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5 More Ways Joe Biden Magically Outperformed Election Norms
https://thefederalist.com/2020/11/23/5-more-ways-joe-biden-magically-outperformed-election-norms/
Perfect! Himmigrant job taken by an immigrant.
Pennsylvania postal worker denies recanting ballot-tampering claims
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/nov/10/richard-hopkins-erie-pennsylvania-postal-worker-de/
Hours after House Democrats announced that a Pennsylvania postal worker had recanted allegations of ballot tampering, the mail carrier denied it, saying that he stands by his original statement and that he “got played” by federal investigators.
Richard Hopkins, a mail carrier in Erie, Pennsylvania, said in videos released Tuesday by Project Veritas that he never intended to recant his claims of possible ballot fraud after being grilled by investigators from the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General.
“I am right at this very moment looking at an article written by the Washington Post. It says that I fabricated the allegations of ballot tampering,” Mr. Hopkins said in a video posted on Twitter. “I am here to say that I did not recant my statements. That did not happen. That is not what happened.”
Project Veritas chief legal counsel Jered Ede accused the investigators of coercing Mr. Hopkins into signing an affidavit recanting his claims; failing to give him access to his attorney, and refusing to provide him with a copy of the signed document.
“It was coerced,” Mr. Ede told the Washington Times. “They forced him to execute this watered-down lukewarm affidavit. They did so during an interrogation where again they denied him the opportunity to be represented by counsel even though he confirmed with them that he had counsel.”
Unknown to the federal investigators, Mr. Hopkins was wearing a wire during the interview provided by Project Veritas based on his concerns about being harassed at work by supervisors or union officials.
RECORDING: Federal agents “coerce” USPS whistleblower Hopkins to water down story. Hopkins doubles down…
Agent Strasser: “I am trying to twist you a little bit”
“I am scaring you here”…” we have Senators involved…DOJ involved…reason they called me is to try to harness.” pic.twitter.com/tK2JPu6Wqm
— James O’Keefe (@JamesOKeefeIII) November 11, 2020
USPS Whistleblower Richard Hopkins: “I DID NOT RECANT”@shawnboburg and @jacobbogage have been played by the same federal agents on the audio ‘coercing,’ ‘scaring’ the whistleblower to water down allegations. As reporters, they are REQUIRED to include Richard’s denial. REQUIRED pic.twitter.com/8Rj5yWSljz
— James O’Keefe (@JamesOKeefeIII) November 11, 2020
Project Veritas president James O’Keefe released a snippet of the exchange Tuesday in which a man identified as a USPS OIG investigator said that “this storm is getting crazy,” and that “the reason they called me in is to try to harness that storm, to try to reel it back in before it gets really crazy.”
Said Mr. Hopkins: “They were grilling the hell out of me. I feel like I just got played.”
His comments came after the House Oversight Committee tweeted Tuesday that Mr. Hopkins had “completely RECANTED his allegations of a supervisor tampering with mail-in ballots after being questioned by investigators,” citing the Office of Inspector General.
The investigators “informed Committee staff today that they interviewed Hopkins on Friday, but that Hopkins RECANTED HIS ALLEGATIONS yesterday and did not explain why he signed a false affidavit,” tweeted the committee.
BREAKING NEWS: Erie, Pa. #USPS whistleblower completely RECANTED his allegations of a supervisor tampering with mail-in ballots after being questioned by investigators, according to IG.
THREAD:
— Oversight Committee (@OversightDems) November 10, 2020
Mr. Hopkins said last week he was told to collect late mail-in ballots, and that he overheard his supervisor, Erie postmaster Robert Weisenbach, talk about backdating them to make it appear that the late ballots were received on Nov. 3.
Mr. Weisenbach has denied the allegations, calling them “100% false.”
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled prior to the election that ballots dated on or before Nov. 3 would count as long as they were received by 5 p.m. Friday, Nov. 6.
Mr. Hopkins initially came forward last week as an anonymous whistle-blower with Project Veritas before revealing his identity in an affidavit, which was provided by the Trump campaign and released Saturday by Sen. Lindsey Graham, South Carolina Republican.
Mr. Ede said that the federal investigators refused to give Mr. Hopkins a copy of the document he had signed.
“He asked multiple times, can I have a copy of what you’re having me sign? They refused, even now, even after they have leaked to Congress and the Washington Post what he supposedly said in that signed statement,” Mr. Ede said.
He alleged that the federal investigator was “a fixer sent in to one job and one job only, and that is to come out with a recanting of the allegations, and he didn’t leave until he had it.”
“This is banana-republic, Soviet-era truth suppression tactics like I’ve never seen before,” Mr. Ede added.
A Project Veritas spokesperson said the group plans to release Wednesday more audio from the federal interview with Mr. Hopkins.
Mr. Hopkins said he did not believe the federal agents who interrogated him were interested in investigating alleged election fraud.
“Honestly, I don’t think they are,” he said.
Mr. Hopkins‘ eyewitness account of organized ballot tampering in Pennsylvania is among a flood of voter fraud allegations in several states.
Based on these claims, many in sworn affidavits, the Trump campaign filed a dozen lawsuits challenging the election in Arizona, Michigan, Nevada and Pennsylvania, seeking to reverse projections of a win by former Vice President Joseph R. Bid
Pennsylvania postal worker denies recanting ballot-tampering claims
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/nov/10/richard-hopkins-erie-pennsylvania-postal-worker-de/
Hours after House Democrats announced that a Pennsylvania postal worker had recanted allegations of ballot tampering, the mail carrier denied it, saying that he stands by his original statement and that he “got played” by federal investigators.
Richard Hopkins, a mail carrier in Erie, Pennsylvania, said in videos released Tuesday by Project Veritas that he never intended to recant his claims of possible ballot fraud after being grilled by investigators from the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General.
“I am right at this very moment looking at an article written by the Washington Post. It says that I fabricated the allegations of ballot tampering,” Mr. Hopkins said in a video posted on Twitter. “I am here to say that I did not recant my statements. That did not happen. That is not what happened.”
Project Veritas chief legal counsel Jered Ede accused the investigators of coercing Mr. Hopkins into signing an affidavit recanting his claims; failing to give him access to his attorney, and refusing to provide him with a copy of the signed document.
“It was coerced,” Mr. Ede told the Washington Times. “They forced him to execute this watered-down lukewarm affidavit. They did so during an interrogation where again they denied him the opportunity to be represented by counsel even though he confirmed with them that he had counsel.”
Unknown to the federal investigators, Mr. Hopkins was wearing a wire during the interview provided by Project Veritas based on his concerns about being harassed at work by supervisors or union officials.
RECORDING: Federal agents “coerce” USPS whistleblower Hopkins to water down story. Hopkins doubles down…
Agent Strasser: “I am trying to twist you a little bit”
“I am scaring you here”…” we have Senators involved…DOJ involved…reason they called me is to try to harness.” pic.twitter.com/tK2JPu6Wqm
— James O’Keefe (@JamesOKeefeIII) November 11, 2020
USPS Whistleblower Richard Hopkins: “I DID NOT RECANT”@shawnboburg and @jacobbogage have been played by the same federal agents on the audio ‘coercing,’ ‘scaring’ the whistleblower to water down allegations. As reporters, they are REQUIRED to include Richard’s denial. REQUIRED pic.twitter.com/8Rj5yWSljz
— James O’Keefe (@JamesOKeefeIII) November 11, 2020
Project Veritas president James O’Keefe released a snippet of the exchange Tuesday in which a man identified as a USPS OIG investigator said that “this storm is getting crazy,” and that “the reason they called me in is to try to harness that storm, to try to reel it back in before it gets really crazy.”
Said Mr. Hopkins: “They were grilling the hell out of me. I feel like I just got played.”
His comments came after the House Oversight Committee tweeted Tuesday that Mr. Hopkins had “completely RECANTED his allegations of a supervisor tampering with mail-in ballots after being questioned by investigators,” citing the Office of Inspector General.
