Month: July 2016

via http://ift.tt/2arswEN williambanzai7

Just like the good ol’ days, Russia is now a useful ‘enemy’ being used to justify whatever needed from Washington, whether it be more money for NATO expansion, more spying powers on the domestic population, or more reason to justify the USA’s generally jingoistic, xenophobic attitude about foreign policy.  As we explain in Splitting Pennies – Understanding Forex – the USA has created a wall of stupidity surrounding the USA via sophistocated propoganda techniques developed over a period of 60 years utilizing advanced technology, combined with bio-chemical layer through aerosol sprays, chemicals in the food, and nervous system manipulation through 1/2 Hz coming from your Television (See US Patent 6506148 here).  

The event that changed the global power structure was World War 2.  History, whether business, technical, political, or social – should be looked at through 3 prisms; before, during, and after the war.  Before & during the war, Washington had a clear agenda – engage the US population & American business in the new hot industry: war.  Hitler provided them with an easy villian and a brand; Nazi.  It was the Evil Empire, something out of a b-novel.  It gave America an easy way to paint the world in a black and white brush for the domestic US population that wasn’t aware of how the world really works (pratically speaking, Europeans need to be more clued in and speak 2 or 3 languages due to Europe’s density and wide diversity of cultures).

Here’s a list of FACTS that the Elite doesn’t want you to know.  Everything you know about Russia – is wrong.

• Russia is 25 years old.  
• Russia, and the Soviet Union, are 2 completely different countries.  They are like comparing the British colonies and the United States of America.  It’s a different system, different rules, different territory, different everything.   
• The United States developed a long term strategy to destroy the Soviet Union – in order to create Russia today (an open, market based economy).  In other words, Russia today is what Washington had planned for during a 40-50 year period after World War 2, spent billions of dollars, built countless missile silos and other hardware.   
• Russia has one of the fastest growing middle classes in the world See here
• Russia is currently the #3 country ranked in terms of total immigrants in the world, closely behind Germany and the United States.  See here
• Unlike most of European powers, Russia was not a very ambitious or successful colonial power.  The extent of Russia’s colonialism was Alaska, but this was really just the business idea of some fur-trappers; it wasn’t supported by Moscow very much.  With a few rare exeptions, Russia never ‘invaded’ another country.  Mostly Russia has defended itself from invaders, at least historically speaking.  Even today, Russia’s foreign policy surrounds a ‘defense’ doctrine, not an ‘invasion’ doctrine.  Being attacked nearly every 20 or 30 years throughout history, the Kremlin has reason for such a policy.  Why did every Empire throughout history want to invade Russia?  Because of the nice weather?  No, because of the vast untapped resources.  For a more academic answer, checkout Brzezinski’s “Grand Chess Board” – certainly Sun Tzu would agree, controlling Russia and North America is necessary for real global domination, for a number of geostrategic, logistic, and economic reasons.
• Russia is an Emerging Market (EM) – Why is it emerging?  Because it’s just starting to build economic systems.  In Russia there’s no class action litigation industry.  There’s no FTC.  There’s no bankruptcy rules.  But all that’s changing.  Change takes time – it will likely be a generation or several generations.
• The Forex software that runs the algorithmic Forex world, Meta Trader, is from Russia.  Although primarily used outside of Russia, it’s built native in Russian language, from Khazan (although headquartered in Cyprus).
• Russia has massive untapped resources unlike any other country in the world, most notably but not only oil.  Russia includes 11 time zones and is one of Planet Earth’s most rich and undeveloped land masses, which includes mountains, forests, deserts, tundra, and ice oceans.
• No one is starving in Russia.  In fact, due to the trade war between Russia, the EU, and the United States, they’re even burning and destroying food if it is found to come from blocked countries.

The list can go on and on.  Do your own research – unplug your TV and see what the world looks like.  Open a Forex Account.

See attached photo from a hard currency Foreign Exchange bureau in Moscow (they’re on every street corner).  

