"Wall Street’s rally fizzles as oil prices suddenly plunge" by Stan Choe and Alex Veiga Associated Press, April 08, 2020
NEW YORK — A big rally on Wall Street suddenly vanished Tuesday, undercut in part by another plunge in the price of oil.
It dampened what had been an ebullient day for markets worldwide, following up on Monday’s 7 percent surge for the S&P 500 on encouraging signs that the coronavirus pandemic may be close to leveling off in some of the hardest-hit areas of the world.
Even though economists say a punishing recession is inevitable, investors this week have recently begun to look ahead to when economies will reopen from their medically induced coma. A peak in new infections would offer some clarity about how long the recession may last and how deep it will be.
Investors could then, finally, envision the other side of the economic shutdown, after authorities forced businesses to close in hopes of slowing the spread of the virus. In the meantime, governments around the world are talking about pumping trillions of dollars more of aid into the economy.
That's who put you in the coma or killed you, and those trillions aren't for you.
Many professional investors say they’ve been wary of the recent upsurge and such concerns were borne out in Tuesday’s trading. Oil prices have been even more volatile than the stock market in recent weeks as demand has dried up for energy amid a global economy weakened by the coronavirus outbreak. Russia and Saudi Arabia have also been locked in a price war, refusing to cut production sharply even as the world is awash in excess oil.
Amazing how the oil price war receded with the tide.
President Trump said last week that he hoped and investors also see signals that the number of daily infections and deaths may be close to peaking or plateauing in Spain, Italy, and New York.
More economic misery is also on the horizon, but governments are promising massive amounts of aid......
Yeah, the future is so bright you gotta wear shades.
--more--"
UPDATE: Dow jumps about 3.4 percent as investors show optimism on coronavirus trajectory
Expected to $urvive the bloodbath, according to Peter Cohan, a business-strategy lecturer at Babson College, and are Moderna, Everbridge, BJ’s Wholesale Club, Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Biogen, and Akamai Technologies. That's where the "smart money" is getting placed, with the companies believed to be best positioned to ride out the hurricane.
Hurricane?
The natural disaster narrative?
Hmmm.
"TJX Cos. said its top executives are taking pay cuts as the company furloughs thousands of store and warehouse workers across the country, according to a document filed Tuesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Framingham-based company closed its US stores and its online businesses on March 19 in reaction to the COVID-19 crisis. TJX committed to pay affected employees through April 11 but is now planning to implement temporary furloughs for the majority of store and warehouse workers in the United States after that point. (A spokesman declined to say how many would be affected.) The workers will continue to get their benefits while on furlough. The base salaries of chief executive Ernie Herrman and executive chairwoman Carol Meyrowitz will be cut by 30 percent from April 12 through July 4, and other executive officers will see their pay cut by 20 percent over that time, while many other senior executives will see unspecified pay cuts. TJX had more than 4,500 stores worldwide as of the end of 2020. It had more than 3,000 in the United States, primarily under the T.J. Maxx, Marshalls, and HomeGoods brands."
Look who is already running out of ga$:
"Honda Motor Co. and Nissan Motor Co. will temporarily stop paying workers laid off from their idled US plants as the coronavirus stifles demand for cars and trucks. The two Japanese companies on Tuesday joined unionized Detroit peers in urging furloughed workers to apply for unemployment benefits from state governments. After shutting down their non-union manufacturing operations last month, Honda initially continued to pay workers their full wages while Nissan provided about 80 percent. It isn’t clear how much of a cut from their regular pay Honda and Nissan workers will see. Unionized employees of General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co., and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV receive state unemployment and supplemental benefits that make up about 75 percent of their pay, based on collective-bargaining agreements. Furloughed workers at all 10 of Honda’s US factories won’t receive wages from April 13 to May 1, making them eligible to get unemployment benefits from local authorities, said Teruhiko Tatebe, a Honda spokesman (Bloomberg News)."
Where is the paycheck protection, 'eh?
"Macy’s Inc., in the middle of navigating a broad US shutdown of nonessential businesses, said chief financial officer Paula Price is leaving her role. Price, who has been in the position for less than two years, “has made the decision to leave the company as of May 31,” the department store operator said in a statement. She will remain an adviser through November, and the company is searching for her replacement. Her departure comes amid a massive retail shutdown, part of unprecedented measures to halt the spread of the coronavirus. Macy’s has furloughed most of its more than 100,000 workers starting this month in a bid to preserve cash as the closure of all 775 of its physical stores has caused a sharp decline in revenue (Bloomberg News)."
She is a rat de$erting a $inking $hip, and Macy’s will be bankrupt and out of business in less than six months -- unle$$ they get $ome bailout loot!
"Pier 1 Imports Inc. is expected to receive a revised purchase offer in bankruptcy that would keep open fewer than 100 of the company’s 900-plus locations, according to people with knowledge of the developments. The bid, from a company called CSC Generation, comes after the retailer’s bankruptcy court process was paused while stores were shuttered in accordance with coronavirus containment measures. Pier 1 sought court protection in February with plans to shut about half of its stores and said it was in talks with multiple potential buyers. The Fort Worth, Texas-based company had posted multiple quarters of declining sales and losses amid a raft of new competitors such as Wayfair Inc. (Bloomberg News)."
