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Well, that on again, off again between the US and China to discuss the “progress” on the Phase 1 of the trade deal finally took place tonight, with the US Trade Representative office announcing tonight that Ambassador Lighthizer and Secretary Mnuchin participated in “a regularly scheduled call this evening” with China’s Vice Premier Liu Hu to discuss implementation of the historic Phase One Agreement between the United States and China.

According to the USTR, the parties addressed steps that China has taken to effectuate structural changes called for by the Agreement that will ensure greater protection for intellectual property rights, remove impediments to American companies in the areas of financial services and agriculture, and eliminate forced technology transfer.

Considering that China has done virtually nothing so far, we can only imagine that this was the shortly US-China call in history.

Yet none of that matters, with algos only focusing on the last sentence of the statement according to which “the parties also discussed the significant increases in purchases of U.S. products by China as well as future actions needed to implement the agreement. Both sides see progress and are committed to taking the steps necessary to ensure the success of the agreement.“

And while equity futures remain relatively muted, the yuan rose on the news of “progress” even as US and China sink ever deeper into Cold War 2.

The 2020 Republican National convention kicked off earlier today with President Trump and Vice President Pence officially securing their re-nomination earlier in the day

The GOP says the convention will contrast with the Democrats’ largely taped gathering last week by featuring more live events with audiences from Washington and around the country. White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said it would feature “people whose lives have been impacted and measurably and consequently changed due to the efforts and policies of President Trump.”

The theme of tonight is “Land of Promise”:

Today our delegates have gathered in Charlotte, North Carolina for the 2020 Republican National Convention to formally re-nominate President Donald J. Trump and Vice President Michael R. Pence. This convention amplifies President Trump’s promises and the unbreakable hope of the American people. Together, we are upholding the longstanding American tradition of a party convention with the promise of making history.

As Americans have for every challenge in our 244-year history, when struck by the heartbreak of this pandemic, countless patriots answered the call and promised to protect and serve their fellowman.

Our health care professionals and first responders have been miracle workers through their unyielding resolve and selfless compassion. Our essential workers — grocers, farmers, teachers, transportation workers and countless others — are courageously keeping this country running. Our American business owners have innovatively made PPE, taken drastic steps to stay or re-open and have taken care of their employees in unprecedented ways. Our families have navigated unchartered territory as working parents have sought creative solutions for childcare and alternative schedules that prioritize the safety of their loved ones. Our local law enforcement and American soldiers have continued putting their lives on the line to protect us.

The men and women of our nation are standing in the gap for their brothers and sisters as they lift up the hurting and care for their neighbors, and they deserve a leader who will promise to stand in the gap with them over the next four years.

President Trump has never wavered in his promise to stand with the American people. He has championed the American worker through the Paycheck Protection Program and continues to fulfill his promise to keep America First. He acted early and decisively to mitigate potential harm and has continued proactive steps to protect and equip the American people during this pandemic.

Today, we celebrate the re-nomination of an American President who will be remembered in history as the one who kept his promises and paved a way forward even in the most challenging of times. The land of promise remains the United States of America, and with President Trump leading her people, we always will be.

Donald Trump Jr. and Sen. Tim Scott headline the first night of the Republican National Convention, which kicks off at 8:30 ET p.m. tonight.

Also slated to speak Monday are House Minority Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana, Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida, Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, RNC Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel, , Kimberly Guilfoyle, national chairwoman for the Trump Victory Finance Committee; Georgia State Representative Vernon Jones, a Democrat, and Natalie Harp, an advisory board member for Trump’s re-election campaign.

Additional speakers include:

• Mark and Patricia McCloskey, the Missouri couple who brandished guns at Black Lives Matter protesters in their neighborhood last month;

• Maryland congressional candidate Kim Klacik;

• Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA;

• Sean Parnell, a Pennsylvania congressional candidate;

• Andrew Pollack, the father of a victim of the Parkland shooting, and

• Tanya Weinreis, whose coffee shop was the first small business in Montana to qualify for a PPP loan.

And President Trump reportedly plans to speak every night.

Watch Live:

*  *  *

The Trump Campaign released its 49-point wishlist for the president’s second term late last night:

Building on the incredible achievements of President Donald J. Trump’s first term in office, the President’s re-election campaign today released a set of core priorities for a second term under the banner of “Fighting for You!” President Trump’s boundless optimism and certainty in America’s greatness is reflected in his second-term goals and stands in stark contrast to the gloomy vision of America projected by Joe Biden and Democrats.  

President Trump will further illuminate these plans during his acceptance speech Thursday at the Republican National Convention. Over the coming weeks, the President will be sharing additional details about his plans through policy-focused speeches on the campaign trail.

