Tag: finance

Authored by Jim Quinn via The Burning Platform blog,

“A really efficient totalitarian state would be one in which the all-powerful executive of political bosses and their army of managers control a population of slaves who do not have to be coerced, because they love their servitude.”

– Aldous Huxley, Brave New World

“Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.” 

– George Orwell, 1984

Huxley and Orwell were contemporaries. Huxley’s dystopian masterpiece was published in 1932 at the outset of the rise of totalitarianism, while Orwell’s was published in 1949 after 65 million people perished in a World War and Stalin had already murdered tens of millions of his own citizens. Those were dark times. They also coincided with Edward Bernays 1928 publication of Propaganda, in which he revealed the existence of an invisible government who used propaganda to manipulate the minds of the public to insure those controlling the levers of power were able to engineer their desired outcomes.

Debate has raged over the decades whether Huxley’s or Orwell’s dystopian vision of the future would be more accurate. Both visions required the successful use of propaganda by those in power to achieve their agendas. Huxley wrote a letter to Orwell after reading 1984 in 1949, shortly before Orwell’s death. His conclusion was as follows:

“Within the next generation I believe that the world’s rulers will discover that infant conditioning and narco-hypnosis are more efficient, as instruments of government, than clubs and prisons, and that the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging and kicking them into obedience. In other words, I feel that the nightmare of Nineteen Eighty-Four is destined to modulate into the nightmare o f a world having more resemblance to that which I imagined in Brave New World. The change will be brought about as a result of a felt need for increased efficiency. Meanwhile, of course, there may be a large-scale biological and atomic war—in which case we shall have nightmares of other and scarcely  imaginable kinds.”

I would assess Huxley’s vision was more accurate in the West, but Orwell’s was more accurate in regards to Russia, China, and numerous dictatorships in South America and Africa.

The key word is “was”.

Since 9/11, the United States has unequivocally moved in the direction of Orwell’s 1984 vision. We are now experiencing a dystopian amalgamation of the worst of both novels. Virtually every conspiracy theory ridiculed by the corporate controlled media pundits, captured academics, and government apparatchiks over the last few decades have proven to be accurate and true.

But very few are able to discern the truth because The Party/Invisible Government/Deep State has been hugely successful in utilizing propaganda and public education indoctrination to dumb down and manipulate the minds of the masses into believing whatever they are told by their masters. The complete success of this mass psychological conditioning has been on display for the last four months, as the majority have come to love their enslavement and servitude based upon the inept and hysterical misinformation propagated by medical “experts”, government bureaucrats, corrupt politicians, and the fake news media complex.

Huxley’s infant conditioning and narco-hypnosis were close, as public education has not been about learning critical thinking skills for decades, but indoctrination to what the government desires, producing non-questioning workers who can be easily manipulated through propaganda into obedience and conformity. The pervasive use of Ritalin to make boys act more like girls has been heavily pushed by the educational complex (dominated by women), attempting to produce zombies who don’t cause trouble or act like boys should.

The feminization of males has contributed greatly to the downward spiral of our society. Huxley did foresee technology being used to distract the masses, producing a trivial culture, egotism, pleasure seeking and passivity. The boob tube, internet, and social media have fulfilled this prophecy, producing generations of pliable, easily controlled victims, whose minds have been molded and ideas formed by those pulling the strings of our society behind the scenes.

The willingness of tens of millions to unquestioningly believe what they have been told by their leaders and supposed medical “experts” regarding a virus which will not kill 99.97% of the American population is a fascinating exploration of herd mentality and the power of fear propaganda. This nasty virus, supposedly let loose from a Wuhan bio-lab, is less deadly than the annual flu among those under 65 years old and more deadly when purposefully introduced into nursing homes by politicians.

