State licensing loopholes keep thousands of bad drivers on the road
An 11 month Globe investigation found that people nationwide are dying in crashes caused by drivers who should have had their licenses suspended. One in 10 US drivers has at least one offense — from speeding to vehicular homicide — that isn’t reflected on their driving record.
Ironic. They spent a year on an obsolete investigation given the diminished travel under COVID; however, the damn report will lead to more license seizure either real or imagined. That's gotta be the angle they are pushing.
Thanks, Globe.
Maybe next time they will investigate tyrannical life-destroying lockdowns, although I wouldn't hold my breath if I were you.
Postal Service suspends changes after outcry over delivery slowdown
Yeah, the Globe is keeping their eyes wide open when it comes to counting the mail-in votes!
According to their own agenda-pushing propaganda, 'er, reporting, the unions are pro-Biden and this whole thing stink-o-with!
Flipping below the fold brings the final Markey-Kennedy debate ahead of the Sept. 1 primary, and I haven't even decided if I should go and vote at all. If I do, it will be for Kennedy, but that is the only race up for challenge on that $ide of the ai$le and they face no opposition in the fall.
Somehow, American democracy has become something looking like a Soviet ballot from the bad old days.
As for me, one of my blind spots is Biden’s convention. The few clips I have seen (ha-ha) have been surreal. If the virtual convention is the future of virtual politics, it's a loser. One long infomercial that is more insulting than selling virtually anything else? Gimme a break.
They do have their eyes wide open for this:
"GOP-Led Senate panel details ties between 2016 Trump campaign and Russian interference" by Mark Mazzetti and Nicholas Fandos New York Times, August 18, 2020
WASHINGTON — A sprawling report released Tuesday by a Republican-controlled Senate panel that spent three years investigating Russia’s 2016 election interference laid out an extensive web of contacts between Trump campaign advisers and Russian government officials and other Russians, including some with ties to the country’s intelligence services.
The report by the Senate Intelligence Committee, totaling nearly 1,000 pages, provided a bipartisan Senate imprimatur for an extraordinary set of facts: The Russian government undertook an extensive campaign to try to sabotage the 2016 US election to help Donald Trump become president, and some members of Trump’s circle of advisers were open to the help from an American adversary.
If true as reported, they spent a few hundred thousand dollars on Facebook ads. The assumption by the insulting, agenda-pu$hing pre$$ is that Americans minds are so empty they will absorb whatever they are filled with.
Well, that wasn't the case in 2016 and the massive win over the Democrat fraud that benefitted Obama after Bush stiffed them twice (only way Trump could have won when you think about our rigged elections), but with COVID it appears the societal $tring-pullers have been proven correct. I sadly see it all around me.
The report drew to a close one of the highest-profile congressional inquiries in recent memory, one that the president and his allies have long tried to discredit as part of a “witch hunt” designed to undermine the legitimacy of Trump’s stunning election nearly four years ago.
Like the investigation led by the special counsel, Robert Mueller, who released his findings in April 2019, the Senate report did not conclude that the Trump campaign engaged in a coordinated conspiracy with the Russian government — a fact that Republicans seized on to argue that there was “no collusion,” but the report showed evidence of contacts between Trump campaign advisers and people tied to the Kremlin — including a long-standing associate of onetime Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, Konstantin V. Kilimnik, whom the report identifies as a “Russian intelligence officer.” The Senate report for the first time identified Kilimnik as an intelligence officer. Mueller’s report had labeled him as someone with ties to Russian intelligence.
There they go again, flogging another demented soul.
Democrats highlighted those ties in their own appendix to the report, noting that Manafort discussed campaign strategy and shared internal campaign polling data with Kilimnik, and later lied to federal investigators about his actions.
Democrats also laid out a potentially explosive detail: that investigators had uncovered information possibly tying Kilimnik to Russia’s major election interference operations conducted by the intelligence service known as the GRU.
“The committee obtained some information suggesting that the Russian intelligence officer, with whom Manafort had a longstanding relationship, may have been connected to the GRU’s hack-and-leak operation targeting the 2016 US election,” Democrats wrote. “This is what collusion looks like.”
They are still rolling out that tired, shopworn narrative for the obvious reasons. They will scream stolen election if Trump prevails as he should -- although I should point out for the record that I'm f**ked either way. I'm going to be re-educated in a Biden-Democrat world, and my noticing of the $upremaci$m of which we may not $peak has targeted me in another way.
I suppose all I want at this point is a truly fair election for the American people regardless of how flawed are both sides and how f**ked am I.