You got rotted imported lemons, you make face masks and sell 'em on E$ty:
"Etsy crafts never seemed like essential goods, but on Friday, the same day the White House announced guidelines that Americans should wear masks outside of the home, Etsy Inc. sent a push notification to every craftsperson on its website in the United States: ‘‘Calling all sellers,’’ it said. ‘‘Start making face masks.’’ The website is becoming a go-to destination for homemade cloth masks. Etsy said there was an average of one mask-related search on the site every two seconds in March. Last week, more than 10,000 sellers sold at least one mask apiece. Unlike the medical-grade equipment now in woefully short supply at US hospitals, cloth masks can be quickly constructed by anyone with a sewing machine and some elastic. That means the skillsets of legions of Etsy crafters are suddenly in very high demand (Bloomberg News)."
Can they get a loan yet?
"Treasury seeks additional $250 billion to replenish small business coronavirus program" by Erica Werner and Jeff Stein Washington Post, April 7, 2020
WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Tuesday asked congressional leaders to swiftly commit another $250 billion to replenish a new small business coronavirus program that is being overwhelmed by surging demand.
They are pa$$ing it out like candy.
Republicans plan to push the matter in Congress immediately. Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, said on Tuesday that he hoped to bring the matter up for a vote by Thursday as small businesses are flooding the $349 billion Small Business Administration program in order to seek emergency relief. Democrats haven’t rejected the proposal, but they have said they want to prioritize other assistance, such as hazard pay for workers.
The Small Business Administration initiative, called the Paycheck Protection Program, was created as part of the $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus bill enacted late last month. It launched Friday and allows companies with fewer than 500 employees to seek loans from banks that are meant to offset the recent disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Since the program launched, banks and the SBA have been overwhelmed with applications.
They are clawing for the ca$h like animals.
Senator Marco Rubio, Republican of Florida, who wrote the program into the bill, has led the charge in requesting more money. McConnell said he would speak with Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York, and ‘‘hope to approve further funding for the Paycheck Protection Program by unanimous consent or voice vote during the next scheduled Senate session on Thursday.’’
Many businesses have laid off workers as their revenue evaporated when millions of Americans were ordered to stay home in an effort to stop the coronavirus’s spread. In order to try to prevent an even bigger flood of layoffs, Congress created the program. The loans are forgivable, meaning they don’t have to be repaid if companies meet certain requirements in terms of employee retention.
The banks will $crew everyone later. That's how these things u$ually work.
The White House and Treasury Department have devoted enormous resources to get this program up and running, spending less time on other elements of the rescue law — including an expansion of unemployment insurance and payments to individuals.
Democrats and Republicans have commented in recent days that the $349 billion program would likely need to be expanded, but Democrats have called for additional measures, such as more unemployment insurance benefits for laid-off workers. Senate Democrats on Tuesday asked Mnuchin and SBA Administrator Jovita Carranza to ensure that a portion of the small business funding was directed toward companies owned by women, minorities, and veterans, among others, particularly in rural and underserved areas.
They are playing identity politics with the much-needed money!
Some might call that extortion!
Schumer and other Democratic senators also said they would pursue legislation to provide hazard pay equivalent to $25,000 yearly for workers who have been forced to remain on the job during the pandemic.
They could try to use the GOP demand for small business funding as leverage to include it in the next rescue bill.
‘‘All I’m going to say is that this is one of our very highest priorities’’ for the next bill, Schumer told reporters, referring to the hazard-pay addition.
House minority leader Kevin McCarthy, Republican of California, tweeted on Tuesday that ‘‘the demand for the Paycheck Protection Program has been overwhelming.’’
He wrote that he had spoken with Mnuchin on Tuesday morning and supports ‘‘his request for more money for America’s small businesses. Following the Senate’s approval, the House should move swiftly to do the same.’’
Other Republicans also called for urgent action.
Hit the brakes!
Small businesses, which employ nearly half of the United States’ private sector workers, have said they are facing long waits, confusing rules, and rejection as they scramble to secure loans through the fund. Many banks have restricted access to their existing customers and say that while they have begun processing the loans, they lack the proper SBA paperwork to finish the process.
Oh, they did when it comes to getting money to you even when you are on your knees begging!
There are still some unanswered questions about how the program works, including what kind of documentation they need to collect from the small businesses, banking industry officials say.....
Are you $ick of the excu$e$ yet?
--more--"
He passed the damn bill fast enough, didn't he?
Related:
"Sentiment among US small businesses collapsed in March by the most on record and owners’ outlooks deteriorated swiftly amid the economic disruptions caused by the global health crisis. The National Federation of Independent Business optimism index slumped 8.1 points to 96.4, the group said in a report issued Tuesday, the biggest drop in monthly surveys going back to 1986. The group’s measure of business conditions six months from now declined 17 points, the most since November 2012, to 5. Nine of the 10 components that make up the optimism gauge declined in March. Pessimism reflected the largest-ever decrease in sales expectations. The federation’s uncertainty index increased to a three-year high (Bloomberg News)."
Also see:
Trump ousts pandemic spending watchdog known for independence
According to the New York Times, "the official, Glenn A. Fine, has been the acting inspector general for the Defense Department since before Trump took office, and Fine is a former Justice Department inspector general who earned a reputation for aggression and independence in scrutinizing the FBI’s use of surveillance and other law enforcement powers in the years following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks."
Yeah, I gue$$ you wouldn't want to have him looking into the looting.
Trump has a new press secretary
She is Kayleigh McEnany, a campaign spokeswoman, according to Maggie Haberman of the New York Times.
Outgoing White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham listened as President Trump spoke in the White House in Washington. Grisham is leaving her post after never holding a single press briefing. (Alex Brandon/Associated Press/File 2019/Associated Press)
She is Public Enemy #1 to some people.