The virus has less negative impact on school age children than the annual flu. But governors, mayors and teachers’ unions are refusing to open schools in the Fall, despite the data and actual experience in European schools proving it is safe to do so. The path of history during 2020 has not been natural or propelled by normal un-manipulated circumstances. The manner in which events have transpired seems staged, well planned, and designed for a purpose not yet revealed to the masses.

The year started with fears of war with Iran after the assassination of a key general in Iraq. The three-year Trump coup by Obama, Clinton and their co-conspirators in the FBI, CIA and Congress was once again collapsing under the weight of lies, fake news, and blind hatred, as Schiff’s impeachment farce crashed and burned. It was Trump’s turn to go on the offensive, as Barr and Durham investigated the coup.

Meanwhile, the gears of the financial system had been seizing up since the middle of 2019 and the Fed was propping up its Wall Street owners, hedge funds, and the billionaire class with “not” QE, while publicly lying that all was well. The Fed was desperately trying to keep the wheels from falling off. The QE, as planned, was pumped into the stock market, driving prices to all-time highs in February, showing all the signs of a blow-off top.

This was when the eleventh year of this Fourth Turning really began to get interesting. It was almost as if the Federal Reserve needed a disaster catalyst as a reason to unleash a torrent of easy money to save their Wall Street benefactors, their corporate crony parasites, and the billionaire oligarchs who constitute the invisible government pulling the wires controlling the nation.

Just in the nick of time the Chinese coronavirus conveniently spread across the globe, dutiful government funded scientists produced models predicting millions of deaths in the U.S., medical “experts” at the behest of Bill Gates convinced Trump to shut down the country based on apocalyptic forecasts, and the stock market plummeted 32% in a matter of weeks. This was the cover Powell and his money printing minions needed to bailout bankers and billionaires with trillions in newly fabricated digital greenbacks.

It is funny the 2009/2010 swine flu pandemic was estimated by the CDC and WHO to have infected 700 million to 1.4 billion people and killed between 150,000 and 575,000, but there were no shutdowns of businesses, no lockdowns of cities and states, no mandatory mask wearing, no school closures, and no deviation from our normal lives. A critical thinking individual might question why no mass panic and fear mongering by the media during the Obama administration pandemic, but hysteria and terror spread by medical “experts”, the left-wing corporate media, the Hollywood elite, and Democrat politicians during this similar scale virus outbreak.

The purposeful destruction of our economy over a bad flu couldn’t be for political purposes. Could it? Has the old “never let a crisis go to waste” mantra been put to good use once again by the left? Those in control of the messaging have panicked the nation and created a 2nd Great Depression over a flu that will not kill 99.97% of the American population. They have been so effective with their panic propaganda a recent poll found Americans believe 9% of the population (30 million people) have died from Covid-19. The stupid, it burns.

I no longer believe in coincidences. The fake news media would classify me as a conspiracy theorist because I question this plandemic, the coordinated and suspiciously funded BLM protests/riots, and the extraordinary transfer of trillions from the public coffers into the pockets of bankers and billionaires. It’s as if a curtain of disbelief has descended upon a nation of actors, all playing a part in this tragic comedy. Shakespeare would be amazed by the plot of this play.

The level of pretending has reached levels that would have been incomprehensible at the outset of this century, when the annual budget was essentially balanced and the Fed’s balance sheet was just over $500 billion. Today we are running a $4 trillion budget deficit and the Fed’s balance sheet is $7 trillion, with Powell, Trump, CNBC, Wall Street, Congress and Robinhood traders pretending this is normal and nothing to be concerned about. Best time to buy stocks. It’s a new paradigm.

The government pretends only 18 million Americans are unemployed when 118 million working age Americans are not working. The government has been sending $600 per week to unemployed Americans, borrowed from future generations, so they will spend it today and make it appear like the economy is recovering. Small businesses pretend they are not bankrupt by pretending to pay employees with money borrowed from the government that they will not pay back, also borrowed from future generations. The Federal Reserve and their Wall Street owners pretend the three trillion increase in the Fed balance sheet was to help Main Street, when it was nothing but another transfer of public wealth to the oligarchs before they pull the plug on this farce of a financial system.

