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When May 20th, then October 22nd passes with no news of shareholder riches coming soon, what is the date longs will give up on this fantasy?
January 2021? April 2021? 2022? When?
I follow stocks that investors have been waiting for riches since 2008, and some are still hoping for their payout. Need a list?
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There’s only one answer for BioAmber then... SHARE PURCHASE PLUS FUTURE ROYALTIES TO COME!!!
Lol, if there was a mention on Wikipedia about restructuring it would posted here daily. Too funny
BioAmber Inc. was a Delaware (USA) registered Canadian sustainable chemicals company that was headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Its proprietary technology platform combined industrial biotechnology and chemical catalysis to convert renewable feedstock into building block chemicals for use in a wide variety of everyday products including plastics, resins, food additives and personal care products.[1] BioAmber was listed on the New York Stock Exchange between May 2013 and February 2018, under the symbol BIOA.[2] It was also listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the same symbol. BioAmber officially ceased operations in August 2018', all directors of the company resigned & PriceWaterhouseCoopers proceeded forward in court authorized control of the company's fate. BioAmber no longer has any offices or facilities in Canada or the United States after completion of a CCAA Insolvency / USA Chapter 15 foreign arrangement, in which the company was liquidated & all major assets were sold off. On November 22nd, 2019 FINRA, (https://www.finra.org/about) the USA Financial Regulatory Authority officially suspended the company's CUSIP registration thus finalizing the outcome for Bioamber & delisting it from all tradeable stock exchanges.
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Lmfao! Wikipedia?! Bwahahahaha
Place a trade with your broker and see what happens.
Simple thing to prove the symbol doesn't exist
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Prove the ticker symbol is deleted.
Cool, please let us know when you can trade those shares that show in your account. I'll check back every now and then for an answer.
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WRONG. Ticker still showing in everyone's accounts, with the shares.
Shareholders of BIOAQ need at least another year to know the true meaning of bagholder. Like all past bankruptcy longs, the lesson is coming sooner or later. Too funny watching this over and over on so many stocks.
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Oh, then you mean the bagholders.
Yeah, they get/got nothing.
HTH.
Verb live has been promoted here for over 6 months, why would VERB employees be using Zoom in March and April, if Live actually worked?
Perhaps to sell stock?
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I thought that was pretty funny as well, but they'll drop Zoom when Verb live is fully functioning.
I really don't understand why the Monitor reports from early 2018 about restructuring are somehow relevant. Investing in bankruptcy stocks is a great way to make money during the pump and dumps before they go to liquidation, holding after that is a death sentence if your a long.
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Me too.
There is absolutely no chance whatsoever. Never has been.
Try this, if I am wrong about BIOAQ longs ever getting a penny from their investment in November or whenever, I will never post on Ihub again.
Of course that doesn't include longs that invested before 8/3/2017 that actually will receive a pittance from their investment on May 20th or thereabouts.
Good f luck
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Now we're getting guarantees!
LMMFAO
Talk to me in November when your still waiting for your BIOAQ payoff.
I guarantee you will still be waiting.
Just wait until November for the shit to hit the fan when nothing happens. Hopefully by then most will realize which BEAGLE has been peddling the bull here since 10/12/2019.
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How soon May , july or oct ?
When is the next reverse split on this crap?
The O/S is up to 13,352,828,472 as of 1/31/2000, I wonder what it is today?
I may have missed it in the new 10Q
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MMEX has enuff munny to either buy naval jelly to strip the rust off the flagpole or paint over the rust using a really cheap paint and an uber-cheap brush.
Butt knott boff.
One or d'otter.
Correct!
Current assets:
Cash $1,545
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They don't have any money to build anything.
Twitter is alive with VERB promotion since the Japan PR.
https://twitter.com/search?q=%24verb&src=typeahead_click&f=live
Nice job Sorhay86, post a link that doesn't work any longer because it came from a Ihub post in 2007.
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=17713123
Here Janice Shell How Short selling works, I am sure you already Know this information. But if not here,
http://www.americanmicrocaps.com/featuredcolumn2.htm
Eat My Shorts!
A Naked Shorting Primer for CEOs.Cale Smith, Senior Associate
Hawk Associates, Inc.
The drama surrounding naked shorting has all the elements of a John Grisham novel. Sly, blue blood institutions conspire with shadowy hedge fund cowboys to unmercifully assault a well-meaning but outgunned CEO in his quest for shareholder value. Offshore accounts and corrupt foreign officials veil the crimes for decades, until finally being thrust into the open through the hyper-caffeinated efforts of hundreds of message board denizens throughout cyberspace.
As with most Grisham novels, however, liberties may have to be taken with the original story to romanticize an otherwise bland topic. After all, it’s hard to make CUSIP numbers and stock certificates sound sexy, but that’s really the heart of the naked shorting controversy.
Due largely to concerns raised by microcap CEOs and their shareholders, naked shorting is a hot topic on message boards. Opinions range widely on how common it is. Those claiming it pervades the markets and foreshadows a systemic meltdown are met with equally fervent arguments calling it an over-hyped, isolated problem that is becoming the grassy knoll conspiracy theory of Wall Street.
Everyone agrees, however, that risks of naked shorting are heightened in the microcap world. The sheer number of small public companies, combined with high volatility and an almost inevitable need for financing, make detecting this hard-to-prove crime that much more difficult for the microcap CEO. Although the odds seem small that a particular company will be victimized, there is no authoritative data indicating how many microcaps are being naked shorted.
Keeping those odds in perspective, then, this primer is for microcap CEOs curious about the naked shorting fuss. On the off chance that a company attracts naked shorts, CEOs should recognize that there is despairingly little that can be done to stop it from occurring. Due to the nature of the crime, legal expertise may not help.
