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Chriss Street:
“…California’s super-majority Democrat legislature just passed, and the governor has signed, a “balanced budget” that looks like Orange County before it filed for bankruptcy.
It has been 25 years since “AA” credit-rated Orange County filed the world’s largest municipal bankruptcy, following a $2.6 billion loss involving a failed leveraged borrowing scheme and accounting fraud. But despite bankers, lawyers and accountants paying $750 million for allegedly aiding OC risky taking, “AA” credit-rated California has not filed audited financials and is using leveraged borrowing to offset its $60 billion shortfall.
Since about a third of the money lost in the OC bankruptcy involved federal grant program dollars, Congress tightened the A-128 Single Audit Act in 1996 to require all state and local recipients of federal grants to file an audited financial statement within six months of fiscal year detailing each “noncompliance” that could ‘have a direct and material effect on these individual Federal programs.”
The U.S. Office of Federal Assistance Management (OFAM) that provides administration and assurance of the financial integrity regarding about $750 billion in federal grants has mandated that each state and local grant recipient must submit an audited Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) within nine months of the last day of their fiscal year. Consequences for grant recipients that to comply with the OFAM mandate include withholding a percentage, suspending or terminating federal grant monies.
In spite of over one-third of California’s budget coming from the federal government, the state defaulted by not filing its Fiscal Year 2017-2018 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) until June 2019. Furthermore, California also chose to sell billions of dollars of municipal bonds in 2019 without an audited financial statement.
The California Auditor issued a 33-page warning after the 2017-2018 CAFR was filed about 90 days beyond the nine-month OFAM deadline stating: “Deficiencies in the State’s internal control system could adversely affect its ability to provide accurate financial information.” In spite of the federal mandate and State Auditor warnings, California has been in default since March 31 for not filing its 2018-2019 CAFR on time.
California’s $202.1 billion budget that began on July 1, 2020 relies on spending $8.8 billion in a so-called “rainy-day fund” and cutting spending by $11.1 billion, including $2.8 billion in savings by slashing state worker salaries by 10 percent. But the California State Controllers’ monthly ‘General Fund’ report for May indicated that the state can internally fund its budget shortfall from $59.7 billion in “Borrowable Resources”.
California’s revenue collapse means that about 40 percent of its 2020-2021 state budget and “Borrowable Resources” are forecast to come from federal grants. Given the state has been in default since March 31 for not filing its 2018-2019 CAFR, up to $80 billion of federal grant funds is at risk from being withheld, suspended, or terminated.
Gov. Gavin Newsom seemed optimistic that the state’s economy and tax revenues would continue recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic when he signed California’s “balanced budget” on June 29th. But with the number of new cases rising, Newsom on July 1st ordered 19 counties to close all bars and ban indoor operations for all restaurants, wineries and tasting rooms, movie theaters, family entertainment centers, zoos and museums, and cardrooms for a minimum of three weeks…”
Brian C.Joondeph, MD:
“…The coronavirus surge is real, and it’s everywhere” says Axios and most of the DNC media.
Time to panic. They pile on, “The coronavirus pandemic is getting dramatically worse in almost every corner of the U.S.”
We are told new cases are rising by double-digit percentages, including: “The number of people hospitalized with coronavirus.” Hospitalized with or from coronavirus? Is this really a surge or simply fear-mongering fake news?
Texas features prominently in the surge scare. Coincidently Texas is a red state that if flipped to blue would prevent a Republican from ever winning the White House for the foreseeable future. Everything is bigger in Texas, including the Chinese coronavirus surge.
A Texas hospital CEO lets the fake news cat out of the bag.
Health officials in Texas are logging every single COVID-19-positive hospital patient in the state as a COVID-19 hospitalization, even if the patients themselves are admitted seeking treatment for something other than the coronavirus.
Most hospitals require a COVID test before elective surgery. This means that patients coming to the hospital for a non-COVID reason are tested for COVID, and if positive are being counted as a “COVID hospitalization.” If a patient goes to the hospital for a new hip or cataract surgery, and happens to test positive for COVID, they are counted as a COVID hospitalization.
Just like inflated death counts, there is a big difference between dying or being hospitalized due to coronavirus or with coronavirus. George Floyd tested positive for COVID but no one is attributing his death in Minneapolis to COVID. Yet that is how hospitalizations are being counted, leading to this so-called surge in cases.
This surge hit the news about two weeks ago, after the BLM protests and riots peaked and agitators were starting to be arrested. Is this the latest chapter in the ongoing saga to beat on Trump and interfere in the upcoming presidential election?
States experiencing this surge began reopening two months ago, including Florida, Texas, and Arizona. With a coronavirus incubation period of 5-6 days, according to the World Health Organization, any surge due to reopening should have occurred a week or two after states reopened, not two months later.
Not mentioned are the BLM protests, all within the past month. Mass gatherings in many U.S. cities, without masks or social distancing, everything the basketball player and scarf queen warned against, are far more likely the cause of increasing positive tests.
The CDC director recommended protesters get tested for COVID and likely many did, driving up the case numbers or so-called surge. Most infected young people are asymptomatic, especially teenagers where about 80 percent of those infected show no symptoms.
It’s young people out protesting, not senior citizens. Ignoring distancing and mask recommendations, many get infected, then tested, and voila, we see a surge in cases. Don’t forget the George Floyd funeral in Houston with over 6,300 attendees and over 60,000 marching, without distancing. Could this have contributed to the Texas surge?…”
https://twitter.com/Breaking911/status/1278401628127866882
Fail to teach, fail to lead, fail to protect. The epitaph of Democrat governance.
Jesse Taggart, 33, a BLM activist, has been arrested for allegedly shooting a driver at a BLM riot in Provo, Utah. Taggar's social media is filled w/ BLM content. He's been charged w/attempted aggravated murder, aggravated assault, rioting, firing a weapon near a highway & more. pic.twitter.com/0dGI6Kpzoe
— Andy Ngô 🏳️🌈 (@MrAndyNgo) July 1, 2020
https://twitter.com/Bubblebathgirl/status/1278000057145491456
What a disgrace she is. She posted another video of herself crying and blaming Trump supporters for losing her job after she released the video above. What are they teaching young people in university? Where are her parents? Is there any adult person or relative who can help this confused, perhaps mentally ill child?
https://twitter.com/DurdenTylerX/status/1277232701137879040
What in the world is wrong with this confused misguided child? Where are her parents? Why is she attacking a police horse and mounted officer? This is who the protesters are.
http://chng.it/spB4DshGHy
It seems like Washington DC has a negative effect on most normal people.