[Jpost] A bill passed last week on “confronting the hostile acts of the Zionist regime against peace and security” prevents any cooperation with Israel.
[IsraelTimes] Legislation bars any cooperation, including ‘activities of the Israeli software platforms in Iran and using its hardware and software products’
“That must be how they’re finding our weapons depots in Syria, so we’re just gonna throw out everything the Israelis are listening through, see?”
Posted by: g(r)omgoru ||
05/27/2020
10:50 ||
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#1
Iranians: Death to the Juice!
Iranian Mullah: Yes! Now throw down your cell phones.
Iranians: Wait, what?
NR via Instapundit
Each day that the Obama administration fades into the past, its wrongdoings manage to wander back into the present.
After years of suppression, all sorts of strange events keep popping up to remind us of what little is left of the Obama years — the Susan Rice memo, Christopher Steele deleting his computer records, FBI-doctored and lost 302s, text messages wiped clean, the bizarre Obama January 5, 2017, Oval Office meeting, the ambush interview of Michael Flynn, the unmasking and leaking of redacted names swept up in reverse-targeting surveillance operations, the administration fraud perpetrated on the FISA courts. The list is so overwhelming and bizarre that it ensures that anything at any time can now appear. And the result keeps reminding Americans of how corrupt were the years between 2009 and 2017 and how untruthful was the coverage of such institutionalized wrongdoing.
Emeritus Barack Obama now and then ventures out to go through the motions of an enfeebled defense for what is becoming an increasingly discredited administration. But his heart is not in it. His mind is elsewhere. His cause is no longer social activism and community organizing, if it ever was, but lucre and the perceived well-earned good life. The arc of his moralizing universe is long, but for the anointed like him, it apparently bends toward the just deserts of riches and material bounty.
First lady forever and bestselling memoirist Michelle Obama sometimes takes a hiatus from making millions to offer a half-hearted progressive warning about the sudden heartlessness of the country — reminiscent of her transitory 2008 warnings about a downright mean country and one of which she had previously not been especially proud.
The remains of the Obama team (Susan Rice, Ben Rhodes, Hillary Clinton, John Brennan, James Comey, Samantha Power) are not offering much of a defense for the Obama years — they are now too busy scrambling to hide their own legal culpability and exposure. The bending arc of the 2009 dream team finally ends in the platitudes of "I can’t remember" and "Not to my knowledge" that will eventually find their way from CNN and MSNBC into the court room.
#3
A masterly summary by VDH of Zero's corruption and a handy reference.
VDH failed to mention the $68m NFLX payback for Zero's FCC support for the pro-NFLX "net neutrality" con but he got everything else in. A nice dig at "failed novelist Ben Rhodes" and his lead role on the insane JCPOAP.O.S. deal with Iran.
#5
If people say "been there done that, no thanks" next time dems trot out a commie groomed empty suit for president, that will be a fine legacy indeed, if not necessarily the one they were looking for.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/27/2020 14:50
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#6
Next conspiracy will be that Trump's folks waited until right before the election to reveal the wrong-doing instead of doing so right away.
[NYPost] President Trump on Tuesday will announce a prescription plan drastically reducing the cost of insulin for American seniors who rely on Medicare.
The deal struck with the nation’s insulin manufacturers and health care providers will limit the co-pay for a month’s supply of insulin to $35 — a 66 percent reduction to current costs, White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said.
The initiative will apply to the 1 in 3 Medicare enrollees who have diabetes, which is approximately 3 million people.
The plan, effective from January 2021, will save seniors approximately 56 percent or an average of $446 each year in insulin co-pays, said Seema Verma, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
But is this a cut in total price or just the out-of-pocket cost to patients, a larger balance now being picked up by the government? Either way, the announcement will get the attention of older voters...
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. applications for home mortgages jumped last week, in a sixth straight weekly increase, suggesting the housing market could lead the economy’s recovery from the novel coronavirus crisis even as high unemployment is expected to linger.
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said on Wednesday its seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased 8.6% from a week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the index rose 7.4% from the prior week and was 9% higher compared to the same week a year ago. It was the sixth consecutive weekly gain and a 54% surge since early April.
"The home purchase market continued its path to recovery as various states reopen, leading to more buyers resuming their home search," said Joel Kan, MBA’s associate vice president of economic and industry forecasting. "The purchase loan amount has increased steadily in recent weeks and is now at its highest level since mid-March."
The sustained gains in mortgage applications suggest a jump in first-time buyers of both new and previously owned homes in April was probably not a fluke. Homebuilder sentiment also improved in May.
The housing market has a giant footprint on the economy, which contracted at its deepest pace in the first quarter since the Great Recession and lost at least 21.4 million jobs in March and April as states and local governments took drastic measures to slow the spread of COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the virus. Rising demand for home loans offers hope the economic slump is close to bottoming as businesses reopen.
"While there could remain downward pressures on housing demand overall this year from still-high unemployment, we would not be surprised to see a potential overshoot of pre-COVID level of housing demand if temporarily postponed activity resumes in the coming months," said Veronica Clark, an economist at Citigroup in New York.
[Babylon Bee] SANTEE JUNCTION, MO—At an early voting location this morning, African American citizen Conroy Ferguson turned white after voting Republican. Witnesses also claim he aged about 10 years and become perceivably more stuffy and unpleasant. Upon checking his wallet, Ferguson found his name had also changed to Clinton Hemsley.
Hemsley attempted to return to his family but when he explained what had happened he was cast out—not for his new skin color but for voting Republican.
There are now signs up at the voting location warning black voters that if they vote Republican they may also suddenly turn white.
#1
The old joke about the little black kid who gets struck by lightning and wakes up white. Punchline: "I haven been white for half an hour and I already hate..."
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/27/2020 11:52
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#2
Michael Jackson turned from a little black kid into a white guy, so we know it can happen.
[France24] For almost 40 years, the automobile pioneer Ettore Bugatti designed exceptional cars in France's eastern Alsace region. "Nothing is too beautiful; nothing is too expensive" was his motto. At the age of 21, the Italian mechanics enthusiast was hired by an Alsatian industrialist. In 1909, he set up his own business in Molsheim. Today, a foundation is dedicated to him in the city centre and about 100 models can be seen in the giant automobile museum in nearby Mulhouse. FRANCE 24 takes you on a tour of the region, starting at a Bugatti workshop.
#9
MSM will never say so but I take it that Mr. Floyd resisted arrest. Were the cops supposed to let him go? From the coverage I saw on CBS last night, it's almost as if they want a riot. Naw. That couldn't be. Could it?
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
05/27/2020 12:23
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#10
Then there's the story of the so-called Karen who called the cops on a black man in Central Park after he asked her to put her dog on a leash. He filmed her and his sister put the video on Twitter where it went viral. Now she's accused of being a racist and might lose her job. Let's see...white woman alone in a wooded area of Central Park with a black man harassing her about her dog and filming her says she felt threatened. MSM making a big freaking deal about it as if the story is newsworthy. I suppose if you want to fan the flames of racism and mass hysteria, it is. I'd lawyer up if I was her.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
05/27/2020 12:36
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#11
Too late - Franklin Templeton Investment bank fired her ass
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/27/2020 12:52
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#13
Now she's accused of being a racist and might lose her job.
She has since been fired. The pup was taken away and put in a shelter on the grounds of abuse. But the gentleman in question also taped himself trying to entice the unleashed dog by offering it the doggy treats he carried in his pocked for just such an eventuality, which makes her concern more understandable. That’s just weird.
#14
Prolly has a morals clause or bringing disparagement to her employer clause. She threatened to tell the police he (a black man) was harassing and threatening her, which he wasn't
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/27/2020 13:27
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#15
^ Ah, ok. Based on what was reported it seems extremely likely that he wasn't threatening her.
Perhaps there's more to the story but combining his sister's description of him as an "avid birder" with the fact that he was carrying and offering dog treats on his birding jaunts, it seems unlikely that a normal person would view him as other than gentle and benign.
#16
Stranger gives my dog something to eat, gonna find out what normal is.
Sounds like they are both wrong. She was breaking rules with dog off leash in leash area. Dude is OK by me pointing that out, old folks and kids area dog on leash and to not say something is to allow that breach of decorum. Now, if dude during conversation started offering the dog treats at any time that is an f'up.
#17
Ever been the victim of one of those "guy stops suddenly ahead of you and car behind rear ends you" scams? People in NYC try to pull variations of that on the sidewalk all the time. A couple retired cops up there told me the same thing: Unless they are asking the time or asking if they are walking toward or away from an address you know, don't engage with strangers on the street Period..
