https://www.epsilontheory.com/the-grifters-chapter-1-kodak/

On Tuesday afternoon (July 28, 2020), the White House announced that Kodak – a public company with less than $100 million in market cap, basically a pension fund with a famous brand name attached – would receive $765 million in “loans” from the US government to create a “pharmaceutical start-up” that over a period of 8 YEARS will start making pharmaceutical “supplies”. Whatever the hell that means.

This $765 million in non-recourse, non-secured loans for pharmaceutical supply production, given to this micro-cap company with zero experience or expertise in pharmaceutical supply production, comes from the International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), a $60 billion piggy bank established by the Trump administration in 2019 to replace the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC).

Yes, “international development” and “overseas investment”.

On the corporate-grift side, it’s Kodak Chairman and CEO Jim Continenza (SEC CIK 0001197594), who picked up about 3 million shares and cheap options over the past year. It’s Kodak board member George Karfunkel (SEC CIK 0001085765), of the private equity and banking Zyskind-Karfunkel family, with his 6.4 million shares. It’s Kodak board member Philippe Katz (SEC CIK 0001579836), who owns about 4.3 million shares through at least five shell companies.

Oh, wait, you thought Jim had a background in manufacturing or pharmaceuticals? Hahahahahahaha. Hooo, boy, that’s rich. No, no … Jim is a marketing guy. Shocking, I know.

Based on yesterday’s closing price of $33.20 for the stock, I figure Jim and George and Philippe have made about $400 million over the past 48 hours.

The numbers looked even better when Kodak hit $53 earlier earlier in the day, but easy come, easy go.

On the government-grift side, it’s Donald Trump, who gets a press conference and a talking point.

It’s Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who sit on the DFC board of directors and approved this deal, each pocketing a favor.

It’s Larry Kudlow, University of Rochester alum and friend of Kodak, who pockets a BIG favor.

It’s Adam Boehler, 41 year-old CEO of the DFC, who cements a lucrative career once his government “service” is complete.

Crony capitalism. In its purest form.

https://twitter.com/BandyXLee1/status/1284246545563557894

https://twitter.com/NumbThePain/status/1269669820062203912

https://twitter.com/umairh/status/1275580684065701888

Note: Words in bold type are my edits.

There are a number of websites where I get my news. The Automatic Earth (TAE) (https://www.theautomaticearth.com/the-automatic-earth/) is one of them.

To those who are not familiar with TAE: According to Media Bias/Fact Check (https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/the-automatic-earth/), The Automatic Earth has a left/center bias. Furthermore, "The Automatic Earth is [a] financial news website. TAE is different than most financial websites in that they oppose the hording of wealth and criticize bankers. All information on the website is sourced to credible information. When curating news from other sources most fall on the left-center of the political spectrum. Overall, we rate this site left-center for bias and factual in reporting. (D. Van Zandt 6/3/2017)".

With that being said, I found this in the TAE post of June 20, 2020:

"But what really bumped me off my rhythm is reading the stories, and reactions to them, about AG Barr asking US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Geffrey Berman to resign, and the latter refusing to comply. Reading through all the related articles had one notion, one fear, creep up on me: that the US is at a serious risk of becoming ungovernable. And I mean: serious.

"Whoever wins on November 4, Trump or Biden(?!), may well be unacceptable and unaccepted by half the country. And what happens then? Are we going to have a civil war? I’ll get back to that soon. It’s not like this is the first time it ever occurred to me, but it has gained a lot of weight -and risk- lately."

Source: https://www.zerohedge.com/political/white-woman-filmed-setting-fire-atlanta-wendys-after-latest-police-killing

Atlanta police are offering a $10,000 reward to anyone who offers information that could lead to the arrest of whoever set fire to the Wendy's on University Avenue where Rayshard Brooks was shot and killed by a police officer Friday night after a brief struggle.

The department also released photos of a suspect believed to have started the fire...
https://twitter.com/Atlanta_Police/status/1272224212615335937
...and although their face can't be seen, rendering their identity a mystery, it was clear that the suspect identified by the APD is white.

