- Defiant Erdogan Says Turkey Has Resumed Mediterranean Gas Exploration & Drilling
Defiant Erdogan Says Turkey Has Resumed Mediterranean Gas Exploration & Drilling
Tyler Durden
Mon, 08/10/2020 – 02:45While over a week ago it was looking as if Turkey might back down on its ambitious oil and gas exploration aims in the eastern Mediterranean amidst global pressure, especially coming from the EU and US, President Erdogan is defiant once again, announcing Friday the resumption of energy exploration work that Greece and Cyprus says violates their territorial waters.
Emerging from Friday prayers at Hagia Sophia – which Turkey recently declared a mosque (in another shot aimed at Greece) – Erdogan said: “We have started drilling work again,” and added, “I don’t think we are obligated to talk to those who do not have rights in the areas of maritime powers.”
Via Reuters Erdogan said a seismic survey ship is currently en route to the disputed region to continue its energy exploration.
The Turkish president’s comments were also seen as a firm rejected of a recent Greece and Egyptian deal defining their exclusive economic zones in contradiction to Ankara’s interpretation.
Turkey denied the agreement as “null and void” — which means Turkey’s expansionist claims are being contested by pretty much every Mediterranean country, also including Israel. The exception of course, is the Tripoli-based Libyan Government of National Accord (GNA), which lately inked its own agreement with Turkey defining broad swathes of the Mediterranean as within Turkey’s rights.
Turkey has sought to argue that the so-called Turkish Republic of Cyprus, which remains unrecognized internationally, gives it expansive rights encompassing the whole of Cyprus.
Via Anadolu Agency Meanwhile Greece has complained of weekly illegal Turkish military incursions of its airspace, in a situation that is becoming militarized by the week.
Lately Greek forces have been on ‘high alert’ after Athens promised it would never let Turkish ships encroach of Greek maritime territory. The EU has also threatened sanctions over the past month as the crisis has grown.
- The NATO Conquest Of Eastern Europe
The NATO Conquest Of Eastern Europe
Tyler Durden
Mon, 08/10/2020 – 02:00Authored by ‘G2Mil’ via The Duran,
General Dwight Eisenhower was the first NATO supreme allied commander.
After assuming that post in 1951, General Eisenhower wrote about NATO’s goal:
“If in 10 years, all American troops stationed in Europe for national defense purposes have not been returned to the United States, then this whole project will have failed.”
It did fail because seven decades later, long after the Soviet Union dissolved, NATO still exists with thousands of American troops deployed throughout Europe.
The Warsaw Pact was disbanded in 1991 as Soviet troops withdrew from Eastern Europe. The American empire exploited this peace to expand NATO and absorb former Warsaw Pact nations and even former Soviet republics while deploying NATO forces to Russia’s borders.
Watched the linked video for details:
- Big Pharma's 'Narrative' Is Failing
Big Pharma’s ‘Narrative’ Is Failing
Tyler Durden
Sun, 08/09/2020 – 23:45Authored by Bretigne Shaffer via LewRockwell.com,
So now we don’t have to listen to what those doctors said in front of the US Supreme Court, because it turns out that one of them has some whacky beliefs about sex with demons causing reproductive disorders. What a relief.
I’m not going to pretend that the things Dr. Stella Immanuel has said don’t sound just a little crazy to me. They do.
But I’ve been observing this game long enough to have a pretty good idea of how this works:
Someone says something that contradicts the dominant narrative (in this case, the narrative about medical science), and the machine that supports that narrative goes into overdrive to discredit them, with whatever information they can dig up–as long as it doesn’t involve discussing the actual substance of what the person has said.
I understand that for some people, maybe even for a great many, that is the end of the conversation.
So for everyone who is satisfied with the “fringe doctors promoting hydroxychloroquine also believe demon sex causes fybroids” narrative–please, stop here. Your ride is over, and you may go on believing that this group of doctors and other professionals has been thoroughly discredited by these statements.
For everyone else, if you are at all interested in why such a coordinated effort has been launched to silence and discredit this group, why – even before the sex demon stuff was uncovered – videos of the group’s press conference were quickly yanked from YouTube, and why their own website was taken down without warning by its host, SquareSpace, (their new website can now be found here) then please keep reading.
WHAT THE AMERICA’S FRONTLINE DOCTORS GROUP SAID:
What follows is a brief summary of the key points made by the group America’s Frontline Doctors at their press conference last week. I will not comment on the validity of their claims, however founder Dr. Simone Gold has provided support for much of what the group said, in a white paper that can be found here.
1. They believe that hydroxychloroquine is an effective treatment for Covid-19.
This is the claim made by several of the speakers, including Dr. Immanuel, based on their own clinical experience, as well as on multiple published studies. Many of those studies are listed here, and here.
2. State licensing boards are using their power to forcibly prevent people from having access to this drug.
According to Dr. Gold, many states have empowered their pharmacists to not honor prescriptions for hydroxychloroquine to be used in treating Covid-19. This, she says, is unprecedented:
“It has never happened that a state has threatened a doctor for prescribing a universally accepted safe generic cheap drug off-label.”
Meanwhile, says Gold, the drug is available over the counter in many other countries, including Iran and Indonesia, where it can be found “in the vitamin section”.
3. There is a coordinated campaign to discredit and suppress information about the drug hydroxychloroquine as a possible treatment for Covid-19:
“If it seems like there is an orchestrated attack going on against hydroxychloroquine,” said Dr. James Todaro, “it’s because there is.”
Dr. Todaro is speaking from experience. He was the co-author of a March 13 white paper arguing for the use of hydroxychloroquine against Covid-19. The paper was made public on Google Docs, received a lot of attention, and was then removed–without warning–by Google. (It has since been put back up.)
4. The World Health Organization halted its trials of hydroxychloroquine based on a blatantly fraudulent study that relied on data that it appears never even existed.
Bear in mind that this is the authority upon which YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki has said she bases her company’s policy on “misinformation”.
The WHO later resumed trials after independent investigators discovered the problems and the study’s authors retracted it.
5. We should be able to have a free and open discussion about this.
Dr. Dr. Joseph Lapado from UCLA, sums it up:
“We’ve been using (hydroxychloroquine) for a long time. But all of a sudden it’s been escalated to this area of looking like some poisonous drug. That just doesn’t make sense… At the very least, we can live in a world where there are differences of opinion about the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine, but still allow more data to come, still allow physicians who feel they have expertise with it to use that medication, and still, you know, talk and learn and get better at helping people with Covid-19.”
WHY THE ALL-OUT MEDIA ASSAULT ON THE FRONTLINE DOCTORS?:
The influence that the pharmaceutical industry wields over media outlets is no secret. As of 2018, an estimated 70% of all news advertising in the US came from pharmaceutical companies. I have written elsewhere about how “reporting” on medical issues can be difficult to distinguish from outright marketing for drug companies.
Social-media platforms are not immune to this influence, whether it comes via advertising dollars; “partnerships” such as that between the CDC Foundation and MailChimp (which like many other platforms, has an explicit policy of censoring content about vaccines that does not align with the positions of the CDC and the WHO); direct investment, such as that of Google’s parent company Alphabet; or indeed at the behest of politicians such as Congressman Adam Schiff, who last year wrote to the CEOs of Amazon, Facebook and Google, requesting that those companies censor information and products that did not conform to the officially sanctioned position on vaccines. All three complied.
So it should come as small surprise that both Google and YouTube have now taken to removing content supportive of hydroxychloroquine, a drug that is no longer covered by patent, and can be made and sold by any generic producer, for a fraction of the price that Gilead, for example, might charge for its still-patented Remdesivir.
Twitter and Facebook have likewise removed posts about the drug, most notably–and with no visible sense of irony–removing posts of the video in which the Frontline Doctors speak out about widespread media censorship of the topic. (You can now see those videos on Bitchute.)
One need not have an opinion on the merits of the drug hydroxychloroquine in order to recognize that something very odd is happening here. Something that doesn’t seem to have anything to do with free and open inquiry or honest scientific discourse.
Many argue that the politicization of this drug is founded in a desire to unseat President Trump, that the opposition to it is primarily because it was endorsed by Trump, and if it is deemed to be a failure (or even better, dangerous to patients) it will be a powerful strike against the president. That may well be part of what has motivated this. But there is another motivation, having to do with the desire to push a more expensive medication onto the market, and to push a new vaccine on the world’s population.
More broadly, it has to do with the narrative that those in the business of selling drugs demand we believe: that we are all in desperate need of their products (but only the ones still under patent) if we are to be healthy–or indeed, if we are to survive at all.
If it turns out that this “new” virus is easily treatable, with hydroxychloroquine or anything else, then the industry’s dreams go up in smoke. If hydroxychloroquine turns out to be a safe and effective way of treating Covid-19 (as multiple studies and the experience in many other countries outside of the US indicate it may be) then there is much less reason for anyone to receive a vaccine for it, let alone the entire world’s population. Likewise, there is no pressing need to develop a new, more expensive treatment.
