POLITICS

thelivyjr
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Re: POLITICS

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CNBC

"Fed weighed adjusting bond purchases to provide more help to economy ‘fairly soon,’ minutes show"


Jeff Cox @jeff.cox.7528 @JeffCoxCNBCcom

Published Wed, Nov 25 2020

Key Points

* The Federal Reserve released minutes from its November meeting during which it held interest rates steady.

* Committee members had a lengthy discussion about the asset purchase program, suggesting possible changes ahead without indicating a firm date.

* In addition to the interest rate and bond-buying discussions, members expressed concern about the pace of economic growth.


Federal Reserve officials indicated at their last meeting that adjustments could be made soon to their bond-buying program as the central bank looks to alternate ways it can support the economy.

The Fed on Wednesday released minutes from its Nov. 4-5 policy meeting.

Officials at that gathering voted to keep benchmark short-term borrowing rates anchored near zero.

Market participants were looking to the minutes to gauge where policymakers stand on possibly ramping up or adjusting the asset purchase program, which currently has the Fed buying $120 billion of Treasurys and mortgage-backed securities a month.

The central bank could choose to increase the purchases or to lengthen the duration of those bonds.

While members said the current pace of purchases was helping keep financial conditions accommodative, they noted that changes could be enacted if necessary.

The discussion, however, did not entail a specific date for changes, only that they could happen “fairly soon.”

“Participants noted that the Committee could provide more accommodation, if appropriate, by increasing the pace of purchases or by shifting its Treasury purchases to those with a longer maturity without increasing the size of its purchases,” the minutes said.

“Alternatively, the Committee could provide more accommodation, if appropriate, by conducting purchases of the same pace and composition over a longer horizon.”

Since the meeting, multiple Fed officials have disclosed that an involved discussion over the asset purchases took place at the gathering.

An entire section of the minutes is devoted to those discussions.

Changes in ‘coming months’

Federal Open Market Committee officials also expressed concern about the pace of the economic recovery, noting that growth was still well off the pace before the coronavirus pandemic hit in March.

During his post-meeting news conference, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said he feels that the Fed still has plenty of policy “ammunition” and pledged that the committee is “strongly committed to using these powerful tools to support the economy.”

Since then, the Fed has learned that it will start 2021 without some of the weapons in its arsenal, as Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has directed the central bank to return collateral funding it received for multiple pandemic-era lending programs.

They include corporate bond purchases, loans to state and municipal governments, and the Main Street Lending Program for small- and medium-sized businesses.

Members suggested that “over coming months” the Fed should provide more detail about what it will take to adjust the program, which has taken the central bank balance sheet past $7 trillion as part of efforts to support the economy through the coronavirus pandemic.

Officials favor an outcomes-based approach that would tie the purchases to achieving certain economic goals.

The committee also noted that it would tie the purchases to interest rates, with the bond-buying program likely to wind down before rate hikes.

Market participants have been anticipating a possible Fed announcement at the December meeting.

Looking to the economy, Fed officials said they were assuming that no fiscal support package would be enacted by the end of the year.

However, they said households in aggregate had saved enough money to support consumption through the end of the year.

They also noted that tax receipts showed the situation for most states and municipalities wasn’t as bad as some had feared.

Still, they said economic forecast risks are “tilted to the downside, with the latest data suggesting an increased probability of a resurgence in the disease.”

Members “noted that economic activity and employment had continued to recover but remained well below their levels at the beginning of the year,” the minutes said.

Data also provided by Reuters

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/25/fed-rel ... eting.html
thelivyjr
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Re: POLITICS

Post by thelivyjr »

THE CAPE CHARLES MIRROR November 30, 2020 at 12:00 am

Paul Plante says:

So, by way of review in here with respect to this one-sided conversation with this BLACK LIVES MATTER bull**** being jammed down our throats here in America, as we hear over and over about “systemic racism,” a bull**** term invented by the BLACK POWER MOVEMENT to justify the use of violence against people with white skin who they consider their enemies, being biased against people with white skin as they are, let’s first go back to a POLITIFACT article entitled “Is Black Lives Matter a Marxist movement?” by Tom Kertscher on July 21, 2020, where we had as follows, to wit:

Included on its list of beliefs is one that has drawn criticism as being consistent with Marxism:

“We disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure requirement by supporting each other as extended families and ‘villages’ that collectively care for one another, especially our children, to the degree that mothers, parents, and children are comfortable.”

A spokesperson for Black Lives Matter; Kailee Scales, managing director at Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation; and the three co-founders did not reply to our requests for information.

end quotes

Now, why does anyone think that is, that Kailee Scales, managing director at Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation; and the three co-founders did not reply to POLITIFACTS’ requests for information?

And the answer quite simply is that lack of a response by BLACK LIVES MATTER to POLITIFACT is because they are indoctrinated with Marxist dogma, and thus they lack critical thinking skills, and lacking critical thinking skills because of being “trained Marxists,” with the emphasis on the word “trained,” they cannot rationally explain themselves beyond spouting ignorant Marxist dogma.

And that reality about being indoctrinated on dogma takes us back beyond the statement of mayor Kathy of Albany in the Times Union story “As statues tumble, relatives of Gen. Philip Schuyler ask for pause” by Brendan J. Lyons on July 5, 2020 where she was quoted as saying “(T)o me, stating that Black Lives Matter is something that we have to say out loud because of our history,” where we will never know exactly what history she is talking about, because she hasn’t a clue herself, to an article in the Daily Mail six (6) years ago on 20 August 2014 where we were informed that shortly after taking office in February 2009, Eric Himpton Holder, Jr, a Democrat Black man who was Democrat Hussein Obama’s top law enforcement officer, called the United States ‘a nation of cowards’ when it comes to talking about race, in a Black History Month speech, where only Black people were in attendance.

Now, think about that statement in the light of this thread alone, where the top law enforcement officer under Hussein Obama, a Black man, was calling a nation of some 328 million people, or 250,264,000 white people, a “NATION OF COWARDS,” that in a forum where white people were not allowed and thus, did not have a voice in the conversation, which would seem to indicate the real coward was Eric Himpton Holder, Jr., himself.

