President Donald Trump on Wednesday suggested the Supreme Court will have to make a ruling on the Nov. 3 presidential election, so a new justice for the high court should be confirmed before Election Day. “I think it’s better if you go before the election, because I think this scam that the Democrats are pulling — it’s a scam — the scam will be before the United States Supreme Court,” Trump told reporters at the White House, in an apparent reference to efforts to increase mail-in voting during the coronavirus pandemic. “I think having a 4-4 situation is not a good situation, if you get that. I don’t know that you’d get that. I think it should be 8-0 or 9-0, but just in case it would be more political than it should be, I think it’s very important to have a ninth justice.” The Republican-led Senate appears poised to move forward with confirming a replacement for the late liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died Friday. Four GOP senators could halt a quick confirmation as the party has a 53-47 majority in that chamber, but only two have said they opposed a vote before Nov. 3. Trump on Wednesday said he expects to announce his nominee around 5 p.m. Eastern Time on Saturday. The president has frequently made unsubstantiated claims about fraud with mail-in ballots, and experts have been pushing back. “I want people to know many of us, and I’m one of them, have looked into vote fraud for decades, and there are certainly isolated examples, but it’s just not there. This is made up. It is a fiction,” said Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, said in a webcast last week. Sabato also said “turnout is critical, and if you can increase turnout in either party using mail-in ballots, then you’ll do it. The Republicans are trying to do that in Florida.” Nick Note: You know heard from the horses mouth what i have been telling you all along. Trump can win the election 2 ways. Fair and square or by hook and crook. In the event he loses his has a plan B. Say the election was rigged by the mail in ballots and have the issue decided by the supreme court where he is stacking the deck…..
Donald Trump again mocked MSNBC anchor Ali Velshi for the moment when he was struck by a rubber bullet while covering protests in June, and told a rally crowd that it was a “beautiful sight” when police targeted an unidentified reporter and “threw him aside like he was a bag of popcorn.” Speaking at a rally in Moon Township, PA, Trump singled out Velshi, who was struck by a rubber bullet last June while covering protests over the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police. Trump incorrectly identified Velshi as working for CNN and wrongly said that he was struck by a gas canister.
“Remember that beautiful sight? The street was a mess. That idiot reporter from CNN got hit with a canister of tear gas. And he went down. ‘I’ve been hit. I’ve been hit.’ He’s been hit,” Trump said, as the rally crowd laughed. Trump then mocked an unidentified reporter who has been targeted by police while covering protests. “Sometimes they grab. They grab one guy. ‘I’m a reporter. I’m a reporter.’ Get out of here. They threw him aside like he was a little bag of popcorn. Honestly, when you watch the crap that we have all had to take so long. When you see it, it is actually a beautiful sight.” The comments were similar to ones that Trump made against Velshi last weekend at a rally in Bemidji, MN. In response, MSNBC said, “Freedom of the press is a pillar of our democracy. When the president mocks a journalist for the injury he sustained while putting himself in harm’s way to inform the public, he endangers thousands of other journalists and undermines our freedoms. Nick Note: Its the FIRST amendment. The reason why its first is because if you lose it all the other amendments are worthless. And you can take that Bill of Rights and wipe you ass with it. Thats why the paper is brown!
The stimulus stalemate has left lawmakers at odds over how to get more relief to millions of Americans who need it. Earlier this month, Senate Republicans attempted to get a smaller bill through Congress as the standoff between both parties continued. But that relief bill did not include a second round of $1,200 stimulus checks, a measure that both parties had all but signed off on. The bill failed to get the 60 votes it needed to advance. Still, House Democrats pushed back on the stimulus check exclusion on Tuesday during a congressional hearing with Federal Reserve Still, House Democrats pushed back on the stimulus check exclusion on Tuesday during a congressional hearing with Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
“The economic impact payments must be made because the rent must be paid,” said Rep. Al Green, D-Texas.
“If we do not do this, we will put persons at risk of being evicted at a time when we are having a pandemic that is still taking lives in this country,” he said.
