Judicial Watch: Deep State Pentagon Official Who Likely Leaked Flynn’s Calls with Russian Ambassador to Washington Post Exposed

Conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch released 143 pages of documents from the US Department of Defense, showing communications between the Pentagon’s Director of the Office of Net Assessment James Baker and Washington Post reporter David Ignatius.

Recall, General Flynn’s December 2016 phone calls with Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak were leaked to Washington Post reporter David Ignatius.

Flynn’s leaked calls were then published by WaPo on January 12, 2017 which led to Flynn being fired as National Security Advisor in February of 2017.

General Mike Flynn’s lawyers believe Pentagon official James H. Baker (not to be mistaken for FBI lawyer James A. Baker) illegally leaked Flynn’s transcripts to Ignatius.

Via Judicial Watch:

Judicial Watch released 143 pages of new records today from the U.S. Department of Defense, showing extensive communications between the Pentagon’s Director of the Office of Net Assessment James Baker and Washington Post reporter David Ignatius.

Lawyers for Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn alleged in a November 1, 2019, court filing that Baker “is believed to be the person who illegally leaked” to Ignatius the transcripts of Flynn’s December 29, 2016, telephone calls with Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak. The Washington Post published Ignatius’ account of the calls on January 12, 2017, setting in motion a chain of events that lead to Flynn’s February 13, 2017, firing as National Security Advisor and subsequent prosecution for making false statements to the FBI about the calls. U.S. Attorney John Durham is reportedly investigating the leak of information targeting Flynn.

In an email exchange on October 1, 2018, in a discussion about artificial intelligence, Baker tells Ignatius: “David, please, as always, our discussions are completely off the record. If any of my observations strike you as worthy of mixing or folding into your own thinking, that is as usual fine.” Ignatius replies, “Understood. Thanks for talking with me.”

Ignatius and Baker’s email exchanges per year are summarized below:

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/05/judicial-watch-deep-state-pentagon-official-likely-leaked-flynns-calls-russian-ambassador-washington-post-exposed/

Top engineer quits Amazon in protest over firings of Covid-19 whistleblower employees

Vice-president and top engineer at Amazon Web Services Tim Bray has resigned in protest over the firings of workers, mainly from minorities, who complained over conditions at the company’s warehouses during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“I quit in dismay at Amazon firing whistleblowers who were making noise about warehouse employees frightened of Covid-19,” Bray wrote in an open letter titled ‘Bye, Amazon’ which he posted on his personal blog. His last day at the company was May 1.

Bray admitted working with Amazon was the “best job” he ever had, and said he will likely be losing “over a million (pre-tax) dollars” by leaving his position, but he took issue with the company’s firings of employees who complained about safety conditions and fears in warehouses, which continue to operate during the current pandemic.

“The justifications [from the company] were laughable; it was clear to any reasonable observer that they were turfed for whistleblowing,” Bray wrote of the axed employees, noting that the firings seem focused on minority workers.

https://www.rt.com/usa/487734-amazon-vp-quits-coronavirus/

Bankrupt Cities And States Get The National Disaster They’ve Been Hoping For

The people running states like New Jersey and cities like Chicago know they’re broke. Ridiculously generous public employee pensions – concocted by elected officials and union leaders who had to have understood that they were writing checks their taxpayers couldn’t cover – are bleeding them dry, with no political solution in sight.

They also know that they have only two possible outs: bankruptcy, or some form of federal bailout. Since the former means a disgraceful end to local political careers while the latter requires some kind of massive crisis to push Washington into a place where a multi-trillion dollar state/city bailout is the least bad option, it’s safe to assume that mayors and governors – along with public sector union leaders – have been hoping for such a crisis to save their bacon.

And this year they got their wish. The country is on lockdown, unemployment is skyrocketing and mayors and governors now have a plausible way to rebrand their criminal mismanagement as a “natural disaster” deserving of outside help.

