Sure, why not?
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| Christy Brinkley and daughter, Alexa Ray Joel |
Linked at Pirate's Cove in the weekly Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup and links. Wombat has Rule 5 Sunday: Damn It, Janet ready and willing at The Other McCain.
Sunday, September 27, 2020
Saturday, September 26, 2020
Beach Report 9/26/90
We thought we had dodged the rain, but it misted pretty heavily on our way back down the beach
Moving on With Russiagate
More or less continuing where we left off yesterday, via Wombat's In The Mailbox: 09.25.20, Sean Davis and Mollie Hemingway at Da Fed present ‘Get Trump’: FBI Whistleblower On Mueller Team Details Real Reason Flynn Was Targeted
FBI Special Agent William Barnett told Department of Justice (DOJ) investigators that the handling of the probes troubled him so much that he threatened to quit working on it in one case, and threatened to go to the Inspector General in another. According to the summary of Barnett’s interview, he said there was never any basis for the bizarre “collusion” theory the agency and the special counsel relentlessly pursued, to the point that agents made jokes about how they could take any piece of information and claim it was evidence of collusion. He said the Special Counsel Office (SCO) pursued Flynn simply as a means to “get Trump” and viewed FBI investigators as a “speed bump” slowing down the work of the attorneys leading the inquisition.
Capt Ed at Hot Air, FBI Agent: Mueller Team Had A “Get Trump” Attitude On Case Built On “Supposition Upon Supposition”. Show me the man, I'll show you the crime Weissman. 'Shipwreckedcrew at Red State, FBI Agent in Charge of General Flynn Investigation Thought It Was a Joke and Was to “Get Trump”
The final comment is about Andrew Weissmann. Barnett said it always seemed like someone at the SCO had a story about how some particular episode was going to be proven out and establish the collusion between Trump and the Russians, but every time the claimed episode ended up not being true or leading only to a dead end. He recalled Weissmann claiming that evidence about a meeting on a yacht off Greece would be the key to proving the quid pro quo between Trump and the Russians, only to have the story about the yacht turn out to not be substantiated.
Dr. John at Flopping Aces, FBI whistleblower – Mueller and Weissman were out to “get Trump”. Behind the Black, It WAS a coup attempt
They all knew there was no evidence against Flynn, and to get his conviction required blackmail against him as well as the faking of evidence, both of which were done. Those acts by the way are outright crimes.
Next we learn that, according to a high-ranking FBI investigator, the investigation run by Robert Mueller into collusion by Trump and Russians knew there was no evidence at all, but had an agenda to “get Trump.”
Reinforcing this agent’s claim is the revelation, also this week, that Mueller investigators illegally wiped more than two dozen phones clean of data to prevent the inspector general from reviewing them. These lawyers thus consciously obstructed justice by destroying evidence. That is another crime, by the way.
Finally, the most important story of all. It appears that the only source of information justifying all the FISA warrants and the Mueller investigation into the so-called Trump collusion with the Russians came from a source whom the FBI had previously investigated as a Russian spy.
Sundance at CTH posts that the Flynn Family Releases Statement Following Documentary Evidence of FBI, DOJ and Special Counsel Abusive Intent…. But will Judge Sullivan do the right thing?
And a reminder from Fox that the Source of Steele dossier was investigated by FBI for Russian contacts, Barr says. Mary Chastain at LI, FBI Suspected Primary Sub-Source for Steele Dossier was Russian Agent, ‘Threat to National Security’. Also via Wombat's In The Mailbox: 09.25.20, theVictory Girls: Crossfire Hurricane Team Knew Steele Dossier Was Bogus. Ace, Revealed: Christopher Steele's Primary Subsource Was Branded a National Security Threat in 2009 and Was Subject of a Counterintelligence Investigation And the Crossfire Hurricane Team Knew This
And of course -- they failed to inform the FISA court (or note it in any intelligence assessment) that Steele's primary source for his Pee Pee Prostitutes story and various other claims was a man arrested on multiple occasions for public drunkenness and disorderly behavior, and on top of all that -- just might have been a RUSSIAN ASSET HIMSELF.
They knew all this.
They concealed all this.
They are criminals and should be in prison.
Question: Did Andrew Weissman know this and choose to keep it out of the "Mueller" report...?
Paul Sperry at RCI, Secret Report: How CIA's Brennan Overruled Dissenting Analysts Who Concluded Russia Favored HillaryTo investigate if Trump colluded w Russia, the FBI relied on info, paid for by the Clinton campaign, based on a source suspected by the FBI of being a Russian agent. The FBI then hid from the FISA court who paid for the info and the fact the source might be a foreign agent. https://t.co/rRueRG5gSH
— Ari Fleischer (@AriFleischer) September 25, 2020
Former CIA Director John Brennan personally edited a crucial section of the intelligence report on Russian interference in the 2016 election and assigned a political ally to take a lead role in writing it after career analysts disputed Brennan's take that Russian leader Vladimir Putin intervened in the 2016 election to help Donald Trump clinch the White House, according to two senior U.S. intelligence officials who have seen classified materials detailing Brennan’s role in drafting the document.
The explosive conclusion Brennan inserted into the report was used to help justify continuing the Trump-Russia “collusion” investigation, which had been launched by the FBI in 2016. It was picked up after the election by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who in the end found no proof that Trump or his campaign conspired with Moscow.
The Obama administration publicly released a declassified version of the report — known as the "Intelligence Community Assessment on Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent Elections (ICA)” — just two weeks before Trump took office, casting a cloud of suspicion over his presidency. Democrats and national media have cited the report to suggest Russia influenced the 2016 outcome and warn that Putin is likely meddling again to reelect Trump.
The ICA is a key focus of U.S. Attorney John Durham’s ongoing investigation into the origins of the “collusion” probe. He wants to know if the intelligence findings were juiced for political purposes.
RealClearInvestigations has learned that one of the CIA operatives who helped Brennan draft the ICA, Andrea Kendall-Taylor, financially supported Hillary Clinton during the campaign and is a close colleague of Eric Ciaramella, identified last year by RCI as the Democratic national security “whistleblower" whose complaint led to Trump’s impeachment, ending in Senate acquittal in January.
The two officials said Brennan, who openly supported Clinton during the campaign, excluded conflicting evidence about Putin’s motives from the report, despite objections from some intelligence analysts who argued Putin counted on Clinton winning the election and viewed Trump as a “wild card.”