She may have just lost that belt:
"Acting Navy secretary resigns after insulting aircraft carrier’s ousted captain" by Dan Lamothe, Paul Sonne and Seung Min Kim Washington Post, April 7, 2020
Acting Navy secretary Thomas Modly, whose fiery insults of a naval officer who raised alarm about the service’s handling of a coronavirus outbreak prompted widespread condemnation, has resigned, according to three people familiar with the discussions.
The decision comes after Modly traveled from Washington to Guam on Monday to give a speech to the crew of the USS Theodore Roosevelt, whose commander, Captain Brett Crozier, Modly removed last week. During profanity-laced remarks, Modly assailed Crozier’s character, angering many of ship’s sailors.
Modly, speaking to the ship’s crew over a loudspeaker, accused Crozier of either leaking a letter about his concerns to the media or of being ‘‘too naive or too stupid to be the commanding officer of a ship like this.’’
The remarks, leaked to the media in written and audio form, prompted condemnation from family members of the crew, which has more than 170 coronavirus cases, and several Democratic lawmakers. By Monday night, Modly had released a statement apologizing for insulting Crozier, who has tested positive for the virus, but insisting that Crozier had written the letter with the intention of creating a stir.
Defense Secretary Mark Esper had asked Modly to apologize, hoping that would be sufficient to move beyond the controversy, according to a senior administration official, but instead the pressure for Modly’s resignation increased, including among other players within the Defense Department, the official said. Modly met with Esper on Tuesday before submitting his resignation, another person familiar with the matter said, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.
They basically cut him adrift because they don't need this type of problem right now.
The son of Eastern European immigrants who moved to the United States after World War II, Modly was raised in Cleveland, according to his official Navy biography. He graduated from the Naval Academy in 1983 and served as a Navy helicopter pilot before leaving active duty service in 1990 to attend business school. He worked as an executive at a number of companies, including most recently at the consulting firm PwC, where he handled the NATO account, before being tapped in 2017 as undersecretary of the Navy for the Trump administration.
I'm sure the revolving door will lead back to that $ector.
I thought Trump was going to drain the $wamp.
The incident has raised questions about how much transparency the military should display when faced with a public health crisis and how top leaders should balance the need to safeguard the well-being of service members with the imperative to continue ongoing military missions.
Maybe they could address the Dark Winter, hmm?
Once you start down that road.....
Upon becoming public, Crozier’s letter fed into the very narrative that the White House was looking to dispel about leadership in Washington failing to take serious enough steps in early days to contain the outbreak.
Another Deep $tate leak, huh?
His firing has been seen among the aircraft carrier’s crew as an attempt to muzzle any leaks of information about the situation on the vessel that could become politically inconvenient for top officers and civilian appointees back in Washington. During his trip to Guam, Modly warned the aircraft carrier’s crew not to speak to the media.
So they won't spill the beans about the drill?
A spokesman for Modly did not respond to a request for an interview.....
Oh, okay. Thanks for clearing that up.
--more--"
The Globe says that the captain goes down for his ship for sounding the alarm about a coronavirus outbreak on an aircraft carrier deserves praise as Trump is battling his critics more fiercely than coronavirus, and it is time to end populism’s war on expertise because the coronavirus crisis shows why we need to listen to the professionals.
Related:
"A crew member aboard the Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort tested positive for the coronavirus, and several others have gone into isolation, the Navy said Tuesday, the latest setback in the ship’s troubled mission to New York to assist in the pandemic response. News of the infection came a day after President Trump relented to pressure from New York hospitals and allowed the Comfort to begin accepting patients who had the virus. The ship arrived last week with great fanfare and was supposed to relieve pressure on New York’s overburdened hospitals by taking patients suffering from other ailments, but bureaucratic hurdles, as well as a sharp decline in hospitalizations unrelated to the virus, resulted in few patients being transferred to the ship. By Thursday, the 1,000-bed ship had only 20 patients. The empty beds angered hospital leaders, whose facilities have been overwhelmed with people sick with COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus (New York Times)."
So the ship that was supposed to take non-infected patients is now rife with it, huh?
This is looking more like a simulation every day!
"US authorities on Tuesday reported 29,000 more people infected with the novel coronavirus and more than 1,800 more deaths — the highest daily death toll so far, but amid the grim data, some officials said they saw grounds for hope that the pandemic’s devastation would at least not be as bad as the direst projections. New York, the state hit hardest by the virus, reported its highest-ever daily death toll: 731, but Democratic Govwenor Andrew Cuomo said the number of new patients admitted to hospitals appeared to be trending downward. ‘‘Right now we’re projecting that we are reaching a plateau in the total number of hospitalizations, and you can see the growth and you see it starting to flatten,’’ Cuomo told reporters Tuesday. Nationwide, one computer model of the disease’s future spread — relied upon by governors and the White House — shifted its estimate of COVID-19’s US death toll downward this week. Instead of roughly 94,000 deaths as estimated a week ago, the University of Washington model now predicts about 82,000 by late summer. ‘‘Even during this painful week, we see glimmers of very, very strong hope,’’ President Trump told reporters Tuesday. Vice President Mike Pence added that ‘‘we continue to see evidence of stabilization’’ in hard-hit areas. Still, what is passing for good news still means about 70,000 Americans alive today may die by August. The models predict the worst day for deaths will be around April 16, meaning daily death tolls will grow higher until then, yet the tone of some of the nation’s top experts has changed in the past 48 hours. ‘‘You’re starting to see that we may be actually — in a series of communities outside of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut — creating a much flatter graph, a much flatter curve,’’ said Deborah Birx, director of the White House coronavirus response. That echoed Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, a day earlier. ‘‘Everybody who knows me knows I’m very conservative about making projections, but those are the kind of good signs that you look for,’’ Fauci said of the New York figures, but some experts urged caution. ‘‘From all the data we have, it suggests we’re just beginning to approach the peak for several regions of the country,’’ said Marynia Kolak, assistant director of health informatics at the University of Chicago’s Center for Spatial Data Science. She said she is worried about future surges in tribal areas in the Southwest, and in areas of the South where social distancing measures were implemented just recently (Washington Post)."
