US now has the THIRD most coronavirus infections in the world behind China and Italy, New York State has 6% and NYC has 4%
Daily Mail
March 23, 2020
With more than 39,000 Americans infected with coronavirus, the US is now the third hardest-hit country in the world.
New York alone has more than 20,000 cases, with 12,305 in the Big Apple.
__________
MORE FALLOUT FROM RABBI MAZUZ’S JUDGEMENT
Designer stores in New York including Chanel, Balenciaga and Celine clear out shelves and remove all their merchandise as Governor Cuomo orders all nonessential workers stay at home in coronavirus crisis
Daily Mail
March 23, 2020
Dozens of once-glamorous designer stores in New York are now empty, desolate, and boarded up after Governor Andrew Cuomo ordered all non-essential workers to remain home to combat the spread of the coronavirus sweeping the state.
Upscale stores such as Chanel, Balenciaga and Celina - once the crown jewels of big city shopping - are now eerily empty and forlorn as companies clear the shelves and remove their merchandise.
New York City is reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic with the number of cases in the state climbing to 20,875. New York's cases account for an astonishing five percent of cases worldwide.
EDITOR'S NOTE: In Rabbi Mazuz's view, God must be especially pissed off at NYC because it holds bigger gay pride parades than San Francisco. And if Mayor de Blasio catches coronavirus, that's why too.
Tuesday, March 24, 2020
COP SHOP COFFEE
By Trey Rusk
I began a career in law enforcement when I was 18. I went to work as a dispatcher/jailer in a small Texas police department in my hometown. I was taught basic radio terminology, record keeping and operating a tele-type machine. The jail part was fairly easy because I usually released the regretful prisoners in the morning. Most had headaches and just wanted to go home to family waiting in the lobby. Most public intoxication fines were $52.50 or one day of labor.
We had a Bunn-O-Matic two burner coffee machine. One fresh pot of coffee was to be on at all times. The Chief of Police taught me how to make the coffee. He came in one morning and I had made the coffee. He poured a cup then smelled it before tasting it. He said, “This won’t do.” I had followed directions on the side of the machine but those directions didn’t apply at the Cop Shop. The coffee was too weak and I hadn’t put a pinch of salt in the grounds. I was a quick study. No one ever complained about the coffee again.
I tell this story because I went to Starbucks the other day with a friend who ordered for me. It was expensive and tasted like a sweet hot syrupy mess. I couldn’t finish it and I couldn’t lie when he asked me how I liked it. It wasn’t coffee and he paid $14 total. People were standing in line to be ripped off! They were snooty and held out their pinky finger while wiping foam from their upper lip. It just wasn’t for me.
I later stopped at a convenience store and bought a hot cup of coffee for $1.23. It was strong and tasted like coffee should.
My wife doesn’t drink coffee so I make my coffee at home. I bought a one cup brewing device that allows me to fill a small basket with coffee to my taste. I must admit I sometimes using a Pecan blend.
Coffee making was just one of life’s lessons I learned at the Cop Shop. I also learned that there were good cops and better cops and some cops that simply weren’t worth a shit. I learned that most people that were brought in for drunk and disorderly weren’t bad people the next day. But the big lesson I learned was to treat people the way you would want to be treated. Later in my career that would pay dividends when I needed information to clear a case.
That’s the way I see it.
I began a career in law enforcement when I was 18. I went to work as a dispatcher/jailer in a small Texas police department in my hometown. I was taught basic radio terminology, record keeping and operating a tele-type machine. The jail part was fairly easy because I usually released the regretful prisoners in the morning. Most had headaches and just wanted to go home to family waiting in the lobby. Most public intoxication fines were $52.50 or one day of labor.
We had a Bunn-O-Matic two burner coffee machine. One fresh pot of coffee was to be on at all times. The Chief of Police taught me how to make the coffee. He came in one morning and I had made the coffee. He poured a cup then smelled it before tasting it. He said, “This won’t do.” I had followed directions on the side of the machine but those directions didn’t apply at the Cop Shop. The coffee was too weak and I hadn’t put a pinch of salt in the grounds. I was a quick study. No one ever complained about the coffee again.
I tell this story because I went to Starbucks the other day with a friend who ordered for me. It was expensive and tasted like a sweet hot syrupy mess. I couldn’t finish it and I couldn’t lie when he asked me how I liked it. It wasn’t coffee and he paid $14 total. People were standing in line to be ripped off! They were snooty and held out their pinky finger while wiping foam from their upper lip. It just wasn’t for me.
I later stopped at a convenience store and bought a hot cup of coffee for $1.23. It was strong and tasted like coffee should.
My wife doesn’t drink coffee so I make my coffee at home. I bought a one cup brewing device that allows me to fill a small basket with coffee to my taste. I must admit I sometimes using a Pecan blend.
Coffee making was just one of life’s lessons I learned at the Cop Shop. I also learned that there were good cops and better cops and some cops that simply weren’t worth a shit. I learned that most people that were brought in for drunk and disorderly weren’t bad people the next day. But the big lesson I learned was to treat people the way you would want to be treated. Later in my career that would pay dividends when I needed information to clear a case.
That’s the way I see it.
HAS RUSSIA WON THE WAR ON THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC?
The Russian government has been confident to the point of boastful in ensuring its citizens and the world that the coronavirus is virtually nonexistent within its borders. But the Russian people are skeptical, with good reason
By Ariel Bulshtein
Israel Hayom
March 22, 2020
Ever since coronavirus became an epidemic and spread beyond the borders of China, the state of the virus in Russia has remained a mystery. On one hand, official government figures are so optimistic they border on arrogance. According to reports, only a small number of people in Russia have contracted the virus (slightly over 100 in a country of 150 million?), whereas Russia has more testing kits than it needs.
"We are ready for worse scenarios," say Russian government officials and spokespeople for the state media, claiming that they have about 40,000 ventilators – a veiled comparison to European countries like Italy, where a shortage of that piece of medical equipment has doomed hundreds.
The Russian government's promises should have calmed the population, but the opposite is occurring: The more the official channels promise, the more ordinary Russians worry, and sometimes start panicking. Talk on Russian social media is markedly distrustful of the political system, and horror stories are spreading about thousands across Russia who contracted the virus in the past few months without getting appropriate medical treatment or even being diagnosed.
It's not certain that this has to do with the coronavirus, because every winter Russia sees relatively high mortality from seasonal flu, etc. But if we consider that the Russian authorities, and the Soviet authorities before it, have not proved outstandingly trustworthy, it's not surprising that every rumor gains traction, causing increased fear and a decrease in trust.
The periphery is crying out
Russia's neighbors in the west are also skeptical. Last week, the European Union's foreign service issued an unprecedented document accusing government-aligned Russian news outlets of spreading disinformation about the coronavirus. This doesn't mean that Brussels has discovered anything new about how the Kremlin operates. But if accusations like this one were being voiced behind closed doors, now the EU has decided to air its suspicions publicly.
Why are the official numbers out of Russia worthy of doubt? First of all, we need to remember that Russia has a very long border with China (over 4,000 km or nearly 2,500 miles) and that crossings on both sides were very heavy and were not closed when the virus first spread beyond China. The Chinese have a notable presence in southeast Russia, but an astonishing number of Chinese tourists visit Russia's two main cities, Moscow and St. Petersburg, something that has remained almost unchanged since the inception of the coronavirus. When airlines all over the world stopped service to China, Russia's Aeroflot continued to fly to Beijing, possibly for political reasons.
A senior Russian official who asked to remain anonymous told me that on every fast train between Moscow and St. Petersburg – a line that carries thousands of passengers – "more than half the passengers are Chinese tourists."
"There are more than 10 of these trains in each direction each day, so draw your own conclusions. We could, of course, assume that only healthy Chinese visited Russia, while the sick ones might have preferred Italy or France, but what are the chances that is correct?" the official asked.
Secondly, Russia was very late compared to other countries in taking steps to issue closure regulations. Only last week was a decision made to shut museums and issue a statement that Lenin's mausoleum would be closed "for repairs." But with all due respect to the resting place of the communist proletarian leader, many more people use Moscow's subway (up to 9 million per day) than visit his tomb, and the subway is operating as usual and is as crowded as you might expect of a major metropolis.
Third, we are hearing more reports about attempts by Russian officials to acquire equipment to treat the coronavirus. The fact that these reports are coming out of relatively wealthy areas in Russia, like St. Petersburg, raises the question: if there are equipment shortages in well-to-do areas, what is happening in the periphery, where medical care is poor even in normal times? Despite the suspicions, Russia is not changing its certain, boastful tone.
Dmitri Peskov, the spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, has avoided giving any direct answers to journalists' questions about whether Putin himself had been tested for the virus. "The president's publicly available schedule is the best evidence of his health," Peskov declared in the manner that is so typical of Putin's Kremlin. However, all administrative workers who come into contact, direct or indirect, with the "command" are now regularly tested.
The conspiracy against the US
Despite the dangers, Russia's leaders see geopolitical opportunities in the pandemic, or at least opportunities for propaganda. They see events unfolding in Europe as proof of their ideological rivals' weakness -- the same rivals who preach at Russia to change its ways and apply sanctions against it.
The Kremlin's mouthpieces in the media haven't stopped repeating a message that aims to fault western democracies and the way they are handling the threat, which is portrayed as either too soft or too harsh. "Look at how everything in the West is collapsing," they say, not without some schadenfreude. "The democracies can't handle the challenge, so why bother to play with democracy?"
A few of the government propagandists go a step further and predict that the world will never return to what it was prior to coronavirus and that western society will learn the hard way that its principles of individual liberty should give way to Russia's traditional collectivism. Every drop on the New York and London stock exchanges are offered up as proof of this theory without any mention of how weaker economies – such as Russia's – could suffer even a worse blow from the pandemic.
One need only look at what is happening to oil prices, and the Russian ruble's continued slide against the dollar, to begin worrying about Russia's economy. Remember, President Putin has proposed constitutional changes that give him an exemption to the two-term limit. The vote on these amendments is scheduled for April 22, and we can assume that the authorities will try to send a message of "business as usual" to increase voter turnout.
Authoritarian China's success in stopping the virus, compared to the desperate situation in Europe, has sparked deep feelings of identification among the Russians. When a Chinese government representative accused the US of spreading the coronavirus, the accusation was immediately backed up by Russia. Franz Klintsevich, a member of Russia's Senate from the ruling party, claimed that the Americans created the virus to "wipe out geopolitical competitors." He didn't ask the Chinese for any proof of their claim, but predicted that the US would exploit its tools and geographic position to repair the American economy and rule the world without interference while other countries fell into "economic slavery." Conspiracy theories have always been in demand in the space between Kaliningrad and Vladivostok.
By Ariel Bulshtein
Israel Hayom
March 22, 2020
Ever since coronavirus became an epidemic and spread beyond the borders of China, the state of the virus in Russia has remained a mystery. On one hand, official government figures are so optimistic they border on arrogance. According to reports, only a small number of people in Russia have contracted the virus (slightly over 100 in a country of 150 million?), whereas Russia has more testing kits than it needs.
"We are ready for worse scenarios," say Russian government officials and spokespeople for the state media, claiming that they have about 40,000 ventilators – a veiled comparison to European countries like Italy, where a shortage of that piece of medical equipment has doomed hundreds.
The Russian government's promises should have calmed the population, but the opposite is occurring: The more the official channels promise, the more ordinary Russians worry, and sometimes start panicking. Talk on Russian social media is markedly distrustful of the political system, and horror stories are spreading about thousands across Russia who contracted the virus in the past few months without getting appropriate medical treatment or even being diagnosed.
It's not certain that this has to do with the coronavirus, because every winter Russia sees relatively high mortality from seasonal flu, etc. But if we consider that the Russian authorities, and the Soviet authorities before it, have not proved outstandingly trustworthy, it's not surprising that every rumor gains traction, causing increased fear and a decrease in trust.
The periphery is crying out
Russia's neighbors in the west are also skeptical. Last week, the European Union's foreign service issued an unprecedented document accusing government-aligned Russian news outlets of spreading disinformation about the coronavirus. This doesn't mean that Brussels has discovered anything new about how the Kremlin operates. But if accusations like this one were being voiced behind closed doors, now the EU has decided to air its suspicions publicly.
Why are the official numbers out of Russia worthy of doubt? First of all, we need to remember that Russia has a very long border with China (over 4,000 km or nearly 2,500 miles) and that crossings on both sides were very heavy and were not closed when the virus first spread beyond China. The Chinese have a notable presence in southeast Russia, but an astonishing number of Chinese tourists visit Russia's two main cities, Moscow and St. Petersburg, something that has remained almost unchanged since the inception of the coronavirus. When airlines all over the world stopped service to China, Russia's Aeroflot continued to fly to Beijing, possibly for political reasons.
A senior Russian official who asked to remain anonymous told me that on every fast train between Moscow and St. Petersburg – a line that carries thousands of passengers – "more than half the passengers are Chinese tourists."
"There are more than 10 of these trains in each direction each day, so draw your own conclusions. We could, of course, assume that only healthy Chinese visited Russia, while the sick ones might have preferred Italy or France, but what are the chances that is correct?" the official asked.
Secondly, Russia was very late compared to other countries in taking steps to issue closure regulations. Only last week was a decision made to shut museums and issue a statement that Lenin's mausoleum would be closed "for repairs." But with all due respect to the resting place of the communist proletarian leader, many more people use Moscow's subway (up to 9 million per day) than visit his tomb, and the subway is operating as usual and is as crowded as you might expect of a major metropolis.
Third, we are hearing more reports about attempts by Russian officials to acquire equipment to treat the coronavirus. The fact that these reports are coming out of relatively wealthy areas in Russia, like St. Petersburg, raises the question: if there are equipment shortages in well-to-do areas, what is happening in the periphery, where medical care is poor even in normal times? Despite the suspicions, Russia is not changing its certain, boastful tone.
Dmitri Peskov, the spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, has avoided giving any direct answers to journalists' questions about whether Putin himself had been tested for the virus. "The president's publicly available schedule is the best evidence of his health," Peskov declared in the manner that is so typical of Putin's Kremlin. However, all administrative workers who come into contact, direct or indirect, with the "command" are now regularly tested.
The conspiracy against the US
Despite the dangers, Russia's leaders see geopolitical opportunities in the pandemic, or at least opportunities for propaganda. They see events unfolding in Europe as proof of their ideological rivals' weakness -- the same rivals who preach at Russia to change its ways and apply sanctions against it.
The Kremlin's mouthpieces in the media haven't stopped repeating a message that aims to fault western democracies and the way they are handling the threat, which is portrayed as either too soft or too harsh. "Look at how everything in the West is collapsing," they say, not without some schadenfreude. "The democracies can't handle the challenge, so why bother to play with democracy?"
A few of the government propagandists go a step further and predict that the world will never return to what it was prior to coronavirus and that western society will learn the hard way that its principles of individual liberty should give way to Russia's traditional collectivism. Every drop on the New York and London stock exchanges are offered up as proof of this theory without any mention of how weaker economies – such as Russia's – could suffer even a worse blow from the pandemic.
One need only look at what is happening to oil prices, and the Russian ruble's continued slide against the dollar, to begin worrying about Russia's economy. Remember, President Putin has proposed constitutional changes that give him an exemption to the two-term limit. The vote on these amendments is scheduled for April 22, and we can assume that the authorities will try to send a message of "business as usual" to increase voter turnout.
Authoritarian China's success in stopping the virus, compared to the desperate situation in Europe, has sparked deep feelings of identification among the Russians. When a Chinese government representative accused the US of spreading the coronavirus, the accusation was immediately backed up by Russia. Franz Klintsevich, a member of Russia's Senate from the ruling party, claimed that the Americans created the virus to "wipe out geopolitical competitors." He didn't ask the Chinese for any proof of their claim, but predicted that the US would exploit its tools and geographic position to repair the American economy and rule the world without interference while other countries fell into "economic slavery." Conspiracy theories have always been in demand in the space between Kaliningrad and Vladivostok.
TEXAS GOVERNOR ABBOT MUST BE WAITING FOR THE SKY TO FALL IN
LIST: States that have issued stay-at-home orders during the coronavirus pandemic
By Nexstar Media Wire
Nexstar
March 22, 2020
DALLAS -- Thirteen states have issued orders restricting movement of residents in an effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Current restrictions include the three biggest cities in the United States — New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.
Here’s a state-by-state breakdown of the current lockdown orders:
California
Californians awoke Friday to a new reality after the governor issued stay-at-home orders for nearly 40 million people amid the coronavirus outbreak. The move by Gov. Gavin Newsom was the first in the country in the effort to curb the pandemic.
The order was a stunning development and further blow to businesses and workers.
California is one of the hardest-hit states with 1,185 confirmed cases and 23 deaths as of Friday, reported KTLA.
Residents have been told to stay 6 feet away from others, not gather in groups and wash their hands frequently.
Connecticut
In his daily address Friday, Governor Ned Lamont announced a “Stay safe, stay at home” policy, telling all “non-essential” businesses and not-for-profit entities to stay closed for an indefinite time period, beginning at 8 p.m. on Monday, March 23.
He is asking that all businesses that can have employees work from home do so, according to WTNH.
Delaware
Gov. John Carney has issued a stay-at-home order due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to Delaware Public Media.
The order goes into effect Tuesday morning. It requires all non-essential businesses to close.
Illinois
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker’s “stay-at-home” order is set to begin Saturday afternoon and go until April . According to WGN, the order will mean residents can still go to the grocery stores, put gas in their cars, take walks outside and make pharmacy runs.
All local roads, including the interstate highways and tollways, will remain open to traffic, as well. Delivery works should still report to work, the governor said.
Businesses such as gyms, spas, salons, barber shops and tattoo parlors must close by Saturday.
Indiana
Governor Eric Holcomb is ordering citizens to stay home from March 25 to April 7.
People must remain home except for essential work duties or for permitted activities such as taking care of others, obtaining necessary supplies and for health and safety, according to Fox 59.
Louisiana
On Sunday, Governor John Bel Edwards issued a statewide “stay at home” order.
The order itself is slated to go into effect at 5 p.m. on March 23, according to WGNO. The order will stay in place through Monday. April 13.
Massachusetts
Governor Charlie Baker has ordered all non-essential businesses to close, effective noon Tuesday, March 24.
The governor also announced Monday that he and state health officials are issuing a stay at home advisory for the residents of Massachusetts.
Both will remain in effect until April 7, according to WWLP.
Michigan
Governor Gretchen Whitmer has issued a stay-at-home order for Michigan residents.
The order is expected to last at least three weeks, according to WOOD-TV.
New Jersey
On Saturday, Governor Phil Murphy signed an executive order telling all residents to stay at home until further notice.
The order includes some exceptions like obtaining essential goods, seeking medical attention, visiting family, reporting to work or enjoying outdoor activities.
The order mandates work from home arrangements when possible and prohibits all social gatherings.
New York
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is ordering all workers in nonessential businesses to stay home and banning gatherings statewide. Cuomo announced the restrictions Friday that take effect Sunday, according to WTEN in Albany.
He also says nonessential gatherings of individuals of any size or for any reason are canceled or postponed. The Democratic governor took the dramatic actions as confirmed cases in New York climbed to more than 10,000 as of Saturday.
Cuomo says people can still go out for solitary exercise to protect their physical and mental health.
The steps to contain the virus come as Southern Europe’s medical system is buckling. The pandemic marked a grim milestone with a global death toll that now surpasses 10,000. In Spain and Italy, patients are filling up sick wards and field hospitals are going up in hotels and a convention center in Madrid.
Ohio
Gov. Mike DeWine announced that the Ohio Department of Health has issued a stay-at-home order for all of Ohio.
DeWine made the announcement Sunday during his daily news conference to update on the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus, stating that ODH Director Dr. Amy Acton has signed the order.
“There is really nothing in that order, that we have not already been talking about,” said DeWine. “There’s nothing in that order, that I have not been asking you to do for the last week or so.”