Here, for instance, is an estimate of how high unemployment will spike for various states. Note that overall it’s brutal, but the distribution isn’t what you might expect:

https://www.dollarcollapse.com/bankrupt-states-cities-disaster/

Pelosi Blocks Investigation of China and Origins of Wuhan Virus — Puts All Resources into Another Hoax Investigation of Donald Trump

Nancy Pelosi is not interested with finding the origins of the Wuhan virus that is decimating the US economy and has killed 60,000 elderly and sickly Americans.

Instead, Pelosi wants to spend her resources on another hoax investigation of President Donald Trump.

The woman is pure evil.

Via Breitbart.com.

Rep. Guy Reschenthaler (R-PA) told Breitbart News this weekend that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi would rather investigate President Donald Trump again than focus on the actual origins of the Chinese coronavirus and U.S. tax dollars that went to the Wuhan Institute of Virology from which intelligence officials increasingly believe the virus leaked.

Appearing on Breitbart News Saturday on SiriusXM 125 the Patriot Channel, Reschenthaler discussed his efforts to investigate tax dollars that flowed through a New York firm to the Wuhan lab. He said that Pelosi and House Democrats are not interested in holding the Chinese Communist Party accountable and, instead, want to focus their oversight efforts on politically harming President Trump again just like they tried and failed with the partisan impeachment last year and earlier this year.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/05/stunning-pelosi-blocks-investigation-china-origins-wuhan-virus-puts-resources-another-hoax-investigation-donald-trump/

NYT Publishes Grim CDC Projections Calling For Daily Coronavirus Deaths To Double By June

Update (1320ET): Unsurprisingly, the White House has rebutted the NYT report - which claimed that these projections represented 'current conditions on the ground, so to speak - saying it doesn't reflect current projections.

• • *

Less than 12 hours after we predicted the news media would lose its mind over President Trump's uttering a new "projected" death toll during a briefing with reporters Sunday evening. For the first time, Trump said he expects up to 100k deaths from the coronavirus outbreak, which is higher than figures he's quoted in the past.

There's no debate that the pace of deaths has slowed in the US in recent weeks.

Yet, as Florida allows some businesses to reopen (albeit with strictly limited capacity) on Monday, the NYT has published "internal projections" from the CDC calling for average daily US deaths to accelerate to 3,000 a day by June 1. However, most of the hardest hit states are seeing cases and deaths decline, while some states are seeing a slight acceleration. Overall US mortality has plateaued. According to the CDC's own coronavirus weekly summary, "nationally, levels of influenza-like illness (ILI) declined again this week. They have been below the national baseline for two weeks but remain elevated in the northeastern and northwestern part of the country. Levels of laboratory confirmed SARS-CoV-2 activity remained similar or decreased compared to last week."

The NYT reported that the White House continues to expect up to 3,000 deaths a day in June while Trump continues to 'press' for states to reopen.

The report also claimed the projections "confirm" public health experts "primary fear" that a premature reopening will instigate a rebound putting us right back where we were in March.

As President Trump presses for states to reopen their economies, his administration is privately projecting a steady rise in the number of cases and deaths from coronavirus over the next several weeks, reaching about 3,000 daily deaths on June 1, according to an internal document obtained by The New York Times, nearly double from the current level of about 1,750.

The projections, based on modeling by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and pulled together in chart form by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, forecast about 200,000 new cases each day by the end of the month, up from about 25,000 cases now.

The numbers underscore a sobering reality: While the United States has been hunkered down for the past seven weeks, not much has changed. And the reopening to the economy will make matters worse.

"There remains a large number of counties whose burden continues to grow,” the C.D.C. warned.

The projections confirm the primary fear of public health experts: that a reopening of the economy will put the nation right back where it was in mid-March, when cases were rising so rapidly in some parts of the country that patients were dying on gurneys in hospital hallways as the health care system grew overloaded.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/nyt-publishes-grim-cdc-projections-calling-explosion-coronavirus-deaths-3000day

BoJo’s close ally resigns in disgrace from UK govt after ‘intimidating’ member of public, ‘abusing’ parliamentary privilege

Tory UK Trade Minister Conor Burns has quit from the government after a Commons watchdog recommended he serve a seven-day suspension for abusing his parliamentary privilege in an attempt to intimidate a member of the public.