The dissenting analysts found that Moscow preferred Clinton because it judged she would work with its leaders, whereas it worried Trump would be too unpredictable. As secretary of state, Clinton tried to “reset” relations with Moscow to move them to a more positive and cooperative stage, while Trump campaigned on expanding the U.S. military, which Moscow perceived as a threat.
Zero Hedge,
Secret Report Exposes CIA's Brennan Overruled Dissenting Analysts Who
Concluded Russia Favored Hillary. Ace, in red font, with a flaming head, Suppressed House Intel Report: Analysts Believed That Russia Favored
Hillary Clinton in 2016. But John Brennan, Ultra Clinton Partisan, Overruled
This Conclusion and Inserted His Own Partisan Narrative.
We're gonna need a bigger rope.
This is a House Intelligence report which was locked in a literal safe by Adam Schiff.
Why it's almost as if The Democrats Fought Against A Peaceful Transfer Of Power In 2016 (Jeff Dunetz at the Lid).
The Wapoo finally gets around to noticing the new revelations with Justice Dept. disclosures cast fresh doubt on Trump-Russia investigation, and handle it as a case of "Rethuglicans Pounce."
The Justice Department has released a pair of documents casting fresh doubt on the judgment of senior law enforcement officials who investigated possible links between Russia and the Trump campaign in 2016, showing that one of the FBI case agents thought prosecutors were out to “get Trump” and that a key source of allegations against the president had been previously investigated as a possible Russian asset.
The disclosures come as President Trump and his allies await the results of an investigation by Connecticut U.S. Attorney John Durham into how U.S. intelligence agencies examined Russian election interference four years ago. Instead, Thursday night saw one disclosure made to Congress and another made to the courts.
It’s still uncertain whether Durham will issue any findings before Election Day, but the two releases may serve a similar purpose: providing fresh ammunition for conservatives’ arguments that the FBI’s pursuit of the president was unfair and unfounded.
Also from WaPoo, Mueller prosecutor’s testimony about Roger Stone disputed by supervisors
Although the extent of the dispute is unknown, the supervisors’ account is notable because Zelinsky conceded to lawmakers that he did not discuss the Stone case directly with Barr, Deputy Attorney General Jeff Rosen or then-acting U.S. attorney Tim Shea. Rather, he said, it was his supervisors who explained why the department was “treating Roger Stone differently from everyone else.”
Also via Wombat's In The Mailbox: 09.25.20, American Greatness' Christopher Gage goes on about Hunter Biden’s Millions. I don't blame Hunter. It's hard to pay for hookers and coke without some help from Dad.
From Da Wire, DOJ Investigating How FBI Handled Allegations Of Clinton Foundation Corruption, Report Says. It's not just about time. It way late.
Linked at Pirate's Cove in the weekly Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup and links.
Rule 5 Saturday - Teri Hatcher - More Indian than Elizabeth Warren
This week's Rule 5 lovely is Teri Hatcher.
Teri Lynn Hatcher (born December 8, 1964) is an American actress, writer, presenter and singer. She is best known for her portrayal of Lois Lane on the television series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman (1993–1997), as Paris Carver in the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies, and as Susan Mayer on the television series Desperate Housewives (2004–2012) amongst numerous other television and film roles. For her portrayal of Susan Mayer, she won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy, three Screen Actors Guild Awards (one as lead female actor and the other two as part of the best ensemble), and a Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series.
Teri Lynn Hatcher was born on December 8, 1964 in Palo Alto, California, the only child of Esther (née Beshur), a computer programmer who worked for Lockheed Martin, and Owen Walker Hatcher, Jr., a nuclear physicist and electrical engineer. Her father is of English, Welsh and Irish descent (Hatcher has said that he also has Choctaw ancestry); her mother is of Syrian, Czech, and Irish ancestry.
So, more American Indian than Elizabeth Warren
Friday, September 25, 2020
9/25/20 Beach Report
An ordinary Great Blue Heron slums with the gulls and cormorants out on the end of the north jetty of Flag Harbor.
22 teeth today, a couple of crab claws and a drum's tooth, but nothing picture worthy.
Russiagate - We Have a Really Big Shew Today
As Ed Sullivan might have said. A couple of new angles have opened up in Russia/Spygate in the last day. Now can they actually penetrate the public consciousness through all the noise from the election and Supreme Court nomination ?
First, there's a new document dump from DOJ regarding the Flynn persecution. From Sean Davis and Mollie Hemingway at Da Fed, ‘Trump Was Right’: Explosive New FBI Texts Detail Internal Furor Over Handling Of ‘Crossfire Hurricane’ Investigation
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents tasked by fired former Director James Comey to take down Donald Trump during and after the 2016 election were so concerned about the agency’s potentially illegal behavior that they purchased liability insurance to protect themselves less than two weeks before Trump was inaugurated president, previously hidden FBI text messages show. The explosive new communications and internal FBI notes were disclosed in federal court filings today from Sidney Powell, the attorney who heads Michael Flynn’s legal defense team.
“[W]e all went and purchased professional liability insurance,” one agent texted on Jan. 10, 2017, the same day CNN leaked details that then-President-elect Trump had been briefed by Comey about the bogus Christopher Steele dossier. That briefing of Trump was used as a pretext to legitimize the debunked dossier, which was funded by the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign and compiled by a foreign intelligence officer who was working for a sanctioned Russian oligarch.
Ace reacts, Newly Released Texts Show That FBI Agents and Analysts Were So Distressed by Likely-Illegal Handling of Trump Investigation They Bought Liability Insurance to Protect Themselves From Subsequent Lawsuits "This is normal, right? These are the precious MuhNorms that Charlie "3-Wives" Sykes is trying to preserve, right?" Sundance at CTH has Sydney Powells reaction, Sidney Powell Discusses Explosive New Texts and Documents With Lou Dobbs – Corrupt FBI Officials Even Purchased Professional Liability Insurance…
Also,
Robert Mueller Investigative Agent Recently Testified Special Counsel
Operation was “Intended to Get Trump”… also a provides the government's newest filing.
Lloyd Billingsley at Front Page thinks the
New Flynn Document Dump Poses Huge Trouble for Dems. As I said, the difficulty of presenting it to the American public through
the smoke and haze of the election and nomination coverage, as well as the
outright opposition of all but a few media outlets is daunting. Sundance
has Thoughts on Durham, Barr, Jensen and DOJ Production to Sidney Powell From
Time Outside the Wire…
No matter what open source information is collected; and no matter what evidence congress can assemble; the toxic political environment in DC is the primary driver of DOJ investigative events. It shouldn’t be, but the reality of action reflects an uncomfortable truth. Here’s my opinion on what is happening.
