DOJ Withdraws Gen. Flynn Charge; Trump Says Obama Officials Committed Treason, “Human Scum”

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By Fox News. The Justice Department on Thursday moved to drop its case against former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, in a stunning development that comes after internal memos were released raising serious questions about the nature of the investigation that led to Flynn’s late 2017 guilty plea of lying to the FBI.

The announcement came in a court filing “after a considered review of all the facts and circumstances of this case, including newly discovered and disclosed information,” as the department put it. DOJ officials said they concluded that Flynn’s interview by the FBI was “untethered to, and unjustified by, the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation into Mr. Flynn” and that the interview was “conducted without any legitimate investigative basis.” . . .

The federal judge overseeing the case would have to make the final determination to dismiss it.

The retired Army lieutenant general for months has been trying to withdraw his plea, aided by a new attorney aggressively challenging the prosecution’s case and conduct. But, the case has been plodding through the court system with no resolution ever since his original plea, even amid speculation about whether President Trump himself could extend a pardon. . .

President Trump reacted from the Oval Office just minutes after the DOJ filing surfaced. “He was an innocent man… Now, in my book, he’s an even greater warrior,” Trump said, while criticizing Obama administration officials. “They’re human scum. … It’s treason.” (Read more from “DOJ Withdraws Gen. Flynn Charge; Trump Says Complicit Obama Officials Committed Treason, “Human Scum” HERE)

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FBI, Comey Stalled Push to Notify Trump Camp of Michael Flynn Probe, Docs Show

By New York Post. Obama-era Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates pushed to notify the incoming Trump administration of the nature of Michael Flynn’s communications with Russia, but was slow-rolled by the FBI, according to bombshell documents filed Thursday.

The behind-the-scenes revelation came to light in a memo of an interview with Yates, among a trove of documents released as the DOJ dropped its criminal case against Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser.

Yates first learned of the contacts between Flynn and then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak — in which Flynn asked that Russia refrain from retaliating to sanctions imposed over interference in the 2016 election — from President Obama himself, the FBI memo says.

Obama told Yates during a January 2017 meeting in the Oval Office that he had “learned of the information about Flynn” and wanted to know how to proceed, according to the documents. (Read more from “FBI, Comey Stalled Push to Notify Trump Camp of Michael Flynn Probe, Docs Show” HERE)

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Rosenstein Scope Memo for Mueller Peddled Steele Dossier, Logan Act Conspiracy Theories; Fox Host Rips Rosenstein: ‘Deep State’s Abuse of Power as Clear as Ever’

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By The Federalist. Former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein’s memo authorizing Robert Mueller’s anti-Trump investigation was riddled with conspiracy theories lifted straight from the bogus dossier of Christopher Steele, a newly released, less redacted version of the memo shows. The memo, portions of which were declassified on April 30, 2020, specifically targeted former Trump campaign affiliates Carter Page, Paul Manafort, Michael Flynn, George Papadopoulos, and one individual whose identity is redacted.

The Aug. 2, 2017 scope memo, which was provided by the Department of Justice (DOJ) to the Senate Judiciary Committee following requests from Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., cited Steele dossier collusion conspiracy theories about Manafort and Page.

Rosenstein ordered Mueller to investigate allegations that Page “committed a crime or crimes by colluding with Russian government officials with respect to the Russian government’s efforts to interfere with the 2016 election[.]” The same language was used to justify the targeting of Manafort.

Rosenstein’s memo also peddled discredited legal theories about the Logan Act, a 1799 law criminalizing political speech by American citizens that has never been successfully prosecuted, to justify investigations of former White House National Security Adviser (NSA) Michael Flynn. The scope memo directed Mueller to investigate allegations that Flynn “committed a crime or crimes by engaging in conversations with Russian officials during the period of the Trump transition.”

The Mueller probe, after nearly two years and tens of millions of dollars, unearthed no evidence of collusion by any Trump campaign officials. However, a sprawling investigation by the DOJ Office of Inspector General found that Rosenstein’s DOJ fabricated evidence and falsified documents to justify an illegal federal spy warrant against Page. A Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) lawyer, reported to be Kevin Clinesmith, allegedly altered documents from a U.S. intelligence agency to erase evidence that Page had for years worked on behalf of the U.S. government to help investigate Russian agents who were attempting to damage the U.S. and compromise national security. (Read more from “Rosenstein Scope Memo for Mueller Peddled Steele Dossier, Logan Act Conspiracy Theories” HERE)

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Hannity Rips Rosenstein After Mueller ‘Scope Memo’ Released: ‘Deep State’s Abuse of Power as Clear as Ever’

By Fox News. Sean Hannity opened his Wednesday night program by praising Attorney General William Barr after the Justice Department released the unredacted August 2017 “scope memo” that laid out the full extent of then-Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigative powers.

