Month: December 2018

Authored by Simon Black via SovereignMan.com,

The anti-terrorism unit suited up.

This was an international affair… a deal between the USA and New Zealand, two members of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance.

Helicopters, tactical suits, high caliber firearms—the whole shebang. They busted in the doors and successfully raided the multi-million-dollar compound.

What was this… capturing the next in line after Bin Laden? Busting an international human trafficking ring?

Actually, elite New Zealand law enforcement was acting at the request of the United States to arrest a guy named Kim Dotcom.

Kim Dotcom is a large, jovial man of German-Swedish origins. He founded Megaupload, an online platform that allowed us to basically watch movies online for free.

Unfortunately for Kim, a lot of that content included American movies, with American copyrights.

US artists didn’t get their money, which meant the US government didn’t get its tax dollars.

But Kim Dotcom was a German citizen hanging out in New Zealand. So tough luck for the USA, right?

Wrong. US jurisdiction extends globally… and the government is getting its pound of flesh.

Violate US copyright laws, and get your door kicked in by a SWAT team, even half a world away.

Then there was the Australian, living in London who shared leaked, classified and sensitive documents with the public.

I’m talking about the founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange.

He walked into the Ecuadorian embassy in London six years ago, asking for asylum.

There was a Swedish warrant out for his arrest, alleging rape charges. He faced extradition to Sweden, and feared he would then be turned over to US authorities… who wanted Assange taken down for exposing the extent of the spying the US government was carrying out on its own citizens.

For years it was suspected that there was a sealed US indictment against Assange. Last month, the proof emerged when the US accidentally revealed the filing, but not the specific charges.

So, we’ve got a Aussie journalist who might get arrested in the UK (which has an extradition agreement with the US) for a crime allegedly committed in Sweden… all because the US government has a hard on for this guy.

But this journalist made the mistake of providing the world with the valuable insight that the authoritarian US government was surveilling its own citizens.

And, again, the US wants its pound of flesh.

Just recently, the US has once again flexed its global might to throw someone in jail.

As you’re likely aware, Trump is in the middle of some tense trade war negotiations with China.

Interesting timing that the Chief Financial Officer of the Chinese tech company Huawei, Meng Wanzhou, was just arrested at the request of US authorities. The company allegedly violated US sanctions against Iran by selling technology to the country.

But here’s the thing… Wanzhou wasn’t on American soil. She was arrested in Canada. The Canadian government is bringing the US case against Wanzhou, who could be extradited to the US to face charges.

So a Chinese citizen, working for a Chinese company, complying with Chinese law, was arrested on Canadian soil… because she allegedly violated US law. (She was recently released on bail – after a 3-day bail hearing, and two weeks in jail.)

We know these webs of where the “guilty” are from, where they were living, where they were arrested and on whose behalf is all confusing.

The point is, if you challenge the US government, prepare for your new accommodations in a 6 by 8 foot cage.

It’s crazy. You know I actually had pork the other night, yet somehow Saudi Arabia hasn’t arrested me for violating its laws against non “halal” food.

The US going after Dotcom and Assange is bad enough. But truth be told, these guys poked the bear.

Assange published sensitive, American documents which authorities claim has threatened national security.

Dotcom made the American government lose out on tax dollars.

I still don’t think it’s right to apply American law worldwide… but what do you expect America to do? It’s not surprising.

But the USA’s latest move should disgust anyone with even a distant memory of what freedom was.

If Huawei did business with Iran, this has nothing to do with the United States. It’s not illegal according to Chinese or Canadian law to do business with Iran. That’s a US law.

If the US wants to escalate trade wars or impose more tariffs to punish the company… fine, whatever.

But to bring criminal charges against company leadership just for doing their job is a terrifying development, even for the brazen US world police.

The USA is the self-declared dictator of the planet. Forget sovereign nations, US law applies worldwide.

And they will kidnap and extradite you from New Zealand, London, Canada, or wherever else they can get their hands on you.

If they want you, they will get you.

And to continue learning how to ensure you thrive no matter what happens next in the world, I encourage you to download our free Perfect Plan B Guide.

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During a Friday speech at an event in Istanbul, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan revealed new details from the audio recording of the Dec. 2 Jamal Khashoggi murder, quoting a section of the tape wherein one of the Saudi killers said, “I know how to cut well.” 

“The Saudi intelligence chief is heard saying in the recording that it is a disaster because this man [Khashoggi] has been drugged. ‘I know how to cut well,’ the other man responds. Why? Because he is a forensic expert. He is a senior military guy. Everything is there in the recordings,” Erdogan said at the Jerusalem Platform event on Dec. 14, according to a translation by Turkey’s Hurriyet Daily News.

