In this day and age, threats of violence against schools, students, churches, or individuals is not and should not be tolerated. Before murdering more than a dozen people at his former high school in Parkland, Florida, Nikolas Cruz threatened to kill people multiple times, even stating that “I’m going to be a professional school shooter.” Had his threats been investigated, those children and teachers may still be alive. Anyone who who makes threats like his should be taken seriously and the police should act immediately.
But when should a threat not be taken seriously? How about when a 6-year-old girl with Down syndrome points her finger at a teacher and pretends to shoot? That’s when.
Unfortunately for Maggie Gaines the mother of 6-year-old Margo, who is a student at Valley Forge Elementary School, her school did take it seriously and now her daughter has her name in a police report.
According to Gaines, Margo became frustrated in class last November and made a gesture with her hand that looked like a “gun.” This gesture then set off a series of events that ended with a 6-year-old with Down syndrome having a police report on file.
Tredyffrin-Easttown School District says they had no other choice but to report the little girl to police and now Margo’s mom is fighting back.
“They get this phone call and I was fine with everything up until calling the police,” Gaines said.
“And I said, ‘You absolutely do not have to call the police. You know, this is ridiculous.’”
After making her finger into the shape of a gun, Margo was sent to the principal’s office where it was determined no one was in harm’s way.
“My daughter got frustrated and pointed her finger at her teacher and said, ‘I shoot you,’” Gaines said.
“At that point, they went to the principal’s office and it was quickly assessed that she didn’t even really know what she was saying.”
Despite knowing no one was truly threatened, Margo’s actions were labelled as a transient threat and the police were called—for a 6-year-old girl with Down syndrome.
“They were asking her questions, and she was saying, ‘Oh, I shoot mommy,’ laughs, or, ‘I shoot my brother.’ The principal asked, ‘Did you mean to hurt your teacher?’ And she said no and it seemed like she didn’t even know what that meant,” Gaines stated.
As CBS Philly points out, even though police sources confirm it is a confidential record, Gaines fears potential ramifications for her daughter.
“She really didn’t understand what she was saying, and having Down syndrome is one aspect, but I’m sure all 6-year-olds don’t really know what that means,” Gaines said.
“Now, there is a record at the police that says she made a threat to her teacher.”
After remaining silent about the decision to involve cops in her 6-year-old daughter’s finger pointing incident for two months, Gaines is now appealing to the school board to amend its policy. She has the support of at least one lawmaker as well.
“As a state senator, an educator, and a parent, I am concerned when I hear that such important decisions appear to be guided blindly by written policy or legal interpretation without those in positions of authority using their judgment, experience, and commonsense to weigh in. Furthermore, I am alarmed that a school seems to be acting as an extension of the police department in promulgating data and records on children as young as kindergartners,” Pennsylvania state Sen. Andrew Dinniman, who was contacted by the Gaines family, said in a statement.
After the incident went public, the school board then agreed to review the policy. They released a statement, saying in part:
“When an individual parent concern related to our school safety practices was brought to the attention of the District two weeks ago, we agreed to review those practices in the School Board Policy Committee meeting tonight. When developing the current practice, the District worked collaboratively with parents, law enforcement and private safety/mental health agencies and legal consultants to ensure our safety measures reflected considerable input from both our local community and experts in the field of school safety.”
As TFTP reported in 2018, Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel admitted that there were at least “20 calls for services in the last few years” regarding Nikolas Cruz and his threats to literally kill students. All of those threats were ignored. Had priority been devoted to these threats, lives could’ve been saved. No one is safer, however, when police resources are delegated to little 6-year-old girls who point their fingers at teachers.
The odds of Bernie Sanders winning the Democratic primary hit an all-time high on Thursday as former Vice President Joe Biden continues to plummet, according to online betting market PredictIt.
Uber Jumps After Beating Expectations, Despite $8.5 Billion Full Year Loss
Having plunged to an all time low after reporting its dismal Q3 earnings which included a massive loss and yet another consecutive quarter of negative EBITDA, Uber managed to stage an impressive recovery in the past three months alongside the rest of the tech sector, rising from $26 to $37. As a result investors were eagerly anticipating the car hailer’s Q4 earnings to see if the rebound was justified.
With that in mind, moments ago Uber reported earnings that beat across the board even as active users actually trailed expectations modestly (111MM vs 113.4MM), and despite CEO Khosrowshani saying that the era of growth at all costs is “over”, Uber lost a record $8.5 billion for the full year 2019.
