U.S. Intel: China hid extent of COVID-19 outbreak in order to stockpile medical supplies

OAN Newsroom
UPDATED 12:51 PM PT — Monday, May 4, 2020

According to U.S. officials, China withheld critical information regarding the coronavirus outbreak in order to give itself time to hoard medical supplies.
Reports Monday cited Department of Homeland Security intelligence documents, which stated Chinese leaders “intentionally concealed the severity” of the pandemic in early January.
This followed comments by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo Sunday who confirmed China did “all that it could” to make sure the world didn’t learn about the pandemic “in a timely fashion.”
“This is an enormous crisis created by the fact that the Chinese Communist Party reverted to form, reverted to the kinds of disinformation, the kinds of concealment that authoritarian regimes do,” said the State Department chief.
According to the analysis, while China was concealing the extent of the virus, it was simultaneously increasing imports and decreasing exports of vital medical supplies.
The report said Chinese officials tried to cover this up by “denying there were export restrictions, and obfuscating and delaying provision of its trade data.” China then went on to order medical supplies abroad, noting imports of face masks, gloves and surgical gowns “increased sharply.”
White House trade advisor Peter Navarro made similar accusations in mid-April. He said for six weeks China used its influence at the World Health Organization to hide the nature of the coronavirus, while buying up the world’s supply of medical equipment.

Pompeo also noted that the U.S. still hasn’t been granted the access it needs in order to effectively fight the pandemic.
“We tried to get a team in there, the World Health Organization tried to get a team in there and they have failed,” he explained. “No one’s been allowed to go to this lab or any of the other laboratories; there are many labs inside of China.”
The secretary went on to stress that “this is an ongoing threat, an ongoing pandemic, and the Chinese Communist Party continues to block access to the western world.”

https://www.oann.com/u-s-intel-china-hid-extent-of-covid-19-outbreak-in-order-to-stockpile-medical-supplies/

Study: Most imported N95 face masks are ineffective

OAN Newsroom
UPDATED 11:09 AM PT — Monday, May 4, 2020

With an international shortage of personal protection equipment, the United States has been importing masks and gloves from abroad. However, the CDC’s National Personal Protective Laboratory determined a number of imported masks may be ineffective at protecting against coronavirus.
In a random study of N95 style masks coming in from Europe and Asia, 60 percent of mask styles were not able to filter at least 95 percent of airborne particulates. The study found a significant number of KN95 masks, which is the Chinese equivalent of the N95, performed far below the standard with some only filtering 30 percent of airborne particulates.
Many U.S. states and other countries have discovered similar irregularities during their own tests and have begun returning medical equipment sent from China.
“In a public health emergency, you have to have PPE,” said New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D). “..You can’t be dependent on China to have the basic equipment to save lives in the United States, that’s what this came down to.”

Chinese officials have said any ineffectiveness detected was the fault of the countries who used the masks and not the manufacturers.
“There are many of the quality problems that occur in the export of anti-epidemic materials caused by different quality standards at home and abroad, and differences in using habits,” said Geng Shuang, spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “Some countries didn’t strictly follow the product usage rules.”
Reports have estimated millions of faulty masks have been sent to the U.S. in recent months. The CDC and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health are urging people to check to see that their N95 style masks have the proper marks of approval.
Every respirator approved by the National Institute for Occupational Safety has an approval number either on the mask or within the packaging that can be authenticated using their certified equipment list.

https://www.oann.com/study-most-imported-n95-face-masks-are-ineffective/

Michael Flynn case should be dismissed to preserve justice

by Jonathan Turley at The Hill

Previously undisclosed documents in the case of former national security adviser Michael Flynn offer us a chilling blueprint on how top FBI officials not only sought to entrap the former White House aide but sought to do so on such blatantly unconstitutional and manufactured grounds.

These new documents further undermine the view of both the legitimacy and motivations of those investigations under former FBI director James Comey. For all of those who have long seen a concerted effort within the Justice Department to target the Trump administration, the fragments will read like a Dead Sea Scrolls version of a “deep state” conspiracy.

One note reflects discussions within the FBI shortly after the 2016 election on how to entrap Flynn in an interview concerning his conversations with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. According to Fox News, the note was written by the former FBI head of counterintelligence, Bill Priestap, after a meeting with Comey and his deputy director, Andrew McCabe.

The note states, “What is our goal? Truth and admission or to get him to lie, so we can prosecute him or get him fired?” This may have expressed an honest question over the motivation behind this targeting of Flynn, a decision for which Comey later publicly took credit when he had told an audience that he decided he could “get away” with sending “a couple guys over” to the White House to set up Flynn and make the case.

The new documents also explore how the Justice Department could get Flynn to admit breaking the Logan Act, a law that dates back to from 1799 which makes it a crime for a citizen to intervene in disputes between the United States and foreign governments. It has never been used to convict a citizen and is widely viewed as flagrantly unconstitutional.