Hannity said the memo shows Mueller’s probe covered more ground than previously thought, even giving Mueller latitude to investigate people like Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn for what the host called “a bogus, non-existent Logan Act violation.”

Sean Hannity opened his Wednesday night program by praising Attorney General William Barr after the Justice Department released the unredacted August 2017 “scope memo” that laid out the full extent of then-Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigative powers.

Hannity said the memo shows Mueller’s probe covered more ground than previously thought, even giving Mueller latitude to investigate people like Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn for what the host called “a bogus, non-existent Logan Act violation.” . . .

He said the fact that Rosenstein gave Mueller such a wide purview despite his own knowledge of inconsistencies in the source material proves “the deep state’s abuse of power is now as clear as it has ever been.” (Read more from “Hannity Rips Rosenstein After Mueller ‘Scope Memo’ Released: ‘Deep State’s Abuse of Power as Clear as Ever'” HERE)

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Coronavirus Researcher ‘on Verge of Breakthrough’ Shot Dead

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A researcher in the United States who was shot dead at the weekend in an apparent murder-suicide had been close to a breakthrough in a scientific understanding of the new coronavirus.

The University of Pittsburgh said Bing Liu, a 37-year-old research assistant professor at its computational and systems biology department, had been “on the verge of making very significant findings” into the virus before his death from multiple gunshot wounds.

According to local newspaper Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Liu was at his home in western Pennsylvania at around noon on Saturday when he was shot by Hao Gu, 46, who then killed himself.

Local police said the incident “was the result of a lengthy dispute regarding an intimate partner”. Since both men were not US citizens, the investigation was handed to federal authorities to review.

The university said Liu had been part of a team modelling various biological systems in a bid to understand the cellular mechanisms of the new coronavirus, as well as the cellular basis of health complications found in Covid-19 patients. “He was patient, intelligent and extremely mature. We will miss him very much,” it said. (Read more from “Coronavirus Researcher ‘on Verge of Breakthrough’ Shot Dead” HERE)

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Under This Doctor’s Care, Most COVID-19 Patients Are Recovering. Here’s His Unusual Approach.

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One of the biggest hurdles in dealing with a pandemic caused by a completely new virus is grappling with the sheer amount of unknown information.

In the case of the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV2, this was particularly difficult because the presentation of each patient seemed so vastly different from the previous case.

Furthermore, many patients seemed to improve clinically before deteriorating, requiring an admission to the intensive care unit for weeks at a time. The pernicious behavior of the virus made pandemic response that much more difficult, and the unpredictable nature of the disease consumed and strained health care resources.

Physicians who were treating COVID-19 patients took note and communicated to others by phone call, conference, or social media, but there was no central repository for their experiences, which ensured that the virus spread much faster than information.

Now, approximately four months since the first reported case in America, we are beginning to understand why.

Dr. Thomas Yadegar, a critical care physician for 20 years and now director of the intensive care unit at Providence Cedars-Sinai Tarzana Medical Center in Tarzana, California, has been on the front lines of the pandemic response.

The first time one of his patients deteriorated, he was completely stumped for the first time in his two decades in the ICU.

Many of his patients were in acute respiratory distress. But many other patients were experiencing abnormal coagulation, inflammatory heart disease, and some were even experiencing neurological deficits and weakened muscles.

“I have 20 years of critical care experience, and I can’t explain what just happened to my patient,” Yadegar said.

One evening after an exhausting shift, he sat down and pored over patient charts for all those cases, searching for a common thread. Finally, after one of the worst headaches of his life, he found it.

It was inflammation.

Early in the pandemic, Yadegar’s unit used treatment guidelines that came from doctors around the world, which recommended avoiding anti-inflammatory treatment and recommended early and aggressive use of ventilators to prevent patients from declining further.

But those guidelines were aimed at treating a severe viral respiratory disease by using a ventilator to assist with oxygenating the blood while the body uses its inflammatory pathways to mount a response to the virus.

Those guidelines did not address the treatment for when other organ systems began to fail.

In fact, using a ventilator is a highly invasive procedure, and the repeated and forced inspiration of air irritates the lungs, which feeds back into the inflammatory cycle. Many patients, once on a ventilator, never recover.

The only way to explain the highly complex disease course that seems to change from one patient to the next is that the virus is causing an autoimmune response, in which the body’s natural defense mechanisms go haywire and begin destroying the body they’re trying to protect.

The disease course is so unpredictable because every person’s immune system is unique to that person.