Gross bookings $18.13 billion, beating the estimate $18.03 billion
Total ridesharing bookings $13.51 billion, beating the estimate $13.50 billion
Uber Eats bookings $4.37 billion, beating the estimate $4.21 billion
GAAP Revenue $4.069 billion, beating the estimate of $4.06BN
Adjusted net revenue $3.73 billion beating the estimate $3.70 billion
Adjusted loss per share 64c, beating the estimate loss/share 65c
Of course, all of that has to be considered against the flipside, namely that the $1.1BN net loss in Q4 meant that the company lost a whopping $8.5 billion for the full year, propelled by $4.6 billion in stock based compensation in 2019 following the company’s IPO.
The company also reported that Q4 monthly active platform consumers 111 million, up 22% Y/Y but missing the estimate of 113.4 million. Also concerning is that even as revenues increased 27%, the Net Loss went in the other direction, and increased by 24% to $1.1 billion, which however was also just better than the $1.15 billion expected.
In short, the top and bottom line beat across, with adjusted EBITDA loss $615 million also coming in modestly above the expected loss of $712.9 million, and 25% stronger than the $817MM EBITDA a year ago.
The not so good news: Uber’s self-driving car program (as well as other research projects) saw losses grow to $130 million in the fourth quarter, up 24% from a year before, which may explain why we hear less about the program these days (if not at Tesla). As Bloomberg notes, Uber was likely “trying to cut costs amid skepticism that self-driving cars will revolutionize the company’s business model. But adjusted losses are growing in that category, as they are in eats, freight and other bets. The rides business is driving margin improvement.”
Commenting on the results, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshani said that the company is now on the path to profitability in 2021:
“2019 was a transformational year for Uber and I’m gratified by our progress, steadily delivering against the commitments we’ve made to our shareholders on our path to profitability. We recognize that the era of growth at all costs is over. In a world where investors increasingly demand not just growth, but profitable growth, we are well-positioned to win through continuous innovation, excellent execution, and the unrivaled scale of our global platform.”
However, the biggest concern is that despite the sizable improvement in revenue, the company’s adjusted Ebitda loss of $615 million was still staggering, and while it was a modest improvement quarterly, the company has never reported a positive EBITDA quarter in its history yet.
Said otherwise, Uber is forced to continue to provide subsidies to its drivers, which means that even as revenue grows and the company burns cash to capture market share, losses refuse to turn to profits, as shown in the chart below which demonstrates just how sticky negative EBITDA has become. In short, the business refuses to scale, and with Lyft growing with every quarter, it is debatable if and when the company will ever achieve profitability.
The chart above also explains why CEO Dara said that “We recognize that the era of growth at all costs is over.” So does that mean that the company will now retrench until its generates positive EBITDA as backlash against the idiotic WeWork model grows? We will find out in the coming quarters, when the company has vowed it will turn profitable. Good luck.
Following earnings, the stock initially dipped, then rebounded and is now taking out the highs.
If you’ve been watching our Youtube video series on the Wuhan Coronavirus (2019nCoV) pandemic, you know that it’s time to prepare.
Yes, we can always hope that the latest unconfirmed potential treatment marks an actual turning point (i.e. treating patients with HIV protease inhibitor drugs) . But it’s much better to be safe than sorry.
You’re probably reading this because you tend to think critically, and you trust your own judgment. Weirdly, that sets you apart from the masses.
And so here you are. Not because you’re weird, but because it’s weird that common sense and prudent caution are so uncommon.
For a whole host of reasons that extend well beyond this emerging pandemic, we think being prepared is a selfless and prudent thing to do. Everyone should seek to be as resilient as possible. Our book Prosper!covers this in much greater detail. It encourages readers to build capital.
Yes, build up your financial capital. But don’t ignore social, knowledge, time, material, living, cultural and emotional capital. If you have depth in each of these, you will be truly wealthy, happy and fulfilled — no matter what the universe throws your way.
A pandemic is a hard kick in the pants that will propel many people to finally begin preparing. If you’re one of them, don’t ignore this important call to action.
For those who are already in good shape — Congratulations! Use this opportunity to re-evaluate your planning, inventory your preps, and then improve upon both if needed.
What We Can Say Publicly & What We Can’t
As with our coverage of the Fukushima nuclear disaster back in 2011, we believe it is our duty to make our gifts of sleuthing, clarifying, and decoding freely available to the world. That’s what we’ve done in the past, and we’re doing it in spades now — releasing at least one video every day for the past 13 days, keeping the public updated on the evolving coronavirus threat.
But there’s certain content that we cannot put out into the public realm.
Some of it can put a target on our back for the media to use in accusing us of being “alarmists” or “fearmongers”.
