Newsom Attempts To Mandate Full Transition to Electric Cars by 2035

gavinnewsom_1161x653

California Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to end the sale of all gas-powered vehicles in California by 2035.

Apparently, Newsom is attempting to implement his own Green New Deal via executive order. He announced this plan Wednesday and released an order to phase out all in-state sales of gas-powered passenger vehicles by 2035, with a goal of 2045 for complete adoption of zero-emissions work vehicles.

Newsom’s own announcement attempts to cast his order as, well, an order to the California Air Resources Board requiring it to end to all these sales (but not the ownership and use of gas vehicles) in 15 years.

But the actual text of the executive order shows that it’s really just a wish list of what Newsom hopes will be feasible in 15 years. The order says it’s a “goal,” not a mandate, and requires that California Air Resources Board regulations be “consistent with state and federal law” to work toward this goal.

And that means Newsom isn’t using this vague five-page memo to seize control over the state’s entire car and fuel market. It’s a bunch of calls for state agencies to create a “development strategy” for achieving these goals.

So how achievable is it? According to data from the U.S. Department of Energy, there were approximately 256,800 electric vehicles registered in California in 2018. According to InsideEVs, electric and hybrid vehicles comprise less than 14 percent of California’s vehicle market share. The latest data about electric or plug-in vehicles in California shows that there have been 670,000 cars sold within the state total by the end of 2019.

California has a population of 40 million people living in 11.5 million households. While California has seen a high adoption rate of electric vehicles compared to all other states, it’s still remarkably low. And keep in mind, this is with thousands of dollars of federal and state subsidies for the leasing and purchasing of electric vehicles.

As technological innovation continues, no doubt the adoption of electric vehicles will improve and the cost of owning and operating an electric vehicle will come down. But the current data shows that state leadership attempting to force adoption while threatening to prohibit fossil fuel-powered cars is a bad idea.

As it stands, California struggles each summer to keep the power grid operating. Electric cars use as much power each day as an average home. Try to imagine if California had millions of electric cars this summer while the state was implementing rolling blackouts on its hottest days. Under current adoption rates, the state projects that electric cars will consume 5.4 percent of the state’s electricity by 2030. Newsom wants this to be much higher.

Amazingly, the other part of Newsom’s order will actually make mass adoption of electric vehicles even harder by making energy less affordable. For instance, the order calls on lawmakers to ban fracking. California has about 650 fracking wells out of nearly 57,000 active oil and natural gas wells. The state has actually issued 50 new fracking permits this year.

Why is California issuing fracking permits as the governor calls for the entire industry to be banned? Because California still depends on fossil fuels for a significant amount of power. Even with some large wind and solar farms, its many, many natural gas-fired plants are vital to keeping the lights on.

Clearly, California needs fracking energy, and the people who work in that industry need their jobs. The state cannot currently abandon fossil fuels as an energy source and also pursue greater adoption of electric-powered vehicles. Perhaps it would work as a long-term goal if California were truly serious about using powerful non-fossil fuel sources that actually could replace the state’s existing plants—like nuclear energy.

Instead, Newsom is proposing the kind of green energy program that, here in California, often serves as a transfer of tax money from the poor to the wealthy. Newsom can say in his executive order that he wants “broad accessibility for all Californians” to electric cars, but as Steven Greenhut noted in July, a study determined that California’s energy policies “have been found to disproportionately benefit wealthier individuals.” They’re the ones who can afford the cars and the solar panels. The state’s poor are those who have to live under the burden of California’s disproportionately higher energy costs.

Amazingly, Newsom’s grand plan is under attack by environmentalists for not being grand enough, according to the Los Angeles Times. The Climate Law Institute at the Center for Biological Diversity is mad that the state continues to approve permits for gas and oil drilling and is threatening to sue unless he halts all new permits.

There’s nothing in Newsom’s executive order that will actually lower the cost or energy or transportation in the Golden State. Newsom also certainly knows this, because he acknowledges and emphasizes that people will still be able to drive gas-fueled cars in California. He just wants to make it impossible to buy them here.