Attorney General Bill Barr is trying to split the baby against two competing narratives.
♦ On one hand there is enough evidence to indict former officials for gross abuses of power, falsifying information to a FISA court (violating fourth amendment protections); manipulating investigative effort for political purposes; weaponizing the intelligence apparatus of the U.S. to target political opposition, and then using their positions to cover-up their corrupt and unlawful conduct.
♦ On the other hand there is a current highly toxic political environment; consisting of elected politicians and a fully vested branch of government; attempting to cloud the reality that corrupt former government officials worked hand-in-glove with deceitful media, which includes agents of Lawfare, who collaborated in the effort.
This leads to current DC officials and people within those remaining institutions saying: “there are delicate balances.”
In my opinion, in an effort to thread this needle -and considering the timing of the 2020 election- Bill Barr is using the document production from Missouri USAO Jeff Jensen as a backdoor method to provide the information he will not/cannot put forth in a press conference, report or series of indictments. This is why Jensen is providing new information to Michael Flynn’s defense attorney Sidney Powell.
The U.S. Attorney General knows Powell will make this information public; therefore Powell becomes a conduit to receive significant amounts of evidence previously hidden by the Special Counsel (Weissmann/Mueller) cover-up operation; the “insurance policy” of sorts. Barr is essentially funneling information through Powell in lieu of a report which would include much of the same evidence.
And from another set of the releases via Lindsey 2.0, from Chuck Ross at Da Caller, FBI Investigated Steele Dossier Source As A Possible Russian Spy Years Before Trump Probe
“This is the most stunning and damning revelation the committee has uncovered,” Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham said in a statement after releasing an FBI memo about the dossier source.
The document shows that the FBI considered a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant of Danchenko years before the bureau relied heavily on information that he had provided Steele, a former British spy, to obtain FISAs against Carter Page.
Danchenko is not named in the memo, though is attorney has confirmed to reporters that the Russian national was Steele’s source.
The information also could increase concerns that Russian disinformation was fed to Steele, a former MI6 officer who investigated the Trump campaign on behalf of the Clinton campaign and DNC. A Justice Department inspector general’s report released Dec. 9 said that the FBI received evidence in January and February 2017 that Russian intelligence officers may have fed false information into Steele’s network of sources.
Footnotes from the IG report say that two Russian intelligence officers knew in July 2016 that Steele was investigating the Trump campaign.
According to the FBI document, Danchenko had contact with suspected Russian intelligence officers in Washington, D.C. in 2005 and 2006.
The document says that the FBI had an investigation into Danchenko open from May 2009 to March 2011, based on an interaction he allegedly had with three employees of an American think tank.
Zach Evans at NR, FBI Docs: Primary Sub-Source for Steele Was Suspected Russian Agent and ‘Threat to National Security’, Politico, Steele dossier sub-source was suspected of spying for Russia, DOJ reveals. I have to give them credit for publishing that; I doubt NYT or WaPoo will. Capt. Ed at Hot Air, YGBKM: FBI Knew Steele Dossier Subsource Was Suspected Russian Intel Asset — And Considered A Nat-Sec Threat?. I had to Google "YGBKM". It means "You Got to Be Kidding Me." Nope, you were never supposed to find out.
And a warning from Ace? Is a Major Announcement by Durham Coming Soon
Is this what it's about? Fox, Durham assumed parts of John Huber's Clinton Foundation review, and the NYT whines In Politically Charged Inquiry, Durham Sought Details About Scrutiny of ClintonsYou're going to want to remember this tweet. https://t.co/OBPXgGFJ76
— Mollie (@MZHemingway) September 24, 2020
"John Durham’s team has sought information about the F.B.I.’s handling of the Clinton Foundation investigation, raising questions about the scope of the prosecutor’s review." Tyler O'Neil at PJ Media, John Durham Also Investigating Clinton Foundation in His Obamagate Probe. John Sexton at Hot Air dissects the NYT in Durham ‘Sought Documents’ About Clinton Foundation Investigation. "The framing is thick in this piece but eventually we do get to the news." Nice Deb at Am Great, Report: John Durham Taking Over John Huber’s Fruitless Clinton Foundation Review
FBI agents in 2016 were denied permission to subpoena the Clinton Foundation because they supposedly didn’t have sufficient evidence to do so. But frustrated agents argued that they had plenty of evidence, including evidence that was captured on a wiretap in an unrelated investigation, according to the NYT. At the time, former Mueller deputy Andrew Weissmann led the Fraud Section at the Department.
Sundance is all over that last angle, Report: Durham Investigating Main Justice Resistors Blocking FBI Subpoenas in 2016, RE: Clinton Investigation….
Two media reports today point toward an aspect CTH had noticed happening in the background of the Durham/Aldenberg investigation.
The Washington Examiner and New York Times are writing about Durham investigating 2016 efforts from Main Justice DOJ to block FBI efforts to investigate the Clinton Foundation. The interesting part is what the media ignore (emphasis mine)
. . .
Who was one of the “top Justice Department officials” in position to deny the 2016 request from senior FBI managers in Washington? As TechnoFog notes: “The DOJ Criminal Division Fraud Section (FSCD) would have overseen prosecutions relating to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (ie. bribery that crosses borders).”
Who was Chief, of the DOJ Criminal Division Fraud Section in 2016?
And we're not yet through picking on poor Hunter Biden in the wake of the
damning Senate report. Tristan Justice at Da Fed reports that
Hunter Biden’s Chinese Payments Raise Criminal Concerns, Extend To James
Biden and Burisma Bribed Officials To Shut Down Investigation 7 Months After
Hunter Biden Joined Board
From Breitbart, Biden Family Bought $100K of ‘Extravagant Items’ with China-Linked Credit
Cards
“Hunter Biden and Gongwen Dong, a Chinese national who has reportedly executed transactions for limited liability companies controlled by Ye Jianming, applied to a bank and opened a line of credit under the business name Hudson West III LLC (Hudson West III),” the Senate report states. The report continues:
Hunter Biden, James Biden, and James Biden’s wife, Sara Biden, were all authorized users of credit cards associated with the account. The Bidens subsequently used the credit cards they opened to purchase $101,291.46 worth of extravagant items, including airline tickets and multiple items at Apple Inc. stores, pharmacies, hotels, and restaurants. The cards were collateralized by transferring $99,000 from a Hudson West III account to a separate account, where the funds were held until the cards were closed. The transaction was identified for potential financial criminal activity. [Emphasis added]According to the Senate report, Hunter Biden held one of the credit cards while James Biden and Sara Biden, Biden’s brother and sister-in-law, held three cards.
