MARKETWATCH
"Birx warns of pandemic’s dangerous ‘new phase,’ as Pelosi assails her credibility"
By Mike Murphy
Published: Aug. 2, 2020 at 6:44 p.m. ET
Dr. Deborah Birx, the coordinator of the White House’s coronavirus task force, warned Sunday that the COVID-19 pandemic has entered a “new phase,” while House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she has no confidence in Birx.
Speaking Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Birx said the coronavirus is much more widespread than it was months ago.
“What we are seeing today is different from March and April."
"It is extraordinarily widespread."
"It’s into the rural as equal urban areas,” Birx said.
“To everybody who lives in a rural area, you are not immune or protected from this virus.”
Birx told CNN that people need to keep wearing mask and distancing, and states need to take more precautions and restrict large gatherings, noting that each state needs unique, “dramatically tailored” plans.
She also said that people need to understand the risks of vacationing in certain spots.
“If you’ve chosen to go on vacation into a hot spot, you really need to come back and assume you’re infected,” she said.
Meanwhile, Pelosi, the California Democrat, told ABC News’ “This Week” that Birx should be doing more to refute President Donald Trump’s inaccurate remarks about the coronavirus.
Unlike Dr. Anthony Fauci — who Pelosi has praised — Birx has not made a point of publicly correcting the president.
“I think the president is spreading disinformation about the virus and she is his appointee,” Pelosi told ABC News.
“So I don’t have confidence there, no.”
Pelosi pointedly did not deny a report by Politico last week that said she had called Birx “the worst” in a meeting with Trump administration officials, accusing her of spreading disinformation.
Birx defended herself on CNN, saying she’s willing to stake her career on using scientific data to “save more lives,” and suggested Pelosi’s comments were in response to a New York Times report in July — which Birx has disputed — that claimed Birx was too eager to embrace overly optimistic projections about the pandemic.
The White House on Sunday decried Pelosi’s criticism.
“It is deeply irresponsible of Speaker Pelosi to repeatedly try to undermine & create public distrust in Dr Birx, the top public health professional on the coronavirus task force,” Alyssa Farah, the White House’s director of strategic communications, tweeted Sunday.
“It’s also just wrong."
"Period."
"Hard stop.”
As of Sunday evening, the U.S. had more than 4.6 million confirmed COVID-19 cases and nearly 155,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins data, both figures by far the most of any other country.
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/birx- ... _headlines
THE MAGA-MAN DONALD TRUMP
Re: THE MAGA-MAN DONALD TRUMP
MARKETWATCH
"Treasury sees $2 trillion in borrowing over the rest of the year"
By Greg Robb
Published: Aug. 3, 2020 at 4:24 p.m. ET
The U.S. Treasury Department said Monday it expects to borrow $2 trillion over the rest of the year as the federal government’s takes on debt to finance the response to the coronavirus pandemic.
In the third quarter, the Treasury now expects to borrow $947 billion in net marketable debt.
That is $270 billion higher than estimated in May.
The department assumes a cash balance of $800 billion.
Looking ahead to the fourth quarter, Treasury said it expects to borrow $1.2 trillion in net marketable debt with a cash balance maintained at $800 billion.
In a statement, Treasury said its new borrowing estimates for the third and fourth quarters “assume $1 trillion of additional borrowing need in anticipation of additional legislation being passed in response to the COVID-19 outbreak.”
Talks of another package remained deadlocked on Capitol Hill.
Treasury borrowed $2.75 trillion in net marketable debt in the second quarter and ended with a cash balance of $1.72 trillion.
This was lower than the Treasury’s prior $3 trillion estimate, which included a cash balance of $800 billion.
Analysts say the rush of new issuance is unlikely to dent appetite for government bonds this year, as the Federal Reserve’s bond-buying and pledge to keep policy easy have kept bond yields pinned down near their record lows.
The 10-year Treasury note yield was up 2.6 basis points to 0.562% on Monday.
Bond prices move inversely to yields.
Additional financing details related to the Treasury’s quarterly refunding will be released at 8:30 a.m. Eastern on Wednesday.
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/treas ... cle_inline
"Treasury sees $2 trillion in borrowing over the rest of the year"
By Greg Robb
Published: Aug. 3, 2020 at 4:24 p.m. ET
The U.S. Treasury Department said Monday it expects to borrow $2 trillion over the rest of the year as the federal government’s takes on debt to finance the response to the coronavirus pandemic.
In the third quarter, the Treasury now expects to borrow $947 billion in net marketable debt.
That is $270 billion higher than estimated in May.
The department assumes a cash balance of $800 billion.
Looking ahead to the fourth quarter, Treasury said it expects to borrow $1.2 trillion in net marketable debt with a cash balance maintained at $800 billion.
In a statement, Treasury said its new borrowing estimates for the third and fourth quarters “assume $1 trillion of additional borrowing need in anticipation of additional legislation being passed in response to the COVID-19 outbreak.”
Talks of another package remained deadlocked on Capitol Hill.
Treasury borrowed $2.75 trillion in net marketable debt in the second quarter and ended with a cash balance of $1.72 trillion.
This was lower than the Treasury’s prior $3 trillion estimate, which included a cash balance of $800 billion.
Analysts say the rush of new issuance is unlikely to dent appetite for government bonds this year, as the Federal Reserve’s bond-buying and pledge to keep policy easy have kept bond yields pinned down near their record lows.
The 10-year Treasury note yield was up 2.6 basis points to 0.562% on Monday.