Homeowners and renters pretend to pay their mortgages and rent to banks and landlords. Landlords pretend to pay their mortgages with the pretend rent payments. Consumers pretend to pay their credit card bills and auto loan payments to financial institutions. Young college graduates pretend to make their student loan payments. Wall Street banks and local financial institutions pretend they got paid because the Fed has their back and will print the country back to prosperity.

Who needs to honor their obligations when the Fed is in control? Why do we need to pay taxes, if $4 trillion deficits aren’t a problem? This game of extend and pretend can only last for a short time frame. The avalanche of consumer, commercial, and corporate defaults poised to wipe out this financially engineered pretend recovery is greater than anything witnessed in human history. And the masses are willfully ignorant, because they have been trained to believe in the all-powerful Fed. The surge in precious metals prices and the rapidly declining dollar tells a different story.

I can’t help but visualize our country as Wile E. Coyote hovering in mid-air after going off the cliff, about to plunge into the gully below, and then the anvil lands on his head. The events taking place, the actions of politicians, the blatant disregard for the best interests of the working class by the Powell and his Fed cronies, and the disgraceful display of mis-truths and misinformation spread by the media mouthpieces on behalf of their financial masters, has created a surreal spectacle of impending catastrophe.

I find myself asking whether I’m the one that’s crazy. I have trouble processing what I’m witnessing on a daily basis because the insanity of what is being done is incomprehensible for someone who believes in prudently managing their finances, obeying the law, valuing free speech, allowing free markets to determine winners and losers, having interest rates determined based on risk, and having the freedom and liberty to determine my future based upon my own efforts and initiative.

The part that has me most puzzled, because it seems inconceivable that politicians running large states and major cities would purposefully destroy their economies and businesses while encouraging the looting and burning of their communities, is this is all being done to defeat Trump in November. The economic and physical destruction wrought by the national lockdown for a bad flu and now this engineered race war is inexplicable, unless the true motive is still being hidden by the Deep State/Invisible Government oligarchs who are pulling the levers of this concocted scenario to introduce their new world order, based upon Marxist/Fascist principles and socialized economic policies.

It appears to be a controlled demolition with a nefarious purpose, which won’t be revealed until it is too late. And the majority, just trying to make a living, raise a family, live according to a social contract that worked for centuries, and find some enjoyment during their short time on this earth, are allowing themselves to be led to slaughter by incomprehensibly evil men seeking unlimited wealth, power and control over everyone on the planet.

In Part Two of this article I will attempt to decipher the true motives of the ruling elite and estimate a timeline for this crisis to play out.

*  *  *
The corrupt establishment will do anything to suppress sites like the Burning Platform from revealing the truth. The corporate media does this by demonetizing sites like mine by blackballing the site from advertising revenue. If you get value from this site, please keep it running with a donation. [Jim Quinn – PO Box 1520 Kulpsville, PA 19443] or Paypal

It appears the door has now been fully and finally shut on any Trump administration hopes of a complete ‘re-do’ of the Iran nuclear deal. 

Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said during his annual Eid al-Adha address that there will be no new talks with Washington, and further vowed that Iran will only expand its nuclear program, not give it up.

He further underscored in the speech that the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program remains a “necessity” for the country’s survival and prospering – though it should be underscored that Tehran has long maintained it’s for peaceful civilian nuclear energy.

While the speech was one of typical defiance amid ongoing crippling US sanctions and the ‘maximum pressure’ campaign, Iran’s top cleric and Supreme Leader addressed Trump’s prospects for November in a rare moment.

