...And God did look down on the House of Raj ...and God did sayeth, "Look at this mess.. I mean... Let there be light.. and there was light.. and he said.. This is Good... I've been messing with that Raj dude long enough.. time to let him out of the darkness" .. .. or something like that... then the power went out, again, for 8 hours.. Now it's back.. . Let's hope this time it works..
To the News:
VACCINE?? The words the world has been looking for.. and hoping would come in November/December.. Russia claims they have a Coronavirus vaccine. They claim that it is safe and has been cleared for use in humans. International "experts" are skeptical... So, let me ask. Would YOU take it? ... Putin says he has already inoculated his own daughter. What about you, Vlad?? .. Did YOU take it? ... and...
In other Covid-news .. The California Public Health Chief resigned when huge amounts of "Coronavirus records" just "appeared". Governor Newsome said he was unaware of the missing information about cases and would have to "adjust their numbers" of cases and deaths..
They went ahead and did it .. the Seattle city council voted to "defund the police". Seattle's first Black American police Chief, Carmen Best, will be resigning, today. Those inside the force call it "devastating". To my friends in Seattle and Bellevue, get the bedside gun safe with fingerprint locks..
What is happening in these cities, with the help of the Loser Media, is that a small group of people have convinced part of their population that the police are the Problem. These radical leftists are getting people killed and its only going to get worse. .. You've heard the quote from Edmund Burke: "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing" ?? Well, here you go.. The Good people of Seattle, Portland, Chicago, NY, DC, Milwaukee and the rest.... STAND UP !!! Vote the murderers out of office..
In another disgusting, but expected, example of this: I bring you a story out of Washington, DC. The largest mass shooting of the year took place in DC. 21 shot, one dead, and an officer hospitalized fighting for her life. Some loser media are covering it as a "problem with large gatherings during the pandemic"... and most loser media is spending seconds on it.. or not covering it at all. FoxNews Tucker Carlson pointed out, "the story doesn't help Biden so the media doesn't cover it. You see it for seconds or not at all. You all know Simon Cowell fell off his bike. But, not about this tragedy. The shot and the dead are Black Americans. Do their lives Matter?" .. Cover nothing that helps the President and hurts Biden.. No matter what the cost .. great.. Just Great !!!
Portland Riots Rage On... With riots still occurring nightly and the local government blaming the President there seems no end in sight. Federal security is there protecting the Federal courthouse and land. But, the National Guard cannot be sent in until the Governor or Mayor requests. As ridiculous as this sounds, I read a report that said, "the local BLM families are being ignored by the "BLM activists". .. It said that. "The local BLM group and local Black families are calling for an end to the violence and property destruction partly because it's THEIR PROPERTY. The 'BLM Activists' are ignoring the requests and continuing to riot" .. Wait... WHAT ???!??! How can the press or mayor call them BLM Activists when they're "ignoring the BLM Families". Aren't they just vigilantes? or Radical Rioters? Why are they calling them "BLM Activists" ???..(Oh, right.. Biden..)
In Sweet Home Chicago: They raised the bridges and shut down parts of mass transit in an attempt to quell the rioting and looting around the downtown and "Magnificent Mile" of posh stores, hotels and restaurants.. I read a comment that they should, "shut down cell service for two days and the violence would stop". Which begs the question...
If the Social Media Companies are going to censor posts that THEY consider, "dangerous or attempts to manipulate elections" (Which they CLAIM is their responsibility) why are they not cancelling posts and shutting down accounts that are saying, "Come to the Riot. We're gonna burn the muthafckker down and loot the stores"??? These posts are responsible for the organization of these riots. Police know it.. Politicians know it.. and Social Media companies know it.. Where is the "public safety" .. where is the "responsibility to stop hate" ??? Why are none of the Loser Media on top of this part of the story??? .. Unfortunately, I think we all know the answer .. and it's sad... and..