The investigators “informed Committee staff today that they interviewed Hopkins on Friday, but that Hopkins RECANTED HIS ALLEGATIONS yesterday and did not explain why he signed a false affidavit,” tweeted the committee.
BREAKING NEWS: Erie, Pa. #USPS whistleblower completely RECANTED his allegations of a supervisor tampering with mail-in ballots after being questioned by investigators, according to IG.
THREAD:
— Oversight Committee (@OversightDems) November 10, 2020
Mr. Hopkins said last week he was told to collect late mail-in ballots, and that he overheard his supervisor, Erie postmaster Robert Weisenbach, talk about backdating them to make it appear that the late ballots were received on Nov. 3.
Mr. Weisenbach has denied the allegations, calling them “100% false.”
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled prior to the election that ballots dated on or before Nov. 3 would count as long as they were received by 5 p.m. Friday, Nov. 6.
Mr. Hopkins initially came forward last week as an anonymous whistle-blower with Project Veritas before revealing his identity in an affidavit, which was provided by the Trump campaign and released Saturday by Sen. Lindsey Graham, South Carolina Republican.
Mr. Ede said that the federal investigators refused to give Mr. Hopkins a copy of the document he had signed.
“He asked multiple times, can I have a copy of what you’re having me sign? They refused, even now, even after they have leaked to Congress and the Washington Post what he supposedly said in that signed statement,” Mr. Ede said.
He alleged that the federal investigator was “a fixer sent in to one job and one job only, and that is to come out with a recanting of the allegations, and he didn’t leave until he had it.”
“This is banana-republic, Soviet-era truth suppression tactics like I’ve never seen before,” Mr. Ede added.
A Project Veritas spokesperson said the group plans to release Wednesday more audio from the federal interview with Mr. Hopkins.
Mr. Hopkins said he did not believe the federal agents who interrogated him were interested in investigating alleged election fraud.
“Honestly, I don’t think they are,” he said.
Mr. Hopkins‘ eyewitness account of organized ballot tampering in Pennsylvania is among a flood of voter fraud allegations in several states.
Based on these claims, many in sworn affidavits, the Trump campaign filed a dozen lawsuits challenging the election in Arizona, Michigan, Nevada and Pennsylvania, seeking to reverse projections of a win by former Vice President Joseph R. Biden.
Sidney Powell's Legal Defense Fund for the American Republic
She seems to be going after the computer fraud using forensic audits. This makes sense to me due to the possible huge size of the fraud vs. trying to prove all the smaller cases of fraud that may be difficult to prove and may not be large enough to impact the outcome. I saw her tonight on Lou Dobbs and she seemed to be frustrated with the legal defense team's focus or approach. She's set up the following defense fund donation site. She also has the inside knowledge of Flynn who probably understands the Hammer software capabilities.
https://ldfftar.org/
https://www.sidneypowell.com/
Sidney Powell's Legal Defense Fund for the American Republic
She seems to be going after the computer fraud using forensic audits. This makes sense to me due to the possible huge size of the fraud vs. trying to prove all the smaller cases of fraud that may be difficult to prove and may not be large enough to impact the outcome. I saw her tonight on Lou Dobbs and she seemed to be frustrated with the legal defense team's focus or approach. She's set up the following defense fund donation site. She also has the inside knowledge of Flynn who probably understands the Hammer software capabilities.
https://ldfftar.org/
https://www.sidneypowell.com/
November 8, 2020
Wait Just a Minute! Some Very Good News May Be Coming
By Jay Valentine
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2020/11/wait_just_a_minute_some_very_good_news_may_be_coming.html
Did Hedge Funds Make The Right Call On InterDigital, Inc. (IDCC) ?
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/did-hedge-funds-call-interdigital-145602855.html
My3sons87:
Pochemunyet do not believe the hype.
It's the second leg of the Coronavirus Triple Crown Horse Race!!
Coronavirus Horse Race
Looks like Iowa congressman Steve King was set up by the lame stream media, Dims, and Rinos. I have never trusted Kevin McCarthy.
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2020/05/the_gops_unholy_assault_on_iowas_steve_king.html
The GOP's Unholy Assault on Iowa's Steve King
By Jack Cashill
May 25, 2020
The headline of a recent Baltimore Jewish Times article reads as follows: "Jewish Republicans Tackle a Thorny Question: What To Do About Republicans Like Steve King?"
A saner question might be, "Why should Jewish Republicans — or any Republican, for that matter — have a problem with Iowa congressman Steve King?"
Certain Republican insiders, using The Republican Jewish Coalition as a wedge, are trying their damnedest to defeat King in a June 2 primary. In doing so, they not only threaten to unseat one of Israel's most solid defenders in Congress, but also risk creating a backlash against Jews.
Reporter Ron Kampeas acknowledges how GOP leadership is using the Republican Jewish Coalition. Writes Kampeas, "The RJC [is] making a case that a Republican trafficking in anti-Semitism or white supremacism carries more weight than when it comes from an outside group." What makes this strategy all the more odious is that King has trafficked in neither.
In the spirit of full disclosure, I contracted with King in December to help him finish a book project he had been working on. This article is not part of that contract. It comes from the heart.
In the course of the project, I have reviewed every single "controversial" comment that King has made during his eighteen years in Congress. Having reviewed them all in their proper context, I would endorse King in a heartbeat and challenge any Republican who feels otherwise to a public debate on what it means to be a conservative.
In the way of background, I have a Ph.D. from Purdue in American studies. More to the point, I wrote a book five years ago called Scarlet Letters that documented the left's use of race, sex, and other identifiers to subvert the right.
As I noted in the book, "[a]n awkward phrase, a misunderstood joke, a manufactured quote, a frank look at data, a persistent belief in a revered tradition could earn a sinner any one of many scarlet letters as ablaze with 'awe and horrible repugnance' as Hester's own Scarlet A."
King was felled by a manufactured quote. The quote was published in a January 2019 New York Times article headlined "Before Trump, Steve King Set the Agenda for the Wall and Anti-Immigrant Politics." Deep in the article, reporter Trip Gabriel quoted King as saying, "White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive?"
Gabriel did not tape the interview. Neither did King. In a later taped conversation, King's assistant got Gabriel to admit he was the one who introduced the phrases "white nationalism" and "white supremacism," but by that time, the tumbrils were rolling, and they have not stopped since.
Five days after the initial article, Gabriel wrote an exhaustive piece headlined, "A Timeline of Steve King's Racist Remarks and Divisive Actions." The article deserves an honored spot in a media time capsule showing just how thoroughly the Times had corrupted the language by 2019.
Gabriel documented King's twenty-year history of alleged racist and divisive acts. These included such offenses as King's successful introduction of a bill making English Iowa's official language, his assertion that "preventing babies being born is not medicine," and his description of multiculturalism as "a tool for the Left to subdivide a culture and civilization into our own little ethnic enclaves and pit us against each other."
The left's strategy works only when Republicans join the witch hunt. In King's case, the witch-hunters know who they are. I will mention only one by name: House Leader Kevin McCarthy. Joe McCarthy never deserved the designation "McCarthyism." Kevin McCarthy does.
Curiously, in the lengthy Jewish Times article about King's racism, reporter Kampeas does not attribute to King a single racist quote. The best he can do is quote McCarthy saying, "Congressman King's comments cannot be exonerated." This raises the question, "which comments?"
In his outspoken 18 years in Congress, King has never said anything as quotable as "If you have a problem figuring out whether you're for me or Trump, then you ain't black." He never said about Jews, "It's all about the Benjamins." He did not even say, "Why don't they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime-infested places from which they came?"
The last of those quotes came from a tweet by President Trump. It was far more provocative than anything King has ever said. To his credit, McCarthy refused to denounce Trump when asked to do so at a press conference.
As a result, the hashtag "KevinMcCarthyIsARacist" promptly trended on Twitter. Weak-kneed Republicans like McCarthy live in fear of such labels. To appease the left, they routinely serve up the occasional sacrificial lamb — a Todd Akin, a Richard Mourdock, a Steve King — forgetting that the left is never appeased.