Although there seem to be few bulletproof ways to stop naked shorts, there are a handful of things a proactive CEO can do to reduce the odds of being blindsided by this notorious lot. This primer includes a rough sketch of how naked shorting works and a brief familiarization with the main players. A worst-case scenario of what it means to be targeted by naked shorts is presented, as are suggestions for wary CEOs. The final section contains a list of links with more about the intriguing world of naked shorting.
WHAT IS NAKED SHORTING, AND WHY SHOULD A CEO CARE?
In its simplest terms, naked shorting involves selling shares of stock that don’t exist. It’s performed routinely by market-makers to keep an orderly market, but it is illegal when done to manipulate a company’s stock price. Only when someone intends to drive down the stock price is naked shorting breaking the law. Throughout the rest of this overview, any reference to naked shorting will refer to the illegal variety.
It’s also worth noting the important distinction between shorting and naked shorting. The former is perfectly legal and occurs extensively as either a way for an investor to mitigate risk or as a bet that a company’s share price will decrease (i.e. the short-seller or “short” believes the company is overvalued). Despite the wary glances often cast upon them, shorts are an essential part of a robust market and are often the first to discover financial fraud, as in the case of Enron.
A short will sell borrowed shares as a bet against a company because he believes the price will eventually drop. These borrowed shares come from his broker, which loans the short a certain number of shares (not dollars). As soon as the short receives the borrowed shares in his account, he sells them immediately for cash, which goes to his brokerage account. The short still has that pesky loan to pay back, though, and does so by waiting for the price of the stock to drop. Then he buys some cheaper shares using money from the same pool of cash he received after the original sale, gives the broker his shares back, and keeps whatever cash is left in his account.
Naked shorts, in contrast, are much more manipulative – they sell short shares that don’t exist and then attempt to actively lower the company’s share price through constant short-selling pressure. By using pretend shares, of which there is an unlimited supply, naked shorts can effectively control the share price through this constant pressure, eventually driving the price of a company’s shares into the basement.
Where do these fake shares come from? Naked shorts can create them out of thin air, depending on your point of view, due to either (a) glaring inefficiencies in the back-office world of certificate transfers, or (b) institutionalized fraud on a massive scale. Either way, the effects can be disastrous for companies who are victimized.
WHO IS INVOLVED?
Naked shorting is typically done by hedge funds with arm’s length support from several other parties. The extent of active assistance provided to the fund by these related groups is unclear but hotly debated. One player is the Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. (DTCC), which tracks the stock certificates of traded shares between brokerages. When a fund sells short a share of stock, the fund’s brokerage (another prominent player) has a settlement period of three days to deliver those shares to the buyer’s broker. If the transfer doesn’t occur, the DTCC notifies the fund’s broker that it has “FTD’d” (Failed to Deliver). The DTCC is required by the SEC to enforce delivery of missing shares. While waiting to account for shares, the DTCC may charge the brokerage to borrow similar shares from its own inventory.
The obvious conflict of interest here is that DTCC is policing its own customers - the brokerages. In response to complaints, the SEC required all exchanges to comply with Regulation SHO in January of 2005. Reg SHO establishes several requirements aimed at broker-dealers, but it does not specifically address the manipulative aspects of naked shorting, which fall under existing securities law.
Regulation SHO specifically requires the major exchanges to provide a daily list of Threshold Securities, defined as those that (1) have an aggregate fail to deliver position of over 10,000 shares (2) equal to 0.5% of the issuer’s total shares outstanding for (3) greater than five days. Reg SHO also requires a broker-dealer to close out any “open fail” position once it has been included on an exchange’s Threshold Security list for 13 consecutive days. The ironic effect of this policy, as noted by its detractors, is that it effectively requires shorts to cover (buy back shares) after they’ve had two weeks to drive the price down - meaning they profit from the trade. Needless to say, the effectiveness of such a regulation is often called into question among the cyberspace crowd.
Links to the Threshold Security list for each primary exchange are included at the conclusion of this article. It’s important to remember that seeing a company included on the Threshold Securities list does not mean that company is being naked shorted nor that its share price is artificially depressed. It means shares in that company are failing to deliver on time for what may be legitimate reasons, including simple human error. Even shares bought long could FTD and show up on the Threshold list. A daily presence on the Threshold list for more than 13 days at a time, however, might signal the need for deeper digging.
HOW DOES NAKED SHORTING ACTUALLY WORK?
Based on the accounts of CEOs who believe they have been the target of naked shorts, here is how the worst-case scenario might play out using an ill-intentioned hedge fund (“Fund Malicious”) as an example.
Fund Malicious first identifies a target in the microcap world for naked shorting, most likely an obscure company in the development stage or having otherwise questionable fundamentals. The hedge fund gets that firm listed on a foreign exchange in, say, Berlin, via a request funneled through a complicit broker or official in that country. Malicious then sells short shares it doesn’t have (naked shorts them), waits three days for the DTCC to call and ask for the shares, and then replies either, “I borrowed them on the Berlin exchange, and they’ll take some time to get here,” or “I’m a market-maker for that company’s shares in Berlin and naked shorting rules don’t apply there.” The DTCC then loans the fund shares from its inventory and charges the broker a fee until the stock loan is repaid. Malicious, in the meantime, continues to drive the price of the target’s shares down as long and as aggressively as possible. In the event the fund does cover to pay off the stock loan, it doesn’t take much effort to begin the naked shorting cycle again.
