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“F**k Around & Find Out”: Truckers Warn Loads To NYC Will Be Rejected Starting Monday

“F**k Around & Find Out”: Truckers Warn Loads To NYC Will Be Rejected Starting Monday

Update (Sunday):

Trending on X this morning:

Google search trends for “trucker boycott” surging across nation:

And “boycott NYC”…

“I’m a trucker, and I stand with the boycott. Time to show the corrupt we run this country. Not them,” one X user said.

Besides New York City, truckers on X call for drivers to boycott liberal cities.

“Liberals laugh at the thought of a trucker boycott of NYC. A few years ago, a trucker boycott brought the state of Colorado to its knees. MAGA patriots make this country run. Liberals make our coffee,” another X user said.

What happens if trucks stopped?

What others are saying.

…click on the above link to read the rest…

Major Nor’easter Could Bury NYC In Two Feet Of Snow 

Major Nor’easter Could Bury NYC In Two Feet Of Snow 

Tens of millions of people across the Northeast are waking up Monday to 2021’s first major snowstorm with up to two feet and whiteout conditions in certain areas.

National Weather Service’s Event Summary Of Major Nor’easter

Winter Storm Watches & Warnings 

NBC News meteorologist Bill Karins said the Tri-State area could see the largest snowstorm in half a decade. Karins forecasts New York City could receive up to 20 inches of snow or more.

National Weather Service’s Official Snowfall Predictions  

On Sunday, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said the city’s school system would be closed. He said appointments for coronavirus vaccinations would be put on hold and rescheduled.

“The last thing we want to do is urge our seniors to come out in the middle of a storm like this,” de Blasio said.

He tweeted Sunday night:

“Beginning 6 AM tomorrow, February 1, nonessential travel will be restricted in New York City. This winter storm will be dangerous with heavy snowfall and strong winds. If you can stay home, stay home. Keep the roads clear for emergency vehicles.”

The 48-hour weather event could result in 1 to 2 inches per hour of snow and 40-50 mph wind gusts on Monday, indicating whiteout conditions are expected in certain areas. ABC7 meteorologist Jeff Smith said this system is a “rare snowstorm the likes of which we see every five to 10 years.”

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

New York City Police Use Pandemic To Create COVID-19 Checkpoints

New York City Police Use Pandemic To Create COVID-19 Checkpoints

A recent article in The New York Post revealed how the NYPD used the pandemic to justify creating COVID-19 checkpoints.

“New York officials have stopped 353 cars at entrances to the Big Apple to warn travelers of the mandatory two-week quarantine rule. The stops were made from Wednesday through Friday at bridges and tunnels, according to Mayor Bill de Blasio’s office.”

Police are using the pandemic as an excuse to circumvent the Fourth Amendment by asking a vehicle’s occupants to answer questions like have they spent more than 24 hours during the previous 14 days in any state on New York’s restricted list?

The city has the audacity to claim that these stops are “quick and educational.” There is nothing quick and educational about being stopped and questioned by government officials.

Is there anything educational about fining people $10,000 dollars?

“Travelers who violate the quarantine rule could face up to $10,000 in fines. There are currently 35 states plus Puerto Rico on the list.”

Earlier this year, The Orlando Sentinel called COVID-19 checkpoints security theater, and worried about the cost to taxpayers. COVID-19 checkpoints have also been set up in Rhode IslandNorth CarolinaColoradoMississippiLouisiana and Texas.

Penn Station COVID-19 checkpoint 
credit: WKZO

A WKZO article shows U.S. military personnel conducting a COVID-19 checkpoint at Penn Station.

“A few dozen travelers got off a train from Miami at New York City’s Penn Station on Thursday and were greeted by a team of public health workers and mayoral office staff who handed them informational fliers about the state’s new COVID-19 quarantine rules.”

Government officials use COVID-19 as an excuse to question and interrogate visitors.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Tropical System Could Bring Heavy Rainfall To New York City

Tropical System Could Bring Heavy Rainfall To New York City

Chances are, as early as Thursday, the 2020 hurricane season could get its sixth tropical system – now forming offshore of the North Carolina Outer Banks and likely headed to New York City. 

