Hanson Corona Virus Commentary. BIBBI Get Another Chance. The Visa Card.

New Impeachment Rules Would Snare Obama BY: Victor Davis Hanson

Barack Obama’s eight-year tenure was detrimental to the United States, but like most of his nonbelievers, I harbor no animosity for his person. Few critics that I know advocated that Obama be impeached, much less removed from office, before his reelection bid—even amid his worst scandals and dangerous policies. But we are now in a new age, whose protocols might have made it impossible for the Obama Administration to have finished two terms.  Remember, his administration ran some 2,000 guns to Mexican cartels in some hare-brained scheme to monitor violence spilling into the United States. Under the new customs, he should have been impeached for instructing Attorney General Eric Holder to refuse to testify to Congress about Fast and Furious, or at least for not handing over subpoenaed documents. Imagine a Trump gun-walking scheme in Mexico.  It was bad enough that Holder was the first attorney general to be held in contempt of Congress, well aside from the embarrassment of his unhinged outbursts about “my people” (hint: his “my” did not mean Americans of all races and creeds). We all remember Holder’s lunatic dismissals of his own country as “a nation of cowards.” (Imagine Bill Barr referring to “my people” or calling Americans cowards) Fine—politicians and bureaucrats misspeak. It is no surprise that radical progressives like Holder are both partisans and tribalists or that they don’t always have positive thoughts about America, past or present. But Obama won the election. So voters had ample warning from his past that he would likely put as many leftists as he wished into government. He had the legal right and political rationale to do so, without his opponents inventing crimes to remove them.  At least he did before the Trump hysteria.  Criminalizing Politics I once served briefly on the nonpartisan presidentially appointed American Battlefield Monuments Commission that oversees the cemeteries and graves of Americans who died and were buried overseas. The fellow commissioners, dedicated professionals with far longer tenures on the commission than my own, were never political but shared a common commitment to protect and enhance the integrity of one of America’s most hallowed institutions. Yet all of us were summarily fired, shortly after Obama was elected in 2008, and told to surrender immediately our official passports and vacate the commission. As a result, the board went inert until belated new Obama appointments were made. Again, fine, I thought at the time. Such is the way of all politics when another party takes the White House. I most certainly did not think Obama was creating a “climate of fear” or was “paranoid” in weeding out, even from nonpartisan, unpaid honorific posts, any non-supporters. Nor did I think it was so odd when Obama went much further, and fired dozens of U.S. attorney holdovers from the Bush Administration. “Elections matter,” I remember Eric Holder saying of the mass firings at the time. He was right; they do. Clinton fired far more prosecutors than did Trump—as was his perfect right as well. So, who was to say that Obama was “paranoid” in “eliminating” potential critics, whether attorneys, government appointees, or ambassadors? Who knows? If I were president, I might well have fired myself from even such a nonpartisan commission. Who knows? Had Obama left in office a Bush holdover federal attorney, the partisan might have become a Viva la résistance“Resister”, or invoked the Logan Act to hound one of the president’s own liberal appointees, or impeded his administration, or refused to carry out a presidential executive order, or helped to surveil Obama appointees, or even leaked confidential presidential conversations to the media, or called up the New York Times and Washington Post to give a rendition of an Obama phone call to the president of Mexico, or might have written an anonymous op-ed for the New York Times? For that matter, I certainly did not join any “Resistance” in 2009—on the sick rationale that Obama might be a Nazi-like interloper who had occupied the United States as Hitler did France, and sent us true patriots into the Maquis to “resist.” Do not insult our collective intelligence by suggesting that Donald J. Trump abused the Constitution and the office of president in a way that would have been unthinkable to Barack Obama. Obama was elected for four years. We critics lost the 2008 election, and would have to wait four years to send him home, or, as it turned out in 2012, eight years to find relief. That is the American way. Obama’s clever campaign made both McCain’s and Romney’s amateurish in comparison, and so there was a logic in his victory over two inept candidates, even if both would have made better presidents. We don’t recall either the media or critics suggesting that Obama was crazy in his often repeated “elections matter” and “I won” hyper-partisanship, or that he should have been removed under the 25th Amendment for silly apologies tours or riffs on the Crusades or Americans not being exceptional or his adolescent furtive duck-outs to have a smoke.  No mainstream pundit claimed Obama was a pathological liar for making up most of his “autobiography” or flat-out lying about Obamacare. When Reggie Love claimed he and a bored Obama played spades during the Bin Laden raid, few paid much attention. Nor did Obama do anything impeachable for stupidly and frequently weighing in during ongoing arrests and criminal proceedings—such as those of the Skip Gates Cambridge psychodrama or the Michael Brown and Trayvon Martin shootings.   The Bowe Bergdahl disastrous swap was illegal, dangerous, and stupid, but not therein grounds for impeachment. Nor was impeachable the even worse Iran Deal that deliberately created an echo chamber among obsequious media to hide key elements of the “treaty”—hostage payoffs and nocturnal shipments of Danegeld. After all, presidents sometimes do stupid stuff. If we impeached every president for chicanery, we would have had no Lincoln, who suspended habeas corpus and rounded up Copperhead opponents, or FDR who put U.S. citizens of Japanese descent into detention camps. All presidents can get rough in their language. I noted and criticized Obama’s occasional potty mouth (e.g. “teabaggers”) and his puerile braggadocio about taking guns to knife fights, getting in their faces, and punishing enemies. All that was silly and nauseous, but certainly not proof that Obama should have been impeached or become the object of a FBI, CIA, or special counsel investigation.   Scandal Upon Scandal I don’t know quite what “abuse of power” and “obstruction of Congress” mean in the context of impeachment. But if they now exist as legitimate impeachable offenses, then we should have called for Obama’s impeachment when he refused congressional subpoenas in the Fast and Furious mess, subverted the treaty-making prerogative of the U.S. Senate with the Iran deal, and simply nullified federal immigration law with executive-order amnesties and laxities in a manner that on over 20 prior occasions he had warned supporters that to do so would have been illegal and monarchical.  When Lois Lerner invoked the Fifth Amendment and the subsequent testimonies of others established that the Obama IRS deliberately sabotaged conservative nonprofits to emasculate their criticism during the 2012 election, I thought the gambit was outrageous, even criminal. But I assumed that we still should let the voters in a few months, not a special prosecutor, decide to what degree Obama himself was directly responsible for such skullduggery.  