DOD On USNS Comfort Departing NY: ‘Expectations were far worse…than what we’ve seen’

The US Navy Ship Comfort will be departing New York City after President Donald Trump deployed the ship at the request of Governor Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill DeBlasio nearly three and a half weeks ago Jonathan Rath Hoffman, assistant to the secretary of defense for public affairs, told reporters Friday. Moreover, although he didn’t provide exact numbers on the matter, Hoffman said that the “expectations were far worse… than what we’ve seen.” For that reason, Gov. Cuomo and Mayor DeBlasio are returning this ship to DOD’s Northern Command. “If you look at a city like New York, the expectations were a far worse situation than what we’ve seen,” he said addressing questions of whether deploying Comfort was a waste of DOD resources. “Having our forces and having our people forward deploy with that capability and not needing it was far better than not having them there and needing it.”

The Defense Department, Hoffman said, will be consulting FEMA to pinpoint the vessel’s next deployment location and to expect a decision on the matter in the “coming days.” “We expect the Comfort will be heading back to Norfolk, where it will go through kind of the normal post-deployment cycle, where we will restock it. It will be just prepared for the next deployment,” Hoffman said. “We have said from the start… we wanted to be very careful with our deployment of those assets because we wanted to ensure that they are mobile, that they can be used somewhere else. So our goal all along has been to use them in New York as needed and then when the need no longer exists, to prepare them to move to the next location,” He added. The ship holds over 1,000 medical care workers and has the capacity of 500 beds, which Hoffman indicated that the number of patients never hit that number, but that there were a “fair number” of patients cared for on the ship. As of last Friday, 71 of its 500 beds were occupied, CNBC reported. There are currently 146,139 people infected with the coronavirus in New York and 10,746 have died from the virus statewide.

https://saraacarter.com/dod-on-usns-comfort-departing-ny-expectations-were-far-worse-than-what-weve-seen/

Exclusive: China sent team including medical experts to advise on North Korea’s Kim, sources say

BEIJING/SEOUL (Reuters) - China has dispatched a team to North Korea including medical experts to advise on North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, according to three people familiar with the situation. The trip by the Chinese doctors and officials comes amid conflicting reports about the health of the North Korean leader. Reuters was unable to immediately determine what the trip by the Chinese team signaled in terms of Kim’s health.

A delegation led by a senior member of the Chinese Communist Party’s International Liaison Department left Beijing for North Korea on Thursday, two of the people said. The department is the main Chinese body dealing with neighbouring North Korea. The sources declined to be identified given the sensitivity of the matter. The Liaison Department could not be reached by Reuters for comment late on Friday. China’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment late on Friday.

Daily NK, a Seoul-based website, reported earlier this week that Kim was recovering after undergoing a cardiovascular procedure on April 12. It cited one unnamed source in North Korea. South Korean government officials and a Chinese official with the Liaison Department challenged subsequent reports suggesting that Kim was in grave danger after surgery. South Korean officials said they had detected no signs of unusual activity in North Korea.

On Thursday, U.S. President Donald Trump also downplayed earlier reports that Kim was gravely ill. “I think the report was incorrect,” Trump told reporters, but he declined to say if he had been in touch with North Korean officials. On Friday, a South Korean source told Reuters their intelligence was that Kim was alive and would likely make an appearance soon. The person said he did not have any comment on Kim’s current condition or any Chinese involvement. An official familiar with U.S. intelligence said that Kim was known to have health problems but they had no reason to conclude he was seriously ill or unable eventually to reappear in public. A U.S. State department spokeswoman had no comment. U.S. Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, when asked about Kim’s health on Fox News after Trump spoke said, “I don’t have anything I can share with you tonight, but the American people should know we’re watching the situation very keenly.” North Korea is one of the world’s most isolated and secretive countries, and the health of its leaders is treated as a matter of state security. Reuters has not been able to independently confirm any details on Kim’s whereabouts or condition.