Other content may not be sufficiently proven, but we feel is important to consider and monitor as more data comes in. But it’s too half-baked to put out to a public audience where some folks might accept it as gospel simply because we shared it.
Often, we just go deeper into a subject than the general public has any interest in going. But our insight-hungry subscribers value this greatly. One thing Peak Prosperity subscribers share in common is that we’re all curious, committed life-long learners.
Cutting to the chase: subscriptions are how Adam and I support and run this site. Without our premium subscribers there would be no site at all.
Google is a monopoly and shares less and less advertising revenue with the content creators that use its platform. The advertising check Peak Prosperity receives are really so tiny as to be laughable. There’s no possible way to support this site via ad revenue. If we relied on ad revenue — of which the monthly check could buy us a nice dinner and little else — this would become a hobby site. Adam and I would have to earn a living other ways, and maybe write a single article once of twice as month as we could get to it. The PeakProsperity.com experience would be vastly different from the daily publishing programming we have, not to mention the even more valuable vibrant community of intelligent thinkers that is fostered here.
I feel odd having to spell this out. But you’d be surprised how many people decry that we have a revenue model that funds this site’s existence. Some of these critics are journalists, too; which is odd to me, because they’re in the same business — except a parent company cuts their paycheck.
Denying Ammunition To The Haters
In fast-moving situations like the coronavirus outbreak, the unknowns outweigh the knowns. Quite often the most useful and most actionable material is in the ‘unknowns.’
This is where our super-power comes into play: sifting through vast piles of snippets and fragments and assembling them into a coherent (if still incomplete) picture. One with actionable insights to help you make important life decisions.
Sometimes we simply have to avoid handing weapons to our enemies. Early, fast-changing information can (and often is) taken out of context to try to “shoot the messenger”. Throughout this pandemic so far, the vast majority of attention we’ve gotten from the established media has accused us of whipping up fear or being opportunists.
Not a single one of these critics has yet sought to engage in debate on the data we’ve provided in any of our writings or videos to argue “here’s something you got wrong.”
Why not? Because they have no interest in whether we have the facts right or wrong.
Instead, they’re interested in pushing a narrative that says “don’t worry, everything is just fine”. In their eyes, our sin is that we happen to think some of the facts ARE indeed worrying. Or at least too important to simply take on faith. It’s the oldest trick in the book – when you can’t beat the message, attack the messenger.
Just last night, my Wikipedia page, up for more than a decade, was deleted by Wikipedia’s editors. I guess if you feel that shooting the messenger isn’t enough, try to expunge him from history.
Again, this is all just part of the territory. Like the trolls who sometimes show up in this site’s comments section, armed with the latest talking points (“no worse than the flu!”) and seeking to swamp or derail the conversation.
Behind our paywall, there are no trolls. Well, maybe once in a blue moon, but we have a rapid and inspiring tribal antibody response that detects and ejects such entrants, so they don’t last long. Which means we’re free to engage in very open and intelligent wide-ranging conversations.
In our brand new report for our premium subscribers, Adam and I share our own personal preparations for the coronavirus which — for reasons of not arming our critics with more ammunition for “fear mongering” charges, and for our family’s personal safety, and given the fact that what works for us may not be appropriate for everyone — are not things we’re willing to broadcast to the public.
Finally, we’ve learned that when we recommend specific actions that can have an actual impact on supplies, we shoulder an ethical responsibility. We trust our subscribers to avoid hoarding and be otherwise responsible in their purchases, only securing what they need and thereby also being in position to support others should things become dicey.
On that note, let’s review this passage from our book Prosper! because it’s important framing for everything that comes next:
Selfless Not Selfish
Another objection we hear to the prospect of preparing and becoming more resilient is that those actions could be seen as being selfish. Instead we see them as being selfless. Those who are not prepared when an emergency strikes are a drain on critical resources, while those who are prepared can be of assistance.
To be among those who can be in a position to render assistance, or at least need none of their own, means that your prior acts of preparation have selflessly removed you from the minus column and placed you on the plus side.
The first steps towards preparedness usually involve addressing your own needs or those of your loved ones, but many people then go beyond that and prepare for others who may not be able to do so, or have not done so, or maybe even will not do so.
But let us put an important qualifier on that; preparing before a crisis hits is responsible and selfless, but trying to accumulate necessary items during a crisis is an act of hoarding. We do not and never will advocate hoarding. Responsible preparations begin long before any trouble appears. Anything else stands a good chance of making things worse, not better.
The news has been full of stories of how people behave when scarcity strikes and they are generally not pretty. People in Boston fought over bottled water just hours after a water main broke in 2010. Nasty fights, too. In Venezuela, as of the writing of this book, desperate people are attempting to buy anything and everything that might remain in the stores as their national currency devalues by the day. This is bringing forth all sorts of government-mandated counter measures that make it impossible for many families to buy essential items.