Earlier this week, the National Hurricane Center (NWS) had a 70% probability the storm would develop into a tropical system. If that is the case, within the next 24-hours, winds would have to sustain 39 mph to become Tropical Storm Fay.

NWS Weather Note h/t NWS 

“Environmental conditions are expected to be conducive for development and a tropical or subtropical cyclone is likely to form within the next day or so,” NWS said. 

The system began forming over the Florida Panhandle on Monday. Several weather models suggest the storm could track up the East Coast in the coming days, eventually striking New York City. 

“We’ve been watching the center of this system move across Georgia and the Carolinas for a few days now,” CNN meteorologist Taylor Ward said. “As the center moves offshore of North Carolina and hugs the coast, it will be able to tap into the warm waters of the Gulf Stream and could become a tropical storm.”

Tropical Weather Models h/t Reuters Commodity Desk 

“Residents along the mid-Atlantic and Northeast coasts should expect conditions similar to a Nor’ easter,” said Ward. “Bands of rain and gusty winds will bring the potential for coastal flooding, beach erosion and rip currents from Thursday to Saturday.”

Next Wave Of Shortages Strikes: NYC Pharmacies Run Out Of Tylenol, Hand Sanitizer, Common Drugs

Next Wave Of Shortages Strikes: NYC Pharmacies Run Out Of Tylenol, Hand Sanitizer, Common Drugs

In the weeks since California became the first state to order residents to shelter in place, millions of Americans have grappled with an alarming fact: That shortages of products from Tylenol to toilet paper have continued. If anything, they’ve gotten worse, even as governors like Andrew Cuomo have pleaded with the public not to hoard and buy up supplies like gloves and masks that are needed by health-care professionals.

While health officials have tried to dismiss this simply as a consequence of panicked hoarding, there are more complex dynamics at play, as CNBC explains in a recent piece exploring the shortages of basic products and common medications at pharmacies across NYC – the epicenter of the national outbreak.

In Broadway Chemists, an independent pharmacy on the Upper West Side, Tylenol, the classic over-the-counter painkiller made by JNJ, has been unavailable for weeks. Sophia Liristis, the pharmacist in charge, told CNBC that it’s  on back-order until April 30.

So unless something changes, the people of the Upper West Side won’t be able to buy Tylenol until the end of April at the earliest. That’s four weeks away.

But Tylenol isn’t the only common medical item that’s in short supply. When Liristis checked her system on Tuesday while speaking to CNBC,  she found that thermometers, gloves and masks were not available until May. Pulse oximeters, used to monitor blood-oxygen levels, were unavailable until May 31. Ventolin inhalers, which can ease shortness of breath, were only available two units at a time.  Hydroxychloroquine, the drug used to treat malaria and lupus, and the Zithromax Z-Pak, were so limited as to be practically unavailable.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Trump Weighs “Enforceable” Quarantine Order For Greater New York, Including Conn. & NJ: Live Updates

Trump Weighs “Enforceable” Quarantine Order For Greater New York, Including Conn. & NJ: Live Updates

Summary:

  • Global case total tops 600k
  • Japan fast-tracks approval of treatment drug for COVID-19
  • Third UK minister self-quarantines after showing symptoms of virus
  • Trump weighing enforceable quarantine order for all of greater NY area
  • Trump tells NBC reporter that quarantines of New York, NJ & Conn. were “possible”
  • Italy case total surpasses China
  • Spain reports deadliest day yet
  • UK case total climbs north of 17k
  • Navy hospital ships leave for New York, LA
  • Abe says he’s “just barely avoiding” declaring a national emergency
  • Yale University slammed for denying aid to city of New Haven
  • Shinzo Abe promises unprecedented stimulus package
  • Trump gives Pentagon power to call up retired soldiers and reservists
  • NYPD detective dies from COVID-19
  • Italian centennarian survives battle with COVID-19

*   *   *

Update (1420ET): As the death toll skyrockets, Spanish officials said they would need to tighten quarantine rules, and are now ordering all people to stay indoors at all times, unless they’re going to work at an “essential” job. We expect the bare minimum of exceptions (trips outside permitted to get food) will continue.