The assertion was a sign that even though the investigation was carried out in bipartisan fashion, and Republican and Democratic senators reached broad agreement on its most significant conclusions, a partisan divide remained on some of the most politically sensitive issues.
The Senate report said that the unusual nature of the Trump campaign — staffed by Trump’s longtime associates, friends, and other businessmen with no government experience — “presented attractive targets for foreign influence, creating notable counterintelligence vulnerabilities.”
The Senate investigation found that two other people who met at Trump Tower in 2016 with senior members of the Trump campaign — including Manafort, Jared Kushner, and Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son — have “significant connections to Russian government, including the Russian intelligence services.”
I'm sorry, who was that middle man?
The report said that the connections between the Russian government and one of the individuals, Natalia Veselnitskaya, “were far more extensive and concerning than what had been publicly known.”
That's where the report ironically ends!
--more--"
I don't want to mix metaphors, but that was a big "in-one-ear-out-the-other" in light of the Obama lying, 'er, spying operation for which the Globe has a blind spot.
At least the Globe finally opens its eyes to the ladies:
Actors portray observers during the re-enactment of Tennessee's historic vote for the 19th Amendment in the House chamber at the State Capitol on the vote's 100th anniversary Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2020, in Nashville, Tenn. Tennessee was the 36th state to ratify the 19th Amendment, giving women the right to vote, and was the final state needed to achieve a two-thirds majority for passage. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)
How ironic that one woman is wearing a muzzle, 'er, mask, and they never have any kids as they are advised to keep working(?).
I guess they have come full circle in 100 years -- or not:
"Suffrage anniversary commemorations highlight racial divide" by Susan Haighand Suman Naishadham Associated Press, August 18, 2020
HARTFORD — As the US marks the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage, many event organizers, mindful that the 19th Amendment originally benefited mostly white women, have been careful to present it as a commemoration, not a celebration.
The amendment to the US Constitution was ratified on Aug. 18, 1920, but many women of color were prevented from casting ballots for decades afterward because of poll taxes, literacy tests, overt racism, intimidation, and laws that prevented the grandchildren of slaves from voting. Much of that didn’t change until the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Many commemorations, including those that moved online because of the coronavirus pandemic, have highlighted a more nuanced history of the American women’s suffrage movement alongside the traditional tributes to well-known suffragists such as Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
We'll get to Susan B. in a minute.
The 100th anniversary has arrived during a year of nationwide protests against racial inequality that have forced the United States to once again reckon with its uncomfortable history.
“Like many movements, the stories are complicated and I think it’s important, as we have an opportunity to reflect and to celebrate, that we also are honest about how we didn’t meet all of our aspirations,” said Rhode Island Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea, a Democrat who has helped to organize her state’s suffrage commemoration efforts. “It’s important to have these conversations so we can do a better job of going forward.”
All of a sudden, the Herstory(sic) becomes “complicated in nature [as] the suffrage movement came full circle last week when Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden chose California Senator Kamala Harris as his running mate, making her the first Black woman on a major party ticket.”
Her elite family owned slaves in Jamaica, but the Globe is blind to that.
While their names are not as well-known as the white suffragists, Black women played both prominent and smaller roles in the movement. Members of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority, for example, participated in the 1913 suffrage march in Washington, taking great personal risk while not being welcomed by some white suffragists who ultimately insisted the Black women march at the end of the procession, said Cheryl A. Hickmon, national first vice president of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.
“They felt that it was their obligation, if you will, even though it was unsafe to march with the other women and show their dissension and feelings,” said Hickmon, whose organization has been working with organizers of the Turning Point Suffragist Memorial that’s being constructed in southern Fairfax County, Va., and includes an overview of the entire movement, including Black suffragists.
The 100th anniversary marks an opportunity to “honestly examine” the relationship between white and Black women in the women’s rights movement, said Johnetta Betch Cole, a former college president and anthropologist who is currently the national chair of the National Conference of Negro Women, an organization that was founded in 1935 to advocate for women’s rights.
“There is more acknowledgment of the complexities of the strains, of the racism in the suffrage movement than ever, ever before,” Betch Cole said. “Unfortunately, one can be virtuous in one form of oppression and then turn around and victimize others on another basis.”
Even without knowing it.
Doris Kelley, a former Democratic Iowa House representative who chairs the state’s 19th Amendment Centennial Commemoration, said it’s important to remember the historical context that suffragists navigated while acknowledging the movement’s complexities. The logo of Iowa’s centennial commemoration “Hard Won, Not Done,” Kelley said, is a nod to that unfinished history.
Well, it is and it isn't, depending on what it is.
