Saudi Wealth Fund Buying Stocks During Weakness
May 16th, 2020Via: Reuters:
Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund has bought minority stakes in major American companies including Boeing (BA.N), Facebook (FB.O) and Citigroup (C.N), according to a U.S. regulatory filing.
The $300 billion Public Investment Fund (PIF) has been buying minority stakes in companies across the world, taking advantage of market weakness in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.
Trump Discusses the State of Vaccine Development
May 15th, 2020Update: Why Don’t We Already Have a Coronavirus Vaccine?
Via: Prof. Delores Cahill on The Highwire:
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Debunking the Narrative (With Prof. Dolores Cahill)
Via: Fox:
Debunking the Narrative (With Prof. Dolores Cahill)
May 15th, 2020Via: Computing Forever:
Research Credit: NH
Trump Will Mobilize Military to Distribute Coronavirus Vaccine When It’s Ready
May 14th, 2020Via: CBS:
President Trump says he would “rapidly” mobilize the U.S. military to distribute a coronavirus vaccine once it’s ready, focusing first on nursing homes and the elderly most vulnerable to deadly complications from the virus. Mr. Trump made the comments during an interview with Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo.
“We’re mobilizing our military and other forces but we’re mobilizing our military on the basis that we do have a vaccine. You know, it’s a massive job to give this vaccine. Our military is now being mobilized so at the end of the year we’re going to be able to give it to a lot of people very, very rapidly,” the president said.
“We will have a tremendous force because assuming we get it, then you have to distribute it,” he added. “And unless you’re mobilized and ready, you’re not going to be able to do it for a long time. So we’re starting now.”
Related: DOD Awards $138 Million Contract, Enabling Prefilled Syringes for Future COVID-19 Vaccine
The Worst Is Yet to Come: Contact Tracing, Immunity Cards and Mass Testing
May 14th, 2020I don’t know where I got this, but I want to put it on a T-shirt.
Via: The Rutherford Institute:
No one is safe.
No one is immune.
No one gets spared the anguish, fear and heartache of living under the shadow of an authoritarian police state.
That’s the message being broadcast 24/7 with every new piece of government propaganda, every new law that criminalizes otherwise lawful activity, every new policeman on the beat, every new surveillance camera casting a watchful eye, every sensationalist news story that titillates and distracts, every new prison or detention center built to house troublemakers and other undesirables, every new court ruling that gives government agents a green light to strip and steal and rape and ravage the citizenry, every school that opts to indoctrinate rather than educate, and every new justification for why Americans should comply with the government’s attempts to trample the Constitution underfoot.
How the COVID-19 Bailout Gave Wall Street a No-Lose Casino
May 14th, 2020American capitalism.
*chortle* That’s a really good one.
Plutocrats create fiat money, by typing some number, followed by nine to twelve zeros, into a computer. Then they send it around to each other, with the help of their kleptocratic minions in the government. Finally, they nail a bill into the backs of the victims and demand payment.
The scale of the fraud is inconceivable.
Via: Rolling Stone:
At least one in three can’t make their rent, millions more can’t afford groceries, and workers in supermarkets, medical clinics, warehouses, and other professions are now in a macabre race to see if they’ll turn blue and die before corporate employers decide to slash their salaries or retirement benefits — which has already happened to front-line caregivers in some cities.
There are no projections of record earnings in the futures of such people. The best case is survival, and the grim reality of diminished economic horizons. Yet for the tiny sliver of people whose fortunes depend not on salaries, tips, and commissions, but upon the prices of financial products like stocks and bonds, the coronavirus response heralds a brave new world.
The $2.3 trillion CARES Act, the Donald Trump-led rescue package signed into law on March 27th, is a radical rethink of American capitalism. It retains all the cruelties of the free market for those who live and work in the real world, but turns the paper economy into a state protectorate, surrounded by a kind of Trumpian Money Wall that is designed to keep the investor class safe from fear of loss.
This financial economy is a fantasy casino, where the winnings are real but free chips cover the losses. For a rarefied segment of society, failure is being written out of the capitalist bargain.
McConnell Patriot Act Expansion, “Would Explicitly Permit the FBI to Collect Records of Americans’ Internet Search and Browsing Histories Without a Warrant”
May 13th, 2020I could link to dozens or hundreds of posts.
Talk about beating a dead horse… For decades.
Anyway, here’s one from just a few years ago: NSA Routinely Monitors Americans’ Communications Without Warrants
…if you think that place is only used to store information gleaned from taps on foreigners, I’ve got a bridge to sell you.
Via: Common Dreams:
Sen. Ron Wyden was joined by privacy advocates Wednesday in forcefully condemning a new proposed amendment to the PATRIOT Act put forward by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell that would greatly expand the U.S. attorney general’s surveillance powers under FISA.
McConnell’s amendment, which the Senate began debating Wednesday as lawmakers took up the reauthorization of the 2001 PATRIOT Act, would explicitly permit the FBI to collect records of Americans’ internet search and browsing histories without a warrant.
DOD Awards $138 Million Contract, Enabling Prefilled Syringes for Future COVID-19 Vaccine
May 13th, 2020Via: U.S. Department of Defense:
Statement attributed to Lt. Col. Mike Andrews, Department of Defense spokesman:
“Today the Department of Defense and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, announce a $138 million contract with ApiJect Systems America for “Project Jumpstart” and “RAPID USA,” which together will dramatically expand U.S. production capability for domestically manufactured, medical-grade injection devices starting by October 2020.
Spearheaded by the DOD’s Joint Acquisition Task Force (JATF), in coordination with the HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, the contract will support “Jumpstart” to create a U.S.-based, high-speed supply chain for prefilled syringes beginning later this year by using well-established Blow-Fill-Seal (BFS) aseptic plastics manufacturing technology, suitable for combatting COVID-19 when a safe and proven vaccine becomes available.
By immediately upgrading a sufficient number of existing domestic BFS facilities with installations of filling-line and technical improvements, “Jumpstart” will enable the manufacture of more than 100 million prefilled syringes for distribution across the United States by year-end 2020.
The contract also enables ApiJect Systems America to accelerate the launch of RAPID USA manufactured in new and permanent U.S.-based BFS facilities with the ultimate production goal of over 500 million prefilled syringes (doses) in 2021. This effort will be executed initially in Connecticut, South Carolina and Illinois, with potential expansion to other U.S.-based locations. RAPID will provide increased lifesaving capability against future national health emergencies that require population-scale vaccine administration on an urgent basis.
RAPID’s permanent fill-finish production capability will help significantly decrease the United States’ dependence on offshore supply chains and its reliance on older technologies with much longer production lead times. These supplies can be used if a successful SARS-COV-2 vaccine is oral or intranasal rather than injectable.”
U.S. Grocery Costs Jump Most in 46 Years, Led by Rising Prices for Meat and Eggs
May 13th, 2020Via: CNBC:
Prices Americans paid for eggs, meat, cereal and milk shot higher in April as people flocked to grocery stores to stock up on food amid government lockdowns designed to slow the spread of Covid-19.
The Labor Department reported Tuesday that prices U.S. consumers paid for groceries jumped 2.6% in April, the largest one-month pop since February 1974. The spike in supermarket prices was broad based and impacted items from broccoli and ham to oatmeal and tuna.
L.A. County Could Keep Stay-at-Home Orders in Place for Three More Months
May 13th, 2020Via: LA Times:
Los Angeles County’s stay-at-home orders will “with all certainty” be extended for the next three months, county Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer acknowledged during a Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday.
Ferrer later added that even if the orders remain in place through the summer, restrictions will be “gradually relaxed” under a five-step plan.