The order will go until at least April 6, when it will be reevaluated, according to DeWine.
West Virginia
West Virginia Governor Jim Justice says he has declared a stay-home order to go into effect at 8 p.m., Tuesday, March 24th. He also declared Wednesday, March 25th a day of state prayer.
Justice says people will be able to leave their homes to receive essential services, go to work at essential businesses, or go outdoors as long as they remain as a six-foot distance. Further details will be available on the governor’s website.
Wisconsin
Governor Tony Evers says he’ll sign an order that closes all non-essential businesses and urges people to stay home to slow the spread of COVID-19.
This order will be executed Tuesday, according to WFRV.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Texas Governor Abbott may be trying to avoid the economic impact a lockdown will have on the state … but at what cost?
By Nexstar Media Wire
Nexstar
March 22, 2020
DALLAS -- Thirteen states have issued orders restricting movement of residents in an effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Current restrictions include the three biggest cities in the United States — New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.
Here’s a state-by-state breakdown of the current lockdown orders:
California
Californians awoke Friday to a new reality after the governor issued stay-at-home orders for nearly 40 million people amid the coronavirus outbreak. The move by Gov. Gavin Newsom was the first in the country in the effort to curb the pandemic.
The order was a stunning development and further blow to businesses and workers.
California is one of the hardest-hit states with 1,185 confirmed cases and 23 deaths as of Friday, reported KTLA.
Residents have been told to stay 6 feet away from others, not gather in groups and wash their hands frequently.
Connecticut
In his daily address Friday, Governor Ned Lamont announced a “Stay safe, stay at home” policy, telling all “non-essential” businesses and not-for-profit entities to stay closed for an indefinite time period, beginning at 8 p.m. on Monday, March 23.
He is asking that all businesses that can have employees work from home do so, according to WTNH.
Delaware
Gov. John Carney has issued a stay-at-home order due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to Delaware Public Media.
The order goes into effect Tuesday morning. It requires all non-essential businesses to close.
Illinois
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker’s “stay-at-home” order is set to begin Saturday afternoon and go until April . According to WGN, the order will mean residents can still go to the grocery stores, put gas in their cars, take walks outside and make pharmacy runs.
All local roads, including the interstate highways and tollways, will remain open to traffic, as well. Delivery works should still report to work, the governor said.
Businesses such as gyms, spas, salons, barber shops and tattoo parlors must close by Saturday.
Indiana
Governor Eric Holcomb is ordering citizens to stay home from March 25 to April 7.
People must remain home except for essential work duties or for permitted activities such as taking care of others, obtaining necessary supplies and for health and safety, according to Fox 59.
Louisiana
On Sunday, Governor John Bel Edwards issued a statewide “stay at home” order.
The order itself is slated to go into effect at 5 p.m. on March 23, according to WGNO. The order will stay in place through Monday. April 13.
Massachusetts
Governor Charlie Baker has ordered all non-essential businesses to close, effective noon Tuesday, March 24.
The governor also announced Monday that he and state health officials are issuing a stay at home advisory for the residents of Massachusetts.
Both will remain in effect until April 7, according to WWLP.
Michigan
Governor Gretchen Whitmer has issued a stay-at-home order for Michigan residents.
The order is expected to last at least three weeks, according to WOOD-TV.
New Jersey
On Saturday, Governor Phil Murphy signed an executive order telling all residents to stay at home until further notice.
The order includes some exceptions like obtaining essential goods, seeking medical attention, visiting family, reporting to work or enjoying outdoor activities.
The order mandates work from home arrangements when possible and prohibits all social gatherings.
New York
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is ordering all workers in nonessential businesses to stay home and banning gatherings statewide. Cuomo announced the restrictions Friday that take effect Sunday, according to WTEN in Albany.
He also says nonessential gatherings of individuals of any size or for any reason are canceled or postponed. The Democratic governor took the dramatic actions as confirmed cases in New York climbed to more than 10,000 as of Saturday.
Cuomo says people can still go out for solitary exercise to protect their physical and mental health.
The steps to contain the virus come as Southern Europe’s medical system is buckling. The pandemic marked a grim milestone with a global death toll that now surpasses 10,000. In Spain and Italy, patients are filling up sick wards and field hospitals are going up in hotels and a convention center in Madrid.
Ohio
Gov. Mike DeWine announced that the Ohio Department of Health has issued a stay-at-home order for all of Ohio.
DeWine made the announcement Sunday during his daily news conference to update on the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus, stating that ODH Director Dr. Amy Acton has signed the order.
“There is really nothing in that order, that we have not already been talking about,” said DeWine. “There’s nothing in that order, that I have not been asking you to do for the last week or so.”
The order will go until at least April 6, when it will be reevaluated, according to DeWine.
West Virginia
West Virginia Governor Jim Justice says he has declared a stay-home order to go into effect at 8 p.m., Tuesday, March 24th. He also declared Wednesday, March 25th a day of state prayer.
Justice says people will be able to leave their homes to receive essential services, go to work at essential businesses, or go outdoors as long as they remain as a six-foot distance. Further details will be available on the governor’s website.
Wisconsin
Governor Tony Evers says he’ll sign an order that closes all non-essential businesses and urges people to stay home to slow the spread of COVID-19.
This order will be executed Tuesday, according to WFRV.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Texas Governor Abbott may be trying to avoid the economic impact a lockdown will have on the state … but at what cost?
HAMAS WIELDS CORONAVIRUS TO EXTORT MORE MONEY
Threatens to double number of infected in Israel if Arab states don’t pay up
By Ryan Jones
Israel Today
March 23, 2020
It was just a matter of time before Palestinian terror groups like Hamas exploited the coronavirus as part of their ongoing conflict with Israel.
Over the weekend, senior Hamas officials notified Egypt and Qatar that they would dramatically increase the number of Israelis infected with COVID-19 if those two Arab states failed to continue to financially support the terror group during the current global crisis.
That according to Lebanese newspaper Al Akhbar, which has ties to Hamas.
It was unclear from the report, translated by the Tazpit Press Service (TPS), if Hamas intended to further spread the coronavirus to Israel through infected persons, or to help it proliferate by forcing Israelis into crowded bomb shelters.
Israel reportedly responded that it would not tolerate rocket attacks from Gaza at this time, though it is difficult to imagine the IDF launching any kind of serious military retaliation during the coronavirus crisis for fear of global condemnation.
Al Akhbar also claimed that Hamas wants Qatar and Egypt to pressure Israel to send more medical equipment to Gaza.
Israel aids Palestinians
The Palestinian-ruled territories are woefully unprepared to handle a pandemic, and this is particularly true of the Gaza Strip, which has been isolated for well over a decade due to Hamas’ violent behavior.
Israel has stepped up by earmarking for the Palestinians a sizeable portion of the supplies being imported to the Jewish state aboard Air Force planes.
“Our efforts against this virus stem not merely from a legal duty, but from a humanitarian and moral one, with an understanding that this pathogen does not care about national borders,” Col. Sharon Biton, head of civilian affairs at the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, told Israel’s Ynet news portal.
Catastrophe waiting to happen
Gaza on Sunday confirmed its first two cases of coronavirus. The infected are local Palestinians who attended a conference in Pakistan earlier in the month. Everyone who has come into contact with them since their return has been put in quarantine.
Gaza’s isolation was at first seen as a positive as the world struggled to contain COVID-19. For weeks, the coastal enclave was referred to as the safest place in the world, at least as far as the pandemic was concerned.
But with the coronavirus now rearing its head in Gaza, there is serious concern that it could spread rapidly in the densely-populated territory. And were that to happen, Hamas’ systematic mismanagement would result in the near-immediate collapse of the local health care system.
By Ryan Jones
Israel Today
March 23, 2020
It was just a matter of time before Palestinian terror groups like Hamas exploited the coronavirus as part of their ongoing conflict with Israel.
Over the weekend, senior Hamas officials notified Egypt and Qatar that they would dramatically increase the number of Israelis infected with COVID-19 if those two Arab states failed to continue to financially support the terror group during the current global crisis.
That according to Lebanese newspaper Al Akhbar, which has ties to Hamas.
It was unclear from the report, translated by the Tazpit Press Service (TPS), if Hamas intended to further spread the coronavirus to Israel through infected persons, or to help it proliferate by forcing Israelis into crowded bomb shelters.
Israel reportedly responded that it would not tolerate rocket attacks from Gaza at this time, though it is difficult to imagine the IDF launching any kind of serious military retaliation during the coronavirus crisis for fear of global condemnation.
Al Akhbar also claimed that Hamas wants Qatar and Egypt to pressure Israel to send more medical equipment to Gaza.
Israel aids Palestinians
The Palestinian-ruled territories are woefully unprepared to handle a pandemic, and this is particularly true of the Gaza Strip, which has been isolated for well over a decade due to Hamas’ violent behavior.
Israel has stepped up by earmarking for the Palestinians a sizeable portion of the supplies being imported to the Jewish state aboard Air Force planes.
“Our efforts against this virus stem not merely from a legal duty, but from a humanitarian and moral one, with an understanding that this pathogen does not care about national borders,” Col. Sharon Biton, head of civilian affairs at the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, told Israel’s Ynet news portal.
Catastrophe waiting to happen
Gaza on Sunday confirmed its first two cases of coronavirus. The infected are local Palestinians who attended a conference in Pakistan earlier in the month. Everyone who has come into contact with them since their return has been put in quarantine.
Gaza’s isolation was at first seen as a positive as the world struggled to contain COVID-19. For weeks, the coastal enclave was referred to as the safest place in the world, at least as far as the pandemic was concerned.
But with the coronavirus now rearing its head in Gaza, there is serious concern that it could spread rapidly in the densely-populated territory. And were that to happen, Hamas’ systematic mismanagement would result in the near-immediate collapse of the local health care system.
Monday, March 23, 2020
PLAGUE UPDATE FROM SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY
by Bob Walsh
For those of you who may be absolutely dying for news from CA here comes the unvarnished truth on the Covid-19 impact locally.
There are 53 known infected persons including two deaths.
Fortunately the infection has had little impact on the unlicensed pharmaceutical salesmen, commercial sex workers and irregular property acquisition agents who are the small-business backbone of the local economy.
The book stores are indeed closed. However, the WiFi and Barnes and Noble is still up and since there is nobody there you can download books faster than a cat with its tail on fire. Normally their WiFi runs like a 3-legged cow.
Gun stores are still open. I am guessing that is because CA does not have instant background checks so there is a 10-day waiting period. After a 20-day window you have to reapply. I suspect the gun stores can justify staying open because of that. I have, however, noticed that they are letting only very few people in at a time and there is a holding pattern outside the stores. I am NOT seeing panic buying of ammo here. That does not mean it isn't happening. I buy very little ammo in gun stores. Mostly I hijack trucks to get mine.
The local community college has a large nursing program and other medical-technical programs, largely to feed into the CA prison system. There is some worry that those folks may not be able to get their clinic hours in and therefore may not get their cert at the end of this semester.
Buttwipe, hand sanitizer and spray disinfectant is still in short supply. Very short.
Tuesday morning I am going to try to hit Safeway during their old-farts only hours and see how well that works. I will let you know.
I am thinking of ordering a T-shirt with a representation of a plague flag on it. What do you think? I mean, how many people will even know what the hell it is any more?
For those of you who may be absolutely dying for news from CA here comes the unvarnished truth on the Covid-19 impact locally.
There are 53 known infected persons including two deaths.
Fortunately the infection has had little impact on the unlicensed pharmaceutical salesmen, commercial sex workers and irregular property acquisition agents who are the small-business backbone of the local economy.
The book stores are indeed closed. However, the WiFi and Barnes and Noble is still up and since there is nobody there you can download books faster than a cat with its tail on fire. Normally their WiFi runs like a 3-legged cow.
Gun stores are still open. I am guessing that is because CA does not have instant background checks so there is a 10-day waiting period. After a 20-day window you have to reapply. I suspect the gun stores can justify staying open because of that. I have, however, noticed that they are letting only very few people in at a time and there is a holding pattern outside the stores. I am NOT seeing panic buying of ammo here. That does not mean it isn't happening. I buy very little ammo in gun stores. Mostly I hijack trucks to get mine.
The local community college has a large nursing program and other medical-technical programs, largely to feed into the CA prison system. There is some worry that those folks may not be able to get their clinic hours in and therefore may not get their cert at the end of this semester.
Buttwipe, hand sanitizer and spray disinfectant is still in short supply. Very short.
Tuesday morning I am going to try to hit Safeway during their old-farts only hours and see how well that works. I will let you know.
I am thinking of ordering a T-shirt with a representation of a plague flag on it. What do you think? I mean, how many people will even know what the hell it is any more?
DOJ REQUEST MAY BE UNCONSTITUTIONAL
Department of Justice asks to keep suspects behind bars indefinitely WITHOUT trial under 'terrifying' emergency powers amid coronavirus pandemic
By Hannah Skellern
Daily Mail
March 22, 2020
Chief judges could detain suspects indefinitely without putting them on trial in a push for emergency powers as the coronavirus continues to spread through the US.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) has asked Congress to grant use of the controversial powers during emergencies like the current pandemic – in a move that critics condemned as ‘terrifying’ and an infringement on people’s constitutional rights.
The department, led by Attorney General William Barr, asked lawmakers to allow chief district court judges to pause court proceedings if the court is closed because of ‘any natural disaster, civil disobedience, or other emergency situation,’ documents obtained by POLITICO reveal.
Fears have been raised that the Trump administration is using the outbreak of the deadly virus to bring about policy changes sought by Republicans such as clamping down on asylum seekers, strengthening border restrictions and cutting taxes.
The move by the Department of Justice, led by Attorney General William Barr, has been condemned by civil liberties advocates as ‘terrifying’ and an infringement on people’s constitutional rights
President Donald Trump declared a state of emergency on March 13 to fight the coronavirus crisis.
The amount of cases in the US soared above 26,000 on Sunday.
Civil liberties advocates have condemned the move by the DOJ – which would be unlikely to be approved by the House of Representative where the Democrats hold the majority – as a breach of constitutional rights.
The right to seek release from a judge is known as habeas corpus.
The request for the power to apply ‘pre-arrest’ was criticized by Norman L. Reimer, the executive director of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.
‘That means you could be arrested and never brought before a judge until they decide that the emergency or the civil disobedience is over,’ he said.
More than 26,000 people have tested positive to Covid-19 in the United States, and 346 people have died
‘I find it absolutely terrifying. Especially in a time of emergency, we should be very careful about granting new powers to the government.’
‘That is something that should not happen in a democracy.’
The DOJ also asked Congress to pause the statute of limitations in national emergencies and for a year after.
It requested that video conference hearings take place without defendants’ consent, according to the documents.
‘If it were with the consent of the accused person it would be fine,’ Reimer said.
‘But if it’s not with the consent of the accused person, it’s a terrible road to go down. We have a right to public trials. People have a right to be present in court.’
Lawmakers were also asked to ban people with coronavirus from applying for asylum.
EDITOR’S NOTE: The DOJ request, if enacted, could allow persons arrested for being drunk in public or for failing to pay a fine to be kept jailed indefinitely.
By Hannah Skellern
Daily Mail
March 22, 2020
Chief judges could detain suspects indefinitely without putting them on trial in a push for emergency powers as the coronavirus continues to spread through the US.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) has asked Congress to grant use of the controversial powers during emergencies like the current pandemic – in a move that critics condemned as ‘terrifying’ and an infringement on people’s constitutional rights.
The department, led by Attorney General William Barr, asked lawmakers to allow chief district court judges to pause court proceedings if the court is closed because of ‘any natural disaster, civil disobedience, or other emergency situation,’ documents obtained by POLITICO reveal.
Fears have been raised that the Trump administration is using the outbreak of the deadly virus to bring about policy changes sought by Republicans such as clamping down on asylum seekers, strengthening border restrictions and cutting taxes.
The move by the Department of Justice, led by Attorney General William Barr, has been condemned by civil liberties advocates as ‘terrifying’ and an infringement on people’s constitutional rights
President Donald Trump declared a state of emergency on March 13 to fight the coronavirus crisis.
The amount of cases in the US soared above 26,000 on Sunday.
Civil liberties advocates have condemned the move by the DOJ – which would be unlikely to be approved by the House of Representative where the Democrats hold the majority – as a breach of constitutional rights.
The right to seek release from a judge is known as habeas corpus.
The request for the power to apply ‘pre-arrest’ was criticized by Norman L. Reimer, the executive director of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.
‘That means you could be arrested and never brought before a judge until they decide that the emergency or the civil disobedience is over,’ he said.
More than 26,000 people have tested positive to Covid-19 in the United States, and 346 people have died
‘I find it absolutely terrifying. Especially in a time of emergency, we should be very careful about granting new powers to the government.’
‘That is something that should not happen in a democracy.’
The DOJ also asked Congress to pause the statute of limitations in national emergencies and for a year after.
It requested that video conference hearings take place without defendants’ consent, according to the documents.
‘If it were with the consent of the accused person it would be fine,’ Reimer said.
‘But if it’s not with the consent of the accused person, it’s a terrible road to go down. We have a right to public trials. People have a right to be present in court.’
Lawmakers were also asked to ban people with coronavirus from applying for asylum.
EDITOR’S NOTE: The DOJ request, if enacted, could allow persons arrested for being drunk in public or for failing to pay a fine to be kept jailed indefinitely.
SUPREME LEADER BRANDS US LEADERS AS ‘CHARLATANS AND LIARS’
Iran's Khamenei rejects U.S. help offer, vows to defeat coronavirus
By Parisa Hafezi
Reuters
March 22, 2020
DUBAI -- The United States’ offer to help Iran in its fight against the new coronavirus pandemic is strange, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a televised speech on Sunday, describing U.S. leaders as “charlatans and liars”.
Washington has offered humanitarian assistance to its longtime foe, the Middle Eastern country most affected by the coronavirus, with 1,685 deaths and 21,638 people infected.
Tensions between the two countries have been running high since 2018, when U.S. President Donald Trump exited Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal with six world powers and reimposed sanctions that have crippled the Iranian economy.
“Several times Americans have offered to help us to fight the pandemic. That is strange because you face shortages in America. Also you are accused of creating this virus,” said Khamenei, an anti-U.S. hardliner who has the final say in Iran.
“I do not know whether it is true. But when there is such an allegation, can a wise man trust you and accept your help offer? ... You could be giving medicines to Iran that spread the virus or cause it to remain permanently.”
Frictions increased when Trump ordered a U.S. drone strike that killed the top commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, Qassem Soleimani, on Jan. 3. Iran retaliated by hitting U.S. targets in Iraq on Jan. 8.
“Our number one enemy is America. It is the most wicked, sinister enemy of Iran ... its leaders are terrorists ... Liars and charlatans,” said Khamenei.
Iranian authorities have blamed U.S. sanctions for hampering its efforts to curb the outbreak and President Hassan Rouhani has urged Americans to call on their government to lift sanctions as Iran fights the coronavirus.
China, a party to Iran’s nuclear deal, has urged the United States to lift sanctions on Iran immediately amid Tehran’s response to the coronavirus outbreak.
But the United States sent Iran a blunt message this week: the spread of the virus will not save it from U.S. sanctions that are choking off its oil revenues and isolating its economy.
Khamenei, who canceled his annual speech for Persian new year from the holy Shi’ite Muslim city of Mashhad on March 20 because of the outbreak, said Iran would triumph over the virus.
“The Islamic Republic has the capability to overcome any kind of crisis and challenges, including the coronavirus outbreak,” said Khamenei, who called on people to stay at home.
While many Iranians avoided traveling during the Persian new year holiday, police said millions have defied warnings issued by officials to avoid unnecessary trips aimed at curbing the spread of the virus.
The office of Tehran’s governor said all shopping centers will be closed in the capital from Sunday.
