swordfish

IN THE MIDDLE OF A PANDEMIC!!!

https://nypost.com/2020/05/10/michael-flynn-fiasco-will-reveal-obamas-truth-devine/ No wonder Barack Obama is “pretty darn invested” in making sure Donald Trump doesn’t win re-election. The former president knows his Teflon coating is wearing thin. With his nemesis, Gen. Michael Flynn, suddenly exonerated, he also knows that Trump and Attorney General Bill Barr are closing in on the truth of his role in the whole dirty Russia-collusion lie. “There’s more to come,” President Trump told “Fox & Friends” on Friday, the day after the Justice Department dismissed its case against Flynn, having found that the FBI had laid a “perjury trap” for his short-lived national security adviser. “I believe [Obama] and Biden … Sleepy Joe was involved in this also, very much.” The only way to ensure that the truth about Obama never sees the light of day is to defeat Trump in November, even if all the Democrats have for a candidate is a sleepy guy in a basement. “We got to make this happen,” Obama said Friday in a vehement conference call with 3,000 supporters. The call was leaked to Yahoo News, in Obama’s first public declaration of war against Trump. What brought him out of the shadows was the collapse of the case against Flynn. “There is no precedent that anybody can find for someone who has been charged with perjury just getting off scot-free,” Obama raged, although Flynn was not charged with perjury and plenty of people, including Bill Clinton, have escaped “scot-free” after lying under oath. Obama said the Flynn case means “our basic understanding of rule of law is at risk.” No, the rule of law was trashed long ago on his watch. It was trashed when the collusion hoax was hatched in the dying days of his administration. It was trashed when he planted the seeds of doubt with then-Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates about Flynn’s contact with the Russian ambassador. It was trashed by the FBI’s targeted destruction of Flynn, who they knew was innocent from the start. It was trashed when the Steele dossier, which we now know was Russian disinformation paid for by the Clinton campaign, was passed off by the FBI and CIA as legitimate intelligence to damage Trump and cover their own misdeeds. Obama’s henchmen knew there was no collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia and, under oath, behind closed doors, they told the House Intelligence Committee so, yet the lie they let loose kept running. Flynn was a marked man from the moment Obama fired him as head of the Defense Intelligence Agency in 2014, ostensibly for “insubordination.” Really, it was because Flynn, the most effective intelligence officer of his generation, had embarrassed Obama by refusing to go along with the “big lie” that the Islamist enemy was defeated. In 2014, after Obama dismissed ISIS as a terrorist “JV team,” Flynn warned the Senate Armed Services Committee that the jihadist group was a growing threat. He was fired soon afterward. “Frankly, at the White House, it didn’t meet the narrative,” he later told the New York Times. Obama held onto his grudge against Flynn, a war hero in Iraq and Afghanistan, the man who, with another heroic general fired by Obama, Stan McChrystal, is credited with saving America from half a dozen terrorist attacks. After Trump won the 2016 election, Obama went to the trouble repeatedly of warning him not to hire Flynn as his national security adviser. Within a few weeks of taking the job with the new Trump administration, Flynn was forced to resign, after malicious leaks from intelligence operatives about a phone conversation with the then-Russian ambassador, Sergey Kislyak. The man who probably took the greatest delight in blackening Flynn’s reputation was Obama’s director of national intelligence, James Clapper. In a July 17, 2017, interview with the House Intelligence Committee during its ill-fated Russia-collusion probe, Clapper claimed Flynn’s “strident views about ISIS” weren’t the reason for his dismissal by Obama. It was his “erratic management style [and] the infamous Flynn facts where General Flynn was convinced that the [Iranians] were behind the Benghazi attack.” Clapper said he was “disturbed” about Flynn’s conversation with Kislyak, which had the effect of “essentially neutering — my characterization — the sanctions [against Russia] that had just been imposed [by the Obama administration].” But that wasn’t true. There was “nothing wrong” with the call, Barr told CBS last week. “In fact, it was laudable.” As a paid CNN contributor, Clapper repeatedly declared, with all the authority his former job carried, that Trump was a Russian “asset.” Yet under oath, he told the Intelligence Committee, “I never saw any direct empirical evidence that the Trump campaign or someone in it was plotting/conspiring with the Russians to meddle with the election.” It’s a tawdry story. The Trump presidency was booby-trapped from Day One by the Obama administration’s abuse of the rule of law. FYI - Flynn wasn't charged with perjury.....You would think the former President would know that.......