Other theories exist as to how the hedge fund might skirt additional rules. To prevent “piling on,” exchange rules mandate that a stock cannot be shorted on a downtick or decrease in stock price. In other words, Malicious must wait for the stock price to increase briefly before shorting the company. Rather than wait passively for an uptick, though, Fund Malicious can create an uptick in the stock itself by purchasing a few shares through a small offshore account. The hedge fund is then free to short (or naked short) the company with both barrels at home.
Malicious may get additional leverage out of the original naked short by choosing to target an ugly, obscure microcap company. By driving the price down, the fund hopes to scare existing shareholders into selling their shares, too, out of fear that something is going on that they don’t know about (i.e. the fund can “paint the tape”). This, of course, drives the price even lower while further obscuring the role of Fund Malicious.
There is plenty of room for additional mischief in the above scenario. According to the most vocal critics of naked shorting, funds like Malicious have relationships with reporters and/or message board regulars who are compensated to distribute negative news about the company in order to exaggerate the selling. There is also plenty of irony possible, in that a CEO can be her shareholders’ worst enemy by merely uttering the words “naked shorting.” Investors may panic, the stock might dive further and legitimate short-sellers could begin to circle.
KEEPING THINGS IN PERSPECTIVE
Given the mysterious nature of hedge funds and the convoluted nature of this crime, it’s easy to get carried away with paranoid scenarios regarding naked shorting. The skeptics, however, have some unanswered questions of their own. For instance:
• What’s in it for the brokerages? Are they supposed to take all the risk just to get a few more commissions or under-the-table money? Since when have they been that desperate?
• Has anyone ever been found guilty of naked shorting?
• Where is the proof? Are there other pieces of evidence that would suggest a crime is being committed?
• Why aren’t more companies making noise about it? Where are the whistleblowers?
• Wouldn’t the unintentional buyers of naked-shorted shares voice their concerns when they did not receive proxy votes?
• Why is there no outrage from legitimate funds and brokerages?
• How much regulatory burden should the SEC and other publicly traded companies have to bear to resolve the questionable problems of a few companies?
Both camps raise legitimate issues that simply cannot be addressed definitively yet. Reg SHO is not the deterrent the problem seems to demand. There have been numerous calls on the SEC to increase the scope of data provided in the daily Threshold Securities lists, which may help better gauge the seriousness of this problem. Until those issues are resolved, the SEC continues to consider the surveillance and enforcement of trading activity as the primary responsibility of the markets and exchanges. The DTCC considers its role to be reporting the FTDs. Brokerages are doing all they can to win commissions from hedge funds. Detection is difficult, accusations are nearly impossible to prove, and nobody has figured out a foolproof way to stop this crime.
So what’s all that mean for the microcap CEO? When it comes to naked shorting, you are your own best watchdog.
WHAT TO DO IF YOU THINK YOU MAY BE TARGETED
Above all else, be discrete with your public accusations.
A well-intentioned CEO can fulfill his own prophecy by going public with accusations of naked shorting. Investors may flee the stock, further lowering the share price. Meanwhile, other funds may hover, waiting for an uptick to begin shorting your company themselves.
Watch your trading volume.
If you’re seeing four or five times your company’s float trade hands in an otherwise ordinary day, and you have no large share overhangs, pay attention. Start documenting those patterns.
Keep your focus on operations.
Your stock price is not declining exclusively due to naked shorting. Weakness in the business, industry, model, communications or management team exists well before naked shorting begins and allows it to continue. In most cases, the best deterrent for shorts of any kind is consistent execution and credible communications with your shareholders.
Always surprise on the upside.
By maintaining absolute secrecy before good news, you give yourself the best chance to catch the shorts off guard and maybe even squeeze them. Be conscious of unintended signals you may send when in public appearances, conference calls and analyst meetings before a particularly good quarter or other surprising good news. Keep your cards close to your chest and save those glowing press releases for the middle of the trading day.
Maintain a steady stream of news.
By communicating with your investors as often as possible, you remove some of the mystery surrounding a company that a naked shorter typically targets. In the absence of any company news, a continuously dropping stock price is the only communication your investors are hearing. Sales of stock by legitimate owners are sure to follow.
Put floors on your convertibles.
A floorless convertible bond (also known as a “convertible death spiral”) is an open invitation for its owners to short the stock as aggressively as possible. A constant decline in share price means the convertible owners will get more shares because the initial rate of conversion will change. While the original shareholders may very well lose their entire stake in the company, the convertible owners can continue to short the stock until they can effectively cover the original short with new shares created by a new rate. Should those convertibles be held offshore where naked shorting is not illegal, the potential for price depression becomes even greater. Ensuring you have a floor on those converts will prevent the worst case scenario.
Monitor small international exchanges.
If your firm unexpectedly turns up on the Berlin-Bremen stock exchange and you, the CEO, did not request a listing there, that might be a sign of a problem. Request the removal of your company from that exchange immediately, and keep asking until it’s done.
Realize your choice of financing vehicle may attract naked shorting interest.
In addition to floorless convertibles, PIPEs may also attract undue attention from potential funders. Since shares in a PIPE are sold for below market price, the provider could short the stock down to that level with no risk of capital loss on his part. When issuing warrants with the deal, you’re also effectively pushing the price lower through increased dilution of existing shareholders. While it’s true that sometimes beggars can’t be choosers when it comes to raising funds, go into those negotiations with your eyes wide open.
Check the Threshold Security lists.
Links to the lists at each exchange are below. Keep in mind that inclusion on that list does not mean naked shorting or any other improper activity is occurring, just that some shares meet the three requirements mentioned above. An extended presence on the Threshold list, however, in combination with other signals may be an important sign.
Don’t read the message boards.
You’ll drive yourself nuts, waste a ton of time and eventually convince yourself you’re a victim of someone’s ill wishes, naked shorts or otherwise. If you’re that compelled to monitor the boards, ask your IR team to send you weekly summaries of any cogent posts.