Meanwhile, in France, large numbers of the public continue to ignore the quarantine.

Though France’s health minister said Saturday that the country could soon face shortages of critical drugs, he assured the public that an order for 1 billion masks had recently been put in to ‘China’.

In Italy, the tone was far more somber.

*   *   *

Update (1412ET): The coronavirus outbreak has pitted many interests against one another in the scramble for resources. But some of the most flagrant examples of communal selfishness so far have occurred in ritzy Connecticut, where a town full of wealthy bankers and doctors shut down a drive thru testing center (well, they stopped it from opening in the first place), and now, Yale University is at the center of a controversy after refusing to allow the town access to any of its (now empty) facilities to help the community fight off the virus.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

US Reports Largest Jump In New Cases, Deaths As “Apocalyptic” Surge Rocks Hospitals In New York, New Orleans: Live Updates

US Reports Largest Jump In New Cases, Deaths As “Apocalyptic” Surge Rocks Hospitals In New York, New Orleans: Live Updates

President Trump’s hurried demands to get the nation “back to work” before Easter probably couldn’t come at a worse time. Across the US, but mainly in a handful of ‘hot spots’, most notably New York City and the surrounding area, the number of confirmed cases and deaths attributed to COVID-19 is climbing at an alarming rate.

According to John Hopkins data, Wednesday was the deadliest day yet for the US with 233 fatalities reported, taking the US to 65,273 cases and 938 deaths. In New York and California, the number of confirmed cases is doubling every few days.

As Russia reports record growth for a second day, President Vladimir Putin has ordered the country’s capital and largest city, Moscow, to close up all restaurants, bars and “non-essential” shops. In an online post, Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin ordered the closure of government offices and religious sites – which he urged Muscovites not to visit – and asked all other Russians not to visit the capital during a planned ‘nationwide holiday’ set to last for all of next week. The Kremlin has also halted all international air traffic, both for airlines and charter flights, excluding repatriation flights bringing Russian citizens back into the country.

Russia reported 182 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours on Thursday, bringing the country’s total to 840, along with 3 deaths.

Last night, President Putin delivered a nationwide address where he delayed a vote on constitutional amendments that would allow him to remain in the Kremlin until 2036, and announced that next week would be a national holiday, urging Russians to stay at home. He didn’t declare a national emergency or any other type of special circumstance, but a government medical advisor has reportedly told Putin that given the spread already documented in Moscow, that he must shut the country down to prevent a full-blown outbreak.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Army Deploys To New York As NYC Reports 1 Coronavirus Death Per Hour On Friday: Live Updates

Army Deploys To New York As NYC Reports 1 Coronavirus Death Per Hour On Friday: Live Updates

For nearly a week now, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has been begging the White House or the Pentagon to send in the Army Corp of Engineers to quickly transform existing businesses into coronavirus hospitals where patients from the impending surge can be isolated and treated.

If the state doesn’t quickly make up for its twin shortages of hospital beds and medical equipment, Cuomo warned, it could lead to thousands of preventable deaths.

Now, a few days after President Trump and Defense Secretary Mark Esper dispatched a Navy hospital ship to New York to help with the outbreak, President Donald Trump formally approved FEMA aid to the state late Friday night after declaring New York the nation’s first “major disaster area” since the start of the national outbreak.

Billions of dollars in emergency funding are now available to help combat the outbreak in the state, FEMA said in a statement.

“Federal funding is also available to state, tribal, and eligible local governments and certain private nonprofit organizations on a cost-sharing basis for emergency protective measures,” FEMA said in a statement.

President Trump’s national emergency declaration earlier this month activated FEMA, and made a pot of $42 billion in disaster-relief funds available.

The decision comes after New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio claimed that his city has become the epicenter of the national outbreak, as public health authorities in the city counted at least one coronavirus-linked death per hour on Friday.

