Virginia City That Voted Obama Twice Throw Democrats Out Of Office

Three Democratic members of the Staunton, Virginia, city council were ousted by Republicans on Tuesday despite receiving more votes than they did four years ago.

Republican candidates Mark Robertson, Amy Darby, and Steve Claffey all joined incumbent Andrea Oakes in a four-seat GOP sweep, WHSV reported. The three incoming council members replaced Democratic incumbents Erik Curren, Ophie Kier, and James Harrington all almost doubled their vote totals from 2016, yet still lost.

Local outlet Augusta Free Press reporter Chris Graham called the results “stunning almost beyond words.”

“Democrats got their voters out better than they have in a May cycle in years,” Graham wrote. “Republicans got turnout more akin to, not quite a presidential year, but approaching gubernatorial.”

Graham cited gun control legislation in the state as well as COVID-19 lockdowns as key turnout drivers for Republicans in the city.

https://dailycaller.com/2020/05/20/staunton-virginia-city-council-election-democrats/

Kayleigh McEnany Responds to Left-Wing Reporters Opining on Dangers of Hydroxychloroquine with FIRE

White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Wednesday shredded left-wing reporters opining on the dangers of taking hydroxychloroquine.

During his press conference with restaurant owners on Monday, President Trump announced he was taking the life-saving drug Hydroxychloroquine as a prophylaxis against the Wuhan Coronavirus.

President Trump admitted he has been taking Hydroxychloroquine for “a couple weeks.”

As expected, the Democrat-media complex went crazy in response to Trump taking the anti-malaria drug that has been safely prescribed to people since the 1950s.

The snakes in the White House press pool tried their best to throw ‘gotcha questions’ at Kayleigh McEnany regarding the so-called dangers of taking hydroxychloroquine.

McEnany wasn’t having it and not only shredded the reporters, but went after the Cuomo brothers!

The White House Press Sec blasted CNN anchor Chris Cuomo for taking a less safe version of Hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/05/kayleigh-mcenany-responds-left-wing-reporters-opining-dangers-hydroxychloroquine-fire-video/

"Trust Is Being Undermined" - Harvard Medical School Prof Questions Fauci's "Shading" Vaccine Results

At a moment in time when narrative-following "scientists" are lauded like unquestionably omniscient supreme beings enabling dumb-as-a-rock-partisan-politicians to play omnipotent overlords without fear of blowback, the world needs more people like William Haseltine.

The last two weeks have seen markets and politicians jump exuberantly at the hope of every press release from a biotech firm that proclaims one of their pet rabbits didn't die when they fed it their latest DNA-reshaping test material (oh that is except if anyone dares say anything positive about hydroxychloroquine but that is a topic for another discussion).

Barstool Sports' Dave Portnoy said it right - when did we shift from "flatten the curve, flatten the curve, flatten the curve" to "we have to fund a cure or everyone's going to die."

And that is where we find ourselves. Every talking head proclaiming the same malarkey - we will re-open carefully, with PPE, and social distancing, and whetever else is mandated from on-high "until we find a vaccine in 12-18 months" at which point the world will be made whole again and Kumbaya…

All of which brings us back to the man of the day in our humble opinion.

Former Harvard Medical School professor and founder of the university's cancer and HIV/AIDS research departments, William Haseltine dared to speak out today about the high level of bullshit and damage that is being done to "trust" in "scientists" and even dared to break the one holy writ that shall go un-mentioned, throwing some shade a Dr.Fauci.

Reflecting on Moderna's press release this week (which was immediately followed by massive equity raises across numerous biotech firms and upgrades from the underwriters, surprise), Haseltine said:

"If a CFO had tried to get away with such an opaque and data-less statement it would have bee treated with derision and possibly an investigation."

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/trust-being-undermined-harvard-medical-school-prof-questions-faucis-shading-vaccine-results

Nada For Nadler: Supreme Court Blocks House Democrats From Receiving Mueller Grand Jury Material

The US Supreme Court on Wednesday handed the Trump administration a win - blocking a request by the House Judiciary Committee for grand jury material gathered by Robert Mueller's special counsel investigation. The court issued a stay while an appeal over the records plays out.

That said, the court put the case on a fast track, giving the Trump administration until June 1 to file its appeal, which Bloomberg infers to mean that the court will likely announce before the end of June or July whether it will hear arguments late this year.

