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In defiance of Trump, Senate overrides defense veto

The Senate voted 81-13 on Friday to override President Donald Trump’s veto of the fiscal 2021 defense authorization bill, marking a rebuke to the outgoing commander in chief that paves the way for the annual bill to become law for the 60th straight year. The long-anticipated vote comes two days before the start of a new Congress, avoiding what would have been a lengthy process of re-drafting the measure in the new year. The veto override got caught up in political jockeying over $2,000 economic relief checks to Americans affected by the coronavirus pandemic. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., tried to tie the pandemic relief checks to two unrelated efforts backed by Trump: revoking liability protection for social media companies and a study of the 2020 election. That prompted backlash from Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., which led to procedural roadblocks for the defense veto override. Georgia GOP Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, who are in runoff elections that will decide which party controls the Senate and are scheduled to appear at a rally with Trump on Monday, did not vote on the override. They did support the final bill on Dec.11 despite Trump’s veto threat. Perdue’s campaign announced Thursday he and his wife were quarantining after a campaign aide he was in close contact with tested positive for COVID-19.

The massive, $731.6 billion piece of legislation, known as the National Defense Authorization Act, includes provisions for military pay raises, the construction of military housing and sweeping improvements to the federal government’s approach to cybersecurity, among thousands of others.

Trump took issue with a provision that would rename military bases that honor Confederate figures. He also criticized the bill because it would not repeal legal protections for social media companies found in Section 230 of a 1996 communications law. The president had also balked at language that would impose limits on how many troops could be withdrawn from Afghanistan and Germany — and how quickly. The NDAA passed both chambers of Congress with veto-proof majorities, 83-14 in the Senate and 335-78 in the House. The House on Monday voted to override the veto, 322-87. Senate Armed Services Chairman James M. Inhofe, who previously noted that there was nothing that could be done to change a bill that had already passed the House and Senate, expressed his displeasure with the timing of the veto override. “To  all these people who live here, they don’t care. But I care,” Inhofe said Dec. 29.  The  NDAA’s legislative track record is unparalleled among authorizing committees and gives the House and Senate Armed Services panels a tremendous amount of sway in Pentagon policymaking. Nick Note: it was  really a big mistake for Trump to not understand he is a lame duck

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How RNA Vaccines Work

The coronavirus vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech is a major breakthrough for the worldwide pandemic this week leaving the public with many questions, including, how does an RNA vaccine work? A new type of vaccine, the Covid immunisation – which has so far shown minimal side effects – is said to use a tiny part of the virus’ genetic code. Taking a closer look into how it works, here are some of the most frequently asked questions around RNA including what it means, what is an RNA vaccine and of course, how an RNA vaccine works: RNA is an abbreviation for ribonucleic acid and is present in all living cells. The definition, as stated by the Oxford dictionary, is that RNA acts as a messenger carrying instructions from DNA. The RNA vaccine  uses small fragments from the genetic code of Covid-19 which would start making the virus inside a human body. This would allow the immune system to recognise the virus as foreign and can therefore attack it with antibodies. In terms of the coronavirus vaccine, the patient would is injected with an initial does, helping the immune system learn to produce antibodies to fight Covid-19 A second dose will be given 21 days after the first. After the vaccination, if the person comes in contact with the virus, antibodies and T-cells are then quickly triggered in order to fight it off. At the moment it is unclear whether this would be a one-off injection or an annual one needed like the flu. Nick Note; They are not injections of DNA into your body. So you are not altering your DNA so its non GMA. You are receiving RAN markers That are the RNA that makes the spike protein which is 1 protein.  The spike has 3 to 6 markers depending on how you count them since RNA doubles. The RNA that is injected into your body are gone within 3 days. Nick Note: The biggest question i have is when not if the spike protein mutates enough that the vaccine stops working. Their is  no way of knocking that. Because RNA vaccines are easy to modify and fast to manufacture their will be a booster shot. And i believe it will be a yearly booster shot!.

