Agents foiled a stunning plot to kidnap Michigan Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, authorities said Thursday in announcing charges in an alleged scheme that involved months of planning and even rehearsals to snatch her from her vacation home.
Six men were charged in federal court with conspiring to kidnap the governor in reaction to what they viewed as her “uncontrolled power,” according to a federal complaint. Separately, seven others were charged in state court under Michigan’s anti-terrorism laws for allegedly targeting police and seeking a “civil war.”
Flies landing on presidential candidates have always been a hit online. Obama had his on his lip, and Hillary had hers on her forehead in 2016.
Last night during the vice presidential debate with Mike Pence and Kamala Harris, the fly made famous by landing on the vice presidents white sheen of hair for at at least two minutes.
Capitalizing on the insect was presidential candidate Joe Biden, with his campaign immediately circulating a photo of the vice president with the flyswatter and also selling a Biden 2020 official flyswatter on their campaign page!
Some may argue that there is a metaphysical or paranormal tale to this fly. Perhaps the fly landed on a dying campaign? Or perhaps even something more nefarious was taking place.
That more nefarious issue could be a vice president with an unknown element!
After all, another part of the debate that got more attention than what the candidates were saying we’re close up images of Mike Pence his eyes, with one eye seemingly becoming more and more bloody throughout the debate and at some point even ripping out moisture.
Many speculated on social media that the vice president could actually have COVID-19! The DrudgeReport played up the image putting it at the top of the page, also utilizing the fly on Pence his head in the Bidens place water above the main fold.
This year, October has two full moons. October 1 gave us the Harvest Moon, the full moon closest to the autumnal equinox..
This normally occurs in September but edged into October this year. Also known as the Full Corn Moon or Barley Moon in some parts of America, farmers have traditionally made the most of its light to gather in crops well into the night before winter sets in.
The second full moon in any given month is known as the Blue Moon; there are seven every 19 years. The name is something of a placeholder, given in order to keep the year’s other full moons in their rightful place. This is because the moon completes 12 full cycles of its phase in 354 days, eleven short of the full solar calendar year of 365 days.This year’s is particularly unusual as it is the first full moon to occur across all time zones since 1944, although there is a full moon on Halloween somewhere in the world every 19 years – meaning that the next one to occur will be in 2039, followed by 2058 and 2077.
Cineworld is shuttering all 543 of its Regal Cinema venues in the U.S. and 128 of its cinemas across the U.K. and Ireland this coming week, just days after James Bond film “No Time to Die” was pushed to April 2021.
Regal is the second-largest theater chain in the United States behind AMC Theatres and as of now, it’s unclear when the company plans to reopen the locations both stateside and abroad.
The closures are expected to impact at least 5,500 employees in the United Kingdom and upwards of 28,000 employees in the United States.
According to a Varietyreport, the chains could be closed until next year at the earliest.
Perhaps before we get into a few headlines and snippets of news, we should take a pause.
A deep, deep breath. Inhale..
If you thought the high speed railway of 2020 news would slow, you were mistaken. It turned into a monster freight train running of its tracks in some macabre October surprise, thanks to the coronavirus.
News headlines blazed around the global last night when President Donald Trump revealed that he and First Lady Melania had tested positive for COVID-19. As did the head of the Republican Party.. as did a Senator. As did Hope Hicks. As a matter of fact, the outbreak at the White House has been so fast and free that a Axios established a constantly updated page called Trump Coronavirus Tracker.
This is how the AP branded the breaking October surprise story:
News that the world’s most powerful man was infected with the world’s most notorious disease drew instant reactions of shock, sympathy, undisguised glee and, of course, the ever-present outrage and curiosity surrounding everything about President Donald Trump.
Trump’s announcement Friday, on Twitter, that he and first lady Melania Trump tested positive for the coronavirus, and the deep uncertainty that accompanied it, flashed across screens large and small, upending countless plans and sparking comment everywhere from presidential offices to the thousands looking to weigh in on social media.