If you want a quick Forex education, checkout Splitting Pennies – the pocket guide designed to instantly make you a Forex genius!

If you want to get started looking at investing, checkout Fortress Capital Forex

via http://ift.tt/2ajrOL5 globalintelhub

The formal accusation has officially been launched.

Following days of feverish allegations that Russia was behind escalating hacks of Democratic servers, first that of the DNC, then the DCCC and finally that of the Hillary campaign itself, Hillary Clinton accused Russian intelligence services of hacking into Democratic National Committee computers, while at the same time bashing Donald Trump for showing support for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“We know that Russian intelligence services hacked into the DNC and we know that they arranged for a lot of those emails to be released and we know that Donald Trump has shown a very troubling willingness to back up Putin, to support Putin,” Clinton said in an interview with “Fox News Sunday.”

Wait, we “know” that? Just yesterday we reported that the NSA has launched a campaign to determine if, indeed, as many have claims Russia is behind the hacking. 

In fact, none other than Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told the audience at the Aspen Security Forum Thursday that the U.S. intelligence community was “not quite ready to make a call on attribution,” though he said there were “just a few usual suspects out there.” The next day CIA Director John Brennan said that attribution is “to be determined” and a lot of people were “jumping to conclusions.”

The NSA’s Joyce said that in general it’s very difficult to properly frame someone for a complex attack, since too many details have to be exactly right, requiring a tremendous amount of expertise and precision. But Joyce said that before the U.S. government pins blame on anyone for a cyber attack publicly, the evidence has to pass an “extremely high bar.” So when they do come forward, he said, perhaps based on the results of attribution techniques that have not been publicly described, “You should bank on it.”

For Hillary, however, what “evidence” was available was sufficient, and while the US has not publicly accused Russia of being behind the hack, Clinton did just what Brennan warned against, namely “jumping to a conclusion” that will lead to another sharp deterioration in relations with Russia. That said, she did stop just shy of accusing Putin of interfering in the election.

Asked if she believed Putin wanted Trump to win the White House, Clinton said she was not going to jump to that conclusion.

“But I think laying out the facts raises serious issues about Russian interference in our elections, in our democracy,” Clinton told Fox in the interview, taped Saturday. The United States would not tolerate that from any other country, especially one considered an adversary, she said.

.@HillaryClinton: Trump’s recent comments about Russia raises national security issues. Watch 2/6/9pm ET on @FoxNewshttps://t.co/y5qOIp0nhX

— FoxNewsSunday (@FoxNewsSunday) July 31, 2016

“For Trump to both encourage that and to praise Putin despite what appears to be a deliberate effort to try to affect the election I think raises national security issues,” she added.

To be sure, one can make a similar national security argument about having an unsecured email server for years, in defiance of State Department regulations, and which – oddly enough – has so far emerged as the only one that has not been “hacked” by Russia, at least according to the FBI’s “impartial” assessment.

* * *

Incidentally, the topic of the source behind the DNC hack (and leak) was a question brought up by Julian Assange who spoke to NBC’s Meet the Press, when he declined to name the source of the DNC data.

“I do think it’s an interesting question, of course, as to who our sources are,” Assange said.  “But as a source protection organization that many sources from across the world of many different types rely on to protect their identity, their rights, to communicate the truth to the public. And that’s all we’re talking about here: communicating the truth.“

Assange said it was a “security matter for us as to who our sources are.”, adding that WikiLeaks doesn’t have any concern about who becomes president.

“We don’t have any concern as to whether [Democratic presidential nominee] Hillary [Clinton] is elected or Trump is elected. We are concerned that the material we publish is always accurate, on the one hand, and that our sources are protected on the other.”

However, the real punchline came from a previous interview conducted by Assange with CNN in which he said that “Hillary Clinton is trying to undermine our publication, trying to draw attention away from the fact that she conspired with Debbie Wasserman Schultz to subvert an election in the United States. Now what is the result of that? The result is that the free market of electoral candidates was ruined, instead you had a regulatory organization, the DNC, abusing its regulatory function to paint one candidate above another, including by pumping up a black media campaign. Black media campaigns trying to undermine Bernie Sanders in complicity with a lot of the media.”

