Given a return to reading the Mueller report, I thought this was interesting.

The USA is under constant threat from Russia. It never stops. It won't stop this year either regardless of SARS-CoV-2. If anything, Russia will try to find weak stops and exploit them. Russia is currently a country without sincere leadership except for a president that won't understand he has overstayed his welcome.

December 19, 2019

Savannah - A newly unsealed superseding indictment (click here) has charged Russian and Italian nationals, a U.S. Citizen and various companies in a conspiracy to evade international trade sanctions.

The United States District Court for the Southern District of Georgia unsealed the superseding indictment on Monday, charging two Russian nationals, two Italian nationals, a U.S. citizen, and various companies with violating and conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and the Export Control Reform Act of 2018 (ECRA), conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering, said Bobby L. Christine, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia. 

The indictment, which was returned in October 2019 by a federal grand jury in Savannah, Ga., charges Oleg Vladislavovich Nikitin; Nikitin’s Russian-based company KS Engineering (KSE); KSE employee Anton Cheremukhin; Gabriele Villone; Villone’s Italian-based company GVA International Oil and Gas Services (GVA); and GVA employee Bruno Caparini, with violating and conspiring to violate IEEPA/ECRA. Additionally, the aforementioned defendants, Dali Bagrou, and Bagrou’s U.S.-based company World Mining and Oil Supply (WMO) are charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.  Nikitin, Villone, and Bagrou were all arrested in Savannah, Ga., while attempting to complete the illegal transaction and are awaiting trial....

...“The defendants in this case went to great lengths to circumvent export control laws enacted to protect our nation’s security,” said Cynthia A. Bruce, Special Agent in Charge of the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, Southeast Field Office. “The DCIS will aggressively support our law enforcement partners working to ensure protected items don’t fall into the wrong hands.”

“This brazen scheme to undermine United States sanctions was a direct threat to national security,” said Special Agent in Charge of FBI Atlanta, Chris Hacker. “But because of the tireless efforts of federal law enforcement partners, the deception ends and the first steps in bringing these defendants to justice begins.”

“U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s collaboration with our fellow federal law enforcement agencies is critical to the successful enforcement of US import and export laws,” said Donald F. Yando, Director, Field Operations, Atlanta Field Office, U.S. Customs and Border Protection. “These partnerships provide for the successful identification and destruction of these types of criminal enterprises.”...

I don't know where to start tonight.

President Bubba, Jr. AKA Jarod Kushner is completely incompetent. When a USA president assistant tells the State of New York to purchase ventilators with a $65 million by contract and no ventilators show up, it allows me to call him, President Bubba, Jr.

Actually, New York State should hold Jarod Kushner personally responsible for this disaster. Incompetent government employees can be sued for carrying out the important jobs of the government that do not have a clue to what they are doing.

This is not the only thing Kushner has done. At the beginning of this family charade in the White House, he was using non-governmental online sites for government business. Kushner thinks he is teaching the government on how to run itself better as well as Trump and they are completely incompetent and only compromise the national security of the USA. SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 are national security issues. OBVIOUSLY! And yet, the White House cannot seem to get over the idea they are incompetent and lean on anyone "competent enough" in the nearby vicinity who is scared to death to have them fail.

So, at the top of the viral response is President Bubba and President Bubba, Jr.

Then there are the new deaths and COVID-2 diagnoses in Colorado. Then company JBS seems to think since they have a letter from President Bubba they don't have to test their employees because the plant has an enormous viral load. The bosses tested positive so the employees are going to test positive and they opened the plant knowing it would have a viral load to choke a horse.

Seven employees are dead and JBS is under the impression they don't have to answer for that. It boggles the mind to understand why JBS thinks it is exempt from liability.

April 28, 2020

A meatpacking plant (click here) at the center of the COVID-19 outbreak in Green Bay, WI, was temporarily closed by its owner Sunday, the latest such facility to be shuttered across the nation as federal authorities investigate safety at the operation.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that at least 189 cases have been linked to JBS Packerland, Brown County.

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration announced Friday that the agency is looking into the outbreaks at the JBS and American Foods Group plants.

In addition, OSHA said Friday it was opening a new investigation into the COVID-19 safety practices of the Patrick Cudahy/Smithfield Foods meatpacking plant after a worker told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel his concerns about unsafe work conditions at the plant. The man said he hadn't received a face mask despite working closely with others....

