Day: October 7, 2020

Brennan Personally Briefed Obama on Clinton Campaign’s Russia Collusion Operation in 2016

Michigan Star Staff

CIA Director John Brennan personally briefed former President Barack Obama on Russia’s knowledge of Hillary Clinton’s “plan” to smear then-candidate Donald Trump as a Russian stooge during the 2016 presidential election, newly declassified documents reveal.

Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe on Tuesday declassified Brennan’s handwritten notes from the briefing, as well as a CIA memo revealing that officials referred the matter to the FBI for potential investigative action. That referral was sent to then-FBI Director James Comey and then-Deputy Assistant Director of Counterintelligence Peter Strzok.

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Commentary: This Campaign, and This President, Are Like No Other

Michigan Star Staff

The startling revelation that President Trump and his wife have contracted COVID-19 not only contributes another imponderable complexity to this torrid election campaign, it brings forth—amid a general tide of goodwill in favor of the president and his wife—the worst traits of the Trump-haters. The media response ranged from Joy Reid’s piercing aperçu that he was faking the illness to attract sympathy, to the Lemon-Tapper school of Trump-hate at CNN, which saw it as a direct consequence of the president supposedly taking the virus lightly, leading the resistance to it incompetently, and pretending that it was a fiction, “a hoax.”

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State Dept. Officials Told They Broke Law by Monitoring Americans During Ukraine Scandal

Michigan Star Staff

State Department officials were explicitly ordered in spring 2019 to stop tracking 13 prominent Americans’ social media accounts for information about the Joe Biden-Ukraine scandal because the monitoring violated federal law, according to emails that were originally redacted to hide the concerns from the American public.

“We are barred by law from actively monitoring the accounts of American citizens in aggregate — and particularly from identifying and monitoring individual, selected accounts,” a State Department official wrote in an April 1, 2019 email to officials in Washington and the U.S. embassy in Kiev.

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Massive Trump Caravans Take Over Where the Boat Parades Left off

Michigan Star Staff

As boat season winds down with fewer pro-Trump boat parades scheduled, patriotic Americans throughout the nation are increasingly participating in car and truck caravans to show their support for President Donald Trump.

Now, more than ever, Republican voters are hitting the streets to support the president in the wake of his recent coronavirus diagnosis.

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Harvard Lecturer Pushes Wild Conspiracy Theory About Russian Spies at Walter Reed Hospital

Michigan Star Staff

Harvard University professor and CNN analyst Juliette Kayyem alleged that it is “very likely” that Russian spies infiltrated Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and gained access to information about President Donald Trump’s medical condition.

President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday. The president experienced symptoms before moving to Walter Reed Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland, out of an “abundance of caution” the following day.

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Commentary: Biden Is Behind the Curve in Fighting COVID

Michigan Star Staff

To hear former Vice President Joe Biden tell it, in January, he had perfect knowledge about the Chinese coronavirus, what its mortality would be and all the actions that would be necessary to save American lives.

On July 20 on MSNBC, Biden claimed, “I, all the way back in January, warned him this pandemic was coming. I talked about what we needed to do,” referring to President Trump and a Jan. 27 oped he wrote on the virus.

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Andrew Cuomo Threatens to Shut Down Churches, Synagogues, Says ‘Religious Institutions Have Been a Problem’

Michigan Star Staff
Andrew Cuomo

Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo threatened Monday to close down religious institutions, specifically Jewish synagogues, if they do not follow his coronavirus restrictions.

“We know religious institutions have been a problem,” Cuomo said at a Monday press conference. “We know mass gatherings are the super spreader events. We know there have been mass gatherings going on in concert with religious institutions in these communities for weeks. For weeks.”

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Texas Grand Jury Indicts Netflix for ‘Lewd Visual Material’ in Cuties, State Rep Says

Michigan Star Staff

A Texas grand jury has indicted Netflix, Inc. for “lewd visual material” in the movie “Cuties,” a Texas state representative said Tuesday.

Republican Texas state Rep. Matt Schaefer announced Tuesday afternoon that a grand jury for Tyler County, Texas, indicted Netflix, Inc., for “promoting material in Cuties film which depicts lewd exhibition of pubic area of a clothed or partially clothed child who was younger than 18 yrs of age which appeals to the prurient interest in sex.” 

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Boeing Says Pandemic Will Cut Demand for Planes for a Decade

The Associated Press

Boeing is lowering its expectations around demand for new planes over the next decade as the coronavirus pandemic continues to undercut air travel.

The company on Tuesday predicted that the world will need 18,350 new commercial airplanes in the next decade, a drop of 11% from its 2019 forecast. The value of that market will slide by about $200 billion from last year’s forecast, to $2.9 trillion.

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CDC Updates Coronavirus Guidance Again, Warns About Transmission from More than Six Feet

Michigan Star Staff

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its coronavirus guidance Monday to warn about the potential for virus spread from beyond six feet.

The new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidance also says that the virus can “linger in the air” for hours. The revision comes weeks after the agency retracted a similar update to its coronavirus guidance.

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‘Dune’ Ditches 2020, While AMC Commits to Staying Open

Michigan Star Staff

The 2020 theatrical release calendar is getting even slimmer in the wake of the announcement that Regal cinemas are temporarily closing, although AMC, North America’s largest theater chain, says it will remain open.

Warner Bros. said late Monday that its sci-fi pic “Dune” will now open in October 2021, instead of this December. The studio also pushed back “The Batman” to March 2022 and moved up its “Matrix” sequel to Dec. 2021.

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Music Legend Eddie Van Halen Dies of Cancer at 65

Michigan Star Staff

Eddie Van Halen, the guitar virtuoso whose blinding speed, control and innovation propelled his band Van Halen into one of hard rock’s biggest groups, fueled the unmistakable fiery solo in Michael Jackson’s hit “Beat It” and became elevated to the status of rock god, has died. He was 65.

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Whitmer Asks Michigan Supreme Court To Clarify Ruling Takes Effect Oct. 30, Republicans Say Order Effective Immediately

Jordyn Pair

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Monday asked the state’s Supreme Court for clarification that its recent order overturning her emergency powers does not take effect until October 30.

The ruling, mandated October 2, struck down the statute under which Whitmer had been issuing coronavirus emergency orders, nullifying the orders and saying that their issuance had been unconstitutional.

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Black Lives Matter Plans to Paint Street Mural in Nashville

Jason M. Reynolds

Black Lives Matter organizers plan to paint a street mural in Nashville on Saturday.

Muralist Thaxton Waters II and other artists plan to paint the mural along Woodland Avenue, the same day as the Women’s March in Nashville, Fox 17 News reported. Organizers say they soon will announce events for that day, and they expect over 10,000 to attend.

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