Julian Assange: Hillary Clinton is “trying to undermine our publication” https://t.co/6OZtrfIwim https://t.co/566hpjohyw

— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) July 31, 2016

And that is why the Russia scapegoating “distraction” will go on for as long as it has to, and certainly until the people of the US forget precisely the real scandal among these revelations. Meanwhile, expect the deflection to the Kremlin to continue as per the following narrative presented as last week’s Aspen Security Forum.

Key observations from @AliWatkins on the Russia hack story and how it might progress… read from bottom to top http://pic.twitter.com/lkPtOIKpeP

— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) July 30, 2016

via http://ift.tt/2amGcA9 Tyler Durden

Submitted by Mac Slavo via SHTFPlan.com,

Officials have said that at least four people in Florida have contracted the Zika virus and warn that the virus now appears to be spreading domestically either through contact with mosquitoes or direct human-to-human transmission. Until recently, the virus only appeared in individuals infected outside of the United States, primarily in South America.

In an alarming development, according to CNN, federal, state and local officials have been deployed to canvas neighborhoods in Florida. The stated purpose is to ask questions, request urine samples and determine the spread of the virus.

Officials believe the local transmission is confined to a small area north of downtown Miami within a single ZIP code. However, local, state and federal health officials are continuing their investigation, which includes going door-to-door to ask residents for urine samples and other information in an effort to determine how many people may be infected. Additional cases are anticipated.

As noted by Erin Elizabeth of HealthNutNews.com it is not clear whether officials are asking or “demanding” these samples.

Folks, you read this correctly. The feds and other local authorities are going DOOR TO DOOR to private residences asking (demanding?) urine samples.

 

What if a resident does not comply?  What else are they testing for? Would you comply?

 

I can tell you right now I am not giving any local or federal agent my urine. If arrest were the alternative then let them arrest me. I have nothing to hide, but no way would I submit to such a test if the feds showed up at my door. Some experts I’m speaking with are saying they’re asking for urine under the guise of “Zika virus” when it is, in fact, for something much more sinister. This is very disturbing to me.

While many Americans may consider the actions of officials as looking out for the interests of the public, this is the first time in recent memory that the government has deployed teams of officers and agents to personal residences following a contagion concern. Perhaps the most recent example of a similar response by the federal government was when they declared a de facto state of martial law after the Boston Marathon bombing.

Given that Zika is not necessarily life threatening, and no actual captured mosquitoes in Florida have been shown to be carrying the virus, it is unclear why officials found it necessary to deploy teams to personal residences.

Perhaps they are doing it out of an abundance of caution, though for the reasons cited above that makes little sense.

One possible reason behind the moves is that, per President Obama’s Executive Order #13707 entitled Using Behavioral Science Insights to Better Serve the American People, the government is using this crisis as an opportunity to collect behavioral data on how residents respond to government officials knocking on their doors.

The ultimate goal of such studies and procedural exercises could have something to do with another EO signed by Obama and dubbed the Executive Doomsday Order. Under that order, the President merely needs to declare an emergency in order to implement a variety of responses including the allocation of health resources, the manpower to support health initiatives, detention of individuals considered to be posing a threat to the public, forced health testing, and the security to ensure the Secretary of Health and Human Services can implement its plans once ordered to do so.

Zika does not appear to be the kind of virus or deadly threat that would require door-to-door visits from government officials.

Thus, one can, arguably, conclude that, as Erin Elizabeth noted, there is something much more sinister at play.

Anytime the government starts knocking on doors their actions should be immediately suspect. In the words of President Ronald Reagan:

The nine most terrifying words in the English language are “I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.”

via http://ift.tt/2aGzpXK Tyler Durden

In the din of the relentless theatrics of the US presidential election, and the soaring wave of global populist discontent blamed on a “us” versus “them” narrative, it is easy to lose track of what is not only important, but is the critical catalyst behind much of the build up in world anger over recent years.

