[PJ] The Swalwell Saga keeps getting curiouser and curiouser. The Wall Street Journal tried to put the events down on paper but it’s still not adding up.
Forget the juicy details of Swalwell’s possible romantic involvement with a pretty young Communist spy. The real questions that need to be asked have more to do with national security than anything that might have happened in the bedroom between a United States congressman and Christine Fang, a Chinese national that the FBI says was spying for the Chinese Communist Party.
Swalwell says he met Ms. Fang in 2012. She worked as a fundraiser on his 2014 re-election campaign. And that’s when the fun begins.
Fang apparently had enough sway with Swalwell to name an intern to his Washington office. But the vital issue is when? The FBI says they briefed Swalwell on Fang’s possible ties to Chinese intelligence sometime around 2015. Swalwell was appointed to the intelligence committee in early January of that year. Speaker Pelosi says she and other congressional leaders were briefed on Fang in the spring of 2015.
Apparently, for a few months, Swalwell knew he may have been compromised but neglected to inform the Speaker of the House.
The first question we should be asking is how a backbench Democrat not only managed to wrangle a plum assignment to the intelligence committee but what possessed Speaker Pelosi to name him the ranking Democrat on the CIA oversight subcommittee.
At the time he was appointed to those prestigious posts, Swalwell had been in Congress for one term. It must have raised some eyebrows in the Democratic caucus at the time when this rookie got such choice postings.
Who whispered in Pelosi’s ear to appoint someone with no experience in oversight much less with the CIA?
#3
Or the Chinese have compromised enough Democratic and Republican congressman and staffers so some are ensured to be assigned to sensitive committees.
#4
Hey, it worked in Australia. Relatively easy hop to California from there.
Lots of ripe fruit in Hollywood (Schiff), the rest of SoCal, Silicon Valley -- all of them sinophile. All of their congresscritters are weirdos, wannabes, narcissists. And greedy as all getout.
#14
Did Communist China order Rep Swalwell to be appointed to Intel Committee? The spy was probably just his connection - and payment. Congressmen are pretty cheap these days I guess.
One rule for thee, and one rule for me. That sort of hypocrisy has been baked into human power relations, since, well, forever. As the Greek historian Thucydides wrote 2,500 years ago, "The strong do what they will, and the weak suffer what they must."
Today, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, we are seeing power-hypocrisy once again, as politicians and plutocrats live one way, while telling everyone else to live another way.
A case in point is California’s oh-so-chic governor, Gavin Newsom. The handsome darling of billionaires, a man on everyone’s shortlist of future Democratic presidential hopefuls, Newsom got caught with his mask down at The French Laundry, a Michelin three-star restaurant in the Golden State’s posh Napa Valley.
With the ever-evolving landscape devastating the hospitality profession, I have heard from many of you expressing your care and concern and asking how you can help. I invite you, if you are able, to consider a tax-deductible donation to the KELLER RESTAURANT RELIEF FUND* to help your favorite server, the bartender who knows your mood, the chef who sends an extra course, the porter who is integral to everything we do, or the management and administrative teams who work tirelessly behind the scenes. In a world that has changed dramatically over the course of mere months, the need is still there. Thank you for your support. We are so grateful.
Keller is reportedly worth $55,000,000. He'll no-doubt know what to do with your money.
#2
So, since precautionary measures cannot be enforced totally (or even mostly) fairly - they should not be enforced at all? Just think of it as evolution in action?
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/20/2020 9:55 Comments ||
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#10
Indiana allows indoor dining at 50% last time I went out to dinner there. Ohio same.
I doubt the restaurants would fill more than 50% anyway, people are afraid of their own shadows here.
#12
/\ I don't doubt it..so many Kool-Aid drinkers.
Had fun with one dame (with a mask on) while walking outside recently. She saw me coming (I am sans mask) and began to move to the street. I decided to move to the street, too, just to be sure she did that for her health and welfare. She did (Sshe's 15-20 yards away) and switched gears to walk on some grassy hill. All I could do was shake my head, but, that's her business, I suppose.
[Gateway] Dan has been President Trump’s social media director since before the 2016 election. He is a trusted and loyal Trump aide.
There was much talk today in the news today on President Trump meeting with Attorney Sidney Powell in the Oval Office Friday evening. President Trump discussed naming Powell as special counsel to investigate massive Democrat voter fraud that took place in the 2020 election.
General Flynn also joined Sidney Powell on Friday. Deploying the US military was reportedly raised in the meeting but was nixed by Trump’s advisers.
