Donald Trump’s former fixer and personal attorney Michael Cohen, a convicted felon, said Wednesday that he believes the primary reason the president has fought tooth-and-nail to keep his tax returns away from investigators in Congress and the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office is that the documents may lead to criminal tax fraud charges. In an interview with CNN’s Alisyn Camerota, Cohen said he believed the president’s stonewalling was, at best, an effort to avoid paying a “massive tax bill,” and at worst, an attempt to skirt “fraud penalties.” “The fact that he doesn’t report the income that he claims, his wealth is not as significant, and I believe that they were probably very lenient in how they took deductions,” Cohen said. “His biggest fear is that if in fact the tax return was released, there’s a whole slew of organizations, of accountants and forensic accountants that will rip through it and he will end up with a massive tax bill, fraud penalties, fines, and possibly even tax fraud.” Cohen, a former vice president of the Trump Organization, pleaded guilty to lying to congressional investigators in Nov. 2018; he was sentenced to three years in prison back in Dec. 2018 for campaign finance violations, bank fraud and tax evasion. Cohen famously said in court that then-candidate Trump (“Individual-1”) “directed him” to make the hush payments to porn star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal ahead of the 2016 election. Cohen secured his release from an Otisville, New York federal prison in May due to COVID-19 concerns, allowing him to serve the remainder of his sentence under house arrest. But that hit an awkward snag in July when Cohen was re-arrested due to his tell-all book about the president. Cohen was released again weeks later. Earlier in September, the disbarred attorney released Disloyal: The True Story of Michael Cohen, Former Personal Attorney to President Donald J. Trump, which contained first-hand accounts of the president’s “graphic and unflattering” behavior behind closed doors. After discussing the president’s tax returns, Camerota asked Cohen if he had any thoughts on who he believes is filling his former role as President Trump’s “new fixer.” “Attorney General Bill Barr,” Cohen responded. “Rudy Giuliani, to an outside extent, but I would say for the most part it would be Attorney General Bill Barr. And boy, what a terrible shame, taking an illustrious career and throwing it right down the toilet.” Nick Note: If Trump loses the presidential elections he will go to jail. The case in the Southern District in New York is ready. The only thing that is holding them back is a long term tradition that you cannot indict a sitting president. If he loses the elections he will be indicted. And if he wins he will do everything he can to engineer his rising to a dictator. And he will do anything to win these elections including declaring them illegal if he loses.
Trump: COVID vaccination could start in mid-October
United States President Donald Trump stated on Wednesday that the WIDE distribution of the first coronavirus vaccine could start in mid-October or “maybe a little bit later.” He added that the US could supply at least 100,000,000 doses by the end of the year, as well as that all the necessary supplies for vaccination had been manufactured. Trump contradicted the Center for Disease Control Director Robert Redfield, who said in his testimony to Congress that it would take six to nine months before a vaccine could be distributed nationally. Trump repeatedly speculated that Redfield “misunderstood the question” when he was asked about vaccine distribution. The president launched another attack on his opponent, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, alleging that he “promotes anti-vaccine theories.” He called on states with Democratic governors to “open them up,” claiming that the measures against the coronavirus were “hurting people far more than the disease itself.” Nick Note: As you know we are in a VERY aggressive trade. And i owe you a explanation in writing. Unequivocally i am convinced their will be a October surprise. As in October starts in 13 days. I believe they will have millions of doses crammed down the public throats (injection in their arms) in October. Just in time before the elections BUT in to short a time for it to be know if the vaccine will work. And before if their are life threatening side effect it will only come out After the elections. The Type of Neurological side effects vaccine side effects has already been seen. And misdiagnose on purpose… A plain ole fashioned drug company coverup. When caught at it the drug companies claimed Patient privilege. I am told this is unprecedented and obviously a cover up. in consulting with experts Neurological side effects show up weeks after the vaccine. I believe the vaccine will fail. But not before Trumps greatest publicity stunt wins him the election. As a foot note their will be a stimulus agreement. Bottom line. I believe that our trade will do great on the announcement of the great white hope. A vaccine that Trump takes the credit for that will be celebrated by the markets…..