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When you can expect to get a coronavirus vaccine

 As COVID-19 vaccines become increasingly available in the U.S. over the coming months, older adults who have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic are expected to be prioritized over the general public. But if you’re 65 or older, you’ll likely need to wait a month or two before you can get vaccines that are in high demand but relatively short supply. Vaccines developed by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna have received emergency use authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The vaccines are already being distributed across the country, and as many as 20 million people could get one before the end of the year, according to Army Gen. Gustave Perna, chief operating officer of the federal Operation Warp Speed vaccine initiative. Still, the initial supply is a drop in the bucket for the 331 million Americans — and 53 million adults over the age of 65 — who may want to be immunized. “Once there’s a vaccine approved for use, there will likely be a period when there is insufficient vaccine to meet demand,” Kathleen Dooling, M.D., an epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said during a CDC advisory panel conference call.

For the latest coronavirus news and advice go to AARP.org/coronavirus.Federal health officials are already creating guidance to help states determine who should receive the vaccines when. The CDC is developing recommendations for which groups should be prioritized, recommending this week that states start by inoculating health care workers and residents of long-term care facilities — where 40 percent of the nation’s more than 277,000 COVID deaths have occurred — when vaccines first become available. But state officials are ultimately responsible for making their own distribution plans, and strategies vary considerably from one state to the next. In Kentucky, for example, nursing home residents and staff are expected to receive vaccines even before some doctors and health care professionals who work in outpatient settings, which is not the norm in most states. Federal and state officials are typically prioritizing older adults, who are at greater risk than younger people of death or serious complications from COVID-19. The CDC estimates people age 65 and older have accounted for 8 in 10 deaths attributed to the coronavirus in the U.S. But in many states, they’re a lower priority than health care workers, nursing home residents and, in some cases, essential workers like police officers. In Massachusetts, for example, older adults who don’t live in long-term care facilities and who don’t have significant underlying medical conditions will likely be immunized in the state’s third vaccine wave. “Older Americans are certainly up there. It could be Q1 or Q2” that they’re vaccinated, says Robert Finberg, M.D., an infectious diseases specialist and professor at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and a member of Gov. Charlie Baker’s vaccine advisory panel. Many state plans suggest older Americans will likely be vaccinated in the first half of next year, so people of a similar age in two different states likely won’t have months of vaccine difference between them. But health experts warn that the piecemeal nature of the vaccines’ rollout will likely create confusion about who can receive a vaccination and when. There’s also concern about initial growing pains as the government attempts to distribute tens of millions of vaccines that, in Pfizer’s and Moderna’s cases, require people to get second doses a few weeks after their first. “There are complexities involved, and there’s going to be some learning as we go here,” says Megan O’Reilly, vice president for federal health and family issues at AARP, noting that there will be “distinctions and differences across states” over who has initial access to a vaccine.The CDC estimates that 21 million health care workers and 3 million people in congregate community settings such as nursing homes and assisted living facilities will need to be vaccinated. Older adults who don’t fall into either group will need to wait to see if their state health officials follow the CDC’s guidance.  More than 285,000 health care workers are confirmed to have contracted COVID-19, along with more than 905,000 long-term care residents and staff, according to data from the CDC and the Kaiser Family Foundation. “They recognized that those who have been disproportionately harmed need to be first in line for lifesaving vaccines, along with the people who care for them,” says Katie Smith Sloan, president and CEO of the LeadingAge nonprofit nursing home advocacy group, describing recommendations from the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.

