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The privileged class get there by thinking they are privileged: https://nypost.com/2020/03/19/
Not very elegant behaviour:
Insider trading? Senators unload stock after briefings
WASHINGTON — Senators have sold significant amounts of stock before the coronavirus decimated the financial markets and after the Senate received briefings on the pandemic.
Like all Americans, lawmakers are subject to insider trading laws. They are also subject to the 2012 STOCK Act, which prohibits them from buying or selling on the financial markets based on information they receive before the public does because of their position. It also requires the sort of frequent disclosure of financial transactions that enable monitoring of their equity transactions.
The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hosted an all-senators briefing on COVID-19 with top administration health officials on Jan. 24. Additionally, the Senate Intelligence Committee was apprised on the pandemic dating to around mid-February, according to ProPublica.
Republican Sen. James M. Inhofe of Oklahoma, who serves as an ex-officio member on the Intelligence Committee, sold between $180,000 and $400,000 of his stock holdings on Jan. 27. That includes between $15,000 and $50,000 in Apple Inc. and PayPal Holdings Inc. each. That transaction report includes sales between $50,000 and $100,000 in Intuit Inc., Danaher Corporation and Brookfield Asset Management.
Inhofe also sold between $50,000 and $100,000 in Brookfield Asset Management on Feb. 20, when it was $68 a share. It is now worth $43 a share.
A request for comment from Inhofe was not returned.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s husband sold between $1 million and $5 million in Allogene Therapeutics Inc. on Feb. 18 at $24 a share. It has since dropped to $20 a share. Her husband also sold between $500,000 and $1 million in the stock on Jan. 31, when it was at $21 for a share. Feinstein is a California Democrat who serves on the Intelligence panel and was previously its chairwoman.
“All of Senator Feinstein’s assets are in a blind trust, as they have been since she came to the Senate,” Tom Mentzer, a spokesperson for Feinstein, said in an email. “She has no involvement in any of her husband’s financial decisions.”
ProPublica reported that current Senate Intelligence Chairman Richard M. Burr, a North Carolina Republican, dumped between $628,000 and $1.72 million in his securities holdings on Feb. 13, after the committee began receiving daily coronavirus briefings. NPR obtained a recording in which Burr offered a grim, private assessment of the grave economic impact the coronavirus would bring on Feb. 27. That analysis was a stark departure from his previous, more favorable public comments on the matter.
Another lawmaker, Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin — who is not on the Intelligence Committee but chairs the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee — sold off millions in securities of Pacur LLC, a Wisconsin-based plastics company he used to run before taking office. On March 2, Johnson sold between $5 million and $25 million in the company.
Ben Voelkel, a spokesperson for Johnson, said the transaction was not related to the coronavirus.
“Unequivocally unrelated to the coronavirus. This transaction is the result of an investment by a private firm in Pacur, and Gryphon was excited enough about it that they sent out a press release,” Voelkel said in an email. “Any attempts to make this seem like anything else are just sad partisan smear tactics and proactive spreading of misinformation.”
Meanwhile, The Daily Beast reported that Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler of Georgia sold over $1 million in stock after the Jan. 24 briefing. She is married to Jeffrey Sprecher, chairman of the New York Stock Exchange.
— Chris Marquette
CQ-Roll Call
CQ-Roll Call
Finally:
What is it? https://www.americanthinker.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Description from a doctor's medical post describing the science behind CoVid-19.
Feeling confused as to why CoVid-19 is a bigger deal than Seasonal flu? Here it is in a nutshell.
It has to do with RNA sequencing...i.e., genetics.
Seasonal flu is an “all human virus”. The DNA/RNA chains that make up the virus are recognized by the human immune system. This means that your body has some immunity to it before it comes around each year...you get immunity two ways...through exposure to a virus (herd immunity), or by getting a flu shot.