New York City Prepares for a Second Wave
(Bloomberg) — New York City officials know Covid-19 cases will climb this fall. The question they are watching as the city moves to reopen is, just how much? For months, the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has been working with academic groups at Columbia University and New York University. The academic teams have been asked to model case numbers, help predict needed hospital resources and to advise the city on how to open up workplaces, schools, restaurants and more. The disclosure Tuesday of a Covid-19 case at the New York offices of JPMorgan Chase & Co. is likely just the latest example of what will happen as businesses push to get workers back to the office, and people begin going back to school and returning to restaurants and gyms. In interviews, experts from two academic groups working with New York described what’s likely to be a significant increase in cases this fall, but with the opportunity to stop the worst with careful public-health measures like masks and social distancing. “If you do these types of phased reopenings, there are going to be certain increases in transmission activity,” Columbia University’s Jeff Shaman, who is part of a team working with the city to predict the path of the outbreak. “Every model will tell you you’re going to see increases in cases.” The city is likewise planning for a resurgence, according to a top adviser to the mayor, while trying to restore as much normal business as possible. “Even independent of having any mathematical backing for this, we have been planning around the assumption that there will be resurgences of this infection,” said Jay Varma, senior advisor for public health in the New York City Mayor’s Office. That likely means continued social distancing practices, mask-wearing and limited capacity, said Scott Braithwaite, a professor at NYU’s Grossman School of Medicine who has led the other academic effort advising the city. “Forget about normalcy,” Braithwaite said in a telephone interview. “If things were back to normal, quote unquote, and we weren’t social distancing we weren’t wearing masks, a hundred people coming in one day could restart a disastrous wave.” The infection at JPMorgan’s 383 Madison Ave. building came a week after workers began returning following the Labor Day holiday, and shortly before a deadline for senior traders to come back to their desks. The bank, which has been among the most aggressive in pulling people back to the office, has now sent some Manhattan workers home, Bloomberg reported Tuesday. The decision was an echo of steps taken by workplaces around the city when cases first started expanding in the spring.
While JPMorgan has moved ahead, Americans have expressed caution about reopening too quickly. A September Kaiser Family Foundation poll found that an even number of Americans thought the worst of the outbreak was yet to come, versus already behind them. The poll split along party lines, with Democrats being more pessimistic. The groups at Columbia and NYU began working with the city at the start of the outbreak. In weekly meetings, they’ve helped project how many hospital beds would be needed, how many cases were likely happening despite limited testing, and what the coming weeks would hold. The Columbia team has been led by Wan Yang, an epidemiology professor, and Shaman, the director of the climate and health program at the university’s Mailman School of Public Health. The work was confidential at first, Shaman said, but the researchers pushed the city to allow them to discuss it publicly. “People have a right to see this,” Shaman said. One of the Columbia models, released in June as the city was beginning to reopen, predicted tens of thousands of additional hospitalizations by the end of the year, though the estimates vary widely based on how quickly services were opened and how effective public-health measures are. “It’s inherently crude. We just don’t know the nuance of what’s going to happen,” Shaman said. “You open up more, you’re getting it worse.” Varma said the models have been useful in decision-making, but aren’t to be taken as hard estimates. “Infectious-disease models are not really designed to predict the future,” Varma said. “What they’re designed to do is to give you information to help you change the future.” New York City is currently reporting around two hundred new cases a day, according to the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. That’s likely only a portion of the actual infections, though the number has been coming steadily down since a peak of more than 5,000 cases a day in April. The city is also testing in schools. As of Monday, the city had found 55 positive Covid-19 cases out of 17,000 school teachers and staff who had been tested, for a positivity rate of 0.32%, Mayor Bill de Blasio said during a Monday news briefing. The city has been weighing how to get people back to their regular lives, while also limiting new cases, Varma said. Across the border in New Jersey, the state this month reported a rise in cases as it has reopened indoor dining, theaters and prepared to bring children back to school. Social-distancing measures play a crucial role, said Braithwaite. Early on in the outbreak, his group built models under two scenarios, one in which people followed public health guidelines and social distancing measures, and one in which they didn’t. “Under that scenario, we were having hundreds of thousands of deaths in New York City. And under the scenario where people did pay attention to social distancing, you were having tens of thousands of deaths,” he said. So far, there have been 27,750 confirmed and probable Covid-19 deaths in New York City, according to the health department. “We are presenting data to them that are suggesting this is problematic,” he said, though he noted the city was engaged in a very difficult balancing act between controlling cases, and reopening schools and preventing businesses from going bankrupt. Reopening is good for the city, but it’s also good for the virus, Shaman said: “There’s a huge potential for growth, even in a place like New York City, because 75% to 85% of the population has yet to be infected.” Nick Note: We all know what is happening here. The politicians are caving into the very formidable lobbing groups. From the restaurants, to hotels shit even the broadway theaters are raising hell. Unfortunately the more they open the more they will close. And as each cycle continues more and more businesses will permanently close and more and more people “temporarily” laid of will figure out they have no job and after the elections their happy checks will run out
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London may use curfews to curb 2nd COVID wave
Curfews could be imposed in the capital to fight a second wave of Covid-19, a public health chief reported today as he called on Londoners to “come together” to limit a feared increase in case. With the epidemic set to hit the city with much more force in the coming weeks, Professor Kevin Fenton, London director of Public Health England, has made it clear that more restrictions could be imposed, possibly including in the capital, to avoid tighter lockdown. In an exclusive interview with The Evening Standard, he also made an urgent appeal to Londoners, hailing them for their “phenomenal” efforts to crush the first wave and urging them to “start over” now.
