Tuesday, May 26, 2020

There Is No Journalistic Defense For Not Answering Kayleigh McEnany’s Questions


If the media is looking for a symbol of 'deviancy' in our politics that only 'makes things worse,' they should stop looking at the press secretary and instead look in the mirror.


New White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany isn’t letting so-called journalists get away with inane questions in the briefing room at the expense of real news, and the media don’t like it.

This was on full display over the weekend during the latest media-Trump administration go-around, when McEnany sparred with reporters over the Obama administration’s malfeasance with regard to former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

After a contentious exchange about President Donald Trump’s call for governors to allow churches to reopen, one reporter asked McEnany whether Trump has considered pardoning former President Barack Obama for illegal wiretapping, spying, and other potential crimes. McEnany said she had spoken to the president about the Flynn matter but not that particular question. Then things got interesting.

“Who I did speak to about President Obama and unmasking Michael Flynn were the men and women in this room,” McEnany said. “I laid out a series of questions any good journalist would want to answer about why people were unmasked and all sorts of questions, and I just wanted to follow up with you guys on that. Did anyone take it upon themselves to pose any questions about Michael Flynn and unmasking to President Obama’s spokesperson?”

Crickets.

“Oh, not a single journalist has posed that question,” McEnany doubled down.

She proceeded to raise a series of question — on Powerpoint slides because “maybe we’re visual learners and you guys will follow up with journalistic curiosity” — the press should be hammering, given the magnitude of the Russia hoax story and damning new developments regarding Flynn and the Obama White House.

Her questions included why the Obama administration surveilled members of the Trump campaign using oppo research paid for by a political organization; why not only the intel community but also Joe Biden, Susan Rise, and Obama’s chief of staff unmasked Flynn; why Flynn’s identity was criminally leaked to the press; and why James Clapper, Susan Rice, Samantha Power, and John Brennan insisted to the public there was evidence of collusion while admitting under oath they had no such evidence.

“Obama’s spokesperson should be asked those questions because President Trump’s spokespeople certainly would be,” McEnany concluded the briefing.

While the American people await answers to these questions in what should be the biggest news story, but is being conveniently dwarfed by coronavirus coverage, Trump opponents in the media consider McEnany’s conduct to be “indefensible and grotesque.”

On “Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace,” the anchor insisted he “never saw a White House press secretary act like that.”

Conflating the unmasking of political opponents with unmasking by intelligence investigators for legitimate investigations, Wallace dismissed McEnany’s legitimate point that the media continue to downplay, ignore, or misrepresent. Never mind the other huge question to which the media has failed to dig up an answer: Why was the Obama administration rampantly unmasking members of the president-elect’s team in the first place?

Wallace then lambasted the press secretary for having the audacity to suggest that the press report on this giant looming political scandal, even seeming to delegitimize her for being new to the role while granting unwarranted credibility to reporters based on their seniority.

“McEnany, who has been in the White House for a few weeks, started lecturing reporters — telling reporters — who have been covering politics for many years, what questions they should be asking, in this case about Michael Flynn,” Wallace said.

The commentary by NeverTrumper Jonah Goldberg on what he called “indefensible and grotesque” behavior, however, was most ironic.

“What President Trump wants in a press secretary is a Twitter troll who goes on attack, doesn’t actually care about doing the job they have and instead wants to impress an audience of one,” Goldberg said. “It’s a sign of defining of deviancy down in our politics, and it’s only going to make things worse.”

In true McEnany fashion, this question should be flipped on Goldberg. Should the media not be held accountable for their persistent trolling? Asking how many coronavirus deaths are acceptable, or insinuating the president is racistfor identifying the Wuhan virus’s origin or for telling a reporter to ask China her ridiculous question are instances that immediately come to mind. But the examples are endless.








Who doesn’t actually care about doing their job: the complicit media that endlessly peddled the Russia collusion hoax and now downplay it, refusing to raise questions that would cut against their narrative? Or the press secretary who refuses to let them get away with it?

Goldberg accuses McEnany of trying to impress only Trump. However, while grandstanding reporters run around seeking to impress each other at the expense of the big story, McEnany is one of the few who cares about the questions on the minds of many Americans to whom the media has been lying since the 2016 election and before.



It is the responsibility of the press to dig up the truth and report it. They are guilty of pushing a debunked hoax, and instead of learning from their foolishness, they are covering it up, continuing not to ask any relevant questions, and instead pointing a finger at anyone who would dare to expose them for their gross lack of journalistic ethics. The questions McEnany raised demand answers — answers that journalists absolutely refuse to dig up.

If the media is looking for a symbol of “deviancy” in our politics that only “[makes] things worse,” they should stop looking at the press secretary and instead look in the mirror.

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Does This CDC Study Deliver?


Does This CDC Study Deliver the Knockout Blow in the COVID Lockdown Debate?

Does This CDC Study Deliver the Knockout Blow in the COVID Lockdown Debate?

For weeks, the nation’s economy has been under lockdown to curb the spread of the Wuhan Coronavirus. It’s contagious. That’s true, but in the span of a few days, the entire COVID narrative has virtually collapsed. We still don’t have enough testing regarding antibodies, though preliminary results show that the infection rate could be immensely higher than what is reported, with higher recovery numbers. It was said to be spread mostly through surfaces. That was revised on Thursday:


Georgia has re-opened and no Armageddon has followed. Florida was supposed to be a graveyard by now. It’s not. Eight weeks in, COVID case and deaths remain lower than other hard-hit areas along the Acela Corridor. In the meantime, we’ve had Democratic governors used the virus to carve out power grabs. There is no reason for Michigan Gov. Gretchen Witmer to extend the stay-at-home order until June 12th. It’s madness. I supported the lockdowns to curb the spread and prevent the hospitals from being overrun. The spread of this thing was also impacting the markets as well. Well, the curve has been flattened. The hospitals were not overwhelmed like what we saw in Italy. Mission accomplished. It’s time to re-open. 

