February 14, 2020
By Ron Fonger
Flint - Advocates for Flint children (click here) say they have made strides in health, nutrition and education in the nearly six years since the city’s water crisis started, but stubborn problems remain for kids who grow up here.
“We realized that as a community what we really needed to do, really the only thing we could do” after the water crisis “was to move forward,” Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha said during a report on the State of Flint Kids Friday, Feb. 24. “We have been leaning on incredible and emerging science of child development ... to build a model public health program to mitigate the affects of this crisis.”...
...Data presented Friday showed the number of Flint 3 and 4 year olds in the Early On preschool has more than doubled since 2014, the year the city’s water source was changed to the Flint River for 17 months. Enrollment in Flint Community Schools has continued to decline from more than 11,400 in 2010-2011 to 4,500 in 2017-2018.
More than 98 percent of children in the city now have health insurance, and more than 26,000 are enrolled in a Medicaid waiver benefit that was part of the federal government’s response to the water crisis.
Doctors have prescribed more than 34,000 fruit and vegetable prescriptions since 2016, using federal funds, and more than 9,000 lead and galvanized water service lines have been replaced using federal and state funds....
Flint, Michigan was in fiscal trouble when Rick Snyder took over the city with his emergency manager. He not only took over the city to protect any schools still in operation, but he also took over the entire city government which was new for the State of Michigan when it's legislature, with Snyder as Governor, allowed it. Any idea that Flint can handle their own school problems and maintain a health program for more than 26,000 affected children (click here), replace water lines while attempting to run a city is not possible. The city was further impoverished by the Snyder Administration when every available asset was sold to the highest bidder. So, the city not only continues to have fiscal problems due to its new status of disrepair, it has no assets to even draw up bond issues to support any city government efforts. Flint is going to be on the federal dollar for some time to come.
I find it troubling that there is a need for a "State of Flint Kids" reporting. This is not a situation that is going to get better, it is a matter of intervening to give the children of Flint half a chance at life. They were disadvantaged by the Snyder Administration and the government at all levels needs to realize the children of Flint will need financial support most probably the rest of their lives. It is best to give them a chance to be successful after their lead poisoning in a method that provides a path to independence and achievement, but, there is a larger possibility they will be disabled for the rest of their lives. Only time and intervention will tell the tale. Some children will do better than others, but, there will be some that will not succeed. That reality has to be faced and a permanent fiscal solution put in place.
Flint, Michigan does not exist in a vacuum. It has the same problems as other cities and needs infrastructure improvements as well. But, Flint also has an issue with violence and that needs to be handled and brought to a minimum. The children can receive assistance, but, they also need to grow up in a city that is benevolent to their best outcomes. Given the problems Flint has and continues to experience, the state and federal governments are going to have to contribute to the enormous disruption Rick Snyder caused to this American city.
Friday, February 14, 2020
Donald Trump is used to Michael Cohen being his FIXER so he is expecting the same thing from Bill Barr.
Bill Barr has done exactly that in the past, but, eventually steps back from the brink of being treasonous. I am confident he knows that he will have the punishment for treason fall on his life and not that of Donald John Trump who should have been removed from office.
At first I thought this John H. Durham thing is probably really benign and not I am not so sure.
December 9, 2019
By Liam Stack
John H. Durham, (click here) a federal prosecutor conducting a criminal investigation into the origins of the F.B.I.’s Russia probe, said Monday that he disagreed with a report released by the Justice Department’s inspector general, which said there was no basis for President Trump’s accusation that the bureau conspired against him during the 2016 presidential election....
There was nothing that the Special Counsel found that would indicate there were issues between agencies of the USA intelligence community that would demand that of a US Prosecutor to scrutinize. There are always culture differences between the agencies and NCTC (click here) is always supposed to bring the best intelligence together from all agencies to result in a comprehensive threat assessment.
I think Durham is duplicating work and at the same time tearing apart the confidence of the national intelligence agencies.
Besides that there is the national threat assessment which the most recent was published 29 January 2019. Perhaps it is just me, but, I can't seem to find the 2020 edition.