Novel viruses, come from animals...the WHO tracks novel viruses in animals (sometimes for years watching for mutations). Usually these viruses only transfer from animal to animal (pigs in the case of H1N1, birds in the case of the Spanish flu). But once one of these animal viruses mutates, and starts to transfer from animals to humans...then it’s a problem. Why? Because we have no natural or acquired immunity. The RNA sequencing of the genes inside the virus isn’t human, and the human immune system doesn’t recognize it, so we can’t fight it off.
Now sometimes the mutation only allows transfer from animal to human, for years its only transmission is from an infected animal to a human before it finally mutates so that it can transfer human to human...once that happens, we have a new contagion phase. And depending on the fashion of this new mutation, that’s what decides how contagious, or how deadly it’s going to be.
H1N1 was deadly...but it did not mutate in a way that was as deadly as the Spanish flu. Its RNA was slower to mutate and it attacked its host differently, too.
Fast forward.
Now, here comes this CoVid-19...it only existed in animals (for who knows how long) but one day, at an animal market, in Wuhan China, in November/December 2019, it mutated and made the jump from animal to human. At first, only animals could give it to a person. But here is the scary part. In merely TWO WEEKS it mutated again and gained the ability to jump from human to human. Scientists call this quick ability, “slippery”.
CoVid-19, not being in any form a “human” virus (whereas we would all have some natural or acquired immunity), took off like a rocket. And this was because humans have no known immunity and doctors have no known medicines for it. And this particular mutated animal virus changed itself in such a way that it causes great damage to human lungs.
That’s why CoVid-19 is different from seasonal flu, or H1N1 or any other type of influenza. This one is slippery AF. And it’s a lung eater...And, it’s already mutated AGAIN, and we now have two strains to deal with, strain S and and strain L.
We really have no tools in our shed to deal with this. History has shown that fast and immediate closings of public places has helped in the past pandemics. Philadelphia and Baltimore were reluctant to close events in 1918 and they were the hardest hit in the US during the Spanish Flu.
Factoid: Henry VIII stayed in his room and allowed no one near him, till the Black Plague passed. Just like us, he had no tools in his shed, except social isolation.
And right now it’s hitting older folks and the immunosuppressed harder...and this genome is so tricksy...if it mutates again (and it may) who is to say what it will do next.
Be smart people...acting flippant is not sexy right now. And panicking is equally as gross.
#flattenthecurve. Stay home, stay clean, stay positive...and share this to those that just are not catching on.
This e mail is deeply appreciated:
RE: Italy and Iran and Chinese Involvement. Interesting Op Eds.
Benny Gantz and the pyromaniacal cockpitAmidst a global pandemic, the threat of war with Iran and economic collapse, the Blue and White Party is dead set on bringing Netanyahu down – even if it means taking Israel down with him.
If Blue and White Party leader MK Benny Gantz forms a minority government with Avigdor Liberman's Israel Beitenu Party and the Labor-Meretz party, based on the outside support of the Joint Arab List, Gantz's success will torpedo Israel's relations with the United States.
This week, a senior official who was present during Gantz's meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump in late January revealed: "Gantz committed in the Oval Office that, if he became prime minister, he would form a government of people that would support the president's peace deal."
The Trump peace plan includes applying Israeli sovereignty to the Jordan Valley and the Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria. Labor-Meretz and the Joint Arab List are both violently opposed to the Trump plan. A Gantz government that includes them will be a government that is hostile to the Trump plan.
The only way for Gantz to keep the promise he made to Trump is to join a coalition government led by Netanyahu with Likud and its right-religious coalition partners. And that is an option that Gantz and his partners in the Blue and White "cockpit" – fellow former IDF chiefs of General Staff Moshe Yaalon and Gadi Ashkenazy and former media star Yair Lapid – will not support.
They are working feverishly to cobble together a radical government with the post-Zionists in Labor-Meretz and the anti-Zionists in the Joint Arab List. All of which will be hard-pressed to work with the Trump administration.
How can Trump or his administration trust a man who flat out lied to the President in the Oval Office?
What can explain Gantz's irresponsible behavior?
Did he lie to Trump – and the Israeli public – because he and his colleagues are secretly radical leftists who seek power to undermine everything Israel stands for? They wouldn't be the first leftist politicians to do so.
