Politics

Thursday, 02 April 2020 09:06

Farmers forced to dump milk while stores limit consumer purchases

AUTHOR’S NOTE: There is no single “reason” why farmers are being forced to dump their milk and why stores are largely still limiting the amount that consumers can purchase this week. The situation is complex, and two rumors are confirmed to be untrue. First, there is no health problem or health-related plant closure, nor is there a shortage of gallon jugs, according to Department of Agriculture sources. And no, milk jugs are NOT made in China. Most milk processing plants have their own plastic blow-molds and U.S. companies produce them as well.

Now that a few rumors are out of the way… Here is the industry narrative for plunging farm-level milk prices and reports of farms being forced to dump their milk. It goes something like this: Schools are closed, foodservice demand is stalled and exports are drying up. The first two weeks of so-called “panic buying” at supermarkets settled into a third week into the COVID-19 national emergency finding consumers continuing to ‘buy’ more milk and dairy products, but “not buying enough to overcome” the aforementioned sales losses…

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Monday, 30 March 2020 14:44

Coronavirus Shutdown Exposes US Dollar Decline

Update 4/10/20

Trump vs. Gates, Fed Gone Wild, Barr Prosecutes Coup?

Update 4/1/20

March 2020 in Precious Metals, by Stephen Cochran

Update 3/31/20:

Will the Dollar Always Rule? Ask the Archduke

Human life must trump economics in a pandemic. THIS is why China is succeeding in war on Covid-19 and US is on path to disaster

Not many main-stream news outlets are discussing this, but the COVID-19 / Coronavirus lockdown in putting the US economy in an an unprecedented position: a simultaneous shutdown of both "wall street and main street" across the country. Since the "great recession" of 2009, I believe that the US economy has not properly recovered. Instead, concepts like Quantitative Easing and Zero Percent Interest Rates came into play. These policies sound great when first introduced, but they only debase the currency further and further, eroding people's hard-earned savings and purchasing power.

The history can be traced back to 1933 when they confiscated gold from private citizens. In 1932, Gold was equal to $20 US. In 1933, they changed it to be worth $32. In 1970, when Gold was worth $34 per ounce, President Nixon stopped allowing for gold to be exchanged for Dollars. In 2009 Gold was over $1000 and today is over $1500!

Here are some links, videos, and other resources, to help illustrate my point.

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Friday, 27 March 2020 10:16

Governor Wolf Can Neither Shutdown Private Business Nor Confiscate Firearms and Ammunition

Since Governor Wolf’s virtual press conference on March 16, 2020, there has been a lot of confusion about what, exactly, “nonessential” business are, whether he could shut them down, and speculation on whether he might seek to seize firearms and ammunition.

During the press conference, he declared that “effective at midnight all nonessential stores are to close in Pennsylvania as well as bars and restaurants, except for takeout . . .” He also stated that he “anticipates” that the closure will remain in effect for two weeks but would not commit to it ending after those two weeks.

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Coronavirus

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Thursday, 26 March 2020 10:08

University Study Finds Fire Did Not Cause Building 7’s Collapse on 9/11

On March 25, 2020, researchers at the University of Alaska Fairbanks issued the final report of a four-year computer modeling study on the collapse of World Trade Center Building 7.

The 47-story WTC 7 was the third skyscraper to be completely destroyed on September 11, 2001, collapsing rapidly and symmetrically into its footprint at 5:20 PM. Seven years later, investigators at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) concluded that WTC 7 was the first steel-framed high-rise ever to have collapsed solely as a result of normal office fires.

Contrary to the conclusions of NIST, the UAF research team finds that the collapse of WTC 7 on 9/11 was not caused by fires but instead was caused by the near-simultaneous failure of every column in the building.

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September 11

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Wednesday, 25 March 2020 09:27

Greatest Depression Already Started – Gerald Celente

Gerald Celente, a top trends researcher and Publisher of The Trends Journal, says the world is already in an economic depression. Celente explains, “Never in the history of the world has the whole world, or most of the world, been shut down by politicians destroying people’s lives and their businesses. People are going to go bankrupt. You are going to see suicide rates increase. You are going to see crime escalate and people OD’ing on drugs because of depression. . . . Our leaders are totally closing down the economy. Again, this has never been done before. It’s not only Wall Street going down, Main Street went down simultaneously. That is unprecedented. Usually, the markets go down and then the ripple effects start hitting Main Street. This time–boom, they are both down. . . . It’s going to be worse than the Great Depression. It’s going to be the Greatest Depression.”

