Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member Latest Breaking News General Discussion The DU Lounge All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

Yorkie Mom

Yorkie Mom's Journal
Yorkie Mom's Journal
August 30, 2020

From Andrew McCabe:

Former acting FBI director Andrew McCabe said in response to my reporting that had he known Mueller was not conducting the counterintelligence investigation into Trump, he would have pushed for the FBI to do it. He gave me this statement.

https://twitter.com/nytmike/status/1300107673015406594



Edited to add:

Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein concluded the FBI had not cleared the threshold needed to conduct a counterintel investigation into the president's ties to Russia. Rosenstein believed the FBI had acted far to hastily to open investigation as it grieved firing of director Comey.



I think we're going to have to wait to see why Muller didn't investigate instead of jumping to conclusions. We are only starting to get the story.
July 8, 2020

It's not the flu. You may not want to read this, but you need to.

Coronavirus autopsies: A story of 38 brains, 87 lungs and 42 hearts

What we’ve learned from the dead that could help the living

When pathologist Amy Rapkiewicz began the grim process of opening up the coronavirus dead to learn how their bodies went awry, she found damage to the lungs, kidneys and liver consistent with what doctors had reported for months.

... snip

Autopsies have long been a source of breakthroughs in understanding new diseases, from HIV/AIDS and Ebola to Lassa fever — and the medical community is counting on them to do the same for covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. With a vaccine probably many months away in even the most optimistic scenarios, autopsies are becoming a critical source of information for research into possible treatments.

... snip

Microclots in lungs

One of the first American investigations to be made public, on April 10, was out of New Orleans. The patient was a 44-year-old man who had been treated at LSU Health. Richard Vander Heide remembers cutting the lung and discovering what were probably hundreds or thousands of microclots.

... snip

Heart cells


The next organ studied up close was the heart. One of the most frightening early reports about the coronavirus from China was that a significant percentage of hospitalized patients — up to 20 to 30 percent — appeared to have myocarditis that could lead to sudden death. The condition involves the thickening of the muscle of the heart so that it can no longer pump efficiently.

... snip

He said a couple of patients he performed autopsies on had gone into cardiac arrest in the hospital, but when he examined them, the primary damage was in the lungs — not the heart.

Brain grid

“If you have one blood clot in the brain, we see that all the time. But what we’re seeing is, some patients are having multiple strokes in blood vessels that are in two or even three different territories,” Fowkes said.

More: https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/07/01/coronavirus-autopsies-findings/


The article is worth the click.

***Link not behind a paywall thanks to Niagara in post #15: https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/coronavirus-autopsies-a-story-of-38-brains-87-lungs-and-42-hearts/ar-BB16dALn
May 20, 2020

Exclusive: Barr met with prosecutor now reviewing Russia probe immediately after Mueller investigati

Exclusive: Barr met with prosecutor now reviewing Russia probe immediately after Mueller investigation ended, documents reveal

CNN)Almost immediately after special counsel Robert Mueller closed his investigation last year, Attorney General William Barr was huddling with the prosecutor he assigned to re-examine the Russia probe -- in a series of meetings that haven't been previously known and appear to highlight Barr's drive to rewrite the legacy of the Mueller investigation.

Barr met at least six times with US Attorney John "Bull" Durham over a 10-week period in spring 2019, including once during the critical days after Mueller submitted his report to the Department of Justice and before it was released to the public, according to Justice Department records released to the transparency group American Oversight and shared with CNN this week. American Oversight sued the Justice Department in August for records of Durham-Barr communications and meetings.

The records could begin to fill in gaps about the start of Durham's review. Barr has been clear about his skepticism of the Russia investigation since even before he became attorney general, yet how the Durham probe began, how closely Barr has directed Durham's work and the full sweep of Durham's investigation isn't known. While it's unclear how routinely Barr was meeting with other prosecutors in Durham's position at the end of the Mueller investigation, the newly discovered details of his meetings with Durham illuminate how the two men communicated at a crucial time.

The newly released records show Barr moved quickly after becoming attorney general in February 2019 to get face time with Durham.