Bond prices move inversely to yields.
Additional financing details related to the Treasury’s quarterly refunding will be released at 8:30 a.m. Eastern on Wednesday.
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/treas ... cle_inline
Re: THE MAGA-MAN DONALD TRUMP
MARKETWATCH
"Michelle Obama blames Trump for contributing to her depression"
By Shawn Langlois
Published: Aug. 5, 2020 at 5:28 p.m. ET
Former first lady Michelle Obama opened up about her struggles with a “form of low-grade depression” in a new episode of her podcast posted on Wednesday.
She pinned some of the blame on President Donald Trump, but said it runs deeper than that.
‘I’d be remiss to say that part of this depression is also a result of what we’re seeing in terms of the protests, the continued racial unrest, that has plagued this country since its birth."
"I have to say that waking up to the news, waking up to how this administration has or has not responded, waking up to yet another story of a Black man or a Black person somehow being dehumanized, or hurt or killed, or falsely accused of something, it is exhausting."
"And it has led to a weight that I haven’t felt in my life, in a while.’
That’s Obama explaining her current funk to Michelle Norris, a former NPR host.
“The hypocrisy of it, day in and day out, is dispiriting,” Obama added.
She said she deals with the negativity by sticking to a routine, a tool she picked up during her many years navigating the White House spotlight.
Still, it’s not easy.
“I’m waking up in the middle of the night, ’cause I’m worrying about something, or there’s a heaviness,” she said.
“I try to make sure I get a workout in, although there have been periods throughout this quarantine, where I just have felt too low..."
"I’ve gone through those emotional highs and lows that I think everybody feels, where you just don’t feel yourself.”
Obama, of course, isn’t alone.
A recent study by the National Center for Health Statistics found that a third of Americans are showing signs of clinical anxiety and depression during the pandemic.
Obama said that family time helps, though her husband and children usually spend the day apart before coming together each evening for dinner and other activities.
“Puzzles have become big,” she said.
“The girls are into them."
"We’re all sitting on the floor around the table where the puzzle is now permanently set up and then we sit down for dinner.”
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/miche ... _headlines
"Michelle Obama blames Trump for contributing to her depression"
By Shawn Langlois
Published: Aug. 5, 2020 at 5:28 p.m. ET
Former first lady Michelle Obama opened up about her struggles with a “form of low-grade depression” in a new episode of her podcast posted on Wednesday.
She pinned some of the blame on President Donald Trump, but said it runs deeper than that.
‘I’d be remiss to say that part of this depression is also a result of what we’re seeing in terms of the protests, the continued racial unrest, that has plagued this country since its birth."
"I have to say that waking up to the news, waking up to how this administration has or has not responded, waking up to yet another story of a Black man or a Black person somehow being dehumanized, or hurt or killed, or falsely accused of something, it is exhausting."
"And it has led to a weight that I haven’t felt in my life, in a while.’
That’s Obama explaining her current funk to Michelle Norris, a former NPR host.
“The hypocrisy of it, day in and day out, is dispiriting,” Obama added.
She said she deals with the negativity by sticking to a routine, a tool she picked up during her many years navigating the White House spotlight.
Still, it’s not easy.
“I’m waking up in the middle of the night, ’cause I’m worrying about something, or there’s a heaviness,” she said.
“I try to make sure I get a workout in, although there have been periods throughout this quarantine, where I just have felt too low..."
"I’ve gone through those emotional highs and lows that I think everybody feels, where you just don’t feel yourself.”
Obama, of course, isn’t alone.
A recent study by the National Center for Health Statistics found that a third of Americans are showing signs of clinical anxiety and depression during the pandemic.
Obama said that family time helps, though her husband and children usually spend the day apart before coming together each evening for dinner and other activities.
“Puzzles have become big,” she said.
“The girls are into them."
"We’re all sitting on the floor around the table where the puzzle is now permanently set up and then we sit down for dinner.”
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/miche ... _headlines
Re: THE MAGA-MAN DONALD TRUMP
MARKETWATCH
"Republican senator calls Trump’s stimulus executive order ‘unconstitutional slop’"
By Greg Robb
Published: Aug. 9, 2020 at 11:37 a.m. ET
President Donald Trump’s executive order and memorandums ostensibly providing relief amid the intractable coronavirus pandemic don’t seem feasible or legal, experts said Saturday.
One Republican lawmaker, Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska, called Trump’s unilateral moves “unconstitutional slop.”
“President Obama did not have the power to unilaterally rewrite immigration law with DACA and President Trump does not have the power to unilaterally rewrite the payroll tax law,” Sasse said in a statement.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Trump’s rival in the 2016 presidential election, in an MSNBC interview called the executive actions signed on Saturday at Trump’s golf club in Bedminster, N.J., “a stunt.”
Trump made an end run around Congress on Saturday with an executive order and three memoranda aimed at boosting the economy, but analysts said the wording of the orders raised more questions than the answers provided.
For instance, the executive order will allow companies to avoid collecting payroll taxes, but analysts said workers would still be on the hook to pay the taxes by next April 15.
Trump, prodded by some of his economic advisers, has been a vocal fan of a payroll-tax holiday, but the tax break is not popular among Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill, as these taxes fund the Social Security program.
One Trump memorandum would provide $400 a week in extra unemployment benefits.
The federal money would come from disaster relief funds.
Analysts questioned the wisdom of using such funds with the U.S. hurricane season ahead.
