[Hot Air] Yesterday, we wondered whether Laura Ingraham’s teaser from her interview with Attorney General William Barr might have left out some context. It actually might have undersold Barr’s comments on Operation Crossfire Hurricane and US Attorney John Durham’s probe into the FBI and intelligence agencies. The Fox News host asked Barr when we could expect to see Durham’s report, and Barr replied that he’s not sure there will be a report.
So what will Durham produce? Indictments, apparently:
Barr wouldn’t tell Ingraham how far Durham had advanced in the investigation, but said it was a "sprawling case" that "takes some time" to fully investigate.
"I think a report may be and probably will be a byproduct of his activity but his primary focus isn’t to prepare a report. He is looking to bring to justice people who were engaged in abuses if he can show that they were criminal violations and that’s what the focus is on," Barr told Ingraham. ...
Barr argued that the FBI investigation into Trump’s presidential campaign was riddled with abuse of power and had no evidence to back it up. He did not mention the intelligence that prompted the investigation, including a Trump campaign adviser boasting that he knew Russia had damaging information on then-Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.
"I think the president has every right to be frustrated because I think what happened to him was one of the greatest travesties in American history," Barr said. "Without any basis, they started this investigation of his campaign and even more concerning actually is what happened after the campaign, a whole pattern of events while he was president."
Politico comments that Trump supporters hoped for a report to use in the election, but indictments wouldn’t be a terribly disappointing substitute, I’d guess. They form a narrative as well ‐ as Robert Mueller himself employed in that farcical indictment of Concord Management that blew up in his face when they demanded discovery access. The Department of Justice had to withdraw the indictment last month in order to avoid allowing the Russian-controlled firm access to the intel on which the indictment was based.
That outcome must have alerted John Durham to the dangers of PR-focused indictments. It’s safer just to issue reports, another lesson also learned by Mueller and his special-counsel team. If Durham is focusing on criminal violations and "bring[ing] to justice" those who committed them, that hints that Durham thinks he’s got enough to go all the way to trial ‐ assuming we see any indictments. It’s tough to imagine Barr selling this on national television at this late stage of the probe, though, without knowing what Durham plans and what he has up his sleeve.
#2
Barr is a a smart guy. Lesser players embedded in the agencies have careers to protect and aren’t betting on Presidential cover next cycle. Talking about indictments and being credible is shaking free stories and insurance documents from the minions below. Late July just before August recess is an excellent time to drop some paper on high profile subjects.
[Pages 31-32, a tour of the 'Infant Nurseries and Neo Pavlovian Conditioning Rooms'] "We condition the masses to hate the country", concluded the Director. "But simultaneously we condition them to love all country sports. At the same time, we see to it that all country sports shall entail the use of elaborate apparatus. So that they consume manufactured articles as well as transport. Hence the electric shocks.
"I see," said the student, and was silent, lost in admiration."
There was a silence, then, clearing his throat." Once upon a time," the Director began, "while our Ford was still on earth, there was a little boy called Reuben Rabinovitch. Reuben was the child of Polish-speaking parents." The Director interrupted himself. "You know what Polish is, I suppose?"
"A dead language."
"Like French and German," added another studen efficiously showing off his learning.
"And 'parent'?" questioned the D.H.C.
There was an uneasy silence. Several of the boys blushed. They had not yet learned to draw the significance but often very fine distinction between smut and pure science. One, a last, had the courage to raise a hand.
"Human beings used to be...' he hesitated; blood rushed to his cheeks. "Well they used to be viviparous."
[Federalist] In the autumn of 1939, as Nazi Germany invaded Poland and ignited the fuse of World War II, the great British theologian C. S. Lewis preached a sermon called "Learning in War-Time." Although written 81 years ago, his advice is perhaps more relevant today than ever.
Lewis identifies three enemies facing students during crises such as ours and mental exercises to defend against each. His thought are also helpful to those who are not students.
The first enemy is "excitement"‐or, I might say, distraction. The news can overwhelm our thoughts and feelings with excitement or anxiety, paralyzing our studies. It’s hard to focus with so much going on.
Continued on Page 49
From this chance encounter a world-famous photographic study was created. Today Enstrom’s picture Grace, showing the elderly peddler with head bowed in a mealtime prayer of thanksgiving, is known and loved throughout the world.
The Enstrom photo "Grace" has hung in our family homes for generations. Considering it was taken during the Spanish flu. Worthy of consideration.