RUSSIA AND EURASIA (click here)
Russian President Vladimir Putin has the tools to navigate challenges to his rule, and he is likely to sustain an assertive, opportunistic foreign policy to advance Russia’s interests beyond its borders and contest US influence.
Russia’s Domestic Politics
The Russian economy’s slow growth and most Russians’ disapproval of government officials’ performance will foster a more challenging political environment for the Kremlin, although its centralized power structure and the resonance of anti-American themes will buoy Putin, sustaining his push for international stature and challenging US global leadership.
continued...
There is this however:
February 8, 2020
By Marty Johnson
...In a Jan. 15 letter (click here) to acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire, Schiff described the hearing as a chance for the his committee "to provide an unclassified, yet important broad understanding of how threats have evolved and what the nation can expect in the year to come."
Historically, the annual hearing takes place during the first half of the year. Since it includes the convening of the director of national intelligence and the heads of the CIA, National Security Agency, FBI and Defense Intelligence Agency, scheduling of the hearing can sometimes take a while.
Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), who is also a member of the Intelligence Committee, told CBS earlier in the week that it was important for the public hearing to happen this year.
"We need the American people to know what the threats are and then justify why we're investing in protecting people from those threats," Swalwell said. "They need to answer to congress and we're going to keep pressing."
Donald John Trump expects all the agencies to bend to his will no different than he expected of President Zelenskyy of Ukraine and PROVE there is a Deep State and Trump is the USA's and the world's savior. He is not interested in the balance of power, global balance of trade or any other national security concern including the coronavirus.
My concern goes beyond reports and hearings, the bozo in the White House is actually "eyeing" a limited nuclear war.
There is a reason he is not signing the New START and has dissolved other nuclear agreements and it isn't because Russia is not honoring them, I don't believe a word Trump says. If Russia is violating treaties where is the proof and why are there not talks to secure the cooperation with Russia. The entire issue with Trump is his blind and quite stupid egotistic ambitions to carry out every nightmare known as the Republican Party.
Former Vice President Dick Cheney occasionally talked about "a limited nuclear engagement." With what and against whom wasn't really the concern, so much as simply the political rhetoric of it all.
Well, Trump went ahead and is going to show Dick Cheney he is so much more a man than Cheney could ever hope to be.
Introducing Trump's ultimate toy he plans to use to rule the world.
February 7, 2020
The Federation of American Scientists (click here) evealed in late January that the U.S. Navy had deployed for the first time a submarine armed with a low-yield Trident nuclear warhead. The USS Tennessee deployed from Kings Bay Submarine Base in Georgia in late 2019. The W76-2 warhead, which is facing criticism at home and abroad, is estimated to have about a third of the explosive power of the atomic bomb the U.S. dropped on Hiroshima....
From the "Bulletin of Atomic Scientists:"
January 28, 2020
By Andrew Fancic
In the unintuitive world of nuclear weapons strategy, (click here) it’s often difficult to identify which decisions can serve to decrease the risk of a devastating nuclear conflict and which might instead increase it. Such complexity stems from the very foundation of the field: Nuclear weapons are widely seen as bombs built never to be used. Historically, granular—even seemingly mundane—decisions about force structure, research efforts, or communicated strategy have confounded planners, sometimes causing the opposite of the intended effect.
Such is the risk carried by one strategy change that has earned top billing under the Trump administration: the deployment of a new “low-yield” nuclear weapon on US submarines....
January 6, 2020
By Josh Farley
..."We're talking (click here) about the center of a city being devastated," he said as an example. "It's not like a pinprick — this is vastly more devastation than you can inflict than with conventional weapons."...
Trump thinks about NOTHING but his personal agenda and a limited nuclear strike is one of them.
It is all very interesting that in the US Senate's remorse for not impeaching Trump, for political reasons, is drafting legislation that is not veto proof to hem in Trump's ability to kill Iranians at random while calling it an imminent threat. There is nothing more an imminent threat than Donald John Trump.