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Save 25% when you join AARP and enroll in Automatic Renewal for first year. Get instant access to discounts, programs, services, and the information you need to benefit every area of your life.A CDC advisory panel is recommending states consider placing people at least 75 years of age and “frontline essential workers” — including teachers, police officers, grocery store workers and postal employees —in their second phase of vaccine distribution (1b). The panel then recommends states prioritize adults between ages 65 and 74 and adults over the age of 16 with high-risk medical conditions, such as obesity, diabetes and heart problems. How quickly will vaccines be shipped out? The federal government is working with state officials and vaccine manufacturers to ensure doses are sent where they’re needed. The Department of Transportation is helping oversee vaccine shipments on a rolling basis, with states receiving shipments proportional to their population size, according to Perna. So states with larger adult populations are initially expected to receive larger vaccine shipments. “We are not waiting for a cluster of vaccines to be available and then push,” Perna said, explaining that they will be shipped “every week based on availability.” Moncef Slaoui, a vaccine expert and chief scientific adviser to Operation Warp Speed, has outlined a rough estimate for how many vaccines can be shipped to state and local health officials in the coming months. He expects enough vaccines will be shipped in December to vaccinate 20 million people, with an additional 30 million able to be vaccinated in January. He expects 50 million Americans will be vaccinated in February. At that point, and assuming separate vaccines from Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca and others also receive approval, he thinks roughly 75 million Americans could be vaccinated per month. Based on this timeline, many health officials think vaccines will be available to the general public around April or May of next year. But it may take longer. According to the CDC, as of 16 December 2020, 80% of the Covid deaths in the US were aged 65 or older.Additionally, the same CDC data shows that age group 65-74 comprised over 21% of the Covid deaths -more deaths than the combined deaths of all those aged less than 65.  Florida, Colorado, Texas, and Ohio have moved seniors 65-74 higher in priority than non-healthcare essential workers.  AARP needs to be lobbying the remaining state Governors on our behalf to do the same. Nick Note: With millions of RNA vaccines against the given we have enough information to state to you The vaccine form Pfizer or Moderna ma be the way to go.

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More people without underlying conditions are dying from COVID in LA County

LOS ANGELES (KABC) — More people without underlying conditions are dying from COVID-19 in Los Angeles County, officials said citing recent data. During a New Year’s Eve virtual briefing, County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said that 86% of people who died from COVID in 2020 had underlying conditions. This figure is down from more than 90% in the early days of the pandemic.

“This indicates, that in fact, that more people than ever are not only passing away, but passing away without any underlying health conditions,” Ferrer said.     Ranging from “someone’s mother” to “a friend you haven’t talked to since middle school,” the #Every10Minutes tweets emphasize how one person in Los Angeles County is dying from COVID-19 every 10 minutes.

Thursday was yet another record-setting day of COVID-19 deaths for the region. The county on Thursday reported a pandemic-high of 7,546 people in hospitals due to COVID-19, with 20% of them in intensive care.

With increased hospitalizations come increased deaths, and the county on Thursday reported another record number of fatalities — 290 — although some of those deaths were attributed to a reporting backlog dating back to the Christmas holiday weekend. This puts the total COVID death toll for L.A. County at 10,345.

The county announced another 15,129 confirmed COVID-19 infections, raising the countywide total since the pandemic began to 770,602. The overall rate of people testing positive for the virus stood at 15%, but the current daily rate is much higher, at about 22%, meaning more than 1 in 5 people who are tested for the virus test positive. Meantime, the crunch at hospitals continues to get worse.

 The new, more contagious variant of COVID-19 that was first observed in the United Kingdom has now made its way to Southern California, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Wednesday. “The current surge of patients … it’s kind of a hidden disaster,” said Cathy Chidester, director of the county Emergency Medical Services agency. “It’s not a fire. It’s not an earthquake. It’s not a train wreck that’s right in the public view and they can see what is happening and they can avoid that area. It’s all happening behind the doors of households and hospitals. So nobody is really, the general public, is not really seeing what is going on.”

Chidester said there are reports of hospitals being so overwhelmed that ambulances are waiting seven or eight hours in emergency bays, forcing patients to be treated in the ambulance. But more importantly, the delay is keeping the ambulances out of service, leaving them unable to respond to additional emergency medical calls, she said.

The crisis at hospitals have some facilities reassigning nurses from outpatient clinics to emergency and COVID units, reducing patient access across the board. Public health officials are urging residents to stay home and not attend gatherings. Nick Note: Soon they will report to you the mutation they failed to test for is running wild. its is far more infectious and creates a massive viral load in your body. These are a=facts. What is not know is will the vaccines antibodies work on the mutant strain. I am rethinking my librarian suggestions! I will have an announcement Monday.

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Billionaire investor Chris Sacca mocks ‘Robinhood bros’ for being reckless: ‘Stonks never go down!’