Despite the lack of quotes in the Jewish Times article, King is entirely quotable. I have found King to be more thoughtful in his defense of Western civilization than most Republicans and more candid than just about all of them. Some relevant quotes:
On Israel
CNN, November 2018: "I am a person who has stood with Israel from the beginning, and the length of that nation is the length of my life. And I've been with them all along."
On White Supremacy and White Nationalism
House Floor, January 2019: "I reject those labels and the evil ideology that they define. Further, I condemn anyone that supports this evil and bigoted ideology which saw in its ultimate expression the systematic murder of 6 million innocent Jewish lives."
On Judeo-Christianity:
House Floor, February 2012: "We derive our strength from free enterprise capitalism, Judeo-Christianity, Western civilization. That is the core of America, the vigor of America, and that is what we must continue to protect, regrow, and refurbish."
In the wake of Gabriel's article, Mark Steyn took up King's cause while hosting the Rush Limbaugh show. "He's not a white supremacist. He's not a white nationalist. It's all stupid talk," said Steyn. "So you've just surrendered the phrase 'Western civilization.' I don't get that. I don't see what's in it for conservatism in surrendering that phrase, in accepting the leftist's view that the term 'Western civilization' is beyond the pale."
I don't get it, either.
New York City Hospital’s Decision On Hydroxychloroquine Proves The Left Does Not Want The Pandemic To End
https://www.teaparty247.org/new-york-city-hospitals-decision-on-hydroxychloroquine-proves-the-left-does-not-want-the-pandemic-to-end/
Is this the real motive behind Obama's targeting Flynn?
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/05/is_this_the_real_motive_behind_obamas_targeting_flynn.html
May 22, 2020
Is this the real motive behind Obama's targeting Flynn?
By Andrea Widburg
As the Russia hoax unfolded, Trump-supporters knew that Trump and his team would be vindicated. Vindication began in 2019, when Mueller was unable to tie Trump or his campaign to Russia. Today, the trickle of stories about the Obama administration's illegal spying on and lying about Trump is becoming a flood.
But with all of these stories coming down the pike, one question stands out above all the others: why wasn't General Flynn just one target among many people who were spied upon in case they could derail either Trump's campaign or his presidency? The administration's excessive unmasking requests, the fact that the Kislyak phone call wasn't masked to begin with, and the vicious prosecution show that Flynn was special.
The redoubtable Lee Smith thinks the answer lies in Obama's obsession with making the Iran deal his ultimate legacy:
The answer is that Obama saw Flynn as a signal threat to his legacy, which was rooted in his July 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran — the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Flynn had said long before he signed on with the Trump campaign that it was a catastrophe to realign American interests with those of a terror state. And now that the candidate he'd advised was the new president-elect, Flynn was in a position to help undo the deal. To stop Flynn, the outgoing White House ran the same offense it used to sell the Iran deal — they smeared Flynn through the press as an agent of a foreign power, spied on him, and leaked classified intercepts of his conversations to reliable echo chamber allies.
Most of us could tell that Russia was a straw man. Obama's actual attitude to Russia was summed up in two moments. In March 2012, Obama asked then-president Medvedev to tell the real power, Putin, that he would be more flexible about missile defense after his re-election. He practically begged for Russia to interfere in the 2012 election:
Then, in July 2012, during a debate with Romney, Obama spoke a rehearsed line about Russia's irrelevance:
Obama wasn't the only one who had a problem, not with Russia, but with Flynn, writes Smith. The FBI also feared Flynn because he knew where the secrets were:
Obama and his foreign policy team were hardly the only people in Washington who had their knives out for Michael Flynn. Nearly everyone did, especially the FBI. As former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon's spy service, and a career intelligence officer, Flynn knew how and where to find the documentary evidence of the FBI's illegal spying operation buried in the agency's classified files — and the FBI had reason to be terrified of the new president's anger.
Flynn had also proven prophetic about Middle East terrorism (e.g., challenging Obama's dismissive claim that ISIS was a "J.V. team"):
"Flynn's warnings that extremists were regrouping and on the rise were inconvenient to an administration that didn't want to hear any bad news," says former DIA analyst Oubai Shahbandar. "Flynn's prophetic warnings would play out exactly as he'd warned shortly after he was fired."
An intelligence master, Flynn understood the weaknesses in America's intelligence-gathering, especially regarding jihadist Islam. The Obama administration, however, did not want better information about Iran. Obama wanted a deal, no matter what. When Flynn had lined up a CENTCOM meeting in Virginia to advance investigating an al Qaeda–Iran nexus, the Obama administration shut it down:
The administration was, it appears, clearing space for Obama to implement his big foreign policy idea — the Iran nuclear deal. Another aide, Ben Rhodes, had said in 2013 that the Iran Deal was the White House's key second-term initiative. Evidence that Tehran was coordinating with a terror group that had slaughtered thousands in Manhattan and at the Pentagon would make it harder to convince American lawmakers of the wisdom in legitimizing Iran's nuclear weapons program.
What was the information about al-Qaida's ties to Iran that Flynn wanted his CENTCOM team to get out? According to published news reports, the bin Laden database included "letters about Iran's role, influence, and acknowledgment of enabling al-Qaida operatives to pass through Iran as long as al-Qaida did its dirty work against the Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan." One of those letters showed that "Al-Qaeda was working on chemical and biological weapons in Iran."
Smith's done his homework and has a lot more to say about Obama's relentless, anti-Semitic, illegal, and anti-American drive to seal the deal. This shoddy, dangerous deal was going to be his legacy, and nobody — especially Flynn — was going to stop him.
What perplexes me is the fact that Flynn said nothing about any of this while he was being persecuted, er, prosecuted. As an extremely successful spy chief, he was the one who ought to have scared the Democrats running this corrupt show. Think how Chuck Schumer described the risks of running afoul of the Intelligence Community:
Let me tell you: You take on the intelligence community, they have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you. So, even for a practical, supposedly hard-nosed businessman, he's being really dumb to do this.
If I'm correct about my facts, there's a disconnect here that lends itself to two explanations. The first is that the DOJ and FBI didn't stop at threatening to destroy Flynn's son. There may have been some stronger threat there that truly silenced Flynn, and that's now been neutralized. The second is that Trump early on promised Flynn that he would make him whole in some way but asked that Flynn let the process play out for some greater political goal, such as bringing down the whole corrupt Obama-Deep State edifice.
Why InterDigital (IDCC) Stock Might be a Great Pick
Zacks Equity Research
May 20, 2020
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/why-interdigital-idcc-stock-might-130001330.html
One stock that might be an intriguing choice for investors right now is InterDigital, Inc. IDCC. This is because this security in the Wireless Equipment space is seeing solid earnings estimate revision activity, and is in great company from a Zacks Industry Rank perspective.
This is important because, often times, a rising tide will lift all boats in an industry, as there can be broad trends taking place in a segment that are boosting securities across the board. This is arguably taking place in the Wireless Equipment space as it currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 63 out of more than 250 industries, suggesting it is well-positioned from this perspective, especially when compared to other segments out there.
Meanwhile, InterDigital is actually looking pretty good on its own too. The firm has seen solid earnings estimate revision activity over the past month, suggesting analysts are becoming a bit more bullish on the firm’s prospects in both the short and long term.
In fact, over the past month, current quarter estimates have risen from 29 cents per share to 72 cents per share, while current year estimates have risen from 98 cents per share to $1.45 per share. This has helped IDCC to earn a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), further underscoring the company’s solid position. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
So, if you are looking for a decent pick in a strong industry, consider InterDigital. Not only is its industry currently in the top third, but it is seeing solid estimate revisions as of late, suggesting it could be a very interesting choice for investors seeking a name in this great industry segment.
Can InterDigital (IDCC) Run Higher on Rising Earnings Estimates?
[Zacks]
Zacks Equity Research
,Zacks•May 12, 2020
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/interdigital-idcc-run-higher-rising-162004340.html
InterDigital (IDCC) could be a solid addition to your portfolio given a notable revision in the company's earnings estimates. While the stock has been gaining lately, the trend might continue since its earnings outlook is still improving.