He underscored that any fresh talks with Washington would only serve to boost Trump’s chances in the upcoming election, and on this basis must be resisted. As The New York Times summarized of the statements:

In a Friday speech for the Eid al-Adha holiday, Ayatollah Khamenei said that entering talks with Washington over Iran’s nuclear program, as President Trump has urged Tehran to do, would only improve Mr. Trump’s chances of being re-elected in November. That, the ayatollah said, was Mr. Trump’s reason for suggesting such talks in the first place.

“He is going to benefit from negotiations,” Ayatollah Khamenei said. “This old man who is in charge in America apparently used negotiations with North Korea as propaganda,” he added — a reference to Mr. Trump’s high-profile nuclear diplomacy on another front, which to date has been mostly fruitless.

Khamenei also emphasized that Iranians must pursue self-sufficiency and complete independence from the US-dominated international economic system, and be prepared to weather the ongoing economic warfare out of Washington and its allies.

Meanwhile, recall that since the start of this year Iran’s enrichment capabilities have grown significantly.

Well done hawks 👍 https://t.co/DS7a5jUGEr

— Max Abrahms (@MaxAbrahms) August 1, 2020

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in early June circulated a confidential report which was reported at the time by the Associated Press which detailed the Islamic Republic’s nuclear stockpile rose by a whopping over 50% in the three months prior to May 20.

“The agency said that as of May 20, Iran’s total stockpile of low-enriched uranium amounted to 1,571.6 kilograms (1.73 tons), up from 1,020.9 kilograms (1.1 tons) on Feb. 19,” AP reported. 

Submitted by Joseph Carson, former chief economist at Alliance Bernstein

The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) estimated that Q2 Nominal GDP declined 34.3% annualized, the largest quarterly drop in our lifetime. On March 12, I penned the article “Investors Should Brace for a Record Decline in GDP”. Never did I imagine that the Q2 GDP decline would be nearly 5X times the previous record drop of 7.2% in Nominal GDP in Q4 2008. 

Here’s a few observations.

First, Q2 Nominal GDP was estimated at $19.4 trillion annualized, a drop of over $2 trillion from Q1 level of $21.5 trillion. BEA reports the GDP figures on an annualized basis. So the quarterly rate for Q2 Nominal GDP was $4.85 trillion, a figure that roughly matches the aggregate amount of fiscal and monetary stimulus injected in Q2.

According to my estimates, the combination of federal stimulus payments to individuals plus the expansion of the Federal Reserve Balance sheet amounted to an increase of approximately $5 trillion in aggregate fiscal and monetary stimulus over the three months ending in June. Never before has the scale of fiscal and monetary stimulus matched the nation’s nominal output in a single quarter. 

Second, Q2 nominal consumer spending declined at an annualized rate of 35.8%. But the actual decline is much worse. BEA estimated that people’s rent payments in Q2 increased $ 2 billion to a record $641 billion. BEA estimates consumer spending for rent based on an accrual basis. In other words, BEA methodology assumes people made their rent payments on time and in full. Yet, reports show that more than one-third of renters skipped paying part or all of their rent in Q2. 

Third, Q2 saw a record decline in Nominal output and a record increase in financial (equity) wealth. Based on preliminary data the market capitalization of domestic companies increased by $7 trillion in Q2 while nominal GDP, measured quarterly, declined by approximately $500 billion.

Critics argue that macro valuations of equity markets are less important nowadays. I disagree. Based on my calculations, the ratio of the market capitalization to Nominal GDP stood at 2x times at the end of Q2, surpassing the prior record high of 1.87x times at the end of the tech bubble in Q1 2000.  

In other words, the 2020 equity market is the most expensive (or over-valued) in our lifetime. Current record market valuations indicate an extremely poor risk-reward ratio, even worse than what followed the tech bubble of 2000.

What happens next? The recessionary conditions from the pandemic are not over. And the prospect of reduced or an interruption in federal stimulus will make it worse. 

Investors need to realize that the spending impulse from federal stimulus operates like the flow of new credit. That is, reducing or lowering the flow of stimulus payments to individuals will trigger a sharp drop in spending, especially when so many remain unemployed. Also, people face unpaid credit, rent, and mortgage bills. 

