October 15, 2020

Fight over Prop 208 to fund public schools

https://www.chron.com/news/article/Tax-on-wealthy-to-fund-Arizona-schools-spurs-15648021.php

Tax on wealthy to fund Arizona schools spurs election fight

BOB CHRISTIE,
Associated Press
Oct. 14, 2020
Updated: Oct. 14, 2020 2:33 p.m.

PHOENIX (AP) — Public schools in Arizona that have weathered a decade of funding cuts with only partial restoration could see a big infusion of cash if a ballot measure backed by teachers and advocacy groups passes in November, but opponents say Proposition 208 will hurt the economy and only bring partial relief.

The Invest in Education Act would impose a 3.5% tax surcharge on income above $250,000 for an individual or above $500,000 for couples. Proponents say it could raise about $940 million a year for schools, although the Legislature's budget analysts estimate comes out to $827 million a year.
….snip

October 15, 2020

Biden the winner in Real Clear poll

I'm not counting my chickens.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/latest_polls/

Latest Polls
Thursday, October 15

Race/Topic (Click to Sort) Poll Results Spread
Arizona: Trump vs. Biden OH Predictive Insights Biden 50, Trump 47 Biden +3
Arizona: Trump vs. Biden Monmouth* Biden 51, Trump 44 Biden +7
Maine: Trump vs. Biden Pan Atlantic Biden 50, Trump 40 Biden +10
Maine CD2: Trump vs. Biden Pan Atlantic Biden 47, Trump 43 Biden +4
Maine CD1: Trump vs. Biden Pan Atlantic Biden 54, Trump 37 Biden +17
Virginia: Trump vs. Biden Roanoke College* Biden 54, Trump 39 Biden +15
General Election: Trump vs. Biden NBC News/Wall St. Jrnl Biden 53, Trump 42 Biden +11
General Election: Trump vs. Biden vs. Jorgensen vs. Hawkins IBD/TIPP Biden 50, Trump 42, Jorgensen 2, Hawkins 1 Biden +8
Arizona Senate - McSally vs. Kelly OH Predictive Insights Kelly 50, McSally 45 Kelly +5
Arizona Senate - McSally vs. Kelly Monmouth* Kelly 52, McSally 42 Kelly +10
Maine Senate - Collins vs. Gideon Pan Atlantic* Gideon 47, Collins 40 Gideon +7
Michigan Senate - James vs. Peters EPIC-MRA Peters 45, James 39 Peters +6
Virginia Senate - Gade vs. Warner Roanoke College Warner 55, Gade 38 Warner +17
Maine 2nd District - Crafts vs. Golden Pan Atlantic Golden 60, Crafts 33 Golden +27
President Trump Job Approval Rasmussen Reports Approve 47, Disapprove 51 Disapprove +4
President Trump Job Approval NBC News/Wall St. Jrnl Approve 44, Disapprove 54 Disapprove +10
2020 Generic Congressional Vote NBC News/Wall St. Jrnl Democrats 49, Republicans 42 Democrats +7
Direction of Country NBC News/Wall St. Jrnl Right Direction 29, Wrong Track 62 Wrong Track +33

October 15, 2020

There are seven coronavirus vaccine candidates being tested in the U.S. -- here's where they stand

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/there-are-seven-coronavirus-vaccine-candidates-being-tested-in-the-us-heres-where-they-stand-2020-09-08

There are seven coronavirus vaccine candidates being tested in the U.S. — here’s where they stand

Published: Oct. 14, 2020 at 8:38 a.m. ET
By Jaimy Lee

At least four of the still investigational vaccines have moved into Phase 3 clinical trials
…snip
The race to develop a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine is well under way, setting the stage to bring to market the fastest vaccine in history.
There are dozens of coronavirus vaccines in development, primarily in the preclinical phase when they are tested on animals. In the U.S., there are seven vaccine candidates that have moved into clinical trials with human participants, including four that have moved into the crucial Phase 3 development phase.
…snip
The first and second phases of clinical studies are primarily conducted to test for safety, while the third and final stage is used to determine whether vaccines are efficacious and can prevent infection among participants. At that point, the vaccine makers will decide when to pursue an emergency-use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration and/or a full approval. The majority of the vaccines in development have received funding from the U.S. government, either to help support clinical development or pay for manufacturing and distribution of the vaccines as part of the Trump administration’s “Operation Warp Speed” program.
…snip
Vaccines in Phase 3 trials in the U.S. (cited in alphabetical order, by company name):
• AstraZeneca in partnership with the University of Oxford
• BioNTech and Pfizer Inc.
• Johnson & Johnson US:JNJ
• Moderna Inc.
• Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc.
• Novavax Inc.
• Sanofi in combination with GlaxoSmithKline

