Buy American - Rebuild America
And:
Atty. Gen. Barr puts out a statement:
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Response from Allen West: Howdy Sir, back home, ran three miles this morning...recovery going well, thanks for your prayers!
Blessings, Me 2
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We have children, grandchildren and great grandchildren living in Louisville, Detroit, Chicago, New York and Los Angeles. All cities where riots and anarchy is taking place.Our son in law's bank headquarter sustained some broken windows.
Watching some members of the next generation of American youth is not encouraging.
Rioting is nothing new to America nor is it unusual for vermin like Sharpton and Jackson to appear where it is taking place.
Desecrating St. Patrick's magnificent cathedral is new I believe.
Since we no longer teach history, civics and the number of broken families is increasing and teaching good citizenship and personal responsibility are a thing of the past it is little wonder why more cities are not burning.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Recapture Media’s Attention in Minnesota Race Riots
By David Israel
African American pogromist Al Sharpton and renowned anti-Jewish presidential candidate Jesse Jackson have been on the war path over media outlets everywhere in reaction to the race riots that erupted in several American cities after the police killing of George Floyd on May 25.
Floyd died when Derek Chauvin, a white Minneapolis police officer, knelt on Floyd’s neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, out of which the victim was unresponsive for 2 minutes and 53 seconds, according to the criminal complaint against Chauvin.
Peaceful demonstrations that followed Floyd’s death in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul area soon devolved into race riots as windows were smashed at a police precinct that was later set on fire, along with a number of large stores. Many other stores were looted and damaged, and a number of innocent bystanders were attacked by the angry mobs. Rioters also skirmished with police, who fired tear gas and rubber bullets at the crowds.
By Saturday, protests against police brutality and George Floyd’s death erupted in Los Angeles, New York City, Boston, Houston[, Denver, Louisville, Memphis, Columbus, San Jose, Seattle, Portland, Des Moines, Washington, DC, outside the White House, and Windermere, Florida, outside officer Chauvin’s summer home.
Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton both took advantage of these furious and tragic events to recapture the media’s attention. On Friday, Sharpton showed up on the corner of 38th Street and S. Chicago Avenue, where officer Chauvin was recorded kneeling on Floyd’s neck. Jackson showed up at the Greater Friendship Missionary Baptist Church, 2600 E. 38th St., alongside several African-American ministers and civic leaders who urged cooperation and calm.
In August, 1991, Al Sharpton fueled a race riot in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, after the accidental death of a black child by one of the cars in the motorcade of the Lubavitcher Rebbe. Sharpton eulogized the child, referring to the “diamond dealers,” and saying, “It’s an accident to allow an apartheid ambulance service in the middle of Crown Heights.” A banner that was displayed at the funeral said, “Hitler did not do the job.”
Brandeis University historian Edward S. Shapiro described the Crown Heights riot as “the most serious anti-Semitic incident in American history.”
Jackson was slammed 1984 for referring to Jews as “Hymies” and to New York City as “Hymietown.” He was speaking to a black Washington Post reporter, and assumed he won’t be quoted in print. He was wrong. It didn’t help his reputation when Louis Farrakhan warned the Jews, in Jackson’s presence, that “if you harm this brother [Jackson], it will be the last one you harm.”
Since then, Jackson publicly apologized to Jews for his anti-Semitic slurs, but did not denounce Farrakhan’s ant-Semitic threats. Then, after President Jimmy Carter fired UN Ambassador Andrew Young for meeting with the PLO, Jackson and other black leaders publicly endorsed a Palestinian state, and Jackson called Prime Minister Menachem Begin a terrorist.
As is always the case when individuals such as Sharpton and Jackson are involved, the race riots across America will not calm down with their help. George Floyd and the African American community deserve justice for what appears like an unjustified police killing – but they could find better, more capable leaders than these two proven anti-Semites.
St. Patrick’s Cathedral desecrated with protest graffiti
Is nothing sacred?
Protesters desecrated St. Patrick’s Cathedral with graffiti Saturday, staining stairs and spewing hatred on two walls.
The graffiti on one wall on Fifth Avenue and 51st Street read “F–k F–k” in red letters. On an adjacent wall, vandals scrawled “BLM” — for Black Lives Matter — along with and “NYPDK” in red letters and “No justice no peace” in black letters.
One of the stairs was spray-painted with “George Floyd” in black letters.
A Post reporter spotted the vandalism at around 6:30 p.m. Police at the scene declined immediate comment.
The sacrilegious scrawl was more than likely etched while protesters marched down Fifth Avenue past the Cathedral earlier Saturday.
Christopher Sadowski
Angry protests over the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd shut down Manhattan’s two major highways for much of Saturday afternoon.