Earlier this year, DOJ officials were ordered by two lower courts to hand over redacted portions of Mueller's 448-page report at the request of the House committee chaired by Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) - who argued that they 'urgently' needed to see redacted materials.

The administration says a federal trial judge lacked power to unseal the information. Grand jury materials are normally sealed, but federal rules let a judge authorize disclosure for “judicial proceedings.” The key legal question is whether that includes House impeachment inquiries.

A federal appeals court ruled that impeachment proceedings qualified, saying courts had let lawmakers see grand jury materials during the impeachment inquiries of Presidents Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton. U.S. Solicitor GeneralNoel Francisco asked the Supreme Court to put that ruling on hold.

“The government will suffer irreparable harm absent a stay,” Francisco argued. “Once the government discloses the secret grand-jury records, their secrecy will irrevocably be lost.”

House General Counsel Douglas Letter countered that lawmakers had already waited more than a year for the information. -Bloomberg

"The committee and the public continue to suffer grave and irreparable injury each additional day the district court’s order is prevented from going into effect," wrote the House General Counsel, adding "The committee is being deprived of the information it needs to exercise its weighty constitutional responsibility."

The records were originally sought as part of the impeachment inquiry last year, before Democrats hit a dead end and impeached Trump over his communications with the Ukrainian president regarding an investigation of former Vice President Joe Biden. The impeachment effort was stopped in the GOP-controlled Senate.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/nada-nadler-supreme-court-blocks-house-democrats-receiving-mueller-grand-jury-material

JPM's Kolanovic Finds Coronavirus Lockdowns "May Have Caused More Deaths" Than Covid-19 Itself"

A certain subset of financial commentators who despise Trump and his policies yet are fervent adherents of Marko Kolanovic will have a real "cognitive dissonance" trying to rationalize and comment on the JPM quant's latest observations on the coronavirus pandemic, in which he finds that "data favors further reopening" in line with what the administration is currently promoting.

Writing that "while the epidemic and markets largely followed our forecasts, politics emerged as a new and significant risk. Despite the conditions for re-opening being mostly met across the US" Kolanovic observes that this is "not yet happening in the largest economic regions (e.g. CA, NY, etc.)" Instead, while "the virus risk is abating globally, political/geopolitical fallout is emerging as a new risk. For example, just today the US senate passed a bill to bar Chinese companies from being listed on US exchanges."

Mocking "flawed scientific papers [which] predicted several million virus deaths in the west", an outcome which clearly has not happened (with the authors of said papers claiming that this is a result of the measures taken in response to their original forecasts), Kolanovic writes that "in the absence of conclusive data, these lockdowns were justified initially. Nonetheless, many of these efforts were inefficient or late" meanwhile more "recent studies indicate that full lockdown policies in some European countries did not produce any change pandemic parameters (such as growth rates R0) and hence might not have yielded additional benefits vs. less restrictive social distancing measures" where the case study of Sweden is most prominent.

Kolanovic elaborates on this point as follows:

Figure 2 below show virus spread rates before and after lockdown for different countries around the world, and Figure 1 shows the spread for US states that have re-opened. In particular, regression shows that infection rates declined, not increased, after lockdowns ended (for US states we show most recent R0 vs R0 on the day of lockdown end, and for countries we show infection rates). For example, the data in Figure 2 shows a decrease in infection rates after countries eased national lockdowns with >99% statistical significance. Indeed, virtually everywhere, infection rates have declined after reopening even after allowing for an appropriate measurement lag. This means that the pandemic and COVID-19 likely have its own dynamics unrelated to often inconsistent lockdown measures that were being implemented.

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/jpms-kolanovic-finds-coronavirus-lockdowns-may-have-caused-more-deaths-covid-19-itself

Which Side of the “Vaccine Information War” Are You On?

The NY Times launches the first shot in the Vaccine Information War. Do you support individual liberty or collective force?

In a recently published opinion piece, The New York Times all but declared war against Americans who question the safety of vaccines. Of course, the war being waged is – for the moment – a war of words, an Information War.

This skeptical and vocal group – collectively and pejoratively known as anti-vaxxers – have successfully built a movement of parents, activists, doctors, and journalists who question the safety of vaccines; the schedule and frequency of immunizations; the legality and morality of forced vaccinations; and the influence of Big Pharma on vaccine safety studies.