“Only pharmacies and shops that provide essential goods will remain open in Tehran,” Iranian state TV reported.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Khamenei was right in calling our leaders liars. Our offer of help was as phony as a nine-dollar bill and was made to make the US look good. We knew that Iran’s leadership would never accept any help from the Great Satan.
By Parisa Hafezi
Reuters
March 22, 2020
DUBAI -- The United States’ offer to help Iran in its fight against the new coronavirus pandemic is strange, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a televised speech on Sunday, describing U.S. leaders as “charlatans and liars”.
Washington has offered humanitarian assistance to its longtime foe, the Middle Eastern country most affected by the coronavirus, with 1,685 deaths and 21,638 people infected.
Tensions between the two countries have been running high since 2018, when U.S. President Donald Trump exited Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal with six world powers and reimposed sanctions that have crippled the Iranian economy.
“Several times Americans have offered to help us to fight the pandemic. That is strange because you face shortages in America. Also you are accused of creating this virus,” said Khamenei, an anti-U.S. hardliner who has the final say in Iran.
“I do not know whether it is true. But when there is such an allegation, can a wise man trust you and accept your help offer? ... You could be giving medicines to Iran that spread the virus or cause it to remain permanently.”
Frictions increased when Trump ordered a U.S. drone strike that killed the top commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, Qassem Soleimani, on Jan. 3. Iran retaliated by hitting U.S. targets in Iraq on Jan. 8.
“Our number one enemy is America. It is the most wicked, sinister enemy of Iran ... its leaders are terrorists ... Liars and charlatans,” said Khamenei.
Iranian authorities have blamed U.S. sanctions for hampering its efforts to curb the outbreak and President Hassan Rouhani has urged Americans to call on their government to lift sanctions as Iran fights the coronavirus.
China, a party to Iran’s nuclear deal, has urged the United States to lift sanctions on Iran immediately amid Tehran’s response to the coronavirus outbreak.
But the United States sent Iran a blunt message this week: the spread of the virus will not save it from U.S. sanctions that are choking off its oil revenues and isolating its economy.
Khamenei, who canceled his annual speech for Persian new year from the holy Shi’ite Muslim city of Mashhad on March 20 because of the outbreak, said Iran would triumph over the virus.
“The Islamic Republic has the capability to overcome any kind of crisis and challenges, including the coronavirus outbreak,” said Khamenei, who called on people to stay at home.
While many Iranians avoided traveling during the Persian new year holiday, police said millions have defied warnings issued by officials to avoid unnecessary trips aimed at curbing the spread of the virus.
The office of Tehran’s governor said all shopping centers will be closed in the capital from Sunday.
“Only pharmacies and shops that provide essential goods will remain open in Tehran,” Iranian state TV reported.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Khamenei was right in calling our leaders liars. Our offer of help was as phony as a nine-dollar bill and was made to make the US look good. We knew that Iran’s leadership would never accept any help from the Great Satan.
WEAPONIZING CORONAVIRUS
White supremacists discussed using the coronavirus as a bioweapon, explosive internal DHS document reveals
By Sonam Sheth
Business Insider
March 22, 2020
Federal investigators have learned that white supremacists in the US discussed plans to use the coronavirus as a bioweapon, Yahoo News reported, citing a weekly intelligence brief from a division of the Department of Homeland Security.
The brief covered the week of February 17-24 and was written by the Federal Protective Service.
It said violent extremists "continue to make bioterrorism a popular topic among themselves," adding: "White Racially Motivated Violent Extremists have recently commented on the coronavirus stating that it is an 'OBLIGATION' to spread it should any of them contract the virus."
The World Health Organization designated the novel coronavirus, which causes the disease COVID-19, a pandemic on March 11. To date, the disease has infected 311,989 people worldwide and killed 13,407. In the US there are 26,747 confirmed cases and 340 people have died.
According to Yahoo News, white supremacists used the secure messaging app Telegram to discuss their plans to spread the virus and suggested targeting law-enforcement agents and "nonwhite" people. But they were also open to targeting some "public places in general," the brief said.
The report said that to carry out their plans, white supremacists floated options like leaving "saliva on door handles" at local FBI offices, spitting on elevator buttons, spreading the virus in "nonwhite neighborhoods," and being in public with their perceived enemies.
Yahoo News reported that the discussion primarily took place in a Telegram channel devoted to a neo-Nazi philosophy known as "siege culture," which advocates for racial terrorism to spark a civil war.
President Donald Trump has publicly pledged to fight domestic terrorism and white nationalism. But as Insider's Nicole Einbinder reported last year, the Trump administration has slashed many of the government agencies responsible for fighting domestic terrorism.
That said, US law-enforcement agencies have tried to shift more attention in recent months to combat the issue. Last year, for instance, the FBI zeroed in on conspiracy theories and identified them as a domestic-terrorism threat.
"The FBI assesses anti-government, identity based, and fringe political conspiracy theories very likely motivate some domestic extremists, wholly or in part, to commit criminal and sometimes violent activity," the document said. "The FBI further assesses in some cases these conspiracy theories very likely encourage the targeting of specific people, places, and organizations, thereby increasing the likelihood of violence against these targets."
The vast majority of the conspiracy theories the FBI laid out in its threat assessment resulted in racially motivated violence by right-wing extremists.
A number of those conspiracy theories — and the outlets that publish them — have even found their way into the White House and Trump's Twitter feed.
The president declared a national emergency over the coronavirus last week but has since been criticized for continuing to downplay the virus, falsely touting cures for the disease and blaming the mainstream media and his perceived critics for hyping the crisis up.
Trump also faced sharp backlash for describing the virus as the "Chinese virus," which public-health experts say is a racist and xenophobic term.
Congress is working on passing a relief bill to help people and businesses hit hardest by the disease's spread. As of Sunday night, the Senate was closing in on a nearly $2 trillion stimulus package to shore up the faltering US economy, but there are still several outstanding issues that need to be resolved ahead of a final vote on Monday.
By Sonam Sheth
Business Insider
March 22, 2020
Federal investigators have learned that white supremacists in the US discussed plans to use the coronavirus as a bioweapon, Yahoo News reported, citing a weekly intelligence brief from a division of the Department of Homeland Security.
The brief covered the week of February 17-24 and was written by the Federal Protective Service.
It said violent extremists "continue to make bioterrorism a popular topic among themselves," adding: "White Racially Motivated Violent Extremists have recently commented on the coronavirus stating that it is an 'OBLIGATION' to spread it should any of them contract the virus."
The World Health Organization designated the novel coronavirus, which causes the disease COVID-19, a pandemic on March 11. To date, the disease has infected 311,989 people worldwide and killed 13,407. In the US there are 26,747 confirmed cases and 340 people have died.
According to Yahoo News, white supremacists used the secure messaging app Telegram to discuss their plans to spread the virus and suggested targeting law-enforcement agents and "nonwhite" people. But they were also open to targeting some "public places in general," the brief said.
The report said that to carry out their plans, white supremacists floated options like leaving "saliva on door handles" at local FBI offices, spitting on elevator buttons, spreading the virus in "nonwhite neighborhoods," and being in public with their perceived enemies.
Yahoo News reported that the discussion primarily took place in a Telegram channel devoted to a neo-Nazi philosophy known as "siege culture," which advocates for racial terrorism to spark a civil war.
President Donald Trump has publicly pledged to fight domestic terrorism and white nationalism. But as Insider's Nicole Einbinder reported last year, the Trump administration has slashed many of the government agencies responsible for fighting domestic terrorism.
That said, US law-enforcement agencies have tried to shift more attention in recent months to combat the issue. Last year, for instance, the FBI zeroed in on conspiracy theories and identified them as a domestic-terrorism threat.
"The FBI assesses anti-government, identity based, and fringe political conspiracy theories very likely motivate some domestic extremists, wholly or in part, to commit criminal and sometimes violent activity," the document said. "The FBI further assesses in some cases these conspiracy theories very likely encourage the targeting of specific people, places, and organizations, thereby increasing the likelihood of violence against these targets."
The vast majority of the conspiracy theories the FBI laid out in its threat assessment resulted in racially motivated violence by right-wing extremists.
A number of those conspiracy theories — and the outlets that publish them — have even found their way into the White House and Trump's Twitter feed.
The president declared a national emergency over the coronavirus last week but has since been criticized for continuing to downplay the virus, falsely touting cures for the disease and blaming the mainstream media and his perceived critics for hyping the crisis up.
Trump also faced sharp backlash for describing the virus as the "Chinese virus," which public-health experts say is a racist and xenophobic term.
Congress is working on passing a relief bill to help people and businesses hit hardest by the disease's spread. As of Sunday night, the Senate was closing in on a nearly $2 trillion stimulus package to shore up the faltering US economy, but there are still several outstanding issues that need to be resolved ahead of a final vote on Monday.
AS RABBI MEIR MAZUZ WOULD SAY, THAT’S WHAT YOU ARE GETTING FOR HOLDING GAY PRIDE PARADES
Governor Cuomo slams 'arrogant and insensitive' New Yorkers for going outside, warns 80% of the state will be infected and orders FOUR hospitals for 1,000 coronavirus patients to be built inside the Javits Center
Daily Mail
March 22, 2020
Governor Andrew Cuomo slammed 'arrogant' New Yorkers for ignoring social distancing guidelines on Sunday as the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the state surpassed 15,000.
Speaking to reporters at a press conference, Cuomo described his horror at visiting New York City on Saturday and seeing parks crowded with people who have been instructed to limit contact as much as possible.
'There is a density level in New York City that is wholly inappropriate,' the governor said.
'You would think there was nothing going on in parts of New York City. You would think it was just a bright sunny Saturday.
'I don't know what I'm saying that people don't get. I don't know what they're not understanding.
'This is not life as usual. None of this is life as usual.'
Cuomo warned that the COVID-19 outbreak is on pace to last nine months and said 80 percent of the state's 19 million residents could become infected.
__________
'If Donald Trump doesn't act, people will die who don't have to die': Bill de Blasio slams the president for 'not lifting a finger' to help his 'hometown of NYC' during the coronavirus crisis and warns hospitals will be depleted in just 10 days
Daily Mail
March 22, 2020
Bill de Blasio said Sunday that if Donald Trump doesn't send more aid to New York City to combat coronavirus then 'people will die' of the disease who otherwise would have lived.
'The truth is, and New Yorkers and all Americans deserve the blunt truth, it's only getting worse,' de Blasio said in an interview on NBC News' Meet the Press Sunday morning. 'And, in fact, April and May are going to be a lot worse.' 'Right now, we are a third of the cases in the country - that's going to get worse. We're about two-thirds or more the cases in New York State - that's going to get worse,' The New York City mayor continued.
EDITOR’S NOTE: The Sandinista-loving mayor has some nerve in slamming Trump while asking him for help after continually calling for Trump’s ouster during his failed presidential campaign. That’s called chutzpah.
__________
New York governor is praised for his crisis response and is dubbed the 'real wartime president' over Donald Trump and fellow Democrats Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden
Daily Mail
March 22, 2020
The hashtag #PresidentCuomo began trending on Twitter on Saturday as users praised Democrat Andrew Cuomo's 'presidential' demeanor in addressing the outbreak both within and outside his home state - which accounts for 11,705 of the more than 25,430 cases in the US.
Cuomo has been holding daily press briefings on coronavirus for the past several weeks as the case count in New York continued to climb.
The governor's direct messaging bears stark contrast to the often haphazard and hyperbolic messages coming from President Donald Trump, who has faced fierce criticism over his administration's handling of the crisis.
Meanwhile, current Democratic 2020 frontrunners Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders have struggled to secure airtime and subsequently faced criticism for their lack of input on the pandemic gripping the nation.
Daily Mail
March 22, 2020
Governor Andrew Cuomo slammed 'arrogant' New Yorkers for ignoring social distancing guidelines on Sunday as the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the state surpassed 15,000.
Speaking to reporters at a press conference, Cuomo described his horror at visiting New York City on Saturday and seeing parks crowded with people who have been instructed to limit contact as much as possible.
'There is a density level in New York City that is wholly inappropriate,' the governor said.
'You would think there was nothing going on in parts of New York City. You would think it was just a bright sunny Saturday.
'I don't know what I'm saying that people don't get. I don't know what they're not understanding.
'This is not life as usual. None of this is life as usual.'
Cuomo warned that the COVID-19 outbreak is on pace to last nine months and said 80 percent of the state's 19 million residents could become infected.
__________
'If Donald Trump doesn't act, people will die who don't have to die': Bill de Blasio slams the president for 'not lifting a finger' to help his 'hometown of NYC' during the coronavirus crisis and warns hospitals will be depleted in just 10 days
Daily Mail
March 22, 2020
Bill de Blasio said Sunday that if Donald Trump doesn't send more aid to New York City to combat coronavirus then 'people will die' of the disease who otherwise would have lived.
'The truth is, and New Yorkers and all Americans deserve the blunt truth, it's only getting worse,' de Blasio said in an interview on NBC News' Meet the Press Sunday morning. 'And, in fact, April and May are going to be a lot worse.' 'Right now, we are a third of the cases in the country - that's going to get worse. We're about two-thirds or more the cases in New York State - that's going to get worse,' The New York City mayor continued.
EDITOR’S NOTE: The Sandinista-loving mayor has some nerve in slamming Trump while asking him for help after continually calling for Trump’s ouster during his failed presidential campaign. That’s called chutzpah.
__________
New York governor is praised for his crisis response and is dubbed the 'real wartime president' over Donald Trump and fellow Democrats Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden
Daily Mail
March 22, 2020
The hashtag #PresidentCuomo began trending on Twitter on Saturday as users praised Democrat Andrew Cuomo's 'presidential' demeanor in addressing the outbreak both within and outside his home state - which accounts for 11,705 of the more than 25,430 cases in the US.
Cuomo has been holding daily press briefings on coronavirus for the past several weeks as the case count in New York continued to climb.
The governor's direct messaging bears stark contrast to the often haphazard and hyperbolic messages coming from President Donald Trump, who has faced fierce criticism over his administration's handling of the crisis.
Meanwhile, current Democratic 2020 frontrunners Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders have struggled to secure airtime and subsequently faced criticism for their lack of input on the pandemic gripping the nation.
Sunday, March 22, 2020
INNER PEACE
If you can always be cheerful, ignoring aches and pains,
If you can resist complaining and boring people with your troubles,
If you can eat the same food every day and be grateful for it,
If you can understand when your loved ones are too busy to give you any time,
If you can take criticism and blame without resentment,
If you can conquer tension without medical help,
If you can relax without alcohol,
If you can sleep without the aid of drugs,
Then You Are Probably The Family Dog!
And you thought I was going to get all spiritual ...
Handle every Stressful situation like a dog.
If you can't eat it or play with it ...
... Piss on it and walk way.
If you can resist complaining and boring people with your troubles,
If you can eat the same food every day and be grateful for it,
If you can understand when your loved ones are too busy to give you any time,
If you can take criticism and blame without resentment,
If you can conquer tension without medical help,
If you can relax without alcohol,
If you can sleep without the aid of drugs,
Then You Are Probably The Family Dog!
And you thought I was going to get all spiritual ...
Handle every Stressful situation like a dog.
If you can't eat it or play with it ...
... Piss on it and walk way.
ITALY HITS 793 COVID-19 DEATHS IN ONE DAY
by Bob Walsh
Italy, which has a base population of 60 million, hit 793 Covid-19 deaths in just one day. For the U. S. that would equal about 4,400.
CA has leased two empty hospitals to set up for new patients if necessary. It probably will be.
We should know in about another 2-3 weeks if the home lockdown orders will manage to "flatten the curve" of the infection. Assuming the Chinese are to be believed (dubious at best) they have now gone for 2-3 days with no new infections noted. If the home lockdown orders are not effective the infection population in large, urban areas will double about every four days. If we can go several cycles WITHOUT that happening it will look promising.
There is still a modest pissing contest (a very polite one) going on between Donald Trump and the medical professionals. The pros think he is maybe putting too much emphasis on the maybe-possibly aspect of some of the new drug treatments. While they LOOK promising the studies are way too small and the potential downside of the medicine way too significant (or unknown) to be touting them as a silver bullet, at least yet. I hope Trump turns out to be right. I am not betting on it.
In the meantime I am not licking the hand rails at Taco Bell. Even if I wanted to, I can't. They are all shut down in CA except the drive-thru.
Italy, which has a base population of 60 million, hit 793 Covid-19 deaths in just one day. For the U. S. that would equal about 4,400.
CA has leased two empty hospitals to set up for new patients if necessary. It probably will be.
We should know in about another 2-3 weeks if the home lockdown orders will manage to "flatten the curve" of the infection. Assuming the Chinese are to be believed (dubious at best) they have now gone for 2-3 days with no new infections noted. If the home lockdown orders are not effective the infection population in large, urban areas will double about every four days. If we can go several cycles WITHOUT that happening it will look promising.
There is still a modest pissing contest (a very polite one) going on between Donald Trump and the medical professionals. The pros think he is maybe putting too much emphasis on the maybe-possibly aspect of some of the new drug treatments. While they LOOK promising the studies are way too small and the potential downside of the medicine way too significant (or unknown) to be touting them as a silver bullet, at least yet. I hope Trump turns out to be right. I am not betting on it.
In the meantime I am not licking the hand rails at Taco Bell. Even if I wanted to, I can't. They are all shut down in CA except the drive-thru.
STOCKTON STRIVING FOR NORMALITY
by Bob Walsh
On Friday afternoon there was a family disturbance at a city park on South Sutter Street. When the cops showed up they found numerous gunshot victims, all from the same family. It appeared to be an internal family beef rather than the usual gang shooting. So far as I know there is only one dead.
In addition a 16-year old girl with a toad sticker went after a nine-year old boy and a 55-year old man on Friday. When the cops showed up the girl wouldn't drop the knife and the cops body-slammed her happy ass. She's lucky she didn't get shot. The young lady is in custody for ADW, resisting arrest, vandalism, battery and felony stupidity.
I am happy to report the denizens of Stockton are working diligently to maintain a veneer of normalcy in these trying times.
On Friday afternoon there was a family disturbance at a city park on South Sutter Street. When the cops showed up they found numerous gunshot victims, all from the same family. It appeared to be an internal family beef rather than the usual gang shooting. So far as I know there is only one dead.
In addition a 16-year old girl with a toad sticker went after a nine-year old boy and a 55-year old man on Friday. When the cops showed up the girl wouldn't drop the knife and the cops body-slammed her happy ass. She's lucky she didn't get shot. The young lady is in custody for ADW, resisting arrest, vandalism, battery and felony stupidity.
I am happy to report the denizens of Stockton are working diligently to maintain a veneer of normalcy in these trying times.
FROM GOOD NEWS TO TERRIBLE NEWS IN JUST ONE MONTH ….. AND TRUMP’S REELECTION CHANCES NOSEDIVED LIKE THE DOW
Donald Trump tweeted the market is 'starting to look very good to me' as the Dow hit 27,960 on February 24 - now he faces re-election campaign without his favorite selling point
By Geoff Earle
Daily Mail
March 20, 2020
A week this bad on Wall Street would be jarring for any president, but for Donald Trump, the stunning drop in the Dow and other indexes has shredded an issue that has been a lifeblood and focus of the cheerleading he has done for his own tenure.
More than any president, Trump has linked his performance to the financial markets and the Dow Jones Industrial average – touting its rise, mentioning it at campaign rallies, saluting companies and their executives, and even urging Americans to buy.
His most reason tout of the market came less than a week ago, and preceded a record one-day sell-off. A month ago, in a tweet that now appears deeply wrong, the president talked up the containment of the looming pandemic and suggested it was a good time to buy securities.
'The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA. We are in contact with everyone and all relevant countries. CDC & World Health have been working hard and very smart. Stock Market starting to look very good to me!'
The Dow ended up dropping 900 points that day, but was still at 27,081 – well above where it ended up Friday, when the Dow sank to 19,174 after New York and California locked down residence amid the spreading coronavirus pandemic.
