Hold On!!! Hold on ONE MINUTE!!! .. a disgruntled reader has thrown, "The Challenge Flag"... "Why are you attacking the founders of Princeton as racist and ignoring the others...." .. Hmmm...What's he talking about??? .. Well, it didn't take much research to see the Ivy League schools have a PROBLEM!!!!
Harvard's founders? Slave owners. In fact, the crest of Harvard Law School is taken from the Crest of the Royall family who were not just owners but slave TRADERS.... Elihu Yale? Yes, the Yale from Yale University. President of the East India Company Settlement. Yup, Slave Trader .. and it turns out the "wokest' of them all Brown University, is named after the Brown Family who were not just Slave traders but known as "particularly brutal slave traders". .. The real kicker here? In 2011, researchers at Harvard, Sven Beckert and Katherine Stevens memorialized all of this their report about "Harvard University and its ties to slavery". But, NO NATIONAL NEWS STORIES about it !!!! .. No CANCEL the Schools .. No OUTRAGE !!! Do the Boards or Trustees of these schools (and another dozen) have anything to say???? Well???? Well??? (Cue the Cricket Sounds)
As you all know, I do NOT advocate rewriting history. Don't tear down buildings or "Cancel" former Presidents, etc... I think it's far more educational to acknowledge that if you did deep enough into ANY historical figure you can find something that would make them LESS the "hero" and less respectable. (With the possible exception of Jesus .. although if you believe the Da Vinci Code he was secretly married). So, erect monuments NEXT to the current statues, buildings, Halls, etc. Explain that, in 2020 we see these actions for what they were and condemn them. Recognize those that sacrificed, died, or were enslaved. Recognize that NO country, society or civilization was started without some form of violence, war, or taking of land....Then maybe we can stop all the violence and destruction of property happening TO Americans BY Americans.... and..
In India, the Government has issued a BAN on 59 Chinese Apps including WeChat and TikTok for .. well.. basically SPYING. The statement called it, "stealing and surreptitiously transmitting user data in an unauthorized manner". Wow.. First, yes.. They and MANY other apps are taking your data. The US companies are selling the data...the Chinese companies are showing their government and military.. 2). It is VERY hard to stop the freight train once it is moving downhill. The government might ban it but if the people want it, they will just use the apps underground... and 3) Because of their wild popularity the large tech companies in the USA have more power than the lawmakers and it p*sses them off... and..
I've said it before and Ill say it again...this is "anarchy and taking over the streets" is not going to end well. I keep saying how this whole "disrespect the police" ..."let the mob do what they want" stuff is going to end badly.. and it almost did in St Louis. To be clear, we are not talking about BLM protesters having their marches and peacefully, if loudly, making their point about police brutality. I am talking about the radicals that hijack these protests and bring the violence. Looting, destroying property, assaulting people, including police .. burning things down. THAT faction of the protest is VERY DANGEROUS.. and sometimes its hard to tell the difference.. ... well..
In St Louis, a group of protesters were headed to the Mayors house to "demand" her resignation. They broke down a gate and were marching across private property. The husband and wife came out of the house with guns pointed at the group. Fortunately, the group was controlled by the protesters with brains and a mission, not looters and thugs. They quickly convinced the other protesters that were advancing toward the couple (armed mostly with cellphones taking video) to turn around and continue toward the Mayor's House.
The homeowners said they were, "just eating on their patio when the group of 300 broke down the iron gate and started heading at us. We didn't know who they were or what they were doing and we were afraid"... 300 people advancing on you at your house?? And you shoot them? That would be 100% justified self-defense. Could you imagine the public outrage over that? .. Thank God the protest leaders were real protesters and not the thugs.. The couple DID eventually talk to media. They say they "fully support Black Lives Matter. But we saw 300 people breaking down the gate and got scared. We didn't know at the time is was a BLM protest. What would YOU have done" .. and
Of course, the Loser Media edited the video to cut out the part where the mob broke down the Giant Iron gate.. and also cropped the video to cut out the "NO trespassing. PRIVATE PROPERTY" signs. But, I'm sure you already figured that....