In his role as the national security adviser to the president elect, there was nothing illegal in Flynn meeting with Kislyak. To use this abusive law here was utterly absurd, although other figures such as former acting Attorney General Sally Yates also raised it. 
Nevertheless, the FBI had latched onto this abusive law to target the retired Army lieutenant general.

Another newly released document is an email from former FBI lawyer Lisa Page to former FBI special agent Peter Strzok, who played the leadership role in targeting Flynn. In the email, Page suggests that Flynn could be set up by making a passing reference to a federal law that criminalizes lies to federal investigators. She suggested to Strzok that “it would be an easy way to just casually slip that in.” So this effort was not about protecting national security or learning critical intelligence. It was about bagging Flynn for the case in the legal version of a canned trophy hunt.

It is also disturbing that this evidence was only recently disclosed by the Justice Department. When Flynn was pressured to plead guilty to a single count of lying to investigators, he was unaware such evidence existed and that the federal investigators who had interviewed him told their superiors they did not think that Flynn intentionally lied when he denied discussing sanctions against Russia with Kislyak. Special counsel Robert Mueller and his team changed all that and decided to bring the dubious charge. They drained Flynn financially then threatened to charge his son.

Flynn never denied the conversation and knew the FBI had a transcript of it. Indeed, President Trump publicly discussed a desire to reframe Russian relations and renegotiate such areas of tensions. But Flynn still ultimately pleaded guilty to the single false statement to federal investigators. This additional information magnifies the doubts over the case.

Various FBI officials also lied and acted in arguably criminal or unethical ways, but all escaped without charges. McCabe had a supervisory role in the Flynn prosecution. He was then later found by the Justice Department inspector general to have repeatedly lied to investigators. While his case was referred for criminal charges, McCabe was fired but never charged. Strzok was also fired for his misconduct in the investigation.

Comey intentionally leaked FBI material, including potentially classified information but was never charged. Another FBI agent responsible for the secret warrants used for the Russia investigation had falsified evidence to maintain the investigation. He is still not indicted. The disconnect of these cases with the treatment of Flynn is galling and grotesque.

Even the judge in the case has added to this disturbing record. As Flynn appeared before District Judge Emmet Sullivan for sentencing, Sullivan launched into him and said he could be charged with treason and with working as an unregistered agent on behalf of Turkey. Pointing to a flag behind him, Sullivan declared to Flynn, “You were an unregistered agent of a foreign country while serving as the national security adviser to the president of the United States. That undermines everything this flag over here stands for. Arguably, you sold your country out.”

Flynn was never charged with treason or with being a foreign agent. But when Sullivan menacingly asked if he wanted a sentence then and there, Flynn wisely passed. It is a record that truly shocks the conscience. While rare, it is still possible for the district court to right this wrong since Flynn has not been sentenced. The Justice Department can invite the court to use its inherent supervisory authority to right a wrong of its own making. As the Supreme Court made clear in 1932, “universal sense of justice” is a stake in such cases. It is the “duty of the court to stop the prosecution in the interest of the government itself to protect it from the illegal conduct of its officers and to preserve the purity of its courts.”

Flynn was a useful tool for everyone and everything but justice. Mueller had ignored the view of the investigators and coerced Flynn to plead to a crime he did not commit to gain damaging testimony against Trump and his associates that Flynn did not have. The media covered Flynn to report the flawed theory of Russia collusion and to foster the view that some sort of criminal conspiracy was being uncovered by Mueller. Even the federal judge used Flynn to rail against what he saw as a treasonous plot. What is left in the wake of the prosecution is an utter travesty of justice.

Justice demands a dismissal of his prosecution. But whatever the “goal” may have been in setting up Flynn, justice was not one of them.

Coronavirus present in France in December - a month earlier than thought, test indicates

Coronavirus was present in France in December - a month before the country's first confirmed cases, according to an intensive care chief who tested old samples.
Yves Cohen said negative tests for flu and other coronaviruses on 24 patients in hospital with respiratory problems during December and January had been checked.
 And in a development experts say would be of huge significance, one of the revisited samples came back positive for COVID-19.

Dr Cohen, head of resuscitation at a Paris hospital, said the test had been repeated a number of times in case of error.

"Of the 24 patients, we had one positive result for COVID-19 on 27 December when he was in hospital with us," he said.
He told France's BMTV that medical staff had then phoned the man to discuss the new finding.

"He was sick for 15 days and he infected his two children, but not his wife, who works in a supermarket, at the fish stall," he said.
"We wondered [she worked with] fish of Chinese origin, but she only works on French products.
"Then we learned by chance that she worked alongside sushi sales or people of Chinese origin."
He suggested that the man's wife may have had COVID-19 but not shown any symptoms, adding that it was the responsibility of other agencies to investigate further.

https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-present-in-france-a-month-earlier-than-thought-test-indicates-11982989

Mockingbird Propagandist Chris Wallace Lies During Birx Interview

“Why didn’t we think of ‘social distancing’ Joseph?”