Courtesy of Bloomberg’s Chris Maloney, a market strategist and former portfolio manager, here is a much needed reminder of what is truly going on behind the scenes, an explanation for the rising sentment that something is now simply “broken.”

Populism Surfs a Wave of Inflation
By Chris Maloney of Bloomberg

 

The Keynesian belief outlined in the “General Theory” (p.17), that “an increase in employment can only occur to the accompaniment of a decline in the rate of real wages,” appears to be bearing bitter fruit this election cycle.

 

The rise of populism in America is a byproduct of inflationary policies that have helped trigger a dramatic increase in consumer debt, declining real wages and rising prices for food and housing since 1999.

 

From 2000-2014, housing prices have risen 73% and rents were up 45%; the cost of putting food on the table rose 47%, and college costs increased 137%

 

Over the same period nominal real household mean incomes rose just 38% while declining 3% in real terms.

 

 

Consumers covered the gap in part by taking on more debt, with outstanding credit balances up 117% since 1999, which may have helped mask the rise in inequality that dominates the headlines today – and which has been brought to the fore by the inflation in credit engineered by monetary authorities.

 

Ben Bernanke warned of this when he wrote that inflation “induces redistribution of wealth” to the detriment of “less sophisticated investors” (Inflation Targeting, p.17).

 

This is no surprise as the working class and poor get any newly created money and credit last and hence “will find themselves compelled to pay higher prices for the things they buy, which means that they will be obliged to get along on a lower standard of living,” a point made by Hazlitt in his “Economics in One Lesson’’ (p.153).

 

This is what has voters up in arms, and the Fed’s adherence to its 2% inflation target forgets to remember what Dostoevsky’s “The Honest Thief” reminds us, “To poor folk like us, sir, every little counts.”

* * *

And now back to the narrative painted by the global media owned by a handful of giant multinational corporations, who benefit every single day from the same monetary policies shown above, and the endless distraction from what truly matters.

via http://ift.tt/2a9mwUZ Tyler Durden

With Germany having gone through a surge of seemingly daily killings in the past two weeks when 15 people have died, including four assailants, leaving dozens injured since July 18, the result of two terror attacks and a third killing carried out by men who entered the country as refugees, no one has seen their reputation impacted as much as Angela Merkel. And yet, despite admitting several weeks ago that “terrorists were smuggled in Europe’s refugee flow“, Merkel has been unrelenting on her immigration policy. 

Seaking at an annual summer press conference in Berlin on July 28, a defiant Merkel ignored critics of her refugee policies and insisted there would be no change to her open-door migration stance. She also said she bears no responsibility for a recent spate of violent attacks in Germany. “We are doing everything humanly possible to ensure security in Germany,” she recently said but added, “Anxiety and fear cannot guide our political decisions.” Merkel said the goal of jihadists was to “divide our unity and undermine our way of life. They want to prevent our openness to welcoming people. They want to sow hate and fear between cultures and also among religions.” The chancellor said she knows that Germans are worried about their personal safety: “We are doing everything humanly possible to ensure security in Germany,” she noted, but added, “Anxiety and fear cannot guide our political decisions.”

Merkel concluded by refusing to budge: “For me it is clear: we stick to our principles. We will give those who are politically persecuted refuge and protection under the Geneva Convention.” She added: “I cannot promise you that we will never have to take in another mass wave of refugees.”

The problem for Merkel is that increasingly less of her countrymen share her sentiment. A recent poll found that two-thirds of Germans oppose a fourth term for Merkel. Only 36% of respondents said they wanted Merkel and her CDU to lead the government after federal elections in 2017.

* * *

It got even much worse for Merkel yesterday when Bavaria’s premier, a key coalition ally for Merkel’s CDU, whose state bore the brunt of recent attacks in Germany, took aim at Chancellor Angela Merkel’s open-door refugee policy on Saturday by rejecting her “we can do this” mantra, withdrawing his support over this key aspect of Merkel’s domestic policy.