Erdogan’s commentary provides further context to an earlier CNN report released Monday, which quoted Khashoggi’s final words as revealed in audio Turkish intelligence had captured by bugging the Saudi consulate. CNN’s source relayed that the transcript of the recording reveals that the Saudi journalist and Washington Post columnist said “I can’t breathe” followed by screams and “saw” and “cutting” sounds.

According to CNN: 

During the course of the gruesome scene, the source describes Khashoggi struggling against a group of people determined to kill him.

“I can’t breathe,” Khashoggi says.

“I can’t breathe.”

“I can’t breathe.”

The transcript notes the sounds of Khashoggi’s body being dismembered by a saw, as the alleged perpetrators are advised to listen to music to block out the sound.

CNN’s source notes the transcript indicates a series of calls were then made, which Turkish investigators believe were to “senior figures in Riyadh, briefing them on progress.”

Prior international reports have also suggested that these calls included directly informing a top aide to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman that their mission was complete. 

We’ve noted many times before that the non-stop leaking of horrifying details about the murder of the Saudi insider-turned-dissident in the kingdom’s Istanbul consulate has given the burgeoning diplomatic crisis the cadence of a prime-time network drama, with Turkish President Erdogan and his government displaying a knack for showmanship related to the issue almost every chance they get. 

Meanwhile, Khashoggi’s body has still not been found, and given what Turkish sources have suggested concerning the various methods the Saudi operatives may have used to dispose of the body parts, it will likely never be discovered.

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Authored by Jeffrey Snider via Alhambra Investment Partners,

The Relevant Word Is ‘Decline’

The English language headline for China’s National Bureau of Statistics’ press release on November 2018’s Big 3 was, National Economy Maintained Stable and Sound Momentum of Development in November. For those who, as noted yesterday, are wishing China’s economy bad news so as to lead to the supposed good news of a coordinated “stimulus” response this was itself a bad news/good news situation.

If the Communist State Council is to be flustered into action, the title of the release might suggest maybe not. Then again, there isn’t a month that goes by where the NBS writers don’t write pretty much the same thing. In a Communist country, any wording less than “sound momentum” is surely frowned upon especially when there is no momentum.

Underneath, the figures were all bad. Were they bad enough? I don’t believe anything short of full-fledged collapse will be, but this is attempting to game and analyze a political factor whose proportions are never going to be fully known.

What we are left with is pure ugly. The last time Industrial Production grew at a 5.4% annual rate, as it did last month, it was February 2016 and the worst of times for modern, industrial China. It was also the same month the last “stimulus” was uncorked.

It doesn’t get any lower than the 2015-16 downturn so for Chinese industry to already be at that depth with “this one” just getting started, it all tells us that perhaps there is a lot of downside left to come and that officials are keenly aware of the possibility.

If this was somehow unexpected and unapproved, so to speak, they wouldn’t have waited for 5.4% to reappear. That goes double for consumer spending, or retail sales in this case. Chinese retail activity grew by just 8.1% in November. You have to go back fifteen years to find something less.

What should really stand out especially for the stimulus whisperers is when China’s latest economic inflection transpired. It wasn’t Trump and trade, it was in the middle of last year for both IP as well as RS.

Why mid-2017? That was when authorities began to realize the full extent of their predicament. They had done the “stimulus” stuff in a rush to begin 2016 and it didn’t get anywhere. There are often heavy costs to doing these kinds of things, so to pay out a lot and receive very little in return from it is a big counterpoint to thinking about doing it again.

China simply has, as we’ve been writing and speaking about for half a decade (and more, less specifically about China), no monetary room with which to get any kind of internal growth started. That point was driven home last year. The global economy despite all officials protestations everywhere has never once picked up toward recovery.

Therefore, the Chinese government is left between the rock (external malaise) and the hard place (no internal monetary space). Only a few months after June 2017, Communist officials convened at the 19th Party Congress and “elected” to move authoritarian. This, I don’t believe, is mere coincidence.

The only mild positive so far in 2018 is how Fixed Asset Investment (FAI) has stabilized albeit at extremely low levels. Private FAI, in particular, is growing at around a 9% rate (8.8% in November) which is better than late last year.

The flipside of that is how Private FAI seems to have hit a ceiling around 9%, nowhere near the 25% rate that for a few years kept China out of trouble. Even with officials at lower levels (almost certainly on orders from the central government) in the provinces no longer clamping down on the waste of State-owned FAI, it hasn’t stabilized China’s economy because it can’t.

On an accumulated basis, Public FAI rose 2.3% in November (meaning YTD) while on a monthly basis it was less than 7% (annual rate) for the second straight month. Like Private FAI, better than before but not really meaningfully so. It seems more like messaging than meaning.

To me, this adds up to the same thing – an attempt at managing the decline rather than intentions to turn it around as expectations for globally synchronized growth would have required. I wrote more than three years ago, a little over a week after the big shock of CNY in August 2015:

I think they made a conscious effort to try to avoid Japan’s disaster by actively engaging to manage a bubble decline regardless of how much growth had to be “sacrificed” to do so.