To be fair to the Police Commissioner in Chicago, it's not the fault of police. He was asked about the violence and said honestly, "there are no consequences. we made dozens of arrests and no one goes to prison. There were no consequences for the violence and riots two weeks ago so others feel free to join in..." The Mayor freaked and pushed him away from the microphone and scolded the reporter for, "trying to divide the politicians and the police". (Sorry Mayor, that ship sailed YEARS ago in Chicago).. The DA claimed the Commissioners statement was, "not true.. we have not dropped charges and those cases are coming to court soon". We'll see!! .. You've read it here MANY MANY MANY times. The Chicago judges, DA's and Mayors office are the problem. They see the "justice system" as unjust to many of the poor and refuse to enforce the laws.. This is what you get...
An explosion in Baltimore leveled houses and trapped families. It appears to have been a gas explosion. Half the block looked like it was leveled. .. and..
In Da Swamp: The evil orange man was whisked away from his press conference by Secret Service. He soon returned and proceeded after announcing, 'there was a shooter outside the White House. Secret Service has the matter under control." According to "reports", a man ran aggressively toward Secret Service then got down on one knee and posed in a shooting position. Secret Service shot the man. It has not been shown whether he was armed or if this was a "death by cop" situation.
Negotiations on the next Stimulus Package reached a frenzy as the Democrats try to counter the executive actions of the evil orange man. Economists on BOTH sides of the aisle agree that without stimulus we are headed straight into recession.
Republicans claim Democrats are holding up Legislation to make the President look bad heading into the election and because Dems want to fund all sorts of programs that have nothing to do with COVID relief or short term help for the unemployed. Democrats claim the Republicans plan is nowhere near enough and that a large, bold plan is what's needed...As a Libertarian, I HATE ALL OF THIS.. I am compassionate. We should help those unemployed and in need due to the Coronavirus because it's no one's "Fault" our economy got clobbered. But, help them quickly.. and stop all the "What's an extra trillion" nonsense..
You know what both sides could get behind? A giant infrastructure bill that slashes the time to get building permits and creates a load of jobs.
For some International News: I QUIT .. Most of the Government of Beirut abruptly resigned. Of course, this is due to the uproar over the mismanagement that led to the explosion that killed over 200, injured thousands, and leveled most of their port. Some of the officials that resigned apologized. Most blamed other areas of the government.. There has been violence in the city for two days due to anger with the government. I guess the question is, "What Now?"
SPORTS:
NCAA Football: The Big 10 and Pac-12 are expected to announce today that they will scrap the Fall football season. You can be sure there will be many more to follow. The economies of the small towns will be devastated..
Is this the smart route? The "Safe" route? Some say so ... Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh (who wanted to play) said it was a mistake to cancel the season. His team and coaches and staff (over 300 people) have been practicing and preparing and have regular testing and NO ONE is positive. ..
MLB: Word is the Major League Baseball is mulling doing their playoffs in a "Bubble" like the NBA and NHL are doing.. Haven't they heard? Putin has a vaccine !!!
CELEBRIDIOTS: Tuesday RIP's ... "Rust on Piss".. I meant.. Rest in Peace.. Why do I say it that like that? Because tomorrow is the anniversary of the death of Warren Teitelman. You say, "Who the F is that, Raj and why do I care???". Teitelman was the computer scientist that came up with the concept of, "write what I meant, not what I typed" (known as DWIM. Do What I mean). Yup, he was the Godfather of "auto-correct" and "Undo" function, spell check, and a WHOLE lotta other stuff. He is the reason that sloppy typers like me get the Rant out by 8am and not noon... ..and
Other RIPs. Brent Scowcroft, 95 a long term political advisor to Gerald Ford and the Bushes...and assisted Barrack Obama choosing his National Security team.. RIP Michael Ojo, 27 Former Florida State Center who died of a heart attack training in Serbia...and RIP Daisy Coleman, 23 of the Netflix Show Audrie and Daisy about surviving sexual assault. She died of suicide... and Reni Santoni, 81 actor of Dirty Harry fame and was "Poppy" on Seinfeld.. and a sad RIP to Hilary Tisch, 36. She suffered from depression so likely of suicide...
