Rep. Max Rose To Join National Guard Efforts In His District

Congressman Max Rose (D-NY) will deploy to the Army National Guard on Wednesday, April 1 to help his coronavirus-stricken district, according to an official press release from his office.

Rose, 33, who represents New York’s 11th Congressional district, which includes all of Staten Island and parts of Brooklyn, will spend the coming weeks working at Staten Island facilities to assist in COVID-19 response efforts.

Rep. Rose is a Captain in the National Guard and will serve as an Operations Officer starting Wednesday.

“Over the past month I have seen acts of incredible bravery and sacrifice by our first responders, nurses, doctors, and essential workers who never thought they’d be on the frontlines of a crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic,” Rose said in a statement.

Congressman Rose added that one of the best ways for him, as an elected official, to serve his constituents in this time of crisis was to deploy.

“My activation and deployment is nothing compared to what our city, state, and country has asked of all them,” he said. “And it’s certainly nothing compared to the other men and women serving in uniform both here at home and overseas. I am just trying to do my duty and my small part.”

The New York Congressman added that his staff will take the lead while he works with the National Guard.

“Like many Guardsmen and women across the country, I am leaving my day job to serve our nation,” Rose continued. “Unlike them, I will be able to return to it in order to vote if needed. That’s a privilege and responsibility that I take very seriously. I’m also grateful to have an amazing staff who will continue their work on behalf of Staten Islanders and South Brooklynites. Together, I know we will overcome this pandemic.”

Max Rose served as an active duty officer in Afghanistan from 2012-2013 and earned various honors including a Bronze Star and a Combat Infantry Badge. He also received a Purple Heart after his vehicle hit an improvised explosive device (IED) in northern Afghanistan while he was serving as a 26-year-old first lieutenant platoon leader.

Rose joined the Guard in 2015 and has continued to serve since being elected to Congress. He serves as a company commander in the New York Army National Guard’s 69th Infantry Regiment, the second-oldest National Guard unit in the country.

As of Tuesday, the state of New York has reported 68,363 confirmed cases of the virus and over 1,342 deaths.

https://saraacarter.com/rep-max-rose-to-join-national-guard-efforts-in-his-district/

Former Chinese military man behind export of tonnes of medical supplies

Sydney-based Kuang Yuanping, a former PLA officer with links to Chinese foreign influence operations, has been exporting - and importing - medical equipment.

A former Chinese military officer worked with Chinese Communist Party agencies and a group with links to organised crime to export tonnes of Australian medical supplies to Wuhan at the height of the coronavirus epidemic there.

The former officer, Kuang Yuanping, is now planning to bring medical equipment to Australia given the peak of the COVID-19 crisis in China appears to have passed.

People familiar with his plans said he wanted to help Australia’s efforts to contain the virus and assist China’s soft power and political influence goals in this country through charitable activity.

Sydney-based Mr Kuang is a former officer in the People's Liberation Army who runs a number of Chinese Communist Party-backed organisations in Sydney and Melbourne. These organisations include some that are loosely backed by China's soft-power agency, the United Front Work Department, which is charged with building influence for the CCP overseas and countering its critics.

One of the groups, the Hubei Association, was until recently run by former Chinese-Australia organised crime suspect, Tom "Chinatown" Zhou.

As new coronavirus cases in China slow according to official statistics, Beijing is increasingly offering assistance to other countries battling the pandemic. China has offered aid to more than 80 countries and the World Health Organisation.

The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald can reveal that in February Mr Kuang help coordinate two air lifts of medical supplies from Australia to Wuhan. The consignments included 35,000 sets of protective medical suits, 200,000 pairs of gloves and 10 tonnes of disinfectant. The goods went to hospitals and medical centres in Wuhan and five other cities at the epicentre of the crisis.

“What’s galling is China’s state propaganda arm repeating nonsense … claiming the Australian government is playing politics."

Swinburne University China specialist Professor John Fitzgerald

A February 16 memo that Mr Kuang issued via a community platform "calls for overseas Chinese in Australia to take action to contribute money, supplies and your kindness to your home country".

"We collect all medical supplies needed by Wuhan, including: medical equipment, reagents, medicine, protective suits, disinfectant products, N95 masks and so on, and will deliver them to Wuhan freely."

Another statement issued by Mr Kuang reveals that party officials in Hubei authorised his Australian company, Huaren Group, to urgently supply China with urgent medical supplies including personal protective clothing for medical workers. Such internal approvals would normally take months or longer.

A video posted to WeChat lists Mr Kuang’s key backers or "commanders" in the "Corona Virus Work Group" as two Melbourne men have worked with Mr Zhou, who ran a controversial high-roller business at Crown Casino.