According to the news media, in a segregated town hall meeting Himpton Holder, Jr. held in Ferguson, Missouri that was closed so no “white” viewpoints could be expressed, Himpton Holder, Jr. said to the segregated audience present that “(W)e need concrete action to change things in this country,” and “(S)o this interaction must occur,” and “‘(T)his dialogue is important,” and “(B)ut it can’t simply be that we have a conversation that begins based on what happens on August 9, and ends sometime in December, and nothing happens.”

Except there was no “conversation” then, and there hasn’t been one since, precisely because the Himpton Holder and BLACK LIVES MATTER crowd cannot hold a rational conversation on the subject, having nothing but the same old racially-motivated garbage to spew, over and over again, which gets quite tedious and irksome, and that in turn takes us to a podcast by something calling itself The Sanctuary For Independent Media on July 14, 2020 with Shawn Young, a lead organizer with All Of Us Community Action Group, who discusses why police reform is not enough and the need for everyone to keep engaged in their community with Michele Maserjian, Hudson Mohawk Radio Network, to wit:

HOST: Today, my guest is Shawn Young, a community activist with All of Us, and welcome, Shawn.

SHAWN: Oh, welcome, thanks for having me.

HOST: And can you tell me what is All of Us?

SHAWN: Okay, so All Of Us community action group grassroots organization – we are based in Schenectady, New York – we are influential across the Capital region – we have folks up in Saratoga, Albany, Troy, Schenectady, Clifton Park as well – We are out here fighting for racial justice in our community in all the ways that shows up – police brutality, healthcare, etc, education – so we are here for the fight and particularly in this moment – we’re facing largely police brutality in our community …

end quotes

We are out here fighting for racial justice in our community in all the ways that shows up?

Fighting for “racial justice” for whom, exactly?

For Eric Hawkins, perhaps, the Black police chief of the violent Democrat-controlled sanctuary city of Albany, New York under Democrat Kathy Sheehan, herself a kneeler to BLACK LIVES MATTER?

Or racial justice for Alice Green, a Black woman who is executive director for the Center for Law and Justice and who has earned several degrees from SUNY Albany which include a bachelor’s in African-American studies, a master’s degrees in education, social welfare and criminal justice, and a doctorate in criminal justice?

Or how racial justice for the Hon. Dr. Dorcey Applyrs, a very accomplished young Black woman who moved to Albany in 2003 to pursue graduate-level education and since has earned a master’s degree and doctorate in public health from the University at Albany School of Public Health and serves as Clinical Associate Professor in the Health Policy, Management, and Behavior Department and is a member of the Dean’s Advisory Council and Community Advisory Council and also serves as the Subject Matter Expert for the School’s Center for Public Health Continuing Education?

Is Shawn fighting for racial justice for her, one must wonder?

Or how about Congressman Antonio Delgado, the Black man who represents Albany in the U.S. Congress who attended Notre Dame-Bishop Gibbons High School and played for the school’s basketball team and then enrolled at Colgate University and played for the Colgate Raiders men’s basketball team alongside future Golden State Warriors player Adonal Foyle and after Delgado graduated from Colgate in 1999, he earned a Rhodes Scholarship to study at The Queen’s College, Oxford, from which he received a Master of Arts degree in 2001, and in 2005, Delgado graduated from Harvard Law School?

Is Shawn going to get him some racial justice?

And how so?

By burning down civilization and looting the property of others?

http://www.capecharlesmirror.com/news/b ... ent-303740
thelivyjr
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Re: POLITICS

Post by thelivyjr »

CNBC

"Powell stresses importance of lending programs, calls economic outlook ‘extraordinarily uncertain’"


Jeff Cox @jeff.cox.7528 @JeffCoxCNBCcom

Published Mon, Nov 30 2020

Key Points

* Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin are speaking before Congress this week as part of mandated updates on CARES Act funding.

* The act provided trillions of dollars in funding to help the economy through the coronavirus pandemic.

* In prepared remarks, Powell stressed the importance of the Fed’s lending programs through the act. Several of those programs will end Dec. 31. Mnuchin said the funds would be better spent elsewhere.

* The central bank chair offered a lukewarm view of the economy, saying the outlook has become “extraordinarily uncertain.”


Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell emphasized the importance of the lending programs it has deployed during the coronavirus pandemic, telling senators in testimony to be delivered Tuesday that they’ve been integral in keeping the economic fallout from being worse.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who will appear twice on Capitol Hill with Powell this week, has said that the legislation that enabled the programs does not permit them to run past Dec. 31.


The two officials are speaking as part of required updates on the CARES Act funding initiatives Congress passed to aid the economy through the pandemic.

Many of the key programs that the central bank has used since March are expiring at the end of the year, and the Fed will be forced to return the funding that supports them.

“These programs serve as a backstop to key credit markets and have helped restore the flow of credit from private lenders through normal channels,” Powell said in prepared remarks for the Senate Finance Committee.

“We have deployed these lending powers to an unprecedented extent.”

In separate remarks, Mnuchin said the $455 billion in funding directed to the Fed would be better used for other purposes.

The Fed has said it would have preferred to continue the programs into next year.

“Based on recent economic data, I continue to believe that a targeted fiscal package is the most appropriate federal response."

"I strongly encourage Congress to use the $455 billion in unused funds from the CARES Act to pass an additional bill with bipartisan support,” Mnuchin said.

“The Administration is standing ready to support Congress in this effort to help American workers and small businesses that continue to struggle with the impact of COVID-19.”

The Fed programs in question helped it buy corporate bonds, provided financing to small- and medium-sized businesses through the Main Street lending facility, and channeled money to state and local governments.

While Powell said the programs “helped unlock almost $2 trillion of funding,” the actual use of them was much smaller than that – a little over $100 billion in all, though the Fed has stressed that their mere presence provided important confidence to markets.

Addressing the economy, Powell provided a lukewarm outlook that he again said will be dependent on the progress of the virus, which has been spreading rapidly lately.

