bonginoreport--2020-03-20--China is Now the NSA’s Primary Focus

China is Now the NSA’s Primary Focus

What does the National Security Agency know about China 's effort to conceal the crisis of its original coronavirus outbreak ?
The first point to note here is that China is now the NSA 's primary intelligence target .
Driving Pacific region operations out of its Hawaii cryptological center , the NSA focuses on collecting the form and content of Chinese government communications .
That priority targeting effort befits Xi Jinping 's campaign to displace the U.S.-led international order and China 's increasingly hostile stance to U.S. military operations in the Indo-Pacific .
But the first clue that the NSA @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Chinese government 's actual response to the coronavirus , aside from the regime 's lies , comes from top Trump administration officials .
These officials are the NSA 's top consumers and are entitled to the most highly classified intelligence community reports .
We already know that Chinese officials blew their December 2019 window to control the virus by refusing to allow access to Western medical officials , failing to instigate an effective quarantine , and deflecting responsibility during that period .
But it was n't until late January that President Trump @ @ @ @ @ @ @ relatively concerned terms .
That shift suggests the issue had , by January , become a significant element of Trump 's daily intelligence report .
It is likely that Trump was then warned that the risk of a global pandemic was growing .
So , how did the alarm get raised ?
Well , NSA has ways of collecting and analyzing communications weeks or months after they were first sent .
That capability includes scenarios in which what was said was originally ignored by the NSA .
This would explain why Trump and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ more alarmed in early January .
It would also fit with how intelligence operations work that the January alarm was raised when the NSA began to ramp up its collection on China 's response efforts .
These operations very likely intercepted phone calls or messages from Communist Party officials in Hubei saying stuff like , `` Hey guys , this is spreading aggressively , and people are getting angry .
We have a big problem . ''
When other Chinese officials , including Xi , were then simultaneously monitored telling other world powers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have it under control , '' the United States would have realized China was hiding the truth .
That would have fed more intelligence resourcing into the collection effort .
So , what broke the back of China 's lies ?
Well , it 's likely that top officials in Hubei rather than Beijing were the ones who unwittingly blew the cover-up .
Top Politburo Standing Committee officials in Beijing are hyperparanoid about their vulnerability to U.S. eavesdropping , preferring to meet in person at the Qinzheng Hall secretariat 's office in Beijing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to Xi 's chairman secretariat office , Qinzheng Hall is to China what the White House Situation Room is to the U.S. And like its U.S. counterpart , it is extensively swept for bugs or other collection devices every day .
China knows , after all , that NSA 's Tailored Access Operations office is exceptionally ingenious at getting sound and signals out of places where they are supposed to remain hidden .
Even then , attempting to guard against unknown American espionage capabilities it knows exist , Xi 's inner circle regularly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Unfortunately for Xi , the party 's provincial officials are less solicitous with operational security .
The sheer size of the party 's bureaucracy means that someone in some position is eventually going to say something they are not supposed to say , on a cellphone or even an encrypted line .
If it 's sent with signals , the NSA can get at the target in just about every case .
Now note that Xi fired the top party officials in Hubei province and Wuhan in early February , replacing them @ @ @ @ @ @ @ security specialist , Ying Yong .
The timing here is striking .
After all , why did Xi not fire them in January ?
The nature of Xi 's highly centralized party machine means that his general secretariat rules the roost in terms of major issues .
That would have included the outbreak .
In turn , we can presume that the officials were not fired early because they were doing what they were told to do : cover the virus up .
If not , they would have been purged in January @ @ @ @ @ @ @ part of the rationale for the firing , but another possibility , given credence by the security specialist Ying 's arrival , is that Xi came to believe that the U.S. knew more than he had thought .
Hence the NSA angle .
Just a thought !

What does the National Security Agency know about China's effort to conceal the crisis of its original coronavirus outbreak?
I'd suggest quite a bit.
The first point to note here is that China is now the NSA's primary intelligence target. Driving Pacific region operations out of its Hawaii cryptological center, the NSA focuses on collecting the form and content of Chinese government communications. That priority targeting effort befits Xi Jinping's campaign to displace the U.S.-led international order and China's increasingly hostile stance to U.S. military operations in the Indo-Pacific.
But the first clue that the NSA has figured out quite a bit about the Chinese government's actual response to the coronavirus, aside from the regime's lies, comes from top Trump administration officials.
These officials are the NSA's top consumers and are entitled to the most highly classified intelligence community reports. We already know that Chinese officials blew their December 2019 window to control the virus by refusing to allow access to Western medical officials, failing to instigate an effective quarantine, and deflecting responsibility during that period. But it wasn't until late January that President Trump started regularly talking about the outbreak in relatively concerned terms. That shift suggests the issue had, by January, become a significant element of Trump's daily intelligence report. It is likely that Trump was then warned that the risk of a global pandemic was growing.
So, how did the alarm get raised?
Well, NSA has ways of collecting and analyzing communications weeks or months after they were first sent. That capability includes scenarios in which what was said was originally ignored by the NSA. This would explain why Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo weren't more alarmed in early January.
It would also fit with how intelligence operations work that the January alarm was raised when the NSA began to ramp up its collection on China's response efforts. These operations very likely intercepted phone calls or messages from Communist Party officials in Hubei saying stuff like, "Hey guys, this is spreading aggressively, and people are getting angry. We have a big problem." When other Chinese officials, including Xi, were then simultaneously monitored telling other world powers, "No big deal, we have it under control," the United States would have realized China was hiding the truth. That would have fed more intelligence resourcing into the collection effort.
So, what broke the back of China's lies?
Well, it's likely that top officials in Hubei rather than Beijing were the ones who unwittingly blew the cover-up.
Top Politburo Standing Committee officials in Beijing are hyperparanoid about their vulnerability to U.S. eavesdropping, preferring to meet in person at the Qinzheng Hall secretariat's office in Beijing's Kremlin-style Zhongnanhai complex. Also home to Xi's chairman secretariat office, Qinzheng Hall is to China what the White House Situation Room is to the U.S. And like its U.S. counterpart, it is extensively swept for bugs or other collection devices every day. China knows, after all, that NSA's Tailored Access Operations office is exceptionally ingenious at getting sound and signals out of places where they are supposed to remain hidden. Even then, attempting to guard against unknown American espionage capabilities it knows exist, Xi's inner circle regularly uses human couriers to deliver important messages.
Unfortunately for Xi, the party's provincial officials are less solicitous with operational security. The sheer size of the party's bureaucracy means that someone in some position is eventually going to say something they are not supposed to say, on a cellphone or even an encrypted line. If it's sent with signals, the NSA can get at the target in just about every case.
Now note that Xi fired the top party officials in Hubei province and Wuhan in early February, replacing them with a close, longtime ally and security specialist, Ying Yong. The timing here is striking. After all, why did Xi not fire them in January? The nature of Xi's highly centralized party machine means that his general secretariat rules the roost in terms of major issues. That would have included the outbreak. In turn, we can presume that the officials were not fired early because they were doing what they were told to do: cover the virus up. If not, they would have been purged in January or even December. Public relations explains part of the rationale for the firing, but another possibility, given credence by the security specialist Ying's arrival, is that Xi came to believe that the U.S. knew more than he had thought.
Hence the NSA angle. Just a thought!


