ZZZ Obamacare 02 Focus

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The Navy will conduct a wider investigation of circumstances surrounding the spread of the coronavirus aboard the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, a move that effectively delays a decision on whether to reinstate the ship’s captain, who was fired after pleading for more urgent protection of his crew.
The investigation was announced Wednesday by James E. McPherson, the acting Navy secretary, who said in a brief written statement that an initial inquiry was insufficient. “I have unanswered questions that the preliminary inquiry has identified and that can only be answered by a deeper review,” he said.
The broader probe is to examine communication and leadership actions in the Navy chain of command in the Pacific, to include events before the initial virus outbreak in late March, officials said.

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On March 19, the Maryland Legislature passed H.B. 732, which proposes a first-of-its-kind digital advertising gross revenues tax. The bill is now with Gov. Larry Hogan for signature or veto. If the governor vetoes H.B. 732, as expected, it will return to the General Assembly for the Legislature to attempt to override the veto.

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Three Beijing-based internet activists have disappeared and are believed to be detained by police for archiving censored coronavirus news stories online, according to a relative.
China has faced criticism over its handling of the outbreak, including punishing whistleblowers who tried to warn about the new virus.
Chen Mei, Cai Wei and his girlfriend surnamed Tang — who contributed to the crowd-sourced project on the software development platform GitHub — went missing on April 19, according to Chen’s brother Chen Kun.
The volunteer-driven project, named Terminus2049, preserved articles that were blocked or removed from mainland news outlets and social media by China’s aggressive online censorship.
Two of the volunteers, Cai and Tang, were charged with “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” and are currently under “residential surveillance at a designated location”, according to a notice from Beijing’s Chaoyang District police received by their families, and seen by AFP.

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In the first four packages of coronavirus legislation, the small business funding program organized by Senators Marco Rubio and Ben Cardin has been the only major facility designed to even slow the roll-up of monopoly power. The many trillions of credit and spending have very modest restrictions on use.
There are meager prohibitions on executive compensation, stock buybacks, conflicts of interest, and dividends, all easily evaded. The Federal Reserve included some of these restrictions in its various lending facilities. But so far, there has been nothing on mergers.
And it’s not just policymakers on the right, or ones in public office. Obama-era DOJ Antitrust Division leader Bill Baer wrote a piece accepting that we are heading towards an economy of giants:
“But realistically, not all businesses are going to be able to get up and running again. That means many markets are going to become more concentrated. We will see it in all sectors, from agriculture and retail to manufacturing and travel.
Fewer competitors means less competition, more market power for some sellers and some buyers, and more risk of tacit price coordination. In the end consumers will pay more.”
Baer offers no ideas, just a shrug, pointing to an obvious problem and saying ‘someone else should do something about that.’ Learned helplessness seems to be a pervasive attitude. House Democratic progressives, who wrote an endless laundry list for a more egalitarian set of bailout policies that will go straight into a shredder, didn’t ask for merger restrictions or elevated antitrust scrutiny.
Even more bizarrely, this week, an Amazon lobbyist named Nate Sutton was caught committing what looks a lot like perjury in front of Congress. Last July, Sutton had told two members of Congress investigating Big Tech information on how Amazon uses data to create its own private label products; the Wall Street Journal just revealed Sutton had lied.
This is a huge deal.

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As it prepares for this week’s policy meeting, the Federal Reserve has largely calmed turbulent financial markets. Yet a far tougher task remains: Helping rescue an economy and job market that appear to be free-falling into the worst catastrophe since the Great Depression.
Fed policymakers will meet Tuesday and Wednesday against a backdrop of dismal data: More than 26 million Americans have applied for unemployment benefits since the coronavirus forced widespread business closures. Retail sales have dropped by a record pace. Home sales have plunged.
In the meantime, inflation has started to fall amid the collapse in economic activity and is sure to sink further below the Fed’s 2% target level. With beleaguered hotels, airlines and retailers slashing prices, inflation could fall to 1% or less by year’s end. That poses another problem for the Fed: Declining prices can eventually lead consumers to delay spending, thereby slowing the economy further.

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….language in the CARES Act specifically allows all Social Security recipients the right to receive a stimulus check, assuming they also meet other criteria, as well. The Internal Revenue Service can simply reference beneficiaries’ payout data from 2019 if they haven’t filed a tax return, and can direct deposit an up-to-$1,200 stimulus check to the same bank account that their monthly benefit posts to.
As noted, there are some criteria that need to be met in order to be eligible for an Economic Impact Payment as a Social Security beneficiary. For example, you can’t be claimed as a dependent on anyone else’s federal tax return. You’ll also need to have an adjusted gross income (AGI) below $75,000 as a single filer, $150,000 as a couple filing jointly, or $112,500 as head-of-household, to receive the maximum stimulus check. Partial payouts are also possible up to $99,000 in AGI, $198,000 in AGI, and $136,500 in AGI, respectively, for single filers, couples filing jointly, and head-of-household.