John Durham's career is over. He probably doesn't know it yet, but, it is over. Why? Because he actually is indulging the idiot in the White House.
Donald John Trump is not fit for office and with that reality he has called up the idea of a Deep State. It is so important to him that he is willing to destroy the USA federal government in the process to win another election and continue to scheme to be the USA's first dictator as is Duterte.
Bill Barr and all the other pawns in the Trump administration play along because they believe they have control. They don't. They are pawns in a very sick game that is only known to the imagineering of Trump.
The deployment of a weapon that can begin a nuclear holocaust in the world is pure idiocy. There is nothing that Trump won't do to stroke his own ego. Nothing.
The USA intelligence agencies are never perfect. Never. There is not a Director of the FBI and/or the CIA that has not sat in front of Congress because of culture issues within their agencies. That does not mean there is a Deep State, it means there are times when power is misread by agents and they depart on their own idea of their jobs.
The CIA and FBI will never be perfect. They weren't designed to be perfect, they were designed to work to protect the USA and it's citizens. If anyone believes Durham actually has something to say, they are wrong. The only thing Durham can take credit for is ruffling the feathers of all those in the CIA and FBI and most probably every international agency that the USA cooperates with and caused some degree of chaos.
Just because an employee of a USA intelligence agency entered wrong information to the FISA court does not mean it is a Deep State so much an agency with power that can appear to be toxic to Americans when such employee tampering happens. This is not a unique situation, what is important is that the information is caught in DUE PROCESS and stopped. It is why there is due process written into the USA Constitution in Amendment Five (click here).
John Durham is wrong. He is nothing but a political pawn in the Trump Administration and a figment of Trump's ego. There is absolutely no reason for his investigation. NONE. Ask President Zelenskyy about the covert methods of Trump and Durham will find out any work in examining the USA intelligence network is futile and only causes problems with securing intelligence. Agents will be asking is this okay to report or act on or isn't it?
You'll excuse me, of course, but with n investigation of Russian wrongdoing in the USA elections whereby Michael Flynn is known to be befriended by Vladimir Putin directly and communicated with Vladimir Putin directly; I would do everything within my power to secure a FISA warrant, too and chock it up to being a patriot if my actions were found out and considered illegal.
MICHAEL FLYNN IS NOT GOING TO WALK.
GOT THAT?
When a former General of Military Intelligence is willing to sit down at a party with Vladimir Putin and expect to be viewed as a benign entity in the Trump Administration; he's got another thing coming; independent prosecutor or no independent prosecutor. Why does anyone believe the judge in this matter has stated to Flynn at his sentencing hearing, "You sure you don't want to provide more information to the government?" Because Flynn completely violated every oath he took within and outside the USA military.
THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A DEEP STATE AND THERE NEVER HAS BEEN !
Boohoo, the Deep State did it to him. (click here)
Michael Flynn lied to the very government he took an oath to protect. The defense is making more of the Strzok issue than exists. Of course, further investigation by an independent prosecutor will prove the Deep State was at work all the time. Trump has turned the proceedings of THE LAW in the USA into a melodrama.
February 20, 2020
By Josh Gerstein
Amid ongoing turmoil (click here) at the Justice Department, a prominent member of former special counsel Robert Mueller’s team surfaced in a court filing on Wednesday to defend the government’s prosecution of former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
Just one day after President Donald Trump publicly slammed the targeting of Flynn and a longtime Trump adviser, Roger Stone, fueling a furor that apparently led four prosecutors to quit Stone’s case, Brandon Van Grack submitted a written pleading urging a judge to reject Flynn’s effort to have his prosecution thrown out on the grounds of “egregious government misconduct....
The judge has postponed the sentencing until further notice by the court. The judge should execute the sentence and let the appellate courts have it if there is new valid information.
At first I thought this John H. Durham thing is probably really benign and not I am not so sure.
December 9, 2019
By Liam Stack
John H. Durham, (click here) a federal prosecutor conducting a criminal investigation into the origins of the F.B.I.’s Russia probe, said Monday that he disagreed with a report released by the Justice Department’s inspector general, which said there was no basis for President Trump’s accusation that the bureau conspired against him during the 2016 presidential election....