But even more than that: If it turns out that hydroxychloroquine is after all a safe and effective treatment for Covid-19, then this whole episode – the silencing of dissenting voices, the “fact-checking” on social media, the campaigns against “misinformation” – will be revealed in plain sight, for what it has always been: Nothing more than a well-funded marketing campaign and damage-control effort on behalf of the industry that wants you to believe that you need to use its expensive products in order to go on living.
So when a group of doctors took to the steps of the US Supreme Court and told the world how they were having success using a cheap anti-malarial that had been in use for 65 years to treat the most deadly contagion of our generation, it was a massive blow to the narrative upon which the pharmaceutical purveyors’ success depends. And over the next few days, as viewers engaged in a race with the censors, quickly downloading videos before they were removed, to post them on other platforms… it became clear that the censors and the gatekeepers had lost control of the conversation.
This is not only about hydroxychloroquine. Every time media outlets or social-media platforms engage in outright censorship of content, in a way that happens to benefit pharmaceutical companies, both parties lose just a little more credibility. The actions we are witnessing now are not the actions of an industry confident in the value of what it provides to the world. They are the actions of a desperate, threatened creature. They are the actions of an entity that is not strengthened by the truth, but weakened by it. That is what these (increasingly obvious) acts of censorship tell us. What we are witnessing are the pangs of a lumbering, wounded, behemoth.
- California Will Soon Be Paying $1,250 To People Who Test Positive For Coronavirus
California Will Soon Be Paying $1,250 To People Who Test Positive For Coronavirus
Tyler Durden
Sun, 08/09/2020 – 23:15Always looking for ways to one-up its own failed welfare state and run the Covid score up on President Trump, California has now approved a pilot plan to pay $1,250 to anyone who tests positive for coronavirus to encourage them to “stay at home and self isolate”.
Alameda County’s Board of Supervisors has set aside $10 million for the program, which will allow payments to 7,500 people, according to the Daily Mail. The program was approved as the county hit a new high in daily coronavirus cases and as California continues to “struggle” to contain the outbreak in its state.
The program is being “welcomed” by local healthcare providers, who say it’ll help those in working class areas stay at home and not spread the virus by leaving the house.
Andrea Schwab-Galindo, CEO of Tiburcio Vasquez Health Center in Hayward commented: “Literally every single person that we have spoken to through our contract tracing program, they have all asked for either food, help with rent, or access to be enrolled in healthcare. Most people that test positive are usually the members that are out there working and able to do that.”
She continued: “You know, they are construction workers, they are grocery workers, so they are more exposed compared to some of the other family members they are trying to support, including their children.”
Resident Robert Mangrobang also embraced the program, stating: “Yeah, whatever makes it a lot easier for people to deal with this pandemic would be great. Twelve hundred dollars or even more would be ideal for comforting a lot of families.”
In order to qualify for the assistance, people who test positive must not be receiving unemployment or sick leave. Approval for the program will require a referral from one of the five approved clinics in the county. The board hopes the program will assist independent contractors, “people who are paid under the table” and “undocumented workers”.
Alameda County saw a large spike in cases on Wednesday, with 321 new cases reported. This was a new daily record for the county.
The area has a 28% positivity testing rate. For some reason, we bet that number rises.
- Escobar: Who Profits From The Beirut Blast?
Escobar: Who Profits From The Beirut Blast?
Tyler Durden
Sun, 08/09/2020 – 22:45Authored by Pepe Escobar via The Asia Times,
The narrative that the Beirut explosion was an exclusive consequence of negligence and corruption by the current Lebanese government is now set in stone, at least in the Atlanticist sphere.
And yet, digging deeper, we find that negligence and corruption may have been fully exploited, via sabotage, to engineer it.
Lebanon is prime John Le Carré territory. A multinational den of spies of all shades – House of Saud agents, Zionist operatives, “moderate rebel” weaponizers, Hezbollah intellectuals, debauched Arab “royalty,” self-glorified smugglers – in a context of full spectrum economic disaster afflicting a member of the Axis of Resistance, a perennial target of Israel alongside Syria and Iran.
As if this were not volcanic enough, into the tragedy stepped President Trump to muddy the – already contaminated – Eastern Mediterranean waters. Briefed by “our great generals,” Trump on Tuesday said:
“According to them – they would know better than I would – but they seem to think it was an attack.”
Trump added, “it was a bomb of some kind.”
Was this incandescent remark letting the cat out of the bag by revealing classified information? Or was the President launching another non sequitur?
Trump eventually walked his comments back after the Pentagon declined to confirm his claim about what the “generals” had said and his defense secretary, Mark Esper, supported the accident explanation for the blast.
It’s yet another graphic illustration of the war engulfing the Beltway. Trump: attack. Pentagon: accident.
“I don’t think anybody can say right now,” Trump said on Wednesday. “I’ve heard it both ways.”
Still, it’s worth noting a report by Iran’s Mehr News Agency that four US Navy reconnaissance planes were spotted near Beirut at the time of the blasts.
Is US intel aware of what really happened all along the spectrum of possibilities?
That ammonium nitrate
Security at Beirut’s port – the nation’s prime economic hub – would have to be considered a top priority. But to adapt a line from Roman Polanski’s Chinatown: “Forget it, Jake. It’s Beirut.”
Those by now iconic 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate arrived in Beirut in September 2013 on board the Rhosus, a ship under Moldovan flag sailing from Batumi in Georgia to Mozambique. Rhosus ended up being impounded by Beirut’s Port State Control.
Subsequently the ship was de facto abandoned by its owner, shady businessman Igor Grechushkin, born in Russia and a resident of Cyprus, who suspiciously “lost interest” in his relatively precious cargo, not even trying to sell it, dumping style, to pay off his debts.
Grechushkin never paid his crew, who barely survived for several months before being repatriated on humanitarian grounds. The Cypriot government confirmed there was no request to Interpol from Lebanon to arrest him. The whole op feels like a cover – with the real recipients of the ammonium nitrate possibly being “moderate rebels” in Syria who use it to make IEDs and equip suicide trucks, such as the one that demolished the Al Kindi hospital in Aleppo.
The 2,750 tons – packed in 1-ton bags labeled “Nitroprill HD” – were transferred to the Hangar 12 warehouse by the quayside. What followed was an astonishing case of serial negligence.
From 2014 to 2017 letters from customs officials – a series of them – as well as proposed options to get rid of the dangerous cargo, exporting it or otherwise selling it, were simply ignored. Every time they tried to get a legal decision to dispose of the cargo, they got no answer from the Lebanese judiciary.
When Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab now proclaims, “Those responsible will pay the price,” context is absolutely essential.
Neither the prime minister nor the president nor any of the cabinet ministers knew that the ammonium nitrate was stored in Hangar 12, former Iranian diplomat Amir Mousavi, the director of the Center for Strategic Studies and International Relations in Tehran, confirms. We’re talking about a massive IED, placed mid-city.
The bureaucracy at Beirut’s port and the mafias who are actually in charge are closely linked to, among others, the al-Mostaqbal faction, which is led by former Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri, himself fully backed by the House of Saud.
The immensely corrupt Hariri was removed from power in October 2019 amid serious protests. His cronies “disappeared” at least $20 billion from Lebanon’s treasury – which seriously aggravated the nation’s currency crisis.
No wonder the current government – where we have Prime Minister Diab backed by Hezbollah – had not been informed about the ammonium nitrate.
Ammonium nitrate is quite stable, making it one of the safest explosives used in mining. Fire normally won’t set it off. It becomes highly explosive only if contaminated – for instance by oil – or heated to a point where it undergoes chemical changes that produce a sort of impermeable cocoon around it in which oxygen can build up to a dangerous level where an ignition can cause an explosion.
Why, after sleeping in Hangar 12 for seven years, did this pile suddenly feel an itch to explode?
So far, the prime straight to the point explanation, by Middle East expert Elijah Magnier, points to the tragedy being “sparked” – literally – by a clueless blacksmith with a blowtorch operating quite close to the unsecured ammonium nitrate. Unsecured due, once again, to negligence and corruption – or as part of an intentional “mistake” anticipating the possibility of a future blast.
This scenario, though, does not explain the initial “fireworks” explosion. And certainly does not explain what no one – at least in the West – is talking about: the deliberate fires set to an Iranian market in Ajam in the UAE, and also to a series of food/agricultural warehouses in Najaf, Iraq, immediately after the Beirut tragedy.
Follow the money
Lebanon – boasting assets and real estate worth trillions of dollars – is a juicy peach for global finance vultures. To grab these assets at rock bottom prices, in the middle of the New Great Depression, is simply irresistible. In parallel, the IMF vulture would embark on full shakedown mode and finally “forgive” some of Beirut’s debts as long as a harsh variation of “structural adjustment” is imposed.