The pandemic crisis is unique in that involves public health, finance, and the economy. An all-out policy package pushed finance and the economy far ahead of the public health crisis. Unfortunately, the public health crisis lives on. So the rebound in finance and the partial recovery in employment are fragile, especially if Congress fails to provide additional financial support until medical science finds a cure for the virus.  

Readers may recall the eviction moratorium expired a little more than a week ago nearly four months after the US economy effectively shut down due to the covid pandemic. 33% of renters have yet to make their full payment in July, a recent survey showed. This means that 12 million renters could be on the cusp of eviction in a matter of months. 

Landlords are set to lose billions of dollars this year over the inability of tenants to pay rent thanks to the virus-induced recession. With much of chaos and disagreement on Capitol Hill about the next round of stimulus, nevertheless, no deal on a rent moratorium extension, landlords are now demanding back rent and August payment. 

While the exact cause of the landlord-tenant dispute turned violent in Georgia Sunday morning has yet to have an underline cause, one can only assume it might have been due to payment. 

FOX 5 Atlanta’s Kaitlyn Pratt quoted Gwinnett County Police’s twitter on early Sunday morning of a dispute between the landlord and tenant. 

Pratt tweeted, “LANDLORD-TENANT FIGHT Brings SWAT to a neighborhood. Landlord faces Battery, Obstruction of Justice and Terroristic threats.” 

LANDLORD-TENANT FIGHT
Brings SWAT to a neighborhood. Landlord faces Battery, Obstruction of Justice and Terroristic threats. https://t.co/lojk2rT9dh

— Kaitlyn Pratt (@Fox5Kaitlyn) August 2, 2020

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC) said the landlord was charged with battery after a “dispute with a tenant turned into an hourslong SWAT standoff at a home in unincorporated Lawrenceville.” 

AJC didn’t say what triggered the violent dispute, but as we speculated above, it could have been due to rent payment. 

Washington’s inability to deliver the next round of Trump checks to the working-poor ahead of August, as we’ve noted a fiscal cliff was just ahead, has likely resulted in millions of folks skipping out on rent payments in August.

Tens of millions of Americans were pushed into instant-poverty by the economic downturn, many faces housing insecurity and homelessness as the labor market recovery reserves, which has led to millions of permanent job losses. Ahead of the recession, many Americans had insurmountable debts and no savings, or rather no safety net if times got rough. 

One would assume confrontations between landlords and tenants on the subject of payments are set to rise, as tenants are on the brink of being homeless, and landlords are having trouble servicing mortgage payments with rental income collapsed.

A new battleground of the working-poor and community organizing groups is set to transition from city streets to the front yards of those who face eviction.

Here’s a community organizing group called “Stomp Out Slumlords,” organizing on what appears to be a rental property of a tenant facing eviction in Chillum, Maryland.  

Stomp Out Slumlords organized a couple of dozens of folks, one day before August rent payment was due, held signs that said: “Eviction = Death,” and “Slumlords.” 

She’s right pic.twitter.com/YjFEJYpNOx

— Stomp Out Slumlords (@StompSlumlords) July 31, 2020

The group tweeted one post of a picture of demonstrators in front of the house that read, “Fuck around, find out, landlords.” 

Fuck around, find out, landlords pic.twitter.com/SkVdaRmMUm

— Stomp Out Slumlords (@StompSlumlords) July 31, 2020

There were also demonstrators in New Orleans last week, who blocked landlords from entering an eviction court.

Demonstrators protesting evictions have blocked off both enteranxes to first city court, which handles evictions on the east bank for rents less than $3000 (most New Orleans evictions) pic.twitter.com/O22wskFMA0

— Michael Isaac Stein (@misaacstein) July 30, 2020

The new battleground, as tens of millions face evictions, could be on front yards of rental properties with landlords. 