That the Chinese would attempt such a “hail mary” to me cemented the Japanese analogy – they had to try because not doing so, the Japanese path, was far, far worse than the dangers of managed decline getting out of hand. A small probability of success was far better than what surely awaited doing nothing.

This obviously matters given the three years in between for how important China is to global growth, but equally for what it says about the world’s economic situation in 2015 and 2018. What I wrote then still fits this many years later:

In Japan’s case, the believed restoration of a more favorable external balance did not arrive before the monetary expiration. I think that is where the PBOC was in 2013, namely that it took the 2012 global slowdown as the final say in the matter of “the other side”; there was only to be an ugly economic fate.

The Chinese began to realize what Ben Bernanke and Janet Yellen refused to accept; after 2011 there was not going to be a global recovery because there could not be one. The 2011 eurodollar crisis, number two, had been the final say on the matter. When CNY started to fall, meaning the “rising dollar”, in 2014, that was it; the final final nail in the coffin.

China’s economy could get by in 2017 with a few magic tricks (HK) covered by Reflation #3 globally. But in the renewed eurodollar pressures of this #4, the monetary noose could only tighten that much more internal as well as external.

CNY DOWN = BAD.

Maybe the Communists do panic next week surprised not at their own misfortune but by the levels of complacency and denial across the rest of the planet. Somehow, I doubt it. This is nothing more than the same worldwide “L”, for managed decline is still decline. It surely was that in China in November.

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The Justice Department’s internal watchdog revealed on Thursday that special counsel Robert Mueller’s office scrubbed all of the data from FBI agent Peter Strzok’s iPhone, while his FBI mistress Lisa Page’s phone had been scrubbed by a different department, according to a comprehensive report by the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) released on Thursday. 

After Strzok was kicked off the special counsel investigation following the discovery of anti-Trump text messages between he and Page, his Mueller’s Records Officer scrubbed Strzok’s iPhone after determining “it contained no substantive text messages,” reports the Conservative Review‘s Jordan Schachtel. 

So Mueller’s team wiped ALL of the data off of Peter Strzok’s iPhone after determining “it contained no substantive text messages.” Given what we know about Strzok, this smells like quite the coverup. Time for Congress to step in?https://t.co/mOgpBbDVO4 pic.twitter.com/9w2mEPK64C

— Jordan Schachtel (@JordanSchachtel) December 13, 2018

Mueller’s team was unable to locate Page’s iPhone, however the DOJ’s Justice Management Division (JMD) similarly scrubbed her phone – resetting it to factory settings. 

I’m sure you’re all super shocked to find out that Lisa Page’s phone was also scrubbed pic.twitter.com/NWV9GQbBTc

— Jordan Schachtel (@JordanSchachtel) December 13, 2018

* Strzok texts he’ll “stop Trump”
* Strzok texts that NYT is upset about WaPo scoop.
* Strzok texts Page re “insurance policy”
* Mueller then smashes their phones with a virtual hammer.

Go on how you’re concerned about corruption, obstruction of justice, and collusion. https://t.co/6267rsEahS

— Razor (@hale_razor) December 13, 2018

Meanwhile, the OIG recovered approximately newly found 19,000 Strzok-Page texts from their Galaxy S5 phones. The messages span a “gap” in text messages between December 15, 2016 and May 17, 2017. 

OIG digital forensic examiners used forensic tools to recover thousands of text messages from these devices, including many outside the period of collection tool failure (December 15, 20 I 6 to May 17, 2017) and many that Strzok and Page had with persons other than each other. Approximately 9,311 text messages that were sent or received during the period of collection tool failure were recovered from Strzok’s S5 phone, of which approximately 8,358 were sent to or received from Page. Approximately 10,760 text messages that were sent or received during the period of collection tool failure were recovered from Page’s S5 phone, of which approximately 9,717 were sent to or received from Strzok. Thus, many of the text messages recovered from Strzok’s S5 were also recovered from Page’s S5. However, some of the Strzok-Page text messages were only recovered from Strzok’s phone while others were only recovered from Page’s phone. -OIG Report 

Wow, 19,000 Texts between Lisa Page and her lover, Peter S of the FBI, in charge of the Russia Hoax, were just reported as being wiped clean and gone. Such a big story that will never be covered by the Fake News. Witch Hunt!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 15, 2018

Thousands of text messages between Strzok and Page were recovered by the OIG, many indicating that both agents in charge of investigating Donald Trump absolutely hate him. 

In August 2016, Strzok and Page discussed an “insurance policy” in the event that Trump won the election which many believe to be in reference to operation Crossfire Hurricane – the DOJ’s counterintelligence investigation into Trump and his campaign. 

“I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in Andy’s office – that there’s no way he [Trump] gets elected – but I’m afraid we can’t take that risk.” wrote Strzok, adding “It’s like a life insurance policy in the unlikely event you die before you’re 40.” 