While all of this was going on, millions of Americans were forced into the unemployment line, small businesses were pinched, and even big retail giants were filing for bankruptcy protection. Some are very lucky that they can work from home, the vast majority cannot. And the last three weeks or so has been a cacophony of nonsense. Are face masks good when it comes to combating this thing? Also, and most importantly, what’s the real mortality rate? That alone is the silver bullet. Forget the masks, standing six feet apart, etc. if it’s just like the flu, open everything back up now, not piecemeal. It’s not necessary. And the Center for Disease Control and Prevention doled out a study (via Conservative Review):
Most people are more likely to wind up six feet under because of almost anything else under the sun other than COVID-19.
The CDC just came out with a report that should be earth-shattering to the narrative of the political class, yet it will go into the thick pile of vital data and information about the virus that is not getting out to the public. For the first time, the CDC has attempted to offer a real estimate of the overall death rate for COVID-19, and under its most likely scenario, the number is 0.26%. Officials estimate a 0.4% fatality rate among those who are symptomatic and project a 35% rate of asymptomatic cases among those infected, which drops the overall infection fatality rate (IFR) to just 0.26% — almost exactly where Stanford researchers pegged ita month ago.
Until now, we have been ridiculed for thinking the death rate was that low, as opposed to the 3.4% estimate of the World Health Organization, which helped drive the panic and the lockdowns. Now the CDC is agreeing to the lower rate in plain ink.
Plus, ultimately we might find out that the IFR is even lower because numerous studies and hard counts of confined populations have shown a much higher percentage of asymptomatic cases. Simply adjusting for a 50% asymptomatic rate would drop their fatality rate to 0.2% – exactly the rate of fatality Dr. John Ionnidis of Stanford University projected.

Some of you have been sharing and voicing skepticism over the numbers and the policies that have been born from them. What can I say? Maybe I overreacted. To those who were right,  keep spreading the word. Yet, I‘M also certain that the political class wouldn’t have acted differently. A pandemic going around when registered Democrats are in office is just inviting disaster, as we’ve seen in New York. Actually, that’s not quite fair. 

For any leader in a position to protect its citizenry, including Trump, a lockdown and a ‘better safe than sorry’ mentality is what probably would've won out in this situation. Suppose COVID was going to be as bad as some people projected? At the time, would you, as a politician, roll the dice? There’s going to be a lot of 'Monday Morning quarterbacking here, given the new figures. Hell, Dr. Anthony Fauci, one of Trump’s top Wuhan coronavirus task force members, now says staying inside for too long isn’t good, as it could cause “irreparable damage”:
Stay-at-home orders intended to curb the spread of the coronavirus could end up causing “irreparable damage” if imposed for too long, White House health advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci told CNBC on Friday.
“I don’t want people to think that any of us feel that staying locked down for a prolonged period of time is the way to go,” Fauci said during an interview with CNBC’s Meg Tirrell on “Halftime Report.”

Meanwhile, Germany has opened back up, no issues. In Japan, they did none of the drastic measures we saw enacted and they’re about to re-open. 
We still don’t know enough about this virus. Keeping people inside because you don’t know some stuff about a disease isn’t sufficient to keep people inside, especially when the initial goal has been met here. It’s time to re-open America. Does this CDC study deliver a death blow to those who want to stay inside until there’s a cure? Probably not, but to the wider electorate—It’s could be quite a different take, especially those running family-owned businesses who have been brutalized by this pandemic. These folks would rather risk infection than lose everything, and based on this new data set, I don’t blame them.

The next thing to be revised is the total death toll, which many of you said would be lower. Though not highlighted, and probably ignored by the liberal media, even Dr. Deborah Birx said that the administration was casting a big net concerning COVID deaths until a clearer picture was established. That was weeks ago. Ellie and Katie both wrote about it. Also, let's not forget that China has the most deaths. We all know this. We also know that this virus is their fault as well.

UPDATES: I forgot to mention that North Carolina's COVID death toll projection has been significantly reduced (via WRAL):
New modeling from a group of researchers at the University of Washington has significantly cut the number of COVID-19 deaths expected in North Carolina through August.
Projections from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation now forecast more than 2,500 deaths from the disease through Aug. 4. That's down about 40 percent from the group's projection last week of 4,400 deaths.
Daily deaths are still expected to peak in mid- to late-June, but at a lower rate of nearly 30 a day.
As of May 20, the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services has tallied about 700 deaths from COVID-19 in the state.
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Jeff Sessions, a wild Senate race, and President Trump's 'personal feelings'




Jeff Sessions is in a surreal place. He spent 20 years as a senator from Alabama, followed by 21 months as U.S. attorney general, and now, he is in a tightly competitive race to win back his old Senate seat. He was the first important national figure in government to endorse candidate Donald Trump back in early 2016. That endorsement was an important boost for Trump, whom some important Republicans were dismissing at the time. The newly elected Trump picked Sessions for attorney general.

At the Justice Department, Sessions worked hard to implement the president's agenda on issues such as immigration and crime. But as far as relations with Trump were concerned, it all went to hell in early March 2017, when Sessions, who had been on the job all of 21 days, recused himself from supervising the Trump-Russia investigation.

Driven by Democrats and their allies in the press, the Russia issue picked up steam in Trump's early months. But it truly exploded on May 9, 2017, when Trump fired FBI Director James Comey. The resulting firestorm led to the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller — an appointment made by Sessions's second-in-command, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who was in charge of the Russia matter after Sessions recused himself.

Trump blamed it all, or nearly all, on Sessions, and he never forgave him. Sessions remained in the job until November 2018, but Trump clearly could not stand the man he chose to head the Justice Department.

Fast forward to today. Deep-red Alabama has a Democratic senator, Doug Jones — that's another, equally odd story — who is now up for reelection. There was a primary to pick the Republican candidate who will almost certainly defeat Jones in November. Sessions won the primary, but not by enough to get the nomination without a runoff against the second-place finisher, former Auburn University football coach Tommy Tuberville. The runoff is scheduled for July 14.

Trump not only supports Tuberville, but he has been bashing Sessions left and right. First, Trump said Sessions begged him on four separate occasions for the job of attorney general. "I never begged for the job of attorney general, not four times, not one time, not ever," Sessions said.

Sessions also released an "Open Letter to the People of Alabama" in which he explained in detail why he believed then, and believes now, that his recusal was required by law and was the only course he could take.

That didn't assuage Trump one bit. A few days ago, the president tweeted, "3 years ago, after Jeff Sessions recused himself, the Fraudulent Mueller Scam began. Alabama, do not trust Jeff Sessions. He let our country down. That's why I endorsed Coach Tommy Tuberville."

