It’s Not Just The Homeless – San Francisco Cabbies Warned Over Pooping In Parking Lot

Taxi drivers at the San Francisco airport have been put on notice to kindly stop urinating and dropping deuces in the taxi parking lot, reports The Daily Mail

Furious airport officials have written an open letter to cabbies warning them to stop using the parking lot as a bathroom, as “Failing to use the appropriate facility will not be tolerated.” 

The letter from Seth Morgan, a senior transportation planner at SFO, said: ‘Airport staff have noticed an increased rate of urination and defecation in the rear of SFO Taxi Lot #3 and nearby stairwells.’ –Daily Mail

“This creates a highly unsanitary condition and a health hazard for SFO custodians and other staff handling the materials stored in these areas,” continues the letter. 

Violaters are subject to suspensions, fines and/or arrest,” reads the notice.

To police the pooping cabbies, SFO officials will be sending in the poop patrol. No, not that poop patrol that the city has sent in to power wash the droppings of local homeless denizens – rather, these patrollers will monitor the cabbies for violations of the new pooping policy. Doubtful they make $185,000 per year including full benefits. 

Former SFO taxi company CEO John Lazar told the SF Examiner that he was shocked to receive the emailed notice and couldn’t believe that this was happening. 

“I don’t think our cab drivers are that much of a degenerate so they piss and shit on the streets,” Lazar said. But, he added, SFO lines are money-makers for cab drivers, so it’s easy for SFO to enforce the rules.

SFO could “say if you don’t use the bathroom, you lose your place in line,” he said.

Tariq Mehmood, a taxi driver who often organizes other drivers around industry causes, told the Examiner bathrooms are within 60 feet of the taxi lots.

“The bathroom is close enough,” he said. –SF Examiner 

What is it about San Francisco that makes people want to shit all over the place? 

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Core Funds Just Had Their Worst Month Since 2009: Here’s The Reason Why

For professional investors, August was the cruelest month.

In the month when the S&P 500 cleared a new all time high, rising above 2,900 for the first time ever while setting a new record as for the longest “bull market”, hedge funds were dazed and confused by the market action, suffering another month of sharp underperformance, and sending their YTD return back into negative territory according to the HFRX equity hedge index.

But it wasn’t just hedge funds who suffered the painful short squeezes and sector rotation that prompted Nomura to observe a “multi-month performance disaster for US equity funds”: according to Bank of America, “plain vanilla” large cap mutual funds also struggled to match the rally and posted their weakest hit rate in more than two years, as just 22% of funds managed to beat their benchmark in August, while the average fund underperformed its respective benchmark by more than 70bp.

On a year to date basis, less than half, or 43% of large cap funds, have outperformed their benchmark – down from 50% last month – and well below the 55% at the same time last year. As a reminder, most benchmarks – and certainly the S&P – are indexes which most investors can allocate funds to with virtually no costs and management fees, which means that in 2018, more than half the US asset management industry has destroyed value for their investors.

However, that performance is stellar compared to the (under)performance of large cap core, or blended funds which seek to diversify into both value and growth stocks, which had an abysmal hit rate in August of just 13%: this was the worst showing in the the history of Bank of America’s data which goes back to 2009.

What prompted this abysmal monthly return? While various factors contributed to the poor performance, BofA strategist Savita Subramanian said that avoiding FAANG stocks was the biggest culprit.

Recall that in the first half, just 4 stocks, Amazon, Microsoft, Apple and Netflix, were responsible for 84% of the S&P upside in 2018. Furthermore, in the first six months of the year, the return of the top 10 S&P 500 stocks of 2018 – which are the who’s who of the tech world – saw their collective return amount to 122% of the S&P total return in the first half of the year. In other words, excluding just the top 10 stocks, the S&P’s return was negative in H1.

This bifurcated return made a triumphal return in August, when the S&P 500 rose 3%, yet when Apple shares surged 20% while the rest of the FAANGs, Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google, climbed 6 percent. Without those five stocks, Bloomberg calculates that the S&P 500’s August gain would have been cut nearly in half to 1.8% .