In 1999, their commander, former IDF chief of General Staff Ehud Barak ran against Netanyahu by presenting himself as ideologically indistinguishable from him. Barak insisted that he would implement Netanyahu's center-right policies, but that he would do so with the support of the media and the leftist elite.
The public bought his act. Barak – the centrist – defeated Netanyahu and Barak – the leftist – offered PLO chief Yasser Arafat Judea, Samaria, Gaza, and the Temple Mount as well as the Golan Heights to Syrian dictator Hafez Assad.
Israel is a center-right country. Barak understood the only way for a leftist to win an election in Israel is to pretend to be a center-rightist.
Gantz's willingness to effectively surrender Israel's rights in Judea and Samaria to win the parliamentary support of politicians that seek Israel's destruction as a Jewish state – shared by his partners in the Blue and White leadership – seems to indicate that they are rabid post-Zionists. But a brief consideration of their other positions and actions suggests that something else is motivating them.
Gantz and his colleagues present themselves as champions of the rule of law and democracy, which they insist, Netanyahu is destroying.
But consider their actions: Presently, Blue and White is viciously attacking Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein for refusing to convene the Knesset's Arrangements Committee, which is responsible for convening the rest of the Knesset committees. They insist that in acting as he is, Edelstein is colluding with Netanyahu to destroy Israeli democracy. But as Simcha Rothman, from the Movement for Governability and Democracy, explained in Israel Hayom Thursday, it is Blue and White that is blocking the Arrangements Committee from convening.
The Knesset rules provide that membership in the committee is determined by the size of each party. The parties in the Knesset receive one member in the committee for every four members in their Knesset faction. Under the prevailing rules, the blocs working with Netanyahu and Gantz would have equal representation in the committee.
Blue and White wants to break the rules in order to receive a majority of Arrangement Committee members. Edelstein insists on following the rules.
Why are Gantz and his colleagues fighting so hard to break the rules? Because they need a majority on the committee in order to have the procedural power to pass laws that will undermine Israeli democracy and the rule of law.
Blue and White and Israel Beitenu have submitted bills explicitly directed towards achieving one goal: Preventing Netanyahu – and only Netanyahu – from forming a government. These bills, if passed, would overturn Israel's rule of law twice.
First, they are personal legislation – directed at Netanyahu alone. Personal laws are a concept antithetical to the rule of law and liberty. They open the door for full-scale repression and authoritarianism.
Second, if they succeed in passing their anti-Bibi laws, they will retroactively nullify the votes of 2.5 million Israelis who voted for parties that want Netanyahu to remain in office.
Blue and White wages its war against parliamentary rules to pass vindictive, anti-democratic laws at a time where Israel is facing the gravest health and economic crisis it has ever confronted.
The Wuhan coronavirus epidemic presents Israel with a choice between terrible and terrifying options.
Tuesday, Netanyahu announced that in a bid to lower the infection rate, Israelis should stay home and only go out to buy food and medicine and other critical activities. Schools are closed. Most government offices are closed. Businesses are closed. The only people still working are the ones who can work from home.
Netanyahu and his colleagues in the government enacted this policy with the understanding that, if forced to treat thousands of coronavirus patients at once, the health system will collapse. Everything must be done to slow the infection rate.
But the quarantine strategy holds its own terrible risks. Israel can handle an economic shutdown for a few weeks. If the current situation goes on for months, the economy will collapse and bring the health system with it. Hundreds of thousands of Israelis are being laid off. They will not be paying taxes. Without taxes, the government will be unable to maintain the health system or any other system for that matter.
What can be done? It appears that the only way to suspend the quarantine and so salvage the economy is by conducting universal coronavirus testing. Only universal testing can limit the quarantine to people who need to be isolated and enable the restoration of economic activity.
How quickly can Israel achieve the capacity to undertake such a program? What would it involve?
What other options are available?
Netanyahu, his ministers, the Health and Treasury Ministry officials and the National Security Council members have been working around the clock to try to come up with solutions.
