February 24, 2020
The stock market was down 3.12% when it opened on Monday.
Over the weekend there were major outbreaks of the coronavirus reported in South Korea, Italy and Iran.
The virus is spreading.
Six nations banned people crossing the border from Iran in an attempt to cut off the spread of the deadly virus.
There are at least 600 cases reported in South Korea.
February 24, 2020
Under the plan, Sanders plans to provide universal child care and pre-K, spending $1.5 trillion over a decade for the “free” program. All Americans would guaranteed child care through age 3 followed by free pre-kindergarten education.
“As president, we will guarantee free, universal childcare and pre-kindergarten to every child in America to help level the playing field, create new and good jobs, and enable parents to more easily balance the demands of work and home,” Sanders said in a statement.
Sanders says he would fund the program through his “tax on extreme wealth” over $32 million. His campaign claims that tax would bring in some $4.3 trillion over 10 years.
The socialist has a slew of “free” programs that cost trillions. He supports a single-payer “Medicare for All” system, wants to cancel all student debt and make public college free, and raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour. And Sanders advocates providing free breakfast, lunch and dinner to all students, regardless of income level.
“Exact cost projections on all of Sanders’ proposals aren’t available, in part because he hasn’t fully fleshed out some of the ideas he’s embraced (such as universal pre-K and child care),” CNN reported in January.
But a wide variety of estimates put the likely cost of the single-payer health care plan he has endorsed around $30 trillion or more over the next decade. Depending on the estimates used, including projections from his own campaign, the other elements of the Sanders agenda — ranging from his “Green New Deal” to the cancellation of all student debt to a guaranteed federal jobs program that has received almost no scrutiny — could cost about as much, or even more than, the single-payer plan. That would potentially bring his 10-year total for new spending to around $60 trillion, or more. …
“I think if the price tag for the Sanders agenda was [better] known … voters would blanch — even Democratic primary voters would blanch,” said Jim Kessler, executive vice president for policy at Third Way, a centrist Democratic group. “The truth of the matter is in primary elections both in 2016 and so far in this one, he’s allowed to skate. He gets graded on a curve. But if he were the nominee, the curve is over. The Republicans will spend a billion dollars picking apart every one of his plans.” …
The sheer size of Sanders’ spending agenda dwarfs the proposed tax increases he has offered to pay for it, economists across the ideological spectrum agree. Brian Riedl, a former Senate Republican budget aide who’s now a senior fellow at the conservative Manhattan Institute, has calculated that at most Sanders’ existing proposals to raise taxes on the wealthy, Wall Street and corporations would raise about $23 trillion over the next decade.
“There is nowhere near enough resources that you can credibly collect to pay for spending of this size [from the rich],” agrees MacGuineas. “When you are talking about a doubling in the size of the government, you are talking about significant tax increases on the middle class.”
In addition, Sanders supports a plan offered by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez she has dubbed the “Green New Deal.” The cost for that program: $93 trillion.
Submitted by Michael Every of Rabobank
After all, following Vietnam, Iran now has eight deaths and an uncertain number of cases, prompting schools and universities to closed and the borders with Afghanistan and Pakistan to be sealed from the other side. For an economy already being crushed by sanctions, this is all that it needed. More worrying for markets, South Korea (with a GDP of over USD1 trillion) has also been swamped by hundreds of new cases, a 20-fold leap in just five days, and, as in China, is seeing the highest-level emergency declared, cities on lock-down, gatherings and travel bans in place, and the national assembly additionally suspended. Samsung has had to shutter at least one factory, in the city of Gumi. The Asian economy, already reeling, it about to suffer another major kick.
Worse, in Europe there also are over 160 cases in a cluster in northern Italy, with three deaths so far, and the regions of Lombardy and Veneto, the industrial and financial heartlands, in both panic and lockdown. Venice’s Carnival has been cancelled, and so was a recent fashion show. Italy is 11% of Eurozone GDP, and those two regions are 30% of Italy’s GDP. For a Eurozone already close to recession, that shock could well be more than enough to generate a downturn. Once again, we also see what we said we would in our recent virus special report: a “China-style” response: yesterday a train from Venice to Munich was stopped at the Austrian border because of fears that two passengers on board may have had the virus. So much for Schengen? Recall that the origins of the world “quarantine” come from Venice in an earlier phase of globalisation, and refer to the *40* days sailors had to stay on a visiting ship to prove they were not carrying an infectious disease. No just-in-time supply chains in those days though.
