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President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he had instructed the U.S. Navy to fire on any Iranian ships that harass it at sea, a week after 11 vessels from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy (IRGCN) came dangerously close to U.S. ships in the Gulf. Close interactions with Iranian military vessels were not uncommon in 2016 and 2017. On several occasions, U.S. Navy ships fired warning shots at Iranian vessels when they got too close. While the Navy has the authority to act in self-defense, Trump’s comments appeared to go further and are likely to stoke tensions between Iran and...

The ads on Facebook sounded populist and passionate: "The people are rising up against these insane shutdowns," they said. "We're fighting back to demand that our elected officials reopen America." But the posts, funded by an initiative called "Convention of States," were not the product of a grass-roots uprising alone. Instead, they represented one salvo in a wide-ranging and well-financed conservative campaign to undermine restrictions that medical experts say are necessary to contain the coronavirus - but that protesters call overkill and whose economic fallout could damage President Trump's political prospects. A network of right-leaning individuals and groups, aided by...

With so many needing help after the one-two punch of the virus and attendant economic woes, universities, which have already drained trillions without fulfilling their promises, should be at the back of the line. Even before the coronavirus crisis, universities were living large on taxpayer largesse. The entire foundation of their business model is the government-backed student loan. More than 90 percent of the dollars that trundle freshmen to their institutions each September originate with or are owned by taxpayers through the U.S. Department of Education.If, as projections suggest, enrollment takes a nosedive this fall due to changing financial situations...

WILLIAMSPORT – The Lycoming County coroner is accusing the state Health Department of “Monday morning quarterbacking deaths” in connection with the coronavirus. Charles E. Kiessling Jr., who also is president of the Pennsylvania State Coroners Association, voiced his opinion Tuesday when asked if he had any information on the two COVID-19 deaths in the county as reported by the Health Department. Kiessling said that he "was shocked upon learning there were two deaths” because none has been reported to him. He checked with the hospitals in the county and previously asked nursing homes to notify him of any deaths, he...

On this date in 1997, Peruvian paramilitaries stormed the Japanese ambassador’s residence held hostage for 126 days by leftist rebels. All 14 of the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) were slain in the raid,* along with two of the commandos and one hostage. Officially, there were no “executions” at all. Unofficially?...

For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: Romans 1:20 KJV The Y2K-rona virus is quickly looking like another Weapons of Mass Destruction scam being run by the DNC swamp. The difference between this and invading Iraq is we have already lost more treasure than we have during both wars over twenty years. The new Stanford scientific study and now the USC verification shows that we likely have somewhere around 50-100X as many...

President Donald Trump’s signature hotel in the nation’s capital wants a break on the terms of its lease. The landlord determining the fate of the request is Trump’s own administration. Trump International Hotel, just a few blocks from the White House, had been a favored gathering place for lobbyists, foreign dignitaries and others hoping to score points with the president. But like most hotels, it is now nearly empty and looking to cut costs because of the coronavirus pandemic. In recent weeks, the president’s family business has inquired about changing its lease payments, according to people familiar with the matter,...

The chief’s messages were gruesome in nature and illustrated his level of depravity. The chief knew that the person he was communicating with was a child. Despite the fact that he knew the person on the other end of the text was a child, the chief described his sexual desires to him, asked the child about the size of his genitals, and arranged to meet the child in a place “out of the way.”

Good Morning And WELCOME To The Jeffrey T.Show!

Forty-four states had more influenza deaths in 2018 than they have COVID deaths in 2020. The six outlier states: NY, NJ, MA, MI, LA, and CT.

It's time to stop throwing money at an obsolete form of travel and focus on the transportation system that is already moving more than 80 percent of passenger travel in the U.S. When most of the nation’s governors shut down nonessential businesses and directed people to stay at home, they made the mistake of keeping urban transit systems running despite a 2018 study showing that mass public transportation systems expedite the spread of infectious diseases in communities. Further, a 2011 study found that people who ride urban transit are nearly six times more likely to suffer from upper respiratory infections...