Know your IR company.
Consider your choice of an investor relations firm as your first line of defense. Does the company have expertise in dealing with naked shorting? Does the price of your stock mysteriously rise or fall between the time you send your draft press releases and when they hit the wires? Do they have long-term clients willing to vouch for their integrity? And do they have processes in place to handle sensitive information?
Know your transfer agent.
Given that the process of naked shorting begins at the brokerage level, there’s not much your company’s transfer agent can do with regards to those shares. The responsibility for tracking them lies with the brokerage. It is theoretically possible, however, for a corrupt transfer agent to conceal the true float and otherwise manipulate the shares themselves.
Both your transfer agent and IR firm should be able to advise you on the effectiveness of combating naked shorts by changing CUSIP numbers, reverse mergers, and/or reverse splits. Although the long-term effectiveness of these strategies is questionable, it may be useful as part of a larger strategy to deter naked shorting. After changing your company’s CUSIP number, for instance, all existing stock certificates must be exchanged for new ones. All issued and outstanding certificates from old shares will no longer represent an interest in the company until exchanged. This may be more trouble than it’s worth, however. Once the new shares are in circulation, there’s nothing to stop a new round of naked shorting by determined parties. Such tactics may represent a small part of an overall strategy to reduce naked shorting interest in your company.
Questions?
Please feel free to contact Cale Smith at Hawk Associates at either csmith@hawkassociates.com or (305) 451-1888 with any questions or comments.
Links:
The SEC on Key Points About Regulation SHO
DTCC on Naked Short Selling and the Stock Borrow Program
Professor John Finnerty of Fordham University on "Short Selling, Death Spiral Convertibles, and the Profitability of Stock Manipulation."
The CEO of Overstock.com explains naked shorting
An open letter from the CEO of Eagletech to the DTCC
Naked Shorts – What I Have Learned. By Mark Cuban
Motley Fool: The Naked Truth on Illegal Shorting
Motley Fool: Who’s Behind Naked Shorting
The National Coalition Against Naked Shorting
NASDAQ Threshold Securities List (for NASDAQ, OTCBB and OTC issues)
NYSE Threshold Securities List
AMEX Threshold Securities List
Chicago Stock Exchange
ArcaEx
Berlin-Bremen Stock Exchange
To report alleged abusive naked short selling activity: enforcement@sec.gov
For more information on how to submit potential violations of Federal securities laws: http://www.sec.gov/complaint.shtml or by calling 1-800-SEC-0330
Please tell me you didn't invest that much in BIOAQ?
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This is what i get for believing in a product with piss poor management . 160 k gone in the wind .
I think all the Monitor reports will say the same thing next April when longs are still waiting for good things coming soon. Hopefully by then we can all have a good laugh about why this board is so dead.
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Well it’s about time you read them then. We all read them long ago. We good thanks.
$144 buy brings the pps up 105%.
Foley can do that 7 more times before his stimulus check runs out.
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The principal must have got a government cv-19 check and bought 144.00 worth of stock to make it pop for a second.
Amazing what wash trading can do to a dead stock.
That was my mistake, not his.
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“Meaningful support to yo”? Was that your misprint or did he actually misspell “you” in a letter sent to millions of people?
Trump can't help himself during the campaign season.
I thought I was safe from seeing his signature on my direct deposit stimulus check, so he sent a letter instead.
Your Economic Impact Payment Has Arrived
My Fellow Americans:
Our great country is experiencing an unrepresented public health and economic challenge as a result of the global coronavirus pandemic. Our top priority is your health and safety. As we wage total war on this invisible enemy, we are also working around the clock to protect hardworking Americans like you from the consequences of the economic shutdown. We are fully committed to ensuring that you and your family have the support you need to get through this time.
On March 27, 2020, Congress passed with overwhelming bipartisan support the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and CARES Act, which I proudly signed into law. I want want to thank the US House and Senate for working so quickly with my Administration to fast track this $2.2 trillion in much needed economic relief to the American people.
I am pleased to notify you that as provided by the CARES Act, you are receiving an Economic Impact Payment of $ 1,200.00 by direct deposit. We hope this payment provides meaningful support to yo during this period.
Every citizen should take tremendous pride in the selflessness, courage and compassion of our people. America's drive, determination, innovation and sheer willpower have conquered every previous challenge--- and they will conquer this one too. Just as we have before. America will triumph yet again--- and rise to new heights of greatness.
We shall do it together, as one nation, stronger than ever before.
President Donald Trump
See what you think in April 2021 when you're still waiting for $$$$.
By then this board will be down to 5 posts a week.
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Extension from may to july to october ?? Is that not a good news ? As possobily of more royalty if $$$$ given out ?
Some will be sitting here for years waiting for their coming soon payoff.
Been there, done that years ago.
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I like you simply can’t wait to see how the twitter twits spin the fact that nothing happens after the case is completed May 20th.
I wonder if they already have a plan in place or will scramble to figure out the next lie they will tell.
I truly hope folks finally wake up and realize the twitter idiots lied their asses off and stole their money by pumping this piece of shit with lies and fabricated DD fairytales.
Now everyone is simply stuck with worthless shares in their accounts. This will be an education all but the twitter twits and their insiders will pay for with hard earned cash. I really can’t wait for the day everyone finally realizes the twitter DD fabrication team stole their money
I don't need help, I didn't invest in this crap.
I didn't have an investing strategy on this pile of crap, was just trying
to stop investors from making the same mistakes I made as a newbie.
Good luck making up your losses from this one.