Where are Gantz and his partners – Lapid, Yaalon and Ashkenazy – in their brandishing "cockpit" on these issues?
Blue and White has offered no recommendations for fighting the epidemic. Although Tuesday night, Gantz was nice enough to retweet Netanyahu's warning to the public to stay home. His partners Yaalon and Lapid were not so disposed.
Instead, the two would-be national leaders belittled the threat – each in his own way – and insinuated that Netanyahu is colluding with the Coronavirus to destroy Israeli democracy.
Yaalon tweeted that Netanyahu is using the Coronavirus to avoid his criminal trial and destroy the Knesset. He later threatened Likud parliamentarians with legal probes for supporting Netanyahu's efforts.
In a Facebook chat, Lapid insinuated that Netanyahu's move to quarantine the public was unlawful and self-serving. In short, that Netanyahu isn't interested in protecting the public from mass death. All he cares about is staying in power.
Blue and White has offered no solution on how to save the economy from collapse. But they can be counted on to blame Netanyahu for the high unemployment rates and negative economic growth if Israel finds itself in a fourth election.
Yaalon, who seeks to serve as Education Minister, has offered no suggestions for how to educate the 1.3 million schoolchildren who are at home with parents trying to keep up with their own work while homeschooling their children.
Then there is Iran. As the coronavirus rages through Iran, experts warn that the risk of an Iranian strike against Israel rises with the death toll. The theology of Iran's ruling clerics holds that the Shite messiah, the Mahdi, is supposed to return at the end of days. To hasten his arrival, Iran's ayatollahs believe that they need to start Armageddon.
Do the three former IDF chiefs at the helm of Blue and White have any concern over this? Do they have any suggestions for how to handle the threat as Iranians dig more and more mass graves for coronavirus victims?
Which brings us back to Washington: Three weeks ago, I traveled to Washington to speak on a panel at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) – the largest conservative gathering in America. Most of the discussions were related to U.S. domestic issues. But Israel is so important to conservatives that organizers chose to hold a panel devoted to Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria.
There were no calls for the partition of Jerusalem and the expulsion of Jews from Judea and Samaria either on the panel or from the audience. On the contrary, the sentiment shared by the audience and the panelists alike was that Israel should assert its sovereign rights in Judea and Samaria wherever it deems necessary.
This salutary state of affairs will be turned on its head if the Democrats win the presidency in November. In that event, Israel will find itself under assault from a hostile president who heads a party hostile to Israel. How would a Blue and White government handle such a challenge? Dependent on the Joint Arab List – which openly seeks Israel's destruction as a Jewish state – for its survival, there can be little doubt that Blue and White would surrender to even the slightest pressure emanating from Washington.
Gantz, Lapid, Yaalon and Ashkenazy are not ideologues – unless detesting Netanyahu with the single-minded venom of a rabid dog is an ideology. They accuse Netanyahu of caring only for himself and pledge to put the country first. But we see that, as Netanyahu labors to save the country from medical and economic collapse, all they can think about is destroying him. Even at the expense of torching Israel's relations with the U.S., endangering the lives and financial stability of its citizens, and disregarding strategic threats and opportunities. They accuse Netanyahu of destroying democracy as they contemptuously ignore Knesset rules in order to pass laws that would nullify both the rule of law and the votes of 2.5 million citizens.
So no, Gantz and his colleagues aren't ideologues.
They are pyromaniacs.
NOW:
Gantz backs down, may join Netanyahu-
led unity government
Opposition leader Benny Gantz acknowledges that despite being tasked to form a new government, the pandemic crisis may require him to sit in Netanyahu-led coalition.
By Paul Shindman, World Israel News
Opposition Blue and White party leader Benny Gantz admitted Thursday that despite his previous declarations, there may be no choice but to sit in a national unity government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The former IDF chief-of-staff was tasked earlier this week to form a new government following Israel’s inconclusive March 2 elections and has until the end of next month to complete the task; otherwise, Israel might face an unprecedented fourth election. Having said on several occasions that he would never sit in a government led by Netanyahu, Gantz admitted in a Channel 12 interview that the coronavirus pandemic has changed things.