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/27/2020 15:01
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[TownHall] - Is the U.S. up for a second Cold War -- this time with China?
What makes the question newly relevant is that Xi Jinping's China suddenly appears eager for a showdown with the United States for long-term supremacy in the Asia-Pacific and the world.
With the U.S. consumed by the coronavirus pandemic
...we’re already returning to work, play, and school as our hospitals clear the remaining patients in their beds ...
that has killed 100,000 Americans and crashed our economy to depths not seen since the Great Depression,
...yes, but the Great Depression did not have stimulus bills with checks to individuals and loans to businesses on top of the usual unemployment benefits to help many of those going without an income for these three months or so...
China's dictator seems to be making his move.
Possibly he will look back on this as his greatest error. Possibly he will decide that letting this virus escape beyond China’s borders was actually the ur-mistake.
At the Communist Party conclave this May, China announced that it was seizing control of Hong Kong's security. From now on, subversion, sedition, secession and foreign meddling within the city will be crushed.
No doubt.
Whatever sanctions the U.S. and its allies impose, there will be no free and independent Hong Kong.
Before placing any bets on that, best to define how far ahead we’re talking about, just in case.
"For an Ascendant China, Reining in Hong Kong Is Just the Start," is the headline over The New York Times story on China's new assertiveness.
Someone needs to check the dictionary definition of ascendant...
"China's move to strip away another layer of Hong Kong's autonomy was not a rash impulse. It was a deliberate act, months in the making," writes reporter Steven Lee Myers. "It took into account the risks of international umbrage and reached the reasonable assumption that there would not be a significant geopolitical price to pay. ...
We’ve seen recently the problems caused by poor modelling. It really doesn’t do to believe the pronouncements of the New York Times crowd — that’s a map with no resemblance to the actual territory, sad to say.
"With the world distracted by the pandemic's devastating toll, China has taken a series of aggressive steps in recent weeks to flex its economic, diplomatic and military muscle across the region.
And the world has flexed back, because everything comes down to physics — equal and opposite reactions in this case, and wave propagation from pebbles dropped ponds... and of course that charming butterfly wing. At any rate, those jobs and industries will never return to China, while the American and Japanese governments are already financing homegrown substitutes. Others will follow, as they work to become more resilient at China’s expense.
...Consider the list of nations with which China has territorial quarrels that have lately produced military clashes.
Beijing claims Indian lands China has occupied since their 1962 war.
China claims virtually all the islets and reefs in the South China Sea and now uses naval vessels to deal with the rival claimants of Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines.
Beijing asserts that Taiwan and all of its offshore islands in the East China Sea belong to China. While the Senkaku Islands have long been controlled by Japan, China claims these islands as well.
...So, again, the question: If China is prepared for a Cold War II with the United States to establish its predominance, what are we prepared to do should China absorb Hong Kong and convert it into a second Shanghai?
Don’t forget that we won the last cold war by forcing the Soviet Union to spend beyond their means. This time China’s piggybank is already bursting with IOUs.
What are we prepared to do if China puts new pressure on Taiwan and seizes offshore islands in the East China Sea, as she did in the South China Sea? Sanctions against Vladimir Putin's Russia to compel it to return Crimea and vacate eastern Ukraine have conspicuously failed.
Putin could sell oil. China has flipflops and whatever aspirin is made of.
Are we prepared to fight for any of the islands, none of which we claim and many of which we agree ultimately belong to Beijing?
The Chinese have stolen our intellectual property, coerced technology transfers from our businesses and sent spies posing as students into our universities to thieve our secrets.
We’ve started clearing out the spies, which should be an accelerating process...
Meanwhile, we allowed ourselves to become dependent on China for medicines and drugs vital to the health and the survival of millions of Americans.
#8
Is this all there is for the Coronavirus Roundup?
We have a few articles under Signs, Portents and the Weather, Bobby. And a few others scattered under other categories. But although it is still expanding in Russia, Hispanic America, and Africa, most of the news is about countries reopening, which will soon be subsumed in returns to the status quo — except for China trying to take advantage of the situation at home and abroad. The dashboard the Israeli lad has been maintaining shows total world numbers up a scant 1%, matched by Workdometers logarithmic graphs flattening.
h/t Instapundit
[yahoo news] - As Governor Andrew Cuomo faced a spirited challenge in his bid to win New York’s 2018 Democratic primary, his political apparatus got a last-minute boost: a powerful healthcare industry group suddenly poured more than $1m into a Democratic committee backing his campaign.
Less than two years after that flood of cash from the Greater New York Hospital Association (GNYHA), Cuomo signed legislation last month quietly shielding hospital and nursing home executives from the threat of lawsuits stemming from the coronavirus outbreak. The provision, inserted into an annual budget bill by Cuomo’s aides, created one of the nation’s most explicit immunity protections for healthcare industry officials, according to legal experts.
#1
So, basically, when he sent CV19+ people to nursing homes, he wasn't worried about ICU shortage - he was sending some business the way of his supporters?
All these people have died not because he lost it under pressure, but because he was doing business as usual?
#5
May have mentioned before that I heard from a relative that nurses at one nursing home in the Midwest all contracted COVID-19. The administration were so piss-poor to not even get the nurses tested and they had to do it themselves.
In addition, the administrators do not inform family members if nursing home residents contract COVID-19 as they are afraid the family will pull that person out of the home. Bottom line: lost revenue. Pathetic.
[Jpost] The country’s coronavirus restrictions are lifting fast, leaving the public with many questions regarding what can be done, when and how.
"We received a lot of joyful news today," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said late Tuesday night as the government approved lifting more coronavirus regulations. "Drink a cup of coffee and a beer too," he encouraged. "Go out and make a living."
But the prime minister also said that the Health Ministry was closely monitoring the coronavirus spread to ensure that the number of active coronavirus cases in Israel did not rise too quickly as restrictions were lifted. In the 24 hours between May 25 and 26, some 32 new people were diagnosed with the virus - the highest number in at least a week. Moreover, the number of intubated cases increased by four people, topping 30 for the first time this week.
The following are the latest set of coronavirus restrictions, according to the Health Ministry:
[Breitbart] Up to 5,000 Chinese troops are now massed along the disputed Ladakh border with India, and according to Indian officials, not all of them are staying on China’s side of the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
Tensions along the border have grown steadily over the past three weeks, following the latest in a bizarre series of fistfights and rock-throwing incidents between Indian and Chinese soldiers.
Indian media outlets have a habit of describing the opposing troops as "eyeball-to-eyeball" in key locations along the LAC, a phrase that captures both their proximity to each other and the amount of angry glaring each side is directing at the other. The Hindustan Times reported on Tuesday:
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That whole red wire/green wire thingy is more dangerous when the trainees are colour blind, but even the Gaza Strip has shut down for fear of spreading the coronavirus, leaving the yoots with too much time on their hands...
[Jpost] A Paleostinian teenager was killed when an bomb he was working with went kaboom! in Beit Lahia in the northern Gazoo ...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamaswith about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... Strip on Tuesday, according to Paleostinian reports.
As for Erector sets, they're a gateway drug. Erector sets lead to Science, Science leads to Chemistry, and Chemistry leads to gunpowder. Eventually, your buddy blows off most of the meat between his thumb and forefinger which, in retrospect, meant our search for a better oxidizer was successful.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
05/27/2020 14:36
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#12
Yeah, did "clock boy" finish his neurosurgery residency in Quatar or UAE or wherever yet? How much did the Obamas chip in on his tuition?
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/27/2020 14:44
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#13
My favorites are usually 'too stupid to live', 'I never liked him (her) anyway', and variants of 'well, he won't be doing that again'. But snark of the day I'll have to remember - '...blow up too soon'. Situational, but perfect.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
05/27/2020 15:53
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#14
I'm certain there was quite a report.
"Junior's report card came in today."
"How'd he do honey?"
"Says here...80 decibels. Ugh, we had such lofty hopes."
[WashingtonPost] He also was among at least 759 people under age 50 across the United States who have perished amid the deepening pandemic, according to a Washington Post analysis of state data. These deaths underscore the tragic fact that while the novel coronavirus might be most threatening to the old and compromised, no one is immune.
For the very young — people under the age of 20 — death is extremely rare in the current pandemic. But it happens: The Post identified nine such cases.
The risk appears to rise with every decade of age. The Post found at least 45 deaths among people in their 20s, at least 190 deaths among people in their 30s, and at least 413 deaths among people in their 40s.