bonginoreport--2020-03-20--The Economic Impact of the 1918 Spanish Flu

In addition to the direct damage it does to human health , COVID-19 is sure to have an enormous economic impact .
As we try to prepare for that , let 's look at what economists have learned from the damage done by past pandemics , particularly the Spanish flu outbreak of 1918–19 .
Begin with Elizabeth Brainerd and Mark V. Siegler 's June 2002 paper for the Centre for Economic Policy Research , `` The Economic Effects of the 1918 Influenza Epidemic . ''
This comes the closest of all the papers I 've read to looking on the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ large and robust positive effect of the influenza epidemic on per capita income growth across states during the 1920s . ''
No , that does n't mean the flu was actually good for the economy .
That growth , or at least some of it , `` likely represents a return to trend rather than a change in trend . ''
Since `` flu deaths in 1918 and 1919 among prime-age adults are a significant predictor of business failures in 1919 and 1920 , '' the economy was bound to see `` a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ shock . ''
The authors acknowledge limits on their data—for example , they had per capita income only for the 1919–1921 range and then again in 1930 , preventing them from being fine-grained about changes along the way through the 1920s .
They also made no attempt to disentangle the direct effects of the pandemic from the effects of public health interventions that shuttered businesses .
( They do note , sadly , that `` even the strictest quarantines proved ineffective in preventing the epidemic in most regions . ''
) Nor are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ effects of different cities ' policy responses .
Philadelphia went ahead and held a huge parade for returning soldiers ( bad idea ) .
St. Louis opted for `` closing the schools , shuttering movie theaters and pool halls , and banning all public gatherings . ''
San Francisco ordered people to wear masks in public .
Brainerd and Siegler ca n't offer much granular detail on how such different approaches played out economically .
( Another issue they did n't directly discuss , one perhaps less relevant during Spanish flu times then @ @ @ @ @ @ @ researchers : the effect on parents in the workforce when schools are shut for public health reasons . )
We do get some geographic variation in a 2013 Journal of Health Economics study focusing on Sweden— '' The Impact of the 1918 Spanish Flu Epidemic on Economic Performance in Sweden : An Investigation into the Consequences of an Extraordinary Mortality Shock , '' by Martin Karlsson , Therese Nilsson , and Stefan Pichler .
Since the epidemic had widely different effects in different areas of Sweden , the authors are able to compare @ @ @ @ @ @ @ homogenous population .
And since Sweden did not participate in World War I , it 's easier not to confound war effects with pandemic effects .
( The pandemic did coincide with upheavals in nearby Germany and Russia , and the authors acknowledge that these might have disrupted the Swedish economy as well . )
Their results , they find , were `` difficult to reconcile with standard theoretical models . ''
Ordinarily , one would expect an `` immediate increase in GDP per capita , '' due to the more productive capital @ @ @ @ @ @ @ did n't happen .
They also note `` an apparent redistribution between capital and labour '' —in capital 's favor— '' which suggests that the impact of the pandemic goes beyond what standard growth theory would predict . ''
In any case , the author found that the flu `` led to a significant increase in poverty rates . ''
Capital returns fell , unemployment shot up , and Sweden 's GDP decreased by `` five per cent in a single year . ''
But `` the recovery was very quick , '' @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by 8 per cent in 1922 and the country faced steady economic growth for the rest of the decade….Moreover , the 1920s were characterised by fast growth in real wages : in 1930 , they were at roughly twice their 1918 level , and not even the sharp downturn of 1921 made them stop growing . ''
But there were darker long-term effects as well .
The `` pandemic appears to have had a strong and lasting positive effect on poverty , '' they write : The `` difference in flu mortality would @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by 9.7 per cent . ''
And the generation of children born during the pandemic were more likely to have health problems and lower wages .
A 2007 paper by Thomas A. Garrett of the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank , `` Economic Effects of the 1918 Influenza Pandemic , '' speculates about the possibilities of a future pandemic : `` Researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calculate that deaths in the United States could reach 207,000 and the initial cost to the economy could approach $ 166 billion @ @ @ @ @ @ @ GDP . ''
The long-run costs would be even higher : `` up to 1.9 million dead in the United States and initial economic costs near $ 200 billion . ''
Garrett brings up something the Brainerd/Siegler paper sloughed over : Other bad things were also happening to the economy at the end of the 1910s , most especially World War I , which may complicate any direct comparison of then to now .
Given the `` almost complete absence of economic data from the era , such as data on income , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ levels , '' Garrett looks for evidence in `` newspaper articles printed during the pandemic , with most of the articles appearing in newspapers from…Little Rock , Ark.
, and Memphis , Tenn. '' Between that and the evidence in earlier economic studies , he finds a level of geographic variation in the disease 's effects that is unlikely in our far more interconnected nation a century later .
Cities , unsurprisingly , had `` higher mortality rates than rural areas of the states . ''
Little Rock saw general merchant business declines @ @ @ @ @ @ @ retail grocery business reduced by one-third .
A specific department store reported a more than 50 percent cut in daily income , but at least it was still operating .
Though there was a flu-related `` increase in demand for beds , mattresses and springs , '' the city 's businesses were `` losing $ 10,000 a day on average ( $ 133,500 in 2006 dollars ) .
This is actual loss , not a decrease in business that may be covered by an increase in sales when the quarantine order is over @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that 124 of its 400 employees were too sick to work on one day .
A depopulated telephone company begged the public to make fewer unnecessary calls .
Coal mine operators reported a 50 percent cut in production , with some mining camps forced to shut down from raging infections .
Garrett explains the possibility of a post-pandemic increase in wage and income growth on `` a greater increase in capital per worker , and thus output per worker '' —which might not work out exactly the same way from a starting point @ @ @ @ @ @ @ also notes that the `` fact that males aged 18 to 40 were the hardest hit by the influenza had serious economic consequences for the families that had lost their primary breadwinner . ''
( Needless to say , `` loss of prime working-age employees also had economic consequences for businesses . ''
) And `` cohorts in utero during the 1918 pandemic had reduced educational attainment , higher rates of physical disability and lower income . ''
Yet most of 1918 pandemic 's effects `` were short-term , '' Garrett concludes .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ the service and entertainment industries , suffered double-digit losses in revenue .
Other businesses that specialized in health care products experienced an increase in revenues .
Some academic research suggests that the 1918 influenza pandemic caused a shortage of labor that resulted in higher wages ( at least temporarily ) for workers , though no reasonable argument can be made that this benefit outweighed the costs from the tremendous loss of life and overall economic activity . ''
Garrett 's grim conclusion : `` Given our highly mobile and connected society , any @ @ @ @ @ @ @ more severe in its reach , and perhaps in its virulence , than the 1918 influenza despite improvements in health care over the past 90 years….Unfortunately , a 2005 report suggests that the United States is not prepared for an influenza pandemic .
Although federal , state and local governments in the United States have started to focus on preparedness in recent years , it is fair to say that progress has been slow , especially at local levels of government . ''

In addition to the direct damage it does to human health, COVID-19 is sure to have an enormous economic impact. As we try to prepare for that, let's look at what economists have learned from the damage done by past pandemics, particularly the Spanish flu outbreak of 1918–19.
Begin with Elizabeth Brainerd and Mark V. Siegler's June 2002 paper for the Centre for Economic Policy Research, "The Economic Effects of the 1918 Influenza Epidemic." This comes the closest of all the papers I've read to looking on the bright side: They found "a large and robust positive effect of the influenza epidemic on per capita income growth across states during the 1920s."
No, that doesn't mean the flu was actually good for the economy. That growth, or at least some of it, "likely represents a return to trend rather than a change in trend." Since "flu deaths in 1918 and 1919 among prime-age adults are a significant predictor of business failures in 1919 and 1920," the economy was bound to see "a return to trend after this large temporary shock."
The authors acknowledge limits on their data—for example, they had per capita income only for the 1919–1921 range and then again in 1930, preventing them from being fine-grained about changes along the way through the 1920s. They also made no attempt to disentangle the direct effects of the pandemic from the effects of public health interventions that shuttered businesses. (They do note, sadly, that "even the strictest quarantines proved ineffective in preventing the epidemic in most regions.")
Nor are they able to compare and contrast the effects of different cities' policy responses. Philadelphia went ahead and held a huge parade for returning soldiers (bad idea). St. Louis opted for "closing the schools, shuttering movie theaters and pool halls, and banning all public gatherings." San Francisco ordered people to wear masks in public. Brainerd and Siegler can't offer much granular detail on how such different approaches played out economically. (Another issue they didn't directly discuss, one perhaps less relevant during Spanish flu times then today, has been addressed by other researchers: the effect on parents in the workforce when schools are shut for public health reasons.)
We do get some geographic variation in a 2013 Journal of Health Economics study focusing on Sweden—"The Impact of the 1918 Spanish Flu Epidemic on Economic Performance in Sweden: An Investigation into the Consequences of an Extraordinary Mortality Shock," by Martin Karlsson, Therese Nilsson, and Stefan Pichler. Since the epidemic had widely different effects in different areas of Sweden, the authors are able to compare and contrast its impact within a mostly homogenous population. And since Sweden did not participate in World War I, it's easier not to confound war effects with pandemic effects. (The pandemic did coincide with upheavals in nearby Germany and Russia, and the authors acknowledge that these might have disrupted the Swedish economy as well.)
Their results, they find, were "difficult to reconcile with standard theoretical models." Ordinarily, one would expect an "immediate increase in GDP per capita," due to the more productive capital brought to bear per worker. That didn't happen. They also note "an apparent redistribution between capital and labour"—in capital's favor—"which suggests that the impact of the pandemic goes beyond what standard growth theory would predict."
In any case, the author found that the flu "led to a significant increase in poverty rates." Capital returns fell, unemployment shot up, and Sweden's GDP decreased by "five per cent in a single year." But "the recovery was very quick," they note. "Swedish GDP increased by 8 per cent in 1922 and the country faced steady economic growth for the rest of the decade….Moreover, the 1920s were characterised by fast growth in real wages: in 1930, they were at roughly twice their 1918 level, and not even the sharp downturn of 1921 made them stop growing."
But there were darker long-term effects as well. The "pandemic appears to have had a strong and lasting positive effect on poverty," they write: The "difference in flu mortality would give rise to an increase in poverty by 9.7 per cent." And the generation of children born during the pandemic were more likely to have health problems and lower wages.
A 2007 paper by Thomas A. Garrett of the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank, "Economic Effects of the 1918 Influenza Pandemic," speculates about the possibilities of a future pandemic: "Researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calculate that deaths in the United States could reach 207,000 and the initial cost to the economy could approach $166 billion, or roughly 1.5 percent of the GDP." The long-run costs would be even higher: "up to 1.9 million dead in the United States and initial economic costs near $200 billion."
Garrett brings up something the Brainerd/Siegler paper sloughed over: Other bad things were also happening to the economy at the end of the 1910s, most especially World War I, which may complicate any direct comparison of then to now.
Given the "almost complete absence of economic data from the era, such as data on income, employment, sales and wages…especially at local levels," Garrett looks for evidence in "newspaper articles printed during the pandemic, with most of the articles appearing in newspapers from…Little Rock, Ark., and Memphis, Tenn." Between that and the evidence in earlier economic studies, he finds a level of geographic variation in the disease's effects that is unlikely in our far more interconnected nation a century later.
Cities, unsurprisingly, had "higher mortality rates than rural areas of the states." Little Rock saw general merchant business declines of 40 percent, and even the retail grocery business reduced by one-third. A specific department store reported a more than 50 percent cut in daily income, but at least it was still operating. Though there was a flu-related "increase in demand for beds, mattresses and springs," the city's businesses were "losing $10,000 a day on average ($133,500 in 2006 dollars). This is actual loss, not a decrease in business that may be covered by an increase in sales when the quarantine order is over."
The Memphis Street Railway reported that 124 of its 400 employees were too sick to work on one day. A depopulated telephone company begged the public to make fewer unnecessary calls. Coal mine operators reported a 50 percent cut in production, with some mining camps forced to shut down from raging infections. Garrett explains the possibility of a post-pandemic increase in wage and income growth on "a greater increase in capital per worker, and thus output per worker"—which might not work out exactly the same way from a starting point of 2020 rather than 1920.
He also notes that the "fact that males aged 18 to 40 were the hardest hit by the influenza had serious economic consequences for the families that had lost their primary breadwinner." (Needless to say, "loss of prime working-age employees also had economic consequences for businesses.") And "cohorts in utero during the 1918 pandemic had reduced educational attainment, higher rates of physical disability and lower income."
Yet most of 1918 pandemic's effects "were short-term," Garrett concludes. "Many businesses, especially those in the service and entertainment industries, suffered double-digit losses in revenue. Other businesses that specialized in health care products experienced an increase in revenues. Some academic research suggests that the 1918 influenza pandemic caused a shortage of labor that resulted in higher wages (at least temporarily) for workers, though no reasonable argument can be made that this benefit outweighed the costs from the tremendous loss of life and overall economic activity."
Garrett's grim conclusion: "Given our highly mobile and connected society, any future influenza pandemic is likely to be more severe in its reach, and perhaps in its virulence, than the 1918 influenza despite improvements in health care over the past 90 years….Unfortunately, a 2005 report suggests that the United States is not prepared for an influenza pandemic. Although federal, state and local governments in the United States have started to focus on preparedness in recent years, it is fair to say that progress has been slow, especially at local levels of government."