Before Mr Zhou was arrested in Fiji and deported to China in January to face criminal charges, he ran a United Front group in Melbourne, the Hubei Association. For several years, Mr Kuang ran a sister Hubei association from Sydney. Mr Kuang is using both Hubei associations to help co-ordinate his charitable and business activities.

https://www.theage.com.au/national/former-chinese-military-man-behind-export-of-tonnes-of-medical-supplies-20200330-p54f8a.html

Coronavirus Jailbreak: California Gov. Gavin Newsom Commutes Sentences for 14 Convicted Killers

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) is responding to the Chinese coronavirus crisis by commuting the sentences of 14 felons convicted of murder or being involved in a murder.

Newsom made the decision to more quickly commute felons’ sentences in the midst of the coronavirus, providing early release through parole to about 19 felons — some of whom killed children and one convict who murdered a pregnant woman.

Two of the felons are immigrants to the U.S., and Newsom’s purpose for commuting their sentences is to have them avoid deportation.

The 19 felons given commutations by Newsom include:

50-year-old Rodney McNeal convicted of stabbing his pregnant wife to death

75-year-old Suzanne Johnson convicted of assaulting a child to death

35-year-old Kristopher Blehm convicted for aiding in a murder

64-year-old Joann Parks convicted of killing her three children

67-year-old Rosemary Dyer convicted of murdering her husband

40-year-old Jason Bryant convicted for witnessing murder during a robbery

56-year-old Steven Bradley convicted of murdering a gas station worker

64-year-old Richard Flowers convicted of murdering a woman

61-year-old Samuel Eldredge convicted of shooting a person to death

49-year-old Ramon Rodriguez convicted of murdering a person for pay

56-year-old James Harris convicted of kidnapping and murdering two people

48-year-old Robert Glass convicted of murdering a burglary victim

45-year-old David Jassy convicted of murdering a man he was fighting with

68-year-old Shyrl Lamar convicted of witnessing the murder of two people

Tri Thai, an immigrant, convicted of assault, dissuading a witness, and burglary

Monsuru Tijani, an immigrant, convicted of issuing fake financial statements

Shannon Thomas-Bland convicted of drug crimes

Gabriel Garcia convicted of drug crimes

Brenda Ibanez convicted of robbery and using a fake ID to buy a vehicle

Newsom also pardoned five felons who previously served their sentences for various crimes.

In New York, as Breitbart News reported, Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s (D) insistence that at least 1,100 inmates be released from prison during the coronavirus crisis has allowed eight sex offenders — three of whom raped children — to be freed back into the general public.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/03/31/coronavirus-jailbreak-california-gov-gavin-newsom-commutes-sentences-for-14-convicted-killers/

In Videos: Houthis Crushing Saudi-led Forces And Burning Their Military Equipment

The media wing of Yemen’s Houthis released fresh videos showing recent operations of the group against Saudi-led forces in northwestern Yemen and on the Saudi-Yemeni border.

https://youtu.be/MTir5ynsOg4

https://youtu.be/BRrgayV-xCM

https://southfront.org/in-videos-houthis-crushing-saudi-led-forces-and-burning-their-military-equipment/

IDF Chief of Staff Kochavi, two other generals enter self-isolation

The three were in contact with a commander in the reserves who was diagnosed with the virus on Tuesday

IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Aviv Kochavi and two other generals entered quarantine on Tuesday after being in contact with an officer who has been diagnosed with the coronavirus.

Kochavi held a meeting with commanders in Home Front Command on March 22, and one of them was diagnosed on Tuesday as being infected, the IDF said.

“In light of this, according to the Health Ministry’s instructions, the chief of staff will be self-quarantining in his office until the end of the week,” the IDF said, adding that he was feeling well, did not have symptoms and would keep his regular schedule.

OC Home Front Command Maj.-Gen. Tamir Yadai and OC Operations Division Maj.-Gen. Aaron Haliva are also self-quarantining until the end of the week.

Earlier Tuesday, Defense Minister Naftali Bennett said Israel was in a “good place” in combating the novel coronavirus despite 20 fatalities caused by it.

“There is a light at the end of the corona tunnel,” he said in a daily press conference, adding that there has “not been an exponential growth in the rate of infection and deaths in Israel… We are the country with the lowest mortality rate in relation to the number of infected patients, less than Germany even. We are at a death rate of 0.3% so far.”

If the lockdown is kept in place for too long, there could be more suicides than deaths from the coronavirus, Bennett said.

“We have to understand the massive distress of those who won’t have enough money to pay their rent,” he said. “We may have more suicides than deaths from coronavirus.”