As the White House teased in a media trial balloon yesterday, the administration has just announced its latest initiative to hector Beijing, and the Chinese technology sector, as the Trump Administration ratchets up the retaliatory pressure in a burst of election-year fervor.

The Trump administration will announce measures shortly against “a broad array” of Chinese-owned software that pose a “national security risk”, according to Mike Pompeo, Trump’s Secretary of State.

Ever since President Trump said late Friday that a ban on the popular social media app TikTok was “imminent”, talks between ByteDance, the owner of TikTok and a separate app called “Douyin” – (equivalent to “TikTok” in English) which is similar to TikTok in many ways, but is a different app built to operate on the Chinese Internet – have apparently collapsed. Media reports claimed that, after being courted by a group of VC firms, ByteDance was in advanced talks to sell TikTok to Microsoft.

But those talks have apparently stalled. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said earlier that the app must either be “sold or blocked”, and it appears that Beijing has soured on the optics of appearing to kowtow to Trump just before the election – god forbid President Xi be accused of intervening on Trump’s behalf.

Pompeo signaled he expects a Trump announcement “shortly.” He added that Chinese software companies doing business in the US are working with Chinese State Security: “whether it’s TikTok or WeChat, there are countless more,” Pompeo said during an interview on Fox New’s “Sunday Morning Futures” program.

Trump “will take action in the coming days with respect to a broad array of national-security risks that are presented by software connected to the Chinese Communist Party,” Pompeo added.

From placing new restrictions and pressures on Huawei – including successfully pressing allies like the UK to walk back their earlier support for allowing Huawei parts to be incorporated into “non-core” parts of their 5G networks – as well as taking shots at foreign students studying in the US, among other things.

Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk,

On August 21 the GOP will hold its convention, without the press.

Trump has gone 180 degrees on Republican convention attendance. His Renomination is Now Slated as Private.

Nominating conventions are traditionally meant to be media bonanzas, as political parties seek to leverage the attention the events draw to spread their message to as many voters as possible. If the GOP decision stands, it will mark the first party nominating convention in modern history to be closed to reporters.

“Given the health restrictions and limitations in place within the state of North Carolina, we are planning for the Charlotte activities to be closed press Friday, August 21 – Monday, August 24,” a convention spokeswoman said.

“We are happy to let you know if this changes, but we are working within the parameters set before us by state and local guidelines regarding the number of people who can attend events.“

The subset of delegates in Charlotte will be casting proxy votes on behalf of the more than 2,500 official delegates to the convention. Alternate delegates and guests have already been prohibited.

Did anyone expect this? Covid or not, I didn’t. Trump has meetings with the press all the time.

This appears to be a North Carolina restriction that Trump cannot avoid.

The Trump administration and Democratic leadership say that while they are nowhere near a deal on the next COVID-19 stimulus package, they made “progress” during a three-hour meeting on Saturday.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said that the meeting was the “most productive we’ve had to date,” echoing comments by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who told reporters after the meeting “We’re not close yet, but it was a productive discussion. Now each side knows where they’re at.”

The rhetoric following the weekend meeting marked a notable thaw between Democrats and administration officials following days of heated remarks, including on Friday when Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows traded barbs during dueling press conferences.

Meadows — who had previously told reporters that he was not optimistic about the chances of a deal in the upcoming week — called Saturday the “first day of a good foundation.” –The Hill

“We’re still a long ways apart, and I don’t want to suggest that a deal is imminent, because it is not. But like with any deal, as you make progress, I think it’s important to recognize you’re making progress,” said Meadows.

That said, Democrats wouldn’t budge on temporary relief for struggling Americans – balking at a White House proposal for a one-week extension on the $600 supplemental benefit, which lapsed two days ago.

“We proposed a one-week extension at $600 so while we negotiate, at least those people won’t lose their money,” Mnuchin told ABC News‘ “This Week” on Sunday, adding “I’m surprised Democrats don’t want to agree with that. They’re insistent on having this as part of a larger deal.”