A northern stretch of the FDR Drive on the island’s East Side was shut — first by some 150 protesters and then by the NYPD — after 2 p.m.
New York Archdiocese spokesman Joseph Zwilling was unaware of the crime when contacted by The Post Saturday night.
Ross Rants again:
Reality check. If you listen to TV news you hear that 40 million are filing for unemployment being said in a way by reporters that sounds like 40 million people are unemployed when in fact, the number is off by almost 100%. The actual number as of May 16 is 23 million are actually unemployed. 40 million may have at one time or other applied for unemployment, but many are back at work. The May 16 number was down 3.9 million for the week before, and as more businesses reopen at an accelerating pace in the next few weeks that number of unemployed will drop precipitously in June and July. In late May the percentage of unemployed may rise to 20%, remember it lags, and then will drop and stabilize at 10% for a period by Labor Day, or sooner, but that number will decline rapidly as the third quarter recovery gets momentum as reopening becomes full opening, and we move into Q4. The one major concern is many consumers will be slow to spend all that cash they saved, because they will fear another round of virus could happen in September or October, but if there is no second round, Christmas may be big. Very hard to predict at this time. How long it takes to get back to 3.5% is hard to know, but surely well into 2021.
The savings rate was a record breaking 33% of disposable income in the prior month, and reached levels never imagined, which means a lot of consumers now have cash to spend. Add to that, the $1200 subsidy and the extra $600 half the unemployed received, mortgage refi rates of 3.15%, and ultra-low rates on other borrowing, and ultra-low gas prices, and we have a consumer that, in general, is in good shape. That was shown very clearly when the stimulus checks began to arrive they were often spent on big screen TVs and apparel and other electronics. This shows most people were not really hurting financially, and many were in better financial shape than they had ever been with the extra government stimulus money. We know from the large number of workers not willing to go back to work due to receiving the $600, that the stories on TV and commentary about all the people hurting may prove to be a vast misrepresentation of reality. There may have been many food banks, but it is very likely that people receiving unemployment checks and $1200 were going for the free food in addition. Why not. While 4.5 million borrowers asked for forbearance, only a small number actually skipped paying their mortgage as they realized it hurt their credit. If they applied for forbearance, they are not eligible to get a refi now, so it cost them a lot. As a result, very few now request forbearance as they realized this is not a free lunch. The fact that in the end most people who asked for forbearance actually paid on time tells you they really had the cash, but thought it was a free ride for several months. It will be another two months, and a lot more reopening to see what the truth is with consumers, but my assumption is they in general, are mostly fine or even better off than before. They had a chance to pay down their credit card debt with the extra money, and limited ability to spend. We will see what the real numbers are by July. There will still be a lot of people who got hurt, but they are mostly small business owners who cannot reopen due to idiots like DeBozzo and Cuomo, and the governor of MI. It was those people who suffered the most from the virus, many will not be able to survive and reopen.
Now the cold war with China is on. China has let its currency, the Yuan, float lower by 2% to help with exports, but that also creates higher costs for imports and often leads to inflation. The Chinese effort to make the Yuan a reserve currency is dead for now. All of the countries who borrowed from Chinese banks to finance Belt and Road infrastructure projects are now unable to meet debt service. There is now a massive restructuring of that debt underway, but now everyone knows this type of borrowing only leads to trouble. As expected the EU has failed to condemn China for its actions in HK, or the virus, and they have refused to go along with the US on Huawei, or HK sanctions. It is a sad day for the world. Now China is sure they can ignore any comments by the EU about whatever they do. All they need to do is say, we will pull out our money and not trade with you, and the EU just rolls over. The EU was devastated by Chinese action on Corona, but they are ignoring that. The whole world will pay a terrible price one day for the EU having never learned from Chamberlain. Trump, Johnson, Canada and Australia are the only ones who understand what is happening. Only Trump is willing to really take on China. If you watched the speech by Trump, and at the same time the Dow, what you saw was the market was very happy there were no more tariffs as it rebounded from negative 350 to positive close. Wait until things get more tense over Taiwan and S China Sea. There will be more small incidents in the S China Sea and Taiwan Straits as the year goes on. The good news is the US Navy is well aware, and is refitting and rebuilding the fleet and Marines to be better able to deal with Chinese military advances. This is not going to be a repeat of the mistakes of 1938-41 despite the left thinking we can cut defense spending.