In the home stretch of the 2016 US election, Strzok is fuming at Trump – texting Page: ” I am riled up. Trump is a f*cking idiot, is unable to provide a coherent answer.” He then texts “I CAN’T PULL AWAY, WHAT THE F*CK HAPPENED TO OUR COUNTRY (redacted)??!?!,” to which Page replies “I don’t know. But we’ll get it back.”

Strzok/Page texts 10/20/16

PS – I am riled up. Trump is a f*cking idiot, is unable to provide a coherent answer.

PS – I CAN’T PULL AWAY, WHAT THE F*CK HAPPENED TO OUR COUNTRY (redacted)??!?!

LP – I don’t know. But we’ll get it back. …

— Shannon Bream (@ShannonBream) December 13, 2017

Strzok/Page texts

LP – And maybe you’re meant to stay where you are because you’re meant to protect the country from that menace. (links to NYT article)

PS – … I can protect our country at many levels, not sure if that helps

— Shannon Bream (@ShannonBream) December 13, 2017

More than two years later, the anti-Trump FBI agents may not have gotten their country back – but the special counsel’s office continues to cast a shadow of doubt Trump’s legitimacy.

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Authored by Elijah Magnier, Middle East based chief international war correspondent for Al Rai Media

Syria will adopt a new rule of engagement with Israel now that Russia has taken a tougher and clearer stance on the conflict between Israel and the “Axis of the Resistance”. Henceforth, Damascus will be responding to any Israeli strike. If it damages a specific military target it will reply with a strike against a similar objective in Israel. Decision makers in Damascus said, “Syria will not hesitate to hit an Israeli airport if Damascus airport is targeted and hit by Israel. This will be with the consent of the Russian military based in the Levant.”

This Syrian political decision is based on the clear position taken by Russia in Syria following the downing of its aircraft on September 18 this year. In 2015 when the Russian military landed in Syria, it informed the parties concerned (i.e. Syria, Iran and Israel) that it had no intention to interfere in the conflict between them and Hezbollah and that it would not stand in the way of Tel Aviv’s planes bombing Hezbollah military convoys on their way to Lebanon or Iranian military warehouses not allocated to the war in Syria.

This was a commitment to remain an onlooker if Israel hit Iranian military objectives or Hezbollah convoys transporting arms to Hezbollah from Syria to Lebanon, within Syrian territory. Russia also informed Israel that it would not accept any attacks on its allies (Syria, Iran, Hezbollah, and their allies) engaged in fighting ISIS, al-Qaeda and its allies. Israel respected the will of Moscow until the beginning of 2018, when it started to attack Iranian bases and Syrian military warehouses, though it never attacked a Hezbollah military position. Israel justified its attack against the Iranian base, a military facility called T4, by claiming it had sent drones over Israel.

Tel Aviv considered violation of its neighbors’ sovereignty as its exclusive prerogative. Damascus and Iran have responded with at least one confirmed shooting down of an Israeli F-16. Israel started to attack Syrian warehouses, mainly where Iranian missiles were stored. Iran has replaced every single destroyed warehouse with other more sophisticated precision missiles, capable of hitting any objective in Israel.

However, Russia’s neutrality towards Israel in the Levant turned out to be quite expensive. It has lost more than Iran, especially after the downing of its IL-20, and with it, 15 officers highly trained to use the most advanced communication and espionage systems.

Russia then brought to Syria its long-awaited advanced S-300 missiles and delivered them to the Syrian army while maintaining electronic coordination and radar command. The S-300 poses a danger to Israeli jets only if these violate Syrian airspace. Tel Aviv has kept its planes out of Syria since last September but launched long range missiles against a couple of targets.

For many months, the Russian President Vladimir Putin refused to receive Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Only through real harassment by the latter did Putin finally accept to briefly meet with Netanyahu over lunch or around the dinner table during a large Summit or meeting of Heads of State, without however accepting any compromise or reconciliation. Russia has now taken a clear position and has no intention of extending its embrace or pardon to Israel. Russia felt that its generosity (by closing its eyes to Israel’s activities in Syria) was neither recognized nor sufficiently appreciated by Tel Aviv. 

This past week, Moscow agreed to receive an Israeli military delegation led by Major-General Aharon Haliva, following Israel’s insistence on breaking the ice between the two countries. However, Russia’s position is not expected to change in Syria and no Israeli bombing of Syrian or Iranian targets will be tolerated.

IDF delegation returns from Moscow after Northern Shield, Syria talks https://t.co/mVAFUJASMi

— The Jerusalem Post (@Jerusalem_Post) December 12, 2018

According to these sources: 

“Russia has informed Israel that there are Russian officers present at every Syrian or Iranian military base and that any strike against Syrian or Iranian objectives would hit Russian forces as well. Putin will not allow his soldiers and officers to be struck down by Israel’s direct or indirect bombing”.