Ditto our former president’s outrageous quid pro quo deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin, when he was caught in a web of pre-election deceit and finagling, this time on a hot mic in Seoul. Even from inadvertent snippets, it was clear Obama was outlining how he would consider being flexible on missile defense in Europe (and later he was so elastic that he canceled the needed project) if “Vladimir” would just give him some space before his reelection bid. And Vladimir did just that by putting off his invasions of Crimea and Ukraine until after Obama was safely reelected.  What is little noticed about Obama quid pro quo is that he and Putin actually went through with it—and to the clear detriment of Eastern Europe, Crimea, Ukraine, and U.S. security. Remember, the hot mic was an inadvertent public reminder, an encapsulation of what had likely been spoken earlier in private and at length. We did not need a special counsel to investigate the disastrous reset policy and years of Russian appeasement that had reversed George W. Bush’s sanctions after Putin’s 2008 invasion of Ossetia. I thought it outrageous, but not proof of impeachable “collusion,” that Obama refused to sell the hard-pressed Ukrainians Javelin anti-tank missiles, in fears of agitating “Vladimir.” We still rue that John Kerry foolishly invited Putin into the Middle East after a 40-year Russian hiatus. All that Obama could offer to Putin for years of election interference was a lame “cut it out.” But then again, he just knew Hillary was going to win and did not wish to give the sure loser Trump any grounds for whining about the election results. After the Benghazi hearings—another pre-reelection scandal—it was obvious that the Obama administration had been caught flat-out lying. It had systematically relaxed security in Libya after its disastrous regime-change bombing of Gaddafi (remember Hilary Clinton’s “We came, we saw . . . he died”? [Cackle! cackle!]), and then lied by denying such laxity had led to American deaths.  Then it prevaricated yet again to cover up that lie by claiming it was impossible to send aid to our fighters trapped and in extremis.  Then it lied still once more about the lies about the lies by claiming that a single obscure video maker had caused the mayhem. Therefore, Obama summarily had a pathetic resident alien fall guy Nakoula Basseley Nakoula jailed on a trumped-up charge of a minor parole violation. According to the new progressive standards, we were all wrong to simply snooze when Obama overreached. Speaking of civil liberties, was it an impeachable offense to monitor the communications of journalists like the Associated Press reporters and Fox News’s James Rosen? Why did Obama’s CIA Director John Brennan lie twice under oath to Congress and why did James Clapper, his director of national intelligence, also perjure himself? Weren’t those greater offenses than the campaign contribution violation of Dinesh D’Souza’s that sent him to jail? Why did the Obama Administration tap the communications of foreign leaders from Benjamin Netanyahu to Angela Merkel? And why did it collude, using U.S. taxpayer dollars no less, with the opposition in the Israeli election of 2015 in hopes of defeating Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu? Are not, we are told, governments not to interfere in the free elections of other countries? Who set or tolerated such a corrupt culture?  Still, excesses happen. I did not argue that Obama should be impeached for such flagrant sabotages of the rule of law—neither when James Comey interfered in the 2016 election with his schizophrenic press conferences and confused and contradictory public statements, nor when Attorney General Loretta Lynch met secretly with Bill Clinton on a tarmac at the Phoenix airport and hid such a meeting.   I don’t remember anyone calling for mass firings, but then again Obama kept quiet how his FBI and Justice Department were warping the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance courts to spy on Carter Page in hopes of finding dirt on Donald Trump before the election. Comey, Brennan, and Clapper were all briefing Obama on their illegal activity—a fact that might explain why they are now so sure they will never be held to account.  Perhaps without such Obama-appointed scoundrels, there would have followed no “Crossfire Hurricane” hit job that seeded a Clinton-bought phony dossier on Trump, her campaign rival, throughout the highest levels of the Obama Administration and the media, and thus ensured it bore fruit before the 2016 election.  Insulting Our Collective Intelligence The media, the current progressive party, and the unhinged punditocracy have redefined all of the above behavior. According to their own standards, we were all wrong to simply snooze when Obama overreached. Under our just established current rules of presidential audit, Obama obstructed Congress by ignoring subpoenas and invoking executive privilege. He abused his power by making up immigration law and undermining the enforcement of existing statutes. Presidents are supposed to faithfully execute our laws, not undermine them or make them up. Obama allowed sanctuary cities to openly negate federal law and went after the state of Arizona when it dared to help to enforce federal law.  Obama weaponized federal agencies like the IRS, and used his presidential leverage to go after the Trump campaign and transition, by using Hillary Clinton’s hired foreign national, Christopher Steele, to dump false information before an election. The Obama scandal-ridden Veterans Administration was a veritable wreck. People died in Benghazi, at VA hospitals, in Fast and Furious, and because of the Iran Deal and the Bergdahl swap. Obama cut quid pro quo deals with foreign leaders to assist his own reelection at the expense of the nation’s security. He paid one of the highest fines leveled in the history of federal financing of campaigns, for flagrant violations in 2008—a fact that was mysteriously not released to the public and voters by federal officials until four years later and only after Obama was safely reelected in 2012.  Under Obama’s supervision, foreign money and foreign actors improperly played roles in the 2008, 2012, and 2016 elections. Meanwhile, Eric Holder ignored clear evidence of election interference at the polls by dropping charges against New Black Panther Party activists intimidating voters. In terms of the current pettiness in the context of the various complaints against Trump, we forget that Obama likewise never released his medical records (other than a boilerplate one-page “summary” from his doctor), played an excessive amount of golf, lied repeatedly with assurance that Americans would neither lose their doctors nor health plans under Obamacare, and in general presaged what is now considered alleged proof of Trump’s unfitness to be president.   Neither Adam Schiff nor Nancy Pelosi offered a word of rebuke about Russia’s interest in Uranium One, Bill Clinton’s speaking in Moscow, huge donations to the Clinton Foundation from Russian-connected oligarchs, the cancellation of anti-Russian missile defense or the denial of Javelins to Ukraine—much less that a bought foreign national worked for Hillary Clinton in league with Russian actors to smear her opponent before the election—a fact known again to President Obama whose intelligence agencies worked hand-in-glove with the Steele dossier. OK and fine. But do not insult our collective intelligence by suggesting that Donald J. Trump abused the Constitution and the office of president in a way that would have been unthinkable to Barack Obama.   Obama was not impeached not because he did not do things that are now defined as impeachable, but because his opposition in the House did not do what Democrats later most willingly did: attempt a coup to remove a president without cause.