The comments from Seehofer, who said following the latest attacks that “all our predictions have been proven right”, came after Merkel on Thursday defiantly repeated “we can do this” and vowed not to bend her refugee policy. The stark disasgeement by Seehofer, whose Christian Social Union is the Bavarian sister party of Merkel’s conservatives, will exacerbate the chancellor’s difficulty in standing by a policy that her critics have blamed for the attacks and which risks undermining her popularity before federal elections next year.

“‘We can do this’ – I cannot, with the best will, adopt this phrase as my own,” Seehofer told reporters after a meeting of his party. “The problem is too big for that and the attempts at a solution thus far too unsatisfactory,” said Seehofer. “Restrictions on immigration are a condition for security in this country.”

Bavarian state premier and leader of the Christian Social Union (CSU) Horst Seehofer

Five attacks in Germany since July 18 have left 15 people dead, including four assailants, and dozens injured. Two of the attackers had links to Islamist militancy, officials say. Germany is wrestling with how to respond.

Jens Spahn, deputy finance minister and a senior member of Merkel’s conservatives, said that integrating the refugees was a Herculean task but the government needed to put more pressure on those new arrivals unwilling to make an effort to fit in. “A ban on the full body veil – that is the niqab and the burka – is overdue,” he told daily Die Welt. “My impression is that we all underestimated a year ago what would come upon us with this big refugee and migration movement.” Well, maybe not all.

Over a million migrants have entered Germany in the past year, many fleeing war in Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq. In an editorial, magazine Der Spiegel noted that the government of Helmut Schmidt, who served as chancellor from 1974 to 1982, toughened laws to combat the ultra-leftist Red Army Faction, which attacked the political and business elite, but added: “the terrorists nonetheless carried on bombing.”

* * *

But worst of all, the anger has now openly spilled over from the top political ranks and the front pages of local newspapers to the streets, as more than 5,000 people protested in Berlin and thousands more throughout Germany over Merkel’s ‘open-door’ policy that many have blamed for the four brutal terrorist attacks that left over a dozen dead.

Indeed, the local population appears to have finally had enough, after an axe rampage, a shooting spree, a knife attack and a suicide bombing in the span of a week stunned Germany.

‘Merkel must go’ has been trending on social media, with people posting powerful pictures including one claiming that she has blood on her hands after recent attacks. The picture shows her splattered with blood, while another depicts her wearing a Burka, the Daily Mail reports.  

A new survey found that 83 per cent of Germans see immigration as their nation’s biggest challenge – twice as many as a year ago. 

And on Saturday, thousands of protesters calling for her to step down also met counter-protests from the anti-right-wing movement, in Germany – which is still in a state of high alert.

According to the Mail, more than 5,000 took to the streets in Berlin with thousands more protesting throughout Germany, demanding an end to the “open door” policy and seeking Merkel’s resignation.

The Chancellor faced a fresh wave of fury after it emerged that two recent terror attacks and a third killing were carried out by men who entered the country as refugees, which further fuelled the right-wing movement.

Thousands gathered in the capital for the march today, which was called Wir fuer Berlin und Wir fuer Deutschland (We for Berlin and We for Germany)

‘Merkel must go’ (pictured on the placard today) has been trending on
social media, with people posting powerful pictures including one
claiming that she has blood on her hands after recent attacks

Despite the massive waves of criticism from right-wingers (pictured, Berlin, today, wearing a shirt that says The German Reich lives within us), Merkel defended her policy this week.

Several hundred people demonstrate with banner that reads ‘Berlin! Better without Nazis’ against a right-wing populist march in Berlin

Police manned the streets of Germany, which is still on high alert following the attacks, as right-wing protesters met thousands of counter-demonstrators (pictured, Berlin)

There was a heavy police presence (pictured) in Washington Square in Berlin as activists protested today.

