Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[Jeff Buchanan]

Watch out what you wish for, Wiz ........ I may start charging a subscription fee to read what some call long-winded but most of you, I just know it, look forward with enthusiasm to my most excellent AM and PM COVID related posts.

Look, your getting a days worth of COVID news, compiled from the best sources I can find, in a condensed from, I should add AND, it's free.

STFU and quit complaining.

[Jeff Buchanan]

And here it is, my COVID related PM post:

More good news on re-openings ....... the case of which I have an interest in that involves the alleged illegal shuttering of a City of Miami Marina at which the company I lease a boat from is docked was heard by a federal judge today. Our claim alleged the company, Pennant Yachts, LLC and it's owner were being denied rightful commerce and lessees (me, among others) were being denied access to federally managed waters (Biscayne Bay) by the closing of Dinner Key Marina (one of two City of Miami Marinas) such action being beyond the City of Miami Mayor's authority to carry out.

A day after the case was scheduled to be heard at 10am today and last Saturday, city attorneys approached our attorneys and asked that we consider an out of court settlement of our claim. Negotiations between the principal parties and their attorneys went on through Monday afternoon with the city offering to open the Marina on Wednesday (today) after a public announcement that the city was reopening Dinner Key and South Point City Marinas that was to occur at 2pm on Tuesday afternoon. In return, we were asked to drop our claim

That never happened and when the city was contacted on Tuesday afternoon, the response was we're going to do it tomorrow, we couldn't make it happen yesterday, will you allow that and delay the date and time of the hearing. Our response was no. See you in court.

So, the parties assembled at the federal court today at 10am as scheduled, the case was heard and the judge would not rule, he said, until he heard witness testimony; the case was scheduled next week to hear witness testimony. Shit!

2h later, to the surprise of us and our attorneys, City of Miami Mayor Suarez appeared publicly with live news cameras rolling to announce, among other openings in the city, the re-opening of the two city shuttered city marinas. Nice cover. What I think went down, and talent, I welcome your comments, was that the judge who heard the case took the defendants aside and told them less publicly that they had lost the case, lets avoid your public shaming and the waste of the court's time, open the Marinas, and so, they did.

Justice is served ..... and notice is given to officials involved in shutterings, within this federal court's jurisdiction, to make sure they are clearly for the purpose of the public's health and safety. City of Miami Marina shutterings were not in any way shape or form as the plaintiff's attorneys successfully argued. That's my take.

[Ghengis Jon]

Should be interesting in Lansing tomorrow. 2 anti-shutdown groups and one militia have organized a "Judgement Day" protest at 3 Capital locations.

[lineygoblue]

Should be interesting in Lansing tomorrow. 2 anti-shutdown groups and one militia have organized a "Judgement Day" protest at 3 Capital locations.

Yep. Gretch and Nessie have decided to get tough on the demonstrators and arrest anyone that gets out of hand.

In other news, Nessie instructed the State Licensing Board to revoke Karl Manke's barber license today because he continues to cut hair in his one chair shop in Owosso. The 77 year old barber was served with notice today that his license had been revoked, and he continued to cut hair afterward. This came after both the Shiawassee County Sheriff department refused to use its resources to enforce Whitmer's executive orders regarding the state shutdown, and a District Judge in Corunna rejected Nessie's motion to issue a "cease and desist" order against Manke for running his barber shop, in defiance of the Governor's order.

I guess next the State Police will send its SWAT team to hit Karl's barber shop with smoke cannons, stun grenades and tear gas.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Been avoiding the Michael Flynn stuff but the case took a weird turn in the past couple hours. Judge Sullivan (the judge overseeing Flynn's criminal case) has appointed a retired Judge as amicus curiae to argue in opposition to the DOJ's motion to dismiss. He's requesting the judge to also address whether Flynn should be found in criminal contempt for perjury. The ex-judge he's tasked with this (I assume he was asked beforehand) is a guy named John Gleeson. Colorful history. He prosecuted John Gotti in his time as a US Attorney and later as a judge presided over the "Wolf of Wall Street" case.