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This from a very reliable source and a lot of it is common sense:

Dear Family and Friends, as some of you may recall, when I was a professor of pathology at the University of California San Diego, I was one of the first molecular virologists in the world to work on coronaviruses (the 1970s). I was the first to demonstrate the number of genes the virus contained. Since then, I have kept up with the coronavirus field and its multiple clinical transfers into the human population (e.g., SARS, MERS), from different animal sources.

The current projections for its expansion in the US are only probable, due to continued insufficient worldwide data, but it is most likely to be widespread by mid to late March and April.

Here is what I have done and the precautions that I take and will take. These are the same precautions I currently use during our influenza seasons, except for the mask and gloves.:

1) NO HANDSHAKING! Use a fist bump, slight bow, elbow bump, etc.

2) Use ONLY your knuckle to touch light switches. elevator buttons, etc.. Lift the gasoline dispenser with a paper towel or use a disposable glove.

3) Open doors with your closed fist or hip - do not grasp the handle with your hand, unless there is no other way to open the door. Especially important on bathroom and post office/commercial doors.

4) Use disinfectant wipes at the stores when they are available, including wiping the handle and child seat in grocery carts.

5) Wash your hands with soap for 10-20 seconds and/or use a greater than 60% alcohol-based hand sanitizer whenever you return home from ANY activity that involves locations where other people have been.

6) Keep a bottle of sanitizer available at each of your home's entrances. AND in your car for use after getting gas or touching other contaminated objects when you can't immediately wash your hands.

7) If possible, cough or sneeze into a disposable tissue and discard. Use your elbow only if you have to. The clothing on your elbow will contain infectious virus that can be passed on for up to a week or more!

WHAT I HAVE STOCKED IN PREPARATION FOR THE PANDEMIC SPREAD TO THE US:

1) Latex or nitrile latex disposable gloves for use when going shopping, using the gasoline pump, and all other outside activity when you come in contact with contaminated areas.