* * *

Any more attacks by refugees, and with no change in immigration policy they are virtually assured, will result in even more political bickering, and even more popular protests until finally Merkel herself may be forced to admit defeat, which would be the most devastating blow for Europe yet. It would be ironic if the woman who has almost single-handedly kept Europe together over the past 6 years, surviving fears of Grexit, banking crises, a Brexit and so much more, is ultimately undone by a mistake she herself has made.

The last question: should the German chancellor be swept away, just who will have the stamina and the strength to keep a “united” Europe – Merkel’s political legacy – together?

via http://ift.tt/2apRt6q Tyler Durden

Source: CNBC

The much-anticipated stress test results from the Europan Banking Authority (EBA) were published yesterday (and of course, a Friday night right before a weekend is the best way to publish some bad results). In the stress test, the EBA is trying to find how the banks will perform under an adverse economic scenario in the world. Not all banks are being covered, and the 51 banks that have been subject to the test could only be seen as some sort of sample. At best.

Source: EBA

4 banks ‘failed’, and one Italian bank even succeeded in ending up with a negative (!) capital ratio under the adverse scenario in the stress test, il faut le faire! Banca Monte dei Paschi has a baseline CET1 ratio of 12.24% in 2018, but its entire capital would be wiped out under the ‘adverse’ circumstances (which aren’t that harsh at all). The bank’s board of directors is in emergency meetings the entire weekend to quickly inject 5B EUR of fresh capital into the bank before the markets re-open on Monday.

And yes, the criteria for the stress test were actually pretty mild. The EBA investigated how a bank’s capital ratio would change using a real GDP growth rate of -1.2% in 2016, -1.3% in 2017 and a real GDP growth of 0.7% in 2018. So this doesn’t even remotely represent how bad just the prelude of the 2008 global financial crisis was. Is a GDP shrinkage of 1.2% and 1.3% really the most adverse scenario you can base a stress test on? Give us a break!

Source: EBA

On top of that, the threshold and the minimum requirement for the banks to have been subject of the investigation was a consolidated asset base of 30B EUR. It’s totally fine to have a certain basis to cut off the smaller banks, but would a total asset base of 30B EUR be sufficient to restore the confidence in (and on) the financial markets? We don’t think so.

One of the banks that is in a bad shape but has been excluded from the stress test is BCP. In a previous column in January of this year, we already warned for the potential collapse of this bank. The market seems to be agreeing with us now, as the company’s share price is trading 60% lower.

As of at the end of Q1, this bank had approximately 76B EUR in assets (which is below the minimum threshold for the EBA stress test), but isn’t doing great at all. On top of that, not a single Portuguese bank was included in the stress test results, but that doesn’t mean these banks are doing great at all. In fact, almost all Portuguese banks are still repairing their balance sheet, but as we have seen in the past, all it takes is just one little push against one domino, and trickle-down effect could destroy the entire banking system of the country.

But when we tried to look up BCP’s results of the stress test, we were astonished to find out the bank hadn’t been included in the press release and the list of 51 banks. This doesn’t mean the bank hasn’t been analyzed, because IT HAS! According to its own press release, BCP admits the EBA told the bank it would have flunked the stress test, with an ending capital ratio of 6.1%.

And this leads us to the next big question. How reliable and important is this stress test? Sure, ‘only’ 4 banks failed (although that actually is quite a lot, considering that’s 8% of the test sample), but first of all, 51 banks represent just a part of the entire banking system, and the collapse of three smaller players could have an even bigger effect than the contained failure of one of the bigger banks. BCP failed the test, so how many other, smaller banks are there out there that would have failed?

Secondly, the EBA chose a fully loaded CET1 capital ratio of 7% in 2018 to determine who ‘passed’ the test, and only 4 banks failed.

However, if that cutoff ratio would have been 8%, an additional 6 banks would have been on the list of failed banks, and amongst them are some that could be considered too big too fail. Deutsche Bank (surprise, surprise), Commerzbank, Unicredit and Barclays would all fail the test when one would have used a fully loaded CET1 capital ratio of 8%.