If any company and/or state contemplating opening for economic gain and proves to be a danger to Americans, both workers and patrons; will not get away with it as some kind of sick patriotic movement. President Bubba can do his level best to sit on the neck of OSHA, but, it won't last forever and the people will find their ways into a court to bring this entire travesty to the docket.

What good is a president, his assistants, states influenced by his travesty of a White House or the companies that believe their patriotic duty is to the economy over human life? They will not be tolerated in this country! They do not have a blanket right to kill Americans via a virus.

During this time of rest for a portion of the American workforce, the companies and businesses were supposed to be busy altering their business model to accommodate "social distancing" and methods of business that won't compromise employees and patrons. That included factories such as JBS. 

Part of the problem JBS is facing is the lack of leadership in the White House. The Ag Department should have had their people on the ground all over the country helping. Those most needed as indicated by President Bubba's letter should be high on the list for help from the Ag Department. Did that occur? No, what did occur was a cover-up and the idea of entitlement in emergencies to get away with it. Clue: that is not leadership.

The longer this travesty goes on because President Bubba politicized a virus and expected it to behave the longer it will take to return to any form of normalcy in business in the USA.

This is what is going on with American agriculture. Let's bet on "the futures market." President Bubba managed to turn the entire Midwest into a one armed bandit. 

Grain markets (click here) this morning are mixed with corn, canola, and soybean prices all higher but cereals in the red. Yesterday, grain markets ended the day mostly in the green, supported by WTI oil prices and broader equity markets, which both had solid daily gains. That said, volatility in the grain markets remains, not just because of COVID-19-related demand uncertainty but also the combination of additional investor dollars (which fled equities back in March) and weather.

More specifically, there are some freezing temperatures forecasted this weekend for everywhere from North Dakota down to northeastern Missouri and back up to Michigan and Ohio. [1] Early planted soybeans are the most at risk but because cooler temperatures have kept emergence in check, the total percentage of the crop that’s at risk is much lower than what’s actually been planted.

On that note, the USDA said in Monday’s crop progress report that 23% of the U.S. soybean crop has been planted. [2] This is above pre-report expectations, and way ahead of the 5% planted by this week a year ago, as well as the five-year average of 11%. Also, 51% of the U.S. corn crop has been planted, which is a one-week 24-point jump and, like soybeans, also ahead of average pre-report guesstimates from grain markets participants. It’s also well-above the five-year average of 39% and the 21% seen planted through this week a year ago. Conversely, 29% of the American HRS wheat crop has been planted, slightly below the 30% expected, but also behind the 43% average for this week.

Last night, Shaun Haney of Real Agriculture and I did a live, 30-min
Facebook/Youtube/Twitter/LinkedIn Skype-based video interview, and we covered everything from pulses to cereals to oilseeds to why I’m more tanned than Shaun. [3] We also discussed why I’m still quite bearish on corn prices, something that I walked extensively through in Monday’s Breakfast Brief. That said, I also commented on how I think there is more downside risk for soybean and canola prices, but I’m way less bearish than I am on corn prices....

Trump will raise postal rates of the constitutionally demand public post office before the election that could eventually put it out of business and force the pension to be closed out.

Anyone notice how the water mark of the checks from the US Treasury is very faint? I have. The watermark is nearly indiscernible even under strong light. Saving on ink? I wonder if anyone or any vendor is having trouble cashing the US Treasury check? 

More ethical improprieties by Moscow Mitch.

During a global pandemic health crisis, "Moscow" Mitch called the Senate back into session to pass a McConnell "back pocket" judge, Justin Walker, into the DC Circuit. The nominee has absolutely no experience to be a judge in the DC Circuit. McConnell wanted to hide this activity under cover of the pandemic so the public would not be called to the attention of his underhanded dealings.

May 1, 2020
By Carl Hulse

Just days before a high-profile Senate confirmation hearing (click here) to fill a vacancy on the prestigious U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, the court’s chief judge has opened the door to an inquiry into whether ethical improprieties occurred in the creation of the coveted opening.

In an order dated May 1, Judge Sri Srinivasan asked Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. to assign another circuit to look into a complaint filed by the progressive advocacy group Demand Justice, which questioned the timing and circumstances of Judge Thomas B. Griffith’s retirement announcement in early March.