“Core funds have lagged since early last year, a period during which FAANG stocks have beat the market by a wide margin,” Bank of America wrote in Friday note. “Core funds have been chronically underweight FAANG stocks since then, and cut down their relative exposure even further recently.”

Or, as Bloomberg puts it, “when the market’s newly created wealth was highly concentrated in these few tech giants, the cost of avoiding them could be disastrous.”

Curiously, pure growth funds also dramatically underperformed last month, with just 16% of managers beating the Russell 1000 Growth index. The reason: while growth managers were overweight most FAANG stocks, they were notably underweight AAPL, the main contributor to the growth benchmark’s gains. As a result of their August showing, growth funds have all but wiped out their gains from the first half as the group’s YTD relative performance dropped from +1.2% last month to +0.1% as of Friday.

And another surprise: while the value strategy has been largely left for dead, in August it was value funds that outperformed the growth peers substantially with 46% beating their benchmark.

Another reason for the abysmal August performance: after the average pair-wise correlation of S&P 500 stocks rose sharply in March with the increased volatility, it has since quickly come down below its long-term average of 26%, indicative of a stock-picker’s market. And while most asset manager vow that this is the best time to outperform and generate alpha, the problem is that while most fund managers did pick stocks, they did so… poorly.

This bifurcated performance may be set to continue because the rally in FAANG stocks has drawn numerous warnings from strategists at firms such Wolfe Research, Morgan Stanley and, yes, even Bank of America who made this analysis, who said their gains have gone too far, too fast.

And as long as most investors shun the FAANGs, while others are forced to cover their short positions, the handful of stocks that have led the US market higher in 2018 will continue to do so even as the rest of the market is barely treading water.

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In “Cautionary Sign”, Insider Selling Soars To $10 Billion Amid Record Buybacks

One month ago, when Apple finally crossed above $1 trillion in market cap, Goldman’s chief equity strategist David Kostin said that investors had been focusing on the “wrong $1 trillion question”, adding that the correct question was: what amount of buyback will companies authorize in 2018? The reason was that according to the latest estimate from Goldman’s buyback desk, stock buyback authorizations in 2018 had increased to a record $1.0 trillion – a result of tax reform and strong cash flow growth – a 46% rise from last year.

The upward revision was warranted: according to TrimTabs calculations, buyback announcements swelled to a record $436.6 billion in the second quarter, smashing the previous record of $242.1 billion set just one quarter earlier, in Q1. Combined, this meant that buybacks in the first half totaled a ridiculous $680 billion which annualized amounted to a staggering $1.35 trillion, indicating that Goldman’s revised estimate may in fact be conservative.

Furthermore, with many strategists warning that August could be a volatile month, Goldman remained optimistic noting that  “August is the most popular month for repurchase executions, accounting for 13% of annual activity”, implying that a solid buyback bid would support the market in a worst case scenario which never materialized as the S&P rose to a fresh all time high at the end of the month.

Based on the Goldman data and estimates, it is probably safe to say that August was one of the all-time record months in terms of buyback activity. That companies would be scrambling to repurchase their stock last month was not lost on one particular group of investors: the corporate insiders of the companies buying back their own stocks.

According to data compiled by TrimTabs, insider selling reached $450 million daily in August, the highest level this year; on a monthly basis, insiders sold more than $10 billion of their stock, the most of any month this year and near the most on record.

“As corporate buying is at least taking a breather, corporate insiders are ramping up share selling as the major U.S. stock market averages are at or near record highs,” TrimTabs wrote in a note.

In other words, as insiders and management teams authorized record buybacks, the same insiders and management teams were some of the biggest sellers into this very bid, which one would say is a rather risk-free way of dumping their stock without any risk of the clearing price declining. It also suggests that contrary to prevailing expectations, stocks are anything but cheap when viewed from the lens of insiders who know their own profit potential best.