I guess the mass graves will no longer be needed, huh?
"The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in Manhattan, one of the largest church buildings in the world, will partner with the Rev. Franklin Graham’s ministry, Samaritan’s Purse, to set up a field hospital under its 124-foot-high stone nave, Graham said Monday. Graham, an evangelist who was to travel to New York on Tuesday to visit the Episcopal church, said New York’s Mount Sinai Hospital asked for his ministry’s help with the effort. Tents expected to hold at least 200 patients will be set up inside the cathedral by the end of the week, the Rev. Clifton Daniel III, the dean of the cathedral, told The New York Times, which first reported the news. Church officials told the Times that about 400 beds were delivered last week, though it’s unclear whether patients will be treated specifically for the novel coronavirus. The crypt will be used as ‘‘a staging area’’ for medical personnel, Daniel told the Times, and it’s the first time the cathedral will be used as a hospital. For decades, Graham’s comments about Islam and gay people have induced controversy, and raised red flags for some when his Samaritan’s Purse came to New York. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio told reporters last week that his office would ‘‘monitor’’ the facility to ensure staff would not discriminate. Graham said that members of the mayor’s office visited the facility Sunday, adding that they were not concerned over issues of discrimination (New York Times)."
God help us all!
With each brief, the skeptical suspicions are confirmed:
"COVID-19's toll in New York City is now more than 1,000 deaths higher than that of the deadliest terror attack on U.S. soil, which killed 2,753 people in the city and 2,977 overall, when hijacked planes slammed into the twin towers, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field on Sept. 11, 2001. New York state recorded 731 new coronavirus deaths, its biggest one-day jump yet, for a statewide toll of nearly 5,500, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said. “A lot of pain again today for many New Yorkers," he said, but in an encouraging sign, the governor said hospital admissions and the number of those receiving breathing tubes are dropping, indicating that social distancing measures are succeeding, and alarming as the one-day increase in deaths might sound, the governor said that’s a “lagging indicator,” reflecting people who had been hospitalized before this week. Over the past several days, in fact, the number of deaths in New York appeared to be leveling off. “You see that plateauing - that’s because of what we are doing. If we don’t do what we are doing, that is a much different curve,” Cuomo said. “So social distancing is working.” Across the U.S., the death toll neared 13,000, with close to 400,000 confirmed infections. Some of the deadliest hot spots were Detroit, New Orleans and the New York metropolitan area, which includes parts of Long Island, New Jersey and Connecticut. New Jersey recorded over 1,200 dead, most of them in the northern counties where many residents commute into New York City. U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams said that if Americans continue to practice social distancing for the rest of April, “we will be able to get back to some sense of normalcy.”
Two days ago he was warning of a ‘‘national catastrophe comparable to Pearl Harbor or 9/11 that is going to be the hardest and saddest week of most Americans’ lives.’’
They sure have changed their tune rather quickly, almost as if they have been caught with their hand in the cookie jar.
I doubt this ship will be able to dock in New York:
"Nearly 60 percent of 217 people — many from Australia, Europe, and the United States — on board a cruise ship off the coast of Uruguay have tested positive for the coronavirus, the ship’s operator said Tuesday. “There are currently no fevers on board, and all are asymptomatic,” said Aurora Expeditions, the Australian operator of the Greg Mortimer ship that is working to disembark the crew and passengers and arrange flights to their home countries. The Greg Mortimer departed March 15 on a voyage to Antarctica and South Georgia that was titled “In Shackleton’s Footsteps,” a reference to the polar explorer who led British expeditions to the region and died there in 1922. Of 217 people tested on the vessel, 128 were positive for the virus that causes COVID-19 and 89 tested negative, Aurora Expeditions said. Another six people who were evacuated from the ship are in stable condition and being treated in Montevideo. In a separate case, a cruise ship anchored in Santos, on the coast of Brazil’s Sao Paulo state, had its quarantine extended until at least April 19 after doctors found new suspected cases of the coronavirus, according to Brazilian officials. There are now 40 suspected cases aboard the Costa Fascinosa vessel, which is owned by Costa Cruises. Hundreds of people are on the ship (Associated Press)"
It just occurred top me: as with the military, prisoners, nursing home residents, even the homeless, the cruise ship passengers are captive populations.
"As the coronavirus pandemic threatens to strain nursing staffs at hospitals across the United States, Melanie N. Beckham knows where to find reinforcements, but first, the Trump administration needs to give its approval. Beckham, president of Vintage Health Resources Inc. in Germantown, Tenn., specializes in helping hospitals throughout the southeastern US hire nurses from the Philippines, a country with a large population of English speakers and a long history of sending health care workers abroad. Of the several hundred Philippine recruits now in Vintage’s application process, more than 100 nurses have passed the licensing and language exams. They’ve completed background checks and are ready to head to the United States. Yet they are stuck because they can’t get their visas processed. ‘‘They could come tomorrow,’’ Beckham said. ‘‘The demand is overwhelming right now.’’ Since President Trump took office on a promise to crack down on immigration, nurses from the Philippines have faced more red tape. Officials return about 50 percent of Vintage’s applications and demand additional paperwork, up from just 5 percent of applications during the Obama administration, Beckham said (Bloomberg)."