https://www.wsj.com/articles/barack-obama-on-michael-flynn-11589148648 Barack Obama is a lawyer, so it was stunning to read that he ventured into the Michael Flynn case in a way that misstated the supposed crime and ignored the history of his own Administration in targeting Mr. Flynn. Since the former President chose to offer his legal views when he didn’t need to, we wonder what he’s really worried about. https://justthenews.com/accountability/russia-and-ukraine-scandals/senator-grassley-fbi-abused-governmental-power-ways GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley is taking on the media, the Justice Department and even President Obama over the federal government's handling of the Michael Flynn case. We’ve “seen a lot of denial from some quarters in the media about the information that’s been released,” Grassley, the former chairman of the Senate Intelligence committee said Monday in a floor speech. Grassley spoke in the aftermath of a surprising recent turn of events in which newly declassified information led Flynn to withdraw a guilty plea in the federal government's Russia collusion case, which was followed last week by Attorney General William Barr saying the Justice Department has moved to drop the case. Among the revelations was that FBI agents, in the early days of the Trump administration, went beyond the scope of federal government's case to interview the then-White House national security adviser. Flynn later, in a plea agreement, pleaded guilty to lying to federal agents. Grassley, in the speech, commended Barr and acting Office of the Director of National Intelligence acting Director Richard Grenell for making public information that had been carefully guarded for upwards of two years. The senator also questioned purported comments made last week by President Obama cautioning that the rule of law may be at risk following the Justice Department's recommendation to drop the case against Flynn, a retired lieutenant Army general. “I believe the opposite is true," he said. "The rule of law is at risk if the federal government can get away with violating the constitution to do what they did to Lt. Gen. Flynn.” Grassley then asked why the former president would choose to comment on the dropping of the case against Flynn, but not the significant evidence that government directors under his control lied and manipulated processes at every turn of the investigation into him. “I’ve heard no comment from Mr. Obama about independent inspector general findings that Andrew McCabe lied under oath to federal investigators multiple times," said Grassley, referring to the former FBI deputy director. "Or about how DOJ prosecutors falsely told the court that they had produced all Brady material to Flynn. Or when the federal government surveilled an American citizen connected to the Trump campaign without probable cause and based on intelligence the FBI knew was questionable at best,” Grassley continued. Grassley hinted that the evidence released last week is so significant in its implications of top-tier government corruption that, “it’s time we asked: what did Obama and Biden know and when did they know it?” For the duration of his remarks, Grassley highlights some of the governmental mismanagement of the Flynn and Russia investigations. He draws a comprehensive narrative of the FBI’s misdeeds as they relate to the continued probing and attempted destruction of a three star general, and apparent manipulation of materials relevant to the investigation. “Under (former FBI Director James) Comey’s leadership, the FBI abused governmental power in ways the Founders and Framers feared most. The Russia investigation is a textbook example of what not to do,” he said. “At every step of the investigation, the government sought evidence to advance it, never got the evidence they needed, and advanced the investigation anyway.” Grassley also argued the media has failed to accurately cover the framing for special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, the basis of which was a conversation between President Trump and Comey about wrapping up the investigation into Flynn. https://www.nysun.com/editorials/what-did-obama-know-and-when-did-he-know-it/91127/ What did President Obama know and when did he know it? That famous formulation is emerging as the question in the wake of new disclosures in respect of a meeting that took place inside the Oval Office in the closing days of Mr. Obama’s presidency. The meeting included not only his national security adviser, Susan Rice, and the head of the FBI, James Comey, but also Vice President Biden, now the prospective Democratic nominee. This is laid out in, among other places, a dispatch by Mollie Hemingway in the Federalist. Ms. Hemingway reckons the meeting is turning out to be, as her headline puts it, “key” to the “entire anti-Trump operation” launched two weeks before the end of the Obama administration. She’s not the only one laying this out; a veteran of the Sun, Eli Lake, now of Bloomberg, has been all over the story; the Wall Street Journal, as well. Ms. Hemingway presents a terrific timeline. It starts on January 4, 2017, at a time when the FBI was scrambling, as the Federalist’s scribe puts it, to reopen a case against General Flynn. The January 5 meeting started as a briefing for the President and also included Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, the CIA director, John Brennan, and the Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper. After the briefing, Ms. Hemingway reports, the intelligence chiefs were dismissed. Ms. Yates and Mr. Comey “were asked to stay.” Writes Mrs. Hemingway: “Not only did Obama give his guidance about how to perpetuate the Russia collusion theory investigations, he also talked about Flynn’s conversations with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, according to both Comey and Yates.” “Interestingly,” writes Ms. Hemingway, Messrs. Clapper and Comey and Ms. Yates “all said that they did not brief Obama about these phone calls.” She reckons Ms. Rice “likely” did. At the meeting, Ms. Hemingway notes, Mr. Comey “mentions the Logan Act.” Fifteen days later, Ms. Rice would send herself what Ms. Hemingway calls a “bizarre” email claiming that Mr. Obama wanted everything to be done “by the book.” In the ensuing weeks, a series of leaks rocked the incoming Trump administration. Grizzled newspapermen shook their heads in amazement at such a cataract of leaks against a new administration. By February 13, writes Ms. Hemingway, “the operation finally succeeded in getting Flynn fired and rendering him unable to review the operations against the Trump campaign, Trump transition team, and Trump administration.” It’s not our intention here to suggest that Mr. Obama, or anyone else at his meeting, broke the law. That may turn out to be the case, but it is not our point here. It’s enough for us — it’s just gobsmacking — that a sitting president of America hosted in his office a meeting that appears designed to undermine the man who will, two weeks hence, succeed him in the highest office in the land. All the more so when, as seems to be the case, the outgoing vice president is present at the meeting and when the news breaks in the midst of an election year in which the erstwhile vice president is the favorite to win the Democratic nomination for president. What kind of Shakespeare or Dante could come up with such a fantastic plot? It’s hard to think of anyone other than the Muse of History. “What did the president know and when did he know it?” is the phrase that history offers up. It was first uttered during Senator Sam Ervin’s Watergate hearings by Senator Howard Baker, Republican of Tennessee. It starts to look ever more apt as investigators, put on the case by Attorney General Barr, finally start to focus on who it was who laid the long train of powder against the incoming Trump administration. JUST IN CASE ANYONE WANTS TO READ THE TIMELINE OF EVENTS: https://thefederalist.com/2020/05/08/obama-biden-oval-office-meeting-on-january-5-was-key-to-entire-anti-trump-operation/ Information released in the Justice Department’s motion to dismiss the case it brought against Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn confirms the significance of a January 5, 2017, meeting at the Obama White House. It was at this meeting that Obama gave guidance to key officials who would be tasked with protecting his administration’s utilization of secretly funded Clinton campaign research, which alleged Trump was involved in a treasonous plot to collude with Russia, from being discovered or stopped by the incoming administration. “President Obama said he wants to be sure that, as we engage with the incoming team, we are mindful to ascertain if there is any reason that we cannot share information fully as it relates to Russia,” National Security Advisor Susan Rice wrote in an unusual email to herself about the meeting that was also attended by Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, FBI Director James Comey, and Vice President Joe Biden. A clearer picture is emerging of the drastic steps that were taken to accomplish Obama’s goal in the following weeks and months. Shortly thereafter, high-level operatives began intensely leaking selective information supporting a supposed Russia-Trump conspiracy theory, the incoming National Security Advisor was ambushed, and the incoming Attorney General was forced to recuse himself from oversight of investigations of President Trump. At each major point in the operation, explosive media leaks were a key strategy in the operation to take down Trump. Not only was information on Russia not fully shared with the incoming Trump team, as Obama directs, the leaks and ambushes made the transition chaotic, scared quality individuals away from working in the administration, made effective governance almost impossible, and materially damaged national security. When Comey was finally fired on May 9, in part for his duplicitousness regarding his handling of the Russia collusion theory, he orchestrated the launch of a Special Counsel probe that continued his efforts for another two years. That probe ended with Mueller finding no evidence of any American colluding with Russia to steal the 2016 election, much less Trump or anyone connected to him. An analysis of the timeline from early 2017 shows a clear pattern of behavior from the federal officials running the collusion operation against the Trump campaign. It also shows how essential media leaks were to their strategy to sideline key law enforcement and intelligence officials and cripple the ability of the incoming Trump administration to run the country. Here’s a timeline of the key moments and news articles of the efforts, per Obama’s direction, to prevent the Trump administration from learning about the FBI’s operation against it. January 4: Following the closure of a pretextually dubious and politically motivated FBI investigation of Flynn at the beginning of January, the leadership of the FBI scrambled to reopen a case against Flynn, the man who in his role as National Security Advisor would have to review their Russia collusion investigation. FBI officials openly discussed their concern about briefing the veteran intelligence official on what they had done to the Trump campaign and transition team and what they were planning to do to the incoming Trump administration. Flynn had to be dealt with. The FBI’s top counterintelligence official would later memorialize discussions about the FBI’s attempts to “get [Flynn] fired.” No reopening was needed, they determined, when they discovered they had failed to close the previous investigation. They found this mistake “amazing” and “serendipitously good” and said “our utter incompetence actually helps us.” Even more noteworthy were texts from FBI’s #2 counterintelligence official Peter Strzok to FBI lawyer Lisa Page noting that the “7th floor,” a reference to Comey and his deputy director Andrew McCabe, was running the show. January 5: Yates, Comey, CIA Director John Brennan, and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper briefed Obama on Russia-related matters in the Oval Office. Biden and Rice also attended. After the Obama briefing, the intelligence chiefs who would be leaving at the end of the term were dismissed and Yates and Comey, who would continue in the Trump administration, were asked to stay. Not only did Obama give his guidance about how to perpetuate the Russia collusion theory investigations, he also talked about Flynn’s conversations with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, according to both Comey and Yates. Interestingly, Clapper, Comey, and Yates all said that they did not brief Obama about these phone calls. Clapper testified he did not brief Obama on the calls, Yates learned about the calls from Obama himself during that meeting, and Comey also testified he didn’t brief Obama about the calls, even though the intelligence was an FBI product. Rice, who publicly lied but later admitted under oath to her widespread use of unmasked intelligence at the end of the Obama administration, likely briefed Obama on the calls and would have had access to the intelligence. Comey mentions the Logan Act at this meeting. It was this meeting that Rice memorialized in a bizarre inauguration-day email to herself that claimed Obama told the gathered to do everything “by the book.” But Rice also noted in her email that the key point of discussion in that meeting was whether and how to withhold national security information, likely including details of the investigation into Trump himself, from the incoming Trump national security team. January 6: An ostensibly similar briefing about Russian interference efforts during the 2016 campaign was given to President-elect Trump. After that briefing, Comey privately briefed Trump on the most salacious and absurd “pee tape” allegation in the Christopher Steele dossier, a document the FBI had already used to obtain a warrant to spy on Trump campaign affiliate Carter Page. Comey told Trump he was telling him because CNN was looking for any reason it could find to publish a story about Russia having compromising information on him, and he wanted to warn Trump about it. He did not mention the dossier was completely unverified or that it was the product of a secretly funded operation by the Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee. January 10: In an amazing coincidence, CNN found the excuse to publish the Russia claims after a high-level Obama intelligence operative leaked that Comey had briefed Trump about the dossier. This selective leak, which was credulously accepted by CNN reporters Evan Perez, Jim Sciutto, Jake Tapper and Carl Bernstein, may have been the most important step in the operation to harm the incoming Trump administration. The leak of the briefing of Trump was used to legitimize a ridiculous dossier full of allegations the FBI knew to be false that multiple news organizations had previously refused to report on for lack of substantiation, and created a cloud of suspicion over Trump’s campaign and administration by insinuating he was being blackmailed by Russia. January 12: The next part of the strategy was the explosive leak to David Ignatius of the Washington Post to legitimize the use against Flynn of the Logan Act, a likely unconstitutional 1799 law prohibiting private individuals, not public incoming national security advisors, from discussing foreign policy with foreign governments. Ignatius accepted the leak from the Obama official. He wrote that Flynn had called Kislyak. “What did Flynn say, and did it undercut the U.S. sanctions? The Logan Act (though never enforced) bars U.S. citizens from correspondence intending to influence a foreign government about ‘disputes’ with the United States. Was its spirit violated?” Flynn’s routine and appropriate phone call became fodder for a developing grand conspiracy theory of Russia collusion. In discussions with investigators, both DOJ’s Mary McCord and Comey conspicuously cite this Ignatius column as somehow meaningful in the approach they would take with Flynn. “Nothing, to my mind, happens until the 13th of January, when David Ignatius publishes a column that contains a reference to communication Michael Flynn had with the Russians. That was on the 13th of January,” Comey said of the column that ran online on January 12. In fact, quite a bit had happened at the FBI prior to that leak, with much conversation about how to utilize the Logan Act against Flynn. And the leak-fueled Ignatius column would later be used by FBI officials to justify an illegal ambush interview of Flynn in the White House. January 23: Another important criminal leak was given to Ellen Nakashima and Greg Miller of the Washington Post, also based on criminal leaks. Their article, headlined “FBI reviewed Flynn’s calls with Russian ambassador but found nothing illicit,” was intended to make Flynn feel safe and put him at ease about the FBI stance on those calls the day before they planned to ambush him in an interview. The article was used to publicize false information when it said, “Although Flynn’s contacts with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak were listened to, Flynn himself is not the active target of an investigation, U.S. officials said.” In fact, emails prior to this date confirm Flynn was their prime target. This article was later cited by McCabe as the reason why they were justified in concealing from Flynn the real purpose of their interview. Flynn later asked McCabe if he knew how all the information about his phone calls had been made public and whether it had been leaked. Any potential response from McCabe to Flynn has been redacted from his own notes about the conversation. January 24: Comey later admitted he broke every protocol to send agents to interview Flynn and try to catch him in a lie. FBI officials strategized how to keep Flynn from knowing he was a target of the investigation or asking for an attorney to represent him in the interview. The January 23 Washington Post article, which falsely stated that Flynn was not an FBI target, was key to that strategy. Though the interviewing agents said they could detect no “tells” indicating he lied, and he carefully phrased everything in the interview, he later was induced to plead guilty to lying in this interview. Ostensibly because White House officials downplayed the Kislyak phone calls, presumably in light of what Flynn had told them about the calls, Yates would go to the White House the next day and insinuate Flynn should probably be fired. February 9: The strategy to get Flynn fired didn’t immediately work so another leak was deployed to Greg Miller, Adam Entous and Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post. That article, headline “National security adviser Flynn discussed sanctions with Russian ambassador, despite denials, officials say,” was sourced to people who happened to share senior FBI leadership’s views on the Logan Act. This article was also based on criminal leaks of top secret information of phone call intercepts and laid out the FBI’s case for why Flynn’s contacts with a foreign adversary were a problem. The fact that such phone calls are routine, not to mention Flynn’s case that improved relations with Russia in a world where China, North Korea, and Iran were posing increasing threats, never made it into these articles for context. February 13: The operation finally succeeded in getting Flynn fired and rendering him unable to review the operations against the Trump campaign, Trump transition team, and Trump administration. March 1: Flynn was the first obstacle who had to be overcome. Attorney General Jeff Sessions was the next. The Trump loyalist with a strong Department of Justice background would also need to be briefed on the anti-Trump efforts unless he could be sidelined. Comey admitted that early in Sessions’ tenure, he deliberately hid Russia-related information from Sessions because, “it made little sense to report it to Attorney General Sessions, who we expected would likely recuse himself from involvement in Russia-related investigations.” To secure that recusal, yet another leak was deployed to the Washington Post’s Adam Entous, Ellen Nakashima and Greg Miller. The leak was intended to tar Sessions as a secret Russian agent and was dramatically spun as “Sessions Spoke Twice To Russian Envoy: Revelation contradicts his testimony at confirmation hearing.” One meeting was in passing and the other was in his function as a United States Senator, but the hysteria was such that the Post authors could get away with suggesting Sessions was too compromised to oversee the Department of Justice’s counterintelligence operations involving Russia. It is perhaps worth noting that the Special Counsel idea was pushed in this article. March 2: Sessions recused himself from oversight of the FBI’s anti-Trump operation, providing no meaningful oversight to an operation that would be spun into a Special Counsel by mid-May. With the removal of Trump’s National Security Advisor and his Attorney General, there was no longer any chance of Trump loyalists discovering what Obama holdovers at the FBI were actually doing to get Trump thrown out of office. After Trump fired Comey for managerial incompetence on May 9, deceptively edited and misleading leaks to the New York Times ordered by Comey himself were used to gin up a Special Counsel run exclusively by left-wing anti-Trump partisans who continued the operation without any meaningful oversight for another two years. This stunning operation was not just a typical battle between political foes, nor merely an example of media bias against political enemies. Instead, this entire operation was a deliberate and direct attack on the foundation of American governance. In light of the newly declassified documents released in recent days, it is clear that understanding what happened in that January 5 Oval Office meeting is essential to understanding the full scope and breadth of the corrupt operation against the Trump administration. It is long past time for lawmakers in Congress who are actually interested in oversight of the federal government and the media to demand answers about what really happened in that meeting from every single participant, including Obama and Biden. The corruption SF thinks the establishment Democrat party (including the establishment Republicans) have been trying to keep hidden from the American people......Stunning..