Moreover, Russia has given Syria the green light — said the source — to strike Israel at any time if and when Tel Aviv’s planes launch raids against Syrian military targets or launch long-range missiles without flying over Syria (for fear of the S-300 and to avoid seeing its jets downed over Syria or Lebanon). 

The source confirmed that Syria — contrary to what Israel claims — now has the most accurate missiles, which can hit any target inside Israel. The Syrian armed forces have received unrevealed long and medium-range missiles from Iran. These operate on the GLONASS system – the abbreviation for Globalnaya Navigazionnaya Sputnikovaya Sistema, the Russian version of the GPS. Thus, the delivery of Iran and the manufacture of missiles inside Syria (and Lebanon) is now complete.

Israel, however, claims it has destroyed Syria’s missile capability, including that of the missiles delivered by Iran. According to the source, Damascus controls a very large number of precision missiles, notwithstanding those destroyed by Israel. “In Iran, the cheapest and most accessible items are the Sabzi and the missiles”, said the source.

The new Syrian rule of engagement — according to the source — is now as follows: an airport will be hit if Israel hits an airport, and any attack on a barracks or command and control center will result in an attack on similar target in Israel. It appears that the decision has been taken at the highest level and a clear “bank of objectives” has now been set in place.

The rules of engagement are changing and situation in the Levant theatre is becoming more dangerous; regional and international confrontations are still possible. The Middle East will not return to stability unless the Syrian war ends — a war in which the two superpowers, as well as Europe, Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, have played essential roles. The final chapters have not yet been written.

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It is not surprising whatsoever that millions of people have a pornography addiction. To be more specific: There are over 125 million daily visits to Pornhub sites, according to Pornhub’s research and analysis blog, Pornhub Insights. 

Pornhub Insights blog has shown that 2018 was an incredible year with lots of searches, celebrities, and events that influenced what people searched on Pornhub. Here are some of those impressive stats: 

According to Pornhub, the website saw more than 33.5 billion views in 2018, which is about a 5 billion visit jump over 2017. 

“That equates to a daily average of 92 million visitors—and at the time of this writing, Pornhub’s daily visits now exceed 100 million…To put that into perspective, that’s as if the combined populations of Canada, Poland and Australia all visited Pornhub every day!”

“Every minute, 63,992 new visitors arrive at Pornhub, 207,405 videos are watched and 57,750 searches are performed. 55 of those video views are of Kim Kardashian’s sex tape, which is still Pornhub’s most watched video of all time at 195 million views.

12 new videos and 2 hours of content are uploaded to Pornhub every minute while 7708 Gigabytes of data are transferred worldwide. Pornhub’s users view 13,962 profiles, follow 593 other users, accept 167 friend requests and send 122 messages. 271 videos are rated, 528 are added to playlists and 22 new comments are left, the report said.”

Mainstream media and pop culture events often influence Pornhub’s top searches. So, it is no surprise that pornstar (and alleged pre-presidential mistress) Stormy Daniels ranked number on the list of searches that defined 2018. 

Searches for the video game ‘Fortnite’ made it to the website’s top 20 list this year. Each time new Fortnite characters were released, searches on Pornhub would surge.

According to Dr. Laurie Betito, Director of the Pornhub Sexual Wellness Center, “searches like these serve as an indication that people use this site to not only satisfy sexual urges but also to get a different angle on something they are already interested in. To see a famous character or hot topic in a sexual context.”

Fantasy plays a significant role in pornography, so it makes sense that people want to see their favorite video game character or celebrity in a porno. In April, when Fortnite’s servers crashed, searches for Fortnite increased by as much as 60% over 24 hours, said Pornhub research.

Pornhub’s top 4 searches by volume remained the same from 2017 to 2018: These included ‘lesbian’, ‘hentai’, ‘milf’ and ‘stepmom’. “Contrary to popular belief, men are not just interested in youthful bodies,” notes Dr. Laurie. “They like the idea of an older, experienced woman and may care less about the perfection of her body.”

Many people believe Sunday is about the Lord’s Day. Then after a few hours of church service, the afternoon becomes a day of flipping between the PGA, NFL, and of course, NASCAR Cup series races on television, but that is not so much the case, millions sit down and watch porn. 

“Sunday is the most popular day to visit Pornhub, while Friday tends to have the lowest traffic. A lot of that has to do with the hours people prefer to watch porn. Peak viewing times are usually from 10 p.m. to midnight, but on weekends (as people tend to stay up a later, go out more, and sleep in longer), the viewing time shifts more into the morning hours.”