Chuck Ross at Da Caller, Republicans Push For Deeper Probe Of Hunter Biden Wire Transfers
According to the report, Elena Baturina, a Russian billionaire whose late husband was mayor of Moscow, wired $3.5 million in February 2014 to a company co-founded by Biden. The report also said that Biden wired money to people linked to sex trafficking and prostitution in Eastern Europe.
Accounts linked to Chinese businessman Ye Jianming wired hundreds of thousands of dollars to Biden-linked accounts beginning in 2017, according to the report.
Jianming, who was chairman of Chinese energy conglomerate CEFC China Energy, has links to the People’s Liberation Army, Republicans said. Jianming was a top official in the mid-2000s for the China Association for International Friendly Contacts, a front group for the PLA that engages in “intelligence collection” for Beijing.
Red State, Sen. Rand Paul Sending Hunter Biden Report To DOJ For Potential Criminal Probe. Senators don't generally have much action taken on their criminal referrals, but we can cross our fingers.
Julie Kelly at AmGreat spins Biden Report Shows Impeachment Was Election Interference. We always knew impeachment was about the election, they had no hope of conviction.
Trump’s impeachment served two purposes: to bury one more scandal under the self-proclaimed “scandal free” Obama Administration and to save Joe Biden’s candidacy. It was straight-up interference with the 2020 election because without the impeachment diversions, it’s very likely that either Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren, not Biden, would be on the November ballot right now.
As Andrea Widburg at Am Think notes It turns out that there really was Russia collusion!
To understand who the players were, you need to follow Hunter's trail of partnerships. In 2009, he created Rosemont Seneca Partners with Devon Archer, his friend, and with Christopher Heinz, who is John Kerry's stepson. In 2013, Rosemont Seneca Partners joined with the Thornton Group to create Rosemont Seneca Thornton. What you need to remember is that Hunter is one of the people behind Rosemont Seneca Thornton.
On the Russian side of things, there's a woman named Elena Baturina. She's the widow of Moscow's former mayor, Yuri Luzhkov. Luzhkov was so corrupt that even Putin's government, acting through then-president Dmitry Medvedev, fired him in 2010.
When Luzhkov died, Baturina ended up a billionaire and the richest woman in Russia. Although the Senate report doesn't say so, one has to assume that a female oligarch in Russia is on good terms with Putin. Neither looks very happy in this picture, but they definitely know each other:
and Cockburn at the Spectator asks a strictly rhetorical question: Why is the media downplaying the Hunter Biden story?Putin and the woman who sent 3.5 million dollars to #HunterBiden, while his father #JoeBiden was Vice-President of the United States. Follow the stench of filthy money and it leads to a #DirtyBiden every time... pic.twitter.com/aIfJE61XVY
— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) September 23, 2020
Fish Pick Friday - Hannah Aldoroty
Linked at Proof Positive in the weekly Best of the Web* and at The Right Way in the weekly
Rule 5 Saturday LinkOrama. The Wombat has Rule 5 Sunday: Elizabeth Taylor and FMJRA 2.0: Mexican Radio ready for your digital enjoyment.
Thursday, September 24, 2020
9/24/20 Beach Report
Two Police Shot by Biden Voters in "Mostly Peaceful" Louisville Riots
Stacy McCain, Mostly Peaceful™ Protesters Shoot Two Police Officers in Louisville Riot
This is actually good news, relatively speaking. When I saw the mob unpacking riot supplies from a U-Haul truck (allegedly supplied by Soros-funded radical Holly Zoller), my thought was, “Uh-oh. This is gonna be bad.” Fortunately, Louisville is not Portland. There are about 120,000 black people in Louisville, but the protest mob — at least half of whom were white — was never more than a few hundred people.
Whatever the public opinion about the Breonna Taylor case in Louisville, the vast majority of residents there clearly do not support the radical cop-hating mob, and so the city didn’t burn down Wednesday night. The cops maintained a perimeter and, when the protesters did not disperse after the 9 p.m. curfew, they arrested everybody (apparently including Daily Caller reporter Shelby Talcott). All in all, the situation in Louisville was not nearly as bad as it could have been.
For me the most disturbing moment of the night — I mean, besides the two cops getting shot — was when I briefly watched CNN and had to listen to Ben Crump run his mouth for a couple of minutes.
Is it ever a good idea to watch CNN anymore?Benjamin Crump, attorney for the family of Breonna Taylor, says the family is “outraged” with the grand jury’s decision.
— CNN (@CNN) September 24, 2020
“Clearly Daniel Cameron and the attorney general’s office wanted to exonerate these officers or try to justify the unjustifiable,” Crump said. pic.twitter.com/1o3TDUwsRv
Russiagate: The Senate Reviews Hunter's Excellent Adventure
And as you might expect, they think it sucked. Starting with several links from Wombat's In The Mailbox: 09.23.20. First, from Am Great Shock Senate Report Finds Hunter Biden Ties To Red China, Russia, & Human Trafficking. What, no cocaine?
OUT TODAY: Report with @chuckgrassley found millions of dollars in questionable financial transactions between Hunter Biden & his associates and foreign individuals, including the wife of the former mayor of Moscow. https://t.co/R1MxQ4xGKP
— Senator Ron Johnson (@SenRonJohnson) September 23, 2020
Senate investigators found “potential criminal activity relating to transactions among and between Hunter Biden, his family, and his associates with Ukrainian, Russian, Kazakh and Chinese nationals.” The millions of dollars in “questionable financial transactions” include the wife of the former mayor of Moscow as well as individuals with ties to the Chinese Communist Party.Legal Insurrection: Obama Admin Knew Hunter Biden’s Burisma Position “Interfered With Execution” Of Ukraine Policy, but no doubt, Lt. Col. Vindmin was OK with that.
