London police clashed with demonstrators on Saturday as they broke up a protest in Trafalgar Square against COVID-19 restrictions amid rising tensions over limits on everyday life as the government tries to stem a sharp rise in infections. Police and protesters were injured when officers moved in after three hours of speeches in front of thousands of people who packed the iconic square in London waving placards opposing mandatory vaccinations, face mask requirements and limits on civil liberties. Police said they intervened because the demonstrators refused to comply with the social-distancing rules they were there to protest. Officers removed sound equipment, bottles were thrown and police drew their batons in confrontations with protesters. Several people were seen being led away in handcuffs. “Crowds in Trafalgar Square have not complied with the conditions of their risk assessment and are putting people in danger of transmitting the virus,” the Met said. The demonstration was held as Parliament prepares to review COVID-19 legislation and the government imposes new restrictions to control the disease. Some lawmakers have criticized the government for implementing the rules without parliamentary approval. Speakers at the rally denied they were conspiracy theorists, arguing they were standing up for freedom of expression and human rights. Nick Note: You are seeing the masses confused and lashing out. If your student of history you will realize this is the expected response. Serious people are prepared to do serious things. And joke people live in the moment. Something to get fuck upped on, something to fuck and something to fuck up
Bob Woodward: Trump Is ‘Putting A Dagger In The Constitution’
Journalist and “Rage” author Bob Woodward reacts to Trump’s shocking statement where he would not commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he loses the election.
It’s ‘now or never’ for ex-Trump aides weighing speaking out
WASHINGTON (AP) — Elizabeth Neumann wrestled with the decision for weeks. She worried about the backlash, the impact it would have on her career, potential threats to her family. But the former Department of Homeland Security official, who had resigned in April, reached a breaking point after President Donald Trump deployed Homeland Security agents to Portland, exacerbating tensions there. She decided it was worth the risk to speak out against Trump, whom she had come to view as a threat to the country. “Enough is enough,” said Neumann, the former assistant secretary of counterterrorism and threat prevention. “People need to understand how dangerous a moment we are in.” There are plenty of others weighing the same decision. With just weeks left before the Nov. 3 election, now is the moment of truth for current and former Trump administration officials debating whether they, too, should step forward and join the chorus of Republican voices trying to persuade on-the-fence voters to help deny Trump a second term. “It’s now or never,” said Miles Taylor, former chief of staff at DHS, who has been working to recruit others to join the effort. In interviews, Taylor has accused Trump of routinely asking aides to break the law, using his former agency for explicitly political purposes, and wanting to maim and shoot migrants trying to cross the southern border. “Those who witnessed the president’s unfitness for office up close have a moral obligation to share their assessment with the electorate,” said Taylor, who launched the group REPAIR — The Republican Political Alliance for Integrity and Reform — to bring together concerned former officials. A related group, Republican Voters Against Trump, has compiled nearly 1,000 video testimonials from Republicans across the country who want Trump out. Strategic director Sarah Longwell said her goal was to provide a “permission structure” to help wavering Republicans feel comfortable opposing Trump. The effort, she said, grew out of research on “soft” Trump voters. Former national security adviser John Bolton wrote a scathing book in which he said Trump “saw conspiracies behind rocks, and remained stunningly uninformed” on how to run the government. Former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis broke a self-imposed vow of silence in June with an op-ed slamming Trump’s response to racial justice protests. He and former director of national intelligence Dan Coats also were quoted extensively in a new book by journalist Bob Woodward calling Trump dangerous and unfit for office. But Mattis and Coats, like former White House chief of staff John Kelly and former national security adviser H.R. McMaster, have refrained from more explicit condemnations, often citing a “duty of silence” or a long tradition of military officials staying out of politics, according to people who’ve spoken with them. Efforts to draw them out are ongoing. While former Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen appears disinclined to step forward, there are hopes that former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson might be persuaded to comment and that Coats might be urged to say more. And Kelly, a retired four-star general, is said to be on the fence and torn about the decision. “I think that he loves his country and he wants to do what’s best for the country,” said Neumann, who served as Kelly’s deputy chief of staff at DHS and is hopeful he’ll speak out, even as others don’t think it will happen. Officials like Kelly, with long careers and hefty pensions, would seem to have less to lose by doing so than more junior staffers like Olivia Troye, a former counterterrorism adviser to Vice President Mike Pence who last week joined the campaign against Trump and said she’d be voting for Biden. In a video and interviews, Troye has accused Trump of mishandling the coronavirus and being more concerned about his reelection prospects than saving lives. The White House punched back with an aggressive attack campaign aimed at discrediting her through a barrage of statements, interviews and denunciations from the lectern in the White House briefing room. Taylor said it was clear the White House was “coming after” those who speak out as a warning to others who are considering doing likewise. “The White House knows if they show this is a very costly thing to do they will scare people from going forward,” he said. Rick Wilson, a longtime Republican strategist who co-founded the anti-Trump Lincoln Project, stressed that time is running out. This guy is a threat to the institutions of democracy, and I worked for him and I think it’s important to send a signal to other people,” he said, that it’s OK to speak out. Nick Note: None of this matters to the stupid majority, Give them a happy check and a golden shot so they can party again and he will get reelected. Remember Gods favorite color is stupid.