It was far from the only time Trump issued a stock tip or took credit for a rise in the value of American companies on financial markets. When the market was high, he repeatedly told fans at his rallies if they liked how their 401(k)s were doing.
He made the boast at a White House event touting a new trade agreement with Mexico and Canada – two nations with which he has now closed the U.S. border for travelers amid the outbreak – in the Rose Garden in 2018.
'Our economy is booming like never before. Jobless claims are at a 50-year low. The stock market is at an all-time high. Think of that — over 50 percent since my election. Fifty percent. People — the 401(k)s — and they have 401(k)s, and they were dying with them for years. Now they're so happy.
At an August campaign rally in New Hampshire, Trump drew a straight line between the performance of people's 401(k)s for retirement and the need for them to support him. He told supporters they had 'no choice'
'If for some reason I wouldn't have won the [2016] election, these markets would have crashed. That'll happen even more so in 2020,' Trump said.
'See, the bottom line is ... You have no choice but to vote for me because your 401k, everything is going to be down the tubes. So whether you love me or hate me, you've got to vote for me.'
The Dow stood at 19,827 points when Trump took office. On Valentine's Day, it was at 29,398, and Trump has talked up the possibility of it hitting 30,000.
At the start of 2018, as the Dow topped 25,000, Trump set his sights on a new goal: 'I guess our new number is 30,000,' he told reporters. 'There were those that said we wouldn't break 25,000 by the end of the eighth year, and we're in the 11th month,' he said.
When he hasn't commented on the markets and the indexes, Trump has touted individual businesses – almost all of whom have been battered since February. He has hosted CEOs at the White House, praised their stewardship and referenced them by their first names on camera, while pushing through a major tax cut when the economy was riding high. As the full force of the outbreak began to hit, Trump began talking about bailouts of specific industries, from airlines to cruise ships – although he also came out against stock buybacks by executives whose firms get bailed out by the government.
Even on Friday, while touting the drug cloroquine as a promising way to combat the virus, Trump touted German manufacturer Bayer. He called it a 'great company' and said he was ordering millions of units. Infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci said the drug 'might be effective' but needed more testing.
Days earlier, Trump was touting Google and said it was behind a nationwide website to help ease testing concerns. A subsidiary of parent company Alphabet said that wasn't quite the case, and that it was working at that time on an effort in San Francisco. Another subsidiary is now pulling its self-driving cars off the road in two cities amid the outbreak.
Even if voters decide not to hold Trump responsible for the collapse of stock and market gains, despite his earlier efforts to take credit and explicit encouragement to buy, broader economic concerns are an even bigger concern. Some analysts say the outbreak could bring on a full-on recession, and if deep unemployment appears, it would negate yet another of Trump's boasts: record low unemployment amid specific demographic groups.
Former Trump economic advisor Gary Cohn on Friday told CNBC that moment was already here. 'We're in recession, I'm not going to tell you that we're not in recession right now ... The unemployment number is going to skyrocket.'
By Geoff Earle
Daily Mail
March 20, 2020
A week this bad on Wall Street would be jarring for any president, but for Donald Trump, the stunning drop in the Dow and other indexes has shredded an issue that has been a lifeblood and focus of the cheerleading he has done for his own tenure.
More than any president, Trump has linked his performance to the financial markets and the Dow Jones Industrial average – touting its rise, mentioning it at campaign rallies, saluting companies and their executives, and even urging Americans to buy.
His most reason tout of the market came less than a week ago, and preceded a record one-day sell-off. A month ago, in a tweet that now appears deeply wrong, the president talked up the containment of the looming pandemic and suggested it was a good time to buy securities.
'The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA. We are in contact with everyone and all relevant countries. CDC & World Health have been working hard and very smart. Stock Market starting to look very good to me!'
The Dow ended up dropping 900 points that day, but was still at 27,081 – well above where it ended up Friday, when the Dow sank to 19,174 after New York and California locked down residence amid the spreading coronavirus pandemic.
It was far from the only time Trump issued a stock tip or took credit for a rise in the value of American companies on financial markets. When the market was high, he repeatedly told fans at his rallies if they liked how their 401(k)s were doing.
He made the boast at a White House event touting a new trade agreement with Mexico and Canada – two nations with which he has now closed the U.S. border for travelers amid the outbreak – in the Rose Garden in 2018.
'Our economy is booming like never before. Jobless claims are at a 50-year low. The stock market is at an all-time high. Think of that — over 50 percent since my election. Fifty percent. People — the 401(k)s — and they have 401(k)s, and they were dying with them for years. Now they're so happy.
At an August campaign rally in New Hampshire, Trump drew a straight line between the performance of people's 401(k)s for retirement and the need for them to support him. He told supporters they had 'no choice'
'If for some reason I wouldn't have won the [2016] election, these markets would have crashed. That'll happen even more so in 2020,' Trump said.
'See, the bottom line is ... You have no choice but to vote for me because your 401k, everything is going to be down the tubes. So whether you love me or hate me, you've got to vote for me.'
The Dow stood at 19,827 points when Trump took office. On Valentine's Day, it was at 29,398, and Trump has talked up the possibility of it hitting 30,000.
At the start of 2018, as the Dow topped 25,000, Trump set his sights on a new goal: 'I guess our new number is 30,000,' he told reporters. 'There were those that said we wouldn't break 25,000 by the end of the eighth year, and we're in the 11th month,' he said.
When he hasn't commented on the markets and the indexes, Trump has touted individual businesses – almost all of whom have been battered since February. He has hosted CEOs at the White House, praised their stewardship and referenced them by their first names on camera, while pushing through a major tax cut when the economy was riding high. As the full force of the outbreak began to hit, Trump began talking about bailouts of specific industries, from airlines to cruise ships – although he also came out against stock buybacks by executives whose firms get bailed out by the government.
Even on Friday, while touting the drug cloroquine as a promising way to combat the virus, Trump touted German manufacturer Bayer. He called it a 'great company' and said he was ordering millions of units. Infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci said the drug 'might be effective' but needed more testing.
Days earlier, Trump was touting Google and said it was behind a nationwide website to help ease testing concerns. A subsidiary of parent company Alphabet said that wasn't quite the case, and that it was working at that time on an effort in San Francisco. Another subsidiary is now pulling its self-driving cars off the road in two cities amid the outbreak.
Even if voters decide not to hold Trump responsible for the collapse of stock and market gains, despite his earlier efforts to take credit and explicit encouragement to buy, broader economic concerns are an even bigger concern. Some analysts say the outbreak could bring on a full-on recession, and if deep unemployment appears, it would negate yet another of Trump's boasts: record low unemployment amid specific demographic groups.
Former Trump economic advisor Gary Cohn on Friday told CNBC that moment was already here. 'We're in recession, I'm not going to tell you that we're not in recession right now ... The unemployment number is going to skyrocket.'
NEW JERSEY JOINS CALIFORNIA, NEWYORK, ILLINOIS AND NEVADA IN COMPLETE LOCKDOWN
New Jersey becomes the FIFTH state to order a complete lockdown for millions of residents to slow the coronavirus spread after state's top health official gave chilling warning: 'I will definitely be infected. We all will'
Daily Mail
March 21, 2020
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed an executive order on Saturday mandating that all non-essential retail businesses close their stores and almost all state residents stay home to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
The order affects some 9 million residents in the state and exempts those who work in essential services such as healthcare and the food industry, the governor said at a news conference. The order banned all gatherings including weddings and parties, Murphy said.
It comes as New Jersey's top public health official Judith Persichilli issues a stark warning that she believes 'we all' are going to eventually be infected by coronavirus.
__________
Fears of civil unrest in Californian city of Corona where the coronavirus panic buying is for GUNS instead of toilet rolls
Daily Mail
March 21, 2020
Gun racks have been stripped as bare as the supermarket aisles in Britain. And in the queue in Corona outside Turner's gun store last week were many people who have never considered owning a firearm before.
Men such as Sean Rodriguez, 48, a sales manager, who felt compelled to arm himself after his eldest daughter called him in tears when robbers, posing as utility workers, entered her home and raided her fridge at gunpoint, seizing difficult-to-obtain groceries.
'When it hits you at home, you can change your mind very quickly,' he says.
Mr Rodriguez is disappointed in President Trump, for whom he voted. 'I think the response is too late. This coronavirus is worse than terrorism. We need to be proactive, not reactive. The States should lead the way, not follow.'
In California, where it is predicted 56 per cent of the population will be infected with the virus, Governor Gavin Newsom has ordered the state's 40 million residents to stay at home except for essential trips.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Corona neighbors Riverside. Back in the 50s and 60s it was a nice little town then and it had a good police department. I made a few dope busts there.
Daily Mail
March 21, 2020
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed an executive order on Saturday mandating that all non-essential retail businesses close their stores and almost all state residents stay home to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
The order affects some 9 million residents in the state and exempts those who work in essential services such as healthcare and the food industry, the governor said at a news conference. The order banned all gatherings including weddings and parties, Murphy said.
It comes as New Jersey's top public health official Judith Persichilli issues a stark warning that she believes 'we all' are going to eventually be infected by coronavirus.
__________
Fears of civil unrest in Californian city of Corona where the coronavirus panic buying is for GUNS instead of toilet rolls
Daily Mail
March 21, 2020
Gun racks have been stripped as bare as the supermarket aisles in Britain. And in the queue in Corona outside Turner's gun store last week were many people who have never considered owning a firearm before.
Men such as Sean Rodriguez, 48, a sales manager, who felt compelled to arm himself after his eldest daughter called him in tears when robbers, posing as utility workers, entered her home and raided her fridge at gunpoint, seizing difficult-to-obtain groceries.
'When it hits you at home, you can change your mind very quickly,' he says.
Mr Rodriguez is disappointed in President Trump, for whom he voted. 'I think the response is too late. This coronavirus is worse than terrorism. We need to be proactive, not reactive. The States should lead the way, not follow.'
In California, where it is predicted 56 per cent of the population will be infected with the virus, Governor Gavin Newsom has ordered the state's 40 million residents to stay at home except for essential trips.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Corona neighbors Riverside. Back in the 50s and 60s it was a nice little town then and it had a good police department. I made a few dope busts there.
THE PALESTINIANS DON’T NEED TO WORRY, THE NEVER-NETANYAHUS ARE BRINGING ISRAEL TO ITS END
JUSTBIBI Virus, More Dangerous Than Coronavirus
by Tsvi Sadan
Israel Today
March 20, 2020
Truly, there is something sinister going on now in Israel. At first, the “Just Not Bibi” left-wing bloc partnered up with the anti-Zionist Joint Arab List. Though before the election “Blue and White” leaders vowed never to lean on the Joint List, as soon as the election was over, party leader Benny Gantz and his friends broke this vow, with the excuse that this was done to protect Israel’s democracy.
Instead of apologizing, Blue and White’s Moshe Yaalon both acknowledged the promises and breaking them. Just a few days ago he said that “in the decision of which promise to break – not to sit with Netanyahu or not be supported by the Joint Arab List – we preferred the second.”
In plain language it means that the JUSTBIBI bloc is more dangerous to Israel’s future than the JUSTNOTBIBI bloc. This division means that Blue and White took a conscious decision that preferred to alter the “Jewish” part of the “Jewish and Democratic” equation.
Democracy is all that matters now, even at the cost of the Jewish state.
This is not an exaggeration, as a March 17 post from Dov Elboim clearly shows. Elboim is not just anybody. Among other things he has been hosting for decades the popular Friday Portion of the Week public TV program, where he discusses with a variety of guests the meaning of the weekly Torah portion. Additionally, his non-profit organization Binah has been invited to instill his worldview in IDF soldiers and officers. In short, Elboim’s influence can’t be underestimated.
Morally inferior foes
In his aforementioned Facebook post, Elboim, a self-proclaimed Zionist, recalls the last visit to his dentist, a Bibi supporter. Elboim said to him while getting ready for a tooth removal that he wonders about the government’s methods of fighting the Coronavirus, which have included shutting down the courts, a move seen by many as an attempt by Netanyahu to postpone his own trial.
Elboim further commented that the 61 JUSTNOTBIBI members of Knesset, which includes the anti-Zionist Joint Arab List, effectively makes Netanyahu’s government illegitimate. In response, the dentist said that he doesn’t count the Joint Arab List, which implicitly means he does not consider the Arab parties as part of the center-left Zionist majority.
That was a moment of revelation for Elboim. Refusing the doctor’s help, he got out of the chair and left the clinic. He later wrote that “Providence sent me a clear warning to escape from dangerously contaminated dentist clinics … I left the place because I realized I can’t be treated by a person who does not see Arabs as equal citizens … I asked my family never to be medically treated by spiritually and morally inferior [racist] people … time has come to tell it to all service givers who think they have the right to enter our space and contaminate it … if there is anything this current [Corona] plague can teach us [it is this]: The time has come for all those who are spreading spiritual contamination to be isolated from us.”
This now is the frame of reference: There are two viruses creating havoc in Israel, the spiritual JUSTBIBI virus and the biological Coronavirus, which is far less dangerous than the first.
And a series of tweets from Blue and White co-leader Yair Lapid now remove any doubt that the JUSTBIBI virus is seen by the JUSTNOTBIBI crowd as the real and imminent threat to Israel’s democracy. Instead of supporting the government’s measures to contain the Coronavirus, Lapid tweeted that “true for now, March 17 2020, you no longer live in a democracy … the unelected government of Israel told us today … that we are prohibited from leaving our homes. There is no one who can now challenge this decision.”
This is just short of calling on Israelis to disobey the government’s instructions aimed at defeating this virus, all in the name of an imagined danger to our democracy, which now turned out to be more important than our very lives, Arabs included.
Spiritual war
Seeing the JUSTBIBI movement as a spiritual virus reveals the true source of the antagonism between the anti- and the pro-Netanyahu camps. What we are witnessing today is a spiritual war, which brings to mind the 10th chapter of the Book of Daniel, where the angel Michael fights the angel of Persia.
The battle taking place today in Israel is not about democracy. This is just the pretense, the “moral” justification to bring the Jewish state to its end.
by Tsvi Sadan
Israel Today
March 20, 2020
Truly, there is something sinister going on now in Israel. At first, the “Just Not Bibi” left-wing bloc partnered up with the anti-Zionist Joint Arab List. Though before the election “Blue and White” leaders vowed never to lean on the Joint List, as soon as the election was over, party leader Benny Gantz and his friends broke this vow, with the excuse that this was done to protect Israel’s democracy.
Instead of apologizing, Blue and White’s Moshe Yaalon both acknowledged the promises and breaking them. Just a few days ago he said that “in the decision of which promise to break – not to sit with Netanyahu or not be supported by the Joint Arab List – we preferred the second.”
In plain language it means that the JUSTBIBI bloc is more dangerous to Israel’s future than the JUSTNOTBIBI bloc. This division means that Blue and White took a conscious decision that preferred to alter the “Jewish” part of the “Jewish and Democratic” equation.
Democracy is all that matters now, even at the cost of the Jewish state.
This is not an exaggeration, as a March 17 post from Dov Elboim clearly shows. Elboim is not just anybody. Among other things he has been hosting for decades the popular Friday Portion of the Week public TV program, where he discusses with a variety of guests the meaning of the weekly Torah portion. Additionally, his non-profit organization Binah has been invited to instill his worldview in IDF soldiers and officers. In short, Elboim’s influence can’t be underestimated.
Morally inferior foes
In his aforementioned Facebook post, Elboim, a self-proclaimed Zionist, recalls the last visit to his dentist, a Bibi supporter. Elboim said to him while getting ready for a tooth removal that he wonders about the government’s methods of fighting the Coronavirus, which have included shutting down the courts, a move seen by many as an attempt by Netanyahu to postpone his own trial.
Elboim further commented that the 61 JUSTNOTBIBI members of Knesset, which includes the anti-Zionist Joint Arab List, effectively makes Netanyahu’s government illegitimate. In response, the dentist said that he doesn’t count the Joint Arab List, which implicitly means he does not consider the Arab parties as part of the center-left Zionist majority.
That was a moment of revelation for Elboim. Refusing the doctor’s help, he got out of the chair and left the clinic. He later wrote that “Providence sent me a clear warning to escape from dangerously contaminated dentist clinics … I left the place because I realized I can’t be treated by a person who does not see Arabs as equal citizens … I asked my family never to be medically treated by spiritually and morally inferior [racist] people … time has come to tell it to all service givers who think they have the right to enter our space and contaminate it … if there is anything this current [Corona] plague can teach us [it is this]: The time has come for all those who are spreading spiritual contamination to be isolated from us.”
This now is the frame of reference: There are two viruses creating havoc in Israel, the spiritual JUSTBIBI virus and the biological Coronavirus, which is far less dangerous than the first.
And a series of tweets from Blue and White co-leader Yair Lapid now remove any doubt that the JUSTBIBI virus is seen by the JUSTNOTBIBI crowd as the real and imminent threat to Israel’s democracy. Instead of supporting the government’s measures to contain the Coronavirus, Lapid tweeted that “true for now, March 17 2020, you no longer live in a democracy … the unelected government of Israel told us today … that we are prohibited from leaving our homes. There is no one who can now challenge this decision.”
This is just short of calling on Israelis to disobey the government’s instructions aimed at defeating this virus, all in the name of an imagined danger to our democracy, which now turned out to be more important than our very lives, Arabs included.
Spiritual war
Seeing the JUSTBIBI movement as a spiritual virus reveals the true source of the antagonism between the anti- and the pro-Netanyahu camps. What we are witnessing today is a spiritual war, which brings to mind the 10th chapter of the Book of Daniel, where the angel Michael fights the angel of Persia.
The battle taking place today in Israel is not about democracy. This is just the pretense, the “moral” justification to bring the Jewish state to its end.
BENNY GANTZ AND THE PYROMANIACAL COCKPIT
Amidst a global pandemic, the threat of war with Iran and economic collapse, the Blue and White Party is dead set on bringing Netanyahu down – even if it means taking Israel down with him
By Caroline B. Glick
Israel Hayom
March 20, 2020
If Blue and White Party leader MK Benny Gantz forms a minority government with Avigdor Liberman's Israel Beitenu Party and the Labor-Meretz party, based on the outside support of the Joint Arab List, Gantz's success will torpedo Israel's relations with the United States.
This week, a senior official who was present during Gantz's meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump in late January revealed: "Gantz committed in the Oval Office that, if he became prime minister, he would form a government of people that would support the president's peace deal."
The Trump peace plan includes applying Israeli sovereignty to the Jordan Valley and the Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria. Labor-Meretz and the Joint Arab List are both violently opposed to the Trump plan. A Gantz government that includes them will be a government that is hostile to the Trump plan.
The only way for Gantz to keep the promise he made to Trump is to join a coalition government led by Netanyahu with Likud and its right-religious coalition partners. And that is an option that Gantz and his partners in the Blue and White "cockpit" – fellow former IDF chiefs of General Staff Moshe Yaalon and Gadi Ashkenazy and former media star Yair Lapid – will not support.
They are working feverishly to cobble together a radical government with the post-Zionists in Labor-Meretz and the anti-Zionists in the Joint Arab List. All of which will be hard-pressed to work with the Trump administration.
How can Trump or his administration trust a man who flat out lied to the President in the Oval Office?
What can explain Gantz's irresponsible behavior?
Did he lie to Trump – and the Israeli public – because he and his colleagues are secretly radical leftists who seek power to undermine everything Israel stands for? They wouldn't be the first leftist politicians to do so.
In 1999, their commander, former IDF chief of General Staff Ehud Barak ran against Netanyahu by presenting himself as ideologically indistinguishable from him. Barak insisted that he would implement Netanyahu's center-right policies, but that he would do so with the support of the media and the leftist elite.
The public bought his act. Barak – the centrist – defeated Netanyahu and Barak – the leftist – offered PLO chief Yasser Arafat Judea, Samaria, Gaza, and the Temple Mount as well as the Golan Heights to Syrian dictator Hafez Assad.