From 2017...... https://www.healio.com/infectious-disease/emerging-diseases/news/online/{85a3f9c0-ed0a-4be8-9ca2-8854b2be7d13}/fauci-no-doubt-trump-will-face-surprise-infectious-disease-outbreak Fauci: ‘No doubt’ Trump will face surprise infectious disease outbreak January 11, 2017 Anthony S. Fauci, MD, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said there is “no doubt” Donald J. Trump will be confronted with a surprise infectious disease outbreak during his presidency. Fauci has led the NIAID for more than 3 decades, advising the past five United States presidents on global health threats from the early days of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s through to the current Zika virus outbreak. Anthony S. Fauci During a forum on pandemic preparedness at Georgetown University, Fauci said the Trump administration will not only be challenged by ongoing global health threats such as influenza and HIV, but also a surprise disease outbreak. “The history of the last 32 years that I have been the director of the NIAID will tell the next administration that there is no doubt they will be faced with the challenges their predecessors were faced with,” he said. While observers have speculated since his election about how Trump will respond to such challenges, Fauci and other health experts said Tuesday that preventing disease pandemics often starts overseas and that a proper response means collaboration between not only the U.S. and other countries, but also the public and private health sectors. “We will definitely get surprised in the next few years,” he said. ‘Risks have never been higher’ Trump, the real estate developer-turned-Republican politician, has worried some infectious disease experts with controversial and sometimes unclear views on certain health issues.