Burns – a close political ally and friend of British PM Boris Johnson – was found to have used House of Commons note paper to write to an individual who was in dispute with the Conservative MP’s father over the repayment of a loan. An investigation by the Commons Standards Commissioner, Kathryn Stone, revealed that Burns warned the individual that he could raise the personal matter in Parliament.

The Bournemouth West MP was appointed as trade policy minister by the prime minister in July last year, having served as Johnson’s parliamentary private secretary when he was foreign secretary.

Responding to Stone’s investigation, the Commons Committee on Standards said the MP had “used his parliamentary position in an attempt to intimidate a member of the public into doing as Mr Burns wished, in a dispute relating to purely private family interests which had no connection with Mr Burns’ parliamentary duties.”

The disgraced politician has since taken to social media, insisting that it was “with deep regret” that he had decided to quit Johnson’s cabinet, but notably gave no apologies.

A Number 10 spokesman confirmed the resignation and said that Burns’ replacement would be “announced in due course.”

The embarrassing incident comes as Johnson attempts to formulate a plan for easing the strict lockdown rules amid the Covid-19 crisis. Stay-at-home orders imposed by the PM on March 23 are up for review on Thursday, with the UK currently one of the worst hit countries in the coronavirus pandemic.

https://www.rt.com/uk/487708-bojo-ally-resigns-intimidate-public/

American Power Grid 'Vulnerable' To Chinese Cyberattacks, Navarro Warns

A Reuters report claiming Beijing is already preparing for the prospect of "an armed conflict" with the US has seemingly driven the deteriorating relations between Washington and Beijing back into the limelight (at least as far as the market is concerned).

But for conservatives, who have been looking at China with a wary eye since the outbreak began, this latest 'escalation' is hardly a surprise. And when it comes to rebutting China's aggression to an audience of mostly Trump supporters, nobody in the West Wing is as practiced as Pete Navarro. Which is probably why he was called to deliver a warning about the newest "threat" from China, a threat that could potentially be even more crippling to the US economy than the virus.

That threat? The vulnerability of the US power grid.

"I think that what's important for the American people to understand very clearly is that "China lied, people died". China spawned the virus and they hid the virus for 6 weeks, which allowed the virus to escape Wuhan and infect the rest of the world. And they spent that time going around the world, vacuuming up masks."

Navarro explained how President Trump's latest executive order protects America's power grid by forcing the federal government to buy and use components made only in the US (the federal government administers roughly 20% of the US power grid). Under current rules, companies subject to the influence of foreign adversaries are still allowed to compete for government contracts to supply these components, Navarro argued in a Fox op-ed published shortly before his appearance.

Right now, Navarro said his primary responsibility in the administration is overseeing the reorientation of American supply chains away from China (though this will ultimately be decided by individual corporations, the White House can certainly take steps to sway their decisions, not that the crisis hasn't been instructive enough on its own). He argued that this latest EO, along with another EO that will require federal agencies to use all-American components for medicines, are the first steps of the "decoupling" of the US economy away from China's - something that, polls show, Americans mostly support.

Without these orders, Navarro said, China poses a direct threat to the US power grid so long as components made in China and other foreign markets are used.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/american-power-grid-vulnerable-chinese-cyberattacks-navarro-warns

German politician calls for US to withdraw nukes from Germany

Rolf Mützenich, the Acting Chairman of the Social Democratic Party’s (SPD) parliamentary bloc, called on the US to withdraw its nuclear weapons from Germany on Saturday.

The stationing of American nuclear weapons on German territory — which have been in the country continuously since the early years of the Cold War — has long been a contentious issue for Germans. Germany has no nuclear weapons of its own, but the presence of US weapons on its soil makes it a potential target for America’s nuclear-armed adversaries, such as Russia, China, or North Korea.

Mützenich made the comments in the Tagesspiegel newspaper. He said that “atomic weapons on German territory do not heighten our security, on the contrary,” according to a report by Deutsche Welle. “It is time that Germany ruled out their deployment in the future.”