More: https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/20/politics/barr-russia-prosecutor-mueller/index.html
May 13, 2020

From somebody who has done SIGINT "unmaskings" for NSA & numbers from the Trump years

Unlike 99.999% of the people commenting on this story I've actually done SIGINT "unmaskings" for NSA, which makes me what @RadioFreeTom would call an Expert, so I have a couple comments on this story...

https://twitter.com/20committee/status/1260662962701905930

1st, Mike Flynn's notorious call to RU Amb Kislyak, which got this whole furball rolling, was on 29 DEC 2016...and a lot of these unmasking requests are wayyyyy before that. Back to 30 NOV, in fact.

Hmmmmm.....

2nd, this looks like a very normal unmasking request list, given what we know Flynn was talking about during the transition and with whom (ie RU, TU). There are all pretty senior policymakers or IC personnel -- some indeed very senior -- not random GS-13s....

3rd, what was so interesting in those NSA mid-DEC SIGINT report(s) that featured Flynn that so many officials wanted his USP ID unmasked ca 14-16 DEC?

Inquiring minds want to know!

We're discussing this big story -- and how it's being misrepresented by Usual Suspects -- over at @thespybrief, for those interested in joining us.



Also, get a load of these numbers.

According to the DNI, NSA received these amounts of SIGINT "unmasking" requests per year:

2016: 9200
2017: 9500
2018: 17000
2019: 10000

Something very odd was happening in 2018. Remind me who was in the White House then...

https://twitter.com/20committee/status/1260209013452615680


WTF was going on in 2018, and who was in charge.

May 11, 2020

Wuhan lab phone records show 'possible shutdown' in October

Wuhan lab phone records show 'possible shutdown' in October

Washington: US intelligence agencies are reportedly examining mobile phone data suggesting there could have been an emergency shutdown in October at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

According to a report, obtained by NBC News, there was no mobile phone activity in a high-security part of the Chinese laboratory complex from October 7 to 24. Previously, there had been consistent use of mobile phones.

The report, carried out by private experts, suggested there may have been a "hazardous event", specifically at the institute's National Biosafety Laboratory, between October 6 and 11. Analysis of mobile phone data from around the institute also suggested roadblocks were in place between October 14 and 19.

... snip

It was unclear which private organisation carried out the leaked analysis of the mobile phone location data. But the 24-page report suggested it "supports the release of COVID-19 at the Wuhan Institute of Virology" and that the pandemic began earlier than thought. The first confirmed case was on November 17.

The document was obtained by NBC News in London and has been seen by the US Senate intelligence committee.

More: https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/wuhan-lab-phone-records-show-possible-shutdown-in-october-20200510-p54rid.html

May 6, 2020

China refuses international probe on Covid-19 source until 'final victory' over disease

China will not invite international experts to investigate the source of #COVID19 until after securing the "final victory" over the virus.

The announcements comes despite mounting calls for an independent probe into China’s handling of the outbreak.

https://twitter.com/France24_en/status/1258048661252182021


China refuses international probe on Covid-19 source until ‘final victory’ over disease

China will not invite international experts to investigate the source of Covid-19 until after securing the "final victory" over the virus, Beijing's UN ambassador in Geneva said Wednesday despite mounting calls for an independent probe into China’s handling of the outbreak.


China's priority is first beating the pandemic -- and then countering what Chen Xu called the "absurd and ridiculous" US politicisation of the coronavirus crisis, he added in an online press briefing.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) says it is waiting on an invitation from China to take part in its investigations into the animal origins of the virus, first reported in the city of Wuhan in December.

The revelation came amid a growing international backlash against China’s “wolf warrior” diplomats, who have launched an aggressive push-back against governments calling for an independent investigation into the outbreak that has killed more than 250,000 people across the world and plunged economies into a global recession.

... snip

Over the weekend, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said there was "enormous evidence" showing that the new coronavirus originated in the Wuhan lab.

China on Wednesday once again hit back at Pompeo’s claims, saying he "doesn't have any" evidence.

More: https://www.france24.com/en/20200506-china-refuses-international-probe-on-covid-19-source-until-final-victory-over-disease?ref=tw_i




April 26, 2020

I'll say something that I suspect will be very unpopular here.

Chinese students have been stealing our info (science, technology, etc) and sending it back to China. I dislike Cotton immensely, but we need to address this national security issue.