We mentioned earlier that time may well be your most valuable asset in becoming resilient. Be aware that many things that are easily available now may be difficult to obtain later. Now, before any big crises have hit, it’s very easy to pick up the phone, or click a mouse button, and have the big brown truck of happiness roll up to your doorstep a few days later. Everything you could ever want to buy is currently available and stores are abundantly stocked in most countries. However, we can imagine a large number of possible futures where such easy access to consumer goods and desired items is either much more difficult or impossible.
The Time To Prepare Is *NOW*
It’s time to begin preparing. Well, honestly, given the demonstrated threat of the Wuhan coronavirus, it’s past time — which means it’s time to begin preparing responsibly (no hoarding of items already in short supply like face masks, please).
This is especially true if you live in a country with substandard health care or a weak hospital infrastructure.
There’s room for hope that this pandemic will be limited by aggressive containment efforts. A vaccine at some point is highly likely.
But there’s no guarantee either will happen. Or even if they do, that help will arrive before the virus hits your community.
The odds of the virus threat are more than sufficient to cause me to take prudent defensible precautions now, to follow the developing news like a hawk, and to advise people to prepare today should they soon need to remain at home for days to weeks during an outbreak.
We cover both what we’re prioritizing BEFORE the virus hits our towns, and what we plan to do AFTER it does.
For those who choose not to subscribe, for whatever reason, that’s fine. We’ll continue our daily work here scouring the world of news for you and issuing as many videos, articles and podcasts as we can to distill the key insights we feel are most important for you to know about this swiftly-unfolding situation.
President Donald Trump on Thursday gave a very Trump-like post-impeachment speech at the White House, criticizing Democrats for targeting him unfairly after he “did nothing wrong.”
The Senate acquitted Trump yesterday of charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, both of which stemmed from his role in seeking to force Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to announce probes that targeted Trump’s political rivals.
Trump honed in on multiple detractors throughout the hourlong speech. “We’ve been going through this now for over three years,” he said. “It was evil, it was corrupt, it was dirty cops, it was leakers and liars. And this should never, ever happen to another president, ever.”
He began by harkening back to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, characterizing it as a “witch hunt” facilitated to derail him. “It was all bullshit,” Trump said.
He then pivoted to attacking Sen. Mitt Romney (R–Utah), who was the only Republican to vote for impeachment. In doing so, Romney became the first senator in history to support removing a president from his own party. According to Trump, Romney used “religion as a crutch” in deciding to convict him.
“Never heard him use it before,” Trump said. “But today, you know, it’s one of those things. But it’s a failed presidential candidate, so things can happen when you fail so badly, running for president.”
Trump also took aim at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D–Calif.) and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D–Calif.), the lead impeachment manager. “These people are vicious,” Trump declared. “Adam Schiff is a vicious, horrible person. Nancy Pelosi is a horrible person.” Trump also reiterated that he believes Pelosi to be disingenuous when she says she prays for him: “She may pray, but she prays for the opposite,” said Trump. “But, I doubt she prays at all.”
Trump also spoke about former FBI Director James Comey. “It’s possible I wouldn’t even be standing here right now,” Trump said, if he hadn’t moved to terminate the “the top scum” in 2017. The president claims he was motivated to fire Comey after evaluating his handling of the investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s email server.
“We caught him in the act,” Trump said in what was likely a reference to the DOJ Office of Inspector General report that found Comey violated FBI policies when he shared an unclassified memo with a friend who he instructed to leak to the media. “Dirty cops. Bad people,” Trump added.
Trump also praised his allies during the speech. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R–Ky.) “stayed there from the beginning” and “understood this was crooked politics.” Of Trump loyalist Rep. Jim Jordan (R–Ohio), Trump noted that he never wears a jacket. “He’s obviously very proud of his body,” Trump said. “They say where he works out…the machine starts burning.”
Rep. Steve Scalise (R–La.), who was shot in 2017 during a practice for the congressional baseball game, also received praise. “He was not going to make it,” Trump said. But he did and is better for it. “You’re more handsome now,” Trump said. “You weren’t that good looking. You look good now.” The president also celebrated Scalise’s wife. “A lot of wives wouldn’t give a damn,” Trump said.
Trump came full circle at the end, thanking his family and once again lamenting the Democrats who pressed his impeachment. “I want to apologize to my family for having them have to go through a phony, rotten deal by some very evil and sick people,” he said.