Who profits, in this case, are the geopolitical and geoeconomic interests of US, Saudi Arabia and France. It’s no accident that President Macron, a dutifulRothschild servant, arrived in Beirut Thursday to pledge Paris neocolonial “support” and all but impose, like a Viceroy, a comprehensive set of “reforms”. A Monty Python-infused dialogue, complete with heavy French accent, might have followed along these lines: “We want to buy your port.” “It’s not for sale.” “Oh, what a pity, an accident just happened.”
Already a month ago the IMF was “warning” that “implosion” in Lebanon was “accelerating.” Prime Minister Diab had to accept the proverbial “offer you can’t refuse” and thus “unlock billions of dollars in donor funds.” Or else. The non-stop run on the Lebanese currency, for over a year now, was just a – relatively polite – warning.
This is happening amid a massive global asset grab characterized in the larger context by American GDP down by almost 40%, arrays of bankruptcies, a handful of billionaires amassing unbelievable profits and too-big-to-fail megabanks duly bailed out with a tsunami of free money.
Dag Detter, a Swedish financier, and Nasser Saidi, a former Lebanese minister and central bank vice governor, suggest that the nation’s assets be placed in a national wealth fund. Juicy assets include Electricité du Liban (EDL), water utilities, airports, the MEA airline , telecom company OGERO, the Casino du Liban.
EDL, for instance, is responsible for 30% of Beirut’s budget deficit.
That’s not nearly enough for the IMF and Western mega banks. They want to gobble up the whole thing, plus a lot of real estate.
“The economic value of public real estate can be worth at least as much as GDP and often several times the value of the operational part of any portfolio,” say Detter and Saidi.
Who’s feeling the shockwaves?
Once again, Israel is the proverbial elephant in a room now widely depicted by Western corporate media as “Lebanon’s Chernobyl.”
A scenario like the Beirut catastrophe has been linked to Israeli plans since February 2016.
Israel did admit that Hangar 12 was not a Hezbollah weapons storage unit. Yet, crucially, on the same day of the Beirut blast, and following a series of suspicious explosions in Iran and high tension in the Syria-Israeli border, Prime Minister Netanyahu tweeted , in the present tense:
“We hit a cell and now we hit the dispatchers. We will do what is necessary in order to defend ourselves. I suggest to all of them, including Hezbollah, to consider this.”
That ties in with the intent, openly proclaimed late last week, to bomb Lebanese infrastructure if Hezbollah harms Israeli Defense Forces soldiers or Israeli civilians.
A headline – “Beirut Blast Shockwaves Will Be Felt by Hezbollah for a Long Time” – confirms that the only thing that matters for Tel Aviv is to profit from the tragedy to demonize Hezbollah, and by association, Iran. That ties in with the US Congress “Countering Hezbollah in Lebanon’s Military Act of 2019” {S.1886}, which all but orders Beirut to expel Hezbollah from Lebanon.
And yet Israel has been strangely subdued.
Muddying the waters even more, Saudi intel – which has access to Mossad, and demonizes Hezbollah way more than Israel – steps in. All the intel ops I talked to refuse to go on the record, considering the extreme sensitivity of the subject.
Still, it must be stressed that a Saudi intel source whose stock in trade is frequent information exchanges with the Mossad, asserts that the original target was Hezbollah missiles stored in Beirut’s port. His story is that Prime Minister Netanyahu was about to take credit for the strike – following up on his tweet. But then the Mossad realized the op had turned horribly wrong and metastasized into a major catastrophe.
The problem starts with the fact this was not a Hezbollah weapons depot – as even Israel admitted. When weapons depots are blown up, there’s a primary explosion followed by several smaller explosions, something that could last for days. That’s not what happened in Beirut. The initial explosion was followed by a massive second blast – almost certainly a major chemical explosion – and then there was silence.
Thierry Meyssan, very close to Syrian intel, advances the possibility that the “attack” was carried out with an unknown weapon, a missile -– and not a nuclear bomb – tested in Syria in January 2020. (The test is shown in an attached video.) Neither Syria nor Iran ever made a reference to this unknown weapon, and I got no confirmation about its existence.
Assuming Beirut port was hit by an “unknown weapon,” President Trump may have told the truth: It was an “attack”. And that would explain why Netanyahu, contemplating the devastation in Beirut, decided that Israel would need to maintain a very low profile.
Watch that camel in motion
The Beirut explosion at first sight might be seen as a deadly blow against the Belt and Road Initiative, considering that China regards the connectivity between Iran, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon as the cornerstone of the Southwest Asia Belt and Road corridor.
Yet that may backfire – badly. China and Iran are already positioning themselves as the go-to investors post-blast, in sharp contrast with the IMF hit men, and as advised by Hezbollah Secretary-General Nasrallah only a few weeks ago.
Syria and Iran are in the forefront of providing aid to Lebanon. Tehran is sending an emergency hospital, food packages, medicine and medical equipment. Syria opened its borders with Lebanon, dispatched medical teams and is receiving patients from Beirut’s hospitals.
It’s always important to keep in mind that the “attack” (Trump) on Beirut’s port destroyed Lebanon’s main grain silo, apart from engineering the total destruction of the port – the nation’s key trade lifeline.
That would fit into a strategy of starving Lebanon. On the same day Lebanon became to a great extent dependent on Syria for food – as it now carries only a month’s supply of wheat – the US attacked silos in Syria.
Syria is a huge exporter of organic wheat. And that’s why the US routinely targets Syrian silos and burns its crops – attempting also to starve Syria and force Damascus, already under harsh sanctions, to spend badly needed funds to buy food
In stark contrast to the interests of the US/France/Saudi axis, Plan A for Lebanon would be to progressively drop out of the US-France stranglehold and head straight into Belt and Road as well as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. Go East, the Eurasian way. The port and even a great deal of the devastated city, in the medium term, can be quickly and professionally rebuilt by Chinese investment. The Chinese are specialists in port construction and management.
This avowedly optimistic scenario would imply a purge of the hyper-wealthy, corrupt weapons/drugs/real estate scoundrels of Lebanon’s plutocracy – which in any case scurry away to their tony Paris apartments at the first sign of trouble.
Couple that with Hezbollah’s very successful social welfare system – which I saw for myself at work last year – having a shot at winning the confidence of the impoverished middle classes and thus becoming the core of the reconstruction.
It will be a Sisyphean struggle. But compare this situation with the Empire of Chaos – which needs chaos everywhere, especially across Eurasia, to cover for the coming, Mad Max chaos inside the US.
General Wesley Clark’s notorious 7 countries in 5 years once again come to mind – and Lebanon remains one of those 7 countries. The Lebanese lira may have collapsed; most Lebanese may be completely broke; and now Beirut is semi-devastated. That may be the straw breaking the camel’s back – releasing the camel to the freedom of finally retracing its steps back to Asia along the New Silk Roads.
- "Somebody Needs To Go To Jail": Graham Erupts After Document Reveals FBI Lied To Congress
“Somebody Needs To Go To Jail”: Graham Erupts After Document Reveals FBI Lied To Congress
Tyler Durden
Sun, 08/09/2020 – 22:15Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-SC) was furious during a Sunday appearance with Fox News’ “Sunday Futures with Maria Bartiromo,” after his committee released a document revealing that the FBI misled the Intelligence Committee during the Russia probe when it claimed that Christopher Steele’s salacious dossier was backed up by one of its primary sources.
“Somebody needs to go to jail for this,” Graham told Bartiromo, adding “This is a second lie. This is a second crime. They lied to the FISA court. They got rebuked, the FBI did, in 2019 by the FISA court, putting in doubt all FISA applications.”
“A year before, they’re lying to the Senate Intel Committee. It’s just amazing the compounding of the lies,” he added.
According to John Solomon of Just The News:
The document in question contains the draft talking points the FBI used to brief the Senate Intelligence Committee in February 2018, including an assessment that the primary sub-source of the information contained in the Steele dossier had backed up the former MI-6 agent’s reporting.
The primary sub-source “did not cite any significant concerns with the way his reporting was characterized in the dossier to the extent he could identify it,” the FBI memo claimed. “…At minimum, our discussions with [the Primary Sub-source] confirm that the dossier was not fabricated by Steele.”
What’s more, FBI agents were told by Steele’s primary sub-source that much of the content attributed to him in the dossier was in “jest” or uncorroborated.
The agency was also warned by the CIA that the memos contained Kremlin disinformation – and had even assembled a spreadsheet which debunked, or could not corroborate most of the claims.
And according to Graham, the document is so misleading that he wants FBI Director Christopher Wray to identify those involved in the congressional briefing.
“They misled the hell out of them,” he added.
More from Just The News:
There is widespread evidence released by the Judiciary Committee and the DOJ inspector general contradicting the February 2018 FBI briefing memo including that the primary sub-source:
- told the FBI that he “has no idea” where some of the language attributed to him came from or that his contacts and “never mentioned” some information attributed to him.