Bennett called on the government to reopen businesses soon after Passover.

Eighty-four soldiers have tested positive for the virus, and another 2,870 are in quarantine.

The government has ordered the Health Ministry to carry out 30,000 tests daily within two weeks. On Tuesday, Bennett said it has been carrying out some 6,000 tests daily. Israel has spent some NIS 2.4 billion on equipment for healthcare professionals, including ventilators, masks, protective gear and testing kits, he said.

About 1,000 soldiers from Home Front Command started distributing food and other necessities to the elderly and other at-risk populations on Tuesday.

The IDF is working with local municipalities and regional councils to identify those who need assistance.

Home Front Command is providing assistance in various areas to government ministries, MDA and the civilian population in an effort to curtail the spread of the contagion.

Beginning Tuesday at noon, some 700 unarmed soldiers joined police officers in districts across the country to help enforce the partial lockdown.

https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/IDF-troops-begin-distributing-essential-goods-to-elderly-623036

'No Confidence': Problems Found In Dozens More FBI Spy Warrants

DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz notified FBI Director Christopher Wray on Monday that he "did not have confidence" that the agency was providing appropriate supporting documentation to back up assertions, after violations were found following a review of more than two dozens Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant applications, according to a publicly released memo.

"As a result of our audit work to date and as described below, we do not have confidence that the FBI has executed its Woods Procedures in compliance with FBI policy," wrote Horowitz in a Management Advisory Memorandum addressed to Way.

"Specifically, the Woods Procedures mandate compiling supporting documentation for each fact in the FISA application. Adherence to the Woods Procedures should result in such documentation as a means toward achievement of the FBI’s policy that FISA applications be 'scrupulously accurate.'"

Horowitz discovered these additional problems after visiting eight FBI field offices and reviewing a selected sample of 29 FISA applications that were tied to both counterintelligence and counterterrorism investigations between October 2014 and September 2019.

Horowitz said he chose broaden his review of FISA applications following the release of a sprawling report in December that found "fundamental and serious errors in the agents’ conduct" as it related to the Woods Procedures.

That report, which was particularly focused on the wiretap warrant FBI officials sought to surveil former Trump campaign aide Carter Page, identified numerous occasions where federal officials did not include the documentation to back up their assertions. -The Hill

"As a result of these findings, in December 2019, my office initiated an audit to examine more broadly the FBI’s execution of, and compliance with, its Woods Procedures relating to U.S. Persons covering the period from October 2014 to September 2019," reads Horowitz's letter.

That said, Horowitz did not make a determination as to whether the identified issues had a material impact on the entire surveillance application.

"During this initial review, we have not made judgments about whether the errors or concerns we identified were material. Also, we do not speculate as to whether the potential errors would have influenced the decision to file the application or the FISC’s decision to approve the FISA application."

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/no-confidence-problems-found-dozens-more-fbi-spy-warrants

A Coup to Stop a Revolution: The Virus: Taking the Whole World Hostage

We are victims of a new Stockholm syndrome. We find ourselves having to trust the very governments we have come to distrust more and more over the years. We are forced to turn to the same politicians and apparatchiks who have systematically stripped away our livelihoods, the value of our life’s savings, our liberties, our rights and our self-esteem for years. We are made to take our eyes off the jackboot grinding down our necks by a poison-tipped dagger at our hearts.

Perhaps it is time to draw a deep breath and reflect on the extraordinary changes being thrust upon our lives by this virus crisis.

The fear factor has been drummed up with methodical hysteria by Western mainstream media. And by extension, the media in the rest the world which has little originality when it comes to reporting on global issues. This is not to ignore the lethality of the virus, nor the havoc it is wreaking around the world. But it must be asked, who is benefiting from it? What comes after?

It does not matter at this stage whether the virus was engineered or if it is a natural mutation. Conflicting views, even medical opinions, are flying fast and furious. We are not equipped to judge them. We lack the facts and knowledge. More to the point, we are too busy stocking up and locking down. Yet, not being able to understand the origins of the threat should not deter us from thinking about the consequences of the unprecedented measures to fight it. For ourselves, our communities, our nations, our world – the only world that there is.

Since the 2008 financial crisis, major economies of the world have abandoned time-tested principles of economics, even common sense prudence. They have abused their political and economic power to ignite an explosive bottom up transfer of wealth which has given us in return increasingly top down leaders and authoritarian governments. Both are bought over and propped by a shrinking minority of super rich elite who number less than 0.1% of the world’s population.

Ahead of the present crisis, their 12-year orgy of economic and political excess had stretched to a breaking point. Free markets for commodities to stocks to currencies to species existed only in name. Just as democracy was brought to many people who did not ask for it at the expense of their blood, command and control systems were brought to everyone at the expense of their livelihoods and economic security. The only difference was a swift end by a bullet in the head or death by a thousand cuts.