Although Romney was the sole GOP senator to support an article of impeachment, multiple other Republicans argued that Trump’s behavior was nevertheless improper. Sen. Susan Collins (R–Maine) originally said that she believed Trump had learned from his mistakes, although she later backtracked and conceded that such a remark was more “aspirational” than realistic.
“The president [asked a] federal government to investigate a political rival,” said Collins. “And he should not have done that. And I would hope that he would not do it again.”
As Trump’s speech indicates, Collins’ aspirations will remain aspirational.
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Police twice seized 50-year-old Detroit resident Melisa Ingram’s car for alleged crimes she was never suspected of committing. In fact, no one was charged with a crime at all. Nevertheless, the local prosecutor demanded Ingram pay thousands of dollars to get her vehicle back, or else the county would keep it under civil asset forfeiture laws.
Ingram is now a lead plaintiff in a federal class-action lawsuit filed Wednesday against Wayne County, Michigan—which includes Detroit—by the Institute for Justice, a libertarian-leaning public interest law firm. The suit claims that the county seizes cars “simply because they are driven into, or out of, an area subjectively known for having some generalized association with crime,” and that the county forces owners through a months-long, onerous process to challenge a seizure, violating their Fourth, Eighth, and 14th Amendment rights.
According to the lawsuit, Ingram loaned her now-former boyfriend her car in late 2018 so he could look for a job. But rather than go job-hunting, the boyfriend was detained by police for allegedly picking up a prostitute. He wasn’t charged with a crime, but Wayne County Sheriff’s deputies seized Ingram’s 2017 Ford Fusion and issued a notice that the county intended to keep it under civil asset forfeiture laws, which allow police and prosecutors to seize property—cash, cars, and even houses—suspected of being connected to criminal activity. Ingram had to pay the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office a $1,355 “redemption fee” ($900 plus towing and storage fees) to get her car back.
Last summer, Ingram loaned her car to her boyfriend again so he could drive to a friend’s barbecue. This time, police pulled him over after he left a house that police said was connected to prostitution and/or drug activity. Again, no one was charged with a crime, but the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office demanded another settlement payment from Ingram. This time she didn’t have it. She initiated bankruptcy proceedings and relinquished interest in her car.
“My car was very important to me and now my life has been turned upside down,” Ingram said in a press release. “Everything suffers when you don’t have a car, especially in a city like Detroit. I’ve been late to work and missed doctor’s appointments because I don’t have a way to get there. No one should have to go through what I’ve gone through.”
Law enforcement groups say asset forfeiture is a vital tool to disrupt drug trafficking and other crimes by targeting their illicit proceeds. However, civil liberties advocates like the Institute for Justice, which has successfully challenged forfeiture practices in cities such as Philadelphia and Albuquerque, argue there are too few protections for innocent property owners and too many perverse profit incentives for police.
The Institute for Justice is not the first to allege that Wayne County prosecutors and police abuse civil forfeiture and make it nearly impossible for owners to get their cars back. In 2018, Stephen Nichols filed a class-action lawsuit after waiting more than three years for a court hearing to challenge the seizure of his car.
That same year, Crystal Sisson filed a civil rights lawsuit after Wayne County Sheriff’s deputies seized her 2015 Kia Soul because she allegedly possessed $10 worth of marijuana.
More than half of all U.S. states have passed some form of asset forfeiture reform over the past decade in response to these concerns, but Wayne County continues to run a particularly aggressive forfeiture operation as part of Operation Push-Off—a local law enforcement campaign that targets drugs and prostitution by surveilling high-crime areas and marijuana dispensaries.
Wayne County seized more than 2,600 vehicles over the past two years, raking in more than $1.2 million in asset forfeiture revenues, according to public records obtained by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a free market Michigan think tank.
Of those, 473 were not accompanied by a criminal conviction, and in 438 of those cases, no one was even charged with a crime. In 10 cases, the cars were seized under suspicion of a drug violation, even though the records say police didn’t find any drugs.
“The vehicles are worth very little, typically around $1,000 or $2,000,” Mackinac Center researcher Jarrett Skorup toldReason. “These are very likely low-income people, people that can’t afford to sit around without a vehicle for three weeks or afford an attorney to go challenge it.”
The other named plaintiff in the Institute for Justice’s lawsuit is 29-year-old construction worker Robert Reeves. Last July, Reeves had his 1991 Chevrolet Camaro, along with more than $2,000 in cash, seized after police stopped him on suspicion of stealing a skid steer from Home Depot. Reeves was never arrested or charged with a crime, and the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office has yet to file a notice of intent to forfeit his car, meaning he hasn’t been able to officially challenge it.
