The media began reporting on the Wuhan coronavirus, then labelled a flu-like virus, a virus originating in a bat indingeous to China, back in early November 2019. I posted that news on this blog, thinking back then, "this will spread globally, which is why it's being reported, many of these people have had the flu shot and they're sick and dying from this virus, by Christmas it will be global". Today, May 2020, the government of China and the state-run Chinese media and online conspiracy theorists are successfully pushing the lie that the virus began in the US and was spread to China by Americans.
A brigade of trolls is spreading conspiracy theories about a U.S. Army reservist, falsely claiming that she is "COVID-19 patient zero" and responsible for starting the coronavirus pandemic. Maatje Benassi is a civilian security officer stationed at Fort Belvoir in Virginia. Since March she and her husband Matt, also a government employee at the military base, have been targeted in YouTube videos and social media posts that wrongly claim she contracted COVID-19 in October while competing in the Military World Games, which were hosted in Wuhan, China. Neither Benassi or her husband have tested positive for or experienced symptoms of COVID-19. Hundreds of competitors participate in the Military World Games, a multi-sport competition like the Olympics which is held in a different city every four years. Why Benassi was singled out is unknown, but the harassment has changed her life. She told CNN that the trolling is incessant; conspiracy theory followers shared her home address and flooded her social media accounts with threats and menacing posts. "It's like waking up from a bad dream going into a nightmare day after day," she said. Many of the videos targeting Benassi and her husband were viewed hundreds of thousands of times on YouTube after the conspiracy was amplified by Chinese diplomats and state-run media. In February, The Global Times, a site run by the Chinese Communist Party's People's Daily newspaper, alleged that coronavirus was brought to China from a U.S. military base during the World Games. A few weeks later, Lijian Zhou, a Chinese diplomat, reinforced the conspiracy theory in a tweet that speculated, "It might be US army who brought the epidemic to Wuhan." The use of state media to amplify online conspiracies is part of a broad strategy to deflect and reframe the coronavirus narrative away from China, said Priscilla Moriuchi, a senior researcher at Recorded Future, a cybersecurity firm that specializes in digital threat assessment. Moriuchi told CBS News that the coronavirus pandemic provided China with an opportunity to present a binary comparison between the Chinese government's response and the West's. "China has leveraged its social media operations to conflate the speed and success of its response to the COVID-19 crisis, exaggerate its international aid efforts, shift the blame for the pandemic away from the Chinese government, and change the narrative from China as the source of the pandemic to China as a global leader in its response," Moriuchi said. The strategic goal of Chinese leadership, said Moriuchi, is to counter a negative story about the country by using social media to elevate pro-China stories, attack enemies, and generate confusion by sharing conspiracy theories — including scapegoating victims like Benassi.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/coronavirus-patient-zero-china-trolls/
https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/27/tech/coronavirus-conspiracy-theory/index.html
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-13/chinese-official-pushes-conspiracy-theory-u-s-army-behind-virus
https://fsi.stanford.edu/news/china-covid19-origin-narrative
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/04/chinas-covid-19-conspiracy-theories/609772/
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/chinese-official-spreads-conspiracy-theory-us-army-coronavirus-wuhan-china-lijian-zhao/
We know, dumb scientists, stop flooding our news everyday telling us what we've already known since January: Recovered patients who tested positive for covid-19 not reinfected, they tested positive for dead virus fragments that can linger in the body | Rather, the method used to detect the coronavirus, called polymerase chain reaction (PCR), cannot distinguish between genetic material (RNA or DNA) from infectious virus and the "dead" virus fragments that can linger in the body long after a person recovers, Dr. Oh Myoung-don, a Seoul National University Hospital doctor, said at a news briefing Thursday (April 30), according to The Korea Herald. These tests "are very simple," said Carol Shoshkes Reiss, a professor of Biology and Neural Science at New York University, who was not involved in the testing. "Although somebody can recover and no longer be infectious, they may still have these little fragments of [inactive] viral RNA which turn out positive on those tests."
https://www.livescience.com/coronavirus-reinfections-were-false-positives.html
A simple technique to “illuminate the exits” in trawl fishing nets can almost halve the numbers of unwanted catch, new research has found, potentially protecting both the environment and fishermen’s livelihoods. Attaching LED lights to larger holes in nets, intended to allow non-target species to escape, dramatically reduced the numbers killed unnecessarily, a team from Bangor University found. The research, published in Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, inverts an old fishing technique of shining a light on water to attract fish into a net.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/may/01/led-lights-halve-unwanted-fish-in-nets-research-finds
Almost 1,000 women murdered in Mexico during first quarter | Almost one thousand women were murdered in Mexico in the first three months of the year, new figures show. The news comes as campaigners warn the country is witnessing a rise in domestic abuse in the wake of the coronavirus emergency. Government figures show the number of women killed was eight per cent higher than in the same time period last year. At least 720 women were murdered in the first quarter of the year and 244 women were victims of femicide, the government said. Femicides, defined as the gender-motivated killing of women, are prevalent in Mexico and the femicide rate has more than doubled in the past five years. Campaigners are fearful troubling rates of violence could increase during the coronavirus lockdown which has seen measures extended until at least the end of May.