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“Some large banks were slow to start lending, while others left applicants hanging without funding for weeks. But one bright spot emerged, small businesses say: local banks that hustled to disburse loans to their communities as fast as they could. They did this by planning round-the-clock, shifting hundreds of employees to the effort, and cranking out approvals as soon as the program opened, even as the government was still clarifying the rules.”
One such bank was Union Bank & Trust, a family-owned bank in Lincoln, Nebraska. Just “72 hours into the emergency lending program, it ranked second in the nation for number of loans approved, according to the Small Business Administration.”
Banks made more than $10 billion in fees during the first round of the PPP, “processing loans that required less vetting than regular bank loans and had little risk for the banks,” National Public Radio reported. “For every transaction made, banks took in 1% to 5% in fees, depending on the amount of the loan, according to government figures. Loans worth less than $350,000 brought in 5% in fees while loans worth anywhere from $2 million to $10 million brought in 1% in fees.”

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The Irish government should consider copying Australia’s plan to force Facebook Inc and Alphabet Inc’s Google to share advertising revenue with local media, Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said on Friday.
Companies like Google, Facebook and Twitter “are sort of free riders on costs incurred by other people,” Varadkar, whose country hosts the European headquarters of most of the largest U.S tech companies, told journalists.

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On Saturday, Boeing (NYSE: BA) terminated a $4 billion deal that would have given it controlling of the commercial aerospace operations of Embraer (NYSE: ERJ) after a Friday night deadline came and passed without the two sides ironing out final details.
In press release, Marc Allen, president of Boeing’s Embraer partnership unit, called the decision “deeply disappointing” but said “we have reached a point where continued negotiation … is not going to resolve the outstanding issues.”
The termination, like the initial deal itself, is likely to be highly controversial, and the decision comes with both pros and cons for Boeing.

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During last year’s third quarter, a wave of patriotism in China helped Huawei take an amazing 42.4% share of domestic smartphone shipments; the runner-up, Vivo, had a 17.9% slice of the pie. This year, Huawei is counting on carriers inside China to award it huge contracts to supply them with 5G networking gear. The largest wireless provider in the country, China Mobile, has given Huawei $4 billion worth of such contracts since the beginning of this year beating out rivals such as ZTE and Ericsson.

Some of these awards could be due to Huawei’s technology which is reportedly 12 to 18 months ahead of what the competition is offering. Additionally, Huawei is able to offer generous financing terms to customers allegedly due to connections that the company has with the Bank of China. When British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said earlier this year that there really aren’t any alternatives to Huawei in the 5G market, he echoed many in the Trump administration who came to the realization that the statement is true. Attorney General William Barr floated a wild idea in February that called for the U.S. government to buy Huawei rivals Nokia and Ericsson. The government also reportedly approached U.S. networking firms Oracle and Cisco to see if they would like to take on Huawei. Both firms supposedly replied that they did not have the required time or money to engage in such a project.

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Susan Wojcicki, the CEO of YouTube, announced that all content contradicting the Word Health Organization (WHO) on the coronavirus pandemic will be removed from the video platform.
During a CNN interview last Sunday, Wojcicki explained there was “a 75 percent increase in the news coming from authoritative sources since the beginning of 2020. So, we have seen a lot of demand there.”
“But then we also talk about removing information that is problematic,” she continued. “Of course, anything that is medically unsubstantiated. So people saying, like, take vitamin C, you know, take turmeric, like, those are — will cure you. Those are the examples of things that would be a violation of our policy.”
She then specified that “[a]nything that would go against World Health Organization recommendations would be a violation of our policy. And so remove is another really important part of our policy.”
….Senator Marsha Blackburn tweeted that “[i]t is alarming that [YouTube] now relies on the [WHO]’s biased recommendations to decide what video content to take down.”
“The [WHO] gave inaccurate information about the spread of the virus, still parrots Chinese propaganda, and fought [President Donald Trump]’s China travel ban,” the junior senator from Tennessee pointed out.

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John Martinis, the Google computer scientist who helped the company achieve ‘quantum supremacy’ last year, has resigned: ‘There was a lot of tension going on’
John Martinis joined Google’s quantum computing division in 2014, where he led efforts to achieve ‘quantum supremacy.’ Last year, the team announced they had succeeded.
But Martinis was also pushed from his leadership role into an advisory position last spring…

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Something happened yesterday that has never happened before and does not even sound like it is based in reality. The contract for a barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude oil scheduled for delivery in May closed at a negative $37.63 per barrel.
Yes, you read that correctly I did not make a mistake. A barrel of oil closed at a negative $37.63 meaning that producers of oil would actually pay traders to take their full barrels off their hands.