https://www.npr.org/2020/05/07/851712311/u-s-field-hospitals-stand-down-most-without-treating-any-covid-19-patients?fbclid=IwAR1U2PXAzK3aNIY8iFvC1fwDwplSn5dpl-4rtcXBMkZyLikR2ZUm4EH2Ki0 U.S. Field Hospitals Stand Down, Most Without Treating Any COVID-19 Patients Enlarge this image Construction at the COVID-19 field hospital at McCormick Place in Chicago on April 10. The city pared back plans for a 3,000-bed temporary hospital at the nation's largest convention center as infection numbers decreased. Nam Y. Huh/AP As hospitals were overrun by coronavirus patients in other parts of the world, the Army Corps of Engineers mobilized in the U.S., hiring private contractors to build emergency field hospitals around the country. The endeavor cost more than $660 million, according to an NPR analysis of federal spending records. But nearly four months into the pandemic, most of these facilities haven't treated a single patient. Public health experts said this episode exposes how ill-prepared the U.S. is for a pandemic. They praised the Army Corps for quickly providing thousands of extra beds, but experts said there wasn't enough planning to make sure these field hospitals could be put to use once they were finished. "It's so painful because what it's showing is that the plans we have in place, they don't work," said Robyn Gershon, a professor at New York University's School of Global Public Health. "We have to go back to the drawing board and redo it." But the nation's governors — who requested the Army Corps projects and, in some cases, contributed state funding — said they're relieved these facilities didn't get more use. They said early models predicted a catastrophic shortage of hospital beds, and no one knew for sure when or if stay-at-home orders would reduce the spread of the coronavirus. "All those field hospitals and available beds sit empty today," Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, said last month. "And that's a very, very good thing." Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, said: "These 1,000-bed alternate care sites are not necessary; they're not filled. Thank God." Senior military leaders also said the effort was a success — even if the beds sit empty. Gen. John Hyten, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was asked at a news conference if it bothered him to see the field hospitals go unused. "For gosh sakes, no," Hyten said. "If you see beds full, that means the local capacity of the local hospitals to handle this [has] been overwhelmed. And now we're into an emergency situation." The Army Corps started building more than 30 field hospitals, retrofitting convention centers and erecting climate-controlled tents, in mid-March. Agency officials pushed to get these facilities done fast — limiting the bidding process and often negotiating directly with contractors they knew could deliver on time. "I tell our guys, you have three weeks," Lt. Gen. Todd Semonite, commander of the Army Corps of Engineers, said at a Pentagon news briefing in March. "You get as much as you can [get] done in three weeks. And then the mission is complete. We have a narrow window of opportunity. If we don't leverage that window of opportunity, we're gonna miss it." At Chicago's McCormick Place, workers scrambled in April to transform the convention center into a massive temporary hospital with 3,000 beds — more than the biggest hospital in Illinois. "This was an empty convention hall," Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said during a news conference while flanked by construction workers in hard hats and bright yellow vests. "Monumental, round-the-clock dedication is what got this done before we need it, preparing for saving lives in the event that things become as bad as some have predicted." But just as construction got underway, states were issuing stay-at-home orders. And the spread of the coronavirus eventually began to slow. Work on the field hospitals continued, though some projects were scaled back — including McCormick Place. The field hospital opened with one-third of the beds originally planned, and it closed its doors a few weeks later after treating fewer than 40 patients. The same story is playing out across the country. In fact, most Army Corps field hospitals haven't seen a single patient. In many parts of the U.S., hospitals were able to expand their capacity to keep up with the surge of coronavirus patients. But in New York, hospitals were overwhelmed, and local officials pleaded with the public to save hospital beds for people who needed them most. "The mantra was, 'Don't come to the hospital, don't go to the doctor, stay home, stay home till your lips turn blue,' " said Gershon of NYU's School of Global Public Health. "Well, we now know that was a crazy set of advice." Gershon said she worries that a lot of people followed that advice and that some may have died because of it — including a cousin of hers on Long Island. He stayed at home as he got sicker, Gershon said, and later died on a ventilator in the hospital. Contractors built two field hospitals on Long Island, on the campuses of the State University of New York at Stony Brook and SUNY Old Westbury, at a total cost of more than $270 million. The Army Corps limited the competition in awarding the projects to speed the process, which usually takes six to nine months, according to agency documents. Officials noted they were able to complete the contract award for the Stony Brook project in a "little more than three days." "This time savings was critical in order for construction to begin as quickly as possible, supporting the unusual and compelling nature of the urgency of this procurement and the national emergency," the document said. The two Long Island field hospitals were completed in late April. They never opened to the public and didn't treat any patients. "That's outrageous," Gershon said. "That's completely crazy. I hope they didn't take them down." The temporary hospitals in New York haven't been taken down. They're on hold in case they need to be reopened in the future, according to a state health department spokesman. New York has "so far avoided the worst-case scenario we were preparing for," the spokesman said in a statement. "There has been a reduced need for hospital beds, and as of now we are not moving forward on purchasing supplies and equipment or securing staff for these sites." Even in New York City, where the Army Corps field hospital did treat COVID-19 patients, it never reached full capacity. "There are a lot of losers in it and not a lot of winners," said Dario Gonzalez, an emergency doctor with the New York City Fire Department who helped lead the medical response at the temporary hospital at the Javits Center in Manhattan. "It was very disappointing," Gonzalez said. "Everybody was here, ready to work, ready to get patients in." The plan was for the Javits Center to take patients from overwhelmed hospitals in the city. But in practice it wasn't that easy. Some hospitals complained that the intake process was too complicated. And they sent few patients to Javits — even as they resorted to treating patients in the hallways. During the three weeks it was open, the Javits field hospital treated about 1,100 patients. Gonzales said it could have handled a lot more. "We all could have done a much better job," Gonzalez says. "And we've got to really get it together to get that right the next time." Officials in other states such as Illinois and Michigan also said field hospitals can be quickly reopened if there's an increase in coronavirus cases. "We really wanted to make sure that we were maintaining some of the physical infrastructure that has been built there. So that should we need it, it doesn't take us a long time to potentially turn that back on," said Allison Arwady, the public health commissioner in Chicago. She said officials there are keeping a close eye on the number of COVID-19 patients in local hospitals. "We watch it really closely every day," Arwady said. "And certainly if we start to see any direction that things are not going the right way, we stand ready in case that needs to be reassessed." Public health experts said this episode exposes how ill-prepared the U.S. is for a pandemic. They praised the Army Corps for quickly providing thousands of extra beds, but experts said there wasn't enough planning to make sure these field hospitals could be put to use once they were finished. Not enough planning? SF is pretty happy these hospitals weren't needed........