Between just 10 am and 6 pm, 14 people in NYC died from the virus, raising the death toll in America’s largest city to 43. It was the first time NYC’s daily death toll hit double-digits.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Cuomo Orders “100%” Of New Yorkers To Stay Home, Italy Confirms Another 600 Deaths As ‘Martial Law’ Declared: Live Updates

Cuomo Orders “100%” Of New Yorkers To Stay Home, Italy Confirms Another 600 Deaths As ‘Martial Law’ Declared: Live Updates

Summary:

  • Hong Kong reports largest daily jump in cases on record as travelers revive outbreak
  • NY rolls out restrictive new measures
  • NY case total tops 7k
  • Italy says Army will help enforce lockdown, effectively declaring martial law; might extend lockdown through early May
  • Spain death toll cracks 1,000
  • Italy reports another 627 deaths
  • Confirmed cases in US pass 14k
  • Drive thru testing site in NJ’s Bergen County has a line that’s over 1,000+ cars long
  • Switzerland bars all gatherings of more than 5 people
  • Trump says no plans for national lockdown
  • Germany to pass ‘shadow’ budget on Monday
  • EU suspends budget rules
  • Bavaria becomes first German state to impose ‘lockdown’
  • Johnson says UK can defeat virus in 12 weeks if ‘we work together’
  • Treasury now moving back both filing & payment deadlines for 2019
  • Novartis will donate up to 130 million doses of hydroxychloroquine to support global response
  • NBC News employee succumbs to virus
  • Dr. Fauci says social distancing should continue for several weeks
  • MTA confirms it has 23 sick workers
  • US, Mexico agree to shut southern border
  • China makes first purchase under ‘Phase 1’ trade deal
  • Altria chairman & CEO tests positive
  • Military confirms 35 American troops infected in Europe

*  *  *

Update (1320ET): As Italy’s worst outbreak spirals further and further out of control, Italy is reporting 5,986 new cases of coronavirus and 627 new deaths on Friday, raising the countrywide total to 47,021 cases and 4,032 dead, as the total number of cases in Europe surpasses the total ‘officially’ confirmed in China.

If you’re curious about how things are looking on the ground in Italy, this Channel 4 report is chilling.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

NYC Closes Schools Until April 20, US Death Toll Hits 64: Live Updates

NYC Closes Schools Until April 20, US Death Toll Hits 64: Live Updates

Summary:

  • NYC Mayor says NYC schools will close for at least a month starting Monday 
  • NY Gov Cuomo says NYC schools will close “early this week”
  • Mayor reports 4 new deaths
  • Italy reports largest one-day jump in cases; France also reports highest daily jump
  • CDC recommends postponing all gatherings for 8 weeks
  • US death toll hits 64
  • Pentagon says sailor aboard Navy ship has tested positive
  • Germany reports 1,000+ new cases bringing total to 5,813
  • Acting Homeland Security Secretary says lines at O’Haire are “unacceptable”, says wait times have been fixed
  • Illinois Gov closes all bars & restaurants for dining in
  • US death toll hits 58, 1st death confirmed in Oregon
  • Google CEO says country-wide virus info site to launch Monday
  • LA Mayor orders bars to close, may also close dine-in restaurants
  • NFL season start likely won’t be postponed, ESPN says
  • California confirmed cases climb 14% to 335
  • US confirmed case total hits 2,952
  • Wal-Mart, Stop & Shop cut hours
  • Connecticut, Mass. close schools 
  • Case in Conn. double over night
  • Netherlands closes schools, restaurants
  • Germany closes borders to neighboring states
  • Poland bars foreigners
  • West Virginia last US state that’s virus-free
  • Iran reports largest daily jump in deaths
  • Ohio closes bars, restaurants at 9pm Sunday
  • Trump speaks with grocery chain CEOs
  • Pence says he won’t be tested
  • NYC Mayor says ‘every option on the table’ when asked if considering complete shutdown of city + schools
  • Washington DC mayor orders nightclubs to close and imposes new restrictions on bars and restaurants
  • Federal limits on trucker hours suspended to help hospitals and supermarkets alleviate shortages of critical items