But it was reportedly a raucous meeting.
[Spectator] The media offers more choices for conservatives than ever before. The Right needs to savor this success and remember what the good old days were really like
In the early 1990s, I was a building and remodeling editor for Better Homes and Gardens magazine, where I oversaw the construction of dream homes, scoured the country for stylish remodeling projects, presided over photo shoots, and wrote about home designs in sprightly text that filled in between the lovely photo spreads featured in the then-eight-million circulation publication.
It was a great gig — and one that energized a lifelong interest in architecture and home remodeling. But as much as I loved what I did, I was passionate about public policy and politics, and wanted to write more about, say, property rights and tax rates than about the mid-century-style tile patterns that adorned Mrs. Smith’s master bath.
Continued on Page 49
#1
This comes off as "We have gone to great lengths to make this electric chair comfortable. Enjoy the ride..."
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/20/2020 10:46 Comments ||
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#2
The media offers more choices for conservatives than ever before. The Right needs to savor this success and remember what the good old days were really like`
You wouldn't know it judging from the 2020 election. Fake cable news, print media, internet wire services, internet sources such as Yahoo, Bing, MSM, etc. and syndicated print news sources; they've all been taken over by the left and allied against Trump. Big tech put in place draconian censorship against anything positive for Trump. This guy seems to be in LaLa land.
(Sarah Chamberlain) Please save, screenshot, etc., then boost.
I don’t usually ask for my content to be shared. What I am about to say though is perhaps the most important thing I will ever say in public, and in the present landscape of the internet, there is a very high probability that it is being silenced or erased even now as you read it. So, I am asking you to please, save an offline and/or archived copy of this letter RIGHT NOW.
If, once you’ve read this letter, you feel that it has any value or interest whatsoever, please, as a personal favor, send it on through whichever channels, to whichever people you feel safe doing so.
Continued on Page 49
Hat tip to powerlineblog.com. A rather long article about how the CCP is effectively censoring Hollywood. It makes a point about how China's film market has for 2020 climbed to $1.988 billion on Sunday, surpassing North America's total of $1.937 billion and how Hollywood wants so badly to get into that market.
Nevermind that Hollywood could make a lot more money if they'd just make decent movies. Nevermind that Hollywood will sell it's soul and compromise its art for Chinese money. Oh well. An excerpt:
[GatestoneInstitute] One Hollywood producer told PEN America that suggestions for projects critical of China aroused the fear that "you or your company will actively be blacklisted, and they will interfere with your current or future project. So not only will you bear the brunt [of your decision], but also your company, and future companies that you work for. And that's absolutely in the back of our minds."
"It's not just the Hollywood issue, it's not just the tech issue, it's not just the basketball or the sports issue, or various other industries. ... It's all across the board. To get products and services into that market, there are certain rules you have to play... so they allow you access to the consumers. But those processes... have gotten worse and worse... and more amplified over time.... [It]has got to the point where we either need to stop it now and fight back, or we are just going to lose...." -- Chris Fenton, Hollywood executive and author of Feeding the Dragon: Inside the Trillion Dollar Dilemma Facing Hollywood, the NBA, and American Business. voanews.com, October 16, 2020.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
12/20/2020 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11123 views]
Top|| File under: Commies
#1
It seems that West Coast plungers are no longer content with being rich. They are determined to be filthy rich.
#2
...I think the real point here is this: here, the big chain theaters are collapsing, and IF they reopen, it will never be to the same extent as they once did. On the other hand, people in China are going to movie theaters and paying money. The studios are going to go where the money is and kiss their respective butts, all 1.393 billion of 'em.
Nothing personal. Just business.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
12/20/2020 8:05 Comments ||
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#3
Many US enterprises are giving up on the US market and look to China and the third world to salvage their growth. The auto manufacturers counterbalance declining profits in the US with increased profits from sales in China. American churches counterbalance declining US attendance with new converts in the global South.
Posted by: Bugs Prince of the Slytherins4008 ||
12/20/2020 8:21 Comments ||
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#4
As the US commits economic suicide, those Chinese conquistadors will take over more than just Hollywood.
[The Nation] Black votes in this country are worth less than white votes. Joe Biden won the Electoral College because Black voters in Atlanta, Detroit, Milwaukee, and Philadelphia turned out in significant numbers. But even with overwhelming Black support—94 percent of Detroit voted for Biden!—the outcomes in Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania were worryingly close.