That was finally it for Sessions, who responded with obvious irritation. "Look, I know your anger," he tweeted to the president, "but recusal was required by law. I did my duty & you're damn fortunate I did. It protected the rule of law & resulted in your exoneration. Your personal feelings don't dictate who Alabama picks as their senator, the people of Alabama do."

The political world's collective response was: Whoa! Now, this is getting interesting.

Then, Trump upped the ante again. "Jeff, you had your chance & you blew it," he tweeted. "Recused yourself ON DAY ONE (you never told me of a problem), and ran for the hills. You had no courage, & ruined many lives..."

"Mr. President, Alabama can and does trust me, as do conservatives across the country," Sessions responded. "Perhaps you've forgotten."

Who knows where it could go next? On Monday, I asked Sessions if he is surprised by the degree to which Trump seems to hold the entire Russia investigation against him. "Yes, I am surprised about that," he said. "But his frustration is not all unjustified. It's becoming more and more clear that there were problems with this investigation. There may have been political bias. Barr is exactly right that we need to know whether commencing an investigation of a campaign had sufficient predicate."

I mentioned to Sessions that Trump's last interventions in an Alabama Senate race, when he first backed losing Republican primary candidate Luther Strange and then losing Republican general election candidate Roy Moore, resulted in the election of the current Democratic Sen. Doug Jones. 

"He did make two recommendations, both of which the voters did not follow," Sessions said. "I would just say that indicates Alabamians do make their own decisions."

"In this instance," he continued, "the president's personal frustrations — he's asking the people of Alabama basically to effectuate his personal feelings about this issue. I'm asking them to send a senator who can best advance Alabama values, Trump values, Sessions values, to make a decision based on what's best for Alabama."

How many times does a top Republican Senate candidate refer to the Republican president's "personal feelings"? Sessions finds himself in an unprecedented situation only partially of his own making. But he is convinced he was correct in recusing himself from the Russia investigation, even if it means losing.

"My conscience is clear," Sessions said. "Doing the right thing is more important to me than even my own political career."

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The Media Wants America to...


The Media Wants America to Stay Closed Forever

It has Americans right where it wants them: trapped in front of the TV.


CNN doubled its audience in April, while MSNBC hit its best total-day ratings. Network news programs rose 39% since last year, gaining over 8 million viewers for their best numbers in over a decade. Cable news networks have become the most watched channels on cable and network news has been beating prime time programming. The pandemic is the next best thing to Walter Cronkite rising from the dead.

The New York Times is up to 6 million subscribers with an increase of 587,000 digital subscriptions that it attributes to "widespread interest in news of the coronavirus pandemic". Last year the paper was struggling to make it to 5 million subscribers. Digital subscriptions are up across the industry. Digital subscriptions rose 29% at the Dallas Morning News, 17% at the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, and the Poynter-FactCheck's Tampa Bay Timesboasted of tripling the rate of digital subscriptions.

(That didn’t stop the Tampa Bay Times from getting an SBA loan at the expense of small businesses.)

With 87% of Americans saying that they’re closely following news of the coronavirus pandemic, while many of them are trapped indoors, the media is experiencing an unprecedented boom. And with millions of kids out of school, it’s even begun launching new ventures to exploit the pandemic like NBC News' coronavirus newscast for kids. It’s a terrible time for Americans, but a great one for the media.

The only thing that could rain on the media’s pandemic parade would be the country reopening.

A Captive Audience
Right now, the media has the American public right where it wants it, trapped indoors, and closely following whatever combination of reporting, propaganda, and lies it chooses to feed to them.

And the polls show that it’s working.

Most of the country is afraid. A not insignificant percentage of the electorate is convinced that it will die if its cohort leaves the house without a mask, and would like to keep receiving government checks forever. Media hysteria not only trashed the economy, but sold millions on the socialist lifestyle.

After the Russia hoax, a botched impeachment, and more hit pieces than even historians will be able to count, the media is achieving its grand ideological goal of endangering President Trump’s reelection.

All the media had to do was scare the public within an inch of its life into crawling under the bed.

To quote the nation's first Republican president, "you may fool people for a time; you can fool a part of the people all the time; but you can’t fool all the people all the time.” That’s always been the problem with the media’s business model. It has a core audience that it can fool all the time. But it can’t have any real power unless it reaches beyond the urbanites and suburbanites concentrated in a few blue areas.

As the warmer weather swept in, social distancing began to collapse, accelerating reopenings in red states, and putting pressure on blue states to step up. Even New York and California have been forced to move up their timetables while struggling with the crowds headed to the beach or socializing in parks. 

Every state has now moved toward lifting their lockdowns to one degree or another.

And the people aren’t waiting for the politicians to act. The median distance people have been traveling, based on cell phone data, doubled from half a mile to a mile. The shutdown is being shut down.

Now it’s the media’s turn to be afraid.

The Atlantic condemned Governor Brian Kemp’s decision to reopen Georgia as an "experiment in human sacrifice". But, Coronavirus cases have dropped 20% since the reopening. So, the media has doubled down on its false claims by spinning conspiracy theories about the Georgia and Florida numbers.

After a Florida state employee who had been inputting numbers into the state’s virus dashboard was fired, the media insisted that she had been silenced for refusing to cover up the “real” numbers. The media neglected to mention that she had been arrested for cyber-stalking and revenge porn.

It has since moved on to suggesting a cover-up at the CDC.

In a matter of weeks, the media has gone from urging evidence-based policymaking that follows the numbers, to telling its viewers, listeners, and readers to ignore the numbers because it’s a conspiracy.

They’re out to get you… out of the house. And away from your TV.

CNN has taken the lead in spinning conspiracies about Georgia, Florida, and the CDC, while failing to disclose to its viewers and readers that it has a major vested interest in maintaining the lockdown.

Politicians have wrongly deemed the media to be non-essential. That means that CNN can remain in business while calling for lockdowns of countless small businesses and forced unemployment for millions even as its ratings soar because all the people it put out of work are at home watching TV.

Beyond the ideological conflict of interest, CNN has a huge economic conflict of interest.

So does the rest of the media. The lockdowns are a form of economic discrimination that structurally benefits the media, freeing it to produce original programming while most television and film production has been shut down. Now the nerds at the news desk are able to beat everything else. All they had to do was make sure that not a single professional sports league was still playing in the USA.

If only they’d thought of that back when they were working on the high school paper.