bonginoreport--2020-03-20--The Regulatory Hurdles to Blame for Delayed Coronavirus Testing

Addressing the media alongside the coronavirus task force on Thursday , Donald Trump said he would “ slash red tape like nobody has even done it before ” to get approval for coronavirus treatments .
That would be a welcome development indeed .
What ’ s unfortunate is that there was no similar push at the beginning of the crisis to expedite coronavirus testing .
The U.S. response to the pandemic has been hampered at every level due to insufficient testing capacity .
The first coronavirus case in the U.S. and South Korea was detected on January 21 .
Since @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the coronavirus without shutting down its economy or quarantining tens of millions of people .
Instead , the Korean government has pursued a “ trace , test , and treat ” strategy that identifies and isolates those infected with the coronavirus while allowing healthy people to go about their normal lives .
Hong Kong , Singapore , and Taiwan have also managed to contain the virus via a combination of travel restrictions , social distancing , and heightened hygiene .
Unfortunately , the United States has not made testing widely available and now @ @ @ @ @ @ @ severe economic and social lockdowns .
As of March 17 , the U.S. had tested only about 125 people per million .
South Korea had tested more than 5,000 people per million .
Between early February and mid-March , the U.S. lost six crucial weeks because regulators stuck to rigid regulations instead of adapting as new information came in .
While these rules might have made sense in normal times , they proved disastrous in a pandemic .
Under ordinary circumstances , the cost of using an imperfect diagnostic test often outweighs the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ need to contain a novel and highly contagious disease , speed matters more than perfection .
The lessons from this debacle are clear : The FDA needs to have plans in place prior to a pandemic for public labs and private companies to produce their own test kits .
A distributed strategy would be much more resilient to errors , in contrast to the single point of failure created by the FDA in this crisis .
Poor planning and mindless adherence to peacetime regulations led to this abysmal result : How did the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fraction as many testing kits as its peer countries ?
There have been three major regulatory barriers so far to scaling up testing by public labs and private companies : 1 ) obtaining an Emergency Use Authorization ( EUA ) ; 2 ) being certified to perform high-complexity testing consistent with requirements under Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments ( CLIA ) ; and 3 ) complying with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act ( HIPAA ) Privacy Rule and the Common Rule related to the protection of human research subjects .
One the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ qualified for testing prevented the U.S. from adequately using what capacity it did have .
It ’ s important to understand the broader context of the FDA regulatory process .
It often takes more than a decade for a new diagnostic test or therapeutic drug to earn FDA approval .
Fortunately , the FDA already has the ability to let public labs and private companies circumvent the regular approval process under its Emergency Use Authorization ( EUA ) authority .
So , why was this emergency authority ineffective in scaling up coronavirus testing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ most important events : December 31 : The WHO received reports of dozens of cases of pneumonia of unknown cause in Wuhan City , Wubei Province , China .
January 9 : China announced it has mapped the genome of the novel coronavirus .
January 21 .
The CDC confirmed the first case of coronavirus in the United States in the state of Washington and announced it had finalized its coronavirus testing protocol .
January 23 : German researchers published the first paper describing a testing protocol for the novel coronavirus .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the basis for the millions of tests it produced for less-developed countries .
January 31 : HHS Secretary Alex Azar declared a public health emergency , which initiated a new requirement—labs that wanted to conduct their own coronavirus tests must first obtain an emergency use authorization ( EUA ) from the FDA .
According to reporting from Reuters , the emergency declaration made it more difficult to expand testing outside the CDC : This was the moment when the wheels came off the bus .
Keith Jerome , the lab director at the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , told The New Yorker how perverse this heightened standard was from a public health perspective : EUAs were intended to speed up the normal authorization process .
But in this case , labs that were already conducting their own coronavirus tests needed to cease operations until they were granted an EUA .
By declaring a public health emergency and not waiving EUA requirements , the FDA was actually slowing down the testing process .
Obtaining an EUA is no quick task .
The FDA requires new protocols to be validated by testing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a patient or a copy of the virus genome .
Most hospital labs have not even seen coronavirus cases yet .
An article in GQ magazine detailed how Alex Greninger , an assistant director of the clinical virology laboratories at the University of Washington Medical Center , was forced to navigate a regulatory morass : But submitting the physical application wasn ’ t the end of the process .
Before granting the EUA , the FDA wanted Greninger to run his testing protocol against the MERS and SARS viruses : February 3 : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ conference at its headquarters with regulators , researchers , and industry leaders to “ discuss the general process for putting diagnostic tests cleared under emergencies on the path to permanent approval by the FDA , ” according to reporting by Reuters .
“ Though coronavirus was now the hottest topic in global medicine , a broadcast of the meeting conveyed little sense of urgency about the epidemic sweeping the globe ” and the virus was only mentioned “ in passing.
” February 4 : The FDA issued an emergency use authorization ( EUA @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to be used at any CDC-qualified lab .
Prior to issuing the CDC an EUA , all tests had been collected in the field and then shipped to CDC headquarters in Atlanta for analysis .
During this time period , the CDC was able to run only about 500 tests ( 12 of which came back positive ) .
To implement nationwide testing , the CDC would need to distribute its testing kits to partner labs across the country .
In a declared emergency , the FDA has broad discretion about which laboratory-developed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
By only issuing a single EUA to the CDC , the FDA put all its eggs in one basket .
Alan Wells , the medical director for the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center ’ s clinical laboratories , told the Wall Street Journal : “ We had considered developing a test but had been in communication with the CDC and FDA and had been told that the federal and state authorities would be able to handle everything.
” February 5 : The CDC began shipping test kits to about 100 state , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the country , which would have allowed 50,000 patients to be tested .
However , most of the partner labs ran into problems during the validation stage ( which is necessary to ensure the tests were functioning properly ) , according to a ProPublica investigation : The specific cause of these problems is still under investigation , but the initial findings suggest there were problems with one or more of the reagents used in the CDC testing kits .
The CDC paused testing at its partner labs and resumed exclusive — and very @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
February 10 : The CDC notified the FDA about the reagent problems in the testing kits it had shipped to its partner labs .
By not allowing private companies or public labs to use their own tests , the FDA had created a single point of failure and ultimately delayed large-scale testing by weeks .
Keith Jerome , the lab director at the University of Washington , explained to The New Yorker why the FDA ’ s plan was vulnerable from the outset : February 21 : Nancy Messonnier , the director @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Respiratory Diseases ( NCIRD ) at the CDC , told journalists that the issues with the reagents were still not resolved .
February 24 : An association of more than 100 state and local health laboratories sent a letter to the FDA commissioner asking for “ enforcement discretion ” to use their own lab-developed tests .
The chief executive of the association that sent the letter called it a “ Hail Mary ” pass and an act of desperation .
The FDA directed the labs to submit an EUA application instead .
Between @ @ @ @ @ @ @ produced more than 160,000 tests but used fewer than 4,000 .
February 29 : Facing a backlash to its rollout of testing , the FDA reversed its position and removed the requirement that advanced laboratories obtain prior emergency use authorization before using their own tests .
At the time , this exemption applied only to “ laboratories that are certified to perform high-complexity testing consistent with requirements under Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments.
” One researcher estimated 5,000 virology labs in the country met this standard .
For context , U.S. testing capacity includes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : Vice President Pence announced the CDC was lifting all federal restrictions on who can be tested for COVID-19 : “ Any American can be tested , no restrictions , subject to doctor ’ s orders.
” Previously , testing was limited to only those who were exhibiting symptoms and had recently traveled to China or had been exposed to a known case .
However , the supply of tests in particular regions would continue to be the most common binding constraint .
March 12 : The FDA issued an EUA to Roche @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Roche ’ s Molecular Solutions division , told The New Yorker , that “ the company had been working on a test since February 1st ” and that “ the new tests , which are mostly automated , can make it possible for large testing companies such as Quest and LabCorp to test for COVID-19.
” The CDC and state and local public health labs have been running tests manually .
Reaching the scale of millions of tests will require automated tests on high throughput machines at large testing companies .
March 13 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The FDA issued an EUA to Thermo Fisher .
March 15 : HHS Secretary Azar waived sanctions and penalties against any covered hospital that does not comply with various provisions of the HIPAA Privacy Rule related to patient privacy and consent , including the need “ to obtain a patient ’ s agreement to speak with family members or friends involved in the patient ’ s care.
” Previously , HIPAA privacy provisions and the Common Rule were holding up testing and the dissemination of information .
According to an article in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of requirements prevented labs from conducting coronavirus tests on samples collected for research purposes : They were not to test the thousands of samples that had already been collected .
March 16 : The FDA expanded the EUA exemption to all commercial manufacturers and labs using new commercially developed tests , not just those that are certified to perform high-complexity testing under CLIA .
The FDA also devolved regulatory oversight of these labs to the states .
Wojtek Kopczuk , a professor of economics at Columbia University , quipped that the “ FDA @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from the process.
” The FDA also issued EUAs to Hologic and LabCorp .
Co-Diagnostics , a molecular diagnostics company based in Utah , already had a test available in Europe and claimed it could supply 50,000 coronavirus tests per day going forward under the new FDA exemption .
On Monday , government officials announced they were going to set up more drive-through testing centers .
By the end of the week , they said they expect to have 1.9 million tests available thanks to high throughput automated machines at commercial labs .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ 21 , Nancy Messonnier , who runs the CDC ’ s research on immunization and respiratory diseases , said : “ We are working with the FDA , who have oversight over us , under the EUA , on redoing some of the kits .
We obviously would not want to use anything but the most perfect possible kits , since we ’ re making determinations about whether people have COVID-19 or not.
” This mentality is understandable coming from a regulator under ordinary circumstances .
In normal times , and with non-highly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ related to testing make sense .
However , during a global pandemic , the risk calculus shifts .
As Dr. Mike Ryan , executive director of the WHO 's health emergencies program , said in a press conference last week , when battling a new virus , “ speed trumps perfection.
” The FDA did the right thing when it expanded the EUA exemption to all labs and manufacturers and devolved regulatory oversight to the states .
The Department of Health and Human Services did the right thing when it waived certain provisions @ @ @ @ @ @ @ all of these actions were six weeks too late .
Policymakers should consider implementing an automatic trigger so these decisions are made immediately upon the declaration of a public health emergency .
COVID-19 will not be the last public health emergency .
Speed , not perfection must be the focus of government agencies who are entrusted to protect the health of hundreds of millions of Americans .
A distributed approach would be much more resilient to the inevitable mistakes and accidents inherent to pandemic response .
Instead , in this crisis , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ protocol from the CDC and burned its ships .
And when the “ perfect ” test failed spectacularly , everyone was left wishing for a way to retreat .
Alec Stapp is the director of technology policy at the Progressive Policy Institute .