He justified his statement by pointing to the more confrontational approach taken by the Trump administration against America’s adversaries, claiming that this means there is an increased risk of nuclear war in the world today.

Mützenich stressed that ordering the removal of the weapons would not mean that Germany would withdraw from NATO.

Although he didn’t mention it is a rationale, Mützenich’s remarks come after Germany’s Minister of Defence, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, called for Germany to acquire American F-18 fighter aircraft. F-18s are capable of carrying nuclear weapons.

The SPD, the second-largest party in the country, is presently in a coalition with Germany’s ruling Christian Democratic Union (CDU), but representatives of the CDU and the Free Democrats (FDP) moved to distance themselves from Mützenich’s remarks.

“The demand from SPD parliamentary leader Mützenich is the wrong signal at the wrong time,” FDP spokeswoman Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann said, saying that Germany would cease to have an influence on NATO nuclear strategy if the American weapons were taken out.

Norbert Röttgen, the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee from the CDU, likewise criticized the move, saying that “the SPD has fallen back mentally and in terms of foreign policy into the 1950s.”

“Trump serves as an excuse for his own isolationist ideology,” he added, according to a report by Junge Freiheit.

Tensions between NATO and the rest of the world remain high, especially with Russia. The Russian military recently stationed a new missile system in Kaliningrad which is believed to be capable of overwhelming NATO’s missile defence systems in Lithuania and Poland, as previously reported by Voice of Europe.

https://voiceofeurope.com/2020/05/german-politician-calls-for-us-to-withdraw-nukes-from-germany/

USC, Emory Creating Coronavirus Surveillance System Similar to China’s Social Credit Scoring

China launched its notorious social credit system last year to watch over its own citizens and mete out punishment based on personal behavior and loyalty to the Communist Party.

Now three prominent U.S. universities are using taxpayer money to create a similar type of surveillance network designed to monitor Americans and assign them scores based on their exposure to the Wuhan coronavirus.

Tech news outlet dot.LA recently reported that researchers at the University of Southern California, Emory University, and the University of Texas Health Science Center have received a federal grant to create a mobile app for contact tracing the novel coronavirus. The system will track a person’s real-time location and symptoms, and calculate a personal COVID-19 risk score.

USC’s Cyrus Shahabi, chair of the computer science department, told dot.LA that the universities hope to have a working mobile app by August, in time for the start of the fall semester. He said policymakers could use the system to warn the public to avoid hotspots of infection.

In other instances, people who have been assigned high personal risk scores might decide to stay home or get tested for COVID-19.

But the project, whose federal grant money comes from the National Science Foundation, has already raised red flags in terms of privacy and the potential for Big Brother-style abuse.

There needs to be “a careful balance or privacy protection with public health benefits,” Bennett Cyphers, a staff technologist with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit digital rights advocacy group, told dot.LA. “When you introduce ‘scoring’ that takes other factors into account, it complicates everything, and increases the risk that users will be misinformed or discriminated against due to factors beyond their control.”

The assigning of personal scores could also cause problems if an employer requires workers reveal them as a condition of receiving a benefit, entering a building, or returning to their office, Cyphers said.

China’s social credit system has blacklisted more than 13 million citizens as “untrustworthy,” according to a recent report from the state-run Global Times. The report did not say what these individuals did to land on the list, but the regime has revealed the system assigns a numerical score to every Chinese citizen based on how much the Communist Party approves of his or her behavior.

The system has also blocked 23 million Chinese citizens from traveling by train or plane.

Beijing announced the system in 2015 and launched it last year. The system essentially spies on citizens in virtually every aspect of daily life, both online and physically through facial recognition cameras.

Apple and Google announced this year that they are working on a separate Bluetooth application that will provide contact tracing of the coronavirus using smartphone location data.

https://www.breitbart.com/asia/2020/05/04/usc-emory-creating-coronavirus-surveillance-system-similar-to-chinas-social-credit-scoring/

Secretary of the Senate Refuses Biden’s Request to Release Tara Reade Records

The secretary of the United States Senate on Monday turned down a request by Joe Biden to search through records in its possession in hopes of locating a sexual harassment complaint by Tara Reade, a onetime congressional staffer for the former vice president who is now accusing him of sexual assault.