Cash-strapped states would be required to chip in $100 of the extra benefit.
The program could last just four weeks before it runs out of money,
Ernis Tedeschi, a former Treasury Department economist, tweeted that he didn’t think the unemployment insurance plan would work:
The Trump memorandum that on its face extends the CARES Act’s eviction moratorium merely asks whether certain agencies could “maybe do something” about evictions, said Bharat Ramamurti, a member of the COVID-19 Congressional Oversight Commission, in a tweet:
Congressional Democratic leaders issued a joint statement condemning the executive actions as feckless and urging Republicans to return to the negotiating table.
Sen. Charles Schumer, Democrat of New York, and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, from California, called Trump’s actions “unworkable, weak and narrow.”
Diane Swonk, chief economist at Grant Thornton, agreed that Congress needs to pass legislation.
The July employment report showed that job growth is slowing as the coronavirus pandemic spreads.
“The crisis is real, while the economy has already shown signs of losing momentum.” Swonk said in a tweet.
The House passed a next-phase coronavirus relief package called the HEROES Act in May, but the Senate and White House opted to remain on pause till public pressure built when the benefits provided by the prior program expired at the end of July.
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/trump ... cle_inline
"Republican senator calls Trump’s stimulus executive order ‘unconstitutional slop’"
By Greg Robb
Published: Aug. 9, 2020 at 11:37 a.m. ET
President Donald Trump’s executive order and memorandums ostensibly providing relief amid the intractable coronavirus pandemic don’t seem feasible or legal, experts said Saturday.
One Republican lawmaker, Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska, called Trump’s unilateral moves “unconstitutional slop.”
“President Obama did not have the power to unilaterally rewrite immigration law with DACA and President Trump does not have the power to unilaterally rewrite the payroll tax law,” Sasse said in a statement.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Trump’s rival in the 2016 presidential election, in an MSNBC interview called the executive actions signed on Saturday at Trump’s golf club in Bedminster, N.J., “a stunt.”
Trump made an end run around Congress on Saturday with an executive order and three memoranda aimed at boosting the economy, but analysts said the wording of the orders raised more questions than the answers provided.
For instance, the executive order will allow companies to avoid collecting payroll taxes, but analysts said workers would still be on the hook to pay the taxes by next April 15.
Trump, prodded by some of his economic advisers, has been a vocal fan of a payroll-tax holiday, but the tax break is not popular among Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill, as these taxes fund the Social Security program.
One Trump memorandum would provide $400 a week in extra unemployment benefits.
The federal money would come from disaster relief funds.
Analysts questioned the wisdom of using such funds with the U.S. hurricane season ahead.
Cash-strapped states would be required to chip in $100 of the extra benefit.
The program could last just four weeks before it runs out of money,
Ernis Tedeschi, a former Treasury Department economist, tweeted that he didn’t think the unemployment insurance plan would work:
The Trump memorandum that on its face extends the CARES Act’s eviction moratorium merely asks whether certain agencies could “maybe do something” about evictions, said Bharat Ramamurti, a member of the COVID-19 Congressional Oversight Commission, in a tweet:
Congressional Democratic leaders issued a joint statement condemning the executive actions as feckless and urging Republicans to return to the negotiating table.
Sen. Charles Schumer, Democrat of New York, and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, from California, called Trump’s actions “unworkable, weak and narrow.”
Diane Swonk, chief economist at Grant Thornton, agreed that Congress needs to pass legislation.
The July employment report showed that job growth is slowing as the coronavirus pandemic spreads.
“The crisis is real, while the economy has already shown signs of losing momentum.” Swonk said in a tweet.
The House passed a next-phase coronavirus relief package called the HEROES Act in May, but the Senate and White House opted to remain on pause till public pressure built when the benefits provided by the prior program expired at the end of July.
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/trump ... cle_inline
Re: THE MAGA-MAN DONALD TRUMP
MARKETWATCH
"Paul Krugman: Trump’s payroll tax cut is ‘the hydroxychloroquine of economic policy’"
By Nicole Lyn Pesce
Published: Aug. 10, 2020 at 4:31 p.m. ET
President Trump’s bold move to bypass Congress by signing his own executive order and memorandums for coronavirus relief over the weekend drew plenty of strong reactions from both Democrats and Republicans.
His actions to defer payroll taxes and replace the expired supplemental $600 unemployment benefit with a plan that would pay up to $400, in particular, drew questions about their effectiveness, and whether the president has the right to overwrite the legislative branch of U.S. government.
Nobel Prize-winning economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman is among the most vocal critics, calling payroll tax cuts “the hydroxychloroquine of economic policy” in both a CNN interview and on his official Twitter account on Sunday.
His dig harks back to the fervid belief by some during the pandemic, including the president, that the malaria drug would be a silver bullet against COVID-19.
That has not proven to be the case.
Krugman said that payroll tax cuts are a “known bad idea” on CNN, adding, “Even Senate Republicans basically said, ‘Let’s forget about that.'"
"'That’s a really stupid idea,’” during deliberations for a new relief package.
Indeed, Republican Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska called the executive order “unconstitutional slop” in a statement on Sunday.
“President Obama did not have the power to unilaterally rewrite immigration law with DACA and President Trump does not have the power to unilaterally rewrite the payroll tax law,” he said.
Top Democratic senators Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer also piled on, releasing a statement calling the president’s actions “unworkable, weak and narrow.”
Some experts told MarketWatch that they were skeptical whether the order would even bump up take-home money all that much per paycheck.