Keep in mind the EBA said this wasn’t a pass/fail test, and there’s a very good reason for this. It’s just another smokescreen to keep the superficial investors happy. But when you start to dig deeper, several more banks have failed to meet the minimum criteria.

>>> Protect yourself against the weak financial system. Read our Guide to Gold!

Secular Investor offers a fresh look at investing. We analyze long lasting cycles, coupled with a collection of strategic investments and concrete tips for different types of assets. The methods and strategies are transformed into the Gold & Silver Report and the Commodity Report.

Follow us on Facebook @SecularInvestor [NEW] and Twitter @SecularInvest

via http://ift.tt/2amtGQV Secular Investor

In a first of its kind jump, a daredevil skydiver on Saturday became the first to jump from a height of 25,000 feet (7,620 meters) without a parachute, landing in a net in southern California.  Luke Aikens, 42, who has 18,000 jumps under his belt, completed the jump in Simi Valley, landing in a net measuring 100 feet by 100 feet.

“Aikins’ leap represents the culmination of a 26-year career that will set a personal and world record for the highest jump without a parachute or wing suit,” his spokesman Justin Aclin said in an email.
Lights were set along the side of the net to serve as a guide for Aikens to aim himself as he hurtled toward it.

“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous,” Aikens told an interviewer on the Fox broadcast, before boarding a propeller plane to perform the jump.

The entire jump was caught on the following video. It probably goes without saying no to try this at home, or anywhere else for that matter. It is also safe to say that when central banks finally lose control of the relentless stock market levitation, a much bigger “plunge protection” net will be needed to save the S&P500.

via http://ift.tt/2anoRKM Tyler Durden

By Chris at http://ift.tt/12YmHT5

Let me frame this first. I have no political affiliation in any country on this ball of dirt, don’t vote, never will, and I don’t care any more or any less for any minority or in fact majority group. My concern is in understanding the world and probability of outcomes so that I and my clients can position accordingly.

With that out of the way I have a confession to make.

You know what really annoys me?

When I see one of my kids get an award for “participation”. They didn’t come first, they didn’t do anything special, and yet they get a prize.

In the real world NOBODY gets an award for getting out of bed and participating in life. It’s mandatory if you don’t want to starve, and merely suggesting that performance is NOT somehow important is destructive nonsense, degrading to any thinking person, and, worse, sets one up for failure.

Now some may say: “Oh well, it’s just kids. It’s harmless and, besides, it boosts their sense of self worth”. You’d be as wrong as Miley Cyrus swinging naked on a wrecking ball because not only do kids turn into grown-ups but this sort of pandering infests society at every level.

Grooming people to enter a street fight by teaching them poetry ends only one way.

The western world today treads on egg shells, careful not to upset some minority group: gay, non-gay, religious, non-religious, Black, Asian, Arab, pink, brown, cream-coloured with spots, transgender, or just plain thick. In fact, especially thick. The thicker one is the more they have the ability to yell “disadvantaged” and deflect responsibility. Because after all, it’s always someone else’s fault.

You expect that of someone aged 4. When an adult spews such garbage, they should be treated with the disrespect deserving of it but society has been accepting this nonsense.

Today we have daily examples of this absurdity. This is from an article in the Observer:

A non-Spanish-speaking teacher is suing her employer for rejecting her from a job that required her to teach the language. How dare they!

And just to get your blood boiling, I present to you one Ashleigh Shakelford – an obese, abusive, racist example of what floats to the top of a society too afraid to call a spade a spade. This is from an article you can read here:

Pay her for her humanity. It’s your duty!

Jumping the ditch to Europe where it’s unusual for a week to go by without at least one act of mayhem perpetrated by an islamic refugee and where the ruling class, drowning in politically correct rhetoric, are found impotent and afraid to address the issues head on. Instead they are trotting out the usual meaningless and distractionary garbage.