In a statement announcing its decision, the secretary’s office pointed to both federal law and Senate rules prohibiting the release of personnel and employment records in order to ensure the privacy of all those involved.

“Senate Legal Counsel advises that the Secretary has no discretion to disclose any such information as requested,” the statement reads.

The response comes after the former vice president sent the secretary a letter on Friday for a search and release of any sexual harassment complaint Reade may have filed with the Senate’s Office of Fair Employment Practices in the early 1990s while working on his congressional staff.

Reade, who worked for Biden’s congressional office between 1992 and 1993, had initially come forward last April to accuse the former vice president of unwanted touching. At the time, she told a local California news outlet that she had filed a complaint noting the misconduct with the Senate’s personnel office when it purportedly occurred. In March of this year, however, she claimed there was more to the story, asserting that Biden had pushed her up against a wall, forcibly kissed her, and digitally penetrated her sometime in 1993.

The new accusation has been difficult to corroborate given that nearly 30 years have passed since the supposed incident took place. As such, Reade has sought to make public the sexual harassment complaint she allegedly filed in 1993, especially as former Biden staffers claim no such document exists. Reade, for her part, has contended that not only does the complaint exist, but it is likely within the thousands of Senate documents the former vice president donated to the University of Delaware in 2011.

On Friday, in a lengthy statement released ahead of an appearance on MSNBC, the former vice president insisted his Senate papers do not hold such records. Biden initially claimed the National Archives and Records Administration was the logical place for such a complaint to reside if did exist, a claim that was refuted by agency.

“Any records of Senate personnel complaints from 1993 would have remained under the control of the Senate,” a representative from the National Archives told Breitbart News on Friday.

With the secretary of the Senate making its announcement on Monday, however, now it is likely the complaint, if it does exist, can only be made public through a congressional action.

The secretary’s office did not return requests for comment before press time.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/05/04/secretary-of-the-senate-refuses-bidens-request-to-release-tara-reade-records/

Kansas City Now Allows Religious Gatherings, But Requires 'Records of All Attendees'

Churches in Kansas City, Missouri, that reopen for in-person services are required to make a list of everyone who attends, according to new city rules that were denounced by Mat Staver,

founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel.

“In-person religious gatherings (including weddings and funerals) may resume, subject to the 10/10/10 rule (if held inside) or limited to 50 people outside, provided social distancing precautions are followed and event organizers maintain records of all attendees, according to the city’s website.

The site then explains the rule.

“The 10/10/10 rule specifies that these businesses must limit the number of individuals on-site (inclusive of employees and customers) to no more than 10 percent of building occupancy or 10 people (whichever is larger), and record the names, contact information, and approximate entry/exit time of all customers who are on premises for more than 10 minutes,” the site stated.

The site further addresses the issue of taking attendance.

“One of the primary means for transmission of COVID-19 is in-person interactions that last more than a few minutes. By recording customer names, businesses will enable the Kansas City Health Department to more quickly trace, test, and isolate individuals who may have been exposed to COVID-19 if an employee or customer had the virus at the time they frequented the business. All data obtained by the Department of Public Health will remain confidential and will be used only to address public health concerns and contact individuals who may have been exposed to COVID-19,” the site stated.

The site stated any group breaking the rules will be punished.

“Violations of any provision of this Order constitutes an imminent threat, creates an immediate menace to public health, and shall be considered a violation of Section 50-155 of the City’s Code of Ordinances,” it said.

Staver, a religious rights advocate, erupted at the new rules in a post on Liberty Counsel’s website.

“I am running out of adjectives to describe how completely insane the tyrannical abuses launched by state governors and local officials against pastors and churches are becoming. It is as if these leaders never bothered to so much as glance at the Constitution they swore to uphold and defend. They seem to be governing from some make-believe, dystopian viewpoint,” he wrote.

