SCOTUS postpones hearing arguments due to coronavirus spread

They'll still meet privately, but will be able to do so via conference call.

Businesses, schools, and public events around the United States have begun to temporarily shut down some operations for the near future due to the global spread of the coronavirus — formally known as COVID-19. Now the highest court in the land is following suit.

According to a Monday announcement from the Supreme Court of the United States, all oral arguments for the rest of the month have been postponed for the foreseeable future. The news release says that the court made the decision "in keeping with public health precautions recommended in response" to the virus' global outbreak and that it "will examine the options for rescheduling those cases in due course in light of the developing circumstances."

Despite the postponement, members of the court will still hold their scheduled conference — where they discuss and make decisions about cases — on Friday, but will have the option of participating in the meeting via telephone instead of showing up in-person. Additionally, the court will also issue orders as scheduled on the following Monday morning, the announcement said.

The cases with now-postponed arguments include a high-profile intellectual property case against Google, a case about Congress' efforts to get ahold of President Donald Trump's tax information, and two consolidated religious freedom cases dealing with the rights of Catholic schools to hire and fire employees in line with their institutional missions.

Last week — following similar decisions at the White House and the Capitol complex — the Supreme Court closed the doors of its building to the general public in an effort to protect "the health and safety of the public and Supreme Court employees," according to a statement on its website.

Monday's announcement explained that the building will remain open for official business and closed to the general public while the court works to expand "remote working capabilities to reduce the number of employees in the Building, consistent with public health guidance."

This isn't the first time that the Supreme Court has taken a break from hearing cases in response to a global disease outbreak. During the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918, the court recessed for nearly one full month during October and November of that year, according to more-than-century-old reporting from the Washington Post. That was back when the court still met in the Old Senate Chamber of the Capitol Building.

https://www.theblaze.com/news/scotus-postpones-hearing-arguments-due-to-coronavirus-spread

De Blasio: We’re ‘Close to’ Needing Government to Ensure Food Supply Is ‘Equitably Distributed’

On Monday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) called for the nationalization of certain parts of the supply chain, and stated that “we’re getting close to a reality where the government has to ensure that the food supply, that it is not only available, but that it’s equitably distributed.”

De Blasio said, “We’re going to need the supply chain nationalized in some form. Right now, there’s no effort to make sure that ventilators, surgical masks, even down to hand sanitizer, all these products should be put on a 24/7 production cycle. Whatever factories anywhere can make them should be cranking them out. They should be distributed according to federal priority, as you would in a war.”

He later stated, “We’re providing meals all week at the schools, pick-up meals, breakfast and lunch. We’re going to have to create feeding stations of some kind going forward, of different types. We’re doing home deliveries for seniors. We’re closing down senior center programming, but we’re doing — using senior centers as kitchens in effect, dispensaries to get meals out to seniors at their home. There’s a lot of pieces we’re going to have to alter. And look, the Great Depression and the New Deal are very instructive here. I don’t — I’m not saying bread lines, but let’s be clear, we’re getting close to a reality where the government has to ensure that the food supply, that it is not only available, but that it’s equitably distributed. We’re going to have to get into a heavy intervention in people’s economic lives. Because a whole lot of people are losing their livelihood by the hour, and they need a continuity of economic support, or their families are going to start to collapse in other ways.”

https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2020/03/16/de-blasio-were-close-to-needing-government-to-ensure-food-supply-is-equitably-distributed/

Belgium: Surgical masks ordered for migrants but not Belgians; Turkish mask supplier defrauds government

A month ago, the Belgian government ordered surgical masks for the Klein Kasteeltje center for asylum-seekers in Brussels at the same time that it was telling Belgians that they only needed to wash their hands to protect themselves from COVID-19, or the coronavirus.

Belgium’s Health Minister, Maggie De Block, is also the Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration. De Block placed an order for surgical masks for the migrant center in the amount of 30,000 euros, according to a report from SCEPTR.