An article in the Spectator sums it up well:

It is now a fortnight since Mohammed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’ and ploughed a truck along the Nice seafront, killing 84 people. The following Monday Mohammed Riyad, who said he was from Afghanistan but almost certainly came from Pakistan, screamed ‘Allahu Akbar’ while hacking with an axe at his fellow passengers on a Bavarian train. The next day another Mohammed, this time Mohamed Boufarkouch, shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’ and stabbed a Frenchwoman and her three daughters (aged eight, 12 and 14) near Montpelier.

 

Mixing things up a little, that Friday’s shooter in Munich was a child of Iranians called Ali David Sonboly. Skip forward a couple of days and a ‘-Syrian asylum seeker’ with a machete was hacking a pregnant woman to death in Stuttgart. The next day another ‘Syrian asylum seeker’, Mohammad Daleel, carried out a suicide bombing outside a bar in Ansbach, Bavaria. And a little over 24 hours later two men shouting the name of Isis entered a church in Rouen during Mass, took the nuns and congregation hostage and slaughtered the priest with a knife.

Although the public know what is going on, the media seems loath to find any connection between these events.

 

Indeed, the same papers that blame an exaggerated spike in ‘hate crime’ on everyone who voted for Brexit seem unwilling to put the blame for these real and violent attacks on the individuals carrying them out.

 

‘Syrian man denied asylum killed in German blast’ was the Reuters headline on the Ansbach story, neatly turning the suicide bomber into the victim and the German asylum system into the perpetrator. As Reuters went on: ‘A 27-year-old Syrian man who had been denied asylum in Germany a year ago died on Sunday when a bomb he was carrying exploded outside a music festival.’ How terrible for him to lose his bomb in such a way.

Unbelievably one of the “solutions” trotted out by the incompetent Eurocracy after the Munich shooting was that “inadequate welfare provisions” may be a cause.What!?

 What we’re dealing with today is a crisis in political correctness.

But the man on the street is no longer buying it. He’s not that stupid. He understands and sees with his own eyes, even if his rulers try to distract him.

 This is one reason that Brexit is taking place. A populace, increasingly distrustful of the establishment and horrified by the consequences of the actions already taken by the ruling class, look around them in search of someone who will say out loud what they whisper to each other behind closed doors.

Brexit was a huge plus for Donald Trump. It provided legitimacy to the rhetoric of Trump’s campaign: “Don’t vote for the establishment (Hillary), vote for me.” “Let’s make America great again” speaks the same language that Nigel Farage was speaking. Importantly, Trump doesn’t pander to politically correct anything.

Don’t misunderstand me. I’m not interested in being for or against Trump, I’m interested in the outcome and the knock on effects on a global macro scale.

Like him or loath him, Nigel Farage provided an increasingly horrified citizenry with a crystal clear message which never tried to pander to political correctness. A populace under attack (because Europe is most certainly under attack) found a level of honesty in the Brexit campaign, which was sorely lacking with the “remain campaign” and they voted for it.

 When only right-wing demagogues are prepared to say what a politically correct establishment is unwilling to say, then it will be right-wing demagogues that are elected to power.

Expect this trend to accelerate – first bringing Trump to power in the US and followed by massive changes in Europe, something I’ll cover next week, including what I think is the easiest short in history and how it is likely to play out.

Investing and protecting our capital in a world which is enjoying the most severe distortions of any period in recorded history means that a different approach is required. Traditional portfolio management fails miserably to accomplish this.

And so our goal here is simple: protecting the majority of our wealth from the inevitable consequences of the political ruling class, while finding the most asymmetric investment opportunities for our capital. Ironically, such opportunities are a direct result of the actions by aforementioned people.

 Have a wonderful weekend!

 – Chris

============

Liked this article? Don’t miss our future articles and podcasts, and

get access to free subscriber-only content here.

============

via http://ift.tt/2aTCdNg Capitalist Exploits