President Trump: Fighting for You!

JOBS

• Create 10 Million New Jobs in 10 Months
• Create 1 Million New Small Businesses
• Cut Taxes to Boost Take-Home Pay and Keep Jobs in America
• Enact Fair Trade Deals that Protect American Jobs
• “Made in America” Tax Credits
• Expand Opportunity Zones
• Continue Deregulatory Agenda for Energy Independence

ERADICATE COVID-19

• Develop a Vaccine by The End Of 2020
• Return to Normal in 2021
• Make All Critical Medicines and Supplies for Healthcare Workers in The United States
• Refill Stockpiles and Prepare for Future Pandemics

END OUR RELIANCE ON CHINA

• Bring Back 1 Million Manufacturing Jobs from China
• Tax Credits for Companies that Bring Back Jobs from China
• Allow 100% Expensing Deductions for Essential Industries like Pharmaceuticals and Robotics who Bring Back their Manufacturing to the United States
• No Federal Contracts for Companies who Outsource to China
• Hold China Fully Accountable for Allowing the Virus to Spread around the World

HEALTHCARE

• Cut Prescription Drug Prices
• Put Patients and Doctors Back in Charge of our Healthcare System
• Lower Healthcare Insurance Premiums
• End Surprise Billing
• Cover All Pre-Existing Conditions
• Protect Social Security and Medicare
• Protect Our Veterans and Provide World-Class Healthcare and Services

EDUCATION

• Provide School Choice to Every Child in America
• Teach American Exceptionalism

DRAIN THE SWAMP

• Pass Congressional Term Limits
• End Bureaucratic Government Bullying of U.S. Citizens and Small Businesses
• Expose Washington’s Money Trail and Delegate Powers Back to People and States
• Drain the Globalist Swamp by Taking on International Organizations That Hurt American Citizens

DEFEND OUR POLICE

• Fully Fund and Hire More Police and Law Enforcement Officers
• Increase Criminal Penalties for Assaults on Law Enforcement Officers
• Prosecute Drive-By Shootings as Acts of Domestic Terrorism
• Bring Violent Extremist Groups Like ANTIFA to Justice
• End Cashless Bail and Keep Dangerous Criminals Locked Up until Trial

END ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION AND PROTECT AMERICAN WORKERS

• Block Illegal Immigrants from Becoming Eligible for Taxpayer-Funded Welfare, Healthcare, and Free College Tuition
• Mandatory Deportation for Non-Citizen Gang Members
• Dismantle Human Trafficking Networks
• End Sanctuary Cities to Restore our Neighborhoods and Protect our Families
• Prohibit American Companies from Replacing United States Citizens with Lower-Cost Foreign Workers
• Require New Immigrants to Be Able to Support Themselves Financially

INNOVATE FOR THE FUTURE

• Launch Space Force, Establish Permanent Manned Presence on The Moon and Send the First Manned Mission to Mars
• Build the World’s Greatest Infrastructure SystemWin the Race to 5G and Establish a National High-Speed Wireless Internet Network
• Continue to Lead the World in Access to the Cleanest Drinking Water and Cleanest Air
• Partner with Other Nations to Clean Up our Planet’s Oceans

AMERICA FIRST FOREIGN POLICY

• Stop Endless Wars and Bring Our Troops Home
• Get Allies to Pay their Fair Share
• Maintain and Expand America’s Unrivaled Military Strength
• Wipe Out Global Terrorists Who Threaten to Harm Americans
• Build a Great Cybersecurity Defense System and Missile Defense System

In more signs of the times, and perhaps further evidence the city has reached its “expiration date” amid both the Covid-induced economic slowdown and exploding crime, the New York City subway has seen windows smashed by the hundreds in recent weeks and months.

The MTA has counted more than 400 smashed and destroyed windows over the course of the summer and has documented at least 63 train cars which were attacked with a bat, hammer, pole, or pipe by one or more serial vandals. It’s to the point that service itself on some lines are now under threat.

The financially strapped MTA doesn’t appear to have an answer either, other than to observe the past trend that suggests economic decay above often results in an uptick in both vandalism and graffiti on the trains below.

“Vandalized subway trains have in the past been associated with a period of financial hardship in New York City that was marked by increased violence and crime,” The New York Times notes, as the MTA now has to deal with $300,000 in repairs at a moment it’s facing a $16 billion deficit, partly brought on by the pandemic crisis.

“We’re not exactly flush with cash right now,” Metropolitan Transportation Authority official Patrick Warren said. “Every dollar matters.”

The trend of smashed windows appeared to rise alongside the tidal wave of unemployment during the pandemic shutdowns.