Wayne County prosecutors typically offer to settle such forfeiture cases and return the owner’s car for a $900 payment, plus towing and storage fees. (You can see one such forfeiture notice here.)
The Institute for Justice argues says these settlement offers, combined with the lengthy and costly process of challenging a forfeiture, amount to a shakedown.
“Detroit’s forfeiture program is less like a justice system and more like having your car stolen and paying a ransom to get it back,” Institute for Justice attorney Wesley Hottot said in a press release. “Once police seize a car, there is no judge or jury. Instead, prosecutors give owners a choice. They can either pay the city’s ransom or hire an attorney and enter a byzantine process that is confusing, time-consuming, and expensive. The process is designed to ensure that owners fail nearly every time. I’ve watched this happen time and time again, and never once have I seen an owner successfully make it to court and get his or her car back.”
The Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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President Donald Trump on Thursday gave a very Trump-like post-impeachment speech at the White House, criticizing Democrats for targeting him unfairly after he “did nothing wrong.”
The Senate acquitted Trump yesterday of charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, both of which stemmed from his role in seeking to force Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to announce probes that targeted Trump’s political rivals.
Trump honed in on multiple detractors throughout the hourlong speech. “We’ve been going through this now for over three years,” he said. “It was evil, it was corrupt, it was dirty cops, it was leakers and liars. And this should never, ever happen to another president, ever.”
He began by harkening back to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, characterizing it as a “witch hunt” facilitated to derail him. “It was all bullshit,” Trump said.
He then pivoted to attacking Sen. Mitt Romney (R–Utah), who was the only Republican to vote for impeachment. In doing so, Romney became the first senator in history to support removing a president from his own party. According to Trump, Romney used “religion as a crutch” in deciding to convict him.
“Never heard him use it before,” Trump said. “But today, you know, it’s one of those things. But it’s a failed presidential candidate, so things can happen when you fail so badly, running for president.”
Trump also took aim at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D–Calif.) and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D–Calif.), the lead impeachment manager. “These people are vicious,” Trump declared. “Adam Schiff is a vicious, horrible person. Nancy Pelosi is a horrible person.” Trump also reiterated that he believes Pelosi to be disingenuous when she says she prays for him: “She may pray, but she prays for the opposite,” said Trump. “But, I doubt she prays at all.”
Trump also spoke about former FBI Director James Comey. “It’s possible I wouldn’t even be standing here right now,” Trump said, if he hadn’t moved to terminate the “the top scum” in 2017. The president claims he was motivated to fire Comey after evaluating his handling of the investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s email server.
“We caught him in the act,” Trump said in what was likely a reference to the DOJ Office of Inspector General report that found Comey violated FBI policies when he shared an unclassified memo with a friend who he instructed to leak to the media. “Dirty cops. Bad people,” Trump added.
Trump also praised his allies during the speech. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R–Ky.) “stayed there from the beginning” and “understood this was crooked politics.” Of Trump loyalist Rep. Jim Jordan (R–Ohio), Trump noted that he never wears a jacket. “He’s obviously very proud of his body,” Trump said. “They say where he works out…the machine starts burning.”
Rep. Steve Scalise (R–La.), who was shot in 2017 during a practice for the congressional baseball game, also received praise. “He was not going to make it,” Trump said. But he did and is better for it. “You’re more handsome now,” Trump said. “You weren’t that good looking. You look good now.” The president also celebrated Scalise’s wife. “A lot of wives wouldn’t give a damn,” Trump said.
Trump came full circle at the end, thanking his family and once again lamenting the Democrats who pressed his impeachment. “I want to apologize to my family for having them have to go through a phony, rotten deal by some very evil and sick people,” he said.
Although Romney was the sole GOP senator to support an article of impeachment, multiple other Republicans argued that Trump’s behavior was nevertheless improper. Sen. Susan Collins (R–Maine) originally said that she believed Trump had learned from his mistakes, although she later backtracked and conceded that such a remark was more “aspirational” than realistic.
“The president [asked a] federal government to investigate a political rival,” said Collins. “And he should not have done that. And I would hope that he would not do it again.”
As Trump’s speech indicates, Collins’ aspirations will remain aspirational.
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Police twice seized 50-year-old Detroit resident Melisa Ingram’s car for alleged crimes she was never suspected of committing. In fact, no one was charged with a crime at all. Nevertheless, the local prosecutor demanded Ingram pay thousands of dollars to get her vehicle back, or else the county would keep it under civil asset forfeiture laws.