We noted this last week, a specific and nuanced lie about the phase-1 gateway.  Last week Jake Tapper and Chuck Todd were pushing it; this week it is Chris Wallace.

When the original guidelines were rolled out by the White House COVID-19 task force, the administration was clear to say how the guidelines were created for the state governors to use in coordination with “state and local health officials.”

A key part of the White House guidelines was the “gateway to reopening”; which included a recommendation of a 14-day period where the virus tracking showed diminished spread. However, the guidelines were emphasized to be driven by “local and state health departments.”  It does not take every county in the entire state to pass the gateway before the governor, any governor, can start their phase-1 reopening.

The White House guidelines to the state governors were intentionally structured around coordination with county health officials/county health departments. The reasoning was simple, a state with 40 counties may have passed the gateway hurdle in 38 of the 40 counties, but that does NOT mean the entire state has not passed the phase-one gateway.

“The guidance allows each state governor to modify their phased response by county depending on the Virus impact. Some counties may be in phase-one, while other counties may be in phase two or three. The state and local public health officials will be responsible for monitoring the virus impact on an ongoing basis.” (link)

Here’s a specific example. There are 67 counties in the state of Florida. Sixty-five of those counties may have already passed through the phase-one gateway; meaning they show declining infection rates for 14-days, and/or had little impact. Two counties like Dade, and Broward may not have yet passed the gateway guideline. It would be ridiculous for 65 (mostly rural) counties to sit and wait for one or two (mostly urban) counties to achieve the same level of virus containment before re-opening their local economy.

It would be ridiculous for a State Governor like Ron DeSantis to hold back sixty-five counties while waiting on the other one or two to catch up.

That is specifically why the White House guidance emphasized the local health departments coordinating with the state governors.

It does not take every county in the entire state to pass the gateway before the governor, any governor, can start giving guidelines for reopening. Nor is it accurate to say that “no state has passed the gateway for phase-one.” Factually, every state has some counties that are well beyond the phase-one guidelines.

Conversely, many counties within individual states may already be in phase-three; however, that doesn’t mean the entire state is in phase-3 based on the guidelines.

If you were to follow the false logic claimed by Chris Wallace, you could argue as soon as a state has a single county at phase-3 then the state has achieved the phase-3 gateway.

Watch how in the interview Wallace makes the false claim: “no state has passed the phase-one reopening guideline”… He is lying, and he knows it.

David Mamet had a famous saying that is often cited. Essentially he said: ‘in order for left-wing partisans and ideologues to continue advancing their agenda, they must pretend not to know things.’ CTH calls this “The Mamet Principle.”  No where is that quote more clearly showcased than with these types of interviews.

Chris Wallace is a political operative.  A placed ideologue within media advancing an agenda in an effort to do as much harm as possible. This is not an accident; and yes this harm is specific, purposeful and with intent.

The evolved Fabian-Socialists, the professional left which includes most mainstream media now, are dangerous in disposition due to the rabidity of their partisanship. If they were not, they wouldn’t be consistently lying. It really is that simple.

Coronavirus Shutdowns Expose The New Class Divide

 
When half the working class is facing economic devastation and the other half still has to show up to work, are we really all in this together?

Article written by James Lucas in "The Federalist":

I’m a lawyer in New York City, currently working from home due to the coronavirus shutdown. For me it’s working quite well.

Almost all of my work was done on computer, internet, and phone even when I was doing it in an office, so doing it from a home equipped with a computer, internet, and phone is not really much of an inconvenience. In fact, comparing the distance from my home to my old office and the distance from my bedroom to my living room, one could reasonably argue it is more convenient.

However, I don’t think it’s quite that simple. I am only able to work remotely so well because of a vast infrastructure of people who cannot work remotely. Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s stay-at-home directive excludes people in “essential” jobs. What are those?

My apartment building staff still comes to work every day, as before. When I go to the grocery or drug store, they are all fully staffed with greeters, stockers, counter workers, check-out people, and so forth. Contrary to images of New York shown on TV, the streets are full of people delivering groceries and online food orders to my neighbors.

Behind all those is a vast network of truck drivers, warehouse staff, factory and agricultural workers, and untold more keeping the goods flowing so my neighbors and I can carry on with our income-producing remote work.

That’s not all. Construction crews work regularly outside my building maintaining the water and power I need to work remotely in comfort. Police, fire, and other safety workers carry on, as do the drivers of all the FedEx, UPS, and other delivery trucks daily bringing every manner of goods to my remote working neighbors.

Also, of course, when I walk to the grocery store, I pass a great hospital full of hard-working people. The large majority of these heroic medical staff are not well-paid physicians, but nurses, paramedics, cafeteria and custodial staff, and the like.

What do all these folks who cannot work remotely have in common? One term can cover almost all of them, a term nowadays usually only found in the rhetoric of aged lefties like Bernie Sanders or Jeremy Corbyn. These folks are working class.

As an odd byproduct of our strange circumstances, they can readily be distinguished from my class, the class of professionals and managers. My class can work remotely. The working class generally cannot.