Determining a precise number for each category is difficult because of the divergent ways states present age groups.
Shawn Evans, attending emergency physician and director of resuscitation at Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla, said the vast majority of young people who contract the disease fare well and recover. But for a minority, it appears to cause a unique change in the blood’s oxygen-carrying hemoglobin cells.
“Young people who are otherwise fit can tolerate this longer, but at the expense of their heart and their pulmonary functions,” said Evans, who likened some of the symptoms in younger people to prolonged carbon monoxide exposure.
He said younger patients he has seen tend to come in later, after battling the disease at home for longer. But for those who take a tragic turn, it often happens quickly.
“When they do deteriorate, they do so much more dramatically,” he said.
In those cases, Evans said, the lack of oxygen makes the right side of the heart work extra hard, which leads to pulmonary hypertension. “The lungs clamp down. They can’t get blood flow into the lungs.”
What has profoundly struck Evans and his colleagues is the seeming randomness of the type of young people who are unable to fight off the disease.
“A very fit 30-year-old triathlete is just as vulnerable as a chess-playing 45-year-old who gets no exercise,” he said. “We just don’t know who it is that this virus carries the master key to.”
Jean-Laurent Casanova, an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and physician at Rockefeller University Hospital, suspects vulnerability to the virus among some young people may be partly encoded in their DNA.
For more than two decades, Casanova has studied “inborn errors of immunity,” or genetic conditions that make people susceptible to certain diseases. These conditions — often caused by a single mutation in a single gene — can hinder the immune system’s response to a particular virus or bacteria, explaining why a subset of seemingly healthy young people get extremely sick.
In 2015, his lab discovered a toddler with a life-threatening case of influenza had a mutation in the gene that codes for a specific type of immune protein that warns cells of an attack. When the researchers genetically engineered mice to have that same mutation, they found the mice were significantly more vulnerable to the virus.
Now, Casanova is collecting genetic material from young people in more than 100 countries who have fallen severely ill with the coronavirus. His hope is that the genomes will reveal “candidate” mutations that might explain susceptibility to the virus.
“Step one is to understand,” Casanova said. But if he can identify a mutation and test it in the lab, “step two is: How can you prevent it, how can you fix it?”
Illnesses caused by inborn errors of immunity are helpful for understanding the behavior of a virus, he said, because they are “clean cases,” uncomplicated by age or underlying conditions. And they can often provide clues in the search for a cure.
For example, Casanova has found people are more susceptible to tuberculosis when they have a pair of mutations that cause low levels of gamma interferon, a protein that fights the genus of bacteria that causes TB. Fortunately, he said, gamma interferon has been available as a drug for more than 30 years, making it a promising potential treatment for the disease.
[IsraelTimes] Move comes amid growing storm after president tweets conspiracy theory accusing media critic of murder; social network flags tweets on alleged danger of mail-in ballots.
[Jpost] Russians rapidly up stakes in Libya with MiG deployment
Russia deployed MiG-29s and other aircraft to Libya in what appeared to be throwing down a gauntlet to The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire... and other countries that might think Moscow is ending its support for the eastern Libyan government of Khalifa Haftar
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[AlAhram] The U.S. military said on Tuesday that Russia has deployed fighter aircraft to Libya to support Russian mercenaries fighting for eastern forces, adding to concerns of a new escalation in the conflict.
"Russian military aircraft are likely to provide close air support and offensive fire," the United States Africa command said in a statement it posted on its website and on Twitter.
Libya's civil war has drawn in regional and global powers with what the United Nations
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Posted by: trailing wife ||
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#1
If they kill Turks and their ISIS tools, great
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/27/2020 9:30
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#2
Didn't the news yesterday talk about Russia abandoning LNA? Was that just a feint?
Posted by: George Uloluck9546 ||
05/27/2020 9:34
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#3
U.S. Air Force General Jeff Harrigian warn[ed] that if Russia seized bases on Libya's coast, it would "create very real security concerns on Europe's southern flank". And if Islmists do likewise? then what General Sapolio?
[Rudaw] Russian military police reopened a section of the strategic M4 highway in northern Syria on Monday allowing civilians to travel between Tel Tamir and Manbij for the first time in seven months.
"We have close coordination with The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire... to secure the passage of civilians on the M4 road between Tel Tamir and Ain Issa," Pavel Karbov, a Russian military official, told Rudaw on Monday.
"Our military convoys will accompany civilians throughout their journey along the M4 highway to provide them with protection," Karbov added.
The M4 highway stretches from the Syrian border with Iraq’s border town of Rabia in the northeast to Latakia city in Syria’s coastal northwest, passing through Qamishli, Tel Tamir, Ain Issa, Manbij, al-Bab, and Aleppo.
Russian military police accompanied the first convoy of civilians from Tel Tamir to Ain Issa on Monday.
"The road had been closed down in the past. This is an important road for the people and the cities. Things had almost died when the road was closed. Now that the road is reopened, we are happy," Haji Ahmed, who traveled with the convoy, told Rudaw on Monday.
"I am from Kobane, but moved to Tel Tamir. I am thrilled to be able to go back to Kobane," he added.
Aboud Hamid, who traveled to Ain Issa on the M4 highway on Monday, told Rudaw: "We are from Kobane city. We work here [Tel Tamir]. The road had been shut down for six to seven months creating a lot of difficulties for us. Because it would take us longer time [to go back to Kobane]. It is now just two hours’ drive. With the help of Russians, we can now commute."
The M4 highway was completely closed in October last year after Turkey launched Operation Peace Spring against the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
Ankara planned to establish a so-called safe zone along the Syrian side of the Turkey-Syria border to settle millions of Syrian refugees who had fled to Turkey over the course of Syria’s decade-old civil war.
Ottoman Turkish forces seized control of Sari Kani (Ras al-Ain) and Gire Spi (Tal Abyad), but the operation was suspended following international outcry and the signing of two Ottoman Turkish agreements with the US and Russia.
Russian military police have been deployed to many northern cities under deals with Turkey and the SDF.
[Rudaw] Iran’s oil minister has accused Ankara of dragging its feet on repairs to a critical natural gas pipeline that was damaged in a bully boy attack in late March, depriving Tehran of hundreds of millions of dollars in desperately needed hard currency.
"The pipeline carrying Iranian natural gas to The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire... was damaged in a kaboom earlier this year and it has not been fixed," oil minister Bijan Zanganeh told an Iranian radio station on Monday.
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Posted by: trailing wife ||
05/27/2020
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[ToloNews] The Afghan government on Tuesday released around 900 Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... prisoners, according to the National Security Council.
The 900 prisoners were released from different prisons across the country, mainly from Pul-e-Charkhi Prison in Kabul and Bagram Prison in Parwan province.
The order for the release of these prisoners was issued by President Ashraf Ghani ...former chancellor of Kabul University, now president of Afghanistan. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money... on the first day of Eid as he pledged to release up to 2,000 Taliban inmates. His announcement came as a response to the Taliban's calling a three-day ceasefire during Eid.
"The number will reach 2,000, but what remains is related to the Taliban... The continuance of violence by the Taliban will not help the grinding of the peace processor," said Javid Faisal, a front man for the National Security Council.
Some released prisoners said they want unity and solidarity in the country.
"We want unity and solidarity," said a released Taliban prisoner.
"Peace should come. There should be stability. Our country has witnessed forty years of war. We are happy for stability," said a released Taliban prisoner.
Critics still doubt the intentions of the prisoners and say they might return to the war as there is a lack of a monitoring system from them after they are freed.
"There is question about whether they will return to the battleground or to their homes," said MP Abdul Zahir Tamim.
"If we witness the release of 2,000 prisoners of the (Taliban), I can say for sure that the Islamic emirate will think about extending the ceasefire," said former Taliban member Jalaluddin Shinwari, referring to the group as Islamic emirate.
The Afghanistan Human Rights Commission said there should be guarantees on the prisoners to not return to the war.
"There will be individuals who have committed war crimes or crimes against humanity or there might be people who have cases against them... They should not be included among released prisoners," said Naeem Nazari, member of the commission.
[Law Enforcement Today] SPRINGFIELD, IL.- "Hey peasants! Rules are meant for thee, not for me!"
By now, Americans should realize that there are two sets of rules during the current version of America Held Hostage: The Coronavirus Edition.
While Americans are getting summoned to court for having the audacity to work out or wind surf on an open ocean, the ruling class is playing by their own rules. The latest example of hypocrisy comes courtesy of Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker.
