[American Thinker] "I am reliably informed that the NSA or its partners intercepted at least some of the communications between Mr. Rich and Wikileaks," wrote attorney Ty Clevenger in a startling letter last week to Richard Grennell, Interim Director of National Intelligence.
Jumping down a bit:
Clevenger’s evidence that the NSA captured exchanges between Rich and Assange is largely circumstantial but credible. According to Clevenger, the NSA refused to produce 32 pages of records about Seth Rich due to their classified nature.
So Seth Rich was murdered July 10, 2016, and the Director of NSA met with Candidate Trump at Trump Towers the following November, ostensibly to discuss 'electronic monitoring.'
#1
Of course we are all free to believe that the timing of end of DNC leaks (Wikileaks) and the murder of Seth Rich were little more than coincidental. A coincidence that enabled the evil Russian hacker narrative to be sustained.
#3
The fact that Crowdstrike could not say that Russia hacked the DNC and that Binney has shown that because of the speed of transmission, this had to be a download by a DNC insider to a thumb drive.
Assange most likely knows from where the Wikileaks information came. Is he still fighting extradition? The government doesn't have a good record of keeping people who know things alive (see Epstein, for example).
#4
NSA refused to produce 32 pages of records about Seth Rich due to their classified nature
Classified? Why? It isn't like the Russians could use this information to exploit some vulnerability in our national defense systems. Why is it that information that could be used as evidence to put bad guys in jail is classified?
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
05/19/2020 13:24 Comments ||
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#5
Abu, it depends on whose ox is to be gored. It is the goal of the NSA to protect the Dem herd and the rest of the uni-party from such information.
BLUF:
[The Hill] The highest death rate was documented in Canarsie-Flatlands in Brooklyn, an area with a subsidized housing development, where 612 in 100,000 people died from the virus.
The primarily white and wealthy neighborhood Gramercy Park in Manhattan 31 deaths per 100,000 people were recorded. In Far Rockaway in Queens, which has a 40 percent black and a 25 percent Latino population, there were 445 deaths per 100,000 people.
New York City had previously released daily updates in cases broken down by ZIP code but the death count was released by borough.
City advocates have been calling for more data collection, saying it would show racial and economic inequalities in the U.S. city that has been hardest hit by the pandemic.
Mark Levine, the chairman of the City Council’s health committee, told Reuters in an interview that black and Latino residents are more likely to have low-paid, essential jobs putting them at risk of contracting the virus.
#2
Those Chinese Viruses are apparently racist. Someone should complain to the CCP
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/19/2020 4:52 Comments ||
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#3
City advocates have been calling for more data collection, saying it would show racial and economic inequalities in the U.S. city that has been hardest hit by the pandemic.
Maybe the inequities arise because that's where the money is for race hustlers and politicians instead of the integration of society that Martin Luther King envisioned. Instead of pushing 'uniqueness', how about buying into the notion that if you become an unhyphenated American you stand a better chance of advancing in life for the many, not the few.
#6
The exciting new form of virtue-signalling among the baizuo will be to deliberately expose yourself and your loved ones to Cuomovirus by slumming in the hot zones.
Kind of like the "bug chasers" in the gay "community".
#7
Recall the correlations to severe coronavirus illness with low vitamin D levels and to heart disease and diabetes? Combined with closer living quarters that ought to be enough to explain differences without any nefarious motivations.
#8
Stark disparities or simply well-defined geographic boundaries?
One of the cool things about GIS (Geographic Information System) software is that it's basically a database that outputs maps rather than printed reports. You can ask it to do things like "Select neighborhoods where the average income is less than X dollars and draw a nice fat line around them"
Back in the day, bankers in Detroit were accused of "red-lining" - marking off neighborhoods by race and refusing to make loans in black neighborhoods. Funny thing, if you query for black neighborhoods or query for household income less than some cutoff, you get essentially the same areas. Were the bankers racist for not loaning money to black people or were the bankers sensible businessmen for not loaning money to poor people who are unlikely to pay it back?
Looking at two of the examples we see:
Canarsie-Flatlands in Brooklyn, 612 deaths per 100,000
an area with a subsidized housing development
Gramercy Park in Manhattan, 31 deaths per 100,000
primarily white and wealthy neighborhood
Dramatically different death rates. I'm too lazy to chase down the population size and demographics, but I'd be that a subsided housing development has a *much* greater population density than wealthy single family homes. Could be racism (maybe the virus hates POOCs - People Of Obvious Color). Could be some other factor like population density, behavior, or overall health has greater explanatory power, even if it doesn't fit The Narrative. Whatever it is, you can be sure that journalists, the least curious of all God's creatures, are not going to be looking into it.