There are examples all across the country that many people do not care what the nanny state says, they know they are not at much risk, and they are going back to opening businesses and living life. Now WHO says masks are not needed. Even in Manhattan, a group of small business owners said screw you to Cuomo and DeBozzo and they reopened and DeBozzo sent cops to try to stop them. Their position is if it is OK for large supermarkets and other stores to open as “essential” and parks and other things to be open, then there is no basis to discriminate against them. On Staten Is. a salon owner tried to open and DeBozzo had him threatened with arrest and loss of his license. That is nuts. The NYC Council has now passed a law that makes lease guarantees unenforceable in many situations. So much for landlords and contractual obligations in NYC. It is being challenged in court. The stark difference now between blue and red states is becoming even greater. FL and GA and TX have shown that their approach of more opening, works well, and maybe even better than shut down states. The longer shutdowns continue in NY, PA, IL, NJ, and MI, the more the contrast increases, the more the Dems will lose votes. The more people get out, like in FL, and the infections continue down, the more people realize there is nil danger to most people. There is now testing available for free almost everywhere, and the issue is few people get tested. That strongly tells you people don’t think they are at risk.
The data is now proving the point I have been making for two months, that most bad cases were very old, in nursing homes, already in poor health, living in poor black areas and prisons, and New York, where Cuomo screwed up very badly and moved sick people into nursing homes vastly increasing the death toll. Even with testing, what we now know for sure, the positive rates are only around 10% +-. And that does not mean they are sick enough to go to hospital, just that they were exposed. A lot of data now shows that deaths due to the lockdown are happening, and in some places are a greater danger than health from the virus. In FL only 4% of construction workers lost their jobs vs 41% IN NY, and 27% in NJ. The bad effects of the shutdown on mental health and other deaths from suicide and overdose will last for a much longer time than effects from the virus. The bad effects on small business and low income employment are already very bad. It has been a huge setback for minorities who were finally seeing an opportunity to earn a good living and get a better life. The shutdown killed that for millions. The premier of Alberta Province came out this week and actually said you have more chance of dying from other things if you are not old and infirm than from the virus, and they need to fully reopen. We need to reopen.
IL is essentially bankrupt, but government workers will get a $261 million pay raise in July, while private business is still shut down and private sector jobs are being destroyed. Instead of dealing with the biggest problem- pensions, IL, NJ and CA are planning to raise taxes, or try to. And these are the governors who say the rest of you should give them billions to bail them out, but refuse to even discuss pension reform. There have been almost no government worker layoffs yet even though they know they have huge budget deficits. I assume they assume they will force DC to give them tens of billions of your money. This will be a major political issue very soon as the Dems try to claim the Republicans do not care to help cities. In the end there will be a funding of some costs for cities, but it will be very targeted, and not for pension bailouts. The big Dem cites and states will have to face reality soon. Big taxpayers will move. The deficits will get bigger. Services will get reduced. Crime will rise. NYC is already there. Finally the governors will face a choice of real reform, or continued deterioration of quality of life, and even more people leaving. The virus has shown the real difference between Dem policies of paying for illegal aliens and states that do not have sanctuary cities and do not give all sorts of welfare to illegals. The difference will be stark between Biden and Trump in the campaign. For Trump, he can’t win CA and NY or IL so he does not care if those people do not like him.
Malls are reopening, but rents are being collected on only 25%-30% of tenants in May. Not all deferred rent will ever be collected, and maybe only 75% will. With big chain bankruptcies increasing, and store closures getting worse, it is not clear what will happen to many of the secondary malls. Strips are doing better at 55% collections since many have grocery or drug anchors which never closed. Then you have companies like Starbucks who are demanding all their stores should get major rent and lease concessions. Many landlords are telling them to stuff it, but we will see how that plays out over the next quarter. Starbucks is bigger, and has more financial strength than almost any shopping center owner, and it is really cheeky for them to demand rent and lease concessions. Landlords did not create this problem, so why should they be the ones to pay for it. They have mortgages and maintenance, and a right to earn a good return on investment just as Starbucks does. Strips NOI is forecast to decline 15% or so over the next year, but malls NOI is expected to decline 25%-30%+-. Those are Wall St projections, not mine. I think it is too early to project.
What the Minneapolis cop did is not even understandable, but it happened, and now we have the consequences. Apparently there are a bunch of trouble makers who show up as they did in Ferguson to create riots. It is the local black community that pay\s the big price. Their stores and facilities are burned, and it takes 10 years to really rebuild the area. There were many black shopkeepers these days who had seen an opportunity to get ahead who are now burned out by their own people. Unfortunately the mayor of that city, the governor and Keith Ellison who is DA for Minnesota, acted stupidly and let the riots go on unchallenged. The mayor said the police precinct was just a building. He really did not understand the significance. This is what happens when you have far left wing young mayors, and left wing governors who just do not get it. Keith Ellison just poured fuel on the fire with his irresponsible rhetoric. In NYC the cops ignored DeBozzo, and did their job and unlike Minneapolis, they made many arrests. In DC the mayor refused to let the cops help the secret service defend the White House. What disgraceful insanity is that. Now we see how Obama/Biden did more to increase racial disharmony than was the case under Bush. Blacks seem to have figured out that the Dems did them no favors, and Obama failed to really help them. Between the virus, riots, and the confrontation with China, we are in for a very unpredictable and challenging period. This will be a huge setback for blacks economically as their neighborhoods get trashed and new investment is again reluctant to go there for years, just as the opportunity zone program was bearing fruit. The culture needs to change in black communities as they only create harm and more disadvantage to themselves.
