RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.theepochtimes.com/trump-transition-team-records-was-secretly-given-to-fbi-and-mueller-senate-committees-report_3551212.html?utm_

The General Service Administration (GSA) secretly gave President Donald Trump’s transition team records to then-special counsel Robert Mueller and the FBI in 2017, a report by two Senate committees says.

Meanwhile, the GSA refused to provide Trump’s transition team copies of its own records, according to the report (pdf).

GSA, the executive agency responsible for providing services to the transition teams of both Democrat and Republican candidates, had agreed to a memorandum of understanding with Trump’s transition team. According to the memorandum, the records would be regarded as the private property of the transition team and the GSA would not retain those records at the conclusion of the transition.

The majority staff report released on Friday by Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and Senate Finance Committee shows GSA officials proactively contacted the FBI to ask if they should preserve Trump transition team records on Feb. 15, 2017, after Michael Flynn resigned as Trump’s national security adviser. The agency then decided to preserve all of the Trump transition team’s records after the FBI requested them to preserve records associated with Flynn.

The GSA officials’ offer to the FBI to preserve the Trump transition team’s records came after the removal process of the records had begun on Jan. 26, 2017, according to the terms of the memorandum.

The removal process was stopped afterward.

 A Thoughtful commentary from a friend:

I have watched some of the Amy Coney Barrett confirmation hearings, and I am struck by the vehemence of the Democratic Senators inquiring how she would rule if Roe v. Wade were challenged in the Supreme Court. All this publicity has brought Roe v. Wade front and center once again, and yes, her faith alone suggests that she might be against abortion at any level.

However, all of those who spoke for her commented time and again on her ability to disregard her personal feelings and opinions in favor of the rule of law, so there is no reason to believe she would vote otherwise. She reiterated it time and again, question after question.

Personally, after these weeks of discovery and disclosure about Judge Barrett, I find her to be above reproach; she does not appear to have a single skeleton in her closet. Among her many attributes are integrity, grace, character, brilliance, humility and faith, and she is obviously more than qualified for the position of Associate Justice of the Supreme Court.

But what if Roe v. Wade did come up on the docket? For years there has been speculation about the constitutionally of the law; perhaps down the road there would be a challenge to it, and with the new balance on the court, it might be overturned or limited. This is what the pro-choice advocates fear. It got me to wondering how it is that the Supreme Court of the United States, arguably the country which is the greatest champion of human rights the world has ever seen, ever ever passed a law that so egregiously violates those rights.

https://amgreatness.com/2020/10/23/new-york-city-restaurateurs-can-no-longer-swallow-subjective-unscientific-covid-restrictions/

Restaurants, delis, and pubs are the lifeblood of our neighborhoods. They’re places we go to congregate with colleagues, celebrate with family, and catch up on “hyperlocal” news and gossip with neighbors. Much of the character and vibrancy of a neighborhood is found in its eateries.

On April 13, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced a Northeast regional plan to reopen the state’s economy in coordination with New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Delaware: “We have reached a plateau in the number of cases and . . . should start looking forward to reopening but with a plan. The art form will be doing it smartly, in a coordinated way, cooperatively and share intelligence.”

Unfortunately, Cuomo long ago ditched the idea of coordinating the full reopening of New York City with nearby states, and the Big Apple lagged months behind other regions in the state—and in the entire Northeast—to allow indoor dining and drinking.

Coincidentally or not, days after a planned class-action suit by more than 450 restaurants in New York City got local media coverage in early September, Cuomo relented—exactly one iota—and announced restaurants in the five boroughs could offer limited indoor seating starting September 30.

Restaurants in Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester and other suburban counties have been allowed to offer indoor seating at half of maximum occupancy since the middle of June, and are subject to significantly laxer mandatory practices.

Il Bacco Ristorante, the lead plaintiff in the class-action suit is located in Little Neck, Queens. Compare the COVID-19 protocols imposed on Il Bacco and Peter Luger Steak House, which is within walking distance in Great Neck, Long Island:

https://www.theepochtimes.com/studies-show-significant-drop-in-mortality-rate-since-beginning-of-pandemic_3550621.html

Two recent studies found that the rate of mortality has been dropping for hospitalized COVID-19 patients.

One of the studies was conducted on hospitalizations in the New York University Langone Health system between March and August. An author of the study, Leora Horwitz, also an associate professor at the Grossman School of Medicine at NYU, said that from the beginning of the pandemic until now, the mortality rate for patients infected with the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus has decreased significantly.

The study, which looked at over 5,000 patients inside the Langone Health system, discovered that in the study timeframe, the mortality rate decreased from 25.6 percent in March to 7.6 percent in August—an 18 percent decrease from the start of the pandemic.

According to the data, the median age was seen to have decreased over time, meaning that as time went on, most patients infected with the CCP virus were younger. Although that change seemed to partially explain the decreased mortality rate, it didn’t account for all of it.

“Even after risk adjustment for variety of clinical and demographic factors, including severity of illness at presentation, mortality was significantly and progressively lower over the course of the study period,” the study stated.

Patients of all ages experienced a decreased mortality rate. Among those, patients who were at or over the age of 75 saw the largest decrease, from just under 45 percent in the beginning of March to a under 10 percent in August.

The study also suggests that the decreased mortality may be in part due to a combination of factors such as increased clinical experience, decreased hospital volume, as well as more advanced treatment procedures, something that was seen in another study conducted in the United Kingdom.