Mike Pompeo Says He’s ‘Convinced’ COVID-19 Began As Lab Leak In China

Joshua Rhett Miller at the New York Post offers a piece on Mike Pompeo’s view that the COVID-19 pandemic originated in a Communist Chinese laboratory.

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he is “convinced” that the coronavirus pandemic originated in a Chinese lab — and is accusing the Communist government of covering up the leak.

“There are many things the United States government could do to impose real cost on the Chinese Communist Party until they come clean about what they know and what they did,” Pompeo told Fox News.

“We know for sure they covered up this virus. I am confident that we will find that the evidence that we have seen to date is consistent with a lab leak and I’m convinced that’s what we’ll see. If I am wrong, I hope the Chinese Communist Party will come forward and make a fool of me.”

Pompeo, now a Fox News contributor, made the pointed comments following a report in the Wall Street Journal that three workers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology were hospitalized in November 2019 with symptoms consistent with both COVID-19 and seasonal illness.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

Mike Pompeo 'convinced' COVID-19 began as lab leak in China (nypost.com) 

Sheriff Exposes Columnist Traffic Stop Tale

As a writer and columnist for nearly 25 years, I’m dismayed by biased and erroneous news coverage, called “fake news” by President Trump and simply poor journalism by others. 

Journalistic standards, ethics and fairness too often go by the wayside when an opinionated journalist wants to score a political point.

Even though a columnist, unlike a straight reporter, can offer opinion and analysis, he too is required to adhere to journalism ethics and standards. He should not embellish or outright lie, as was the case reported by Joshua Rhett Miller at the New York Post.

A sheriff in Missouri is firing back at a now-suspended newspaper columnist who claimed to experience what “minority motorists” must feel when getting pulled over by cops, saying he was lucky he didn’t “get shot” during a recent traffic stop.

Boone County Sheriff Dwayne Carey has refuted a June 30 opinion column by longtime Columbia Daily Tribune columnist Bill Clark, who was stopped 10 days earlier for failing to use his turn signal. Clark, an 84-year-old white man, suggested in the column that he might’ve been pulled over because of his “liberal bumper stickers,” an obvious sign of an “aging hippie with a weed habit,” he claimed.

…But a review of dashcam video told a different story, according to Carey, who contacted the newspaper’s managing editor, Charles Westmoreland, to disagree with Clark’s version of events. Carey also released the 11-minute video and penned an 1,800-word response to Clark’s column, blasting it as “sensationalism” and disputed the claims of “arrogance” on behalf of the deputies.

“In his column he indicates, ‘I’m lucky I didn’t get shot,’” Carey wrote. “There is never a weapon drawn, the deputies don’t take a position of cover, there are no loud verbal commands, no panic or anything else for that matter by the deputies. Would you agree this is sensationalism at its best? I say yes!”

You can read the rest of the piece and view the dashcam video via the below link:

http://nypost.com/2017/07/07/sheriff-blasts-columnists-sensational-account-of-traffic-stop/

  

Note: The columnist was suspended quite rightly by his editor. Thankfully, the police recorded the traffic stop. I believe that all police officers should have body cams for the public and their own protection. And one should not condemn all journalists for the biased and erroneous news reporting of some reporters and news organizations. 

Sold For A Penny: Farewell To The USS Forrestal, The Navy's First Supercarrier

Joshua Rhett Miller at Foxnews.com reports on the one cent sale of the USS Forrestal.

Here’s a penny for your thoughts: One red cent could’ve landed you the Navy’s first supercarrier, the decommissioned Forrestal.

The U.S. Navy sold the 1,067-foot behemoth to a Texas company, All Star Metals, to be dismantled, scrapped and recycled, Navy officials announced. It's an inauspicious fate for a ship with a colorful — and tragic — history. It's perhaps best known for a 1967 incident in which stray voltage triggered an accidental explosion that struck a plane on the flight deck whose cockpit was occupied by a young John McCain. A chain reaction of blasts and fires ultimately killed 134 men and injured more than 300.

But its rich past and nearly four decades of service are not enough to spare it. The Navy tried to donate the historic ship for use as a memorial or a museum, but no “viable applications” were received.

“It’s something that the Navy is caught between a rock and a hard place,” said Ken Killmeyer, historian for the USS Forrestal Association and a survivor of the 1967 incident. “They have to have these vessels no matter how big or small they are, and they use them as you would your car until they’re no longer financially viable. So, they decommission them.”

You can read the rest of the story via the below link:

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/10/23/forrestal-navy-first-supercarrier-sold-for-1-penny/?intcmp=trending

You can also read about the history of the USS Forrestal via the below link:

http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/f3/forrestal.htm

Note: The above photo was released by the U.S. Navy.