Do they really need more nurses?
I mean, this also comes as medical facilities all across the country are reducing staff.
WTF?
"Even as most Americans are under orders from their governor to stay at home to slow the spread of the coronavirus, leaders in a handful of states have steadfastly refused to take that action, arguing it’s unneeded and could be harmful. Nine governors have refused to issue statewide mandates that people stay at home, but local leaders have taken action in some of those states. North Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, and Arkansas are the only states where no one is under a stay-at-home order. The lack of action from those governors — even as they take other steps such as closing schools and limiting the size of gatherings — has frustrated health experts and left some residents puzzled. “If social distancing maneuvers are going to work, they’re most likely going to work if you do them early,’’ said Arthur L. Reingold, a professor and infectious disease expert at the University of California Berkeley. “The longer you wait, the harder it is for them to have a substantial impact on transmission of the virus.” That also has been the message of Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, who has said all states should have statewide orders that people remain at home. Fauci on Monday credited the governors of Nebraska and Iowa for what steps they have taken to slow the virus, but David Leeson, a retiree in Winterset, Iowa, said he can’t understand why restrictions that make sense in most of the country haven’t been imposed in his home state. “I think it’s idiotic,” Leeson said. “The only way this is going to work is to have every state under the same rules.” (Associated Press)."
I don't trust that little weasel, and hooray for the Resistance!
"Georgia Governor Brian Kemp is “considering new options” amid criticism from local officials for his order that reversed beach closures and other restrictions imposed by cities and counties to battle the coronavirus, the governor’s spokeswoman said Tuesday. Kemp’s executive order last week requiring Georgia residents to shelter at home, except under prescribed exceptions, drew an outcry from some city and county leaders for a provision that rolled back any tougher restrictions already imposed by local governments. Those nullified restrictions included local decisions to close public beaches on the 100-mile Georgia coast (Associated Press)."
What we have in America right now is a bunch of fiefdoms.
"‘Liberty’ rebellion in Idaho threatens to undermine coronavirus efforts" by Mike Baker New York Times, April 7, 2020
SANDPOINT, Idaho — Inside an old factory north of Boise, a few dozen people gathered last week to hear from Ammon Bundy, the man who once led an armed takeover of an Oregon wildlife refuge.
The meeting, which appeared to violate orders by Governor Brad Little of Idaho to avoid group gatherings, was an assertion of what Bundy said was a constitutional right to peacefully assemble, but Bundy said he also hoped to create a network of people ready to come to the aid of those facing closure of their businesses or other interference from the government as a result of the coronavirus outbreak.
That kind of thing will get you shunned.
“If it gets bad enough, and our rights are infringed upon enough, we can physically stand in defense in whatever way we need to,” Bundy told the meeting, “but we hope we don’t have to get there.”
Ammon Bundy, who led the occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge during a standoff in Oregon in 2016, is now campaigning against stay-at-home orders. (Ruth Fremson/New York Times/File 2016)
In a state with pockets of deep wariness about both big government and mainstream medicine, the sweeping restrictions aimed at containing the spread of the virus have run into outright rebellion in parts of Idaho, which is facing its own worrying spike in coronavirus cases.
The opposition is coming not only from people like Bundy, whose armed takeover of the Oregon refuge with dozens of other men and women in 2016 led to a 41-day standoff, but also from some state lawmakers and a county sheriff who are calling the governor’s statewide stay-at-home order an infringement on individual liberties.
I should have moved out of Ma$$achu$etts a long time ago.
Health care providers and others have been horrified at the public calls to countermand social-distancing requirements, warning that failing to take firm measures could overwhelm Idaho’s small hospitals and put large numbers of people at risk of dying.
Many of the latest claims about the Constitution have come from Idaho’s northern panhandle, where vaccination rates for other diseases have always been low and where wariness of government is high.
State Representative Heather Scott, a Republican from Blanchard, northwest of Coeur d’Alene, is encouraging her constituents to push back on the statewide stay-at-home order, saying people have “a God-given constitutionally protected right to peacefully assemble.”
Tim Remington, a Coeur d’Alene pastor who was appointed to the state House of Representatives in January, led a church service March 29, four days after the stay-at-home order went into effect, that was open to the public, and in Bonner County, Sheriff Daryl Wheeler posted an open letter saying that the public had been “misled” by public health officials’ dire predictions and called on the governor to convene an emergency session of the Legislature to debate his stay-at-home order.
It sure is starting to look that way when you read the daily propaganda in the Bo$ton Globe!
“In the spirit of liberty and the Constitution, you can request those that are sick to stay home,” Wheeler wrote. “But, at the same time, you must release the rest of us to go on with our normal business.”
The dissent has left local medical workers pleading with Idahoans to heed the message that has helped contain the coronavirus elsewhere: Stay home. Don’t gather in groups, and, perhaps most challenging, trust us.
No anymore. Not since the pharmaceutical indu$try bought off the doctors and foisted the opioid crisis upon us.
“Don’t take legal advice from a doctor,” said Dr. Benjamin Good, an emergency medicine physician affiliated with Bonner General Health, “and don’t take medical advice from a sheriff.”
At a time when health officials say social-distancing measures are vital to avert catastrophic outbreaks of the kind that could overwhelm hospitals — as happened in Italy — Idaho’s tensions threaten to undermine compliance. While the state was one of the last in the country to identify a coronavirus case, it now has far more cases per capita than California. Blaine County, which includes the popular Sun Valley ski resort, now has the largest per capita concentration of coronavirus cases in the nation.
That's because the Hollywood celebrity cla$$ brought it with them!!