https://nypost.com/2020/05/10/cuomo-was-wrong-to-order-nursing-homes-to-accept-coronavirus-patients/?fbclid=IwAR39rtyrAcnbcAJhwRhkX88f-wvKKs9VBRz03jGPW7yoPaf44dn_521bHEI Gov. Andrew Cuomo has finally admitted — tacitly and partially, anyway — the mistake that was state health chief Howard Zucker’s order that nursing homes must admit coronavirus-positive patients. On Sunday, Cuomo announced a new regulation: Such patients must now test negative for the virus before hospitals can return them to nursing homes. Yet the gov also admitted that COVID-19 cases might still go to the facilities via other routes, and didn’t explicitly overrule Zucker’s March 25 mandate that homes must accept people despite their testing status — indeed, couldn’t even require a test pre-admission. The gov’s people say that a home that simply can’t accommodate coronavirus patients never had to take them — though they are obliged to help those people find a place that will, with help available from the state if needed. That is: Zucker’s mandate was never more than a “don’t discriminate” rule. But Zucker publicly presented it as “must accept” — and Cuomo’s remarks regularly implied there must be something wrong with a home that couldn’t handle corona patients. So, while the gov’s people imply that some homes simply misunderstood the rules, the real message to operators was that declaring themselves overwhelmed would put their licenses at risk. Notably, the chief of one Cobble Hill facility not only had his request for PPE denied, he got turned down cold when he then asked to transfer patients. Then, too, Zucker’s Department of Health has issued other heartless orders during this crisis — the now-rescinded “don’t even try to resuscitate” mandate to EMTs for cardiac-arrest cases, as well as telling at least one home it was OK to keep staffers on the job after they’d tested positive. Also telling: The gov has ordered an investigation that’s plainly supposed to pin all the blame on nursing and adult-care facilities: It’s led by state Attorney General Tish James, who got her job with Cuomo’s crucial assistance — and it’s only looking at what homes did wrong. We’re sure James will uncover plenty of real horrors: Everyone (who cared to know) has long been aware that many New York nursing homes leave a lot to be desired. But that was all the more reason for Zucker & Co. to focus on policing and assisting these facilities from the start — rather than issuing edicts that led to repeated and needless tragedies. The holy Governor needs to begin moving the public's focus on this error away from him personally (one of many tactical errors) if he has any chance of replacing the former VP as the Democrat candidate for President....Which he could be successful at doing since the country appears to have moved past his pleading and begging that resulted in a huge surplus of ventilators, the Comfort ship has left NYC, the beds in the Javits Center are being quietly removed.......

