Friday, April 3, 2020
Thursday, April 2, 2020
Trump targets drug cartels exploiting virus pandemic, deploys Navy and Air Force assets
President Trump deployed Navy destroyers and Air Force surveillance planes to combat drug cartels that are “taking advantage” of the media-fueled coronavirus panic to smuggle illegal opioids into the United States.
Trump announced the launch of a “counter-narcotics operation” in the Eastern Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea at a White House coronavirus briefing amid the ongoing opioid epidemic.
The President was joined by U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, and Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Mark Milley.
“We must not let the drug cartels exploit the pandemic to threaten American lives,” Trump said. “In cooperation with the 22 partner nations, U.S. Southern Command will increase surveillance, disruption, and seizures of drug shipments and provide additional support for eradication efforts, which are going on right now at a record pace.”
To this end, President Trump deployed Navy destroyers, Air Force surveillance planes and helicopters, and 10 Coast Guard cutter ships to the region.
“We came upon some intelligence some time ago that the drug cartels — as a result of COVID-19 — were going to try to take advantage of the situation and try to infiltrate additional drugs into...
US judge orders release of 13 illegal immigrants in PA, calling ICE incapable of protecting them from coronavirus behind bars
A federal judge in Harrisburg ordered the immediate release Tuesday of 13 immigrants from detention centers across Pennsylvania, saying authorities have not taken adequate measures to protect them from the threat of a coronavirus outbreak behind bars.
The group, from countries across the globe, are all being all held in county jails that contract with ICE and face deportation proceedings or have pending asylum claims. They appear to be one of the largest groups of immigrant detainees in the nation subject to a court-ordered release since the pandemic’s start.
Each has underlying medical conditions that lawyers with the ACLU of Pennsylvania said put them more at-risk should an outbreak erupt behind bars. U.S. District Judge John E. Jones III ordered ICE to free them all on personal recognizance bonds from facilities in York, Clinton and Pike Counties before the end of the day Tuesday.
“It would be heartless and inhumane not to recognize [the] petitioner’s plight,” the judge wrote. “Should we fail to [order their release] … we will be party to an unconscionable and possibly barbaric result.”
Jones’ order comes amid increasing alarm from public health advocates, public defenders and even some prosecutors who warn that the close quarters of jails, prisons and detention centers make proper hygiene and social distancing impossible. It follows a similar decision Thursday from a judge in Manhattan who released 10 immigrants facing deportation proceedings there.
Philadelphia and New Jersey have both launched efforts to thin their jail populations of low-level, non-violent offenders and those who fall within the highest risk categories for contracting the disease.
ICE has, thus far, resisted calls for similar efforts, arguing that...
Gun Control Orgs Panic As FBI Data Shows Historic Surge in Civilian Gun Ownership
The FBI’s March NICS background data for march was released yesterday and it was every bit as horrific as the Civilian Disarmament Industrial Complex feared it would be.
The adjusted background check data quantified what we’ve all seen in the photos of Americans lining up — sometimes for hours — outside of gun stores all across the country.
As the NSSF’s Mark Oliva told us,
Retailers have been telling us that the overwhelming majority of those buying firearms over the last month have been first-time gun owners. This puts to rest America’s thoughts on gun control ideas. Americans across the country chose to exercise their right to lawfully purchase a gun when their safety became more than a rhetorical question.Meanwhile, the gun control industry isn’t taking the news well.
American gun control advocates said they found the statistics on record-breaking numbers of firearms background checks concerning, and urged Americans to think twice before panic-buying a gun, particularly if they had never owned one before.
Concerns have also been raised about children sheltering at home in houses where they might have access to guns, as well as the risk of gun suicide, which amount to approximately two-thirds of US gun deaths each year.
“We need to prepare for the increased risk of more firearms in...
OANN reporter says White House invited her back to coronavirus briefings after removal from WHCA rotation
One America News Network will not be barred from the White House coronavirus briefings after all.
A day after the White House Correspondents' Association voted to remove OANN from White House briefings on the Trump administration's response to the pandemic, reporter Chanel Rion said White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham personally invited her to stand in the back of the room on Thursday as she did the day before.