“We in Blue and White received the mandate [to form the government], but we cannot ignore the conditions that have developed,” Gantz said. “I am not talking now about the (coalition) negotiations we are involved in. All options are still on the table, but we cannot go to a fourth election. Today’s challenges are to deal with the economic crisis and the health crisis.”
“At the moment all the options need to be on the table. It would not be responsible on my part not to consider any alternative,” he told Channel 12 news.
Gantz said the country needs a unity government to deal with the massive health and economic crisis, but also “to preserve Israeli democracy” in reference to the political feud that saw the speaker of the Knesset adjourn the legislature earlier this week.
The new Knesset had only been sworn in on Monday, but MKs of both Netanyahu’s Likud Party and Blue and White were immediately at loggerheads over important parliamentary committees, with both sides jockeying for power when the plug was pulled.
Blue and White members accused the Likud of undermining the country’s democratic processes, especially by ordering the use of anti-terror surveillance methods without judicial or parliamentary oversight in order to track people infected with the coronavirus. Gantz said Netanyahu’s moves were approaching “the margins of dictatorship.”
Despite the mutual acrimony that developed once Gantz left the military and entered politics, both he and Netanyahu have met several times in the past year to negotiate forming a unity government, but failed when neither would agree to let the other take first shot at a proposed rotating premiership in which each would be prime minister for two years.
Israelis failed to give either side enough support to form a government in elections held three times in the past year.
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Warnings from an informed friend:
Health officials know it is dangerous to come in contact with contaminated surfaces. That is why the CDC issues guidance on how to clean and disinfect them, especially for those self-quarantining at home.
Newsmax examined the most dangerous coronavirus breeding grounds. Here are 12 you would be wise to avoid at all cost:
1. Dollar Bills – Uncle Sam will not like this one: Research has shown pathogens can hide in the textured surface of paper money for days. There has not been a confirmed case of coronavirus caused by a contaminated dollar bill. But the World Health Organization spokesman recently told The Telegraph, "We know that money changes hands frequently and can pick up all sorts of bacteria and viruses and things like that. We would advise people to wash their hands after handling banknotes, and avoid touching their face." WHO later issued a clarificationit has not issued coronavirus-specific guidance on handling paper currency. A 2002 Southern Medical Journal Study found 94% of bills tested showed signs of pathogenic contamination. That suggests it would be a good idea to pay with plastic, or even better, use "contactless payments" like PayPal or Apple Pay.
2. Elevator Buttons – One of the biggest danger zones is the plastic button you push to whisk you to your floor. The hard plastic these buttons are made of can maintain active coronavirus cells for up to 48 hours. Medical officials urge people to use a knuckle, rather than a fingertip, to hit the call button or to designate a floor. So think twice before you start punching buttons.
3. Bathroom Shower Curtains – These are so dirty you will want to take a shower after touching them, a quandary in itself. A SafeHome.org study found the bacteria concentrations on shower curtains are higher than on toilet seats. The study detected 16.2 million "colony-forming units" of bacteria on shower curtains, and another 15.9 million on shower floors. Toilet seats, by comparison, harbored a mere 235,000 colonies.
4. Stainless Steel Countertops: Steel counters in public places look clean, but look out! Unless a steel surface is being hit with a powerful disinfectant several times a day, there is a real chance a virus or other pathogen is lurking there. Researchers believe the coronavirus can live on a steel surface for up to three days. Suggestion: Take your own disinfectant wipes, and possibly gloves, and use them if you have to come in contact with steel.
5. Sinks: Sinks seem innocuous because they are places where dishes, cups and eating utensils are placed to be properly washed. But often, dirty dishes are stacked in the sink for hours before they are washed. Anybody touching contaminated dishes or areas of the sink they have been in contact with could be exposed to the virus.