#9
San Diego's Central Planners of Control™ wanted to subsidize trolley expansion over freeway capacity improvements with a Bond Bill this fall. Cancelled. As should be the Dense urban packing around transit hubs. No thank you
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/19/2020 16:26 Comments ||
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[TheHill] By now, everyone recognizes Dr. Anthony Fauci. The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases is one of the most cited immunology researchers of all time and unquestionably one of the most acclaimed. As specified in his own bio, his deep expertise is in research of immune-mediated and infectious disease, particularly their basic mechanisms and treatments. During this COVID-19 pandemic, Fauci has been a central figure, a key adviser to President Trump and a man to whom the entire country, indeed the world, looks for wisdom and expertise.
However, our elected representatives, the public and the media misunderstand his focused role and even his expertise as a scientist. Basic science underlying a viral pandemic is absolutely critical. But now is the time for the design of sound public policy — and that involves a far broader formulation than a single-minded focus on stopping COVID-19 at all costs.
Policymakers and the public have not received several key messages that are critical to alleviate fear and guide a safe reopening of society. That has led to a gross failure in policy at the state level:
Continued on Page 49
[RealClearPolitics] Most policy discussions about the pandemic focus on the agonizing trade-off between public health and economic survival. That’s understandable -- those are the central issues -- but they have overshadowed two other major questions: Is the crisis shifting more power to Washington, D.C.? Is it undermining essential legal protections and, if so, for how long?
National crises often lead to more centralized power. But everything about this one is unusual, including President Trump’s decision to let state and local authorities make nearly all decisions about daily life and business activity. Washington provides expert advice, policy guidance, backup supplies, emergency personnel, and massive funding. It has not issued national mandates. Trump has refused to shift more power to the central government.
Lawyer, son of Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia, father of seven, aide to Reagan's education secretary William J. Bennett, assistant to George H. W. Bush’s attorney general William Barr, #3 in George W. Bush’s labor department, and sworn in as Donald Trump’s secretary of labour last September. A busy man.
[TownHall] - When I became Secretary of Labor I took an oath to "well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office." Whether my cabinet colleagues and I have done so is ultimately for the American people to judge: one of the privileges of being an American is the ability to hold executive and legislative branch officials accountable at the ballot box.
This accountability is often undermined, though, by officials tasked with a job who pass it off to someone else, to avoid responsibility for how it gets done. The result in some cases has been to transform government of, by, and for the people into government by persons unknown, for reasons obscure to the public. President Trump was elected in no small part to address this problem and restore accountability to government.
Today the Department of Labor took a modest but important step to that end. Under new regulations, the Secretary of Labor will have the power to review, at his discretion, decisions of the Administrative Review Board, or ARB, an adjudicative body within the Department. The ARB issues decisions in the Secretary’s name—in cases where Congress specified that "the Secretary of Labor shall issue final order[s]"—but with no real oversight by the Secretary himself.
[MarketWatch] Many investors not familiar with the mechanics of short squeezes are confused by the strength of the stock market rally that began after the S&P 500 hit a coronavirus low on March 23. Short-squeeze-related actions were the force that unleashed the strong rally.
As the market continues to rally, the odds that the stock market will set a new record within the next two months are rising. I see it as 55% now, up from just 30% on May 13. As impressive as that rapid shift is, I will wait until the odds reach 70% to my call.
What will push the likelihood to 70%? The second leg of the short squeeze has to start. And although stocks are surging on Monday, I am not yet seeing this — bid-ask spreads aren’t widening and trades aren’t being done predominantly at the ask price.
Investors should consider what the trigger for that rally may be. One could be success with a coronavirus vaccine. Moderna MRNA, +19.95% has announced positive interim clinical data from its coronavirus vaccine Phase 1 study; the immediate stock market reaction has been very positive. The data is impressive in that the magnitude of the response to the vaccine is of the same magnitude as the body’s immune response caused by a natural coronavirus infection.
It is conceivable that the Moderna news along with more potential good news regarding vaccines from the likes of Pfizer PFE, +0.82%, Johnson & Johnson JNJ, +0.05%, Novavax NVAX, +30.55% and Inovio Pharmaceuticals INO, +5.51% and good news on antivirals such as from Sorrento Therapeutics SRNE, -3.84%, may cause a second leg of the short squeeze to start.
More broadly, the economy is opening up but there is significant uncertainty about how consumers will respond. The trillions of dollars in fiscal stimulus is helping, but stock investors should also be concerned about massive budget deficits and borrowing. The Federal Reserve is increasing the money supply like there is no tomorrow, but there are consequences to a bloated central-bank balance sheet. There is optimism about antivirals and vaccines but there are no guarantees.
Shouldn’t the stock market be taking into account the damage that has already been done to the economy? The answer is the market always looks forward.