October 15, 2020

Republican Stock Market Crime

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/private-white-house-briefings-led-investors-to-short-market-and-stock-up-on-toilet-paper-report-says-11602747325?mod=home-page

Private White House briefings led investors to short market and stock up on toilet paper, report says

Last Updated: Oct. 15, 2020 at 10:40 a.m. ETFirst Published: Oct. 15, 2020 at 3:35 a.m. ET
By Steve Goldstein

Private briefings from two senior White House aides to a conservative institution at the outset of the coronavirus outbreak led investors to short the stock market and even load up on toilet paper, according to a published report.
Tomas Philipson, then the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, and Larry Kudlow, the director of the National Economic Council, told the Hoover Institution of the uncertainties surrounding the coronavirus in far more stark terms than those in which they had informed the public, according to the New York Times. The report said Philipson said on Feb. 24 to the Hoover Institution that the White House could not quantify the economic impact, and Kudlow the next day said “we just don’t know” how contained the virus will be.

That led William Callanan, a Hoover board member, to write a memo to David Tepper, the founder of the hedge-fund firm Appaloosa Management, and a Tepper aide, the report said. Callanan allegedly wrote that he found it striking that they both mentioned these concerns, unprovoked. The email was circulated to other Appaloosa employees, who discussed the memo with other investors. The report said the memo helped convince investors to short the stock market.
…..snip

October 13, 2020

"Let's make treason great again." Slim Pickens

I am posting this opinion piece more for the comments than the content. I want to thank Slim Pickens for the response found in the comments section. Biden will win and Wallstreet will be just fine in a Biden Presidency.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/biden-will-win-polls-say-but-the-stock-market-is-sending-a-different-signal-2020-10-13?mod=home-page

Opinion: Biden will win, polls say. But the stock market is sending a different signal

Oct. 13, 2020
By Paul Brandus
A century’s worth of election-year data suggests President Trump will win re-election

1 hour ago
How is the challenger going to beat the incumbent? When:
1) Stock mkt is trading near or could be @ ATH by election day
2) Incumbent’s energy level & the ability to get voters to his rallies
3) Incumbent energize base & ground game to get out the vote
4) Rallies, rallies & more rallies between now & 11/3
5) Incumbent successful record in office
6) Incumbent America First policy for economic, domestic & international policies...See more

Reply
Slim Pikins
Itsallabouthedata Inraisingrates
45 minutes ago
The reason the incumbent will lose is:
The stock market has no influence on those at his rally's
The incumbent's energy level will most likely start to fade as his viral infection kicks in towards the election
Rallies, rallies and more rallies are only attracting the despicable types who support him.
The incumbents record is exactly what is sinking him with the majority of Americans and I mean the real Americans out here.
The incumbents trade policies of tariffs have put a 25% sales tax on all consumers while he cuts the taxes on his wealthy buddies.
90% of Americans are far worse off this year than 4 years ago and we all know it.
True patriotic, energized, real Americans will come out in force which will over-power Republican efforts to cheat this again. Even putting out GOP owned mail in ballot boxes to be taken off to some unknown location to NOT be counted will NOT be enough to overcome the masses who come to vote them out!
Let's make treason bad again.....

October 13, 2020

The Jefferson Bible

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/11/peter-manseau-jefferson-bible/616476/

The Atlantic

November 2020 Issue
JAMES PARKER

The Jefferson Bible: A Biography BY PETER MANSEAU PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS
…snip
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS
The president preferred Jesus’s teachings to his supernatural acts—and edited his copy of the New Testament accordingly.

Was Thomas Jefferson an atheist? Plenty of people thought so. Jefferson never identified himself as such, of course. But it was his microscopes, his French friends, his whole swinging, freethinking Enlightenment vibe … “I hope he is not an unbeliever, as he has been represented,” worried the Nonconformist English clergyman (and chemist) Joseph Priestley, after Jefferson came to hear him speak in Philadelphia in 1797. Others could smell the godlessness like brimstone; if Jefferson became president, thundered a Federalist opponent in 1798, “the Bible would be cast into a bonfire, our holy worship changed into a dance of Jacobin phrensy, our wives and daughters dishonored, and our sons converted into the disciples of Voltaire and the dragoons of Marat.” Two years later, as news of Jefferson’s election victory spread, there were reports that pious housewives in New England were burying their family Bibles for protection, or hiding them down wells.

As it turned out, Jefferson attacked only one copy of the Bible: his own. Not with fire, but with a razor. And not in an act of dizzy desecration, but with a kind of serrated—slightly crazed?—reasonableness. He cut and he pasted. He edited and he redacted. He called the resulting text—a collage of verses from the New Testament—The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth. We know it as the Jefferson Bible.
…snip

October 13, 2020

The Jefferson Bible

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/11/peter-manseau-jefferson-bible/616476/

The Atlantic
November 2020 Issue
JAMES PARKER
The Jefferson Bible: A Biography BY PETER MANSEAU PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS
…snip
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS
The president preferred Jesus’s teachings to his supernatural acts—and edited his copy of the New Testament accordingly.