The positive test reading for the leader of the world’s largest economy adds more uncertainty to investors’ worries, especially about its effect on the Nov. 3 election between the Republican president and Democrat Joe Biden. U.S. stock futures and most world markets fell on the news as did the price of oil.
CRICKETS AND DRAMA
The silence was deafening from the White House for most of Friday. Speculation was rampant about Joe Biden, who got tested twice today and is reportedly negative. Also rumors abounded about Mike Pence, who also reportedly is negative for COVID..
But how as the President himself doing? Things seemed sketchy and mysterious.
The White House initially said the president had mild symtoms. But the time Larry Kudlow was on cable news today, he said it was ‘moderate’ .. The First Lady Tweeted she was doing fine.
But there was nothing from the President.
Finally near the evening hour–after the stock market closed for Friday–news swiftly spread that the President was experiencing a fever.. he had a cough.. he was fatigued.. Also reported: He was given a cocktail of drugs to try warding off effects of the virus.
CHOPPER COUGH
By 5pm tonight, breaking news alerts across the world and social media declined into madness when it was announced that Donald Trump was being taken to Walter Reed Medical Center.. potentially for days..
In the midst of the media mania, White House official Alyssa Farah says power has not been transferred to Vice President Pence.
“The President is in charge,” she said, adding she is not aware of any additional coronavirus cases.
x x x
The President is in charge. Let that statement sink in.. dwell on those words to consider just what state of affairs, and what a nail biter of a moment we are in .. American history textbooks will undoubtedly speak of this year. But they will also capture this very day. This day that we all have lived through..
The path that this event takes next will be left to a higher power or natural fate. The future of American Democracy will be left to those who live in this Democratic Republic.
The world is watching.. And all we want to do is close our eyes.
HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
There is some comfort in remembering that we have been here before (kind of) .. while no two or three events are comparable and all are unique, there is some precedent for what we are living through.
During Johnson’s last months in office, the President was hospitalized with the flu at the Bethesda Naval Hospital.
The media then, unlike today’s feeding frenzy, did not cover the event in the same manner that you’d expect.. They called Johnson’s battle with the pandemic a the “sniffles.” Doctors said he should simply rest.
And this may ring a bell: The White House called it a chest cold and low grade fever… Meanwhile, this was the state of affairs for the President with “sniffles:”
Back during the famous Spanish Flu (that we have often written about on this site) another United States President would acquire a pandemic. Woodrow Wilson began to feel ill on April 3, 1919. He got a fever, was unable to move, and went to bed.
He had contracted the Spanish flu, so bad that the President’s physician wrote confidentially to the White House, and it had made Wilson “violently sick.”
Wilson was in Paris for the treaty negotiations following the end of the First World War. It was at this even that he became ill. At that very decisive moment in global history.
Wilson recovered from the influenza, but suffered a severe stroke six months later, and was incapacitated through the remainder of his Presidency.. Some speculate that the Spanish Flu led to his death due to a body ravaged by that virulent pandemic.
But Wilson’s name is uniquely absent from virtually all historic stories about the Spanish Flu. He did not address it in public at all, nothing. Never. He had no time for the pandemic that was destroying the lives of so many around the United States–and they were having mask debates and school closings just like today. Instead he focused on the war.. and finally his unspoken words came back to harm his gravely..
And some other honorable mentions in history:
Dwight Eisinhower had heart issues and a heart attack. The nation at that time rallied around the guy they liked, Ike.
William Henry Harrison was only 32 days into his term as the ninth president of the United States when he became the first president to die in office. People blame his 2 hour long Inauguration Speech as to how he contracted either Typhoid fever or pneumonia.
Zachary Taylor died just 16 months after being sworn in as the 12th president of the United States. On July 4, 1950, Taylor had attended Fourth of July festivities on a scorching day in Washington, D.C., then returned to the White House where he ate cherries and drank iced milk and water. That night, he fell ill with stomach cramps that were diagnosed as cholera.
In 1923, Warren Harding died of a heart attack.
