Barack Obama’s campaign manager from his historic 2008 bid for the White House, says he has an “overarching concern” about Joe Biden’s campaign strategy against the media genius POTUS who already has a much larger campaign-cash warchest. David Plouffe said he is particularly alarmed by the former vice president’s failure to use social media and “dazzling visuals” while President Trump is in the news eveyday during the coronavirus pandemic, looking in charge and presidential.

“It’s a challenge for Joe Biden,” he said on the  “Skullduggery”podcast. “But Trump gets this, and his campaign gets this: It’s blunt force communication. … What I’m very worried about is we’re going to see tens of millions of dollars of advertising in battleground states any moment.”

Plouffe  implied he expects a massive ad campaign showing the president being a calm, level-headed hero-leader during this COVID-19 pandemic. He made it sound like many of Trump’s recent statements at press conferences were said deliberately to set up future campaign ads. “The Trump campaign has a huge organization [and] all the money in the world to drive turnout as high as they can in every battleground state, which is what I’m most concerned about,” he said.

“The Biden campaign has an acute need to really up their game and understand how people receive information today,” Plouffe said. “It’s a weakness of most Democrats.”

Reply to this email and tell me, who do you think is better suited to handle this crisis, Trump or Biden? 

Abbvie Stock Jumps 6.20% to $72.09 on Thursday

Biggest Jump YTD

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AbbVie Inc (NYSE: PFE) is a pharmaceutical company with a very solid balance sheet and historically low debt to equity, until 2019 with the acquisition of Allergan. It pays a healthy dividend of $1.18 per share which is about a 6.6% dividend yield. But that’s all ABBV is; a solid stock.

Consistent revenue from its oncology division and consistent growth from immunolgy gave them $30 billion in revenue last year but they only managed to eek out 1.6% sales growth. Also, they are not in the front lines of the COVID-19 fight. 

There’s the rpoblem. During this bear market caused by COVID-19, hot money has been chasing the stocks that could win this fight like Moderna (NASDAQ: MRNA) and Gilead (NASDAQ: GILD). ABBV is a boring, solid stock. 

Which might be just the thing for your portfolio to help even out this volatility. 

A Dyson Ventilator

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James Dyson, billionaire founder of Dyson known for their vacuum cleaners, sanitary hand dryers and fans, has put his knack for moving air around to good use. UK Prime Minster Boris Johnson called him for help, and 10 days later he had invented a ventilator. The UK Government promptly ordered 15,000 of them. 

Called the “CoVent,” this entirely new ventilator “can be manufactured quickly, efficiently and at volume,” Dyson said, also saying that the new ventilator has been designed to “address the specific needs” of coronavirus patients.

A spokesperson for the company said the ventilators would be ready by early April. Dyson, who has a net worth of approximatly $10 billion according to Bloomberg, wrote in his letter that he would also donate 5,000 units to the international effort to tackle the pandemic.

“The core challenge was how to design and deliver a new, sophisticated medical product in volume and in an extremely short space of time,” he added. “The race is now on to get it into production.” Well done, the private sector is really showing off during this crisis. 

VR Conference Done in VR

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Due to the coronavirus pandemic, social-distancing and self-isolation has become our new reality. Luckily, the technology behind virtual reality is making it possible for large groups of people to experience fully immersive virtual events from the comfort of their own home. 

This year marks the 5th year anniversary of the Virtual VIVE Ecosystem Conference which, due to the virus, was held as a livestream virtual event. It accommodated nearly 2,000 people from 55 different countries, and it was the first large event ever to be held virtually.

Attendees using the system were able to create their very own avatars and which allowed them to interact with one another. The conference provided tutorials to get users up to speed on the new tools available in the VR realm and discussed how extended reality, or XR, might impact the world. 

This development couldn’t have come at a better time. It allows us to remove ourselves from the physical world while getting back to the life that was stripped away from us.  Our new reality seems to be connected entirely through the internet; work, exercise, learning, playing and socializing is all done on-line until further notice. XR technologies seems to be the most sensible way to enjoy them all but can only be done so if more users adopt the platform idea.

Toilet Paper Is Not Rare!

I understand that people are concerned about running out of toilet paper during this whole coronavirus madness, but the greediness of those who arrive at the stores first, leave others with nothing which is starting a whole other panic! What you people don’t understand is, the toilet paper companies are still producing t.p., so stop freaking out, buy what you need and leave some for others! 

For those who have none…please use common sense and realize that the only thing that should be going down your toilet is what comes out of you and toilet paper. Hence the name. 

Some unfortunate wastewater management officials in Redding California had to unclog sewer lines because some idiot was using cut up t-shirts in lieu of t.p.  If you’re going to be crafty enough to use a shirt, be smart enough to know you can wash and re-use it… But, I guess anyone who flushes a shirt down the toilet isn’t all that smart.