The upward trend in estimate revisions for this wireless research and development company reflects growing optimism of analysts on its earnings prospects, which should get reflected in its stock price. After all, empirical research shows a strong correlation between trends in earnings estimate revisions and near-term stock price movements. Our stock rating tool -- the Zacks Rank -- has this insight at its core.
The five-grade Zacks Rank system, which ranges from a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) to a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive externally-audited track record of outperformance, with Zacks #1 Ranked stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 2008.
For InterDigital, strong agreement among the covering analysts in revising earnings estimates upward has resulted in meaningful improvement in consensus estimates for the next quarter and full year.
Current-Quarter Estimate Revisions
For the current quarter, the company is expected to earn $0.63 per share, which is a change of +162.5% from the year-ago reported number.
Over the last 30 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for InterDigital has increased 121.05% because one estimate has moved higher compared to no negative revisions.
Current-Year Estimate Revisions
For the full year, the earnings estimate of $1.28 per share represents a change of +93.94% from the year-ago number.
The revisions trend for the current year also appears quite promising for InterDigital, with two estimates moving higher over the past month compared to no negative revisions. The consensus estimate has also received a boost over this time frame, increasing 55.27%.
Favorable Zacks Rank
The promising estimate revisions have helped InterDigital earn a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). The Zacks Rank is a tried-and-tested rating tool that helps investors effectively harness the power of earnings estimate revisions and make the right investment decision. You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Our research shows that stocks with Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) and 2 (Buy) significantly outperform the S&P 500.
Bottom Line
While strong estimate revisions for InterDigital have attracted decent investments and pushed the stock 24.2% higher over the past four weeks, further upside may still be left in the stock. So, you may consider adding it to your portfolio right away.
InterDigital's (IDCC) Q1 Earnings Beat on Higher Revenues
Zacks Equity Research
•May 8, 2020
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/interdigitals-idcc-q1-earnings-beat-144402645.html
InterDigital, Inc. IDCC reported solid first-quarter 2020 results, wherein both top and bottom lines surpassed the respective Zacks Consensus Estimate. Higher revenues generated from new licensing avenues highlighted the operating leverage of the company’s business model and reflected the strength of its licensing business.
Net Income
The company reported break-even earnings in the quarter against a net loss of $2.8 million or a loss of 9 cents per share in the year-ago quarter. The significant year-over-year improvement was largely attributable to higher revenues. The bottom line surpassed the consensus mark by 9 cents.
Revenues
The wireless R&D company’s revenues totaled $76.2 million, up from $68.6 million in the year-earlier quarter. The top line surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $75 million. The increase was primarily due to new license agreements signed in the quarter.
Recurring revenues during the reported quarter were $75.5 million compared with $74.2 million a year ago. While revenues from patent royalties came in at $73 million, the same from current technology solutions totaled $3.2 million.
Other Details
Total operating expenses were $71.5 million, up from $68.8 million in the prior-year quarter due to intellectual property enforcement and non-patent litigation costs. Operating income was $4.7 million against operating loss of $0.2 million a year ago.
Cash Flow and Liquidity
During the first quarter, InterDigital utilized $26.9 million of cash for operating activities compared with cash utilization of $30.8 million in the year-ago quarter. As of Mar 31, 2020, the company had $780.9 million in cash and short-term investments along with $398.8 million of long-term debt and other liabilities.
Outlook
With solid licensing agreements with leading consumer electronics customers in the reported quarter, InterDigital is eyeing a healthy licensing business despite the coronavirus-induced pandemonium. The company remains relatively immune to the adverse economic effects of the virus outbreak as fixed priced agreements make up for more than 90% of revenues.
InterDigital remains poised to gain from growth opportunities from 5G rollout. For second-quarter 2020, the company expects revenues in the range of $97-$105 million owing to new licensing agreements inked with Huawei.
Zacks Rank & Other Stocks to Consider
InterDigital currently sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).
InterDigital, Inc. (IDCC) Shares March Higher, Can It Continue?
[Zacks]
Zacks Equity Research
,Zacks•May 5, 2020
InterDigital, Inc. (IDCC) Shares March Higher, Can It Continue?
As of late, it has definitely been a great time to be an investor in InterDigital, Inc. (IDCC). The stock has moved higher by 21.5% in the past month, while it is also above its 20 Day SMA too. This combination of strong price performance and favorable technical, could suggest that the stock may be on the right path.
We certainly think that this might be the case, particularly if you consider IDCC’s recent earnings estimate revision activity. From this look, the company’s future is quite favorable; as IDCC has earned itself a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), meaning that its recent run may continue for a bit longer, and that this isn’t the top for the in-focus company.
Delicious Dynamic – John Ratcliffe ODNI Confirmation Hearing Tomorrow – Senate Intel Committee 9:30am ET
Posted on May 4, 2020 by sundance
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2020/05/04/delicious-dynamic-john-ratcliffe-odni-confirmation-hearing-tomorrow-senate-intel-committee-930am-et/
An interesting dynamic unfolds tomorrow as the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) will be holding the confirmation hearing for President Trump’s nominee, John Ratcliffe. As a result of earlier political moves the SSCI is between a rock and a hard place.
The SSCI is the drain-plug in the swamp. They use their corrupt oversight power and confirmation authority to control the intelligence apparatus (swamp guards) and ensure that no executive branch officer can disrupt or disclose their corrupt Senate schemes.
President Trump nominated Representative John Ratcliffe, an intelligence community reformer, for the position of Director of National Intelligence (DNI). The SSCI previously rejected Ratcliffe because his existence is adverse to their interests. However, in response Trump installed honey badger Richard “Ric” Grenell as the acting DNI.
The SSCI hates Grennel with the ferocity of a thousand supernovas because Grenell doesn’t give a f**k about their swamp life. Better yet, Grenell smacks them around publicly on Twitter whenever the SSCI dispatch the orcs from the deep swamp intelligence apparatus. Every time orcs poke their heads out of the DC labyrinth, Grenell smacks them with a billion mega-watt sunlight hammer. They shriek and retreat to the dungeon.
The good news for the SSCI is that Grenell can only stay in the ‘acting’ role until September of this year. However, the bad news is if the SSCI rejects John Ratcliffe then Ric Grenell gets another year to antagonize the corrupt senators, swing the sunlight hammer & expose the darkest secrets of their beloved swamp. {{Grumble – Grumble}}
As a result President Trump has pinned the SSCI into the corner of their cave. If the SSCI rejects Ratcliffe, they are stuck with Grenell; and Ric really is a guy who doesn’t give a f**k about the SSCI’s indulgent self-interest and thirst for power.
As Senator Angus King said: “If we vote down Ratcliffe, we’re stuck with Grenell.”
[Insert Angus sad face here]
Too darned funny.
New York Times -President Trump first picked Representative John Ratcliffe of Texas to be the nation’s intelligence chief last summer, but resistance in the Republican Senate was so firm that Mr. Ratcliffe’s name was withdrawn before his nomination ever became official.
Eight months later, Mr. Ratcliffe is back. On Tuesday, he will step before many of those same lawmakers on the Senate Intelligence Committee for a confirmation hearing to be the director of national intelligence — this time as a full-fledged nominee whose prospects have vastly improved as Republican opposition has softened.
[…] The reversal in fortune has been remarkable, even by the standards of Trump-era Washington. It arguably has as much to do with Richard Grenell, the acting director of national intelligence, as it does with Mr. Ratcliffe, officials involved in the confirmation process said.
Key Republican senators including Richard M. Burr of North Carolina, the Intelligence Committee chairman, are uneasy about Mr. Grenell, an aggressive defender of the president who has moved to reshape the office while making liberal use of his Twitter account to spar with the news media and Democrats. (Mr. Grenell also continues to serve as the ambassador to Germany.)
[…] Mr. Ratcliffe will say that depoliticizing the intelligence agencies would be one of his top priorities as director — a promise that could alarm Democrats who see such comments as a euphemism for pulling the agencies closer to Mr. Trump’s views.