https://www.theyucatantimes.com/2020/04/almost-1000-women-murdered-in-mexico-during-first-quarter/
COVID-19 Deaths Are Being Linked to Vitamin D Deficiency | A vitamin commonly produced by sun-exposed skin cells might play a role in preventing death by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, according to new research. Preliminary results from a yet-to-be-peer-reviewed study carried out by scientists from the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Foundation Trust and the University of East Anglia have linked low levels of the hormone vitamin D with COVID-19 mortality rates across Europe. It's a study that certainly deserves some attention as a potential piece of the coronavirus puzzle, reminding us that health and disease can be a complex affair involving a variety of lifestyle factors. But it's also important to interpret evidence like this as part of a bigger scientific conversation, meaning it would be premature to make any recommendations and certainly way too premature to hit the supplement aisle before further evidence arrives. | "The most vulnerable group of population for COVID-19 is also the one that has the most deficit in vitamin D," the researchers conclude in their preliminary report.
https://www.sciencealert.com/covid-deaths-are-being-linked-with-vitamin-d-deficiency-here-s-what-that-means
https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-21211/v1
Facing an emboldened Taliban, and with less U.S. military support, Afghan forces have suffered heavy casualties during a two-month surge in violence across the country that is threatening to jeopardize a fragile peace deal between the United States and the Taliban. A U.S. military assessment describes Taliban attacks on Afghan forces in March as “above seasonal norms,” according to a quarterly report released Thursday by the Office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR). According to the Afghan National Security Council, the Taliban has carried out an average of 55 attacks a day since March 1 — a spike that has doubled casualties among Afghan security forces in some parts of the country, officials say. “The numbers show Taliban doing nothing for peace and everything to continue their campaign of terror against Afghans,” the council’s spokesman, Javid Faisal, said on Twitter. | The increase in violence comes as U.S. officials struggle to keep the Taliban peace deal on track. The February agreement ended offensive operations between U.S. forces and the militant group and set a deadline of March 10 for the beginning of talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government. Those talks have yet to begin, and some fear the violence could be sapping what little momentum followed the signing of the deal. Two Afghan security officials and a senior government official say Taliban fighters used a week of reduced violence in the lead-up to the peace deal to regroup. Now, with fewer U.S. airstrikes applying pressure to Taliban forces on the battlefield, Taliban fighters are launching more deadly attacks on Afghan government positions, the officials said. All three spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. | The U.S.-Taliban peace deal does not prohibit Taliban attacks on the Afghan government, but following the deal, U.S. officials had said they expected violence levels to remain low. Taliban leaders have balked at calls for reduced violence, blaming the Afghan government and U.S. forces for the continued hostilities.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/taliban-attacks-in-afghanistan-surge-after-us-peace-deal-inflicting-heavy-casualties/2020/04/30/1362fb40-88c0-11ea-80df-d24b35a568ae_story.html
https://twitter.com/Javidfaisal/status/1253983501059227648
Joe Biden statement: "I want to address allegations by a former staffer that I engaged in misconduct 27 years ago. They aren’t true. This never happened." He also called on the Secretary of the Senate to ask National Archives to look in his old papers to see if any record of the complaint she alleges she filed be released.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/joe-biden-denies-he-sexually-assaulted-a-former-senate-aide/2020/05/01/08d59662-8b39-11ea-9dfd-990f9dcc71fc_story.html
^That is the most explicitally specific direct denial a person can give. It's linguistically factual, free of deception, straightforward, and more importantly than anything else, legally binding (should she sue him for money, anything he says about the allegations is legally binding). It perfectly passes a statement validity assessment.
________________
Biden's full statement:
https://medium.com/@JoeBiden/statement-by-vice-president-joe-biden-7a9593bd3012
Statement by Vice President Joe Biden
April was Sexual Assault Awareness Month. Every year, at this time, we talk about awareness, prevention, and the importance of women feeling they can step forward, say something, and be heard. That belief – that women should be heard – was the underpinning of a law I wrote over 25 years ago. To this day, I am most proud of the Violence Against Women Act. So, each April we are reminded not only of how far we have come in dealing with sexual assault in this country – but how far we still have to go.
When I wrote the bill, few wanted to talk about the issue. It was considered a private matter, a personal matter, a family matter. I didn’t see it that way. To me, freedom from fear, harm, and violence for women was a legal right, a civil right, and a human right. And I knew we had to change not only the law, but the culture.