This new working class, like their pre-computer counterparts, is more numerous and makes less money than those who can do their work on a computer. A recent study at the University of Chicago concluded that only 37 percent of jobs in the United States can possibly be performed remotely. It also found that these remote jobs account for 46 percent of wages.

Of course, there are exceptions. Physicians are well-paid, but are working shoulder-to-shoulder with the working-class nurses and orderlies on the front lines of combating the pandemic. But by and large, this class divide is as much about wealth as working by computer.

It is a divide between those with investment accounts, and those who live paycheck to paycheck. It is a divide between those who have never been on unemployment without knowing where their next job will come from, and the securely employed, such as government bureaucrats, tenured professors and the golden-parachuted, for whom working remotely is just an “inconvenience” (a term I’ve heard Dr. Anthony Fauci use to describe the shutdowns).

This distinction between those who can do their work on a computer, and those who must directly interact with people and things to do their work, has been developing for a long time. But the current crisis has highlighted it more starkly than ever. Indeed, the current crisis has all the marks of a classic class conflict.

On one hand there is a managerial and professional class that can work remotely, or has financial resources to weather a long-term shutdown. It is among this class that one finds the advocates of maintaining the shutdowns until a vaccine is found, such as media talking heads, politicians, and career public health experts.

On the other hand, a large part of the working class has been driven out of work entirely as numerous working-class-staffed industries have shut down. These folks largely do not have the wherewithal to go a year or more without income until a vaccine is developed.

This effect has been well-evidenced by the massive unemployment numbers. Less noted so far are all the working class people described above, who must go to work and face continuing risk of COVID-19 exposure. It is these people who enable the managerial class to successfully and profitably continue their remote work in isolated self-protection, all while promoting a shutdown of indefinite duration. Is this not a scene from a Sinclair Upton or John Steinbeck novel waiting to be written?

Now, a temporary shutdown may have been justified so hospitals were not overwhelmed. And while we cannot wait an indeterminable time for a vaccine, we do seem to have quick tests available now. However, we need to vastly expand the testing infrastructure, with the goal of giving everyone access to regular testing.

That said, to those deciding the difficult balance of factors required to phase out of our current restrictions, please remember that the shutdowns are affecting the working class far more severely than the decision-making class. Also, to those crying for the shutdown to continue until we have a vaccine, can we ask this?

Sitting in your home office, well supplied with all the necessities by untouchable delivery people, please spare us the “we’re all in this together” pablum. You are sitting in comfortable self-protection only because the delivery people and their brothers and sisters of the new working class are out on-site at their jobs, working to fill your and your fellow elites’ every need.

https://thefederalist.com/2020/05/04/coronavirus-shutdowns-expose-the-new-class-divide/

It’s Time to Fire Christopher Wray…Now

Elizabeth Vaughn reporting for RedState

FBI Director Christopher Wray’s attempts to stonewall requests for agency records have become familiar.

Last summer, conservative political advocacy group Citizens United filed a FOIA request for documents that Kathleen Kavalec, who was serving as the State Department’s Deputy Assistant Secretary, sent to the FBI’s counter-intelligence team following a meeting with dossier author Christopher Steele in October of 2016. Kavalec had discovered a number of anomalies in Steele’s story and emailed the FBI two days later about her suspicions. The meeting took place ten days before the FBI submitted their first application to the FISA Court for a warrant to spy on Carter Page. After much pressure, Citizens United received the documents, but they were so highly redacted, they were almost useless.

The group filed a new FOIA request for less-redacted copies of the documents. This time, Wray sent attorneys to court to block it, arguing that “the FBI can’t afford to jeopardize the fragile relationships that exist between the United States and certain foreign governments.” Ultimately, Citizens United received a less redacted copy.

Following the release of the Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Horowitz’ report last December, which as we all remember reflected poorly on the FBI, Wray told reporters, “I am ordering over 40 corrective actions to address all of those things in a way that’s robust and serious. We’re determined to learn the lessons from this report.”

In January, Wray elaborated on those actions. He had distributed a video to the entire workforce and would follow up with an all-employee email. Wray said,

FBI leadership believes that the repeated messaging to its workforce of the absolute need for accuracy and completeness in all FISA applications and the implementation of corrective actions will result in a substantially renewed institutional focus on ensuring accuracy, transparency, and completeness in all FISA applications.

Wray had set a deadline of  April 30 for “the completion of training, including testing to confirm that personnel understand the expectations and the materials.”

Decisive action? Strong leadership? Hardly.

Last week, there were several credible reports from sites such as The Federalist and The Daily Caller that Director Wray had tried to prevent the Flynn exculpatory evidence from being turned over to Flynn’s attorney, Sidney Powell. Wray was okay with an innocent man being wrongly prosecuted, but he didn’t want those records to be made public.

Washington attorney Joe DiGenova said that the FBI’s General Counsel Dana Boente also worked to stop the release of the records. Boente is the only official to have signed off on any of the FISA Court applications for the Page warrants who remains in government service.