North Korea’s state media last reported on Kim’s whereabouts when he presided over a meeting on April 11. State media did not report that he was in attendance at an event to mark the birthday of his grandfather, Kim Il Sung, on April 15, an important anniversary in North Korea.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-politics-exclusive/exclusive-china-sent-team-including-medical-experts-to-advise-on-north-koreas-kim-sources-say-idUSKCN2263DW

Newsom Masks $1 Billion Deal with Chinese Company

''Democrat governor hides the details, even from fellow Democrats.''

“We’ve been competing against other states, against other nations, against our own federal government for PPE — coveralls, masks, shields, N95 masks — and we’re not waiting around any longer. And we’re no longer interested in the progress that we were seeing in the past.” That was California governor Gavin Newsom in an April 7 MSNBC appearance with Rachel Maddow. As Newsom added, “In the last 48 hours we have secured –through a consortia of nonprofits and a manufacturer here in the state of California – upwards of 200 million masks on a monthly basis that we’re confident we can supply the needs of the state of California, potentially the needs of other western states.” As it happened, the manufacturer wasn’t exactly “here in the state of California.” The manufacturer was BYD, “Build Your Dreams,” a Chinese company not known for making personal protective equipment. Newsom wasn’t revealing details of the $1 billion deal, which as John Myers of the Los Angeles Times noted, “will cost taxpayers 30 percent more than the governor’s January budget allotted for infectious diseases for the whole fiscal year.”

The day after Newsom’s MSNBC appearance, San Francisco Democrat Phil Ting, chairman of the Assembly Budget Committee, told reporters, “We don’t have any information as to how many masks we’re buying, who we’re buying them from, at what price. What are we obligated? For how long are we obligated?” Los Angeles Democrat Holly Mitchell, chairwoman of the Senate Budget Committee, fired off an official letter demanding details. Newsom wasn’t talking, which prompted an escalation. “Perhaps it’s time for legislative leaders to dust off their rarely-used subpoena power,” the Sacramento Bee editorialized on April 22. The administration feared that “Trump might steal California’s equipment,” but that did not justify Newsom’s decision “to hide a taxpayer-funded contract from legislative leaders.” Neither did the obfuscation account for “other reasons why the administration may wish to shield the contract from oversight.” Journalists and legislators alike should have seen this coming.

In March, as CalMatters noted, legislators “made $500 million available immediately and allowed Newsom to spend up to $1 billion total,” and unanimously passed two bills “waiving a requirement that legislation must be in print for three days before lawmakers can act.” Legislators also suspended public hearings for at least a month and floor votes for at least a month. As Republican assemblyman Jay Obernolte explained, “We are placing an extraordinary degree of trust in Gov. Gavin Newsom.” The governor took full advantage, opting for BYD despite serious issues with the Chinese company. BYD has “glaring red flags on its record, including a history of supplying allegedly faulty products to the U.S., ties to the Chinese military and Communist Party, and possible links to forced labor,” reported Daniel Newhauser and Keegan Hamilton of Vice News. The federal Food and Drug Administration gave the company emergency approval, even though BYD had been prohibited by law from bidding for some federal contracts and is involved in lawsuits with several states.

Newsom was not forthcoming about the deal’s details but it did emerge that California already sent the first installment of $495 million to BYD. When reporters approached BYD, the Chinese company referred all questions to Newsom’s office. The governor’s deal with BYD was not the first time California politicians rejected American products and American labor in favor of China. “California Turns To China For New Bay Bridge,” noted Richard Gonzalez of NPR back in 2011. On this key infrastructure project, “California avoided legal requirements to use domestic steel by not using federal funds for the job.” Since politicians seldom if ever turn down federal funds, they must have been determined to outsource the job to “a state-owned Chinese company, Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries.” This was supposedly to save money, but it didn’t.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/04/gavin-newsom-masks-1-billion-ppe-deal-chinese-byd-lloyd-billingsley/

>>8915265

Thanks for the heads up

>>8915302

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