If California attempts to force this mandate into action, does anybody care to make any bets on car dealerships popping up in the tiny three-casino community of Primm, Nevada, just across the California border on the way from Los Angeles to Las Vegas?

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Ohio Mom Tased & Arrested At Middle School Football Game For Not Wearing Mask

Ohio Mom Tased & Arrested At Middle School Football Game For Not Wearing Mask

Tyler Durden

Thu, 09/24/2020 – 15:30

It’s amazing that this is still happening a full six months after most states’ initial lockdowns, and following an unprecedented summer of ‘social distancing’ where by and large local law enforcement authorities have learned to exercise common sense and simple de-escalation (or just passive enforcement while letting understandable exceptions slide) in situations where certain anti-coronavirus measures are mandated.

A new incident in Ohio where a woman was outside at a middle school football game without a “required mask” resulted in the police tasing and arresting her. Video of the arrest is now going viral precisely because it’s an instance of police not showing common sense — again at an outdoor venue.

We should add that the event appears sparsely attended, with no more than a mere half-dozen people being seen in the section of the stands where the woman was sitting. It even appears she only sat near her own family, and children could be heard crying as the mom’s arrest unfolded.

A school resource officer is seen approaching the woman, identified as Alecia Kitts, at which time she refused to obey his order to wear a mask or leave the premises. “They’re tasing this lady over not wearing a damn mask!” a shocked onlooker said.

Things escalated fast as the officer lunged at her, trying to apprehend her, as The Hill details:

An Ohio police officer tased and arrested a woman on Wednesday after she refused to leave an eighth grade football game for not wearing a mask, officials said.

Police in Logan, Ohio, who identified the woman as Alecia Kitts, said the officer told Kitts she would be asked to leave because she was not wearing a mask, in violation of school policy. After Kitts refused to leave the stadium, the officer warned she would be cited for trespassing. She was tased after she resisted arrest.

“I will not put my hands behind my back,” the woman had shouted along with obscenities. “I’m not currently doing nothing wrong.”

She cited that she had asthma which made wearing a mask deeply uncomfortable for her and even dangerous.

The Logan Police Department defended the actions of its officer, saying, “It is important to note, the female was not arrested for failing to wear a mask, she was asked to leave the premises for continually violating school policy.” 

The local police department added: “Once she refused to leave the premises, she was advised she was under arrest for criminal trespassing, she resisted the arrest, which led to the use of force.”

The school which hosted the football game also underscored in a statement that out of 300 people that attended the game it was only the woman and her friend that wouldn’t comply with the school district’s mask policy. 

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Triple Trouble

Triple Trouble

Tyler Durden

Thu, 09/24/2020 – 15:15

Authored by Sven Henrich via NorthmanTrader.com,

Markets have run into trouble in September and 3 major problems have emerged and unless these problems are solved, markets may have to contend with the distinct possibility of having topped for now.

Now to the extent these problems get solved favorably major rally opportunities can also avail themselves in the weeks ahead, especially as markets are also reaching sizable oversold levels.

Let me give you my most balanced but realistic view here, but as most of my readers know I’ve approached this market since the March lows with a view that all of this may be an awe inspiring bear market rally (1929 Redux) and in Key Charts I highlighted the issue of equal weight among other charts all of which point to a bubble in tech that formed as a result of historic liquidity injections and a new retail momentum chase phenomenon not seen since the year 2000 with traders ignoring all the warning signs (See Panic Buying).

That initial bubble has now cracked and we’ve seen very sizable corrections in stocks such as $AAPL, $TSLA and others as a sudden realization is sinking in: Much of the recovery that had everyone so optimistic this summer was indeed bought with Fed and fiscal money.

And given the historic context of major market peaks in early September during recession events one would want to keep this question in mind that I asked right at the current market top:

So to the extent that this game is about incremental liquidity this poses problem number 1: Stimulus.