[…] Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, the panel’s top Democrat, said he would give Mr. Ratcliffe a respectful hearing but made clear he viewed him as part of a broader attempt by Mr. Trump to politicize the nation’s intelligence apparatus.
[…] The White House has made clear the only alternative to Mr. Ratcliffe is Mr. Grenell, the acting director, who can continue in the role through September, although his term would be extended further if the Senate rejects Mr. Ratcliffe.
Even on an interim basis, Mr. Grenell has declared that he is “not a seat warmer” and set about remaking the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, beginning a review aimed at shrinking the office, replacing the leader of the National Counterterrorism Center and studying whether to reduce intelligence sharing with countries that criminalize homosexuality.
Senators acknowledge that the vote could come down to their preference between the two men.
“The fellow that is the acting is just as partisan, if not more so than Congressman Ratcliffe,” Mr. King said. “If we vote down the congressman, we are still left with a partisan in the position. In effect, we are choosing between Grenell and Ratcliffe.” (read more)
5 Tech Stocks Likely to Beat on Q1 Earnings Despite Coronavirus
[Zacks]
Tirthankar Chakraborty
,Zacks•April 24, 2020
5 Tech Stocks Likely to Beat on Q1 Earnings Despite Coronavirus
InterDigital, Inc. IDCC is a pioneer in advanced mobile technologies that enables wireless communications and capabilities. The company is expected to report earnings results for the quarter ending March 2020 on May 7. InterDigital has an Earnings ESP of +152.0%. The company’s expected earnings growth rate for the current and next year is an encouraging 57.6% and 76%, respectively. The stock has a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).
The first-quarter earnings season is under way, with the coronavirus pandemic weighing on corporate profits and ravaging the global economy in the backdrop. Thus, it goes without saying that the tech sector releases will reflect the effects of the outbreak.
Firstly, consumer confidence in the United States dropped to near a three-year low in March as households were fretting over the future course of the economy. Notably, Lynn Franco, senior director of Economic Indicators at The Conference Board, confirmed that the March decline in confidence indicated a severe contraction and not just a temporary blip. And with confidence taking a beating, consumer spending is widely expected to take a hit. Understandably demand for PCs, tablets and mobile phones, to name a few, has probably diminished in the first quarter, something that doesn’t bode well for hardware, software and IT service providers.
Manufacturers of computers, smartphones, smart watches, laptops, PCs, smart speakers and various other components were highly impacted in the first quarter due to the closure of factories in China in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak. This is more concerning as China exports nearly 50% of the world’s technologies, and hence the global tech sector will face massive supply disruptions because of the pandemic and its outcome on production in China.
Tech bigwigs like Apple Inc. AAPL and Microsoft Corporation MSFT have already issued warnings about lower-than-expected earnings result for the quarter ending March 2020 due to global supply chain disturbances and the steepest drop in consumer demand in China.
The semiconductor industry, in the meanwhile, may not have been directly impacted by the pandemic but has probably suffered from disruption of production at electronic manufacturing companies. Needless to say, electronic manufacturers represent the bulk of the world’s largest chip purchasers.
There are several chip packaging and testing plants in China. But China has shutdown many such plants or reduced operations due to the challenging macroeconomic environment and that may have had an impact on chipmakers’ first-quarter earnings.
But not everything is as dispiriting. The coronavirus outbreak has compelled people to work and study from home, which has no doubt been a blessing in disguise for software vendors that provide remote working facilities. Prominent among such companies are Zoom, Slack, GoToMyPC, Zoho Remotely, Microsoft Office365 and Atlassian. Internet publishers and broadcasters are also thus seeing a rise in demand.
Most importantly, tech stocks engaged in cloud computing have most likely gained in the first quarter for the same social-distancing reasons.
With majority of people now working or learning remotely, most of the companies need to move a bulk portion of their workload to the cloud. To top it, consumers have started to shop online as well. Thus, any consumer-oriented business needs to have a digital presence built on the cloud in order to survive the virus onslaught.
5 Tech Stocks to Report Explosive Earnings
Investing in some solid tech players expected to report a significant uptick in first-quarter earnings seems prudent now. These stocks flaunt a positive Earnings ESP — our proprietary methodology for determining stocks that have the best chance to surprise with their next earnings announcement. It provides the percentage difference between the Most Accurate Estimate and the Zacks Consensus Estimate.
Shopify Inc. SHOP provides a multi-tenant, cloud-based, multi-channel commerce platform for small and medium-sized businesses. The company is expected to report earnings results for the quarter ending March 2020 on May 6. Shopify has an Earnings ESP of +16.08%. The company’s expected earnings growth rate for the next year is a whopping 2,050%. The stock has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
Etsy, Inc. ETSY offers e-commerce services. It provides marketplaces to buy and sell goods. The company is expected to report earnings results for the quarter ending March 2020 on May 6. Etsy has an Earnings ESP of +8.17%. The company’s expected earnings growth rate for the next year is a solid 189.7%. The stock has a Zacks Rank #2.
InterDigital, Inc. IDCC is a pioneer in advanced mobile technologies that enables wireless communications and capabilities. The company is expected to report earnings results for the quarter ending March 2020 on May 7. InterDigital has an Earnings ESP of +152.0%. The company’s expected earnings growth rate for the current and next year is an encouraging 57.6% and 76%, respectively. The stock has a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/5-tech-stocks-likely-beat-123512998.html
Grab 5 Top Stocks With Strong Earnings Beat Prospects
InterDigital Inc. IDCC: It is a pioneer in advanced mobile technologies that enables wireless communications and capabilities. The stock has a Zacks Rank #2. It comes from a favorable Zacks industry (top 34%).
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/grab-5-top-stocks-strong-110911443.html
Grab 5 Top Stocks With Strong Earnings Beat Prospects
[Zacks]
Sanghamitra Saha
,Zacks•April 21, 2020
Grab 5 Top Stocks With Strong Earnings Beat Prospects
The earnings season is underway and all attention will now be on upbeat releases for some respite from the adverse impact of coronavirus. This means estimate-beating stocks will be the most important ones from the investment point of view.
Note that investors are always in the hunt for estimate-beating stocks before an earnings release. This is because investors always try to place themselves ahead of time and look to play stocks that are rich in quality and have high chances of beating earnings estimates.
Why Is a Positive Earnings Surprise So Important?
Historically, stocks of companies with solid quarterly earnings (on a nominal basis) tank if they miss or merely meet market expectations. After all, a 20% earnings rise (though apparently looks good) doesn’t tell you if it has been decelerating.
Also, seasonal fluctuations can come into play. If a company’s Q1 is seasonally weak and Q4 is strong, it is likely to report a sequential earnings decline. In such cases, growth rates are misleading while judging the true health of a company.
On the other hand, after a whole lot of research and analysis on a company’s financials and initiatives, Wall Street analysts project its earnings. They also take a company’s guidance into consideration when deriving an earnings estimate.
Thus, outperforming that estimate is almost equivalent to beating the company’s own expectation as well as the market perception. And if the margin of earnings surprise is big, it typically drives the stock higher right after the release. Thus, more than anything else, an earnings surprise can push a stock higher.
How to Locate Potential Outperformers?
Now, finding stocks that have the potential to beat on the bottom line is a dream that investors chase but might not always come true. One way of fulfilling it is by looking at the earnings surprise history of a company.
An impressive track in this regard generally acts as a driver in sending a stock higher. It indicates the company’s ability to exceed estimates. And investors generally believe that the company will have the same trick up its sleeve to deliver yet another earning beat in its upcoming release.
The Winning Strategy
In order to shortlist stocks that are likely to come up with an earnings surprise, we chose the following as our primary screening parameters.
Last EPS Surprise greater than or equal to 10%: Stocks delivering positive surprise in the last quarter tend to surprise again.
Average EPS Surprise in the last four quarters greater than 20%: We lifted the bar for outperformance slight higher by setting the average earnings surprise for the last four quarters at 20%.
Average EPS Surprise in the last two quarters greater than 20%: This points to a more consistent surprise history and makes the case for another surprise even stronger.
In addition, we place a few other criteria that push up the chance of a positive surprise.