[PJ] On Thursday, the Heritage Foundation's National Coronavirus Recovery Commission met for the first time. At the meeting, seventeen experts hammered out a general five-phase plan to "save lives and livelihoods" by defeating the coronavirus and jumpstarting the economy. Vice President Mike Pence acknowledged the commission's work.
In order to slow the spread of the virus, President Donald Trump has urged Americans to stay home, practice social distancing, and avoid going into the office if their work is not "essential." State and local leaders have issued various orders, and businesses have moved to remote work or laying off employees. Unemployment has skyrocketed, Americans are having trouble paying rent, and millions are hoping America can reopen sooner rather than later. President Trump originally said he hoped to reopen the country by Easter, but that seems too ambitious.
"Good public health policy is good economic policy, and vice versa," Kay Coles James, president of the Heritage Foundation, said in a statement. "If the economy fails, there will be severe, long-term health consequences; and if the health care system fails, there will be severe, long-term economic consequences. A nation decimated by the disease cannot have a functioning economy, and a catastrophic loss of jobs wreaks horrific damage on both mental and physical health."
@ crazyhorse, that doesn't sound good. Was the HK flu in the corona family of flu's as well? I believe there was a report out of Korea that said COVID-19 recurred in people who already had it. Troublesome if true.
[Breitbart] The bulls broke loose in financial markets this week and gored the coronavirus.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose a mild 1.2 percent on Thursday, bringing its weekly gain to around 12.7 percent. That makes it one of the best weeks ever for the blue-chip index.
The S&P 500 climbed 1.45 percent for a weekly surge of 12.1 percent. That is the best week for the S&P since 1974. The Nasdaq’s 0.77 percent gain brings the week to 10.6 percent, the best week since 2009.
The Russell 2000 soared 4.62 percent on Thursday for a weekly gain of 18.5 percent.
Oil had a wild ride. Brent crude jumped up to 12 percent higher in the morning, only to fall all the way back to close down 2.71 percent for the day.
American stocks will be closed for Good Friday tomorrow.
#3
Some people thought the stock market was overvalued before the corona crisis, so imagine how overvalued it is now with earnings and revenue in the toilet with things shut down.
#4
A lot of companies are going to report first quarter earnings in the next couple of weeks, and those are going to make Rosie O'Donnell look like Ingrid Bergman. On the other hand, if CD rates are close to zero and Chevron's dividend is 6%, you have to think about it.
Posted by: Matt ||
04/10/2020 9:27 Comments ||
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#5
Good point. Really, who in their right mind would buy CD's or even gov't bonds at or near zero (or, in Europe, negative rates)? Not like the old days when retired people relied on their 5% interest at their Savings & Loan.
#6
#5 A couple of years ago I would have said that you buy government paper for the credit quality. But today I hear tell that Johnson & Johnson and Microsoft actually have higher credit ratings than the US gummint (AAA vs. AA). Which tells you something about where all this deficit spending is going to take us.
Posted by: Matt ||
04/10/2020 10:18 Comments ||
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#7
Rumor they are going to relax federal requirements for Banks to have capital to guarantee annuties..?
#8
And think about the FDIC for a moment. There is no way they can guarantee covering the funds of depositors in case of bank failures given what the FDIC has "in the bank" compared to what all of us have in our banks. But given this recent activity by the Fed, if they should even think to pull some kind of bail-in, then all Hades should break loose.
h/t HotAir
The Swedish experiment continues to be one of the most interesting things happening in the world right now. Pretty much every other country in the world, including Sweden’s neighbors Denmark and Norway, have adopted similar types of government-ordered social distancing. But in Sweden, the country is merely asking people to be sensible and hoping that’s enough to slow the spread of the virus.
...In the past few weeks, the country has experienced a bizarre nationalistic wave dubbed "public health nationalism" ("folkhälsonationalism"), which celebrates Sweden as an island of common sense in a sea of panic and resistance to science. According to this narrative promulgated by authorities and media alike, cultural exceptionalism ‐ such as high public trust ‐‐ makes Sweden particularly well-equipped to manage the pandemic. When asked why Sweden’s strategy deviates from other countries’, Sweden’s influential former state epidemiologist Johan Giesecke quipped, "That is because everyone else is doing it wrong." He went on to explain how he could be so confident: "I think we will manage the epidemic without destroying the economy more than necessary. The absolutely most important thing is to protect the elderly from getting infected. I think we succeed quite well in that. It lies in the Swedish national character to do as one is told."