There is another consideration: September is traditionally the most volatile month for the stock market (especially the last two weeks), and it may be the insiders are simply looking to offload their holdings ahead of a potential air pocket in prices.

As CNBC further notes, September is usually the worst month for stocks, possibly explaining why corporate executives sold so much stock last month. Data from the “Stock Trader’s Almanac” show the S&P 500 and Nasdaq both fall an average of 0.5% in September. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, meanwhile, averages a loss of 0.7% in September.

TrimTabs summarizes this best:

“One cautionary sign for U.S. stocks is that corporate insiders have accelerated their selling of U.S. equities,” said Winston Chua, an analyst at TrimTabs. “They’ve dedicated record amounts of shareholder money to buybacks but aren’t doing the same with their own which suggests that companies aren’t buying stocks because they’re cheap.”

Finally, as we noted yesterday, the September selling may have started early this year in an ominous sign for the rest of the month:

it’s already been a tough start to the month of September for the S&P 500, which has fallen for the fourth day in a row. This is notable, as LPL Financial notes “going back to the Great Depression, only two times did it start down the first four days. 1987 and 2001.

And with insiders dumping a near record amount of stock, it may be the case that the selling is only just getting started.

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Liberty Links 9/8/18 – Trump Agrees to an Indefinite Military Effort and New Diplomatic Push in Syria

As always, if you appreciate my work and want to contribute to independent media, consider becoming a monthly Patron, or visit the Support Page.

Top Links

Trump Agrees to an Indefinite Military Effort and New Diplomatic Push in Syria, U.S. Officials Say (This would be very bad, The Washington Post)

‘Five Eyes’ Governments Call on Tech Giants to Build Encryption Backdoors — or Else (Ominous, TechCrunch)

Honest Government Ad | Anti Encryption Law (Related to article above, YouTube)

Twitter Permanently Bans Alex Jones, Infowars (Zerohedge)

JP Morgan’s Top Quant Warns Next Crisis to Have Flash Crashes and Social Unrest Not Seen in 50 Years (CNBC)

September 5, 2018: Sen. Cotton Q&A During Intelligence Committee Hearing (Must Watch, this is beyond creepy, YouTube)

I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration (This is such nonsense, for a unique analysis see link below, The New York Times

We Are Being Played (Caitlin Johnstone, Medium)

Saudi Arabia Threatens Prison Time for Satire ‘Disturbing Public Order’ (What an ally, Bloomberg)

Philadelphia-Bound American Airlines Passengers Quarantined After Showing Flu-Like Symptoms, Customs Officials Say (NBC Philadelphia)

The Rise of Post-Truth Liberalism (UnHerd)

U.S. Politics/News

See More Links »

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YouTube Shuts Down All Syrian State Channels As Idlib Assault Begins

Syrian state YouTube channels have been shut down this morning just as the Syrian Army’s ground offensive has officially begun.

This includes the following now terminated Syrian state and pro-government channels: Syrian Presidency, Syria MoD (Ministry of Defense), SANA, and Sama TV. This follows YouTube reportedly closing Syria’s Ortas News last week. 

It is unclear whether or not the action is part of a broader move among US social media countries to close “Iran-linked” accounts, or if directly connected to events now rapidly unfolding in Idlib.

A number of Syria observers say the account closures could be connected with potential US plans for military action in response to the Syria-Russian forces air and ground attack on Idlib. 

This news comes just as CENTCOM chief Gen. Joseph Dunford said on Saturday the Pentagon is preparing “military options” and is in “routine dialogue” with the White House concerning a potential military response.

Meanwhile Syrian-British journalist Danny Makki, currently tracking events on the ground in Syria, reports: “Huge bombardment in Idlib today by Syrian Forces, over 60 different locations targeted. Shelling all along the frontlines of North Hama also.”

“The Idlib offensive will be one of the most complicated, most followed internationally & potentially one of the bloodiest battles of the Syria war,” Makki describes further. 