In June, protesters in Iowa demanded that Iowa State University remove the name of suffragist and alumna Carrie Chapman Catt from a building because of white supremacist and anti-immigrant statements attributed to her. Kelley said the protesters “need to understand history” and the complex political environment that suffragists were navigating in that era to make progress toward equality at the ballot box.
I see. Some racism isn't as bad as other racism.
In North Carolina, Janice Jones Schroeder, a member of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, said she was impressed that organizers of the state’s suffrage anniversary activities thought to include her in a commemoration event last September on the lawn of the statehouse.
“At that time, American Indians were not even considered citizens of the United States,” she said. While the Snyder Act of 1924 admitted Native Americans born in the United States to full US citizenship, it was left up to the states to decide who had the right to vote, and it took more than 40 years for all 50 states to agree to grant them voting rights.....
--more--"
The pre$$ can't even let women enjoy the day without dividing them along racial lines.
"On centennial of 19th amendment, Trump pardons Susan B. Anthony" by Maggie Habermanand Katie Rogers New York Times, August 18, 2020
WASHINGTON — President Trump said on Tuesday that he would pardon Susan B. Anthony, the women’s suffragist who was arrested after voting illegally in 1872 and fined $100, as he tried to appeal to female voters on the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment giving them the right to vote.
Delivered during a heavily political event at the White House at which Trump again disparaged mail-in voting ahead of the November election, the president’s announcement also appeared to be an effort to distract from the Democratic National Convention and narrow the historically large gender gap that has him trailing Joe Biden in the White House race.
“She was never pardoned. Did you know that? She was never pardoned,” Trump said. “What took so long?”
Good point, Mr. President, even if everything you do is for partisan political purposes according to the pre$$.
Unlike other people the president has pardoned, Anthony is not someone whose work Trump has spoken of during his campaign or his presidency.
She is also an increasingly divisive figure, adopted by antiabortion forces and criticized for relegating Black suffragists to the sidelines. On Tuesday, Marjorie Dannenfelser, the president of the Susan B. Anthony List, an antiabortion political group, and Cleta Mitchell, a lawyer who represents conservative groups, were in attendance as Trump made his announcement.
So he is solidifying his base as well as honoring a decent woman, and not the the patron saint of the eugenics movement, Sanger.
The pardon for Anthony would be the 26th of his presidency, and like most others Trump has issued, it drew criticism from Democrats, including Kathy Hochul, the lieutenant governor of New York.
“As highest ranking woman elected official in New York and on behalf of Susan B. Anthony’s legacy we demand Trump rescind his pardon,” Hochul wrote on Twitter. “She was proud of her arrest to draw attention to the cause for women’s rights, and never paid her fine. Let her Rest In Peace, @realdonaldtrump.”
How do you women feel being kicked around like a political football?
Trump, who has repeatedly been accused of sexual harassment or assault and who has often made degrading comments about women, is facing a deep gender gap in his campaign against Biden. On Tuesday, surrounded by several female supporters, Trump declared that “women dominate the United States” and complained that the coronavirus pandemic had darkened the economic picture for women.
Did you see the questions they were asking?
The announcement also provided Trump with another opportunity to preemptively question the results of the election in November should Americans opt for mail-in voting. Recent polls show that political views on the process are sharply divided: More than half of Republicans say mail-in voting cannot be trusted, while nearly half of Biden’s supporters plan to vote by mail, according to an NBC-Wall Street Journal poll published on Monday.
When asked by reporters about the concept of mail-in voting, Trump attacked the practice, claiming that dogs and cats received ballots to vote en masse. Trump also floated the idea that the 2020 election would need to be redone should Americans rely on a system that would let everyone vote by mail.
“You can’t take millions of ballots, send them haphazardly all over the country or all over the state, and expect it to come out properly,” Trump said. “Universal is going to be a disaster, the likes of which our country has never seen. It will end up being a rigged election or they will never come out with an outcome. They’ll have to do it again, and nobody wants that, and I don’t want that.”
That's my fear, and not because I want him to win.
People close to the president said Trump was seeking to create a news story during the Democrats’ convention, where Biden will be nominated. Advisers believed that unlike some of Trump’s other pardons or grants of clemency, it will be harder to criticize one benefiting a woman whose actions helped lead to women’s right to vote.
The pre$$ did go for the bait as they attempt to stuff the ballot boxes!
Whether that is the case remains to be seen. Trump’s support from a key group of female voters — suburban women — has eroded his presidency, and his response to the coronavirus pandemic has not helped him, but during the event on Tuesday, Trump turned his attention to the Democratic convention, criticizing the former first lady Michelle Obama for her speech the evening before in which she said that Trump “cannot meet this moment,” and that his presidency threatened the future of the country.