This phenomenon is not unheard of, and a common virus, Epstein-Barr virus, is known for potentially initiating the body’s inflammatory pathways to attack the nervous system and causing Guillain-Barre syndrome.

The main difference with SARS-CoV2 is that it’s much more efficient at doing this—and often in a catastrophic manner.

Yadegar and the ICU he manages have adjusted their protocols. Now, patients who test positive in his hospital for SARS-CoV2 are not sent home immediately, but tested for inflammatory markers.

Those with elevated inflammatory markers are kept in the hospital with a close eye on their oxygen saturation levels. If the patient begins to desaturate, the medical team evaluates the patient before starting a course of steroids and an IL-6 inhibitor.

IL-6 (interleukin-6) is a powerful mediator for the inflammatory pathway, so an IL-6 inhibitor would prevent a significant amount of inflammation from happening. Steroids have strong anti-inflammatory effects and also suppress the immune system more broadly.

The two of those do not treat the virus, but the potentially deadly autoimmune response it can cause.

But Yadegar cautioned that “you have to treat each patient within their own protocol.” Doctors must always treat the patients in front of them and cannot simply rely on these types of drugs for all critically ill COVID-19 patients.

That’s because using an IL-6 inhibitor with steroids would effectively strip the body of its immune response. If there’s a concomitant infection, which is extremely common in the hospital setting and even more so if a patient is on a ventilator, then using this combination of drugs will, almost certainly, kill the patient.

Still, Yadegar and his team have had remarkable success. They have not put a patient on a ventilator in at least two weeks, and the mortality rate in their ICU has been in the single digits, whereas nationally the mortality rate of critically ill patients has been between 40% and 70%.

There’s one thing we have known from the start about the COVID-19 virus, which is that it’s a tricky and pernicious one.

One of the important things that Yadegar has learned is that patients admitted to the ICU are often not coming in due to the direct effect of the virus, but rather from the out-of-control autoimmune process.

Information like that can only be had from front-line clinicians, and we should do our best to ensure they are heard.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention periodically hosts a Clinical Outreach and Communication Activity, in which clinicians are able to discuss their findings and experiences.

The CDC should be using those frequently to update information about COVID-19 and its multiple disease manifestations and to make the information easily and publicly accessible.

Furthermore, the CDC should be actively seeking this information from the front lines of COVID-19 hot spots, where the most relevant data will be found.

With steps like these, clinicians can be assured of clear lines of communication that may help drive down mortality rates in the future and ease the process of reopening the country. (For more from the author of “Under This Doctor’s Care, Most COVID-19 Patients Are Recovering. Here’s His Unusual Approach.” please click HERE)

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1,300 Test Positive in Tennessee Prison: 98% Asymptomatic

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Updated: After the publication of this article, it was reported that one inmate at the Trousdale prison in Tennessee has died of COVID-19. Six others have been hospitalized, and one of them is in serious condition. 1 out of 1,300 is a remarkably low fatality rate. The inmate who died was reportedly 67 years old. The original article is below.

Lots of cases, very small number of deaths. That is how this virus works on all but the elderly and sick. The perfect case study? Prisons.

The ACLU is demanding that all prisoners be released because they might catch the insanely deadly virus COVID-19 and all die. Well, in fact, the ACLU is more correct than they realize, so much so that they are completely wrong. It’s true that SARS-CoV-2 spreads like wildfire in a confined population, but that horse has already left the barn. It is likely that hundreds of thousands of prisoners have contracted the virus, most are asymptomatic, and only a decimal of a decimal die. Thus, the fact that it has spread far and wide actually demonstrates that this is not the bubonic plague many people think it is, so long as you shield the most vulnerable people.

In what should be a national headline, the Trousdale Turner Correctional Center in Hartsville, Tennessee, tested every single inmate and found that out of 2,444 tests, 1,299 inmates tested positive. That is 53% of the inmates! Among the staff, it was 50 out of 281, with a few more pending results. Here’s the kicker: 98% were asymptomatic!

It is, therefore, quite evident that this virus has been spreading for quite some time in this prison, and yet nobody has died: Not one person out of over 1,300 staff and inmates infected.

Numerous serology study results have been extrapolated to show that when you account for the true number of people who have gotten this virus, the infection fatality rate drops to 0.1%-0.3%. And the deaths are very lopsided among the elderly and chronically ill, which indicates that younger and healthier people have an even lower risk of dying from COVID-19 – perhaps even 1 in 3,000, depending on the age or health status.

This latest case study from Tennessee proves the point. Many media pseudo-academics have cast doubt on the accuracy of serology tests and using them to extrapolate for the broader population. But there is no better case study than a prison, where you can test the entirety of an isolated population and get exact percentages.