- told the FBI he “did not know the origins” or “did not recall” other information contained in the dossier that was supposedly from his contacts
- alleged that Steele used “incorrect source characterization” for one of his contacts. told the FBI that the corroboration for the dossier was “zero” and that he takes what the sources for the dossier told him with “a grain of salt.”
- claimed much of what he told Steele was second-hand or even in jest and never intended it to be treated as intelligence because if was “word of mouth and hearsay” and “conversation that [he] had with friends over beers.”
- Guess What Happened When New York Put Homeless People In Luxury Hotels
Guess What Happened When New York Put Homeless People In Luxury Hotels
Tyler Durden
Sun, 08/09/2020 – 21:50Authored by Rick Moran via PJMedia.com,
The homeless problem in New York City is bad and getting worse.
City leaders decided to fix the problem by putting up hundreds of sex offenders, mental patients, and drug addicts in Manhattan luxury hotels.
How’s that working out for ya?
Upper West Side residents say three hotels that are housing hundreds of homeless men during the coronavirus pandemic have turned the area into a spectacle of public urination, catcalling and open drug use.
Among those staying at the luxury Belleclaire on Broadway and the Lucerne on West 79th Street, and the more down-market Belnord on West 87th Street, are people who are mentally ill, recovering from drug addictions, and registered sex offenders.
Ten sex offenders are staying in a single hotel — the Belleclaire, which is just one block from the playground of PS 87.
Yikes.
A nanny in the genteel neighborhood told of being offered crack while with her two-year-old charge.
“It doesn’t feel safe anymore,” nanny Michele McDowall, 39, told The Post.
She said she was recently offered crack by a pair of homeless men as she wheeled a toddler along Riverside Park at 79th Street.
“You want to buy crack?” she said they shouted repeatedly as she hurried past, and as the frightened 2-year-old girl in the stroller put her hands over her ears and cried, “Too loud!”
Nice.
But maybe the finger of blame should also be pointed at the Department of Homeland Security, which is paying 75 percent of the costs of this social experiment.
“The DHS is a rogue agency,” one local community board member said of the homeless influx, noting that residents were given no input and little or no notice of the move.
The board member, who asked to not be identified by name, said they were told the city was paying the hotels $175 a day per homeless person or “two guys in a room at $350 a day.”
“You do the math,” the board members said. “It’s a lot of money.”
Obviously, residents of the neighborhood are insufficiently woke. If homeless people want to urinate or defecate on the sidewalk or in the street, or on your front steps, who are you to say they can’t?
What has really upset residents in the neighborhood has been housing 10 sex offenders a block from a public school. What genius thought that one up?
There are also four offenders whose victims were children: Ronald Butler, 62, convicted in June 2013 of raping a 16-year-old girl; Eddie Daniel, 59, convicted of abusing a 10-year-old in 2011; Jonathan Evans, 29, convicted of abusing a 6-year-old; and Michael Hughes, 55, convicted of possessing child pornography in 2007.
“I tell my 10-year old, ‘I’ll be back in two minutes’ — I guess I won’t do that anymore,” mom Mariane Dabo told The Post at the playground after learning of the sex offenders. “It’s scary.”
A group of rabbis asked to see the mayor. No response. The local PTA sent a concerned letter. It was ignored.
Maybe Mayor de Blasio and his administration are too humiliated to answer.
- Shipments Of 20,000 Fake IDs From China Seized By Feds Ahead Of Election
Shipments Of 20,000 Fake IDs From China Seized By Feds Ahead Of Election
Tyler Durden
Sun, 08/09/2020 – 21:25With 85 days until the presidential election, fears are increasing that foreign adversaries, such as China, Russia, and Iran, could attempt to undermine the election.
Foreign states, more specifically China, could use covert and overt measures to sway votes from President Trump.
Already, there was an incident in June, when Chinese video app TikTok saw users band together and falsely reserve tickets for President Trump’s rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, which resulted in an embarrassingly low turnout. As a result, the administration when on the offensive against the app and has since signed an executive order to ban it next month.
China could also be attempting to undermine the election by sending counterfeit driver’s licenses to the U.S. So far, the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers working at Chicago O’Hare International Airport have intercepted close to 20,000 counterfeit U.S. driver’s licenses shipped from China this year, reported FOX 5 New York.
Hidden within contents of packages arriving via international cargo, the counterfeit driver’s licenses were shipped mainly from Hong Kong and mainland China. Other shipments came from South Korea and the U.K.
“These counterfeit driver’s licenses can lead to disastrous consequences,” CBP’s Ralph Piccirilli said in a statement.
“Criminal organizations use these counterfeit I.D.s to avoid attracting attention to their illegal activities.”
While many of the driver’s licenses were for underage college students, there was an alarming discovery as one was able to be scanned.
“These fraudulent identity documents can lead to identity theft, worksite enforcement, critical infrastructure protection, fraud linked to immigration-related crimes such as human smuggling and human trafficking,” CBP said in a press release, adding that, “these documents can be used by those individuals associated with terrorism to minimize scrutiny from travel screening measures.”
While one can only assume the intention of these counterfeit driver’s licenses from China is for underage college students to use at bars, readers should keep in mind it is an election year. China is out to get the president, and if that means creating fake driver’s licenses, that could potentially be used to conduct voter fraud.
- Bitcoin-Hating Fed President Urges "Stricter Lockdown" To "Save Lives & Save The Economy"
Bitcoin-Hating Fed President Urges “Stricter Lockdown” To “Save Lives & Save The Economy”
Tyler Durden
Sun, 08/09/2020 – 21:00Authored by Mathew Di Salvo via Decrypt.co,
In brief
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The President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, Neel Kashkari, has called for another strict lockdown.
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This is at odds with President Donald Trump, who spoke unfavorably on Monday about lockdowns.
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Kashkari’s ideas have previously confounded the crypto community.
The President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis has called for another lockdown to save the US economy.
In a Friday New York Times op-ed, Neel Kashkari wrote that in order to “save lives, and save the economy, we need another lockdown.”
Along with Michael T. Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, Kashkari said that a “more restrictive lockdown,” state by state, is necessary to “crush the spread” of COVID-19.
He argued that “what we have done so far hasn’t worked,” and proposed that the new lockdown be for up to six weeks – and stricter than before…
…Not only will a stricter lockdown save lives but “there won’t be a robust economic recovery until we get control of the virus,” wrote Kashkari.
The cryptocurrency community has also been at odds with Kashkari since he said in March that the Federal Reserve has an “infinite amount of cash” – prompting Bitcoiners to push the argument for the inflation-proof digital asset.
In February, Kashkari likened cryptocurrencies to a “giant garbage dumpster,” arguing that the US dollar’s scarcity is what makes it valuable.
One month later, the Federal Reserve launched a record $2.3 trillion rescue package.
Such a large stimulus package is regarded by some Bitcoin-faithfuls as a reckless; Bitcoin’s monetary policy, however, is hard-coded into its consensus mechanism.
A General Store was once called a nickel store. Over time, it became called a five-and-dime store (all items priced at either 5 or 10 cents). Today, it’s called a dollar store. Soon, it will be called a ten dollar store. #Inflation #Bitcoin
— Cameron Winklevoss (@winklevoss) August 4, 2020
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A life-long Republican, Kashkari’s views may seem to conflict with those of his party – and president. Only this week President Donald Trump said that “a permanent lockdown is not a viable path” for controlling the pandemic.
“Lockdowns do not prevent infection in the future,” he said at a Monday press conference.
“They just don’t. It comes back many times, it comes back.”
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- Chinese National Arrested Illegally Entering The US With Over $28,000 Worth Of Gold Bars
Chinese National Arrested Illegally Entering The US With Over $28,000 Worth Of Gold Bars
Tyler Durden
Sun, 08/09/2020 – 20:35If one goes by the official Chinese data, whereas in the summer of 2015 there was a massive capital outflow in the aftermath of the sudden yuan devaluation, recent months have been a paragon of stability despite the yuan trading on the wrong side of 7 for much of the past five months, and according to Goldman’s preferred gauge of FX flows, China experience a modest outflow of around US$9bn in June (vs. US$19bn inflows in May).
Alas, as the recent price action in gold and cryptos indicates, the scramble to circumvent China’s great capital firewall are accelerating, with the following example of smuggling making a clear case that China’s smart money is once again on the march.
According to an Aug 6 release by the US Customs and Border Protection, while conducting operations near Amity, Maine, U.S. Border Patrol Agents from the Houlton Border Patrol Station apprehended a 36-year-old Chinese national who was found to have illegally entered the United States from Canada.
On Tuesday, August 4, agents from the Houlton Border Patrol Station encountered a female subject who admitted to being a Chinese national illegally present in the United States. Agents were able to verify the location where she illegally entered the United States by matching foot prints belonging to the suspect the scene. The individual was also in possession of nearly $10,000 U.S. Dollars (USD) and 14.25 ounces of gold bars valued at over $28,500 USD. The Chinese national was placed under arrest for illegal entry into the United States and transported to the Houlton Border Patrol Station for further processing.