At the same time, De Block and virologist Marc Van Ranst were telling Belgians in television interviews not to panic, because just washing one’s hands was enough to prevent a coronavirus infection.

As of Sunday, Belgium has reported nearly 1,100 confirmed cases of coronavirus infection, and Belgium’s medical staff are suffering from a shortage of masks.

To deal with the emergency, last week the Belgian government placed an order for 5 million surgical masks from a company in Turkey that were supposed to be delivered by Sunday at the latest. In yet another government failure, the masks never arrived, and De Block admitted today that they had been defrauded by their Turkish supplier, and that chances were “minimal” that they would ever receive any, according to another report by SCEPTR.

Given this situation, Belgium has a real crisis on its hands now, as it currently only has 500,000 masks in stock. As an emergency measure the government has requested that private citizens with extra masks to donate them to the hospitals.

The fact that Belgium thought of the safety of migrants before that of its own citizens is ironic, especially since, as Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán recently pointed out, immigration is what brought the coronavirus to Europe in the first place, as reported by Voice of Europe.

https://voiceofeurope.com/2020/03/belgium-surgical-masks-ordered-for-migrants-but-not-belgians-turkish-mask-supplier-defrauds-government/

EU President Calls for Borders to Remain Open During Coronavirus Outbreak

The president of the European Commission called for borders to remain open within the EU’s Free Movement travel zone during the COVID-19 outbreak, as countries across the bloc enact border controls.

On Sunday, Ursula von der Leyen urged European Union member states to keep their borders open so that medical supplies will be able to be transported to countries most affected from the coronavirus.

“In this moment of crisis it is of utmost importance to keep our internal market going,” von der Leyen said in a video on social media.

“If we do not take action now, shops will start facing difficulties in refilling their stocks of certain products coming from elsewhere in the Single Market,” she said, adding: “Protecting people’s health should not block goods and essential staff from reaching patients, health systems, factories and shops.”

“Just imagine, as we increase production of medical equipment, factories cannot get the components they need in time, thousands of bus and truck drivers are stranded at internal borders on parking lots, creating more health risk and disrupting our supply chains,” she warned.

The president of the EU commission also called for export controls to be placed on medical devices, preventing their sale outside the EU, while imploring member states to abandon export restrictions on medical supplies within the bloc.

“We need to help each other. By producing more, keeping it in the European Union and sharing with each other we can protect our health workers and patients and contain the spread of the virus,” von der Leyen said.

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/03/16/eu-president-calls-for-borders-to-remain-open-during-coronavirus-outbreak/

Middle Eastern immigrant people smugglers who put 19 migrants on a rickety boat to cross the Channel arrested

Federal police in Belgium have arrested two migrant men from Iraq and Iran for human trafficking.

The pair of Middle Eastern migrants were arrested by the federal police in West Flanders for attempting to smuggle 19 migrants on a rickety boat across the English Channel to the United Kingdom at the end up last December, the Dutch-language Belgian news outlet Het Laatste Nieuws reports.

Luckily, the group of migrant castaways were rescued by Dutch fisherman near the coast of Dunkirk, France. The smugglers had sent the migrants off to sea in the Belgian coastal city of Nieuwpoort.

Belgian’s federal judicial police, along with the smuggling team, investigated the incident and eventually gather evidence which lead them to an Iranian who provided boats for transit migrants.

“Together with a man from Iraq he sold boats with indications that they were intended for smuggling activities. Both live in the region of Sint-Niklaas,” attorney Frank Demeester of the Bruges public prosecutor’s office said.

The pair of Middle Eastern migrant smugglers were arrested, but were quickly released.

“The Bruges investigating judge decided on the basis of the elements in the file to arrest both persons. On Friday, the Bruges council chamber decided to release the suspects under certain conditions, but the prosecution immediately appealed so that the suspects remain in prison for the time being.”