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Democrats and labor groups say companies should be forced to establish formal workplace coronavirus protections, a demand set to become a point of tension with Republicans and the Trump administration in the next round of stimulus talks.
Rep. Bobby Scott (D., Va.), chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, on Tuesday introduced a measure that would direct the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to order all companies to implement comprehensive plans to protect workers who continue in their (work)…..

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This week, Walt Disney Co. will stop paying 100,000 workers to save money amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The number is about half of the company’s workforce, according to the Los Angeles Times. And, according to the Financial Times, the furloughing of that many people will save the company up to $500 million a month across its hotels and theme parks.

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Facebook Inc said on Monday that it has removed events in Nebraska, New Jersey and California promoting protests against stay-at-home measures amid the COVID-19 pandemic caused by the new coronavirus.
But the social media company, which has been under pressure to police harmful content and misinformation related to the pandemic, said it would only take down anti-quarantine protest events if they defied government guidelines.
Stay-at-home orders, which experts say are essential to slow the spread of the virus but which have battered the U.S. economy, have been enacted at the state level.
Facebook said it would align with those directives, and also remove events that defy social distancing guidelines. Facebook is seeking guidance to clarify the scope of state orders in New York, Wisconsin, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
“Unless government prohibits the event during this time, we allow it to be organized on Facebook,” said Facebook spokesman Andy Stone. “For this same reason, events that defy government’s guidance on social distancing aren’t allowed on Facebook.”

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Walmart Inc.’s battle with Amazon.com Inc. is going Prime time.
The world’s largest retailer is developing a paid membership program to challenge the internet giant’s Prime offering — which has become the default online shopping option for millions around the globe. The service, called Walmart+, will expand on the retailer’s existing grocery-delivery subscription service, which it introduced last year. Chief Customer Officer Janey Whiteside will spearhead the service’s development and rollout.
A Walmart spokeswoman confirmed the plans but declined to provide any details. Additional perks could include discounts on prescription drugs and fuel, according to Recode, which first reported the existence of the program.

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fter more than a week of partisan gridlock, Congress and the Trump administration are finally within striking distance of a deal for small business aid. President Donald Trump told reporters last night they are “close to a deal” on emergency aid for a small business loans program, suggesting there could be a deal announced today. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) sent out a schedule update signaling there could be a vote as soon as Wednesday. And leaders in both chambers held conference calls with their members yesterday to provide them an update on the negotiations.
What’s in the emerging deal: $300 billion in additional funds for the small business loans program, which is $50 billion more than the initial proposal; $50 billion for a disaster loans program for small businesses; $75 billion for hospitals, which was one of Democrats’ demands; and $25 billion for testing. That means the final price tag could easily top $400 billion.

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All the materials used to make this portable charger were repurposed  – Link to Yahoo Lifestyle Video

On Thursday pharmaceutical manufacturer AmeriSource Bergen sent to its pharmacists a list of respiratory medications that it’s placing on back order because they are in short supply, The Post has learned.
The $168 billion publicly traded company flagged nebulizer solutions and two types of generic respiratory medications used for asthma and other breathing disorders, sources said.
In a statement, the Valley Forge, Pa.-based company said it “has not received any formal notification from supply chain partners regarding drug shortages or disruptions in respiratory medication in light of the coronavirus.”
“As an active participant in the pharmaceutical supply chain, we are engaged with health officials and are constantly monitoring for any potential impact to the supply chain. We will continue to be highly engaged as the situation evolves on a day-to-day basis,” the company said.

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According to WIVB, an Indiana man was expecting a stimulus payment of $1,700 to be deposited into his bank account. That’s not what volunteer firefighter Charles Calvin found, however, when he went to take money out of the ATM.
“I went to the ATM at the Family Express and once I withdrew $200 out of my account I looked at the available balance still left in my account,” he said.
It said his available balance remaining was $8.2 million. Quite the upgrade from the $1,700 he was expecting.

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In what critics might regard as protectionist policies, countries around the world are increasingly tightening the rules on foreign investment in prized firms and sectors based on their soil.

The European Union, as well as member states Germany, France, Italy and Spain have tightened foreign investment rules in recent weeks. So too has Australia. The United Kingdom, where a new foreign investment law was already advancing through Parliament, has considered taking emergency action against some foreign investments, while in the United States, lawyers say healthcare-related transactions are likely to receive more scrutiny than in the past.
Traditionally, reviews on foreign investment viewed transactions through the prism of national defense, with deals involving military hardware makers the most likely to run into regulatory objections. But in recent years, countries have started taking a broader view of what industries count as strategic.