In the end - freedom of the people must win......

https://americanmilitarynews.com/2020/05/iran-hits-its-own-warship-with-missile-killing-19/?utm_source=foramerica&utm_campaign=alt&utm_medium=facebook&fbclid=IwAR1s54M38wR8YvNWCP1VnxaGpf23RoK4f1VxPgGXDfR3tMaJhwj7FhdkCcQ Iran hits its own warship with missile, killing 19 At least 19 Iranian Navy personnel are dead and 15 more injured after the warship “Konarak” was struck by Iran’s own missile near Jask Port in southern Iran. Iran’s official Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) confirmed the 19 deaths and 15 injuries in a report Monday. Another "whoopsie" from the Iranian missile corp........Apparently they didn't bench the guy who shot down the airliner earlier this year..... Or maybe since it was during a training mission, he was still learning......

He finally has serenity now......

I thought the term "target" wasn't supposed to be used since the Palin/Giffords incident....... BTW - How are we supposed to trust any numbers out there anymore? https://www.businessinsider.com/deborah-birx-cdc-comments-coronavirus-task-force-meeting-2020-5 The White House's coronavirus task force response coordinator, Dr. Deborah Birx, said in a recent meeting that "there is nothing from the CDC that I can trust," The Washington Post reported on Saturday. Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House's coronavirus task force response coordinator, blasted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention during a discussion on COVID-19 data in a recent meeting, The Washington Post reported on Saturday. "There is nothing from the CDC that I can trust," she told CDC Director Robert Redfield, two people familiar with the meeting told the newspaper. The Post reported that Birx and others feared that the CDC's data-tracking system was inflating coronavirus statistics like mortality rates and case numbers by up to 25%. Birx later told The Post in a statement that "mortality is slowly declining each day."

Yet he was the racist President because he enacted a travel ban that affected New York and San Francisco 's Chinese new year celebration. In case you forgot. The point where your meme opines that Trump lied? I fail to make that connection. Flynn wasn't totally forthcoming with the Vice President, which was a breach of trust with your employer. He also had plead guilty to the FBI for lying. The fact that was a setup didn't come to absolute light until recently. So, SF doesn't make the same connection as your meme post.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/lisettevoytko/2020/05/06/majority-of-new-coronavirus-cases-in-new-york-are-from-people-staying-at-home-not-traveling-or-working/?fbclid=IwAR1Bm9gZx_6zIMWTk83S9dqQ-Lr1fPnbGmcIV_NBRC0TrfxNtZLFqbwrUfk#446f9b001655 Majority Of New Coronavirus Cases In New York Are From People Staying At Home—Not Traveling Or Working TOPLINE New York Governor Andrew Cuomo shared initial survey results of hospitalized coronavirus patients during a Wednesday press conference, which said 66% of respondents were at home before being admitted, showing that the virus has continued to spread during lockdown, even as New York prepares for an eventual reopening. KEY FACTS About 1,200 patients were surveyed from 113 hospitals over a three-day period, Cuomo said; his office did not respond to a request for comment by Forbes. In addition to mostly coming from their homes, surveyed patients were more likely to be over 51 years old, and either nonessential workers, retired or unemployed. 96% of the surveyed patients had co-morbidities, which means nearly all had another chronic medical condition prior to catching coronavirus. The survey also found that COVID-19 disproportionately affects African Americans and Hispanics living in the New York City area. The New York survey appears to be unique in that it released results on where patients came from before being hospitalized. Some of the survey’s results on ethnicity and age appeared to match a Centers for Disease Control study of hospitalized patients released April 8, 2020, which showed that older people and African Americans were more likely to have COVID-19. CRUCIAL QUOTE “They’re not working, they’re not traveling, they’re predominantly downstate, predominantly minority, predominantly older,” said Cuomo. “Much of this comes down to what you do to protect yourself.” KEY BACKGROUND The survey was conducted because while new COVID-19 hospitalizations are down in New York, they are declining at a much slower rate than Cuomo would like, he said. Cuomo did not provide an explanation as to why so many of the surveyed patients were coming from their homes, but he did say it reaffirms precautions such as mask-wearing and handwashing to protect more vulnerable people. Cuomo said he was surprised by the survey results, because he expected more patients would be essential workers or using public transportation. “That’s not the case,” he said. TANGENT Cuomo also revealed that an upstate agricultural greenhouse was experiencing an outbreak that he compared to the state’s first outbreak in New Rochelle, as well as outbreaks seen at meat plants across the country. “It’s not about meat or vegetables, it’s about worker density and large gatherings,” Cuomo said of the spread. No kidding - that's just great......Then why the F did we have to stay at home......