Currently, the Twitter accounts for the aforementioned Syrian government channels appear to be active. 

Here we go again…

* * *

Elsewhere in the country, to the northeast, where American forces are stationed in support of Syrian Kurdish groups, rare clashes have broken out between US-backed groups and the Syrian Army.

As Al Masdar News reports more than ten Syrian soldiers were killed Saturday after a series of intense clashes broke out between their troops and the Kurdish forces in Qamishli city.

According to a military source in Qamishli, intense clashes broke out between the Syrian intelligence forces and Kurdish Asayish police in the city, resulting in the death of several involved.

The source said that in addition to the 10+ Syrian military personnel lost, at least seven Asayish fighters were also killed during the fierce engagement.

The attack occurred when three vehicles carrying Syrian soldiers were heading towards the military checkpoints to change personnel; it was at these checkpoints where the clashes began.

No one knows why the clashes broke out, but they have since died down, the source added.

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Covert US Plot For Venezuela Coup Detailed In Explosive NYT Report

“This is going to land like a bomb” in the region, a former Latin America diplomatic official told the New York Times in this morning’s explosive lengthy report detailing how the Trump administration held covert meetings with Venezuelan military coup plotters targeting President Nicolás Maduro.

The “clandestine channel” involved contacts with what are described as “rebellious officers” bent on bringing about regime change with the help of Washington.

The astounding revelation though perhaps familiar-sounding when considering the historical string of coups and CIA covert interventions across the 20th century from Cuba to Nicaragua to Chile comes just over a month after a bizarre assassination attempt involving two C-4 explosive laden drones which detonated near Maduro as he gave a televised speech during a military parade in Caracas.

At the time the Venezuelan president pointed the finger at Washington, claiming right-wing factions connected to Columbia and Florida and backed by the United States were behind the sensational attempt on his life; meanwhile some American pundits raised the question of whether it was a ‘false flag’ staged by Maduro himself, given the strangeness of the event.

Though the August 4 events remain very much a mystery, the new revelation of White House-sponsored coup plotting meetings are sure to add fuel to Maduro’s ravings against Washington, and will further be utilized to blame external forces for causing Venezuela’s collapsing economy and failed infrastructure.

Like prior US covert action in Latin America, The New York Times finds that the White House was in bed with some very unsavory local actors:

But one of the Venezuelan military commanders involved in the secret talks was hardly an ideal figure to help restore democracy: He is on the American government’s own sanctions list of corrupt officials in Venezuela.

More “moderate rebels” in Washington’s eyes perhaps? Once again America’s covert proxy forces are revealed to be those most eager and willing to do their paymasters’ dirty work.

The chief plotter and “rebel” Venezuelan military commander the White House liaised with is not named in the Times report, but is among officers on a corrupt officials sanctions list, and is described in the following:

He and other members of the Venezuelan security apparatus have been accused by Washington of a wide range of serious crimes, including torturing critics, jailing hundreds of political prisoners, wounding thousands of civilians, trafficking drugs and collaborating with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, which is considered a terrorist organization by the United States.

The report details several secret meetings between the Trump administration and military officers to talk about potential coup plans, but according to Times sources “the coup plans stalled”. 

The meetings were spearheaded by someone simply described as a “career diplomat”.

Maduro shielded by his security during last month’s bizarre drone assassination attempt. 

Eleven current and former American officials spoke to the NYT for the story, which also involved interviews with a top former Venezuelan military commander that took part in the plotting. 

The White House has not responded to the bombshell report and allegations, only saying in a statement it continues to seek to engage in “dialogue with all Venezuelans who demonstrate a desire for democracy” in order to “bring positive change to a country that has suffered so much under Maduro.”

Under the Obama administration Venezuelan officers were also said to have approached the White House, only to be rebuffed; however, Trump offered a new opening when in August of last year, he declared the United States had planned a “military option” for Venezuela.