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Authored by Sara Carter via SaraCarter.com,

The Special Counsel’s Office released key documents related to former National Security Advisor Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn Friday. Robert Mueller’s office had until 3 p.m. to get the documents to Judge Emmet Sullivan, who demanded information Wednesday after bombshell information surfaced in a memorandum submitted by Flynn’s attorney’s that led to serious concerns regarding the FBI’s initial questioning of the retired three-star general.

The highly redacted documents included notes from former Deputy Director Andrew McCabe regarding his conversation with Flynn about arranging the interview with the FBI. The initial interview took place at the White House on Jan. 24, 2017.

The documents also include the FBI’s  “302” report regarding Flynn’s interview with anti-Trump former FBI Agent Peter Strzok and FBI Agent Joe Pientka when they met with him at the White House. It is not, however, the 302 document from the actual January, 2017 interview but an August, 2017 report of Strzok’s recollections of the interview.

Flynn’s attorney’s had noted in their memorandum to the courts that the documents revealed that FBI officials made the decision not to provide Flynn with his Miranda Rights, which would’ve have warned him of penalties for making false statements.

“The agents did not provide Gen. Flynn with a warning of the penalties for making a false statement under 18 U.S.C. 1001 before, during, or after the interview,” the Flynn memo says.

According to the 302, before the interview, McCabe and other FBI officials “decided the agents would not warn Flynn that it was a crime to lie during an FBI interview because they wanted Flynn to be relaxed, and they were concerned that giving the warnings might adversely affect the rapport.”

McCabe, who has since been fired for lying to the DOJ’s Office of Inspector General about leaking information to the media, also asked Flynn not to have his lawyer present during the initial meeting with the FBI agents.

The July 2017 report, however, was the interview with Strzok. It described his interview with Flynn but was not the original Flynn interview.

Apparent discrepancies within the 302 documents are being questioned by may former senior FBI officials, who state that there are stringent policies in place to ensure that the documents are guarded against tampering.

On Thursday, FBI Supervisory Agent Jeff Danik told SaraACarter.com that Sullivan must also request all the communications between the two agents, as well as their supervisors around the August 2017 time-frame in order to get a complete and accurate picture of what transpired. Danik, who is an expert in FBI policy, says it is imperative that Sullivan also request “the workflow chart, which would show one-hundred percent, when the 302s were created when they were sent to a supervisor and who approved them.”

He stressed, “the bureau policy – the absolute FBI policy – is that the notes must be placed in the system in a 1-A file within five days of the interview.” Danik said that the handwritten notes get placed into the FBI Sentinel System, which is the FBI’s main record keeping system. “Anything beyond five business days is a problem, eight months is a disaster,” he added.

In the redacted 302 report Strzok and Pientka said they “both had the impression at the time that Flynn was not lying or did not think he was lying.” Information that Flynn was not lying was first published and reported by SaraACarter.com.

Flynn was found guilty by Mueller on one count of lying to the FBI. Supporters of Flynn have questioned Mueller’s tactics in getting the retired three-star general to plead guilty to this one count of lying.

In the report, the two agents describe Flynn as being very open and noted said Flynn “clearly saw the FBI agents as allies.” Flynn is described as discussing a variety of  “subjects.”  The report includes his openness regarding Trump’s “knack for interior design,” the hotels he stayed at during his campaign, as well as other issues.

“Flynn was so talkative, and had so much time for them, that Strzok wondered if the national security adviser did not have more important things to do than have a such a relaxed, non-pertinent discussion with them,” it said.

The documents turned over by Mueller also reveal that other FBI personnel “later argued about the FBI’s decision to interview Flynn.”

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Most Americans say they didn’t get a pay raise at their current job, or start a better paying job in the last 12 months, according to a Wednesday survey from Bankrate.com. 

According to the poll, 62% of Americans report not getting a pay raise or better paying job in the past year – up from 52% last surveyed last year. That said, just 25% of respondents in this year’s survey said they would look for a new job in the next year. 

Mike Gnitecki, a licensed paramedic in Longview, Texas, is one of the Americans whose wages flatlined.

Because of a pay freeze at his previous employer, the University of Texas Health hospital system, he hadn’t seen a pay increase for the past three years. He’s been stuck at a base pay of $43,500 a year, with the opportunity for overtime.

“It basically feels like my pay has dropped each year due to normal cost-of-living increases,” Gnitecki says. “At the same time, my experience and responsibility has increased.” –Bankrate.com

32% of those polled by Bankrate said they received a raise, vs. 38% last year, while just 11% of respondents got a better paying job – down from 18% last year. 

After feeling “frustrated,” Gnitecki reached a turning point and found a similar paramedic job with a “decent increase” in pay and benefits, which he starts this month. 

“It feels really good because it kind of feels like I’m being paid how much I should be paid,” he said, adding “I’m very glad I made the switch.”

As Marketwatch notes, meanwhile, the average CEO at the largest 350 companies in the US received a 17.6% increase in pay in 2017 – clocking in at an average of $18.9 million, according to an August study from the Economic Policy Institute. 