*  *  *

Update (2000ET): After cutting off domestic travel for all military personnel, the Pentagon has just confirmed that a US sailor aboard a ship has tested positive, according to Reuters.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Suspected Case Of Coronavirus Discovered In New York As Death Toll Nears 300

Suspected Case Of Coronavirus Discovered In New York As Death Toll Nears 300

Summary: 

  • Death toll jumps to 294, 13,983 cases reported
  • Suspected case being tested in New York City
  • 8th US case confirmed in Massachusetts
  • Vietnam, Japan, Australia limit travel to China
  • Hong Kong health-care workers threaten to strike unless border to mainland closed

* * *

Update (1900ET): Death toll jumps to 294 as China reports 1,921 new infections, bringing the new global total to 13,983, according to Johns Hopkins CSSE.

Here’s a map of known cases:

* * *

Update (1645ET): The New York Times reports that NYC has yet another suspected case of the coronavirus. This is at least the third report of a suspected coronavirus patient in NYC or New Jersey.

The scares have made the sight of people wearing masks more common throughout the Five Boroughs.

The suspected patient is in their 40s and recently returned from China suffering from telltale symptoms including fever, cough and shortness of breath.

The suspected virus carrier is undergoing testing at Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan.

  • NEW YORK CITY HEALTH DEPARTMENT TESTING PATIENT FOR CORONAVIRUS
  • NYC HEALTH OFFICIALS SUSPECT A PATIENT HAS CORONAVIRUS: NYT
  • NYC OFFICIALS AWAITING CONFIRMATION FROM FEDERAL AGENCY: NYT
  • SUSPECTED NYC CORONAVIRUS PATIENT IS AT BELLEVUE HOSPITAL: NYT

City health officials have been bracing for a case given NYC’s large population of Chinese immigrants.

“An individual with a travel history to China felt unwell and sought help from a medical provider who promptly contacted the Health Department,” said the health commissioner, Dr. Oxiris Barbot.

NYC has already struggled with outbreaks recently, including an outbreak of measles in the ultra-orthodox Jewish community.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

NYPD To Deploy Drones For The First Time To Secure New Year’s Party

In a world where pesky drones are becoming an increasingly greater nuisance – see the embarrassment that was last week’s Gatwick airport shutdown– the NYPD is taking the other side and is ramping up security for the city’s annual New Year’s Eve celebration in Times Square with more than 1,200 cameras — some installed on high-flying drones — to protect the nearly 2 million expected revelers, police officials said Friday.

One of the camera-equipped drones will be tethered to the top of a building to prevent potential attacks on the party below, Police Commissioner James O’Neill said at a press conference quoted by the NY Post.

“This is the first time we’re going to be using it at a large-scale event,” he said. “It’s just going to give us an additional view of the crowd.”

Bloomberg reports that the drones are being put in place in an attempt to prevent another incident like the shooting in Las Vegas on October 1, 2017, in which 59 people who were attending an outdoor concert were killed by a sniper located in a hotel room overlooking the Vegas strip.

What about bystanders who decide to bring one of their own drones? That would be a bad idea because counter-terrorism cops will also deploy counter-drone technology to protect against attackers, or anyone else for that matter, with anyone caught flying a drone likely to be arrested.

“Don’t fly a drone that night… There’s no need to fly a drone,” O’Neill said. “And if you do fly one, there’s a good chance you’ll end up getting arrested.”

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

New York City Joins The “Imminent Bankruptcy” Club

New York City Joins The “Imminent Bankruptcy” Club

The “public pension crisis” is the kind of subject that’s easy to over-analyze, in part because there are so many different examples of bad behavior out there and in part because the aggregate damage these entities will do when they start blowing up is immense.

But most people see pensions as essentially an accounting issue – and therefore boring – so it doesn’t pay to go back to this particular well too often. Still, New York City’s missing $100 billion can’t be ignored:

New York City Owes Over $100 Billion for Retiree Health Care

(Bloomberg) – New York City faces future health costs for its retired workers of $103.2 billion, an increase of $40 billion over a decade. It has about $5 billion set aside to pay the bill.