There was nothing that the Special Counsel found that would indicate there were issues between agencies of the USA intelligence community that would demand that of a US Prosecutor to scrutinize. There are always culture differences between the agencies and NCTC (click here) is always supposed to bring the best intelligence together from all agencies to result in a comprehensive threat assessment.
I think Durham is duplicating work and at the same time tearing apart the confidence of the national intelligence agencies.
Besides that there is the national threat assessment which the most recent was published 29 January 2019. Perhaps it is just me, but, I can't seem to find the 2020 edition.
RUSSIA AND EURASIA (click here)
Russian President Vladimir Putin has the tools to navigate challenges to his rule, and he is likely to sustain an assertive, opportunistic foreign policy to advance Russia’s interests beyond its borders and contest US influence.
Russia’s Domestic Politics
The Russian economy’s slow growth and most Russians’ disapproval of government officials’ performance will foster a more challenging political environment for the Kremlin, although its centralized power structure and the resonance of anti-American themes will buoy Putin, sustaining his push for international stature and challenging US global leadership.
continued...
There is this however:
February 8, 2020
By Marty Johnson
...In a Jan. 15 letter (click here) to acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire, Schiff described the hearing as a chance for the his committee "to provide an unclassified, yet important broad understanding of how threats have evolved and what the nation can expect in the year to come."
Historically, the annual hearing takes place during the first half of the year. Since it includes the convening of the director of national intelligence and the heads of the CIA, National Security Agency, FBI and Defense Intelligence Agency, scheduling of the hearing can sometimes take a while.
Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), who is also a member of the Intelligence Committee, told CBS earlier in the week that it was important for the public hearing to happen this year.
"We need the American people to know what the threats are and then justify why we're investing in protecting people from those threats," Swalwell said. "They need to answer to congress and we're going to keep pressing."
Donald John Trump expects all the agencies to bend to his will no different than he expected of President Zelenskyy of Ukraine and PROVE there is a Deep State and Trump is the USA's and the world's savior. He is not interested in the balance of power, global balance of trade or any other national security concern including the coronavirus.
My concern goes beyond reports and hearings, the bozo in the White House is actually "eyeing" a limited nuclear war.
There is a reason he is not signing the New START and has dissolved other nuclear agreements and it isn't because Russia is not honoring them, I don't believe a word Trump says. If Russia is violating treaties where is the proof and why are there not talks to secure the cooperation with Russia. The entire issue with Trump is his blind and quite stupid egotistic ambitions to carry out every nightmare known as the Republican Party.
Former Vice President Dick Cheney occasionally talked about "a limited nuclear engagement." With what and against whom wasn't really the concern, so much as simply the political rhetoric of it all.
Well, Trump went ahead and is going to show Dick Cheney he is so much more a man than Cheney could ever hope to be.
Introducing Trump's ultimate toy he plans to use to rule the world.
February 7, 2020
The Federation of American Scientists (click here) evealed in late January that the U.S. Navy had deployed for the first time a submarine armed with a low-yield Trident nuclear warhead. The USS Tennessee deployed from Kings Bay Submarine Base in Georgia in late 2019. The W76-2 warhead, which is facing criticism at home and abroad, is estimated to have about a third of the explosive power of the atomic bomb the U.S. dropped on Hiroshima....
From the "Bulletin of Atomic Scientists:"
By Andrew Fancic
In the unintuitive world of nuclear weapons strategy, (click here) it’s often difficult to identify which decisions can serve to decrease the risk of a devastating nuclear conflict and which might instead increase it. Such complexity stems from the very foundation of the field: Nuclear weapons are widely seen as bombs built never to be used. Historically, granular—even seemingly mundane—decisions about force structure, research efforts, or communicated strategy have confounded planners, sometimes causing the opposite of the intended effect.
Such is the risk carried by one strategy change that has earned top billing under the Trump administration: the deployment of a new “low-yield” nuclear weapon on US submarines....