There still isn’t any new stimulus package on the horizon and the economy is again slowing as claims remain stubbornly high 8 months after the initial crisis. Again over 860,000 new claims this week. And while we see some companies announcing seasonal hiring ahead of the holidays the larger message remains the same: Permanent layoffs keep making the rounds. And even Goldman Sachs appears to have capitulated on the stimulus front:

And this has been the message of the barrage of Fed speakers this week: We need fiscal stimulus. Or else?

The Fed has held off on announcing new expanded asset purchases. While it keeps running at an ungodly clip of $120B per month it nevertheless represents incrementally less liquidity than what they injected in the first few months of the crisis.
Clearly the Fed wants Congress to step up to the plate and hence market weakness may actually part of a welcome agenda to exert pressure on Congress to step up to plate.

But that’s a dangerous gambit for tumbling stock prices dampen sentiment and ultimately economic growth. So call it a game of chicken.

The next opportunity for the Fed would be in November right after the US elections which ironically brings us to problem #2: The democratic process. Markets hate uncertainty and the prospect of major election uncertainty is dampening sentiment. Not so much about the outcome but rather the lack thereof.

Yesterday President Trump refused to commit to a peaceful transition should he lose. I won’t bother with the politics of it all, but clearly Americans are dropping their expectations for a clear election result, rather one that is close enough that either side may contest it and the US may be dragged through an extended legal process before a winner is determined.

None of this would be confidence inspiring not only in the short term, but possibly in the longer term if the eventual winner’s legitimacy is not accepted by half the country.

Trust me, that’s not a scenario anyone really should want. It has chaos written all over it and in this context perhaps the $VIX Rising chart continues to rear its ugly head as it still hasn’t invalidated the potential patten, but rather keeps building it:

Another problem related perhaps to the previous two is the US dollar, problem #3.

As you may recall I had pointed out a bullish pattern forming at the beginning of September suggesting pressuring equities:

We’ve now gotten that breakout in the US Dollar and note it has reached a key pivot point:

Following the positive divergence and breakout out of the pattern it has defended the pattern during the OPEX week rally and this pattern defense has led to the confirmed breakout further pressuring equities.

Now to the extent that this resistance here holds and the dollar reverses market can rally again and with it recently battered metals.

What would reverse the dollar? Sudden progress on a stimulus package could do it for example. And there is correlating potential for a rally in the charts.

Take $ES for example:

It’s showing a falling wedge that has formed during the recent correction. The wedge is not confirmed as it has not broken out, but it’s there. Should it fail and prices break lower the next larger obvious support zone would be in the 3000-3150 zone.

And note the Nasdaq is showing a similar pattern which I’ve been highlighting in tweet thread below:

So we may note that these next few days may be critical for this market.

For markets to make new highs it needs more liquidity which may come in the form of a stimulus package still, and/or the Fed stepping up expanding their purchases again. Failure on either front continues risking this furious rally off the lows to have been a bear market rally exacerbated by historic liquidity and deceiving highs in select indices due to the valuation bubble in a few tech stocks.

Then finally of course: If the election shows a clear winner (one way or the other) and there is no contested outcome then a major relief rally may be in the cards following the election, but this uncertainty remains hence any future rally (even confirming the bullish wedge for example) may prove short lived.

Yes, these market problems are also opportunities, but be clear: If none of them are solved into November that $VIX chart defines risk going forward quite clearly.

*  *  *

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Top Republicans Urge FBI, DOJ To Investigate Hunter Biden’s $3.5 Million Moscow Payday

Top Republicans Urge FBI, DOJ To Investigate Hunter Biden’s $3.5 Million Moscow Payday

Tyler Durden

Thu, 09/24/2020 – 15:00

Top Republicans are calling for the FBI and Justice Department to investigate a series of wire transfers from Russian and Chinese businesspeople to Hunter Biden, after Senate Republicans released a Wednesday report detailing the suspicious transactions – including a $3.5 million wire from a Russian billionaire whose late husband was the mayor of Moscow.