- About 500,000 students are coming to London from across the country and around the world for the start of the term, which is likely to increase infections.
- Demand for tests is exceeding capacity, with the number of tests in London at around 150,000 per week, as they are focused on hot spots in the North and Midlands. The number of positive tests announced yesterday for the city was 278, although that may be an underestimate given the shortages.
- Some clusters of coronaviruses are occurring in nursing homes, particularly in the outskirts of London.
- Around 10 London boroughs have coronavirus rates of around 30 cases per 100,000 people on a seven-day moving average.
- Young people in the capital are fueling the rise, although there are other factors as well.
- It is not known where people got the virus when asked about the “clusters” of cases in the workplace.
- Schools now “understand their role much more effectively” in dealing with suspected cases.
- The tube is “safe”.
- Optimism expressed on a vaccine but warned of a difficult fall and winter.
The PHE chief stressed that the aim was to avoid lockdowns in London given their economic, health and welfare impact. “Before you get to this point, there are a lot of other things you can do to help reduce the risk of transmission and contain your outbreak,” explained Professor Fenton. “In some areas that have experienced a resurgence, limits have been placed on the time you can spend socializing. In some cases, it may be local curfews, so you don’t drink until the wee hours of the morning. “By limiting that, you also limit the time people spend in close contact with others. “ A curfew in Bolton has seen pubs, restaurants and other hospitality venues limit themselves to take-out and get closer to customers between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. Other measures cited by Professor Fenton include the promotion of mask wear, stricter public health warnings, and a greater focus on making workplaces safe by Covid. He also stressed that all Londoners have a role to play in tackling a second wave. “It’s phenomenal what we have done as a city in terms of responding to the national lockdown, the degree of repression we were able to achieve when the time restrictions were lifted… very low death and case rates” , did he declare. 1As we see the resurgence happening in different parts of the country, we need to call on this resolution… let’s actually say we’ve done it before and we can do it again. “As we move into the winter period, when it is inevitable that the number of cases will increase, this vigilance and commitment is really going to be required of all of us no matter our age, whatever your background, wherever you are in. the city – we need to pull together. ”
New restrictions
If needed, they can be ordered across London, rather than just targeted and localized measures given population flows. He said: “We will be working with our partners in London to identify what is the best approach, and some of these could intensify activity at the district and sub-regional levels, and for some things this may require a pan-London approach, simply because of the feasibility of implementing some of these interventions. “
Covid-19 test
“The demand is currently well above the capacity we have,” he said, with tests available in London going “where they need to be”.
Nursing homes
“For some wards, where you have a large number of nursing homes, especially some of the boroughs on the outskirts of London, you will tend to see clusters of cases happening in those nursing homes.” With over 100,000 tests per day allocated to nursing homes across the country, it was now possible to “get back on track with asymptomatic testing.”
Universities
Getting the students back was a “challenge,” he said. “We anticipate that more than 500,000 students will return to the city in the coming weeks.” But many universities were planning their own testing systems.
young people
Covid transmission rates are higher in people aged 17 to 29.
“The return to normal life for young Londoners is associated with increased transmission,” he said.
Transport public
He explained how “safe” the tube was, with thorough cleaning and high mask compliance.