Treasury Secretary Mnuchin tells @MarthaRaddatz “there’s no question” that $600 unemployment insurance is a disincentive to find a job in “some cases.”

“There are cases where people are overpaid,” he adds when pressed about study refuting his argument. https://t.co/HNQgCe39RN pic.twitter.com/1zceOdxULW

— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) August 2, 2020

According to Rep. Richard Neal (D-MA), Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Democrats are seeking a comprehensive package, and not “a piecemeal approach.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and the GOP have proposed a $1 trillion plan, while Democrats are holding steady at a $3 trillion package they approved over eight weeks ago.

“There’s obviously a need to support workers, to support the economy and people who, through no fault of their own, are shut down because of this terrible disease,” said Mnuchin. “On the other hand, we have to be careful about not piling on enormous amounts of debt for future generations.”

On Sunday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) told ABC‘s “This Week” that Democrats may be flexible on the $600 unemployment bonus – which Republicans seek to set at 70% of pre-pandemic income. Pelosi cited a Yale study suggesting that there was “no evidence that recipients of more generous benefits were less likely to return to work,” a study which the Yale-educated Mnuchin rejected.

JUST IN: Speaker Nancy Pelosi tells @MarthaRaddatz negotiators “have still not come to an agreement” on how to “defeat” the coronavirus pandemic and this has been a “contentious issue.” https://t.co/HNQgCe39RN pic.twitter.com/86e0E61LUW

— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) August 2, 2020

“Many of the Republicans don’t want any stimulus,” added Pelosi. 

Mnuchin, meanwhile, said he and Meadows would go back to Capitol Hill “every day until we reach an agreement,” according to MassLive.com.

Authored by Paula Liu via The Epoch Times

The Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) announced that its system made an error calculating the number of deaths directly caused by COVID-19, according to a tweet sent out on July 30.

The error was discovered on Wednesday, and Texas DSHS indicated that the error incorrectly categorized 225 as COVID-19 fatalities despite COVID-19 not being listed as a direct cause of death on the death certificate, according to the Tweet.

DSHS corrects COVID-19 fatality counts for the week of July 27.

An automation error caused 225 fatalities to be included even though COVID-19 was not listed as a direct cause of death on the death certificate. #COVID19TX dashboard: https://t.co/ofycOLqWQZ pic.twitter.com/4mKBzjIrfO

— Texas DSHS (@TexasDSHS) July 30, 2020

Texas DSHS stated that the issue was revealed after a manual quality check and by the end of the day on Wednesday, the number of COVID-19 fatalities was fixed to reflect the corrected data in time for the COVID-19 deaths update on Thursday.

On Monday, the Texas DSHS began using death certificates as a way to identify the number of deaths directly caused by the disease, according to a news release issued by the Texas DSHS.

Because a death certificate is required to be filed within 10 days of an individual’s death, the DSHS stated that this would greatly improve the speed of counting fatalities caused by COVID-19, as well as providing the public with detailed information about where and when the death occurred.

This method does not count individuals who contracted COVID-19 but died of other causes.

Prior to this method, fatalities were counted and reported to the DSHS through a regional or local health department after it had been notified and had verified the death themselves.

Overcounting COVID-19 Deaths

A problem with the prior method was that when filing death certificates, hospitals were incentivized to overstate the number of COVID-19 deaths due to receiving monetary compensation for doing so, something that Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-Mo.) called a “perverse incentive,” according to a House hearing that took place on Friday.

U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield said during the panel hearing that he agrees this over-reporting of COVID-19 deaths does exist in hospitals and is something that has been seen with other viruses, such as HIV.

“In the HIV epidemic, somebody may have a heart attack but also have HIV—the hospital would prefer the [classification] for HIV because there’s greater reimbursement, so I do think there’s some reality to that,” said Redfield.