Well, on Monday morning, the Daily Mail published some new cellphone footage of the suspect starting the fire. And although the suspect's identity still isn't clear in the video, another fact was made apparent: Not only was the suspect white, but it appears the person starting the fire is another angry white woman.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8420147/Atlanta-police-seek-masked-woman-suspected-burning-Wendys.html

The fast-food outpost was torched late on Saturday during demonstrations that erupted over the death of Rayshard Brooks. In the video, peaceful protesters in the crowd can be heard criticizing the woman as she broke a window, sprayed a flammable substance on the ground, then set the building on fire.

The protesters insisted on the video, which was shared by the Daily Mail, that 'Black Lives Matter' demonstrators weren't responsible for the looting and damage, and that the suspect seen in the footage was acting on her own.

"Look at the white girl trying to set s*** on fire...look at that white girl trying to burn down a Wendy's," the anonymous camera man can be heard saying.

"This wasn't us," he added, referring to BLM. "This wasn't us!".

As the fire grew, fears mounted that it could ignite a neighboring gas station, but by midnight the fire had burned out without spreading further.

I don't know how practical this is, but someone needs to communicate to the bad actors that they are providing re-election material to Trump and the Republicans, and they need to stop the looting and the vandalism.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/apr/04/thelegacyofthe1968riots

"The riots thus provided an entrée for conservatives to finally, fully assert law and order as a national political issue. Something that had been brewing for decades at the local level, and which had played a role in the GOP victories of 1966, became after April 1968 the single The riots thus provided an entrée for conservatives to finally, fully assert law and order as a national political issue. Something that had been brewing for decades at the local level, and which had played a role in the GOP victories of 1966, became after April 1968 the single most important domestic concern in the 1968 presidential race. Polls repeatedly put it at par with, and even above, the Vietnam war. Richard Nixon, who had largely avoided talking about riots and civil rights before April, now made law and order - and the revulsion of white suburbia against the violent images of rioters reacting to King's death - a central theme in his campaign.

"The riots also vaulted Nixon's eventual running mate, the obscure Maryland governor Spiro Agnew, to national prominence. In the wake of the violence in Baltimore, Agnew had called local civil rights leaders to a meeting and then ambushed them with accusations that they had facilitated the racial militancy that he - and much of white America - believed to be the cause of the riots. Nixon aide Patrick Buchanan clipped a news story about the speech and handed it to his boss. And while Nixon toyed with other running mates, he ultimately chose Agnew based on his newfound fame as the standard-bearer of the "silent majority". Agnew was consistently marked for his boorishness by the press corps, but, as an astute Time magazine columnist wrote: "What Agnew has got is a reflexive feel for how millions of fellow Americans view the world - many of them through suburban windows."most important domestic concern in the 1968 presidential race. Polls repeatedly put it at par with, and even above, the Vietnam war. Richard Nixon, who had largely avoided talking about riots and civil rights before April, now made law and order - and the revulsion of white suburbia against the violent images of rioters reacting to King's death - a central theme in his campaign.

"Whether or not Agnew made the difference that November, his selection defined the new White House as a decided turn in American politics, one that pivoted heavily on the riots. Along with the growing appeal of law and order as a political attitude came a rejection of the liberal state and its ameliorationist, integrationist attitude toward the inner-city poor. Conservatives drew a direct line connecting ghetto unrest and liberal social policy, an accusation that also appealed to the pocketbooks of a new generation of middle-class, suburban whites."

(CNN) A person who later learned they were positive for Covid-19 attended a California religious service on Mother's Day, exposing 180 other people to the novel coronavirus, according to local health officials.

The individual got a positive diagnosis for Covid-19 the day after the service and is now in isolation at home.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/17/us/covid-19-mothers-day-church-exposure/index.html

This took place in Butte County, CA: http://www.buttecounty.net/Portals/21/Admin/Media/BCPHRespondstoCOVIDChurchExposure.pdf?ver=2020-05-15-102817-117

ZURICH (Reuters) - Any vaccine to fight the new coronavirus will not be ready for use for at least two years, the chief executive of Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis, which no longer makes vaccines itself, told a German newspaper.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-novartis-ceo-vaccine-idUSKBN22R0T7