If former president Barack Obama had done a better job, Trump said, then he would not have been elected four years ago and would be “building buildings someplace” and “having a good time.”
He then claimed that the Obama administration had received “very bad reviews” on its handling of the H1N1 flu outbreak, though roughly two-thirds of Americans polled at the time said the administration had responded well.....
Good point, same scenario. Back then the WHO declared pandemic, the money was poured into vaccines and shots came, thousands died, and there was never a shutdown or lockdown, never mind about masks.
Something else is going on as the Great Re$et is carried out in front of us.
--more--"
Please pardon me for the punny mixed metaphor, but it's time to go back into the closet, 'er kitchen, before knocking on some doors and get a head count!
{@@##$$%%^^&&}
Other Globe blind spots:
"Mali’s military staged a coup and arrested the country’s president Tuesday, after weeks of unrest that convulsed the West African nation, diplomats said. The turmoil came amid a growing protest movement driven by charges that the government of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita had stolen a parliamentary election in March and installed his own candidates. Demonstrators have also been angered by the government’s failure to address corruption and the bloodshed that has plagued the country for eight years. Mali has been in crisis since 2012, when rebels and jihadis took control of the country’s north. Despite the intervention of foreign forces and United Nations peacekeepers, the unrest has spread. Malians have risen up to demand Keita’s resignation, descending by the thousands onto Bamako’s streets....."
Is it racist to say you see a color revolution coup?
"The case went to trial in a country far from the crime scene with none of the accused in custody. It cost hundreds of millions of dollars and relied on teams of investigators, but when the verdict on the most consequential political assassination in Lebanon’s recent history arrived Tuesday, to many in Lebanon, it fell far short of the crime. For a huge suicide car bomb attack in Beirut in 2005 that rattled the Middle East and killed former prime minister Rafik Hariri and 21 others, a UN-backed tribunal in the Netherlands convicted one man of participating in a conspiracy to carry it out. Three other defendants were acquitted for lack of evidence. And if the man convicted, Salim Jalil Ayyash, is ever caught, the court will have to try him all over again because he was tried in absentia. The long-awaited verdict came from the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, which was created in 2009 at the behest of the UN Security Council."
They should have brought the FBI in, and who benefited?
Turns out Israel did (just like with the Beirut blast), for Syria was forced to leave and Israel subsequently invaded a year later, and the Globe is again blind to it.
They heard some gunfire, though:
Gun maker trying to wipe out lawsuit
They won't go into the classroom and investigate what appears to be a staged and scripted piece of fiction, sorry, and WHO knew New Zealand is under the control of the World Economic Forum and Australia was owned by Bill Gate$?
"New York City will require that hotels and short-term rental companies make travelers from dozens of states fill out forms with their personal information before they can have access to their rooms, or provide proof they had already done so, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Tuesday. Those travelers were already required by the state to quarantine for 14 days and to fill out the state’s health form, but the new measure, which goes into effect Friday, is another attempt at ensuring compliance with the rules that many are flouting in the city. Both hotels and guests could be subject to fines of up to $2,000 for ignoring the rule, according to a spokeswoman for the mayor. People who had recently traveled to areas outside the city accounted for 15 to 20 percent of cases in the city over the past month, according Dr. Jay Varma, one of the mayor’s health advisers. Mr. de Blasio urged New Yorkers to avoid traveling to places restricted by New York State unless it was necessary. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said Tuesday that travelers from Alaska and Delaware will now also be required to quarantine for 14 days, joining a list of 31 other states as well as Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands....."
Those two criminals are killing the city and state as the hotels increasingly fill up with mentally-ill homeless and addicts -- something to which the Globe is once again blind.
It's no longer the Big Apple, and I would say get out of New York as fast as you can, but there really is nowhere to run:
"This year’s Sturgis Motorcycle Rally drew more than 460,000 vehicles during the 10-day event, according to a count South Dakota transportation officials released Tuesday. The count represents a decrease of nearly 8% from last year but showed that many were undeterred by the coronavirus pandemic. Sturgis officials said they expected fewer people to show up this year, estimating they would see between 250,000 and 300,000 people during the 10-day event. Most people didn’t take significant precautions against COVID-19 infections at this year’s rally. A few people wore masks and some said they were avoiding crowds, but many others packed close together at bars and rock shows. The South Dakota Department of Health issued a warning on Tuesday that one person who spent several hours at a bar on Main Street in Sturgis has tested positive for COVID-19 and may have spread it to others. With people traveling to the rally from all over the country, the mass gathering has raised concerns it could become an epicenter of infections that are hard to track, but spread quickly as rallygoers travel home. The city releases an estimate of rally turnout after the event every year, based mostly on the weight of the trash generated. Last year, the estimate tracked closely with the number of vehicles counted: 499,654 vehicles entered Sturgis, and city officials estimated 490,000 people came to the rally. Anniversary rallies, like this year’s 80th, usually attract larger crowds. In 2015, the city estimated that nearly 740,000 people came to the 75th-anniversary rally. The city plans to conduct mass COVID-19 testing in an effort to catch outbreaks."