Of course, hypocrisy is nothing new to Pritzker. Back in April when Pritzker was asked about rumors that his wife and daughter were not in Illinois but in fact were in Florida, Pritzker became defensive, no make that combative.
"My official duties have nothing to do with my family. So, I’m not going to answer that question. It’s inappropriate and I find it reprehensible."
Now back to your corner, serfs!
This past Friday, Pritzker finally admitted that his wife and daughter were in Florida at an "equestrian farm" that he owns there. He says they were allegedly there prior to his stay-at-home order issued in March.
Equestrian farm? Wonder how many of the hundreds of thousands of Illinois residents currently forced out of work by Pritzker own equestrian farms? But I digress.
Pritzker’s latest case of thumbing his nose at Illinois residents was uncovered this week by Fox 32 Chicago. According to the news outlet, Pritzker has a huge construction project going on at a horse farm he owns in Wisconsin.
Wait a minute...equestrian estate in Florida, horse farm in Wisconsin? Just like his constituents, right?
Xi, 66 who is also the General Secretary of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) and head of the two-million-strong military with prospects of lifelong tenure in power, made the remarks while attending a plenary meeting of the delegation of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and People’s Armed Police Force during the current parliament session being held here.
[Freebeacon] The Chinese government has established an unparalleled spying capacity in Africa by encouraging Chinese companies such as Huawei to construct government buildings across the continent, according to a recent report.
The report, published by the conservative Heritage Foundation, found that Chinese firms—many of which are state-owned or linked to the government—have built or renovated 186 government buildings in Africa. Many were constructed in the last two decades. Senior Policy Analyst Joshua Meservey, the report's author, said the buildings are "a likely vector for Chinese spying," given the Chinese government's history of using such buildings to spy on its inhabitants.
"Beijing may have better surveillance access to Africa than anywhere else in the world," the report reads. "The Chinese government could use the information it harvests to advantage its companies competing against American and other firms, glean insights into U.S. security assistance and counterterrorism programs, and recruit or influence senior African government officials."
The report comes at a time of heightened U.S. interest in China’s activities in Africa, where the communist regime has undertaken hundreds of infrastructure projects in a bid for influence. The U.S.-China Economy and Security Review Commission—a bipartisan body sanctioned by Congress to research China-related issues—held a full-day hearing earlier this month to evaluate China’s strategic aims in Africa.
"The Chinese development model [in Africa] often serves to enrich the PRC and expand its perceived sphere of influence," Christopher Maloney, a senior official at the U.S. Agency for International Development, said during the hearing.
Concerns about China-built government buildings first surfaced in 2018, after reports that the African Union headquarters' China-built databank was sending all of its stored information to a Shanghai server every evening. The database was built by Huawei, a federally indicted Chinese tech giant widely accused of acting as a Trojan horse for Chinese spying.
[The Party Manatee] America has undergone enormous change during the nearly eight decades of my life. Today, America is a bitterly divided, poorly educated and morally fragile society with so-called mainstream politicians pushing cynical identity politics, socialism and open borders.
The president of the United States is threatened with impeachment because the other side doesn't like him. The once reasonably unbiased American media has evolved into a hysterical left wing mob. How could the stable and reasonably cohesive America of the 1950s have reached this point in just one lifetime? Who are the main culprits?
Here's my list of the 10 most destructive Americans of the last 80 years.
#3
And other than personal misfortunes such as drug overdoses (the musicians), not one bad thing happened or has happened to any of these people.
And I'd move LBJ to the top of the list. Read Dereliction of Duty.
Posted by: Matt ||
05/27/2020 10:06
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#4
I would include Howard Zinn as his noxious book brainwashed a lot of Americans into hating their country.
[Daily Wire] French intelligence officials reportedly warned in 2004 that building a Biosafety Level 4 (BSL-4) laboratory in Wuhan, China, could lead to a devastating outbreak because of China’s reputation for having poor biosecurity at its labs.
The news comes as most U.S. intelligence agencies believe that the coronavirus pandemic originated in a lab accident at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV).
The construction of the lab was a joint agreement between the French and the Chinese and, according to a recent report by France’s Le Figaro newspaper, came at the objection of French intelligence officials.
"The move came despite strong opposition from French diplomatic and security advisers, who argued that the Chinese reputation for poor bio-security could lead to a catastrophic leak," The Daily Mail reported, citing Le Figaro. "They also warned that Paris could lose control of the project, and even suggested that Beijing could harness the technology to make biowarfare weapons. Eleven years later, as the laboratory prepared to open, the French architects of the project complained that they had, as feared, been ousted by the Chinese communist government."
The report by Le Figaro highlights how French intelligence officials were concerned about the lab because of China’s issues with "transparency," an issue that has taken center stage during the coronavirus pandemic as China has repeatedly lied about the pandemic and tried to cover it up in its initial stages.
According to a translation provided by The Daily Mail, a source told the French newspaper that BSL-4 labs are "a bacteriological atomic bomb." Because "the viruses that are tested are extremely dangerous," every safety precaution must be followed at all times in order to prevent an outbreak, the source explained. French intelligence officials noted that China’s labs did not "inspire a great deal of trust" because of the extreme safety concerns that existed.
#8
The French government did this in an ego-driven attempt to show France was as important a world player as America. We warned them, their own intelligence people warned them — but they insisted on continuing anyway
[NYP] Former acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell has declassified the transcripts of the phone calls between former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and former Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak, a senior administration official confirmed to The Post.
The move by Grenell comes on the same day he was replaced by former Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-Tx.), who was sworn in Tuesday after being confirmed to the position by the Senate in a 49-44 vote Thursday.
Now that the declassification review process for those transcripts is complete, his successor Ratcliffe will decide whether they are released.
The trove of Russia probe documents includes transcripts of the December 2016 calls between Flynn and Kislyak.
Last week, Grenell said that he was in the process of declassifying those files after House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) had asked him to do so.
Last week, Flynn’s lawyer Sidney Powell joined former National Security Adviser Susan Rice in calling for the transcripts to be released.
Powell said last Wednesday on SiriusXM’s "The Dan Abrams Show" that she "would love" to see those conversations become public, arguing that she believes the transcript would help exonerate her client.
"I think the reason we haven’t seen [the transcripts] is because the word ’sanctions’ doesn’t even appear in them," she said at the time.
Rice’s spokeswoman also called for the release of the transcripts in response to a declassified email written by Rice and sent to herself on President Trump’s inauguration day.
The email, which was declassified by Grenell, documented a Jan. 5 meeting she took part in with Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, FBI Director James Comey and Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates regarding Flynn.
Rice wrote that Comey had expressed some concerns about the frequency with which Flynn was communicating with Kislyak, saying it could pose an issue when it came to sharing sensitive information.
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/27/2020 9:13
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#2
One can only hope. I pretty much gave up on Trump selecting people for his administration when he appointed John Bolton. Perhaps the tide has turned.
Grenell is a keeper...need to find a home for him. So, meanwhile, it's back to Berlin.
#4
As much as the eurines despised Grenell for being Trump's ambassador, they probably now ironically wish he hadn't been moved to the acting DNI slot because it hurt their lovey boy Bath House.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/27/2020 15:20
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[Freebeacon] Liberal super PACs are pouring more than $200,000 into a contested Republican primary in New Mexico in an attempt to help the candidate they view as less electable clinch the GOP nomination.
Campaign finance reports show Women Vote!, a super PAC affiliated with EMILY's List focused on electing pro-abortion Democratic women to Congress, is distributing $22,856 worth of mailers to Republican voters throughout New Mexico's Second Congressional District. Images of the mailers obtained by the Washington Free Beacon show the group praising Yvette Herrell as "loyal to President Trump" and attacking her Republican opponent Claire Chase as a "lobbyist."
So much for the claim that Haftar’s people were pathetic in their defeat.
[TWITTER]
Your armed forces #LNA were able to kill one of the main leaders of al-Qaeda from AlZawia Al Tayeb Al Boush one of those close to terrorists under Abu Ubaida Al-Zawi in #Tripoli#Libyapic.twitter.com/OIDe4MHQol
[DailyCaller] 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... pandemic has revealed a troubling truth: Global supply chains operated by stateless multinational corporations simply aren’t reliable. Americans are learning this in real-time as they see imports from China cut off, particularly for critical medicines and pharmaceuticals. That has put millions of lives at risk since 90 percent of the generic medications that Americans use each day are imported. Even worse, 90 percent of the ingredients for generic drugs used to treat coronavirus infections are sourced from China.