During processing it was found that the Chinese national had legally entered Canada as a student. She also admitted to knowingly entering the United States illegally at a place other than a designated port of entry with the purpose of visiting a friend in San Francisco, California. The Chinese national was subsequently expelled to Canada in accordance with title 42 U.S. Code 265.
“The vigilance, service and integrity of our Border Patrol Agents who continue to apprehend those who are looking to circumvent customs and immigration laws, plays an important role in keeping our communities in Maine and throughout the United States safe,” said Houlton Station Patrol Agent in Charge Brent Conley.
More importantly, the fact that the Chinese are once again smuggling gold into the US confirms that while not apparent in the official data, capital flight out of China has once again picked up and will likely accelerate especially if the new Cold War between the US and China accelerates into the election. And, if it becomes too substantial, Beijing will have no choice but to reflect as much in the “official” data which would spark a feedback loop of even more capital outflows, even more aggressive clampdowns on money laundering, and an even greater propensity by the Chinese to buy fiat alternatives such as precious metals and crypto.
- 6 Questions An Honest, Intelligent Reporter Would Ask Dr. Fauci About COVID-19
6 Questions An Honest, Intelligent Reporter Would Ask Dr. Fauci About COVID-19
Tyler Durden
Sun, 08/09/2020 – 20:10Authored by Stecey Lennox via PJMedia.ocm,
If you had been going down the rabbit hole of COVID-19 research for long enough, a few things would be astounding to you.
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First, how uninformed, uncurious, or deceptive reporters in the corporate media are on a matter of life and death.
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Second, how much publicly available information about COVID-19 is on the internet contradicts what is reported and said by Health Experts™on cable news.
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Finally, it is impossible to believe Dr. Anthony Fauci enjoys a 62% approval rating.
Of course, part of the reason Dr. Fauci enjoys this level of trust is that reporters who interview him put a sort of religious faith in every word he utters. Having worked with doctors for years, I don’t suffer from any such affliction. There are some great ones, some awful ones, and some who are great at one thing and not another.
It is also quite reasonable for doctors to disagree. Medicine is the art of applying science and it is rarely “settled.” This healthy tension is why patients get second opinions. Yet during the COVID-19 pandemic, only one doctor has had almost no pushback in any public interview. This is journalistic malpractice, but not surprising. Most of the corporate media agree with his recommendations or can use panic porn clicks.
However, if there were a courageous and intelligent reporter who could score an interview with Dr. Fauci, here is a list of questions I would suggest.
1. How is COVID-19 a novel virus?
Dr. Fauci, can you please explain how COVID-19 is a novel virus when it has an overlap with the structure of SARS at a rate of 79%? In addition, there are several human coronaviruses that we have dealt with seasonally for years. Is “novel,” as in completely new, an unnecessarily shocking term?
I cannot find a reference to MERS that calls it a “novel” virus. All coronaviruses have the telltale spike protein we have all become familiar with and MERS was less similar to SARS than COVID-19 is. Why add the qualifier to COVID-19 when even the NIH published an article with the following “facts” on June 26, 2020:
Only minor differences have been found between the genome sequences of SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV
In another section of the same paper, it says:
Genome sequence analysis has shown that SARS-CoV-2 belongs to the Betacoronavirus genus, which includes Bat SARS-like coronavirus, SARS-CoV, and MERS-CoV [6].
SARS-CoV-2 possesses a genomic structure which is typical of other betacoronaviruses.
Typical and novel are hardly synonyms. Framing the virus as something completely new makes it scarier.
2. Why should we worry about COVID mutations?
Often news reports are discussing new mutations of COVID-19. Aren’t virus mutations expected and common? It appears that there has not been a mutation that significantly increases the way the virus works in the body making it more deadly or dangerous.
Viruses mutate. This is not news and breathless reports about it in the case of COVID-19 only serve to increase panic. The changes to the virus so far are helpful in documenting its spread. There has not been a single change that warrants additional concern and it is not surprising a single patient may have multiple mutations. Mutations generally happen when the virus replicates. It does this inside the body’s cells.
3. Doesn’t COVID-19 behave like SARS?
Both SARS and COVID-19 have a spike protein that uses angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE-2) receptors to enter the respiratory tract cells, correct? I understand COVID-19 may be more efficient at doing so, but the cell entry is highly similar?
The method of cell entry was documented to be the same as SARS on January 23, 2020, in the Journal of Virology.
4. Why not give patients hydroxychloroquine and zinc?
In 2005 the NIH did a study on chloroquine that found it was effective in inhibiting and eliminating the SARS virus in vitro. It affected the functioning of the ACE-2 receptor. It is also a zinc ionophore that allows zinc to more efficiently enter the cell. In 2010 an NIH study demonstrated zinc interfered with the replication of coronaviruses. What is the scientific basis to reject its use in the outpatient setting where there are significant observational studies indicating it is effective in early illness?
When asked, Dr. Fauci said he would take this medication if he were diagnosed with COVID-19. It is likely because he clearly understands the drug’s safety profile, how it acts, and previous studies on it. His failure to combat the media narrative of hydroxychloroquine being a terribly dangerous drug was astounding. Standing silently by while governors and professional boards interfere with the doctor-patient relationship by prohibiting or denying prescription is unconscionable.
The Science Supports the Use of Hydroxychloroquine in COVID-19, So Why Are Doctors Being Censored?
There is no requirement for a double-blind randomized study for off-label use of an FDA approved drug at the approved dosage. Observational studies are more than acceptable in the medical and research community. The decision to use this medication needs to remain between a doctor and a patient.
5. Doesn’t the wide range of symptoms make sense?
In 2003 an article in New Scientist documented that patients who died from SARS actually died of a cytokine storm. This appeared to be well known in the research community. There are 4,735 NIH-funded studies on the phenomenon after the SARS outbreak. Was this overlooked in preparing for the pandemic response? Doesn’t this immune response explain the myriad of symptoms in severe disease?
The panic porn industry loves the range of symptoms that COVID-19 causes. Unfortunately for them, these are all explained by the overwhelming damage that can be caused by an immune system overreaction. Blood clots, organ damage, and heart dysfunction can all be caused as the immune system attacks the body’s own tissue.
6. How does the government respond to broader immunity than you expected?
There are now several studies that indicate that some significant portion of the population has T-cell or long-term immunity to COVID-19 due to exposure to coronaviruses in the past. How does this research impact public health measures and the approach to the virus?
Immunologists had theorized about this idea for some time in order to explain the resilience of children and the fact that some members of a household that contained an infected person never fell ill despite close contact. It also may explain so-called “asymptomatic” cases.
The PCR type test looks for pieces of the COVID-19 virus RNA. It does not determine whether the virus is alive or dead. A T-cell response would leave viral debris in the body for some period of time. A PCR test given in the absence of symptoms may detect this debris, giving the impression of an “asymptomatic” case.
Because I actively look for information and follow the data about COVID-19, it is easy to see there is a lot of good news. This is not a novel virus and it works in ways very similar to SARS. Cytokine storms have been studied for years and there are some good therapies available. Death rates are falling likely because doctors and patients are employing these therapies.
The virus is fading in the sunbelt and there are very good data to believe there are large swaths of the population that will not become ill with it. With improved treatment and some level of immunity in the population, everyone should feel confident in our ability to protect the vulnerable and return to a much more normal life.
The nation should not be discussing wearing goggles, additional lockdowns, testing asymptomatic people, and maintaining any policy that limits the civil liberties of its citizens. There is every reason to take greater steps toward reopening the economy, our schools, and normal life.
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- HBO's Maher Slams ex-Clinton Aide On Live Show: "Horny Bill Clinton" Spotted On Epstein's Orgy Island
HBO’s Maher Slams ex-Clinton Aide On Live Show: “Horny Bill Clinton” Spotted On Epstein’s Orgy Island
Tyler Durden
Sun, 08/09/2020 – 19:45“What do we do with the Clintons now?” HBO’s Bill Maher questioned, describing Hillary but especially Bill as a “big distraction” for the Democrats ahead of the November election.
But former Clinton White House adviser Paul Begala balked, to which Maher immediately pointed out that alleged Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre said she witnessed Bill Clinton at the island along with “two young girls” there also.
Maher insisted that the Clintons remain a liability for the Democratic Party, not letting Begala ingore the question. At that point the interview with the now CNN commentator got awkward as Maher brought the issue of Bill Clinton’s presence on Epstein’s ‘orgy island’ front and center. Here’s the key segment:
The HBO Real Time host then alluded to “Bill Clinton, a horny guy, on sex island…”:
“Now, Bill Clinton. People are saying that there are witnesses who saw him on Jeffrey Epstein’s sex island,” Maher began. “Obviously, it’s denied.”
Begala, who served as a White House adviser during Clinton’s administration, shook his head in disapproval — but Maher doubled down.