Of course, the pre$$ is willfully blind to effective treatments a$ well as city-destroying protests.
{@@##$$%%^^&&}
The Globe may be blind but they sure talk a lot:
"NBCUniversal vice chairman Ron Meyer, a Hollywood power player, is leaving the entertainment company after revealing he received threats of extortion following a settlement with a woman with whom he had an affair. Jeff Shell, CEO of NBCUniversal, said in a statement Tuesday that Meyer “acted in a manner which we believe is not consistent with our company policies or values.’’ NBC declined to elaborate. Meyer, in a statement provided by Comcast’s NBCUniversal, said he “made a settlement, under threat, with a woman outside the company who had made false accusations against me.” He said he had a “very brief and consensual affair” a long time ago with the woman, whom he did not name. He said other people, whom he also did not name, tried to extort him after they learned of the settlement. The extortion included threats to “falsely implicate NBCUniversal, which had nothing to do with this matter.” Shell’s statement said that Meyer disclosed his actions to NBC late last week and “we have mutually concluded that Ron should leave the company, effective immediately.”
What a bastion of misogyny and harassment over there all these years!
No wonder the top executives guilty of the same conduct protected Weinstein, Lauer, et al, and the truth is we are all be extorted at this point by a certain cho$en cla$$.
He even talks with his mouth full:
"Everyone, it seems, loves a discount especially when it’s on the government’s credit card. Early indications suggest that hungry, and often nervous, customers are being enticed back to restaurants in the United Kingdom as a result of a British government program that provides discounts from Monday to Wednesday this month. The plan aims to protect jobs in a sector that was hit hard during the coronavirus pandemic. New figures published Tuesday by the Treasury show food outlets claimed for over 35 million discounted meals in the first half of August with the number of covers more than tripling in the second week, when much of the country was basking in unusual tropical heat."
The free pizza mu$t explain the bad teeth, and why are they protecting jobs that will no longer exist unless it is bribe money to keep you $itting on your hand$ as everything is re$et?
"Americans turned to Walmart’s online business as well as its stores for supplies and home goods as the virus surged in new regions, resulting in soaring sales for the fiscal second quarter. Walmart’s online sales nearly doubled in the fiscal second quarter, helped by an expansion of its online delivery services. Sales at US locations opened at least a year jumped 9.3 percent, the company reported Tuesday."
That's as good as Amazon's 65% increase.
Related:
"Fidelity Investments’ assets under management reached a record of $3.3 trillion at the end of June, a 15 percent increase from the year prior, as a surge in stock trading and new accounts helped bring in money. Customers opened almost 1.2 million retail accounts, the Boston-based company said Tuesday in a report, boosting flows to the firm’s mutual funds and exchange-traded funds. Equity trading more than doubled to an average of 2.3 million daily transactions in the second quarter as markets rebounded."
Will be able to build that new home of which you have always dreamed:
"Construction of new US homes surged 22.6 percent last month as homebuilders bounced back from a lull induced by the coronavirus pandemic. The Commerce Department reported Tuesday that new homes were started an annual pace of nearly 1.5 million in July, highest since February and well above what economists were expecting. Housing starts have now risen three straight months after plunging in March and April as the virus outbreak paralyzed the American economy. Last month’s pace of construction was 23.4 percent above July 2019’s."
The home builders haven't been this optimistic since the late 1990s, even as loan delinquency rates on FHA mortgages are at their highest in 40 years so good luck with the loan.
At least the homes are also coming pre-furnished:
"Home Depot reported sales growth that was more than double the already brisk rate analysts had been expecting, but rising expenses meant flat margins in an otherwise standout quarter. Same-store sales rose 23.4 percent, sharply beating the estimate for an 11.4 percent gain from Consensus Metrix. Revenue of $38.1 billion also surpassed expectations. The gain was driven by both higher average customer checks and more transactions, meaning more shoppers bought from Home Depot in the quarter and they spent more every time they came in."