Note: This virus is spread in large droplets by coughing and sneezing. This means that the air will not infect you! BUT all the surfaces where these droplets land are infectious for about a week on average - everything that is associated with infected people will be contaminated and potentially infectious. The virus is on surfaces and you will not be infected unless your unprotected face is directly coughed or sneezed upon. This virus only has cell receptors for lung cells (it only infects your lungs). The only way for the virus to infect you is through your nose or mouth via your hands or an infected cough or sneeze onto or into your nose or mouth.

2) Stock up now with disposable surgical masks and use them to prevent you from touching your nose and/or mouth (We touch our nose/mouth 90X/day without knowing it!). This is the only way this virus can infect you - it is lung-specific. The mask will not prevent the virus in a direct sneeze from getting into your nose or mouth - it is only to keep you from touching your nose or mouth.

3) Stock up now with hand sanitizers and latex/nitrile gloves (get the appropriate sizes for your family). The hand sanitizers must be alcohol-based and greater than 60% alcohol to be effective.

4) Stock up now with zinc lozenges. These lozenges have been proven to be effective in blocking coronavirus (and most other viruses) from multiplying in your throat and nasopharynx. Use as directed several times each day when you begin to feel ANY "cold-like" symptoms beginning. It is best to lie down and let the lozenge dissolve in the back of your throat and nasopharynx. Cold-Eeze lozenges is one brand available, but there are other brands available.

I, as many others do, hope that this pandemic will be reasonably contained, BUT I personally do not think it will be. Humans have never seen this snake-associated virus before and have no internal defense against it. Tremendous worldwide efforts are being made to understand the molecular and clinical virology of this virus. Unbelievable molecular knowledge about the genomics, structure, and virulence of this virus has already been achieved. BUT, there will be NO drugs or vaccines available this year to protect us or limit the infection within us. Only symptomatic support is available.

I hope these personal thoughts will be helpful during this potentially catastrophic pandemic. Good luck to all of us.

James Robb, MD FCAP

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BIBI pulled it off?

Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing bloc wins majority - exit polls

It is expected that after the third election in one year, this time the prime minister will succeed in forming a government.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing bloc beat Benny Gantz's Blue and White Party-led Center-Left bloc in Israel's third election on Monday winning 59 seats needed for a majority in the Knesset, according to exit polls on the major television networks.

Exit polls published by Channel 12 predict that the Likud Party stands at 37 seats while Blue and White is on 33 seats. The Joint List, according to the poll, has 14 seats. A total of 9 seats are predicted for Shas and 7 for UTJ, while another 7 seats are for Yamina. Otzma Yehudit will not pass the threshold. Labor-Gesher-Meretz are predicted to receive 7 seats, meaning the right-wing bloc stands at 60 seats altogether whilst the center-left stands at 40, with Yisrael Beytenu on 6.

While Netanyahu fell short of the 61 majority needed to form a ruling coalition, he is expected to begin immediately trying to recruit two defectors from the Center-Left camp who he would need to form a government. 

The results were viewed as a major victory for Netanyahu whose right-wing bloc after the last election in September was only 55. The country has had a caretaker government since the first election was called in December 2018

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I listened to the"Town Hall" interview of Bloomberg this evening. First it was a saner approach, it gave me an opportunity to hear him respond to questions, the questions were good and he answered them in a thoughtful manner.

Were I a progressive he would be my candidate and were he to be elected, which I still believe is a long shot, I would feel comfortable he is the best of the lot of bizarre Democrat selections.

I still am not comfortable with his age, nor do I believe his policies would necessarily be substantially better than Trump's. Yes, he would make a more dignified president. 

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What I am about to write will be viewed as racial whereas, I believe it is basically factual and I am simply writing what others fear saying.

Black citizens have been cheated when it comes to being given the opportunity to get a solid education that will prepare them for the coming decades. They are partly to blame because they continue to be enslaved to a party that supports unions which are more interested in protecting their jobs and political power than seeing all children get the finest education our system is capable of providing/delivering.

Quality of education has become an economic issue and wealthy have options.  Symbolically, Trump made this evident during two episodes of his SOTUS when he gave a young black female student a scholarship and the male grandson of a newly promoted  black officer an educational opportunity as well.

I have written for decades, education, a solid curricula, is the best way for all our citizen's  to lift themselves out of their economic and social plight because education. in combination with one's genes and family background, is a powerful force.  This does not mean all will succeed but the leverage students obtain from education cannot be replaced. There is no substitute.

That said, and I seriously doubt many will disagree, I will now wander off the reservation and extrapolate the failure of the type of education I spelled out with what I see happening.

It seems to me, Democrats work over time constructing voting blocs and pandering to them during the campaign season. I consider this to be the height of hypocrisy. Far too many of our inner cities are run by less than qualified politicians. Schools no longer teach civics and those who govern  have no idea what standards are associated with what it means to be a good citizen. Far too many are nothing but shysters.

They have not been exposed or challenged to give this any thought. How many even know who that French Dude was who came over to America, wrote about what he found that made America exceptional? I daresay they have never been exposed to the dictates of our constitution much less our Bill of Rights.  They probably think it can be paid with a VISA Card.