January 6, 2020
By Josh Farley
..."We're talking (click here) about the center of a city being devastated," he said as an example. "It's not like a pinprick — this is vastly more devastation than you can inflict than with conventional weapons."...
Trump thinks about NOTHING but his personal agenda and a limited nuclear strike is one of them.
It is all very interesting that in the US Senate's remorse for not impeaching Trump, for political reasons, is drafting legislation that is not veto proof to hem in Trump's ability to kill Iranians at random while calling it an imminent threat. There is nothing more an imminent threat than Donald John Trump.
John Durham's career is over. He probably doesn't know it yet, but, it is over. Why? Because he actually is indulging the idiot in the White House.
Donald John Trump is not fit for office and with that reality he has called up the idea of a Deep State. It is so important to him that he is willing to destroy the USA federal government in the process to win another election and continue to scheme to be the USA's first dictator as is Duterte.
Bill Barr and all the other pawns in the Trump administration play along because they believe they have control. They don't. They are pawns in a very sick game that is only known to the imagineering of Trump.
The deployment of a weapon that can begin a nuclear holocaust in the world is pure idiocy. There is nothing that Trump won't do to stroke his own ego. Nothing.
The USA intelligence agencies are never perfect. Never. There is not a Director of the FBI and/or the CIA that has not sat in front of Congress because of culture issues within their agencies. That does not mean there is a Deep State, it means there are times when power is misread by agents and they depart on their own idea of their jobs.
The CIA and FBI will never be perfect. They weren't designed to be perfect, they were designed to work to protect the USA and it's citizens. If anyone believes Durham actually has something to say, they are wrong. The only thing Durham can take credit for is ruffling the feathers of all those in the CIA and FBI and most probably every international agency that the USA cooperates with and caused some degree of chaos.
Just because an employee of a USA intelligence agency entered wrong information to the FISA court does not mean it is a Deep State so much an agency with power that can appear to be toxic to Americans when such employee tampering happens. This is not a unique situation, what is important is that the information is caught in DUE PROCESS and stopped. It is why there is due process written into the USA Constitution in Amendment Five (click here).
John Durham is wrong. He is nothing but a political pawn in the Trump Administration and a figment of Trump's ego. There is absolutely no reason for his investigation. NONE. Ask President Zelenskyy about the covert methods of Trump and Durham will find out any work in examining the USA intelligence network is futile and only causes problems with securing intelligence. Agents will be asking is this okay to report or act on or isn't it?
MICHAEL FLYNN IS NOT GOING TO WALK.
GOT THAT?
When a former General of Military Intelligence is willing to sit down at a party with Vladimir Putin and expect to be viewed as a benign entity in the Trump Administration; he's got another thing coming; independent prosecutor or no independent prosecutor. Why does anyone believe the judge in this matter has stated to Flynn at his sentencing hearing, "You sure you don't want to provide more information to the government?" Because Flynn completely violated every oath he took within and outside the USA military.
THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A DEEP STATE AND THERE NEVER HAS BEEN !
Boohoo, the Deep State did it to him. (click here)
Michael Flynn lied to the very government he took an oath to protect. The defense is making more of the Strzok issue than exists. Of course, further investigation by an independent prosecutor will prove the Deep State was at work all the time. Trump has turned the proceedings of THE LAW in the USA into a melodrama.
February 20, 2020
By Josh Gerstein
Amid ongoing turmoil (click here) at the Justice Department, a prominent member of former special counsel Robert Mueller’s team surfaced in a court filing on Wednesday to defend the government’s prosecution of former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
Just one day after President Donald Trump publicly slammed the targeting of Flynn and a longtime Trump adviser, Roger Stone, fueling a furor that apparently led four prosecutors to quit Stone’s case, Brandon Van Grack submitted a written pleading urging a judge to reject Flynn’s effort to have his prosecution thrown out on the grounds of “egregious government misconduct....
The judge has postponed the sentencing until further notice by the court. The judge should execute the sentence and let the appellate courts have it if there is new valid information.
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