CHOP GETS THE CHOP! Seattle Mayor Sends In Police to Retake East Precinct in the CHOP Zone
Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan ordered Seattle police to retake the East Precinct in the infamous CHOP Zone tonight.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/06/breaking-seattle-mayor-sends-police-retake-east-precinct-chop/
Macron accuses Turkey of playing ‘dangerous game’ in Libya, calls its standoff with French ship example of NATO ‘brain death’
French President Emmanuel Macron has denounced Ankara’s ‘dangerous game’ of meddling in Libya and said the illegal targeting of a French frigate by a Turkish ship proved correct his comments about ‘brain death’ of NATO.
“Turkey is playing a dangerous game in Libya and is violating all of its commitments made at the Berlin conference,” Macron said on Monday, referring to the January meeting co-sponsored by Ankara and Moscow.
Describing the situation in Libya as “intolerable,” Macron called for “an end to foreign interference and the unilateral acts of those who wish to gain new positions by favoring war.”
The French president’s comments came after his meeting with Tunisian President Kais Saied in Paris, which presumably touched on the ongoing situation in Libya, among other topics.
Over the past two weeks, Paris has accused Ankara of violating the international arms embargo against Libya. Turkey has funneled troops and equipment into the North African country to prop up the internationally recognized government in Tripoli, which is fighting a civil war against the Libyan National Army – a rival government in the east. Ankara has accused Paris of backing the LNA, led by General Khalifa Haftar.
"In Libya, we are supporting the legitimate government and the French government is supporting an illegitimate warlord and jeopardizing NATO security, Mediterranean security, North African security, and Libya's political stability," Ibrahim Kalin, spokesman for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said Monday.
https://www.rt.com/news/492638-macron-turkey-libya-nato/
When pee-pee tape fails: Top ‘Russiagate’ spy Christopher Steele returns with zany new tale of Kremlin conspiracy
Disgraced spy Christopher Steele has emerged from the shadows with a new tall tale, this time alleging that the British government knew about Vladimir Putin’s “likely hold” over Donald Trump. Why would anyone trust him?
In secret testimony to British MPs, Steele alleged that then-Prime Minister Theresa May and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson turned a blind eye to reports that Russian President Vladimir Putin had a “likely hold” over US President Donald Trump, and covertly funded the Brexit campaign.
The former spook accused May of suppressing the information, so as to avoid souring trade negotiations with the Trump administration. “Political considerations,” he said, “seemed to outweigh national security interests.”
Steele’s testimony is revealed in a forthcoming book by Guardian journalist Luke Harding, a writer who’s made a career out of telling scary stories about Moscow-backed mischief. His latest effort purports to reveal in gory detail Russia’s “remaking of the west,” and Steele’s comments were revealed in an exclusive Guardian article on Monday.
His claims are damning. However, Steele’s reputation as a Russia “expert” – evidenced in his contribution to Westminster’s Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) report on “Kremlin interference into British politics” – is somewhat overshadowed by his reputation as a fabricator and exaggerator.
Branching into the private sector after a career with MI6, Steele was hired in 2016 to conduct opposition research into then-candidate Donald Trump, a job funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign. The former spy delivered the goods and then some, compiling a dossier stuffed with salacious allegations about the potential president. Among them was the claim that Trump was caught on camera urinating on two prostitutes in a Moscow hotel room, and that the Kremlin kept these tapes and ran a half-decade blackmail campaign against him.
https://www.rt.com/uk/492636-steele-dossier-british-government/
Fool me twice? Bolton says Iran had yellowcake uranium, echoing bogus claims that led to Iraq war
Former US National Security Advisor John Bolton has claimed Israeli agents found “yellowcake uranium” in Iran in 2018, channeling the discredited intelligence used by the George W. Bush administration to justify invading Iraq.
Israel’s Mossad retrieved “human-processed uranium” that was “perhaps yellowcake (uranium oxide in solid form)” during a “daring raid on Iran’s nuclear archives” in 2018, the mustachioed warmonger declared in his controversial Trump administration memoir, ‘The Room Where It Happened’. The discovery, Bolton alleged, was substantiated when the International Atomic Energy Agency subsequently conducted an inspection of Iran’s Turquzabad site. Israeli media trumpeted the vague, unverified claim over the weekend, publishing selected quotes from the book.