“As we have emphasized throughout the pandemic, the outlook for the economy is extraordinarily uncertain and will depend, in large part, on the success of efforts to keep the virus in check,” he said.

“The rise in new COVID-19 cases, both here and abroad, is concerning and could prove challenging for the next few months."

"A full economic recovery is unlikely until people are confident that it is safe to reengage in a broad range of activities.”

Powell called the recent news on vaccines “very positive” for the medium term, but said “significant challenges and uncertainties remain, “including timing, production and distribution, and efficacy across different groups.”

“It remains difficult to assess the timing and scope of the economic implications of these developments with any degree of confidence,” he added.

Powell repeated that the Fed stands at the ready to use its policy tools.

In addition to the lending and liquidity programs, the Fed has cut its benchmark borrowing rate to near zero and is buying at least $120 billion of bonds a month.

The Fed chair will be able to continue using a handful of other programs aimed mainly at keeping markets functioning with money not tied to the CARES Act.

Data also provided by Reuters

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/30/powell- ... rtain.html
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Re: POLITICS

Post by thelivyjr »

THE CAPE CHARLES MIRROR November 30, 2020 at 10:35 pm

Paul Plante says:

And going back to the statement of Shawn Young of All Of Us community action group grassroots organization in a 14 July 2020 podcast that “We are out here fighting for racial justice in our community in all the ways that shows up,” this being the same Shawn Young quoted in an Albany, New York Times Union story on 6 Nov. 2020 as saying “(T)he entire way the city (Albany, New York) approaches policing has to be changed; it’s about transformation, it’s about tearing down what we have now and building something better,” and my question, “fighting for racial justice for whom, exactly,” that all takes us back to June 28, 2020, and an Albany, New York Times Union story entitled “Bumpy’s employees walk out amid protest against alleged racist operator – Hundreds rally against ice cream shop owner’s alleged racist text messages” by Cayla Harris, where we get a good glimpse into what tearing down what we have now and building something better looks like in real life, to wit:

SCHENECTADY – More than 200 people gathered on Sunday outside Bumpy’s Polar Freeze, a popular ice cream parlor, to rally against store owner David Elmendorf, who allegedly sent text messages using racial slurs and saying he doesn’t hire black people.

The demonstration was peaceful and passionate, with protesters blocking part of State Street in front of the restaurant for more than two hours.

end quotes

Blocking streets, of course, is a form of violence against those who use those streets, given the streets are “public ways,” defined as any passageway as an alley, road, highway, boulevard, turnpike or part thereof open as of right to the public and designed for travel by vehicle, on foot, but since these protestors are fighting for “racial justice,” they have some kind of apparent God-given right to inflict violence on others by denying them access to the public ways.

So much for the concept of “justice for all” in the United States of America.

Getting back to that story of the fight for racial justice being waged on the streets of America by this All of Us group, we have more as follows:

The protest culminated in the shop shutting down for the evening around 6:15 p.m. – three hours earlier than usual – and three employees walking out, saying they’d quit.

“We set this up today … to eradicate white supremacy in our home.”

“There’s no space for it here,” said organizer Mikayla Foster, 21, who was born and raised in Schenectady.

“It looks a lot of different ways.”

“I think people get it confused, that the only thing we’re fighting against is police brutality, but that’s not the case.”

“We’re fighting against every system that is set to discredit us, disenfranchise us, dismantle us as a people.”

end quotes

And there we have it, people, what the fight for racial justice is all about – it’s a fight against every system put in place in America to dismantle the Black folks as a people, where the word “dismantle” means “take a machine or structure to pieces,” with such synonyms as destroy, strip, deprive, disassemble, break up, take-down, tear down, pull down, knock down, undo and dismount.

Getting back to the story now that we are much more clear as to what this fight is really all about, we have:

Foster, who works with the community organizing group All of Us, led the crowd for much of the protest, kicking off the event by directing a group of roughly 75 people who had shown up at 4 p.m. from a side road to the sidewalks in front of Bumpy’s and much of State Street, blocking traffic.

end quotes

Ah, yes, now that we know what the fight is about, there we have who is doing the fighting, and it is this same All of Us crowd that Shawn Young is a member of, which takes us back to the story for more, as follows:

Within an hour, more than 200 people had arrived with signs ranging from “Shut racists down” to “Be kind.”

They chanted and danced together in front of the shop.

“We are active and ready to move forward against oppression, against black and brown people dying, against white supremacy – the same white supremacy you see at Bumpy’s over here today,” Foster said at the start of the protest.

end quotes

White supremacy at an ice cream stand?

HUH?

What the hell kind of white supremacists in America sell ice cream?

And how on earth is an ice cream stand oppressing Black people and causing black and brown people to die?

And while we wait for answers to those questions which will never come, the story of the fight being waged for racial justice by All Of Us continues as follows:

“They have been operating on systems of racism and oppression for years now.”

end quotes

An ice cream stand is operating on systems of racism and oppression?

That’s ridiculous!

And stupid.

Getting back to it, we have more as follows:

“It’s a damn shame, because they didn’t know that Schenectady came with heat like this.”

“So, today, what the (expletive) we’re going to do is shut it the (expletive) down.”

The group did what was promised – at least for Sunday.

There were at least five employees inside Bumpy’s Sunday afternoon, and by the end of the event, three had walked out.

All were black men.

end quotes

And there is exactly how stupid this whole horse**** show really is, which is why groups like BLACK LIVES MATTER and this offshoot All Of Us are ridiculed and held in contempt, as they ought to be for peddling such stupidity and then asking us to embrace it and buy into it, as if we were all morons and idiots like them – these All of Us idiots were protesting as “racist” an ice cream stand that employed three Black people, and the purpose of their protest was to destroy the owner’s livelihood and deprive him of a means to earn a living, which is what “justice” in the era of BLACK LIVES MATTER looks like in real life if you should have been unfortunate enough to have been born with skin that is not Black, but is the hated white color.

Getting back to that sick story of the “fight for racial justice,” which really is a fight by the Black folks like Shawn Young and Mikayla Foster of the BLACK LIVES MATTER offshoot All Of Us to to discredit, disenfranchise, and dismantle white people as a people, we have:

The protest gradually moved from the street to the lot directly outside the ice cream parlor, as demonstrators held a sit-in in front of the venue for about an hour.