  • Venture capitalist Chris Sacca dismissed amateur traders’ huge gains in 2020 as the product of lucky timing in a recent tweet.
  • “To everyone who got into trading stocks this year, I have a little hard truth for you: You’re not actually that good at it,” the billionaire founder of Lowercase Capital and former “Shark Tank” star said.
  • Sacca mockingly praised day traders in a follow-up tweet after weathering backlash for his comments.
  • “To the angry Robinhood bros who got into trading stocks this year: I was wrong. You’re amazing,” he said. “Stocks never go down!”
  • Sacca has repeatedly underscored the risks of trading stocks and other assets such as Bitcoin, especially with borrowed money.

Newbie traders who scored massive windfalls in 2020 simply got lucky, billionaire investor Chris Sacca said in a recent tweet.”To everyone who got into trading stocks this year, I have a little hard truth for you: You’re not actually that good at it,” the former “Shark Tank” star and founder of venture-capital firm Lowercase Capital said. “You just caught a wild bull market. Take some money off the table.” Sacca’s comments were met with swift backlash. Dave Portnoy, the Barstool Sports founder who became the face of a new generation of day traders earlier this year, told Fox Business that he doesn’t know who Sacca is, but the investor “sounds like a sore loser and an idiot.” The Lowercase chief – an early investor in Twitter, Uber, and Instagram – responded to the criticism with a sarcastic tweet ridiculing Robinhood users, one of the most popular trading apps.

“To the angry Robinhood bros who got into trading stocks this year: I was wrong. You’re amazing. This has nothing to do with the market. It’s all you and your mad skillz. Don’t take profits off the table. Double down, on margin. Borrow everything you can. Stonks never go down!”

In internet slang, stonks is a deliberate misspelling of stocks. Sacca – who made his fortune in the early 2000s then lost a huge chunk of it when the dot-com bubble burst – has repeatedly cautioned amateurs about trading risks, particularly with borrowed money. “What percent of retail ownership of crypto is supported by leverage? What about stocks? I am beyond worried about the debt lessons that a generation of app traders weren’t around to learn a cycle ago,” Sacca replied to a December 26 tweet by Bitcoin bull Mike Novogratz underscoring the risks of excessive leverage. “Don’t borrow to trade stocks/BTC,” Sacca tweeted a few hours later. Sacca has issued similar warnings in the past. “I’m here to tell you that trading millions of dollars you don’t have is a thrilling way to ruin your health and financial future. Fun!” he tweeted in November 2019. “Investing is a great way to make money. Trading is a great way to lose it. Do yourself a favor and hide your “Stocks” app forever,” Sacca tweeted. Nick Note: The revenge of the boomers. Millennials forget we invented EVERYTHING they are using. From the internet, Computer and desk  top version. We invented the smart phone and jet engine. Shit we even invented blonds. A bag full of apps on a smart phone which is little more than a party line conference call. We invented Skype, fiber optics, satellite. Name me one millennial technology? The biggest stock market wipeout in history is right around the corner. And we should not let them move back in the basement trying to hide form their creditors and the repo man game boy in hand!

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Head to head: The Oxford and Pfizer coronavirus vaccines compared

A classic head to head – Pfizer versus Oxford – efficacy. the two vaccines have not yet been tested head to head, so it’s impossible to say which is best.

But it is true, of course, that the Pfizer vaccine boasts an efficacy of 95 per cent, compared to something around the 70 per cent mark from Oxford. Immunity also appears to kick in a bit quicker with the Pfizer jab at 14 days, compared to 22 for Oxford’s shot. 

In theory, at least, Pfizer’s RNA technology (although never used before in a mass vaccination programme) is also “cleaner” in the sense that the RNA code snippet it uses to deliver immunity vanishes from the body soon after doing its job. But such comparisons are largely academic. The trial data for both vaccines is robust but limited and the real numbers on efficacy will only emerge a few years down the line once tens of millions of doses have been administered.  Much more important is that both vaccines, based on the trial data available, appear highly effective at protecting against severe disease. In all the trials run to date, no one vaccinated has been hospitalised or died of Covid-19. Experts are not yet certain if either prevent against transmission.