Kelly Clarkson will fill in for the injured Simon Cowell at this weeks taping of "America's Got Talent". Cowell is recovering but did massive damage to his spine and may be wheelchair bound .. .. (Sorry, Tucker Carlson. I have to report this kind stuff in this section.. )
Collin Morikawa's win at the PGA did not just vault him to international golf notoriety. It brought us Katherine Zhu... a new WAG (Wife and Girlfriend) to think inappropriate things about. HERE ... Zhu has dated Collin for three years. She brings her clubs out on tour and, according to Morikawa, beats him around 70% of the time in chipping contests.. She also is his caddy so that she can be with him all the time and keep the golf groupies away from her man and the $2 Million he just won.. umm.. I mean .. so she can spend more time with him..
FROM SEEKINGALPHA.COM
"As far as I know, a vaccine against a new coronavirus infection has been registered this morning, for the first time in the world," Russian President Vladimir Putin declared, according to RIA Novosti. "I know that it works quite effectively, forms a stable immunity and, I repeat, has passed all the necessary checks." He added that one of his daughters was vaccinated against COVID-19, despite Phase 3 trials that normally last for months and involve thousands of people. At the end of July, the WHO said that there were 26 candidate vaccines in the clinical evaluation stage, including one registered in Russia that was developed by the Gamaleya Research Center.
Stocks continue to shrug off the latest U.S.-China tensions as President Trump explores a variety of tax cuts (see below), while lawmakers attempt to restart talks over a coronavirus stimulus package. Contracts tied to the S&P 500 suggest a 25 point opening bell gain that would take the broader benchmark to within 16 points of its intraday high of 3,393.5, set on February 19. Dow futures are recording even bigger gains, up 1.1%, as investors extend a rotation into value stocks - which tend to outperform growth coming out of a recession - from heavyweight tech names.
In addition to several weekend executive actions that included a payroll tax holiday, President Trump is "very seriously" considering a capital gains tax cut, which would "create a lot more jobs." While the president can't unilaterally slash the 20% long-term capital gains rate without Congress, some advisers say he could issue an executive order that would slash tax bills for investors when they sell assets. The move, known as indexing capital gains to inflation, would likely face legal challenges, and comes as Trump also explores "an income tax cut for middle-income families."
The 'retail bros' appear to be at it again as Robinhood joined the rest of the brokerage industry by publishing monthly trading data. The startup saw 4.3M daily average revenue trades (DARTs) in June, outperforming all of the publicly traded, incumbent brokerage firms. TD Ameritrade (NASDAQ:AMTD) was the next highest monthly total at 3.84M DARTs, Interactive Brokers (NASDAQ:IBKR) saw 1.8M DARTs, followed by Charles Schwab (NYSE:SCHW) and E-Trade (NASDAQ:ETFC) at 1.8M and 1.1M, respectively. Robinhood's DARTs during Q2 more than doubled compared to the prior three months, while all three of its top days based on trading volume, happened in June.
Leaders from 27 firms that represent many of New York's leading industries have banded together to create the New York Jobs CEO Council, which aims to hire 100K people from low-income Black, Latino and Asian communities by 2030. The co-chairs of the new organization include JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon, IBM (NYSE:IBM) CEO Arvind Krishna and Accenture (NYSE:ACN) CEO Julie Sweet, as well as initial members like Jeff Bezos of Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN). "Today's economic crisis is exacerbating economic and racial divides and exposing systemic barriers to opportunity," Dimon said in a press release. "Young people in low-income and minority communities feel this failure the most. Unless we actively work to close the gap, COVID-19 will make matters worse."
San Francisco Superior Court Judge Ethan Schulman has granted a preliminary injunction against Uber (NYSE:UBER) and Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT), but will pause the order for 10 days to give the companies time to appeal the decision. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra and a trio of city attorneys previously filed for the injunction to force the ride-hailing services to comply with a new state law and immediately stop classifying their drivers as contractors. The decision, known as Assembly Bill 5, or AB 5, would weigh heavily on their business models and other gig-economy companies.
Lebanon's stock market reopened yesterday, and the BLOM Stock Index is down 1.6%, amid further uncertainty following last week's explosion at Beirut's port. Prime Minister Hassan Diab confirmed the resignation of his administration after just seven months in office and blamed a corrupt political elite for sabotaging his tenure. Even before the fatal incident, which killed 163 people and wounded over 6,000, Lebanon was struggling. It hasn't undertaken the reforms required to unlock international funding, while the Lebanese pound has also lost 80% of its value since October. Go deeper: Lebanon's leaders were warned in July about explosives at port.