On Thursday, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) sent a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray inquiring whether the agency has investigated the wire transfers. The letter follows a Wednesday comment from Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), who told Fox News that he would be submitting a criminal referral to the Justice Department over the payments, according to the Daily Caller.

report that Senate Republicans released Wednesday detailed millions of dollars in transfers to and from accounts linked to Hunter Biden and various business associates, including his uncle James Biden.

The report, which cited confidential Treasury Department documents, said that the transactions had been “identified for potential financial criminal activity.” Republicans said that the payments raised “criminal financial, counterintelligence and extortion concerns.”

According to the report, Elena Baturina, a Russian billionaire whose late husband was mayor of Moscow, wired $3.5 million in February 2014 to a company co-founded by Biden. The report also said that Biden wired money to people linked to sex trafficking and prostitution in Eastern Europe. –Daily Caller

Meanwhile, PLA-linked Chinese businessman Ye Jianming – chairman of Chinese energy conglomerate CEFC China Energy – wired hundreds of thousands of dollars to accounts linked to Biden in 2017, according to the GOP report. According to the Caller, Jianming was a top official during the mid-2000s for the China Association for International Friendly Contacts – a PLA front group which engages in “intelligence collection” for Beijing.

The report…shows that the FBI has been aware of some misconduct for years,” wrote Jordan in the letter to Wray.

Of course, according to Joe Biden, there wasn’t “one single scintilla of evidence” that Hunter did anything wrong.

Read the rest of the report here.

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Chinese ‘Robinhood’ Worth More Than Credit Suisse As COVID-19 Spurs Retail Trading Boom

Chinese ‘Robinhood’ Worth More Than Credit Suisse As COVID-19 Spurs Retail Trading Boom

Tyler Durden

Thu, 09/24/2020 – 14:55

If only the founders of Robinhood had the sense to launch in China instead of the US…maybe they could have made some real money (not that pioneering the practice of payment for order flow hasn’t been extremely lucrative).

As sports were cancelled across the US, and the world, in the spring as the coronavirus pandemic spread, retail trading has effectively replaced sports gambling for millions of young Americans who followed Barstool Sports’ Dave Portnoy headlong into the market, prompting one Fidelity mutual fund manager to complain that Robinhood is going to supplant mutual funds as the investing vehicle of choice for Americans addicted to the adrenaline rush of markets.

As the FT reported Thursday, a similar pattern played out across China, prompting discount electronic brokerage apps to see a flood of new customers and orders. The bonanza of revenue has sent shares of some of these small firms soaring. Trading volume has surged to a staggering $129 billion in daily turnover. The subsequent surge in their publicly-traded shares pushed the valuation of some of these firms past Credit Suisse (though that’s not exactly saying much right now).

As one analyst told FT “the entire sector is going crazy”.

A surge in internet trading by China’s retail investors has boosted the country’s brokers, awarding some of them a valuation in line with the world’s best-known banks. Average daily turnover on China’s stock market has hit Rmb874bn ($129bn) this year, according to data from Goldman Sachs, up nearly 60 per cent from the average of the past five years, as the coronavirus crisis has driven interest in online equity trading. That has ignited shares in brokers, placing them among China’s best-performing stocks of the year. Shares in East Money, an internet trading group largely unknown outside China, have climbed by 84 per cent, giving the company a market capitalisation equivalent to $30.6bn — above that of Credit Suisse. “The entire sector is going crazy . . . all the most expensive brokerage companies are in China,” said Hao Hong, head of research and chief strategist at securities firm Bocom International. East Money shares trade at a price-to-earnings ratio of 69, compared with 14 times for US broker Charles Schwab.

Compared with the institution-dominated US market, China’s mom-and-pop traders comprise a much larger share of turnover, with the FT saying 80% of daily turnover by value is tied to retail trading.

Retail brokerages are run by a range of companies, from the relatively well known Citic Securities and CSC Financial, which have provided online services for mom and pop investors in China for several year, attracting customers with high-tech features such as facial recognition technology, to less established players.

East Money is the best-performing big financial stock in China this year. Though largely unknown outside China, its shares have climbed 84% this year, giving the company a market cap of $30.6 billion, making it more valuable than Credit Suisse.