So, we held hours of hearings and heard from the most incredibly brave women – and we opened the eyes of the Senate and the nation – and passed the law.
In the years that followed, I fought to continually strengthen the law. So, when we took office and President Obama asked me what I wanted, I told him I wanted oversight of the critical appointments in the Office on Violence Against Women at the Department of Justice and I wanted a senior White House Advisor appointing directly to me on the issue. Both of those things happened.
As Vice President, we started the “It’s on Us” campaign on college campuses to send the message loud and clear that dating violence is violence – and against the law.
We had to get men involved. They had to be part of the solution. That’s why I made a point of telling young men this was their problem too – they couldn’t turn a blind eye to what was happening around them – they had a responsibility to speak out. Silence is complicity.
In the 26 years since the law passed, the culture and perceptions have changed but we’re not done yet.
It’s on us, and it’s on me as someone who wants to lead this country. I recognize my responsibility to be a voice, an advocate, and a leader for the change in culture that has begun but is nowhere near finished. So I want to address allegations by a former staffer that I engaged in misconduct 27 years ago.
They aren’t true. This never happened.
While the details of these allegations of sexual harassment and sexual assault are complicated, two things are not complicated. One is that women deserve to be treated with dignity and respect, and when they step forward they should be heard, not silenced. The second is that their stories should be subject to appropriate inquiry and scrutiny.
Responsible news organizations should examine and evaluate the full and growing record of inconsistencies in her story, which has changed repeatedly in both small and big ways.
But this much bears emphasizing.
She has said she raised some of these issues with her supervisor and senior staffers from my office at the time. They – both men and a woman – have said, unequivocally, that she never came to them and complained or raised issues. News organizations that have talked with literally dozens of former staffers have not found one – not one – who corroborated her allegations in any way. Indeed, many of them spoke to the culture of an office that would not have tolerated harassment in any way – as indeed I would not have.
There is a clear, critical part of this story that can be verified. The former staffer has said she filed a complaint back in 1993. But she does not have a record of this alleged complaint. The papers from my Senate years that I donated to the University of Delaware do not contain personnel files. It is the practice of Senators to establish a library of personal papers that document their public record: speeches, policy proposals, positions taken, and the writing of bills.
There is only one place a complaint of this kind could be – the National Archives. The National Archives is where the records are kept at what was then called the Office of Fair Employment Practices. I am requesting that the Secretary of the Senate ask the Archives to identify any record of the complaint she alleges she filed and make available to the press any such document. If there was ever any such complaint, the record will be there.
As a Presidential candidate, I’m accountable to the American people. We have lived long enough with a President who doesn’t think he is accountable to anyone, and takes responsibility for nothing. That’s not me. I believe being accountable means having the difficult conversations, even when they are uncomfortable. People need to hear the truth.
I have spent my career learning from women the ways in which we as individuals and as policy makers need to step up to make their hard jobs easier, with equal pay, equal opportunity, and workplaces and homes free from violence and harassment. I know how critical women’s health issues and basic women’s rights are. That has been a constant through my career, and as President, that work will continue. And I will continue to learn from women, to listen to women, to support women, and yes, to make sure women’s voices are heard.
We have a lot of work to do. From confronting online harassment, abuse, and stalking, to ending the rape kit backlog, to addressing the deadly combination of guns and domestic violence.
We need to protect and empower the most marginalized communities, including immigrant and indigenous women, trans women, and women of color.
We need to make putting an end to gender-based violence in both the United States and around the world a top priority.
I started my work over 25 years ago with the passage of the Violence Against Women Act. As president, I’m committed to finishing the job.
________________
Pence threatened to punish the reporter who proved his office knowingly ignored the rule that he needed a mask to visit Mayo Clinic
https://www.businessinsider.com/pence-threatened-reporter-proved-knew-mayo-clinic-mask-rule-2020-5
Pence staff threatens action against reporter who tweeted about visit to clinic without surgical mask
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/media/pence-staff-threatens-action-against-reporter-who-tweeted-about-visit-to-clinic-without-surgical-mask/2020/04/30/27c63056-8b0a-11ea-9dfd-990f9dcc71fc_story.html
Biden did a fantastic job in the interview, the interview will be a net positive for him in the long run. Not only is he being as respectful as someone who is calling someone else a lying liar who lies can be, but he's also inviting investigation. And when he was pressed on why limit any complaints filed to Reade, he expanded to any complaint as he's always run a clean office and isn't aware of any ethic etc complaints filed in his time in Office.
Biden: It never happened. With her or any person. But please investigate it and I will cooperate fully. Look for any records that might exist of the complaint. Talk to my former staff. I have nothing to hide.