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Tuesday, 24 March 2020 16:37

H.R.5717 - Gun Violence Prevention and Community Safety Act of 2020

Latest Action: March 10, 2020

To end the epidemic of gun violence and build safer communities by strengthening Federal firearms laws and supporting gun violence research, intervention, and prevention initiatives.

Read the full text:

https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/5717/text?r=1&s=1

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Thursday, 06 February 2020 16:05

Reassessment, Property Values, and Millage: How do the numbers add up?

Note: This article was originally posted on BarrettCommunity.com

This article features a question & answer between myself and Judy Linder, Barrett Tax Collector, regarding the 2020 millage and how it fits into the county-wide reassessment.

QUESTION (Nate)
I'm confused about the property reassessment and the millage. It looks like the millage went from 20 down to 2.5, the millage numbers were roughly divided by 10. Monroe County is switching the property valuations from 25% value up to 100%. Perhaps I'm totally lost here but one set of numbers is divided by 10 and the other multiplied by 4, it doesn't add up to me. Can you let me know what I'm missing, here?

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Monday, 25 March 2019 16:59

Did you know that Barrett Township owns a street sweeper?

Note: This article was originally posted on BarrettCommunity.com

A few months ago, I filed a right-to-know request asking for an asset inventory of the township maintenance department of any item valued at $500 or above.

I reached out to York Rake, the manufacturer, asking for information about our town’s 1987 HTR Street Broom.

One would be forgiven for thinking our town's equipment being too old to get parts for anymore, or that we loaned it to another township. I learned not only does Barrett Township actually own a street sweeper, but it’s even a current model. Below is a transcript of my email thread with York Rake.

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Monday, 11 March 2019 16:57

"Misquoted" by Township Supervisors over Blue Ridge Franchise Fee???

Note: This article was originally posted on BarrettCommunity.com

I attended the supervisor meeting on June 22, 2010 to express my displeasure as a member of the community about the Blue Ridge Communications franchise fee. My concern was with an exclusive franchise agreement in place, our service would suffer, as there is (and was) no other choice of TV / Internet service provider. What will motivate Blue Ridge to improve their services with no competition?

However, the meeting minutes indicate the exact opposite:

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Monday, 18 February 2019 16:33

Gaming Funds Received since 2016: $0.00?

Note: This article was originally posted on BarrettCommunity.com

Disclaimer: The ideas expressed below are the personal thoughts and opinions of Nate Covington and do not necessarily reflect the position of Barrett Township or the Board of Auditors.

Please note that this article has been updated to include details about the $148,270 grant that was used to renovate the Barrett Firehouse.

Earlier this year, I filed a right to know request with Barrett Township requesting "documentation of all moneys received related to the Mount Airy Casino since 2014."

The response from the township was as follows:

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Monday, 11 February 2019 11:45

Barrett Township Employee Pension Plan – How Liable are Taxpayers?

(This article was originally posted on BarrettCommunity.com)

Disclaimer: The ideas expressed below are the personal thoughts and opinions of Nate Covington and do not necessarily reflect the position of Barrett Township or the Board of Auditors.

Earlier this year I filed a Right-to-Know request as a private citizen to view the township’s pension plan.

Why should residents care?

Well, for starters, township residents were taxed $55,000 in 2017 to fund the plan which has around $1 million in assets. In the same year, the State of Pennsylvania contributed an additional $32,000 to the pension fund.

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Monday, 04 February 2019 20:28

This is NOT an audit of Barrett Township

(This article was originally posted on BarrettCommunity.com)

Disclaimer: The ideas expressed below are the personal thoughts and opinions of Nate Covington and do not necessarily reflect the position of Barrett Township or its Board of Auditors.

After I was appointed auditor in November 2018, I requested a copy of the previous year’s CPA audit from Pam Gardsy (Barrett Township Secretary/Treasurer, who replaced Rick Scrudato in 2015). Pam emailed a copy of the auditor’s report, but it did not include the cover letter. I wound up filing two Right-To-Know requests to obtain the following information:

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