There he is!!

https://apnews.com/f5ab3e3c75304b9bbe1e4b32322b3faf/Trump-alters-story-on-why-he-fired-Flynn Flynn left the White House in February, only acknowledging that he had given an incomplete account to Pence of his conversations with Kislyak. After Trump forced Flynn out, he asked FBI Director James Comey to end the bureau’s probe in the matter, according to Comey’s account. Comey refused, and Trump fired him, too. Then-White House spokesman Sean Spicer said after Flynn’s firing that it was the result of a “trust issue” and the White House counsel’s office had determined there was not a legal issue. “Whether or not he actually misled the vice president was the issue, and that was ultimately what led to the president asking for and accepting the resignation of Gen. Flynn,” Spicer told reporters on Feb. 14. “That’s it, pure and simple. It was a matter of trust.” Trump has been publicly dismissive of Comey and of special counsel Robert Mueller’s continuing investigation, and was often generous in his appraisal of Flynn, except to say his adviser could not stay on the job after misleading his vice president. And that "legal issue" was just resolved.....It is extremely rare that the DOJ would drop a case against someone (especially one who plead guilty) without having a judge force a dismissal.....The "plea" was certainly coerced.......

Early on - SF was kind of impressed with Cuomo's handling of the virus in NY, and his "apparent" bi-partisanship and appreciation with the WH task force. But after he went ballistic demanding 40,000 ventilators, (When his state didn't even need the 4,000 he got and even gave some away) demanded the Federal Government do more - FEMA helped by building the beds and rooms (in the Javits Center 2,500 beds, 141 were full) transferred the CG ship Comfort (with 1,000 beds, treated less than 50), and contracted to build a $40 million hospital in the Bronx (which was scrapped by Cuomo) SF became very weary of his antics. Now he's wanting to tax the people who came to NY's aid (at his request) and earned any income. YES - NYC had it bad, but look at the dynamics, population density, subways not being sanitized, and then the Governor forcing nursing homes to accept Covid patients (along with body bags).... all of these things combined made a really bad situation even worse and literally caused many more deaths. Any admiration I had towards NY Governor Cuomo has faded very fast......

As SF said before - forget the Biden sexual assault story. While it is humorous to see the hypocrisy on both sides of the aisle on this issue, it will accomplish nothing, only a distraction. I am predicting that he will not make it onto a stage with Trump...... Those virtual campaign "stops" are really going well...... https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/Glitches-awkwardness-and-blank-screens-mar-15255378.php#item-85307-tbla-2 "They introduce me?" a blurry Joe Biden asked five seconds after he appeared on-screen. "Am I on?" he added, as he walked toward the camera on choppy video and removed his aviator sunglasses. What was supposed to be a crisp and cool introduction instead stoked confusion. "Good evening, Tampa," the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee said. "I wish we could have done this together and it had gone a little more smoothly." "This" was an event Thursday billed as a "Virtual Rally with Joe Biden in Tampa." It was an hour plagued by technical glitches, awkward pauses, delays and even some blank screen time. For a campaign seeking a substitute for the rousing events that Biden would be holding if not for the coronavirus, the first-of-its kind rally served as a tough lesson about the perils of remote campaigning that played out in real time. At least his campaign is trying...... "Rousing Events" Snicker.....

While SF can appreciate a good "Big Butts" dialogue most times, SF is wondering why the Supreme Court of Texas had to step into this one in Texas...... https://www.foxnews.com/politics/abbott-issues-executive-order-eliminating-jail-as-punishment-for-violating-coronavirus-restrictions?fbclid=IwAR2QRY6Lp1hNyPiovgk6od19warqNohhQX7_-1CumVJKnJd96uxtp7MpTtw The Texas Supreme Court on Thursday ordered the release of salon owner Shelley Luther, who was jailed for opening in violation of the state's rules, as Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order retroactively eliminating jail time as a consequence for violating the state's coronavirus restrictions. Shortly after Abbott's announcement, the Supreme Court of Texas ordered Luther’s release. An attorney for Luther, who is with her at the jail, told Fox News they don’t know the timing yet of when she will be freed.Video "Throwing Texans in jail who have had their businesses shut down through no fault of their own is nonsensical, and I will not allow it to happen,” Abbott said in a statement. “That is why I am modifying my executive orders to ensure confinement is not a punishment for violating an order. This order is retroactive to April 2nd, supersedes local orders and if correctly applied should free Shelley Luther." On Wednesday, Abbott, the state's Attorney General Ken Paxton and Lieutenant Gov. Dan Patrick called for Luther's release after she was jailed by Dallas County State District Judge Eric Moyé. The officials said he had abused his discretion and emphasized that the woman was keeping her business open in order to feed her family. 20.2K people are talking about this "As a mother, Ms. Luther wanted to feed her children," Paxton said in a letter to the judge asking him to free her. "As a small business owner, she wanted to help her employees feed their children. Needless to say, these are laudable goals that warrant the exercise of enforcement discretion." On Thursday, Paxton praised the governor for ensuring that people would not be jailed for flouting the state's coronavirus restrictions. "I applaud Gov. Abbott’s decision to ensure that penalties for violating public health orders are reasonable and not excessive. All Texans are trying to get through this crisis together and no one should be put in jail unnecessarily," he said. Abbott said it was not just that as the state was reducing its prison populations because of the coronavirus that it was also throwing entrepreneurs in jail. "It may also ensure that other Texans like Ana Isabel Castro-Garcia and Brenda Stephanie Mata who were arrested in Laredo, should not be subject to confinement," Abbott said of the order. "As some county judges advocate for releasing hardened criminals from jail to prevent the spread of COVID-19, it is absurd to have these business owners take their place.” 9,356 people are talking about this On Thursday night, Abbott said on Fox News' "Hannity" that citizens' liberty needed to be balanced with the need to slow the coronavirus' spread. "There is [a balance that needs to be struck], Sean, and that is why we are now in Texas opening up things like hair salons and barbershops," Abbott told host Sean Hannity. "But Sean, you need to know this: The problem that we're dealing with is far worse than what you've articulated in Dallas County." Luther, after her arrest for operating her salon in violation of Abbott's executive order, was given three choices by the judge: She could offer an apology for selfishness, pay a fine and shut down until Friday, or serve jail time. "I have to disagree with you, sir, when you say that I'm selfish because feeding my kids is not selfish," she told the judge. "I have hairstylists that are going hungry because they would rather feed their kids. So sir, if you think the law is more important than kids getting fed, then please go ahead with your decision. But I am not going to shut the salon." The dustup Wednesday over Luther's actions came after two Texas Republican lawmakers got illegal haircuts at another business in protest of the fact that hair salons and barbershops were not part of the initial wave of businesses to reopen under the governor's plan. "Hairstylists and the cosmetology industry don’t have a lot of lobbyists in the Capitol advocating for them, whereas maybe the big-box stores and large restaurant chains do and sadly they were overlooked when this should have been an industry that was opened first, because of how regulated they are and the health standards they have to comply with," state Rep. Briscoe Cain said, according to Fox 26 Houston. He was joined by Rep. Steve Toth in his act of civil disobedience. Abbott this week moved up the timeline for hair salons, barbershops and tanning salons to open to Friday after they were initially slotted to reopen in mid-May under the state's plan to get its economy going again. I mean after the State AG, and the Governor both called for her release, then the Governor amended his E.O., wouldn't the Judge be compelled to release her? Maybe this was political afterall....... Did it again Muda......