Dr. Fauci Just Said We Could Have a COVID-19 Vaccine by October
Dr. Fauci Just Said We Could Have a COVID-19 Vaccine by October From the very start of the COVID-19 pandemic, it became clear that our best hope in defeating the highly infectious and deadly virus would be in the form of a vaccine. As soon as the virus reared its ugly head in Wuhan, China back in December 2019, researchers around the world have been collecting antibodies and scrambling to develop a concoction that could make people immune to the virus. For several months, infectious disease experts, government officials, and researchers have been hopeful that a coronavirus vaccine could be developed, tested, and ready for the general public by early 2021. However, according to Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, we may have one sooner rather than later.
An October Vaccine is “Certainly Conceivable”
In a new interview, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert revealed that we could be in store for an “October surprise” in the form of an effective vaccine that could save millions from becoming infected. According to The Guardian, Fauci maintained that an October vaccine “is certainly conceivable.” “If we have a real blast of a rash of infection in those sites in which we do have active enrollment, that you might get an answer earlier than November,” he revealed. “I doubt that, but we’re leaving an open mind that that might be possible.” On Monday, the National Institutes of Health started the world’s biggest COVID-19 vaccine study, with the help of 30,000 volunteers who will receive shots of the experimental vaccine developed by the NIH and Moderna. “We’re beginning a Phase 3 trial that is very quick—it certainly is the world’s record—when one thinks from the time of the sequence to a Phase 3 trial,” Fauci said, adding, “There is no compromise at all in safety or scientific integrity.” The interesting thing about the vaccine is that it was developed using mRNA technology, never before used to make a successful vaccine before. “It’s a novel technology. We are certainly aware of the fact that there’s not as much experience with this type of platform as there are with other standards,” he told reporters during the conference call alongside NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins. “I’m not particularly concerned. But I don’t want a lack of severe concern to get in the way that we are keeping an open mind to look for any possible deleterious effects as we get into and through the phase three trial.” “Unfortunately for the United States of America, we have plenty of infections right now,” Fauci recently told The Associated Press. Other smaller vaccine trials are currently underway around the world with other large trials upcoming—including Johnson&Johnson in September, Novavax in October, and a 30,000 person study from Pfizer Inc. this summer. While many people are on the fence about getting a vaccine once it is available, according to an online registry there are a lot of people willing to be vaccine guinea pigs, with over 150,000 filling out an online form, Dr. Larry Corey, a virologist with the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Institute in Seattle, who helps oversee the study sites, told the AP. Nick Note: We are in the home stretch on the vaccine race. To much noise for their not to be a October surprise. A certified by the FDA will cause the markets to make a moon shot:
Johnson & Johnson’s Vaccine Advances, Sparking Optimism in Race
Unlike some of its competitors, Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine does not need to be frozen and may require just one shot instead of two
The feverish race for a coronavirus vaccine got an infusion of energy on Wednesday as Johnson & Johnson announced that it has begun the final stage of its clinical trials, the fourth company to do so in the United States as the country hits a grim milestone of 200,000 deaths from the pandemic. Johnson & Johnson is a couple of months behind the leaders, but its advanced vaccine trial will be by far the largest, enrolling 60,000 participants. The company said it could know by the end of this year if its vaccine works. And its vaccine has potentially consequential advantages over some competitors. It uses a technology that has a long safety record in vaccines for other diseases. Its vaccine could require just one shot instead of two — important considering that the entire population of the world needs vaccination. And it does not have to be kept frozen as it is delivered to hospitals and other places where it will be given to patients, simplifying the logistics of hundreds of millions of doses.