[CGVT]

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[Whitley]

Wisconsin SCOTUS strikes down the stay at order. A 4-3 decision (one of the conservatives sided with the liberals)

Wisconsin SCOTUS majority says the DHS Sect. Palm should have issued the order doing rule making. That would have given the legislature to overrule. The legislature itself gave DHS to power to issue orders back in 1981 (with the AIDS crisis).

A recent poll showed 69% in Wisconsin supported the stay at home orders.

[Ghengis Jon]

Another piece of your private life gets sucked up by Big Brother.


https://www.reuters.com/article/us-u...-idUSKBN22P3C1

[Dr. Strangelove]

The FBI showed up at Senator Burr’s house tonight with a warrant and seized his phone as the investigation into his stock trades is apparently getting serious

[iam416]

I wonder how Governor Kemp's experiement in human sacrifice is going in Georgia? I also wonder how many people Governor DeSantis has murdered in Florida. I mean, surely the cases are exploding. BLOOD ON THEIR HANDS!

[Dr. Strangelove]

It's been almost 2 weeks so I guess between now and the end of the month is when we'll really find out. Would be nice to have a cold weather state to compare it to and see if weather really does play a factor...why thank you, Wisconsin, for volunteering!!

[iam416]

Wisconsin Supreme Court has ordered a holocaust!

[iam416]

It's been almost 2 weeks so I guess between now and the end of the month is when we'll really find out.

LOL. That's not how it works. When the end of the month rolls around and there is still no evidence to support the narrative then it will be "too early" and "we'll need to wait until the end of June" to really figure it out. Rinse and repeat until you get data that fits the narrative or people forget your outlandishly wrong claims.

LOL at an honest date for a real assessment. LOL at a real assessment.

[Dr. Strangelove]

I think we see more eye to eye on this than either cares to admit. But so long as we both keep characterizing people who disagree with us in the most extreme ways possible we'll keep talking past each other. Anyone who questions a reopening plan will be accused by you or Jeff of wanting to stay in total lockdown until all disease is wiped from the earth even if it means total economic devastation. Anyone who questions the lockdowns in any way will be accused by me as being a conspiracy-loving anti-vaxxer who wants to lick door knobs to prove he's not 'scared' of the coronavirus.

[Jeff Buchanan]

There are two COVID related happenings this morning:

There is a financial war going on behind the scenes before COVID and now escalating between the US and China that involves initiatives by the US to de-list Chinese firms from the US Stock exchanges. The net effect is intended to reduce US holdings in Chinese firms especially those related to defense related industries and eliminate them going forward. We're talking about billions here and the Chinese are not happy. The article I read on this is pay-walled. The gist of it is that this is an on-going, behind the scenes cold-war being waged by the US to weaken China's economy. The recent escalation being reported on today appears to be in response to the Trump administration's wish to punish the Chinese in multiple ways for COVID. The author felt that while this approach is an effective tool, under the current circumstances it is a risky one with the potential to harm the US as much, possibly more than, China. Whatever happens, it's an example of the mostly unseen economic battle going on between the Chinese and the US.

Markets are waking up to the reality of the long term economic damage likely to persist for years. Over the last two weeks, there have been several articles about the decoupling of markets to economic reality. IOW, markets have been bullish and are rising for reasons that are not consistent with multiple economic indicators. Well, the bears look to be in charge of market momentum since early this week and the DJIAF are down again this morning taking the DJIA below 23K. Fed Chairman Powell called for more fiscal stimulus yesterday and the House is considering another $3T stimulus package. Powell says it will be expensive but worth it.

My take on all of this is that if the recovery is as slow as experts are predicting it will be, the likelihood of US default on debt repayments and interest becomes increasingly possible without significant tax increases. Even any official mention of a default or a downgrade of US bonds would be catastrophic to investors holdings. That would be worst case. Best case is moderate Ds replace the Rs currently in office and pass meaningful tax policy to reduce the risks going forward ....... of course we'd be risking the idiot D fringe ramping up social welfare programs, passing poorly designed tax policy and not off-setting the costs of HC and environmental reform that they will surely seek. An epic conundrum for sure.