Trump: She's a nasty liar. That other one is a liar too. All those 2 DOZEN other women are lying too! And some of them are ugly! Look at her? I wouldn't sexually assault someone so ugly. I'd move on her like a bitch and grab her by the pussy if she looked good but not if she's ugly. I'm going to fight this in court. I refuse to cooperate. Everyone's lying. The other other one signed an NDA and can't talk about it because my lawyer, who is in jail right now, took care of that for me. I'm looking very strongly into fucking my daughter.
If you actually look at the facts so far, they're already dubious. Reade has changed her story multiple times, has publicly praised Biden and his track record on helping women (which someone who was raped by Biden would almost certainly not do), and waited through 40 years of Senate elections and 2 VP runs to finally say something. We should believe all women, by god damn, if shit like this doesn't make you doubt her allegations. She now says she never filed a complaint with the Senate personnel or ethics department. Isn't this allegedly why she was fired? She also changed her blog to reflect her current allegation right before she took it public. Before it was something mild like made her uncomfortable, she changed it to rape and then went on a podcast and opened this can or worms for herself. It went from, "This is not about sexual assault but about abuse of power," to "this is about sexual assault and abusive power". She actually has stated before she was abused by her father, but did not clarify how. And her father, an author, actually published a fiction book with a sexual assault seen very similar to what she described.
DeVos sued for seizing student loan borrowers' wages during pandemic | Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is continuing to garnish the wages of federal student loan borrowers who fall behind on payments even though Congress suspended the practice in the economic rescue package, according to a new lawsuit. An upstate New York woman who works as a home health aide for less than $13 an hour claimed in the lawsuit, filed late Thursday, that the federal government seized more than $70 from her paycheck as recently as last week — nearly a full month after Trump signed the CARES Act into law. She is suing on behalf of about 285,000 borrowers whose wages are being garnished, according to the lawsuit.
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/05/01/devos-sued-for-seizing-student-loan-borrowers-wages-during-pandemic-228519
https://www.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.217544/gov.uscourts.dcd.217544.1.0_1.pdf
Here's a timeline:
- December 1992 — August 1993 — Tara Reade worked as a Senate aide in Joe Biden’s office.
- 2009 — Reade commended Biden for actions he has taken against domestic violence.
- 2017 — Reade repeatedly attacked Putin and Russia on Twitter for election interference and for Russian legislation that legalized domestic violence.
- 2017 — Reade repeatedly praised Joe Biden through tweets, retweets and “likes” on Twitter. On multiple occasions she boosts him for his work on helping end sexual assault.
- 2018 — Reade claims she liked Russia since she left Washington DC (Over a decade ago), and praised Putin and Russia over and over again. She also directly praised Putin for his treatment of women in multiple articles.
- January of 2019 — Reade first begins talking about her sexual harassment allegations against Joe Biden on Twitter.
- March, 2019 — Reade continues to praise Putin.
- April, 2019 — Reade comes forward with her original allegations against Biden, but says his actions were NOT “sexualization,” but rather compared his actions toward her as being demeaning and treating her like a “pretty” lamp that is thrown away when it’s too bright. She also claimed that her story was not “a story about sexual misconduct.”
- September 2019 — Reade calls on Joe Biden to be investigated for his dealings with Ukraine.
- January, 2020 — Reade continues to praise Vladimir Putin on Twitter.
- March, 2020 — Reade comes forward again, this time claiming that Joe Biden did sexually assault her in 1993.
- March, 2020 — Reade tells Vox News that she started liking Putin and Russia in 2018 after “watching Noam Chomsky,” but no longer likes Putin after finding out about domestic violence in Russia. (note: in 2018 she claimed to have loved Russia since over a decade ago, and in 2017 she was posting tweets on her account related to Russia’s domestic violence.)
https://medium.com/@eddiekrassenstein/evidence-casts-doubt-on-tara-reades-sexual-assault-allegations-of-joe-biden-e4cb3ee38460
Tara: "I filed a complaint."
Biden: "Let's go find that complaint."
Tara: "I didn't file a complaint."