Israel is a center-right country. Barak understood the only way for a leftist to win an election in Israel is to pretend to be a center-rightist.
Gantz's willingness to effectively surrender Israel's rights in Judea and Samaria to win the parliamentary support of politicians that seek Israel's destruction as a Jewish state – shared by his partners in the Blue and White leadership – seems to indicate that they are rabid post-Zionists. But a brief consideration of their other positions and actions suggests that something else is motivating them.
Gantz and his colleagues present themselves as champions of the rule of law and democracy, which they insist, Netanyahu is destroying.
But consider their actions: Presently, Blue and White is viciously attacking Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein for refusing to convene the Knesset's Arrangements Committee, which is responsible for convening the rest of the Knesset committees. They insist that in acting as he is, Edelstein is colluding with Netanyahu to destroy Israeli democracy. But as Simcha Rothman, from the Movement for Governability and Democracy, explained in Israel Hayom Thursday, it is Blue and White that is blocking the Arrangements Committee from convening.
The Knesset rules provide that membership in the committee is determined by the size of each party. The parties in the Knesset receive one member in the committee for every four members in their Knesset faction. Under the prevailing rules, the blocs working with Netanyahu and Gantz would have equal representation in the committee.
Blue and White wants to break the rules in order to receive a majority of Arrangement Committee members. Edelstein insists on following the rules.
Why are Gantz and his colleagues fighting so hard to break the rules? Because they need a majority on the committee in order to have the procedural power to pass laws that will undermine Israeli democracy and the rule of law.
Blue and White and Israel Beitenu have submitted bills explicitly directed towards achieving one goal: Preventing Netanyahu – and only Netanyahu – from forming a government. These bills, if passed, would overturn Israel's rule of law twice.
First, they are personal legislation – directed at Netanyahu alone. Personal laws are a concept antithetical to the rule of law and liberty. They open the door for full-scale repression and authoritarianism.
Second, if they succeed in passing their anti-Bibi laws, they will retroactively nullify the votes of 2.5 million Israelis who voted for parties that want Netanyahu to remain in office.
Blue and White wages its war against parliamentary rules to pass vindictive, anti-democratic laws at a time where Israel is facing the gravest health and economic crisis it has ever confronted.
The Wuhan coronavirus epidemic presents Israel with a choice between terrible and terrifying options.
Tuesday, Netanyahu announced that in a bid to lower the infection rate, Israelis should stay home and only go out to buy food and medicine and other critical activities. Schools are closed. Most government offices are closed. Businesses are closed. The only people still working are the ones who can work from home.
Netanyahu and his colleagues in the government enacted this policy with the understanding that, if forced to treat thousands of coronavirus patients at once, the health system will collapse. Everything must be done to slow the infection rate.
But the quarantine strategy holds its own terrible risks. Israel can handle an economic shutdown for a few weeks. If the current situation goes on for months, the economy will collapse and bring the health system with it. Hundreds of thousands of Israelis are being laid off. They will not be paying taxes. Without taxes, the government will be unable to maintain the health system or any other system for that matter.
What can be done? It appears that the only way to suspend the quarantine and so salvage the economy is by conducting universal coronavirus testing. Only universal testing can limit the quarantine to people who need to be isolated and enable the restoration of economic activity.
How quickly can Israel achieve the capacity to undertake such a program? What would it involve?
What other options are available?
Netanyahu, his ministers, the Health and Treasury Ministry officials and the National Security Council members have been working around the clock to try to come up with solutions.
Where are Gantz and his partners – Lapid, Yaalon and Ashkenazy – in their brandishing "cockpit" on these issues?
Blue and White has offered no recommendations for fighting the epidemic. Although Tuesday night, Gantz was nice enough to retweet Netanyahu's warning to the public to stay home. His partners Yaalon and Lapid were not so disposed.
Instead, the two would-be national leaders belittled the threat – each in his own way – and insinuated that Netanyahu is colluding with the Coronavirus to destroy Israeli democracy.
Yaalon tweeted that Netanyahu is using the Coronavirus to avoid his criminal trial and destroy the Knesset. He later threatened Likud parliamentarians with legal probes for supporting Netanyahu's efforts.
In a Facebook chat, Lapid insinuated that Netanyahu's move to quarantine the public was unlawful and self-serving. In short, that Netanyahu isn't interested in protecting the public from mass death. All he cares about is staying in power.
Blue and White has offered no solution on how to save the economy from collapse. But they can be counted on to blame Netanyahu for the high unemployment rates and negative economic growth if Israel finds itself in a fourth election.
Yaalon, who seeks to serve as Education Minister, has offered no suggestions for how to educate the 1.3 million schoolchildren who are at home with parents trying to keep up with their own work while homeschooling their children.
Then there is Iran. As the coronavirus rages through Iran, experts warn that the risk of an Iranian strike against Israel rises with the death toll. The theology of Iran's ruling clerics holds that the Shite messiah, the Mahdi, is supposed to return at the end of days. To hasten his arrival, Iran's ayatollahs believe that they need to start Armageddon.
Do the three former IDF chiefs at the helm of Blue and White have any concern over this? Do they have any suggestions for how to handle the threat as Iranians dig more and more mass graves for coronavirus victims?
Which brings us back to Washington: Three weeks ago, I traveled to Washington to speak on a panel at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) – the largest conservative gathering in America. Most of the discussions were related to U.S. domestic issues. But Israel is so important to conservatives that organizers chose to hold a panel devoted to Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria.
There were no calls for the partition of Jerusalem and the expulsion of Jews from Judea and Samaria either on the panel or from the audience. On the contrary, the sentiment shared by the audience and the panelists alike was that Israel should assert its sovereign rights in Judea and Samaria wherever it deems necessary.
This salutary state of affairs will be turned on its head if the Democrats win the presidency in November. In that event, Israel will find itself under assault from a hostile president who heads a party hostile to Israel. How would a Blue and White government handle such a challenge? Dependent on the Joint Arab List – which openly seeks Israel's destruction as a Jewish state – for its survival, there can be little doubt that Blue and White would surrender to even the slightest pressure emanating from Washington.
Gantz, Lapid, Yaalon and Ashkenazy are not ideologues – unless detesting Netanyahu with the single-minded venom of a rabid dog is an ideology. They accuse Netanyahu of caring only for himself and pledge to put the country first. But we see that, as Netanyahu labors to save the country from medical and economic collapse, all they can think about is destroying him. Even at the expense of torching Israel's relations with the U.S., endangering the lives and financial stability of its citizens, and disregarding strategic threats and opportunities. They accuse Netanyahu of destroying democracy as they contemptuously ignore Knesset rules in order to pass laws that would nullify both the rule of law and the votes of 2.5 million citizens.
So no, Gantz and his colleagues aren't ideologues.
They are pyromaniacs.
By Caroline B. Glick
Israel Hayom
March 20, 2020
If Blue and White Party leader MK Benny Gantz forms a minority government with Avigdor Liberman's Israel Beitenu Party and the Labor-Meretz party, based on the outside support of the Joint Arab List, Gantz's success will torpedo Israel's relations with the United States.
This week, a senior official who was present during Gantz's meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump in late January revealed: "Gantz committed in the Oval Office that, if he became prime minister, he would form a government of people that would support the president's peace deal."
The Trump peace plan includes applying Israeli sovereignty to the Jordan Valley and the Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria. Labor-Meretz and the Joint Arab List are both violently opposed to the Trump plan. A Gantz government that includes them will be a government that is hostile to the Trump plan.
The only way for Gantz to keep the promise he made to Trump is to join a coalition government led by Netanyahu with Likud and its right-religious coalition partners. And that is an option that Gantz and his partners in the Blue and White "cockpit" – fellow former IDF chiefs of General Staff Moshe Yaalon and Gadi Ashkenazy and former media star Yair Lapid – will not support.
They are working feverishly to cobble together a radical government with the post-Zionists in Labor-Meretz and the anti-Zionists in the Joint Arab List. All of which will be hard-pressed to work with the Trump administration.
How can Trump or his administration trust a man who flat out lied to the President in the Oval Office?
What can explain Gantz's irresponsible behavior?
Did he lie to Trump – and the Israeli public – because he and his colleagues are secretly radical leftists who seek power to undermine everything Israel stands for? They wouldn't be the first leftist politicians to do so.
In 1999, their commander, former IDF chief of General Staff Ehud Barak ran against Netanyahu by presenting himself as ideologically indistinguishable from him. Barak insisted that he would implement Netanyahu's center-right policies, but that he would do so with the support of the media and the leftist elite.
The public bought his act. Barak – the centrist – defeated Netanyahu and Barak – the leftist – offered PLO chief Yasser Arafat Judea, Samaria, Gaza, and the Temple Mount as well as the Golan Heights to Syrian dictator Hafez Assad.
Israel is a center-right country. Barak understood the only way for a leftist to win an election in Israel is to pretend to be a center-rightist.
Gantz's willingness to effectively surrender Israel's rights in Judea and Samaria to win the parliamentary support of politicians that seek Israel's destruction as a Jewish state – shared by his partners in the Blue and White leadership – seems to indicate that they are rabid post-Zionists. But a brief consideration of their other positions and actions suggests that something else is motivating them.
Gantz and his colleagues present themselves as champions of the rule of law and democracy, which they insist, Netanyahu is destroying.
But consider their actions: Presently, Blue and White is viciously attacking Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein for refusing to convene the Knesset's Arrangements Committee, which is responsible for convening the rest of the Knesset committees. They insist that in acting as he is, Edelstein is colluding with Netanyahu to destroy Israeli democracy. But as Simcha Rothman, from the Movement for Governability and Democracy, explained in Israel Hayom Thursday, it is Blue and White that is blocking the Arrangements Committee from convening.
The Knesset rules provide that membership in the committee is determined by the size of each party. The parties in the Knesset receive one member in the committee for every four members in their Knesset faction. Under the prevailing rules, the blocs working with Netanyahu and Gantz would have equal representation in the committee.
Blue and White wants to break the rules in order to receive a majority of Arrangement Committee members. Edelstein insists on following the rules.
Why are Gantz and his colleagues fighting so hard to break the rules? Because they need a majority on the committee in order to have the procedural power to pass laws that will undermine Israeli democracy and the rule of law.
Blue and White and Israel Beitenu have submitted bills explicitly directed towards achieving one goal: Preventing Netanyahu – and only Netanyahu – from forming a government. These bills, if passed, would overturn Israel's rule of law twice.
First, they are personal legislation – directed at Netanyahu alone. Personal laws are a concept antithetical to the rule of law and liberty. They open the door for full-scale repression and authoritarianism.
Second, if they succeed in passing their anti-Bibi laws, they will retroactively nullify the votes of 2.5 million Israelis who voted for parties that want Netanyahu to remain in office.
Blue and White wages its war against parliamentary rules to pass vindictive, anti-democratic laws at a time where Israel is facing the gravest health and economic crisis it has ever confronted.
The Wuhan coronavirus epidemic presents Israel with a choice between terrible and terrifying options.
Tuesday, Netanyahu announced that in a bid to lower the infection rate, Israelis should stay home and only go out to buy food and medicine and other critical activities. Schools are closed. Most government offices are closed. Businesses are closed. The only people still working are the ones who can work from home.
Netanyahu and his colleagues in the government enacted this policy with the understanding that, if forced to treat thousands of coronavirus patients at once, the health system will collapse. Everything must be done to slow the infection rate.
But the quarantine strategy holds its own terrible risks. Israel can handle an economic shutdown for a few weeks. If the current situation goes on for months, the economy will collapse and bring the health system with it. Hundreds of thousands of Israelis are being laid off. They will not be paying taxes. Without taxes, the government will be unable to maintain the health system or any other system for that matter.
What can be done? It appears that the only way to suspend the quarantine and so salvage the economy is by conducting universal coronavirus testing. Only universal testing can limit the quarantine to people who need to be isolated and enable the restoration of economic activity.
How quickly can Israel achieve the capacity to undertake such a program? What would it involve?
What other options are available?
Netanyahu, his ministers, the Health and Treasury Ministry officials and the National Security Council members have been working around the clock to try to come up with solutions.
Where are Gantz and his partners – Lapid, Yaalon and Ashkenazy – in their brandishing "cockpit" on these issues?
Blue and White has offered no recommendations for fighting the epidemic. Although Tuesday night, Gantz was nice enough to retweet Netanyahu's warning to the public to stay home. His partners Yaalon and Lapid were not so disposed.
Instead, the two would-be national leaders belittled the threat – each in his own way – and insinuated that Netanyahu is colluding with the Coronavirus to destroy Israeli democracy.
Yaalon tweeted that Netanyahu is using the Coronavirus to avoid his criminal trial and destroy the Knesset. He later threatened Likud parliamentarians with legal probes for supporting Netanyahu's efforts.
In a Facebook chat, Lapid insinuated that Netanyahu's move to quarantine the public was unlawful and self-serving. In short, that Netanyahu isn't interested in protecting the public from mass death. All he cares about is staying in power.
Blue and White has offered no solution on how to save the economy from collapse. But they can be counted on to blame Netanyahu for the high unemployment rates and negative economic growth if Israel finds itself in a fourth election.
Yaalon, who seeks to serve as Education Minister, has offered no suggestions for how to educate the 1.3 million schoolchildren who are at home with parents trying to keep up with their own work while homeschooling their children.
Then there is Iran. As the coronavirus rages through Iran, experts warn that the risk of an Iranian strike against Israel rises with the death toll. The theology of Iran's ruling clerics holds that the Shite messiah, the Mahdi, is supposed to return at the end of days. To hasten his arrival, Iran's ayatollahs believe that they need to start Armageddon.
Do the three former IDF chiefs at the helm of Blue and White have any concern over this? Do they have any suggestions for how to handle the threat as Iranians dig more and more mass graves for coronavirus victims?
Which brings us back to Washington: Three weeks ago, I traveled to Washington to speak on a panel at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) – the largest conservative gathering in America. Most of the discussions were related to U.S. domestic issues. But Israel is so important to conservatives that organizers chose to hold a panel devoted to Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria.
There were no calls for the partition of Jerusalem and the expulsion of Jews from Judea and Samaria either on the panel or from the audience. On the contrary, the sentiment shared by the audience and the panelists alike was that Israel should assert its sovereign rights in Judea and Samaria wherever it deems necessary.
This salutary state of affairs will be turned on its head if the Democrats win the presidency in November. In that event, Israel will find itself under assault from a hostile president who heads a party hostile to Israel. How would a Blue and White government handle such a challenge? Dependent on the Joint Arab List – which openly seeks Israel's destruction as a Jewish state – for its survival, there can be little doubt that Blue and White would surrender to even the slightest pressure emanating from Washington.
Gantz, Lapid, Yaalon and Ashkenazy are not ideologues – unless detesting Netanyahu with the single-minded venom of a rabid dog is an ideology. They accuse Netanyahu of caring only for himself and pledge to put the country first. But we see that, as Netanyahu labors to save the country from medical and economic collapse, all they can think about is destroying him. Even at the expense of torching Israel's relations with the U.S., endangering the lives and financial stability of its citizens, and disregarding strategic threats and opportunities. They accuse Netanyahu of destroying democracy as they contemptuously ignore Knesset rules in order to pass laws that would nullify both the rule of law and the votes of 2.5 million citizens.
So no, Gantz and his colleagues aren't ideologues.
They are pyromaniacs.
Saturday, March 21, 2020
A LITTLE ENTERTAINMENT TO TAKE A MAN'S MIND OFF OF CORONAVIRUS AND THE S(T)INKING STOCK MARKET
This almost gave me a heart attack. And my 93-year-old dick tried to stand up but couldn't rise to the occasion.
ADAM SCHIFF CLAIMS SOVEREIGN IMMUNITY
by Bob Walsh
One of the true psychos and retards of the U. S. Congress, Adam "Shit For Brains" Schiff, is actually asserting that he has "sovereign immunity" in order to keep Judicial Watch from getting their paws on phone record subpoenas.
Schiff's obtaining the phone records led to them being released (leaked). They included records for a reporter, John Solomon, as well as a California Republican Congressman and Rudy Giuliani, the President's lawyer.
I truly hope the courts kick Schiff in the nutsack over this one. He clearly overreached and is now trying to hide out to avoid being burned for the asshole that he is. My hope does not mean it will happen, but it would be nice. If you get right down to it anything that causes Schiff distress is a good thing..
One of the true psychos and retards of the U. S. Congress, Adam "Shit For Brains" Schiff, is actually asserting that he has "sovereign immunity" in order to keep Judicial Watch from getting their paws on phone record subpoenas.
Schiff's obtaining the phone records led to them being released (leaked). They included records for a reporter, John Solomon, as well as a California Republican Congressman and Rudy Giuliani, the President's lawyer.
I truly hope the courts kick Schiff in the nutsack over this one. He clearly overreached and is now trying to hide out to avoid being burned for the asshole that he is. My hope does not mean it will happen, but it would be nice. If you get right down to it anything that causes Schiff distress is a good thing..
GO TO THE NETHERLANDS TO GET TOILET PAPER
Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte says his country has enough toilet paper to 'poop for ten years' as supermarket shelves are cleared by panicked shoppers across Europe
Daily Mail
March 20, 2020
Mark Rutte explained his country's fortunate toilet paper situation during a visit to a Albert Heijn supermarket yesterday.
Shelves have been refilled in the country following stockpiling.
Daily Mail
March 20, 2020
Mark Rutte explained his country's fortunate toilet paper situation during a visit to a Albert Heijn supermarket yesterday.
Shelves have been refilled in the country following stockpiling.
ALL NEW YORKERS AND CALIFORNIANS ORDERED TO STAY HOME
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo issues 'most drastic' order yet for ALL non-essential workers to stay home after 3,000 new coronavirus cases are confirmed - bringing total to 7,102 across the state
Daily Mail
March 20, 2020
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has ordered all non-essential workers to stay home now in the most drastic step he has taken in the battle against coronavirus.
In an announcement on Friday, he increased the previous rule that 75 percent of the state's workforce had to stay home to 100 percent. The only workforces that are excluded are grocery stores, pharmacies, certain government workers and news organizations.
People will be allowed to go outside to exercise but he urged solitary activities like running or walking. There will not be limits on the hours people can leave their homes, but Cuomo is urging people to stay indoors as much as possible. 'Everybody has personal freedom and I'll always protect that. But everybody also has a responsibility,' he said.
There are now 7,102 cases in New York State. There are 1,939 new cases in New York City since yesterday, bringing the total to 4,408. The total increase in just one day in New York state is 2,950. The hospitalization rate is 18 percent.
Cuomo said the state was now testing more than had been done in China and South Korea. On Thursday night, 10,000 tests were done.
Cuomo's announcement came after New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said the city was now the 'epicenter' of the coronavirus outbreak in the US with more than 4,000 confirmed cases and 26 deaths as he pleaded with the federal government to give him help before hospitals become overwhelmed.
__________
Bill de Blasio says NYC has become America's coronavirus 'epicenter' as he looks to turn hotels into hospitals and begs Trump to send help before 'we lose people who should not die'
Daily Mail
March 20, 2020
In an impassioned plea to President Trump on CNN, de Blasio said New York's hospitals would run out of ventilators and surgical masks in two or three weeks.
He said he was considering turning hotels and the Javits Center, a sprawling expo-center in Hell's Kitchen, into hospital 'annexes' but that the city desperately needed more supplies.
__________
New York City will release 40 inmates from custody 'based on their medical history and low risk to public safety' in a bid to prevent coronavirus spread in jails
Daily Mail
March 20, 2020
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio assured members of the public that the inmates would be selected based on their medical history and low risk to public safety.
