© AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite
The bill includes a wish list of Democrats' pet issues including:
Puppet Masters
The bill includes a wish list of Democrats' pet issues including:
© Reuters / Flavio Lo Scalzo
FILE PHOTO.
FILE PHOTO.
The new epicenter of the dreaded pandemic, Italy, has been struggling to stop the spread of Covid-19 for weeks now. The disease has already killed more than six thousand people in the country, with over 60 thousand people infected.
EU tried to pin the blame on Italy
The EU clearly underestimated the virus, blaming the outbreak in Italy on its national healthcare system flaws, according to the two-time foreign minister and OSCE representative. As a result, Brussels, which preaches pan-European solidarity, failed to act when this solidarity was needed in the face of a crisis that eventually affected the entire bloc.
Comment: Cuba also sent help - as it often does:
Meanwhile Poland hindered aid getting to Italy:
See also:
- Coronavirus: 'strange pneumonia' seen in Lombardy in November, leading Italian doctor says
- 'Trump is right about the coronavirus, the WHO is wrong' - Israeli Expert
- UK lockdown: New coronavirus restrictions
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) website affiliated to the dissidents reported on Sunday that the NES has released the Islamic State terrorists who were all Syrian nationals residing in Raqqa, Hasaka and Deir Ez-Zor. It said some of the freed terrorists had not yet ended their prison terms, adding that the move has infuriated residents of the Kurdish-ruled regions.
According to the report, people are concerned that the freedom of the terrorists would pave the ground for them to rejoin the Islamic State. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) had also last year accused the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) of cooperation with ISIS troops in northeastern Syria, saying that the Kurdish-majority militia group had helped ISIS head to become a major trader in Raqqa province.
It reported that Islamic State's most notorious commander in Raqqa had turned into the most influential trader in the province and in charge of development projects in Raqqa. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) noted that the Islamic State emir had secured the release of Islamic State's jailed commanders to join him in "carrying out reconstruction projects".
The latest development, according to the Associated Press, is that the U.S. Army is replacing its Military Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Md., "with a new laboratory that would be a component of a biodefense campus operated by several agencies." The Army told AP the laboratory is intended to continue research that is only meant for defense against biological threats.
But University of Illinois international law professor Francis Boyle charged the Fort Detrick work will include "acquiring, growing, modifying, storing, packaging and dispersing classical, emerging and genetically engineered pathogens." Those activities, as well as planned study of the properties of pathogens when weaponized, "are unmistakable hallmarks of an offensive weapons program."
There is reason to believe that sections of the international pharmaceutical industry cartel are acting in concert with the US Government to develop a genetically modified H5N1 virus substance that could unleash a man-made pandemic, perhaps more deadly than the 1918 'Spanish Influenza' pandemic claiming up to 30 million lives.1
Rima E. Laibow, MD, head of the Natural Solutions Foundation, a citizen watchdog group monitoring the pharmaceutical industry states, "Our best intelligence estimate is that pandemic Avian Flu has already been created through genetic engineering in the United States, fusing the deadly genome of the 1918 Pandemic, misnamed the 'Spanish Flu', with the DNA of the innocuous H5N1 virus in a growth medium of human kidney cells, according to the National Institutes of Health and the vaccine's manufacturer. Some virologists believe that this would insure that the man-made mutant virus recognizes human cells and knows how to invade them." 2
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has threatened the family members of International Criminal Court staff, vowing that Washington will take punitive action against them if the court tries American soldiers for war crimes.
Pompeo also announced an intensification of unilateral US sanctions on Iran and Syria, which are illegal under international law, and which are undermining the countries' attempts to contain the coronavirus pandemic.
In March 2019, the Pompeo State Department threatened to revoke or deny visas to any International Criminal Court (ICC) personnel investigating crimes committed by American forces.
A year later, on March 5, 2020, the ICC took a defiant step forward, officially approving an investigation into allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the US military and CIA in Afghanistan.
Pompeo responded by angrily condemning the court and its proceedings. His broadside was an apparent attempt at discrediting the institution, which the US government is not a party to.
Comment: Nor is Israel a part of the ICC. Imagine that.
Comment: If Pompeo sounds like a despicable mafia boss, well, that's because he's acting like one: "You talk to the police and we're gonna hurt your family and break some legs!"
© REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
The Peace Monument
The Peace Monument
The motion to invoke cloture - limiting the debate - failed to get the necessary three-fifths of the senators present to agree, with 49 votes for and 46 against on Monday afternoon.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell denounced the "absolutely mindless obstruction" by the Democrats, accusing them of "fiddling around with Senate procedure" while the economy floundered and businesses shut down due to pandemic lockdowns across the US.
"The American people have had enough of this nonsense," McConnell thundered on the Senate floor.
The MTA issued "travel papers" to their workers
On March 17th, a few days before New York issued a shelter in place order, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority issued "travel papers" to their employees to prepare for a potential coronavirus curfew. The NY Daily News reports:
If non-emergency travel is restricted, workers can show law enforcement officials the letter if they're stopped on the way to work.
"This letter along with current New York CIty Transit identification identifies this individual as an essential employee who is required to travel during the curfew imposed due to the Coronavirus emergency," states the letter, which is signed by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's Police Department's acting chief Joseph McGrann. "Please give this individual due consideration during this crisis."
MTA spokeswoman Abbey Collins said the letter was distributed on Monday to a "limited number of NYCT bus employees living in New Jersey" because the state's Gov. Murphy suggested imposing a statewide curfew between 8 p.m. and 5 a.m. (source)
Welcome to BIG, a newsletter about the politics of monopoly. This is a special edition. I need you to take this newsletter and repost it, forward it, and contact anyone you know in politics. Here's why.
Congressional leaders are likely to put a very ugly deal in front of the American people, and if it passes, America may be unrecognizable after this pandemic. But there is a way to stop it, if people on the populist left and people on the populist right work together.
Here's the situation. Mitch McConnell, Chuck Schumer, and the Trump administration is negotiating a bailout package to address the coronavirus crisis. There's been a lot of chatter about the need to support workers as the economy goes into a freeze. This is happening around the world; the British government, for instance, is willing to pay 80% of worker wages during this downturn for those affected by the crisis.
© Reuters / Afghan Presidential Palace Handout
Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani (R) meets with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo
Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani (R) meets with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo
Lamenting the failure of Afghan leaders to agree on an "inclusive government," Pompeo said the feud between President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah had "harmed US-Afghan relations," adding that Washington would review cooperation with the country and make significant cuts to US aid.
"Because this leadership failure poses a direct threat to US national interests, effective immediately, the US government will initiate a review of the scope of our cooperation with Afghanistan," he said in a statement on Monday after an unannounced trip to Kabul.
Comment: Pelosi and her mindless and politically possessed cadre are taking the opportunity to ram through many of their ideologically motivated policies by delaying their vote for this first round of financial relief - that so many Americans need right now. When a civil war begins in the US, she'll need to be on the first private jet to New Zealand because many individuals will remember what she is doing right now.
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