“You shake your head like, ‘Oh that’s impossible! Bill Clinton, a horny guy, on sex island? Ridiculous!'” Maher mocked.
“Look, it’s possible,” emphasized in what was a clearly uncomfortable moment for ex-Clinton aide Begala.
Maher has long argued that it’s better for the DNC if the Clintons both stayed away from the convention and kept a very low profile amidst multiple raging controversies, especially the Epstein saga.
“My question is, you know, [Clinton] has assets and he has … things that are not quite assets,” Maher questioned. “And same with Hillary. What do the Democrats — what should they do?”
The brief exchange from the Friday night Real Time show generated a number of headlines highlighting the clip, given also the major networks have appeared to conveniently and intentionally ignore the explosive allegations contained in recently unsealed court documents from 2011, centered on Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre’s testimony.
- Whistleblower Exposes "The Spies Who Hijacked America"
Whistleblower Exposes “The Spies Who Hijacked America”
Tyler Durden
Sun, 08/09/2020 – 19:20Authored by Steven P. Scrage, PhD via Matt Taibbi Substack (emphasis ours),
Global scandals now labeled Russiagate, Spygate, and what President Trump calls “Obamagate” shook the political world, but hit me closer to home.
I’m the reason the so-called FBI “spy” at the center of Spygate, Stefan Halper, met Carter Page, the alleged “Russian Asset” in Russiagate’s Crossfire Hurricane investigation.
On May 19, 2018, this realization blindsided me in London as I was about to fly out for my wedding. The New York Times, NBC News and other sources had outed my PhD supervisor, Stefan Halper, as a spy known to the UK’s MI6 intelligence service as “The Walrus.”
It didn’t seem real. Could a former professor I once trusted as a mentor have betrayed his word, profession, and country to start these disasters? I had moved to England to pursue an academic career and leave DC’s politics behind, only to have my PhD supervisor throw me back into the most outrageous political firestorms I could imagine. Just my luck. Then an even worse question began nagging at me. Did I unintentionally light the match that started it all?
As I started to piece together what happened over the next few months, I realized something. The stories that The New York Times, Washington Post,and others were pushing didn’t add up. Many seemed planted to cover up or advance the agendas of several individuals whose tentacles secretly ran through these scandals, and who each had longstanding ties to intelligence services like the FBI, CIA, and MI6. I call these individuals the Cambridge Four.
Strangely, all four were linked through that sleepy British academic town thousands of miles from the alleged “ground zeroes” of Russiagate’s conspiracies, Moscow and DC. In addition to the central “Spygate” figure Halper, they include the central source of “Russiagate’s” fake conspiracy theories, Christopher Steele; former MI6 Director Sir Richard Dearlove; and Halper’s and Dearlove’s partner in a Cambridge Intelligence Seminar linked to titillating — but false — tales of a “Russian spy” seducing Trump’s top national security advisor. My years of work with Halper provided an inside view of how their four networks interconnected. The more I dug up new pieces of this puzzle, the more I saw how these individuals’ seemingly separate acts might fit together in an absurd picture of how these scandals really started.
Armed with first-hand knowledge and evidence, I quietly sought to help federal investigators uncover these scandals’ mysteries. It wasn’t my first rodeo. After witnessing the plane that hit the Pentagon on 9/11, I led G8 and State Department international crime and terrorism efforts with Department of Justice (DOJ), FBI, and intelligence officials and had worked for decades in White House, Congressional, and presidential campaign roles. This helped me keep a stiff upper lip when I was falsely accused in 2019 by the House Intelligence Committee’s Ranking Republican and others on television as being part of a secret anti-Trump cabal. As much as I wanted to defend myself, I knew our best shot of exposing the real forces behind these scandals was for me to remain publicly silent and not let those under investigation know what I knew or was willing to say.
To continue reading, click here…
- Texas COVID Positivity Rate Hits New Record High As Bill Gates Slams US "Testing Insanity": Live Updates
Texas COVID Positivity Rate Hits New Record High As Bill Gates Slams US “Testing Insanity”: Live Updates
Tyler Durden
Sun, 08/09/2020 – 19:14Summary:
- Texas 7-day average positivity rate hits new high
- Gates slams US “testing insanity”
- Washington suffers first teenager COVID death
- Greece sees new jump in cases
- UK reports 1k+ new cases
- Arizona sees lowest cases in 6 weeks
- EU makes optimistic sign on vaccines
- Italy says schools will start Sept. 14
- UK says opening schools a “national priority”
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Update (1850ET): After the US added 1 million new cases in roughly 2 weeks to surpass 5 million cases, the New York State’s positivity rate on Sunday tumbled to a record low of 0.78%, while Texas’s positivity rate climbed to a record high for the second straight day.
Additionally, Maryland’s seven-day average statewide positivity rate has reached a new all-time low of 3.75%, Gov. Larry Hogan announced.
The Texas Health Department said that its seven-day average for COVID-19 positivity has reached a new record high of 20.3%.
This was two percentage points higher than the previous record on July 16, according to Health Department data. The average had steadily declined from July 16 to July 29, when it reached a low of 12.09%, however, since July 30, the average has been steadily increasing.
Texas health authorities reported 116 new deaths, bringing its death toll to 8,459, while new cases climbed by 4,879 to 486,362.
The Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department announced it recorded the first coronavirus death to affect a Washington state resident under 20 years old.
Finally, Bill Gates on Sunday decried the “testing insanity” gripping the US, which he said had caused the country to fall behind the rest of the world. It was just another bit of US-bashing from the WHO-aligned Gates, who has criticized the Trump Administration’s efforts at every turn.
Appearing on Fareed Zakaria’s show on CNN, Gates blamed Trump for the slow turn around times he said were afflicting most of the US (even as many of the worst-hit counties in the Northeast manage to turn results around in under a day, or even a few hours..
“A variety of early missteps by the U.S. and then the political atmosphere meant that we didn’t get our testing going,” Gates said. “It’s nonsense that any sort of travel ban we did was at all beneficial. That doesn’t pass the common sense test…and now we’ve executed our lockdowns nationwide with less fidelity than other countries.”
Commercial labs, he said, have left customers struggling with long waits, while “very wealthy people have access to these quick-turnaround tests.”
“It’s mind-blowing that you can’t get the government to improve the testing because they just want to say how great it is,” he continued. “I’ve said to them, look, have a [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] website that prioritizes who gets tested. Don’t reimburse any test where the result goes back after three days. You’re paying billions of dollars in this very inequitable way to get the most worthless testing results in the world.”
“No other country has the testing insanity because they won’t talk about fixing it, because they think they need to just keep acting like they’ve done a competent job,” he added.
Cue another flood of stories about long wait lines in Texas and Florida.
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Update (1515ET): Some more signs of a ‘second wave’ of infections emerging in Europe were confirmed by Greece and the United Kingdom on Saturday.
Greece reported 203 new coronavirus cases Sunday, the biggest single-day jump since the beginning of the pandemic, bringing its total to 5,623. It also was the biggest jump in daily cases since April 21.
As infections in the US start to turn lower again following a brief bump, Former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said the US. looks like it’s headed for an infection surge in rural regions, now that the wave impacting the Sun Belt has subsided. But some critics have called bs on this.
“We’re probably going to have another wave,” he said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday. There’s concern about largely untouched rural communities, which are “probably a bit more complacent” about virus risks, he said.
Rural spread is “going to be far more difficult to control if it’s more widespread,” he said. “We’re seeing indications of that right now – the wave spreading in the Midwest and the West.”
The UK reported more than 1,000 new cases for the first time since June 26, bringing its total to 310,825. The 1,062 cases reported Sunday are higher than the seven-day average of 877.
Arizona reported 816 cases, its lowest since late June, a six week low. The 0.4% increase was below the 0.7% daily average increase of the previous week. Total cases are now 186,923.
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As we reported last night, the US surpassed 5 million confirmed cases (according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins) on Saturday evening (East Coast Time).
The US reported 56,070 cases Saturday, a 1.1% increase over the prior day. Total deaths have reached 162,441, the data show.
As we reported last night, Brazil also passed two critical milestones: it has now confirmed 2 million cases, and more than 100,000 deaths.
Though the numbers have rebounded a bit over the past week, on average, the daily numbers across the US have declined from a recent peak, as the outbreak in the Sun Belt outpaced the outbreak in New York. As the number of new cases in Fla. and Texas and California and Arizona has declined, some northeastern states, like New Jersey and Rhode Island, have seen a slight uptick in recent weeks (which inspired NJ, NY & Conn to add RI to the mandatory quarantine iist).
Globally, the number of confirmed cases is nearing 19.75 million.
Over in the EU, as governments sign more deals with major pharmaceutical companies to guarantee supplies of a vaccine that hasn’t even been proven safe and effective yet, EU Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Stella Kyriakides told Germany’s Handelsblatt in an interview that while a vaccine won’t immediately solve all the world’s problems, it will allow a step-by-step return to normality, the newspaper cited Kyriakides as saying.