Addressing the media alongside the coronavirus task force on Thursday, Donald Trump said he would “slash red tape like nobody has even done it before” to get approval for coronavirus treatments.
That would be a welcome development indeed. What’s unfortunate is that there was no similar push at the beginning of the crisis to expedite coronavirus testing. The U.S. response to the pandemic has been hampered at every level due to insufficient testing capacity.
The first coronavirus case in the U.S. and South Korea was detected on January 21. Since then, South Korea has effectively contained the coronavirus without shutting down its economy or quarantining tens of millions of people. Instead, the Korean government has pursued a “trace, test, and treat” strategy that identifies and isolates those infected with the coronavirus while allowing healthy people to go about their normal lives. Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan have also managed to contain the virus via a combination of travel restrictions, social distancing, and heightened hygiene.
Unfortunately, the United States has not made testing widely available and now various regions are being forced to impose severe economic and social lockdowns. As of March 17, the U.S. had tested only about 125 people per million. South Korea had tested more than 5,000 people per million. Between early February and mid-March, the U.S. lost six crucial weeks because regulators stuck to rigid regulations instead of adapting as new information came in. While these rules might have made sense in normal times, they proved disastrous in a pandemic.


bonginoreport--2020-03-20--Taiwan Warned WHO About Coronavirus in December – and Were Ignored

Taiwan is blaming the World Health Organization ’ s relationship with China for its failure to act on early warnings of human-to-human transmission of coronavirus .
Taiwanese health officials alerted WHO of the infectivity of coronavirus in late December 2019 , but the organization failed to report the claims to other countries , according to a Financial Times report .
Weeks after receiving Taiwan ’ s warning , on Jan. 14 , WHO repeated China ’ s claim that coronavirus was not contagious among humans .
( RELATED : FLASHBACK Jan. 14 : WHO Tells Everyone Don ’ t Worry @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Contagious ) Taiwan reported its concerns to a WHO framework called the International Health Regulations on Dec. 31 , 2019 .
The IHR framework is intended to be an exchange of epidemic data between 196 countries .
“ While the IHR ’ s internal website provides a platform for all countries to share information on the epidemic and their response , none of the information shared by our country ’ s [ Centers for Disease Control ] is being put up there , ” Taiwanese Vice President Chen Chien-Jen told the Financial Times @ @ @ @ @ @ @ first-hand information to study and judge whether there was human-to-human transmission of COVID-10 .
This led it to announce human-to-human transmission with a delay , and an opportunity to raise the alert level both in China and the wider world was lost , ” Chen added .
WHO declined to comment on Taiwan ’ s accusation , telling the Financial Times it holds “ frank and open discussions on sometimes sensitive issues ” with countries and in order to maintain trust it needs to “ respect the confidentiality of such communications.
” Taiwan @ @ @ @ @ @ @ coronavirus crisis .
Despite being situated just 140 miles off the Chinese coast , Taiwan has had only 135 confirmed cases of the virus and two deaths , according to John Hopkins University .
However , Taiwan has become largely locked out of international institutions as communist China ’ s influence around the world has grown .
Taiwan was excluded from an emergency committee convened by the WHO on Jan. 21 to determine whether the coronavirus outbreak would grow into an international crisis due to Chinese pressure to keep Taiwan from participating in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by Foreign Policy .
China and Taiwan , known officially the Republic of China , officially claim mainland China as a part of their respective territories .
And under China ’ s communist government , under its “ One China Principle , ” officially claims Taiwan as part of its territory .
The long-running dispute between the two nations began at the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949 , when Chinese Nationalist leader Chaing Kai-Shek fled to Taiwan , opening the door for Chinese communists to wrest control of the mainland @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Daily Caller News Foundation ’ s request for comment .
Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience .
For licensing opportunities of our original content , please contact licensing @ dailycallernewsfoundation.org .

Taiwan is blaming the World Health Organization’s relationship with China for its failure to act on early warnings of human-to-human transmission of coronavirus.
Taiwanese health officials alerted WHO of the infectivity of coronavirus in late December 2019, but the organization failed to report the claims to other countries, according to a Financial Times report.
Weeks after receiving Taiwan’s warning, on Jan. 14, WHO repeated China’s claim that coronavirus was not contagious among humans. (RELATED: FLASHBACK Jan. 14: WHO Tells Everyone Don’t Worry Because China Says Coronavirus Isn’t Contagious)
Taiwan reported its concerns to a WHO framework called the International Health Regulations on Dec. 31, 2019. The IHR framework is intended to be an exchange of epidemic data between 196 countries.
“While the IHR’s internal website provides a platform for all countries to share information on the epidemic and their response, none of the information shared by our country’s [Centers for Disease Control] is being put up there,” Taiwanese Vice President Chen Chien-Jen told the Financial Times.
“The WHO could not obtain first-hand information to study and judge whether there was human-to-human transmission of COVID-10. This led it to announce human-to-human transmission with a delay, and an opportunity to raise the alert level both in China and the wider world was lost,” Chen added.
WHO declined to comment on Taiwan’s accusation, telling the Financial Times it holds “frank and open discussions on sometimes sensitive issues” with countries and in order to maintain trust it needs to “respect the confidentiality of such communications.”
Taiwan has had a model response to the coronavirus crisis. Despite being situated just 140 miles off the Chinese coast, Taiwan has had only 135 confirmed cases of the virus and two deaths, according to John Hopkins University.
However, Taiwan has become largely locked out of international institutions as communist China’s influence around the world has grown.
Taiwan was excluded from an emergency committee convened by the WHO on Jan. 21 to determine whether the coronavirus outbreak would grow into an international crisis due to Chinese pressure to keep Taiwan from participating in international organizations, according to a report by Foreign Policy.
China and Taiwan, known officially the Republic of China, officially claim mainland China as a part of their respective territories. And under China’s communist government, under its “One China Principle,” officially claims Taiwan as part of its territory.
The long-running dispute between the two nations began at the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949, when Chinese Nationalist leader Chaing Kai-Shek fled to Taiwan, opening the door for Chinese communists to wrest control of the mainland.
The WHO did not address Taiwan’s claims when asked about the nation’s accusation that the WHO failed to act on its coronavirus transmission warning.
Instead, WHO spokesperson Tarik Jasarevic said its country office in China was informed of a “pneumonia of unknown cause” in Wuhan on Dec. 31.
“By January 2nd WHO had activated a three level – country office, regional office and HQ – response team to track the situation and share details as they emerged,” Jasarevic said. “By the second week of January WHO had issued a tool for countries to check their ability to detect and respond to a novel coronavirus. Since the outbreak began, WHO has been working 24/7 at all three levels to analyse data, provide advice, coordinate with partners, help countries prepare, increase supplies and manage expert networks.”
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.


bonginoreport--2020-03-20--President Trump Spars With “Terrible” NBC Reporter

Donald Trump berated NBC reporter Peter Alexander on Friday for suggesting he was offering “ false hope ” to Americans , by talking about the effectiveness of drugs like chloroquine to fight the Chinese coronavirus .
“ Is it possible that your impulse to put a positive spin on things may be giving Americans a false sense of hope and misrepresenting preparedness right now ?
” Alexander asked .
Trump replied he was optimistic about the effectiveness of the drug chloroquine even though Dr. Anthony Fauci said during the briefing it was not clinically proven .
“ It may work @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he said .
“ I feel good about it .
that ’ s all it is , just a feeling.
” “ What do you see Americans who are watching you right now that are scared ?
” Alexander asked , citing the numbers of invected and people killed by the virus .
“ I say that you are a terrible reporter , ” Trump replied .
I think that ’ s a very nasty question , and I think it ’ s a very bad signal that you ’ re putting out @ @ @ @ @ @ @ don ’ t call it Comcast , I call it Concast , ” Trump said .
“ That ’ s really bad reporting.
” Moving on to John Roberts from Fox News , Trump pointed to Alexander and said , “ You ought to be ashamed of yourself .
”

