Wednesday, April 15, 2020
Pretzel Logic
Pretzel Logic - Any Major Dude
Any major dude with half a heart surely will tell you my friend
Any minor world that breaks apart falls together again
When the demon is at your door
In the morning it won't be there no more
Any major dude will tell you
I can tell you all I know, the where to go, the what to do
You can try to run but you can't hide from what's inside of you
Any major dude with half a heart surely will tell you my friend
Any minor world that breaks apart falls together again
Red Flags: Chinese Laboratory in Wuhan Cited Two Years Ago For Dangerous Research On Bats and Coronavirus
When the coronavirus first appeared in Wuhan, China, many people immediately raised the concern that it might have been the result of a lab release from a controversial Chinese the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The lab was working on coronavirus and had raised concerns over its containment protocols. Then there was the fact that China hid the outbreak, arrested top doctors, and buried research on its origins. However, a narrative quickly emerged in countering President Donald Trump’s references to the “China virus.” People, including members of Congress, who referred to the lab were ridiculed on CNN and other outlets as conspiracy theorists like Politifact declared the theory to be utterly baseless. For some of us, the overwhelming media narrative seemed odd and artificial. It would seem obvious that a lab working on viruses in this area would be an obvious possible source. Now, after weeks of chastising those who mentioned the lab theory, another cache of documents and information shows that there are ample reasons to be suspicious and that concerns were raised two years ago within the State Department.
The Washington Post reported that embassy officials in January 2018 alerted U.S. officials of serious problems in the lab which was conducting risky research on bats, the very source of COVIT-19. The United Kingdom has issued a statement that they are seriously considering the lab as a possible source.
The first cable on Jan.19, 2018 flagged serious problems at a lab dealing with the world’s most dangerous viruses: “During interactions with scientists at the WIV laboratory, they noted the new lab has a serious shortage of appropriately trained technicians and investigators needed to safely operate this...
Newly Declassified Papadopoulos Transcript Exposes Crossfire Hurricane Corruption
A newly declassified transcript calls into question the entire Crossfire Hurricane investigation: Why was it started, and why did it continue?
Attorney General William Barr said last week that “the evidence shows that we’re not dealing with just mistakes or sloppiness” in the Crossfire Hurricane investigation. Rather, “there is something far more troubling here.”
“Without any basis,” Barr added in his sit-down interview with Fox News’ Laura Ingraham, “they started this investigation of [Trump’s] campaign, and even more concerning actually is what happened after the campaign, a whole pattern of events while he was president to sabotage his presidency — or at least have the effect of sabotaging the presidency.”
While Barr did not elaborate on the evidence he’s seen, a declassified transcript made public earlier in the week of a wired conservation between former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos and a Crossfire Hurricane confidential human source (CHS), when read in tandem with Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s report on Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) abuse, substantiates Barr’s view that it wasn’t “just mistakes.”
When the transcript of the CHS’s secretly recorded conversation with Papadopoulos was released last week, the media highlighted his adamant denial of any Trump-campaign involvement into the hacking of the Democratic National Committee’s emails. The coverage also focused on Papadopoulos’s denials being withheld from the FISA court.
But we already knew that: The IG’s report identified the failure to inform the FISA court of Papadopoulos’s denials as two of the 17 “significant inaccuracies and omissions.” Specifically, the IG report noted the initial FISA application “[o]mitted Papadopoulos’s consensually monitored statements to an FBI CHS in September 2016 denying that anyone associated with the Trump campaign was collaborating with Russia or with outside groups like Wikileaks in the release of emails.”
The report explained that error was repeated in the three subsequent FISA renewal applications, adding that those applications also “[o]mitted Papadopoulos’s statements to an FBI CHS in late October 2016 denying that the Trump campaign was involved in the circumstances of the DNC email hack.”
Crossfire Hurricane Team Ignores Papadopoulos’ Words
The declassified transcript, however, does much more than hammer home the FISA abuse. It reveals a stark difference between Papadopoulos’s September 2016 denial of involvement in the DNC email hack and his denial a month later.
The Sept. 15, 2016, wired conversation was between Papadopoulos and Stefan Halper, whom the IG report identified as...
What Do We Celebrate On July 4th?
"Awakening"
Thunder awoke me I sat up my feet on the floor
Silver the lightning that shattered the lock on my door
Feel like I've lived my life long
Just waiting for this day to dawn
Racing through time toward the light
We just do what we must
We're more than just ashes our spirits are more than just dust
Ancient we stood in the sun
Older when time first began
Now by the light shining through from within
We'll find our way back to the stars once again
Florida Inmate released for Corona-virus back in Jail for Murder...
TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) – An inmate who was released from the Hillsborough County Jail in an effort to slow the spread of coronavirus is back behind bars and accused of committing second-degree murder the day after he got out of jail, deputies say.
The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office confirms 26-year-old Joseph Edwards Williams was arrested on a warrant Monday night in Gibsonton.
They say he is connected to a March 20 shooting homicide in the Progress Village area. Deputies responded at 10:40 that night to several 911 calls about gunshots fired near 81st Street South and Ash Avenue. A man was pronounced dead at the scene.
Online jail records show Williams had been released from custody at 8:02 a.m. on Thursday, March 19 per an administrative order aimed at slowing the spread of COVID-19 in the county jails. The sheriff’s office says he was one of more than 100 inmates released from custody until trial.
“There is no question Joseph Williams took advantage of this health emergency to commit crimes while he was out of jail awaiting resolution of a low-level, non-violent offense,” Sheriff Chad Chronister said in a statement. “As a result, I call on the State Attorney to prosecute this defendant to the fullest extent of the law.”
The HCSO released 164 inmates considered low level and non-violent offenders.
“Judges, prosecutors, and Sheriffs around the country are facing difficult decisions during this health crisis with respect to balancing public health and public safety...
Coronavirus delivers record blow to U.S. retail sales in March
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. retail sales suffered a record drop in March as mandatory business closures to control the spread of the novel coronavirus outbreak depressed demand for a range of goods, setting up consumer spending for its worst decline in decades.
The Commerce Department on Wednesday said retail sales plunged 8.7% in March, the biggest decline since the government started tracking the series in 1992, after falling by a revised 0.4% in February.
According to a Reuters survey of economists, retail sales were forecast to have fallen 8.0% last month.
The report came as millions of Americans are thrown out of work, and strengthen economists’ conviction that the economy is in deep recession. States and local governments have issued “stay-at-home” or “shelter-in-place” orders affecting more than 90% of Americans to curb the spread of COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the virus, and abruptly stopping the country.
“The economy is almost in free fall,” said Sung Won Sohn, a business economics professor at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. “We will see the bottom when the coronavirus infection rates stabilize. It’s going to be a pretty deep bottom from which to...
When You Elect Democrats...
When You Elect Democrats, You Elect To Destroy Your City, State, County And Country.
You Elect To Give Lawbreakers More Rights Than You Have.
As Taxes Increase, Your Personal Liberties Erode..., Crime Increases, Your Quality Of Life Erodes...
So What Do You Do? You Move To A Red State, And You Think Voting The Same Way You Did In the State You Destroyed Will Have Different Results...
In Sweden, There’s No COVID-19 Lockdown. Here Are 4 Things to Know.
After logging over 1,000 COVID-19 deaths, Sweden has faced a rash of criticism for having perhaps the least restrictive rules in the world regarding social distancing, as restaurants and bars and some schools remain open while staying at home is urged but not mandated.
But don’t let that fool you because Sweden is still a different place from what it used to be, said Johan Norberg, an economics writer who lives in Stockholm and most recently the author of the award-winning book “Progress: Ten Reasons to Look Forward to the Future.”
“Most people stay at home, don’t travel, rarely go to restaurants, and don’t meet with the older generation. And people keep the distance when they meet on the street,” Norberg said in an email interview with The Daily Signal.
“You have probably seen pictures of a crowded Stockholm restaurant. Well, that is … the one time it was crowded, and if they had turned the camera in the opposite direction they would have found an empty square.”
In these trying times, we must turn to the greatest document in the history of the world to promise freedom and opportunity to its citizens for guidance. Find out more now >>
Here are four keys to determining the effectiveness of Sweden’s COVID-19 policy.
1. What’s the Actual Policy?
The characterization of Sweden as freewheeling during the coronavirus pandemic is inaccurate, said Joshua Michaud, associate director for global health at Kaiser Family Foundation.
“Sweden has taken a middle path between lockdown and letting it run rampant. It’s not business as usual,” Michaud told The Daily Signal in a phone interview. “They strongly suggest working from home if you can. There can’t be congregations of more than 50 people.”
The Swedish government did ask citizens not to travel or visit family over Easter.
Norberg, a senior fellow with the Washington, D.C.-based Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, said that Sweden seems safe and not so different from most other places:
The difference is that we follow these recommendations voluntarily, which gives more space for individual knowledge and needs, and might even make it more sustainable than a system where everybody is forced to stay at home indefinitely and will rebel eventually. Yes, it seems safe.