But Trump supporters such as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) praised the executive decision.
“Struggling Americans need action now,” McConnell said in a statement on Saturday.
“Since Democrats have sabotaged backroom talks with absurd demands that would not help working people, I support President Trump exploring his options to get unemployment benefits and other relief to the people who need them the most.”
In a Twitter thread, Krugman wrote that payroll taxes help fund Social Security and Medicare, and so cutting them would “undermine the finances of programs that are absolutely crucial to the lives of older Americans.”
“It’s a known quack remedy that everybody who knows anything has said is useless and dangerous, including Republicans.”
What’s more, he said that combining a payroll tax cut with a new and more complicated unemployment benefits program, especially after many people struggled to claim their benefits from the first Cares Act package, could have “dangerous side effects.”
“I’m extremely worried about a greater recession coming from it,” said Krugman.
Trump announced last week that he was eyeing an executive order after Congress failed to compromise and pass a new coronavirus rescue package, even though using his executive power to provide economic aid over the legislative branch is a legal gray area.
Stocks opened modestly higher off the news on Monday, however, with analysts noting that even if the executive orders are illegal or ineffective, they could give Congress a kick in the pants to finally reach an agreement on a bipartisan stimulus plan.
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/paul- ... _headlines
"Paul Krugman: Trump’s payroll tax cut is ‘the hydroxychloroquine of economic policy’"
By Nicole Lyn Pesce
Published: Aug. 10, 2020 at 4:31 p.m. ET
President Trump’s bold move to bypass Congress by signing his own executive order and memorandums for coronavirus relief over the weekend drew plenty of strong reactions from both Democrats and Republicans.
His actions to defer payroll taxes and replace the expired supplemental $600 unemployment benefit with a plan that would pay up to $400, in particular, drew questions about their effectiveness, and whether the president has the right to overwrite the legislative branch of U.S. government.
Nobel Prize-winning economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman is among the most vocal critics, calling payroll tax cuts “the hydroxychloroquine of economic policy” in both a CNN interview and on his official Twitter account on Sunday.
His dig harks back to the fervid belief by some during the pandemic, including the president, that the malaria drug would be a silver bullet against COVID-19.
That has not proven to be the case.
Krugman said that payroll tax cuts are a “known bad idea” on CNN, adding, “Even Senate Republicans basically said, ‘Let’s forget about that.'"
"'That’s a really stupid idea,’” during deliberations for a new relief package.
Indeed, Republican Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska called the executive order “unconstitutional slop” in a statement on Sunday.
“President Obama did not have the power to unilaterally rewrite immigration law with DACA and President Trump does not have the power to unilaterally rewrite the payroll tax law,” he said.
Top Democratic senators Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer also piled on, releasing a statement calling the president’s actions “unworkable, weak and narrow.”
Some experts told MarketWatch that they were skeptical whether the order would even bump up take-home money all that much per paycheck.
But Trump supporters such as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) praised the executive decision.
“Struggling Americans need action now,” McConnell said in a statement on Saturday.
“Since Democrats have sabotaged backroom talks with absurd demands that would not help working people, I support President Trump exploring his options to get unemployment benefits and other relief to the people who need them the most.”
In a Twitter thread, Krugman wrote that payroll taxes help fund Social Security and Medicare, and so cutting them would “undermine the finances of programs that are absolutely crucial to the lives of older Americans.”
“It’s a known quack remedy that everybody who knows anything has said is useless and dangerous, including Republicans.”
What’s more, he said that combining a payroll tax cut with a new and more complicated unemployment benefits program, especially after many people struggled to claim their benefits from the first Cares Act package, could have “dangerous side effects.”
“I’m extremely worried about a greater recession coming from it,” said Krugman.
Trump announced last week that he was eyeing an executive order after Congress failed to compromise and pass a new coronavirus rescue package, even though using his executive power to provide economic aid over the legislative branch is a legal gray area.
Stocks opened modestly higher off the news on Monday, however, with analysts noting that even if the executive orders are illegal or ineffective, they could give Congress a kick in the pants to finally reach an agreement on a bipartisan stimulus plan.
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/paul- ... _headlines
Re: THE MAGA-MAN DONALD TRUMP
MARKETWATCH
"Republican satisfaction with the state of America has plummeted"
By Nicole Lyn Pesce
Published: Aug. 8, 2020 at 1:42 p.m. ET
While overall American satisfaction with the state of the union has dropped since the coronavirus outbreak this spring, Republicans have become especially dissatisfied in recent months.
That’s according to a new Gallup poll of more than 1,000 U.S. adults conducted between July 1-23, which was given as the country faced a summertime spike in coronavirus infections, consumer confidence waned while the economy struggled to rebound from said-pandemic and the nation continued to be rocked by protests against racial injustice.
Just 13% of U.S. adults are satisfied with the way things are in the nation right now, which is down 32 percentage points since hitting a 15-year high just this past February.
Gallup notes that American satisfaction has not been this low since November 2011, after the country’s credit rating was downgraded.
And that 13% is just six points above the all-time Great Recession low in October 2008, when the global financial crisis saw U.S. stocks tank.
But the steepest drop in satisfaction last month was recorded among Republicans.
One in five (20%) said that they are satisfied with the way things are going, which is about half of what it was a month ago (39%) — and down a whopping 60 percentage points since February, when the Senate acquitted President Trump and ended his impeachment trial.
In fact, the current figure is the lowest satisfaction rate that Republicans have recorded during Trump’s presidency.