Tristan Justice at Da Fed get to the point, Senate Report Accuses Hunter Biden Of Paying For Hookers Who May Have Been Trafficked. Jack Crowe at NR, Senate Report Details Hunter Biden’s Extensive Foreign Business Dealings — and Obama Officials’ Efforts to Ignore Them. At Da Wire, Hunter Biden Received Millions From Wife Of Ex-Moscow Mayor, Paid Suspects Allegedly Tied To Trafficking, Had Contacts With Individuals Linked To Chinese Military, Senate Report Alleges. Sundance at CTH, Senate Releases Damning Report of Hunter Biden Foreign Payments and Influence Sales – Money, Hookers and Bribes…. Ace, COLLUSION: Senate Report Finds That Hunter Biden Took Money from Wife of Former Moscow Mayor, Paid Off Women Connected to Human Trafficking, Had Contacts With the Chinese Military#Burisma NOW: 87 page, joint report from @ChuckGrassley + @SenRonJohnson investigates potential conflict of interests involving Hunter Biden. Central Finding: Hunter Biden's position on Burisma "was problematic" + "did interfere" with the execution of Obama-era Ukraine policy pic.twitter.com/BDrUV241sK
— Catherine Herridge (@CBS_Herridge) September 23, 2020
We finally have proof of an American taking money from sketchy Russians but it’s Hunter Biden, not the Trump family. Another example of how the Democrats always use projection to accuse others of what they’re actually guilty of.
— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) September 23, 2020
“The Senate investigation’s explosive new revelations about the Biden family profiting from Russia, China and other foreign sources while Joe Biden was vice president amount to stunning levels of corruption and breathtaking breaches of America’s national security. While Biden was vice president, his son Hunter received a $3.5 million wire transfer from the billionaire wife of the former mayor of Moscow, individuals who are undoubtedly connected to Vladimir Putin. Chinese nationals also lavished Hunter and other members of the Biden family with money, giving Hunter and Biden’s brother James credit cards for a $100,000 international shopping spree. But the mysterious $142,300 wire transfer from a Kazakhstan businessman through a Latvian bank and a company in Singapore has to take the cake. These bombshells are in addition to new information regarding Hunter’s sweetheart gig on the board of a corrupt Ukrainian gas company that bribed a Ukrainian prosecutor.
“Page 17 of this report reveals that Joe Biden flat out lied when he said he had never spoken with Hunter about his foreign business dealings. After a State Department official raised concerns with Vice President Biden about it in the West Wing of the White House, Biden spoke with Hunter about it and Hunter contacted the official.
“For what possible reason could all of these foreign countries and entities be shoveling money at people named Biden, if not to influence official U.S. policy? American journalists have a responsibility to relentlessly question Joe Biden about all of this, in detail, and to call out his attempts to cover up this potentially criminal activity. Regardless of whether Biden is forced to face the music, this is further evidence that if Joe Biden wins, China and many other foreign interests with a financial stake in the Biden family win too.”
John Solomon at JTN, A year after impeachment, Hunter Biden's Ukraine activities come home to
roost.
Democrats won't be able to easily dismiss the concerns politically because Obama-era State Department officials have admitted in testimony that the Bidens' behavior created the appearance of a conflict of interest that directly undercut U.S. efforts to fight endemic corruption in Ukraine.
But the bigger concern the report is expected to raise is whether U.S. officials during the Obama-Biden era turned a blind eye to red flags about what was going on at Burisma and with Hunter Biden and his business dealings.
And in non-Hunter news, Natalie Winters at the National Pulse writes that
Soros-Linked Impeachment Witness Fiona Hill Echoes Calls For ‘Electoral
Commission’
While speaking at CNN’s Citizen Conference, Hill, who also served as Deputy Assistant to the President and Senior Director for European and Russian Affairs on the National Security Council in the Trump administration, offered support for Coat’s proposition of a “bipartisan election commission.”
Coats, a solidly establishment Republican and perennial Trump critic, called for the commission via a New York Times op-ed, “What’s at Stake in This Election? The American Democratic Experiment.”
In the nearly 900-word op-ed, Coats proposed a “supremely high-level bipartisan and nonpartisan commission to oversee the election,” confirming the predictions of National Pulse Editor-in-Chief Raheem Kassam, who remarked on the War Room: Pandemic podcast that the establishment will float an “electoral commission” to adjudicate the 2020 election . . .
No doubt packed with rabid anti-Trump Democrats, and never-Trump Republicans.
From NYT, but cited at Hot Air, White House Accused Of Intervening To Block Bolton’s Book For Political Reasons, and if true (dubious given that it's the NYT), I'm OK with it. Bolton shouldn't be writing it now.
Wednesday, September 23, 2020
Biden Voters Riot in Louisville After Police Officer Indicted
They wanted more, and more serious indictments if not immediate execution of the three officers.. Stacy McCain, Louisville Democrat Mob: ‘Burn It Down’ After #BreonnaTaylor Grand Jury Ruling
The Mostly Peaceful™ Protesters didn’t wait for dark to start breaking windows in Louisville, and I expect it to get much worse after nightfall:Protesters vowed Wednesday to continue their fight for racial justice after learning that just one of three Louisville Metro Police officers who shot into Breonna Taylor’s apartment will be criminally charged in her death.Looking at the map of Louisville, I don’t know why the protest march would be headed that direction. Was there some site they aimed to reach? Cherokee Parkway goes north to I-65, and maybe the police roadblock was intended to keep the mob off the Interstate. Here’s a quote:
In an afternoon announcement, Jefferson County Judge Annie O’Connell said a Jefferson County grand jury has indicted former detective Brett Hankison on three counts of first-degree wanton endangerment.
The grand jury declined to bring charges against Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly and detective Myles Cosgrove, who were also involved in the March 13 shooting at Taylor’s south Louisville apartment. . . .
Louisville police had set up a 25-block perimeter downtown, and protesters walked straight out of the area. . . .
A crowd of about 300 continued to march down Kentucky Street, stopping once to reorganize. Some people made phone calls asking others to join.
Chants included: “Keep going” and “If we don’t get (Justice), burn it down” before the group turned right onto Shelby Street. . . .
The march reached Bardstown Road at about 3:30 p.m. and began moving south down the usually busy street lined with local businesses. A few people came outside businesses to raise their fists in support of the protesters. Others were seen locking the doors to their storefronts. At least one window was smashed. . . .
LMPD officers, who had been following protesters at the front and back of the march, lined up on Bardstown Road to block the crowd from moving any further. . . .
Immediately following the confrontation with police on Bardstown Road, multiple protesters were arrested, though it’s not clear how many.
About 75 police officers in riot gear remained on the street and taped off part of the road, blocking off Bardstown entirely a few blocks from its intersection with Cherokee Parkway.“People are heartbroken, and they’re pissed the f*** off, and I am too,” protester Logan Cleaver said. “Of course I hope that people get home safe and they can get home to their families at night, but I know people are mad, and they want s**t f*****d up. And to be honest, this place should burn tonight, tomorrow night and the night after.”That’s your Democratic Party 2020 platform.