Canada bans assault weapons, including 1500+ models and variants | Prime Minister Justin Trudeau today announced a ban on some 1,500 makes and models of military-grade "assault-style" weapons in Canada, effective immediately. Starting today, licensed gun owners will no longer be allowed to sell, transport, import or use these sorts of weapons in this country. "As of today, the market for assault weapons in Canada is closed," Public Safety Minister Bill Blair said. "Enough is enough. Banning these firearms will save Canadian lives." Trudeau said there will be a two-year amnesty period to allow people who already own these firearms to comply with the ban. Trudeau promised to pass legislation in the coming months to provide "fair compensation" to people who own these firearms.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-gun-control-measures-ban-1.5552131
A northern region of Japan is experiencing a second wave of coronavirus infections - and deaths - that experts say could have been avoided if the state of emergency had not been lifted too early. The island of Hokkaido had been held up as a model of how to control the spread of the virus, but it has now become a case study for the impact the disease can have if a lockdown is relaxed too soon. And experts say they hope that other cities and nations that are toying with the idea of lifting restrictions on travel, work and schools can learn from Hokkaido’s experience. Naomichi Suzuki, the prefectural governor, on February 29 declared a state of emergency in response to a sharp increase in coronavirus cases, all of which could be traced back to the Sapporo Snow Festival at the beginning of the month. The annual event attracted more than 2 million people to the city, with local health authorities treating a Chinese tourist from Wuhan who had contracted the illness before arriving in Hokkaido.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/04/29/japanese-island-suffering-avoidable-second-wave/
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/04/28/france-spain-set-announce-lockdown-exit-strategies/
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/04/20/japan-virus-cases-surge-despite-nationwide-state-emergency-doctors/
Indigenous Group in Brazil Wins Decades-Long Battle Over Illegal Logging | The Ashaninka indigenous community in Brazil has won a two-decade federal court dispute against illegal logging interests, receiving $3 million in compensation and an official apology from companies for cutting down thousands of mahogany, cedar, and other tree species in the Kampa do Rio Amônia Indigenous Reserve. The settlement was finalized April 1, according to a press release from the federal public prosecutor.
https://e360.yale.edu/digest/indigenous-group-in-brazil-wins-decades-long-battle-over-illegal-logging
http://www.mpf.mp.br/pgr/noticias-pgr/acordo-historico-garante
As the climate has warmed, Antarctica and Greenland have lost enough ice in the last 16 years to fill Lake Michigan, according to results from a new NASA mission. Put another way, more than 5,000 gigatons of ice has melted (a gigaton equals one billion metric tons or enough to fill 400,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools), which drove up sea levels around the world. The findings show how the massive ice sheets at the far ends of the planet will affect millions of people on coastlines everywhere.
https://www.npr.org/2020/04/30/848398472/antarctica-and-greenland-are-losing-thousands-of-gigatons-of-ice-thats-a-lot
https://science.sciencemag.org/cgi/doi/10.1126/science.aaz5845
Joe has welcomed the woman to tell her story. He has welcomed the media to investigate it. He has welcomed for the retrieval of any records that exist. He has also denied the charge and also pointed out that none of his former staff have any record of such charge. Additionally, Reade has consistently changed her story and in the past has praised Biden, including when he ran for VP (twice) as well as President. I don’t find her story credible nor do I view Joe as acting like he has something to hide. He’s not imposing gag orders and NDA or trying to smear his accuser.
It wasn't just that she didn't come forward. She went out of her way to publicly praise Biden, specifically on his support for victims of sexual assault.
Biden: I deny it and believe that the assault should be investigated
Trump: Look at her, do you think I would be with her
Totally the same guys
She now says she never filed a complaint despite repeatedly saying she filed a complaint: Tara Reade tells us that at the time, in 1993, she complained to the Senate personnel office that Biden had "made her feel uncomfortable," but she says she did not mention an assault and she has no record of the complaint. Biden calling for any records to be released.
https://twitter.com/marykbruce/status/1256197317235027968
If there were records, the Obama campaign would have uncovered them when they vetted him for the VP spot. There are no records...because this DIDN'T HAPPEN.
The moment she went from hating Putin to saying " His sensuous image projects his love for life, the embodiment of grace while facing adversity" and "And like most women across the world, I like President Putin… a lot, his shirt on or shirt off" is when she lost credibility....The ultimate credibility blow was retroactively changing her April 2019 blog post to match the March 2019 story....And that’s just the tip of the iceberg really
Trump says the protesters - many of whom were were armed with rifles and other assault weapons - who stormed Michigan’s Capitol on Thursday are "very good people". These people also previously waved and wore Confederate flags and swastikas too and they were told by their handlers to leave them home because of optics. Imagine a bunch of "very good people" swarming the White House Rose Garden or Camp David. Imagine if they were armed with military-style weapons and were African-American and wore Black Panthers insignia. He has no clue who a good human being is.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1256202305680158720
But many of the protesters went off-script. Many stood close together and didn't wear face masks, flouting the social distancing guidelines experts recommend to stop the virus from spreading. There were Confederate flags, signs calling Whitmer a bitch, and signs insinuating that the governor should be lynched. Of course, the protesters were largely white — because can anyone imagine Black or brown people walking into a government building with guns without getting shot? (In Michigan, violating the stay-at-home order is punishable by fines of up to $1,000. No word on if police issued any tickets. It is legal to bring guns into the Capitol.)
https://www.metrotimes.com/news-hits/archives/2020/05/01/trump-calls-armed-protesters-in-michigan-very-good-people-says-gov-whitmer-should-make-a-deal
After a hiatus of 417 days, new extreme racist White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany will address reporters from the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room in her first official Press Briefing It is unknown if regular Press Briefings will return. They're doing this because of Joe Biden's appearance on Morning Joe.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8277789/New-White-House-press-secretary-McEnany-hold-1st-briefing.html
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/495613-trumps-new-press-secretary-to-hold-first-formal-briefing-friday
- I’m with the President all dayabsorbing his thinking
- 2 minutes later: I have no idea how the President feels about that issue.