It derives revenue from its brokerage business and commissions on mutual fund sales. The company’s revenue has increased by Rmb3.3 billion, up two-thirds, compared with last year.

Like their day-trading American counterparts, mom and pop traders in China derive so much enjoyment not just from trading, but from posting on message boards and discussing/debating their ideas with other traders.  It’s this “game-ification” element that has made platforms like Robinhood, and its Chinese counterparts, so irresistible to many.

But the recent jump in turnover — prompted in part by coronavirus-related restrictions in the world’s second-biggest economy — comes with a new element: a parallel craze for mobile apps and financial platforms that allow investors to tap into market information and social networks. Liu Jianshun, a Beijing-based retail investor, said he found a “sense of belonging” from debating stock prices on East Money’s chat platform, known as Guba. He uses Guba to try to “talk up stock prices” as well as complain about poor share performance or corporate governance issues.

“East Money has created a virtual platform that replaced the physical brokerage outlets that were once the main gathering place for investors,” said a vice-chairman at one of the company’s rivals. Like elsewhere in the world — from the US to Russia — people in China have turned to the stock market at a time of rising uncertainty over other sources of income and employment due to Covid-19.

Chinese stock market turnover this year peaked in July when daily volumes exceeded Rmb1tn for 15 consecutive days, according to Goldman Sachs, as the CSI 300 index of Shanghai- and Shenzhen-listed shares reached its highest level for 2020. The benchmark is up 13.6 per cent this year.

A combination of idleness and low interest rates has helped to fuel the frenzy.

“If they still have the income, they have nowhere to spend” it, said Kinger Lau, chief China equity strategist at Goldman Sachs. “They spend more time buying stuff online and spend more time…just trading stocks at home.”  Low interest rates, a problem faced by savers elsewhere in the world, have also fuelled appetite for stocks. Yu’ebao, a popular money market fund offered by Alibaba’s financial arm Ant Group, pays just over 1.6 per cent in interest. “If you look at Yu’ebao interest rates over the past few months, it’s been falling pretty steadily,” he said. “They [retail investors] are more incentivised to put money into stocks.” 

Since mom-and-pop traders need companies to trade, the surge in retail trading has helped fuel a boom in Chinese IPOs, though a Trump Administration push to force Chinese companies to de-list from US exchanges unless they agree to more oversight has also contributed to this trend.

That same demand has charged China’s booming initial public offering markets. Shenzhen-listed shares of Contec Medical Systems closed up more than 1,000 per cent in its debut session last month after regulators relaxed rules on the city’s tech-focused ChiNext board.

Of course, Chinese traders are probably much more willing to throw cash at the market giving Beijing’s history of taking draconian steps like arresting short sellers if markets get turbulent. So buying stocks is like playing in casino where you really can’t lose.

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Harvard Survey: Only 7% Of Incoming Students Identify As Conservative

Harvard Survey: Only 7% Of Incoming Students Identify As Conservative

Tyler Durden

Thu, 09/24/2020 – 14:40

Authored by Jonathan Turley,

We have been discussing the rising intolerance for conservative, libertarian, and Republican students and faculty on campuses across the country. Faculties rarely hire conservative or libertarian professors; journals rarely published studies from conservative authors.  As the number of conservative faculty members diminish or disappear on faculties, schools appear to be carrying out the same bias in student admissions. The Harvard Crimson has finished its annual survey of the incoming class of students and found that the already small population of conservative and Republican students has been cut by as much as half.

The Crimson survey covered over 76 percent of the Harvard College Class of 2024 and found that the class contained 72.4 percent who self-identify as either “very liberal” or “somewhat liberal.” Only 7.4 percent self-identify as “very conservative” or “somewhat conservative.”  Likewise, 88.9 percent view President Donald Trump as strongly or somewhat unfavorable with 80.7 percent falling in the “strongly unfavorable” category.  Only 4.7 percent view Trump “somewhat” or “strongly” favorable.

Note that over 40 percent of this country view Trump favorably and the vast majority view themselves as holding either conservative or moderate views.  It is demonstrably absurd to argue that this virtual absence of conservative students is somehow the result of accident and not design.