Was there ever any reasonable scenario under which they wouldn't be rioting tonight? Ace, Antifa/BLM Unload Mobile Riot Center, Start Taking Over Intersections
Linked at 357 Magnum in Friday Links.A parked U-Haul was waiting for the crowd up the street. It contains supplies such as signs, shields, water etc. I’m not sure how people knew what it contained. Police are up ahead pic.twitter.com/qObHK3E83y
— Shelby Talcott (@ShelbyTalcott) September 23, 2020
Beach Report 9/23/20
Russiagate, Late But Not Forgotten
Late because of an internet outage:
'Streif' is a writer at Red State who has appeared regularly on Russiagate, and is clearly a knowledgeable fellow, even if we didn't know his background. Now Stacy McCain reports ‘Streiff’ Doxxed and Dooced:
Back in the misty dawn of blogging, to be dooced meant losing your day job because of something you wrote on your blog. Now it has happened to Red State managing editor “Streiff” who, we unfortunately learn, has been working for more than a decade as a public-affairs official for the National Institutes of Health. He has reportedly retired after being doxxed by Lachlan Markay of the Daily Beast. On the one hand, this is bad news — almost certainly, Streiff was making six figures at this job — but on the other hand, it’s good that he had enough time in to retire, because his prior Army service counted toward his retirement.
How did Streiff get busted? A hint from the Washington Post:
According to his biography on RedState’s website, the user “streiff” has been a member of the publication’s community since its founding in 2004. In 2018, the website laid off a number of writers, including its editors Caleb Howe and Jay Caruso. At the time, the company insisted the move was financial, although the former writers and their allies pointed out that several of those laid off were the most vocal Trump critics writing for RedState.com.Probably it was one of the disgruntled former Red Staters who decided to strike back by tipping Markay to Streiff’s identity. However, it must be noted, there was sufficient visible evidence to corroborate the ID, demonstrating once again how difficult it is to conceal any online alias.
As bad as this is for Streiff and Red State, it will probably have few substantial ramifications beyond that — a one-day story of little interest to anyone outside the world of political media.
Be careful out there, kids. The Internet can be a dangerous playground.
Some via the Wombat's In The Mailbox: 09.22.20 (Afternoon Edition). The Geller Report: FBI Agent Who Found Hillary Emails On Weiner’s Laptop Says Bosses Told Him To Erase Findings and Legal Insurrection: Pelosi Leaves Open Impeaching Trump Over SCOTUS Pick,
Weasel Zippers, Did H.R. McMaster Just Out The ‘Deep State?’
Alex Nitzberg at JTN, FISA court rules it is 'not empowered by Congress' to release attorney misconduct files. Unfortunate, but probably fair.Regarding competing groups in the West Wing, former national security adviser H.R. McMaster says there’s one group of advisors “who cast themselves in the role of saving the country and maybe the world from the president.” https://t.co/YBUCccl25v pic.twitter.com/w7UMrFBGBx
— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) September 21, 2020
The FISC's Chief Judge, James E. Boasberg, this month dismissed a May 2019 motion filed by investigative journalist and Just the News founder John Solomon and the Southeastern Legal Foundation seeking the publication of records pertaining "to attorney misconduct or discipline in certain matters."
The document points to a decision of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review (FISCR) to explain the reason for the decision to dismiss the motion due to a lack of jurisdiction.
"Like the FISCR, the FISC is not empowered by Congress to consider constitutional claims generally, First Amendment claims specifically, or freestanding motions filed by persons who are not authorized by FISA to invoke this court's jurisdiction," Boasberg ruled.
Barr flips off the House Democrats, Da Blaze, DOJ denies House Dems' request for officials to testify citing treatment of AG Barr in prior hearing
Thomas Lifson at AmGreat, Will the Dems be stupid enough to impeach Trump over carrying out his constitutional duties and appointing a justice?. Probably, but from David Marcus at Da Fed, Max Rose Voted To Impeach Trump, Now He Promotes Him. Hypocrisy in a politician? Why would I expect less.
Jeff Landry at NYPo, Tish James’ endless anti-Trump suits betray the AG’s mission. We saw how Andy Weissman was all about getting Trump, again, why should this surprise us.
Fall is Fell
The Autumnal Equinox occurred at 9:30 on Sept. 21, 2020, ushering in the official start of fall
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| Where's my leaf blower? |
The Wombat has Rule 5 Sunday: Elizabeth Taylor ready for your digital enjoyment.
Tuesday, September 22, 2020
Beach Report 9/22/20
Enough WuFlu for You? Part 3 - Schools and Other Pure Politics
The mildew in the digital fridge is getting out of hand,
again.
Schools. Bombshell audio of LA County Public Health Director saying schools won’t open until after November election. Heaven forfend they should allow Trump a victory before the election. AllahPundit at Hot Air whines Hoo Boy: America’s Worst Mayor Delays Reopening NYC Public Schools Again, Just Days Before Classes Were Set To Start. America's worst mayor? That's a high bar, but I think De Blasio can jump it.
It’s unimaginable that the country’s biggest public-school system is still figuring things out three weeks into September given how the availability of in-class instruction will dictate families’ lives for the next nine months, beginning with whether mom and dad can get back to work. And inexcusable that, rather than stick to a firm date for reopening and then adjust as infections arise, they keep scrambling people’s plans by delaying reopening at the last second.
"Actually, it is clear that only one of the six had any contact with students before becoming sick. In Mississippi, Nacoma James, 42, coached football over the summer till he developed coronavirus-like symptoms and went into quarantine. It’s not known how he was infected. Some of the others had attended a teacher work day at school or visited their classroom, but none had taught students face to face...."And from WUWT, COVID-19: evidence shows that transmission by schoolchildren is low. No wonder The Pandemic Has Parents Fleeing From Schools—Maybe Forever (the Atlantic). WaPoo, Opinion, Want to buy schools time? Open the windows.
Lockdown Fever. WSJ,
New Thinking on Covid Lockdowns: They’re Overly Blunt and Costly. Michael Barone at WaEx,
Were the lockdowns a mistake?. Julie
Kelly at the Tennessee Star,
Commentary: We Have Had Enough Lockdown. Dennis Prager at PJ Media,
The Lockdown Has Gone From a Mistake to a Crime. Sky News, Coronavirus:
For every three COVID-19 deaths, lockdown may have caused another two. In my extended circle I know of three people who may have died from the
lockdowns, and only one who died of WuFlu. Da Tech Guy,
Do these two developments prove the Coronavirus lockdowns were unnecessary?