“The Germans did this very thing to Jews – collecting the names and locations of all known synagogue attendees – in the early days of the Nazi regime,” he wrote.

http://www.yourdestinationnow.com/2020/05/kansas-city-now-allows-religious.html

Italy reports lowest coronavirus daily death toll since lockdown began March

Italy reported its lowest daily coronavirus death toll on Sunday since the country went into lockdown on March 10 after recording 174 new deaths, the Civil Protection Agency said.

The country had recorded 474 fatalities the day prior and also saw a decline in new cases from 1,900 to 1,389.

Italy has reported 28,884 deaths since the pandemic began, second only to the United States’ total.

The Italian government is preparing to start easing its lockdown restrictions after eight weeks, encouraged by the downward trend.

Manufacturing and construction projects will resume on May 4 with shops following on May 14. Bars and restaurants and other similar, nonessential businesses will not reopen until at least June 1. The country will keep broad social distancing measures in effect indefinitely.

http://www.mr-mehra.com/2020/05/italy-reports-lowest-coronavirus-daily.html

BIDEN: Chris Dodd, VP Search Chief, Linked To Sexual Assault — Weinstein — China

Meet the team who will help Joe Biden pick his vice presidential running mate

Biden’s vice presidential selection committee, announced Thursday morning, will include four co-chairs: Former U.S. Sen. Christopher Dodd; U.S. Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester; Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti; and Cynthia Hogan, former White House and Senate counsel to Biden.

www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/04/30/joe-biden-vice-presidential-selection-committee-announced/5156761002/

Ted Kennedy on the Rocks

It is after midnight and Kennedy and Dodd are just finishing up a long dinner in a private room on the first floor of the restaurant’s annex. They are drunk. Their dates, two very young blondes, leave the table to go to the bathroom. (The dates are drunk too. “They’d always get their girls very, very drunk,” says a former Brasserie waitress.) Betty Loh, who served the foursome, also leaves the room. Raymond Campet, the co-owner of La Brasserie, tells Gaviglio the senators want to see her.

As Gaviglio enters the room, the six-foot-two, 225-plus-pound Kennedy grabs the five-foot-three, 103-pound waitress and throws her on the table. She lands on her back, scattering crystal, plates and cutlery and the lit candles. Several glasses and a crystal candlestick are broken. Kennedy then picks her up from the table and throws her on Dodd, who is sprawled in a chair. With Gaviglio on Dodd’s lap, Kennedy jumps on top and begins rubbing his genital area against hers, supporting his weight on the arms of the chair. As he is doing this, Loh enters the room. She and Gaviglio both scream, drawing one or two dishwashers. Startled, Kennedy leaps up. He laughs. Bruised, shaken and angry over what she considered a sexual assault, Gaviglio runs from the room. Kennedy, Dodd and their dates leave shortly thereafter, following a friendly argument between the senators over the check.

www.gq.com/story/kennedy-ted-senator-profile

Harvey Weinstein has donated over $1 million to Democrats since 2000 – here are some of the biggest names

Based on Federal Election Commission records, listed Dodd as the second largest recipient of Weinstein money at $36,000, behind Barack Obama, since 2000.

www.businessinsider.com/harvey-weinstein-political-donations-2017-10

https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/biden-chris-dodd-vp-search-chief-linked-to-sexual-assault-weinstein-china/

CALIFORNIA: 33 People Arrested During Sacramento Freedom Rally

‘Freedom’ protest against coronavirus orders leads to arrests at California Capitol

The demonstration was unauthorized and not permitted by the California Highway Patrol, but CHP officers did not disperse protesters until late in the afternoon when tense moments led to a handful of arrests.

A woman who identified herself only as Michelle expressed outrage as multiple California Highway Patrol officers secured her wrists with plastic ties.