For years, faculty members pretended that there was not an ideological bias in faculty selection as the number of conservative and libertarian faculty members dropped to near zero on many faculties. Less than ten percent of faculty in all schools identify as conservative and Democrats outnumber Republicans by over ten times on faculties. In some schools this ratio goes up to roughly 30 to 1.

Liberal faculties routinely dismiss candidates who advance opposing views as intellectually unsound or simply not as intellectually “promising” as more liberal candidates. The bias is evident on every level. Faculty members tend to exclude conservatives from presentations, publications, and citations. The result is an echo chamber in academia that feeds upon itself.

Now we are seeing the same downward trend in admissions where conservative or libertarian students are being relegated to lower ranked schools.  This bias has also become evident, not surprisingly, in classrooms.  A Yale poll found that seventy percent of students said that they experienced political bias and the same poll said that the students only believe one percent of their faculty were conservative. A poll at Pomona found nine out of ten students said that “the campus climate prevents them from saying something others might find offensive.” Nearly two-thirds of faculty members felt the same. Seventy-five percent of conservative and moderate students strongly agree that the school climate hinders their free expression.

The impact of this bias is devastating for higher education. Faculty members are using their majority on faculties to exclude potential colleagues with opposing views, the very type of bias once used against not just liberals but minorities seeking entry to faculties. The result is that we are creating a bifurcated educational system where conservatives can only gain entry to top schools by heading their political views or espousing liberal positions.  I was shocked when one of my kids (who is a moderate) was invited for an interview by one of the top colleges in the country.  After sitting down, the interviewer proceeded immediately to go into a diatribe against Trump and to self-identify a liberal advocate.  He felt that the interviewer wanted him to echo those views.

As shown in the Harvard survey, “diversity” at many schools now runs along a spectrum from extreme to mainstream liberal views with a statistically inconsequential number of conservatives or libertarians.  This has been a uniform trend for many years in both the selection of faculty and students.  It is a mockery to pretend that this is the result of anything other than systemic bias in academia.

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Newsom Attempts To Mandate Full Transition to Electric Cars by 2035

gavinnewsom_1161x653

California Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to end the sale of all gas-powered vehicles in California by 2035.

Apparently, Newsom is attempting to implement his own Green New Deal via executive order. He announced this plan Wednesday and released an order to phase out all in-state sales of gas-powered passenger vehicles by 2035, with a goal of 2045 for complete adoption of zero-emissions work vehicles.

Newsom’s own announcement attempts to cast his order as, well, an order to the California Air Resources Board requiring it to end to all these sales (but not the ownership and use of gas vehicles) in 15 years.

But the actual text of the executive order shows that it’s really just a wish list of what Newsom hopes will be feasible in 15 years. The order says it’s a “goal,” not a mandate, and requires that California Air Resources Board regulations be “consistent with state and federal law” to work toward this goal.

And that means Newsom isn’t using this vague five-page memo to seize control over the state’s entire car and fuel market. It’s a bunch of calls for state agencies to create a “development strategy” for achieving these goals.

So how achievable is it? According to data from the U.S. Department of Energy, there were approximately 256,800 electric vehicles registered in California in 2018. According to InsideEVs, electric and hybrid vehicles comprise less than 14 percent of California’s vehicle market share. The latest data about electric or plug-in vehicles in California shows that there have been 670,000 cars sold within the state total by the end of 2019.

California has a population of 40 million people living in 11.5 million households. While California has seen a high adoption rate of electric vehicles compared to all other states, it’s still remarkably low. And keep in mind, this is with thousands of dollars of federal and state subsidies for the leasing and purchasing of electric vehicles.

As technological innovation continues, no doubt the adoption of electric vehicles will improve and the cost of owning and operating an electric vehicle will come down. But the current data shows that state leadership attempting to force adoption while threatening to prohibit fossil fuel-powered cars is a bad idea.