Consequently, it is little wonder our Republic now rests on a weak foundation and politicians, like Bernie Sanders,  have traction among our "unwashed" youth.  That they would give thought to replacing capitalism with socialism is abysmal. 

When progressives demand a fair educational shake to voters they pander to then, and only then, will America be capable of true greatness. Until then, we will muddle along best as we can until the biggest and most dangerous virus of all, disparate educational opportunities, will bring our society crashing.

Incidentally while politicians, and even Trump, harangue the drug industry to move faster on an anti-virus inoculation my wife said they should demand we do the same in solving cancer? I love it when she is logical and sees through all the nonsense that surrounds us and fills the air.

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I have been a supporter of Fitton's "Judicial Watch" for years.  As I always say, the law grinds fine and ever so slow.

Thank You, Judicial Watch: Hillary Clinton Must Be Deposed Over Her Private Email Server Fiasco

The judge who has ruled proves our society is open and change occurs when those who care are focused and persistent. Seriously doubt this would happen under a tyrannical form of government.

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Chris Matthews finally got an electric shock up his leg.

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Is The Fix In and Will Bernie Supporters Stay Home? BIBI Might Have Squeaked By Only To Face A Vindictive Prosecutor.

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VIDEOS

Why Are so Many Young People Unhappy?+++++++++++++++++++++++++In my previous memo I forgot to mention a few facts with respect to the economy:

a) No way Trump could  anticipate the Boeing debacle and the impact it would have on domestic growth and

b) The GM strike also took a notch out of GDP growth.

c) Finally, I am of the opinion, though I know Trump likes to bash The Fed, there is not much they can do when demand is curtailed by virus concerns and the supply chain is equally impacted.  Interest rates are low enough and any additional funds put into the economy might stimulate the market but that is not the solution to the virus issue.

I listened to some women this morning discussing their presidential preferences and they mostly favored Biden, Bloomberg for all the reasons they actually should be voting for Trump.  They, obviously, dislike, Trump's persona and that blinds them to his accomplishments. For instance, they want a president who is practical. Trump is practical. They want a president who can handle the economy. DUH!  They want a president who makes them feel safe. DUH, again. They want a sound health care system and did say Bernie frightened them. I seriously doubt they know what Trump's health care program is because he has not fleshed it out nor what he would accept if presented one. He is not in favor of socialized medicine and has committed to protecting those with pre-conditions and portability because competition is what iproves the system and brings prices down..

There is no accounting for taste and what irrational thinking drives voters to vote as they do. I often wonder how we survived as long as we have.

In the case of health care, I have no doubt we can force the drug industry to reduce prices but we also must recognize high prices supports both research and drug development failures.  Developing drugs does not come cheap! Furthermore, we cannot depend upon China for  drug ingredients for two basic and obvious reasons.  Their plants are not as safe and inspected as our's and it ultimately  boils down to national security.

Until recently we depended upon Russia for space exploration and were paying them for space rides.  How stupid can we be?

Far too many of our security priorities are beholden to government handouts because progressives want to buy constituent voters with tax payer money.

Meanwhile, was Buttigieg paid to drop out so Biden could benefit? Will he be offered a VP ticket?  Will his decision help Sanders? Politics is one of the dirtiest enterprises that remains legal.

The fix is in, Klobuchar out as well.  Another Cabinet Position?

Democrats run the risk of Bernie supporters staying home or rebelling.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Can BIBI sneak through?  Just may have done so.  Now he will face a vindictive prosecutor.

Netanyahu claims his party is now a hair’s breadth away from Knesset majority

PM tells supporters latest data shows Likud and its allies at 59.7 of required 61 seats; petition accuses him of violating campaign laws by disclosing survey results

By TOI staff

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed Sunday that his party’s internal polling showed he was a stone’s throw away from a Knesset majority that would allow the formation of a right-wing government.

“Our data from three hours ago shows we are at 59.7 seats,” he told supporters at an election rally outside Tel Aviv, referring to his bloc of right-wing and religious parties. “We are very close to victory.”

He said “this movement [of votes] is a consistent trend of recent days, and we can bring about the formation of secure right-wing government for Israel.”

Polling in the final days before Monday’s election showed support for Likud grow slightly, possibly surpassing its rival Blue and White, though the surveys indicated the party is still several seats short of achieving a 61-seat Knesset majority without the support of Yisrael Beytenu and its leader Avigdor Liberman.

In response to his speech, Attorney Shachar Ben Meir filed a petition against Netanyahu with the Central Elections Committee on Sunday, accusing the prime minister of breaking election laws, which forbid the publication of polling data in the three days before an election.

Ben Meir demanded that Likud be fined for the violation, Haaretz reported.

The Likud party responded in a statement, saying the ban is against broadcasting or publishing polls and that Netanyahu had made “a verbal announcement” rather than publishing the results of survey.

