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Larissa

Larissa's Journal
Larissa's Journal
November 29, 2020

Critics say Trump can't be trusted with America's national secrets

Here's why critics say Trump can't be trusted with America's national secrets after leaving office

https://www.alternet.org/2020/11/trump-national-security/

Can a scorned President Donald Trump be trusted with the United States' national secrets after leaving office next year? It's a question floating around as the embattled president wages war on not only the Democratic Party but also certain aspects of his own party.

Former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer David Priess and other former intelligence officials are warning President-elect Joe Biden to forego the country's longstanding tradition of briefing the former president on international developments due to the potential threat he may pose after exiting the White House.

According to NBC News, Jack Goldsmith, who served as a senior U.S. Department of Justice official under the George W. Bush administration, expressed concern about Trump compared to past presidents who have left the office. "This is not something that one could have ever imagined with other presidents, but it's easy to imagine with this one," said Goldsmith.

November 14, 2020

'We blew it': U.S. reaches 'explosive' COVID-19 spread as virus is nearly impossible to control

Source: Yahoo! News

With COVID-19 cases increasing in 46 states, 10 of which broke single-day records for new cases on Thursday, America has officially entered what experts refer to as the “exponential” phase of spread — a rapid multiplying of cases that can’t be contained through traditional measures. On Thursday alone, the U.S. saw 160,000 new cases of the virus, more than any day since the pandemic began.

In California, the second state to surpass 1 million cases, thousands of people in cars lined up at Dodger Stadium on Thursday to get tested; in parts of Washington state, individuals waited four to five hours.

The current spike in cases — which some states are calling a third wave — has brought more than 100,000 new cases a day since Nov. 4. But that’s not counting those that may be going undetected. “We have widespread, uncontrolled COVID-19 in many parts of the country,” says Dr. Amesh Adalja, senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. “And we know the cases reported are an underestimate of what is out there ... we’re missing many cases because people aren’t getting tested. So the true number is much higher than what we’re actually seeing.”

Adalja says that exponential spread means a virus is no longer increasing on a linear scale but is instead spiking at a rapid rate. Dr. Oguzhan Alagoz, an engineering professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who models the spread of infectious diseases, agrees, saying exponential spread refers to an “unbelievably high growth rate.” In this case, that means new COVID-19 cases in many parts of the country are doubling or tripling each week. Part of this, he says, is due to the fact that COVID-19 seems more contagious than other viruses.

Read more: https://news.yahoo.com/we-blew-it-us-reaches-explosive-covid-19-spread-as-virus-is-nearly-impossible-to-control-experts-say-210948870.html

November 13, 2020

More than 130 Secret Service Agents Infected with Coronavirus

Back in May, Dr. Anthony Fauci warned that the "one thing this virus has that's really different from so many other viruses . . . it has phenomenal capability and efficiency in spreading from person to person. This is a virus that spreads as easily as any virus that I've ever known, apart from maybe measles."


https://www.pressherald.com/2020/11/13/the-latest-u-s-airport-screenings-caught-only-9-coronavirus-cases-out-of-766000-travelers/

More than 130 Secret Service officers who help protect the White House and the president when he travels have recently been ordered to isolate or quarantine because they tested positive for the coronavirus or had close contact with infected co-workers, according to three people familiar with agency staffing.

The spread of the coronavirus — which has sidelined roughly 10 percent of the agency’s core security team — is believed to be partly linked to a series of campaign rallies that President Trump held in the weeks before the Nov. 3 election, according to the people, who, like others interviewed for this report, spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the situation.

The outbreak comes as coronavirus cases have been rapidly rising across the nation, with more than 152,000 new cases reported Thursday.

The virus is having a dramatic impact on the Secret Service’s presidential security unit at the same time that growing numbers of prominent Trump campaign allies and White House officials have fallen ill in the wake of campaign events, where many attendees did not wear masks.

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WaPo link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/secret-service-coronavirus-outbreak/2020/11/13/610eebcc-2539-11eb-8672-c281c7a2c96e_story.html?itid=hp-banner-main

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