Well, except for employment numbers and earnings reports anyway.
This is why the usual suspects have been drooling about "the second wave" of Chinavirus and how it "could be worse" than the initial wave. If the plan was to keep the economy flat on its back thru the November election, well, that's not going to happen. If the market snaps back with a vengeance, Trump wins big. So be on the lookout for Plan B v. 2.2020.wtf from the anti-Trump crowd.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/19/2020 8:33 Comments ||
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#2
I meant to say, if the economy snaps back with a vengeance...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/19/2020 8:34 Comments ||
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#3
The stock market might "snap back", but that doesn't mean the economy will. Who wants government bonds at 0.8% interest?
#5
he fundamentals of the economy and the state of the market are not necessarily connected in any meaningful way.
There is one very meaningful way that they are connected. They are connected psychologically in many / most peoples minds. Touting the market is a short hand way of touting the economy.
[Politico] Auto manufacturing plants across the United States are resuming operations Monday, but it’s unclear whether production and consumer demand will ramp up enough for them to survive without federal aid.
If automakers fail to successfully restart — and bring in some much-needed cash, it could mean the loss of thousands of jobs and an economic crisis for the industry integral to North America. And it could force Congress and the Trump administration to step in with money.
"If we have to close again? Good luck. You’ll see a lot of [auto suppliers] will go out of business," said Flavio Volpe, president of Canada’s Automotive Parts Manufacturers' Association, which is in constant contact with U.S. and Mexican automakers given the close ties between the three countries.
So far, the auto industry has refrained from asking the Trump administration or Congress for aid during the coronavirus pandemic, but the decline in auto production and sales has caught the attention of lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
A bipartisan group of more than 50 lawmakers from car-producing states last week put Congress on notice that the auto industry, which was left out of House Democrats' $3 trillion stimulus, will need economic help as part of any future pandemic relief packages. Their main focus, auto industry sources in touch with lawmakers say, is to build demand for autos, which could come from offering some form of incentives for Americans to buy a new car.
"America’s motor vehicle industry must remain the heart of our nation’s manufacturing capability. The projected economic fallout for the industry is grave," wrote lawmakers, including Michigan Reps. Debbie Dingell (D) and Fred Upton (R).
"In some regards, challenges the industry face exceed those of the 2008 financial meltdown," the lawmakers wrote.
The U.S. auto industry is particularly sensitive to the word "bailout," given that an $80 billion bailout was given in 2009 to help automakers restructure during the financial crisis.
[Arutz 7] - It is a mystery of the collective psyche. There must be an inner mechanism underlying the political ruling class. Otherwise, what is the possible explanation behind the Western European disaster n ithe management of Covid-19, expecially if you compare their experience with Eastern Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Israel and other Western countries?
France, Spain, Belgium and UK had the catastrophic Italian example in front of their eyes.
Still, French President Emmanuel Macron went to the theater to see "Par le bout du Nez". It looked like a chapter in Manuel Chaves Nogales' book, "The Agony of France", where he says that while German soldiers marched through the streets of Paris, the French swarmed outside the cinemas, "in time for the aperitif in the bistro".
In the meantime, the Spanish authorities invited citizens to walk down the streets, to crowd themselves in a march for Women's Day and the epidemiologist Fernando Simón, in a press conference, declared: "If my son asked me if he can go, I would tell him to do what wants".
On March 8, while 366 people had already died from the virus in Italy, in Belgium Prime Minister Sophie Wilmès saw no problems in that masses of citizens poured into the Salon Batibouw (real estate fair), the Foire du Livre (book fair) and of course, for Women's Day. Belgium would soon have broken every per capita death record in Europe.
Keep calm and carry on was no better in England. Boris Johnson in those days shook hands like a rock star and liquidated the impending danger by wishing for "herd immunity". Soon he would need "liters and liters of oxygen".
The shortage of tests and masks has been camouflaged by Europe under the pretext of their supposed uselessness.
Sweden did nothing, thereby allowing old people to die.
The shortage of tests and masks has been camouflaged by Europe under the pretext of their supposed uselessness.
It seems that the European state on both national and central levels has shown a rare carelessness. An explosive mixture of bureaucracy, lethargy and casualness. A state which, for years, no longer believed in itself but in "Europe" or in the market.
It is the spectacle of Western Europe’s omnipotent impotence that we have unfolding before our eyes.
#3
Chemotherapy on a national level. Removing old people and Islamic immigrant populations removes a massive load on the welfare state, and the pandemic can do it without anyone facing blame.
#4
It's been over a hundred years, circa 1914, that the first major suicide attempt was carried out. We've wasted countless lives and precious resources keeping it alive for what? There was a reason our forefathers either left or were thrown out of the place.