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Very interesting investment strategy you have there. GLTY
As I said in my post, I can't wait to see the new excuses after the May 20th deadline comes and goes, and now we're hoping for Jan 2022?
How do the Twitter longs feel about that date?
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I don’t expect it on May 20th dog, but it’s in the works! Maybe Jan 22’ is cool.
Hopefully the SEC does it anyway to put an end to the idiotic speculation posted on this board daily. I can't wait to see the new excuses that are sure to come as May 20th comes and goes without any end to this investing disaster.
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That's a good question, 50-50 shot in my mind. Depends on if they consider the CUSIP suspension "good enough" for a dead, bankrupt company.
Curious, would the SEC still move to revoke BIOAQ's registration for not filing financials, since the cuspid suspension and ticker deletion in November has already stopped trading?
New investors are already protected from trading this POS.
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GBSNQ has failed to comply with Exchange Act Section 13(a) and Rules
13a-1 and 13a-13 thereunder because it has not filed any periodic reports with the Commission since the period ended March 31, 2017.
In view of the foregoing, the Commission deems it necessary and appropriate for the protection of investors to impose the sanction specified in Respondent’s Offer.
Accordingly, it is hereby ORDERED that:
Pursuant to Section 12(j) of the Exchange Act, the registration of each class of Respondent’s securities registered pursuant to Exchange Act Section 12 be, and hereby is, revoked. The revocation is effective as of April 24, 2020.
That's pretty funny as the .0002 ask keeps going up during the dump fest at .0001 continues. Please pay attention to the daily trading.
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that ask is just a smokescreen, been that way for weeks
25,000,000 million shares just dumped at .000098, and the bid didn't change at about 12,000.000 shares.
The ask is currently 360,000,000 @ .0002. Pathetic
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It’s over...
What? VERB live?
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They work great, for a guy anyway. I just dug mine out of the attic after 15 years of hibernation.
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Well- that figures. I've no idea if they work. We did jay's haircut outside. The big wet/dry vacuum cleaned up the mess.
If your a red state you get all the supplies you want, blue states have to resort to what Illinois Governor Pritzker did.
Trump is pathetic.
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Is Trump Using Critical Medical Supplies to Blackmail Blue State Governors?
He almost certainly is. It’s just that careful, responsible journalists won’t say it yet.
Americans have become so jaded by the emanations coming from our president that we can lose sight of just how depraved he is. Each step goes a little frrther than the last, testing the bounds of decency and public tolerance. Meanwhile, the political press gingerly moves toward using words and phrases it might never have dared about previous administrations, without going so far as to admit the whole truth for fear of overstepping its own boundaries.
Trump’s use of crucial medical supplies in a pandemic to cajole and punish governors who aren’t adequately nice to him is only the latest, most jawdropping example. Trump has been taking advantage of the power of federal procurement to try to enforce the silence of governors critical of his incompetent response to coronavirus: He has threatened to withhold essential equipment that will mean life or death for thousands of people in those states.
On March 25th at Vox, editors gave an Aaron Rupar piece the title “Trump commits to helping blue states fight the coronavirus — if their governors are nice to him.” True—but even this description undersells the outrage of the situation.
A few days later Trump made it even more explicit, with specific reference to Gretchen Whitmer, governor of Michigan:
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Friday made a startling claim that medical supply vendors are “being told” to avoid sending badly needed gear to her state in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic.
During an interview with local station WWJ News Radio, Whitmer detailed how her state has had difficulty in securing supplies to help hospitals cope with the influx of COVID-19 patients.
“What I’ve gotten back is that vendors with whom we’ve procured contracts — they’re being told not to send stuff to Michigan,” she said. “It’s really concerning, I reached out to the White House last night and asked for a phone call with the president.”
This is not an unsourced claim by the governor. Trump readily admitted it:
“I don’t know if she knows what’s going on, but all she does is sit there and blame the federal government,” Trump said.
“Michigan is a very important state, I love the people of Michigan … but she is a new governor who has not been pleasant,” he said.
“We don’t like to see the complaints,” he added.
And he didn’t stop there.
“He calls all the governors,” Trump said. “I tell him, I mean, I’m a different type of person. I say Mike, don’t call the governor of Washington, you’re wasting your time with him. Don’t call the woman in Michigan.”
“If they don’t treat you right, I don’t call,” Trump said.
Michigan’s health department is reporting 3,657 COVID-19 cases and 92 deaths. In Washington, there have been 3,700 cases, according to the state, and 175 deaths.
“We have done a hell of a job,” Trump said. “The federal government has really stepped up.”
Trump’s message to governors was that he wants “them to be appreciative.”
Everyone in mainstream journalism has had to walk a fine line here. The always excellent Greg Sargent at the Washington Post wrote a good piece saying as much as one could say as a responsible journalist: that Trump was tying aid to personal grievances, that he had said the things he had said. Sargent also added:
As the AP notes, there is no evidence this has directly influenced Trump’s treatment of states. Still, the very idea that he’d be preoccupied with it at a moment like this is utter madness.
And beyond his rage at being criticized, the possibility simply cannot be dismissed that Trump sees his explicit hand-washing of responsibility for the mounting death toll in certain parts of the country as something that will appeal to parts of the country that he perceives as his own.
It’s true. We don’t necessarily have direct evidence so far that Trump is actively withholding supplies from blue states. But that’s only because governors have been insufficiently groveling before him in spite of his negligence, likely because they still need serious help from the federal government during an unprecedented crisis. In other words, Trump has enormous leverage over them.
Aaron Blake, also at Washington Post, put it this way:
President Trump is a commander in chief dealing with a coronavirus outbreak in which many difficult decisions have to be made. And on Friday, he seemed to suggest some of those decisions could be made according to who has run afoul of him personally.