Yet, most Republicans (91%, to be exact) still approve of the job that Trump is doing as president, which implies that they don’t blame him for the state of affairs.
“Their dissatisfaction may have more to do with what is going on in the country — the coronavirus and its effect on economic activity, the focus on matters of race — than the administration’s handling of it,” the report states.
“To some degree, it could also reflect Republicans’ awareness of pre-election polls showing Trump trailing Democrat Joe Biden by a significant margin.”
Independents are also significantly less satisfied of late, dropping to 12% from 38% in February.
Democrats are the least satisfied overall, with just 7% expressing a more upbeat mood last month, but the report notes that this number is on par with how Dems have felt during the Trump years.
Indeed, just 13% of them were satisfied in February, before the pandemic disrupted life in the U.S.
Gallup has observed that historically, American’s lowest satisfaction scores tend to be tied to tough economic times, including: the 1979 energy crisis, the Great Recession of 2008, as well as when the S&P downgraded the U.S. credit rating in 2011.
The report warns that the low satisfaction ratings could spell trouble for Trump in November, as the current level of satisfaction is below the low-water mark (33%) at which an incumbent has won reelection in the past.
Indeed, satisfaction was at 22% in 1992 when George H.W. Bush lost his reelection bid — nine percentage points higher than it is now.
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/repub ... _headlines
"Republican satisfaction with the state of America has plummeted"
By Nicole Lyn Pesce
Published: Aug. 8, 2020 at 1:42 p.m. ET
While overall American satisfaction with the state of the union has dropped since the coronavirus outbreak this spring, Republicans have become especially dissatisfied in recent months.
That’s according to a new Gallup poll of more than 1,000 U.S. adults conducted between July 1-23, which was given as the country faced a summertime spike in coronavirus infections, consumer confidence waned while the economy struggled to rebound from said-pandemic and the nation continued to be rocked by protests against racial injustice.
Just 13% of U.S. adults are satisfied with the way things are in the nation right now, which is down 32 percentage points since hitting a 15-year high just this past February.
Gallup notes that American satisfaction has not been this low since November 2011, after the country’s credit rating was downgraded.
And that 13% is just six points above the all-time Great Recession low in October 2008, when the global financial crisis saw U.S. stocks tank.
But the steepest drop in satisfaction last month was recorded among Republicans.
One in five (20%) said that they are satisfied with the way things are going, which is about half of what it was a month ago (39%) — and down a whopping 60 percentage points since February, when the Senate acquitted President Trump and ended his impeachment trial.
In fact, the current figure is the lowest satisfaction rate that Republicans have recorded during Trump’s presidency.
Yet, most Republicans (91%, to be exact) still approve of the job that Trump is doing as president, which implies that they don’t blame him for the state of affairs.
“Their dissatisfaction may have more to do with what is going on in the country — the coronavirus and its effect on economic activity, the focus on matters of race — than the administration’s handling of it,” the report states.
“To some degree, it could also reflect Republicans’ awareness of pre-election polls showing Trump trailing Democrat Joe Biden by a significant margin.”
Independents are also significantly less satisfied of late, dropping to 12% from 38% in February.
Democrats are the least satisfied overall, with just 7% expressing a more upbeat mood last month, but the report notes that this number is on par with how Dems have felt during the Trump years.
Indeed, just 13% of them were satisfied in February, before the pandemic disrupted life in the U.S.
Gallup has observed that historically, American’s lowest satisfaction scores tend to be tied to tough economic times, including: the 1979 energy crisis, the Great Recession of 2008, as well as when the S&P downgraded the U.S. credit rating in 2011.
The report warns that the low satisfaction ratings could spell trouble for Trump in November, as the current level of satisfaction is below the low-water mark (33%) at which an incumbent has won reelection in the past.
Indeed, satisfaction was at 22% in 1992 when George H.W. Bush lost his reelection bid — nine percentage points higher than it is now.
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/repub ... _headlines
Re: THE MAGA-MAN DONALD TRUMP
"MAGA hat cake leads to protest, counter demonstration at Coccadott's bakery - Colonie business' July posts on Instagram, Facebook spark delayed activist response"
Kenneth C Crowe II, Albany, New York Times Union
Aug. 13, 2020
Updated: Aug. 14, 2020 12:26 p.m.
COLONIE – Coccadotts Cake Shop employees could be seen working inside the Central Avenue store as supporters of its baking a cake in the shape of a red Make American Great Again hat in late July and Black Lives Matter protesters faced each other outside.
A Coccadotts supporter blocked the front door at 1179 Central Ave. to keep the press away from asking questions of store owner Rachel Dott who other supporters said was inside.
Dott had posted images of the cake on social media that led to the two sides lined up outside the store and to the west of it along Central Avenue.
The Black Lives Matter protesters were equipped with bullhorns but they were greatly outnumbered by anti-protesters who waved American flags and encouraged passing vehicles to beep their horns in support.
There were more than 125 people outside the bakery.
Colonie police officers stood between the two groups keeping them separated as much as possible.
State Police troopers and Albany County Sheriff's deputies also were on the scene.
Members of both sides did get face-to-face speaking to each.
They also were yelling at each other.
"Hey, hey, ho, ho, racism has got to go," came from the Black Lives Matter ranks.
"They're able to feel what they feel about their politics."
"We have issues when it comes to social injustice as in firing someone because they're gay, wearing all lives matter masks," said Legacy Casanova of Schenectady, who had been speaking to the crowd.