Being late is supposed to be some sort of pathetic power play but to everybody watching it looks rude and unprofessional as well as showing that the administration is unprepared and disorganized.
She looks like a female version of Trump with that spray tan
She literally is going to a book with pre-written answers LOL
"The highly rated coronavirus briefings"
Jerome Corsi Accidentally Emailed Former Mueller Prosecutor Evidence of Coronavirus-Related Fraud | Right-wing conspiracy theorist Jerome Corsi, who famously dodged charges in Robert Mueller’s Russia probe, accidentally sent an email last month about a hydroxychloroquine project to a former Mueller prosecutor that may have contained incriminating evidence against Corsi and his associate, a doctor who frequently appears on conservative news outlets, the Washington Post reported late Thursday night. Corsi had intended to send the email to Dr. Vladimir “Zev” Zelenko, but failed to realize that his contact list auto-populated the recipient line with federal prosecutor Aaron Zelinsky. Zelinsky was one of the federal investigators Corsi lied to about his contacts with Roger Stone regarding WikiLeaks before Corsi eventually became a witness for the prosecution in Stone’s criminal trial. Zelenko, a family doctor in Kiryas Joel, a rural New York village of 35,000, became a conservative media darling after claiming – without providing any data or corroborating evidence – to have cured COVID-19 coronavirus patients using the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine. Zelenko’s visibility increased thereafter. “Sean Hannity, the Fox News host, quickly promoted Dr. Zelenko’s claims on his TV and radio shows. Mark Meadows, the incoming White House chief of staff, called Dr. Zelenko to ask about his treatment plan. And Rudy Giuliani, Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer, praised him in a podcast interview this week for ‘thinking of solutions, just like the president,’” the New York Times reported in early April.
https://lawandcrime.com/awkward/jerome-corsi-may-have-accidentally-emailed-former-mueller-prosecutor-evidence-of-coronavirus-related-fraud/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/vladimir-zev-zelenko-fox-news-trump-hydroxychloroquine-jerome-corsi/2020/04/30/82622456-8af2-11ea-ac8a-fe9b8088e101_story.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/02/technology/doctor-zelenko-coronavirus-drugs.html
Trump's former attorney and fixer Michael Cohen will not be leaving prison to serve out the rest of his term in home confinement, according to sources familiar with the matter. Two weeks ago, the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) had notified Cohen that he would be released early from prison due to the COVID-19 outbreak, Cohen's attorney Roger Adler told ABC News at the time. | It appears that other prisoners at Otisville who were granted home confinement have also lost those privileges, according to the sources. The BOP has not responded to requests for comment from ABC News.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/michael-cohens-early-prison-release-coronavirus-concerns-rescinded/story?id=70456164
Basically, Moore and his colleagues have made a film attacking renewable energy as a sham and arguing that the environmental movement is just a tool of corporations trying to make money off green energy. “One of the most dangerous things right now is the illusion that alternative technologies, like wind and solar, are somehow different from fossil fuels,” Ozzie Zehner, one of the film’s producers, tells the camera. When visiting a solar facility, he insists: “You use more fossil fuels to do this than you’re getting benefit from it. You would have been better off just burning the fossil fuels.” That’s not true, not in the least — the time it takes a solar panel to pay back the energy used to build it is well under four years, so since it lasts three decades, it means 90% of the power it produces is pollution-free, compared with zero percent of the power from burning fossil fuels.
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/political-commentary/bill-mckibben-climate-movement-michael-moore-993073/
The White House is blocking Anthony S. Fauci from testifying before a House committee investigating the coronavirus outbreak and response, the panel’s spokesman said Friday. Evan Hollander, spokesman for the House Appropriations Committee, said the panel had sought Fauci’s testimony for a hearing next week but that Trump administration officials denied the request. The committee was told by an administration official that the denial came from the White House.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2020/05/01/congress-fauci-coronavirus/
Biden's formal request submitted to the Secretary of the Senate
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EW9k_qYXkAAhjbS.jpg
Kim Jong-un's 19-day absence from the public view is not highly unusual considering the increased intervals between his public appearances of late. Between 2012 and 2020, most of his appearances in public have been after gaps of less than 15 days. But this year alone, Kim Jong-un disappeared for 21 days between Jan. 26 and Feb. 16, and for 19 days between March 22 and April 10. The media needs to drop their conspiracy theories - designed to incite the North Korean dictator - and track his movements with more caution and reason and less speculation, using context and past examples of longer gaps between his appearances to guide them.
https://nkinfo.unikorea.go.kr/nkp/trend/publicEvent.do
N.K. leader makes first public appearance in 20 days. No picture(s) or text with this headline. Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead.
https://en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20200502000300325
As number of dead from coronavirus now above 64,000, Trump just said "hopefully we are going to come in below that hundred thousand lives lost." He had been saying between 50-60,000 or 70,000 in recent days.