Appearing at the daily White House briefing, Trump disclosed that he has told Vice President Pence, who is leading the coronavirus task force, not to call the governors of Michigan and Washington state because those governors had been critical of Trump and the federal response.
“When they’re not appreciative to me, they’re not appreciative to the Army Corps, they’re not appreciative to FEMA, it’s not right,” Trump said.
It’s clear that editors at major newspapers are doing their best to state precisely what there is evidence for without jumping to the obvious conclusion.
Still, writers and editors shouldn’t be afraid to call this exactly what it so obviously seems to be: blackmail by the president of the United States in a pandemic crisis, with the threat of killing thousands of Americans over a fit of political and personal pique.
It’s not as if we weren’t warned. On twitter, Esquire‘s Charles Pierce highlighted this piece of argument from the impeachment inquiry by Stanford law professor Pamela Karlan:
“What would you think if, when your governor asked the federal government for the disaster assistance that Congress has provided, the President responded, ‘I would like you to do us a favor.’ I’ll… send the disaster relief once you brand my opponent a criminal.”
He got away with blackmailing a foreign ally in the middle of a war. Why wouldn’t he do it to domestic governors he considers his political enemies in the middle of a pandemic?
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2020/03/28/is-trump-using-critical-medical-supplies-to-blackmail-blue-state-governors/
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To avoid Fed confiscation Illinois Governor secretly bought PPEs from China. White House unhappy!
Illinois Governor Pritzker has obtained much needed medical supplies from China, without Trump’s and the Federal government’s knowledge, behind their backs. And the White House is not happy about it. Pritzker cites his fear that if he hadn’t gone behind the Federal Government’s back that the supplies would have just been seized before they arrived in his state.
ILLINOIS GOV. PRITZKER SECRETLY BOUGHT MEDICAL SUPPLIES FROM CHINA. AND THE WHITE HOUSE IS NOT HAPPY.
The White House issued a sharp rebuke Saturday to Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, who reportedly spent over $1.7 million on flights bringing medical supplies from China in secret—out of fear the Trump administration would seize the cargo for the federal stockpile.
To put this into perspective, and step back for a second here: Pritzker, who was specifically told by Trump that he was on his own to buy medical supplies in the open market, does so, and the White House is not happy with this because he did this without notifying them, he did it in secret? Why did Pritzker do this in secret? Because many shipments to states were diverted, seized, and confiscated for the federal stockpile, stolen, even though these states paid Millions of Dollars for these essential supplies, just to have them taken away right under their noses in an act of highway robbery.
Reports first emerged earlier this week that Illinois was “secretly” getting PPE and other medical supplies shipped from China in order to avoid interference from the federal government.
The Chicago-Sun Times first reported Pritzker’s China flight payments, citing a source familiar with the matter who said that the governor didn’t want to release details “because we’ve heard reports of Trump trying to take PPE in China and when it gets to the United States.”
In an online portal that tracks all of the state’s coronavirus-related spending, released by the Illinois State Comptroller on Tuesday, there are two payments of $888,275 each, listed as “aircraft charter flight to Shanghai, China for COVID-19 response.”
“We’ve had to search the entire globe to find what we need. Shipping is very difficult,” Pritzker told reporters at a briefing on Wednesday, after his office confirmed the original reports a day earlier.
Unbelievable. The governor of Illinois has to be afraid that PPEs and medical supplies he needs for his state would be confiscated by Trump’s Feds right out from under his nose, so he has to arrange shipments in secret to make sure he actually gets what he needs? What kind of Banana Republic are we? “Trump trying to take PPE in China and when it gets to the United States?” FOR REAL? What is wrong with this monster?
He said that because “the federal government seems to be interrupting supplies that are being sent elsewhere in the nation” he “wanted to make sure that we received what we ordered,” and also told CNN that he had “given up” on receiving help from the Trump administration.
White House deputy press secretary Judd Deere responded, telling RealClearPolitics that Pritzker, “through ignorance or incompetence or a propensity to politicize everything,” was wrong, and that the administration had been providing Illinois with resources.
Stealing them is more like it.
Dick Durbin explains it:
Earlier this month, Senator Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said in an interview with MSNBC that Pritzker was calling CEOs of major airlines and begging them for help in organizing airlifts of PPE and medical supplies from China to Illinois. “They couldn’t get flights, cargo flights out,” he said. “You know, I’ve got a very talented governor here… but to think it’s his responsibility to airlift what should have been in the national stockpile is incredible.”
Indeed, providing PPEs and Coronavirus test kits was quite clearly the federal governments’ responsibility in this national crisis. What Trump, Kushner and the entire criminal Trump enterprise have been doing instead, delaying, diverting, confiscating, seizing, has been nothing short of a gross dereliction of duty, a callous disregard for human lives and a disgusting “game” of politics and favoritism when many human lives have been and are being lost daily because of the actions, past and present, of Trump and his mob-like cabal.
Let’s go back in time 3 weeks to set the table for this sorry state of affairs, which now is forcing governors to go behind the White House’s backs to obtain medical supplies, test kits and PPE material (surely Pritzker isn’t the only one):
From the very beginning Trump told governors they are on their own obtaining life saving PPEs and medical supplies such as masks, ventilators, face shields, gowns, gloves, etc. So, the governors had to look around in the open market and bid for these life saving items without any help from the Federal government.
USA TODAY, 3/27/2020: IT'S STATE VS. STATE IN A FRANTIC SEARCH FOR MEDICAL GEAR TO BATTLE CORONAVIRUS' SPREAD
In typical GOP manner it wasn’t about getting the needed equipment to the states quickly, without red tape, in the fastest way possible, but the idea was “Let the market make the price and whoever is willing to pay the most gets PPEs”. Human lives be damned.