“We were peacefully assembling and I am getting arrested,” she fumed as her 14-year-old daughter stood by, separated from other family members. The young girl fled past the line of officers in tactical gear with batons out, into a press of protesters, searching for her sister.

news.yahoo.com/rowdy-crowd-protests-coronavirus-lockdowns-215541105.html

Shawnasaurus Rex

@ShawnG927

Police in full riot gear outside the state house in Sacramento, California! Governor Gavin Newsom can’t be happy with this crowd!

https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/california-33-people-arrested-during-sacramento-freedom-rally/

Hello masons 33

Roger Stone: Bill Gates may have created coronavirus to microchip people

Roger Stone suggested Monday that Bill Gates may have had a hand in the creation of coronavirus so that he could plant microchips in people’s heads to know who has and has not been tested for COVID-19.

“Whether Bill Gates played some role in the creation and spread of this virus is open for vigorous debate. I have conservative friends who say it’s ridiculous and others say absolutely,” Stone told Joe Piscopo, host of the radio program “The Answer” on 970 AM, who had asked about conspiracy theories regarding the pandemic.

“He and other globalists are using it for mandatory vaccinations and microchipping people so we know if they’ve been tested. Over my dead body. Mandatory vaccinations? No way, Jose!” Stone told a fawning Piscopo, who referred to President Trump’s longtime adviser as “a legend.”

Gates has long been an outspoken advocate for preparing for a global health crisis like coronavirus.

https://nypost.com/2020/04/13/roger-stone-bill-gates-may-have-created-coronavirus-to-microchip-people/

CV-1984: The Accelerated Rise Of Automated Robots

CV-1984 is accelerating the spread of Orwellian surveillance devices like talking drones, facial recognition cameras, and more; but that’s not the only technology that is advancing – robots or automated machines are also speeding up their deployment to combat the spread of the coronavirus.

This reporter and Activist Post has consistently stated that robots were coming for our jobs; and now while record numbers of unemployment are hitting here in the U.S., automated machines are being rolled out as well to replace even more workers.

ZeroHedge reports:

Bloomberg Law reports JBS SA, the world’s largest meat producer, is preparing to install robots in slaughterhouses to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 among human employees working on the production line.

JBS SA CFO Guilherme Cavalcanti recently said the Brazilian processing company expects to expand automation at its facilities across the world.

Cavalcanti said the adoption of automation started before the pandemic as labor tightened at US plants due to a decline in immigration sparked by the Trump administration. He said labor shortages have developed in the US as the virus infects workers and shutters plants.”

Here’s a video of those meat packaging machines in action.

https://youtu.be/YpE2oB-g0QI

It’s not just meat packaging that could be threatened by robots; grocers themselves are also in danger of being replaced by machines. CNN reports that grocers – big and small chains alike – are turning to robots for performing various tasks like cleaning floors, stocking shelves and delivering groceries to shoppers. The covid crisis could even prompt online retail warehouses like Amazon to invest more into automation technology as well.

The New York Times reported that the outbreak is boosting demand for Zhen Robotics and its RoboPony, a self-driving cart that is sold to retailers, hospitals, malls and apartment complexes.

https://www.activistpost.com/2020/05/cv-1984-the-accelerated-rise-of-automated-robots.html

US, Taliban Spar Over Afghan Peace Process on Twitter

Taliban spokesman warns of 'pointless and provocative statements'

The US-Taliban peace deal in Afghanistan is still holding, but both sides have some cause to complain at how it is progressing, with US military officials complaining the Taliban aren’t cutting violence enough, and the Taliban focusing on the US not coming through with promised prisoner releases.

US officials took to Twitter to threaten “response” to Taliban attacks, while the Taliban warned of “pointless and provocative statements,” saying if the US wants to help the deal they should honor their own obligations.

All of this centers on the 5,000 Taliban prisoners promised to be released. The Afghan government holds them, and the Taliban says they’ve seen no indication that the US is pushing them to follow through on the releases.