The NYT details:

Transportation officials in New York City first began seeing broken windows on subway cars, mostly on the 2, 3 and 7 lines, in April. On one day in mid-July, nearly 50 windows across three 7 trains were smashed. Then this week, the problem seemed to have intensified again: about 60 windows on several 7 trains were found shattered with what officials said was a “blunt instrument.”

And authorities are still unclear on if it’s one vandal, a group of people, or various random incidents; however, there’s video footage of at least one prime suspect.

New York City police are searching for a man who allegedly smashed dozens of subway windows across the city in the span of three months. https://t.co/cb1HvB5gTV

— NBC New York (@NBCNewYork) August 5, 2020

The MTA says it’s literally running out of window replacements, and has had to temporarily decommission dozens of subway cars, while police are searching for a man considered mainly responsible for the 3-month long spree, given he’s been witnessed carrying a hammer.

Authored by Stacey Rudin via The American Institute for Economic Research,

Storied minds have argued that a failure to critically examine our beliefs makes us culpable for adverse outcomes. Beliefs lead to actions, which impact other people. 

As Voltaire wrote during the Enlightenment – when society still had time away from the screen to reflect on philosophy, morality, and fundamental truth – “those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.”

This has never been more true than in the age of social media, when information and opinions constantly bombard us from all sides, isolating us from our own thoughts and values. We have a moral duty to critically examine our beliefs — especially our belief in “lockdown,” the most oppressive and universally destructive public policy implemented in our lifetimes. 

Is it the least-restrictive means available to minimize casualties in this pandemic? 

Our belief in it was formed when we felt legitimate fear — this can lead to irrationality — so we really cannot answer this question in good conscience unless and until we take the time to conduct a proper, honest examination with the benefit of hindsight.

Any number of atrocities can occur when human beings act on unfounded, unexamined beliefs. 

Consider the example of the shipowner in William Kingdon Clifford’s 1876 essay, “The Ethics of Belief.” Troubled by the condition of his aging ship, which others have suggested is not well-built and is in need of repairs, he eventually pacifies himself with these comforting thoughts:

“She had gone safely through so many voyages and weathered so many storms that it was idle to suppose she would not come home from this trip also.

The shipowner develops a sincere conviction that she will not sink, and acts on his belief.

“He watched [the ship’s] departure with a light heart, and benevolent wishes for the success of the exiles in their strange new home that was to be; and he got his insurance-money when she went down in mid-ocean and told no tales.

What shall we say of him? Surely this, that he was verily guilty of the death of those men. It is admitted that he did sincerely believe in the soundness of his ship; but the sincerity of his conviction can in nowise help him, because he had no right to believe on such evidence as was before him. He had acquired his belief not by honestly earning it in patient investigation, but by stifling his doubts.”

The shipowner’s belief was built on sand — he knew he had questions to answer, but instead he took the comfortable path, and other people had to pay with their lives for it.

While it may appear that he personally got off easy, his reputation, confidence and conscience surely suffered. 

People who harbor false beliefs and ignore warning signs routinely end up grievously harmed: consider the investors in Elizabeth Holmes’ Theranos scam, or Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, or the parents of Larry Nassar’s little-girl gymnasts. These examples prove just how easily the trust and credulity of very intelligent people is easily exploited. It happens like magic, in broad daylight — millions are lost or gained, irreparable actions are taken — with the victim all the while believing he or she is choosing to participate in a beneficial relationship or situation.

The passengers trusted the shipowner. The investors trusted the entrepreneurs. The parents trusted the doctor. Should WE be trusting the government?

Perhaps, instead of taking the easy path of blind faith, we should challenge our government’s assertions about COVID-19 and how to deal with it. After all, governments have already admitted to manipulating us in writing:

Perceived threat: A substantial number of people still do not feel sufficiently personally threatened; it could be that they are reassured by the low death rate in their demographic group . . . The perceived level of personal threat needs to be increased among those who are complacent, using hard-hitting emotional messaging.

I respectfully submit to you: anyone willing to adopt this shady tactic is not worthy of your blind trust. Governments know that emotional people are easy to manipulate. As Robert Greene wrote in the authoritative tome on human nature, “You like to imagine yourself in control of your fate, consciously planning the course of your life…[b]ut you are largely unaware of how deeply your emotions dominate you. They make you veer toward ideas that soothe your ego. They make you look for evidence that confirms what you already want to believe…” 

Logically, terrified people want to believe in the existence of a sturdy lifeline. They like that lifeline even more if grasping onto it makes them “good people,” and turns those who prefer to swim with the tide into “killers.” Knowing what it knows about human nature, we can be certain our government knew that proposing lockdown to us at this particular moment was pretty much guaranteed to succeed. 

It would be wise to take the government to task now that we’ve calmed down.