As attendees inched closer to the shop around 5:15 p.m., some protesters started collecting money for the employees, saying they would buy them out of working for the restaurant.

Attendees raised at least $270 for each of the men who left and promised to help them find new jobs.

One of the workers, Shameil McCoy, was wearing a Bumpy’s shirt – and took it off as protesters cheered.

Some demonstrators later jumped on it and threw it in the pool next to the establishment.

end quotes

What is stupid here and weird as all get out is that this All Of Us crowd was raising money to “buy” the freedom of these Black employees of Bumpy’s ice cream parlor as if they were slaves.

Getting back to the weirdness, and the promise of further violence against people with white skin by these “protestors” in this fight of theirs for “racial justice,” we have:

Organizer Khalifa Jackson, 27, of the group BLX, said Sunday’s protest was just the first step in taking down a number of businesses in local communities “that are built on the foundation of white supremacy and are allowed to thrive in these environments.”

“I think we had a really good turnout today,” Jackson said.

“A lot of people are very passionate here, so of course emotions run high.”

“We’re very frustrated, we’re tired at the end of the day – but I feel like we definitely maintained our initial purpose and mission, which was to shed light on what is going on in this establishment and bringing the community together to remind them just how much we’re worth and how much our lives are valued.”

end quotes

And what a load of bull**** that all is, but such is the “fight for racial justice” here in America today where all it now takes to be a racist and white supremacist is to have white skin and sell ice cream.

Welcome to the New World Order in America today being ushered in by BLACK LIVES MATTER and All of Us whose ideology hails the establishment of the New World Order as the culmination of history’s progress.

http://www.capecharlesmirror.com/news/b ... ent-303945
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Re: POLITICS

Post by thelivyjr »

CNBC

"Trump Covid vaccine czar says side effects ‘significantly noticeable’ in 10% to 15% of recipients"


Berkeley Lovelace Jr. @BerkeleyJr

Published Tue, Dec 1 2020

Key Points

* President Trump’s coronavirus vaccine czar said Pfizer’s and Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccines are safe, with only 10% to 15% of volunteers reporting “significantly noticeable” side effects.

* The side effects can last up to a day and a half, said Dr. Moncef Slaoui, who is leading the Trump administration’s Covid-19 vaccine program Operation Warp Speed.

* A CDC panel is scheduled to vote Tuesday on who will be first to get a vaccine once one has been authorized by U.S. regulators.


President Donald Trump’s coronavirus vaccine czar said Tuesday that Pfizer’s and Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccines are safe, with only 10% to 15% of volunteers reporting side effects that were “significantly noticeable.”

The side effects, which come from the vaccine shots, can last up to a day and a half, said Dr. Moncef Slaoui, who is leading the Trump administration’s Covid-19 vaccine program Operation Warp Speed.

The people who’ve suffered from side effects have reported redness and pain at the injection site as well as fever, chills, muscle aches and headaches, he said, adding most people have no noticeable side effects.

“The longer, more important kind of adverse events such as some autoimmune disease or others have not been reported in a different way between the placebo group and the vaccine group in these two trials, which is very reassuring,” he told The Washington Post.

“I always make sure we say that [while] we know the short term and I’m going to call it midterm effects of the vaccine is now well understood, the very long-term safety is not yet understood by definition.”

Slaoui’s comments come as states prepare to distribute a Covid-19 vaccine in as little as two weeks.

A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention panel is scheduled to vote later Tuesday on who will be first to get a vaccine once one has been authorized by U.S. regulators.

Last month, doctors told the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, an outside group of medical experts that advise the CDC, that officials should talk more about the potential side effects of the vaccines so the public knows what to expect and aren’t scared away from getting a second dose.

Both companies’ vaccines require two doses about a month apart to achieve maximum effectiveness.

“We really need to make patients aware that this is not going to be a walk in the park,” Dr. Sandra Fryhofer of the American Medical Association told the CDC advisory group on Nov. 23.

“They are going to know they had a vaccine."

"They are probably not going to feel wonderful."

"But they’ve got to come back for that second dose.”

Moderna and Pfizer have acknowledged that their vaccines could induce side effects that are similar to symptoms associated with mild Covid-19, such as muscle pain, chills and headache.

Participants in Moderna’s and Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine trials told CNBC in September that they were experiencing high fever, body aches, bad headaches, daylong exhaustion and other symptoms after receiving the shots.


While the symptoms were uncomfortable, and at times intense, the participants said they often went away after a day, sometimes sooner, and that it was better than getting Covid-19.

While the long-term side effects are not well understood yet, Slaoui said it is important to get a vaccine deployed as soon as possible as the pandemic is “killing 2,000 or more than 2,000 people a day.”

“These vaccines with 95% efficacy are an insurance against that,” he said, adding the vaccines have already been tested in more than 50,000 people.

“It will be very important for the most susceptible parts of our population get these vaccines."

"And we will be looking at the safety of these vaccines in real life through very elaborate ... processes and report on it on an ongoing basis.”

During the advisory meeting last week, Patsy Stinchfield, a Children’s Minnesota nurse practitioner, said officials and drugmakers could try talking about the side effects in a more positive way.

She said they could use language such as “response” instead of “adverse reaction.”

“These are immune responses,” said Stinchfield, a past voting member of the committee.

“And so if you feel something after vaccination, you should expect to feel that."

"When you do, it’s normal to have some arm soreness or fatigue, some body aches and maybe even a fever."

"It sounds like in some of these trials, maybe even having to stay home from work.”

Data also provided by Reuters

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/01/trump-c ... ients.html
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Re: POLITICS

Post by thelivyjr »

THE CAPE CHARLES MIRROR December 1, 2020 at 10:49 pm

Paul Plante says:

So, a question here: how do we know that this All of Us crowd shutting down this ice cream stand for being a bastion of racism and white supremacy are a splinter group of BLACK LIVES MATTER?