Bolton insisted the discovery “could well be evidence that Iran kept alive its ‘Amad plan’ for nuclear weapons after it was supposedly ended in 2004.” However, despite the wild claims leveled against Tehran by Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu in his theatrical speech following the raid, the IAEA denied Tel Aviv had uncovered any evidence that would change the international understanding of Iran’s nuclear activities. Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif, meanwhile, accused Netanyahu of deliberately tailoring his speech to give the Trump administration a rationale for withdrawing from the JCPOA nuclear deal – which it did, much to Bolton’s delight.
While the Trump administration has thus far stopped short of bombing Iran, hope springs eternal – Bolton has pushed for war with the Islamic Republic for years. So has Netanyahu, who has claimed since 1992 that Iran’s nuclear bomb was right around the corner and has been trying to convince the US to share his view ever since.
https://www.rt.com/news/492619-bolton-yellowcake-iran-iraq-israel/
Austin Demonstrators Who Raised Transgender Flag Jeer as Police Raise American Flag
On Friday night, June 19, a large gathering of demonstrators in Austin, Texas, attempted to storm the city’s police headquarters. The attack came just a little over two weeks after APD officers put their bodies on the line to protect protesters from a truck that was speeding toward them and was feared to be filled with explosives.
The demonstrators on Friday attempted to break into police headquarters during the dwindling daylight hours, chanting “F*** the police!” and holding signs with slogans such as “Pigs Quit Your Job.” Demonstrators quickly surrounded any police officers who attempted to exit the headquarters building and kicked the metal security fence repeatedly. They also threw objects over the fence at officers while verbally abusing them.
After failing to enter the police compound, the demonstrators turned their ire on two available targets: the American and Texas flags flying on poles just outside the headquarters building. In a video broadcast live on social media, demonstrators lowered those flags, wadded them on the ground, and burned them.
They replaced one of the flags with a transgender rights flag of their own, which they later left behind.
According to a source with knowledge of the events, the demonstrators interfered as police arrested an individual who allegedly lowered the flags. Police engaged in a protracted standoff with the demonstrators until they moved the arrestee into a secure fenced-off section behind the police building. The demonstrators were throwing bottles of water and attempting to break down the metal security fence and gate. Police pepper-sprayed some of the demonstrators who were trying to break down the fence. Had demonstrators broken in, police would probably have had to engage them in hand-to-hand combat to keep them from entering the building. Then suddenly, the majority of the demonstrators left and began marching west on 8th street.
After the demonstrators left, officers lowered and discarded the demonstrators’ flag, which the demonstrators had chosen to leave up on the pole. A leader with the Austin Police Association left the scene and acquired American and Texas flags to replace the two that the demonstrators burned. A remnant of the demonstrators returned while officers were replacing the flags.
In this exclusive video, APD officers hoist the American flag to replace the one the demonstrators burned. As officers raise the flag over Austin, the demonstrators boo and insult them.
A 20-year-old Florida man named Julian Gawel was arrested in connection with the Friday night attack. An investigation of social media channels and handles before they were made private suggests Mr. Galwan is a physics student at the University of Texas-Austin. He has been charged with theft, evading arrest, and resisting arrest. The university canceled in-person classes in March due to the coronavirus pandemic. Because he appears to have crossed state lines allegedly in order to incite a riot, the case has also been referred to the Federal Bureau of Investigations.
APD released this mugshot of Mr. Gawel.
Our source adds:
What I would most like the world to realize about these events is that these are not the same protesters who were (rightly) angry about the death of George Floyd. This has evolved into an anarcho-communist mob, who are just trying to take advantage of the situation to further their goal of toppling the government and throwing the country into total chaos. … Officers were actually able to have some productive discussions with the protesters who came out in the days after [the] first major protests. That mostly reasonable and largely peaceful group is gone. All that is left are these folks.
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/bryan-preston/2020/06/22/exclusive-video-austin-demonstrators-who-raised-transgender-flag-jeer-as-police-raise-american-flag-n562670
Is This Proof That John Bolton's Book Is Full of Lies?
One major detail about John Bolton’s forthcoming book that we’ve learned is that Bolton attempts to paint President Trump as being soft on China. In one leaked excerpt of the manuscript, Bolton accuses Trump of “begging” Chinese leader Xi Jinping for help getting him reelected.
But Bolton’s accusations conflict with past public statements regarding Trump and China. During a 2019 Wall Street Journal Chief Financial Officer Conference, Bolton lauded Trump for “reversing” previous presidents’ “surrendering” to China.
“So Xi Jinping ultimately does what? How does this play out? What does Xi Jinping do to satisfy U.S. demands?” Wall Street Journal Associate Editor John Bussey asked Bolton.