Green also said a new Government Accountability Office report that found the Treasury Department does not have adequate data on the number of people who qualify for the first stimulus checks, but who have not yet received them, is cause for concern. The number excluded, including gig workers, could be in the millions, he said. The IRS is in the process of mailing letters to about 9 million Americans to notify them that they may be eligible for the money. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., also spoke out about the prospect of a second round of payments, asking Mnuchin, “Yes or no, do you believe another stimulus check could help stabilize the economy?” Mnuchin: Administration does support another stimulus payment “I do,” Mnuchin said. “The administration does support another stimulus payment.” The likelihood and timing of that money still remains unclear. House Democrats and Senate Republicans had both put forward proposals that included a second round of direct payments. Other issues, however, have made it impossible for both sides to come to an agreement, at least for now. “We obviously can’t pass a bill in the Senate without bipartisan support,” Mnuchin said. “Our job is to continue to work with Congress to try to get additional help to the American public.” In response, Tlaib urged Mnuchin to push for more stimulus checks. “I think you need to be very clear with the senators … that direct payments to individuals is critical to preventing economic collapse in our country,” Tlaib said. Some experts have speculated that the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and the ensuing fight over the nomination to fill the now vacant seat, could make it impossible for Congress to come up with another coronavirus stimulus deal now. In a separate interview with CNBC on Tuesday, Larry Kudlow, director of the National Economic Council, dismissed that idea as “not necessarily a given.” The two parties were already at odds before the judicial issues came up, he said. The White House is advocating for another package targeting “kids and jobs,” Kudlow said. That would include more than $100 billion to help schools and another $100 billion to extend Paycheck Protection Program funds to small businesses. “I wish we could break the stalemate, because even though I think the economy is improving nicely, I think it could use some help in some key targeted places,” Kudlow said. Nick Note: The politicians are felling the heat. I have lived in many dictatorships and banana republics. And before every election they give out free tortillas. America is wealthier so i believe kicking and screaming all the way they will BEFORE the elections pass another happy check bill. You would not want them to have to move back into the basement or find other work… No No NO we will just TRY to create a socialist Utopia. Its been tried for 2000 years. It did not work then and it will not work now.
House passes spending bill to avoid government shutdown, sends it to Senate
Key Points
The House passed a funding bill to avoid a government shutdown, sending the legislation to the Senate ahead of a Sept. 30 deadline.
Democrats and the Trump administration earlier reached a spending deal, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said.
The House passed a bill Tuesday that would fund the government into December and avoid a shutdown before a Sept. 30 deadline. After clearing the House in an overwhelming vote, the legislation heads to the Republican-held Senate. Earlier Tuesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she reached a spending agreement with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Republicans. Pelosi said the proposal would include $8 billion for nutrition assistance for schoolchildren and families. It renews Pandemic EBT, a program that provides food benefits while schools are closed set to expire at the end of September, for a full year. It also adds increased accountability for farm aid money to prevent it from gong to large oil companies, according to Pelosi. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had criticized a lack of farm assistance funds in a bill House Democrats released Monday. The bill would fund the government through Dec. 11, avoiding a potentially chaotic shutdown during the coronavirus pandemic and before the Nov. 3 election. Lawmakers then aim to hash out an agreement to fund the government through Sept. 30, 2021, the end of the next fiscal year. Lawmakers have said they want to get past the shutdown threat to focus on passing more coronavirus relief, which they have failed to do for months amid disagreements over the size of a fifth aid package. Pelosi said the agreement included nutritional assistance for schoolchildren and additional accountability for farm aid. Nick Note: One less worry for the market and the rally back continues. The probelm is a budget showdown might occour in the middle of electioncrises where the winner at that time will be hotly contested. A big shit storm is coming!
The United States witnessed another painful milestone on Tuesday as the tally of coronavirus-related fatalities surpassed 200,000. In March, President Trump said that keeping the nation’s death toll between 100,000 and 200,000 — numbers that seemed inconceivable at the time — would signal that his administration had done “a very good job.” Nick Note: On what parallel universe is the highest infection rate and death rate per cap is a good job? Close to 7 million infected and over 200,000 dead in the US…… Some sick shit!!!
The Food and Drug Administration is expected to spell out a tough, new standard for an emergency authorization of a coronavirus vaccine as soon as this week that will make it exceedingly difficult for any vaccine to be cleared before Election Day. The agency is issuing the guidance to boost transparency and public trust as it approaches the momentous decision of whether a prospective vaccine is safe and effective. Public health experts are increasingly worried that President Trump’s repeated predictions of a coronavirus vaccine by Nov. 3, coupled with the administration’s interference in federal science agencies, may prompt Americans to reject any vaccine as rushed and potentially tainted. The stakes are high: polls show the relentless politicization of the race to develop a vaccine is taking its toll. Pew Research Center recently reported that the percentage of people who said they would get the vaccine if it were available today has dropped to just over 50 percent from 72 percent in May.The guidance, which is far more rigorous than what was used for emergency clearance of hydroxychloroquine or convalescent plasma, is an effort to shore up confidence in an agency that made missteps in its handling of those clearances. With the vaccines, the FDA is expected to ask manufacturers seeking an emergency authorization — a far quicker process than a formal approval — to follow participants in late-stage clinical trials for a median of at least two months, starting after they receive a second vaccine shot, according to two individuals familiar with the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss information before it is made public.
