Trying to cut through the fog and chatter it appears the Carnival Magic cruise ship has been denied entry to Mexico.

Cruise ship with isolated health care worker who handled Ebola samples was turned away from Mexico: http://t.co/JspTA2nLpk

— ABC News (@ABC) October 17, 2014

….And therein lies the reason for governmental obfuscation and media avoidance of the entire episode.
The political risk is obvious.
Both Belize, and now Mexico, have denied entry for a U.S. cruise ship carrying a healthcare worker who treated Patient Zero Thomas Duncan – yet U.S. President Obama refuses to shut down inbound air passengers from West Africa.
If you take the situation at face value the political argument is that Obama cares less for the risk of his citizenry than the Prime Minister of Belize and the President of Mexico.
The position of Mexico and Belize undermines the position of President Obama.
So what’s going on?
The U.S. government, and Carnival Cruise lines, are stating the cruise passenger, and her husband, are self-quarantined and exhibiting no symptoms. The Belize government has stated a divergent set of facts, at least initially.  Belize was saying the cruise passenger WAS exhibiting Ebola symptoms. (more…)

If this is accurate it would explain why no travel ban is being considered.
Washington, DC – Judicial Watch has learned that the Obama administration is actively formulating plans to admit Ebola-infected non-U.S. citizens into the United States for treatment. Specifically, the goal of the administration is to bring Ebola patients into the United States for treatment within the first days of diagnosis.
It is unclear who would bear the high costs of transporting and treating non-citizen Ebola patients. The plans include special waivers of laws and regulations that ban the admission of non-citizens with a communicable disease as dangerous as Ebola. (more…)

5-Month-Old Lancen Kendall of Phoenix Arizona becomes the seventh child to die as a result of Enterovirus D68 since mid-August.

Arizona – […]   Lancen Kendall, is one of 24 cases statewide that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is testing for the deadly D68 strain.

Lancen’s parents say he showed no signs or symptoms that he was sick and that he just didn’t wake up from a nap earlier this month. He was rushed to Banner Thunderbird Medical Center and, five days later, pronounced brain dead.

“The lack of warning is the scariest part to me. We didn’t know he was sick,” said his father, Kevin Kendall.

The death of their 5-month-old is still an impossible scenario for the couple. Their son always had a beaming smile and appeared healthy, they say, but doctors determined he was dying from a strain of the enterovirus.

“It’s kind of terrifying that it literally came out of nowhere,” said his mother, Kathleen Kendall.  (link)

Lancen’s death in Arizona follows the deaths of children in Michigan, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Illinois, Missouri and a severe case in Alabama. (more…)

(more…)

The advisors to the President feel this Oval Office update was effective, hence the upload to the White House site.

Key takeaways: The White House doesn’t support a travel ban (quarantine) from West Africa because it would drive people to be deceptive in their travel arrangements. In essence “they would lie”.
This position is undermined by the fact that patient Zero already lied to gain travel access to the U.S. subsequently creating the original Ebola exposure. This deception occurred while no travel ban is in place, so why would a travel ban increase the likelihood of deception? (more…)

Reminder – healthcare workers in Liberia are now on strike.

Pres Obama signs Exec Order authorizing use of Reservists to assist in US Military mission building Ebola treatment centers in West Africa.

— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) October 16, 2014

(more…)

The Kurds battling for Kobane (Kobani) continue to request resupply and additional weapons from the U.S. and Turkey. However, neither President Obama nor President Erdogan have done anything to provide reinforcements for the Kurdish fighters.
Despite their isolation, and with assistance from airstrikes in the surrounding terrain, Kurdish fighters have been able to recapture strategic locations from ISIS control.

SYRIA – Kurdish fighters have launched an unlikely comeback against Islamic State terrorists besieging the Syrian town of Kobane, amid claims the resistance forces have now reclaimed swathes of the city.
Images this morning showed Kurdish YPG soldiers triumphantly raising their flag above Tel Shair hill in the west of the city, where ISIS’ own black jihadist flag had recently been flying.
Assisted by sustained U.S. and Arab airstrikes, the massively outgunned Kurdish troops have managed to do what looking impossible only a week ago – force ISIS to abandon strategic locations in the west of Kobane and pin them back elsewhere in the city.
(more…)

Historic lows in Obama Polling “Coincide” With An Obama Change of Schedule

Major Garrett: Josh, couple of a months ago when the Malaysia Airlines jet was shot down over Ukraine. the President carried on with his campaign schedule. … A member of the staff said “abrupt changes to the president’s schedule could have unintended consequence of unduly alarming the American people or creating a false sense of crisis.” Did you do that today?

You might remember Major Garrett’s “hot mic” episode last week. (more…)

President Obama Has Cancelled Tonight’s Fundraiser !!

CDC Thomas Frieden says:

“We have stopped every Ebola outbreak, until this one!

The second Ebola treatment nurse, diagnosed with Ebola herself, is a 29-year-old named Amber Vinson.
Riddle me this: The second nurse who has Ebola in Texas flew on a plane two days before apparently developing symptoms. The CDC is alarmed by the commercial travel method. The CDC says Ebola exposures should have “controlled travel” only, and wants 132 passengers who were on the plane with the nurse to call them ASAP. Why?

[Frontier Airlines] “At approximately 1:00 a.m. MT on October 15, Frontier was notified by the CDC that a customer traveling on Frontier Airlines flight 1143 Cleveland to Dallas/Fort Worth on Oct. 13 has since tested positive for the Ebola virus.

The flight landed in Dallas/Fort Worth at 8:16 p.m. local and remained overnight at the airport having completed its flying for the day at which point the aircraft received a thorough cleaning per our normal procedures which is consistent with CDC guidelines prior to returning to service the next day. It was also cleaned again in Cleveland last night. Previously the customer had traveled from Dallas Fort Worth to Cleveland on Frontier flight 1142 on October 10.  (link)

The CDC opposes a travel ban to/from West Africa. To support their position the CDC says if a person has no symptoms there is no reason to worry. They say the Dallas nurse, Amber Vinson, had no symptoms – yet her travel is alarming.  A contradiction, no? (more…)

The siege of Kobane (Kobani) enters day #29 tomorrow. The Kurdish men, women and entire families continue to hold about two-thirds of the city.
Day #28 saw six suicide car bombs from ISIS aimed at Kobane leadership positions inside the city. Meanwhile in Turkey President Erdogan still refuses to assist the sieged city and will not permit Kurdish citizens from Turkey to cross the border to join their brothers and sisters in arms.

To the contrary today saw Erdogan actually begin to bomb the Kurds inside Turkey in clear violation of a 2 year ceasefire. Erdogan is doing just about everything he can to speed up the collapse of Kobane in Northern Syria. The longer Kobane holds out, the more politically dangerous the elements within Turkey become to the centralized power of Sunni Erdogan.
Simultaneously, pressure, or more aptly put, “optics” and “political pressure” are creating a disconcerting place for President Obama. At his core Sunni Obama wants desperately to support his ideological brother, Erdogan. However, the longer the Kurds in Kobane are able to hold on, the more pressure mounts upon Obama as more people begin to ask the question ‘why is he not helping them’?
(more…)