we're being treated like children ... by people who want us to look at them as parents," Rowe said during an interview with Glenn Beck on the Blaze.
"In an economy like this, when you take 26 million 'nonessential' workers out of the equation ... the whole thing collapses under its own weight," he said. "I would suggest to you right now that there is no such thing as a nonessential worker when it comes to the economy," Rowe added in response to certain workers being deemed "nonessential" during the virus crisis and not allowed to work.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/02/2020 6:49 Comments ||
Top||
#5
We seem to be doing quite well with Congress not in session! I think Texas has the better idea, only have a session every two years and only for 60 days.
#8
"Most of the country is going to come through this with the realization we're being treated like children ... by people who want us to look at them as parents,"
#10
I kinda thing the (fashion, (car, window, roofing, mortgage) sales, cosmetic, insurance, banking, restaurant, theatre,...) industries are over represented.
[VOX]
A Vox reporter says the quote in paragraph 2 is the best in his career:
As President Donald Trump weighs ideas for punishing China over its handling of the coronavirus outbreak, some inside and outside the White House want him to respond forcefully.
“In my personal opinion, we should drop the fucking hammer on them. Stop being such pussies,” a senior White House official told me, speaking on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to disclose internal deliberations.
[Babylon Bee] During an interview with Mika Brzezinski on MSNBC this morning, Joe Biden denied Tara Reade's sexual assault allegations against him, whispering his adamant denials into the journalist's ear.
Biden was supposed to join the interview remotely but somehow got away from his handlers and got into MSNBC's studios, sneaking up behind the Morning Joe host and whispering into her ear for the duration of the interview.
"Listen, honey, I respect women," Biden assured Brzezinski while rubbing her shoulders and inching his nose closer to her hair. "Whether it's an intern or a real classy broad like you, I want to honor women's personal space and give them room to tell their stories."
He then breathed deep, taking in a good sniff. "What's that shampoo? Wait -- don't tell me -- it's Matrix Biolage! I've got a knack for this kind of thing."
Aides were finally able to coax Biden away from her with a special, scented mannequin they keep on hand for just such an occasion.
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/02/2020 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[9 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The elites' expectation was that internet propaganda would be a juggernaut. Instead, people just ignore it.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/02/2020 8:23 Comments ||
Top||
#2
When you be media started saying it was racist to call the virus the Wuhan virus a lot of normal rational people left the room and haven’t come back
[JPost] - The global battle against the novel coronavirus might have overtaken the news cycle, but under the radar, Israel’s shadow war against Iran has yet to miss a beat.
Just look at the past two weeks. On April 18, two missiles targeted a Jeep Cherokee driving along the Syrian border with Lebanon. The first missed and the second hit. Two days later, close to a dozen missiles struck a military base near Palmyra. And on Monday night, another strike took place south of Damascus, killing around 10 people, some openly identified as Iranian operatives.
There were also four known attacks in March: one at the beginning of the month against a Hezbollah operative involved in a sniper attack against Israel; another a few days later against Iranian bases in the north of the country; and a third toward the end of the month against Iranian militias near the city of Homs. In the middle of the month, a top Iranian commander was killed in Syria. And the list goes on — there were at least four known airstrikes in February, and another two in January.
By whom? Ah. That remains a mystery.
California Highway Patrol enforcing CV19 social distancing rules?
[Just The News] Former CIA Moscow station Chief Daniel Hoffman laid into his former boss at Central Intelligence Agency, John Brennan, during an interview with Just the News.
"One of the things that bothers me the most is when someone kind of starts with their answer, and then they try to twist the facts to fit it," Hoffman said Tuesday. "I saw Brennan do that when I served under him CIA. And I saw him do it when he was, you know, a contributor at MSNBC accusing the president of treason with nothing whatsoever to back it up."
The former station chief said that Brennan's behavior related to the Russia collusion narrative was not much different than what he witnessed during his time serving under him at the CIA, the country's top spy agency.
"There were policies he supported, whether it was the policy in Syria or Iran. And when you told him something that would force him to challenge his assumptions, his response was just to get mad at you and not really want to hear what you have to say," Hoffman said.
Hoffman called Brennan's public behavior since leaving his CIA post an "extraordinary dereliction of duty."
He accuses the former director of misleading the American people and members of Congress by publicly peddling an unsubstantiated narrative about Trump's involvement with the Russian government, as related to the 2016 White House race and investigated by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
"If he had concerns about President Trump, then go tell you know, Bob Mueller about it. But you don't need to speak up publicly about stuff that isn't even true on MSNBC," Hoffman said.
The former CIA official took specific offense with Brennan pushing an unconfirmed narrative to a viewing audience that would believe what he had to say because of his elevated position in the intelligence community.
"I think viewers would have assumed that because Brennan was director of the CIA, he would know something that they don't and they probably believed him," Hoffman said. "I don't even know why he's still given the opportunity to be on air, after all of that."
#2
Brennan throws hissy fits. Surprise.
---------------- Hoffman's long experience observing Russian spies at work leads to a surprising conclusion about one of the most sensational revelations from last year's election: that Trump Tower meeting in June 2016. The one attended by Donald Trump Jr., Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, campaign manager Paul Manafort — and Kremlin-connected Russians.
"To me," Hoffman says, "it pointed to a discoverable influence operation rather than some effort to establish a clandestine channel for collusion."
#6
There are some people you can beat, and beat and beat until they die. When you bring them back with the paddles and promise to start again, they will recant.
Others complete disassociate and will not recant upon recovery. These you just shoot like the mad dogs that they are.
#7
It will be a happy day (if it ever comes) where we see that sumbitch Communist Brennan in an orange jumpsuit and chains.
Posted by: Marilyn Tojo7566 ||
05/02/2020 18:16 Comments ||
Top||
#8
You have to understand that Brennan revealing true classified information on MSNBC would be a crime. Thus he confines himself to telling lies about same, which is perfectly legal.
As a result you would come closest to the truth about anything he says by putting a 'not' in front of it.
Posted by: daniel ||
05/02/2020 23:04 Comments ||
Top||
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[France24] The United Nations chief said he hopes many countries in the world will follow the "remarkable example" of South Korea, which he said has been "extremely successful" in addressing the coronavirus pandemic and is planning to tackle climate change in its recovery from COVID-19.
Ref #16: Not a claim, but a fact that ole Mike and his son took over $500,000 from Edrogan. Edrogan!
[Babylon Bee] During an interview with Mika Brzezinski on MSNBC this morning, Joe Biden denied Tara Reade's sexual assault allegations against him, whispering his adamant denials into the journalist's ear.
[Just The News] Former CIA Moscow station Chief Daniel Hoffman laid into his former boss at Central Intelligence Agency, John Brennan, during an interview with Just the News.