Ingram is now a lead plaintiff in a federal class-action lawsuit filed Wednesday against Wayne County, Michigan—which includes Detroit—by the Institute for Justice, a libertarian-leaning public interest law firm. The suit claims that the county seizes cars “simply because they are driven into, or out of, an area subjectively known for having some generalized association with crime,” and that the county forces owners through a months-long, onerous process to challenge a seizure, violating their Fourth, Eighth, and 14th Amendment rights.
According to the lawsuit, Ingram loaned her now-former boyfriend her car in late 2018 so he could look for a job. But rather than go job-hunting, the boyfriend was detained by police for allegedly picking up a prostitute. He wasn’t charged with a crime, but Wayne County Sheriff’s deputies seized Ingram’s 2017 Ford Fusion and issued a notice that the county intended to keep it under civil asset forfeiture laws, which allow police and prosecutors to seize property—cash, cars, and even houses—suspected of being connected to criminal activity. Ingram had to pay the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office a $1,355 “redemption fee” ($900 plus towing and storage fees) to get her car back.
Last summer, Ingram loaned her car to her boyfriend again so he could drive to a friend’s barbecue. This time, police pulled him over after he left a house that police said was connected to prostitution and/or drug activity. Again, no one was charged with a crime, but the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office demanded another settlement payment from Ingram. This time she didn’t have it. She initiated bankruptcy proceedings and relinquished interest in her car.
“My car was very important to me and now my life has been turned upside down,” Ingram said in a press release. “Everything suffers when you don’t have a car, especially in a city like Detroit. I’ve been late to work and missed doctor’s appointments because I don’t have a way to get there. No one should have to go through what I’ve gone through.”
Law enforcement groups say asset forfeiture is a vital tool to disrupt drug trafficking and other crimes by targeting their illicit proceeds. However, civil liberties advocates like the Institute for Justice, which has successfully challenged forfeiture practices in cities such as Philadelphia and Albuquerque, argue there are too few protections for innocent property owners and too many perverse profit incentives for police.
The Institute for Justice is not the first to allege that Wayne County prosecutors and police abuse civil forfeiture and make it nearly impossible for owners to get their cars back. In 2018, Stephen Nichols filed a class-action lawsuit after waiting more than three years for a court hearing to challenge the seizure of his car.
That same year, Crystal Sisson filed a civil rights lawsuit after Wayne County Sheriff’s deputies seized her 2015 Kia Soul because she allegedly possessed $10 worth of marijuana.
More than half of all U.S. states have passed some form of asset forfeiture reform over the past decade in response to these concerns, but Wayne County continues to run a particularly aggressive forfeiture operation as part of Operation Push-Off—a local law enforcement campaign that targets drugs and prostitution by surveilling high-crime areas and marijuana dispensaries.
Wayne County seized more than 2,600 vehicles over the past two years, raking in more than $1.2 million in asset forfeiture revenues, according to public records obtained by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a free market Michigan think tank.
Of those, 473 were not accompanied by a criminal conviction, and in 438 of those cases, no one was even charged with a crime. In 10 cases, the cars were seized under suspicion of a drug violation, even though the records say police didn’t find any drugs.
“The vehicles are worth very little, typically around $1,000 or $2,000,” Mackinac Center researcher Jarrett Skorup toldReason. “These are very likely low-income people, people that can’t afford to sit around without a vehicle for three weeks or afford an attorney to go challenge it.”
The other named plaintiff in the Institute for Justice’s lawsuit is 29-year-old construction worker Robert Reeves. Last July, Reeves had his 1991 Chevrolet Camaro, along with more than $2,000 in cash, seized after police stopped him on suspicion of stealing a skid steer from Home Depot. Reeves was never arrested or charged with a crime, and the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office has yet to file a notice of intent to forfeit his car, meaning he hasn’t been able to officially challenge it.
Wayne County prosecutors typically offer to settle such forfeiture cases and return the owner’s car for a $900 payment, plus towing and storage fees. (You can see one such forfeiture notice here.)
The Institute for Justice argues says these settlement offers, combined with the lengthy and costly process of challenging a forfeiture, amount to a shakedown.
“Detroit’s forfeiture program is less like a justice system and more like having your car stolen and paying a ransom to get it back,” Institute for Justice attorney Wesley Hottot said in a press release. “Once police seize a car, there is no judge or jury. Instead, prosecutors give owners a choice. They can either pay the city’s ransom or hire an attorney and enter a byzantine process that is confusing, time-consuming, and expensive. The process is designed to ensure that owners fail nearly every time. I’ve watched this happen time and time again, and never once have I seen an owner successfully make it to court and get his or her car back.”
The Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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For six months, a Tennessee reporter has been trying to obtain about 1,500 pages of records from the Hamilton County Attorney’s Office. Sarah Grace Taylor of the Chattanooga Times Free Press is investigating whether the county has unlawfully denied public records requests. Rather than comply with Taylor’s records request, the Hamilton County Attorney’s Office ignored state law and chose to destroy most of the records altogether.
A report from last week details the fights over the records.
Last summer, the Times Free Press submitted a public records request to the Hamilton County Attorney’s Office, which holds the county’s general records. The paper sought information on a controversial private meeting between two commissioners, potentially an open meeting violation. In response, Hamilton County records coordinator Dana Beltramo told the paper that records in the office were “privileged” and “off limits.”
Taylor submitted another request on August 5, 2019, for one year’s worth of records requests received by the county and the office’s response to those requests. Roughly 1,500 pages of records matched Taylor’s query.
The office initially tried to charge Taylor $717 to inspect the documents. The estimate covered a $222 copy fee and a $495 charge for labor costs ($45 for 12 hours of labor). The Tennessee Public Records Act states that a requestor can be charged for copies of documents, but does not allow for a requestor to be charged simply to inspect the documents. This is even reiterated on the office’s own request form. Taylor refused to pay the unlawful charge, and the Times Free Press and Hamilton County spent several weeks debating state law over email.
In January, the Hamilton County Attorney’s Office finally relented and gave the Times Free Press 268 pages of record requests. The rest, Beltramo informed the paper, were destroyed. The office determined that no statute compelled them to keep the public records requests longer than 30 days and that the office had received permission from the Hamilton County Public Records Commission in October 2019 to destroy requests and the office’s responses to them. The Hamilton County Attorney’s Office destroyed records request correspondence received via email, which accounted for 98% of the records requested by Taylor.
The Times Free Press is also beefing with Hamilton County Attorney Rheubin Taylor, who said the October vote was unrelated to the August request. Rheubin Taylor, who stood by the legality of the $717 estimate, told the paper that the request was considered closed when the Times Free Press refused to pay. The Times Free Press says it emailed Rheubin Taylor two weeks before the October meeting asking him to reconsider the estimate. Five days after this exchange, an email went around showing Beltramo’s destruction request on the agenda.
The debacle is still unfolding, but the Times Free Press saw a minor victory on Wednesday when Rheubin Taylor conceded that the $717 charge conflicted with state law.
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Traders Buy Everything On Hopes That Virus “Contained” – Stocks, Bonds, Gold, & USD Jump
Stocks were bought with both hands and feet once again overnight, surging to new record highs because the virus is “contained”…
And, reportedly, this is the chart that many suggest shows that ‘peak virus’ has passed as the total number of virus cases shifts from exponential to quadratic…
However, what many do not fully understand about the chart is the policy change that China instigated, locking down homes and telling citizens to only come to hospital if they are severely sick… meaning there are plenty of cases locked up at home, afraid to leave the house as they have seen what happens in many of the leaked videos we see.
No matter that, investors, traders, and the machines bid for stocks, bonds, the dollar, precious metals, copper, and crude.
However, the buy-both-bonds-and-stocks trade has been going on all year (and bonds are outperforming)…
Source: Bloomberg
Chinese stocks shot up again with small-cap-tech in ChiNext leading the charge (up massively)…
Source: Bloomberg
European stocks also extended the week’s gains…
Source: Bloomberg
But US stocks were mixed today – all gapping higher at the open but with small caps and trannies lower…
Record closes for S&P, Dow, and Nasdaq
But everything still up large on the week…
Thanks to yet another short-squeeze (the biggest 4-day squeeze in 5 months)…
Source: Bloomberg
Casper IPO’d at 12, opened at $14.50, briefly popped.. then dropped…
Momo and Value resumed their trend after yesterday’s breakdown…
Source: Bloomberg
Cyclicals were flat today as defensives rallied…
Source: Bloomberg
Treasuries were mixed today with yields dropping at the long-end for the first time in 4 days (30Y -3bps, 2Y unch)…
Source: Bloomberg
30Y reversed across the virus gap…
Source: Bloomberg
The Dollar extended its spike above 2-month highs…
Source: Bloomberg
Yuan slipped lower…
Source: Bloomberg
Bitcoin rallied further today, testing $9850 intraday…
Source: Bloomberg
Precious metals rallied on the day but copper leads the week…
Source: Bloomberg
While stocks rallied, gold has been bid the last two days…
WTI ended higher but well off the highs after OPEC+ hopes faded…
Copper was up today but remains notably decoupled from stocks…
Source: Bloomberg
Finally, in case you hadn’t seen this before – we have shown numerous times in the last few years – the real way to make money in US equity markets is simple – Buy the close and sell the open…
