Daily Archives: September 30, 2020

Good live TV is tough to pull off, especially on CNBC, but once in a while, an otherwise boring debate about the economy or policy will fly ‘off the rails’ and traders and other financial professionals will turn the volume up and tune in. That happened back in the spring, when Ventuer Capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya debated CNBC’s Scott Wapner about whether the Trump Administration should bail out the airlines, and other industries suffering from the pandemic. Palihapitiya famously asserted that the government should “Let them [the airlines] fail” before explaining that these companies burnt up their rainy day funds and took […]

Earlier we detailed that computer systems for Universal Health Systems (UHS), a major hospital and healthcare provider with over 400 locations across the U.S., was hit with what appears to be one of the largest medical cyberattacks in US history. Demonstrating just how prone America’s vital infrastructure remains to large-scale cyber attacks which could debilitate the country’s response efforts in emergency situations, the spate of ransomware attacks have impacted the operations of 53 US health care providers or health care systems so far this year, according a cybersecurity firm cited in the latest NBC report on the attacks. The worst and most recent instance was centered on a major Cleveland area […]

The U.S. Navy SEALs and the Navy Special Warfare Combatant-craft Crewmen (SWCC) have no women in their ranks, but according to a new report from American Military News (AMN), these elite commando units have modified their ethos and creed statements by removing gendered terms like “brotherhood” to reflect a more gender-neutral presentation.  The SEALs and SWCC removed wordings like “men” and “brothers” to replace them with “warriors” and “citizens.”  One of the changes can be seen here: “A common man with uncommon desire to succeed” to “Common citizens with uncommon desire to succeed.” In an emailed statement, Naval Special Warfare spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Matthew Stroup told AMN that changes to the ethos […]

Just under 18,000 ballots cast in the Massachusetts primary were rejected, as a flood of residents voted by mail for the first time, according to figures released by the Secretary of State at the request of the Boston Globe. In total, over 1.7 million people voted in the primary. Of that, 814,013 arrived by mail according to Secretary of State William Galvin’s office – with thousands of people choosing mail-in voting for the first time to take advantage of new election rules enacted due to the pandemic. Of the 17,872 rejected ballots, roughly half – 8,419 – were tossed because they […]

Although they won’t be counted in time to be reflected in the pre-election day jobs numbers, the last batch of which is set to be released on Friday, a flurry of corporate layoffs in recent days has offered the latest reminder that for millions of Americans, the “K” shaped recovery described by Chris Wallace last night is a reality for working people. The layoff wave continued Wednesday morning with Shell and Continental announcing thousands of layoffs, and continued into the afternoon as Goldman Sachs announced that it, too, would soon move along with some layoffs that had purportedly been planned before […]

Two weeks after announcing it may extend the limit on dividends and buybacks for large banks – which was scheduled to expire today – by another quarter, after the close on Wednesday the Fed did just that saying that “due to the continued economic uncertainty from the coronavirus response”, it will extend for an additional quarter several measures “to ensure that large banks maintain a high level of capital resilience.” The news will disappoint bank execs such as Jamie Dimon whose JPMorgan had already indicated interest in resuming buybacks. For the fourth quarter of this year, large banks—those with more than […]

Now in its second week, Julian Assange’s extradition hearing at the Old Baily in London just heard explosive testimony based on previously reported revelations that the CIA had actively plotted to assassinate him, by either poisoning or via a kidnapping plot. The testimony is part of the defense team’s attempt to frame the US extradition case as entirely political in nature, and not based on breaking US law, but also toward convincing the judge that the WikiLeaks founder would certainly face extreme and excessive punishment, which would be cause for Britain to block the extradition. Though mainstream media has by and […]

A man from Compton, California has been arrested and charged in the shooting of two Los Angeles Sheriff’s deputies in a September 12 ambush, according to a Wednesday announcement by authorities. 36-year-old Deonte Lee Murray will be arraigned Wednesday afternoon on two counts each of willful, deliberate and premeditated attempted murder of a peace officer as well as possession of a firearm by a felon, according to District Attorney Jackie Lacey. “They became victims of a violent crime for one reason: They were doing their job and they were wearing a badge,” said Lacey. Murray’s bail was recommended at $6.15 million. […]

In a day where stocks soared higher, reversing the overnight post-debate drop, following conciliatory comments from White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, moments ago Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell poured cold water on the rally saying the Senate and House are “very, very far apart” on stimulus talks, making it clear the Senate would not come up to $2.2 trillion after earlier saying the Democrats had a poison pill in the bill likely referring to the nearly $500 billion in state and local stimulus which has been a non-starter for Senate republicans. .@senatemajldr on the House and Senate dynamic on […]

The Commission on Presidential Debates has apparently realized that leaving Chris Wallace to moderate the first debate between President Trump and Joe Biden by himself probably wasn’t the smartest idea. So, after last night’s “shitshow” in Cleveland – as CNN termed it –  the commission is promising to impose tweaks to the format to “ensure a more orderly discussion” – ie stop the next debate from going “off the rails” like the last one did. As speculation about empowering moderators to cut the speakers’ microphones intensifies, the statement also promises to equip future moderators with additional tools to keep the political […]

Already Azerbaijan and Armenia are locked in their worst fighting in decades in the disputed Nagorno Karabakh region. Now only three days into fighting, at least 100 people have been killed, which includes soldiers and civilians on both sides, amid tank warfare and the deployment of infantry and artillery units. There’s also increasing signs of direct aerial combat. Raising the likelihood of a full-blown regional war in the Caucuses, Turkish President Erdogan’s office shocked on Tuesday with a direct threat of intervention on its ally Azerbaijan’s behalf: Turkey raised the spectre of full-blown war in the flashpoint Caucus region of Nagorno Karabakh on Tuesday after vowing to […]