The printed Globe decided to stop there so they didn't see this:
"Kohl’s Corp. shares fell more than 14 percent Tuesday after the retailer posted a quarterly loss and declining sales, a sign of the struggle of many retailers amid pandemic uncertainty. The company’s second-quarter report also contrasts sharply with the booming sales figures released Tuesday by Home Depot Inc. and Walmart Inc., two massive retailers that were deemed essential and allowed to operate through the pandemic. Kohl’s and its nonessential peers, meanwhile, have struggled to regain sales as shoppers stay home and flock to e-commerce."
Who is benefiting from the $tay-at-home economy?
"Fueled by a surging stock market, CEO compensation climbed to its highest level in seven years last year and could be poised to rise again in 2020, despite the widespread layoffs and pay cuts of the coronavirus recession. The Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank, found that chief executives of America’s 350 largest companies earned an average of $21.3 million in realized compensation in 2019, setting the ratio of CEO-to-worker pay at 320-to-1, up from 293-to-1 in 2018 and more than five times higher than the 61-to-1 ratio in 1989. Details about CEO pay lag because they are shared in corporate proxy statements, which are typically released early in the following year before many companies’ spring annual meetings."
That is the economy that Obama left Trump, who $imply accelerated to wealth tran$fer upward while the entire middle cla$$ is destroyed by the same people screaming about COVID.
You should have become a doctor instead of starting that dream bar of yours. Then you could have bought your own plane and gotten a chauffeur for the car.
It must be the glare of the bling that blinded my printed Globe to this item:
"Tiffany & Co. wants to ease customers’ concerns about human rights abuses in the diamond industry by providing them with an unprecedented amount of detail about the precious stones it sells. Beginning in October, the 183-year-old luxury retailer will provide expanded origin details for newly sourced, individually registered diamonds that trace the stone’s path from the ground to the jewelry case. The project, which the company says is an industry first, took nearly two decades to complete due to the challenges of tracking down sourcing information."
They want to contact trace everything, even the rocks and stones with a $ilent drill!
They $ee thi$ clearly enough, though:
"Wall Street nudged a bit higher on Monday, and the S&P 500 teased even closer to its record high. It’s the third time in the last four trading days the index has risen above that record, only to fade later in the day. Wall Street was nearly evenly split between stocks rising and falling Monday, with tech stocks again helping to lead the way. They’ve been remarkably resilient through the pandemic as investors build up bets they can continue to grow as work-from-home and other trends accelerate, but losses for financial and energy stocks helped restrain the market’s gains. Shares of several banks were under pressure Monday after Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway disclosed that it cut back its investments in them....."
They have been more than re$ilient!
".... Most other U.S. stock indexes also made gains. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was an outlier and slipped 86.11, or 0.3 percent, to 27,844.91. ‘‘It seems like a nothing day until you realize we’re sitting right on an all-time high for the S&P 500,” said Mark Hackett, chief of investment research at Nationwide. The S&P 500 added onto its three-week rally, even though investors are still waiting for Congress to offer more aid to the economy. Investors say it’s crucial that the support comes, particularly after $600 in weekly unemployment benefits and other stimulus from the U.S. government expired. Markets seem to be banking on Democrats and Republicans coming to a deal, even though both sides say they remain far apart. Without the lifeline, analysts say the economy won’t be able to make the recovery that investors have been assuming is on the way, and that assumption is a huge reason the stock market is as high as it is. “Hence, another round of stimulus is the difference between ensuring that the economic recovery continues uninterrupted and a meaningful short-term pullback in growth,” Morgan Stanley strategist Michael Zezas wrote in a report. Investors seem willing to wait for a deal, for now, but if it gets deep into September, and Democrats and Republicans still remain far apart in their negotiations on the size of the deal, Zezas said it may be too close to the election to get one done.
It's all about getting each party through the November election, and the borrowed $timulu$ isn't really a recovery, it's Communi$m!
Tech stocks across the S&P 500 climbed 0.5 percent, and they alone accounted for about two-thirds of the index’s gain. Nvidia jumped 6.7 percent for one of the biggest gains in the index, and Microsoft added 0.7 percent. These areas tend to rise and fall with expectations for the economy, and they had been showing a bit more life in recent weeks in an encouraging sign for market watchers. Smaller stocks and transportation stocks have also been making gains recently, said Nationwide’s Hackett, who called it “good news for the sustainability of the rally. It’s very hard for Microsoft, Amazon and Tesla to continue to do all the heavy lifting,’’ he said. ‘‘You’re going to need some help from others.” Wells Fargo slumped 3.3 percent after the famed value investor trimmed Berkshire Hathaway’s ownership stake by about a quarter. Treasury yields moderated a bit, following the big run for the 10-year yield last week. Higher yields can be an indication that investors are upgrading their expectations for inflation and the economy, but they can also pull some buyers away from stocks into bonds, hurting stock prices in the process....."