Zacks Rank less than or equal to 2: Only companies with a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) or 2 (Buy) rating can get through.
Earnings ESP greater than zero: A stock needs to have both a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank of #1, 2 or 3 for an earnings beat to happen, as per our proven model.
In order to zero in on those that have long-term growth potential and high trading liquidity we have added the following parameters too:
Next 3–5 Years Estimated EPS Growth (Per Year) greater than 10%: Solid expected earnings growth exhibits the stock’s long-term growth prospects.
Average 20-day Volume greater than 100,000: High trading volume implies that the stocks have adequate liquidity.
A handful of criteria narrowed down the universe from over 7,700 stocks to five.
Here are all the five stocks that passed the screen:
Ionis Pharmaceuticals Inc. IONS: This RNA-targeted drug discovery and development company comes from a favorable Zacks industry (placed at the top 4% of total 250+ industries in the Zacks universe).It has a Zacks Rank #2. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
Aphria Inc. APHA: The Zacks Rank #2 company produces, supplies and sells medical cannabis primarily in Canada. The company comes from a favorable Zacks industry (top 16%).
Tabula Rasa Healthcare Inc. TRHC: This provider of patient-specific, data-driven technology and solutions belongs to a favorable Zacks industry (top 19%). It carries a Zacks Rank #2.
InterDigital Inc. IDCC: It is a pioneer in advanced mobile technologies that enables wireless communications and capabilities. The stock has a Zacks Rank #2. It comes from a favorable Zacks industry (top 34%).
Huron Consulting Group Inc. HURN: This is the parent company of Huron Consulting Services LLC, an independent provider of financial and operational consulting services. The stock has a Zacks Rank #2 and hails from a favorable Zacks industry (top 4%).
Man Who Discovered HIV Makes Explosive Comments About Origins Of The Coronavirus
(Tea Party 247) – While it has been long speculated that the Wuhan coronavirus could have been created in a lab rather than transferred from bat to human at a wet market as is the official Chinese narrative, more and more evidence is emerging that the origin could have been much more sinister.
And now, even scientists are coming forward to bolster suspicions that the virus is man-made.
GilmoreHealth.com’s Robert Miller writes that the man who discovered HIV back in 1983, Dr. Luc Montagnier is one of them.
Professor Luc Montagnier, who was the 2008 Nobel Prize winner for Medicine, claims that SARS-CoV-2 is a manipulated virus accidentally released from a lab in Wuhan. Chinese researches are said to have used the coronavirus in their work to develop an AIDS vaccine. Fragments of HIV DNA are believed to have been found in the SARS-CoV-2 genome.
Newswars notes:
We knew that the Chinese version of how the coronavirus emerged was increasingly under attack, but here’s a thesis that tells a completely different story about the Covid-19 pandemic, which is already responsible for more than 110,000 deaths worldwide.
“With my colleague, bio-mathematician Jean-Claude Perez, we carefully analyzed the description of the genome of this RNA virus,” Montagnier told Dr. Jean-François Lemoine in an interview for the Pourquoi Docteur podcast, adding:
Indian researchers have already tried to publish the results of the analyses that showed that this coronavirus genome contained sequences of another virus, … the HIV virus (AIDS virus), but they were forced to withdraw their findings as the pressure from the mainstream was too great.
In a challenging question, Dr. Lemoine suggested that the coronavirus may have come from a patient who is otherwise infected with HIV.
“No,” says Luc Montagnier, “in order to insert an HIV sequence into this genome, molecular tools are needed, and that can only be done in a laboratory.”
He explained that a plausible explanation would be that an accident at the Wuhan lab led to the virus being released. He also added that the purpose of his work was the search for an AIDS vaccine.
It’s not all bad news, however. Dr. Montagnier explained that, due to mutation, the virus may eventually be less deadly.
“Nature does not accept any molecular tinkering, it will eliminate these unnatural changes and even if nothing is done, things will get better, but unfortunately after many deaths,” he explained.
He added that, with the help of interfering waves, these sequences could be eliminated and the pandemic stopped.
Of course, despite being a Nobel Prize-winning scientist, he’s being labeled as a “conspiracy theorist:”
“Conspirators are the opposite camp, hiding the truth,” he said, without wanting to accuse anyone but with the hopes that the Chinese will admit to what happened.
https://www.teaparty247.org/man-who-discovered-hiv-makes-explosive-comments-about-origins-of-the-coronavirus/
Laura Ingraham Interview with Dr Stephen Smith Interview 4/1/2020.
Dr. Smith: "I think this is the beginning of the end of the pandemic."
Follow the toothpick.
Actually, what it really shows is you have a very limited understanding of how executives in business operate in the current environment.
I understand all of that. But at where the price is today you think they would put some cash in the pot to keep these shares. It really shows they have no faith in the stock.
TOP 10 MEMES Don't Fear the Reaper
Gmen, thank you, for this info.
IDCC held up fairly well today.
Hydroxychloroquine, the drug that could stop COVID-19
The epidemic of the new Coronavirus Covid-19 It has put the medical community and around the world to work, not only to treat the millions affected by this virus, but also to find a cure and stop this disease through different drugs, such as Hydroxychloroquine, also known as Plaquenil.
In Mexico, Health authorities have recently reported that there are two drugs that could be effective in fighting the new Coronavirus Covid-19; which are already being tested.
Hydroxychloroquine
Remdesivir
In a press conference, Dr. Gustavo Reyes Terán, head of the Coordinating Commission of National Institutes of Health and High Specialty Hospitals (CCINSHAE), reported that the drug Hydroxychloroquine or Plaquenil is in our country and is commonly used for other evils
It is a medicine that has been used for many years for malaria or to treat autoimmune diseases, it is given in Lupus for example ”, Dr. Gustavo Reyes Terán.
The holder of the CCINSHAE ensures that the Hydroxychloroquine could be used through clinical trials with the Mexican population and thus combat the new Coronavirus Covid-19.
Hydroxychloroquine or Plaquenil It is commonly used to treat various complications as a result of lupus and other connective tissue disorders; that is to say, the set of cells of the organism that has the same function and that constitute the fundamental structure of the different organs of the human body.
Uses of Hydroxychloroquine or Plaquenil
Hydroxychloroquine or Plaquenil It is part of a series of medications that were originally used to prevent and treat malaria, but, at present, it is used for discomforts such as rheumatoid arthritis, some symptoms of lupus and other autoimmune diseases. It has also been used to prevent and treat malaria.
https://www.archyde.com/hydroxychloroquine-the-drug-that-could-stop-covid-19/
Hydroxychloroquine eliminated coronavirus in 75% of patients in 6 days, Prof. Didier Raoult, MD, PhD
I just watched a doctor on Laura Ingraham explain Hydroxychloroquine prevents Covid-19 virus from infecting people, as well. Hydroxychloroquine has been used since WWII and only costs 5 cents per pill.
Did China Panic the World and Steal Our Wealth with a Common Cold?
By Anthony J. Ciani
March 16, 2020
If COVID-19 (scientifically known as SARS-CoV-2) had started in Singapore or Taiwan, it would have traveled the world, infected billions of people, killed millions, and there wouldn't have been a single peep about it. "But it kills people," you cry. That is what cold and flu do, especially to the elderly and those lacking basic medicines. The world is panicking over a virus that causes mild colds in the vast majority of cases. Amid the panic, China is profiting as it buys up stocks at bargain-basement prices. Instead of engineering a pandemic, did China engineer pandemonium?
Before pandemonium, science. Sudden Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) is characterized by the sudden (within a day or two) development of severe viral pneumonia with a thick mucus that is difficult to treat. SARS is strongly associated with two strains of coronavirus (SARS-CoV and now SARS-CoV-2). The pathogenesis of SARS is supposed to go something like this: Day 1: infection with SARS-CoV or SARS-CoV-2. Day 2: coughing and wheezing for breath. Day 3: hospitalization on a ventilator. Day 4: death. Over 99% of COVID-19 cases have experienced nothing even remotely similar to SARS. Is SARS-CoV-2 a bunch of hooey?