What have they asked us to believe, why have they asked us to believe it, and what are the grounds for doubt?

Belief #1: “Lockdown saves lives.”

Blind faith in lockdown rapidly took hold in March 2020 like a fire in a haystack. The spark that ignited it was terror, lit by the media’s sensationalist reporting of the “disaster” in Northern Italy, shortly followed by the doomsday predictions from fancy-sounding (“Imperial College! London!”) modelers. Those same modelers offered a lifeline: — lockdown, the long awaited real-life opportunity to test a pet theory. Too bad we never stopped to question their credibility (“they sound so fancy!”) and motives (“we’ve been waiting for this moment!”) before taking any action — particularly drastic, life-altering action.

“Every man who has accepted the statement from somebody else, without himself testing and verifying it, is out of court; his word is worth nothing at all. Two serious questions must be asked in regard to him who first made it: was he mistaken in thinking that he knew about this matter, or was he lying?”

~ William Kingdon Clifford

A second, even bigger credibility issue is found when we consider the first lesson we ever learned about “lockdown.” That lesson came from China. None of us — or even our parents — had ever heard of a population-wide quarantine until the Chinese government planted the idea with a highly-publicized “lockdown” of its own. 

This normalized the concept, preparing our minds to accept it as a scientifically-supported measure to manage infectious diseases. Then, after bombarding us with images of its citizens’ sacrifices, China predictably declared, “It worked! We defeated the virus! Disease is gone!”

The lifeline. The island of escape. Thank you, China — because of you, we will not die.

Little did we know that decades of public health work unequivocally established the opposite: “There is no basis [in science] for recommending quarantine either of groups or individuals.” 

From the European Centre for Disease Control and Prevention:

“It is hard to imagine that measures like those within the category of social distancing would not have some positive impact by reducing transmission of a human respiratory infection spreading from human to human via droplets and indirect contact. However, the evidence base supporting each individual measure is often weak.”

From the United States Center for Disease Control’s 2007 Interim Pandemic Planning Guidelines (p.25):

“[M]athematical models that explored potential source mitigation strategies that make use of . . . infection control and social distancing measures for use in an influenza outbreak identified critical time thresholds for success. . . the effectiveness of pandemic mitigation strategies will erode rapidly as the cumulative illness rate prior to implementation climbs above 1 percent of the population in an affected area.”

Even the Washington Post, in late January 2020, published an article soundly condemning the Chinese lockdown:

“This is just mind-boggling: This is the mother of all quarantines. I could never have imagined it.”

~ Howard Markel, University of Michigan medical historian

“The truth is those kinds of lockdowns are very rare and never effective . . . They’re doing it because people who are in political leadership always think that if you do something dramatic and visible that you’ll gain popular support. They couldn’t have any sound public health advice.”

~ Lawrence O. Gostin, professor of global health law at Georgetown University

We can now confirm the accuracy of these statements with live data from our lockdown experiment. We even have the scientific gold standard — a control group — Sweden. Swedish mortality data proves that not only does lockdown not “save lives,” it leads to increased mortality. Sweden has far less “excess” (above-average) all-cause mortality in 2020 than heavily locked-down areas such as New Jersey, Michigan, Spain, Italy, Belgium, and the U.K. Sweden’s all-cause mortality this year is similar to that of its Scandinavian neighbors: they each have moderate excess mortality, in line with historical averages.

Sweden also proves that COVID’s true mortality impact — when additional lives are not lost due to terrifying propaganda and draconian government actions leading to fear, despair, and the destruction of medical and social systems — is that of a severe flu. For weeks 1–32 of 2018, Sweden had 56,770 deaths. For the same weeks of 2020, it has 59,346 deaths — a difference of 2,576 or ~4%, and going down from there since mortality is now running below average. 

In short, many of the weakest citizens in Sweden sadly died a few months early. While all lost time is regrettable, it is unlikely that any dying 86-year-old, in order to extend his own life by 5–9 months (the average remaining life expectancy of 70% of Swedish COVID deaths), would propose that a 30-year-old father be sentenced to lose his business and hang himself.

Yet that’s exactly what happened in countries that did lock down. The elderly we were supposed to be “saving” didn’t get to speak on the matter— instead, they got COVID secretly sent straight into their places of residence, like a fox to the henhouse. According to the government officials who issued these orders and their ideologically-aligned media, Sweden is the bad guy. We accept this perverse, overtly-biased claim and resulting atrocity only because we firmly believe in the effectiveness of lockdowns. Otherwise, we would be rioting in the streets, recognizing that the same people who created the problem sold us the remedy. Their remedy.

“We all suffer severely from the maintenance and support of false beliefs and the fatally wrong actions which they lead to, and the evil born when one such belief is entertained is great and wide.”