“I think they’re still absorbing the fact that we’re not accepting that they get to play by different rules. You cannot say that we’re living in a free-trade world when one of the major economic powers is pursuing unabashedly mercantilist policies inside the structure of what should be a free trade organization,” Bolton said.
“You can’t say that somehow, Donald Trump is violating principles of free trade when he is trying to deal with an economic power that couldn’t care less about free trade. Now, will the Chinese change that? I don’t know, but are we going to live with it forever?”
Bolton continued, “Is the argument, well my goodness, you can’t do this, you can’t do that because China holds all this U.S. debt? That sort of formulation which we’ve heard for years is a path to surrender. I just think that’s been a mistake, and I think President Trump has reversed that. So, as you play that out, it’s really now, for the Chinese to say, jeez they found out about us, and now, what are we gonna do?” Bolton said.
“Or the Chinese do what they’ve done which is play rope-a-dope, wait it out, another election, another president, another round of negotiations,” Bussey suggested.
But Bolton insisted Trump would stay strong on China.
“Good luck with that,” Bolton said, laughing. “Let’s put it this way: if President Trump wins, which we’re certainly planning on, do they think they’re going to get better terms in the second term? I wouldn’t count on that.”
As Natalie Winters of The National Pulse notes, “the excerpts of Bolton’s book appear to renege on this explicit endorsement of President Trump’s China approach.”
John Bolton received a $2 million advance from Simon & Schuster for his tell-all book. Like other books the left believed would end Trump’s presidency, Bolton’s seems to rely on fictions designed to secure a lucrative book deal rather than the facts. When a major claim of Bolton’s book is contradicted by past public praise of Trump’s approach to dealing with China, it casts a cloud of doubt over everything alleged in its pages. It’s very likely that we’ll see other claims made in the book contradicted by Bolton himself before he had an ax to grind and a financial incentive to tell stories that the liberal media would be crawling all over each other to give him free publicity for.
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/matt-margolis/2020/06/22/is-this-proof-that-john-boltons-book-is-full-of-lies-n560359
San Francisco Police Responding To Shooting With ‘Several Victims’
CALIFORNIA — The San Francisco Police Department was responding to a shooting in the city’s Tenderloin neighborhood Monday afternoon.
The scene is in the 200 block of Leavenworth Street.
“Please avoid Leavenworth St in the Tenderloin,” police said in a tweet. “We are on scene investigating a shooting on the 200 block with several victims. All vehicle and pedestrain traffic is being redirected.”
No further details were available.
https://breaking911.com/san-francisco-police-responding-to-shooting-with-several-victims/
U.S. Army Soldier Charged with Terrorism Offenses for Planning Deadly Ambush on Service Members in His Unit
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/us-army-soldier-charged-terrorism-offenses-planning-deadly-ambush-service-members-his-unit
These 9 Brands Of Hand Sanitizer May Be DEADLY
FDA advises consumers not to use any hand sanitizer manufactured by Eskbiochem SA de CV in Mexico, due to the potential presence of methanol (wood alcohol), a substance that can be toxic when absorbed through the skin or ingested. FDA has identified the following products manufactured by Eskbiochem:
All-Clean Hand Sanitizer (NDC: 74589-002-01)
Esk Biochem Hand Sanitizer (NDC: 74589-007-01)
CleanCare NoGerm Advanced Hand Sanitizer 75% Alcohol (NDC: 74589-008-04)
Lavar 70 Gel Hand Sanitizer (NDC: 74589-006-01)
The Good Gel Antibacterial Gel Hand Sanitizer (NDC: 74589-010-10)
CleanCare NoGerm Advanced Hand Sanitizer 80% Alcohol (NDC: 74589-005-03)
CleanCare NoGerm Advanced Hand Sanitizer 75% Alcohol (NDC: 74589-009-01)
CleanCare NoGerm Advanced Hand Sanitizer 80% Alcohol (NDC: 74589-003-01)
Saniderm Advanced Hand Sanitizer (NDC: 74589-001-01)
FDA tested samples of Lavar Gel and CleanCare No Germ. Lavar Gel contains 81 percent (v/v) methanol and no ethyl alcohol, and CleanCare No Germ contains 28 percent (v/v) methanol. Methanol is not an acceptable ingredient for hand sanitizers and should not be used due to its toxic effects.
Consumers who have been exposed to hand sanitizer containing methanol should seek immediate treatment, which is critical for potential reversal of toxic effects of methanol poisoning. Substantial methanol exposure can result in nausea, vomiting, headache, blurred vision, permanent blindness, seizures, coma, permanent damage to the nervous system or death. Although all persons using these products on their hands are at risk, young children who accidently ingest these products and adolescents and adults who drink these products as an alcohol (ethanol) substitute, are most at risk for methanol poisoning.