This will have serious consequences for America’s healthcare and national security. In response, Washington must encourage the reshoring of pharmaceutical production as well as the development of countermeasures for future threats, including critical drug treatments, vaccines, medical devices, and personal protective equipment.
Continued on Page 49
#1
You reap what you sow, and that's what the US did. Now, let's try to fix it. But the reason many things were "off-shored" in the first place was labor costs. Does anybody really believe there will be no adverse affect on prices here?
#6
US would pay for moving costs? Sure, why not? Gum'ment is paying for everything else around here. Any semblance of free-market capitalism is long, long gone.
#8
I don’t care if they specifically come back to the US.
Send them to a US territory or this continent. Work with the tribes.
As part of BRAFTA Negotiations, give BoJo a bone. He can put some in England or Ireland or BVI. Let the NHS profit and let them sell to Europe. Scotland gets left in the cold, tho, since they want to leave.
If Poland or Hungary leaves, give them a bone, too.
#9
Part of the problem is the NIMBY destruction of the American chemical industry. The precursors have to come from somewhere, and if you don't have some control over those, drug factories alone are no help with getting us out of China's shadow.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/27/2020 12:26
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#10
Offer to suspend payroll taxes for 3 years to any firm that repatriates to the US.
[Federalist] New White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany isn’t letting so-called journalists get away with inane questions in the briefing room at the expense of real news, and the media don’t like it.
This was on full display over the weekend during the latest media-Trump administration go-around, when McEnany sparred with reporters over the Obama administration’s malfeasance with regard to former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
After a contentious exchange about President Donald Trump’s call for governors to allow churches to reopen, one reporter asked McEnany whether Trump has considered pardoning former President Barack Obama for illegal wiretapping, spying, and other potential crimes. McEnany said she had spoken to the president about the Flynn matter but not that particular question. Then things got interesting.
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Posted by: Frank G ||
05/27/2020
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#1
I did a search for Kayleigh's name and a number of very negative articles popped up. Seems she is drawing attention away from her boss, while pointing out the hypocrisy of the sleaze media.
Pretty soon, the media will stop attending her briefings, making this a triple play.
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/27/2020 8:16
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#2
They have a clear defense plan. Refuse to cover the stories. Professional Pravda.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
05/27/2020 12:06
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#6
My complaint is that her name is too hard to spell. I wish she'd go with something easier, like "Luca Brasi".
Posted by: Matt ||
05/27/2020 12:16
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#7
^ Heh
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/27/2020 12:33
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#8
Because they're party propagandists not reporters. Everything in the party, nothing outside the party, nothing against the party. Someone of note said something like that.
Saad AlTirah, an #AlQaeda fighter from #Darna he fled the city after liberated by the #LNA by the help of #GNA’s Osama alJuwaili to #Tripoli & joined the ranks of fighters for the expired #GNA AlTirah was fighting alongside Ashmawi appearing on AlAhrar channel funded by Qatar pic.twitter.com/ctB4t9yPWu
[ALMASDARNEWS] The Libyan National Army (LNA) is preparing to launch a major offensive in the coming days to capture one of the most important cities in northern Libya.
Speaking to Sputnik Arabic, a military source from the LNA, which is commander by Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar ...Self-proclaimed Field Marshal, served in the Libyan army under Muammar Qadaffy, and took part in the coup that brought Qadaffy to power in 1969. He became a prisoner of war in Chad in 1987. While held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Qadaffy, so it's kind of hard to describe him as a Qadaffy holdover. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades in the United States, gaining US citizenship. In 1993, while living in the United States, he was convicted in absentia of crimes against the Jamahiriya and sentenced to death. Haftar held a senior position in the anti-Qadaffy forces in the 2011 Libyan Civil War. In 2014 he was commander of the Libyan Army when the General National Congress (GNC) refused to give up power in accordance with its term of office. Haftar launched a campaign against the GNC and its Islamic fundamentalist allies. His campaign allowed elections to take place to replace the GNC, but then developed into a civil war. Guess you can't win them all. Actually, he is, but slowly... , said that the Libyan National Army are preparing to launch a big campaign to capture the key city of Misrata in the northern region of the country.
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Posted by: Fred ||
05/27/2020
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#1
March 2020: In Tripoli the GNA is challenged by its resurrected predecessor - the Salvation Government. ...There is a regionalist dimension to the Tripoli clashes - as many in the capital loathe the presence of armed groups from Misrata, West Libya's military power. This stems from "the Gharghur massacre" of November 2013, when Misratan fired on Tripoli protesters, causing heavy losses.
The latest clashes pit a loose coalition of Tripoli-based brigades affiliated with the GNA against mostly Misratan groups, some of which are affiliated with the Salvation Government. What complicates matters is that the Misratan form part of a military coalition, Al-Bunyan al-Marsus, which recently defeated the local Islamic State group in Sirte.
Operation Dignity, launched by gen. Khalifa Haftar in May 2014 against extremists terrorising the eastern city of Benghazi, deepened the divide. Though gaining popularity in the east, Haftar alienated factions in West Libya by vilifying political Islam.
In the wake of the June 2014 parliamentary elections, fighting erupted in Tripoli... Unable to take its seat in Tripoli, the House of Representatives settled in the east, while the capital fell under the rule of armed coalition Libya Dawn. [To this day] the GNA relies heavily on the big guns of Misrata... [Should Misrata fall, Tripoli would soon follow. The recent situation changed overnight with the arrival of Russian jets.]
Posted by: b ||
05/27/2020 10:24
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#2
Should Misrata fall, Tripoli would soon follow.
Let us hope the good field marshal is getting good use of his American education.
[NYPOST] In 2013, Mayor de Blasio rode to Gracie Mansion with the theme of "A Tale of Two Cities," decrying New York City’s class divide, between rich and poor, haves and have-nots. Seven years later, with his threat to "pull" New Yorkers "right out" of the water should they dare go into the sea, Hizzoner has made clear which side of that divide he sits on.
I grew up in Brooklyn but didn’t know there was a Prospect Park until I was a teen. You can draw a straight line through Brooklyn with the park as your divider. It’s a different world beyond the park, and that world was mine. Growing up in Flatbush and then Bensonhurst, there was one place to go for summer amusement: the beach.
You’d take the B68 bus straight to Brighton, the subway to Coney Island or, if your family had a car, you could even drive to Manhattan Beach.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
05/27/2020
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#1
Minor nitpick - Bill DeBlasio, former resident of Cambridge, MA, has no class.
[FoxNews] New York officials have scrubbed Gov. Andrew Cuomo's March 25 order requiring nursing homes to take in COVID-19 patients from the state health department website -- even as Cuomo's office insists that the order, which has been linked to thousands of nursing home deaths, remains in effect.
The web page that once contained the order now directs to a page indicating that the file is "not found." The archive indicates that the deletion occurred sometime after May 5, around the time that criticism over New York's nursing home fatalities intensified.
A copy of the page saved by the Internet archive Wayback Machine, however, shows that Cuomo's order stated: "No resident shall be denied readmission or admission to the NH [nursing home] solely based on a confirmed or suspected diagnosis of COVID-19. NHs [Nursing homes] are prohibited from requiring a hospitalized resident who is determined medically stable to be tested for COVID-19 prior to admission or readmission."
On May 10, Cuomo issued a new directive stating that hospitals cannot send patients back to nursing homes in the state unless they tested negative for the virus. The move appeared to largely invalidate the March 25 directive.
However, senior Cuomo communications director Peter Ajemian insisted in an email to Fox News that it was "not accurate" to state that Cuomo had "reversed" the March 25 order.
"He didn't reverse or rescind anything," Ajemian wrote at the time. "The order is still in effect. He did add a directive, this one directed at hospitals, saying they must test patients and the patients must be negative before being sent back to a nursing home. And he is requiring nursing homes to test staff twice a week."
#1
Worrying new graphs show how coronavirus is STILL surging in many US states with infections spiking up to 900% in parts of Texas and Florida since April
Texas has 4.5% deaths among resolved cases.
Florida has 22%.
Reliable sources have informed the Syrian Observatory that a group of the 4th Division’s “666th Regiment” is preparing for setting 20 military checkpoints from Daraa city to Al-Yadoudah, Tal Shehab and Zayzun in west Daraa countryside.
According to SOHR sources, this development comes as a part of securing the way of regime officers to Zayzun camp which is the 4th Division’s main headquarters western Daraa, especially after the escalating assassinations which target regime soldiers and officers.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/27/2020
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#5
Roaders. What Does Mad Moms Against Drunks have to say about it?
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/27/2020 8:51
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#6
g(r)omporu....