Mississippi has voted to remove the Union Jack (Confederate Flag) from their State Flag and it has been taken down from the State House. Many applauded this decision as compassionate and proper. As longtime readers know, I have friends and readers across the spectrum. One of my RIGHT side friends pointed out, "Mississippi has a Republican Governor and a 74-45 Republican Majority in State Congress and they removed they removed a symbol of the heavily Democratic 'Old South' and Ill BET you see no mention of THAT part in the Loser Media". I gotta say these two things: 1) She's NOT WRONG .. and 2) EXCELLENT use of the term Loser Media!! Ill buy you a drink the next time Im in PA...
The SCOTUS made a decision on a Louisiana abortion law that mandated doctors performing abortions have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles. The "Pro" side of this argument is safety of the woman. The "Con" side of this is that it puts "undue burden" on a woman seeking an abortion and the "safety of woman" is just a badly veiled attempt to end abortions. The decision was 4-4 and Justice Roberts sided with the "liberals" but under the "stare decisis" policy of the Supreme Court. The Stare Decisis Doctrine states that "cases will be treated the same outside of special circumstances" Roberts said this case was too similar to the Texas case from 2016 to warrant overturning precedent. Now...
In the event that Raj disappears because he says something bad about the wrong world leader, here is what I advise when trying to find out what a Supreme Court decision REALLY means: Google the name of the decision, scroll PAST the first three or four pages of Google..all the "CNN", FOXNEWS, ABC stories .. keep going until you get to something written by the ABA or The Federalist Society. Why? Because the Loser Media wants to report the "BIG WIN for this side" .. or "BIG BLOW to that side" .. The ABA will skew the story left and the Federalist Society will skew it right.. but.. at least they talk about the "LEGAL" ramifications...
In Da Swamp: The PPP Loan program still has $140 Billion it in and the application deadline is TODAY!!! So, Get those applications in NOW!!!! ..
The ny times story about Russians paying bounties in Afghanistan to kill groups of soldiers (including some Americans) is ..well.. not true. The Department of Defense says "there is no corroborating evidence to suggest this happened". Wait? You mean the times got a story wrong? That's only 2 this week. They'd better hurry up. Their "Wrong Story Quota" is FIVE a week !!! ..and..
Have you guys heard of this?? Men's Make-Up? CVS is saying that there has been a spike in Men's Make up sales. Some are calling this the "Zoom Effect" as people don't like the way they look, "on Camera" during Zoom meetings. You can COUNT ME OUT on this "trend". (No, not because I'm conceited and think I'm too good looking to need it. ..on my BEST day, the most I can hope for is, "Ruggedly handsome") .. You see.. if I put on make up and go to a bar and pick up a girl.. the next day.. when she wakes up.. she would go straight to her lawyer and sue me for FALSE ADVERTISING !!!
SPORTS:
NBA: It is being reported that the NBA will paint, "Black Lives Matter" on the sidelines of the courts they are using for their "Re-opening" in Disney. Umm.. can I suggest signs and flags? If you put it on the court people will... well ..walk on it .. step on it.. stand on it .. isn't that the OPPOSITE of the message? Hang flags and the "Visual or Optic" will be people "Looking Up" to the BLM banners.. Just my opinion.. Do what you want. .
PGA: The Tour will tweak its procedures a bit and make the players and caddies wait OUTSIDE the facilities until their test results come back. (Basically a 15 minute delay). The Jacked and confident Bryson DeChambeau commented that these players are just weak. I eat Covid-19 every morning in my steroid shake .. I mean.. on my cornflakes.. I AM INVINCIBLE"!!! ..and..
Congrats to Ian Poulter for having a sense of humor and confirming what we all knew/heard. Yup, that was him ripping a loud FART right after his playing partner Greg Chalmers teed off. Because there is no crowd the players are getting caught on "hot mic'
s" more often. Poulter ripped one and immediately asked the camera man, "Did you get that??" .. Chalmers said, "Was that? .. Did you?? ... You just stay over there" .. Poulter says, "Yup, doing my part for social distancing" ..