Donald Trump berated NBC reporter Peter Alexander on Friday for suggesting he was offering “false hope” to Americans, by talking about the effectiveness of drugs like chloroquine to fight the Chinese coronavirus.
“Is it possible that your impulse to put a positive spin on things may be giving Americans a false sense of hope and misrepresenting preparedness right now?” Alexander asked.
Trump replied he was optimistic about the effectiveness of the drug chloroquine even though Dr. Anthony Fauci said during the briefing it was not clinically proven.
“It may work and it may not work,” he said. “I feel good about it. that’s all it is, just a feeling.”
“What do you see Americans who are watching you right now that are scared?” Alexander asked, citing the numbers of invected and people killed by the virus.
“I say that you are a terrible reporter,” Trump replied. I think that’s a very nasty question, and I think it’s a very bad signal that you’re putting out to the American people.”
Trump berated MSNBC/NBC/Comcast for promoting sensationalism.
“I don’t call it Comcast, I call it Concast,” Trump said. “That’s really bad reporting.”
Moving on to John Roberts from Fox News, Trump pointed to Alexander and said, “You ought to be ashamed of yourself.”


bonginoreport--2020-03-21--Italy Coronavirus Deaths Increase to 793 in Single Day – Total Deaths Near 5,000

ROME ( Reuters ) - The death toll from an outbreak of coronavirus in the northern region of Lombardy , @ @ @ @ @ of Italy ’ s contagion , has risen by 546 in a day to 3,095 @ @ @ @ @ .
It is the highest daily increase since the outbreak emerged .
Lombardy ’ s @ @ @ @ @ Gallera , said the number of cases in the region , which includes Italy ’ @ @ @ @ @ had increased by 3,251 to 25,515 .
On Friday , Italy ’ s death toll @ @ @ @ @ highest in the world .

ROME (Reuters) - The death toll from an outbreak of coronavirus in Italy has leapt by 793 to 4,825, officials said on Saturday, an increase of 19.6% -- by far the largest daily rise in absolute terms since the contagion emerged a month ago.
On Thursday, Italy overtook China as the country to register most deaths from the highly contagious virus.
The total number of cases in Italy rose to 53,578 from a previous 47,021, an increase of 13.9%, the Civil Protection
Agency said.
The hardest-hit northern region of Lombardy remains in a
critical situation, with 3,095 deaths and 25,515 cases.
Of those originally infected nationwide, 6,072 had fully recovered on Saturday compared to 5,129 the day before. There were 2,857 people in intensive care against a previous 2,655.


bonginoreport--2020-03-21--Judge Rejects ACLU Demand to Release Illegal Aliens in ICE Custody

A federal judge swatted away an attempt by the American Civil Liberties Union ( ACLU ) to release a group of illegal aliens in a Washington state detention center amid the coronavirus outbreak .
U.S. District Judge James L. Robart — who serves in the District Court for the Western District of Washington — on Thursday shot down a temporary restraining order request by nine detainees in the Tacoma Northwest Detention Center .
The detainees argued that older migrants and those with medical conditions made them more vulnerable to COVID-19 .
The plaintiffs , represented by the ACLU and other @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from custody , citing the coronavirus pandemic .
Robart , however , found that the plaintiffs didn ’ t prove that the government was attempting to punish them by keeping them in detainment .
A viral infection , he said , might be a possibility , but not a “ likely ” result of remaining in the detention center .
“ There is no evidence that anyone at [ the Tacoma Northwestern Detention Center ] has COVID-19 , and plaintiffs do not address the measures defendants are taking to prevent such a spread @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his denial .
The judge found that , even if the plaintiffs had demonstrated risks , release wasn ’ t necessarily the answer .
Robart instead said plaintiffs could request that the detention center ’ s conditions be improved .
“ Finally , even if Plaintiffs could show a Fifth Amendment violation , Plaintiffs provide no authority under which such a violation would justify immediate release , as opposed to injunctive relief that would leave Plaintiffs detained while ameriolating any alleged violative conditions within the facility , ” Robart said .
He continued @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that Plaintiffs fail to meet their burden of clearly showing that they are likely to succeed on the merits of their claims.
” The decision is a major blow to the ACLU , the ACLU of Washington , and the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project , three groups that filed their suit Wednesday .
A spokesperson for the plaintiffs vowed to continue fighting their case .
“ Public health officials are in agreement — it is not a matter of if there is a COVID-19 outbreak in immigrant detention centers , but when , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lawyer , said in a statement released Thursday .
“ ICE should heed their warning .
By refusing to immediately release our clients , ICE is jeopardizing their lives and the lives of its staff and their families.
” ( RELATED : State Department Raises Travel Alert , Urges Americans To Avoid International Travel ) The lawsuit battle comes after ICE announce it would scale back its operations amid the coronavirus outbreak , placing more focus on aliens that pose more of a “ public safety threat.
” As of Friday morning , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ positive for the coronavirus , but progressive and immigrant-rights groups argue the agency is not prepared should an outbreak in their facilities occur .
Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience .
For licensing opportunities of our original content , please contact licensing @ dailycallernewsfoundation.org .

A federal judge swatted away an attempt by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to release a group of illegal aliens in a Washington state detention center amid the coronavirus outbreak.
U.S. District Judge James L. Robart — who serves in the District Court for the Western District of Washington — on Thursday shot down a temporary restraining order request by nine detainees in the Tacoma Northwest Detention Center. The detainees argued that older migrants and those with medical conditions made them more vulnerable to COVID-19.
The plaintiffs, represented by the ACLU and other progressive groups, sued to be released from custody, citing the coronavirus pandemic.
Robart, however, found that the plaintiffs didn’t prove that the government was attempting to punish them by keeping them in detainment. A viral infection, he said, might be a possibility, but not a “likely” result of remaining in the detention center.
“There is no evidence that anyone at [the Tacoma Northwestern Detention Center] has COVID-19, and plaintiffs do not address the measures defendants are taking to prevent such a spread from occurring,” Robart said in his denial.
The judge found that, even if the plaintiffs had demonstrated risks, release wasn’t necessarily the answer. Robart instead said plaintiffs could request that the detention center’s conditions be improved.
“Finally, even if Plaintiffs could show a Fifth Amendment violation, Plaintiffs provide no authority under which such a violation would justify immediate release, as opposed to injunctive relief that would leave Plaintiffs detained while ameriolating any alleged violative conditions within the facility,” Robart said.
He continued: “Thus, the court concludes that Plaintiffs fail to meet their burden of clearly showing that they are likely to succeed on the merits of their claims.”
The decision is a major blow to the ACLU, the ACLU of Washington, and the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, three groups that filed their suit Wednesday.
A spokesperson for the plaintiffs vowed to continue fighting their case.
“Public health officials are in agreement — it is not a matter of if there is a COVID-19 outbreak in immigrant detention centers, but when,” said Eunice Cho, an ACLU lawyer, said in a statement released Thursday. “ICE should heed their warning. By refusing to immediately release our clients, ICE is jeopardizing their lives and the lives of its staff and their families.” (RELATED: State Department Raises Travel Alert, Urges Americans To Avoid International Travel)
The lawsuit battle comes after ICE announce it would scale back its operations amid the coronavirus outbreak, placing more focus on aliens that pose more of a “public safety threat.”
As of Friday morning, no aliens in ICE detention have tested positive for the coronavirus, but progressive and immigrant-rights groups argue the agency is not prepared should an outbreak in their facilities occur.
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.


bonginoreport--2020-03-21--League of Women Voters Awards Hamas-Linked Group Representative