Medicine has a penchant for gaining fame by discovering new diseases by reclassifying old diseases. When infected with a cold-causing virus, you might get a fever, might have a runny nose, might cough, might have muscle aches, might have a sore throat, and you might get viral pneumonia. "SARS" is a name for a severe case of viral pneumonia caused by two specific cold viruses, but any cold virus could lead to a SARS-like viral pneumonia. Don't scoff at colds.
There are over 200 viruses that cause the common cold. Among those are several strains of coronavirus, with a new strain discovered every few years. Discovery occurs when a lab technician sequences a virus (a rather rare event) and submits to GenBank a previously unpublished sequence. The newly discovered virus could have been endemic for millennia. Science makes mistakes, and a lot of scientists can make a lot of mistakes, especially when rushing. Assuming that the multitude of partial genetic sequences for COVID-19 are genetic sequences for COVID-19, and assuming that the multitude of rapidly developed (and poorly validated) tests for COVID-19 are specific for COVID-19, then COVID-19 rarely leads to SARS. COVID-19 is a newly identified strain of coronavirus that causes the common cold, and although newly discovered, it could have been endemic for centuries.
We fill nursing homes with elderly on their last legs, where they are tended to by orderlies, until one of those orderlies comes to work with a little bit of a runny nose. "Would you like us to make them comfortable?" is a code phrase for "Would you like us to continue fluffing their pillows while they choke to death from pneumonia and their minds melt from fever?" Medicine is withheld as they die a natural death from pneumonia indistinguishable from SARS. Even the young and healthy can die from a cold. Absent medicines, such as aspirin, decongestants, and expectorants, death from fever, secondary infections, diarrhea, and viral pneumonia is a real possibility. The common cold would be 100 times more deadly without medicine, just as in the past.
This brings us to China, where an advanced socialized medical system is much like the nursing home: no medicine at all. People reported to hospitals because their common colds were a little more severe than usual. Perhaps their fevers were unresponsive to the medicines they obtained at the local drugstore, which may not have contained any medicine (1,2,3,4,5). With so much manufactured in China, you might have paid $300 for a bottle of cornstarch pressed into pills; [insert big-name pharma company here] thanks you. At the hospital, many patients in Wuhan were carefully evaluated for their worth to society and then led to benches in the halls upon which they could sit while their fevers and coughs got worse and they were otherwise ignored.
Meanwhile, the Chinese are profiting immensely from the fire sale, as though they were prepared for it (6,7,8,9,10). Also consider that China owns large portions of our media companies, and China virtually controls the World Health Organization (WHO). When this thing started, Trump offered aid to China in the form of virology experts and medicines, but China refused that aid, insisting that everything be done through the WHO. The WHO assisted in the hype by calling something that looked like a common cold, once it got out of China, a "pandemic."
Were the people of Wuhan suffering from a new SARS, the ravages of a common cold exacerbated by socialist medicine, or nothing at all? COVID-19 rarely causes SARS outside China, so it must be the last one.
Did the Chinese government attempt to cover up the embarrassment of its socialized medicine or fabricate a deadly outbreak to panic the world? Has our scientific arrogance erroneously blamed this on an innocuous common cold, possibly endemic in much of the world, or have we been maliciously misled by the Chinese-controlled WHO? Was it to cover the embarrassment or advance the fabrication? Did China orchestrate the media hype, or was it the normal Trump-hate of fake news? Did the Chinese start a fire sale, or were they well positioned by happenstance?
Never attribute to maliciousness that which you can to incompetence, and never attribute to incompetence that which you can to socialism.
As COVID-19 turns into an expensive exercise in tracking the progression of a common cold, the Chinese are grinning, but will they smile for long? The China Model was already collapsing, and the companies and wealth they gained through trickery and deceit have been declining from poor management. The world is waking up: China was a deal too good to be true, and we need to get out of it before the ineptness and malice of socialism take us all down.
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2020/03/did_china_panic_the_world_and_steal_our_wealth_with_a_common_cold.html
Remember the H1N1 Pandemic? I Don’t Either
March 16, 2020
Remember the H1N1 Pandemic? I Don’t Either
By Brian C.Joondeph, MD
Although the "racist"-sounding “Wuhan virus” is now labeled as a pandemic by the World Health Organization, in America the real pandemic, more accurately described as pandemonium, is at the local supermarkets where store shelves resemble those in Venezuela.
America is in the grips of a panic the likes of which we haven’t seen before. What exactly is a pandemic, other than a scary sounding word from science fiction movies? According to WHO, “Pandemic refers to an epidemic that has spread over several countries or continents, usually affecting a large number of people.”
Per the Johns Hopkins dashboard, at the time of this writing, there are 147,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus spanning the globe, with 5500 deaths and 72.000 recoveries. Cases in China have leveled off over the past several weeks, suggesting that we in the U.S. may see the same over the upcoming weeks to months.
Wuhan virus is not the first viral pandemic America has had to contend with. The last one was the H1N1 virus from 2009. How did America react to that last pandemic 10 years ago? Does anyone have more than a vague recollection of H1N1, also known as swine flu? No one will forget this current panic, but most have forgotten H1N1.
During the swine flu pandemic, were there mass cancellations of events including conferences, concerts, sporting events, and entire professional sports leagues? Did colleges cancel classes, finishing the remainder of their semesters online? Were travel restrictions imposed between America and Europe? Were panicked Americans hoarding everything from toilet paper to pasta?
If these things happened during the swine flu pandemic, I certainly have no recollection. In 2009, congressional Democrat leaders weren’t criticizing the president, instead they were trying to force through a government takeover of healthcare, known as ObamaCare. Criticizing its namesake wasn’t in the media’s playbook and they all but ignored the swine flu.
What a difference a decade and a president makes.
One might think the H1N1 virus pandemic was relatively mild since life proceeded as usual for most Americans, rather than the zombie apocalypse we are now living through. H1N1 was also referred to as the swine flu without objections from animal rights groups. In 2009, a name was just a name, labeling a virus based on its origin.
According to the CDC, “This virus was originally referred to as swine flu because laboratory testing showed that its gene segments were similar to influenza viruses that were most recently identified in and known to circulate among pigs.”
The name “swine flu” was accepted without objection in 2009 but today the name “Wuhan virus” or “Chinese coronavirus” is deemed racist. The only difference between the two virus names is who occupies the White House.
What about a comparison of the number of cases and deaths between the two viral pandemics? With all the hysteria over coronavirus compared to swine flu, the current outbreak must be far worse, right?
As of this writing, there are 63 deaths in the U.S. due to coronavirus, 40 of which are in Washington State. The vast majority of the Washington deaths involved patients at a skilled nursing facility in Kirkland, elderly and with underlying medical problems.
Overall, the coronavirus is quite selective as to whom it kills. From the New York Times: “Among the people in the United States who have died from coronavirus, almost all have been in their 70s, 80s or 90s. The youngest known fatality was a man in his 40s.” Unlike other viral epidemics, coronavirus is not killing the young and healthy.
For comparison, let’s look at the H1N1, or swine flu, pandemic of 2009. It was first detected in April 2009, “primarily affecting children and adults under 65.” It had a much different appetite compared to Coronavirus, in fact almost the opposite patient demographic.
Reported deaths had occurred in people ranging in age from 22 months old to 57 years old. Also, only 13% of hospitalizations had occurred in people 50 years and older, and there were few cases and no deaths in people older than 65 years, which was unusual when compared with seasonal flu.
Not to be crass, but those dying of coronavirus could just have easily died of the seasonal flu, pneumonia, or any of their underlying illnesses, and would have as some point, unlike swine flu where the young and healthy were dying.
The World Health Organization declared swine flu a pandemic in June 2009. President Obama didn’t declare it a national emergency for four months, until October 2009. House Democrats introduced ObamaCare in July 2009, in the midst of this pandemic. The last thing they wanted was any distraction, shifting focus to the healthcare system they were trying to take over.
In contrast, the WHO declared coronavirus a pandemic on March 11. Two days later on March 13, President Trump declared it a national emergency. Two days versus four months. Yet if you watch cable news, it’s Trump who doesn’t know what he is doing and is dropping the ball. What a difference a president makes.