__________
California governor Gavin Newsom issues statewide 'Stay At Home' order for 40 million people with NO END DATE - after warning 26 million WILL catch coronavirus in next eight weeks
Daily Mail
March 20, 2020
California's governor on Thursday issued a statewide 'stay at home order' directing residents to leave their homes only when necessary during the coronavirus pandemic as state officials predict that more than 25 million residents will be infected with COVID-19 within the next eight weeks.
It's unclear how long the 'stay at home order' will last and Gov Gavin Newsom said during a Thursday night press conference that he wasn't able to put a time period on it.
Just before the press conference, Newsom released a copy of a letter that he sent to Donald Trump in which he asked the president to send help 'immediately'.
'I respectfully request you immediately deploy the USNS Mercy Hospital Ship to be stationed at the port of Los Angeles through September 1, 2020, to help decompress our current health care delivery system in the Los Angeles region in response to the COVID-19 outbreak,' Newsom's letter reads.
Newsom said officials project that roughly '56 per cent of our population - 25.5 million people - will be infected with the virus over an eight-week period'.
Earlier this week, Trump did say that the Navy hospital ships Mercy and Comfort would be pressed into service, one on each coast, as healthcare systems become badly strained during the pandemic.
Daily Mail
March 20, 2020
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has ordered all non-essential workers to stay home now in the most drastic step he has taken in the battle against coronavirus.
In an announcement on Friday, he increased the previous rule that 75 percent of the state's workforce had to stay home to 100 percent. The only workforces that are excluded are grocery stores, pharmacies, certain government workers and news organizations.
People will be allowed to go outside to exercise but he urged solitary activities like running or walking. There will not be limits on the hours people can leave their homes, but Cuomo is urging people to stay indoors as much as possible. 'Everybody has personal freedom and I'll always protect that. But everybody also has a responsibility,' he said.
There are now 7,102 cases in New York State. There are 1,939 new cases in New York City since yesterday, bringing the total to 4,408. The total increase in just one day in New York state is 2,950. The hospitalization rate is 18 percent.
Cuomo said the state was now testing more than had been done in China and South Korea. On Thursday night, 10,000 tests were done.
Cuomo's announcement came after New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said the city was now the 'epicenter' of the coronavirus outbreak in the US with more than 4,000 confirmed cases and 26 deaths as he pleaded with the federal government to give him help before hospitals become overwhelmed.
__________
Bill de Blasio says NYC has become America's coronavirus 'epicenter' as he looks to turn hotels into hospitals and begs Trump to send help before 'we lose people who should not die'
Daily Mail
March 20, 2020
In an impassioned plea to President Trump on CNN, de Blasio said New York's hospitals would run out of ventilators and surgical masks in two or three weeks.
He said he was considering turning hotels and the Javits Center, a sprawling expo-center in Hell's Kitchen, into hospital 'annexes' but that the city desperately needed more supplies.
__________
New York City will release 40 inmates from custody 'based on their medical history and low risk to public safety' in a bid to prevent coronavirus spread in jails
Daily Mail
March 20, 2020
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio assured members of the public that the inmates would be selected based on their medical history and low risk to public safety.
__________
California governor Gavin Newsom issues statewide 'Stay At Home' order for 40 million people with NO END DATE - after warning 26 million WILL catch coronavirus in next eight weeks
Daily Mail
March 20, 2020
California's governor on Thursday issued a statewide 'stay at home order' directing residents to leave their homes only when necessary during the coronavirus pandemic as state officials predict that more than 25 million residents will be infected with COVID-19 within the next eight weeks.
It's unclear how long the 'stay at home order' will last and Gov Gavin Newsom said during a Thursday night press conference that he wasn't able to put a time period on it.
Just before the press conference, Newsom released a copy of a letter that he sent to Donald Trump in which he asked the president to send help 'immediately'.
'I respectfully request you immediately deploy the USNS Mercy Hospital Ship to be stationed at the port of Los Angeles through September 1, 2020, to help decompress our current health care delivery system in the Los Angeles region in response to the COVID-19 outbreak,' Newsom's letter reads.
Newsom said officials project that roughly '56 per cent of our population - 25.5 million people - will be infected with the virus over an eight-week period'.
Earlier this week, Trump did say that the Navy hospital ships Mercy and Comfort would be pressed into service, one on each coast, as healthcare systems become badly strained during the pandemic.
CARTELS ALSO SUFFERING FROM ECONOMIC IMPACT OF CORONAVIRUS
Coronavirus Squeezing Finances of Mexico’s Criminal Groups
by Chris Dalby
InSight Crime
March 18, 2020
Contacts in China provide Mexican criminal groups with everything from counterfeit luxury goods to chemical precursors for making fentanyl. But with the spread of the coronavirus, shipments from China have dried up and the cartels are feeling the pinch.
In February, it emerged that La Unión de Tepito, which controls much of the sale of counterfeit goods across Mexico City, was facing pushback from businesses who said they could not make extortion payments as they were no longer getting shipments of illegal merchandise from China, MVS Noticias reported.
Since at least 2010, a group within La Unión de Tepito, known as “Los Marco Polos,” has been in charge of going to China with thousands of dollars in cash to secure counterfeit clothes, jewelry and accessories to be sold in the shops and markets of central Mexico City, according to La Silla Rota. This activity is as important economically to La Unión Tepito as drug trafficking, according to MVS Noticias.
But in recent months, Los Marco Polos have been grounded due to the coronavirus lockdowns, unable to travel to China and leaving businesses high and dry without alternative supply routes.
In late January, the criminal group reportedly told shopkeepers that the journeys to China had been suspended. Some of these businesses, angry at paying for products they will not receive on time, have allegedly threatened to stop paying the extortion payments to La Unión de Tepito as a result. This situation is unlikely to change for several months, given the continued spread of the virus.
And this is not the only possible consequence for Mexico’s cartels. The Jalisco Cartel New Generation (Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación — CJNG) is reportedly also struggling to source chemical precursors from China to make fentanyl, the synthetic opioid which has caused thousands of deaths in the United States and Mexico alike.
On March 5, Mexican radio show Nación Criminal, citing a source within Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office, reported that the coronavirus had suspended the fentanyl supply chain with CJNG’s partners in China that are unable to deliver the precursors.
In response, the source said the CJNG may have to hike its prices and potentially lose clients to other competitors. In 2020, a wide range of criminal groups in Mexico has been contesting for the prized trafficking of fentanyl.
InSight Crime Analysis
The global lockdown due to the coronavirus appears to be hitting legal and illegal economies equally hard, but it is likely the supply chain troubles of La Unión de Tepito and the CJNG are only the beginning.
Criminal groups across the region will feel the squeeze.
Countries across Latin America are shutting down borders and preventing air travel, which is likely to significantly disrupt criminal economies like drug trafficking, contraband smuggling and human trafficking.
With most aircraft grounded, illicit drug flights that have become a mainstay of drug trafficking in the region may become easier to track.
This situation, set to last for several months, will test the resiliency of criminal structures. Much like legitimate businesses, large groups such as the CJNG, which operate across large areas of territory and across multiple criminal economies, will have a greater capacity to resist the economic slowdown caused by the coronavirus.
But especially in Mexico, where criminals groups have been vulnerable to fragmentation, groups like La Unión de Tepito, focused on one geographical area or reliant on fewer means of income, may struggle.
Yet criminal groups are nothing if not able to find opportunities in a crisis. In Honduras, after the government locked down the borders due to the virus, human traffickers, known as “coyotes,” raised their prices to help people and contraband get in or out of the country illegally, El Diario de Hoy reported.
by Chris Dalby
InSight Crime
March 18, 2020
Contacts in China provide Mexican criminal groups with everything from counterfeit luxury goods to chemical precursors for making fentanyl. But with the spread of the coronavirus, shipments from China have dried up and the cartels are feeling the pinch.
In February, it emerged that La Unión de Tepito, which controls much of the sale of counterfeit goods across Mexico City, was facing pushback from businesses who said they could not make extortion payments as they were no longer getting shipments of illegal merchandise from China, MVS Noticias reported.
Since at least 2010, a group within La Unión de Tepito, known as “Los Marco Polos,” has been in charge of going to China with thousands of dollars in cash to secure counterfeit clothes, jewelry and accessories to be sold in the shops and markets of central Mexico City, according to La Silla Rota. This activity is as important economically to La Unión Tepito as drug trafficking, according to MVS Noticias.
But in recent months, Los Marco Polos have been grounded due to the coronavirus lockdowns, unable to travel to China and leaving businesses high and dry without alternative supply routes.
In late January, the criminal group reportedly told shopkeepers that the journeys to China had been suspended. Some of these businesses, angry at paying for products they will not receive on time, have allegedly threatened to stop paying the extortion payments to La Unión de Tepito as a result. This situation is unlikely to change for several months, given the continued spread of the virus.
And this is not the only possible consequence for Mexico’s cartels. The Jalisco Cartel New Generation (Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación — CJNG) is reportedly also struggling to source chemical precursors from China to make fentanyl, the synthetic opioid which has caused thousands of deaths in the United States and Mexico alike.
On March 5, Mexican radio show Nación Criminal, citing a source within Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office, reported that the coronavirus had suspended the fentanyl supply chain with CJNG’s partners in China that are unable to deliver the precursors.
In response, the source said the CJNG may have to hike its prices and potentially lose clients to other competitors. In 2020, a wide range of criminal groups in Mexico has been contesting for the prized trafficking of fentanyl.
InSight Crime Analysis
The global lockdown due to the coronavirus appears to be hitting legal and illegal economies equally hard, but it is likely the supply chain troubles of La Unión de Tepito and the CJNG are only the beginning.
Criminal groups across the region will feel the squeeze.
Countries across Latin America are shutting down borders and preventing air travel, which is likely to significantly disrupt criminal economies like drug trafficking, contraband smuggling and human trafficking.
With most aircraft grounded, illicit drug flights that have become a mainstay of drug trafficking in the region may become easier to track.
This situation, set to last for several months, will test the resiliency of criminal structures. Much like legitimate businesses, large groups such as the CJNG, which operate across large areas of territory and across multiple criminal economies, will have a greater capacity to resist the economic slowdown caused by the coronavirus.
But especially in Mexico, where criminals groups have been vulnerable to fragmentation, groups like La Unión de Tepito, focused on one geographical area or reliant on fewer means of income, may struggle.
Yet criminal groups are nothing if not able to find opportunities in a crisis. In Honduras, after the government locked down the borders due to the virus, human traffickers, known as “coyotes,” raised their prices to help people and contraband get in or out of the country illegally, El Diario de Hoy reported.
Friday, March 20, 2020
NECESITO PAPEL HIGIENICO
Americans are crossing the southern border to stock up on TOILET PAPER in Mexico after US stores sell out in the midst of coronavirus panic buying
By Andrew Court
Daily Mail
March 18, 2020
Americans are crossing the southern border to stock up on toilet paper and other essential items after finding their own stores sold out of the supplies in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak.
In recent days, photos taken outside wholesale stores in Tijuana, just south of the Mexican border, show customers waiting in long lines ready to fill empty carts, despite the relatively low number of coronavirus cases in the country.
WKBN 27 reports that many of those shoppers have traveled south from California, desperate to get their hands on coveted items.
The news station claims that more than 600 people were lined up outside Tijuana Costco on Tuesday morning waiting to enter the store and stock up.
As of Wednesday evening, Mexico has 93 confirmed cases of COVID-19, far fewer than the 7,898 cases in the US.
California has become a coronavirus hotspot in the US, with residents clearing the shelves of toilet paper, bottled water and cleaning products, fearing they may have to self-quarantine.
The shortage has sent scrambling Americans south - with some residents from Los Angeles driving three hours to Tijuana to shop.
“It’s tough for us to come down here to get things, but we’re going to try it,” one LA resident told WKBN 27.
The woman said she drove one mile south of the Mexican border to a Calimax supermarket, where she found an ample supply of water, rice and beans.
Meanwhile, a resident from San Diego told the network he drove 20 miles south and found a Mexican Costco well stocked with cleaning supplies.
'It’s still not very bad right now here, they have a lot of products, they’re not selling you more than four packages of anything, four is the maximum,' they told WKBN 27.
In recent weeks, shoppers cleared shelves in California and other states across America in a coronavirus panic buying frenzy.
In February, Costco experienced a 12.4% boost in sales in comparison to the same time last year, with the increased figures expected to push even higher into March
By Andrew Court
Daily Mail
March 18, 2020
Americans are crossing the southern border to stock up on toilet paper and other essential items after finding their own stores sold out of the supplies in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak.
In recent days, photos taken outside wholesale stores in Tijuana, just south of the Mexican border, show customers waiting in long lines ready to fill empty carts, despite the relatively low number of coronavirus cases in the country.
WKBN 27 reports that many of those shoppers have traveled south from California, desperate to get their hands on coveted items.
The news station claims that more than 600 people were lined up outside Tijuana Costco on Tuesday morning waiting to enter the store and stock up.
As of Wednesday evening, Mexico has 93 confirmed cases of COVID-19, far fewer than the 7,898 cases in the US.
California has become a coronavirus hotspot in the US, with residents clearing the shelves of toilet paper, bottled water and cleaning products, fearing they may have to self-quarantine.
The shortage has sent scrambling Americans south - with some residents from Los Angeles driving three hours to Tijuana to shop.
“It’s tough for us to come down here to get things, but we’re going to try it,” one LA resident told WKBN 27.
The woman said she drove one mile south of the Mexican border to a Calimax supermarket, where she found an ample supply of water, rice and beans.
Meanwhile, a resident from San Diego told the network he drove 20 miles south and found a Mexican Costco well stocked with cleaning supplies.
'It’s still not very bad right now here, they have a lot of products, they’re not selling you more than four packages of anything, four is the maximum,' they told WKBN 27.
In recent weeks, shoppers cleared shelves in California and other states across America in a coronavirus panic buying frenzy.
In February, Costco experienced a 12.4% boost in sales in comparison to the same time last year, with the increased figures expected to push even higher into March
THIS IS GETTING SERIOUS
They Just Cancelled My Monthly Combat Pistol Competition
by Bob Walsh
The firing range complex at which the IDPA club I belong to holds their matches is shutting down until further notice. That is truly disappointing (but hardly surprising). I went by my favorite local gun store / range two days ago and they had people in a holding pattern outside the building to keep from getting too great a body load inside the building. I wonder if the prison is going to shut down off-duty / retired range qualifications? That would be a fairly serious pain in the butt.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Bob, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline before it's too late. The number is 1-800-273-8255
by Bob Walsh
The firing range complex at which the IDPA club I belong to holds their matches is shutting down until further notice. That is truly disappointing (but hardly surprising). I went by my favorite local gun store / range two days ago and they had people in a holding pattern outside the building to keep from getting too great a body load inside the building. I wonder if the prison is going to shut down off-duty / retired range qualifications? That would be a fairly serious pain in the butt.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Bob, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline before it's too late. The number is 1-800-273-8255
I HAVEN'T SEEN YOU SINCE BEFORE THE PLAGUE
by Bob Walsh
I was recently informed of this truly great line, apparently from the WITCHER series of books and videos. I wonder if it is possible this will make it into reality down the road? This will turn out to be, in my humble opinion, a keystone event in human history. If not in actual body count certainly in the reaction of governments to the possibility of an enormous body count. It deserves a catch phrase.
I was recently informed of this truly great line, apparently from the WITCHER series of books and videos. I wonder if it is possible this will make it into reality down the road? This will turn out to be, in my humble opinion, a keystone event in human history. If not in actual body count certainly in the reaction of governments to the possibility of an enormous body count. It deserves a catch phrase.
SMILE, YOU’RE ON CAMERA PLANTING CROPS
A New York Police Officer Was Caught on Camera Apparently Planting Marijuana in a Car — for the Second Time
By Alice Speri
The Intercept
March 18, 2020
When a police officer in Staten Island was caught by his own body camera in the apparent act of planting marijuana in the car of a group of young men, the video evidence against him was strong enough to prompt prosecutors in the resulting case to throw out the marijuana charge in the middle of a pretrial hearing. A judge cut short his testimony, and prosecutors recommended he get a lawyer. But an internal review by the New York Police Department found that no misconduct had occurred.
Now a new video — published exclusively by The Intercept — shows the same officer again seemingly planting marijuana during a different traffic stop just a few weeks after the first, raising questions about the credibility of internal review processes and highlighting the lack of transparency in cases of police misconduct. The video, which didn’t emerge for nearly two years, also underscores the limited information available not just to the public but also defendants, and validates criticism by police accountability advocates that body cameras are of no use if the evidence they capture remains inaccessible.
On both occasions, two officers — Kyle Erickson and Elmer Pastran, of the 120th Precinct — stopped cars for minor traffic infractions, then claimed the vehicles smelled like marijuana. In both instances, body camera footage shows the officers extensively searching the cars for several minutes and finding nothing. In the first incident, in February 2018, Erickson’s body camera is then suddenly switched off and then back on just as he discovers a marijuana cigarette that did not appear to be there when his partner was first searching the car. The New York Times published that video later that year after attorneys for the driver, Lasou Kuyateh, obtained it through discovery. Kuyateh, who in the video can be heard shouting that Erickson is “putting something in my car,” was arrested and spent two weeks in jail. He fought the charges in court, and late last year he began proceedings to sue the city for $1 million over the incident.
But Jason Serrano, the man arrested during the second stop, in March 2018, took a plea deal to avoid jail time and didn’t learn of the footage’s existence until earlier this year, when attorneys with the Legal Aid Society showed it to him. “There’s nothing to say, the video speaks for itself,” Serrano told me during a recent interview. “I didn’t have no marijuana, I had no weed, I had no drugs, I wasn’t driving, it wasn’t my car, the taillight wasn’t broken.”
The car’s driver, who was issued a summons even though she would have normally been the one charged for the marijuana found in the car, could not be reached for comment. Erickson and Pastran did not respond to The Intercept’s requests for comment. A spokesperson for the NYPD declined to comment. The Richmond County District Attorney’s Office did not respond to a request for comment.
“We Gotta Find Something”
Serrano was sitting in the passenger seat of his friend’s car when Erickson and Pastran stopped them. The officers later claimed the car had a broken taillight, but according to Serrano, the officers had been further up the road and made a U-turn to pull up by the car, and they couldn’t have seen the taillight from that position. As soon as the driver rolled down the window, Erickson and Pastran claimed the car smelled “like weed” and ordered her and Serrano out, both officers’ camera feeds show. The videos then show Serrano, who was recovering from abdominal surgery after being stabbed, lifting his clothes to show his wound to Erickson and telling him “I can barely move” (“I don’t want to see that,” the officer responds). Once out of the car, the officers demand to search Serrano’s jacket and he refuses, telling them “There’s nothing in there. … I’m not getting searched for no reason.” As Serrano grows agitated, the officers become more aggressive, grab him, push him to the ground, and handcuff him.
“They said I was resisting arrest, but I just didn’t want to hit the floor, the only thing I was thinking about was this,” Serrano said during a recent interview, pointing to his stomach. “I still had staples in me. … I couldn’t even stand up straight.”
As Serrano curls up on the sidewalk, bleeding from his wound, and as more officers and bystanders gather on the scene waiting for an ambulance, Pastran searches Serrano’s jacket. “We gotta find something,” Erickson tells him. The footage then shows Erickson using a flashlight to search around the front seat where Serrano had been seated. When he finds nothing, he can be heard murmuring an expletive to himself before returning to Pastran to ask him, “Should I search the whole thing?” Erickson again returns to the car and continues to meticulously search it, while Pastran briefs a supervisor who has arrived on the scene. Erickson then appears to place something in the car’s drink holder, before opening the front seat’s console and a small toiletry box. Erickson then says “I smell a little weed” just as he appears to pick up and move the little bud he seemed to have dropped in the drink holder moments earlier. Erickson then searches the back of the car, and when Pastran approaches, the two exchange a charged look as Erickson tells Pastran “I see nothing. … You know what I mean?” He then returns to search the front seat area for a third time, this time dropping a larger bud in the drink holder and saying, “There’s a little bit of weed.” He then again returns to the car console, opening a wallet and continuing to search where he had already looked. “Good?” Pastran asks him. Erickson continues to fiddle with something for a couple more minutes. At the end of the search, as Serrano is about to taken away on a stretcher, it’s Erickson’s turn to ask Pastran, “You good?” The two officers then fist-bump each other.