“When it comes to death reporting, though, ultimately, it’s how the physician defines it in the death certificate, and … we review all those death certificates. So I think probably it is less operable in the cause of death, although I won’t say three are not some cases. I do think, though, when it comes to hospital reimbursement issues or individuals that get discharged, there could be some play in that for sure.”

Seven US Marines and one sailor are presumed dead after an accident during military training maneuvers off the coast of Southern California. 

The First Marine Expeditionary Force, based out of Camp Pendleton, made the grim announcement late Saturday after what it described as an extensive 40-hour search.

The search and rescue efforts were underway since Thursday, when a total of sixteen personnel were inside an amphibious assault vehicle when it began taking on water and sank off the coast of San Clemente, California.

Among eight Marines rescued, one later died of injuries, with two more in critical condition. As of Saturday, the search was called off.

The amphibious vehicle was said to be than 1,000 meters off shore, traveling back to a larger ship.

The New York Times reported:

Two nearby amphibious assault vehicles witnessed it sink and were able to pinpoint its exact location, General Berger said.

“The adjacent A.A.V.’s watched it go down, and at 26 tons, the assumption is that it went down to the bottom,” Lt. Gen. Osterman said.

The accident is highly unusual and an investigation is underway. Given the design of A.A.V.’s, it appears that once the vehicle began rapidly taking on water, it trapped the majority of personnel inside.

Authored by Jonathan Turley,

We have been discussing the criminal cases emerging from incidents of rioting or arson around the country over these weeks of protest.  One case out of Oregon however seems to capture the divisions in the country.  Gabriel “Rico” Agard-Berryhill, 18, has been charged with throwing an explosive device. The primary witness against him is his grandmother, Karla Fox, 69, who is also a Trump supporter. 

What is most notable is the defense that Agard-Berryhill has raised, which is similar to the one used by Samantha Shader in New York. There is also an interesting twist on the basis for a potential obstruction or attempt destruction of evidence charge.

Fox recognized her grandson from television coverage showing the throwing of what police say was a makeshift bomb at the federal Mark O. Hatfield Courthouse in Portland.  The reason is that he was wearing an olive vest with word “ICONS” that she bought for him. While she supports Trump, she wanted to protect him after he was hit by rubber bullets.  She even posted a rave review of the vest online with the clothing site Hibbett:

“I got this for my grandson who’s a protester downtown, he uses it every night and says it does the job.”

That is the review that Fox said her grandson later asked her to delete. That would seem an effort to destroy possibly incriminating evidence. It turned out that the grandmother was already going public with her identification.

Posting as “@TRUMPSGIRL2020,” Fox tweeted in response to the photo from protest:

“This is my only grandson, I love him to death, and didn’t know he was going to do such a bad thing, I had been posting several things about the antifa and BLM, he knows I am against those riots bigtime … he chose his poison.”

In the meantime, Agard-Berryhill (who turned himself in) seemed to admit that he threw the device and also set a record for the use of the word “allegedly”:

 “The device I’ve been accused of allegedly throwing was allegedly given to me by an unknown protestor with full face coverings. I was allegedly told that it was a strobe firework that wouldn’t damage the building or harm anyone around it. Law enforcement has not contacted me for any alleged crime as of right now.”

He told police that he was told to throw had “yellow cardboard packaging with blue stripes, was the size of a small ‘V8’ can, and had a green fuse.”

That is a familiar defense.  Shader reportedly blamed three African Americans with giving her the Molotov cocktail that she used to torch a police vehicle in New York.

Fox’s rave review of the vest is prominently quoted in the charging documents. She said that her grandson said that he was engaged in peaceful protests. He was shown protecting a naked woman during the protests.

Agard-Berryhill is not only looking at a federal charge of arson but he was on probation for a felony conviction when he was a minor after spending the past two years at Rogue Valley Youth Correctional Facility in southern Oregon.