Oh, poor Micro$oft and Amazon need help, and you don't want to hurt stock prices as you and I are ordered to lock down even tighter!
"Wall Street clawed back the last of the historic, frenzied losses unleashed by the new coronavirus, as the S&P 500 closed at an all-time high Tuesday. The S&P 500′s milestone caps a furious, 51.5 percent rally that began in late March. The index, which is the benchmark for many stock funds at the heart of 401(k) plans, is now up nearly 5 percent for the year. The nearly 34 percent plunge for the S&P 500 from Feb. 19 through March 23 was the quickest bear market on record. It lasted barely more than a month. Compare that with the 19.6 months that it’s taken the average bear market to bottom out, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices. Tremendous amounts of aid from the Federal Reserve and Congress helped. The Nasdaq had already returned to a record, thanks to huge gains for the big tech stocks that dominate it. It hit a new one Tuesday, climbing 81.12 points, or 0.7 percent, to 11,210.84. Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook, and Google’s parent company are all are up more than 16 percent for 2020 so far....."
What a RELIEF, and that can ONLY HELP TRUMP and the folks who are in charge of the Great Re$et!
".... Corporate profit reports that weren’t as bad as expected have helped boost stock prices. The lightning recovery is even more remarkable considering how much the economy is still struggling and how uncertain the path ahead remains. Millions of Americans are continuing to get unemployment benefits, and businesses across the country are still shutting their doors. COVID-19 continues to seep throughout the world, with more than 5.4 million known cases and 170,000 deaths in the United States alone. Many investors acknowledge the disconnect between the stock market and the broader economy, but they say the rally has been built on top of several supports. Key among them is that the Federal Reserve and Congress have plowed trillions of dollars into the economy, to keep it from plunging even more deeply and to prevent a full-blown financial crisis.
How in$ulting!
So the trillions upon trillions of taxpayer money to $ave us from a full-blown financial crisis have propped up the $tock market and made billionaires in$anely wealthy even as your business and job is gone forever.
Yeah, the "pandemic has plunged the nation into the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, and though there are signs that the wealthy have recovered, economists say it probably will take years for the rebound to reach most Americans.
I would say they did more than merely recover (even thought they are very $ick) as Americans got suckered, and yet they still sit on their hands regarding the people that are continuing to loot them.
They just can't $ee it, I gue$$.
Their unprecedented moves helped halt the S&P 500’s free-fall in March. More recently, the stock market’s rally has morphed from relief that the worst-case scenario of a full-blown financial crisis is off the table to hopes that the economy is on the mend. As widespread lockdowns of businesses have eased since the spring, data from across the economy have been showing improvements. A report last week said 963,000 US workers filed for unemployment benefits, for example. It’s a sickeningly high number, but it’s also the first time the tally has dropped below 1 million since March. With such budding economic improvements in hand, investors are looking further into the future and betting on one where corporate profits can broadly bloom again after a vaccine for COVID-19 hits the market later this year or in 2021.
This is f**king $ickening to read!
The five biggest companies in the S&P 500 by market value, meanwhile, have continued to pile up blowout profits, even as earnings crater for the rest of the market. These Big Tech companies increasingly drive the S&P 500’s movements almost by themselves, and they’ve benefited from the pandemic because it accelerated work-from-home and other tech trends.
The $CAMDEMIC is BENEFITING the BG CROWD that is foisting the freedom-killing Great Re$et on you.
What a RACKET!
They should ALL HANG!
The market’s huge gains have been slowing in recent weeks, and many investors say the easiest gains have been made, but optimism remains strong across much of Wall Street. At the same time, though, many risks are still hanging over the market. Investors are still waiting to see if Congress and the White House can get past their partisan differences and agree on more aid for the economy. Without the stimulus, analysts say the economy won’t be able to make the recovery that investors have been assuming is on the way, and that assumption is a huge reason the stock market is as high as it is.
You know why they want the deal now, and it won't be for us!
It never was!
Rising tensions between the United States and China, meanwhile, threatens trade between the world’s two largest economies. Tech stocks have had a few stumbles recently amid worries that China could retaliate against US moves by targeting US chip makers and others. Perhaps the biggest threat of all is if a vaccine for COVID-19 fails come to the market as quickly as markets are expecting. That could quickly take a chunk back out of the market’s huge rally. For now, though, the market’s momentum remains on a gentle upward slope....."