We know Wray was not involved in Spygate, but he sure keeps trying to cover up for those who were. He thinks it’s perfectly acceptable to cover-up the criminal behavior of former FBI officials.

I’ve always said President Trump didn’t realize that when he replaced James Comey with Christopher Wray, it made no difference. Although Wray hadn’t presided over the FBI’s bogus counter-intelligence investigation of the Trump campaign, he is very much a creature of the deep state.

Trump should have done a thorough housecleaning when he first arrived in Washington, but he simply didn’t know how vast, how entrenched and how powerful it was.

Impeachment opened up his eyes. He knows he must purge his administration of as many deep staters as he possibly can to set things up for his second term.

Trump was wise to replace the feckless Jeff Sessions with William Barr. It was one of the best decisions he’s ever made.

Last summer, he ousted Director of National Intelligence Dan Coates, an untrustworthy man. And, several months ago, he replaced the acting DNI Joseph Maguire after he’d sent the intelligence official in charge of election security, Shelby Pierson, to brief the House Intelligence Committee on reports that Russia was interfering in the 2020 campaign to try to get President Trump re-elected. This set off a new round of hysteria only weeks after his acquittal.

Trump chose the loyal and highly effective former U.S. ambassador to Germany, Richard Grenell, as the new acting DNI and has nominated Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-TX), a close and trusted ally, to serve as the permanent DNI.

It’s time he does the same at the FBI. Christopher Wray is not on his side. If the President needed any more evidence of Wray’s dubiousness, he got it last week. Wray needs to go. Trump has many close allies from which to choose a replacement. Former Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC), former acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker and Rep. Doug Collins (GA) are a few possibilities.

But changes at the top of the FBI are necessary now.

Although the information we’ve learned about the deep state’s conspiracy to destroy President Trump and those associated with him has come slowly, enough has been revealed to know that the FBI was working against him. Their willingness to do whatever it took to remove Trump from office led to a complete lack of regard for the rule of law.

Many Americans, including myself, have lost faith in the FBI and it will be difficult to restore confidence.

The first step is to fire Wray.

Immediately.

America's Post Pandemic Ten Commandments

 
Article by Terry Paulson in "Townhall":

In an effort to capitalize on the lessons learned from the current pandemic, the plain folk of America are beginning to demonstrate and demand change. They're tired of politicians and experts locked in inaction. Their changes might be summarized in 10 new and compelling commandments to guide America's future. There's been no mountain top conclave to confirm one direction, but their collective voice might just provide plain spoken guidance for our future. Here are 10 post pandemic commandments they just might rally behind to make America great again:

1. Life is difficult, unsafe, and has always carried risk. None of us get out of this alive. So, never again even think of sacrificing the economic, mental, and physical well-being of the 99.7 percent to possibly protect and save the .3 percent from any disease or disaster. 

2. No pandemic or disaster should ever be allowed to justify Draconian laws depriving citizens of elementary civil rights protected by our Constitution. Trading cherished freedoms for promised safety gives us neither!

3. Governments printing more money can never be the answer in a responsible republic. Stop giving more money; such giveaways are supporting an expectation of socialism, not maintaining a vital democratic republic. A forced transfer of wealth from those who work and saved to those who are not working and have not saved, destroys the incentives for self-reliance and rewards government dependence.

4. Tough times require tough people. Strong, resourceful citizens come from letting people handle their own problems with the help of neighbors, family, and local charities. No citizen is entitled to a basic income. No one should make more from government support than they can make from working. In America, you are responsible to earn your own way and secure your own future!

5. If people are sick, the message must be clear-"Shelter at home." Seek the treatments you need; new promising treatments are appearing daily. If you don't isolate and take care of yourself, expect to be distanced and shamed for not doing so. A healthy society isolates the sick, not the healthy! End the lockdown, and let healthy people go back to work and their lives.

6. Buy American to bring our economy back! End imports of any essential supplies or products from China unless no American alternatives are yet available. China's irresponsible response to the initial COVID-19 infestation has destroyed what trust the world has had in their communist regime. Bring back essential manufacturing to America and support them every way you can.

7. End this embarrassing analysis paralysis and let businesses open. All businesses are "essential" to those who depend on them for income and jobs. If people are free to responsibly go to a grocery store, they are responsible enough to go to any business they deem important. Individuals should have the right and the responsibility to make their own choices without undue government interference or control.

8. Defeat any politician who votes for a federal bailout for states facing bankruptcy. Never make citizens in responsible states pay for states with irresponsible planning and unchecked spending.

9. Since an expanding federal debt threatens to bankrupt future generations, put an end to automatic government budget increases. Require balanced budgets and zero-based budgeting where every department must regularly justify their reason for existence and their value in every budget cycle.

10. Don't even bother watching mainstream media news. They have been part of the effort to derail President Trump from the moment he was elected. Their headlines never change - "Everything Bad is Trump's Fault!"