“Big news,” President Trump tweeted about the trial on Wednesday morning. “@FDA must move quickly!” he added, referring to the Food and Drug Administration, which oversees vaccine approval. The president has repeatedly claimed that a vaccine will be ready before Election Day on Nov. 3, and urged federal regulators to act quickly to approve one, raising fears that they will bow to the pressure and rush their vetting process. The federal government’s Operation Warp Speed program has invested more than $10 billion in private companies’ coronavirus vaccines to date, including about $1.5 billion to Johnson & Johnson to develop and manufacture its vaccine.
Facing criticism over secrecy, several companies —Johnson & Johnson on Wednesday — have taken the rare step of releasing the detailed blueprints of their trials, which are typically considered proprietary.
Johnson & Johnson’s advanced trial, known as a Phase 3 trial, started on Monday. At a news conference, Dr. Paul Stoffels, the company’s chief scientific officer, said the company might be able to determine by the end of the year if the vaccine is safe and effective. Johnson & Johnson has begun manufacturing the vaccine on an industrial scale to build up a supply that can be released immediately if the vaccine is authorized, Dr. Stoffels said in an interview on Wednesday. He expected to have tens of millions of doses ready by the end of the year. “Then we can ramp up to many more batches,” he said. Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine uses an adenovirus to carry a gene from the coronavirus into human cells. The cell then produces coronavirus proteins, but not the coronavirus itself. These proteins can potentially prime the immune system to fight off a later infection by the virus. Adenovirus vaccines must be kept refrigerated but not frozen, unlike the two front-runner vaccines, by Moderna and Pfizer, which depend on bits of genetic material known as mRNA. The freezing requirement could make the distribution of those vaccines difficult, especially to places without advanced medical facilities.
Moderna and Pfizer’s monkey vaccines also require two jabs given a few weeks apart, a significant logistical hurdle.
Nick Note: And the winner is the J&J vaccine. They use the HUMAN advenovirus. This type of vaccine has been given to over 1000 people. And proven effective against the Ebola and Zeka virus. See i am a betting man. I am a trader not a investor. My job is to take risks and get their first. And as you have seen by my trading i placed my bet… a lucky bet. I believe this will be the first vaccine approved. Its safety is a proven fact. The only question is how long immunizations will last. Now before you toss your masks and P3 filter their are a few things you must understand. It will take at least a year before its in wide distribution. And i would take a shot in a NY second. DO not let your guard down!! As far as trading i want to be long as you know and their will be a OCTOBER surprise which we are trading. Come the elections i envision i will reverse positions because Trump will be making a play to become the dictator elect.
Vaccine breakthrough….. Markets think so
Johnson & Johnson became the first leading pharmaceuticals company to test a single-dose Covid-19 vaccine with the launch this week of a phase 3 trial that will recruit 60,000 participants across three continents. The company’s decision to pursue a single-dose product may help its trials move faster than rivals that need to give two jabs, even though some other vaccine makers began their large studies in May and July.
Researchers can start measuring efficacy from two weeks after the first dose, rather than waiting an extra four weeks for a participant to receive a second.
Paul Stoffels, chief scientific officer at J&J, said a single dose could be “very important for emergency use”, as it could be rolled out rapidly. The company has pledged to make 1 billion doses by the end of 2021. Positive results from a recent smaller trial, due to be published soon, suggested a single dose might be enough to give protection, the company said. Dr Stoffels added that all the main vaccines were using the Sars-Cov-2 virus’s distinctive spike protein to get the immune system to recognise it – but J&J had taken longer to optimise its “potency”. Another potential advantage for J&J is that its vaccine candidate does not need to be kept as cold as some other vaccines, which is important for distribution to developing countries.
The vaccine platform it is using – based on an adenovirus – has a good record, with more than 100,000 people having been vaccinated using the delivery mechanism, Dr Stoffels said.
“It has been used in Zika, HIV, [the respiratory illness] RSV and Ebola,” he said. J&J has promised to make the vaccine available on a “not-for-profit” basis for the duration of the pandemic. The company has received US government funding as part of Operation Warp Speed to accelerate development, and is working with the federal National Institutes of Health. The NIH has helped to fund the trial with $193 million (€165 million) so far – and expects to spend $480 million, according to Anthony Fauci, the director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. The adenovirus platform the vaccine was based on came out of “decades of collaboration”, including funding for basic science, he added. Data from the phase 3 trial will be first examined when it hits 20 Covid-19 infections, in either the vaccinated or placebo group, J&J. Dr Fauci said he expected the J&J vaccine trial to finish a month or two later than the trials that began at the end of July of vaccines developed by Moderna and by Pfizer and its partner BioNTech. “We would predict that you could get an answer from the trials that started in July sometime in November or December. It is conceivable it could be earlier – it could be October, that is unlikely but not impossible,” he said.