The Iranian and Iraqi have been ordered to report to authorities in Ghent within two weeks. Whether that happens or not is anyone’s guess.

Migrants attempting to reach the UK by crossing the English Channel has become increasingly common over the past couple of years. Last year, 2,758 migrants were intercepted while attempting to cross the Channel, four times more than were seen in the previous year.

https://voiceofeurope.com/2020/03/belgium-middle-eastern-immigrant-people-smugglers-who-put-19-migrants-on-a-rickety-boat-to-cross-the-channel-arrested/

Turks Jailed for Killing Boy Whose Drowning Sparked 2015-16 Migrant Crisis

Three Turkish men have been sentenced for the killing of Aylan Kurdi, the Syrian toddler whose drowning was the catalyst for the 2015-16 migrant crisis.

Bodrum High Criminal Court, Mugla, sentenced Cebrail E., Ecevit Bulent G, and Ali Can S. to 125 years each for the crime of “killing with eventual intent”, according to a CNN, citing local state-run media.

They are said to have been part a human trafficking ring, and to have been sentenced only after the security forces hunted them down to Turkey’s southern province of Adana after an attempt to flee from their trial.

Distressing images of Aylan’s lifeless lying on a Turkish beach after the smuggler boat attempting to transport him to Europe sank were widely disseminated by both print and broadcast media, and have since been repurposed into grotesque art installations, public sculptures, graffiti, and costumed protests.

In 2015 the images a powerful tool for anti-borders activists, who used them to stampede European leaders led by Germany’s Angela Merkel to adopt the open door policy which precipitated the migrant crisis which continues down to the present day.

While traffickers have now been convicted of Aylan’s killing, his father, Abdullah Kurdi — who had been living in Turkey in safety and receiving financial assistance from Canada-based relations for three years before he made the fateful decision to attempt a sea crossing to Europe — initially said Western governments were responsible, having refused to accept them as asylum seekers.

Abdullah, who also lost his wife and Aylan’s brother on the voyage, was himself accused of being the “captain” of the boat and a people-smuggler by other passengers.

Two Syrians previously convicted of people-smuggling charges in connection with drownings, Muwafaka Alabash and Asem Alfrhad, levied similar accusations during their trial.

Abdullah Kurdi vehemently has vehemently denied all such allegations, asking the Daily Mail: “If I was a people-smuggler, why would I put my family in the same boat as the other people?” he asked the Daily Mail.

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/03/15/turks-jailed-killing-boy-whose-drowning-sparked-2015-16-migrant-crisis/

President Trump Blasts Corrupt FBI, DOJ For ‘Conveniently Losing’ Flynn’s Records – Says He is “Strongly Considering a Full Pardon”

President Trump on Sunday afternoon lashed out at the corrupt FBI and DOJ for ‘losing’ General Mike Flynn’s records and asserted that he is “strongly considering a full pardon.”

TRUMP: So now it is reported that, after destroying his life & the life of his wonderful family (and many others also), the FBI, working in conjunction with the Justice Department, has “lost” the records of General Michael Flynn. How convenient. I am strongly considering a Full Pardon!

The Obama Deep State spied on General Flynn since 2015. He was a number one target of the Obama Deep State.

They wanted to punish General Michael Flynn because he turned against President Obama and spoke honestly about his failed strategy that caused the rise of ISIS in Iraq.

So the Obama, Comey, McCabe, Strzok, Page, Brennan, Clapper deep state set him up and ambushed him during the Trump transition by leaking his calls to then-Russian Ambassador Kislyak to the Washington Post’s David Ignatius.

General Flynn formally asked to withdraw his guilty plea in January and accused federal prosecutors of “egregious government misconduct.”

The FBI ‘lost’ the original 302 summary report on the ambush interview with Flynn and altered the 302 report currently in his file.

http://www.womensystems.com/2020/03/president-trump-blasts-corrupt-fbi-doj.html