And yet, at no point in time, has the media bothered explaining this simple fact to its viewers.

The media is resisting any effort to lift the lockdowns because the closure rules don’t apply to it. They never did. CNN was able to keep its staff working even while the pandemic was ravaging New York City. While viewers saw that top anchors were working from home, that was as much of an illusion as Chris Cuomo’s quarantine. The anchors stayed home, but much of the rank and file workforce did not.

Another way of looking at the lockdowns is that they act as media rent-seeking programs, providing a lifeline to a struggling industry by shutting down its rivals and creating a captive audience. 

The media wants America to stay closed forever. And if it were up to it, that’s what would happen.

The New York Times, CNN, MSNBC, and the rest of the corrupt media cartel have nothing to gain from the country reopening and everything to lose. And the cartel is corruptly influencing public policy with propaganda, with disinformation, and with conspiracy theories in order to serve its own interests.

The pandemic has been a disaster for America and a huge gift for the media’s fear-based programming.

Americans look out at a country that they no longer recognize. They see a place where the Bill of Rights doesn’t apply, where neighbors and loved ones have been indoctrinated by the media to fear each other, and where the recent economic boom seems like a distant memory. But the media sees a vast captive audience and it has no intention of releasing its #StayAtHome captives without a fight.

Every media article, segment, and story against the lockdown is nothing more than digital slave owners fighting to keep its captive audience on the plantation. The reopenings are a liberation, not only allowing people to go back to work, to school, and to reunite with their loved ones, but freeing millions of people hiding indoors, in thrall to the media’s fear campaign, and releasing them into the light.

Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical Left and Islamic terrorism.

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Army Chaplain’s Cause for Canonization Ramps Up

Father Joseph Verbis Lafleur, who recently received his second Purple Heart and Distinguished Service Medal posthumously, served in the Philippines during World War II.
Brian O’Neel
OPELOUSAS, La. — On Oct. 17 in St. Landry Church before family, the local bishop, school students and local dignitaries, heroic Second World War chaplain Father Joseph Verbis Lafleur posthumously received a second Distinguished Service Medal and Purple Heart for actions on board a Japanese prisoner of war ship that cost him his life but saved scores more.
U.S. Rep. Ralph Abraham, R-La., presented the medals to Father Lafleur’s nephew Richard Lafleur and his wife, Carol, at at St. Landry Catholic Church, where the priest celebrated his first Mass following ordination in 1938.
It was the second event honoring the chaplain in as many months, following an annual memorial Mass Sept. 7 attended by some 800 people.
During the war, Father Lafleur served as a chaplain in the Army Air Corps at Clark Field, the Corps’ post in the Philippines, roughly 60 miles west of  Manila .
Chaplain to the Core
The Japanese attacked the post the same day as the attack at Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941. As enemy planes furiously attacked overhead, Father Lafleur ignored bodily safety to aid the wounded and give absolution to the dying. For his bravery, the Army awarded him the Distinguished Service Cross, the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star.
When given the chance to evacuate back to the States, the chaplain refused, saying, “I shall stay here. My place is with the men.”
In May 1942, he was on the island of Mindanao and amongst the last of the American troops to surrender to the Japanese. Thereafter, Father Lafleur became a prisoner of war at the infamous camps at O’Donnell and Cabanatuan, amongst other locations.
Just as he heroically ministered to the troops at Clark Field, Father Lafleur did the same in every camp in which he was imprisoned. The Japanese progressively reduced the amount of medicine and food given to the men, so he sold his watch and glasses to local Filipinos to procure these items. He often gave weak prisoners his own meager rations. Even though he contracted malaria several times, he refused medicine because he always said someone else needed it more.
When a stronger prisoner once stole food from his weaker comrades, the enraged chaplain stormed up to the man and floored him with one punch. He later apologized in his thick Cajun French accent, but this episode demonstrates his zeal for his men.

Additionally, the camps had “hospitals,” which were really places where men were sent to die. Even though it violated camp regulations, Father Lafleur snuck into these buildings to nurse and otherwise tend to the patients. One man credits the care the priest gave him with giving him the hope and courage to get better. Fellow inmates credit him with being a light and tether to civilization, where, otherwise, “survival of the fittest” would have set in.
As if these activities and the brutal work details for which he volunteered — even though as a chaplain and officer he did not have to — weren’t enough, he built a modest chapel, appropriately named St. Peter in Chains. Catholics and other POWs attended his daily Masses for the comfort provided by his beautifully reverent performance of the pre-conciliar liturgy.
A lapsed Baptist named Bill Lowe closely watched all of this and saw in “Father Lafleur something I wished I had.” Lowe converted, which had the added benefit of enabling him to allow his marriage to his high-school sweetheart, who would not marry him unless he adopted the Catholic faith. Lowe reports “many” became Catholic “because of the life and witness of Father Lafleur,” a man for whom parents were naming their children even before he entered the seminary. Lowe’s own son Frank became a priest and Air Force chaplain.
By late summer 1944, losing the war and with American planes regularly bombing their positions in the Philippines, the enemy decided to prevent the POW liberation by evacuating them to Japan.

Heroic End
Thus it was that, Sept. 7, 1944, Father Lafleur and 750 other American prisoners were on the Japanese ship Shin’yō Maru, which sailed as part of a convoy back to the enemy’s homeland.
American intelligence believed the ships were transporting Japanese troops, and the submarine USS Paddle went to investigate the area. Shin’yō Maru was the lead ship in the convoy, and the Paddle’s torpedoes hit the vessel twice. Survivors say the first one hit in the aft hold, and the second one struck the forward hold, where the heroic chaplain was.
The Japanese officer in charge of the POWs would have simply let the Americans sink with the ship. A sympathetic enemy officer, however, opened the holds so the men could escape.
Father Lafleur, emaciated, his hair and beard hanging down past his neck, and wearing only a loincloth, could have been one of the first men into the ocean. However, he insisted all of the 500 or so men in his hold get out before he would evacuate.
The Japanese soldiers fired machine guns at the escaping prisoners, and some even threw grenades into the hold. The Shin’yō broke in half and sank a short while later. The last anyone saw of him, Father Lafleur was helping people up the ladder and out of the hold. Because of his efforts, however, 83 men escaped and swam to shore. In nearby jungles, Philippine guerillas hid them until a Navy submarine came to their rescue.
 That heroism was highlighted in a keynote speech at the 2017 National Catholic Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C., on June 6. Archbishop Timothy Broglio of the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA — who celebrated the memorial Mass for Father Lafleur in 2015 — said of the heroic chaplain: “He was a man for others right to the end. … Father Lafleur responded to his POW situation with creative courage.  He drew on his virtue to care for, protect and fortify the men imprisoned with him.  Many survived because he was a man of virtue who gave unstintingly of himself.  To speak of the greatness of our country is to speak of men and women of virtue who gave of themselves for the benefit of all. We build for a new tomorrow when we draw from that wellspring of virtue.”