An out of control parasite ultimately self-destructs by draining the last drop of blood from its host. This was pretty much the situation at the beginning of this year. The latest Oxfam report Time to Care (see box below) sets out how extreme economic and social injustice has become. So much so that there was little left for the parasite class to extract from the general citizenry without a violent reaction. What better way to get out of the ‘life-threatening’ situation than to create a real parasite – or take advantage of one – to tranquilize the masses with fear, put them in chains and enter a final feeding frenzy?

We are seeing a replay of 2008, with afterburners lit this time. An enormous new wave of printing money and slashing its price (interest rate) to zero has been unleashed around the world. It dwarfs the previous bailout of criminally reckless banks and big business by an order of magnitude. This time camouflaged by flinging a barrel of table scraps at the ordinary people. Already seething at the fallouts of the earlier round, people would not accept it had they not been frightened out of their wits by something worse.

https://www.globalresearch.ca/coup-stop-revolution-taking-whole-world-hostage/5708136

Italy Becomes 53rd Nation to Call for Global Ceasefire During Pandemic

Italy on Monday became the 53rd nation to join a call by the UN secretary general for a ceasefire in all the world’s wars as the globe fights the Covid-19 pandemic.

Missing among the nations supporting a global ceasefire in the more than 40 wars being fought around the world are four of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council—Britain, China, Russia and the United States—who are among the world’s largest arms traders. All possess a nuclear weapons arsenal. Only France among the P5 has called for the ceasefire.

This statement by the 53 nations listed supports an end to hostilities to help prevent the further spread of the pandemic, “the true fight of our lives,” according to Secretary General Antonio Guterres.

War, it seems, is the only part of “normal” life that continues.

https://consortiumnews.com/2020/03/30/covid19-italy-becomes-53rd-nation-to-call-for-global-ceasefire-during-pandemic/

In the Pandemic NATO Shows Itself to Be as Irrelevant as Ever

In 2015 Bill Gates gave a talk titled “We’re Not Ready for the Next Epidemic” in which, in a remarkable exhibition of understated and uncannily accurate prescience, he reflected on the outbreak of Ebola virus and forecast worse to come. This amazing man told us that “As awful as this epidemic has been, the next one could be much worse. The world is simply not prepared to deal with a disease — an especially virulent flu, for example — that infects large numbers of people very quickly. Of all the things that could kill 10 million people or more, by far the most likely is an epidemic. But I believe we can prevent such a catastrophe by building a global warning and response system for epidemics. It would apply the kind of planning that goes into national defence — systems for recruiting, training, and equipping health workers; investments in new tools; etc — to the effort to prevent and contain outbreaks.”

The world did nothing, with Trump, for example, claiming on March 20 that “nobody could have ever seen something like this coming,” and we are now suffering the ravages of a terrifying virus that threatens to kill countless millions of people if such heads of state as the criminally dithering Trump continue to wield influence on our destiny.

It is likely, however, that logic and science will overcome ignorance and political point-scoring, and that Trump and his ilk will fade away while the world limps to normality after a price in lives and suffering that nobody can estimate.

But there could be positive spin-offs that could make the world a better place, and one of them is movement towards rapprochement between the US and Russia and China, both of which Washington’s finest insist are “a greater threat than terrorism”, so that the world will be spared the debilitating effects of continuing confrontation.

One of the things that should be examined is refocusing of the Nato military alliance. Bill Gates had some good ideas about what could be done to prepare for the Covid-19 pandemic, and in his talk about likely future developments went so far as to say that the best lessons from the Ebola years were to get prepared as “we do for war” and expanded on this by noting that “We have reserves that can scale us up to large numbers. NATO has a mobile unit that can deploy very rapidly. NATO does a lot of war games to check, are people well trained? Do they understand about fuel and logistics and the same radio frequencies? So they are absolutely ready to go. So those are the kinds of things we need to deal with an epidemic.”

Nato is indeed well-prepared for medical emergencies and has a logistics system ideally suited to cope with the problems now facing European and other communities. According to Nato Headquarters its medical support embraces “medical general practice, force health protection before and during deployments, medical logistics and supply, medical intelligence and the medical dimension of chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) warfare. Civilian-military cooperation in the medical area is very important during disaster relief, mass casualty situations and population movements, [and] military medical support may be involved in these missions too.”

https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2020/03/31/in-the-pandemic-nato-shows-itself-to-be-as-irrelevant-as-ever/

PRAY FOR EACH OTHER

GOD WINS