Actually... my favorite supermarket has a cocktail bar in the corner. You can buy a mixed drink or beer and wandering about choosing your food.
#1
Is Tito Ortiz still beating up on p0rn 'stars'? Might be an easier fight than Tyson, who's at least fifteen years older than scumbag Ortiz. This guy's a world-class asshole.
[Dallas News] For the past two months, the state of Texas has been in a legal battle with the Texas Democratic Party and voting rights groups over a push to expand mail voting during the coronavirus pandemic. Didn't I just see the other day that even with comorbidities, those less that 65 years old have a 97% chance of surviving? In state and federal courts, the parties have argued and gotten orders from judges to allow more people to vote by mail. Those orders have been appealed and fought over. You just gotta find the right judge.
Expanded mail voting has been on in the state, then off; then on again, then off again. Most of the fighting has involved legalistic procedural challenges.
Shellie, a sixth-generation Texan, has no use for such ticky-tacky procedural arguments. But the outcome may determine whether she has to place her life in danger come July when she plans to vote in the state’s primary runoffs. Assuming the pandemic is not ancient history by then.
Shellie, 47, was diagnosed with hypertension 12 years ago. That condition, which she shares with nearly half of all adults in the United States, puts her at high risk for severe illness if she develops COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
It’s the reason she wants to vote by mail. She can apply for an exception. Dead people can't.
"I don’t see why any of us, myself or any of us Texans, should risk our lives to vote," she said. Also recently discovered, you are at more risk driving to the polling place than dying from the virus.
[Texas A.G.] Paxton says that only people who have an illness or physical disability that prevents them from going to the polls fall under the disability clause. Fear of contracting the virus, he argues, does not clear that threshold.
The Texas plaintiffs say one reason for their lawsuit is that state officials have not issued guidance to local elections administrators. Without a uniform policy, they said, a hodgepodge of rules could spring up across the state, potentially benefiting voters in one county over another. Benefiting? You mean by saving them from the hazard of driving to the polling place? If no action is taken, the plaintiffs said, Texas could see a repeat of the Wisconsin primary elections in April when voters stood in long lines and didn't follow social distancing guidelines. Stupid is as stupid does. I thought Texans were smarted than Badgers.
Either way, Shellie plans to vote in July. She's already requested a mail ballot but will go ‐ grudgingly ‐ to a polling location if the courts opt not to allow expanded mail voting. She said nothing will stop her from casting her ballot.
"Native Texans, we're a different breed of people. … If I have to risk my life to do that, I will," she said. "I don't want to and I feel I shouldn't have to, but I will." It's a primary. If there's a line, keep your distance! You're a 'different breed' than those Wisconsin people!
#3
There were what, a maximum of sixty-odd people in Wisconsin who MIGHT have contacted the virus on election day, even with nobody social distancing? That means that risks seem pretty nonexistent to me. Get over yourself and go vote. If you can't look at reality often enough to realize how little danger you're in, then maybe you shouldn't be able to vote.
#5
Absentee ballots are available everywhere. Make sure it's still the case, and that the requester is alive and who they say they are
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/27/2020 8:50
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#6
The two times I had to vote absentee (traveling) I had to go to the election bureau at the county courthouse and show two photo ID and a tax form that proved my residency to obtain a ballot. What's being pitched now is mass mailing of blank ballots with no ID or residency proof required, and no control over what happens to these ballots coming or going. Anyone saying it's not a recipe for mass fraud is either stupid or dishonest.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/27/2020 9:12
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#7
It is totally disgusting. What's even more disturbing they are getting away with it. We've probably all seen those meme images of all of the things we need to produce an ID for. But to treat voting so haphazardly is beyond words.
And the Dems talk about "Russian collusion" in our elections. GTFOH!
#8
I did just go sign my tax forms. With all the hoo-haw they went in less than six weeks behind schedule, though the deadline is now July 15 and may get bumped.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/27/2020 11:58
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#9
Shellie, 47, was diagnosed with hypertension 12 years ago. That condition, which she shares with nearly half of all adults in the United States, puts her at high risk for severe illness if she develops COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
Last I heard, there are medications that control this condition quite well. So I smell bullcrap.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
05/27/2020 13:28
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#10
^She can't afford the hypertension meds - like, what's her name, who couldn't afford morning after pills.
#11
Anyone saying it's not a recipe for mass fraud is either stupid or and/or dishonest.
That was an easy fix. No charge!
Now, if you go to a grocery story, you have to wear a mask and in the check out line they have markings on the floor six feet apart to show you where to stand to maintain social distance. It seems to me it would be easy to implement the same protocol at polling stations. Then they put hand sanitizer at the exits. What's the problem?
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
05/27/2020 13:47
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#12
And the Dems talk about "Russian collusion" in our elections. GTFOH!
Yeah. I'd call this Chinese collusion.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
05/27/2020 13:49
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#13
I voted in person at the primary here in Florida on March 17. More because I could than because there was any big reason to.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/27/2020 14:06
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[FoxNews] Who would have thought so many people would be interested in free booze during one of the most depressing eras in recent history?
The owners of a tequila brand say they’ve been mobbed with requests for free tequila after offering bottles of their spirits to restaurant and bar employees who are currently out of work in parts of Missouri and Kansas amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Bryce Lob and Zach Conley, the co-founders of Una Vida Tequila, had decided back in March to begin offering their spirits to laid-off or furloughed workers in the St. Louis and Wichita areas by first putting out the word to bar managers in St. Louis after Missouri closed off bars and restaurants to in-person dining. They had also shared news of their offer on their personal social media accounts, expecting only a few dozen responses.
"We have a stash of tequila, a personal inventory, that we use for events and tastings on the weekends. Obviously, with everything going on, we couldn’t use it," Conley told Fox News.
Lob added that the majority of their initial requests came from friends in the industry who were supporting their brand from "day one." But after delivering a few bottles and tagging the recipients on social media, Lob and Conley said the news began to spread via word of mouth, and just "exploded from there."
To date, Lob, Conley and their media manager Oliver have personally delivered roughly 2,000 bottles to out-of-work hospitality employees in the St. Louis and Wichita areas. Each contactless delivery also comes with an accompanying thank-you note from the self-dubbed "tequila fairies."
Judging by the Una Vida website, it appears that that Lob and Conley’s offer attracted interested parties from far and wide.
“Overnight, our ‘Tequila Fairy’ story blew up nationally,” reads a message that greets visitors to the Una Vida website. "This is only meant for bar/restaurant workers who have been laid off in Missouri and Kansas. With it just being the two of us, we’re doing our part in local communities. We apologize if you’ve seen this story on your local news networks in other areas. We physically can’t drop off bottles all over the country and cannot ship alcohol. Believe us, if we could we would."
Even though they can't deliver outside of the St. Louis or Wichita areas, Lob and Conley told Fox News they hope their story inspires others to "help each other out during all of this" and "do what you can." Their distributor, Major Brands, was even inspired to chip in, donating bottles of Una Vida Tequila back to the company so they could continue their "tequila fairy" efforts.
[BREITBART] An illegal alien charged with sexually assaulting three underage girls has pleaded not guilty "Wudn't me." and will head to a criminal trial in the coming months.
Hobil Bravo-Perez, a 20-year-old illegal alien from Mexico, was arrested last year for allegedly sexually assaulting three underage girls in Shawano County, Wisconsin. This month, Bravo-Perez pleaded not guilty to six counts of child sex crimes with pre-trial hearings beginning in July.
According to police, Bravo-Perez sexually assaulted a 15-year-old girl by forcing her to have sex with him after contacting her through social media. Bravo-Perez has said he paid the underage girl $50 for sex.
In a second case, police said Bravo-Perez sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl on numerous occasions and physically beat the girl. A third underage girl, 12-years-old, told police she had sex with Bravo-Perez about seven times.
Bravo-Perez and one of his brothers, Edgar Bravo-Perez, are in the U.S. as illegal aliens, according to their brother Jorge Bravo-Perez. When investigated, police discovered that Bravo-Perez was in possession of two fake green cards and a fake Social Security number.
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency has placed a detainer on Bravo-Perez so that if he is released from local custody at any time, he will be turned over to them for arrest and deportation.
[ALMASDARNEWS] The Iraqi authorities announced on Tuesday, the killing of a high-ranking Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (ISIS/ISIS/IS/ISIS) during a recent military operation against the terrorist group.