6. Door Knobs: This sounds like a no-brainer, but door knobs used by hundreds of people a day are easy to forget about when you are in a hurry to get somewhere. Always carry a clean tissue to use on doors, and make sure you discard it immediately. In your home, disinfect those door knobs religiously.
7. Landline Telephones: It might be true that landlines are so yesterday — but they are still very much in use in many highly travelled places, such as hotel lobbies and customer service counters. If you have to use one, wipe it off with disinfectant – especially if it is located in a public place. Remember, if you do not, the next call you place might be to your doctor.
8. Office Supplies: Just because you like your co-workers, does not mean you should take precautions. The buttons on your office coffee machine photocopier and water cooler, and handle on your company's staff refrigerator could easily host the coronavirus. When you enter an office space, look for what researchers call the "high-touch areas." Among them: The light switch, the door handle, the water cooler, the buttons on the printer, and so forth. You cannot live in fear that everything you touch might send you to the ER. But it is a good idea to use common sense, and avoid touching the things everyone else is – or at least, to wash your hands or douse them in hand sanitizer as soon as possible afterward.
9. Kitchen Sponges: We tend to think of them as safe, because we use them to clean other surfaces, such as dirty pots and pans. But it turns out that porous surface that is constantly moist is a hotbed for microscopic organisms. In fact, a 2017 German study by Furtwangen University concluded 362 different bacterial species nestled comfortably among the 14 different sponges that were inspected. Indeed, there were 54 billion organisms per square centimeter of sponge.
10. Cardboard Boxes: While cardboard seems like one of the least suspect of surfaces, its porous nature makes it a prime candidate to host the virus. According to scientists, the coronavirus can live on cardboard for up to 24 hours. In the age of same-day and overnight delivery, more and more workers have jobs that involve handling packages, if only in order to open them. Use gloves and hand sanitizer whenever you can, and do not assume good old reliable cardboard can be trusted. It cannot.
11. Toilets: You normally take extra precautions when using public restroom facilities. But it is good to be extra cautious while the coronavirus remains a threat. Use clean paper towels or disinfectant to wipe off all surfaces you may tough, then scrub your hands with soap and warm water for at least 20 seconds. Try to use something besides your hands to operate flush handles, deadbolts, and water faucets. If you have to flick on a light switch when you come in, use a tissue or a bareknuckle if you have to – depending on how often these are disinfected, they can collect a lot of germs. Soap up your hands and wash them for at least 20 seconds, and use a paper towel to open the door on your way out – no point in doing all that cleaning if you are just going to turn around and grab a dirty door knob.
12. Coins: No, coins do not harbor as many pathogens as paper money, but they are still nothing to sneeze at. Studies suggest metal money can carry the coronavirus germs for over four hours – especially copper. Most of your change probably comes from retail establishments, like drive-through windows. Who knows where that money came from? The bottom line: The next time someone offers you a penny for your thoughts, you might want to settle for a friendly fist-bump instead.
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For those who are staying home this was sent to me by a friend and, tennis player and time to time memo reader:
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Watch Hillary Clinton Lie About SARS Epidemic So She Could Look Like a Hero
By Red State Of Mind Daily
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Recently I posted some"ironies" in a previous memo and I should have included the one related to energy.
Russia's economy rests on energy and when energy prices collapse Russia is in further trouble because they are extended financially due to their adventurous foreign policy. The "irony", Russia is overproducing at a time when energy prices are low thereby, putting more pressure on the price structure at a time when the demand for energy is also low and inventories remain high. Second, the virus adds additional reasons why energy demand is reduced due to travel restrictions etc.
Meanwhile, the Saudis find themselves in an "ironical" situation where they too want the price of energy to rise so they, unlike Russia, are cutting back. However, because Russia is increasing production the Saudis have decided to do so to punish Russia because the Saudi economy remains healthier than Russia's.
As for America's energy picture, low prices are putting strain on a host of small producers whose financing is un-favorable so there will be many opportunistic mergers where the strong will get stronger and the weak will go out of business.
Overall, production should drop but America still can produce our own needs.
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