As it stands, California struggles each summer to keep the power grid operating. Electric cars use as much power each day as an average home. Try to imagine if California had millions of electric cars this summer while the state was implementing rolling blackouts on its hottest days. Under current adoption rates, the state projects that electric cars will consume 5.4 percent of the state’s electricity by 2030. Newsom wants this to be much higher.

Amazingly, the other part of Newsom’s order will actually make mass adoption of electric vehicles even harder by making energy less affordable. For instance, the order calls on lawmakers to ban fracking. California has about 650 fracking wells out of nearly 57,000 active oil and natural gas wells. The state has actually issued 50 new fracking permits this year.

Why is California issuing fracking permits as the governor calls for the entire industry to be banned? Because California still depends on fossil fuels for a significant amount of power. Even with some large wind and solar farms, its many, many natural gas-fired plants are vital to keeping the lights on.

Clearly, California needs fracking energy, and the people who work in that industry need their jobs. The state cannot currently abandon fossil fuels as an energy source and also pursue greater adoption of electric-powered vehicles. Perhaps it would work as a long-term goal if California were truly serious about using powerful non-fossil fuel sources that actually could replace the state’s existing plants—like nuclear energy.

Instead, Newsom is proposing the kind of green energy program that, here in California, often serves as a transfer of tax money from the poor to the wealthy. Newsom can say in his executive order that he wants “broad accessibility for all Californians” to electric cars, but as Steven Greenhut noted in July, a study determined that California’s energy policies “have been found to disproportionately benefit wealthier individuals.” They’re the ones who can afford the cars and the solar panels. The state’s poor are those who have to live under the burden of California’s disproportionately higher energy costs.

Amazingly, Newsom’s grand plan is under attack by environmentalists for not being grand enough, according to the Los Angeles Times. The Climate Law Institute at the Center for Biological Diversity is mad that the state continues to approve permits for gas and oil drilling and is threatening to sue unless he halts all new permits.

There’s nothing in Newsom’s executive order that will actually lower the cost or energy or transportation in the Golden State. Newsom also certainly knows this, because he acknowledges and emphasizes that people will still be able to drive gas-fueled cars in California. He just wants to make it impossible to buy them here.

If California attempts to force this mandate into action, does anybody care to make any bets on car dealerships popping up in the tiny three-casino community of Primm, Nevada, just across the California border on the way from Los Angeles to Las Vegas?

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Week 2 Sunday Night Football Ratings Plunge 17% From Week 1’s Already “Steep Decline”

Week 2 Sunday Night Football Ratings Plunge 17% From Week 1’s Already “Steep Decline”

Tyler Durden

Thu, 09/24/2020 – 14:25

We had already documented that Week 1 NFL ratings saw a “steep decline” from last year’s comparable ratings. In an article we published about a week ago, we questioned whether or not that could have something to do with the NFL focusing more on politics than – well, actually playing football.

Week 2 saw no respite for the NFL. Last Sunday’s Seahawks versus New England Patriots game – one of the premier matchups in all of the NFL – saw only 12.22 million viewers on NBC, according to the Daily Caller. 

The numbers mark a 17% decline from Week 1, which saw roughly 7 million viewer plunge from Week 1 of the 2019 season.

As we noted, Week 1’s Sunday night’s game also featured popular teams: “America’s Team” – the Dallas Cowboys, and the newly moved Los Angeles Rams. 

But the game posted a 4.7 among the key Adult 18-49 demographic with 14.81 million viewers. For comparison, last year’s Patriots vs. Steelers Sunday night opener had 22.2 million viewers. This total was generally in-line with the opener the year before, indicating that even with West Coast viewers factored in, this season’s ratings have been decimated. 

The Daily Caller took their best shot at explaining what the issue could be: “It no longer feels like the NFL is about winning and losing games. It feels like it’s about lecturing fans around the clock. Average Americans don’t want to be lectured by millionaire athletes. They just don’t!”

And as we asked about 10 days ago: what could the NFL be doing wrong?