Monday is the nation’s third election in less than a year, after neither Netanyahu nor Blue and White leader Benny Gantz were able to form coalitions in the last two rounds, and talks on a unity government fell through.

The prime minister suffered a setback Sunday evening as the far-right Otzma Yehudit party declared it would not step down — potentially costing the right-wing bloc 1-2 seats.

If, as projected, Otzma Yehudit fails to pass the electoral threshold (3.25 percent of the vote, or four seats), any votes for it would be discounted. It has consistently been polling at around 1%-1.5%.

With less than 12 hours to go before polling stations open on Monday morning, and facing pressure from Netanyahu and other right-wing parties to quit, party chairman Itamar Ben Gvir told a Jerusalem press conference, “We are here to stay.”

Netanyahu is hoping to stretch the bloc past the 61 seats needed for a majority. Polls have shown Netanyahu’s bloc at up to 58 seats compared to 55 for a centrist-left bloc lead by Gantz, leaving Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu party, predicted to win at least seven seats, holding the balance of power.

Liberman has rejected a government that includes Netanyahu’s ultra-Orthodox allies, saying he wants a secularist coalition. He has also ruled out allying with the Arab-dominated Joint List, whose members he has dubbed “a fifth column.”

Interior Minister Aryeh Deri of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party claimed Sunday that should a left-leaning government be formed after the elections, Jews in Israel could be scared to wear a kippah.

“A left-wing government is likely to be formed here with the support of Liberman and the Joint List.

“If this government is formed, I’m worried that people will be scared to walk in the street with a kippah and will need to walk with a cap like in Europe,” Deri told Channel 13 news.

In an interview with Channel 12 on Saturday, Netanyahu said Gantz cannot form a coalition without the support of the predominantly Arab Joint List and that such a government would be “dangerous” for Israel.” He further claimed that Blue and White voters who understand this were “coming over to the Likud.”

The prime minister also called Gantz, a former army chief, a “mediocre” IDF leader — his “third choice” for the role — and said he now heads “a dictatorial party.”

Gantz told Channel 12 that the prime minister was using “mafia” tactics in the final days of the campaign and said the Israeli public was “ready for change” and the “time is now.”

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Market-wise: what goes down comes backup but still need to retest unless some very good news is around the corner. Some would call today a dead cat bounce.  Was mostly related to Fed's talk and belief they will cut rates.  As I said earlier, cutting rates, in my opinion, misses the mark. Good for the stock market but will not re-stimulate business as long as supply chain out of whack due to virus.
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Generally a reliable source but have no way of verifying:

Where Did The COVID-19 Originate? 

 One of the top world experts on biological weaponry, as well as a professor of international law at the University of Illinois, is Dr. Francis Boyle. He also had a law passed in the US in 1989 against the use of bio-weapons, which was adopted into world law in 1989 (the Biological Weapon Anti-Terrorist Act of 1989). I'm getting much of my overall information from him in trying to understand this COVID-19 virus. Dr. Boyle has stated that this is a very serious situation and feels that this COVID-19 weaponized virus was the result of bio-weapon technology that escaped from the DSL-4 laboratory in Wuhan, China. He also points out that there are scientist around the world confirming that this is a weaponized virus. 

 Dr. Francis Boyle also points out that there are 4 French scientists who recently published an article in the journal, Science Direct, on antiviral research on February 10, 2020. These scientists did a genetic analysis of the COVID-19, and their analysis showed a form of bio-weaponization that "may provide a gain of function to the COVID-19 for efficient spreading in the human population as compared to other coronaviruses”. The phrase "gain of function" means "manmade and weaponized". This analysis included the observation of a spiked protein shell on the virus for better penetration into human cells. He explains that the phrase, "gain of function", directly implies that DNA genetic engineering was done. In other words, their research showed the COVID-19 virus was clearly weaponized. This conclusion is also in alignment with the findings in India at Kusuma School of Biological Sciences showing that there was a genetic sequence taken from the HIV virus to and implanted into the COVID-19 to improve infectivity. Their research was published in the Lancet, but, later, it was "pulled out" of the publication. Dr. Boyle also points out in a 2010 journal, Archive of Virology, from Australia that there has been active work in the use of SARS and HIV to create weaponized chimeric viruses. 

 The most serious research that he communicates is a study reported at the DSL-3 laboratory in North Carolina in 2015 that shows that MERS (another weaponized coronavirus) was developed with the technology that makes "gain of function". The article states, "A SARS-like cluster of circulating bat coronavirus has potential for human emergence” (Nat Med 6/21/15). He also documents that a leading bio-warfare scientist from Wuhan was trained in "gain of function" technology from the DSL-3 laboratory in North Carolina. In this paper they admit being paid by China to train the Chinese scientist from the Wuhan DSL-4 laboratory. It's specifically designed to infect human respiratory airways. It is thought-provoking to realize that the National Institute of Health, according to this 2015 North Carolina paper, okayed this training of the Chinese scientist. In other words, this technology was not stolen by the Chinese, but, rather, sold to them. Apparently, they also used an HIV cell wall attack virus DNA section that helps it penetrate cells. This 2015 training done by the North Carolina DSL-3 laboratory was also approved by the National Institute of Health, as cited in their 2015 paper. (Phonetically pronounced, the top Chinese researcher was Genlee Hi Shi.) The MERS research showed a 36% fatality. Generally, at this point, with the current virus, we have a gain in what they call “pathogenesis” from 2% to 15-18%. The point is, this top Chinese researcher was trained at the North Carolina DSL-3 laboratory to develop "gain of function" bio-weapon technology. In another very recently released paper, 2 Chinese professors at the South China University of Technology also concluded that the virus leaked out of the Wuhan laboratory. 