We are seeing this across all state and federal prisons. It’s basic math. For example, we know that 70 percent of the roughly 2,700 federal inmates who got tested for COVID-19 were positive. There are 146,000 federal inmates in total. How many of those have the virus? We don’t know yet, but after the virus has been spreading for months in close confinement, that number has to be enormous.

According to Rep. Fred Keller, 33 federal inmates have died from the virus. If 70 percent of this confined and defined universe had the virus, that would mean the fatality rate is a remarkable 0.03 percent. But even if we assume only 20 percent of the total federal prison population had the virus, which is roughly in line with the rate in other confined environments, such as the USS Theodore Roosevelt and the Diamond Princess cruise ship (and in line with the staff infection rate in the Tennessee prison), it would still be a fatality rate of just 0.1%, or 1 in 1,000.

But it’s very likely the ratio of those infected is much higher. According to Reuters, a recent tally of 3,277 inmates in state prison systems in Arkansas, North Carolina, Ohio, and Virginia who had tested positive for the virus showed that 96 percent of those who tested positive were asymptomatic.

Most federal prisoners are in their 20s, 30s, and 40s (80% are under 50), so it makes sense for their fatality rate to be under that of the macro numbers (0.1-0.3%) we are seeing from the serology tests.

According to the Marshal Project, 187 prisoners have died from the virus in state prisons. There are roughly 1.2 million state prisoners across the country. Again, if just 20 percent of them have the virus, that would be a 0.08% fatality rate nationwide in state prisons. If we use the 53% infection rate in the Tennessee prison and extrapolate nationally, that would be an infection fatality rate of 0.03%. In one women’s prison in Louisiana, 75% tested positive.

While the median age of state prisoners is roughly the same as the national median (38), there are significantly fewer seniors. Roughly 16% of the general population is over 65, while just 2.2% of state prisoners and 2.8% of federal prisoners are over that age. Just 10% of the state prison population is over 55, compared to 29% of the general population.

Thus, if anything, the hard data from prisons seems to show that the fatality rate, extrapolated for the general population, is actually correct and that if you isolate the numbers for younger adults, the numbers are even lower.

Similarly, not a single detainee in ICE detention facilities has died, despite the fact that 60 percent are testing positive.

The government is doing everything it can to obscure the fatality rate and muddle the separation of risk levels so that we can’t better target and prioritize the quarantine. But by hook or by crook, we will find out the truth from an unlikely source, thanks to aggressive ACLU efforts to empty the prisons and ICE detention facilities. The mass hysteria over coronavirus for the entire population might just burn itself out as the truth hits the fan in the nation’s prisons. (For more the author of “1,300 Test Positive in Tennessee Prison: 98% Asymptomatic” HERE)

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Asia’s Giant ‘Murder Hornet’ Found in the U.S. for the First Time (VIDEO)

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In case you doubted that 2020 couldn’t get worse, I have two words for you: “murder hornets.” The deadly Asian giant hornet, the largest sized species of hornets in the world, has been discovered in the United States for the first time ever.

The Asian giant hornet is also known as “murder hornets,” the “Giant Sparrow Bee,” and the “yak killer.” The species is native to temperate and tropical Eastern Asia. However, beekeepers in northwestern Washington state and Canada have found hundreds of decapitated honey bees, pointing to the presence of Asian Giant Hornets in North America.

The Asian Giant Hornet preys on larger insects, such as praying mantises, wasps, other hornets, as well as bees. The murder hornets are so lethal that in a matter of hours, they can wipe out entire colonies of eusocial insects, including bees. An individual hornet can kill 40 European honey bees in one minute.

“With queens that can grow to two inches long, Asian giant hornets can use mandibles shaped like spiked shark fins to wipe out a honeybee hive in a matter of hours, decapitating the bees and flying away with the thoraxes to feed their young,” the New York Times reported. “For larger targets, the hornet’s potent venom and stinger — long enough to puncture a beekeeping suit — make for an excruciating combination that victims have likened to hot metal driving into their skin.”

WATCH a praying mantis devour a murder hornet:

(Read more from “Asia’s Giant ‘Murder Hornet’ Found in the U.S. for the First Time (VIDEO)” HERE)

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WATCH: Joe Biden Claims ‘600,000 Dead’ From Coronavirus, Accuses Trump of Not Having ‘Intercourse’ With World; Trump Says Biden’s VP Pick Should Be Warren

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By Breitbart. Joe Biden’s mental blunders during a Friday MSNBC appearance were overshadowed by his denial of Tara Reade’s sexual assault claims, but they continue to underscore his apparent cognitive decline.