CELEBRIDIOTS:
Tuesday RIP's .. RIP to Charles Webb, 81. No relation to Charlotte's Webb but Charles wrote the book, "The Graduate" made famous by the movie.. RIP to Freddy Cole, 88. His older brother Nat King Cole was more famous but Freddy won a Grammy, himself..
Attention Dave Portnoy: ... and BarstoolSports: I know I told you to be careful with the Stock Picks and you might be angry about that.. let it go.. .. The Cancel Culture losers are coming for you. Stay Strong. Be yourself!!!!. If they don't like the jokes they can NOT READ OR SUBSCRIBE to Barstool. These woke police freaks have ZERO sense of humor and seem to thrive on being miserable. It's like they NEED to feel insulted to get out of bed in the morning. Don't apologize. Just keep on being yourself.. (Oh.. and markets DO go down sometimes.. don't bet your whole net worth)
Kanye West's bodyguard says that Kanye is bully and that he is going to sue him. .. Uh.. yeah.. Well, dude.. YES people in Hollywood are self centered and can be hard on the "help". So, you don't take that job if you have thin skin. Also, Kanye is bipolar. He has a medical condition that can cause depression and outbursts... You ain't gonna win any lawsuit because he was mean to you .. Go get a beer and start looking for a new job !!
Happy Birthday to singer Arianna Grande. From Nickelodeon to the biggest stages in the world, Arianna turns 26 today. HERE .. No, I cannot name any of her songs.. .But, that's ok, right my Girl ?!??! Now, come downstairs and Ill kiss that droopy eye of yours and make it all better....
From SeekingAlpha.com
Organizers of the "Stop Hate for Profit" campaign against Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) are preparing to take the battle global, as well as emboldening regulators in Europe to take a harder stance on the social media giant. Since the campaign launched on June 17, more than 160 companies, including Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO), Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX), Unilever (UN, UL) and Verizon (NYSE:VZ), have pledged to stop buying Facebook ads for the month of July, and some have gone even further. While CEO Mark Zuckerberg laid out some policy changes on Friday, the boycott publicity sent Facebook's stock down 8%, wiping out $56B in market capitalization. What does the campaign want from Facebook? Solutions include a separate moderation process to help users who are targeted by racism, more transparency on how many incidents of hate speech are reported and to stop generating ad revenue from harmful content. FB -2.6% premarket.
The U.S. shale industry pioneer, long rumored to be seeking a bankruptcy filing, has formally commenced the process after filing for Chapter 11 proceedings. What happened? Chesapeake Energy (NYSE:CHK) amassed a huge land position that came with a lot of debt and commitments to drill, as well as long-term contracts with pipeline companies that turned into liabilities. The firm has $925M in debtor-in-possession financing to get through the bankruptcy process, while creditors will likely expect it to emerge as a much smaller entity. According to analysts, more than 200 shale companies may file for bankruptcy over the next two years if oil and gas prices stay around current levels.
Following a brutal selloff on Friday, U.S. stock index futures seesawed overnight as investors digested the latest coronavirus infection rates and what it will mean for the economy. At the time of writing, Dow futures are up 128 points, the S&P 500 is ahead by 0.4%, while contracts tied to the Nasdaq are dipping into the red due to troubles at Facebook (FB). Over the weekend, coronavirus cases worldwide passed 10M, with more than 500K deaths (2.5M infections were confirmed in the U.S. and more than 125K deaths were from COVID-19). On Sunday, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar also warned that the "window was closing" for the U.S. "to take action and get the coronavirus pandemic under control."
Boeing (NYSE:BA) and the FAA today will begin a three-day certification test campaign for the 737 MAX, which has been grounded for nearly 15 months. "Likely weeks later, after the data is analyzed and training protocols are firmed up, FAA Administrator Steve Dickson will board the same plane to make his assessments," Reuters reports. "If all goes well, the FAA would then need to approve new pilot training procedures, among other reviews, and would not likely approve the plane’s ungrounding until September." Based on those projections, the jet would be on a path to resume U.S. service before year-end, though the process has been plagued by delays for more than a year. BA +3% premarket.