Meanwhile, China is saying the virus may not have started in the seafood market; hot-headed Chinese social media is saying it might have been America who started it; experts are saying COVID-19 can linger on surfaces for nine days, and is airborne, and can be passively carried with no symptoms for up to *27* days, nearly double the 14 days previously thought; and other reports show that false negative tests are a serious issue, with at least one confirmed case of a patient being tested negative twice and then switching to positive. As the WHO, which has urged us all to travel as normal until now, “because markets”, wails, the window to stop this becoming a global pandemic is closing.
By contrast, China is doing its best to say that all is well. Unsurprisingly, since Party Chairman Xi Jinping placed his hand-picked people in charge, new cases have dropped sharply. Optimists see this means the lockdowns have worked – which means more global lockdowns must now be priced in, however; pessimists suggest data goal-seeking is playing a role here. However, deaths have not fallen yet, with another 97 yesterday raising the overall fatality rate worryingly (and one study of 53 Wuhan patients suggests a 61.5% fatality rate for those with any co-morbidity factor such as diabetes and/or heart or lung disease).
Just as unsurprisingly, Xi has publicly promised China will have beaten the virus by the end of March, and that the overall economic goals for 2020 are still in place, even as right now we are still basically flat-lining as shown by traffic congestion, pollution, and property sales. As we have already covered in recent weeks, the only way for BAU to return ASAP is for everyone to start travelling and gathering and working again: which is exactly how the virus will spread, especially after we have been told there is a 27-day latent period, as well as a clear tendency of asymptomatic carriers, and even more so now it has legs outside China too. Even so, people are being urged back to work as eagerly as they were being told to lock themselves in at home just two weeks ago.
Equally unsurprisingly, the PBOC, who have already lowered rates 10bp, are making clear that COVID-19 “will be short-lived and will not change the country’s sound economic fundamentals”. With several reports suggesting up to 85% of China’s small business are going to run out of cash within three months, and many within weeks, its banks riddled with bad loans and already under-capitalised, and the state clearly about to embark on another massive debt-splurge to build more infrastructure to keep to a set GDP number regardless, even when China does re-emerge from COVID-19 it will be sagging under an even more unsustainable debt load, and the state will be playing an even larger economic role. It’s also unclear if foreign firms will be as willing to be embedded in a long, China-centric supply chain regardless, making USD inflows less likely; and all of those issues above will mean the weaker CNY we have referred to for years. It is no surprise we are through 7 again; the larger surprise is that we are not closer to 7.20.
More broadly, of course, the “Ugly” scenario is seeing US Treasury yields test critical support levels. The 10-year is now at 1.47% and another leg down will see us in whole new territory. Likewise, the USD is on a roll upwards and threatening to push higher: imagine if European virus cases spread, the same happens in Japan, and China cannot reopen as planned. And imagine what a stronger USD on top of this virus backdrop will mean for emerging-market USD borrowers. Ugly indeed.
Such is the news-flow that I hardly have time to relate that Bernie Sanders handily won the Nevada Democratic caucus, leaving Joe “White Walker” Biden in a poor second place and Mike Bloomberg looking as user-friendly as his terminals are. That makes Bernie the clear presidential nominee front-runner at this stage – and makes many Never-Trumpers into Rather-Trumpers, I would imagine. And imagine if Bernie’s plans for free healthcare for all intersect with a virus outbreak in the US….(on which note, please see our recent Through The Looking Glass report imagining a Sanders presidency).
FEBRUARY 21, 2020
The country now has the second highest number of infected people after China.
The country also confirmed its first death from coronavirus on Thursday.
The Korean Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that of the new cases, 39 were from the southern city of Daegu. All of these cases were linked to the Shincheonji Church of Jesus in the city.
The infections have been traced to a 61-year-old woman, who attended the church. The sect has since shut down its services. The mayor of Daegu, Kwon Young-jin has advised residents to stay indoors as much as possible.
Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun said that Daegu and the neighboring area of Cheongdo County would be declared as “special care zones.”
