This is hilarious, a girl from high school 40 years ago joins the #METOO movement now? Might I suggest the left is acting like they are in Jr. High School. As a side note, I shudder to think what might come out from my high school if I ever ran for office…!
Dianne Feinstein Withholding Brett Kavanaugh Document From Fellow Judiciary Committee Democrats September 12 2018
Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee have privately requested to view a Brett Kavanaugh-related document in possession of the panel’s top Democrat, Dianne Feinstein, but the senior California senator has so far refused, according to multiple sources familiar with the situation.
The specific content of the document, which is a letter from a California constituent, is unclear, but Feinstein’s refusal to share the letter has created tension on the committee, particularly after Feinstein largely took a back seat to her more junior colleagues last week, as they took over Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings with protests around access to documents.
The letter took a circuitous route to Feinstein, the top-ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee. It purportedly describes an incident that was relayed to someone affiliated with Stanford University, who authored the letter and sent it to Rep. Anna Eshoo, a Democrat who represents the area.
Different sources provided different accounts of the contents of the letter, and some of the sources said they themselves had heard different versions, but the one consistent theme was that it describes an incident involving Kavanaugh and a woman while they were in high school. Kept hidden, the letter is beginning to take on a life of its own.
You think the problem is limited to the Western world?
Bill Holter’s Commentary
I don’t even know what to say about this one? How about…it takes one to know one?
Pope Francis Compares Vatican Whistleblower to Satan September 11, 2018
Satan, the “Great Accuser,” has been unleashed against the bishops of the Church, Pope Francis said Tuesday, in a thinly veiled reference to the former Vatican nuncio to the United States.
The former nuncio, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, recently accused a number of prelates of dereliction of duty in dealing with clerical sex abuse and claimed that the pope had rehabilitated serial abuser Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, elevating him to a position of influence despite knowledge of his misdeeds.
In an 11-page testimony published on August 25, Viganò alleged that he had personally informed Pope Francis in 2013 of the serial homosexual abuse perpetrated by Cardinal McCarrick, along with sanctions imposed on his ministry by Pope Benedict XVI, and yet the pope lifted those sanctions and involved McCarrick in the naming of future bishops.
“The Great Accuser, as he himself tells God in the first chapter of the Book of Job, roams around the earth looking for someone to accuse,” Francis said in his morning homily at Mass in the chapel of the Santa Marta residence in the Vatican.
Every step forward for the Yuan is a step backwards for the dollar. The only positive dollar item is the Synthetic Dollar Short. That has no meaningful legs.
Russia’s Wealth Fund Boosting Ruble-Yuan Trade With China To Substitute US Dollar September 12, 2018
Moscow and Beijing are increasing the share of trade in local currencies, Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) head Kirill Dmitriev said on Wednesday at the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) in Vladivostok.
“The first deals will be [conducted in national currencies] in the beginning of the next year. We have an agreement with the China Development Bank on a large fund in Chinese yuan worth $10 billion,” Dmitriev said.
The two countries are seeking to reduce the share of US dollars in trade. Russia and China expect trade to hit $100 billion this year, with prospects of reaching $200 billion in the mid-term.
“Recently, we have launched a regional fund in Chinese yuan jointly with the Heilongjiang province. It has already started examining projects and we expect [the] first investment in the near future,” Dmitriev added.
China is Russia’s largest trading partner, accounting for 15 percent of Russian international trade last year. Bilateral trade increased by 31.5 percent in 2017, reaching $87 billion.
According to the Russian Central Bank, both Russian and Chinese companies are willing to pay in ruble and renminbi, and this can be backed by real numbers. Last year, nine percent of payments for supplies from Russia to China were made in rubles, the regulator told RT in June.
America’s $20 Trillion Debt Makes US Dollar A Risky Asset – Putin September 12, 2018
There is a global trend among countries reducing the share of the dollar in international settlements, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok.
“Given what we are facing when paying in dollars, more and more countries have the desire to trade in their national currencies,” Putin said Wednesday.
“Moreover, it is right for financial sustainability to develop bilateral trade in national currencies. We will move towards this gradually,” he added.
The Russian president noted that there are risks in settlements in national currencies, but they could be minimized. “Risks exist everywhere and they need to be minimized, and in order to minimize them diversification is required.”
According to Putin, the US dollar is also a risky financial tool. “US foreign debt amounts to $20 trillion. What will be next? Who knows?”
Putin added that Russia is diversifying its foreign reserves and public debt. “All this creates the stability of our financial system,” he said.