...A head doctor at a major hospital in Sweden says the current approach will "probably end in a historical massacre." He says healthcare workers at his hospital who have tested positive for the virus but are asymptomatic have been advised to continue working. He asked to remain anonymous because "it is frowned upon to speak of the epidemic or to go against the official vision" but said he felt a need to speak out from an "ethical and medical point of view." To me the most noteworthy thing about Sweden is that, unlike every other industrialized country in the Word, the deaths outnumber the recoveries. Which suggests only two possibilities: Swedish doctors are worth spit, or they been ordered to practice die Selektion on patients.
#1
The only way to see what's really going on is when everyone in the country has had antibody tests and tests to show the virus is not active...
I have a feeling this virus comes back from dormant a lot
#3
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have said that under a worst-case scenario, between 160 million and 214 million people in the U.S. – 48% to 64% of Americans – could be become infected over the course of the epidemic,
The fact that about half of the people tested are running around asymptomatic was interesting. Possibly people have the virus and it is resolved with little knowledge they have the virus.
Most of the people, but not all, don't die from the virus. For example, folk singer John Prine, died in Nashville of complications attributed to COVID-19. Come to find out, he had two previous bouts with cancer. One cancer affected his throat and neck while the other was lung cancer. He had to have one lung removed. He smoked a pack of cigarettes/day for 35 years before advised to quick by his doctor.
One problem being reported is that everything people die from is being attributed to CV-19. The probably insures federal money will be directed to these "hot spots."
By Friday, Iceland will have achieved something no other country has: tested 10% of its population for coronavirus, a figure far higher than anywhere else in the world. WIth a population over 364,000, their findings are startling: about half of its citizenry at any given time who have coronavirus but don't know it, will be asymptomatic — a large percentage many experts have suspected, but have had little firm data to corroborate. "That's a bit scary, They could be spreading it and not knowing it," said Kari Stefansson, a scientist involved in the testing who noted that Iceland tested citizens at random by selecting names out of the country's main telephone directory. Coronavirus has swept the globe, infecting more than 1.6 million people and killing at least 95,000..
#10
I'd like to see Swedish stats disaggregated by ethnicity, country of origin, and sub-region or urban district/precinct. That's almost certainly where you'll find the explanation for the disparity.
[WashingtonExaminer] Attorney General William Barr claimed news coverage of an anti-malaria drug that has shown early signs of being able to treat the coronavirus became partisan once the president endorsed its usage.
President Trump has touted the use of hydroxychloroquine as a potential "game changer" in the fight to contain the virus, while scientists, including some who are working with the administration's response team, have been less optimistic about it.
During an interview with Fox News's Laura Ingraham that aired Wednesday night, Barr claimed that the media launched a crusade against the drug only after the president began recommending its use and dissemination.
"Before the president said anything about it, there was fair and balanced coverage of this very promising drug and the fact that it had such a long track record that the risks were pretty well-known, and as soon as he said something positive about it, the media has been on a jihad to discredit the drug. It’s quite strange," he explained. "The stridency of the partisan attacks on him has gotten higher and higher, and it’s gotten disappointing to see."
The attorney general also praised Trump's handling of the pandemic, labeling his efforts early on as "statesmanlike," while accusing the White House press corps of asking "snarky gotcha questions."
The president began touting the drug last month after a flawed study conducted in France showed promising results. His first reference to the drug came a day after the results of the study were aired on Fox News.
At a White House coronavirus task force briefing last weekend, Trump announced the administration had purchased "a tremendous amount" of hydroxychloroquine, which will be distributed to the states after the Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency approval for its use among coronavirus patients.
A day earlier, however, White House economic adviser Peter Navarro got into a "confrontation" with National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci over the drug. Fauci has repeatedly downplayed its potential for success, noting there is no "strong" evidence that it can treat COVID-19.
#3
The media has waged jihad against Trump for everything since before Day 1. The MSM are not our friends--they do a great disservice to the American people by spreading disinformation, propaganda and lies--just about anything other than the truth as long as it damages Trump.
[Babylon Bee] Joe Biden has committed to wearing a mask in public to be a good example and to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Aides were disappointed and a little frightened, however, when Biden immediately cut a large hole in the middle of the mask so he could continue to invade people's personal space and sniff their hair, necks, and faces.