With no US pressure, the Ghani government just didn’t release prisoners for months, the Taliban resumed attacks on government forces because of this, and now the US is threatening the Taliban for doing so. Getting prisoner releases up to speed solves more or less all of this, but until the government catches up with expectations, it will strain the peace deal.

https://news.antiwar.com/2020/05/03/us-taliban-spar-over-afghan-peace-process-on-twitter/

Federal Judge Cites “National Security” as Reason to Throw out Lawsuit over NSA Spying

People often say we shouldn’t worry about federal surveillance because the federal courts will protect our rights and ensure agencies like the NSA and FBI operate within the confines of the Fourth Amendment. A recent opinion handed down by a federal judge reveals why this is a foolish strategy.

The case dates all the way back to 2008 and has been kicked back and forth between federal courts for more than a decade.

In a decision handed down on April 25, U.S. District Judge Jeffery White declared that the feds can use its “state secret” privilege to block litigation relating to mass surveillance. As reported by Courthouse News, the Justice Department argued that “revealing whether classified evidence it gave the court proves that the government collected five named plaintiffs’ internet and phone data would in and of itself threaten national security.”

Therefore the case cannot proceed.

In other words, the federal government gave the court evidence and then argued that the court couldn’t use that evidence to determine whether the NSA’s spy-program was legal because it would “jeopardize national security.”

And the government judge affirmed this argument.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation represents the plaintiffs and called the case a “Catch-22.”

No one can sue unless the court first determines that they were certainly touched by the vast surveillance mechanisms of the NSA. But, the government argued successfully, the court cannot decide whether any particular person’s email, web searches, social media or phone calls were touched by the surveillance unless the government admits it. Which, of course, it will not do.

The EFF vowed to appeal the decision.

The American people deserve to know whether mass surveillance is legal and constitutional,” EFF Executive Director Cindy Cohen said in a statement. “Instead of proceeding to the legal merits of the government’s programs, the court deferred to the government’s state secrecy arguments. We look forward to seeking review in the Ninth Circuit.

In determining that the suit could not continue, the judge also rejected public evidence submitted by the plaintiffs to show the feds illegally spied on the defendants. This included a 2003 document from a former AT&T technician detailing how the company routed internet traffic through a secret room controlled by the NSA. The judge said the employee could only “speculate” about what went on in that room.

“The underlying premise that AT&T worked in the capacity of an agent for defendants is without factual or substantive evidentiary support,” White wrote.

White also refused to consider a letter the government disclosed by mistake that revealed several big telecom companies including AT&T, Verizon and Sprint gave the NSA access to phone records. The judge held that since the government accidentally disclosed the document and disputes its authenticity, it did not meet evidentiary standards.

And according to Courthouse News:

White also declined to rely on a 2009 NSA inspector general’s draft report describing another mass-surveillance program. Although former NSA contractor and fugitive Edward Snowden vouched for its legitimacy in a sworn declaration, White refused to consider it because the government would not authenticate it.

In summation, the federal government investigated the federal government and determined there was no way for the federal government to determine if the federal government did anything wrong without jeopardizing the federal government’s federally protected secrets.

https://www.activistpost.com/2020/05/federal-judge-cites-national-security-as-reason-to-throw-out-lawsuit-over-nsa-spying.html

Yemeni Govt, Southern Separatists Sign Deal to Stop Fighting on Socotra

Forces had been fighting over capital of key southern island

Fighting last week over the provincial capital city of Hadibo on Yemen’s island of Socotra came to a halt this weekend, with both sides agreeing to a deal to stop pushing into the area. Military vehicles and heavy weapons are to leave the area.

Yemen’s Saudi-backed government was in control of Hadibo, and it was being attacked by the Southern Transitional Council (STC), a UAE-backed separatist movement which has declared itself operationally independent.

Socotra is considered a very valuable strategic location in South Yemen, with the UAE openly interested in establishing a substantial base there going forward, and the STC having control of the island would ensure they could count on continued support.

Socotra mostly has not been contested during the Yemen War, though the UAE did invade it at one point. The island historically is tied to South Yemen, and some local island groups are said to have been aligned with the STC for months.

https://news.antiwar.com/2020/05/03/yemeni-govt-southern-separatists-sign-deal-to-stop-fighting-on-socotra/