Anonymous ID: 23167e Aug. 26, 2020, 5:35 p.m. No.10431746   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>1756 >>1763

Van Morrison attacks the ‘pseudoscience’ behind socially distanced concerts

 

Van Morrison says his upcoming socially distanced shows have been organised not out of “acceptance of the current state of affairs” but to get his band “out of the doldrums”

 

Van Morrison has issued a statement calling on artists to “fight the pseudoscience” behind socially distanced concerts. Morrison will play a series of socially distanced shows in London and at Newcastle’s Gosforth Park in the coming weeks, but he’s spoken out, saying they’ve been organised not out of “acceptance of the current state of affairs” but to get his band “out of the doldrums.” He also claims that he and Andrew Lloyd Webber are the “only people in the music business trying to get it back up and running again.”

 

Morrison says on his website: “As you know, we are doing socially distanced gigs at Newcastle Upon Tyne’s Gosforth Park, the Electric Ballroom and The London Palladium. This is not a sign of compliance or acceptance of the current state of affairs – this is to get my band up and running and out of the doldrums. “This is also not the answer going forward. We need to be playing to full capacity audiences going forward. “I call on my fellow singers, musicians, writers, producers, promoters and others in the industry to fight with me on this. Come forward, stand up, fight the pseudoscience and speak up.” Morrison adds: “Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber and myself appear to be the only people in the music business trying to get it back up and running again. Come forward. “It’s not economically viable to do socially distanced gigs. Come forward now, the future is now.” Morrison wants the music industry to email him so he can “publish a list of names of all those who are supporting the industry.”

 

Since the lockdown began, several artists have also performed drive-in concerts across Europe, including Doro Pesch, while in Arkansas in May, Bishop Gunn frontman Travis McCready played the world’s first socially distanced concert in front on 229 people – around 20% of the venue’s capacity. Earlier this month, Metallica recorded a live performance which will be screened at drive-in theatres across North American this coming Saturday.

https://www.loudersound.com/news/van-morrison-attacks-the-pseudoscience-behind-socially-distanced-concerts

Anonymous ID: 23167e Aug. 26, 2020, 5:51 p.m. No.10431973   🗄️.is 🔗kun

James Comey: 'Public record' can't explain why ex-FBI lawyer doctored email in Russia inquiry

 

Former FBI Director James Comey admits he is worried about criminal inquiry into the Russia investigation. The prominent Trump critic has been on a media blitz in the week since U.S. Attorney John Durham got his first plea deal from a former FBI lawyer, and while Comey called it a serious ordeal, he also downplayed its significance as being an inexplicable anomaly, at least in terms of what is out there in the public eye. He told CNN on Tuesday he's not concerned about what the federal prosecutor will uncover, but rather how the Justice Department might try to politicize the findings. "Of course I worry about anything this administration is doing, especially this notion that they need to investigate the investigators after the investigators had been investigated by everybody already," Comey told host Anderson Cooper. "I don’t know what they’re doing, so it’s hard for me to say," he added. "I hope, at some point, the American people get transparency into what John Durham is doing and what he's found, and I’m confident he’ll find the work was done in a professional way, but I just don’t know. And I’m skeptical that they will be respectful of conducting themselves like professionals."

 

Supporters of President Trump, who claim there was a government plot to sabotage his campaign and later his presidency, have started to fret about being disappointed with Durham's work after former CIA Director John Brennan was interviewed Friday for eight hours by Durham's team at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, after which his longtime aide said Brennan was told he is not a "subject or a target" of a criminal investigation. While there may not be any more criminal prosecutions, Durham is expected to release a report about his findings, which Democrats and some national security veterans warn Attorney General William Barr could twist into an "October surprise." Comey led the FBI when it opened a counterintelligence investigation into ties between the Trump campaign and Russia in the summer of 2016 up until he was fired by Trump in May 2017. Durham, who was picked by Barr last year to review the origins of that inquiry, is looking into whether there was any misconduct by national security and intelligence officials. That includes scrutiny of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act surveillance of former Trump campaign foreign adviser Carter Page, which relied in part on the flawed anti-Trump dossier compiled by British ex-spy Christopher Steele and the 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment on Russian interference in the election.

 

Comey's actions as FBI director have been heavily criticized by the Justice Department inspector general, including for his handling of memos of conversations with Trump that he later admitted to have leaked to spark a special counsel investigation, and he was publicly chastised by a former superior earlier this month. Former acting Attorney General Sally Yates testified to Congress that she was angry when she learned that Comey had ordered incoming national security adviser Michael Flynn to be interviewed by investigators in 2017. "I was upset that Director Comey didn't coordinate that with us and acted unilaterally," she said. Yates also replied in the affirmative when asked if Comey went "rogue." Still, the former FBI director said over the weekend that he has had no contact with Durham's criminal investigation. During a Sunday appearance on CBS News, Comey told Face the Nation he "can't imagine" being a target of the prosecutor's inquiry. In response to that interview, Page, who was never charged with any wrongdoing, said there are “a lot more questions that need to be answered."

 

Before addressing the “Convention on Founding Principles," on Tuesday, Comey penned an op-ed published by the Washington Post that said Trump, with the help of Barr, "is leaving a legacy of damage to a vital American institution at the heart of the rule of law." He also advocated for people to vote for Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden in the election that is less than 70 days away. Some Trump allies have argued that a Biden victory would mean Durham's findings will get buried, should he not share them soon.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/james-comey-public-record-cant-explain-why-ex-fbi-lawyer-doctored-email-in-russia-inquiry