The spokesperson for the commander in chief of the Iraqi Armed Forces, Brigadier Yahya Rasoul, confirmed in a statement, "the killing of Mu’taz Numan Abdul Nayef Najm al-Jubouri al-Makani (Hajji Tayseer)."
He said, "Al-Jubouri holds the position of the so-called governor of Iraq and the deputy leader of the ISIS terrorist organization for all state affairs and is responsible for planning and coordinating foreign terrorist operations."
For his part, the Anti-Terrorism Agency said in a press statement, "After the information provided by the agency that led to the killing of the criminal terrorist Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, to the efforts made by our heroes in following up and arresting the terrorist criminal Abdel Nasser Qirdash, we announce to our great people today the killing of the terrorist Moataz Numan Abdul Nayef Jabouri."
He added that "the operation came after a not-so-brief follow-up of the movements of this dangerous terrorist and his permanent movement inside and outside Iraq, where he was targeted by an air strike by the international coalition air forces in the Syrian area of Deir al-Zour, according to accurate intelligence information by the anti-terrorist agency, knowing that the caged criminal has more than one passport and IDs to move around."
This is the third ISIS leader to be killed this month in Deir ez-Zor, home to ISIS’ last stronghold of Baghouz, which was liberated in March 2019.
On Friday the US-led coalition announced the death of two ISIS leaders in a coalition airstrike.
The strike killed Ahmad ‘Isa Ismail al-Zawi, otherwise known as Abu Ali al-Baghdadi, the terror group’s leader in North Baghdad, and Ahmad ‘Abd Muhammad Hasan al-Jughayfi, a senior supplies and logistics leader across Iraq and Syria.
"The removal of these ISIS leaders will disrupt future attacks against innocent civilians and our security partners and in the region," the coalition added.
[ALMASDARNEWS] The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) stepped up its pressure against the jihadist forces in Idlib on Tuesday, as their troops repeatedly struck the latter’s positions along the Jabal al-Zawiya front.
According to a field report from the southern Idlib axis, the Syrian Arab Army repeatedly struck the positions of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, formerly al-Nusra, before that it was called something else ...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State... (HTS) and the Ottoman Turkish-backed National Liberation Front ...the Turkic paramilitaries intended to replace with their native jihadi ferocity all the highly trained Turkish soldiers Sultan Erdogan I the much beloved has jailed in the last few years for not worshipping the ground he walks upon. The Uighurs and so forth who did not join Al Nusra or ISIS seem to have ended up here... (NLF) around the towns of al-Fateera, al-Bara’a, and Kafrsansa.
The report said the Syrian Army targeted dens, trenches, and posts belonging to these murderous Moslem groups.
Tuesday’s attack by the Syrian Arab Army came just hours after they carried out a drone attack that killed one of the commanders of the Ottoman Turkish-backed turbans near the town of al-Bara’a.
The Syrian Army has been intensifying their attacks in southern Idlib and northwestern Hama since the jihadists of Hurras al-Deen carried out a powerful ambush that killed more than 30 SAA soldiers in the al-Ghaab Plain region.
#LNA Full liberated the strategic area of #Al_Hera and Al Hira area from the Turkish terrorists #GNA, north of Ghayran city and cut the GNA supplyline between Tripolis and Ghayran. Followed by heavy airstrike on #GNA gatherings in Ghayran pic.twitter.com/kcyhh0Haq1
The Popular Mobilization Units in Iraq announced on Tuesday, the arrest of an ISIS media official in the Salaheddine Governorate.
A statement from the PMU said that "a force from the 43rd Brigade carried out a tight ambush on a known ISIS media official in the Salaheddine Governorate."
The PMU said the ISIS media official was identified as Ayoub Uday al-Ani.
They added that "the said terrorist participated in criminal operations against the security forces and civilians, especially in Salaheddine Governorate."
For its part, the Iraqi Military Intelligence Directorate announced the arrest of a member of ISIS after his return from Syria to Iraq.
The Directorate stated in a press statement, "The detachments of the Military Intelligence Division, in conjunction with the 30th Infantry Brigade, arrested a terrorist in the Albu Ubaid area, in the al-Rummana district of al-Qaim district in Anbar Province."
[Politico] In early April, Jason Furman, a top economist in the Obama administration and now a professor at Harvard, was speaking via Zoom to a large bipartisan group of top officials from both parties. The economy had just been shut down, unemployment was spiking and some policymakers were predicting an era worse than the Great Depression. The economic carnage seemed likely to doom President Donald Trump’s chances at reelection.
Furman, tapped to give the opening presentation, looked into his screen of poorly lit boxes of frightened wonks and made a startling claim.
“We are about to see the best economic data we’ve seen in the history of this country,” he said.
The former Cabinet secretaries and Federal Reserve chairs in the Zoom boxes were confused, though some of the Republicans may have been newly relieved and some of the Democrats suddenly concerned.
“Everyone looked puzzled and thought I had misspoken,” Furman said in an interview. Instead of forecasting a prolonged Depression-level economic catastrophe, Furman laid out a detailed case for why the months preceding the November election could offer Trump the chance to brag — truthfully — about the most explosive monthly employment numbers and gross domestic product growth ever.
#4
A similar article has the professor pointing out that US local economies sharply rebound after natural disasters, and thus believes the current situation cannot be compared to the Great Depression, whose cause is fundamentally different.
The issue I see is that the economy is usually rapidly restored in sync with power and water restoration. The democrats holding back recovery are hoping their stalled economies will pull down the country with it.
I liked what one twitter said from someone Whose name I forget: She hoped that the citizens in the dem-retarded states suffer so much from voting democrat that they’ll not vote for them for a generation.
I was worried about them, but no longer: amazing what a different take can do for one’s attitude.
Hey Demtards, despite your most villainous efforts, the US economy will rebound to pre-COVID hoax levels, President Trump will be re-elected in an historic landslide and once again a Republican will free the slaves from their demtard masters. That's if we Patriots don't resort to armed insurrection in blue States first.
#7
Localism isn't much help to Californians. Pomade Boy's absurd lockdowns are perpetuated and made even worse by the crazy provision that allows each local county health commissioner to act as sole decision-maker about what/when to open, with zero review by anyone, with nothing at all in the way of public approval or even comment.
Top this off with Pomade Boy's extraordinary new debt burden of $54 billion and you have the final transformation of California into a neo-feudal society with a heavy flavor of Mexican- or Latin-American style oligarchy and corruption.
[FoxNews] A pigeon suspected of being trained as a Pakistani “spy” has been detained near a disputed border in India after officials discovered a coded ring attached to its foot, according to a report.
The pigeon, painted pink, was captured Sunday by villagers in Manyari, located near the international border that separates Indian and Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, the Times of India reported.
While it is unclear where the bird came from, it is reportedly believed the bird flew from across the border in Pakistan.
“The pigeon, suspected to be trained in Pakistan for spying, has a ring with alphabets and numbers written on it,” a police source told the paper. “Though birds have no boundaries, and many fly across international borders during migration, a coded ring tagged to the captured pigeon’s body is a cause for concern as migratory birds don’t have such things.”
Villagers in the countries around Israel regularly kill migratory birds they’re certain are Israeli spies because they have exactly that kind of band on their legs, part of a century-long international scientific effort. None of them are painted in pastel colours, though.
Kathua Police's senior superintendent Shailendra Mishra said it was unclear whether the bird was intended to spy, noting that people in Pakistan tie number tags on pigeons to claim ownership, according to Sky News. He said an investigation was underway. There have been previous reports of birds carrying suspected secret messages across the border into India.
Indian authorities captured a bird in 2015 that was found to have a message written in Urdu, the national language of Pakistan, on its wings, the Telegraph reported.
“Buy Mor Chickn”
In 2016, a bird with a note that allegedly threatened Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was found at the Pakistan border and taken by police, according to Sky News.
The Times of India said that pigeons and even balloons sometimes carry coded messages across the border as a type of “psychological operation.”
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] ... for having affair with a student and charged with stalking, threatening him with revenge porn, writing a 342-page manifesto on their sex life
Rebekah Jones led a team of Florida Department of Health scientists and public health officers to create and design a comprehensive COVID-19 dashboard
The 30-year-old said in a May 5 email that she was fired for refusing to 'manually change data to drum up support for the plan to reopen'
But Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said that Jones was canned because of insubordination and called her 'disruptive’
DailyMail.com can reveal that she was fired in 2017 from Florida State University when she was a PhD student and instructor for having an affair with her student
Jones was charged with three counts of cyberstalking her student Garrett Sweeterman, then 21, who filed a restraining order against her
She allegedly created a 'revenge porn' website called SurvivingGarrett and sent the link to online boards focusing on women's issues and the #metoo movement
Jones posted at least 60 pages of a 342-page manifesto with a narrative of the affair with Sweeterman, including screen grabs of sexts between the two
She claims in the essay that the fling with Sweeterman led to a pregnancy. She gave birth to a little girl in mid-2018 and shares an eight-year-old son with her husband
#1
Like, who cares about her proclivities? If she refused to alter data, good for her. Weird that the article lists a bunch of stuff totally irrelevant vis-a-vis the COVID-19 stats.