Joe Kaufman , a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center , is Chairman of the Joe Kaufman Security Initiative and the 2014 , 2016 and 2018 Republican Nominee for U.S. House of Representatives ( Florida-CD23 ) .
Last month , the League of Women Voters of Bay County Florida gave out its Alice Paul Award , named after someone who is heralded as a trailblazer for women ’ s rights .
The award went to Hiba Rahim , the Northwest Florida Regional Coordinator for CAIR .
Given the radical Muslim groups Rahim has been involved with , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ blunder and should be considered a scandal for the League of Women Voters and anyone else who seeks to honor this highly controversial individual .
In October 2016 , the Council on American-Islamic Relations ( CAIR ) opened up an office in Florida ’ s Panhandle , servicing Islamists from Pensacola to Tallahassee .
CAIR named Muslim activist Hiba Abdul-Rahim to represent the extremist group ’ s new digs .
CAIR has financial and foundational ties to Hamas .
CAIR was established , in June 1994 , as part of the American Palestine @ @ @ @ @ @ @ leader of Hamas Mousa Abu Marzook .
In 2007 and 2008 , CAIR was named by the US government in two separate trials as a co-conspirator to the funding of millions of dollars to Hamas via a now-defunct charity , the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development ( HLF ) .
In July 2014 , the Florida chapter of CAIR co-sponsored a pro-Hamas rally in Downtown Miami , where rally goers repeatedly shouted , “ We are Hamas , ” “ Let ’ s go Hamas , ” and “ Hamas kicked @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Hiba Rahim has been involved in running events for Islamic Relief , a group that has been banned by a number of nations .
Rahim organized Islamic Relief ’ s first Bay County Day of Dignity .
In May 2012 , Israel labeled Islamic Relief a front for Hamas .
In November 2014 , the UAE government designated Islamic Relief a terrorist group .
Also in 2014 , Britain ’ s HSBC bank cut ties with Islamic Relief over concerns about “ terrorist financing.
” And in October 2017 , Bangladesh ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fear the group would conduct terrorist recruitment of Myanmar refugees .
According to her bio , before coming to CAIR , Rahim spent time in London , England .
Also , according to her bio , Rahim was “ a researcher for numerous human rights organizations.
” From at least 2005 till at least 2007 , an individual by the name of Hiba Abdul Rahim was involved with the Islamic Human Rights Committee ( IHRC ) , located in London , England .
IHRC is a group that proudly and publicly supports convicted @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and preacher of violence , Abu Hamsa al-Masri , who is serving a life prison sentence ; Babar Ahmad , who set up fundraising and recruitment websites for al-Qaeda , and Khalid al-Fawwaz , who is serving a life sentence for plotting the 1998 al-Qaeda bombing of US embassies in east Africa that took 224 lives .
The July 2012 IHRC newsletter states about the three , “ IHRC supports all these men.
” IHRC , further , led a campaign to release from jail the spiritual leader of the 1993 World Trade @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Omar Abdel-Rahman .
Despite IHRC ’ s name , the group has been exposed for its disregard for human rights , when it comes to women and religious minorities .
In October 2019 , following an investigation by the The Times newspaper , the British daily helped brand the IHRC an Iranian ‘ propaganda tool ’ and stated that , while “ IHRC has condemned more than 50 countries for alleged mistreatment of Muslims… Since its formation 22 years ago , however , the group has offered no support to women ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” It must be noted that , when it comes to discriminatory laws against women , Iran is amongst the world ’ s greatest offenders .
In 2005 , Hiba Abdul Rahim was , as well , a London correspondent for islamonline.net ( IOL ) , writing about such subjects as the “ removal of Israel ” as a way to “ bring peace to the Middle East.
” Above Rahim ’ s IOL articles , one could view a small graphic of now-deceased Hamas founder and spiritual leader Ahmed Yassin .
Yassin @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s ‘ Live Dialogue.
’ IOL is a website that previously issued fatwas ( religious rulings ) on how to violently punish homosexuals , including throwing gays from tall buildings ( “ death falls ” ) .
In January 2008 , IOL published a gruesome poem , titled ‘ How to Behead , ’ which read in part : “ Hold him , tie the arms behind his back , and bandage his legs together just by the ankles .
Blindfold the punk , so that he won ’ t hesitate as much @ @ @ @ @ @ @ knife , he ’ ll begin to shake and continuously scream ... [ A ] s soon as the warm sharp knife touches his naked flesh , he ’ ll come to know what ’ ll happen ... [ C ] ontinue to slice back and forth ... Continue with all your might.
” IOL has also advocated domestic violence against women .
In IOL ’ s ‘ Wife Beating in Islamic Perspective , ’ the following could be read , “ It is important that a wife recognizes the authority of her @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the head of the household , and she is supposed to listen to him… If there arises any disagreement or dispute among them , then it should be resolved in a peaceful manner… However , in some cases a husband may use some light disciplinary action in order to correct the moral infraction of his wife , but this is only applicable in extreme cases and it should be resorted to if one is sure it would improve the situation.
” In September 2005 , Hiba Abdul Rahim was featured as a speaker @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at a London ‘ Save Chechnya Exhibition.
’ During the event , Baiev discussed about how he once operated on the leg of Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev , who , just one year earlier , took responsibility for the September 2004 Beslan school siege that resulted in 334 murders , of which 184 were children .
Baiev described Basayev and his violent cohorts as “ freedom fighters.
” Following the operation , Baiev allowed Basayev to flee his hospital and avoid capture by the Russian soldiers , who Baiev said were hunting the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ CAIR did not want Rahim to use her middle name , Abdul , in an effort to not draw attention to her past ?
Regardless of the variations to her name , though , it is an embarrassment and an outrage for the League of Women Voters to honor CAIR ’ s Hiba Rahim with their coveted award .
The award says “ in recognition of her outstanding engagement and contributions to Bay County Florida.
” Does the League consider Rahim ’ s involvement in terror-related extremist groups as engagement and contributions to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the League co-sponsors events with CAIR .
The League of Women Voters is not the only organization to dignify Rahim with an award .
In August 2017 , Rahim received a ‘ Women Of Distinction ’ award from the Girl Scouts of the Florida Panhandle .
How could the League and Girl Scouts ignore the level of terrorist associations coming from the groups Rahim is heavily involved with ?
How could they equate this type of dangerous activity with the promotion of women ’ s rights and community service ?
Rahim ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to American values and is helping to undermine national security .
Shame on the League of Women Voters and the Girl Scouts .
For these groups to have any continued credibility , these awards must be rescinded immediately .
Beila Rabinowitz , Director of Militant Islam Monitor , contributed to this report .

Joe Kaufman, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, is Chairman of the Joe Kaufman Security Initiative and the 2014, 2016 and 2018 Republican Nominee for U.S. House of Representatives (Florida-CD23).
Last month, the League of Women Voters of Bay County Florida gave out its Alice Paul Award, named after someone who is heralded as a trailblazer for women’s rights. The award went to Hiba Rahim, the Northwest Florida Regional Coordinator for CAIR. Given the radical Muslim groups Rahim has been involved with, including CAIR, this is a major blunder and should be considered a scandal for the League of Women Voters and anyone else who seeks to honor this highly controversial individual.
In October 2016, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) opened up an office in Florida’s Panhandle, servicing Islamists from Pensacola to Tallahassee. CAIR named Muslim activist Hiba Abdul-Rahim to represent the extremist group’s new digs.
CAIR has financial and foundational ties to Hamas. CAIR was established, in June 1994, as part of the American Palestine Committee, which was headed by then-global leader of Hamas Mousa Abu Marzook. In 2007 and 2008, CAIR was named by the US government in two separate trials as a co-conspirator to the funding of millions of dollars to Hamas via a now-defunct charity, the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF). In July 2014, the Florida chapter of CAIR co-sponsored a pro-Hamas rally in Downtown Miami, where rally goers repeatedly shouted, “We are Hamas,” “Let’s go Hamas,” and “Hamas kicked your ass.”
While with CAIR, Hiba Rahim has been involved in running events for Islamic Relief, a group that has been banned by a number of nations. Rahim organized Islamic Relief’s first Bay County Day of Dignity. In May 2012, Israel labeled Islamic Relief a front for Hamas. In November 2014, the UAE government designated Islamic Relief a terrorist group. Also in 2014, Britain’s HSBC bank cut ties with Islamic Relief over concerns about “terrorist financing.” And in October 2017, Bangladesh’s NGO Affairs Bureau banned Islamic Relief in fear the group would conduct terrorist recruitment of Myanmar refugees.
According to her bio, before coming to CAIR, Rahim spent time in London, England. Also, according to her bio, Rahim was “a researcher for numerous human rights organizations.” From at least 2005 till at least 2007, an individual by the name of Hiba Abdul Rahim was involved with the Islamic Human Rights Committee (IHRC), located in London, England.
IHRC is a group that proudly and publicly supports convicted terrorists. They include: hook-handed cleric and preacher of violence, Abu Hamsa al-Masri, who is serving a life prison sentence; Babar Ahmad, who set up fundraising and recruitment websites for al-Qaeda, and Khalid al-Fawwaz, who is serving a life sentence for plotting the 1998 al-Qaeda bombing of US embassies in east Africa that took 224 lives. The July 2012 IHRC newsletter states about the three, “IHRC supports all these men.” IHRC, further, led a campaign to release from jail the spiritual leader of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, “Blind Sheikh” Omar Abdel-Rahman.
Despite IHRC’s name, the group has been exposed for its disregard for human rights, when it comes to women and religious minorities. In October 2019, following an investigation by the The Times newspaper, the British daily helped brand the IHRC an Iranian ‘propaganda tool’ and stated that, while “IHRC has condemned more than 50 countries for alleged mistreatment of Muslims… Since its formation 22 years ago, however, the group has offered no support to women’s rights activists and religious minorities in Iran.” It must be noted that, when it comes to discriminatory laws against women, Iran is amongst the world’s greatest offenders.
In 2005, Hiba Abdul Rahim was, as well, a London correspondent for islamonline.net (IOL), writing about such subjects as the “removal of Israel” as a way to “bring peace to the Middle East.” Above Rahim’s IOL articles, one could view a small graphic of now-deceased Hamas founder and spiritual leader Ahmed Yassin. Yassin has been a guest on IOL’s ‘Live Dialogue.’
IOL is a website that previously issued fatwas (religious rulings) on how to violently punish homosexuals, including throwing gays from tall buildings (“death falls”). In January 2008, IOL published a gruesome poem, titled ‘How to Behead,’ which read in part: “Hold him, tie the arms behind his back, and bandage his legs together just by the ankles. Blindfold the punk, so that he won’t hesitate as much, for on seeing the sharp pointy knife, he’ll begin to shake and continuously scream… [A]s soon as the warm sharp knife touches his naked flesh, he’ll come to know what’ll happen… [C]ontinue to slice back and forth… Continue with all your might.”
IOL has also advocated domestic violence against women. In IOL’s ‘Wife Beating in Islamic Perspective,’ the following could be read, “It is important that a wife recognizes the authority of her husband in the house. He is the head of the household, and she is supposed to listen to him… If there arises any disagreement or dispute among them, then it should be resolved in a peaceful manner… However, in some cases a husband may use some light disciplinary action in order to correct the moral infraction of his wife, but this is only applicable in extreme cases and it should be resorted to if one is sure it would improve the situation.”
In September 2005, Hiba Abdul Rahim was featured as a speaker along with Chechen surgeon Khassan Baiev, at a London ‘Save Chechnya Exhibition.’ During the event, Baiev discussed about how he once operated on the leg of Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev, who, just one year earlier, took responsibility for the September 2004 Beslan school siege that resulted in 334 murders, of which 184 were children. Baiev described Basayev and his violent cohorts as “freedom fighters.” Following the operation, Baiev allowed Basayev to flee his hospital and avoid capture by the Russian soldiers, who Baiev said were hunting the terrorist leader.
Could it be that CAIR did not want Rahim to use her middle name, Abdul, in an effort to not draw attention to her past?
Regardless of the variations to her name, though, it is an embarrassment and an outrage for the League of Women Voters to honor CAIR’s Hiba Rahim with their coveted award. The award says “in recognition of her outstanding engagement and contributions to Bay County Florida.” Does the League consider Rahim’s involvement in terror-related extremist groups as engagement and contributions to Bay County? Maybe not, as the League co-sponsors events with CAIR.
The League of Women Voters is not the only organization to dignify Rahim with an award. In August 2017, Rahim received a ‘Women Of Distinction’ award from the Girl Scouts of the Florida Panhandle.
How could the League and Girl Scouts ignore the level of terrorist associations coming from the groups Rahim is heavily involved with? How could they equate this type of dangerous activity with the promotion of women’s rights and community service? Rahim’s activism within groups like CAIR is antithetical to American values and is helping to undermine national security.
Shame on the League of Women Voters and the Girl Scouts. For these groups to have any continued credibility, these awards must be rescinded immediately.
Beila Rabinowitz, Director of Militant Islam Monitor, contributed to this report.