The state as of Monday had 1,170 cases; 13 people had died, yet the blowback to the governor’s stay-at-home order has continued to escalate.
Bundy said in an interview that a group in the Boise area was looking for a venue to host an Easter service this weekend with a potential crowd of 1,000 people. Bundy said a man in Twin Falls hoped to host communion in a park, and Bundy himself is leading regular meetings with dozens of people to assess how to fight back against what he calls government overreach, including with a physical presence if necessary.
Much of the region’s tensions revolve around skepticism over the advice from medical leaders, which some people here regard as unwarranted. Bundy compared the effects of the virus to the flu, even though epidemiologists have warned that it can kill at a much higher rate.
He said that he would prefer in any case to become infected soon, while he is otherwise healthy.
“I want the virus now,” Bundy said.
I'm sure he will come down with it then!
Doctors in Idaho have been concerned not only about the public calls for canceling the governor’s stay-at-home order, but also about comments that play down the danger of the virus. COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus, is a particular threat to people who are older or who have underlying conditions, as evidenced by a nursing home in Washington state where the virus contributed to dozens of deaths.
This as they PLAY IT UP!
“If we stop doing what we’re doing, it could deteriorate so quickly, and our resources could be overwhelmed so quickly,” said Hurt, the emergency doctor at Bonner General Health. “It’s scary for the people in this community, and scary for us as hospital workers, to be inundated with that.”
Worried about losing your job?
--more--"
{@@##$$%%^^&&}
Meanwhile, closer to home:
"As cases and deaths rise, Baker announces funds for health care providers" by Tim Logan, Danny McDonald and Travis Andersen Globe Staff, April 7, 2020
Governor Charlie Baker on Tuesday announced a plan to pump $800 million into Massachusetts health care providers, as many struggle financially amid a coronavirus crisis that has now killed more than 350 residents and threatens to strain the system’s limits with a crush of new patients.
Where will that money be coming from as tax receipts dry up?
The announcement came as the state reported 96 new deaths in Massachusetts due to the outbreak, bringing the total to 356. Health officials said the higher-than-typical daily tally reflected death reports that came in over the weekend but had to be matched with lab-confirmed cases before being released to the public.
That is one of the few things they have been releasing according to what I'm reading in the Globe!
The growing number of cases could presage what Baker and public health experts say is a looming surge in seriously ill patients that threatens to overwhelm the health care system.
In response, Baker said, the administration will boost MassHealth hospital funding by $400 million, and distribute another $400 million among nursing homes, community health centers, and other providers between now and July in a bid to shore up budgets that are straining under the demands of the crisis.
Large hospital groups around Greater Boston have begun furloughing employees and ordering pay cuts. Boston Medical Center last week furloughed 700 employees — 10 percent of its workforce — while doctors and other staff at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and South Shore Health have seen pay frozen or reduced.
????????
Related:
"The typical centers of city life are silent under curfew, but new ones have emerged. Framed by the glass windows of Boston Medical Center’s emergency room, people donned masks and unbuttoned coats under fluorescent lights. Cars pulled into the driveway and parked on the curb; small groups entered the ER. A pink “thank you sign” was strung up behind the building. Inside the hospital’s walls, the city was still alive....."
That's as coronavirus cases surge at Boston Medical Center and they are allegedly turning away ambulances and sending them back from whence they came.
Most hospitals have cut elective surgeries and sharply curtailed non-coronavirus treatment to make room for the surge of COVID-19 patients, with revenue plunging as a result. Since that came via an order of the state, Baker said, it only makes sense for the state to help hospitals absorb the financial losses.
How many of us will die in the interim due to neglect, all for an agenda-pushing simulation and drill?
Much of the $800 million will come from savings MassHealth is seeing by not paying for those elective procedures right now, along with increases in federal reimbursement rates to deal with COVID-19 treatment. Baker discussed the move with legislative leaders, but said it wouldn’t require a supplemental budget or legislative action because it amounted to “basically moving money around.”
OH, MAN!
They are STEALING the MONEY from the POOR PEOPLE'S HEALTH FUND so they can give it to the hospitals so that they will keep their mouths shut!
This is EVIL, folks!
“We basically told the health care community that does elective surgeries to stop because we wanted them to build out capacity for COVID-19 and that’s exactly what they’ve been doing,” he said. “As a result there’s been a pretty significant drop in payments for those activities.”
All based on predictive models!
Make room for the ghost patients!
The rest — more than $300 million — will be spread around a wide array of providers, from primary care doctors to personal care attendants, who are keeping residents safe and out of the hospital.
“It’s a big investment in our health care system,” Baker said, adding that the money will help to make sure providers can operate "all these things we need right now.”
Yeah, forget about actually taking care of people!
At a City Hall news conference earlier in the day, Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh said hospitals will need more morgue capacity in the coming days, as he warned that the expected peak of the pandemic is still ahead. He urged people to continue social distancing.
“The next few weeks are going to be a test of our health care capacity like never before,” Walsh said. “Unfortunately, we’re going to see a lot more loss of life.”
He said the city would help hospitals to expand their morgue capacity, including by expediting permitting.
“These facts are an unsettling reminder of how serious this emergency is,” he said.
Is that Seinfeld I hear in the background?
In a nod to the importance of those working on the front lines, Walsh announced that health care workers who receive parking tickets will have their fees waived by e-mailing a photo of their ticket and their hospital ID to parking@boston.gov, unless they’re ticketed for parking in front of hydrants or in handicapped spaces without a placard.
That is how they are buying them off to not squeal and spoil the simulation!
That is what poor peoples' health money is buying!