“We have certainly learned the lessons from the first phase on how to create a safe transport system.” Nick Note: This beg the question… If they learned their lesson why are they about to go into another lock down? Answer is they came up with the wrong answer. Paper coffee filter masks don’t work. The safe distance is 100 yards. And its impossible to open restaurants or have crowd fests.. AND as far as come fly with me try come die with me. So they have proven they have learned absolutely nothing.
US govt outlines plan to provide free COVID-19 vaccines
Market recovery is contingent on a COVID-19 vaccine before year-end
The deluge of selling that nearly pushed the S&P 500 into a correction may be over as investors look ahead to a further reopening of the U.S. economy and the distribution of a COVID-19 vaccine, according to strategists at Goldman Sachs Group. The benchmark S&P 500 has found its footing after plunging 7.45% in the three trading sessions following its Sept. 2 record-high close of 3580.84, amid investor concerns mega-cap technology stocks were becoming too pricy as valuations stretched into the 99.6th percentile, just below those seen at the height of the 2000-2001 dot-com bubble. A correction is marked by a 10% drop from a recent peak. “Despite the sharp sell-off in the past week, we remain optimistic about the path of the US equity market in the coming months,” wrote a Goldman Sachs team led by David Kostin, chief U.S. equity strategist at Goldman Sachs. “The Superforecaster probability of a mass-distributed vaccine by 1Q 2021 has surged to nearly 70% and economic data show a continuing recovery.” Optimism surrounding a potential vaccine provides further support to a U.S. economy that continues to recover following its deepest contraction in the post-World War II era. Goldman Sachs economists said last week that a faster-than-expected snapback in consumer spending will allow the U.S. economy to grow at a 35% pace in the third quarter, up from its previous forecast of 30% growth. They also pinned their forecast on the likelihood a vaccine is succesfully developed. The Wall Street consensus calls for the economy to expand at a 21% annualized rate after contracting by 31.7% in the three months through June amid stay-at-home-orders aimed at slowing the spread of COVID-19. Investors received welcome news on the vaccine front over this past weekend when Pfizer Inc. asked the Food and Drug Administration to expand its late-stage trial to 44,000 participants, up from 30,000. Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla told CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday that a “likely scenario” is that the company’s COVID-19 vaccine will be distributed by the end of the year so long that it is proven to be safe and effective. Johnson & Johnson and Moderna Inc. have experimental vaccines in late-stage trials. AstraZeneca plc and Oxford University announced on Saturday their late-stage trial days had restarted days after it was put on hold due to a participant falling ill. Goldman strategists say a vaccine would be a bullish catalyst for earnings estimates in cyclical sectors, or those most sensitive to a rebounding economy, helping propel the S&P 500 up another 8% from Friday’s close to 3,600 by year-end. They say the five tech stocks, Alphabet Inc., Amazon Inc., Apple Inc., Facebook Inc. and Microsoft Corp., that make up 23% of the S&P 500 are “appropriate” in their weighting due to their growth prospects and strong balance sheets, but are negatively correlated with vaccine probabilities, meaning they could underperform in the event of a discovery. The overhang of the Nov. 3 election remains the biggest source of near-term stock market uncertainty. “Options are pricing a 3% S&P 500 move on November 4 as well as the likelihood of an extended period of uncertainty as mail-in votes are tallied,” the Goldman strategists wrote. Nick Note: For the record its all about the vaccine.
Trump holds ‘Great American Comeback’ campaign event in Nevada
Nick Bit:This is the press release on Trumps herd fest. Watch this video and you can see why Sleepy Joe who is in a coma has a great big problem.
TRUMP PRESS RELEASE:
“Democrats are trying to keep President Trump from speaking to voters because they know the enthusiasm behind his re-election campaign cannot be matched by Joe Biden – a historically weak candidate controlled by the radical left who could hold a campaign event in a broom closet. The President’s uplifting message of American greatness resonates with people, while everyone knows that Biden is a tool of the radical left who would raise taxes and tank the incredible comeback that is already underway. President Trump will be traveling to Nevada on the dates planned. Additional details will be announced soon.”
– Tim Murtaugh, Trump 2020 communications director
Nick Note: Hear my words. Between his keen reality TV instincts. And one of the greatest spin machines ever created it looks look Trump can win. And if he loses he is setting evnent up for the greatest election crises in American History. If he loses he goes to jail….. AND HE DAMN WELL KNOWS IT. Talk about a motivator!!!