Russia has been dumping US debt securities in recent months. The latest data from the US Treasury shows that Russia’s share hit an 11-year minimum and totaled only $14.9 billion. Russia held $96.1 billion in US Treasuries in March. In 2010, Russia was among the top 10 holders of US Treasuries at $176.3 billion.
Meanwhile, Russia’s gold holdings have been steadily increasing, bringing its share of the precious metal to its highest level in nearly two decades – almost 2,200 tons.
I guess India’s politicians dropped the idea of raiding the “Golden Temple” in order not to start a war with their citizens.
India Getting Rid Of US Treasury Securities And Buying Gold September 6, 2018
The world’s second biggest gold consumer continues to replenish its bullion reserves, a Reserve Bank of India (RBI) report shows. At the same time, New Delhi is slowly but surely reducing its share of US debt bonds.
The annual report from the Indian financial regulator reveals that the country followed other BRICS partners in adding physical gold to its foreign exchange reserves. The RBI reportedly bought 8.46 metric tons of gold during the last fiscal year ending in March.
As of the end of June, the country’s central bank held 566.23 metric tons of gold against 557.77 metric tons a year ago. The RBI purchased gold for the first time in nearly a decade. The regulator acquired 200 metric tons of the precious metal in 2009 shortly after the global financial crisis.
According to the RBI, India’s international reserves rose by five percent from June 2017 to June 2018 in comparison to the 6.3 percent growth seen in the same period in the previous year.
“Diversification of India’s Foreign Currency Assets continued during the year with attention being ascribed to risk management, including cybersecurity risk. The gold portfolio has also been activated,” the report added.
“The Race To The Top”: How The Fed Unleashed A Global Liquidity September 11, 2018
Following a lament by Urjit Patel, the head of the Reserve Bank of India, who three months ago predicted (correctly) that the Fed’s tightening coupled with the shrinking of its balance sheet and the ramp up in Treasury issuance would result in a dollar liquidity shortage and that “a crisis in the rest of the dollar bond markets is inevitable” unless something changed, we showed how shrinking liquidity as a result of Quantitative Tightening had emerged as the main culprit for the turmoil and “rolling bear markets” that have hit the rest of the world, courtesy of the following chart from Nedbank.
“We now think countries selling oil in these contracts and getting paid in RMB are starting to recycle that profit
back into Chinese government bonds. This is going to continue for decades.” -UBS Asset Mgmt, via BBG. H/t @dimit#GameChanger
Uh, just one question. What accounts for those of us who use no social media at all …who are disgusted by paid performers who think we care about their opinions? I would suggest that social media has far more effect on the rainbow and unicorns clan but what do I know?
If You Oppose NFL Kneeling, You May Be A Victim Of Russian Trolls: WaPo September 11, 2018
The Washington Post, offering no evidence, would like us to know that those dastardly Russians are at it again – using weaponized social media accounts to twist our minds over both sides of the NFL kneeling controversy.
In short, Americans whipped up over NFL players refusing to stand for the National Anthem may not be in control of their own emotions thanks to “instances of accounts linked to Russian trolls” who have “weighed in” on the NFL controversy, as recently as four months ago.
So, not actual Russian trolls – but Twitter accounts linked to them, and four months ago. Got it.
Citing a report by CNN which also contains no evidence, WaPo’s offers a “reminder from CNN Tech about the opportunity that Russia sees in the divide here over the anthem.”
CNN worked with researchers at Clemson University that have archived millions of tweets sent by the Internet Research Agency, a Russian troll group that was indicted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller in February. The accounts’ links to Russia were discovered by Twitter, which provided details about them to Congress. The data shows the trolls repeatedly weighing in on the debate, using different accounts to take both sides. While they used some accounts to push petitions to fire the protesting players, they used others to hail them as heroes.
Over the past year, social media networks have identified and removed thousands of accounts tied to the IRA. But despite the tech companies’ efforts, there’s no indication that the group is shying away from the NFL controversy.
This is why “when is now”…We have told you credit becoming difficult to obtain would be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. They say there will be no “contagion” to this, they had better hope they are correct, we seriously doubt it. Also remember this, when credit does not flow, neither does “distribution” and no, there are not little elves in Walmart’s back rooms that make product to stock the shelves. Think this all the way through and connect the dots, what does less cash flow mean to an economy and financial system more levered than any time in history???