On June 17, 2020, FDA contacted Eskbiochem to recommend the company remove its hand sanitizer products from the market due to the risks associated with methanol poisoning. To date, the company has not taken action to remove these potentially dangerous products from the market. Therefore, FDA recommends consumers stop using these hand sanitizers and dispose of them immediately in appropriate hazardous waste containers. Do not flush or pour these products down the drain.
https://breaking911.com/urgent-these-9-brands-of-hand-sanitizer-may-be-deadly/
Ousted US Attorney Berman Refused To Sign DOJ Letter Criticizing NYC Mayor
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio was under pressure to ease COVID-19 restrictions for religious groups before US Attorney Geoffrey Berman was fired. Berman reportedly refused to sign the letter before his termination.
Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Eric Dreiband and U.S. Attorney Matthew Schneider for the Eastern District of Michigan, who are overseeing the Justice Department’s effort to monitor state and local policies relating to the COVID-19 pandemic, issued the following statement:
“Following action by the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, Mayor de Blasio provided much‑needed relief for New Yorkers by moving New York City to Phase 2 of its reopening plan. Under Phase 2, in addition to the opening of various secular establishments, including outdoor dining and in‑store retail, houses of worship can reopen to 25% of their indoor capacity.
Mayor de Blasio’s recent public statements and enforcement of COVID-19 Orders have demonstrated a troubling preference for certain First Amendment rights over others. The Justice Department is glad Mayor de Blasio will now permit greater religious exercise and will continue to monitor New York City’s reopening to ensure that New York City extends the same respect to the freedom of religion, both in terms of indoor and outdoor gatherings, as it does to the freedoms of speech and assembly.”
Background
Last week, the Justice Department wrote Mayor de Blasio to express the concern that New York City was permitting large gatherings for political protest while not permitting in-person religious gatherings when the Constitution’s First Amendment protects both free speech rights and religious exercise.
New York City had vigorously enforced restrictions on religious gatherings, including by sending police officers to disperse numerous gatherings of the Jewish community, including outdoor funerals. At the same time, Mayor de Blasio marched in large in-person political gatherings concerning the recent tragic death of George Floyd and made statements suggesting — in a manner forbidden by the First Amendment — that religious exercise was less valued and protected by New York City than political exercise.
https://breaking911.com/breaking-ousted-us-attorney-berman-refused-to-sign-doj-letter-criticizing-nyc-mayor/
US Beekeepers Report Second Highest Colony Loss on Record
Beekeepers across the United States lost 43.7% of their managed honey bee colonies from April 2019 to April 2020, according to preliminary results of the 14th annual nationwide survey conducted by the nonprofit Bee Informed Partnership (BIP). These losses mark the second highest loss rate the survey has recorded since it began in 2006 (4.7 percentage points higher than the average annual loss rate of 39.0%).
The survey results highlight the cyclical nature of honey bee colony turnover. Although the high loss rate was driven by the highest summer losses ever reported by the survey, winter losses were markedly lower than in most years. As researchers learn more about what drives these cycles of loss, this year emphasizes the importance of the summer for beekeeper losses.
This past year, winter losses were reported at 22.2%, which is 15.5 percentage points lower than last year and 6.4 points lower than the survey average. However, high summer losses were reported at 32.0%, which is 12.0 percentage points higher than last year and 10.4 points higher than the survey average.
“This year, summer loss was actually the highest we’ve ever recorded, even higher than winter losses, which is only the second time we’ve seen that, and it’s mostly commercial beekeepers that are driving that loss number, which is unusual,” says Nathalie Steinhauer, BIP’s science coordinator and a post-doctoral researcher in the University of Maryland Department of Entomology. “So that makes this year different and interesting to us, because we want to know what is driving their losses up in comparison to previous years.”
Commercial beekeepers typically have lower losses than backyard and smaller operations. Commercial honey bees pollinate $15 billion worth of food crops in the United States each year, so their health is critical to food production and supply.
“When BIP started doing this survey, winter loss was the main focus because that period of the year was thought to be the most challenging for beekeepers and their colonies, especially in temperate climates,” says Geoffrey Williams, assistant professor of entomology at Auburn University and co-author of the survey. “Adding summer loss into the survey in 2010/11 was quite revealing. For the first time, we had the numbers to show that loss occurs throughout the year, and that summers are not insignificant for beekeeper losses.”