Yet, according to the NY Times, Americans who question vaccines, or those who simply support freedom of choice and bodily autonomy, are a part of the roadblock to public acceptance of a coming COVID-19 vaccine and they must be stopped. The Times’ piece, Get Ready for a Vaccine Information War, outlines how “social media is already filling up with misinformation about a Covid-19 vaccine, months or years before one even exists.” The writer goes on to outline his worst fear – “What if we get a Covid-19 vaccine and half the country refuses to take it?”

He continues:

It occurred to me that all the misinformation we’ve seen so far — the false rumors that 5G cellphone towers fuel the coronavirus, that drinking bleach or injecting UV rays can cure it, that Dr. Anthony Fauci is part of an anti-Trump conspiracy — may be just the warm-up act for a much bigger information war when an effective vaccine becomes available to the public. This war could pit public health officials and politicians against an anti-vaccination movement that floods social media with misinformation, conspiracy theories and propaganda aimed at convincing people that the vaccine is a menace rather than a lifesaving, economy-rescuing miracle.

Scariest of all? It could actually work.

The writer goes on to express his fear there are several reasons the “anti-vaxxers” might succeed in their efforts to “sow doubt” about a COVID-19 vaccine.

https://www.naturalblaze.com/2020/05/which-side-of-the-vaccine-information-war-are-you-on.html

In Latest Escalation, President Trump Blames China For "Mass Worldwide Killing"

A day after the WHA approved a resolution authorizing a WHO-led investigation to the origins of the coronavirus in China, President Trump just lashed out at China's state-approved conspiracy-peddlers who are desperately trying to convince the Chinese people that the virus didn't come from China - but actually originated in the US.

The rhetorical tit-for-tat between the US and China has intensified in recent days, as the White House lambasted President Xi's promise to share a vaccine "with the world" and pump $2 billion into the WHO's effort to help the poorest countries as a "token" gesture to try and obviate China's obvious culpability.

Trump and many members of his administration have bashed the WHO for uncritically accepting information provided by the CCP - despite having an office on the ground in Beijing - and writing glowing reports praising China's early response while the government knowingly withheld information that could have inspired a more stringent response.

Instead, the organization hemmed and hawed, playing down the virus's destructive potential, and celebrating China's response as "a model" for other developing nations.

Twitter blue checks immediately pounced on the comment, reminding the world of the Trump Administration's "failings".

Though the administration probably wishes it rolled out testing more quickly, most new information - including diagnoses of possible COVID-19 deaths and cases weeks or months earlier than previously believed - suggests that the reluctance of officials in Beijing and Wuhan to pounce on the virus was the initial "pandora's box" moment, and that the virus was likely already spreading in the US in early January, before China had informed the world of evidence of human-to-human transmission.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/latest-escalation-president-trump-blames-china-mass-worldwide-killing

Stocks, Yuan Tick Lower As Senate Passes Bill That Could Force De-Listing Of Chinese Companies

Update (1240ET): As the Senate vote gets a broader airing on newswires, Chinese tech stocks - including Alibaba, Baidu & JD.com - are taking a beating.

Until very recently, analysts have mostly been in the lookout for signs that the administration was following through on threats to restrict portfolio investment flows into Chinese assets. But this bill - which now passes to the House - would almost be more extreme, if it had passed.

• • *

The CCP's leaders including President Xi are probably dedicating massive intelligence resources to try and discern how much of the White House's belligerent rhetoric toward China is just that - talk - and how much represents serious plans for action.

Well, after President Trump raised the prospect of de-listing Chinese companies from US exchanges last week (around the time that Carson Block unveiled his latest bet against a "fraudulent" Chinese Co. trading in the US) - which prompted Beijing to threaten to move its IPOs to London, the Senate on Wednesday voted on a new bill that would intensify scrutiny of the

SENATE PASSES BILL AIMED AT BOOSTING OVERSIGHT OF CHINESE COS.

SENATE PASSES BILL AIMED AT BOOSTING OVERSIGHT OF CHINESE COS, BILL COULD REQUIRE CHINESE COS. TO DELIST FROM U.S. EXCHANGES, AND ALSO BILL WOULD REQUIRE COS. TO CERTIFY NO FOREIGN GOVT. CONTROL

BILL WOULD REQUIRE COS. TO CERTIFY NO FOREIGN GOVT. CONTROL

The bill comes as Washington moves to cut off Chinese telecoms giant Huawei from using US-made parts and technology. Stocks and the yuan both declined slightly on the news…

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/stocks-yuan-tick-lower-senate-passes-bill-could-force-de-listing-chinese-companies

>>9256120

baker is a clown so won't make notes