To make matter worse the feds decided to actually participate in the market themselves, outbidding states for these life saving PPEs so they can accumulate them for their federal stockpile, a federal stockpile that Trump and Kushner made clear was not meant for the states. Kushner: The federal stockpile is ours, not the states'
CNBC, 4/3/2020: STATES ARE BIDDING AGAINST EACH OTHER AND THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT FOR IMPORTANT MEDICAL SUPPLIES — AND IT’S DRIVING UP PRICES
Now, to make matters even MUCH worse, and to add insult to injury, the feds didn’t just outbid the states to beef up their stockpile, which wasn’t for the states, they also would confiscate, aka steal, supplies that the states had “won” fair and square in those ridiculous bidding wars, outbidding other states and the federal government for them. That was criminal on the part of the Trump cabal.
DAILYKOS 4/4/2020: KUSHNER USING FEDERAL GOVT TO CONFISCATE N95'S BOUGHT BY AMERICAN STATES AND EUROPEAN ALLIES.
NY TIMES 4/6/2020: "SWEPT UP BY FEMA"
BUSINESS INSIDER 4/8/2020: OFFICIALS IN AT LEAST 6 STATES ARE ACCUSING THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT OF QUIETLY DIVERTING THEIR ORDERS FOR CORONAVIRUS MEDICAL EQUIPMENT
LA TIMES: 4/7/2020: HOSPITALS SAY FEDS ARE SEIZING MASKS AND OTHER CORONAVIRUS SUPPLIES WITHOUT A WORD
So, against the backdrop of the federal government and the Trump criminals doing everything in their power to deprive states from getting life saving PPEs is it any wonder that Illinois Governor Pritzker had to go behind their backs to get the supplies he needs for his state? And, the Trump White House isn’t happy about it. Well, well. Get THE HELL over it. You are robbing states and you are not happy that they are forced to go out on their own to find the supplies they need, fearing that you’ll just seize them at the point of entry again, as you’ve done countless times?
Pritzker has given up on the White House ever doing the right thing, ever being helpful to them:
CNN, 4/14/2020: ILLINOIS GOVERNOR SAYS HE'S 'GIVEN UP' ON CORONAVIRUS HELP FROM THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Tuesday that he has "given up" on receiving federal assistance to help combat the novel coronavirus pandemic, saying instead that his state is "doing what we need to do despite" President Donald Trump.
"We have gotten very little help from the federal government. It's fine. I've given up on any promises that have been made," Pritzker, a Democrat, told CNN's Erin Burnett on "OutFront." "I hope something will get delivered from the federal government, but I don't expect it anymore."
His comments follow the President's statement earlier Tuesday at a White House news conference that governors "are supposed to do testing" for Covid-19, despite many state leaders saying they need federal assistance to do so. The lack of testing has been a point of contention between governors and the federal government, as the number of coronavirus cases increases
For Illinois, Pritzker said Tuesday, "the President at this point is near irrelevant when it comes to this question of testing."
Pritzker, an outspoken state leader during the pandemic, has expressed frustration before over how Trump has handled the federal response to the outbreak. He previously said he had told the Trump administration his state needed 4,000 ventilators, and he told CNN's Jake Tapper that the President's inaction on states' requests had created a "a Wild West" environment for procuring much-needed medical supplies.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/4/18/1938492/-To-avoid-Fed-confiscation-Illinois-Governor-secretly-bought-PPEs-from-China-White-House-unhappy?utm_campaign=trending
© 2020 InvestorsHub.com, Inc.
After you lose your ass on this bankrupt investment, I have no doubt you will be warning new investors when you see the next best bankruptcy play on Twitter pumping crap like this. Live and learn
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Oh..ok...Sounds like your putting your time and resources into a so called worthless stock on this msg board...Care to explain Why is that ?
Of course they have, why continually argue with posters who have no idea what they are talking about.
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Most naysayers here have moved on..lmao..They can”t prove OR show the shares in our accounts are cancel status for months now...Thats because they are NOT !...The ones still here need a new song...cause the cancel song is old...How bout the Mexican $ Hat $ Dance...ARRIBA !!! Lol
What does the lawsuit have to do with current shareholders?
Did anyone here buy their shares between July 15, 2014 and August 3, 2017?
https://tinyurl.com/y9r4t6zx
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I expect to see the fully functional new website after the lawsuit is done.
What a piece of shit this guy is
Tony Spell, the pastor of Life Tabernacle Church in Baton Rouge asked parishioners to donate their $1,200 federal stimulus check to the church.
Trump Goads States to Lift Virus Restrictions
Published: 17 April 2020
WASHINGTON (AP) — A day after laying out a roadmap for gradually reviving economic activity, President Donald Trump urged his supporters to “LIBERATE” three states led by Democratic governors Friday, in effect encouraging protests against the stay-at-home restrictions aimed at containing the coronavirus.
The president took to Twitter with the kind of rhetoric some of his supporters have used to demand the lifting of the orders that have thrown millions of Americans out of work.
“LIBERATE MINNESOTA!” “LIBERATE MICHIGAN!” “LIBERATE VIRGINIA,” Trump said in a tweet-storm in which he also lashed out at New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo for criticizing the federal response. Cuomo “should spend more time `doing’ and less time `complaining,’” he said, adding: ”Less talk and more action!”
Responding to pleas from some governors for help in ramping up testing for the virus, Trump put the burden on them, tweeting: “The States have to step up their TESTING!”