To which I respond, if a picture is worth a thousand words, if we go to a Spectrum News story entitled “Community Group Says It Will Be ‘Constant Presence’ Demanding Change” by Jaclyn Cangro on June 18, 2020, we see people at an All of Us rally holding signs that link All Of Us to BLACK LIVES MATTER:

https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/capit ... tal-region

And if we then go to an Albany, New York Times Union article entitled “Bumpy’s employees walk out amid protest against alleged racist operator – Hundreds rally against ice cream shop owner’s alleged racist text messages” by Cayla Harris on June 28, 2020, we see a picture of the All Of Us mob blocking off the public street in front of the ice cream stand and front and center in that picture, we see the upraised BLACK POWER fist on a sign with BLM written on it:

https://www.timesunion.com/news/article ... o-19610174

If we scroll through those photos, we get an idea of just how ugly an All Of Us/BLACK LIVES MATTER “protest” can really be, where in the name of the fight for “racial justice” and All Of Us fighting against every system that is set to discredit them, disenfranchise them, and dismantle them as a people, they have commandeered not only a city street, but have taken over private property, as well,

https://www.timesunion.com/news/article ... o-19610189

and clearly intend to use violence to make sure that theirs is the only voice being heard:

https://www.timesunion.com/news/article ... o-19610196

https://www.timesunion.com/news/article ... o-19610181

In the meantime, what we fail to find in any of those photos, and what we fail to see is any “police brutality,” and in fact, scan as hard as we might, despite the threat of violence and the fact that the mob was blocking off a major thoroughfare, what we fail to find is any sign whatsoever of the police, period, precisely because they weren’t there to get involved and then find themselves in big trouble deep for failing to be “sensitive” enough to the needs of the mob that were intent on destroying a man’s life and livelihood because they, the howling mob who now rule our streets, believe he is a racist, which is all it takes anymore to get a howling mob sicced on you in America by All Of Us and BLACK LIVES MATTER.

And that brings us then to the question “what does it mean to extort someone,” the answer to which is “to obtain from a person by force, intimidation, or undue or unlawful use of authority or power.”

In other words, do exactly as All of Us/BLACK LIVES MATTER says to do, and think only as they say is permissible to think, and then you won’t find a howling mob of them on your doorstep, threatening you with violence, which is extortion and what this All Of Us/BLACK LIVES MATTER crowd is doing today is no different than what Democrat terror groups such as the Red Shirts of the Southern United States, white supremacist paramilitary terrorist groups that were active in the late 19th century in the last years of, and after the end of, the Reconstruction era of the United States when politically conservative private terror units adopted red shirts to make themselves more visible and threatening to Southern progressives, both whites and freedmen, were doing in the South after the Civil War,

And that brings us to the question “what is considered coercion,” the answer to which is “the use of intimidation or threats to prevent someone doing something they have a legal right to do,” which is exactly what we are witnessing with regard to these mob scenes outside the ice cream parlor.

And that brings us to the word “brutality” we hear being bandied about almost on a daily basis anymore by these violent BLACK LIVES MATTER protestors.

The word “brutality” means savage physical violence, or the quality of being brutal; cruelty; savagery. a brutal act or practice, or violence or physical force unlawfully exercised toward property and/or persons.

So who is it being brutal here?

Clearly it was not the police, who knew better than to tangle with a BLACK LIVES MATTER howling mob and get themselves in trouble with the “authorities,” as we see in a Daily Gazette article entitled “Bumpy’s owner arrested for allegedly pointing a pellet gun at protesters in Schenectady – The owner’s truck pulled over by police” by Pete DeMola on June 30, 2020, to wit:

City and county sheriff’s deputies were on site Tuesday afternoon to warn the protesters against blocking traffic on State Street, but left by 6:40 p.m..

Afterward, the atmosphere remained tense as the crowd engaged in minor skirmishes with motorists attempting to enter or leave Shirley Lane, which organizers blocked.

end quotes

In America today, if you are Black and are “fighting for racial justice,” then for you, violence is clearly the way to achieve your objectives while the police who are scared of you because you can get them fired run and hide to keep themselves safe.

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Re: POLITICS

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THE CAPE CHARLES MIRROR November 16, 2020 at 9:41 pm

Paul Plante says:

As to the election of the president, this farcical system we have in place today is far removed from what Alexander Hamilton told us we would have in FEDERALIST No. 68, The Mode of Electing the President, from the New York Packet to the People of the State of New York on Friday, March 14, 1788, where Hamilton started out the essay as follows:

THE mode of appointment of the Chief Magistrate of the United States is almost the only part of the system, of any consequence, which has escaped without severe censure, or which has received the slightest mark of approbation from its opponents.

The most plausible of these, who has appeared in print, has even deigned to admit that the election of the President is pretty well guarded.

I venture somewhat further, and hesitate not to affirm, that if the manner of it be not perfect, it is at least excellent.

It unites in an eminent degree all the advantages, the union of which was to be wished for.

It was desirable that the sense of the people should operate in the choice of the person to whom so important a trust was to be confided.

This end will be answered by committing the right of making it, not to any preestablished body, but to men chosen by the people for the special purpose, and at the particular conjuncture.

end quotes

Now, there is an important statement by Hamilton – that those electors were to be chosen by the people, which is no longer the case today where the choosing each State’s electors is now a two-part process, and where first, the political parties in each State choose slates of potential electors sometime before the general election, and second, during the general election, the voters in each State select their State’s electors by casting their ballots.

Except we are choosing who the political parties have given us to choose, which is not really a choice at all, which defeats the purpose of the electoral college as envisioned by Hamilton, to wit:

It was equally desirable, that the immediate election should be made by men most capable of analyzing the qualities adapted to the station, and acting under circumstances favorable to deliberation, and to a judicious combination of all the reasons and inducements which were proper to govern their choice.

end quotes

And that is gone right out the window now, especially today where the electors have to take an oath to stay true to that party’s choice, so that the immediate election is no longer made by men most capable of analyzing the qualities adapted to the station, and acting under circumstances favorable to deliberation, and to a judicious combination of all the reasons and inducements which were proper to govern their choice.