The pandemic appears to have taken a toll on the city’s first responders. As of Tuesday, 45 Boston firefighters were self-isolating because of a potential exposure to a COVID-19 case, said Brian Alkins, a department spokesman.
It's also running rampant in the BPD and EMS services, or so we are told, and at least the first responders didn't have to climb on a pile of toxic spew this time.
Walsh emphasized that the disruption to people’s lives is far from over. Boston Pride events scheduled for June have been postponed a year, organizers said, putting its 50th anniversary celebration on the shelf.
It will never be over.
“This is going to go on for a substantial amount of time,” Walsh said.
He urged residents to wear masks to slow the spread of the virus — guidance he said he is also following, donning a mask when he walks outside his office in City Hall.
Symbolism costs him nothing and word must have gotten back about how we are all noticing a lack of social distancing by those preaching it the hardest.
So is Marty still getting phalanx of cruisers for security detail on his way into work despite the empty streets (all one way, too)?
--more--"
UPDATE: Mass. reports 1,588 new coronavirus cases, 77 new related deaths
Baker says we are still on ‘upward slope.’
Related:
"The number of homeless people infected with novel coronavirus has shot into the triple digits, surging from 5 cases to about 200 in the span of a week, Boston officials said Tuesday. The tally of confirmed cases represents about 30 percent of the local homeless people tested so far, said Boston Health and Human Services director Marty Martinez. Between 600 and 700 homeless people have undergone the test since testing began in earnest late last month. The majority of those who tested positive had no symptoms. So far, none of the homeless people diagnosed with COVID-19 have died, he said....."
A crowd was on the corner of Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard in Boston on Tuesday. (Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff)
Oh, that is going to make Marty mad!
Also see:
Beacon Street shooting investigated
Man arrested on robbery, assault charges at MBTA station
A Boston man allegedly assaulted someone and forced them to withdraw money from an ATM, and expect to see such things mushroom as we go forward.
Man killed in I-95 crash
I've noticed lots of car crashes lately, as if roving death squads who are encountering minimal resistance are covering their tracks after the fact.
Baby boy named Miles born on side of a highway
Quick, he stopped breathing:
"Who gets a ventilator? New gut-wrenching state guidelines issued on rationing equipment; Preference given to medical personnel, people who are healthy, younger" by Liz Kowalczyk Globe Staff, April 7, 2020
Massachusetts health officials issued guidelines Tuesday to help hospitals make gut-wrenching decisions about how to ration ventilators, should they become overwhelmed with coronavirus patients and run out of critical treatments.
I was told we couldn't have single-payer healthcare like Canada for this very reason.
WTF?
Where is Kushner when you need him?
The guidance, which is not mandatory, asks hospitals to assign patients a score that gives preference to healthier patients who have a greater chance of surviving their illness, and living longer overall. It gives additional preference to medical personnel who are vital to treating others, and to women further along in pregnancy. In the event of tie scores, younger patients are given priority.
Looks like a DEATH PANEL to me!
This is EVIL, folks!
“There is a great sense of urgency,” said Dr. Robert Truog, director of the Center for Bioethics at Harvard Medical School and a pediatric intensivist who was part of the group that helped develop the guidelines.....
I'll bet, and now I am having trouble breathing (did you know Wuhan has some of the dirtiest air on the planet? It's also where they turned on the oxygen-depriving 5G that seems to be linked to repressed immune systems and cancers).
--more--"
Turns out most doctors are now ‘seeing’ patients by phone or video in a huge shift because of coronavirus, according to Jonathan Saltzman of the Globe Staff, as:
"People with urgent health problems can still see doctors in person and, if necessary, go to the emergency room, and some appointments can’t be done remotely ― such as when patients need chemotherapy infusions or a hands-on examination, but if outpatients are seeing health care providers mostly for checkups, physicians say, a virtual appointment makes a lot more sense than going to the hospital during the pandemic, even for people with life-threatening diseases — and maybe especially for them. "It was absolutely wonderful,” said Linda Cohen, a 59-year-old longtime breast cancer patient from Wayland. She made a hasty Zoom appointment with her Dana-Farber oncologist last week to discuss stomach problems resulting from an oral chemotherapy drug she recently started taking. Cohen said that as a cancer patient with a compromised immune system, she’s particularly vulnerable to the virus that causes COVID-19. She was grateful to be able to discuss her side effects with Dr. Harold Burstein online for 20 minutes and avoid traveling to Boston, parking her car, and having to go inside the hospital. Burstein, she said, prescribed an additional drug to ease her stomach problems....."
So much for the bedside manner, huh?
"Grandma can get on Zoom, but Mass. lawmakers can’t get livestreaming to work; Key economic hearing postponed after ‘unexpected technical issues’" by Matt Stout Globe Staff, April 7, 2020
The coronavirus pandemic has capsized the state’s financial picture, but officials’ search for clarity in the face of this new enemy will have to wait after state government was stymied by one of its most enduring foes: technology.
State officials on Tuesday hastily postponed an economic round table on tax revenue expectations after they were unable to get a live stream of the meeting to work.
But we are all supposed to be seeing the doctor that way!
This borders the edge of credulity, folks!
Legislative leaders and Governor Charlie Baker’s budget office had invited 10 economists, budget gurus, and other experts to participate in a meeting in a fourth-floor room at the State House where a $2 million-plus renovation was completed less than six years ago, but some people were expected to participate remotely, and officials — wary of encouraging a crowd amid social distancing guidelines — sought to limit who could physically attend, making livestreaming a key aspect of the discussion.
In other words, they didn't want to look like a bunch of evil, conniving hypocrites!