Given the mass hysteria, supply hoarding, event cancellations and abject panic in America over the coronavirus, the numbers must be far worse now compared to the swine flu pandemic a decade ago. Let’s see if that’s true.
Swine flu caused 60.8 million illnesses, 273,304 hospitalizations, and 12,469 deaths in the U.S.
Worldwide, swine flu may have killed up to 203,000 people, more than the number thus far infected with Coronavirus, and the vast majority of those infected recovering uneventfully.
Why wasn’t virtually every major sporting event in 2009 cancelled given these numbers? Especially with swine flu preferentially affecting the young?
Granted the coronavirus hasn’t run its course and the numbers will likely increase, but look at the comparison of numbers and reaction now versus then.
In the U.S., 63 deaths now versus 12,000 then. 3,621 cases now versus 60 million then. Yet I don’t remember the hair-on-fire media reaction now versus then. What a difference a president makes.
How did the media react in 2009? The NY Times praised Obama’s leadership. From a May 1, 2009 article,
A week after his administration first received word about a deadly flu spreading across Mexico, President Obama convened his cabinet on Friday and instructed every agency to play a role in preparing the United States for a pandemic.
The president’s comments came at the end of a weeklong balancing act in which his public words and actions were carefully measured to summon a sense of urgency without setting off a panic. It was no coincidence, his aides said, that he played golf the day his administration declared a national emergency.
Imagine if Trump played golf last week. I’m sure the media would just mention it in passing as an example of President Trump trying to avoid setting off a panic.
Otherwise the two presidents did much the same, convening their cabinets, creating a game plan, and insisting on interagency cooperation. Was media reaction the same? Hardly.
Good luck finding a description of Trump’s response to coronavirus from any newspaper or cable news show comparable to how they reported on Obama as he faced the swine flu pandemic. What a difference a president makes.
Swine flu came and went, leaving a far greater swath of destruction compared to the current coronavirus outbreak. The economic and societal disruption from the reaction to coronavirus is likely to be far worse to whatever damage the virus does. Yet the reactions are far different, flames of panic stoked by the media. Most don’t remember the swine flu pandemic but will certainly remember the current chaos.
What’s the difference? The occupant of the White House and an upcoming election. And ponder this timing. The WHO declared coronavirus a global health emergency within a week of President Trump’s impeachment acquittal in the Senate. Do you believe in coincidences?
Brian C Joondeph, MD, is a Denver based physician and freelance writer whose pieces have appeared in American Thinker, Daily Caller, Rasmussen Reports, and other publications. Follow him on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and QuodVerum.
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2020/03/remember_the_h1n1_pandemic_i_dont_either.html
The Russians are trying to dance their way into our elections. The aprons are made of Kevlar. They are sneaky. I don't trust them! Especially that one gal with the dark hair and eyes. Is 5G causing them to act like this way?
Not likely. Economic environment is currently a whole lot stronger today compared to 08-09. Companies are profitable, not like dotcom bubble. Though, it wouldn't surprise me. There are a lot of gullible investors gulping up the negative talking heads spiel.
market could easily sell off another 30-50% as it did in 01-01 and 08-09.
Roger Waters explains Julian Assange to Tucker Carlson
A masterful post explains why coronavirus in China and America may differ
Comments are interesting.
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/03/a_masterful_post_explains_why_coronavirus_in_china_and_america_may_differ.html
March 2, 2020
By Andrea Widburg
In San Francisco in the 1970s and 1980s, it was routine to see men from China spit in the streets, blow their noses in their fingers and then wipe their hands on anything nearby, and generally violate American hygienic norms. Outside the tourist zones, Chinatown's restaurants and grocery stores also suggested resistance to American hygiene.
The Chinese who came to America to escape communism were amazing people and model immigrants. They worked hard and were so family-focused and education-oriented that, usually within one generation, they made the leap from Chinatown squalor to lovely suburbs. However, unlike the Japanese, the Chinese did not bring with them a culture of cleanliness.
When it comes to epidemic diseases, these cultural norms matter — and political systems may matter even more.
One of the things noted here last week is that the coronavirus, unlike ordinary respiratory viruses, may also be transmitted through fecal matter (emphasis added):
Speaking of filthy, one of the problems with coronavirus is that, even though it's an upper respiratory disease, it's also spread by fecal matter. It will be a disaster in places that don't have good fecal matter control: China (primitive toilets and no culture of hand-washing); India (which is working hard to bring toilets to people, but it's slow going); Africa (a world drowning in fecal matter); and San Francisco (also drowning in fecal matter).
That reference to hygiene in China gained new meaning from reading a viral post from Regie Hamilton, who was in China eighteen years ago to adopt his daughter. He vividly remembers the cultural comfort with fecal matter and other disease vectors:
When my wife and I got off the plane, 18 years ago, to adopt our first daughter, we were taken aback by the split pants. Split pants are (or at least were, back then) pants the children wear that are open in the crotch area. That allows them to urinate or defecate unobstructed, onto the street or wherever they may be. The theory is that eventually they will learn to "aim it at the toilet" or something to that effect.
Either way, I distinctly remember my brand new Nike slip-ons (probably made not far from where I was standing) sloshing into a mix of urine and who knows what else, and continuing to do so for the next three weeks.
[snip]
Over the next several days and weeks, we would experience the amazing culture of China, in several different cities. But some things stood out to this germophobic American. I watched a man hock up something from his chest and spit it on the floor, right next to us, in a restaurant. No oysters for me, thanks. I've suddenly lost my appetite.
We visited a Hutong (inner city — where the locals live) and saw raw chickens, skinned and bleeding, just laying on the floor, waiting to be thrown on a restaurant grill...for public consumption. No FDA or USDA or food inspectors or "codes" to comply with, here. But why? This is the last purely communist country on earth. You'd think there would be red tape everywhere. What was happening here?
Hamilton thinks there's a greater problem in China than filth, and that's socialism. After taking his new daughter to the hospital and seeing that it was as filthy inside as the streets were outside, he knew what was wrong. When there's only one entity selling health care and that entity is a police state, two things happen — people have no recourse when the system fails, and the system has no incentive to improve:
I was witnessing the kind of maximum, almost brutal efficiency a society must develop when the state is the master and the individual is merely a subject. Why would a Communist country not have an effective FDA? Because who are you going to complain to if you get tainted food? The government? They don't answer to you. The press? They are owned by the government. And again, they don't answer to you.
So what if you don't like the conditions in the hospital? Where else are you going to go? This hospital is the last (and only) stop. You can't opt for another place and then just pay out of your own pocket. The government has capped financial upward mobility. There is now "income equality." And that means nobody has the means to buy their way into a different (or better) situation. And even if you could, one doesn't exist. The state provides it all. You're stuck.
Hamilton's post is magnificent and a necessary antidote to the leftists insisting that socialized medicine is the answer to epidemic disease. You should read the whole thing.
Maybe no accident. At best, limited failed attempt. I'm Buying!
Trump’s High-Stakes Re-Nomination of John Ratcliffe Puts the Heat on Mitch McConnell
This is President Donald Trump, daring the Deep State snakes on the Senate Committee on Intelligence (SCI) to kill his nominee for Director of National Intelligence (DNI):
Donald Trump:
I am pleased to announce the nomination of @RepRatcliffe (Congressman John Ratcliffe) to be Director of National Intelligence (DNI). Would have completed process earlier, but John wanted to wait until after IG Report was finished. John is an outstanding man of great talent!
IMO, If someone wants to short this stock, go for it! Good luck!
Lou Dobbs: It’s time AG Barr stands up and fights for @POTUS and cleans up the corrupt, crooked DOJ & FBI. #MAGA #AmericaFirst #Dobbs
Fight for Justice. It’s time AG Barr stands up and fights for @POTUS and cleans up the corrupt, crooked DOJ & FBI. #MAGA #AmericaFirst #Dobbs pic.twitter.com/T3oeEixebc
— Lou Dobbs (@LouDobbs) February 20, 2020