Nick Note: The J&J vaccine Is is known as Ad26.COV2.S COVID-19. This is the most successful vaccine in trials at the present time. Using a proven platform that has been effective in immunizing against both the Ebola and Zika virus. In studies their Coronavirus vaccine created on a PROVEN safe platform may soon be ready for prime time. Side effects are minimal. Not like the monkey vaccine. Studies have shown its highly effective producing a STRONG response creating S antibodies galore. And for even more vaccine fun S-specific CD4+ T cellT are dancing a jig. In doctor speak Tcell creation was robust. below is something rare a release of the study. The vaccine has entered Phase 3. With 3 times the participants as in the Monkey make you a cripple AstraZeneca (Trials in the US halted) vaccine. This J&J vaccine just might be the silver bullet. J&J Study Below:
Johnson and Johnson Vaccine intern results
J&J trial vaccine produced immunity in earlier study
A single dose of Johnson & Johnson’s experimental COVID-19 vaccine produced a strong immune response against the novel coronavirus in an early-to-mid stage clinical trial, according to interim results published on Friday. The vaccine, called Ad26.COV2.S, was equally well-tolerated at two different doses, the results showed. A single shot, versus a rival two-dose approach being tested by Moderna Inc and Pfizer Inc , could simplify distribution of the vaccine. However, it is unclear whether elderly people, one of the populations most at risk from the virus, will be protected to the same degree as younger people with the J&J vaccine. The trial in close to 1,000 healthy adults, which is backed by the U.S. government, began after the J&J vaccine was found in July to offer strong protection in a single dose to monkeys. Based on the current results, J&J on Wednesday kicked off a final 60,000-person trial, which could pave the way for an application for regulatory approval. The company said it expects results of that so-called Phase 3 trial by the end of the year or early next year. The results, released on the medical website medRxiv, have not been peer-reviewed. (https://bit.ly/2G3Ni1X) Researchers, including those from J&J’s unit Janssen Pharmaceuticals, said 98% of participants with data available for the interim analysis had neutralizing antibodies, which defend cells from pathogens, 29 days after vaccination. However, immune response results were available from only a small number of people – 15 participants – over 65 years old, limiting the interpretation. In participants older than 65, the rate of adverse reactions such as fatigue and muscle aches was 36%, much lower than the 64% seen in younger participants, the results showed, suggesting the immune response in older people may not be as strong. The researchers said more details on safety and effectiveness will follow when the study is completed. For now, the results justify why more studies are needed in larger numbers to look for serious adverse effects, Dr. Barry Bloom, a professor at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health who was not involved in the J&J trial, told Reuters. “Overall, the vaccine is doing what you would expect it to do if you were to move it to Phase 3 trials,” Bloom said. Nick Note: This show some promise. I am adamant the AstraZeneca Oxford University RNA vaccine with modified monkey influence DNA is a unproven technology that has never worked and is dubious at best. The PROVEN J&J vaccine is a different technology. J&J’s vaccine uses a hollowed-out HUMAN virus to deliver DNA instructions to cells to make the spike protein and provoke an immune response. The company’s technology has already proven itself, with an authorized vaccine against Ebola that J&J is now giving to hundreds of thousands in central Africa. The African immunization program has stopped the Ebola outbreak from spilling over into the rest of the world, said J&J’s Stoffels. This is a potential game changer. We may get a vaccine in a year or two. My only concern is the fact that the coronavirus mutates so quickly.
Dow ends 360 pts higher after aid bill talk
Nick Note: I am adamant the stock market has put in a critical bottom. It is my firm belief that happy checks are coming. The politicians both democrats and republicans do not want to face the electives with the masses starving and about to be evicted. For sure their will be a happy check bill. And add to that that their will be an announcement about a “successful” vaccine. This TRUMPS all else. the market is focusing on these two key events. And people in the know are STARTING to price in the payoff to the masses for votes. For now i am very very bullish. For NOW to be clear here the next event after this rally will be the election turmoil that will give us the next big drop. But first things first for now i want to trade the rally….