Speaking of the presumptive Democrat nominee........Anyone seen him lately?

Update to this story: https://dfw.cbslocal.com/2020/05/06/texas-attorney-general-ken-paxton-immediate-release-jailed-dallas-salon-owner-shelley-luther/ DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) – Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has called for the “immediate release” of a Dallas salon owner who was arrested and sent to jail for opening her business in defiance of Gov. Greg Abbott’s stay-at-home orders. Shelley Luther, owner of Salon A La Mode, was sentenced to seven days in jail Tuesday after Dallas judge Eric Moye said she violated those orders as the coronavirus pandemic continues. Paxton said he believes the judge is abusing his authority and that her arrest seems like a “political stunt.” In a full statement, Paxton said: The attorney general sent a letter to Moye, saying her sentencing was “significantly overbroad.” He mentioned that Abbott’s new executive order will allow her to operate business starting on Friday. The new order that Abbott announced earlier this week allows for more businesses like salons and barber shops to reopen their doors on Friday, May 8. This comes a week after nonessential businesses like retail stores and restaurants were allowed to reopen in Texas at a 25% capacity. Paxton said jailing Luther for seven days, which overlaps with her being able to operate her business, is “unjustifiable.” Paxton also said Dallas County has been reducing its jail population due to concerns of COVID-19 and that releasing one more person shouldn’t be an issue. “A community that released all those people, some of whom committed serious crimes, can certainly stand to release one more—a mother whose only crime was operating a small business in an effort to feed her children,” Paxton said in his letter. Abbott soon released a statement, saying he agrees with Paxton in asking for her release. Luther received a cease-and-desist letter last week from Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins to close her salon, but she publicly ripped it up. She had reopened her salon on April 24. The salon owner has garnered crowds of residents who supported her decision to reopen her business even if it was in defiance of statewide orders. Luther and her salon were also fined $500 for each day it was open, which was seven in total as of Tuesday. Moye said her salon would continue to be fined every day it was open until the new order would allow it to reopen on Friday. Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson, the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office and Jenkins have not yet commented on the situation. During her appearance in court Tuesday, Moye and Luther made statements to one another. “If you would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge that your own actions were selfish, putting your own interest ahead of those in the community in which you live,” Moye said, offering her a chance to avoid jail time. He said he would consider only giving her a fine, if she apologized, acknowledged she was wrong, and agreed to keep her business closed until Friday, when the governor has announced all salons may open. “I have much respect for this court and laws. I have never been in this position before and it’s not someplace that I want to be,” Luther responded. “But I have to disagree with you sir, when you say that I’m selfish because feeding my kids — is not selfish. I have hair stylists that are going hungry because they’d rather feed their kids. So sir, if you think the law is more important than kids getting fed, then please go ahead with you decision but I am not going to shut the salon.” Luther’s attorney, Warren Norred, said they would appeal the judge’s decision. A GoFundMe page that was set up for Luther has, so far, raised just over $280,000. The goal was originally $250,000 but it has since increased to $500,000. I would have to say perhaps her (the salon owner) point was made......

As I watch this video here are my thoughts 1) So far the majority of the people in this video are people of color. And in Chicago, according to: https://www.chicagotribune.com/coronavirus/ct-coronavirus-chicago-african-american-population-20200420-c2nyvnq4vrcundwdfvhdldtlfe-story.html People of color are making up a larger percentage of the cases than others. Just an observation - I'm sure the opposite would hold true in some other demographic area. 2) Who gives the Governor (or the mayor) the ability to determine who or what is "essential" business? And how is that decision to be enforced in court? https://www.dallasnews.com/news/courts/2020/05/05/dallas-salon-owner-ordered-to-spend-a-week-in-jail-for-keeping-salon-open/ Why does the salon owner in this story have to prove her business is essential or safe? Shouldn't the government need to prove that fact, instead of the Governor simply stating her business isn't? Her argument was pretty good in her statement to the judge who called her actions selfish. "I don't call feeding my kids, or allowing my stylists feed their kids and families selfish, so I don't agree with you, I need to stay open" - Off to jail - 3) The Governor of Michigan dictating citizens cannot go to their vacation homes during the shutdown and arresting violators or fining them. If I own property and am paying taxes I should be able to shelter in place there if I choose. The Governor of Illinois is facing a similar situation, the members of the largest homeowners association (that is actually a campground) in the country are being petitioned by the local city (about 1 1/2 hours west of Chicago) to shut down and stay at home, even though these people own their property where their campers are and pay property taxes.