I’ve set records on stock market even amid COVID – Trump
Exactly seven weeks before Election Day and two weeks before the first presidential debate, President Donald Trump faced uncommitted voters in a 90-minute town hall special hosted by ABC News from the battleground state of Pennsylvania.
ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos anchored the “20/20” event — “The President and the People” — from the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. The forum provided uncommitted voters, the opportunity to ask the president their questions on issues affecting Americans from the coronavirus pandemic and economic recovery to protests for racial justice. ABC News offered to host a similar town hall with Democratic presidential nominee and former Vice President Joe Biden, but ABC News and the campaign were not able to find a mutually agreeable date.
US to have COVID-19 vaccine in weeks – Trump
The prospect of a vaccine to shield Americans from coronavirus infection emerged Monday as a point of contention in the White House race as president Donald Trump accused Democrats of “disparaging” for political gain a vaccine he repeatedly has said could be available before the election. “It’s so dangerous for our country, what they say, but the vaccine will be very safe and very effective,” the president pledged at a White House news conference. Trump leveled the accusation a day after Sen. Kamala Harris, the Democrats’ vice presidential candidate, said she “would not trust his word” on getting the vaccine. “I would trust the word of public health experts and scientists, but not Donald Trump,” Harris said. Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden amplified Harris’ comments Monday after he was asked if he would get a vaccine for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. Biden said he’d take a vaccine “tomorrow”want to see what the scientists have to say, too. Biden said Trump has said “so many things that aren’t true, I’m worried if we do have a really good vaccine, people are going to be reluctant to take it. So he’s undermining public confidence.” Still, the former vice president said, “If I could get a vaccine tomorrow I’d do it, if it would cost me the election I’d do it. We need a vaccine and we need it now.” The back-and-forth over a coronavirus vaccine played out as three of the candidates fanned out across the country on Labor Day, the traditional start of the two-month sprint to the election. Harris and Vice President Mike Pence campaigned in Wisconsin and Biden went to Pennsylvania. Trump added the news conference to a schedule that originally was blank. Harris, a California Democrat, said in a CNN interview broadcast Sunday that she would not trust a coronavirus vaccine if one were ready at the end of the year because “there’s very little that we can trust that … comes out of Donald Trump’s mouth.” She argued that scientists would be “muzzled” because Trump is focused on getting reelected. Trump dismissed her comments as “reckless anti-vaccine rhetoric” designed to detract from the effort to quickly ready a vaccine for a disease that has killed nearly 190,000 Americans and infected more than 6 million others, according to a count by Johns Hopkins University.
“She’s talking about disparaging a vaccine so that people don’t think the achievement was a great achievement,” Trump said, answering reporters’ questions as he stood at a lectern placed at the front door of the White House on the Pennsylvania Avenue side of the mansion.
“They’ll say anything,” he said. Trump insisted he hasn’t said a vaccine could be ready before November, although he said so repeatedly and as recently as Friday. The president then proceeded to say what he had just denied ever saying. “What I said is by the end of the year, but I think it could even be sooner that that,” he said about a vaccine. “It could be during the month of October, actually could be before November.” Under a program Trump calls “Operation Warp Speed,” the goal is to have 300 million doses of a coronavirus vaccine in stock by January. He has spent hundreds of billions of dollars on what amounts to a huge gamble since vaccine development usually takes years. Concerns exist about political influence over development of a vaccine, and whether one produced under this process will be safe and effective. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious-disease expert and a member of the White House coronavirus task force, told CNN last week that it is unlikely but “not impossible” that a vaccine could win approval in October, instead of November or December. Fauci added that he’s “pretty sure” a vaccine would not be approved for Americans unless it was both safe and effective.