Casanova said they wanted to hold a civil conversation but hadn't been able to do so.
Dennis O'Kane of Delmar was waving a flag and encouraging people to honk their horns in support of Coccadotts and free speech.
Saying he was on the street to support America, O'Kane equated Black Lives Matter to the Black Panthers and the Black Liberation Army.
"I've known these people for 30 years."
"These people are really nice," O'Kane said about the Dott family.
During the 2016 presidential race, President Donald Trump coined the Make America Great Again slogan and had it stitched onto red baseball caps as a campaign promotion.
Times Union Tablehopping blogger Steve Barnes wrote about the fury that arose over the posts back in July, which led the business to take down or privatize its accounts, including one for its South Carolina store.
https://www.timesunion.com/news/article ... ief&stn=nf
Kenneth C Crowe II, Albany, New York Times Union
Aug. 13, 2020
Updated: Aug. 14, 2020 12:26 p.m.
COLONIE – Coccadotts Cake Shop employees could be seen working inside the Central Avenue store as supporters of its baking a cake in the shape of a red Make American Great Again hat in late July and Black Lives Matter protesters faced each other outside.
A Coccadotts supporter blocked the front door at 1179 Central Ave. to keep the press away from asking questions of store owner Rachel Dott who other supporters said was inside.
Dott had posted images of the cake on social media that led to the two sides lined up outside the store and to the west of it along Central Avenue.
The Black Lives Matter protesters were equipped with bullhorns but they were greatly outnumbered by anti-protesters who waved American flags and encouraged passing vehicles to beep their horns in support.
There were more than 125 people outside the bakery.
Colonie police officers stood between the two groups keeping them separated as much as possible.
State Police troopers and Albany County Sheriff's deputies also were on the scene.
Members of both sides did get face-to-face speaking to each.
They also were yelling at each other.
"Hey, hey, ho, ho, racism has got to go," came from the Black Lives Matter ranks.
"They're able to feel what they feel about their politics."
"We have issues when it comes to social injustice as in firing someone because they're gay, wearing all lives matter masks," said Legacy Casanova of Schenectady, who had been speaking to the crowd.
Casanova said they wanted to hold a civil conversation but hadn't been able to do so.
Dennis O'Kane of Delmar was waving a flag and encouraging people to honk their horns in support of Coccadotts and free speech.
Saying he was on the street to support America, O'Kane equated Black Lives Matter to the Black Panthers and the Black Liberation Army.
"I've known these people for 30 years."
"These people are really nice," O'Kane said about the Dott family.
During the 2016 presidential race, President Donald Trump coined the Make America Great Again slogan and had it stitched onto red baseball caps as a campaign promotion.
Times Union Tablehopping blogger Steve Barnes wrote about the fury that arose over the posts back in July, which led the business to take down or privatize its accounts, including one for its South Carolina store.
https://www.timesunion.com/news/article ... ief&stn=nf
Re: THE MAGA-MAN DONALD TRUMP
NBC NEWS
"Ex-FBI lawyer to plead guilty to falsifying claim made to continue surveillance of key figure in Mueller probe"
By Pete Williams and Tom Winter
Aug. 14, 2020, 12:09 PM EDT / Updated Aug. 14, 2020, 4:43 PM EDT
A former FBI lawyer plans to plead guilty to falsifying a claim made to sustain government surveillance on a key figure in former special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 election, according to court documents.
It is the first legal development to come from a review of the Mueller team's work, an effort led by John Durham, the U.S. attorney in Connecticut.
Attorney General William Barr assigned him more than a year ago to examine the origins of the Russia investigation.
A legal filing submitted Friday in federal court in Washington, D.C., said Kevin Clinesmith will plead guilty to a single charge of making a false statement by altering an e-mail in the course of seeking a renewal of government surveillance of Carter Page, a former Trump campaign adviser.
The warrant for approval from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has been a flashpoint for conservative critics of the FBI and the Mueller investigation.
The Justice Department's inspector general reported last December than when Clinesmith was working in the FBI's Office of General Counsel, he altered an e-mail about Page so that it said he was "not a source" for another U.S. intelligence agency.
Page has publicly said he briefly was a source for the CIA.
Clinesmith told the inspector general he did not consider Page to be a "recruited asset."
"Kevin deeply regrets having altered the e-mail," said his lawyer, Jonathan Shur.
"It was never his intent to mislead the court or his colleagues, as he believed the information he relayed was accurate, but Kevin understands what he did was wrong and accepts responsibility."
Page said in a statement Friday that Clinesmith was "finally being held accountable and pleading guilty to committing a felony for his involvement in the plot to falsely portray me and by implication the Trump administration as traitors."
"The actions by the full band of government officials and Democrat operatives involved in the creation of the false applications for my FISA surveillance warrants were entirely unconscionable."
"Clinesmith, his organization and their associates put my very life at risk, leading to abusive calls and death threats because of my personal opinions and support for President Trump," Page continued.
"There is a long way to go on the road to restoring justice in America, but certainly a good first step has now been taken."
President Donald Trump remarked on the development at a White House news conference Friday, calling Clinesmith "a corrupt FBI attorney who falsified FISA warrants in James Comey's corrupt FBI."
"That is just the beginning, I would imagine, because what happened should never happen again," Trump said.
"He is pleading guilty."
"It's a terrible thing."
"The fact is, they spied on my campaign and they got caught."
"You will be hearing more."