“New Deals Are Being Canceled”: Emerging Markets Increasingly Locked Out From Access To Capital September 10, 2018
Following the recent rout in emerging markets, the biggest threat that has emerged to this bloc of nations is neither their slumping currencies – after all, this is a self-correcting mechanism which makes their exports more attractive and following a period of correction which bolsters trade and current account balances, the EM economies should see a rebound in output – neither the sharp drop in local asset prices, which while painful should also rebound once the underlying economy stabilizes. Instead, what is of highest concern to emerging markets is that with local debt at nosebleed levels, and with dollar-denominated indebtedness at all time high levels and in need of being periodically rolled over, a domino effect of defaults could emerge if the countries find themselves locked out of global capital markets.
That’s exactly what is happening now, because after a record 2017, emerging-market debt issuers issued less money abroad in June, July and August than in any summer since 2013’s taper tantrum, when fears that the U.S. was rolling back monetary stimulus triggered a broad selloff across bond markets.
As the WSJ writes, “the current falloff underscores the changing dynamics for emerging markets, which benefited from years of central bank stimulus and a recent period of synchronized global growth.” Now, with U.S. interest rates rising and with the dollar surging, making debt more expensive at a time of heightened concern over trade protectionism and domestic problems in giants like Turkey and Argentina. Incidentally, as we have shown before, it is these two nations that have some of the highest current account deficits as a % of GDP, and are in greatest need of finding foreign investors who will keep injecting capital into their economies, or else risk a sharp economic contraction if not outright depression.
War hero Kris “Tanto” Paronto gets slapped by twitter? They want to “shape behavior”? I believe shortly all these social media/justice warriors will be so bent out of shape they will be unrecognizable? They are backing the wrong horses, and many of their heroes will soon become (in) famous…we will soon see!
Hero Of Benghazi Suspended From Twitter For Criticizing Obama September 8, 2018
(Gateway Pundit) – Barack Obama stepped out of shadows on Friday and reminded Americans of many economic, domestic and foreign policy failures.
President Obama lectured President Trump, accused him of racism, and attempted to take credit for President Trump’s economic miracle.
But Barack Obama’s worst lie was his remarks on Benghazi.
Barack Obama: “The politics of division and paranoia has found a home, unfortunately, in the Republican party. … they’ve embraced wild conspiracy theories by those surrounding Benghazi. Or my birth certificate.”
Benghazi hero Kris Paronto responded to the former president. Kris has not forgotten about the men lost as Obama did nothing.
Benghazi is a conspiracy @BarackObama ?! How bout we do this,let’s put your cowardly ass on the top of a roof with 6 of your buddies&shoot rpg’s&Ak47’s at you while terrorists lob 81mm mortars killing 2 of your buddies all while waiting for US support that you never sent🖕🏼#scum
There are many out there wondering if they are a target or not? Oh the suspense!
Sealed Indictment Law and Legal Definition
An indictment is a formal accusation of a felony, issued by a grand jury based upon a proposed charge, witnesses’ testimony and other evidence presented by the public prosecutor (District Attorney). It is the grand jury’s determination that there is enough evidence that the defendant committed the crime to justify having a trial voted by a grand jury. In order to issue an indictment, the grand jury doesn’t make a determination of guilt, but only the probability that a crime was committed, that the accused person did it and that he/she should be tried. District Attorneys do not present a full case to the grand jury, but often only introduce key facts sufficient to show the probability that the accused committed a crime.
The Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution provides that “No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on presentment of a Grand Jury….” . Therefore grand juries are often used in charging federal crimes. However, states often use a “preliminary hearing” held by a lower court judge or other magistrate in place of a grand jury to determine whether the prosecutor has presented sufficient evidence that the accused has committed a felony. If the judge finds enough evidence that the accused committed a crime, the case will be ordered to be sent to the appropriate court for trial.
So here we have an investment with a finite potential gain and unlimited potential loss being marketed to the public…what could possibly go wrong? Pretty good timing too, don’t you think?
ETF Brings Credit Derivatives Loved by Hedge Funds to Masses September 9, 2018
After revolutionizing the way investors buy everything from equities to gold, ETFs are now threatening to disrupt the trillion-dollar market in credit derivatives.
A decade on from the financial crisis, a London-based provider of passive products is testing whether the speculative trading strategy has appeal beyond a rarefied group of institutional debt investors.
Tabula Investment Management listed an exchange-traded fund on Sept. 7 that tracks a gauge of credit default swaps on European corporate bonds, joining only a handful of ETFs that offer similar exposure.