One core problem is the Electoral College. Wyoming, which has just 580,000 residents and is 93 percent white, gets three electors because of its two senators and one representative in the House. By comparison, Georgia’s Fifth Congressional District—which includes Atlanta, has 710,000 residents, and is 58 percent Black—has no dedicated electors or senators and can only occasionally overcome the mostly white and conservative votes from elsewhere in the state. This devaluation of Black votes allows our political system to ignore Black lives, and the consequences are devastating. Unequal representation has led to unequal health care outcomes, which the Covid-19 pandemic has only worsened. Without sufficient voting power, Black communities receive substandard education, and politicians are free to appoint judges who sanction mass incarceration, abusive policing, and electoral disenfranchisement.
#4
Blacks already vote 2 times, or 5 times or 10 times if you live in the right black controlled cities. However many votes are needed to ensure a Democratic Party win, no matter the actual vote count.
#5
State of Montana gets less representation than districts in Florida because they count foreigners in the apportionment of representatives rather than just citizens. It's all about power, nothing more.
#6
How about we give people the right to vote when they pay actual taxes on income from working or retirement? Only citizens participants ,no felony criminal record, with confirmed voter ID linked to birth records? Then maybe the people elected might actually want to do the things that improve a limited government while mostly staying out of fhe way?
#8
Yeah, grom, "taxpayers" vs. "citizens", with the latter living on the dole. Not that the taxpayers had much say in the government, anyway, since the Senate had all the real power.
Today, though, we don't have off-world colonies to exile the "citizens" who run afoul of the law.
As for the story -- minorities should be careful demanding power out of scale with their actual presence. And their "substandard education" systems are not the result of lack of power -- every city I'm aware of has majority black run school boards and administration -- but the lack of care. If the community demanded a for-real, "three R's" education without the latest education school Marxist fad, their schools would quickly outpace suburban schools still enamored with ed school credentials.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
12/20/2020 16:32 Comments ||
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#9
^Modern education system - especially in teacher colleges, is garbage.
[Med Press] Hospitalized COVID-19 patients have a greater risk of dying if they are men or if they are obese or have complications from diabetes or hypertension, according to a new study conducted by University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) researchers. In a study published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, the researchers evaluated nearly 67,000 hospitalized COVID-19 patients in 613 hospitals across the country to determine the link between certain common patient characteristics and the risk of dying from COVID-19.
Their analysis found that men had a 30 percent higher risk of dying compared to women of the same age and health status. Hospitalized patients who were obese, had hypertension or poorly managed diabetes had a higher risk of dying compared to those who did not have these conditions. Those aged 20 to 39 with these conditions had the biggest difference in their risk of dying compared to their healthier peers.
"Predicting which hospitalized COVID-19 patients have the highest risk of dying has taken on urgent importance as cases and hospitalizations in the U.S. continue to surge to record high numbers during the month of December," said study corresponding author Anthony D. Harris, MD, MPH, Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health at UMSOM. "Knowledge is power in many ways, so I think understanding which hospitalized COVID-19 patients are at highest risk of mortality can help guide difficult treatment decisions."
For example, higher-risk patients may be given the drug remdesivir earlier in their hospitalization to help prevent severe complications or may be considered for closer monitoring or ICU admission. Healthcare providers may also want to consider these risks when determining which COVID-19 patients could benefit the most from the new monoclonal antibody therapies that, if given in the first few days of the infection, can reduce the risk of hospitalization.
Age remained the strongest predictor of mortality from COVID-19. Overall, nearly 19 percent of hospitalized COVID-19 patients died from their infection with the lowest mortality among pediatric patients, which was less than 2 percent. Mortality rates increased with each decade of life with the highest mortality, 34 percent, among those aged 80 and older.
#7
The race grifters request that the study go back and identify the patients' race.
Race Grifting ain't gonna grift itself.
Posted by: Bob Grorong1136 ||
12/20/2020 10:32 Comments ||
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#8
Irony is vastly overrated and overused.
Posted by: Bubba Lover of the Faeries8843 ||
12/20/2020 22:58 Comments ||
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#9
Healthcare providers may also want to consider these risks when determining which COVID-19 patients could benefit the most from the new monoclonal antibody therapies that, if given in the first few days of the infection, can reduce the risk of hospitalization.
These risk factors were written into the EUA protocols when the FDA authorized these treatments. Look up the provider and patient info sheets available online.
Posted by: Bubba Lover of the Faeries8843 ||
12/20/2020 22:59 Comments ||
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#10
The Ponzi scheme called the USA is also already broke. It is just waiting for most people to notice it.