~ William Kingdon Clifford

Belief #2: It is imperative FOR EVERYONE to avoid COVID-19 infection.

Some people, particularly the very elderly with serious comorbidities, should indeed try to avoid infection. But for the millions of people at low risk, COVID should be treated the same as the flu. They should circulate normally, serving humanity by exposing themselves to the virus without hysteria, as the Swedes did. This will minimize overall mortality by reducing the duration of the epidemic, freeing the high-risk elderly from confinement earlier, and avoiding all of the lockdown deaths and other traumas. It is a scientific fact that every epidemic ends at the threshold of “herd immunity” — not before.

The alternative we have chosen — an epidemic identical in size, but longer in duration, with people at statistically zero risk hiding inside their homes getting more stressed, fatter, and sicker — is utter madness. The most tragic part is Imperial explained this to us on March 16, and posted it online for everyone to see:

“Once interventions are relaxed . . . infections begin to rise, resulting in a predicted peak epidemic later in the year. The more successful a strategy is at temporary suppression, the larger the later epidemic is predicted to be in the absence of vaccination, due to lesser build-up of herd immunity.”

While Imperial designed lockdown as an ICU-capacity management strategy, it apparently did not foresee the difficulty in persuading people terrified by lockdown to go right back out and live two weeks later. “All clear! We have thousands of ICU beds staffed and ready for you! Good luck!”

Good luck indeed.

Thankfully, now we know that COVID is much less deadly than Imperial, WHO, and mainstream media led us to believe. Most of us know no one who has died — only .05% of the population has, after all. We do indeed have the all-clear, and we should feel perfectly fine conducting ourselves exactly like a Swede — and thanking others for doing just that, instead of bullying them with life-defeating, authoritarian mandates.

Belief #3: If she doesn’t wear a mask, I won’t be safe.

See above. If she acquires the infection and recovers, you will be safer than you were before. Unless you are routinely pounced on by sneezing strangers, you can wear your own mask and maintain your distance. You don’t need any help from anyone else. Established science says that masks and distancing don’t work, anyway — COVID-19 spontaneously shows up on naval ships 49 days into isolation, and similar viruses have appeared during the 17th week of perfect Antarctic quarantines. But at least you will feel like you’re doing something.

Belief #4: If I was wrong about lockdown, that makes me gullible and unintelligent.

No, it makes you human. To err is human. Admitting this is noble and altruistic, while persisting on course despite red flags is pathological and damaging. We should all aspire to be like Socrates, who understood his human fallibilities:

“I know that I am intelligent because I know that I know nothing.” 

There is no shame in falling for such a sophisticated propaganda scheme. Most people did. A few shining stars have since emerged to admit their mistake, quietly adopting the Swedish approach. You would be wise to join them, avoiding the fate of Don Quixote: 

“As long as he fought imaginary giants, Don Quixote was just play-acting. However once he actually kills someone, he will cling to his fantasies for all he is worth, because only they give meaning to his tragic misdeed. Paradoxically, the more sacrifices we make for an imaginary story, the more tenaciously we hold on to it, because we desperately want to give meaning to those sacrifices and to the suffering we have caused.”

~ Yuval Noah Harari, Homo Deus: A History of Tomorrow

Belief #5: COVID-19 is much more dangerous than the flu.

Nope. As stated above, in terms of mortality impact, Sweden already proved that COVID-19 is indeed similar to the flu. The diseases are similar in other respects — both can have long-term health effects, both kill random outliers (the flu even kills young teachers), and both can cause hospitals to overflow, as influenza did as recently as two years ago. They have similar survival rates: ~997 out of 1,000 for COVID, ~999 out of 1,000 for flu. Over fifty percent of Americans don’t even get the flu shot, yet we have destroyed the planet to “stop” COVID-19.

Why did it happen? Because the media chose to depict this virus as Black Plague — and we believed it. Now that we know that the media can do this, we can understand why the U.K. Prime Minister — and others in his position — was afraid of its powers. He reportedly imposed lockdown because he was threatened as follows:

“If he didn’t lock down, journalists will ask him on national television to accept responsibility and apologise to the families of those who have died as a result of Covid-19, because the rhetoric would have been that it was his fault for not locking down.”

In other words, the media had a three-step plan:

(1) convince us that politicians have the power to stop death,

(2) put the politicians in the position of needing to do what the media suggests will “save our lives,”

(3) watch as we drive ourselves over a cliff.