The Tabula European Performance Credit UCITS ETF, ticker TCEP, provides a long position in the region’s credit markets by selling protection against default on a group of investment-grade and high-yield companies. The fund earns a coupon with this strategy, though in the event of a default or other credit event, it could be forced to pay out — causing losses.
– Federal Reserve Liquidity Squeeze Has Intensified Sharply, Threatening to Smother Any Nascent Economic Recovery
– Annual Real Money Supply Growth Has Slowed Anew, Annual Nominal Monetary Growth Base Is Plummeting
– August 2018 Private Labor-Market Surveying Showed Weakening Activity
– August Household-Survey Employed Dropped by 423,000 (-423,000), with Full-Time Employed Down by 444,000 (-440,000)
– Headline August Payroll Gain of 201,000 Was 151,000, Net of Revisions
– August U.3 Unemployment Edged Lower to 3.85%, from 3.87% in July; Broader U.6 Unemployment Fell to 7.39% from 7.54%. On Top of U.6, ShadowStats-Alternate Unemployment Declined to 21.2% from 21.3%
– Labor-Market Stresses Increased Sharply, Consistent with Headline Unemployment Closer to a Record High than Just Off a Record Low
– July Nominal Balance-of-Payments and Real-Merchandise Trade Deficits Deteriorated Sharply, Likely to Reverse Trade Boosts to Second-Quarter GDP
– July Real Construction Spending Continued Dropping Month-to-Month, Slowing Year-to-Year, Holding Shy of Its Pre-Recession Peak by 20.5% (-20.5%)
“No, 969-A: August Labor Numbers and Money Supply M3, July Trade Deficit and Construction Spending”
– Statistical Deception Bloats Headline U.S. Economic Growth
– “Pollyanna Creep” Has Added 18.1% to Nominal Gross Domestic Product Since 1980
– Second-Quarter Real GDP Growth Rose to 4.23% from 2.22% in First Quarter, While “GDP Equivalent” Gross Domestic Income Sank to 1.81% from 3.90%
– Official Second-Quarter Real GDP Stood 17.5% Above Its 2007 Pre-Recession Peak, Yet It Held Shy by 5.2% (-5.2%) of Recovering that Peak, When Corrected for the Deliberate Understatement of GDP Inflation
– Underlying Economic Reality Reflects Activity That Is Off Bottom, but Well Shy of Headline Expansion, in Fragile Mixed-Growth Stability as Confirmed by Better-Quality Broad Economic Measures
– Yet, Private Labor Market Surveying, the Real Merchandise Trade Deficit and Real Construction Spending All Faltered in the Latest Reporting
– Federal Reserve Policies Threaten Any Nascent Economic Recovery, as Systemic- and Consumer-Liquidity Conditions Tighten Meaningfully
– GDP Benchmarking Pivoted on the Fourth-Quarter 2007 Business-Cycle Peak; Prior Activity Shifted Lower; Subsequent Activity Shifted Increasingly Higher
– Benchmarking Showed the Headline Economic Collapse into 2009 to be Shallower, the Headline Recovery and Expansion to be Somewhat Faster and Stronger, Along with Follow-Through Distortions Inflating the Latest Headline GDP Growth
Commentary No. 968b: U.S. Economic Reality, Second-Quarter GDP, Second-Cut Comprehensive GDP Revisions
As Paul Harvey used to say, here’s the rest of the story!
Employment: Mother of God (Forum) September 7, 2019
Ok, I know I tweeted that this would be delayed, but I think it needs publication now — I may have to come back and revisit it, but for the moment… here it is:
Toyal nonfarm payroll employment increased by 201,000 in August, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 3.9 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Job gains occurred in professional and business services, health care, wholesale trade, transportation and warehousing, and mining.
“Q” simply has been extremely correct concerning past political developments. His warnings and stated reasons why make it imperative that this come to you.