The agency also is looking for at least five severe cases of covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, in the placebo group for each trial, as well as some cases of the disease in older people, as a sign the vaccine works.
These standards, plus the time it will take companies to prepare their applications and the agency to review the data, make it highly improbable for any vaccine to be authorized before the election. The agency has previously said any vaccine would have to be 50 percent more effective than a placebo.
“It’s hard to imagine how an EUA could possibly occur before December,” said Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and a member of the FDA’s advisory board on vaccines. The guidance is just one way of trying to shore up confidence in the agency. FDA allies, intent on building trust, are also spotlighting agency career scientists, noting that the one overseeing the vaccine-approval process has threatened to quit if he is pressured to greenlight a vaccine before he is convinced it is safe and effective. But, administration critics note, such efforts are undercut on an almost daily basis by overly rosy and contradictory comments by Trump and continued revelations about administration actions to strong-arm government scientists and regulators, and curb their independence.In addition, the FDA guidance is unlikely to satisfy some critics, who say the agency should not use an emergency authorization for a vaccine at all. “Things are so revved up right now that there is quite a possibility that the American public won’t accept a vaccine because of all the things that are going on,” said Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine. “U.S. history is littered with good vaccines that get voted off the island because of bad public perceptions.” The FDA career staff itself is trying to reassure the public. In a highly unusual move, Peter Marks, the head of the center that oversees vaccine regulation, and seven other senior career officials vowed in a column to maintain “independence to ensure the best possible outcomes for public health.” The agency also has pledged to take any vaccine data to its panel of outside advisers, called the Vaccine and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, before making decisions. The agency has scheduled a public meeting of the panel for Oct. 22 and said others sessions can be held as needed, depending on when data is available. But some FDA watchers say those steps are not enough and that the agency should forswear use of an emergency authorization for a vaccine and instead require a full approval. “If we don’t get this right, we’ll see a deep corrosion of trust over the long term — and that will be the darkest legacy for a post-covid world,” said Lawrence Gostin, a public health expert at Georgetown University’s law school.
Eric Topol, founder and director of Scripps Research Translational Institute, opposes using an emergency authorization in the next several weeks or months. “We are not in a high-trust mode, and the last thing you want to do is take a short cut and put everything at risk,” he said.
He said the agency should not consider such an authorization until at least early next year to ensure it has adequate safety data. Nick Note: Their goes Trumps great white hope up in smoke. Thats OK the master at deception is going to get a super conservative as the next Supreme court judge and energize his base. And and and when the election becomes the crises of the centuary as mail in ballots are contested all the way to the supreme court Trump will have the deck stacked in his favor.
Dubai. Abu Dhabi. Bahrain. And, of course, Saudi Arabia. The two emirates this year issued debt for the first time in years. So did Bahrain. Saudi Arabia stepped up its debt issuance. The moves are typical for the oil-dependent Gulf economies. When the going is good, the money flows. When oil prices crash, they issue debt to keep going until prices recover. This time, there is a problem. Nobody knows if prices will recover. In August, Abu Dhabi announced plans for what Bloomberg called the longest bond ever issued by a Gulf government. The 50-year debt stood at $5 billion, and its issuance was completed in early September. The bond was oversubscribed as proof of the wealthiest Emirate’s continued good reputation among investors. Dubai, another emirate, said it was preparing to issue debt for the first time since 2014 at the end of August. Despite the fact the UAE economy is relatively diversified when compared to other Gulf oil producers, it too suffered a hard blow from the latest oil price crash and needed to replenish its reserves urgently. Dubai raised $2 billion on international bond markets last week. Like Abu Dhabi’s bond, Dubai’s was oversubscribed. Oversubscription is certainly a good sign. It means investors trust that the issuer of the debt is solid. But can the Gulf economies remain solid by issuing bond after bond with oil prices set to recover a lot more slowly than previously expected? Or could this crisis be the final straw that tips them into actual reforms? No economy, especially not the ones dependent on a single export for most of its budget revenues, can rely on borrowing for long-term survival, let alone growth. In fact, the growth prospects of the Gulf economies are dimming, Reuters’ Davide Barbuscia wrote in a recent analysis of the region. Gulf governments are doing what they have always done: cut public spending and borrow. This time, however, the crisis is like no other before it, and these governments may find themselves in a tight spot while they wait for prices to bounce back. The problem is that public spending is the main growth driver in the Gulf economies, Barbuscia wrote, quoting the chief economist of Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank. If public spending falls, so will consumption and, therefore, growth. This is already happening and, what’s worse, it is happening across