According to the Times report, it was after this period that contacts were reportedly initiated, the details of which are as follows:

In a series of covert meetings abroad, which began last fall and continued this year, the military officers told the American government that they represented a few hundred members of the armed forces who had soured on Mr. Maduro’s authoritarianism.

The officers asked the United States to supply them with encrypted radios, citing the need to communicate securely, as they developed a plan to install a transitional government to run the country until elections could be held.

Dubiously, the NYT’s sources claim the White House did not order such equipment and military supplies to be transferred something which likely would fall under the CIA’s role if the plan did indeed move forward to that point.

Instead, according to the report, “American officials did not provide material support, and the plans unraveled after a recent crackdown that led to the arrest of dozens of the plotters.” The secret talks were reportedly dropped and the mutinous officers on their own. 

With the NYT story now going viral this weekend, the White House’s prior maneuvers will likely produce huge backlash in the region, and bolster Maduro’s standing among his leftist constituency. The report concludes that “Mr. Maduro has long justified his grip on Venezuela by claiming that Washington imperialists are actively trying to depose him, and the secret talks could provide him with ammunition to chip away at the region’s nearly united stance against him.”

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Paul Joseph Watson Goes Nuclear On Twitter And MSM After Alex Jones Ban

UK journalist Paul Joseph Watson and longtime Infowars editor-at-large has absolutely unleashed on Silicon Valley social media giants and the MSM alike, after Alex Jones and his Infowars empire were finally kicked off of Twitter following a heated exchange with CNN’s Oliver Darcy last week.

Watson himself earned a “12 hour review” by Twitter following Jones’s removal. 

The Infowars founder has now been blacklisted from over a dozen Silicon Valley platforms for “hate speech” – conveniently ahead of this November’s midterm elections. 

Watch: 

Oddly, CNN’s Darcy published an article about Jones’s Twitter ban within 60 seconds of Twitter’s announcement. Nothing to see here… 

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The Untold Truth About Obama’s Former CIA Director, John Brennan

Authored by Richard Galustian via TheDuran.com,

“Why does John Brennan need a security clearance other than to commercially exploit it? “

Let’s get something clear from the start.

In 1976, in his 20s, John Brennan was a card-carrying communist who supported the then Soviet Union, at the height some might say of the Cold War, so much so he voted and assisted Gus Hall, the communist candidate for President against a devout Christian, Jimmy Carter who ultimately won the Presidency.

Yet under four years later, just after the then Soviet Union invaded, just weeks before, Afghanistan and months after the tumultuous Iranian revolution of 1979, which at the time many thought the Soviet Union had a hand in, Brennan was accepted into the CIA as a junior analyst.

At that time, John Brennan should have never got into the CIA, or any Western Intelligence agency given his communist background.

Think on that carefully as you continue to read this.

Also reflect on the fact that Brennan, later in his CIA career, was surprisingly elevated from junior analyst to the prestigious position of Station Chief in Saudi Arabia where he spent a few years.

Its said he was appointed purely for ‘political’ reasons, alleged to have been at the direct request of Bill Clinton and other Democrats not because of a recommendation or merit from within the Agency.

Its further said that the Saudis liked Brennan because he became very quickly ‘their man’ so to speak. Some reports, unsubstantiated, even allege Brennan became a Muslim while there to ingratiate himself with the Saudis.

Important to read is an NBC news article entitled ‘Former Spooks Criticize CIA Director John Brennan for Spying Comments’ by Ken Dilanian dated March 2nd, 2016.

The article contains many revealing facts and evidence, while giving a flavour, of the feelings of many in the CIA who felt that Brennan was totally unsuitable and unqualified to be Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

A final controversy is the little known fact of Brennan’s near four year departure from the CIA into the commercial world, having been ‘left out in the cold’ from the CIA, from November 2005 to January 2009 when he was CEO of a private company called ‘The Analysis Corporation’.