Bankrate Chief Financial Analyst Greg McBride says that while the economy might be doing great right now, however productivity isn’t following suit and may explain the stagnation in wage growth. 

“The economy might be doing better, but employees aren’t cranking out more output per hour of work,” said McBride.

“A technological advancement or breakthrough could help, and in a lot of ways, just how work is done could be more efficient in the workplace.”

According to Bankrate, young workers aged 18-27 were the most likely to receive a promotion or new job responsibilities that resulted in a pay raise, and were the most likely group to say they will seek a new job in the next 12 months. 

Among all respondents who got a raise, 37 percent reported it being performance-based, showing no difference from last year’s survey. About 29 percent cited raises because of a promotion or new job responsibilities, up from 24 percent last year. About 27 percent stated a raise was given as a cost-of-living increase, also unchanged from last year. Just 4 percent cited a raise for some other reason. –Bankrate.com

Baby boomers, meanwhile, were the least likely to get a raise according to the survey. 

Older baby boomers, ages 64-72, had the highest incidence of reporting neither a pay raise nor a better paying job, at 79 percent. This generation is at their peak earning potential, McBride says, and opportunities tend to dissipate at this stage. –Bankrate.com

Despite the lack of wage growth, the Bankrate survey found that 91% of those polled had the same or greater confidence in the job market than one year ago, while just 9% said they have lower confidence. Of course, the caveat is that those making more money felt better about how things are going; 38% of those earning above $75,000 per year had increased confidence in the job market, while 24% of households making under $30,000 said the same. 

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Authored by John Rubino via DollarCollapse.com,

Despite all the ominous press being devoted to the soon-to-be-inverted yield curve, it’s not always clear why such a thing matters. In other words, how, exactly does a line on a graph slipping below zero translate into a recession and equities bear market, with all the turmoil that those things imply?

The answer (which is both simple and really easy to illustrate with charts) is that banks – the main driver of our hyper-finacialized society – still make at least some of their money by borrowing short and lending long. They take money that’s deposited into savings accounts and short-term CDs (or borrowed in the money markets) and lend it to businesses and home buyers for years or decades. In normal times long-term rates are higher than short-term to compensate lenders for tying their money up for longer periods. The banks earn that spread, which can be substantial if borrowers make their payments.

When the yield curve flattens and then inverts – that is, when short rates exceed long rates – banks lose the ability to make money this way. They lend less, which restricts building and buying and spooks the broader markets.

So, here’s the flattening, apparently soon-to-invert yield curve:

And here’s how bank stocks are behaving in response. The following chart is for the BKX bank stock ETF that includes all the major US banks.

Note how it was stable for the first nine months of the year and then fell off a cliff as it became clear that the yield curve really was going to invert.

Reuters conducted a poll of bond analysts that illustrates how fast things are changing:

U.S. Yield Curve to Invert in 2019, Recession to Follow: Reuters Poll

The U.S. Treasury yield curve will invert next year, possibly within the next six months, much earlier than forecast just three months ago, with a recession to follow as soon as a year after that, a Reuters poll showed on Thursday.

The two-year Treasury yield is forecast to rise to 3.20 percent in the next 12 months, from around 2.78 percent on Wednesday, according to the Reuters poll of more than 70 bond market strategists taken Dec. 6-12. The 10-year bond yield was expected to rise to 3.30 percent from about 2.90 in a year.

While that would put the yield spread between the two-year and 10-year Treasuries in a year around where it is now, at around 10 basis points, about 40 percent of respondents forecast that gap to be zero or negative in the next 12 months.

Just in the last three months, the yield spread has collapsed by two-thirds from just over 30 basis points. That has coincided with one of the most tumultuous periods on global equity markets since late August.

Thirty of more than 40 strategists who answered an extra question expect the 2s-10s yield spread to become negative in the next 12 months, including 15 who said within the next 6 months. Half of 26 strategists in the poll expect a U.S. recession to follow that inversion within the next two years.

While there is no set pattern on how long it takes for a recession to hit once the yield curve has flipped, it took about 18 months before the last deep recession about a decade ago.

The conclusion: Sentiment in the bond market – and by implication the broader economy – took a huge hit in the past couple of months.

[ZH: As did the market’s expectations for the Fed rate trajectory]

And since in a fiat currency system sentiment is everything, it should be no surprise that banks are down and taking the rest of the stock market along for the ride.

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Any confidence boost that might have followed Theresa May’s triumph this week over her party’s implacable Brexiteers has probably already faded. Because if there was anything to be learned from the stunning rebuke delivered to the prime minister by EU leaders on Thursday, it’s that the prime minister is looking more stuck than ever.

This was evidenced by the frosty confrontation between the imperturbable May and her chief Continental antagonist, European Commission President Jean Claude Juncker, which was caught on film on Friday shortly before the close of a two-day European Council summit that descended into bitter recriminations. After offering token praise of May’s leadership, Brussels’ supreme bureaucrat criticized her negotiating strategy as “disorganized”, provoking a heated response from May.