Was Thomas Jefferson an atheist? Plenty of people thought so. Jefferson never identified himself as such, of course. But it was his microscopes, his French friends, his whole swinging, freethinking Enlightenment vibe … “I hope he is not an unbeliever, as he has been represented,” worried the Nonconformist English clergyman (and chemist) Joseph Priestley, after Jefferson came to hear him speak in Philadelphia in 1797. Others could smell the godlessness like brimstone; if Jefferson became president, thundered a Federalist opponent in 1798, “the Bible would be cast into a bonfire, our holy worship changed into a dance of Jacobin phrensy, our wives and daughters dishonored, and our sons converted into the disciples of Voltaire and the dragoons of Marat.” Two years later, as news of Jefferson’s election victory spread, there were reports that pious housewives in New England were burying their family Bibles for protection, or hiding them down wells.

As it turned out, Jefferson attacked only one copy of the Bible: his own. Not with fire, but with a razor. And not in an act of dizzy desecration, but with a kind of serrated—slightly crazed?—reasonableness. He cut and he pasted. He edited and he redacted. He called the resulting text—a collage of verses from the New Testament—The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth. We know it as the Jefferson Bible.
…snip

October 12, 2020

Racism in Prescott

SIL will deliver 4 completed straight Democratic ballots to the USPS tomorrow.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/the-reason-surging-racism-in-prescott-should-not-surprise-you/ar-BB19WHIJ?ocid=hplocalnews

Arizona Republic
10/12/20

The reason surging racism in Prescott should not surprise you
EJ Montini

President Donald Trump talks endlessly about Antifa and “anarchists” and “mobs.”
What he doesn’t talk about, however, is that his own Department of Homeland Security says that white supremacists – not Antifa or anyone else -- present the gravest terror threat to the United States.
Trump’s not-always-taciit approval of right wing fringe groups has emboldened just about every fringe group espousing racist, anti-Semitic, xenophobic beliefs. The very individuals the FBI worries about are all there. The Proud Boys. Boogaloo Bois. Three Percenters. Oath Keepers.

According to a draft report described by Politico, Homeland Security officials said, “Among DVEs [Domestic Violent Extremists], we judge that white supremacist extremists (WSEs) will remain the most persistent and lethal threat in the Homeland through 2021.”
The groups thrive in places like Prescott because Republican politicians more or less embrace them.
Rep. Paul Gosar, for example, posed for a photo or two with some of the locals espousing some of those beliefs over Fourth of July weekend.
…snip

October 12, 2020

White supremacists in Arizona

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/the-reason-surging-racism-in-prescott-should-not-surprise-you/ar-BB19WHIJ?ocid=hplocalnews

Arizona Republic

10/12/20
The reason surging racism in Prescott should not surprise you

EJ Montini

President Donald Trump talks endlessly about Antifa and “anarchists” and “mobs.”
What he doesn’t talk about, however, is that his own Department of Homeland Security says that white supremacists – not Antifa or anyone else -- present the gravest terror threat to the United States.
Trump’s not-always-taciit approval of right wing fringe groups has emboldened just about every fringe group espousing racist, anti-Semitic, xenophobic beliefs. The very individuals the FBI worries about are all there. The Proud Boys. Boogaloo Bois. Three Percenters. Oath Keepers.

According to a draft report described by Politico, Homeland Security officials said, “Among DVEs [Domestic Violent Extremists], we judge that white supremacist extremists (WSEs) will remain the most persistent and lethal threat in the Homeland through 2021.”
The groups thrive in places like Prescott because Republican politicians more or less embrace them.
Rep. Paul Gosar, for example, posed for a photo or two with some of the locals espousing some of those beliefs over Fourth of July weekend.
…snip

October 12, 2020

Microsoft foils "Trickbot" election hacking

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/microsoft-foils-hacking-operation-to-disrupt-election-2020-10-12?mod=home-page

Microsoft foils(Trickbot) hacking operation to disrupt election

Oct. 12, 2020
By Jon Swartz

Microsoft Corp. MSFT, 3.13% has foiled a sophisticated hacking plan to disrupt election infrastructure in the U.S., the company said Monday. Microsoft said it obtained a federal court order to disable the IP addresses associated with computer servers behind Trickbot, an immense malware network that criminals were using to launch cyberattacks. The legal action dovetails with an offensive by U.S. Cyber Command to disrupt the cybercriminals, according to The Washington Post. Microsoft acknowledged the digital intruders are likely to revive their operations.