[RedState] Hollywood mainstay James Woods isn’t afraid to torpedo left-wing luminaries, and such was the case recently concerning a former White House crew.
#2
James Woods is a national treasure. Brave and brilliant. (Though for some reason his bio on Wiki doesn't mention the interesting fact that Woods reportedly noticed, on his cross-country flights to LA, four young middle eastern men traveling without any baggage in the summer of 2001. Wonder why?)
PJ via Instapundit
The New York City area not only has more than a quarter of America’s coronavirus cases, but new research suggests that most of the coronavirus cases outside the Big Apple trace back to the New York City area, as well. New York City is the epicenter for the coronavirus in the United States, and a new report suggests Mayor Bill de Blasio (D-N.Y.) and Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-N.Y.) shoulder most of the blame.
New York’s emergence as the epicenter of the coronavirus was far from inevitable. A report from the left-leaning site ProPublica contrasted New York City’s and New York State’s responses with those of San Francisco and California. While people do not live on top of one another in San Francisco to the same degree that they do in the Big Apple, the actions of de Blasio and Cuomo strike a marked contrast with those of Mayor London Breed (D-San Francisco) and Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-Calif.).
...As ProPublica noted, the governor’s lockdown "came six days after San Francisco had shut down, five days after de Blasio suggested doing similarly and three days after all of California had been closed by Newsom. By then, New York faced a raging epidemic, with the number of confirmed cases at 15,000 doubling every three or four days."
...Whatever the answers to these important questions, it remains true that big cities like New York and San Francisco were likely vectors of the spread and the quick lockdowns in San Francisco contributed to stopping the spread far better than the late lockdowns in New York. In April, two experts concluded that if New York had imposed its social distancing measures a week or two earlier, the death toll might have been cut by half or more. Considering New York’s role as the U.S. epicenter of the disease, that’s an extreme underestimate.
#1
I suspect that in order to save Cuomo and NY's reputation a large number of lefties will start to push the unproven theory that California had a mild version of the virus in December.
I would like to see an East/West divide among the liberals as this would undercut Gavin Newsoms overreach on opening the economy
#3
I do not believe lockdowns have anything to do with anything. However both Cuomo and de Blasio encouraged large gatherings, making elder care facilities keep in residents who had tested positive, taking no steps to allow people to stay apart from one another, and talking up ignoring the epidemic.
Posted by: daniel ||
05/19/2020 13:52 Comments ||
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China is asshoe. New York is China, therefore New York is asshoe.
Transitive Property of Equality
The following property: If a = b and b = c, then a = c
New York is China. Let New York =a, China =b
now b=c, where c = asshoe.
a = b, i.e., New York = China. Since a = b, then b=c. so a = c.
Substituting names for symbols, New York = asshoe
Q E friggin D
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/19/2020 22:40 Comments ||
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[AspenBeat] By any means necessary; how low will the left go?
A Marxist is credited with saying "by any means necessary" in a 1960 speech entitled "Why we use violence." In other words, the reason Marxists use violence is that violence is necessary to accomplish their goals.
#1
Also, because violence (or the credible threat thereof) is very effective.
The people who say "violence never solved anything" are a mix of fools and hostile actors who don't want the infra dig to avail themselves of a tool that has worked very well for the hostile actors.
And the "that-is-not-who-we-areites" are their handmaidens.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/19/2020 8:38 Comments ||
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#2
A recent Harris poll suggested that nearly two in five urban residents are considering a move to a less crowded place. Since the pandemic, more people are seeking out single houses with such things as yards and workspaces, notes the National Association of Realtors.
[NYPOST] When you consider the long list of botched government responses to the coronavirus (aka COVID19 or Chinese Plague) ...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men... , Casey Stengel’s comment on the ’62 Mets leaps to mind: "Can’t anybody here play this game?"
Start with Monday’s horrifying report by The Post’s Georgett Roberts, Carl Campanile and Kate Sheehy of a hellish city-run adult-care facility on Roosevelt Island.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
05/19/2020 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#2
^ not sufficiently Woke. Doesn't fit the narrative.
Mme. DeFarge, Murdstone, Miss Havisham, Podsnap, Gradgrind, Magwitch, Steerforth, Fagin: today's equivalents are almost all Democrats.
A contemporary Dickens would be to the right of Kurt Schlichter. His stuff would never be published or if published would be blacklisted by AMZN and the NYT.
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.
[MarketWatch] Many investors not familiar with the mechanics of short squeezes are confused by the strength of the stock market rally that began after the S&P 500 hit a coronavirus low on March 23. Short-squeeze-related actions were the force that unleashed the strong rally.
[Politico] Auto manufacturing plants across the United States are resuming operations Monday, but it’s unclear whether production and consumer demand will ramp up enough for them to survive without federal aid.