I have 2 children and a husband in STEM fields. I went through some of my text messages and pulled up a few articles I have sent her over the last few months. Here they are.


Universities are forging ties with the FBI as US cracks down on foreign influence

Public institutes are responding to allegations of interference in research by foreign governments, especially China.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00646-9

Researcher at University Arrested for Wire Fraud and Making False Statements About Affiliation with a Chinese University
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/researcher-university-arrested-wire-fraud-and-making-false-statements-about-affiliation

US says suspect in Apple case had classified Patriot missile file from Raytheon
https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2019/12/08/says-suspect-apple-case-had-classified-patriot-missile-file-from-raytheon/RbRvWMzvo0Vq30nu5a9PfL/story.html

Raytheon engineer arrested for taking US missile defense secrets to China
https://qz.com/1795127/raytheon-engineer-arrested-for-taking-us-missile-defense-secrets-to-china/

"Dr. Charles Lieber, 60, Chair of the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University, was arrested this morning and charged"
https://www.justice.gov/usao-ma/pr/harvard-university-professor-and-two-chinese-nationals-charged-three-separate-china

"Unbeknownst to Harvard University, beginning in 2011, Lieber became a “Strategic Scientist” at
Wuhan University of Technology (WUT) in China"
https://twitter.com/a_team1983/status/1222210267221823489

Today's announcement by federal law enforcement is the culmination of cases where 1) A Harvard professor received thousands for China 2) A member of the PLA was at BU conducting US Military Research 3) A third arrested at Logan for smuggling vials of medical research.
https://twitter.com/Tom_Winter/status/1222207074752454662


The arrested Harvard prof is tip of the iceberg. When the Texas A&M system investigated how much Chinese money its faculty was getting, officials were astounded—over 100 were involved in Chinese talent recruitment plans. Only 5 disclosed.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/chinas-funding-of-u-s-researchers-raises-red-flags-11580428915

Judge mulls fate of US researcher who denies spying for China
https://www.foxbusiness.com/money/judge-mulls-fate-of-us-researcher-who-denies-spying-for-china


Amid rising spy concerns, 2 more Chinese students held after shooting photos at base

Key West visitors always flock to the town’s favorite tourist spots — Mallory Square, Duval Street, Ernest Hemingway’s home, and the Southernmost Point Buoy — to snap photos and record memories.

But apparently, not students visiting from China. For some reason, they seem to like taking pictures of military facilities in Key West.

The latest — a pair of Chinese nationals attending the University of Michigan — were arrested over the weekend and appeared in federal court in Key West on Monday on a charge of entering a U.S. Naval property for the purpose of photographing defense installations.

Since the fall of 2018, a total of four Chinese nationals have been arrested on charges of shooting pictures of military facilities in Key West, drawing the sharp interest of U.S. counterintelligence investigators who have been probing suspected Beijing-led spying activities in South Florida, including visitors to President Donald Trump’s private club, Mar-a-Lago, in Palm Beach.

... snip

In a similar case, another Chinese student, Lyuyou Liao, was arrested the day after Christmas on a charge of entering the Truman Annex at the Naval Air Station for the purpose of photographing defense installations. In Liao’s case, several witnesses told police they watched Liao trespass onto the military property and warned him not to go there, according to another criminal affidavit. He was later stopped by federal agents who found photos on his cellphone of military facilities.

Read more here: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/florida-keys/article239010873.html#storylink=cpy






March 3, 2020

🔥 🔥 Lots of info in those new *Muller documents* just released. 🔥 🔥

You may want to pull up a chair and pour a cup of Joe. I'm not even going to try to recreate this thread.

<NEW MUELLER 302 THREAD>

There is so much in 600 pages that I'm just gonna start firing.

First up: Jeff Sessions old partner Richard Burt flipped. 🔥

https://twitter.com/ericgarland/status/1234688762690592768



Update:

FOIA released documents here: https://buzzfeed.egnyte.com/dl/gbuL8jn18Z/

Unrolled thread here: https://threader.app/thread/1234688762690592768

Profile Information

Member since: Mon Nov 8, 2004, 09:21 PM
Number of posts: 16,420
Latest Discussions»Yorkie Mom's Journal