Repost by Permission: Russia Prepares After Trump Forces Warn Of Military Rule And Executions In Response To “Sleeper Cell” Awakening In White House September 6, 2018
By: Sorcha Faal, and as reported to her Western Subscribers
In what can only be described as a “when will this madness end” new Security Council (SC) report circulating in the Kremlin today, President Putin has agreed to immediately place himself under the protection of the Ministery of Defense (MoD) during the largest-ever in the history of modern Russia war exercise Vostok-2018 due to begin on 11 September—and is due to fears related to the growing crisis erupting in America that has seen a “Deep State” aligned “sleeper cell” awakening in President Trump’s White House threatening to topple the existing US government—and that Trump-loyalist US Senator Lindsey Graham rapidly responded to during a hearing, where socialist-communist agitators were discovered being paid from “bags of cash”, when he shockingly began confirming with US Supreme Court nominee Judge Bret Kavanaugh that the US is now in a state of war under the full jurisdiction of military tribunals whose authority authorizes them to execute those found being enemies of the state. [Note: Some words and/or phrases appearing in quotes in this report are English language approximations of Russian words/phrases having no exact counterpart.]
Oh yes, this ought to go over really well with the “deplorables”. I would hope he doubles and triples down on his “Nazi” meme…guaranteeing a red tsunami!
Obama Condemns Trump, “Nazi Sympathizers” In Fiery Speech Warning Of “Dangerous Times” September 7, 2018
Former President Obama jumped into the political fray on Friday, lashing out at Donald Trump by name in what appears to be his first crack at energizing Democrats for midterms.
Trump says he fell asleep.
“I’m sorry. I watched it, but I fell asleep. I found he’s very good — very good for sleeping,” the President said during a Fargo, ND fundraiser.
While giving an acceptance speech for the Paul H. Douglas award for Ethics in Government at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Obama said that President Trump is simply capitalizing on discontent whipped up over many years, while asking “What happened to the Republican Party?” while adding that Americans have “moments” when people who are “genuinely, if wrongly, fearful of change” have pushed back against progressive American ideals.
“You happen to be coming of age during one of those moments,” Obama said. “It did not start with Donald Trump, he is a symptom, not the cause. He is just capitalizing on resentment that politicians have fanning for years. A fear, an anger that is rooted in our past but is also borne in our enormous upheavals that have taken place in your brief lifetimes.”
Uhm, the saddest thing is that more than 1 in 5 Americans would HAVE TO take on debt to afford the new I-phone…there is no other option! Do you understand the nuance?
1 In 5 Americans Would Take On Debt To Afford The New iPhone September 5, 2018
Apple may be bracing to ship 20% fewer iPhones later this year after its newest models, specs of which leaked earlier this week, finally hit the market, but that doesn’t mean the cultural cache of owning an iPhone has in any way diminished. While reports of a decline in component orders earlier this year could be chalked up to market saturation or the higher price point (consumers could be asked to shell out as much as $1,400 for the most expensive new models, according to reports that have been circulating since before last year’s launch), an interesting new survey by WalletHub revealed that many American handset owners simply don’t care about the price.
Indeed, at a time when total household debt is hitting one record after the next and revolving credit is soaring, nearly 28 million Americans believe that owning the newest iPhone is worth racking up debt. According to WalletHub’s 2018 Credit Score and iPhone survey, this view is particularly prominent among millennials. More than 18% of respondents under the age of 45 said it would be worth going into debt for the phone, compared with 5% of those who are more than 45 years old.
Despite the deluge of debt being incurred by the American consumer, credit scores remain generally high (unsurprising considering the robust Trump-era economy). Thanks to this trend, millions of consumers can access financing plans that will help them purchase new phones, ensuring a bump to device sales for the first company publicly traded in the US to reach $1 trillion market cap.
Anonymous? If something is true, say it in public like a real man. If not, wilt like the anonymous daffodil you are?
Trump Rips Searing Times Op-Ed From Unnamed Senior Official September 6, 2018
WASHINGTON (AP) — In a striking anonymous broadside, a senior Trump administration official wrote an opinion piece in The New York Times on Wednesday claiming to be part of a group of people “working diligently from within” to impede President Donald Trump’s “worst inclinations” and ill-conceived parts of his agenda.
Trump said it was a “gutless editorial” and “really a disgrace,” and his press secretary called on the official to resign.
Trump later tweeted, “TREASON?” and in an extraordinary move demanded that if “the GUTLESS anonymous person does indeed exist, the Times must, for National Security purposes, turn him/her over to government at once!”
The writer, claiming to be part of the “resistance” to Trump but not from the left, said, “Many Trump appointees have vowed to do what we can to preserve our democratic institutions while thwarting Mr. Trump’s more misguided impulses until he is out of office.” The newspaper described the author of the column only as a senior official in the Trump administration.
“It may be cold comfort in this chaotic era, but Americans should know that there are adults in the room,” the author continued. “We fully recognize what is happening. And we are trying to do what’s right even when Donald Trump won’t.”