Their choice is governed by the political parties, not the people, which is why we now have been dished up an apparently senile geriatric specimen who raves like a maniac and who mid-sentence forgets what it was he was saying in the first half of the sentence.

Getting back to Hamilton, he goes on as follows:

A small number of persons, selected by their fellow-citizens from the general mass, will be most likely to possess the information and discernment requisite to such complicated investigations.

It was also peculiarly desirable to afford as little opportunity as possible to tumult and disorder.

This evil was not least to be dreaded in the election of a magistrate, who was to have so important an agency in the administration of the government as the President of the United States.

But the precautions which have been so happily concerted in the system under consideration, promise an effectual security against this mischief.

end quotes

Except under this party system we are stuck with now, largely out of ignorance by the American people who are merely sheep to be sheared anymore, they don’t, which takes us back to Hamilton as follows:

The choice of SEVERAL, to form an intermediate body of electors, will be much less apt to convulse the community with any extraordinary or violent movements, than the choice of ONE who was himself to be the final object of the public wishes.

And as the electors, chosen in each State, are to assemble and vote in the State in which they are chosen, this detached and divided situation will expose them much less to heats and ferments, which might be communicated from them to the people, than if they were all to be convened at one time, in one place.

Nothing was more to be desired than that every practicable obstacle should be opposed to cabal, intrigue, and corruption.

end quotes

Yeah, right, Al!

In the original scheme of things, it might have been that nothing was more to be desired than that every practicable obstacle should be opposed to cabal, intrigue, and corruption, but that has gone out the window, as well, so that cabal, intrigue and corruption in the selection of the president is now the order of the day.

Getting back to Hamilton:

These most deadly adversaries of republican government might naturally have been expected to make their approaches from more than one quarter, but chiefly from the desire in foreign powers to gain an improper ascendant in our councils.

How could they better gratify this, than by raising a creature of their own to the chief magistracy of the Union?

end quotes

And here I have to laugh out loud reading that as I think of the Chinese and Iranians and maybe the Russians and Ukrainians all patting themselves on the back for raising their creature “Corn Pop” Biden to the chief magistracy of OUR Union, which again takes us back to Hamilton, to wit:

But the convention have guarded against all danger of this sort, with the most provident and judicious attention.

They have not made the appointment of the President to depend on any preexisting bodies of men, who might be tampered with beforehand to prostitute their votes; but they have referred it in the first instance to an immediate act of the people of America, to be exerted in the choice of persons for the temporary and sole purpose of making the appointment.

And they have excluded from eligibility to this trust, all those who from situation might be suspected of too great devotion to the President in office.

end quotes

And more laughing out loud at that because the appointment of the President today depends on a preexisting body of men and women who have been tampered with beforehand to prostitute their votes, or they wouldn’t be picked as party electors in the first place.

Hamilton continues from there as follows:

No senator, representative, or other person holding a place of trust or profit under the United States, can be of the numbers of the electors.

Thus without corrupting the body of the people, the immediate agents in the election will at least enter upon the task free from any sinister bias.

end quotes

HA HA HA HA HA HAH!

If they are free from bias, they won’t be picked as electors, plain and simple.

Back to Hamilton:

Their transient existence, and their detached situation, already taken notice of, afford a satisfactory prospect of their continuing so, to the conclusion of it.

The business of corruption, when it is to embrace so considerable a number of men, requires time as well as means.

Nor would it be found easy suddenly to embark them, dispersed as they would be over thirteen States, in any combinations founded upon motives, which though they could not properly be denominated corrupt, might yet be of a nature to mislead them from their duty.

Another and no less important desideratum was, that the Executive should be independent for his continuance in office on all but the people themselves.

He might otherwise be tempted to sacrifice his duty to his complaisance for those whose favor was necessary to the duration of his official consequence.

This advantage will also be secured, by making his re-election to depend on a special body of representatives, deputed by the society for the single purpose of making the important choice.

All these advantages will happily combine in the plan devised by the convention; which is, that the people of each State shall choose a number of persons as electors, equal to the number of senators and representatives of such State in the national government, who shall assemble within the State, and vote for some fit person as President.

Their votes, thus given, are to be transmitted to the seat of the national government, and the person who may happen to have a majority of the whole number of votes will be the President.

But as a majority of the votes might not always happen to centre in one man, and as it might be unsafe to permit less than a majority to be conclusive, it is provided that, in such a contingency, the House of Representatives shall select out of the candidates who shall have the five highest number of votes, the man who in their opinion may be best qualified for the office.

The process of election affords a moral certainty, that the office of President will never fall to the lot of any man who is not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications.

Talents for low intrigue, and the little arts of popularity, may alone suffice to elevate a man to the first honors in a single State; but it will require other talents, and a different kind of merit, to establish him in the esteem and confidence of the whole Union, or of so considerable a portion of it as would be necessary to make him a successful candidate for the distinguished office of President of the United States.

It will not be too strong to say, that there will be a constant probability of seeing the station filled by characters pre-eminent for ability and virtue.

And this will be thought no inconsiderable recommendation of the Constitution, by those who are able to estimate the share which the executive in every government must necessarily have in its good or ill administration.

Though we cannot acquiesce in the political heresy of the poet who says: “For forms of government let fools contest That which is best administered is best,” yet we may safely pronounce, that the true test of a good government is its aptitude and tendency to produce a good administration.

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Re: POLITICS

Post by thelivyjr »

THE CAPE CHARLES MIRROR December 2, 2020 at 10:18 pm

Paul Plante says:

So, as we all have a really good look here courtesy of the Cape Charles Mirror at what is called “community organizing” is all about in this Age of BLACK LIVES MATTER, which so-called “community organizing” is nothing more than being able to raise a howling mob at your command and then wield that mob as a political weapon as Shawn Young and Mikayla Foster of the BLACK LIVES MATTER offshoot All Of Us are clearly able to do, let us for a moment go back in time to the last century BC, long regarded by some historians as one of the most pivotal times in the history of the world, just as are these times we are now in today in this country pivotal times in our history, to another time in history when the use of mobs as political weapons in Rome was rampant, to get an idea of what our own future might look like if Shawn Young of the BLACK LIVES MATTER offshoot All Of Us is able to make his wish come true by having Democrat Kathy Sheehan, the mayor of the violent sanctuary city of Albany, New York and her city council cut off all funding for the Albany, New York Police Department, which goal was clearly expressed in the Albany, New York Times Union story entitled “Activists urge city to take stronger stance on police reform” by Steve Hughes on Nov. 6, 2020, as follows:

ALBANY — Dozens of residents and activists spoke out about their concerns with the city’s police reform process Friday night.