Restaurants, bars, playgrounds, and parks are open. Elementary schools also are open, but not high schools and colleges, Michaud said, which he said he finds somewhat puzzling.
During a White House briefing on COVID-19 last week, President Donald Trump criticized Sweden’s approach.
“Now, they talk about Sweden, but Sweden is suffering very gravely,” Trump said, then referred to the concept of herd immunity. “They call it the herd. Sweden is suffering very, very badly.”
Sweden’s state epidemiologist, Anders Tegnell, told CNN that the country’s policy is “producing quality results the same way it’s always done. So far Swedish health care is handling this pandemic in a fantastic way.”
Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde pushed back against Trump on Swedish TV, saying the American president was “factually wrong” and that Sweden was not following a “herd immunity” policy.
Linde summarized her country’s policy this way: “No lockdown, and we rely very much on people taking responsibility themselves.”
Herd immunity means sheltering only the vulnerable population and, in this case, exposing most of the general public to the virus to build immunity.
2. How Does the Death Toll Compare?
The COVID-19 death rate in Sweden, at over 1,000 out of a population of 10.2 million, is lower than some other European countries such as Italy and the United Kingdom.
However, Sweden’s death rate from the disease is higher than other Nordic countries, according to Kaiser Family Foundation.
Norway has had 128 deaths from COVID-19 out of a population of 5.4 million. Finland, with 5.5 million, has had fewer than 100 deaths, and Denmark, with 5.6 million, has had 275 deaths.
For that matter, the United States has a lower death rate, with 71 COVID-19 deaths per 1 million population, according to Worldometers. The United States has had 22,252 coronavirus deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
By contrast, Sweden’s death rate works out to 91 per 1 million population.
“We see the balance that Sweden has struck has provided some semblance of normality, but it has come at the cost of a large number of deaths,” Michaud said.
It’s too early to know, but Sweden later may be seen as a success because its smaller population allows it to respond more easily, said Dr. Kevin Pham, a medical doctor and contributor to The Daily Signal.
“In the U.S., we had breakouts in Washington, then New York, two major population centers. Sweden has not had that,” Pham told The Daily Signal. “They do have more deaths per capita now, so if we start seeing more signs of trouble, they will change their tactics, But it could work. It depends what they see on the ground.”
3. Is the Economy Really Better Off?
Sweden’s economy has taken a hit, but less so than many other countries, Norberg said.
“One reason why we’ve done this [comparatively liberal policy] is economic concerns. Only getting 30% of your normal revenue might be a disaster for a restaurant or a shop, but it’s better than 0%,” Norberg said, adding:
Whether it works or not remains to be seen. Sweden is a very export-dependent country, and when others are shutting down we are suffering too. But there is also the idea that this might be the best way to protect us in the long run.Nevertheless, Sweden has taken a tougher economic hit than it did during the 2008 financial crisis, just not as tough as...
Those who are shutting down society will see a second wave when they open up, and a third, whereas Sweden protects the old while others get immune, so that we will hopefully get out of this nightmare sooner than others.
Donald Trump Berates ‘Politically Correct’ WHO, Orders Hold on Funding
President Donald Trump ordered a hold on funds sent to the World Health Organization Tuesday, demanding that they answer for their failures to properly warn the world about the coronavirus.
The president criticized the WHO for criticizing his travel ban on China during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic.
“The WHO’s attack on travel restrictions put political correctness above life-saving measures,” Trump said.
Trump announced his decision at a press conference in the Rose Garden on Tuesday.
“We spend $500 million a year,” Trump said, noting that China only spent $30-$40 million.
He noted that the WHO played a role in “mismanaging and covering up” the spread of the coronavirus around the world.
“The WHO pushed China’s misinformation about the virus, saying it was not communicable and there was no need for travel bans,” he said.
Trump blamed the global health group for relying too much on China, despite the United States paying a majority of their funding.
“The WHO’s reliance on China’s disclosures likely caused a twenty-fold of cases worldwide, and it may be much more than that,” he said.
The president noted that the WHO failed to investigate credible information about the virus that raised flags that China was not telling the entire truth about the virus. He also noted that the WHO failed to acquire samples of the virus allowing scientists to study the disease.
Meanwhile, Trump said, China continued to spread false information about the virus while medical researchers who criticized the Chinese government disappeared.
“Had the WHO done its job to get medical experts into China to objectively assess the...
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