That is why the business leaders who have benefitted are unlikely to help Trump or you after all we have done for them.
Anyone can $ee that the clock is TikToking on Trump:
"Oracle said to be weighing a bid for TikTok’s US business" by Sarah Frier and Sarah McBride Bloomberg News, August 18, 2020
Oracle Corp., the world’s second-largest software maker, is weighing a surprise bid for part of TikTok’s business, seeking to rival Microsoft Corp. in the race to acquire the viral video-streaming app, said people familiar with the matter.
The company, controlled by billionaire Larry Ellison, has made a preliminary approach to other parties, including the venture capital firm Sequoia Capital, to partner with it in a bid for the app’s operations in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, the people said, asking not to be identified.
Thus begins the battle to see which big tech conglomerate will control the Five Eyes spying network.
It isn’t clear why Oracle, which focuses on business customers and has virtually no investments in consumer apps or social media, would want to acquire TikTok; however, cofounder Ellison is one of the few Silicon Valley moguls to openly support President Trump. Ellison, whose company was once among the industry’s most aggressively acquisitive, hosted a fund-raiser at his estate for Trump in February.
I just told you why they would want to do it.
The entry of Oracle would challenge Microsoft’s bargaining position, as the company had been the only party to publicly confirm it was in talks with TikTok owner ByteDance Ltd. Valued at roughly $166 billion, Oracle held about $43 billion in cash or near equivalents as of the end of May, making it one of few companies that could potentially afford the lofty price tag for TikTok.....
If only I had an oracle that could see into the future, but that light has gone out.
--more--"
It's now the Globe's last call to Trump as the ballot has been returned to its sender:
"Amazon postal deal that Trump despises is actually profitable" by Ben Brody Bloomberg News, August 18, 2020
President Trump has frequently assailed the pricing agreement between Amazon and the US Postal Service, yet the deal has repeatedly been described as a money-maker for the beleaguered agency.
Trump — who faces accusations from Democrats that funding cuts and operational changes at the post office are meant to stop mailed votes for Democratic challenger Joe Biden from being counted — claimed in an interview with Fox News on Monday that Amazon is “maybe the biggest problem with the post office” because of the losses that the service takes on package deliveries.
USPS has been losing billions of dollars a year for more than a decade as people use e-mail and other online services to correspond, in addition to its onerous pension obligations, but its commercial package delivery service, which includes agreements with companies such as Amazon, FedEx, and United Parcel Service Inc., is lucrative, the post office and lawmakers have said.
I'm $hocked that the pre$$ gave a glimpse of where the money is going, with the onerous obligations meant to destroy and privatize the best thing government has ever done while turning it into a political football for the fall!
Terms of the Postal Service’s delivery deal with Amazon are confidential, however USPS has repeatedly said it doesn’t lose money on the agreement. In addition, the post office must cover its costs in its commercial package delivery business under the law. Amazon regularly uses the postal service to complete what’s called the “last mile” of delivery.
In fact, shipping and packages have been the only growth segment for the Postal Service and jumped more than 50 percent to $8.3 billion in revenue in the third quarter, which ended June 30, according to fiscal 2020 results released Aug. 7. Every other service category fell in both revenue and volume, in part due to the coronavirus pandemic. The pandemic drove up costs, including for personal protective equipment and paid sick leave, contributing to a net loss of $2.2 billion in the period, roughly in line with the year before.
Trump claimed in the interview, without showing evidence, that the Postal Service loses about $3 per package with Amazon. He had previously claimed the loss was $1.50.
“They take a lot of this mail into areas where they could never go because the postal system is massive,” he said. Amazon is dropping “packages into the post office by the thousands.”
Spokesmen for USPS and Amazon didn’t comment on Trump’s allegations.
Back in 2018, when Trump repeatedly blamed the deal for the post office’s woes, two top Democratic lawmakers who said they reviewed the deal with Amazon, declared that retailers shipping packages represented a rare bright spot for the Postal Service. The agreement with Amazon and other retailers has been “one of the few areas of growth in Postal Service revenues, experiencing double-digit increases in recent years and accounting for nearly 30 percent of its operating revenue in fiscal year 2017,” according to a letter led by the late Representative Elijah Cummings in June 2018.
--more--"
I $hould have left the Globe unopened and unread even if it was delivered on time, but I'm still groggy in the morning and my eyes are not yet completely open.
I will see if I can do better.