Standing on the sidewalk on Second Street outside of VanRennselaer Park in Arbor Hill, they said the city’s plan moved too slowly and that they did not believe it would bring about meaningful change in how the police department and community members viewed each other.

The entire way the city approaches policing has to be changed, said organizer Shawn Young, co-founder of All of Us.

“It’s about transformation, it’s about tearing down what we have now and building something better,” he said.

end quotes

It’s about transformation, alright.

It’s about tearing down what we have now, which to the Marxists is the hated symbol of the “state” they want to tear down to take us back to the communism which existed prior to the rise of the “state,” that being the police, and replacing them with rule by mob, or ochlocracy as the ancient Greeks, who knew it well called it, which is the rule of government by a mob or mass of people and the intimidation of legitimate authorities.

Going back in time, it was during that time in Roman history, this just before their civil war, that the greatest of Romans vied for the fate of the Republic – Pompey and Caesar, Cicero and Crassus, names that became legends, along with Publius Claudius Pulcher who is remembered to this day for his control over the mob in Rome, where he was known as the King of the Street.

What Clodius was seeking, and what he got, was the post of “Tribune of the Plebs”.

A Tribune was a Plebian elected by Plebians.

They had several unrivalled powers, most of which stemmed from one simple fact – it was an automatic death sentence to harm a Tribune.

He won the eternal loyalty of the Plebs by instituting an official Dole of free grain to the poor, something that would become a key part of Roman life in the centuries to come.

He also legalised associations “of a semi-political nature” – in other words, lower-class political pressure groups that could organise mob violence to order.

Ah, yes, the ability to organize mob violence to order – there is where the political power of Shawn Young of All Of Us/BLACK LIVES MATTER stems from today, which makes him a modern-day Clodius Pulcher, who himself led several such groups, and soon became the “king of the streets” of Rome.

His power started to wane when his relations with the Triumvirate began to fray.

Clodius’ power went to his head, and rumours that Pompey planned to allow Cicero to return from from exile drove him to begin harassing him, reportedly even trying an assassination attempt.

This made the Triumvirate realise they had created a monster.

An attempt was made to recall Cicero from exile at the beginning of 57 BC, when Clodius’ term of office ended, but Clodius used his gangs to break up the meetings.

Pompey was forced to allow the new tribunes, including a firebrand named Milo, to raise their own gangs in opposition to Clodius.

Mobs in opposition to other mobs!

Think about it, people!

There is where people like this Shawn Young of All Of Us/BLACK LIVES MATTER are taking us as they try to jam their dogma and ideology down our throats with a two by four with their mobs.

Getting back to what came before in Rome, Milo and Clodius soon became bitter rivals, as they each fought for control of the Plebians.

Clodius had himself elected to a minor public office in 57 BC, for example, to avoid being prosecuted by Milo.

He then himself had Milo prosecuted for public violence.

The violence in question consisted of fighting off the mobs Clodius had sent to smash his house up.

The two men continued their private war for several years, until it reached its climax in 52 BC.

The two men were travelling outside of the city, and their parties met “by chance”, and a scuffle broke out that escalated into a full blown battle.

Later accounts would have it that one or the other was laying in ambush, of course.

As a result of the fight Clodius was wounded, and he fled to a nearby inn.

Milo won the battle, and he and his men then found the injured Clodius.

Milo decided this was too good an opportunity to pass up, and had his men murder the defenceless man and abandon his body by the side of the road.

Of course, things didn’t end there.

A traveller found and recognised Clodius’ body, and had it sent back to Rome.

There his wife Fulvia organised his followers to take it and march on the senate’s meeting house, the Curia.

There they drove the senators out before setting the building alight as a funeral pyre for their fallen leader.

In response to this the Senate appointed Pompey to take on command of the city to restore order, an action which would lead inevitably to the Roman civil war that saw Caesar come to power.

Milo was tried for the murder of Crassus, and Cicero (of course) spoke in his defence.

The great orator was intimidated by the mob in the audience, and his delivery was unusually poor.

Milo was convicted and exiled, a verdict which Pompey allegedly forced the jury to pass in order to quiet the streets.

He, like many others, would perish in the decade of civil war that was to come.

Fulvia married Mark Anthony, one of Caesar’s protegé, and brought Clodius’ gangs to his side.

She may have prompted his enmity against Cicero, who he had executed in 43 BC.

One story recounts that when the great orator’s head was put on display, she pulled out his tongue and jabbed it with a hairpin in revenge for the words it had spoken.

In many ways the story of Clodius parallels that of the end of the Republic.

He began as a typical Patrician youth, in military service, before falling into the decadence that marked the disintegration of the traditional social order.

As the old politics were superseded by outright violence (something which had begun much earlier) he gradually became less a politician, and more a gang lord.

And in the end, like so many, he was consumed by the violence he created, relegated to a footnote in the tales of better men.

In our times today, is that really a road we want to go down?

Or be taken down?

Something to think about, anyway.

Because once started, civil wars are hard to stop.

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Re: POLITICS

Post by thelivyjr »

THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

"Man who fell through Bronx sidewalk into a pit of rats sues building owner"


By John Annese, New York Daily News

Dec 01, 2020 at 9:35 PM

A man who plunged into a pile of squirming rats after a sidewalk opened up underneath him is suing the Bronx building owner responsible for maintenance of the property that gave way.

Leonard Shoulders, 33, broke his arm and leg after tumbling 15 feet Oct. 24 — and though he was in pain from the fall, he dared not let out a scream.