Ace,
While the US and Most of Europe Locked Down and Destroyed Their Economies,
Sweden Stayed Open -- and Now Has Herd-Immunity and Only Fourteen People in
ICU for Covid
"Trust your Elites." Da Fed, America’s Biggest Threat Isn’t Coronavirus, It’s Congress’s Response To
It. To be fair, isn't Congress always America's greatest threat?
At NR, Rich Lowry notes All of a Sudden, Economic Conditions in This Pandemic Matter
If there’s been one constant in progressive advocacy across this pandemic, it is that anyone who is worried about the economic downside of COVID restrictions is anti-science and doesn’t care if people die. Over the last few days, though, Trump has been slammed for the economic costs of the pandemic and the response to it.
Now, it’s certainly possible to say the best way to boost the economy is to defeat the virus, but, as David Harsanyi notes below, Democrats haven’t really explained how they would have fought the virus except with longer and more pervasive lockdowns, measures that surely would have meant that more businesses would be bankrupt right now and more people out of work. A couple of nights ago, there was a compelling video segment on the struggles of small businesses. But when people protested Governor Whitmer’s lockdown a few months ago, in large part because they wanted to go back to work and feared the consequences of the lockdown for small businesses, they were hooted down as goons and Nazis.
The upshot is that Democrats wanted more lockdowns and now are blaming Trump for the deleterious economic effects of lockdowns.
WaEx, 'Future is very bright': South Dakota unemployment rate shrinking after Kristi Noem refused lockdown measures. Sundance at CTH, Federal Judge Rules Pennsylvania “Lock-Down Rules”, and COVID Compliance Decrees, Unconstitutional… WSJ, As Coronavirus Rebounds, Europe Rejects New Lockdowns "European countries bet on personal responsibility and targeted measures, instead of sweeping restrictions that froze their economies in the spring" Personal responsibility? What a novel thought! Vodka Pundit, Cringeworthy Study Debunked: There Was No 'Sturgis Superspreader' COVID-19 Event. Blueberry! The Sturgis “super spreader” kerfuffle and what it says about contact tracing
Here's some actual science:
https://web.archive.org/web/20200509053953/https:/www.oralhealthgroup.com/features/face-masks-dont-work-revealing-review/,
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2006372?query=recirc_mostViewed_railB_article&fbclid=IwAR0bV1_DlAiei-elMvcMFIDnW6596Sva2aQJUrgZuN0zaptPQ6CO6ZynR2k
We know that wearing a mask outside health care facilities offers little, if any, protection from infection... "It is also clear that masks serve symbolic roles. Masks are not only tools, they are also talismans that may help increase health care workers’ perceived sense of safety, well-being, and trust in their hospitals. "
And cloth masks are even less effective, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4420971/?fbclid=IwAR1xBSypYCVXHlTXlCLQumiOciiWL6qchK0mK-OXv3AyITOPtFmNtoB9iPo and may in fact INCREASE your odds of infection by slowing air exchange.
And yet another: https://aapsonline.org/mask-facts/?fbclid=IwAR0VpDD0wrEL1NDPZ-6GmDmz2jq7YUtEVdLo2cAh2y8WJC1oxcHGX07NqR0 Conclusion: Wearing masks will not reduce SARS-CoV-2.
Here's another: https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2020/04/commentary-masks-all-covid-19-not-based-sound-data?fbclid=IwAR1lfzfwrFI-CEiy4WPD7ChiPqfBeXAvsalnD7ggpbE2YxOx-3sRjni3HhY
Behind the Black, COVID-19 numbers surge after mask mandate in Hawaii. At best, they didn't stop it.
Pirate's Cove, Joe Biden Admits His National Mask Mandate Would Be Unconstitutional. Althouse, "But here’s the deal, the federal government — there’s a constitutional issue whether federal government could issue [a mask] mandate. I don’t think constitutionally they could, so I wouldn’t issue a mandate." From "Biden walks back national mask mandate over 'constitutional issue'" (NY Post).
Town Hall, 'Frauds': Watch What Happened When Biden Thought the Cameras Stopped
Rolling During CNN Town Hall
Mask-mandate Joe whispering sweet nothings to @andersoncooper. Just didn’t know the cameras were still rolling... pic.twitter.com/o9fPB1n5FH
— Pete Hegseth (@PeteHegseth) September 18, 2020
Yahoo asks Will we be wearing masks forever? Here's what experts think. Experts like to hear themselves talk.
NYT, cited from Hot Air, Does Wearing Glasses Protect You From Coronavirus? If the eyes are a significant source of infection, I don't see why
not.
In one hospital in Suizhou, China, 276 patients were admitted over a 47 day period, but only 16 patients — less than 6 percent — had myopia or nearsightedness that required them to wear glasses for more than eight hours a day. By comparison, more than 30 percent of similarly aged people in the region needed glasses for nearsightedness, earlier research had shown.
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden led the way, quickly attacking what he called Trump’s “record of hysteria, xenophobia and fear-mongering” after the travel restrictions were announced. A Jan. 31 article in The New York Times quoted epidemiologist Dr. Michael Osterholm as saying that Trump’s decision to restrict travel from China was “more of an emotional or political reaction.”
In March, another Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders, conspicuously insisted at a Fox News town hall that he wouldn’t consider closing the U.S. border to prevent the spread of coronavirus, before condemning what he called the president’s xenophobia. The overwhelming narrative was that President Trump’s proactive measures were fear-mongering and intended to produce panic.
Now we fast-forward to today… predictably, as if on the anticipated cue…. the exact same outlet, the Washington Post, now says President Trump “downplayed” the danger.
[…] At that time, Trump was telling the nation that the virus was no worse than a seasonal flu, predicting it would soon disappear and insisting that the U.S. government had it totally under control. It would be several weeks before he would publicly acknowledge that the virus was no ordinary flu and that it could be transmitted through the air.So in January, February and March, 2020, the best political attack position was to say that President Trump was overreacting and hyping panic. Now in September 2020 the best political attack position is to say he down-played the danger. (read more)
RCP: Fauci: The Response Of Trump Admin Has Been Impressive, I Can't Imagine Anybody Could Be Doing More and Stephan Kruiser, PJ Meida, Trump-Hating Media Lying More and More to Keep Low-Info Dems In a Rage
Author Bob Woodward has crawled out from under his Democratic patron rock with a book he hopes will permanently damage President Trump’s hopes for re-election. He accuses Trump of downplaying the coronavirus threat in the early days of this year. Like the “very fine people” thing, this is based on deliberately misrepresenting something the president said, the context of which is plain to any fourth-grader.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the man who was with Trump during DAILY PRESIDENTIAL BRIEFINGS ABOUT THE VIRUS, came to the president’s defense. Matt wrote about it here.