So why was he then reinstated into the CIA, to the surprise of CIA’s senior management, by newly elected President Obama, to head the CIA? No answer is available as to why he left the CIA in 2005.

Lastly let’s not forget Brennan’s many failures as CIA head in recent years, one most notable is the Benghazi debacle and the death of a US Ambassador and others there. Something else to ponder.

Back to the present an the issue of security clearances.

In early August, on the well known American TV Rachel Maddow Show, Brennan back tracked on his Trump traitor claim by saying “I didn’t mean he (Trump) committed treason. I meant what he has done is nothing short of treasonous.” Rachel Maddow responded correctly “If we diagram the sentence, ‘nothing short of treason’ means it’s treasonous?”

A simple question follows. Since he is no longer in the CIA, why does he need a security clearance other than to commercially exploit it?

Tucker Carlson explains succinctly here:

Last month what can be described as 200+ ‘friends of Brennan’, former CIA officials of varying rank, responded against the removal of former CIA Director Brennan’s security clearances, in support of him.

These men and women too most likely will have their clearances revoked.

And why not?

Since the only purpose they retain it is to make money as civilians?

A potentially more serious issue than ‘the Brennan controversies’ is that the US intelligence community has around 5 million people with security clearances as a whole includes approximately 1.4m people holding top secret clearances. It is patently a ridiculously high number and makes a mockery of the word secret.

Former CIA veteran Sam Faddis is one of the few people brave enough and with the integrity required, that has stood up and told some of the real truths about Brennan in an ‘Open Letter’, yet this letter’s contents have hardly at all been reported in the media.

Generally by nature, CIA Officers sense of service and honour to their Country, their professionalism and humility, and disdain for publicity has dissuaded most of them to enter the current very public Brennan controversy; but for how much longer?

As stated earlier, former CIA professional Sam Faddis explains what’s wrong with Brennan in his revealing letter, abbreviated for space below.

Dear Mr. Brennan,

I implore you to cease and desist from continuing to attempt to portray yourself in the public media as some sort of impartial critic concerned only with the fate of the republic. I beg you to stop attempting to portray yourself as some sort of wise, all-knowing intelligence professional with deep knowledge of national security issues and no political inclinations whatsoever.

None of this is true.

You were never a spy. You were never a case officer. You never ran operations or recruited sources or worked the streets abroad. You have no idea whatsoever of the true nature of the business of human intelligence. You have never been in harm’s way. You have never heard a shot fired in anger.

You were for a short while an intelligence analyst. In that capacity, it was your job to produce finished intelligence based on information provided to you by others. The work of intelligence analysts is important, however in truth you never truly mastered this trade either.

In your capacity as an analyst for the Central Intelligence Agency, while still a junior officer, you were designated to brief the President of the United States who was at that time Bill Clinton. As the presidential briefer, it was your job to read to the president each morning finished intelligence written by others based on intelligence collected by yet other individuals. Period.

While serving as presidential briefer you established a personal relationship with then President Bill Clinton. End of story.

Everything that has transpired in your professional career since has been based on your personal relationship with the former president, his wife Hillary and their key associates. Your connection to President Obama was, in fact, based on you having established yourself by the time he came to office as a reliable, highly political Democratic Party functionary.

All of your commentary in the public sphere is on behalf of your political patrons. It is no more impartial analysis then would be the comments of a paid press spokesman or attorney. You are speaking each and every time directly on behalf of political forces hostile to this president. You are, in fact, currently on the payroll of both NBC and MSNBC, two of the networks most vocally opposed to President Trump and his agenda.

There is no impartiality in your comments. Your assessments are not based on some sober judgment of what is best for this nation. They are based exclusively on what you believe to be in the best interests of the politicians with whom you long since allied yourself.

It should be noted that not only are you most decidedly not apolitical but that you have been associated during your career with some of the greatest foreign policy disasters in recent American history.

Ever since this President was elected, there has been a concerted effort to delegitimize him and destabilize him led by you. This has been an unprecedented; to undermine the stability of the republic and the office of the Presidency, for solely partisan political reasons. You and your patrons have been complicit in this effort and at its very heart.