In 1945, beloved longtermed president Franklin Roosevelt died of a stroke.
Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in 1865.
John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963.
And Ronald Reagan spent days in the hospital and almost died (we did not get told that then however) .. but survived and gained incredible fame as the Teflon Gipper when he made the joke, “Honey I forgot to duck.”
William McKinley was shot, and was initally reported to be recovering. And in good spirits.
James Garfield was shot in 1881. A long vigil began, and Garfield’s doctors issued regular bulletins that the American public followed closely throughout the summer of 1881.. His condition fluctuated; fevers came and went, he struggled to keep down solid food, and he spent most of the summer eating only liquids.
x x x
So exhale now. We have been through worse before.. And we may be through worse in the future again.
Time is never on our side.
And we’ve said this for years: No one ever said it was fun living through history.
Joseph Laurinaitis, better known in the professional wrestling world as Road Warrior Animal, died at the age of 60 on Wednesday morning. Animal’s official Twitter account broke the news — “At this time, we would like to confirm the passing of Joseph Laurinaitis aka Road Warrior Animal at the age of 60. The family is planning to release a statement later today. At this time we ask for you to keep everyone in your thoughts and prayers.”
At first, I have to admit, I was a little skeptical. How would this all work? Would the cast and crew be able to remain safe and healthy for a span of days and weeks? But any trepidation I had quickly left me when I saw the time and effort put in to insure this production would run smoothly and safely.
Ward goes on to reveal that cast and crew received COVID tests every single morning, regardless of whether or not they were required to be on set.
That may be surprising given the state of testing in the United States! So many are struggling to get tested.. But Ward and cast etc were able to daily.
The porn production house also hired an EMT, and temperatures were checked frequently and at random. We are sure it was ‘hot’ in there.
Ward wrote that ‘disinfecting, and distancing were enforced, and only performers in scenes could take their masks off.’
But you can rest easy tonight with this knowledge: Ward made the best of a tragic situation.
Ward has been abstaining from sexual relations in her personal life due to anxiety about spreading and contracting the coronavirus – but the safety of the set gave her a place to let loose without having to worry about anyone being infected.
‘I had missed random human contact so much I think I mauled my first scene partner, but he didn’t seem to mind.’
This has been widely reported: Ransomware invaded 30 servers at University Hospital Düsseldorf last week, crashing systems and forcing the hospital to turn away emergency patients.
News agencies have informed global audiences that a woman in a life-threatening condition was sent to a hospital 20 miles away in Wuppertal and died from treatment delays…
If true, it would be the the first known and reported incident of a cyber attack actually leading to the death of a patient..
It also may not be a complete surprise..
Germany’s cyber-security agency, the Federal Office for Information Security, was called in to shore up the hospital’s systems. The Citrix flaw had been known about since December 2019 and called on healthcare facilities not to delay IT security upgrades.
Authorities in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia launched an investigation on Thursday into suspected “negligent homicide” after a ransomware attack crippled a hospital in Düsseldorf.
A woman scheduled for life-saving treatment at the Düsseldorf University Clinic on Friday night had to be redirected to a hospital in Wuppertal roughly 60 kilometers (38 miles) away. A ransomware cyberattack had forced emergency services to redirect nearly ambulances bound for the Düsseldorf hospital to other medical facilities. The state Justice Ministry suggested the woman had died as a result of the delay in treatment caused by the ransomware.
Perhaps an unintended consequence of an intended action?
German state authorities said the attack on the hospital was likely unintended. On one of the servers, a note was found requesting that the Heinrich Heine University get in contact with the perpetrators.
“There was no concrete ransom demand,” according to the hospital.
A package containing ricin poison that was addressed to US President Donald Trump has been intercepted before it reached the White House, officials told US media.
The letter was discovered at a screening facility for White House mail earlier this week, the officials said.
They said a substance found inside the envelope was identified as ricin, a poison found naturally in castor beans.
The Trump administration is yet to comment on the reports.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Secret Service are investigating where the package came from and whether others have been sent through the US postal system.