The few words exchanged between the two officers on the occasion of Serrano’s arrest are almost identical to those they exchanged during Kuyateh’s arrest. “We have to find something. … You know what I mean?” Erickson can be heard saying in footage from the earlier stop. On that occasion, too, the search had ended with Erickson asking Pastran, “You good?”
In the first incident, Kuyateh refused prosecutors’ offers for a plea deal and continued to fight the charges. In one of several court hearings, Erickson testified that the camera had shut off at a crucial moment in the recording due to a “technical difficulty.” But Erickson’s testimony was cut short when the body camera footage was presented as evidence, and the judge called lawyers in the middle of a pretrial hearing for an off-the-record exchange. Prosecutors dropped the marijuana charge right after that exchange, and later advised the police department that Erickson might need an attorney. The judge in the case blocked Legal Aid attorneys’ subsequent efforts to discuss the video, and ultimately dismissed and sealed the case.
The police department’s internal affairs division conducted its own review of that incident and ruled that accusations of misconduct on the officers’ part were “unfounded.” A spokesperson for the Civilian Complaint Review Board, a civilian agency that investigates allegations of police misconduct, confirmed the agency received complaints stemming from both incidents, but declined to comment further. A spokesperson for the Department of Investigation, which independently oversees city government, including police, said that the “DOI is aware of the matter” regarding Erickson and Pastran, but declined to comment further. The two officers remain on patrol in Serrano’s neighborhood.
More Jason Serranos
Serrano spent the five days after his arrest handcuffed in a hospital room, waiting for his abdominal wound to close. When he arrived there, he recalled, a medic told police “this guy is in no condition to resist anyone.”
Yet he was charged with resisting arrest, as well as obstruction of government administration, unlawful possession of marijuana, and criminal possession of a controlled substance. That last charge stemmed from a zip-close bag police claimed they found in Serrano’s jacket — even though Erickson and Pastran can be seen repeatedly searching the jacket in the video, and finding nothing. It’s not clear what was in the bag: a laboratory analysis of its contents reviewed by The Intercept says that “federally controlled substances are indicated; however, their identification is not confirmed at this time.” Serrano and his attorneys maintain that there was no bag at all in his jacket, and body camera footage shows Erickson fiddling with Serrano’s jacket for several minutes after searching the car, although it is impossible to see what he is doing.
After leaving the hospital Serrano was sent home on supervised release. Three months later, a judge found that he had violated the terms of his release and set his bail at $500 — but Serrano couldn’t pay it, and in order to avoid jail, he agreed to plead guilty to the resisting arrest charge only. “The court put him in the position of having to make that choice of whether he was going to continue to fight charges that he knew he was innocent of, or whether liberty was more important to him,” said Christopher Pisciotta, the attorney in charge of Legal Aid’s Staten Island division. “This is something that with our bail reform laws would not have happened. And even under the old law, a judge would have been extremely reluctant to ever set bail where there was actual video proof that the person was innocent.”
Under sweeping criminal justice reforms that were recently implemented in New York state — prompting a swift backlash — prosecutors would have accessed police body camera footage within 24 hours, and Serrano’s attorneys would have received it within 15 days of his arraignment. That would have allowed them to push for the charges to be dismissed. But Serrano and his attorneys didn’t learn there was camera footage of the incident until much later.
The new laws eliminated cash bail for most defendants and put an end to prosecutors’ ability to withhold evidence until trial. But within days of their implementation on January 1, the reforms came under a string of ferocious attacks from police, prosecutors, and some pundits, and elected officials quickly began giving in to pressure and signaling their intention to scale back the reforms.
“There is a push right now to try to repeal the very laws that would have protected Jason had they been available,” said Pisciotta. “If we repeal the discovery laws and push back on what has to be turned over and when it has to be turned over, and if we expand when judges can set bail again, there are going to be more Jason Serranos. And we’re going to be right back where we were.”
Last year, New York state also passed legislation decriminalizing marijuana — reducing possession of small quantities to a violation — after officials admitted marijuana laws had long been disproportionately enforced against black and Latino New Yorkers. But while marijuana arrests have drastically dropped since then, racial disparities remain. Legal Aid attorneys have repeatedly argued against the use of marijuana “odor” to justify a stop and search. Police can currently use the smell of marijuana to legally justify searching a vehicle, but attorneys say that justification is regularly abused — and in a growing number of cases, judges have questioned the credibility of officers claiming they smelled marijuana. In a particularly explicit rebuke, a judge recently ruled in favor of two defendants in such a case, arguing that “the time has come to reject the canard of marijuana emanating from nearly every vehicle subject to a traffic stop.”
The video of Serrano’s arrest is also emblematic of the widely disputed protections afforded to officers accused of misconduct in New York state. For years, advocates have called for the repeal of a law known as “50-a,” which refers to a section of the New York Civil Rights Law that makes the personnel records of law enforcement officers “confidential and not subject to inspection or review.” The law, which has been on the books for decades, has come under scrutiny as the movement for police accountability has grown stronger. But as the public pushed for more transparency, police departments and unions countered with ever-stricter interpretations of the law, making everything from complaints of misconduct, to the findings of internal reviews, to body camera footage itself largely inaccessible to the public. Efforts to fight the law in court have failed, and the battle has since shifted to Albany, where it remains a hotly debated issue by state legislators.
“50-a protects police officers from being held accountable,” said Pisciotta. “The community should have more information about the police officers who are serving them, and they should know when an officer has done something unlawful.”
Pisciotta, who called for Pastran and Erickson’s firing, also pointed to the disparity in the information that is accessible to the public. “The officers violated several laws by planting evidence in this case and falsely arresting an innocent person, but the information that the public has is that Jason Serrano was arrested and charged with these offenses, and that information will always be in the public’s eye, out on the internet,” he said. “Meanwhile, the officers who committed these crimes, who violated the public’s trust — their information remains secret and protected.”
The incident is also likely to fuel ongoing criticism of police’s use of body camera footage. A report released last month by the Civilian Complaint Review Board, which relies heavily on the footage as it investigates complaints of police misconduct, noted that officers “often failed to properly use their cameras by turning on the BWC late, turning the BWC off early, or not turning the BWC on at all,” the report noted, using an acronym for body-worn cameras. The report also confirms that officers are trained by the department to “inform other officers when their BWCs are active” — including by using nonverbal signals or code phrases like “I went Hollywood,” “Green,” and “I’m hot.”
In both incidents involving Erickson and Pastran, the officers seemed aware of their cameras — with Pastran at one point talking about Serrano getting “combative” and saying “thank God it’s on video.” After the first incident, as Pastran drove Kuyateh away, his body camera kept rolling as the teen accused Erickson of having planted evidence in his car. “The man just planted weed in my car,” Kuyateh said. “He has a camera, I have a camera. Why would he do that?” Pastran replied. “For him to do that, that would be the dumbest thing ever. He’d lose his job over a dumb arrest like this?”
But neither Erickson nor Pastran lost their jobs then, or after they stopped Serrano a couple weeks later. As Serrano watched the video of his arrest one more time, narrating over the footage, he kept shaking his head in disbelief.
“They had no reason to stop me at all, besides harassment,” he said. “They couldn’t even tell me what I did wrong. Oh, you smell weed? You smell weed because you placed the little nugget there. You smell weed because it’s on you, that’s why.”
By Alice Speri
The Intercept
March 18, 2020
When a police officer in Staten Island was caught by his own body camera in the apparent act of planting marijuana in the car of a group of young men, the video evidence against him was strong enough to prompt prosecutors in the resulting case to throw out the marijuana charge in the middle of a pretrial hearing. A judge cut short his testimony, and prosecutors recommended he get a lawyer. But an internal review by the New York Police Department found that no misconduct had occurred.
Now a new video — published exclusively by The Intercept — shows the same officer again seemingly planting marijuana during a different traffic stop just a few weeks after the first, raising questions about the credibility of internal review processes and highlighting the lack of transparency in cases of police misconduct. The video, which didn’t emerge for nearly two years, also underscores the limited information available not just to the public but also defendants, and validates criticism by police accountability advocates that body cameras are of no use if the evidence they capture remains inaccessible.
On both occasions, two officers — Kyle Erickson and Elmer Pastran, of the 120th Precinct — stopped cars for minor traffic infractions, then claimed the vehicles smelled like marijuana. In both instances, body camera footage shows the officers extensively searching the cars for several minutes and finding nothing. In the first incident, in February 2018, Erickson’s body camera is then suddenly switched off and then back on just as he discovers a marijuana cigarette that did not appear to be there when his partner was first searching the car. The New York Times published that video later that year after attorneys for the driver, Lasou Kuyateh, obtained it through discovery. Kuyateh, who in the video can be heard shouting that Erickson is “putting something in my car,” was arrested and spent two weeks in jail. He fought the charges in court, and late last year he began proceedings to sue the city for $1 million over the incident.
But Jason Serrano, the man arrested during the second stop, in March 2018, took a plea deal to avoid jail time and didn’t learn of the footage’s existence until earlier this year, when attorneys with the Legal Aid Society showed it to him. “There’s nothing to say, the video speaks for itself,” Serrano told me during a recent interview. “I didn’t have no marijuana, I had no weed, I had no drugs, I wasn’t driving, it wasn’t my car, the taillight wasn’t broken.”
The car’s driver, who was issued a summons even though she would have normally been the one charged for the marijuana found in the car, could not be reached for comment. Erickson and Pastran did not respond to The Intercept’s requests for comment. A spokesperson for the NYPD declined to comment. The Richmond County District Attorney’s Office did not respond to a request for comment.
“We Gotta Find Something”
Serrano was sitting in the passenger seat of his friend’s car when Erickson and Pastran stopped them. The officers later claimed the car had a broken taillight, but according to Serrano, the officers had been further up the road and made a U-turn to pull up by the car, and they couldn’t have seen the taillight from that position. As soon as the driver rolled down the window, Erickson and Pastran claimed the car smelled “like weed” and ordered her and Serrano out, both officers’ camera feeds show. The videos then show Serrano, who was recovering from abdominal surgery after being stabbed, lifting his clothes to show his wound to Erickson and telling him “I can barely move” (“I don’t want to see that,” the officer responds). Once out of the car, the officers demand to search Serrano’s jacket and he refuses, telling them “There’s nothing in there. … I’m not getting searched for no reason.” As Serrano grows agitated, the officers become more aggressive, grab him, push him to the ground, and handcuff him.
“They said I was resisting arrest, but I just didn’t want to hit the floor, the only thing I was thinking about was this,” Serrano said during a recent interview, pointing to his stomach. “I still had staples in me. … I couldn’t even stand up straight.”
As Serrano curls up on the sidewalk, bleeding from his wound, and as more officers and bystanders gather on the scene waiting for an ambulance, Pastran searches Serrano’s jacket. “We gotta find something,” Erickson tells him. The footage then shows Erickson using a flashlight to search around the front seat where Serrano had been seated. When he finds nothing, he can be heard murmuring an expletive to himself before returning to Pastran to ask him, “Should I search the whole thing?” Erickson again returns to the car and continues to meticulously search it, while Pastran briefs a supervisor who has arrived on the scene. Erickson then appears to place something in the car’s drink holder, before opening the front seat’s console and a small toiletry box. Erickson then says “I smell a little weed” just as he appears to pick up and move the little bud he seemed to have dropped in the drink holder moments earlier. Erickson then searches the back of the car, and when Pastran approaches, the two exchange a charged look as Erickson tells Pastran “I see nothing. … You know what I mean?” He then returns to search the front seat area for a third time, this time dropping a larger bud in the drink holder and saying, “There’s a little bit of weed.” He then again returns to the car console, opening a wallet and continuing to search where he had already looked. “Good?” Pastran asks him. Erickson continues to fiddle with something for a couple more minutes. At the end of the search, as Serrano is about to taken away on a stretcher, it’s Erickson’s turn to ask Pastran, “You good?” The two officers then fist-bump each other.
The few words exchanged between the two officers on the occasion of Serrano’s arrest are almost identical to those they exchanged during Kuyateh’s arrest. “We have to find something. … You know what I mean?” Erickson can be heard saying in footage from the earlier stop. On that occasion, too, the search had ended with Erickson asking Pastran, “You good?”
In the first incident, Kuyateh refused prosecutors’ offers for a plea deal and continued to fight the charges. In one of several court hearings, Erickson testified that the camera had shut off at a crucial moment in the recording due to a “technical difficulty.” But Erickson’s testimony was cut short when the body camera footage was presented as evidence, and the judge called lawyers in the middle of a pretrial hearing for an off-the-record exchange. Prosecutors dropped the marijuana charge right after that exchange, and later advised the police department that Erickson might need an attorney. The judge in the case blocked Legal Aid attorneys’ subsequent efforts to discuss the video, and ultimately dismissed and sealed the case.
The police department’s internal affairs division conducted its own review of that incident and ruled that accusations of misconduct on the officers’ part were “unfounded.” A spokesperson for the Civilian Complaint Review Board, a civilian agency that investigates allegations of police misconduct, confirmed the agency received complaints stemming from both incidents, but declined to comment further. A spokesperson for the Department of Investigation, which independently oversees city government, including police, said that the “DOI is aware of the matter” regarding Erickson and Pastran, but declined to comment further. The two officers remain on patrol in Serrano’s neighborhood.
More Jason Serranos
Serrano spent the five days after his arrest handcuffed in a hospital room, waiting for his abdominal wound to close. When he arrived there, he recalled, a medic told police “this guy is in no condition to resist anyone.”
Yet he was charged with resisting arrest, as well as obstruction of government administration, unlawful possession of marijuana, and criminal possession of a controlled substance. That last charge stemmed from a zip-close bag police claimed they found in Serrano’s jacket — even though Erickson and Pastran can be seen repeatedly searching the jacket in the video, and finding nothing. It’s not clear what was in the bag: a laboratory analysis of its contents reviewed by The Intercept says that “federally controlled substances are indicated; however, their identification is not confirmed at this time.” Serrano and his attorneys maintain that there was no bag at all in his jacket, and body camera footage shows Erickson fiddling with Serrano’s jacket for several minutes after searching the car, although it is impossible to see what he is doing.
After leaving the hospital Serrano was sent home on supervised release. Three months later, a judge found that he had violated the terms of his release and set his bail at $500 — but Serrano couldn’t pay it, and in order to avoid jail, he agreed to plead guilty to the resisting arrest charge only. “The court put him in the position of having to make that choice of whether he was going to continue to fight charges that he knew he was innocent of, or whether liberty was more important to him,” said Christopher Pisciotta, the attorney in charge of Legal Aid’s Staten Island division. “This is something that with our bail reform laws would not have happened. And even under the old law, a judge would have been extremely reluctant to ever set bail where there was actual video proof that the person was innocent.”
Under sweeping criminal justice reforms that were recently implemented in New York state — prompting a swift backlash — prosecutors would have accessed police body camera footage within 24 hours, and Serrano’s attorneys would have received it within 15 days of his arraignment. That would have allowed them to push for the charges to be dismissed. But Serrano and his attorneys didn’t learn there was camera footage of the incident until much later.
The new laws eliminated cash bail for most defendants and put an end to prosecutors’ ability to withhold evidence until trial. But within days of their implementation on January 1, the reforms came under a string of ferocious attacks from police, prosecutors, and some pundits, and elected officials quickly began giving in to pressure and signaling their intention to scale back the reforms.
“There is a push right now to try to repeal the very laws that would have protected Jason had they been available,” said Pisciotta. “If we repeal the discovery laws and push back on what has to be turned over and when it has to be turned over, and if we expand when judges can set bail again, there are going to be more Jason Serranos. And we’re going to be right back where we were.”
Last year, New York state also passed legislation decriminalizing marijuana — reducing possession of small quantities to a violation — after officials admitted marijuana laws had long been disproportionately enforced against black and Latino New Yorkers. But while marijuana arrests have drastically dropped since then, racial disparities remain. Legal Aid attorneys have repeatedly argued against the use of marijuana “odor” to justify a stop and search. Police can currently use the smell of marijuana to legally justify searching a vehicle, but attorneys say that justification is regularly abused — and in a growing number of cases, judges have questioned the credibility of officers claiming they smelled marijuana. In a particularly explicit rebuke, a judge recently ruled in favor of two defendants in such a case, arguing that “the time has come to reject the canard of marijuana emanating from nearly every vehicle subject to a traffic stop.”
The video of Serrano’s arrest is also emblematic of the widely disputed protections afforded to officers accused of misconduct in New York state. For years, advocates have called for the repeal of a law known as “50-a,” which refers to a section of the New York Civil Rights Law that makes the personnel records of law enforcement officers “confidential and not subject to inspection or review.” The law, which has been on the books for decades, has come under scrutiny as the movement for police accountability has grown stronger. But as the public pushed for more transparency, police departments and unions countered with ever-stricter interpretations of the law, making everything from complaints of misconduct, to the findings of internal reviews, to body camera footage itself largely inaccessible to the public. Efforts to fight the law in court have failed, and the battle has since shifted to Albany, where it remains a hotly debated issue by state legislators.
“50-a protects police officers from being held accountable,” said Pisciotta. “The community should have more information about the police officers who are serving them, and they should know when an officer has done something unlawful.”
Pisciotta, who called for Pastran and Erickson’s firing, also pointed to the disparity in the information that is accessible to the public. “The officers violated several laws by planting evidence in this case and falsely arresting an innocent person, but the information that the public has is that Jason Serrano was arrested and charged with these offenses, and that information will always be in the public’s eye, out on the internet,” he said. “Meanwhile, the officers who committed these crimes, who violated the public’s trust — their information remains secret and protected.”
The incident is also likely to fuel ongoing criticism of police’s use of body camera footage. A report released last month by the Civilian Complaint Review Board, which relies heavily on the footage as it investigates complaints of police misconduct, noted that officers “often failed to properly use their cameras by turning on the BWC late, turning the BWC off early, or not turning the BWC on at all,” the report noted, using an acronym for body-worn cameras. The report also confirms that officers are trained by the department to “inform other officers when their BWCs are active” — including by using nonverbal signals or code phrases like “I went Hollywood,” “Green,” and “I’m hot.”
In both incidents involving Erickson and Pastran, the officers seemed aware of their cameras — with Pastran at one point talking about Serrano getting “combative” and saying “thank God it’s on video.” After the first incident, as Pastran drove Kuyateh away, his body camera kept rolling as the teen accused Erickson of having planted evidence in his car. “The man just planted weed in my car,” Kuyateh said. “He has a camera, I have a camera. Why would he do that?” Pastran replied. “For him to do that, that would be the dumbest thing ever. He’d lose his job over a dumb arrest like this?”
But neither Erickson nor Pastran lost their jobs then, or after they stopped Serrano a couple weeks later. As Serrano watched the video of his arrest one more time, narrating over the footage, he kept shaking his head in disbelief.
“They had no reason to stop me at all, besides harassment,” he said. “They couldn’t even tell me what I did wrong. Oh, you smell weed? You smell weed because you placed the little nugget there. You smell weed because it’s on you, that’s why.”
EL MENCHO NOW THE REAL RULER OF MEXICO
Ruthless drug cartel Jalisco New Generation is taking over Mexico: Gang who once took down a military helicopter with a grenade launcher win over civilians with promises to spare them from violence
Associated Press
March 18, 2020
The Jalisco New Generation Cartel has become Mexico's fastest-rising criminal organization, with a reputation for ruthlessness and violence unlike any since the fall of the old Zetas cartel.
In parts of the country it is fighting medieval-style battles, complete with fortified redoubts, to expand nationwide, from the outskirts of Mexico City, into the tourist resorts around Cancun, and along the northern border across from the United States.