Stephen Hahn, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, has said the agency would not cut corners as it evaluates vaccines, but would aim to expedite its work. He told the Financial Times last week that it might be “appropriate” to approve a vaccine before clinical trials were complete if the benefits outweighed the risks.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, meanwhile, has given assurances that Trump “will not in any way sacrifice safety” when it comes to a vaccine. And executives of five top pharmaceutical companies pledged that no COVID-19 vaccines or treatments will be approved, even for emergency use, without proof they are safe and effective. Some concerns were sparked by a letter dated Aug. 27 in which Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, asked governors to help government contractor McKesson Corp. make sure vaccine distribution facilities are up and running by Nov. 1. Redfield did not say a vaccine would be ready by then. Three COVID-19 vaccines are undergoing final-stage, or Phase 3, clinical trials in the U.S. Each study is enrolling about 30,000 people who will get two shots, three weeks apart, and then will be monitored for coronavirus infections and side effects for anywhere from a week to two years. Nick Note: I believe they will have a “vaccine” in October. Its a matter of life and death for Trump. Understan if he is not sworn in for a second term in january. He will be criminally indicted in February. Their for sure will be a “vaccine” even if they have to fill the vile with Saline solution……. And the markets will cheer!
rump Defends Indoor Rally, but Aides Express Concern
WASHINGTON — President Trump and his campaign are defending his right to rally indoors, despite the private unease of aides who called it a game of political Russian roulette and growing concern that such gatherings could prolong the coronavirus pandemic.“I’m on a stage, and it’s very far away,” Mr. Trump said in an interview with The Las Vegas Review-Journal on Monday, after thousands of his supporters gathered on Sunday night inside a manufacturing plant in a Las Vegas suburb, flouting a state directive limiting indoor gatherings to fewer than 50 people. The president did not address health concerns about the rally attendees, a vast majority of whom did not wear masks or practice any social distancing. When it came to his own safety, he said, “I’m not at all concerned.” The decision to hold a rally indoors, officials said, was something of a last resort for a campaign that had tried to procure five different outdoor locations. A Trump campaign official said they all faced pressure from state officials not to host the rally. Xtreme Manufacturing, which finally agreed to host, immediately faced threats from the city of Henderson, Nev. Officials said in a letter made public that the city could charge a fine of $500 for every person over the state’s limit of 50 people and suspend or revoke Xtreme Manufacturing’s business license. Mr. Trump had been defiant during the rally. “If the governor comes after you, which he shouldn’t be doing, I’ll be with you all the way,” he told the crowd. Upcoming Trump rallies in Wisconsin and Minnesota are planned for outdoor airport hangars, the kind of gathering the president recently resumed scheduling with little fanfare but which still violate state guidelines limiting them to fewer than 50 people. But some states like North Carolina, where Mr. Trump held an outdoor rally in Winston-Salem last week, have a First Amendment exemption permitting crowds to gather in the name of freedom of speech. That has led the Trump campaign to distribute signs that read “This is a Peaceful Protest” at its rallies, claiming that attending a rally is an act of political speech. The campaign had no plans to announce any large-scale events that would take place indoors, an official said. But more than 100 people, a majority of them not wearing masks, packed into a hotel ballroom in Arizona for an event on Monday that was billed as a modest round table with the president. Officials said they never considered simply scrapping rallies altogether when their efforts to find an outdoor location failed. For the president, the quiet return of the classic Trumpian political event has been a way to give himself a sense of control during a time when he has little control over events or news cycles. Longtime advisers said they were as important for managing a candidate who needed the cheering crowds to feel energized as they were for energizing the supporters themselves. Still, the return of the rallies was a reversal for the Trump campaign. The president told the radio host Hugh Hewitt last month that he did not plan to hold campaign rallies at all because of concerns about the pandemic. “I’d love to do the rallies. We can’t because of the Covid,” Mr. Trump said. “You know, you can’t have people sitting next to each other.” His critics said the recent rallies in battleground states were more a sign of desperation than of strength. The president is eager to generate news coverage; with 50 days until Election Day, he trails former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., the Democratic candidate, in battleground state polls and his campaign has pulled down ads as its cash advantage has evaporated. Cable channels have cut back on live coverage of Mr. Trump’s rallies, but local affiliates still often carry them in full. Tim Murtaugh, a campaign spokesman, defended the decision to carry on with an indoor rally in the middle of a pandemic. “People are eager to see their president, and our first preference for venues are places like airplane hangars,” he said. “But the fact remains that no one bats an eye at people gambling in casinos or tens of thousands of people protesting shoulder to shoulder. People should be able to gather peacefully under the First Amendment to hear from the president of the United States.” But the decision to forge ahead created a wave of internal backlash, including from a top Trump adviser who said the president was playing a game of Russian roulette in holding the indoor rally. The adviser, who requested anonymity so as not to anger Mr. Trump, said the campaign was taking a cavalier approach to the pandemic that could backfire politically. Some of the president’s most vocal defenders outside of the administration agreed.