Biden twice told Morning Joe that 600,000 Americans have died from the coronavirus.

“Over 600,000 dead, many of them who are those workers, those nurses, doctors, some of them,” he said. . .

For a second time, he awkwardly used the word “intercourse,” when he seemingly wanted to say “discourse” or “interaction.”

“The pandemic is that the president has no intercourse whatsoever with the rest of the count— uh, the world,” he said.

(Read more from “Joe Biden Claims ‘600,000 Dead’ From Coronavirus, Accuses Trump of Not Having ‘Intercourse’ With World” HERE)

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Trump says Warren ‘responsible’ for Biden’s candidacy, should make her VP pick

By New York Post. President Trump has announced his unlikely pick for Joe Biden’s veep: Elizabeth Warren.

In an interview with The Post in the Oval Office on Monday, Trump said he believed the presumptive Democratic nominee “owes” the Massachusetts senator the top spot on his ticket because he never would have gotten this far without her help.

“I think Elizabeth Warren is responsible for Joe Biden’s win because she didn’t drop out and [Vermont Sen.] Bernie [Sanders] would have won every single state on Super Tuesday,” Trump said, claiming Warren split the progressive vote.

“I think he should pick Elizabeth Warren because Elizabeth Warren, more than any other person, including [South Carolina Rep.] Jim Clyburn and including anybody you can name, is responsible for the win of Joe Biden,” he continued, referring to Clyburn’s campaign-reviving February endorsement of Biden. (Read more from “Trump says Warren ‘responsible’ for Biden’s candidacy, should make her VP pick” HERE)

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U.S. County Sets up a No Whites Wanted COVID-19 ‘Safe Space’

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If you thought “we’re all in this together” battling COVID-19, Multnomah County, Ore., is here to set you straight. We’re not “in this together,” it turns out. . .

And now, in the era of COVID-19, Multnomah County Emergency Operations Equity Office has set up a “grounding space” for minorities to get away from “whiteness.”

The Emergency Operations Center Equity Officer is hosting a grounding space for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) employees to share, heal, connect, and get grounded in a space that is not dominated by whiteness.

. . .

Multnomah County defended its non-dominant “whiteness” space, telling Just the News,

“Multnomah County is acting lawfully,” Julie Sullivan-Springhetti, Multnomah County communications director, said in a statement to Just the News. “The space excludes no one. It is based on shared lived experience not identity. The same way our employee resource groups for veterans, parents, and people with a disability are based on life experience and not identity. All are welcome here.”

(Read more from “U.S. County Sets up a No Whites Wanted COVID-19 ‘Safe Space'” HERE)

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CNN Sends Cease and Desist Letter to Trump Over New Ad (VIDEO)

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Lawyers for CNN’s parent company sent a cease and desist letter to the re-election campaign for President Donald Trump over an ad using video from their show in a reportedly ‘deceptive’ manner.

WarnerMedia accused the Trump campaign of using CNN video in a “false, misleading and deceptive” manner.

They were objecting to an ad released on Sunday entitled, “American Comeback,” where video is edited to make it appear as if CNN’s medical expert Sanjay Gupta is crediting Trump’s policies with preventing more coronavirus cases. . .

But in their demand letter, lawyers for CNN point out that Gupta was not referring to the travel ban that the president instituted early in a response to the coronavirus, but rather to “the stay at home orders, the social distancing orders.”

Lawyers for WarnerMedia claimed in the letter that “the advertisement purposely and deceptively edits the clip to imply that Mr. Blitzer and Dr. Gupta were crediting the President’s travel ban policy issued in January for saving millions of American lives, when in fact Mr. Blitzer and Dr. Gupta were discussing recently implemented social distancing guidelines and stay-at-home orders issued by state and local governments.”

(Read more from “CNN Sends Cease and Desist Letter to Trump Over New Ad” HERE)

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Poll Reveals Who Democrats Want to Be Biden’s VP

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Sen. Elizabeth Warren is the heavy favorite among Democrats to be presumptive presidential nominee Joe Biden’s running mate, a new poll finds.

According to the poll conducted by Data for Progress, 31 percent of likely Democratic voters want Biden to pick the Massachusetts senator.

Other options lagged far behind. Sen. Kamala Harris of California was preferred by 18 percent of respondents. Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and failed Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams both had 10 percent support. . .

Asked which option was most “ready” to be president, Warren led with 42 percent, trailed by Harris at 15 percent, Klobuchar at 9 percent and Abrams at 7 percent. (Read more from “Poll Reveals Who Democrats Want to Be Biden’s VP” HERE)

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