industries. Earlier this month, IHS Markit said, as quoted by Arabian Business, that non-oil private sector activity in Saudi Arabia and the UAE had fallen in August below 50—the figure that separates growth from contraction. That was after this indicator had registered improvement in the previous month despite still low oil prices. All Gulf economies—except Qatar—are expected to stay or swing into budget deficits this year, according to the International Monetary Fund. Saudi Arabia, the biggest economy in the region, is seen faring the best, with a deficit of 11.4 percent of GDP, and Oman faring the worst, with a deficit of 16.9 percent. Deficits happen. There is nothing extraordinary about them. What is extraordinary is the lack of wiggle room for the local governments. Investor interest in their new bonds may have been strong, but how likely would it be to remain strong for further debt issues if prices continue hovering around $40 a barrel? This is much below the Gulf economies’ breakeven levels, even the lowest ones. Saudi Arabia’s breakeven alone, according to the IMF, is $76.10 per barrel this year. It could fall to $66 next year, but this will still be too high for comfort with Goldman optimistically projecting Brent to hit $65 a barrel next year. In what is perhaps a cruel twist, this unprecedented situation is stifling the Gulf economies’ attempts to diversify their economies away from oil. This is incredibly obvious in Saudi Arabia, which had the ambitious goal of becoming a diversified economy by 2030. The goal, however, was to be financed with money from oil sales, and these collapsed this year as the pandemic spread globally. Vision 2030 may well be on its deathbed as the Kingdom, which is the Middle East’s largest producer of oil, grapples with the drop in oil revenues that has promoted a tripling of VAT, a hefty cut in public spending, and the removal of state subsidies for public servants. Other oil producers in the Gulf are also cutting public spending because this is pretty much the only thing they can cut, along with privileges for citizens, which is unlikely to be a popular move. Spending cuts and loans are the name of the Gulf game amid the crisis. The risk with this game is that if prices do not recover soon, it could turn into a vicious circle or, rather, a vicious spiral that could destabilize the whole region. Maybe these economies need to try a new playbook, one that prescribes actual economic reforms to make them more resilient to oil crises. Nick Note: When oil hits $10 a barrel they will call those guys in those white robes Delivery boys…. Their will be no more waiter jobs!!
President Donald Trump and his business could be facing a criminal tax probe by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, prosecutors suggested Monday in a court filing.
Prosecutors from Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance’s office raised that possibility as they said that a grand jury subpoena seeking eight years of Trump’s tax returns and other records from the president’s accountants should be allowed by a federal appeals court.
The Supreme Court this summer ruled that Trump did not have an absolute right to avoid having his tax returns and other financial records subpoenaed by a state prosecutor while serving in the White House.compass potential tax crimes.Before last month, reports had suggested that Trump’s company was under investigation for how it accounted for hush money payments made to two women who said they had affairs with Trump, who has denied their claims. Trump’s lawyers have argued that the subpoeana is “overbroad” and was issued “in bad faith.” But Vance’s team said in Monday’s court filing that the subpoena is more than justified by news reports that have raised the prospect that Trump and his company misstated the values of their business properties at different times. The filings said that if misstatements about business properties were conveyed from the Trump Organization’s headquarters in New York to business partners, insurers, potential lenders or tax authorities, that could mean the breaking of state laws such as scheme to defraud, falsification of business records, insurance fraud and criminal tax fraud, the filing said. Vance’s office also said in the filing that the scope “of the subpoena is moderate when compared to the temporal scope of misconduct alleged in public reports.”
“The New York Times reported that Appellant engagd in ‘dubious tax schemes during the 1990s, including instances of outright fraud’ and that he ‘helped his parents dodge taxes’ by ‘set[ting] up a sham corporation to disguise millions of dollars in gifts’ and undervaluing assets,” the filing said.Trump’s lawyer, Jay Sekulow, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for Vance declined to comment. The Supreme Court ruled this summer that Trump did not have an absolute right to avoid having his tax returns and other financial records subpoenaed by a state prosecutor while serving in the White House. But the Supreme Court also allowed the president to continue to challenge the subpoena, which was issued at Vance’s behest, on other grounds, in lower federal court. A federal judge in Manhattan last month rejected new arguments by Trump’s lawyers to block the subpoena. Trump then appealed that ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit.A hearing on the appeal is scheduled for Friday. Nick Note: This will help you to understand why Trump needs to stack his people on the Supreme Court. If he loses the election the supreme court will ultimately decide. And if he loses the election he will be indicted in the Southern District of New York. And that case will eventually be decided by the supreme court. He lives and dies in the Supreme Court
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention “erroneously” said on Monday the coronavirus could spread through the air beyond 2 meters, and not just through close person to person contact as initially supposed.