Since beekeepers began noticing dramatic losses in their colonies in the early 2000s, state and federal agricultural agencies, university researchers, and the beekeeping industry have been working together to understand the cause and develop best management practices to reduce losses. The BIP annual colony loss survey, which has been conducted since 2006, has been an integral part of that effort.
https://www.naturalblaze.com/2020/06/us-beekeepers-report-second-highest-colony-loss-on-record.html
US Prisoners Exposed to Dangerous Levels of Arsenic in Drinking Water
The first nationwide analysis of drinking water quality in United States correctional facilities found average arsenic concentrations in drinking water in Southwestern United States correctional facilities were twice as high as average arsenic concentrations in other Southwest community drinking water systems. More than a quarter of correctional facilities in the Southwest reported average arsenic levels exceeding the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 10 μg/L maximum contaminant level.
The study by Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health researchers Anne Nigra, PhD, and Ana Navas-Acien, MD, PhD, professor of environmental health sciences, is published in the journal Environmental Research.
Disparities and injustices in water quality may contribute to the excess burden of disease experienced by incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people. Approximately 2.2 million people, disproportionately Black and low-income men, are incarcerated in the U.S. Incarcerated populations are at elevated risk for several chronic diseases that are associated with chronic low-to moderate-arsenic exposure, including hypertension and diabetes.
More than 90,000 people rely on drinking water from community water systems (CWSs, public water systems that serve the same population year-round) that exclusively serve correctional facilities located in the Southwestern U.S., a part of the country where there are high concentrations of naturally occurring inorganic arsenic in domestic wells and in public water systems.
The researchers analyzed 230,158 arsenic monitoring records from 37,086 community water systems from the EPA’s Third Six Year Review of Contaminant Occurrence dataset covering 2006-2011. Average six-year water arsenic concentrations in Southwestern correctional facility CWSs were more than twice that of other Southwestern CWSs and nearly five times the level of other CWSs across the rest of the U.S. (6.41 μg/L vs. 3.11 μg/L vs. 1.39 μg/L). Although the EPA goal maximum contaminant level (MCL) for arsenic is 0 μg/L, EPA set the current arsenic MCL at 10 μg/L given feasibility and treatment costs.
Tap water is likely the sole water source available to incarcerated populations, who lack access to alternative drinking water (e.g. bottled water, domestic wells) or point-of-use treatment devices in the event of compromised drinking water quality. Incarcerated individuals may also be unaware of the arsenic levels in their drinking water despite EPA rules that mandate CWSs make yearly reports available to customers. “Mass incarceration is a public health crisis. People who are incarcerated have a right to safe drinking water. Correctional facilities with their own water systems need to reduce water arsenic concentrations as much as possible, even below current regulatory standards,” says Anne Nigra.
The authors conclude: “Immediate, aggressive enforcement of water standards for water systems exclusively serving correctional facilities is critical to protect the health and human rights of all incarcerated persons, including adolescents, pregnant women, and the young children of incarcerated women.”
https://www.naturalblaze.com/2020/06/us-prisoners-exposed-to-dangerous-levels-of-arsenic-in-drinking-water.html
and frequencies from wifi
30% Of Americans Didn’t Make Their Housing Payment In June
A stunning 30% of Americans didn’t make their housing payment for June – a figure that is likely going to ripple through the housing industry in coming months. According to a new survey by Apartment List, the rate is similar to May and shows that even though other industries are rebounding, the situation has not yet improved meaningfully in housing.
These figures stood at 24% in April and 31% in May, before falling slightly to 30% in June. One third of the 30% in June made a partial payment, while two thirds made no payment at all.
“Missed payment rates are highest for renters (32 percent), households earning less than $25,000 per year (40 percent), adults under the age of 30 (40 percent), and those living in high-density urban areas (35 percent). While the missed payment rate for mortgaged homeowners is just 3 percentage points lower than renters,” the survey showed.
Despite the trend of missing payments at the beginning of the month, households have been able to play catch-up later in the month and “narrow the gap” by making payments in the middle of the month. This was the case in May, where the missed payment rate “dropped from 31 percent at the beginning of the month to 11 percent at the end.”
We’ll see how long people can play catch-up.
Meanwhile, as the survey notes, delayed payments in one month are a strong indicator for coming months. 83% of those who paid on time in May did so in June. Meanwhile, only 30% of those who were late in May have made their payment in full for June.
This means the data for the beginning of July is likely to be just as ugly as June.
https://www.activistpost.com/2020/06/30-of-americans-didnt-make-their-housing-payment-in-june.html