The advocacy group acted in March after disclosures that Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader who has focused intently on conservative judicial confirmations the past three years, had been contacting appeals court judges nominated by Republican presidents to encourage them to retire. In the case of Judge Griffith, his retirement opened the way for his retirement opened the way for President Trump to nominate Justin Walker, a 37-year-old protégé of Mr. McConnell’s whom the senator had ardently promoted for the seat....

The retiring judge is expected to have been given a sweet deal to retire to open a seat on the DC Circuit.

May 5, 2020

...Therefore, if Judge Griffith (click here) accepted anything of value in exchange for his retirement from the bench, including the promise of future employment, such as a prestigious professorship, or future income or any bonuses that could have come with an agreement for future employment, he may be violating these Rules....

Walker is yet another member of the Federalist Society with no experience to be assigned to the DC Circuit. His age alone provides for the inexperience of a man that has mostly clerked for Supreme Court judges.

Justin R. Walker (click here) is a judge on the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky. Prior to his confirmation, he was a professor at Brandeis School of Law at the University of Louisville from 2015 to 2019. Judge Walker graduated from Duke University and Harvard Law School. After graduating from law school, he practiced appellate law in Washington, D.C., and clerked for Judge Brett Kavanaugh and Justice Anthony Kennedy.

Walker was given the seat at the US District Court of Western Kentucky on June 19, 2019. He is the radical right. It is another religiously based appointment. They are trying to change the courts, not based in established law and principle, but, by their own religious prejudice.

ANOTHER QUID PRO QUO:

May 5, 2020

In March, after Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh took time off from his Supreme Court duties to swear in Justin Walker to the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky in Louisville, the newly minted judge recognized how he had gotten there at the age of 37, with zero trial experience but a pedigree in conservatism....

...He closed with a broadside against the American Bar Association, which had given him a rare “Not Qualified” rating for his absence of courtroom work, categorizing the professional organization among his “opponents.”...

...Republicans promote Judge Walker as a “drain the swamp” Washington outsider, who triumphed over a hardscrabble upbringing in Kentucky to reach the heights of American jurisprudence 11 years out of law school.

“He’s young, brilliant and conservative,” said Mike Davis, who leads the Article III Project, a judicial advocacy group that has pushed President Trump’s appointments to the federal bench.

The current Judge Walker is the son of a judge and the grandson of a very wealthy man that went on to be Secretary of Transportation in Kentucky, Frank R. Metts. Justin Walker is another person of privilege to pollute the USA Justice system.

665 S.W.2d 318 (1984)

Frank R. METTS  (click here) (now J.F. Runke), Secretary of Transportation; Drexell R. Davis, Kentucky State Treasurer; George Fischer (now Robert L. Warren), Secretary of Finance & Administration Cabinet, Commonwealth of Kentucky, Appellants, v. CITY OF FRANKFORT, Kentucky and Robert C. Yount, Appellees.

Court of Appeals of Kentucky.

March 9, 1984.

Robert Metts is the great-grandfather of Justin Walker. No doubt Justin Walker is the dream come true of the religious right.

He was the owner of Robert F. Metts Real Estate. (click here) Bob was one of the founding members of, Freed from Within, a Christian based organization that introduces men to Jesus Christ and helps them become better men in their family and community. He was an avid bass fisherman, U of K fan and loved Wednesday night food, fellowship and worship and Friday night Dominos with his FFW family.

Justin's daddy was a very wealthy man.

...This is an appeal from an order (click here) and judgment of the Jefferson Circuit Court, Chancery Branch, permanently enjoining the appellants herein from conducting various business ventures due to certain restrictions as contained in a deed of conveyance. There is also an amended order and judgment being appealed in this case.

On April 17, 1969, Frank R. Metts (Justin's Daddy) and Miller Kimbrough, Jr., as co-trustees, who hereinafter for brevity will be referred to as Metts, purchased a 95.48 acre tract of unimproved land in Jefferson County, Kentucky, for the sum of $2,387,000.00. It has been subdivided into acreage tracts and is known as the "Village Subdivision"....

Justin's mommy is a political socialite in Kentucky, right Moscow Mitch?

Trump is going to talk the virus and country to death.

Trump will be eating his words about the virus going away my summer.