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#Where'sJoe? Biden pledges to hold Covid-19 'briefings' after disappearing for week amid speculation over whereabouts


RT
Mon, 23 Mar 2020 15:25 UTC
Biden
© Reuters / Kevin Lamarque
Have you seen this man?
Democratic presidential frontrunner Joe Biden has promised to address the nation about the coronavirus epidemic "soon" as critics wonder where he's been for the last week - and whether he's even alive.

The former vice president reportedly told donors on Sunday that he would be making the first of many "presentations" regarding the coronavirus pandemic from his Delaware home on Monday, despite disappearing from view for a week. He addressed his backers remotely for a "virtual fundraiser," and no footage or audio from the event has surfaced publicly.

Biden has not appeared in public - virtually or otherwise - since Tuesday, when he streamed an address from his home to celebrate his primary victories in Illinois, Florida and Arizona. The presumptive Democratic nominee's prolonged absence from the spotlight at a time when party voters are crying out for leadership has raised eyebrows even among his supporters, while his detractors began to wonder whether the candidate was even still alive.

"Hope Joe Biden had a nice relaxing weekend while the entire global economy ground to a halt and millions of people abruptly lost their jobs," said one angry Twitter user.

Comment: See also: Pathetic: Joe Biden MIA during national emergency because ceilings in his mansion 'too low' for broadcast

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Vader

Warning to Lebanon: Don't mess with the "Axis of the Resistance"

Elijah J Magnier
ejmagnier.com
Sun, 22 Mar 2020 15:41 UTC
trump Amer al-Fakhoury lebanon

Trump with Amer al-Fakhoury, known as the “Butcher of Kiyam”, the pro-Israel concentration detention camp established in the south of Lebanon during the 1982 Israeli invasion.
Antoine Hayek, the former jailer of the Israeli-established Kiyam detention and concentration camp in Lebanon, was found dead in his store in Miyu-Miyeh, east of Sidon in the south of Lebanon, with two bullets in his head. There were no indications who was behind this assassination. His death came on the heels of the decision by Lebanese authorities to exert pressure on the head of the military court to release Israeli collaborator Amer al-Fakhoury. Al-Fahkoury was then delivered to the US embassy and smuggled out of the country. The implicit message seems obvious: if the Lebanese authorities want to deal with former Israeli collaborators in this way, other Israeli collaborators will pay the price. Targets are many and vulnerable. So who could be behind the assassination?

Comment: The split in Lebanon's politics make it a dangerous flashpoint:

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Black Cat

Report: Democrats push pork for Planned Parenthood in coronavirus package

Susan Berry
Breitbart
Sun, 22 Mar 2020 15:28 UTC
pelosi_planned parenthood
© Drew Angerer/Getty Images
The Hill reported Sunday that one of the reasons bipartisan support for a massive coronavirus stimulus package has fallen apart is, once again, because Democrats want the bill to prop up Planned Parenthood.

According to the Hill:
A Democratic aide said that the small business provision was drafted to exclude non-profits who receive Medicaid from being eligible for Small Business Administration assistance offered under the bill. That, according to the aide, would impact Planned Parenthood but also community health centers, rape crisis centers and disability service providers.
Planned Parenthood is identified as a nonprofit, not a small business.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said Sunday she will be moving ahead with her own emergency relief package and ended hopes for an immediate vote in the Senate to further assistance for the nation in the midst of the crisis caused by the virus that originated in China.
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No Entry

Moscow calls on EU to abandon NATO's Defender Drills during WWII 75th victory celebrations


Sputnik
Mon, 23 Mar 2020 10:26 UTC
S-400s
© Sputnik / Alexander Vilf
Russia has called on European nations not to hold the active phase of the DEFENDER-Europe multinational exercise, initiated by the NATO, in the period when the 75th anniversary of World War II victory will be celebrated, Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said on Monday.

"It was absolutely clear for us that when the whole world will be bowing down before the memory of those who have defeated fascism, those who have liberated Europe from the brown plague, western propaganda centres will be boosting their information campaign, accusing Russia of aggressive intentions and all other kinds of sins. I rule out that NATO planners have failed to take this into consideration. We have called on European countries to abandon the active phase of the drills in that period of time", Grushko said.

Moscow has paid attention to the fact that the active phase of the drills is planned for May, the official told reporters.

Comment: See also: Defender 2020 exercise is largest mobilization of NATO troops against Russia in 25 years

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Snakes in Suits

Pathetic: Joe Biden MIA during national emergency because ceilings in his mansion 'too low' for broadcast

Tyler Durden
Zerohedge
Sun, 22 Mar 2020 16:21 UTC
Biden
People have been wondering why former Vice President Joe Biden has been silent over the last week as the nation grapples with the the COVID-19 national emergency.

According to "a source with knowledge of the campaign," Biden's campaign is working on "scaling up that infrastructure and dealing with the realities of Biden's Wilmington home - like the fact that there aren't particularly high ceilings, which can make lighting a challenge."

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Heart - Black

Senate Democrats block mammoth coronavirus stimulus package

Jordain Carney
The Hill
Sun, 22 Mar 2020 02:08 UTC
schumer

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer
Senate Democrats on Sunday blocked a coronavirus stimulus package from moving forward as talks on several key provisions remain stalled.