Companies from China and other countries that do not comply with accounting standards will be delisted from U.S. stock exchanges as of the end of 2021, according to U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. The U.S. will also soon require imports from Hong Kong to be labeled as 'Made in China' following a notice that's set to be published today in the Federal Register. China appears to be in a delicate balancing act as it keeps a trade deal alive. The country is reportedly scrapping expensive Brazilian soy bean purchases and replacing previously done deals with American supplies, while retaliatory sanctions imposed yesterday didn't include any members of the Trump administration.
What else is happening...
Tech surge sees SoftBank (OTCPK:SFTBY) swing to $12B profit.
Reports indicate Big 10 and Pac 12 will cancel fall football season.
Brooks Brothers set to be bought by Authentic Brands-Simon (NYSE:SPG) venture - WSJ.
Monday's Key Earnings
Hertz (NYSE:HTZ) -5.3% AH posting wider than expected loss. Marriott International (NASDAQ:MAR) +3.6% on slower monthly cash burn. Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) -5.6% AH after booking $6.6B in charges. Royal Caribbean (NYSE:RCL) +10% as investors looked to 2021.
Today's Markets
In Asia, Japan +1.9%. Hong Kong +2.1%. China -1.2%. India -0.6%. In Europe, at midday, London +2.4%. Paris +2.6%. Frankfurt +2.6%. Futures at 6:20, Dow +1.1%. S&P +0.7%. Nasdaq +0.5%. Crude +1.6% to $42.59. Gold -2.1% to $19996.70. Bitcoin -0.9% to $11726. Ten-year Treasury Yield +3 bps to 0.61%
Today's Economic Calendar
6:00 NFIB Small Business Optimism Index 8:30 Producer Price Index 8:55 Redbook Chain Store Sales 12:00 PM Fed's Daly Speech 1:00 PM Results of $48B, 3-Year Note Auction
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.
DISCLAIMER:
This RANT is intended SOLELY as Commentary, Satire and/or Social Criticism and is for ENTERTAINMENT. Content in this RANT is based on PUBLICLY AVAILABLE INFORMATION and is purely the OPINION of the writer. It is NOT intended to be relied on as fact. Sometimes I get drunk and make stuff up. Some of this information is garnered from well respected news sources and some is not. As Raj puts it: "If you cannot tell that most of this Rant is just my opinion then you are too stupid to be reading it!!!!
Stop before you hurt yourself! " The Rant is inspired by how I feel that day, what I ate for dinner the night before, who is pissing me off, what I find entertaining, and information I sometimes get from: Bloomberg,1010WINS, Foxnews.com, CNN.com, ABCNews.com, CNBC.com and another dozen random news ".coms", The NY Post, The Asbury Park Press, The Drudge Report, The Daily Mirror, The Independent, The Standard, MSN, AOL, The Daily Beast, Breitbart, Wall Street Journal, Barstool Sports, Bleacher Report, CNBC, Various Analysts at brokerage firms, SeekingAlpha, Twitter, Instagram, PopSugar, Harpers, Washington Times, al Jazeera, The Washington Post, The Financial Times, Reuters, Maxim, RT News, Eonline,Vanity Fair, Politico, The Sun, The Daily Mail, The Guardian, Pravda, Forbes, Money, GQ, Men’s Health, YahooNews.com TMZ, ESPN.go.com, Golf Digest, and the Victoria Secret Catalogue. This email is for entertainment only. We disclaim any and all responsibility for damages of any kind arising out of use, reference to, or reliance on any of this information that we already told you is worthless. If it gets forwarded out we have no control over where it ends up and are not responsible for the content of any site it may end up on. We try to remain free of viruses and all other diseases that can hurt computers but we do not warranty that…especially if someone forwards it to you. Action figures are sold separately and batteries are not included. If you choose to share this information with people that have no sense of humor you are advised to stand back at least 6 feet. If you receive this rant stapled to other papers do not put in the microwave. Please drink responsibly.