Humble Beginnings
Father Lafleur started life in Ville Platte, Louisiana, where he lived until his father abandoned his family, leaving his wife to raise their seven remaining children (one son died in infancy). The mother, who spoke only French, took odd jobs and grew a garden to feed the impoverished family.
His nephew Richard’s wife, Carole Lafleur, relates that while most people threw away the outer leaves of a cabbage, Mrs. Lafleur “kept the bottom leaves to feed the family and sold the heads for money.”
When even this wasn’t enough, the single mother moved her brood to Opelousas to live with her married daughter Olivia. That is where Verbis spent most of his prewar life. Many family members still live in town, including Richard and Carol, who have helped coordinate the September memorial Mass since 2004. Each commemoration of the remarkable priest’s life features a different celebrant. This year, local priest and Air Force chaplain Father Brad Guillory presided. Father Guillory is not only from the same county as Father Lafleur, but he, too, is from Ville Platte, and his first pastoral assignment was, just like Father Lafleur, in Abbeville.
In his homily, Father Guillory said, “If it had not been for Father Lafleur, I might not be a priest or serving in the Air Force. If not for him touching my life, I might not be here tonight.”
Two things about Father Lafleur inspire the chaplain in his own ministry. “One of them is his earnest care for his flock. The other is what he told others during his captivity: ‘My place is with my men,’” he said.
The memorial Mass this fall was the first in many years to be celebrated with Father Lafleur’s own chalice.

St. Landry pastor Father James Brady made two special announcements.
The first was that Father Lafleur will posthumously receive a second Distinguished Service Cross for his actions on the Shin’yō Maru, which occurred this week.
The second was that Bishop J. Douglas Deshotel of Lafayette has invited Father Brady and Father Mark Ledoux “to submit a proposal for the filing of a petition of a cause, and then he will decide whether to allow the submission of an application” for beatification. He stressed this is all “very preliminary” and is not equal to actually opening the cause.
Asked why her uncle being raised to the altars through beatification would be good for the Church, niece Carola Huntley reflected, “He felt he was here on earth to serve other people.”
She added, “By reading his story, people might then get a better understanding of how really important we all are to each other. Because a lot of times we forget about that, whether it’s family, friends or just people in general.”
Carol Lafleur echoed this sentiment, saying, “God gives us love, and I think that’s what Father Lafleur had. He had a love for his God and a love for his country and everyone whom he ever met.”
https://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/army-chaplains-cause-for-canonization-ramps-up
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Dragon Move – Chairman Xi Imposing Mainland National Security Laws Upon Hong Kong


China is signaling they will drop the panda illusion and take a full frontal dragon approach toward Hong Kong. Chairman Xi Jinping is deploying, some say he has already deployed, the Ministry of State Security – China’s leading intelligence agency – into Hong Kong to begin formal control through national security laws.


The move appears to be a direct signal that communist Beijing will not longer accept or allow Hong Kong’s current autonomous status as a free democracy. Beijing signaling “enough is enough”, and Hong Kongers are rightly concerned.  If Xi follows through, we can expect to see even more protests and confrontations; and the possibility President Trump will remove the “special trade status” the U.S. gives to Hong Kong.

Right now Hong Kong is exempt from U.S. tariffs and other economic measures the U.S. has deployed against China.  If Beijing takes full control, that could quickly change.
(Reuters) – Beijing appears determined to stamp out any renewed rebellion against the Communist Party’s authority over the former British colony. China’s largely rubber-stamp parliament, the National People’s Congress, is preparing to circumvent the city’s lawmaking body, the Legislative Council, in drafting the new laws.
The fear among many in Hong Kong is that China intends to criminalize existing freedoms, including criticism of the central government and its policies. It is the latest and biggest step in a concerted effort by Beijing to assert control over Hong Kong and its 7.4 million people.
In recent weeks there had been widespread speculation here that Beijing was planning this move, described by some local commentators as the “nuclear option.” Thursday’s announcement by China nonetheless stunned pro-democracy lawmakers, business leaders and lawyers in the city. It was, they said, a historic turning point – the end of “one country, two systems,” the formula Beijing had promised would allow Hong Kong to retain its way of life and freedom for at least 50 years after the 1997 handover to Chinese rule.
“This represents a real demolition of the one country, two systems idea and also the idea of Hong Kong’s autonomy,” said barrister Wilson Leung, a member of the Progressive Lawyers Group. Leung said extremely harsh sentences had been imposed on dissidents, journalists and lawyers on the mainland under vaguely expressed but draconian laws. “These same vague concepts are now being introduced to Hong Kong,” he said.
Many details of the new laws and exactly how they will be absorbed into Hong Kong’s existing statutes remain unclear. But Beijing has openly expressed its intentions in recent months. It wants to end the cycle of mass protests that have thwarted successive post-colonial administrations each time they have moved to more closely align the city with China’s political and legal system.
[…] Hong Kong is a vital cog in China’s economy. While China still has extensive capital controls and often intervenes in its financial markets and banking system, Hong Kong is one of the most open economies in the world and one of the biggest markets for equity and debt financing.
China uses Hong Kong’s currency, equity and debt markets to attract foreign funds, while international companies use Hong Kong as a launchpad to expand into mainland China. The bulk of foreign direct investment in China continues to be channeled through the city. And many of China’s biggest firms have listed in Hong Kong, often as a springboard to global expansion.  (read more)

Prior to the Wuhan virus President Trump was positioning the confrontation between the U.S. and China based on economics and trade.  Within that dynamic Beijing had a weak hand and President Trump exploited their vulnerabilities with a geopolitical strategy to dismantle China’s one-belt/one-road expansion plan.