You abandoned any hope of being a true intelligence professional decades ago and became a political hack. Say so.

Sam Faddis

Read the full letter here…

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NYT Says Op-Ed Investigation Would Be “Blatant Abuse Of Power”

Looks like the editors of the Grey Lady have been rattled by President Trump’s threats.

President Trump’s demands that Attorney General Jeff Sessions investigate the New York Times over its publication of a scathingly critical anonymous op-ed allegedly penned by a “senior administration official” have clearly rattled the grey lady. That much is made clear in a statement issued by the Times Friday afternoon where the paper’s editors said they’re “confident the DOJ understands that the First Amendment protects all American citizens and that they would not participate in such a blatant abuse of power.”

Michael Grynbaum, a former New York City Hall reporter who now covers media, TV and politics for the paper, tweeted the statement:

In response to a question from a reporter aboard Air Force One on Friday, Trump said he believes Sessions and the DOJ should launch an investigation because the president believes that whoever wrote the op-ed represents a serious national security threat.

“Yeah, I would say Jeff should be investigating who the author of this piece was because I really believe it’s national security,” Trump said, according to CNN.

[…]

Asked whether any legal action would be taken against The New York Times, Trump demurred: “Well, we’re going to see.”

[…]

“We’re going to take a look at what he had, what he gave, what he’s talking about, also where he is right now,” Trump said. “Suppose I have a high level national security and he has got a clearance — we talk about clearances a lot recently — and he goes into a high-level meeting concerning China or Russia or North Korea or something and this guy goes in. I don’t want him in those meetings.”

Trump also railed against the op-ed’s anonymous author during a rally in Montana Thursday night, where he said that “for the sake of our national security, the New York Times should publish his name at once…I think their reporters should go investigate who it was – that would be a good scoop.”

For its part, the DOJ has chosen to maintain an ominous silence, with one spokeswoman refusing to confirm or deny whether an investigation has been launched.

Justice Department spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores declined to comment on the mater, saying “we do not confirm or deny investigations.”

Sessions is already on thin on with the president (it’s widely believed that he won’t make it to 2019), so there’s certainly some incentive for him to launch the investigation. And of course, anybody who remembers the Pentagon Papers could tell you that this wouldn’t be the first time the DOJ has investigated the New York Times…

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The Latin American Crypto Boom Is Underway

Authored by Michael Kern via Crypto Insider,

The case for crypto is growing in Latin America, and not just because of hyperinflation in Argentina and Venezuela. From bringing financial services to the bankless to funding for startups which has been notoriously difficult to obtain in the past, there’s a quiet transformation under way and its being fueled by crypto.

Crypto startups in Latin America

The old Silicon Valley venture capital model of securing funds simply doesn’t work down here. While there are hubs in places like Guadalajara, Buenos Aires or Mexico City where tech startups may experience a significant advantage over their peers, generally speaking, Latin America is a tough place to get capital.

Not only is income in the region much lower than the U.S. or Europe, it’s significantly more spread out. And the region’s governments aren’t exactly rushing to lend a helping hand either. This has created a pool of talented and ambitious individuals with big ideas and no way to get them off the ground.

To make matters more difficult for would-be entrepreneurs, stock exchanges in the region are difficult to enter and extremely illiquid. To put it into perspective, the total market cap to GDP ratio of the region’s largest stock exchange, the Ibovespa Brasil Sao Paulo Stock Exchange, currently sits at 46 percent while the amount traded vs. GDP in the U.S. weighs in at 146 percent.

With a lack of VC funding, little stock market action and no government support, companies are beginning to turn to crypto to carve out their piece of the pie.

Rootstock may be one of the most promising and exciting crypto projects not just in Latin America but in the entire world. Though it has received backing from some of the biggest names in the crypto space, it’s rarely mentioned when discussing the future of bitcoin. But it should be.