“He didn’t want the rats going into his mouth,” his brother, Greg White, told the Daily News.

Shoulders was walking to a bus stop on Third Ave. near E. 183rd St. in Belmont when the ground cracked open and he dropped into the dilapidated vault below.

Surveillance video obtained by CBS New York shows the exact moment he fell.

The city Buildings Department issued a full vacate order on the building next to the sinkhole, after finding the vault, or basement space underneath the sidewalk, had fallen into disrepair.

In a lawsuit filed Monday in Bronx Supreme Court, Shoulders accused the building owner, EH & HD 183rd Realty LLC, of failing to maintain the sidewalk or the basement below.

John Annese has covered crime and breaking news for the New York Daily News since 2015. Before that, he reported on crime, courts, and the Staten Island opioid epidemic for the Staten Island Advance. He is the recipient of several New York State Associated Press Association Awards.

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Re: POLITICS

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"Assembly speaker's chief of staff lived 'opulent' lifestyle from 'unexplained wealth' - Legislative aide and her husband, accused of drug trafficking, deposited hundreds of thousands of dollars"

Brendan J. Lyons, Albany, New York Times Union

Dec. 1, 2020

Updated: Dec. 2, 2020 10:39 a.m.

ALBANY — The chief of staff to state Assembly Speaker Carl E. Heastie and her husband lived a lavish lifestyle that federal prosecutors said was apparently funded by drug trafficking and included large expenditures on designer clothing and accessories — as well as $9,000 in hair extensions in a single year.

The allegations were laid out in a court filing Monday in a cocaine-trafficking case involving Orlando Dennis of the Bronx, who is the husband of Heastie's chief of staff Jevonni Brooks-Dennis.

"The defendant’s wife is a government employee whose reported income does not explain the couple’s wealth," prosecutors wrote.

Between 2015 and 2019, Dennis made more than 630 cash deposits totaling more than $600,000 into his bank accounts.

He was employed as a $25,000-a-year delivery driver with an annual take-home pay of less than $10,000 after money was withheld for his child-support obligations.

The bank records showed hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash deposits and withdrawals by both Dennis and his wife, prosecutors said, that the government described as "unexplained wealth."

"For instance, from June 2018 through December 2019, the defendant spent more than $12,000 at Christian Louboutin, more than $1,500 at Gucci, more than $1,300 at Burberry, and more than $1,000 each at Louis Vuitton, Moschino, and Prada," the U.S. attorney's office wrote in a pre-trial motion filed Monday.

"The defendant’s wife’s records for 2018 to 2020 include four transactions totaling nearly $7,000 at Christian Louboutin and nearly $9,000 in hair extensions in a single year."

Prosecutors also outlined what they said was a "calculated and coordinated effort" by Dennis to "carefully structure deposits," including many that were made by his wife.

During a two-day period in May 2019, for instance, Dennis and his wife made a series of deposits ranging from $300 to $4,000 that added up to more than $15,000 in cash in their respective bank accounts.

Dennis was arrested on federal drug charges in January at John F. Kennedy International Airport for his alleged role in trafficking $100,000 worth of cocaine from Jamaica seven months earlier.

He was arrested after flying in from the Caribbean island, where he'd been for about a month.

It's been an animated fall for the Assembly.

In October, Joseph Brady, the longtime legislative director for state Assemblyman Peter J. Abbate Jr., was arrested on charges of sexually abusing an incapacitated 18-year-old woman at his Watervliet apartment.

In a follow-up story, the Times Union revealed that the 40-year-old Brady led a double life as a co-founder of a notorious chapter of the biker gang East Coast Syndicate.

The Capital Region motorcycle club formed about six years ago and has since attracted the attention of law enforcement for its members' alleged affinity for drug use and violence.

The group is also the focus of a homicide investigation in Saratoga County.

Abbatte fired Brady following his arrest in Watervliet.

In Monday's court filing in Dennis' case, prosecutors argued for a judge to let them use evidence of his prior drug dealing.

They have not accused Brooks-Dennis of criminal wrongdoing in that case, but mention her prominently in the filing and note that she and Dennis made large cash deposits into their bank accounts on the same days.

"Evidence of the defendant’s involvement in prior narcotics trafficking, including messages regarding drug prices and photographs depicting large quantities of drugs, is probative of his knowledge and intent to import, possess, and distribute large quantities of cocaine," the U.S. attorney's office wrote.

Mike Whyland, a spokesman for Heastie, said Brooks-Dennis remains the speaker's chief of staff.

The latest Assembly payroll records indicate she was paid about $75,000 in a six-month period — from September 2019 to March.


The case against Dennis took shape in June 2019 when U.S. Customs agents discovered a large amount of cocaine in a bag that was left unclaimed on a baggage carousel at John F. Kennedy International Airport.

The bag had been flown there on a flight from Jamaica, where Dennis had been that month.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents discovered text messages between Dennis and two alleged co-conspirators — Ryan Smalling and William Brown.

Smalling, a Swissport airport employee, texted Dennis there was a "big problem," the complaint said.

Dennis allegedly told agents he knew Brown was a narcotics trafficker involved in cocaine and marijuana and that he had sent a bag to the United States from Jamaica.

Smalling and another JFK employee exchanged text messages in which Smalling said "that the people who had sent the bag were now saying that they were going to kill him."

Dennis had denied knowing that the bag contained drugs, according to a federal complaint.

Notably, the same month the suitcase was seized, the cash deposits made by Dennis — and often his wife — fell well below their monthly norm, to just more than $5,500.

In September 2019, Smalling and Brown were indicted on charges of conspiracy to import, distribute and possess cocaine.

Smalling pleaded guilty to the full indictment, while Brown pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to import cocaine.

Brendan J. Lyons is a Managing Editor for the Times Union overseeing the Capitol Bureau and Investigations. Lyons joined the Times Union in 1998 as a crime reporter before being assigned to the investigations team. He became editor of the investigations team in 2013 and began overseeing the Capitol Bureau in 2017. You can reach him at blyons@timesunion.com or (518) 454-5547.

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