Vaccines secured by the government and current state of development
Vaccines secured by the government and current state of development

Both jabs also appear to be safe. Like many vaccines, they cause some short term discomfort in roughly one in 10 people and vomiting and fever in about one in 100. But more serious vaccine-specific adverse effects have not been reported.  It remains possible issues may emerge in the months to come but tens of thousands of people have now been given the Oxford vaccine with no ill effects and millions have received the Pfizer immunisation.  “The MHRA will have carefully scrutinised the evidence on this Covid-19 vaccine to ensure that it is both safe and effective,” said Prof Arne Akbar, president of the British Society for Immunology. “Although development of this vaccine has occurred quickly, all the same rigorous safety standards and checks have still been carried out.” The most obvious and certain differences between the two jabs are practical ones concerning logistics and cost. Just as with cars, different vaccines are better suited to some tasks than others, and on this measure the Oxford shot shines bright – a Fiat Punto, compared to Pfizer’s Porsche. While the Pfizer jab must be “deep frozen” and used within five days of leaving the dry-ice containers it is shipped in, the Oxford jab can be kept in a fridge, between 2 and 8C for up to six months.  This will be a huge relief to those orchestrating the biggest vaccination effort in history, both in Britain and overseas. “We have concerns over the logistical challenges the Pfizer vaccine has left us with. It’s been hugely difficult to manage – the deep freeze conditions, the rapid timeframe it needs to be used in,” said Dr Richard Vautrey, chair of the BMA’s GPs’ committee.   “It’s been a mammoth task for practices… We hope the AstraZeneca vaccine will remove many of these problems because it can be stored in a standard fridge and there are going to be more doses available.”    And then there are the costs. The UK government won’t say what it is paying for the Pfizer vaccine, citing commercial confidentiality, but leaked figures show the EU is paying over £10 per dose. The Oxford shot, in contrast, comes in at around £1.60 and the company has pledged to continue to provide it at cost until the summer. In low and middle-income countries, it will continue to be sold at cost in perpetuity – perhaps the single best prospect of bringing the pandemic to an end globally. Dr Richard Hatchett, CEO of CEPI, said: “The Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine is extremely attractive in that it is inexpensive, scalable, and can be stored at 2-8 degrees Celsius.  “These attributes will enable its use worldwide, including in low-income and middle-income countries, alongside other safe and effective Covid-19 vaccines, and the large supplies that will become available in 2021 mean that this vaccine could be a gamechanger in terms of our efforts to end the acute phase of the pandemic.” And what of mutations? It’s unlikely the new variant of the virus it will have much, if any, impact on either vaccine and we will only find out as the jabs are administered, say experts. Over time – a year or more – all Covid vaccines may need to be tweaked like the annual flu jab to keep up with “viral drift”, they add.

Nick Note: Go for the Porsche!

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Hundreds of senior citizens in Florida, camped out overnight

BERLIN (Reuters) – BioNTech is working flat out with partner Pfizer to boost production of their COVID-19 vaccine, its founders said, warning there would be gaps in supply until other vaccines were rolled out. The German biotech startup has led the vaccine race but its shot has been slow to arrive in the European Union because of relatively late approval from the bloc’s health regulator and the small size of the order placed by Brussels. The delays in rolling out the home-grown vaccine have caused consternation in Germany, where some regions had to halt vaccinations within days of starting an inoculation drive.

“At the moment it doesn’t look good – a hole is appearing because there’s a lack of other approved vaccines and we have to fill the gap with our own vaccine,” BioNTech CEO Ugur Sahin told news weekly Spiegel.

Sahin founded BioNTech with his wife, Oezlem Tuereci, who is the company’s chief medical officer. Both faulted the EU’s decision to spread orders in the expectation that more vaccines would be approved quickly. The United States ordered 600 million doses of the BioNTech/Pfizer shot in July, while the EU waited until November to place an order half that size.

“At some point it became clear that it would not be possible to deliver so quickly,” Tuereci told Spiegel. “By then it was already too late to place follow-on orders.”

BioNTech hopes to launch a new production line in Marburg, Germany, ahead of schedule in February, with the potential to produce 250 million doses in the first half of 2021, said Sahin. Talks are also under way with contract manufacturers and there should be greater clarity by the end of January.  Health Minister Jens Spahn said on Twitter that German authorities would do everything possible to enable a swift start in Marburg.