Historic changes may be coming to the travel sector as the coronavirus pandemic reverberates to all areas of the industry. Airbus (OTCPK:EADSY) is assuming a 40% drop in production over the next two years as it draws up rapid restructuring plans to deal with the upcoming slump. "I will go on the record to say that travel will never, ever go back to the way it was pre-COVID. It just won't," Airbnb (AIRB) CEO Brian Chesky told Axios. "There are sometimes months when decades of transformation happen." He predicts that vacationers will stay closer to home in the near future, largely limiting their travel to places within driving distance, though "people will, one day, get back on planes."
The central bank has purchased the bonds of 794 different companies, with the paper of Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Verizon (VZ), AT&T (NYSE:T), and the U.S. divisions of Toyota (NYSE:TM), Volkswagen (OTCPK:VWAGY), and Daimler (OTCPK:DDAIF) making up 10% of the amount spent. The plan is to buy $250B of debt already issued, and $500B in newly issued bonds. Fed officials have said the goal of the buying is to maintain liquidity in the market for corporate debt, so that issuers are able to access capital despite the economic downturn created by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The FDIC is kicking off a competition among 20 data and technology firms to develop a new reporting prototype from the more than 3,200 community banks the agency oversees. "What we would like to do is frankly make the [quarterly] call reports obsolete, and not because we wouldn't have the data but because we would have better data and we would have more timely data," Chairman Jelena McWilliams said in a WSJ interview. The coronavirus pandemic has demonstrated how bank reporting can be out of date. For example, the FDIC wasn't able to brief the public on the first-quarter health of the industry until earlier this month, and that briefing didn't include data past March.
"The L'Oréal Group (OTCPK:LRLCY) has decided to remove the words white/whitening, fair/fairness, light/lightening from all its skin evening products," the cosmetics company said in a statement on Saturday. The announcement follows a decision by Unilever (UL, UN) on Thursday to rename their India-marketed "Fair and Lovely" skin-lightening cream for the same reason. Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) made a similar decision earlier this month, saying it would stop selling skin-lightening products under its Clean & Clear and Neutrogena brands.
Cosmetics maker Coty (NYSE:COTY) has agreed to buy a 20% stake in Kim Kardashian West's make-up brand KKW for $200M, according to the FT, though details on sales and profits were not disclosed. The deal values the three-year-old company at $1B, slightly less than the $1.2B valuation Coty put on Kim's younger sister Kylie Jenner's business when it bought a 51% cent stake last year. Meanwhile, shares of Gap (NYSE:GPS) soared nearly 20% on Friday after the retailer announced a 10-year deal with the Yeezy fashion brand of Kanye West, who is married to Kim Kardashian.
Under Armour (NYSE:UAA) is discontinuing its partnership with UCLA - a 15-year, $280M contract announced in 2016 that was billed as the biggest apparel deal in the history of American collegiate sports. The company had agreed to design and supply shoes, gear and uniforms for all 25 of the university's men's and women's varsity athletic teams, replacing the university's deal with Adidas (OTCQX:ADDYY). "We have been paying for marketing benefits that we have not received for an extended time period," Under Armour said in a statement, while UCLA said it was "exploring all our options to resist Under Armour's actions."
What else is happening...
Guidance doesn't come easy in the coronavirus era.
Gunmen killed after attack at Pakistani Stock Exchange.
First profits in half a year for China's industrial firms.
AstraZeneca (NYSE:AZN) inks COVID-19 vaccine deal with Brazil.
Today's Markets
In Asia, Japan -2.3%. Hong Kong -1%. China -0.6%. India -0.6%. In Europe, at midday, London +0.1%. Paris flat. Frankfurt +0.2%. Futures at 6:20, Dow +0.5%. S&P +0.4%. Nasdaq -0.2%. Crude +0.2% to $38.56. Gold +0.2% to $1783.90. Ten-year Treasury Yield flat at 0.65%
Today's Economic Calendar
10:00 Pending Home Sales
3:00 PM Fed's Williams Speech
Regards,
Roger “Raj” Searing rajsearing@gmail.com "Raj Searing™”, "Read this First™", "@rajsearing™", "TheRantRoom™" and “TheRantroom.com™” are Trademarks of RRRAJ, LLC. All Rights Reserved-2003.
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