In contrast, in the US, Dr. Fauci, who has repeatedly reassured Congress (and the American pubic) that a vaccine would be available by the end of the year, admitted yesterday that we really don’t know how effective the vaccine will be: he says it may be only “50% to 60% effective.”
As Australia’s second-most-populous state, Victoria (the home of its second-largest city, Melbourne) continues to struggle with the country’s largest outbreak yet, neighboring New Zealand has just confirmed its 100th straight day without even a single coronavirus transmission.
New Zealand on Sunday marked 100 days since it was able to effectively eliminate the spread of coronavirus.
Here’s JHU’s daily chart reflecting the daily growth rates of the 10 fastest-growing outbreaks in the world.
As New York bucks the trend in the US by moving toward a “hybrid” model of in-person learning this fall, more European economies are moving toward fully restarting in-person learning in a few weeks, almost guaranteeing another outbreak, though ideally one that can be swiftly contained with minimal fatalities.
Schools Minister Nick Gibb said in an interview on Times Radio that opening schools is critical for reviving the country’s battered economy, by allowing parents to return to work. Prime Minister Boris Johnson told the Mail on Sunday newspaper the country has a “moral duty” to resume normal teaching and reopening. He called reopening schools a “national priority.”
Meanwhile, in Iran, the number of new cases fell to a two-month low of 2,020, bringing total infections to 326,712. The death toll climbed to 18,427 with 163 more deaths overnight. That’s compared with 132 the day before.
Italy’s Health Minister Roberto Speranza confirmed in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera that Italian schools will reopen Sept. 14.
Another lockdown would do an “enormous damage, and we need to avoid it more than anything” Speranza said in the interview, in a reference to Italy’s battered economy, which will – to be sure – benefit from the pan-European rescue fund.
- Baltimore Holds 'Ceasefire Prayer' As Murders On Track For Record Year
Baltimore Holds ‘Ceasefire Prayer’ As Murders On Track For Record Year
Tyler Durden
Sun, 08/09/2020 – 18:55Readers may know we sometimes focus on Baltimore City because it’s one of the best examples of what happens to a failed liberal city, that is, the occasional riots, soaring violent crime, murder epidemic, opioid crisis, and large-scale wealth inequality, have created a perfect storm of chaos.
In recent years, the streets of Baltimore have transformed into inner-city warzones. Violence flared up after the last recession, ignited even more during the 2015 riots, and with today’s virus-induced recession, the city is quickly descending further into socio-economic turmoil.
Organizers of Ceasefire Weekend held a prayer this weekend in west Baltimore, an area ravaged by some of the highest homicides on a per-capita basis in the country. Streets in this part of town are lined with thousands of abandoned row homes, underfunded schools, opioids, and depressionary unemployment.
Scott Slater, a member of the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland, told CBS Baltimore, the prayer walk on Saturday is for a murder free weekend, though two people were killed that day.
h/t The Baltimore Sun Barbara O’Sullivan participated in the prayer walk.
“Until this stops, every one of us is a victim of gun violence,” O’Sullivan said.
Slater believes systemic racism is one of the sources of violence.
“Stress that is systemic and endemic in our city for those who live in these conditions,” Slater said. “We need to minimize the stress and provide better resources for people, so they don’t have to make decisions to kill each other.”
The city has seen more than 300 homicides per year since 2015. Cumulative homicides trends suggest the number could top +300 by year-end.
h/t The Baltimore Sun Gun violence is the primary reason for death. Murders are widespread.
h/t The Baltimore Sun The result of all this, as we’ve explained, a mass exodus of people, who still have economic mobility despite the virus-induced recession, are escaping to suburbs or rural communities as city-life becomes too dangerous to raise a family.
With no end in sight, America’s metros are imploding. There has been no viable solution offered as a blueprint to fix inner cities. This is all happening at a time when the federal government and Federal Reserve exacerbate the wealth gap by bailing out corporate America and Wall Street as main street is left to die.
- Black-Hole'd? NASA To Stop Using "Inappropriate" Nicknames For Cosmic Objects
Black-Hole’d? NASA To Stop Using “Inappropriate” Nicknames For Cosmic Objects
Tyler Durden
Sun, 08/09/2020 – 18:30Authored by Melanie Sun via The Epoch Times,
NASA has announced it is revising some unofficial nicknames used to refer to cosmic objects as it joins efforts by some within the scientific community to promote values of “diversity, equity, and inclusion.”
The U.S. space agency said in a statement on Aug. 5 that certain nicknames historically used to refer to distant planets, galaxies, or nebulae that it considers “inappropriate” will no longer be used. Instead, the agency will adopt the official International Astronomical Union designations for the cosmic objects.
“As the scientific community works to identify and address systemic discrimination and inequality in all aspects of the field, it has become clear that certain cosmic nicknames are not only insensitive, but can be actively harmful,” the agency said.
For example, what has been known as the “Eskimo Nebula” will now be referred to as NGC 2392.
According to NASA’s statement, the world “Eskimo” is “widely viewed as a colonial term with a racist history, imposed on the indigenous people of Arctic regions.”
The agency also said it would no longer use the name “Siamese Twins Galaxy,” which it deems inappropriate for referring to NGC 4567 and NGC 4568—a pair of spiral galaxies in the Virgo Galaxy Cluster.
“The agency will be working with diversity, inclusion, and equity experts in the astronomical and physical sciences to provide guidance and recommendations for other nicknames and terms for review,” it said about its ongoing review.
Thomas Zurbuchen, the associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, explained in the statement: “Our goal is that all names are aligned with our values of diversity and inclusion, and we’ll proactively work with the scientific community to help ensure that.
“Science is for everyone, and every facet of our work needs to reflect that value,” he said.
As we work to identify & address systemic discrimination & inequality in all aspects of the scientific community, we are reexamining the use of unofficial terminology for cosmic objects which can be not only insensitive, but actively harmful. Read more: https://t.co/ZNicp5g0Wh pic.twitter.com/jDup6JOGBd
— NASA (@NASA) August 5, 2020
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Stephen Shih, NASA’s Diversity and Equal Opportunity associate administrator, said that the nicknames in question “may have historical or culture connotations that are objectionable or unwelcoming” and that “NASA is strongly committed to addressing them.”
“Science depends on diverse contributions, and benefits everyone, so this means we must make it inclusive,” he added.
Finally, we note that the hilarious people over at The Babylon Bee had some ideas for new names…
- With 160 Vaccine Candidates In Development, Goldman Expects An Economic Boom Once At Least One Is Approved By The End Of 2020
With 160 Vaccine Candidates In Development, Goldman Expects An Economic Boom Once At Least One Is Approved By The End Of 2020
Tyler Durden
Sun, 08/09/2020 – 18:04As Deutsche Bank Marion Laboure and Jim Reid wrote last week, whereas vaccines normally require years of testing and additional time to produce at scale, amidst the modern era pandemic scientists are hoping to develop a coronavirus vaccine within 12 to 18 months. The reason for that while normally a vaccine takes years to develop using a traditional process, with covid things are far more accelerated…
and furthermore, there are already no less than 160 covid vaccine candidates currently in process as the following table shows…
… with the top 6 listed below.
Here is what the top vaccine makers have said publicly about the state of affairs courtesy of Deutsche Bank.
Still, there are caveats and there is a distinct possibility a vaccine may not emerge any time soon as various roadblocks may still emerge as the following bulletin of key dates, timelines and road blocks summarizes:
- Work began in January 2020 with the deciphering of the SARS-CoV-2 genome. The first vaccine safety trials in humans started in March.
- All candidates have received regulatory approvals to move quickly to human trials, skipping the years of animal trials that are the norm in developing vaccines. Another way to accelerate vaccine development is to combine phases. Some coronavirus vaccines are now in Phase I/II trials combined together.
- Meanwhile, SARS and SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, are roughly 80 percent identical, and both use so-called spike proteins to grab onto a specific receptor found on cells in human lungs. So using the already existing research work of SARS scientists have pushed ahead quickly.
- Global goal is to develop effective vaccine possibly by early 2021. Researchers of Oxford vaccine candidate have announced that their vaccine could be ready for emergency use as soon as September if phase 3 trials are successful.
- China’s CanSino vaccine was the first to reach Phase 1 and Phase 2. Sinovac, Sinopharm, Astrazeneca, Moderna, CanSino and Pfizer all reached phase 3 in July.
- However, researchers caution that less than 10 percent of drugs that enter clinical trials are ever approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
The risk of a failed vaccine however no longer figures in Goldman’s economic forecast, and as Goldman’s Jan Hatzius writes in a report over the weekend, Goldman now expects “that at least one vaccine will be approved by the end of 2020 and will be widely distributed by the end of 2021 Q2. We have incorporated this timeline as our baseline forecast, and now assume consumer services spending accelerates in the first half of 2021 as consumers resume activities that would previously have exposed them to Covid-19 risk.”