The Post Millennial Woodward 'bombshell' falls flat as Fauci defends Trump
"So I may not be tuned in to the right thing that they're talking about, but I didn't really see any discrepancies between what he told us and what we told him and what he came out publicly and said."
Predictably, then Fauci had to come out with something to please his "base", USA Today, Fauci: Trump downplaying COVID-19 threat 'not a good thing'; expect no 'normality' until 2021, presumably after a Democrat is elected. Stat: Public trust in CDC, Fauci, and other top health officials is evaporating, poll finds. Good. Trusting experts is not a good idea. Listen, but check yourself. Experts always have an agenda. Bloomberg whines, ‘Follow the Science’ Isn’t a Covid-19 Strategy "Policy makers can follow the same facts to different conclusions."
Personally, I think Trump hit it about right, being upbeat, while doing his best to slow down the importation of the virus, while building capacity to deal with it. It also turned out to be far less serious than had been feared, with a infection death rate slightly higher than a bad annual flu, and not being able to infect a substantial portion of the population.
Katie Pavlich at Town Hall, Top Biden Advisor: Yeah, We Really Screwed Up Swine Flu and are Lucky More Americans Didn't Die. Politico, Biden has fought a pandemic before. It did not go smoothly.
“It is purely a fortuity that this isn’t one of the great mass casualty events in American history,” Ron Klain, who was Biden’s chief of staff at the time, said of H1N1 in 2019. “It had nothing to do with us doing anything right. It just had to do with luck. If anyone thinks that this can’t happen again, they don’t have to go back to 1918, they just have to go back to 2009, 2010 and imagine a virus with a different lethality, and you can just do the math on that.”
AllahPundit, Biden Spox Really Didn’t Want To Give Straight Answers In Today’s Fox News Interview and Jazz Shaw at Hot Air, Joe Biden Would Really Like You To Forget That He Opposed Trump’s China Travel Ban. Not gonna happen, Joe.
Matt Margolis, PJ Media, These Joe Biden Flip Flops on COVID-19 Prove He's Incapable of Leading During the Pandemic. Dan Payne at JTN, Biden's virus attacks face harsh reality: worst death tolls are in Democrat-run states "Top three states for total and population-adjusted deaths are run by Democratic governors, state legislators."WSJ, Cuomo Called All The Shots In New York’s COVID Disaster and AllahPundit at Hot Air, Cuomo Hits Back At Trump: Under My Leadership, New Yorkers “Flattened The Curve”. Worst outbreak in the United States. LI, DOJ conducting probe into nursing home COVID-19 deaths in four states.Video: Here's just a sample of the back-and-forth between Fox News Channel's @BretBaier and TJ Ducklo from the Biden campaign. Baier repeatedly asked the simple question of what Biden would have done differently on COVID, and Ducklo accuses him of being a Trump campaign stooge pic.twitter.com/kQw9PZJAUk
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) September 10, 2020
The U.S. Department of Justice announced it has opened a preliminary inquiry into the COVID-19 nursing home policies of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Michigan that it says “may have resulted in the deaths of thousands of elderly nursing home residents.”
Matt Margolis, This Obama-Biden Administration Failure Killed More Americans Than COVID-19
. . . more than 300,000 veterans died while waiting for care from Obama and Biden’s Department of Veterans Affairs, according to an Inspector General report released in September 2015.
That's different because, shut up!
and in the old Miscellaneous category: FEE, CDC’s Eviction Moratorium Is an Unconstitutional Power Grab. I agree, but I think it would be wise for landlords to be very slow to evict, as it might be difficult to find suitable new tenants during this periods. I'm not yet ready to call 2021 a Jubilee in the biblical sense, but we might get there. Maybe just have a do over for 2020.
The Atlantic admits If You Can Grocery Shop in Person, You Can Vote in Person "Experts now say the health risk of casting an in-person ballot is relatively low. Will Democrats tell their voters that?" No, they're counting on fear to get the number of mail in ballots high for fraudulent purposes. The War Room, Bannon: Democrats Have Scared Their Voters into Not Coming Out to Vote on Election Day.
Insty, NANCY PELOSI, MASS MURDERER? Shot: Pelosi in August: ‘People will die’ if coronavirus stimulus talks drag into late September., Chaser, today: Dems Block GOP Covid Aid Package.
City Journal, The Covid Story That Sports Media Won’t Tell "Despite heavy coverage of every positive test, remarkably few serious cases have been recorded among pro athletes." Of course, they're mostly young and healthy, and this virus preys almost exclusively on the old and sick.
JTN, Oregon program allocates millions in federal coronavirus funds exclusively to black residents. All three of them. Quite, likely illegal, but forget it Jake, it's Oregon.
Just One Minute, Plenty Of Blame To Go Around
Ross Douthat ruminates on how much blame for the COVID debacle should be shouldered by Trump.
He mentions the February testing debacle at the CDC and the slow-walking of Emergency Use Authorizations by the FDA and links to a ProPublica piece. The NY Times and the WaPo had similar coverage and a similar theme - it was careerists, not Trump, that let the process drift.
Which brings us to a "Damned if you do, damned if you don't" point - Trump was not elected on a "Trust The Bureaucrats" platform. Yet that's what he did in February. Ooops. But when he learns his mistake, shifts gears and starts pounding the table for plasma, vaccines, or hydroxychloroquine, the usual suspects gasp that he is politicizing the process rather than trusting the professionals.
Post Millennial BREAKING: CDC defies Trump's executive order, moves forward with critical race theory indoctrination. In the life of every bureaucracy comes a point at which the Vietnamese village principle reigns. It must be destroyed to be saved. Jonathon Swan at Axios whines about The Trump-Navarro mind meld on the FDA another agency past it's 'use by' date.
Mercury News, Stanford doctors take aim at former colleague Scott Atlas, Trump’s new adviser on the COVID-19 pandemic "The former chief of neuroradiology is harming public health, according to public letter health". Atlas thinks the lockdowns are a problem. It's good to present competing ideas.
Town Hall, Wait, What? Biden Just Said Something Absolutely Crazy About COVID Deaths, 200,000,000? Well, who hasn't been off by a factor of one thousand occasionally?
Linked at 357 Magnum in the Wednesday Link Roundup. The Wombat has Rule 5 Sunday: Elizabeth Taylor ready for your digital enjoyment.
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