The government is trying to identify those who might have come in contact with infected people, and diagnose the disease at the earliest opportunity.
“We will proactively provide necessary assistance including sickbeds, personnel, and equipment,” the PM said in a meeting with senior officials.
Also on Friday, officials in the capital Seoul banned public rallies in a bid to control the spread of the disease.
The coronavirus outbreak that originated in China has infected more than 76,000 globally. It was named COVID-19 by the World Health Organization due the coronavirus that causes it, and the year 2019 when it originated.
Tweets that spread “lies” or “misinformation” will be highlighted for users with a bright-colored warning that is nearly the same size as the offending post, according to a report from NBC News. The changes are supposedly part of a policy revamp at Twitter, scheduled to go into effect next month.
Who are these “community” judges, juries and executioners? “Fact-checkers and journalists” who are verified on Twitter will be the able to decide which tweets promote “misleading” information, though a Twitter spokesperson told NBC that the site will be testing “many different ways” to combat “misinformation.”
A “Community Notes” section also gives users the ability to earn points based on being a “good neighbor,” which is apparently a Twitter euphemism for someone who flags other people’s tweets. Points and community badges could be rewarded to those who act in “good faith” when targeting offending tweets.
The point system is meant to prevent “bad actors” from abusing it. Considering how much political fighting there is on Twitter, odds that this tool will be abused are close to 100 percent, however.
Screenshots from a public testing site show tweets from both conservative and liberal politicians being flagged, as well as tweets denying climate change.
Having been accused of political bias and shadowbanning users with more right-wing beliefs in the past, many do not have faith in Twitter responsibly identifying “misleading” information.
“Can’t wait to see just how much of a disaster this is going to be,” reporter Seth Mandel tweeted in response to the coming changes.
“This should go well,” added commentator and podcaster Stephen Miller.
Twitter already put a new policy in place last month banning tweets that share “manipulated media.” That, however, could mean anything from deep fakes to memes such as that of President Donald Trump giving a medal to the military dog Conan, an obviously humorous and trolling tweet that was quickly “fact-checked” by reporters anyway.
With such precedents, it’s not surprising that many Twitter users fear the new tools could be abused to flag legitimate satire.
kind of fucked up that twitter is already flagging my posts. is anyone else seeing this https://t.co/srbFm28Ijh—
leon (@leyawn) February 20, 2020
Facebook has faced similar criticism for attempts at censorship of what they deem to be harmful content. CEO Mark Zuckerberg even recently set up an Oversight Board, completely funded by Facebook of course, so people can attempt to appeal the social media giant’s decisions on banned content.
Twitter also has a history of trying to punish “wrongthink.” Author Yasha Levine had his account locked after objecting to the US pushing for war with Russia. Actor James Woods only recently returned to the platform after months-long absence, after Twitter locked his account and demanded he delete an offensive tweet.
“If you try to kill the King, you better not miss,” the politically-outspoken Woods tweeted, quoting a line from the famous TV show ‘The Wire’ that paraphrases Ralph Waldo Emerson. Twitter deemed it to be some kind of threat or incitement of violence.
With the new flagging rules and seemingly impossible-to-control policies in the pipeline, it would be no surprise to see even more attempts at thought control, putting a wedge between the social media giant and already frustrated users.
By Shane Trejo
“Extreme leftists push more government and less freedom, while career politicians — in both parties — are more beholden to special interests than their constituents,” Luna’s campaign wrote. “Anna took an oath to defend our country in the Air Force. She’s now ready to take that oath to Washington.”
Luna, who works as the Chairwoman of Hispanic Initiative at PragerU, has gained endorsements from Congressman Matt Gaetz and Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk.
“Anna is a true fighter for our country! We need more like her! Check out her run for Congress, critical to help patriots like her,” Kirk wrote in an announcement earlier this month.
However, video has emerged showing that Luna is a RINO who supported amnesty for illegal aliens before attempting to remake herself as an “America First” Republican.
Media Right News unearthed the video that the Luna campaign has tried to scrub from the internet.
The Americans for Legal Immigration PAC (ALIPAC) is calling out Luna as a RINO for her support of amnesty for illegal aliens.