 

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Stock Rally Reverses On Report There Are “No Talks” Scheduled Between Mnuchin, Pelosi

Stock Rally Reverses On Report There Are “No Talks” Scheduled Between Mnuchin, Pelosi

Tyler Durden

Thu, 09/24/2020 – 14:15

With traders (and the Fed) desperate for some fiscal stimulus – now that Powell appears to have tapped out – earlier today stocks hit session highs on speculation that talks about a new round of economic stimulus will resume. As Bloomberg reported, the S&P 500 extended gains after House Speaker Pelosi said she spoke with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin yesterday and expressed hope that there would be another round of negotiations.

This followed Congressional tesimotny from Mnuchin, who earlier on Thursday said that a targeted pandemic relief package is “still needed.”

However, today’s rally peaked the moment Politico’s Jake Sherman reported that “no covid relief talks are scheduled at this time” between Mnuchin and Pelosi…

… dousing excitement that another fiscal bill may be on deck.

In other words, no change, although with the dollar trading near session lows after it early rampage, it appears that downward momentum has for now been reversed.

Alas, that does not answer the $64 trillion question: who will blink first, Powell or Pelosi, and linked to that: what is the strike price of the Pelosi Put? In other words, does the S&P have to drop much more before the top House Democrat agrees to the republican bid of a $1.5 trillion stimulus, or will she hold out for the $2.2 trillion Democrat ask, no matter where the stock market is. That said, one would assume that Democrats would be delighted to see a stock market crash ahead of the election: after all, Trump has repeatedly confirmed that he views stocks as the only “objective” barometer of his administration, which is Democrats would be delighted if said barometer were to be much, much lower.

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Wisconsin Authorities Investigate Absentee Ballots Found In Ditch, As FBI Probes Discarded Pro-Trump Ballots In PA

Wisconsin Authorities Investigate Absentee Ballots Found In Ditch, As FBI Probes Discarded Pro-Trump Ballots In PA

Tyler Durden

Thu, 09/24/2020 – 14:11

Police in the swing-state of Wisconsin are investigating how three trays of mail which included absentee ballots ended up in a ditch, after the mail was found at 8 a.m. Tuesday morning near a highway before it was immediately turned over to the US Postal Service, according to Fox 11.

“The United States Postal Inspection Service immediately began investigating and we reserve further comment on this matter until that is complete,” said USPS spokesman Bob Sheehan in a statement.

The incident comes a mere five weeks before the presidential election, which has been steeped in partisan bickering over the system of mail-in and absentee ballots and wavering trust in the alternate system.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, which marked a grim milestone this week of over 200,000 deaths in the U.S., voters are expected to cast ballots by mail in record numbers.

We expect more than 3 million Wisconsin residents to vote in the November election, which means even more first-time absentee by mail voters,” Meagan Wolfe, the elections commission’s administrator, said in a statement earlier this month. –Fox News

Prior to the pandemic, just 6% of Wisconsin voters cast absentee ballots by mail – however during the state’s April primaries, that number jumped to 60%, when 1.1 million out of 1.55 million votes were conducted through the postal service. During the August partisan primary, Wolfe said that 82% of the 867,000 votes cast were via absentee ballot.

During said primaries, thousands of voters across the state complained that they never received the absentee ballots they requested. In one case, a Milwaukee postal worker said that three bins of absentee ballots had never been delivered.

Meanwhile in Pennsylvania, the FBI and the office of the United States Attorney found nine discarded mail-in ballots from members of the military, all cast for President Trump.

According to the DOJ:

Since Monday, FBI personnel working together with the Pennsylvania State Police have conducted numerous interviews and recovered and reviewed certain physical evidence.  Election officials in Luzerne County have been cooperative. At this point we can confirm that a small number of military ballots were discarded.   Investigators have recovered nine ballots at this time.  Some of those ballots can be attributed to specific voters and some cannot.  All nine ballots were cast for presidential candidate Donald Trump.

On Thursday, President Trump told Fox News’ Biran Kilmeade on his radio show that mail-in ballots are a “horror show” and that missing ballots are “emblematic of thousands of ballots” which could get lost this year. 

 

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2RXYCzu Tyler Durden