Finally, and most important to remember, if you want a president who will bring back our economy and jobs, there is only one choice - re-elect President Donald Trump in November. We wanted an outsider who promised to get things done, and we gave him the job in 2016. He got things done and helped usher in the best economy in decades. He did it once, it's our job to let him have the opportunity to make America great again.

https://townhall.com/columnists/terrypaulson/2020/05/04/americas-post-pandemic-ten-commandments-n2568014

Jim Jordan and Trey Gowdy React to Latest Flynn Developments

Congressman Jim Jordan (R-OH) and former representative Trey Gowdy appear on Fox News to share their review of the latest Flynn documents with Maria Bartiromo.

Both Jordan and Gowdy note the driver of the FBI effort appears to be Peter Strzok who worked around his immediate superior, Bill Priestap, to work with the more politically aligned FBI Director James Comey and FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe.

Interesting juxtaposition in this interview.  Roosterhead really wanted to avoid criticizing current FBI Director Chris Wray, and he was successful talkin’ circles.  As long as the Rooster “knows” things he is satisfied and content.  Why? Because it takes an actual connection with “deplorables” and “MAGA” to really fight with all they have for the greater cause…. an emotional connection missing in the Rooster yet evident in Jim Jordan.

From the Rooster’s perspective, the problem is not that people and families have continued to suffer due to ongoing DOJ prosecutorial terror-tactics; and/or the fact that fake media has fooled 50% or more of the public with their deep state fiction narrative; from the perch of the Rooster it’s all just a puzzle to outline and satisfy the appearance. 

The Rooster types tell Jordan privately he’s too “ate up with it”…

Understanding Why The New York Times, Washington Post, Politico and Buzzfeed Cannot Tell The Truth About Spygate

credit: sundance at cth

A terrific outline by Stephen McIntyre today [see here] provides a great place for CTH to outline the importance of the Wolfe leak and how far-reaching the consequences became in the reporting of the DC media.

McIntyre revisits how the FBI put together the Carter Page FISA application; and specifically highlights how parts of the application are purposefully built by the FBI using the Steele Dossier to fabricate something that doesn’t exist. The issue pointed out by McIntyre surrounds the designation for Steele’s primary sub-source.

By now everyone is aware the Steele Dossier was essentially just an assembly of loosely connected data points, innuendo, gossip and outright disinformation.  The sketchy dossier was, in essence, a file of tenuous opposition research that was assembled under a fraudulent premise of a valid intelligence gathering process.

The Steele dossier underpinned the FISA application.  The dossier, and the fabricated story within it, was used to get the FISA application.  As a result of the way the FBI officials specifically used the dossier to shape the FISA application evidence, the application itself is filled with misinformation.

Because the dossier lies, which transferred to the FISA application, have collapsed under scrutiny, the FBI defenders shifted to calling the underlying fraudulent information “Russian disinformation.”  This, they hope, will be their tenuously collapsing escape narrative; which needs to hold-up long enough to get rid of President Trump.

We all know the “Russian disinformation narrative” is nonsense, but it’s the only way for the conniving DOJ/FBI to escape; and it’s the only way for the Media to provide cover in the retreat.

The truth is the dossier was Clinton-DNC nonsense oppo-research; the FBI knew it from the beginning; and the DOJ-NSD was willfully blind.  However, that’s not the essential element for consideration here.  Instead think of the FISA application and dossier as two pieces of fraud that were not actually hidden, but well known to the media.

Go back to when the dossier was released in its fully assembled format in January 2017.  The entire thing was public.  The media had already received most of it from Steele in the run-up to the 2016 election; but it was essentially just unverified oppo-research.

Here’s the important part to remember….

In March 2017, SSCI Security Director James Wolfe leaked the fully unredacted Carter Page FISA application to journalist Ali Watkins.

As soon as Watkins received the dossier the media now held the Dossier (which was public) and the FISA application showing what the FBI and DOJ did with the dossier (the secret).

The dossier and the FISA application then became the cornerstone of all the DC reporting about the FISA content from March 17, 2017 forward.  It makes the media’s repeated denials of the Dossier as essential to the FISA application seem really bad in retrospect.

Think about this carefully and critically.

The media had the fully unredacted FISA application (but they cannot admit it).

The media also had the Dossier (which underpins the FISA).

The lies, manipulation, disinformation within the FISA application now frame every single report about what the FBI, DOJ and Intel Community were doing.  In essence, the fraud within the FISA application transfers into all the media reporting of the New York Times, Buzzfeed, Politico and the Washington Post about the FBI investigation.

As a consequence; and because the reporting was predicated/justified based on the evidence the media was physically holding, but could not admit; all of the FBI FISA lies transfer into the media.  As the FISA fraud collapses, so too does the media reporting which was based on the fraud.

The dossier was junk… it infected the FISA application.  The FISA application was junk… it was leaked…. and as a consequence infected the media reporting.  However, the media cannot admit how they wrongly reported on the FISA lies because they would have to admit they received the FISA through the James Wolfe leak.

How does this show up?