OAN's Chanel Rion says that she'll be attending today's White House briefing despite the WHCA kicking her out of the rotation because Stephanie Grisham has personally invited her again, though she adds there's "no official statement coming out of the White House yet" pic.twitter.com/tKWkzjHVLi— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) April 2, 2020
"The rule they said I violated was that I was violating social distancing guidelines by standing in the aisle or standing in that room when I was not allowed to," Rion said during an appearance on OANN on Thursday. "I spoke with Stephanie Grisham this morning, I met with her, we discussed the situation, and she invited me again to attend the briefing today as her guest standing in the back, and I will be in the briefing room today."
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The board for the White House Correspondents’ Association made the decision after Rion twice attended a press briefing outside of a rotation instituted to comply with federal social distancing guidelines. The reporter attended two press briefings that she was not cleared to cover from inside the press room due to space constraints and the rotation.
Rion has repeatedly been called upon by Trump, who has gone out of his way to promote the news organization, which has given him more positive coverage than most...
Why is the global climatic cataclysm of the sixth century virtually unheard of?
There was a sign from the sun, the like of which had never been seen and reported before. The sun became dark and its darkness lasted for 18 months. Each day, it shone for about four hours, and still this light was only a feeble shadow. Everyone declared that the sun would never recover its full light again.Historiae EcclesiasticaeBetween the years 535 and 536, a series of major global climatic events that took place that could easily be described as a global cataclysm with catastrophic consequences. The above abstract is from the sixth century historian and church leader, John of Ephesus, in his historical work, Church Histories (‘Historiae Ecclesiasticae’).
John of Ephesus is not the only one that mentions this event. Procopius lived between 500 and 565 AD and he was a late antiquities scholar and one of the main historians of the 6 th century. He also refers to the strange behaviour of the sun and believed that it was a bad sign and the beginning of other events.
… during this year a most dread portent took place. For the sun gave forth its light without brightness...and it seemed exceedingly like the sun in eclipse, for the beams it shed were not clear.,History of the Wars: The Vandalic War.
And we have yet another reference from the sixth century writer, Zacharias of Mytilene, who authored a chronicle that contains a section referring to the ‘Dark Sun’ for the period of 535/536 AD.
The sun began to be darkened by day and the moon by night, while the ocean was tumultuous with spray from the 24th of March in this year till the 24th of June in the following year... And, as the winter was a severe one, so much so that from the large and unwonted quantity of snow the birds perished... there was distress... among men... from the evil things,Zacharias of Mytilene (Chronicle, 9.19, 10.1)
These three extracts are just a representative sample of numerous accounts from all over the world, written in the same period of time. In all cases, the sun was described as getting dimmer and losing its light. Many also described it as having a bluish colour. The effects were also observed with the moon – it wasn’t as bright anymore. The reduction of the light resulted in the reduction of heat on the planet; no rain and a very long winter resulted in crop failures and for birds and other wildlife to perish, as Zacharias of Mytilene writes. Famine and plagues struck many areas and there were a huge number of deaths.
In China and Japan, the event was also recorded in great detail. Massive droughts and thousands of deaths. The water wasn’t enough for the people and the land. Hundreds of thousands of square miles became infertile. In the Beishi chronicles, the official history of the Northern Dynasties, mentions that in 536, in the province of Xi’an, 80% of the population died and the survivors ate corpses to survive.
The catastrophic event struck Korea, the Americas, Europe, Africa, and Australia. While written records do not exist for all countries, archaeological and geological data revealed evidence of the climatic changes. Studies done on the trunks of trees, for example, showed...
In China and Japan, the event was also recorded in great detail. Massive droughts and thousands of deaths. The water wasn’t enough for the people and the land. Hundreds of thousands of square miles became infertile. In the Beishi chronicles, the official history of the Northern Dynasties, mentions that in 536, in the province of Xi’an, 80% of the population died and the survivors ate corpses to survive.
The catastrophic event struck Korea, the Americas, Europe, Africa, and Australia. While written records do not exist for all countries, archaeological and geological data revealed evidence of the climatic changes. Studies done on the trunks of trees, for example, showed...
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