“There is growing evidence that droplets and airborne particles can remain suspended in the air and be breathed in by others, and travel distances beyond 6 feet,” the CDC’s updated COVID-19 guidance noted, but was corrected shortly after.
“A draft version of proposed changes to these recommendations was posted in error to the agency’s official website,” the CDC stated, adding that it “is currently updating its recommendations regarding the airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2. Once this process has been completed, the updated language will be posted.” Nick Note: When the Trump administration got wind “excuse the pun” that the CDC told the truth about the aerosol virus spread they were enraged and CDC backed of.f Once again have been politicized and have sold their soul to the Trump devil..
“The risk for on-board transmission of SARS-CoV-2 during long flights is real and has the potential to cause COVID-19 clusters of substantial size, even in business class-like settings with spacious seating arrangements well beyond the established distance used to define close contact on airplanes,” the study concluded.
A single airline passenger unknowingly sickened with coronavirus managed to infect 15 other people aboard the 10-hour trip to Vietnam, highlighting the dangers of travel amid the pandemic. The global health crisis had only just begun its spread across Europe when the plane took off from a London airport back in March. By the time it touched down in the Vietnamese city of Hanoi, 12 passengers in business class, two in economy and a single crew member had contracted the fast-spreading disease. Researchers behind a new Centers for Disease Control study, slated to be published in November, identified a 27-year-old business woman from Vietnam to be the likely source of the outbreak. She’d been based in London since early January and was experiencing a sore throat ahead of her return home. “On February 22, case 1 and her sister returned to Milan, Italy, and subsequently traveled to Paris, France, for the yearly Fashion Week before returning back to London on February 25,” they wrote in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases. Around that time, few cases had been reported in Britain and masks had not yet been required for the flight, which departed on March 1. “She was seated in business class and continued to experience the sore throat and cough throughout the flight,” the researchers added. Five days later, she went to the hospital and tested positive for coronavirus. CDC researchers then tracked down all 217 passengers and crew, tested them for the virus and ordered them quarantine. Investigators said there was no other likely way any of the 15 people could have been infected aside from exposure to the sick patient. “The most likely route of transmission during the flight is aerosol or droplet transmission from case 1, particularly for persons seated in business class,” they wrote. “Contact with case 1 might also have occurred outside the airplane at the airport, in particular among business class passengers in the predeparture lounge area or during boarding.” And while researchers believe masks are an effective tool to prevent the spread of the virus, they called for additional on-board precautions and screening procedures.
“The risk for on-board transmission of SARS-CoV-2 during long flights is real and has the potential to cause COVID-19 clusters of substantial size, even in business class-like settings with spacious seating arrangements well beyond the established distance used to define close contact on airplanes,” the study concluded.
Nick Note: I want to be crystal clear here. Flying will put you at extreme risk of catching the coronavirus. Taking temperate and even testing only tells you the passenger was not infected 2 weeks ago. Airlines recirculate 50% of the cabin air. The filters are minimal HEPTA H10. A sick joke. And and i can tell you for a fact their is NO disease tracing of people who fly that have gotten sick. 4 staff members contracted the virus. Musa, Dennis and recently Anna. Dennis and Anna were treated with Hydroxycholoroquine. I was i n contact with Musa and Dennis and despite our papers masks at the time I got symptoms. I immediately took Hydroxycholoroquine And my mild symptoms disappeared. Muad trusted the English health care system. By the time Anna flew we had our new P3 filters. Anna tested positive twice and was cured with Hydroxycholoroquine and after 10 days tested negative. By the time Anna returned we were smarter and put her in isolation, Unfortunately for Musa their were no tests available at the time and he was dying. I got involved and insisted he get a MRI which i payed for because the English health care system would not provide the scan. The results showed scarring and inflammation which was treated with steroids. His infection and swelling cleared up. But unfortunately he had permanent lung damage and is unable to work. So i do not want to hear any airlines self serving spin. New policy you fly don’t come here. For the record their was no follow up or infection testing or tracing by the airlines. Other airlines do not get involved when passengers get sick after a flight, which is most often the case. They do not care and do not want to know. You fly you die!!! Musa by his choice is no longer with us and i am sad…… Funny how this CDC study has been burred……. FUCK the airlines…….. I feel guilty since p payed for all the flights. For the record i begged Anna not to make the trip…….. It is now settled business NO FLYING…… And interesting no one is arguing with me any more!