Staffers usually don't let Biden play with sharp objects, but he managed to find some safety scissors stashed behind the Metamucil in his campaign bus. Using the purple plastic scissors, he cut a large hole and then fitted the mask to his face, confident that he was protecting himself and others from the virus.
"That's better," he said as he cut a big hole for his schnoz. "Now I'm protecting against infection and I'm still able to give the ladies a good sniff. You know, in my day, I wore a mask just like this, as was the fashion at the time. All the kids at the pool would ask to play with the mask, and they'd run their fingers through it. In fact, one time, a gangster named CornPop was about to go cause some trouble at the sock hop, and I put some rocks in my mask and started swinging it around like a sling. You know, real Daniel and Goliath type stuff. He looked at me, tears in his eyes, and promised never again to go out and cause a ruckus."
"Anyway, that's why I'm your best choice for senator of the Roman Empire. Vote for Joe!" Biden suddenly came to and realized he was standing in a Walmart parking lot talking to a hobo.
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/10/2020 00:00 ||
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[StraightLineLogic] "Perhaps the most distressing aspect of this whole ordeal is that Americans have surrendered to panic and propaganda without a shot."
The Global War on Germs will put the Global War on Terror to shame.
Continued on Page 49
[ArmstrongEconomics] ....Senator Dr. Scott Jensen of Minnesota came out to expose how the AMA is encouraging American doctors to overcount coronavirus deaths across the US. He showed a 7-page document coaching him, as a doctor, to fill out death certificates with a COVID-19 diagnosis without a lab test to confirm the patient actually had the virus. Why? Because of the package for this relief, hospitals are paid more to attend this virus. NOBODY is dying of the flu any more ‐ only COVID-19.
The numbers will then be used to justify keeping the money flowing to misrepresent this as an epidemic. This fraud will then come back to justify keeping the economy locked down longer and the AMA is now contributing to the destruction of everyone's livelihood, pension, and this exposes the corruption that always emerges with government programs.
This is when the lawyers need to see the dollar floating in the air. It is time for a class-action lawsuit against the AMA for misrepresenting this virus which is destroying small businesses and drastically increasing unemployment. Come on – we have plenty of lawyers reading this. Now's the time to do something constructive. What the AMA is encouraging is FRAUD and to classify a death to COVID-19 without testing is actionable FRAUD. This is no different from Medicare Fraud which is a crime – For Medicaid and Medicare fraud, federal law establishes (1) a civil statute of limitations of six years (42 U.S.C. § 1320a-7a(c)(1)), and (2) a criminal statute of limitations of five years (18 U.S.C. § 3282)....
#5
1^ and the local media is covering Watz's arse. As usual. When this over Minnesotans need to get serious and boycott all of the fraud metro news sponsors. Enough of these lying sacks of shit.
Channels 4, 5, 9, 11 and 2 (MPR). Cut them off at the knees, like they do to us.
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.
[Pages 31-32, a tour of the 'Infant Nurseries and Neo Pavlovian Conditioning Rooms'] "We condition the masses to hate the country", concluded the Director. "But simultaneously we condition them to love all country sports. At the same time, we see to it that all country sports shall entail the use of elaborate apparatus. So that they consume manufactured articles as well as transport. Hence the electric shocks.
[Breitbart] The bulls broke loose in financial markets this week and gored the coronavirus.
[WashingtonExaminer] Attorney General William Barr claimed news coverage of an anti-malaria drug that has shown early signs of being able to treat the coronavirus became partisan once the president endorsed its usage.
[Babylon Bee] Joe Biden has committed to wearing a mask in public to be a good example and to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Aides were disappointed and a little frightened, however, when Biden immediately cut a large hole in the middle of the mask so he could continue to invade people's personal space and sniff their hair, necks, and faces.
[StraightLineLogic] "Perhaps the most distressing aspect of this whole ordeal is that Americans have surrendered to panic and propaganda without a shot."
[ArmstrongEconomics] ....Senator Dr. Scott Jensen of Minnesota came out to expose how the AMA is encouraging American doctors to overcount coronavirus deaths across the US. He showed a 7-page document coaching him, as a doctor, to fill out death certificates with a COVID-19 diagnosis without a lab test to confirm the patient actually had the virus. Why? Because of the package for this relief, hospitals are paid more to attend this virus. NOBODY is dying of the flu any more ‐ only COVID-19.