Barr foreshadowed the expected plea agreement in an interview with Fox News on Thursday evening.
He said it not be an "earth-shattering development," but would be "indication that things are moving along at the proper pace, as dictated by the facts in this investigation."
The inspector general's report concluded that the FBI had a legitimate reason for opening an investigation in to Russian election meddling and whether anyone connected with the Trump campaign was involved.
The report concluded that there was no proof of political bias in the decision.
But Inspector General Michael Horowitz said the FBI made serious and repeated mistakes in seeking an order under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to conduct surveillance of Page.
The FBI's submissions to the court made assertions that were "inaccurate, incomplete, or unsupported by appropriate documentation," he said.
Barr said he asked Durham to look into the origins of the investigation because he did not believe the FBI had a proper reason for launching it.
He told NBC News last December that the FBI started looking at the campaign on the thinnest of suspicions and kept pushing even after it went nowhere.
"There has to be some basis before we use these very potent powers in our core first amendment activity."
"And here, I felt this was very flimsy," he said.
Pete Williams is an NBC News correspondent who covers the Justice Department and the Supreme Court, based in Washington.
Tom Winter is a New York-based correspondent covering crime, courts, terrorism and financial fraud on the East Coast for the NBC News Investigative Unit.
Ken Dilanian contributed.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justic ... e-n1236767
"Ex-FBI lawyer to plead guilty to falsifying claim made to continue surveillance of key figure in Mueller probe"
By Pete Williams and Tom Winter
Aug. 14, 2020, 12:09 PM EDT / Updated Aug. 14, 2020, 4:43 PM EDT
A former FBI lawyer plans to plead guilty to falsifying a claim made to sustain government surveillance on a key figure in former special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 election, according to court documents.
It is the first legal development to come from a review of the Mueller team's work, an effort led by John Durham, the U.S. attorney in Connecticut.
Attorney General William Barr assigned him more than a year ago to examine the origins of the Russia investigation.
A legal filing submitted Friday in federal court in Washington, D.C., said Kevin Clinesmith will plead guilty to a single charge of making a false statement by altering an e-mail in the course of seeking a renewal of government surveillance of Carter Page, a former Trump campaign adviser.
The warrant for approval from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has been a flashpoint for conservative critics of the FBI and the Mueller investigation.
The Justice Department's inspector general reported last December than when Clinesmith was working in the FBI's Office of General Counsel, he altered an e-mail about Page so that it said he was "not a source" for another U.S. intelligence agency.
Page has publicly said he briefly was a source for the CIA.
Clinesmith told the inspector general he did not consider Page to be a "recruited asset."
"Kevin deeply regrets having altered the e-mail," said his lawyer, Jonathan Shur.
"It was never his intent to mislead the court or his colleagues, as he believed the information he relayed was accurate, but Kevin understands what he did was wrong and accepts responsibility."
Page said in a statement Friday that Clinesmith was "finally being held accountable and pleading guilty to committing a felony for his involvement in the plot to falsely portray me and by implication the Trump administration as traitors."
"The actions by the full band of government officials and Democrat operatives involved in the creation of the false applications for my FISA surveillance warrants were entirely unconscionable."
"Clinesmith, his organization and their associates put my very life at risk, leading to abusive calls and death threats because of my personal opinions and support for President Trump," Page continued.
"There is a long way to go on the road to restoring justice in America, but certainly a good first step has now been taken."
President Donald Trump remarked on the development at a White House news conference Friday, calling Clinesmith "a corrupt FBI attorney who falsified FISA warrants in James Comey's corrupt FBI."
"That is just the beginning, I would imagine, because what happened should never happen again," Trump said.
"He is pleading guilty."
"It's a terrible thing."
"The fact is, they spied on my campaign and they got caught."
"You will be hearing more."
Barr foreshadowed the expected plea agreement in an interview with Fox News on Thursday evening.
He said it not be an "earth-shattering development," but would be "indication that things are moving along at the proper pace, as dictated by the facts in this investigation."
The inspector general's report concluded that the FBI had a legitimate reason for opening an investigation in to Russian election meddling and whether anyone connected with the Trump campaign was involved.
The report concluded that there was no proof of political bias in the decision.
But Inspector General Michael Horowitz said the FBI made serious and repeated mistakes in seeking an order under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to conduct surveillance of Page.
The FBI's submissions to the court made assertions that were "inaccurate, incomplete, or unsupported by appropriate documentation," he said.
Barr said he asked Durham to look into the origins of the investigation because he did not believe the FBI had a proper reason for launching it.
He told NBC News last December that the FBI started looking at the campaign on the thinnest of suspicions and kept pushing even after it went nowhere.
"There has to be some basis before we use these very potent powers in our core first amendment activity."
"And here, I felt this was very flimsy," he said.
Pete Williams is an NBC News correspondent who covers the Justice Department and the Supreme Court, based in Washington.
Tom Winter is a New York-based correspondent covering crime, courts, terrorism and financial fraud on the East Coast for the NBC News Investigative Unit.
Ken Dilanian contributed.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justic ... e-n1236767
Re: THE MAGA-MAN DONALD TRUMP
THE LAS VEGAS SUN
"Syria says U.S. forces clash with Syrian troops, killing 1"
Published Monday, Aug. 17, 2020 | 8 a.m.
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — U.S. forces clashed with Syrian troops in the northeast on Monday, killing at least one soldier and wounding two others, state media said, while the U.S. military said it responded to small arms fire near a Syrian checkpoint.