Now owning and even exaggerating the same early estimates he said were a hoax.
https://twitter.com/ChrisCuomo/status/1256331532962107392
Trump: "Our finished number" (of deaths) could mean that we saved 1 million lives, or even 1.5 million lives, or even 2.1 million or 2.5 million lives.
https://twitter.com/ddale8/status/1256330150066544641
Imagine if this context were present with biden? Would trumpers condone such a legal play?
Great point, even though as of right now I don't believe you: I am an "old Allegation." I am STILL waiting for Trump to provide his DNA sample to be tested against the dress I wore when he attacked me. His lawyers replied to my request by seeking to DELAY my lawsuit.
https://twitter.com/ejeancarroll/status/1256301599426785280
Great point, even though I don't believe her: Since people are talking about Blasey Ford I thought I'd share this piece about her friends swearing she'd told a consistent story since 2012. Their affidavits came out the same day as the weird Avenatti affidavit, tho, which totally overshadowed them
https://twitter.com/ArthurDelaneyHP/status/1256289374356090885
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/christine-blasey-ford-affidavits_n_5bb660bbe4b01470d04fcc5d
A Manhattan Nursing Home Reported 13 Coronavirus Deaths To The State. The Real Number Was Closer To 100
https://gothamist.com/news/manhattan-nursing-home-reported-13-coronavirus-deaths-state-real-number-was-closer-100
For everyone who expected nothing but softballs for Joe Biden on Morning Joe, Mika attacked him with persistent, tough questions and followups. It's now time for Trump to sit for an interview and take questions like this about allegations made by Jessica Leeds and Kristin Anderson and Jill Harth and Lisa Boyne and Mariah Billado and Victoria Hughes and Temple Taggart and Cathy Heller and Karen Virginia and Tasha Dixon and Bridget Sullivan and Melinda McGillivray and Natasha Stoynoff and Jennifer Murphy and Juliet Huddy and Rachel Crooks and Samantha Holvey and Jessica Drake and Ninni Laaksonen and Summer Zervos and Cassandra Searles and Karen Johnson and on and on and on
https://time.com/5058646/donald-trump-accusers/
The antiviral lockdowns have banned most large gatherings: baseball games, sales conferences, college graduations, and religious services. Religious services are governed by the same rule as other large gatherings. They are neither specially targeted nor specially exempted. Justice Antonin Scalia explained the justification for applying general rules to religious groups in a 1990 Supreme Court decision: "We have never held that an individual’s religious beliefs excuse him from compliance with an otherwise valid law prohibiting conduct that the State is free to regulate." But over the past three weeks, some conservatives have argued louder and louder that the failure to exempt religious services from the general rules during the coronavirus pandemic constitutes an anti-constitutional attack on religion. | It needs to be stressed at the outset that almost all faith groups in the United States have voluntarily and responsibly complied with public-health restrictions. Two dozen Muslim groups signed a statement on the eve of Ramadan urging Muslims to celebrate the holy month in rituals at home, not in mosques or Islamic centers. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints suspended all services worldwide on March 12. Catholic churches likewise suspended public Mass. Cellphone records confirm that the large majority of Christian worshippers marked Easter at home. | It’s not discrimination when the same health and safety rules are applied equally to all. When states enforce rules against such gatherings, they are not singling out “religious observance.” They are including religious observance on a list defined by the most neutral of possible terms: risk of infection. Churches are bound by fire codes, just like other institutions, and the same principle articulated in Scalia’s 1990 opinion in Employment Division v. Smith applies here. It’s especially not discrimination to apply universal health and safety rules to religious assemblies when there is ample evidence that religious assemblies—much more than beaches or parks—have proved capable of spreading the virus. An outbreak in Georgia traces to a church funeral in Dougherty County, one in Louisiana to a megachurch that ignored social distancing. | But the purpose of the Trump administration and Barr’s Justice Department is not to defend genuine religious liberties from real-world threats. It is to stoke cultural resentment for political purposes. They are out to get you because they care more about alien Muslims than about authentically American Christians. As MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough has aptly said, you cannot fight a culture war against a virus. The virus will always win. But the Trump administration is not fighting the virus, not primarily anyway. Its priority is to fight an election—and to incite fights against governors who are making Trump look bad in comparison as a tactic in that election. Inviting people of faith, and especially evangelical Protestants, to imagine themselves as victims is today’s incitement. Tomorrow there will be other incitements. And at every turn, public health will be sacrificed—and the people Trump supposedly champions will end up as the victims of the plague that Trump did not start, but that Trump is making so much worse than it had to be.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/05/trump-brings-religion-coronavirus-culture-war/611044/
https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/494/872
https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2020/04/17/cell-phone-data-coronavirus-churchgoers-home-easter/
https://imana.org/imana-backup/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/National-Muslim-Task-Force-Joint-Statement-for-Ramadan_04-23.pdf
https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2020/03/12/lds-church-suspends-all/
https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2020/03/31/coronavirus-has-cancelled-public-masses-how-can-we-participate-our-own-homes
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/30/us/coronavirus-funeral-albany-georgia.html
https://www.thedailybeast.com/member-of-tony-spells-life-tabernacle-church-in-baton-rouge-dies-from-coronavirus-another-member-in-icu
Trump and Pence are using White House events and renewed travel to project a return to normalcy -- while relying on the rapid, wide-scale coronavirus testing that public lacks | Yet even as Trump aides have signaled that he could soon begin regular travel, the reality is that the White House has created a picture of security that is propped up by special access to the kind of wide-scale covid-19 testing that most of the nation remains without.