#2
No one asked her to alter data. They asked her to temporarily disable the export capability until they had verified the data.
She also didn't "lead" anyone. She was a data entry clerk managing entering the data into a commercial service that generates the reports for you. She was the lowest ranking person on the team, and could have been replaced with anyone computer literate.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
05/27/2020 0:21
Comments ||
Top||
#3
Like, who cares about her proclivities?
It speaks to patterns of behavior.
Whacky in uno, Whacky in omnibus, or however that Latin saying goes.
Nice summary, by the way, Rob. 'Tis a pity actual journalists can't do as well.
Jones has not alleged any tampering with data on deaths, hospital symptom surveillance, hospitalizations for COVID-19, numbers of new confirmed cases, or overall testing rates — core elements of any assessment of the outbreak and of federal criteria for reopening. And Jones acknowledges Florida has been relatively transparent — for which she herself claims some credit — and relatively successful in controlling the pandemic.
She has, however, suggested Health Department managers wanted her to manipulate information to paint a rosier picture and that she pushed back. In an interview late Friday on CNN she finally cited some detail, after several days of vague statements.
#14
Linda Tripp = lying skank, according to the media
Paula Jones = lying skank, according to the media
Tara Reed = lying skank, according to the media
Blasey Ford = heroic truth teller, according to media
Julie Swetnick = only Avenatti would touch that one.
Stormie Daniels = only Avenatti would touch that one.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders = lying skank, according to the media
Kayleigh McEnany = lying skank, according to the media.
See the pattern?
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/27/2020 12:15
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Top||
#15
In an interview late Friday on CNN she finally cited some detail, after several days of vague statements.
Yes. Florida is not New York, New Jersey or Michigan. I'm sure she's lawyered up now and walking a tight rope. It will be a contest between her lawyer's advice and CNN's editors' coaching. She gets it wrong, some part of her anatomy will be caught in a wringer.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/27/2020 12:21
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#16
Writes a detailed 350 page book about having sex with (at least 1) a student. Last week being asked to commit fraud by the government, details are a bit fuzzy.
Twenty-three minute video with transcript, for those of us who prefer reading to listening.
[SharylAttkisson] Sharyl: Thank you for being on our program.
President Trump: Well, thank you.
Sharyl: Do you think that coronavirus has been as transformative to our country as 9/11 was?
President Trump: Well, I think the concept of 9/11 was, it was a little more direct. It was a hit by terrorists. But this is a hit. It came out of China, whether we like it or not, it came out of China. It could have been stopped. It came all over the world, but it didn't really go to China. They stopped their planes going into China, but they didn't stop their planes and their traffic going into the rest of the world, including the United States and Europe, and Europe is decimated. And you look at what happened all over the world, 186 countries. So now it's a very terrible thing and they could have stopped it if they wanted to, they could have stopped it. Either it was incompetent or they didn't want to, both are not very acceptable, by the way.
Sharyl: Can you take us to the moment when you remember first hearing about the highest projections? We're talking millions, and we had not been told that yet in the public, but I assume you were told that first. Were you thinking, how is this to be believed? Was it startling and frightening?
President Trump: So I was hearing millions of people, and it would have been millions of people if we didn't shut down. Now, would I shut it down again? No, because we understand it now much better. We didn't know anything about it, it was new, it was fresh.
Sharyl: You mean you would not have, in retrospect, shut down the-
President Trump: I would have done exactly. We've done the exact moves that I would have done. And I did it early. Tony Fauci, Dr. Birx, they all said what I did was incredible. In retrospect, Tony, as you know, never thought he was going to be as severe as it was. And we're talking about months later, a long time after I did the ban. I did a ban and nobody thought I should do it. I mean, literally I don't think anybody thought I should do it. I made that decision by myself and it turned out to be a great decision. Hundreds of thousands of lives are saved.
Sharyl: About four months ago, almost to the day, the first coronavirus victim in the United States was officially diagnosed.
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.
[Babylon Bee] SANTEE JUNCTION, MO—At an early voting location this morning, African American citizen Conroy Ferguson turned white after voting Republican. Witnesses also claim he aged about 10 years and become perceivably more stuffy and unpleasant. Upon checking his wallet, Ferguson found his name had also changed to Clinton Hemsley. 
[Breitbart] Up to 5,000 Chinese troops are now massed along the disputed Ladakh border with India, and according to Indian officials, not all of them are staying on China’s side of the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
[AlAhram] The U.S. military said on Tuesday that Russia has deployed fighter aircraft to Libya to support Russian mercenaries fighting for eastern forces, adding to concerns of a new escalation in the conflict.
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire...
...the Pashtun equivalent of men...
[Freebeacon] The Chinese government has established an unparalleled spying capacity in Africa by encouraging Chinese companies such as Huawei to construct government buildings across the continent, according to a recent report.
[Daily Wire] French intelligence officials reportedly warned in 2004 that building a Biosafety Level 4 (BSL-4) laboratory in Wuhan, China, could lead to a devastating outbreak because of China’s reputation for having poor biosecurity at its labs.
[NYP] Former acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell has declassified the transcripts of the phone calls between former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and former Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak, a senior administration official confirmed to The Post.
[Freebeacon] Liberal super PACs are pouring more than $200,000 into a contested Republican primary in New Mexico in an attempt to help the candidate they view as less electable clinch the GOP nomination.
...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...
[Federalist] New White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany isn’t letting so-called journalists get away with inane questions in the briefing room at the expense of real news, and the media don’t like it.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] ...says investigative journalist who exposed classified documents from whistleblower Edward Snowden 
...Self-proclaimed Field Marshal, served in the Libyan army under Muammar Qadaffy, and took part in the coup that brought Qadaffy to power in 1969. He became a prisoner of war in Chad in 1987. While held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Qadaffy, so it's kind of hard to describe him as a Qadaffy holdover. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades in the United States, gaining US citizenship. In 1993, while living in the United States, he was convicted in absentia of crimes against the Jamahiriya and sentenced to death. Haftar held a senior position in the anti-Qadaffy forces in the 2011 Libyan Civil War. In 2014 he was commander of the Libyan Army when the General National Congress (GNC) refused to give up power in accordance with its term of office. Haftar launched a campaign against the GNC and its Islamic fundamentalist allies. His campaign allowed elections to take place to replace the GNC, but then developed into a civil war. Guess you can't win them all. Actually, he is, but slowly...
[NYPOST] In 2013, Mayor de Blasio rode to Gracie Mansion with the theme of "A Tale of Two Cities," decrying New York City’s class divide, between rich and poor, haves and have-nots. Seven years later, with his threat to "pull" New Yorkers "right out" of the water should they dare go into the sea, Hizzoner has made clear which side of that divide he sits on.
[FoxNews] New York officials have scrubbed Gov. Andrew Cuomo's March 25 order requiring nursing homes to take in COVID-19 patients from the state health department website -- even as Cuomo's office insists that the order, which has been linked to thousands of nursing home deaths, remains in effect.
In state and federal courts, the parties have argued and gotten orders from judges to allow more people to vote by mail. Those orders have been appealed and fought over.
If no action is taken, the plaintiffs said, Texas could see a repeat of the Wisconsin primary elections in April when voters stood in long lines and didn't follow social distancing guidelines.
[FoxNews] Who would have thought so many people would be interested in free booze during one of the most depressing eras in recent history?
[BREITBART] An illegal alien charged with sexually assaulting three underage girls has 
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling 
...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State...
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] ...which 'minimise the risk of transmitting coronavirus' to enable brothels to end lockdown in Switzerland
[Politico] In early April, Jason Furman, a top economist in the Obama administration and now a professor at Harvard, was speaking via Zoom to a large bipartisan group of top officials from both parties. The economy had just been shut down, unemployment was spiking and some policymakers were predicting an era worse than the Great Depression. The economic carnage seemed likely to doom President Donald Trump’s chances at reelection.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] ... for having affair with a student and charged with stalking, threatening him with revenge porn, writing a 342-page manifesto on their sex life 