Tensions have been rising in northeastern Syria in recent months as the Syrian military has cut off American access to several areas.
State news agency SANA quoted an unnamed Syrian military official as saying a U.S. helicopter gunship attacked an army checkpoint in the village of Tal Dahab, near the town of Qamishli, at around 9:45 a.m. (0645 GMT).
The official said a Syrian soldier was killed and two others were wounded.
SANA said the Syrian army prevented an American convoy from passing through.
The U.S. military said a joint force made up of U.S.-led coalition forces and allied Syrian Kurdish-led fighters encountered a Syrian army checkpoint after carrying out a patrol against the Islamic State group.
It said they were granted safe passage.
It said the patrol then came under small arms fire from the vicinity of the checkpoint and returned fire.
There were no casualties among U.S.-led coalition forces or the Kurdish-led fighters, the statement said.
It denied a helicopter gunship attacked the Syrian army checkpoint.
Hundreds of U.S. troops are stationed in northeastern Syria, working with their local partners from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces to combat the Islamic State group.
Elsewhere in Syria, a Turkish military vehicle was “slightly damaged” during an attack Monday on Turkish troops who were on a joint patrol with Russian counterparts in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province, Turkey’s military said.
Turkey and Russia have been conducting joint patrols of the region as part of a cease-fire agreement they reached in March.
Russia is a close ally of the Syrian government, while Turkey supports the armed Syrian opposition.
The attack occurred during the 25th such patrol, the military reported in a statement posted on Twitter.
The statement said Turkish troops had responded to the attack and that an operation was continuing.
____
Associated Press write Suzan Fraser contributed to this report from Ankara, Turkey.
https://lasvegassun.com/news/2020/aug/1 ... oops-kill/
"Syria says U.S. forces clash with Syrian troops, killing 1"
Published Monday, Aug. 17, 2020 | 8 a.m.
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — U.S. forces clashed with Syrian troops in the northeast on Monday, killing at least one soldier and wounding two others, state media said, while the U.S. military said it responded to small arms fire near a Syrian checkpoint.
Tensions have been rising in northeastern Syria in recent months as the Syrian military has cut off American access to several areas.
State news agency SANA quoted an unnamed Syrian military official as saying a U.S. helicopter gunship attacked an army checkpoint in the village of Tal Dahab, near the town of Qamishli, at around 9:45 a.m. (0645 GMT).
The official said a Syrian soldier was killed and two others were wounded.
SANA said the Syrian army prevented an American convoy from passing through.
The U.S. military said a joint force made up of U.S.-led coalition forces and allied Syrian Kurdish-led fighters encountered a Syrian army checkpoint after carrying out a patrol against the Islamic State group.
It said they were granted safe passage.
It said the patrol then came under small arms fire from the vicinity of the checkpoint and returned fire.
There were no casualties among U.S.-led coalition forces or the Kurdish-led fighters, the statement said.
It denied a helicopter gunship attacked the Syrian army checkpoint.
Hundreds of U.S. troops are stationed in northeastern Syria, working with their local partners from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces to combat the Islamic State group.
Elsewhere in Syria, a Turkish military vehicle was “slightly damaged” during an attack Monday on Turkish troops who were on a joint patrol with Russian counterparts in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province, Turkey’s military said.
Turkey and Russia have been conducting joint patrols of the region as part of a cease-fire agreement they reached in March.
Russia is a close ally of the Syrian government, while Turkey supports the armed Syrian opposition.
The attack occurred during the 25th such patrol, the military reported in a statement posted on Twitter.
The statement said Turkish troops had responded to the attack and that an operation was continuing.
____
Associated Press write Suzan Fraser contributed to this report from Ankara, Turkey.
https://lasvegassun.com/news/2020/aug/1 ... oops-kill/
Re: THE MAGA-MAN DONALD TRUMP
MARKETWATCH
"Leading U.S. economic index rises more slowly in July as recovery wanes"
By Jeffry Bartash
Published: Aug. 20, 2020 at 10:19 a.m. ET
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - The leading economic index rose 1.4% in July to mark the third straight increase, but it grew more slowly in a sign that the U.S. economic recovery has begun to flag, the Conference Board said Thursday.
The index jumped more than 3% in both June and May after a record decline at the beginning of the pandemic.
"Despite the recent gains in the LEI, which remain fairly broad-based, the initial post-pandemic recovery appears to be losing steam," said Ataman Ozyildirim, director of business cycles research at the board.
"The LEI suggests that the pace of economic growth will weaken substantially during the final months of 2020."
The LEI is a weighted gauge of 10 indicators designed to signal business-cycle peaks and valleys.
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/leadi ... cle_inline
"Leading U.S. economic index rises more slowly in July as recovery wanes"
By Jeffry Bartash
Published: Aug. 20, 2020 at 10:19 a.m. ET
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - The leading economic index rose 1.4% in July to mark the third straight increase, but it grew more slowly in a sign that the U.S. economic recovery has begun to flag, the Conference Board said Thursday.
The index jumped more than 3% in both June and May after a record decline at the beginning of the pandemic.
"Despite the recent gains in the LEI, which remain fairly broad-based, the initial post-pandemic recovery appears to be losing steam," said Ataman Ozyildirim, director of business cycles research at the board.
"The LEI suggests that the pace of economic growth will weaken substantially during the final months of 2020."
The LEI is a weighted gauge of 10 indicators designed to signal business-cycle peaks and valleys.
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/leadi ... cle_inline