Yet even though polling has shown that only 42% of Americans would submit to a covid vaccine, Goldman is still optimistic enough to upgrade its growth forecast which becomes more front-loaded. Specifically, the bank’s previous GDP forecast reflected a weighted average across possible vaccine scenarios, including the possibility of no vaccine by the end of 2021
Since then the vaccine outlook has since become clearer and more positive according to Hatzius who notes that “the economic benefits for the US appear particularly large due to its leadership in the vaccine race and worse virus control. As a result, we now expect that at least one vaccine will be approved this fall with widespread distribution and positive growth effects felt in the first half of 2021 (dark blue line in Exhibit 1).”
Assuming Goldman’s optimism plays out, and there is an earlier approval of a vaccine, it would have two main effects on the bank’s growth forecast:
- First, it will accelerate the recovery starting in 2020Q1 as consumers resume high Covid-19 risk activities that could not fully recover prior to a vaccine.
- Second, the effect of the vaccine is larger in the early approval scenario because it limits scarring effects that could not be undone quickly if the vaccine arrives later.
Following a vaccine approval, Goldman assumes that the rate of recovery for the most affected spending categories doubles and increases by 50% for categories that are moderately affected. This accelerated recovery speed is applied to all of H1 in 2021 but decelerates the recovery in the second half of the year, to reflect growth pulled forward in time.
Exhibit 3 shows the new GDP path, which leaves Goldman’s 2020 forecast unchanged, including the assumption that the still-high level of virus spread will keep consumer activity stalled through the end of this month. The updated vaccine outlook is reflected in the rapid decline in the drag from the consumer services sector—shown by the dark blue bars—during the first half of 2021. Under this forecast, the contribution of consumer services spending to the output gap falls to -1.1pp by the end of 2021Q2 (vs. -2.0pp previously). This is partially offset by slower consumer services spending growth in the second half of 2021, leaving our forecast of the level of GDP at the end of 2021 slightly higher. On net, Goldman’s growth forecast “is more front-loaded and modestly upgraded.”
What does this mean in terms of an annualized quarterly GDP basis?
Goldman now expects GDP growth of +10% in Q1 2021, +8% in Q2 2021, +4% in Q3 2021, and +3% in Q4 2021 (vs. +8%, +6.5%, +5%, +4% previously). This raises 2021 growth to +6.2% on an annual average basis (vs. +5.6% previously) and +6.2% on a Q4/Q4 basis (vs. +5.9%).
It also means that if Goldman is correct, and the polls predicting a victory for Biden and a Democratic sweep are also on the money, then Joe Biden faces an impressive first year in the office with near record quarterly GDP gains.
Still, despite these overly optimistic forecast upgrades, Goldman cautions that downside risks have also risen due to Congress’s failure to pass a Phase 4 fiscal package, and while last night’s executive orders postponed the fiscal cliff through August and the bank still expects a package worth around $1.5 trillion to become law by the end of the month, “the risk of no further legislative action has increased and could pose a threat to the budding recovery.”
- Mnuchin 'Willing To Listen' On Stimulus As Pelosi Calls Trump Executive Orders 'Unconstitutional Slop'
Mnuchin ‘Willing To Listen’ On Stimulus As Pelosi Calls Trump Executive Orders ‘Unconstitutional Slop’
Tyler Durden
Sun, 08/09/2020 – 17:40After President Trump stepped in on Saturday with an Executive Order to temporarily extend stimulus benefits, Democrats on Sunday lambasted the move which undermined the urgency behind ongoing negotiations over the next bipartisan package.
On Sunday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) told “Fox News Sunday” that the executive orders were “unconstitutional slop,” adding “We have to reach an agreement.”
President Trump’s meager executive actions do little for working families. Republicans must come back to the negotiating table, meet us halfway and work toward a compromise that will truly help American workers and families. #FamiliesFirst #FoxNewsSunday pic.twitter.com/vAvoLnKIoa
— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) August 9, 2020
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“Children are food insecure. Families are at the risk of being evicted. The virus is moving like a freight train,” she added. “The kindest thing I could say is he doesn’t know what he’s talking about or something’s wrong there — something’s very, very wrong.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) called the EOs ‘paltry,’ along with ‘unworkable, weak and far too narrow.’
“The event at the country club is just what Trump does — a big show, but it doesn’t do anything,” Schumer told ABC‘s “This Week” on Sunday.
NEW: Pressed by @GStephanopoulos on the legality of President Trump’s COVID-19 executive orders, Sen. Chuck Schumer declines to say if they’re illegal: “I’ll leave that up to the attorneys. It doesn’t do the job.” https://t.co/mXqSebBaMG pic.twitter.com/tGrDpne0ml
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) August 9, 2020
As Goldman notes:
President Trump issued executive orders in the four policy areas that had been expected. The extra $400 unemployment payment is likely to last only a month, however. The payroll tax deferment would last through year-end, but consumers might be hesitant to spend extra income without a change in tax law. That said, both policies could put pressure on Congress to agree to a broader fiscal package. We continue to expect a package worth around $1.5 trillion to become law in August. The new executive orders create two deadlines around the end of the month, which could provide a new incentive for Congress to act.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, meanwhile, says that if the Democrats have a new proposal, “I’m willing to listen.”
On Fox, Mnuchin chided Democrats for their intransigence over weeks of talks, particularly on state and local government funding, which some Republicans have termed a bailout for Democratic states. He urged Pelosi to help pass a bill on “things we agree on” before returning to some of the most contentious issues. –Bloomberg
On Saturday, President Trump signed executive orders extending the federal unemployment boost by $400 per week, down from $600. He also temporarily deferred payroll taxes for certain workers, pursued eviction protections and student loan relief.
When it was suggested that Democrats may sue to stop the benefits from flowing, White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow told ABC “Maybe we’re going to go to court on them. We’re going to go ahead with our actions anyway,” adding “Our counsel’s office, the Treasury Department believes it has the authority to temporarily suspend tax collections. So we’re banking on that.”
- "It's Not Clear If Beirut Port Explosion Was Accident Or Attack": Esper Tells FOX
“It’s Not Clear If Beirut Port Explosion Was Accident Or Attack”: Esper Tells FOX
Tyler Durden
Sun, 08/09/2020 – 17:15US Defense Secretary Mark Esper appeared on FOX Saturday evening to explain the discrepancy between official Lebanese government statements that the Aug. 4 Beirut port explosion was an accident based on severe “negligence” and President Trump’s initial statements in the aftermath that it was a “terrible attack”.
Trump had raised eyebrows in saying at a White House press conference in the hours after the tragedy that left over 150 dead, while referencing his generals: “They seem to think it was an attack. It was a bomb of some kind.”
In the days after both Trump and the Pentagon tried to walk back the statements, now with Esper in the weekend FOX interview saying that ultimately it was not clear whether the explosion was the result of “a deliberate attack or an accident”.
Last night on Judge Jeanine, Defense Secretary Esper called it “regrettable” that “some in the media” were trying to divide him and the president over the Beirut explosion by just pointing out that he said it was probably an accident while Trump said it looked like an attack. pic.twitter.com/F5IuZE21pw
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) August 9, 2020
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“The bottom line is that we still don’t know. You know, on the first day, as President Trump said, we thought it might have been an attack. Some of us expected it might be, for example, a shipment of weapons to Hezbollah that exploded. Maybe a manufacturing facility,” Esper said.
“Some of us speculated it could have been for an example a Hezbollah arms shipment that blew up, maybe a Hezbollah bomb-making facility,” Esper told show host Jeanine Pirro.
“I have said before that it looks like an accident,” Esper continued. “It is unfortunate that some in the media have tried to create divisions within the administration, perhaps between me and the president and others.”
He concluded, “It is simply not true. I mean, the truth of the matter, it is a great tragedy. Under the leadership of the President, we will do our best to help the Lebanese people and do what is right.”
It’s been since revealed that not only was an estimated 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate left unsecured for over 6 years in a warehouse at the port, but a large quantity of fireworks had been impounded in the same warehouse complex, near the highly explosive substance commonly used in fertilizer and manufactured explosives.
Beirut Port blast aftermath: AP file. Meanwhile, despite now raging protests in reaction to government negligence which allowed 2,750 metric tons of ammonium nitrate to be “stored unsafely”, Lebanese President Michel Aoun has rejected calls for an international investigation as a “waste of time”.
“The goal of calls for an international investigation in the port case is to waste time,” the President’s media office cited him as saying.
Powerful video of the #BeirutBlast from just 500 meters away. The individual who took the footage survived, fortunately.pic.twitter.com/FDkKQZkPt6
— Heshmat Alavi (@HeshmatAlavi) August 8, 2020
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It is as yet unclear whether Washington will add pressure on the Lebanese government to allow an international team to head up an official investigation.
Given current media claims that Hezbollah also conducted operations at the port, it is likely the administration will push for an outside, independent investigation into the cause of what’s been acknowledged as the largest non-military munitions explosion in history.
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