Trump says U.S. election winner might not be known for months
(Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday that Americans might not know the winner of the November presidential election for months due to disputes over mail ballots, building on his criticism of a method that could be used by half of U.S. voters this year. Election experts have said it might take several days after the Nov. 3 election until a winner is known as officials will need time to count mail ballots that arrive after election day. Speaking at a rally in Newport News, Virginia, Trump said he would prefer to find out quickly whether he won or lost, rather than wait for the mail ballots to come in. “I like watching television and have, ‘The winner is’, right? You might not hear it for months, because this is a mess,” he said. “It’s very unlikely that you’re going to hear a winner that night,” he said. “I could be leading and then they’ll just keep getting ballots, and ballots, and ballots and ballots. Because now they’re saying the ballots can come in late.” Court rulings this month have allowed officials in the battleground states of Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and North Carolina to count ballots that arrive after Nov. 3 as long as they were sent by Election Day.
Opinion polls show that more Democrats than Republicans plan to vote by mail to avoid exposure to COVID-19 in crowded polling places. Trump’s campaign has filed lawsuits in several states to restrict mail balloting.
Trump in recent days has refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he loses the election to Democrat Joe Biden and has said he expects the Supreme Court will have to declare a winner. Nick Note: I have two things that keep me up at night…. No its not girlfriends. Its the fear of a resurgence of the coronavirus (that i know how to deal with) and Trump destroying the democracy and the rule of law. One of the great things about America is the orderly and lawful transfer of power. Trump is planning to destroy that treasured system. Look at what he is saying. He has made it clear he will not surrender power no matter the results of the election. And that scares the shit out of me.
At Pentagon, Fears Grow That Trump Will Pull Military Into Election Unrest
WASHINGTON — Senior Pentagon leaders have a lot to worry about — Afghanistan, Russia, Iraq, Syria, Iran, China, Somalia, the Korean Peninsula. But chief among those concerns is whether their commander in chief might order American troops into any chaos around the coming elections. President Trump gave officials no solace on Wednesday and Thursday when he again refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power no matter who wins the election, and on Thursday, he doubled down by saying he was not sure the election could be “honest.” His hedging, along with his expressed desire in June to invoke the 1807 Insurrection Act to send active-duty troops onto American streets to quell protests over the killing of George Floyd, has incited deep anxiety among senior military and Defense Department leaders, who insist they will do all they can to keep the armed forces out of the elections.
“I believe deeply in the principle of an apolitical U.S. military,” General Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in written answers to questions from House lawmakers released last month. “In the event of a dispute over some aspect of the elections, by law, U.S. courts and the U.S. Congress are required to resolve any disputes, not the U.S. military. I foresee no role for the U.S. armed forces in this process.”
But that has not stopped an intensifying debate in the military about its role should a disputed election lead to civil unrest. On Aug. 11, John Nagl and Paul Yingling, both retired Army officers and Iraq war veterans, published an open letter to General Milley on the website Defense One.
“In a few months’ time, you may have to choose between defying a lawless president or betraying your constitutional oath,” they wrote. “If Donald Trump refuses to leave office at the expiration of his constitutional term, the United States military must remove him by force, and you must give that order.”
Senior leaders at the Pentagon, speaking on the condition of anonymity, acknowledged that they were talking among themselves about what to do if Mr. Trump, who will still be president from Election Day to Inauguration Day, invokes the Insurrection Act and tries to send troops into the streets, as he repeatedly threatened to do during the protests against police brutality and systemic racism. Both General Milley and Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper opposed the move then, and Mr. Trump backed down. Defense Department officials have privately discussed the possibility of Mr. Trump trying to use any civil unrest around the elections to put his thumb on the scales. Several Pentagon officials said that such a move could prompt resignations among many of Mr. Trump’s senior generals, starting at the top with General Milley. This year, Rosa Brooks, a Georgetown University law professor and a Defense Department official under Mr. Obama, led a group of about 100 former national security officials and election experts from both parties in exercises to simulate the most serious risks to a peaceful transition of power. In one, they contemplated what would happen if a president ordered National Guard units or active-duty military personnel into cities to “restore order.” There was no clear result, but the exercise itself attracted sharp criticism from far-right groups, which accused the organizers of trying to undermine Mr. Trump and interfere with the election. Thursday, the general reiterated his position on keeping the military out of the 2020 election when he urged American service members around the world during a video question-and-answer session to “keep the Constitution close to your heart.” His words were subtle, but those watching knew what he meant. Nick Note: I hope we do not end up with a Lee Harvey Moment 0r worse. But the steaks in the game are high. I have been in MANY countries where a Cornell became the Dictator. Maduro a Cornell became the dictator of Venezuelan. He was the driver for another Cornell dictator elect Chavez. Freedom is lost by executive order. And it is won back with bullets and blood. That is if you get it back at all.