Trump, Vice President Pence and their aides are tested regularly, and all who enter the White House campus to meet with them are required to undergo on-site rapid tests developed by Abbott Laboratories, which provide results within 15 minutes.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-white-house-events-coronavirus-testing/2020/05/01/21a9b5bc-8bbe-11ea-ac8a-fe9b8088e101_story.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-rapid-coronavirus-tests-abott/2020/04/07/98e44a76-78e9-11ea-a130-df573469f094_story.html
She promised never to lie. Then Kayleigh McEnany misquoted the FBI notes on Flynn, misstated what Trump said in a tweet, and exaggerated the cost and outcome of the Mueller investigation. Fact check on the new press secretary’s first briefing:
https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/01/politics/mcenany-first-briefing-fact-check-may-1/index.html
This denial may hurt his chances with Trump supporters.....
150K flamingos have taken over Mumbai while city is in lockdown. (Yes, those little dots are all flamingos).
https://twitter.com/ianbremmer/status/1256252288718512128
It's real. Happens every year, but this year there is a 25% increase. Here's video:
https://twitter.com/DonnaCordova/status/1256262151007657984
Citing conditions that amount to ”cruel and unusual punishment,” a Miami federal judge ordered U.S. immigration authorities Thursday night to release hundreds of detainees held at three South Florida detention centers. In a strongly worded 12-page order filed late Thursday, U.S. District Judge Marcia G. Cooke said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has acted with “deliberate indifference” to the condition of its detainees. She ordered the agency to report to her within three days how it plans to cut its non-criminal and medically vulnerable populations by the hundreds. The judge also ordered the agency to submit weekly reports on the releases. After 10 days, ICE is to begin filing twice-weekly reports. Within two days, she ordered, ICE shall also provide masks to all detainees and replace them once a week.
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/immigration/article242399751.html
German farmers sweat as pig fever reaches western Poland: SARS-CoV-2 is not the only virus wreaking havoc in Europe, there's also African Swine Fever, a disease transmitted from wild boar to farmed pigs. Western Poland is currently on the front line, and Germans are worried
https://www.dw.com/en/german-farmers-sweat-as-pig-fever-reaches-western-poland/a-53288878
He had direct knowledge the vice president of the US just lied to the American people. The info he shared did not compromise the country’s security in any way. It was the morally right thing to do, legal ramifications be damned. The offending tweet: All of us who traveled with him were notified by the office of @VP the day before the trip that wearing of masks was required by the @MayoClinic and to prepare accordingly.
https://twitter.com/W7VOA/status/1255855606369566720
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/media/pence-staff-threatens-action-against-reporter-who-tweeted-about-visit-to-clinic-without-surgical-mask/2020/04/30/27c63056-8b0a-11ea-9dfd-990f9dcc71fc_story.html
Biden tonight addressed Tara Reade’s allegations for the 2nd time at a virtual fundraiser.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EW-fasvXkAAa_Lr.jpg
It did not happen. Now, my knowledge that it isn't true does nothing to shake my belief that women have to be able to be heard and that all the claims to be taken seriously. It isn't enough just to simply take my word for it and to dismiss it out of hand. Frankly, that shouldn't be enough for anyone, because we know that this sort of approach is exactly how the culture of abuse has been allowed to fester for so long. So I'm heartened to see it, although it's painful sometimes, that by and large journalists are doing what they're supposed to do. They're going out there listening to the allegations. They're taking it seriously and they're investigating it. And they're talking with folks who were there at the time, scrutinizing personnel records, examining the evolution of the claims, looking into the culture of our office. And I'm not concerned about what they might find, because I know the truth of the matter. I know that this claim has no merit, But as a candidate for president, I'm accountable to the American people. And I welcome that accountability and the scrutiny of the press as well.
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