Senators voted 47-47 on advancing a "shell" bill, a placeholder that the text of the stimulus legislation would have been swapped into, falling short of the three-fifths threshold needed to advance the proposal.

Hopes of a quick stimulus deal quickly unraveled on Sunday as the four congressional leaders and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin failed to break the impasse. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) also delayed the procedural vote for three hours as they tried to get a deal.

Democratic senators argue that the GOP bill includes several "non-starters" and walks back areas of agreement, such as expanding unemployment insurance, they thought they had reached with Republicans.

Comment: The Dems just showed that they care more about hurting Trump than helping the average American.

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NPC

'I thought about it ... but I didn't': CNN's Tapper tries to explain not fact-checking AOC over coronavirus 'hoax' claim


RT
Sun, 22 Mar 2020 00:20 UTC
jake tapper
© REUTERS/Lucas Jackson
Jake tapper
Jake Tapper of CNN has admitted to not fact-checking Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on his show after she'd said the administration called the coronavirus a "hoax," but claimed it was okay because Trump "lies so often."

Tapper remained silent on Sunday when Rep. Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) criticized the Trump administration's response to the pandemic on CNN's 'State of the Union' show, claiming that the White House had at one point labeled the disease a "hoax."

In reality, the administration never labeled the coronavirus a hoax, though Donald Trump last month did call media coverage part of a hoax when he criticized outlets for stirring up hysteria.

"This is their new hoax," he told a rally in South Carolina, saying the media were trying to politicize the disease and create panic.

Comment: The media is trying to create more hysteria and paranoia while Trump is attempting to calm people down and not get too worked up about the coronavirus. Trust the former at your own peril, at least Trump is talking common sense.

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Propaganda

The New York Times' insidious ongoing disinformation campaign on Russia and US elections

Gareth Porter
Consortium News
Tue, 17 Mar 2020 00:00 UTC
The New York Times
A series of stories loudly proclaim the Russian election meddling narrative but offer no real facts supporting the most sensational claims, writes Gareth Porter.

For the past three years the new narrative of Russian interference in U.S. elections has bound corporate news media more tightly than ever to the interests of the national security state. And no outlet has pushed that narrative more aggressively - and with more violence to the relevant facts — than The New York Times.

Times reporters have produced a series of stories that loudly proclaim the Russian election meddling narrative but offer no real facts in the body of the story supporting its most sensational claims.

The Times service to the narrative was introduced by its February 2017 story headlined, "Trump Campaign Aides Had Repeated Contacts with Russian Intelligence." We now know from Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz's report on the FBI investigation of the Trump campaign that the only campaign aide who had contacts with Russian intelligence officials was Carter Page, and those had taken place years before in the context of Page's reporting them to the CIA. The Horowitz report revealed that FBI officials had hidden that fact from the FISA Court to justify its request for surveillance of Page.

But the Times coverage of the Horowitz report in December 2019 failed to acknowledge that the calumny about Page's Russian intelligence contacts, which it had published without question in 2017, had been an FBI deception.

Comment: And this isn't the only fake narrative and bad reporting that the horrible NY Times has been perpetrating on the public in recent months and years:

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Dollars

Peter Schweizer: Stock Act means Sen. Richard Burr should be prosecuted for insider trading

Robert Kraychik
Breitbart
Sun, 22 Mar 2020 18:58 UTC
Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC)
© AP Photo/Alex Brandon
Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC)
If Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) is not prosecuted by the Department of Justice for insider trading, then the Stock Act is "meaningless," warned Peter Schweizer, senior contributor to Breitbart News and author of Profiles in Corruption: Abuse of Power by America's Progressive Elite.

Schweizer joined Friday's edition of SiriusXM's Breitbart News Tonight with host Rebecca Mansour and special guest host John Hayward to discuss Burr's selling of between $628,000 and $1.72 million in stock ahead of coronavirus-related market declines.

"Richard Burr's [stock sell-off] is a classic case of insider trading," determined Schweizer. "If Richard Burr was an executive at a corporation and he had received a closed door briefing that said a company's sales were going to go down dramatically, and he sold pretty much all of his stock, it would be insider trading."

Comment:

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Cell Phone

Mass surveillance in Israel: Is it to fight virus spread or curtail democracy?


Sputnik
Sun, 22 Mar 2020 08:36 UTC
2 with masks
© AP/Ariel Schalit
It's been several days since Israel began using a mass surveillance system - initially developed by the country's internal secret service (Shin Bet) - to track coronavirus patients and alert those who have been in proximity to them that they too could be contagious and thus should isolate themselves for 14 days.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who initiated the move, said the system was a pivotal tool to curb the spread of COVID-19, which has claimed the life of one person. More than 800 others are being treated for the virus in hospitals across the country.

The technology also enables Israeli police to ensure that those quarantined remained indoors, as images emerge showing dozens of Israelis taking to the beach despite calls to avoid crowds.

Israeli radio reports suggest that based on the system the police conducted 12,000 home visits in recent days and filed a hundred criminal complaints against those who dared to breach the newly imposed restrictions.

Comment: How much of the lockdown/surveillance is truly virus-related, security related or Netanyahu grandstanding for personal gain? It seems Coronavirus has many uses.

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