Facebook's COVID-Protest Ban Renews Censorship Concerns COMMENTARY . By Kalev Leetaru April 22, 2020 (AP Photo/Paul Sancya) Facebook’s growing power over the public square is back in the news this week as the company announced it is banning the promotion of certain kinds of back-to-work protest events on its platform. While the company’s previous bans have largely focused on blocking digital speech it finds objectionable, the move to thwart protests in the physical world underscores just how central the social media giant has become to the expression of democracy and just how much power it now wields over even our...

The liberal candidate in Wisconsin’s hard-fought state Supreme Court race this month prevailed in voting by mail by a significant margin, upending years of study showing little advantage to either party when a state transitions from in-person to mail voting. The gap suggests that Democrats were more organized and proactive in their vote-by-mail efforts in an election conducted under extraordinary circumstances, with voters forced to weigh the health risks of voting in person against the sometimes unreliable option of requesting and mailing in their ballots. Still, it is likely to add to the skepticism President Donald Trump and Republicans have...

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) said Tuesday that some parts of his state will reopen faster than others as officials in areas less-impacted by the coronavirus pandemic make the case for a regional approach. At a daily press conference in Buffalo, Cuomo noted that although New York City is densely populated and accounts for most of the cases in the state, there are “more cows than people” in some parts of upstate New York. “We operate as one state, but we also have to understand variations,” Cuomo said. “And you do want to get this economy open as soon...

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem (Music in The Bible) Hebrew Worship Words Anah Psalm 147:7Sing to the Lord with grateful praise;     make music to our God on the harp. Genesis 18:27 Then Abraham spoke up again: “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes, Genesis 30:33 And my honesty will testify for me in the future, whenever you check on the wages you have paid me. Any goat in my possession that is not speckled or spotted, or any lamb that is not dark-colored, will...

Our tune today is Please Don't Let Me Love You by George Morgan (1949). THE WESTERNER https://thewesterner.blogspot.com/

She trotted out these dubious accusations during an interview on PBS’s “NewsHour” in which host host Judy Woodruff challenged none of her claims — and in which she, Pelosi, had a facial mask hanging off her neck as if she were a cowboy. The claims began pouring out of the speaker after Woodruff asked her to cite the factors that have been “impeding the ability of the federal government to address this” crisis. . . . “I have tried to act in a bipartisan way,” the speaker continued Tuesday. “As I said, three bills in March, bipartisan. Easter, I had...

Thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, we are woefully short of ventilators that can give the most gravely ill a chance for life. There are many efforts afoot to build more ventilators. Now, instead of building ventilators, a group of open-source developers has a new idea: Create a firmware update, Airbreak, which can transform common Constant Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) machines into non-invasive ventilators.  Their first effort -- a proof of concept -- converts the Airsense 10 CPAP machine, which is a common, inexpensive sleep apnea treatment device, into a ventilator. It does so by simply replacing its existing firmware with updated firmware. With this...

On 20 August 2015, in Brevard County, Florida, John DeRossett, 55, shot and severely wounded a Brevard County sheriff's deputy. The agent was part of a sting operation, who were attempting to arrest DeRossett's niece, Mary Ellis, for prostitution.  They had set up a controlled environment at a motel, but Mary Ellis did not show up.  From floridatoday.com: Brevard County agents set up a prostitution sting on Aug. 20, 2015, arranging to meet DeRossett's niece, Mary Ellis, at a motel where a controlled environment had been set up to conduct an arrest.When she didn't show, the three deputies in plain...

In the early days of the COVID-19 panic—about three weeks ago—it was common to hear both of these phrases often repeated: "The fatality rate of this virus is very high!" "There are far more cases of this out there than we know about!" The strategy of insisting that both these statements are true at the same time has been used by politicians to implement "lockdowns" that have forced business to close and millions to lose their jobs. For instance, on March 12, Ohio Department of Health director Amy Acton insisted that "over 100,000" people are "carrying this virus in Ohio...