In 2008-9 the Fed instituted QE, and bought $4 trillion of bonds, but there was no inflation to the surprise of everyone. Here is why. No new money was created. Instead the Fed, in an effort to build up bank balance sheets, paid commercial banks 2% on their excess reserves. Result was the banks deposited trillions with the Fed who then used that cash to buy all those bonds, so very little new money supply was created. With only a 7% increase in money supply, there was no inflation. This has led to the mistaken theory that the Fed can just keep pouring out money, and the US can have more deficits with no consequences. This is Modern Monetary Theory. The theory is wrong and dangerous in the long run. People who adhere to this theory do not understand what happened. This time the Fed has reduced the rate they pay on reserves, so the banks have an incentive to make loans, and that increases the money supply. The money supply in this crisis has risen 102%, and excess bank reserves by 100%. When you do that with trillions, you increase the likelihood of inflation building up. The Fed has already spent $2.9 trillion buying bonds to stabilize the capital markets, but it has, and may use, another $4 trillion to make private sector loans. That is potentially a lot of new money in the system. In addition, the Fed has relaxed some regulations for banks to encourage lending, so there will be even more cash infused into the money supply as new loans are made. Essentially Congress has made the Fed a virtual unlimited bank, and they have been, and will continue to pour new cash into the money supply. This inflates asset values-i.e. stocks, and eventually other hard assets as more cash in the system looks for places to invest. Somewhere down the road we are going to pay a bad price for all of this, but there was likely no choice for the Fed now, or we would have collapsed.
The EU has proposed infusing $2 trillion into their economy by raising a large bond issue, and having the EU bureaucracy be the controller and dispenser of the funds. There is a good chance this will never actually happen as they need unanimous consent of all countries, and the frugal nations in the north have already suggested it may be no. Surprisingly, Merkel is for this, even though Germany has always been who killed any fiscal and monetary plan like this. In addition, her power is no longer the same to get what she wants. It is exactly the same story as in the US with badly managed Dem states and cities demanding the rest of you pay for their irresponsible actions and bankrupt pensions. The EU will remain in trouble for a very long time. Stay away. The US has the best chance to rebuild its economy, assuming Trump is reelected.
Oil is back at $35 which is an extraordinary 88% increase for the month. No month before has seen a gain of more than 44%. Obviously the market solved the problem with no government intervention. We had a 30%+ gain in stocks and 88% in oil, so it simply shows the world of investing is completely irrational over the past 3 months. Panic selling, then panic buying. This is why I had suggested that my strategy was sit still and let all this take its downs and ups. I have seen the projections of a number of very smart and experienced investors, and reality is nobody knew what was happening. All the old rules went out the window and fundamentals were impossible to determine. There remains a huge uncertainty with reopening, the riots, China, and problems in the EU, and in the end there is a critical election which will impact your investments far more than anything else. If Trump wins markets rally. If he loses get out. The policies Biden and his team are putting forth will kill any hope of a sustained recovery. If you did not learn from eight years of Dem economic controls, then you learned nothing, and now they are far left of where they had been. .
Basically every time there is a riot in our nation the cause is mostly the same and the same mistakes are made in our collective reaction.
Sadly, far too often the police departments involved are inadequately trained and poorly led and their response is ineffective. Lamentably, it is the bad apples that ruin the orchard and attacking those who risk their lives to protect is not only misguided but also creates a boomerang effect.
The black community suffers the most and frequently from their own and all too often from outsiders bent on stirring the angry and out of control hot heads.
No one I know, who is white, would willingly change places with those of color but this does not mean whites should be hated nor do not care. The black community also has itself to blame for failing to address some of the problems they endure. The path to a better living is through education, rebuilding the family unit, taking personal responsibility and realizing they have been played like violins by the political establishment in whom they have placed far too much blind trust. That is the same message to those in the white community who also are not living the dream America offers.
There will always be a degree of prejudice against those in the minority but no nation has made the degree of progress towards leveling the playing field for it's underclass than America. There is no better economic system for floating all boats than capitalism - flaws and all.
Conservatives have done a lousy job of convincing minorities they are not their enemy. Conservatives just do not do a good job when it comes to marketing their ideas and their positive accomplishments. Those of color have traditional ties to those who have sold them a false bill of goods and buttered them in hypocrisy. Until they break these ties and allow reality to penetrate they will experience repetitive
disappointments.
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