“Indoor rallies are irresponsible,” Ari Fleischer, a former White House press secretary for President George W. Bush and a frequent defender of Mr. Trump’s, wrote on Twitter. Nick Note: Trump needs the roar of the crowd. And after all he does expect them to die for him……
Eviction filings by big landlords surged after Trump issued ban
Big landlords increased the number of eviction cases they filed after President Donald Trump announced his recent moratorium, signaling the struggle tenants face getting protection from the federal order. Institutional landlords filed more than 900 eviction cases across eight metropolitan areas from Sept. 2 to Sept. 8, according to data compiled by Private Equity Stakeholder Project, an activist group partly funded by organized labor. Landlords filed 165 cases in the same markets during the week of Aug. 3. Fears of an evictions crisis have swirled since expanded unemployment benefits and an original moratorium included in the federal CARES Act expired, with advocates worrying that millions of Americans will lose their homes. The Trump ban, enacted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to avert homelessness during a pandemic, was seen by tenant advocates as a way to delay evictions. But it provides no funding to cover unpaid rent, putting both landlords and tenants at risk and making it difficult to avert a rental crisis. “We’re quite surprised by the number of filings we saw,” Jim Baker, executive director at the Private Equity Shareholder Project, said in an interview. “What’s striking is that we’re not talking about mom-and-pop landlords. We’re talking about gigantic companies.” A wide range of institutional landlords, defined as those that own thousands of units, brought eviction cases during the first week of September. That includes industry giants Starwood Capital Group and Invitation Homes and lesser-known companies like Onni Group, a Vancouver-based developer that manages more than 7,200 apartments. Tenants who complete necessary paperwork should be protected by the moratorium, but that leaves a big hole if they’re not aware of the legal steps required to get protection and very few have lawyers to help. Baker’s organization started compiling eviction data in April to determine whether landlords were complying with the original moratorium, which was limited to buildings with federally backed financing. The research covers 10 large counties covering parts of Atlanta, Houston, Phoenix and five other large metro areas, offering a glimpse into how landlords proceeded in the week after the moratorium was announced on Sept 1. Baker wasn’t expecting to see a jump in evictions because Trump’s new ban goes beyond the old one and applies to all rental buildings. In more than half of the 17 cities tracked by Princeton University’s Eviction Lab, cases filed by landlords of all sizes surged after the CARES Act moratorium effectively expired Aug. 24, said Peter Hepburn, a research fellow for the group. While some building owners may not have been aware of the new tenant protections, others “might have been hoping that they could get under the wire, or that the local courts might take a landlord-friendly approach to enforcement,” Hepburn said. Baker’s research shows eviction cases were still being brought to court Sept. 8, when Invitation Homes, which owns roughly 80,000 single-family rental houses, filed three cases. “We have been doing what the CDC order directs since early in the pandemic – working with our residents facing COVID-related financial hardships and offering a variety of payment options so they can stay in their homes,” the company said in a statement. “As always, we will continue to follow all government directives.” Starwood Capital and Onni Group didn’t respond to requests for comment. The increase in evictions during the first week of September highlights key challenges to implementing the ban, according to John Pollock, coordinator for the National Coalition for a Civil Right to Counsel, an organization that seeks to establish a right to legal representation for defendants in housing court. One problem, he said, is the form tenants have to fill out to get protection, attesting that they’re eligible.“The moratorium is obviously a good thing and it’s going to help people if they know it exists,” he said. “But they have to learn the thing exists, get a copy, fill it out properly and get it to their landlord before the landlord rams an eviction through the court.” Nick Note: What goes around comes around. These heartless pricks swooped in with inside deals and bough thousands of houses in foreclosure. They got fucked when they did not calculate the cost of repair, upkeep, taxes, insurance and vandalism. They tried to do the ole fliparoni and sell them on, that did not work. So then they set up management companies to rent them out. And hold them till a upswing… Well instead the coronavisrus came and is crashing real estate prices (even if your ERA lady won’t tell you).Now the tenants are defaulting on their leases in mass. So the landlords are about to default on their REIT loans… Could not happen to a nicer bunch of Class A assholes