The media cannot do this without our participation. We can stop them immediately by refusing to believe their superstitious, pseudo-scientific proposition that this is the only disease in history that needed a politician-imposed lockdown to abate. They cannot trick us into burning down our own houses once we simply stop believing that politicians have the power to stop death. Standing firmly on this foundation of scientific truth, we will finally be at peace, realizing that COVID-19, like every disease in history, will infect a certain number of people, kill a minute percentage of them, and then move along, lockdown or no lockdown. 

We really must stop believing otherwise. Our credulity is destroying us. So long as we do believe the myth, we are avoiding the responsibility to manage this virus the way intelligent societies always have, by permitting medical professionals to treat sick people as individuals, one ailment at a time. One cannot merely unleash a total state on the whole of society–even on nearly the entire planet–in a futile effort to scare the virus into going away. 

That’s completely mystical thinking that unleashes the very catastrophe that smallpox eradicator Donald A. Henderson predicted in his 2006 plea never to lock down. 

“The danger to society is not merely that it should believe wrong things, though that is great enough; but that it should become credulous, and lose the habit of testing things and inquiring into them; for then it must sink back into savagery.”

~ William Kingdon Clifford

With the school year quickly approaching and parents at various stages of being fed up with their children being at home all day, New York’s elite private schools have started to release plans on how they plan on tackling the upcoming school year.

While the city’s public schools struggle to figure out how to safely teach the city’s 1.1 million students safely, some of the most expensive schools in the city have already put plans in place on how to re-open this fall.

It’s incredible what paying $50,000 per year, per student, can get you. 

Bloomberg took a look at how 8 private schools in New York were implementing their re-openings – using everything from virtual Zoom classes to antibacterial desks, from isolation rooms to outdoor learning in tents. Here’s a look at how they are doing it: 

At Brearley, students are going to be brought back at the same time, on September 10. The school has an outdoor play area that could be converted into classrooms to make more space and students who can’t wear a mask for health reasons will be placed in distance learning. The school has trained its in “trauma-responsive school routines and restorative practices”.

At Browning, K-5 students will return full time while Grades 6-12 will alternate weeks between in-person and remote learning. Families who have chosen to start with online are being offered the option of switching to in-person after Thanksgiving. Its classrooms are being outfitted with 360 degree Meeting Owl cameras and the school has also rented space nearby to accommodate its 4th and 5th graders, where they will have their own private entrance. 

At Collegiate, the first day of school is September 8, though the school is starting the year “mostly remote”. In-person learning is reserved for its youngest students, Bloomberg says, while middle and upper grades will be phased in over the next month. 

“In all candor, a final announcement of our reopening plan could come as late as the Labor Day weekend,” Head of School David Lourie told the students’ parents last month.

The school has made 3 isolation rooms, hired a second nurse and upgraded its ventilation systems. Students will have plexiglass shields at their desks and negative Covid tests are required to return to school. 

At Dalton, school starts September 9 with a combination of on-site and distance learning. Teachers will conduct classes virtually and lessons will be streamed on the classroom’s whiteboards or students’ computers. First priority for in-school learning is being given to K-4 families and “students who do not have a supervised space at home where they can attend their digital classes.”

The schools says it may extend the school year to later in June. 

‘

At Horace Mann, school starts on September 8 and the school is placing antibacterial film on desks, handrails and doorknobs. Its classes, performance and sports will all be streamed live for other students to watch. The school is also requesting that students and teachers test prior to returning back to school.

At Nightengale-Bamford, children in K-6 will go to school full time while older students will learn remotely on “some days”, when they will have access to an off-campus study hall where they can reserve a spot in advance. People who show symptoms of Covid will find themselves in the school’s new isolation room that sports a photocatalytic oxidation air purifier.

Families have signed a “community pledge” with the school to follow certain safety protocols that extend outside of the school and into the family’s travel schedule. If anyone in the family travels to a Covid hot spot, the family is required to quarantine for 14 days. 

At Riverdale Country, school starts early on August 24 with all-remote classes. Students will be able to spend 2 hours per week on campus, which has been fitted with 51 outdoor classroom tents (the Tesla Fremont education model). The school wants kids to “get used to the new protocols and understand the new ways in which school life will work,” at first.

After Labor Day, the school could change to a hybrid schedule or go all-remote, depending on how the virus progresses in the community. A hybrid plan could include half of the students going to campus at a time, with others using distance learning. The school could switch to remote learning when flu season starts. 

At Spence, school starts September 8 and will be remote learning but for “select in-person visits”. Grades K-4 can opt into in-school starting in October and older students could wind up back in-person during the winter. Libraries have been turned into classrooms to create more distance and students will no longer be issued lockers. 

Families have “set up an emergency fund to help faculty, staff and families” and the school is offering tuition assistance for some of its students in need. 

Spence disclaims that “it can’t guarantee that no one will be exposed or infected while at school, and cannot be held liable for exposure or infection of employees, parents, guardians, students, vendors, service providers and other visitors.”