President Trump used access to the strong U.S. market to leverage multinational companies away from Chinese manufacturing.  Trump’s tariffs against China were extremely effective; and led to Beijing’s initial acquiescence.   However, it was soon evident that China would not accept their diminished economic outcome.

If Xi moves on Hong Kong, there’s a very strong likelihood President Trump will remove the HK special trade status which will have an immediate impact.


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French alarm at Covid-linked Med pollution .

Video shot by a French environmental NGO in the Mediterranean Sea shows masks and gloves littering the seabed.
Opération mer propre (Operation clean sea) is trying to clean up the coast near the Côte d'Azur resort of Antibes.
It is appalled by this new coronavirus pollution, which adds to the already chronic problem of plastic pollution.
The group says it is sounding the alarm, as Europe slowly emerges from lockdown and people start revisiting beaches in the hot weather.

The group's founder, Laurent Lombard, who shot the underwater footage and posted it on Facebook, says "these masks - we haven't had them for long, and we're going to have billions, so I say watch out, it's the beginnings of a new type of pollution".
Diving off Golfe-Juan, near Antibes, he found five disposable face masks and four latex gloves on the seabed, along with the usual plastic rubbish such as empty bottles.

Already on 14 May - just three days after the French lockdown was eased - street cleaners in Paris complained on social media that many masks had been discarded on the capital's pavements.
An MP in the southern Alpes-Maritimes district, Eric Pauget, has put forward a draft law to increase the fine for littering a public place with masks. It would fine an offender €300 (£265; $330) instead of the current €68, news website LCI reports.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-52807526
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How to Avoid a China-Led World Order


How to Avoid a China-Led World Order
May 25, 2020

The Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning takes part in drills in the western Pacific, April 2018. (Stringer/Reuters)

Parallels between China’s current global rise and 
our own history may help us avoid complacency.


 As the COVID-19 crisis has unfolded, it has opened our eyes to China’s rapidly expanding role in the international order and global economy. Beijing’s outsize role in the World Health Organization has come under attack, as has the muscular diplomacy used by China’s foreign ministry in responding to criticism.

Three decades of American global hegemony after the Cold War led to complacency about the growing role of China. But changes to the U.S. National Defense Strategy in 2018 signaled a new willingness to confront China and Russia, shifting the focus from the Global War on Terror. China’s current role has historic parallels that may be closer to home than is often realized. At the start of the 20th century, the United States had emerged from a civil war and a period of rapid industrialization to become a global power almost overnight. By 1920, the country was beginning to chart a path similar to China’s today.

Comparing China’s rise in this century to that of the U.S. between 1920 and 1945 can provide us with clues to what’s coming next in international affairs. Today China is on the verge of being able to challenge the U.S. military in the Pacific. President Donald Trump has spoken of a new “super duper” missile that will help Washington keep up with the threat.

Like the U.S., China has undergone a transformation from isolationism to a role of central involvement in international affairs. As Max Edling has written, America was a kind of “Hercules in the cradle” in the 19th century. During the era of the Monroe Doctrine, Washington sought to project power only in the Americas; by the late 19th century, the U.S. naval strategist Alfred Thayer Mahan was prophesying that the U.S. would become an international sea power. As a sign of American power, Teddy Roosevelt, known for his aphorism “speak softly and carry a big stick,” sent a fleet of battleships around the world in 1907. Similarly, as China grew more powerful in the 1990s, Deng Xiaoping’s motto was “hide your strength, bide time.” Last year, China showcased its massive new strength in a military parade brimming with stealth drones, missiles, and other technologies.

China is pursuing its Belt and Road Initiative to connect itself through Central Asia and the Middle East to Europe and increase its role in Africa. It has run up against some Western resistance, including concerns over Huawei’s 5G technology. This desire to use trade as a marker of power looks a lot like a darker version of Woodrow Wilson’s push for free trade and “making the world safe for democracy.” China’s model is to work with Russia and other authoritarian powers to build a multipolar world, thus reducing the U.S. role.

Salvador Dalí’s 1943 painting Geopoliticus Child Watching the Birth of the New Man shows a man being born by emerging from the North American continent on an egg-like world, as a child clinging to an adult figure watches apprehensively or excitedly. Painted during World War II, while the artist was living in America, the work evokes a sense of anxiety over what role the U.S. would take on in the postwar world. Today, as the world is confronted with the rise of a more assertive China, as in its threat to boycott Australia over criticism of its management of the coronavirus outbreak, Dalí’s painting has a new resonance — what are we watching emerge in Asia? China has been biding its time, but it has now become evident that its push for an expanded international role is barreling forward. Its imposition of a security law on Hong Kong last week, as the COVID-19 crisis continued, illustrated that the status quo is changing.

The pandemic looks set to accelerate China’s changing role. Much as the U.S. came to dominate the world relatively quickly, becoming one of the world’s two superpowers in the aftermath of the Great Depression and the devastation of world war, economic upheaval today could enhance China’s position. The pandemic may set in motion a series of events, over a much briefer period than U.S. strategists are prepared for, that ends with China atop the world order. If the U.S. or its allies are serious about preserving the liberal world order, they need to move quickly. Otherwise we may see in the next quarter century the rapid changes that took place 100 years ago, only this time they won’t end with U.S. dominance: They will end with China, along with Russia and Iran, in the driver’s seat.

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Chinese Navy Anniversary

China showed off the first of its new generation of guided-missile destroyers as President Xi Jinping reviewed a major naval parade held in mist and rain to mark 70 years since the founding of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy.
Pictured, the Chinese Navy's guided missile destroyer Taiyuan takes part in a naval parade to mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy, April 23, 2019. 