As the first smart contract platform with a 2-way peg to Bitcoin, Rootstock aims to build upon the Bitcoin ecosystem, not only adding greater functionality to the network, but adding value by extension.

Another major player in Latin America’s crypto startup scene, Ripio, formally Bitpagos, Argentina’s biggest exchange, has leveraged its success to launch an ICO in order to build a peer-to-peer credit network, and it’s already secured a partnership with one of the biggest credit card issuers in the region, Naranja. The project will allow users to lend or borrow funds utilizing smart contracts and will even insure lenders if the case of a default.

Like Ripio, Bitso, Latin America’s largest exchange, is also looking to shake up the world of finance. Through the Bitso network, users are already able to send and receive fiat transactions instantly to anyone using the platform, but that’s just the beginning. Bitso is also looking transform the way Mexicans pay their bills, buy their groceries, and even purchase a cup of coffee, though the details of this merchant friendly platform have not yet been revealed.

Adoption gains speed

With the new wave of startups leading the way, crypto adoption is on the rise. While a spike in bitcoin trading volumes in Argentina and Venezuela are almost expected, Chile, Mexico and even Peru are also witnessing similar activity.

Peru, one of the region’s fastest growing bitcoin markets, has seen exceptional growth in recent months despite the bear market. This is largely thanks to bold moves by companies actively pursing the facilitation of crypto transactions for their customers.

Peru’s BitInka for its part has a network of 29 banks which process Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dash and other crypto transactions. This allows customers across the region to easily buy and sell crypto in their native currencies.

And while BitInka takes on the regions financial institutions, Dash has partnered with a new crypto-friendly brand of mobile phones, Kripto Mobile Corporation(KRIP), in a campaign to increase merchant acceptance of the digital currency.

Dash Core Group Head of Global Business Development Bradley Zastrow explains, “We all know that fiat payments take too long and cost too much, and that cryptocurrencies have the potential to affect real change, especially for people experiencing hyperinflation where cryptocurrency is less volatile.”

The new KRIP phones include instant access to the Dash ecosystem, a pre-loaded wallet and full access to Sweden-based Bitrefill’s services which allow customers to pay bills, top up pre-paid cell phone plans and purchase gift cards for e-commerce.

Zastrow continued, “Right out of the box, even users who have never interacted with cryptocurrencies have everything they need, and by working closely with the Dash community and Dash Help Me, new users have the necessary support structure in place should they need assistance. The critical element to moving to mainstream is the need for removing the friction that exists today with the cryptocurrency experience. We’re doing that with the KRIP phones.”

Though Bitcoin still takes center stage, with its activity and advocacy in the region, especially in Caracas, Dash is quickly gaining traction.   

Roadblocks still exist

While there is certainly a notable uptick in crypto acceptance in the region, it has not been an easy task.

Chile’s Buda.com, for instance, has had to fight for its survival. After a string of account freezes and banking hiccups, the exchange has taken legal measures to challenge the financial head-on. And though operations are currently moving ahead, the Chilean government hasn’t exactly welcomed the crypto-movement with open arms.

Colombia is also taking aim at the crypto space, with the age-old “blockchain, not bitcoin” stance. Citing volatility, criminal activity and the rest of the typical rhetoric against cryptos, Colombia is currently looking to define specific regulatory measures in the space. Though the country has yet to announce what these regulations might be, one might imagine they would be less than supportive.

Moving forward

The benefits of cryptos for Latin Americans are vast. From hyperinflation and lack of banking solutions to crowd funding and micro-financing, cryptos offer the region a new way to interact with money.

Though Argentina and Venezuela have been forced to take the lead in crypto adoption in Latin America, bitcoin trading volumes are up, new exchanges are building their roots and a wave of fresh financial services are bringing unique opportunities to a region that has often lagged behind in adoption of new technologies.

The path will likely include an even greater number of challenges moving forward, but Latin America is looking to cryptos with a generally positive tone.

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