Posted by: Bubba Lover of the Faeries8843 ||
12/20/2020 23:01 Comments ||
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#11
the lowest mortality among pediatric patients, which was less than 2 percent I last checked the CDC stats in June. They carefully buried COVID-19 deaths in the age group <=18 somewhere online. At that time, 18 states had no COVID-19 deaths in that age group whatsoever. The number of deaths from influenza in the group was 3x the number of deaths from COVID-19 in the same group.
Posted by: Bubba Lover of the Faeries8843 ||
12/20/2020 23:03 Comments ||
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[Jpost] No other regime in the world does this. Iran’s point is that international laws don’t apply to it.
Iran’s regime appears to be on an execution spree. It murdered wrestler Navid Afkari in September and hung journalist Ruhollah Zam this month after kidnapping him from Iraq. Iran’s regime is not afraid to kill people: It bumped off some 1,400 protesters last year.
What the regime is showing through the high-profile executions is that it can kill journalists and athletes, people who should be protected by modern human-rights laws, and it can do so publicly and openly.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife ||
12/20/2020 02:39 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11123 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
...TL, DR: "Because they can. Next question?"
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
12/20/2020 7:52 Comments ||
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[Politico] Pentagon officials are making an 11th-hour push to potentially break up the joint leadership of U.S. Cyber Command and the National Security Agency, a move that would raise inevitable questions about Army Gen. Paul Nakasone's future as head of the country’s largest spy agency.
Five people familiar with the matter told POLITICO that senior Defense Department leaders are reviewing a plan to separate the two agencies, a move lawmakers and DoD had contemplated for years but had largely fallen by the wayside since Nakasone assumed command of both organizations in 2018. The Wall Street Journal reported that a meeting about the proposal is scheduled for this week. Defense One first reported the effort was afoot.
If successful, the move could create major upheaval just as national security officials try to determine the full scope of a monthslong hack of several major U.S. agencies — including Homeland Security Department and the nuclear weapons branch of the Energy Department — by Russia’s elite spy agency.
Trump "talking about trying to split up the cyber command from the national security agency, in the midst of a crisis to be talking about that type of disruption makes us vulnerable again," House Armed Services Chair Adam Smith (D-Wash.) said Saturday night during an interview with CNN.
On Friday, Smith sent letters to acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, warning them against severing the leadership of NSA and Cyber Command. The two agencies have shared leadership under a so-called dual-hat arrangement since the Pentagon stood up Cyber Command in 2009.
Nakasone has led the military’s top digital warfighting unit and the federal government’s largest intelligence agency for roughly two and a half years. He has re-imagined how both organizations can deploy their own hackers and analysts against foreign adversaries via a doctrine of "persistent engagement" — putting U.S. forces in constant contact against adversaries in cyberspace, including tracking them and taking offensive action.
The four-star is beloved by both Democrats and Republicans, especially after defending the 2018 and 2020 election from foreign interference. Some lawmakers even joke they wish they could put Nakasone in charge of more parts of the federal government.
#1
Demanding results and accountability represents an anathema to the tenets of our governmental bureaucracy. Had it been otherwise, Memorial Bridge would have been lined on both sides with the heads of our so-called intelligence agencies following 9/11.
President Trump sees something that has obviously failed us once again, and is attempting a much needed 'business process' repair.
The house plumber might not be the appropriate one to task with the preparation of the hotel's signature madrinhadealuguel (ruffled cake).
Democratic reluctance for change within the Intelligence Community is hardly surprising. No explanation is really necssary.
(Feel free to substitute Deep State, Tech, and Media globalist oligarchs for 'Church' in the graphic)
#5
Your vicious old Church was deficient. Confession? Please. So inefficient.
Humane inquisition?
And acts of contrition?
She'd worship us: "Gawd, you're omniscient!"
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.
[Breitbart] The Double Standard 
[Med Press] Hospitalized COVID-19 patients have a greater risk of dying if they are men or if they are obese or have complications from diabetes or hypertension, according to a new study conducted by University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) researchers. In a study published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, the researchers evaluated nearly 67,000 hospitalized COVID-19 patients in 613 hospitals across the country to determine the link between certain common patient characteristics and the risk of dying from COVID-19.
Demanding results and accountability represents an anathema to the tenets of our governmental bureaucracy. Had it been otherwise, Memorial Bridge would have been lined on both sides with the heads of our so-called intelligence agencies following 9/11.