A few months ago, there was a paper, published in the Lancet, that stated the incubation period for the COVID-19 was 24 days rather than 14. This means holding someone in quarantine for 14 days is insufficient prevention. 

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Tuesday Will Reveal A Lot. Meanwhile, Trump Remains The Democrat's Pin Cushion.

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On Tuesday we will find out more regarding who will lead the fractured Democrat Party into possible oblivion.


Will it be Bernie who has decided he can win by losing Florida as he embraced the ghost of Castro?

Will it be Biden who has never been right about anything important since birth and who relishes telling us Trump has accomplished nothing which proves Trump is right when he says, Joe has been asleep for the past three years?

Will it be Pocahontas who trashed Bloomberg after he shot himself in his foot in his first debate appearance?

It could have been that other billionaire, who wised up after blowing 100 million, and dropped out today followed by the mayor from that small town in Indiana.

Will it be Bloomberg who still has many billions he can lose in the hope he can burnish his personality and learn to tell a joke? He still cannot grow, however.

Stay tuned.

As for Trump:  based on the economy since he became president             - big plus
                         trade negotiations                                                               - big plus
                         will what he has accomplished be reversed by a
                          subsequent president - not hardly, except for Bernie        - big plus
                          no wars have begun since he became president                - big plus

Now comes the Corona virus which Trump did not know about because the Chinese withheld the information. They actually knew when they closed the first phase of the trade deal and that could have motivated them to act. When he learned,he immediately closed certain immigration routes and was largely criticized, even called a racist again.  Turned out he was right to do so but the drum beats of hate continued.

The WSJ had an article recently contrasting Trump and Bloomberg.  Bloomberg considers himself brainier than Trump and that he would make a better president. In fact, Bloomberg believes Trump is sitting in the seat he deserves.  I suspect Bloomberg might well be brainier and even a more systematic and organized manager but he lacks charisma and ran a pitiful campaign. Meanwhile, Trump has proven common sense is, perhaps, more an attribute when it comes to being president and having a sixth sense than being so brainy.  Wilson was brainy and he was a lousy president and a liar and racist to boot.

The Democrats believe/hope the virus will be Trump's undoing and they are trying to set him up so that if it expands they can blame him because of failed leadership etc. Their hatred of the man knows no bounds even if it means dire consequences for the nation they supposedly care so much about.

In truth,Trump has proven, once again, his warning about China being  a threat to world peace/commerce has proven accurate. The fact that most of the world is dependent upon and impacted by China  in various ways has now become frightfully evident.  

America is discovering our dependence upon Chinese drug components is serious and, no doubt, we will come to discover other dependencies are critical enough to threaten our very security.  This is what we should be concerned about but the Democrats have no intent in lifting a finger that will benefit Trump even if it means helping the nation avoid a potential disaster.

China has been playing us for the fool we are and Trump was right when he did not blame them because we allowed ourselves to be snookered and it all happened on the watch of previous presidents.

As for the economy, one of Trump's strongest accomplishments, disruption of the various supply chains, restriction of world travel will have dire consequences when it comes to corporate earnings and thus one of the reasons the market is tanking. This has nothing to do with Trump.  He could not predict a virus in China  would spread throughout the world and impact/disrupt trade. He will be blamed , of course, and time will tell whether it will stick or be seen for what it is - political weaponization.

These are a few articles that demonstrate what I have been saying about orchestrated resistance:

a)

Democrats Block FISA Reform

Schiff and Nadler seem to care more about their narrative than national security. 

By Kimberley A. Strassel

Are House Democrats willing to jeopardize national security to keep alive their Trump-Russia collusion narrative? On Wednesday they abruptly canceled a markup on a bill to reauthorize three critical surveillance tools that are due to expire March 15.

To listen to the liberal media, the bill has stalled over concerns about “civil liberties.” In truth it’s the latest casualty of Democrats’ refusal to acknowledge that the Federal Bureau of Investigation abused the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in its 2016 counterintelligence investigation of the Trump campaign.

Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz laid out that appalling abuse in a 434-page December report. He documented the many ways the FBI had manipulated and duped the court in its drive to obtain surveillance warrants against former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. Mr. Horowitz’s findings cried out for reforms, and they guaranteed that Congress’s reauthorization would become a flashpoint.