Bodie Brizendine, who leads Spence private school, concluded: “The reality is, there is no universal approach to reopening schools at this moment, just the best model for each school community.”

Via Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com,

Investment advisor and former Assistant Secretary of Housing Catherine Austin Fitts says big change is ahead of the world, and “nothing will ever be the same.”

Fitts lays out the so-called “reset” you’ve been hearing about for the past few years and says,

“We are in the process that I would recall is a global reset. The entire financial system is being reset. There are two aspects of this: One is extending the old system, and the other is bringing in the new system. It’s very much being done on the fly by trial and error, but the new system is 100% digital.”

The new system, according to Fitts, will be a top down control system where “tyranny” will be the key feature. Fitts predicts,

“If you look at the tyranny they are working on delivering, I don’t think most people realize how hideous some of their plans are. So, the tyranny that’s coming and the printing that’s coming is greater than anything we have seen so far…

The Fed started a new round of QE in March, and if you look at the extent of that, it is extraordinarily inflationary. That’s because this time around, the Fed is not just doing $3 trillion in QE. What the Fed did in three or four months, what it took them to do in three to five years during the so-called financial crisis, that is an extraordinary amount. Then you combine it with fiscal stimulus because the Fed is now buying the Treasuries… and the Treasury is sending checks out to Main Street. We are seeing that money going into the economy that is extraordinarily inflationary.”

Fitts describes the overall situation, “We are basically entering into a war period, and it’s dangerous…”

“There are many different layers, but this is what World War III looks like.

The people running things and centralizing economic power and control are saying we don’t want to share the subsidy anymore with the general population…

This is a spiritual war between good and evil. Part of that war spreads out to invisible technology like mind control.”

Fitts says gold and silver will be assets to have in the future. Fitts explains,

“If you look at where they want to go, their vision is so dark that I think the more people recognize and see it, the more they are going to want simple assets they can control that are not digital and try to keep them outside the system. Globally . . . I think the pressure is going to be on to have precious metals.”

Fitts is basically predicting higher highs and higher lows for gold and silver prices for some time to come.

*  *  *

Join Greg Hunter of USAWatchdog.com as he goes One-on-One with Catherine Austin Fitts, publisher of The Solari Report.

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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) raged against President Trump and Congressional Republicans on Monday, telling MSNBC that they’re “domestic enemies” of election integrity and “enemies of the state.”

Pelosi was speaking right after President Trump’s speech at the Republican National Convention, according to the Daily Caller.

“We take an oath to protect and defend the Constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic. And sadly, the domestic enemies to our voting system and honoring our Constitution are right at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue with their allies in the Congress of the United States. But again, let’s just get out there and mobilize, organize, and not let the President deter anybody from voting. And again, support the postal system which is election central,” said the 80-year-old Democrat.

“They’re doing everything they can; suppress the vote — with your actions, scare people, intimidate by saying law enforcement will be there, diminish the role of the postal system in all of this. It’s really actually shameful. Enemies of the state,” she continued.

Watch:

Authored by Ben Zeisloft via Campus Reform,

Texas A&M professor and NASA researcher Zhengdong Cheng was arrested Sunday for alleged conspiracy, false statements, and wire fraud.

According to a United States Department of Justice press release, Cheng allegedly “willfully took steps to obscure his affiliations and collaboration with a Chinese University and at least one Chinese-owned company.”

Cheng’s research grant barred him from collaborating with Chinese entities.

Cheng allegedly provided false information to Texas A&M and NASA, allowing him to receive federal funds for a research grant. Cheng is associated with Guangdong University of Technology in China and other foreign institutions of higher education. He gained access to what the DOJ called “increased access to unique NASA resources, such as the International Space Station,” resulting in better positioning at Guangdong and other universities.

Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers explained that “Once again, we have witnessed the criminal consequences that can arise from undisclosed participation in the Chinese government’s talent program.” He said the Department of Justice will work to “expose the exploitation of our nation and our prized research institutions.”

Alan Kohler, assistant director of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division, said that Cheng allegedly “knowingly deceived NASA officials about his association with Chinese owned companies and universities, willingly accepted U.S. government funding, and defrauded his university.”

FBI Houston Special Agent Perrye Turner stated that Texas A&M has provided “significant assistance through their partnership with us throughout this case.”

“We worked closely with the FBI on this case, and we gladly will work with them again as needed,” Texas A&M System Chancellor John Sharp said in a statement Monday.

“No one in higher education takes security as seriously as we do at The Texas A&M University System. In fact, we have received several awards from the Department of Defense’s Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency, including one just last month.”