The so-called “other post-employment benefits” liability was disclosed in New York’s comprehensive annual financial report released by the city comptroller’s office Wednesday. The city’s $98 billion unfunded liability for retiree health care exceeds the city’s $93 billion of bond debt and $48 billion pension-fund shortfall.

“The numbers are huge,” said Maria Doulis, a vice president at the Citizens Budget Commission, a budget watchdog group funded by the business community. “If you’re looking at the big three liabilities, this is the one that’s problematic, because there’s nothing set aside to address this and there’s absolutely no strategy on the part of the city.”

New York, the most populous U.S. city, has almost 300,000 current employees and is responsible for more than 230,000 retirees and their beneficiaries. City employees with 10 years of service qualify for free retiree health care.

The city’s post-employment benefits include health insurance, Medicare Part B reimbursements, and welfare fund contributions. Medicare Part B covers doctors’ services that are received from a federally approved facility or a medical practice. Welfare funds are administered by unions and provide supplemental benefits such as prescription drug, vision and dental coverage.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

What Comes Next

What Comes Next

Previews of the coming reckoning

All things have a beginning, a middle and and end.

And now, more than 3,480 days into the current bull market, the longest in history, we can say with high confidence we are very close to its end.

Why?

For manifold reasons that are multiplying fast. So many, in fact, that each of the key speakers at the recent Peak Prosperity/Contra Corner Summit in New York City had difficulty finding enough time to enumerate them all during the six-hour event.

David Stockman, President Reagan’s budget head and former US Congressman, focused his warnings on the overconcentration of financialized (i.e., phony) profits in the world economy, which mask the steep decline in the production of tangible (i.e., real) value.

Among his long litany of examples of the sclerosis and fraud within today’s economy, he explained how so much of today’s euphoric stock prices are an artifact of the cheap credit made possible by the world’s central banking cartel — enabling a massive LBO of our corporate industry.

Long story short: artificially low rates have been allowing corporate executives, for years, to buy back a huge percentage of their company’s shares, enriching shareholders (most notably the execs themselves) in the immediate term, while saddling the underlying companies under tremendous leverage (1m:13s):

(Purchase the full replay video)

As long as stock prices stay high and rates stay low, no one cares; they’re making too much money. But as rates rise and prices fall, these corporations will become crippled by their debt service requirements, be forced to lay off large swaths of their workforces, and quite possibly go out of business. Failures will ripple across the corporate landscape, sinking the US into prolonged recession.

As a society we’ll be the poorer for it. And suffer the full brunt of the pain this collapse of malinvestment will bring.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Here’s What Would Happen If a Nuclear Bomb Was Detonated on the Ground in NYC

Here’s What Would Happen If a Nuclear Bomb Was Detonated on the Ground in NYC

After the meeting between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump seemed to end on an optimistic note, one may have hoped that our fears of a nuclear attack would subside. Not so, according to The New Yorker, who published an article entitled, “This Is What a Nuclear Attack on New York Would Look LIke.”

While the timing may seem odd, it’s important to note that feelings are mixed about the North Korea-US summit.  Some are pleased and feel that a great deal was accomplished, while others are unhappy – even angry – that Trump made nice with a brutal dictator.

It’s tough for many folks to separate their feelings about Trump, whether those feelings are animosity or support, and it shows in their assessment of the conversation. And this isn’t unique. People had the same difficulties with President Obama. Supporters thought everything he did was great, while detractors thought he was the Anti-Christ. We’d all be wise to try to separate our feelings from our take on current events, as difficult as that might be. However, that isn’t what this article is about.

What would the nuclear threat look like?

The  New Yorker piece is prefaced with the opinion that the potential nuke won’t be from the sources most of us have been worrying about. “If America is attacked, the strike probably won’t come from North Korea. And it will be even scarier than we imagine.”

The intro is a political diatribe with some legitimate facts that are overshadowed by a blatant bias. But Ferris Jabr is an experienced science journalist who is a contributing writer for Scientific American and has been published in Wired, Foreign Policy, Aeon, Hakai, New Scientist, and Quanta, to name just a few outlets.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Olduvai IV: Courage
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Olduvai II: Exodus
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