The federal government, which has backed BioNTech with 375 million euros ($458 million) in funding, has resisted calls from opposition leaders to speed production of its vaccine by issuing compulsory licences to other drugmakers. Another vaccine from Moderna is expected to be cleared by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) on Jan. 6. Spahn has also urged the EMA to quickly approve the Oxford University-AstraZeneca shot cleared by Britain. The EU timeline for that treatment remains uncertain. That vaccine was approved by India’s drug regulator on Friday for emergency use, two sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

Sahin said the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine, which uses messenger RNA to instruct the human immune system to fight the coronavirus, should be able to cope with a new, more contagious variant first detected in Britain.

“We are testing whether our vaccine can also neutralise this variant and will soon know more,” he said.

Asked about coping with a strong mutation, he said it would be possible to tweak the vaccine as required within six weeks – though such new treatments might require additional regulatory approvals.

Sahin also said BioNTech would make its vaccine, which requires storage at about minus 70 degrees Celsius (minus 94 Fahrenheit), easier to handle, adding that a next-generation vaccine could be ready by late summer. Nick Note; In view of the mutant strain the Phizer vaccine  is a   good choice. If the coronavirus has mutated beyond the vaccine reach it will take less  then 4 weeks to develop a booster shot.  if not this mutation i am sure one in the future. Distribution is the issue. Reality is we  are in a tough spot and  it looks to me like yearly vaccines like the flue shot. The real wake up call is the fact we are going into lockdowns again and this will not be over in April, or even this time next year!

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Photos show hundreds of senior citizens camping out overnight in Florida to get the COVID-19 vaccine

  • Hundreds of senior citizens in Lee County, Florida, camped out overnight this week in hopes of getting their first doses of COVID-19 vaccines.
  • Photos show long lines of people sitting in chairs and wearing layers of clothing to keep warm as they waited overnight.
  • The county announced on Sunday that vaccines would be available on a first-come, first-serve basis to people over the age of 65 and healthcare workers.
  • Each vaccine site had reached capacity before even opening each day this week, local outlets WZVN-TV and News-Press reported.

The long lines occurred in Lee County, where health officials sent out a press release on Sunday saying doses of COVID-19 vaccine in the county would be available on a first-come, first-serve basis to high-risk healthcare workers and people 65 years old and over. In the hours and days that followed, hundreds of elderly people – some of whom were in their 90s – lined up outside several vaccination sites across the county, WZVN-TV and News-Press, a local Florida newspaper, reported. Many of them spent nights outside, in temperatures that dropped as low as 47 degrees Fahrenheit. Vaccine sites hit capacity in the early morning hours of Monday, but people returned to line up for vaccines in the following days. The sites hit capacity on Tuesday and Wednesday, too.

Photos from the scene show people sitting in chairs and covered in blankets as they waited outside for hours hoping to get the vaccine: Nick Note: 300 million people need to be vaccinated. And they would have you believe they can get this done by spring. Try 2 years and add into the equation it will take a yearly booster shot.

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The Democrats are suddenly leading in Georgia and the GOP should be worried