bonginoreport--2020-03-21--Dr. Fauci: Top Priority is Developing Antibody Treatment

Dr. Anthony Fauci said Thursday that one of the White House coronavirus task force ’ s “ top priorities ” is developing a procedure to provide antibodies from recovered coronavirus patients to help people who fall ill from the virus , or even to protect them from getting it .
Fauci , the director of the National Institute on Allergies and Infectious Diseases , was asked about the use of antibodies during a CNN virtual town hall .
“ Is it possible to develop some sort of treatment using the antibodies that they developed with the disease ?
” a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a matter of fact , that ’ s exactly what we ’ re doing , ” said Fauci .
He said that the task force was “ gearing up ” to conduct a study on the use of convalescent serum .
The process draws antibodies from the serum of recovered coronavirus patients , and reinfuses it into other patients , either to treat those with the ailment or as a protective measure .
( RELATED : Scientists Hope This ‘ Throwback ’ Can Be Used To Treat Coronavirus Patients Until A Vaccine Is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of our top priorities , ” Fauci said .
Dr. Peter Hotez , the dean of the School of Tropical Medicine at the Baylor School of Medicine , has recently been urging the use of convalescent serum to help in the coronavirus fight .
The technique dates back to at least the 1890s , and was used during the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic .
Hotez told the Daily Caller News Foundation in an interview earlier in March that convalescent serum could be provided either to patients who have strong symptoms from coronavirus , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ infection or medical workers from catching the bug .
The use of antibodies is one of several options that researchers hope to use to fight coronavirus until a vaccine is developed .
Hotez , Fauci and other experts in the field do not expect a vaccine to come along for at least another year .
Scientists are also conducting clinical trials to see if several anti-inflammatory drugs can be used to cure coronavirus .
Two drugs that have inspired cautious optimism are chloroquine and its derivative , hydroxychloroquine .
The drugs , which @ @ @ @ @ @ @ shown promising results in lab trials , and in one clinical trial conducted in France .
Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience .
For licensing opportunities of our original content , please contact licensing @ dailycallernewsfoundation.org .

Dr. Anthony Fauci said Thursday that one of the White House coronavirus task force’s “top priorities” is developing a procedure to provide antibodies from recovered coronavirus patients to help people who fall ill from the virus, or even to protect them from getting it.
Fauci, the director of the National Institute on Allergies and Infectious Diseases, was asked about the use of antibodies during a CNN virtual town hall.
“Is it possible to develop some sort of treatment using the antibodies that they developed with the disease?” a woman asked the scientist.
“As a matter of fact, that’s exactly what we’re doing,” said Fauci.
He said that the task force was “gearing up” to conduct a study on the use of convalescent serum. The process draws antibodies from the serum of recovered coronavirus patients, and reinfuses it into other patients, either to treat those with the ailment or as a protective measure. (RELATED: Scientists Hope This ‘Throwback’ Can Be Used To Treat Coronavirus Patients Until A Vaccine Is Developed)
“That’s one of our top priorities,” Fauci said.
Dr. Peter Hotez, the dean of the School of Tropical Medicine at the Baylor School of Medicine, has recently been urging the use of convalescent serum to help in the coronavirus fight.
WATCH:
The technique dates back to at least the 1890s, and was used during the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic.
Hotez told the Daily Caller News Foundation in an interview earlier in March that convalescent serum could be provided either to patients who have strong symptoms from coronavirus, or to protect people at high-risk from infection or medical workers from catching the bug.
The use of antibodies is one of several options that researchers hope to use to fight coronavirus until a vaccine is developed. Hotez, Fauci and other experts in the field do not expect a vaccine to come along for at least another year.
Scientists are also conducting clinical trials to see if several anti-inflammatory drugs can be used to cure coronavirus. Two drugs that have inspired cautious optimism are chloroquine and its derivative, hydroxychloroquine. The drugs, which were developed to fight malaria, have shown promising results in lab trials, and in one clinical trial conducted in France.
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.


bonginoreport--2020-03-21--Priest Hears Drive-Through Confessions

Priest Hears Drive-Through Confessions

Devout Catholics in Bowie , Maryland wo n't have to surrender their place of worship , despite local guidance for @ @ @ @ @ outbreak .
Thanks to Father Scott Holmer 's quick thinking , the pious can still @ @ @ @ @ distance from the comfort of their cars .

Top News
Priest hears drive-through confessions amid coronavirus
Posted
Devout Catholics in Bowie, Maryland won't have to surrender their place of worship, despite local guidance for social distancing during the coronavirus outbreak. Thanks to Father Scott Holmer's quick thinking, the pious can still confess at a safe social distance from the comfort of their cars.


bonginoreport--2020-03-21--MSNBC Host Doesn’t Understand Why Trump Holds Pressers

I mean , are we shocked an MSNBC host would take this position on these Wuhan coronavirus pressers that are held by President Trump and his response team ?
It once again shows the liberal media is just driven insane by this man .
Also , what a sad bunch these clowns can be .
Initially , there was criticism about a lack of response .
Now , the Trump administration is moving forward on trade , tax , and economic policies to help the nation contain and defeat this outbreak .
They ’ ve been holding daily briefings and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s the point of all this .
The mind reels .
It really does .
Why isn ’ t Trump holding more pressers on the Wuhan virus ?
Trump hosts pressers .
Media says what ’ s the point of these briefings .
The good part about this is that Trump knows the game .
He knows how they will react .
He knows he ’ s dealing with a dishonest and biased press corps .
In any situation , he should ignore most of their nonsense .
He can ’ t @ @ @ @ @ @ @ terrific job destroying the stock market with their coverage .
That ’ s not to say the Wuhan virus isn ’ t serious .
Look at what it ’ s done to the economy , but it ’ s hardly apocalyptic .
At the same time , it is highly contagious , and it can make you very ill. For the elderly and the immunocompromised , the risk is the same as with any virus that attacks the respiratory system .
It can be deadly .
The disease is a minefield of good @ @ @ @ @ @ @ we said , is how easily it can spread , living on some surfaces for up to three days and in the air for hours .
The good news is that recovery rates are very high .
Over 90 percent of those infected will make a recovery , and while most who contract the disease might exhibit mild symptoms—it ’ s them spreading it to the elderly that ’ s the issue .
For some , they may be asymptomatic , go outside , and unknowingly spread the virus everywhere they go .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ a bit .
All of this information is the reason why we need these pressers and updates on what we ’ re doing for travel restrictions , help for small businesses , and the state of our medical supplies .
What will be open and what will be shut down to contain the spread—that ’ s all been featured at these briefings .
It ’ s the media that doesn ’ t care , doesn ’ t listen , and then makes complete clowns on themselves on national television .
Even in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ remain enemies of the American people and ghoulish cheerleaders for economic collapse to better the chances of booting Trump from office .

I mean, are we shocked an MSNBC host would take this position on these Wuhan coronavirus pressers that are held by President Trump and his response team? It once again shows the liberal media is just driven insane by this man. Also, what a sad bunch these clowns can be. Initially, there was criticism about a lack of response. Now, the Trump administration is moving forward on trade, tax, and economic policies to help the nation contain and defeat this outbreak. They’ve been holding daily briefings and now, Joy Reid is wondering what’s the point of all this.
What's the point of these pressers? Honest question. #CoronaVirusUpdate — Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) March 17, 2020
so you don't complain daily about the lack of pressors https://t.co/HWgXmOtCDK — Gianbattista (@gbtiepolo1) March 17, 2020
I would be really interested to see polling on the media’s approval ratings with the American public during this crisis. https://t.co/Gz66N7hMuT — Garrett Ventry (@GarrettVentry) March 20, 2020
Honest question: What is wrong with you? https://t.co/ZYii8P5ReM — Katie Pavlich (@KatiePavlich) March 17, 2020
The mind reels. It really does. Why isn’t Trump holding more pressers on the Wuhan virus? Trump hosts pressers. Media says what’s the point of these briefings. The good part about this is that Trump knows the game. He knows how they will react. He knows he’s dealing with a dishonest and biased press corps. In any situation, he should ignore most of their nonsense. He can’t. The liberal media has done a terrific job destroying the stock market with their coverage. That’s not to say the Wuhan virus isn’t serious. Look at what it’s done to the economy, but it’s hardly apocalyptic. At the same time, it is highly contagious, and it can make you very ill. For the elderly and the immunocompromised, the risk is the same as with any virus that attacks the respiratory system. It can be deadly.
The disease is a minefield of good and bad. The bad, as we said, is how easily it can spread, living on some surfaces for up to three days and in the air for hours. The good news is that recovery rates are very high. Over 90 percent of those infected will make a recovery, and while most who contract the disease might exhibit mild symptoms—it’s them spreading it to the elderly that’s the issue. For some, they may be asymptomatic, go outside, and unknowingly spread the virus everywhere they go. Hence the need for social distancing for a bit.
All of this information is the reason why we need these pressers and updates on what we’re doing for travel restrictions, help for small businesses, and the state of our medical supplies. What will be open and what will be shut down to contain the spread—that’s all been featured at these briefings. It’s the media that doesn’t care, doesn’t listen, and then makes complete clowns on themselves on national television. Even in the midst of a pandemic, these folks remain enemies of the American people and ghoulish cheerleaders for economic collapse to better the chances of booting Trump from office.
H/T Twitchy


bonginoreport--2020-03-21--Gas Prices Set to Plunge to Lowest Levels in U.S. History