The Jalisco New Generation Cartel so likes violence and heavy armament that U.S. prosecutors said its operatives tried to buy belt-fed M-60 machine guns in the United States, and once brought down a Mexican military helicopter with a rocket-propelled grenade.
But transnational criminal organization is also mounting a propaganda campaign, using videos and social media to threaten rivals while promising civilians that it won't prey on them with extortion and kidnappings.
It is a promise that cartels in Mexico have long made, and always broken. But the cartel's onslaught is so powerful that it appears to have convinced some Mexicans, especially those who are tired of local gangs, to accept control by one large, powerful cartel.
'It seems like the Jalisco New Generation group is taking over everywhere,' said a priest in the western city of Apatzingan. 'It seems like they allow people to work, and they don't prey on civilians, they don't kidnap, they don't steal vehicles, they just go about their drug business.'
The priest, who is not being identified to prevent reprisals, would rather not have any gang in town. But one of his parishioners was recently kidnapped, raped and killed by members of a local gang, the Viagras, even after her family paid a ransom; locals are so sick of that gang they'd rather have anybody else move in.
He is not the only one. A restaurant owner in the central state of Guanajuato - where Jalisco is fighting for control with the local Santa Rosa de Lima gang - says he would prefer that Jalisco take over, because of the local gang's chaotic ways.
'Things are quieter when Jalisco is around,' said the restaurant owner, who also asked his name not be used.
A woman who has lived for years under Jalisco cartel rule in a small town says she seeks out local Jalisco enforcers to solve common crime problems. 'If you have a problem, you go to them. They solve it quickly,' she said.
It is all a lie, albeit one that the cartel likes to repeat.
'Beautiful people, continue your routine,' the cartel said in a banner hung from an overpass in 2019 to reassure residents of Apatzingan, Michoacán, that the cartel was moving in to kick out the Viagras. Beneath and around the banner a total of 19 corpses hung from ropes, lay piled on the roadway or were scattered, hacked to pieces.
Sofia Huett, the head security official in the central state of Guanajuato, has been on the receiving end of what she calls a propaganda war between Jalisco and the Santa Rosa gang.
'What is striking is the propaganda campaign in all media. What we are seeing today, we haven't seen' since Mexico's 2006-2012 drug war, she said, referring to decapitation videos, threats, and social media messages warning people to stay indoors.
'This propaganda doesn't just seek to intimidate rivals, but the whole population, as well,' she said. 'I would even say there may be political goals behind this type of messages.'
To those lured by the promises of the cartel, Huett said: 'We cannot leave the public in doubt about the criminals, these false promises of protection and these false promises of well-being. This always ends badly.'
Indeed, the reality of life under the Jalisco cartel is terrifying: the cartel has made the city of Guadalajara and surrounding suburbs into a giant clandestine grave site.
Hundreds of bodies have been found in the last year, dumped in drainage canals, buried in fields and the patios and yards of homes. Bodies have been found dissolved in acid or lye, bodies have been found in plastic bags. So many bodies have been found in Guadalajara that authorities ran out of space at the morgue and took to moving rotting bodies around in refrigerated trucks until neighbors complained about the smell. Experts say the killings skyrocketed after the cartel lost control of its local organization in Guadalajara, and has been battling that splinter group.
Jalisco is accustomed to attacking law enforcement directly. The cartel is blamed for two of the worst attacks in recent memory: in October, cartel gunmen ambushed and killed 14 state police officers in Michoacán, and there are indications they executed some with gunshots to the head. In 2015, cartel gunmen trying to protect their leader shot down a Mexican military helicopter with an RPG.
Jalisco likes quasi-military tactics, and their hitmen favor military camouflage. In southern Guerrero state, they welded thick armor plating to a truck to make a homemade tank. In many states, they parade around in convoys of dozens of pickup trucks openly marked with the letters 'CJNG.'
Jalisco really only understands force, a tactic that Mexico's government has sidelined. On Friday, the foreign relations department wrote that the administration of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador 'is committed to eliminating inequality and violence by ending the war on drugs ... the use of force is no longer the first option.'
Indeed, López Obrador said his administration no longer seeks to detain drug lords.
Meanwhile, many of Jalisco's front-line battlegrounds look almost medieval.
On the border between Jalisco and Michoacán states, there is a town called Tepalcatepec, a stronghold of the Viagras that Jalisco has recently tried to take over. The road in from Jalisco - the main route of attack - is blocked with piles of dirt and rocks staggered in a zigzag pattern, forcing incoming vehicles to slow down. From a house on a nearby hill, a vigilante with a .50-caliber sniper rifle scans the road, ready to fire.
Farther south in Michoacán, in the hamlet of El Terrero, Jalisco controls the south bank of the Rio Grande river, while the north bank remains in the hands of the rival New Michoacán Family cartel and its armed wing, the Viagras. The other gangs´ terror of Jalisco is evident; in September, they hijacked and burned a half-dozen trucks and buses to block the bridge over the river, to prevent Jalisco convoys from entering in a surprise assault.
Nearby, in the township of San Jose de Chila, rival gangs used a church as an armed redoubt to fight off an offensive by Jalisco gunmen. Holed up in the church tower and from its roof, they tried to defend the town against the incursion, leaving the church filled with bullet holes.
One thing is clear: Jalisco wants people to know that they're in town. They hang banners from overpasses announcing their arrival, offering cash rewards for enemies and threatening police. They post videos on social media, usually with a few dozen heavily-armed, camouflage-clad men with helmets in the background, announcing they have come to 'clean up the town.'
In Cancun, a man sidles up to a local crime-scene photographer at a taco stand. 'We're from Jalisco. We just want you to know that we're here. Enjoy your meal,' the man said affably, before walking away.
It wasn't just a boast. On February 29, police in Cancun raided two houses and arrested 10 Jalisco gunmen with assault rifles and caps embroidered with the words 'Grupo Delta, CJNG Quintana Roo.' The cartel is moving into Cancun the way it often does: the group 'was setting up an operational center ... where they abducted and killed members of rival gangs,' state prosecutors said.
The cartel has littered the streets of Cancun with the bodies of its victims, but the violence hasn't really hit the tourist zone, except in the resort of Playa del Carmen, to the south.
While extreme violence is hardly new in Mexico, Jalisco is more fearsome than other cartels, more worrisome than even the notorious Zetas, who left piles of as many as 50 bodies on roads, kidnapped hundreds of people and forced them to fight each other to the death with sledgehammers, and burned their victims alive in gasoline drums.
The Zetas were never particularly good at carving out new drug routes or laundering money; Jalisco, with years of experience in methamphetamine production through their allies, the 'Cuinis' gang, is in a prime position to capitalize on new synthetic drugs like fentanyl.
'CJNG´s efforts to dominate key ports on both the Pacific and Gulf Coasts have allowed it to consolidate important components of the global narcotics supply chain,' said a Congressional Research Service report. 'In particular, CJNG asserts control over the ports of Veracruz, Manzanillo, and Lázaro Cardenas, which has given the group access to precursor chemicals that flow into Mexico from China and other parts of Latin America. As a result, CJNG has been able to pursue an aggressive growth strategy, underwritten by U.S. demand for Mexican methamphetamine, heroin, and fentanyl.'
And the cartel - like its main rival, Sinaloa - has been able to branch out into new regions of the world, turning to India when China cracks down on fentanyl shipments, and establishing connections with Chinese and other Asian gangs to launder drug proceeds that help wealthy Chinese get around their government's currency flow limits and move their wealth abroad.
And under the steely command of Nemesio 'El Mencho' Oseguera Cervantes - who is now the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's most-wanted fugitive, with a $10 million price on his head - the Jalisco New Generation Cartel has a more unified leadership than Sinaloa, whose command structure was fractured after the arrest, extradition and conviction of Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman, who he was once tied to.
El Mencho's organization operates in 24 of 32 states in Mexico and has shipped cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl-laced heroin to the United States.
The cartel, is known to be in control of between one-third and two-thirds of the U.S. drug market.
Now, experts say, much of the violence in Tijuana, Ciudad Juarez and Tamaulipas state is fueled by offensives by the cartel, often in alliance with local gangs, to take control of key drug routes.
'They have an almost nationwide presence,' said Mexican security analyst Alejandro Hope. 'It seems to me they have a more centralized decision-making structure than other criminal groups. The one who calls the shots is Mencho.'
Given that Jalisco has moved into hotels and restaurants, shopping centers, real estate companies, agricultural companies, and a music promotion business, Hope said 'it appears they are more sophisticated than other (gangs) at laundering money.'
Last Wednesday, the DEA announced the arrest of 600 cartel members who were caught during a six months of investigation across Texas, California, New York, Florida, Georgia, Illinois and Colorado. The organization also has a presence in New Mexico, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Michigan, New Jersey and Massachusetts.
El Mencho's two oldest children - he also is the father of a younger girl - are currently under the custody of the U.S. government facing money laundering and drug trafficking charges.
Jessica Johana Oseguera, 33, was arrested last February 26 inside a D.C. federal courthouse while appearing at a hearing for her brother Rubén 'El Menchito' Oseguera, 30, who was extradited from Mexico on February 20 to face drug charges.
An indictment filed February 13 accused the woman, a dual U.S.-Mexico citizen, of doing business with five business entities, from September 2015 to February 2016, that have been declared off-limits by the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Asset Control for 'providing material support to the international narcotics trafficking activities' to the cartel, according to a Justice Department statement.
El Menchito was arrested in Mexico in 2015 and spent several years fighting extradition before he was handed over to U.S. authorities.
He pleaded not guilty to multiple charges relating to conspiracy to distribute narcotics. If convicted, he faces at least 15 years in prison. His trial began last Friday, and he too was denied bail.
El Mencho's wife, Rosalinda González Valencia, posted a $67,000 bail bond in September 2018 after spending three months in prison following her arrest over money laundering charges.
Associated Press
March 18, 2020
The Jalisco New Generation Cartel has become Mexico's fastest-rising criminal organization, with a reputation for ruthlessness and violence unlike any since the fall of the old Zetas cartel.
In parts of the country it is fighting medieval-style battles, complete with fortified redoubts, to expand nationwide, from the outskirts of Mexico City, into the tourist resorts around Cancun, and along the northern border across from the United States.
The Jalisco New Generation Cartel so likes violence and heavy armament that U.S. prosecutors said its operatives tried to buy belt-fed M-60 machine guns in the United States, and once brought down a Mexican military helicopter with a rocket-propelled grenade.
But transnational criminal organization is also mounting a propaganda campaign, using videos and social media to threaten rivals while promising civilians that it won't prey on them with extortion and kidnappings.
It is a promise that cartels in Mexico have long made, and always broken. But the cartel's onslaught is so powerful that it appears to have convinced some Mexicans, especially those who are tired of local gangs, to accept control by one large, powerful cartel.
'It seems like the Jalisco New Generation group is taking over everywhere,' said a priest in the western city of Apatzingan. 'It seems like they allow people to work, and they don't prey on civilians, they don't kidnap, they don't steal vehicles, they just go about their drug business.'
The priest, who is not being identified to prevent reprisals, would rather not have any gang in town. But one of his parishioners was recently kidnapped, raped and killed by members of a local gang, the Viagras, even after her family paid a ransom; locals are so sick of that gang they'd rather have anybody else move in.
He is not the only one. A restaurant owner in the central state of Guanajuato - where Jalisco is fighting for control with the local Santa Rosa de Lima gang - says he would prefer that Jalisco take over, because of the local gang's chaotic ways.
'Things are quieter when Jalisco is around,' said the restaurant owner, who also asked his name not be used.
A woman who has lived for years under Jalisco cartel rule in a small town says she seeks out local Jalisco enforcers to solve common crime problems. 'If you have a problem, you go to them. They solve it quickly,' she said.
It is all a lie, albeit one that the cartel likes to repeat.
'Beautiful people, continue your routine,' the cartel said in a banner hung from an overpass in 2019 to reassure residents of Apatzingan, Michoacán, that the cartel was moving in to kick out the Viagras. Beneath and around the banner a total of 19 corpses hung from ropes, lay piled on the roadway or were scattered, hacked to pieces.
Sofia Huett, the head security official in the central state of Guanajuato, has been on the receiving end of what she calls a propaganda war between Jalisco and the Santa Rosa gang.
'What is striking is the propaganda campaign in all media. What we are seeing today, we haven't seen' since Mexico's 2006-2012 drug war, she said, referring to decapitation videos, threats, and social media messages warning people to stay indoors.
'This propaganda doesn't just seek to intimidate rivals, but the whole population, as well,' she said. 'I would even say there may be political goals behind this type of messages.'
To those lured by the promises of the cartel, Huett said: 'We cannot leave the public in doubt about the criminals, these false promises of protection and these false promises of well-being. This always ends badly.'
Indeed, the reality of life under the Jalisco cartel is terrifying: the cartel has made the city of Guadalajara and surrounding suburbs into a giant clandestine grave site.
Hundreds of bodies have been found in the last year, dumped in drainage canals, buried in fields and the patios and yards of homes. Bodies have been found dissolved in acid or lye, bodies have been found in plastic bags. So many bodies have been found in Guadalajara that authorities ran out of space at the morgue and took to moving rotting bodies around in refrigerated trucks until neighbors complained about the smell. Experts say the killings skyrocketed after the cartel lost control of its local organization in Guadalajara, and has been battling that splinter group.
Jalisco is accustomed to attacking law enforcement directly. The cartel is blamed for two of the worst attacks in recent memory: in October, cartel gunmen ambushed and killed 14 state police officers in Michoacán, and there are indications they executed some with gunshots to the head. In 2015, cartel gunmen trying to protect their leader shot down a Mexican military helicopter with an RPG.
Jalisco likes quasi-military tactics, and their hitmen favor military camouflage. In southern Guerrero state, they welded thick armor plating to a truck to make a homemade tank. In many states, they parade around in convoys of dozens of pickup trucks openly marked with the letters 'CJNG.'
Jalisco really only understands force, a tactic that Mexico's government has sidelined. On Friday, the foreign relations department wrote that the administration of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador 'is committed to eliminating inequality and violence by ending the war on drugs ... the use of force is no longer the first option.'
Indeed, López Obrador said his administration no longer seeks to detain drug lords.
Meanwhile, many of Jalisco's front-line battlegrounds look almost medieval.
On the border between Jalisco and Michoacán states, there is a town called Tepalcatepec, a stronghold of the Viagras that Jalisco has recently tried to take over. The road in from Jalisco - the main route of attack - is blocked with piles of dirt and rocks staggered in a zigzag pattern, forcing incoming vehicles to slow down. From a house on a nearby hill, a vigilante with a .50-caliber sniper rifle scans the road, ready to fire.
Farther south in Michoacán, in the hamlet of El Terrero, Jalisco controls the south bank of the Rio Grande river, while the north bank remains in the hands of the rival New Michoacán Family cartel and its armed wing, the Viagras. The other gangs´ terror of Jalisco is evident; in September, they hijacked and burned a half-dozen trucks and buses to block the bridge over the river, to prevent Jalisco convoys from entering in a surprise assault.
Nearby, in the township of San Jose de Chila, rival gangs used a church as an armed redoubt to fight off an offensive by Jalisco gunmen. Holed up in the church tower and from its roof, they tried to defend the town against the incursion, leaving the church filled with bullet holes.
One thing is clear: Jalisco wants people to know that they're in town. They hang banners from overpasses announcing their arrival, offering cash rewards for enemies and threatening police. They post videos on social media, usually with a few dozen heavily-armed, camouflage-clad men with helmets in the background, announcing they have come to 'clean up the town.'
In Cancun, a man sidles up to a local crime-scene photographer at a taco stand. 'We're from Jalisco. We just want you to know that we're here. Enjoy your meal,' the man said affably, before walking away.
It wasn't just a boast. On February 29, police in Cancun raided two houses and arrested 10 Jalisco gunmen with assault rifles and caps embroidered with the words 'Grupo Delta, CJNG Quintana Roo.' The cartel is moving into Cancun the way it often does: the group 'was setting up an operational center ... where they abducted and killed members of rival gangs,' state prosecutors said.
The cartel has littered the streets of Cancun with the bodies of its victims, but the violence hasn't really hit the tourist zone, except in the resort of Playa del Carmen, to the south.
While extreme violence is hardly new in Mexico, Jalisco is more fearsome than other cartels, more worrisome than even the notorious Zetas, who left piles of as many as 50 bodies on roads, kidnapped hundreds of people and forced them to fight each other to the death with sledgehammers, and burned their victims alive in gasoline drums.
The Zetas were never particularly good at carving out new drug routes or laundering money; Jalisco, with years of experience in methamphetamine production through their allies, the 'Cuinis' gang, is in a prime position to capitalize on new synthetic drugs like fentanyl.
'CJNG´s efforts to dominate key ports on both the Pacific and Gulf Coasts have allowed it to consolidate important components of the global narcotics supply chain,' said a Congressional Research Service report. 'In particular, CJNG asserts control over the ports of Veracruz, Manzanillo, and Lázaro Cardenas, which has given the group access to precursor chemicals that flow into Mexico from China and other parts of Latin America. As a result, CJNG has been able to pursue an aggressive growth strategy, underwritten by U.S. demand for Mexican methamphetamine, heroin, and fentanyl.'
And the cartel - like its main rival, Sinaloa - has been able to branch out into new regions of the world, turning to India when China cracks down on fentanyl shipments, and establishing connections with Chinese and other Asian gangs to launder drug proceeds that help wealthy Chinese get around their government's currency flow limits and move their wealth abroad.
And under the steely command of Nemesio 'El Mencho' Oseguera Cervantes - who is now the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's most-wanted fugitive, with a $10 million price on his head - the Jalisco New Generation Cartel has a more unified leadership than Sinaloa, whose command structure was fractured after the arrest, extradition and conviction of Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman, who he was once tied to.
El Mencho's organization operates in 24 of 32 states in Mexico and has shipped cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl-laced heroin to the United States.
The cartel, is known to be in control of between one-third and two-thirds of the U.S. drug market.
Now, experts say, much of the violence in Tijuana, Ciudad Juarez and Tamaulipas state is fueled by offensives by the cartel, often in alliance with local gangs, to take control of key drug routes.
'They have an almost nationwide presence,' said Mexican security analyst Alejandro Hope. 'It seems to me they have a more centralized decision-making structure than other criminal groups. The one who calls the shots is Mencho.'
Given that Jalisco has moved into hotels and restaurants, shopping centers, real estate companies, agricultural companies, and a music promotion business, Hope said 'it appears they are more sophisticated than other (gangs) at laundering money.'
Last Wednesday, the DEA announced the arrest of 600 cartel members who were caught during a six months of investigation across Texas, California, New York, Florida, Georgia, Illinois and Colorado. The organization also has a presence in New Mexico, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Michigan, New Jersey and Massachusetts.
El Mencho's two oldest children - he also is the father of a younger girl - are currently under the custody of the U.S. government facing money laundering and drug trafficking charges.
Jessica Johana Oseguera, 33, was arrested last February 26 inside a D.C. federal courthouse while appearing at a hearing for her brother Rubén 'El Menchito' Oseguera, 30, who was extradited from Mexico on February 20 to face drug charges.
An indictment filed February 13 accused the woman, a dual U.S.-Mexico citizen, of doing business with five business entities, from September 2015 to February 2016, that have been declared off-limits by the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Asset Control for 'providing material support to the international narcotics trafficking activities' to the cartel, according to a Justice Department statement.
El Menchito was arrested in Mexico in 2015 and spent several years fighting extradition before he was handed over to U.S. authorities.
He pleaded not guilty to multiple charges relating to conspiracy to distribute narcotics. If convicted, he faces at least 15 years in prison. His trial began last Friday, and he too was denied bail.
El Mencho's wife, Rosalinda González Valencia, posted a $67,000 bail bond in September 2018 after spending three months in prison following her arrest over money laundering charges.
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