On 5 January, or maybe days later if the presidential election is any indication, voters in the state of Georgia will decide who controls the US Senate. Two crucial seats are at stake in next month’s runoffs after none of the senate hopefuls managed to win at least 50 per cent of the vote in November. Democrat Jon Ossoff faces off against incumbent Republican David Perdue, and Democrat Raphael Warnock against incumbent appointed Senator Kelly Loeffler. Georgia had been reliable GOP terrain for decades until Joe Biden turned the state blue in the presidential election, beating Donald Trump by 11,770 votes out of about five million ballots cast. Trump has repeatedly and falsely claimed that the vote was rigged. By inserting himself into a race that he just lost and essentially telling GOP voters that their vote doesn’t matter given that the results are “rigged,” he has thrown a monkey wrench into the race. The GOP senate candidates in November had more votes than their Democratic challengers. But with some calling for Trump backers to not vote at all in order to “prove” the conspiracy that voting machines are programmed for the Democrats, what happens now is anyone’s guess. Currently, the races are viewed as tossups. Unlike the presidential election,  state polls are released relatively infrequently and the sample of polls is much smaller.  There aren’t even recent approval ratings that often serve as a proxy for vote share. The approval of Georgia voters of both incumbents is in serious question given continued reports that both Perdue and Loeffler used insider information regarding the pandemic to profit from stock investments. FiveThirtyEight, which weights the polls for accuracy and adjusts them for perceived bias, has a slightly bigger lead for both democratic challengers, with Ossoff leading by a point and Warnock by two. According to FiveThirtyEight, polls have flipped five points in Ossoff’s favor since Election Day and three points in favor of Warnock, increasing the chances for the Democrats. Betting markets give the GOP a 67 per cent chance to maintain control. Note that a split verdict by voters will allow the Republicans to maintain control of the chamber by a 51-49 margin. But we’ve learned with the irrational betting in the run-up to the presidential election and its aftermath that the mostly white, male betting market is decidedly pro-GOP more than pro-money, and tends to bet with its heart. While the general expectation with the candidates campaigning together on both sides is that both elections will break the same way, FiveThirtyEight’s Nate Silver says the odds of a split verdict are higher given the expected narrow margins. More than 2.3 million Georgians already voted a week out, a number that is viewed as very positive for Democrats, whose voters historically sit out non-presidential elections to a greater degree than their Republican counterparts. Over 100,000 voters who didn’t vote in the presidential election requested ballots for the runoffs. A greater percentage of all early voters are black. So the GOP will have to make up more ground on election day in the runoffs than they needed to in the presidential election when they were unable to close the gap. Furthermore, about 23,000 teenagers throughout Georgia have become eligible to vote since November, when young voters in November accounted for 21 per cent of the Georgia vote (compared with 17 per cent nationally and 16 per cent in 2016); and they broke dramatically for Joe Biden.

Biden’s ability to get Senate approval for his administration appointments to cabinet posts and into the courts, as well as for his entire legislative agenda hinges on the outcome. A loss in either race allows current Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to block anything he wants.

According to the Washington Post, Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris “will both travel to Georgia in the closing days before its pair of Senate runoff elections.” And Trump announced on Twitter that he will hold a rally in Georgia on Monday, though the GOP fears he will continue to air his grievances about his election loss rather than focus on Perdue and Loeffler. Nick Note: This is more bad news for the sleeping Republicans and stock market mindless bulls

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McConnell: Senate won’t split 3 issues Trump wants

 McConnell links $2,000 stimulus checks to Trump’s social media, election demand
Payments to Americans are on the way but they will be $600 rather than $2,000 as President Donald Trump and many congressional Democrats would have preferred. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell blocked the quickest path to increasing those payments to $2,000. CNBC’s Eamon Javers reports. For access to live and exclusive video from CNBC subscribe to CNBC PRO: https://cnb.cx/2NGeIvi Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday blocked Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s attempt to unanimously pass a bill to increase direct payments in the year-end coronavirus relief package to $2,000. The Kentucky Republican later Tuesday introduced a bill that would boost the size of the checks to $2,000 from $600, repeal Section 230 legal liability protections for internet platforms and create a commission to study election issues. The bill would meet all of President Donald Trump’s recent demands, which are unrelated, but would not get Democratic support and become law. Through the bill, Republicans would both avoid the act of actually passing $2,000 payments but allow GOP senators running for reelection in Georgia’s Jan. 5 runoffs to express support for Trump’s priorities. In a statement Tuesday, Schumer said if McConnell “tries loading up” the bill “with unrelated, partisan provisions that will do absolutely nothing to help struggling families across the country,” larger direct payments would not become law. “Any move like this by Sen. McConnell would be a blatant attempt to deprive Americans of a $2,000 survival check,” he said. McConnell faces pressure to act after the House — with nearly all Democrats and a few dozen Republicans on board — voted Monday to increase the cash deposits to $2,000 from $600. Senate Republicans wary of spending more on pandemic aid are looking for a way to both meet the demands of a president who called the year-end coronavirus relief and funding bill a disgrace and hold on to their majority during races overshadowed by the crisis. McConnell brought the chamber back this week with one major goal: overriding Trump’s veto of the annual National Defense Authorization Act. He has not yet committed to bringing the $2,000 payment bill up for a vote, and it is unclear now how one would take shape. Nick Note:Their will be no cookie. No more happy check money. And the most devastating wave of the plague is about to hit. And with less then 2 million people who have gotten 2 shots out of 350 million. Well i will leave it  to you to connect the dots.