Jason Lee/Reuters

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U.S. military says Russia deployed fighter jets to Libya

May 26, 2020
TUNIS (Reuters) – The U.S. military said on Tuesday that Russia has deployed fighter aircraft to Libya to support Russian mercenaries fighting for eastern forces, adding to concerns of a new escalation in the conflict.
“Russian military aircraft are likely to provide close air support and offensive fire,” the United States Africa command said in a statement it posted on its website and on Twitter.
Libya’s civil war has drawn in regional and global powers with what the United Nations has called a huge influx of weapons and fighters in violation of an arms embargo.
Russia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt support the eastern-based Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan National Army, which launched an offensive last year to seize the capital Tripoli.
However, in recent weeks the internationally recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) has with extensive Turkish backing pushed Haftar back from his foothold in southern Tripoli and from some other parts of the northwest.
The United States has played a less prominent role in the Libyan war than it did at an earlier stage, when NATO helped rebels overthrow the country’s autocratic ruler Muammar Gaddafi.
The statement said the aircraft had arrived from an airbase in Russia after transiting via Syria, where they were repainted to conceal their Russian origin. There was no immediate response from the Russian Defence Ministry to a request for comment
.
On Saturday, Russian fighters in Libya were flown out of a town south of Tripoli by their Libyan allies after retreating from frontlines in Tripoli, the town’s mayor said.
The LNA has denied any foreigners are fighting with it, but the United Nations said this month that Russian private military contractor Wagner Group had up to 1,200 people in Libya.
“Russia has employed state-sponsored Wagner in Libya to conceal its direct role and to afford Moscow plausible deniability of its malign actions,” the U.S. statement said.
It quoted U.S. Air Force General Jeff Harrigian as warning that if Russia seized bases on Libya’s coast, it would “create very real security concerns on Europe’s southern flank”.
The statement said neither the LNA nor mercenaries would be able to “arm, operate and sustain these fighters” — meaning fighter aircraft — without the support they had from Russia.Last week the LNA announced it would be launching a major new air campaign against the GNA and said it had refurbished four war jets.
https://www.oann.com/u-s-military-says-russia-deployed-fighter-jets-to-libya/
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The Deep State Plotters are Surrounded...


Devin Nunes Targets Rod Rosenstein’s Corrupt Activity to Initiate Robert Mueller

When contemplating the malign activity of Rod Rosenstein; and how angered President Trump is with former AG Jeff Sessions; it is worth remembering that Sessions requested Rod Rosenstein as his deputy, and then immediately thereafter Sessions recused himself, effectively positioning Rosenstein to run the operation against President Trump.

That’s the background context for a great interview by Gregg Jarrett where Jarrett walks through the timeline of events with former HPSCI Chairman Devin Nunes. At the 5:30 point of the interview, Nunes identifies Rosenstein as part of the coup attempt and blasts him for how Rosenstein structured the fraudulent scope memos.

Nunes says his investigation is now looking at the part of the effort where Robert Mueller’s investigation was used as part of the initiating effort to remove President Trump. With the focus on the Mueller team, Nunes is now making additional criminal referrals based on his findings. WATCH:


 The Obama-era surveillance network is at the center of all of this.

It’s worth remembering Sharyl Attkisson has identified Rosenstein as a defendant in her lawsuit about illegal surveillance operations carried out while she was a CBS reporter.

According to the lawsuit (full pdf) Rod Rosenstein, as the U.S. Attorney for Maryland, was in charge of the Obama 2011 and 2012 operation to monitor journalists specific to Ms. Attkisson’s reporting on Fast-n-Furious and Benghazi.


Former DOJ Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein is named in the Attkisson lawsuit as the person who was in charge of the operation; and the former head of the FBI DC field office, Shawn Henry is also outlined.

Mr. Henry is the head of Crowdstrike, a contractor for the government and a politically connected data security and forensic company.  Those who have followed the aspects related to the FBI use of the NSA database to illegally monitor U.S. persons; and those who followed the DNC cover story of Russia “hacking”; will be familiar with Crowdstrike.


What I find additionally interesting is the overall timeline in the bigger picture.

In the April 2017 release from FISC Judge Rosemary Collyer outlining the abuses of the FISA-702 process by FBI “contractors”, where the NSA database was being use for unlawful surveillance of U.S. persons, Collyer specifically noted the findings of her review of the period from November ’15 to May ’16 (85% non compliant rate) was likely to have been happening since 2012. [Go Deep]

The “IRS Scandal” were the DOJ was creating a list of U.S. persons for political targeting, and requested CD ROM’s of tax filings, was the lead-up to the 2012 exploitation of the NSA database. [The Secret Research Project] So there’s a larger picture of government surveillance under the Obama administration that becomes more clear.

Political spying 1.0 was actually the weaponization of the IRS. This is where the term “Secret Research Project” originated as a description from the Obama team. It involved the U.S. Department of Justice under Eric Holder and the FBI under Robert Mueller. It never made sense why Eric Holder requested over 1 million tax records via CD ROM, until overlaying the timeline of the FISA abuse:

The IRS sent the FBI “21 disks constituting a 1.1 million page database of information from 501(c)(4) tax exempt organizations, to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.” The transaction occurred in October 2010 (link)

Why disks? Why send a stack of DISKS to the DOJ and FBI when there’s a pre-existing financial crimes unit within the IRS. All of the evidence within this sketchy operation came directly to the surface in early spring 2012.

This is the same time-frame when DNI James Clapper falsely denied to congress about the U.S. government -through the NSA- collecting metadata on all U.S. electronic communication.  This is the same time-frame where CIA Director John Brennan was monitoring the computer networks of congressional intelligence oversight staff.

Within the Attkisson lawsuit the DOJ inspector general is identified as adverse to the interests of the case.  Meaning DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz was engaged in behavior to help the institution cover-up what independent computer forensic technicians were able to discover.   Employees from the IG’s office also told Ms. Attkisson they had received instructions from the DC offices adverse to the interest of truthful discovery.

In addition to the institutional cover-up effort; it would be worth noting that current DOJ and FBI officials, who have been identified as holding corrupt motives, are still being positioned at key offices.  An example is FBI Supervisory Special Agent David Archey (Mueller Team) being promoted to head up the Virginia FBI field office.

Obviously the DC institutional swamp is very deep and very corrupt.  Current and former politicians and federal officials who have engaged in corrupt behavior, or who have facilitated corrupt -potentially unlawful- surveillance activity, are still working within the system to avoid exposure.

Another recent example is former Christine Blasey-Ford hoax facilitator and Andrew McCabe attorney, Michael Bromwich, being hired by corrupt Chicago prosecutor Kim Foxx in an effort to protect herself from the outcome of the Jussie Smollett hoax in Chicago.  Why does a Cook County, Illinois, State Attorney need to hire a DC-based lawyer?

It was obvious early on the Jussie Smollett hoax was connected to several members of the Obama team and network.  Michael Bromwich is a former DOJ inspector general with ongoing direct contacts with corrupt DOJ and FBI officials inside the institutions.  Chicago State Attorney Foxx hiring Bromwichis yet another example of DC managing the cover.