Campus Reform has reported on a series of similar criminal charges against professors with ties to China. 

In late July, a professor at the University of Arkansas was indicted for receiving funds from China and failure to disclose ties to Chinese companies. Additionally, a researcher at the University of California-Davis was detained by American officials after it was discovered that she was an alleged active member of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army.

Billionaire hedge fund investor Leon Cooperman is perhaps best known for appearing on CNBC every time there is a modest selloff to blame the algos that “wreak havoc” to the downside, if ignoring when the same algos relentlessly push stocks ever higher. But today, the Omega Advisors founder made an exception, when instead of attacking programs that merely do what their 20-year-old programmers tell them to do, he put the Federal Reserve squarely in his sights, saying the Fed has created “a speculative bubble” that has pushed debt levels beyond what the U.S. economy can support.

Perhaps having read our weekend post “What’s Going On In The Corporate Bond Market Is Stunning“, Cooperman went on Bloomberg TV (with a rather idyllic tropical island backdrop) and said that the Fed has created a “real speculative bubble” adding that “I am uncomfortable at the present time, not because of the virus, because I’m focused on something the market isn’t focused on. And that is the amount of debt that’s being created. Who pays for the party when the party is over?”

Reminding host Tom Keene that the US just celebrated its 244th birthday, Cooperman said that it took the U.S. “244 years to go from zero national debt to $21 trillion. We will probably end this year with $27 trillion. That’s a growth rate in debt far in excess of what the economy is growing at and I think that’s going to be a problem down the road.”

“I think the Fed has created a real speculative environment. Here are some statistics: Apple announced their 4:1 stock split on July 30. The 20-day average call volume at that time was 721K calls. This past Friday, Apple traded 2.1 million calls, three times the average of 20 days and the stock is up 17% since the announcement of the split.” Then after doing the same exercise with Tesla, which is up 49% since its 5:1 stock split, Cooperman said that ” the last time I checked, if someone gave me five singles for a $5 bill that did not create any wealth.”

Cooperman then shifted his attention to bonds, saying they represent “return-free risk and that’s what has worked in favor of the stock market” adding that what he did not appreciate is what a 0% environment does for stocks: “I think low interest rates are indicative of a problem economy. We have had artificial support for the economy since 2008. I don’t look at that as being a positive, I look at that as a negative.“

And while we appear to have once again reached the phase where billionaires rail against those who make them even richer, we doubt Cooperman’s lament will find much support among his ultra-wealthy peers.

Full interview below:

 

In a historic reorganization of some of the Dow Jones “Industrial” Average’s key consitutents, moments ago S&P Dow Jones Indices announced that energy giant, and the world’s largest company as recently as 2014, Exxon Mobil will be kicked out of the benchmark index, and will be replaced by Salesforce.com, additionally Amgen will replace Pfizer, and Honeywell International will replace Raytheon Technologies.

According to the announcement, the index changes were prompted by something as trivial DJIA constituent Apple’s decision to split its stock 4:1, which will reduce the index’s weight in the Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS) Information Technology sector. “The announced changes help offset that reduction. They also help diversify the index by removing overlap between companies of similar scope and adding new types of businesses that better reflect the American economy.”

In other news, billions of capital were created and destroyed for now other reason than i) the AAPL’s stock split and ii) because the Dow is a price-weighted index.

As the press release also explains, the changes won’t disrupt the level of the index: the divisor used to calculate the index from the components’ prices on their respective home exchanges will be changed prior to the opening on August 31, 2020. This procedure prevents any distortion in the index’s reflection of the portion of the U.S. stock market it is designed to measure. The new divisors can be found in the end-of-day index level files via the S&P Dow Jones Indices FTP site beginning on Friday, August 28, 2020.

Of course, what the historic reshuffling will do is mitigate adverse impact of the the continued collapse of the energy and the relentless shrinkage of Exxon Mobil which back in 2013 became the world’s largest company with a paltry, by today’s standards, market cap of $416 billion when it briefly surpassed AAPL.

The chart below shows the historical market cap of all six names:

In kneejerk reaction, Honeywell, Salesforce and Amgen all soared more than 4% after hours as traders rushed to frontrun the index inclusion; at the same time Exxon slumped another 2% as value investors just can’t even catch a break.

If nothing else, today’s dramatic transformation in the DJIA shows just how profound an impact Apple’s decision to pursue a 4:1 stock split has had, not only on its stock which has gained nearly $250BN in the past week on retail buying, but also the price impact the resulting indexing will have on no less than 6 corporate giants.

In response, the snubbed Exxon should now announce a 40:1 stock split (because in this market the size of the stock split matters), regain the world’s largest market cap on furious retail buying and make a triumphal return to the DJIA.