One oil analyst said the United States could see its lowest gas prices in history when adjusted for inflation .
As the coronavirus pandemic worsens and an oil-price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia continues , Phil Flynn , senior market analyst at the Price Futures Group , told Fox Business on Friday that America might be in store for some historically low gas prices .
“ We 're hearing targets of $ 1.60 , $ 1.50 a gallon national average , ” Flynn said .
Crude oil prices have plummeted as much as 63 % since Saudi Arabia lowered @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this month .
The national average gas price in the U.S. was $ 2.17 as of Friday , according to AAA ’ s tracker .
A month ago , that average was $ 2.45 .
The number has declined in recent weeks as the Russian-Saudi row continues and as investors become increasingly nervous about the lack of travel during the coronavirus outbreak .
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Thursday that he was pushing President Trump to request about $ 20 billion from Congress to keep the Strategic Petroleum Reserve full .
“ Fill @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Trump said Thursday that his administration was considering mediation of the Russia-Saudi Arabia price war and would get involved at “ the appropriate time.
” “ I spoke with numerous people that have a lot to do with it , ” Trump said at a White House briefing .
“ And we have a lot of power over the situation .
We ’ re trying to find some kind of a medium ground.
” As of Friday afternoon , more than 16,600 people in the U.S. have tested positive for the virus @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have died , according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker .

One oil analyst said the United States could see its lowest gas prices in history when adjusted for inflation.
As the coronavirus pandemic worsens and an oil-price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia continues, Phil Flynn, senior market analyst at the Price Futures Group, told Fox Business on Friday that America might be in store for some historically low gas prices.
“We're hearing targets of $1.60, $1.50 a gallon national average,” Flynn said. Crude oil prices have plummeted as much as 63% since Saudi Arabia lowered production and cut prices of oil earlier this month.
The national average gas price in the U.S. was $2.17 as of Friday, according to AAA’s tracker. A month ago, that average was $2.45. The number has declined in recent weeks as the Russian-Saudi row continues and as investors become increasingly nervous about the lack of travel during the coronavirus outbreak.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Thursday that he was pushing President Trump to request about $20 billion from Congress to keep the Strategic Petroleum Reserve full.
“Fill up the reserves,” Mnuchin said.
Trump said Thursday that his administration was considering mediation of the Russia-Saudi Arabia price war and would get involved at “the appropriate time.”
“I spoke with numerous people that have a lot to do with it,” Trump said at a White House briefing. “And we have a lot of power over the situation. We’re trying to find some kind of a medium ground.”
As of Friday afternoon, more than 16,600 people in the U.S. have tested positive for the virus, 121 have recovered, and 216 have died, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker.


bonginoreport--2020-03-21--Federal Tax Deadline Extended Until July 15

The COVID-19 outbreak has upended most of life 's certainties already—including , now , one of the proverbial absolutes .
You wo n't have to pay your taxes on time .
Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin announced Friday that federal income taxes will not be due until July 15 this year .
He said the change is intended to allow taxpayers and businesses `` additional time to file and make payments without interest or penalties . ''
Individuals and businesses expecting to get refunds can file at any time .
Mnuchin on Friday encouraged those taxpayers to file as soon as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ announced that it would grant automatic 90-day extensions for all taxpayers who owed payments for 2019 , but it asked that taxpayers still file before the traditional April 15 deadline .
In other words , you would have had to file your taxes on time , but you would have not had to pay immediately .
The change announced Friday means both filing and payments will be postponed—a move that is likely to reduce stress and confusion surrounding this year 's coronavirus-impacted tax season .
Postponing the federal tax deadline makes a lot @ @ @ @ @ @ @ individuals and businesses to keep more of their money—perhaps as much as $ 300 billion in aggregate—for three extra months at a time when millions of Americans are likely to be out of work and struggling to make ends meet .
And since taxpayers will eventually have to pay up regardless , this is effectively a revenue-neutral way to keep more money in the economy during what 's likely to be the worst months of a coronavirus-induced recession .
It 's also just an admission of practical reality .
In a letter to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Tax Professionals , a trade group , called for tax day to be postponed until July .
Due to social distancing requirements imposed by many state and local governments , the group said , taxpayers would be unable to get necessary help with their taxes .
The Senate Republicans ' stimulus bill unveiled Thursday also includes a 90-day postponement of the federal tax deadline .
It is important to keep in mind that this applies only to federal taxes .
The 42 states that have income taxes are likely to follow the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ but they will make their own decisions about extensions or delays .
`` Now that the federal decision is known , states should take immediate steps to follow suit , '' writes Jared Walczak , director of state tax policy for the Tax Foundation .
Doing so , he explains , will avoid adding `` a burden to their own taxpayers that the federal extension was intended to relieve . ''

The COVID-19 outbreak has upended most of life's certainties already—including, now, one of the proverbial absolutes. You won't have to pay your taxes on time.
Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin announced Friday that federal income taxes will not be due until July 15 this year. He said the change is intended to allow taxpayers and businesses "additional time to file and make payments without interest or penalties."
Individuals and businesses expecting to get refunds can file at any time. Mnuchin on Friday encouraged those taxpayers to file as soon as possible.
The Trump administration had previously announced that it would grant automatic 90-day extensions for all taxpayers who owed payments for 2019, but it asked that taxpayers still file before the traditional April 15 deadline. In other words, you would have had to file your taxes on time, but you would have not had to pay immediately. The change announced Friday means both filing and payments will be postponed—a move that is likely to reduce stress and confusion surrounding this year's coronavirus-impacted tax season.
Postponing the federal tax deadline makes a lot of sense. It will allow some individuals and businesses to keep more of their money—perhaps as much as $300 billion in aggregate—for three extra months at a time when millions of Americans are likely to be out of work and struggling to make ends meet. And since taxpayers will eventually have to pay up regardless, this is effectively a revenue-neutral way to keep more money in the economy during what's likely to be the worst months of a coronavirus-induced recession.
It's also just an admission of practical reality. In a letter to Mnuchin on Thursday, the National Association of Tax Professionals, a trade group, called for tax day to be postponed until July. Due to social distancing requirements imposed by many state and local governments, the group said, taxpayers would be unable to get necessary help with their taxes.
The Senate Republicans' stimulus bill unveiled Thursday also includes a 90-day postponement of the federal tax deadline.
It is important to keep in mind that this applies only to federal taxes. The 42 states that have income taxes are likely to follow the federal government's lead on this, but they will make their own decisions about extensions or delays.
"Now that the federal decision is known, states should take immediate steps to follow suit," writes Jared Walczak, director of state tax policy for the Tax Foundation. Doing so, he explains, will avoid adding "a burden to their own taxpayers that the federal extension was intended to relieve."


bonginoreport--2020-03-21--Survey: 9% of Workers Have Been Laid Off So Far

Grim Survey of Reduced Hours The chart showing reduced hours can be viewed here .
About : SurveyUSA interviewed 1,000 USA adults nationwide 03/18/20 through 03/19/20 .
Of the adults , approximately 60 % were , before the virus , employed full-time or part-time outside of the home and were asked the layoff and reduced-hours questions .
Approximately half of the interviews for this survey were completed before the Big 3 Detroit automakers announced they were shutting down their Michigan assembly lines .
For most Americans , events continue to unfold faster than a human mind is able to process @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of SurveyUSA Coronavirus News Poll .
The chart showing unemployment can be viewed here .
If we assume the SurveyUSA numbers are accurate and will not get worse , we can arrive at some U3 and U6 unemployment estimates .
That puts me off the top of the head 15.0 % estimate a few days in the ballpark .
Wow , that 's not a recession .
A depression is the only word .
Note that economists coined a new word `` recession '' after the 1929 crash and stopped using the word @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Prior to 1929 , every economic slowdown was called a depression .
So if you give credit to the Fed for halting depressions , they have n't .
It 's just a matter of semantics .
Depression is a very fitting word if those numbers are even close to what 's going to happen .
Meanwhile , It 's no wonder the Fed Still Struggles to Get a Grip on the Bond Market and there is a struggled `` Dash to Cash '' .
Very Deflationary Outcome Has Begun : Blame the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ alleviate the mess it is largely responsible for .
I previously commented a Very Deflationary Outcome Has Begun : Blame the Fed The Fed blew three economic bubbles in succession .
A deflationary bust has started .
They blew bubbles trying to prevent `` deflation '' defined as falling consumer prices .
The BIS did a historical study and found routine price deflation was not any problem at all .
“ Deflation may actually boost output .
Lower prices increase real incomes and wealth .
And they may also make export goods more @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
For a discussion of the study , please see Historical Perspective on CPI Deflations : How Damaging are They ?
Deflation is not really about prices .
It 's about the value of debt on the books of banks that can not be paid back by zombie corporations and individuals .
Blowing bubbles in absurd attempts to arrest `` price deflation '' is crazy .
The bigger the bubbles the bigger the resultant `` asset bubble deflation '' .
Falling consumer prices do not have severe negative repercussions .
Asset bubble deflations @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not responsible for the coronavirus .
But they are responsible for blowing economic bubbles prone to crash .
The equities bubbles before the coronavirus hit were the largest on record .
The irony in this madness is the US will be printing the most currency and have the biggest budget deficits as a result .
Yet central banks ca n't seem to get enough dollars .
In that aspect , the dollar ought to be sinking .
But given the US 10-year Treasury yield at 1.126 % is among the highest in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ can for dollars earning positive yield .
This is all such circular madness , it 's hard to say when or how it ends .

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