This trend has been accelerated by the coronavirus pandemic, with medical device manufacturers, pharmaceutical firms and even the makers of protective equipment likely to receive more scrutiny says Aimen Mir, a partner in the Washington, D.C., office of law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.

“The Covid-19 pandemic has brought into stark relief that for critical supplies, there is a finite amount, and maintaining jurisdiction over a supplier can affect a government’s ability to prioritize where those resources are devoted,” says Mir, a former head of the U.S. Committee of Foreign Investment in United States (CFIUS), the cross-governmental group tasked with reviewing foreign investment in American companies.

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Amazon will begin to put new grocery delivery customers on a wait list and curtail shopping hours at some Whole Foods stores to prioritize orders from existing customers buying food online during the coronavirus outbreak, the company said on Sunday.

Many shoppers recently seeking to purchase groceries from the Seattle-based e-commerce company found they could not place orders due to a lack of available delivery slots. Amazon said it would have to relegate all new online grocery customers to a wait list starting Monday while working on adding capacity each week.

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Every single major broadcast and cable news outlet covering the COVID-19 pandemic has a direct and critical interest in pleasing the communist regime in China. Every single one of them. To understand this critically important connection between these American news outlets and the Chinese government, you only need to understand the power of the Chinese market when it comes to the film industry.
It’s not breaking news that the Chinese market is the single most important region for growth and revenue for Hollywood. The profitability for many films these days is almost entirely dependant on ticket sales in China. If a major film doesn’t sell in China, it’s a problem for the studio. And films are only allowed to be shown in China if the communists in Beijing give permission. That’s the beauty of a totalitarian, communist state. Nobody in the country sees “Avengers: End Game” unless the authoritarians are accommodated.
This directly affects how Hollywood makes its movies.
Much has been written about the growing influence the Chinese censors have on the product coming out of Hollywood. Both conservative and liberal news outlets have lamented this growing trend. The influence of Chinese censors is often depicted in amusing anecdotes like this NPR feature explaining how a Tom Cruise blockbuster was modified to assuage the communist propagandists:

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According to a release from the U.S. Department of Treasury and the IRS, they plan to launch the “Get My Payment” web application next week.
The release said that the web application is free and it will be found at IRS.gov.
The app will allow taxpayers who filed their tax return in 2018 or 2019 but did not provide their banking information on their return to submit direct deposit information.
Once that information is added, they will get their Economic Impact Payments in their bank accounts quickly instead of waiting for a check to arrive in the mail.
The release said that the “Get My Payment” web application will also allow taxpayers to track the status of their payment.

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Oil major Exxon Mobil Corp said on Thursday it is conducting field trials of eight methane detection technologies, including satellite monitoring, to cut down on greenhouse gas emissions.

The company said the pilot project is being carried out at nearly 1,000 sites in Texas and New Mexico using drones, planes, helicopters, ground-based mobile and fixed-position sensors.

“We are applying scientific rigor and taking aggressive steps to find commercially scalable and affordable solutions for all operators,” said Staale Gjervik, senior vice president at ExxonMobil Upstream Oil and Gas Co.

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Nearly 25 percent of voters this year will be age 65 and older. This demographic is traditionally expected to turn out to vote and are likely to make up a disproportionately larger share of actual voters this year as compared with the rest of the electorate. For example, while mature Americans accounted for 43 percent of eligible voters, they cast over 49 percent of the ballots in 2016. Additionally, this large senior voting block votes for conservatives.
In contrast, earlier this year young Democrat primary voters stayed at home in droves. Alabama saw a nearly 29 percent drop of voters in the 17-29-age range. The youth vote was also down in North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia and New Hampshire.
Liberal groups working to silence the Trump Administration during this pandemic do so at their own risk. Come November, the senior vote will be there in full force with fresh memories of desperate left-wing activists’ attempts to squelch information they so greatly relied upon during a national emergency.

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The Fed’s crisis response has three phases. The first was the traditional monetary policy response: it lowered interest rates to near zero on March 15 to absorb the blow to domestic demand. That effectively exhausted its conventional ammunition.
The second phase was to purchase vast quantities of Treasury and mortgage-backed bonds, lend heavily to banks and bond dealers, and offer credit to hundreds of foreign central banks to meet dollar shortages abroad. This was to prevent the financial system from seizing up, part of its established role as lender of last resort to the banking system, albeit on an unprecedented scale.
The third phase was to use its emergency authority under Section 13(3) of the Federal Reserve Act to set up programs to lend to money-market funds, issuers of corporate debt, municipal governments, and main street businesses, big and small. This goes well beyond the central bank’s traditional duties. It is akin to fiscal policy, territory long off limits to central bankers because it risks taxpayer funds and requires politically fraught decisions about who gets help and who doesn’t.