When the New York Times says the FISA application was based on Chris Steele’s primary sub-source; and they label the primary sub-source as a “Russia-based-sub-source”; they are reporting from the FISA application they are holding.  Their attribution is “according to a person familiar with the investigation”, but the underlying source material is their copy of the FISA application which makes the claim (which the New York Times cannot admit to having in their possession).

The information about Steele’s “Russia-based” primary sub-source transfers from the FISA application into the media’s uncritical reporting because they are relying on the FISA application and not accepting the FISA application was purposeful fraud to the FISA court.

This same type of information surrounded the Dossier claim about Michael Cohen being in Prague; and the media refused to accept/admit it was a false premise.

The bigger problem for the DC media is not as much how they used leaks from corrupt “people” within the FBI, DOJ and Intelligence Community; all carrying willful intent and self-interest; but also because the DC media is using corrupt and false evidence as the support for their reporting.  As a consequence the media is directly tied to the overall fraud.

DC media, specifically The NYT, Politico and Washington Post, cannot admit why they were wrong in their reporting without admitting how they were so grossly wrong; they received the leak.  The media cannot admit they received the leak without exposing James Wolfe.

If the media exposed James Wolfe, the larger story about why James Wolfe was never prosecuted would surface.  Thus the corrupt media, corrupt politicians and corrupt intelligence officials are tied together to the same fraud.

Can you imagine the ramifications if the New York Times were to admit they had a fully non-redacted copy of the Carter Page FISA application since March 2017?

Surely admitting they had the FISA application would explain why so much of their reporting ended up being factually false; but the bigger problem would be exposure upon the DOJ and DC politicians who were protected by hiding the James Wolfe leak.

The DC media is every bit tied to the “spygate” corruption as powerful senators, the Senate Intelligence Committee, the FBI, the DOJ, the CIA, the DNI and the aggregate Intelligence Community.

The purpose of the ‘fourth estate’ used to be holding public officials to account for their fraud and schemes.  However, as with this example the media hold a vested interest in maintaining the lies, fraud and disinformation they are supposed to investigate.

The irony is,…

…despite their unwillingness to admit it, WE KNOW.

And so we laugh at their inability to tell the truth.

Whoops.

Think about the scale of the reporting, and reporting on reporting, of anonymous leaks, false leaks, lies from “people with knowledge of the matter”, “government officials involved in the matter”, “people familiar with the matter”, “government sources” etc. all going in one unified and semi-coordinated direction – against the aggregate Trump administration.

We’re talking about thousands of hours of media TV pundits, thousands more columns written, and almost every scintilla of it based on originating intelligence sources -from the larger intelligence system- that are now being exposed as duplicitous and conspiratorial in the scale of their malicious intent.

This larger story-line has traveled in one direction. The narrative has only traveled in one direction. Each thread converging on codependent trails for collective stories all going in one direction. One big engineered narrative endlessly pushed. Think about how far the collective media have traveled with this story over the past four years?

Nothing within their collective need to will-an-outcome will change the media’s proximity to facts as the truthful story behind the DOJ and FBI corruption is exposed. The media are so far away from the place where the true story is they have no inherent capability to even begin to travel in the opposite direction, toward the truth.

The only way they could align with the truth is to admit that virtually every scintilla of their reportage over the past 48 months was inherently false or manipulated by the “sources” distributing the material for their reporting.

There’s not a single media outlet capable of doing that.

Think about a New York Times, CNN, New Yorker, Wall Street Journal, Mother Jones, Yahoo News or Washington Post journalist now having to write an article deconstructing a foundation of four-years worth of lies they participated in creating.

Do we really think such a catastrophic level of corrupted journalism could reconstitute into genuine reporting of fact-based information?

EVER?

Impossible.

[…]  This catalogue of factual errors and slavish stenography will stand out when future analysts look back at why the “MSM” became a joke during this period, but they were only a symptom of a larger problem. The bigger issue was a radical change in approach.

A lot of #Russiagate coverage became straight-up conspiracy theory, what Baker politely called “connecting the dots.” This was allowed because the press committed to a collusion narrative from the start, giving everyone cover to indulge in behaviors that would never be permitted in normal times.  (Continue Reading)

China Lied About Severity of Wuhan Flu So They Could Hoard Supplies

Jennifer Van Laar reporting for RedState

A four-page Department of Homeland Security intelligence report dated May 1 and obtained by The Associated Press says that Chinese Communist Party officials “intentionally concealed the severity” of the pandemic from the world in early January, using that time to hoard medical supplies like surgical masks and gowns.

Not classified but marked “for official use only,” the analysis states that, while downplaying the severity of the coronavirus, China increased imports and decreased exports of medical supplies. It attempted to cover up doing so by “denying there were export restrictions and obfuscating and delaying provision of its trade data,” the analysis states.

The report also says China held off informing the World Health Organization that the coronavirus “was a contagion” for much of January so it could order medical supplies from abroad — and that its imports of face masks and surgical gowns and gloves increased sharply.