Roughly 30 minutes after the round table was scheduled to begin, however, officials were unable to get the live stream on the Legislature’s website to operate. They plan to reschedule the hearing for April 14.
“Unfortunately, due to some unexpected technical issues with the live streaming interface on the Massachusetts Legislature website, we will need to postpone today’s economic roundtable,” Senator Michael J. Rodrigues, the Senate’s budget chairman, said in a statement.
I was just thinking, are they even essential at this stage?
Pushing the round table to next week, he said, will "ensure that the interface is fixed and that we are able to broadcast a live feed for the general public and everyone interested to tune in and listen to this important testimony.”
Representative Aaron Michlewitz, the House’s budget chairman, wrote on Twitter that officials “felt it was important for public to see this in real time.”
Where is the feed?
As businesses and offices around Massachusetts have moved to remote operations during the pandemic, using videoconferencing apps like Zoom and Skype has become a new way of life for countless people.
No one seems to care about their privacy anymore as the Globe promotes those products!
For state government, the embrace of new technology has historically been a slow and trying one. It wasn’t until last month that State House leaders decided to live-stream informal legislative sessions in the House and Senate chambers.
Do what they say, not what they do!
The Baker administration created a new position, secretary of technology to supervise IT across much of state government — less than three years ago.
Great, just what we need, another layer of bureaucracy with it's taxpayer-funded salary, benefits, and perks!
Tuesday’s highly anticipated hearing was slated to include Eric S. Rosengren, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston; Treasurer Deborah B. Goldberg; and several economists to help gauge not how, but to what degree, the state’s finances could crater in the coming months.
Shouldn't he be self-isolating?
The projections were expected to be dire, [and] economists have warned that harsh times await.....
--more--"
Yeah, Granny can Zoom, and she’s young and healthy but the coronavirus doesn’t check IDs.
A psychologist on healthy escapism and what we can learn from superheroes
Drea Letamendi, a clinical psychologist, joined Love Letters columnist Meredith Goldstein for a Q&A about self-care during COVID-19
Drea Letamendi (Christina Gandolfo)
I take it for granted that she is single.
Lady Gaga raises $35m for coronavirus fight, curates all-star TV event
Lady Gaga. (Chris Pizzello)
That her poker face?
{@@##$$%%^^&&}
In other news:
Voting in Wisconsin during a pandemic
The lines were loaded with people in masks with plenty of fear, and "almost forgotten amid a life-or-death debate about voting procedures was a Democratic presidential race that is still not formally finished."
The New York Times didn't tell me who won, but what does it matter anyway?
Ed Markey falling short of signatures ahead of May deadline
Time to put a Kennedy back in the Senate anyway.
Ecuador’s former president convicted on corruption charges
The New York Times left him for dead with his body was wrapped in a plastic tarp, swollen, already attracting flies.
Bangladesh arrests fugitive killer of independence leader
Death penalty on table for synagogue massacre suspect
"Man leaves anti-Semitic graffiti at Brookline synagogue, then pauses to admire message of hate" by John R. Ellement Globe Staff, April 7, 2020
He wore a blue skull cap, dark glasses, and had a cigarette dangling from his mouth as he left a message of anti-Semitism on the door of a Brookline synagogue, pausing briefly to admire his hate before sauntering off into the darkness of night.
Brookline police and the Anti-Defamation League of New England are searching for the identity of the burly man dressed all in dark clothing who defaced the door of the Chabad Center on Harvard Street around 2 a.m Sunday. Police have posted a surveillance camera video of the incident that took place on the brightly lit front porch of the synagogue.
I hope it wasn't Rocky.
Wearing sneakers and a backpack, the man apparently brought a white pen with him. After he finishes defacing the door, he is seen putting a cap back on the pen and putting it into a pocket. He then starts walking off the porch, but pauses at the top, turns half-way around so he can face the door, and stands there for about six seconds looking directly at the spot where he scrawled the hate message, the video shows.
The man “defaced the property with anti-Semitic graffiti, written in Russian,” police wrote in a posting on Facebook. “A symbol was drawn above the words which closely resembled a swastika.”
What timing!
This act of vandalism came just after the State Department designated an ultranationalist movement based in Russia as a terrorist organization, the first time it has applied that label to a white supremacist group, and did they take any fingerprints?
Btw, the Nazis have been long dead and are part of history now.
The ADL has offered a $1,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of the man.
Police said they are investigating the incident as a hate crime.
“It is believed that the man approached the Center from the direction of Coolidge Corner and left towards Commonwealth Avenue,” police wrote.
Robert Trestan, executive director of the Anti-Defamation League of New England, tweeted about the hate crime Tuesday.
Last May, arsonist or arsonists struck the Chabad Center for Jewish Life Arlington-Belmont in Arlington and the Chabad Jewish Center in Needham about one hour later, state investigators said. No arrests have been made in that case.
For those who are unaware, Chabads are organizations that made up of Jewish supremacists and this stinks of more of the same regarding the narrative and garbage and no one is fooled by the the self-inflicted false flags anymore.
The Massachusetts chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations released a statement denouncing the hate crime against the Jewish house of worship.
“Massachusetts Muslims stand in solidarity with the Jewish community in Brookline and across the state,” said John Robbins, executive director of CAIR-MA. “We’re appalled by this act of bigotry. An attack against one of us is an attack against all.”
Yeah, they benefit off this stuff, too.
Robbins noted in his statement that vandals also vandalized gravestones at a Bedford with anti-Semitic graffiti.
Anybody can do that, and it is a cheap way of reinforcing the victimized Jew narrative.
--more--"