On Thursday, the president detailed a three-step set of guidelines for methodically easing the restrictions over a span of several weeks in places that have robust testing and are seeing a decrease in COVID-19 cases, assuring the nation’s governors: “You’re going to call your own shots.”
But some governors made it clear they are not ready to break out the roadmap, saying they badly need help from Washington in expanding testing.
Cuomo, whose state is the most lethal hot spot in the nation and is still seeing over 600 deaths a day, accused the federal government of “passing the buck without passing the bucks.”
“The federal government cannot wipe its hands of this and say, `Oh, the states are responsible for testing.' We cannot do it. We cannot do it without federal help,” the governor said.
Many Americans, especially in rural areas and other parts of the country that have not seen major outbreaks, have urged governors to reopen their economies. Protesters have taken to the streets in Ohio, Texas, North Carolina, Kentucky, Virginia and Michigan, where more than 3,000 turned out on Wednesday in what looked like one of the president’s rallies, with MAGA hats and Trump flags.
The protests have brought together small-government groups, anti-vaccine advocates, gun rights backers and supporters of right-wing causes.
Public health experts have warned that lifting the restrictions too soon could enable the virus to come back with a vengeance. And they have said that an easing of the stay-at-home measures must be accompanied by wider testing and tracing of infected people to keep the scourge in check.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat who has been critical of the federal government’s response to the crisis, said that she hopes to begin reopening parts of the state’s economy May 1, but that it would be done in “smart way” to avoid a second wave of infections.
Missouri Gov. Mike Parson, a Republican, announced he was extending the state’s stay-at-home order through May 3 but planned to gradually begin lifting restrictions after that.
The clash between Trump and Cuomo was personal, with the president complaining he hasn’t heard the governor say thanks for the help he has received from Washington. Cuomo countered by saying: “I don’t know what I’m supposed to do, send a bouquet of flowers? `Thank you to the federal government for participating in a federal emergency.’”
Meanwhile, China acknowledged that the coronavirus death toll in the one-time epicenter city of Wuhan was nearly 50% higher than reported, underscoring just how seriously the official numbers of infections and deaths around the world may be understating the dimensions of the disaster.
In Italy, Spain, Britain, the United States and elsewhere, similar doubts emerged as governments revised their death tolls or openly questioned the accuracy of them.
“We are probably only seeing the tip of the iceberg,” said Barcelona University epidemiologist Antoni Trilla, who heads the Spanish government’s expert panel on the crisis.
Worldwide, the outbreak has infected nearly 2.2 million people and killed over 145,000, according to a Johns Hopkins University tally based on figures supplied by government health authorities around the globe. The death toll in the U.S. neared 34,000, with more than 670,000 confirmed infections.
Authorities say infections and deaths have been under-reported almost everywhere. Thousands have died with COVID-19 symptoms — many in nursing homes, which have been ravaged by a disease that hits the elderly the hardest — without being tested. Four months into the outbreak, nations are still struggling to increase their testing capacity, and many are still far from their goal.
In Italy, officials have acknowledged that the country’s official death toll of more than 22,000 understates the true number, primarily because it doesn’t include those who died in nursing homes and were not tested.
A government survey released Friday of about one-third of Italy’s nursing homes found more than 6,000 residents have died since Feb. 1. It was unclear how many were a result of COVID-19.
In Britain, the official death toll of about 14,600 come under increasing scrutiny because it likewise does not include any deaths at home or in nursing homes. The country’s statistics agency has said the actual number of dead could be around 15% higher; others think it will be far more.
And in Spain, the country’s 17 autonomous regions were ordered to adopt uniform criteria on counting the dead. The country has recorded more than 19,000 deaths, but the system leaves out patients who had symptoms but were not tested before they died.
“There is a general feeling that the epidemiologists don’t have a clue of what’s going on, that experts know even less and that governments are concealing information, but I don’t think that’s true,” said Hermelinda Vanaclocha, an epidemiologist on Spain’s top virus advisory panel. “It’s simply not easy.”
China raised its overall death toll to over 4,600 after Wuhan, where the outbreak first took hold, added nearly 1,300 deaths. Questions have long swirled around the accuracy of China’s case reporting, with critics saying officials sought to minimize the outbreak that began in December.
That has been a struggle around the world, though. The official death toll in New York City soared by more than half earlier this week when health authorities began including people who probably had COVID-19 but died without being tested. Nearly 3,800 deaths were added to the city’s count.
Such figures can have a huge influence on governments’ actions, as medical staffs struggle to figure out how to cope with surges of sick people and officials make crucial decisions about where to devote resources and how to begin easing lockdowns to resuscitate their economies.
China’s economy shrank 6.8% in the quarter ending in March compared with the same period a year ago, its worst contraction since market-style economic reforms began in 1979.
The number of people applying for unemployment benefits in the U.S. rose by 5.2 million, bringing the four-week total to a staggering 22 million. U.S. unemployment could reach 20% in April, the highest since the Depression of the 1930s. Layoffs are spreading well beyond stores, restaurants and hotels to white-collar professionals such as software programmers and legal assistants.
https://www.theskanner.com/news/usa/29861-trump-goads-states-to-lift-virus-restrictions
The good news to me is this news will finally shut down the idiotic hope that there is some hope that something else is coming for longs.
You should know more than anyone about the crap promise of good things coming soon crap
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Lol that would never be “good news” as one would either have worthless shares or wouldn’t have any shares. Please explain how this could be seen as good news ?
Finally good news! LMAO
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For the record, the Delaware Secretary of State has just changed BioAmber Inc. file # 4612067 from delinquent to Void status.
Grocery sales were up 40% in my area last month, so that may have skewed the numbers. April sales will tell the real story.
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Retail sales down 9%? Doesn't seem all that much considering almost nothing is open.