Those conclusions are based on the 95% probability that China’s changes in imports and export behavior were not within normal range, according to the report.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was asked about the report during a Sunday morning appearance on ABC’s “This Week.”

Pompeo confirmed the report, saying:

“Martha, you’ve got the facts just about right. We can confirm that the Chinese Communist Party did all that it could to make sure that the world didn’t learn in a timely fashion about what was taking place….This was a classic communist disinformation effort. That created enormous risk, and now you can see hundreds of thousands of people around the world, tens of thousands  in the US have been harmed. President Trump is very clear. We’re going to hold those responsible accountable, and we’ll do so on a timeline that is our own.”

As we reported earlier, Pompeo also said that there is “enormous evidence” that the virus originated from the Wuhan Institute of Virology but that the experts have found no evidence that it is man-made or genetically engineered. He reiterated his comments in tweets Sunday afternoon.

China has a history of infecting the world and they have a history of running substandard laboratories. These are not the first times that we’ve had a world exposed to viruses as a result of failures in a Chinese lab.

— Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) May 3, 2020

“Why do you continue to do nothing?!” 😡

Maria Bartiromo Questions Sen. Graham

Ms. Maria Bartiromo interviews Senator Lindsey Graham, yet again, about the surveillance coup effort and the recent documents released in the Flynn case.  Once again, Senator Graham claims he will use his position as Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman to initiate an investigation of those in the DOJ and FBI who have continually lied to the FISA court, the U.S. judicial system (various judges), and the America people.

Bartiromo calls Graham out on his lack of action; however, once again Senator Graham hides behind an “ongoing investigation.”  This “I’m not going to interfere in an ongoing criminal matter” is the exact same excuse Graham used previously in:

(1) the Mueller investigation; (2) the Horowitz investigation; (3) the IG review of the FBI FISA abuse; (4) the IG review of Andrew McCabe; (4) the IG review of Comey’s memos; and now the Durham investigation into the origins of Obama’s political targeting and Flynn.

I will keep repeating this until the Hope-Porn sellers catch up. Graham cannot, and will not, take any investigation action within the Senate because senators were involved in the FBI/DOJ and Intelligence Community operations. His own chamber, and the Senators on his own committee, were participants in the schemes.

[John McCain, Richard Burr, Dianne Feinstein, Mark Warner, Lindsey Graham, Chuck Schumer, Mitch McConnell, Marco Rubio, and every person sitting on the SSCI know what happened and who was participating. The SSCI controls who is allowed to be CIA Director, NSA Director, FBI Director, Director of National Intelligence and Intel Community Inspector General. The nominees must pass through this committee. Senator Burr and Senator Warner are the Chairman and Vice-Chair respectively. Both blocked Ratcliffe.]

Everything, and I do mean EVERYTHING, about the inaction behind politicians, DC, the intel community, the current FBI and the Current DOJ, showing their unwillingness to do anything….. all of it…. circles back to the Summer of 2018 when:

(1) WHEN the decision was made not to prosecute James Wolfe for leaking the top-secret and classified FISA application (that contained the lies needed to continue surveillance operations).

(2) WHEN the DOJ/FBI lied to the FISA court; they didn’t mislead – they lied in July 2018; about the continued valid predication for the FISA application.

(3) WHEN the DOJ/FBI and SSCI operated in unison to protect Mueller’s investigation as a tool to cover-up their own participation in an effort to target and remove Donald Trump.

(4) WHEN the DOJ/FBI and Intelligence Community threw a bag over Julian Assange; anticipating in advance and preparing for the Mueller report to come out.

(5) WHEN the DOJ/FBI and total IC continued to hide, mislead, stall, redact and remove damaging information that would have outlined the intent and purpose of the surveillance effort against Donald Trump.

Those 2018 decision were an inflection point; a massive signal flare fired from the epicenter of Washington DC; that should have alerted everyone to think carefully about the ramifications and WHY the institutions were going to take no action.

The consequences from those decisions are only just now starting to come out because some of the material connects to the Flynn case.

Unless and until John Durham or Bill Barr are going to admit what took place within the DOJ/FBI and Intelligence Community in the summer of 2018, nothing is going to change.

Nothing.

If Durham and Barr decide to allow the truth to come out; Bill Barr is going to have to reverse all of his support for the 2018 participants which includes: Robert Mueller, Rod Rosenstein, Chris Wray, Dana Boente and all of the DC politicians who were/are attached to the fraud and scheme.

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That reality is what CTH previously called The Big Ugly.

As soon as CTH saw all five of those points above; and as soon as we accepted the ramifications of the 2018 actions identified; CTH stopped outlining the possibility of a quest for justice and started accepting that, unless a complete change in top-level officials were instituted, no justice would be delivered.   We are asking the participants to prosecute themselves.

Do you see AG Bill Barr positioning toward telling those truths?…

Or do you see AG Bill Barr positioning to mitigate for survival against those truths?…

Be honest with yourself.

Codependent no more !

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