The three powers at stake in the legislation are different from the FISA listening authority the FBI used against Mr. Page. They involve the tracking of “lone wolf” terrorists, the use of “roving” wiretaps on targets who frequently change their phone numbers, and the power to obtain business records. The bill is nonetheless the first obvious vehicle by which Congress can broadly address problems the Horowitz report highlighted with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

But Democrats would rather ignore the report that exposed their collusion narrative as a political dirty trick aided by a rogue FBI. Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff in particular wants to deep-six the report, since to acknowledge it would be to admit that his infamous 2018 “memo” clearing the FBI of FISA abuse was hogwash. Mr. Schiff is so determined to ignore his fiction and the FBI’s abuse, the Intelligence Committee hasn’t held a single hearing on the biggest intelligence scandal in decades.

Mr. Schiff and Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler were in fact too busy with impeachment even to hit the initial reauthorization deadline of mid-December. Instead, they extended the law’s sunset by three months and have only recently jammed together a reauthorization bill that ignores even the most basic aspects of FISA reform.

Among those, Republicans would like a requirement that an outsider—or even a panel of outsiders—be appointed to critique government applications to the FISA court in politically sensitive cases. (The Democrats’ bill would leave it to the court to decide whether to appoint an outsider, a power the court already has and routinely fails to exercise.) Republicans have also floated limiting the government’s ability to present unverified information to the court, as well as imposing penalties on government actors who willfully or recklessly mislead the court. Democrats have rejected even these obvious and modest changes.

The Schiff-Nadler plan was to ram through the bill largely on Democratic votes. But then the party’s progressive wing, led by California’s Zoe Lofgren, on Wednesday revolted against even basic reauthorization. The American Civil Liberties Union and others who sat silent through the Page outrage now complain that the three separate powers at stake violate too many civil liberties. Democratic leadership may cave to some of their demands. Leave it to Democrats to potentially produce a bill that does nothing to rein in political abuses of surveillance, even as it strips honest intelligence officers of their ability to fight terrorists.

Attorney General William Barr is trying to rescue national security from this Democratic posturing and ineptitude. In a lunch this week, he assured Senate Republicans that he will soon release a set of administrative reforms to FISA, which will address some concerns. He pointed out that the three expiring provisions were enacted in the wake of 9/11 and remain crucial to preventing further attacks on the homeland. His plea is for Republicans to grit their teeth, sign on for a “clean” reauthorization of the three powers, and kick the broader FISA-reform debate to the future. (That assumes Democrats can get their act together enough to pass even a basic bill.)

That may be the wisest course, but Republicans need to tell the story of this week far and wide. The American public expects Congress to authorize tools to guard against terrorism and to ensure that corrupt actors don’t abuse those tools for political purposes. Democrats are proving this week that they can’t do either of those basic jobs, because they are so in thrall to their debunked collusion history.

b) Opinion: Democrats Are Weaponizing the Coronavirus Against Trump
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Another insight by Salena Zito:
The fracturing of a Party By Salena Zito

PITTSBURGH — There is a battle going on here within the Allegheny County Democratic Committee, a formidable force of centrist, conservative, and liberal Democrats whose backgrounds range from union halls in the city to the businessmen and women who have spread out into the leafy suburbs that hug the city limits. 

A key figure in the battle is committeewoman Heather Kass, who is running for the state House. Several years ago, Kass's social media posts criticized Obamacare and the distribution of free Narcan for addicts — and insinuated support for President Trump. 

Fortunately for Kass, she received 49 votes from the committee to secure its endorsement. Her opponent, liberal activist Jess Benham, received just 19. 

That’s when things got interesting. Darrin Kelly, an influential local labor leader, issued a statement blasting Kass’s previous statements. The party hierarchy followed that up by saying her social media history was disqualifying. 

The fight soon unraveled in many different directions and tested a party that has comfortably come together and built a force that helped keep a Democrat as the chief executive officer for five consecutive terms and the majority of the county council seats. 

Now, accusations of disloyalty and closet Trumpism are being tossed around by the liberal wing of the party. The factions that once worked together well enough to enjoy a healthy coalition are splintering. 

Party Chairwoman Eileen Kelly held a press conference defending the endorsement process and encouraging forgiveness of Kass’s past social media posts. But in response, local elected Democrats demanded her resignation, including two of the county’s congressmen, Rep. Mike Doyle and Rep. Conor Lamb.

Click here for the full story.

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Two different campuses, same curricula. Third oldest college in America.

Dear Alumni, Friends, and Family,

For decades, Johnnies have been transferring between our St. John’s campuses in Annapolis and Santa Fe. Each place is distinctive and special, while remaining united by our common DNA: the Great Books Program. For those who haven’t had the good fortune to visit both campuses, and for prospective students considering St. John’s College, we’ve created new campus videos that strive to capture the beauty of each while honoring and elevating the power of the Program. If you like them, please consider sharing with others who may appreciate the powerful work that we do here at St. John’s.

Annapolis Campus Video

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Santa Fe Campus Video

In Gratitude,

The Communications Team

St. John's College

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