“While Anna Paulina Luna does oppose Obama’s unconstitutional and illegal DACA Amnesty, she supports giving green card or citizenship Amnesty to illegal aliens,” ALIPAC wrote in their press release.
“Most Americans oppose any pathway to citizenship and voting rights for illegal aliens who will vote 90% Democrat in future elections handing full control of the all three branches of the US Government to the left forevermore,” they added.
ALIPAC has chosen to endorse Luna’s competitor, George Buck, who believes he has the right credentials and fundraising prowess to win back the district in November. Buck raised $220,667.38 in the 4th quarter of 2019, according to FEC filings.
“None of the donations were from swamp PACs or lobbyists, they came from average every day Americans and Floridians who want to take this country back,” Buck said.
“I am proud of that and I won’t let my donors and voters down. We are almost at half a million raised and this is the kind of fundraising prowess needed to defeat Turncoat Charlie Crist. Charlie has done nothing while in Congress other than vote to impeach President Trump during the sham witch hunt. I can do better,” he added.
Crist is believed to be vulnerable after voting in favor of the impeachment of President Trump. In addition to Luna and Buck, Amanda Makki, Anna Luna, Sharon Newby, Matt Becker, and Shelia Griffin are also running for the seat.
By
Michael Kortan was formerly the FBI’s assistant director of public affairs. He resigned from the agency in 2018, while under investigation from the Office of the Inspector General. The DOJ’s watchdog entity had discovered text messages in which Kortan agreed to accept baseball tickets to two Washington Nationals games during May and September 2016 from a CNN reporter. A report from the Office of the Inspector General describes Kortan as displaying a “lack of candor” during two interviews he was subjected to on the matter, suggesting that Kortan lied about accepting the gifts from a forbidden source.
Kortan also accepted baseball tickets from a New York Times reporter in 2014 and 2016. The anonymous CNN reporter who evidently provided gifts to the bureaucrat was apparently considered one of his top press contacts, suggesting that he or she may have been privy to confidential agency information that should have been kept private.
“Nats v Marlins Friday night. I have to be away. Can you use four tix?” Said one text from the CNN operative.
Kortan seemed relatively shameless in his response, accepting a gift that most professionals committed to ethics would quickly decline.
“I’m good for 2 tix if that’s OK.”
The Department of Justice ultimately didn’t prosecute Kortan for the breach of FBI rules, possibly because of his decision to resign from the agency.
FBI agents are strictly prohibited from receiving gifts from “prohibited sources,” who include journalists who cover the agency’s operations. It goes without saying that a high-ranking public affairs agent is totally forbidden from taking baseball tickets from CNN and New York Times reporters.
The FBI has struggled to retain its image as a neutral and non-partisan law enforcement agency, following years of scandals in which agency personnel were busted trying to interfere in partisan politics and national elections.
“President Obama personally asked the FBI to investigate somebody on behalf of George Soros, who was a close ally of his,” said Dershowitz.
“We’ve seen this kind of White House influence on the Justice Department virtually in every Justice Department,” he added. “The difference is this president is much more overt about it. He tweets about it. President Obama whispered to the Justice Department about it.”
Q: Wow, well, we look forward to hearing more about that new.
Dershowitz: That’s not unusual. That is not unusual. People whisper to presidents all the time. Presidents whisper to [the] Justice Department all the time. It’s very common. It’s wrong, whoever does it, but it’s common, and we shouldn’t think that it’s unique to any particular president. I have in my possession the actual 302 form [an FBI record of an interview], which documents this issue, and it will, at the right time, come out. But I’m not free to disclose it now because it’s a case that’s not yet been filed. -Breitbart News
Dershowitz also opined on the impeachment trial of President Trump – of which he was part of Trump’s defense – reiterating that his arguments had been so distorted by CNN that he could sue the network if he wanted to.
CNN — and House impeachment managers — claimed Dershowitz said that the president can do whatever he wants to do, as long as he claims to have believed he was acting in the public interest. Dershowitz had specifically said that criminal-like behavior was indeed impeachable.
Dershowitz also said that former Trump associate Roger Stone deserved a new trial, given new revelations about the extreme political bias of the jury foreperson, who opposed both Trump and Stone. -Breitbart
Hear the entire interview below:
Tom's Blog 