Whether it’s the identified weaponization of NSA databases; or whether it’s corrupt FBI officials covering for each-other and the DOJ ‘declining to prosecute’; or whether it’s current AG Bill Barr appearing to cover for the transparently corrupt former DAG Rod Rosenstein; or whether it’s the need for the DOJ to hide the scope memos until DNI Ric Grenell showed up; one thing remains brutally obvious…

…This entire surveillance network hits on the epicenter of DC’s corrupt interests.


Through a FOIA request Judicial Watch received Rod Rosenstein’s email communication around the appointment of Special Counsel Robert Mueller [See Here]. The content further confirms when Rosenstein took Mueller to the White House on May 16th, 2017, the purpose was for Mueller to preview his target, President Trump.

Rosenstein took Mueller to visit Jeff Sessions on May 13th, the specifics of that email likely concern keeping prior private conversations out of the discussion with Sessions.


If we insert the Rosenstein email conversation into our timeline the picture is clear.
Perhaps the most important aspect is how DAG Rosenstein took Robert Mueller to the White House on May 16th, to interview President Trump.  The decision to appoint Mueller as special counsel was pre-determined prior to the White House visit:

♦James Comey was fired at approximately 5:00pm EST on Tuesday May 9th, 2017. The next morning, less than 15 hours after Comey was fired, Rosenstein contacted Robert Mueller about the special counsel appointment.

 During the congressional testimony of Robert Mueller, Representative Andy Biggs noted evidence of a phone call between Mueller and Rod Rosenstein on Wednesday May 10th, 2017, at 7:45am.  Listen carefully at the 2:26 point of the video.



From the Judicial Watch FOIA release we can see that following the 7:45am phone call Rod Rosenstein received contact info from Mueller’s asst (8:09am), and Rosenstein emailed his assistant at 8:13am with instructions to contact Mueller’s asst and set up a meeting for Friday May 12th:


Marcia Murphy from the Office of the DAG, then followed through and set up a meeting for 8:00am, Friday May 12th at Main Justice, between Rosenstein and Mueller:


Following that May 12th 8:00am meeting with Mueller, Rod Rosenstein then met with Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe Andrew McCabe.  –  According to McCabe:

… “[Rosenstein] asked for my thoughts about whether we needed a special counsel to oversee the Russia case. I said I thought it would help the investigation’s credibility. Later that day, I went to see Rosenstein again. This is the gist of what I said: I feel strongly that the investigation would be best served by having a special counsel.” (link)

Later that night (May 12th), at 9:15pm Rosenstein then emails Robert Mueller: “I assume you realize the boss and his staff do not know about our discussions.”

That email is directly related to a meeting scheduled on Saturday May 13thbetween Rosenstein, Mueller and Jeff Sessions; which is confirmed in the Andy Biggs questioning.


 ♦Sunday May 14th –  Comey transmitted copies of Memos 2, 4, and 6, and a partially redacted copy of Memo 7 to Patrick Fitzgerald, who was one of Comey’s personal attorneys.  Fitzgerald received the email and PDF attachment from Comey at 2:27 p.m. on May 14, 2017, per the IG report.

 ♦Monday May 15th, McCabe states he and Rosenstein conferred again about the Special Counsel approach. McCabe: “I brought the matter up with him again after the weekend.”
On this same day was when James Rybicki called SSA Whistleblower to notify him of Comey’s memos. The memos were “stored” in a “reception area“, and in locked drawers in James Rybicki’s office.

 ♦Tuesday May 16th – Per the IG report: “On the morning of May 16, Comey took digital photographs of both pages of Memo 4 with his personal cell phone. Comey then sent both photographs, via text message, to Richman.

Back in Main Justice at 12:30pm Rod Rosenstein, Andrew McCabe, Jim Crowell and Tashina Guahar all appear to be part of this meeting.  I should note that alternate documentary evidence, gathered over the past two years, supports the content of this McCabe memo.  Including texts between Lisa Page and Peter Strzok:


 [Sidebar: pay attention to the *current* redactions; they appear to be placed by existing DOJ officials in an effort to protect Rod Rosenstein for his duplicity in: (A) running the Mueller sting operation at the white house on the same day; (B) the appointment of Robert Mueller as special counsel, which was pre-determined before the Oval Office meeting.]
While McCabe was writing this afternoon memo, still May 16th, Rod Rosenstein took Robert Mueller to the White House for a meeting in the oval office with President Trump and VP Mike Pence.

After six days of phone calls, emails and in person meetings, this visit to the White House was clearly Rod Rosenstein introducing Robert Mueller to the target of the investigation.  Rosenstein already knew he was going to appoint Mueller; and Mueller, along with the small group in the FBI, already knew Mueller was going to be appointed.

Later that night (May 16th), following the Mueller visit, there was a debriefing session back at Main Justice.  This evening meeting appears to be Lisa Page, Rod Rosenstein and Andrew McCabe; along with Tashina Gauhar again taking notes.


 ♦ Wednesday May 17th, 2017:  Rod Rosenstein and Andrew McCabe go to brief the congressional “Gang-of-Eight”: Paul Ryan, Nancy Pelosi, Devin Nunes, Adam Schiff, Mitch McConnell, Chuck Schumer, Richard Burr and Mark Warner.

… […] “On the afternoon of May 17, Rosenstein and I sat at the end of a long conference table in a secure room in the basement of the Capitol. We were there to brief the so-called Gang of Eight—the majority and minority leaders of the House and Senate and the chairs and ranking members of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees. Rosenstein had, I knew, made a decision to appoint a special counsel in the Russia case.”
[…] “After reminding the committee of how the investigation began, I told them of additional steps we had taken. Then Rod took over and announced that he had appointed a special counsel to pursue the Russia investigation, and that the special counsel was Robert Mueller.” (link)

Immediately following this May 17, 2017, Go8 briefing, Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein notified the public of the special counsel appointment.

According to President Trump’s Attorney John Dowd, the White House was stunned by the decision. [Link] Coincidentally, AG Jeff Sessions was in the oval office for unrelated business when White House counsel Don McGahn came in and informed the group.

Jeff Sessions immediately offered his resignation, and Sessions’ chief-of-staff Jody Hunt went back to the Main Justice office to ask Rosenstein what the hell was going on.

Resources/Citations:


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