Earlier, May desperately pleaded with her European colleagues – who had adamantly insisted that the text of the withdrawal agreement would not be altered – to grant her “legally binding assurances” May believes would make the Brexit plan palatable enough to win a slim victory in the Commons.

If there were any lingering doubts about the EU’s position, they were swiftly dispelled by a striking gesture of contempt for May: Demonstrating the Continent’s indifference to her plight, the final text of the summit’s conclusions was altered to remove a suggestion that the EU consider what further assurances can be offered to May, while leaving in a resolution to continue contingency planning for a no-deal Brexit.

Even the Irish, who in the recent past have been sympathetic to their neighbors’ plight (in part due to fears about a resurgence of insurrectionary violence should a hard border re-emerge between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland), implied that there patience had reached its breaking point.

Here’s the FT:

But Leo Varadkar, the Irish premier, warned that the EU could not tolerate a treaty approval process where a country “comes back every couple of weeks following discussions with their parliament looking for something extra…you can’t operate international relations on this basis.”

Senior EU officials are resisting further negotiations — and suggestions of a special Brexit summit next month — because they see Britain’s requests as in effect a bid to rewrite the exit treaty.

Mr Varadkar noted that many prime ministers had been called to Brussels “at short notice” for a special Brexit summit “on a Sunday in November,” adding: “I don’t think they would be willing to come to Brussels again unless we really have to.”

In response, May threatened to hold a vote on the Brexit plan before Christmas, which would almost certainly result in its defeat, scrapping the fruits of more than a year of contentious negotiations.

Given that Mrs May aborted a Commons vote on her deal this week because she feared defeat by a “significant margin,” her comments amounted to a threat that she would let MPs kill the withdrawal agreement before Christmas.

Mrs May made the threat to German chancellor Angela Merkel, French president Emmanuel Macron and EU presidents Jean-Claude Juncker and Donald Tusk as the two day Brussels summit descended into acrimony, according to diplomats.

“At the point where there is no prospect of getting anything more from the EU, that’s when you would have to put the vote,” said one close aide to Mrs May.

If this week has taught May anything, it’s that her plan to pressure the EU into more concessions (her preferred option to help her pass the Brexit plan) was an unmitigated failure. And given that running out the clock and hoping that MPs come around at the last minute (when the options truly have been reduced to ‘deal’ or ‘no deal’) leaves too much room for market-rattling uncertainty, May is left with a few options, two of which were previously ‘off the table’ (though she has distanced herself from those positions in recent weeks).

They are: Calling a second referendum, delaying a Brexit vote, pivoting to a softer ‘Plan B’ Brexit, or accepting a ‘no deal’ Brexit. As the BBC reminds us, May is obliged by law to put her deal to a vote by Jan. 21, or go to Parliament with a Plan B.

If May does decide to run down the clock, she will have two last-minute options:

On the one hand she could somehow cancel, delay, soften or hold another referendum on Brexit and risk alienating the 17.4 million people who voted Leave.

But on the other hand, she could go for a so-called Hard Brexit (where few of the existing ties between the UK and the EU are retained) and risk causing untold damage to the UK’s economy and standing in the world for years to come.

Alternatively, May could accept the fact that convincing the Brexiteers is a lost cause, and try to rally support among Labour MPs for a ‘softer’ Brexit plan, one that would more countenance closer ties with the EU during the transition, and ultimately set the stage for a closer relationship that could see the UK remain part of the customs union and single market. Conservatives are also increasingly pushing for a ‘Plan B’ deal that would effectively set the terms for a Norway- or Canada-style trade deal.

But as JP Morgan and Deutsche Bank anticipated last week, a second referendum (which supporters have nicknamed a “People’s Vote”) is becoming increasingly popular, even among MPs who supported the ‘Leave’ campaign, according to Bloomberg.

It’s not the only previously unthinkable idea that May has talked about this week. Fighting off a challenge to her leadership from pro-Brexit Conservative members of Parliament, the premier warned that deposing her would mean delaying Britain’s departure from the European Union. That’s not something she admitted was possible last month.

The argument for a second referendum advanced by one minister was simple: If nothing can get through Parliament — and it looks like nothing can — the question needs to go back to voters.

While campaigners for a second vote have mostly been those who want to reverse the result of the last one and keep Britain inside the EU, that’s not the reason a lot of new supporters are coming round to the idea.

One Cabinet minister said this week he wanted a second referendum on the table to make clear to Brexit supporters in the Conservative Party that the alternative to May’s deal is no Brexit at all.

Even former UKIP leader Nigel Farage is urging his supporters to be ready for a second referendum:

Speaking at rally in London, Press Association quoted Farage as saying: “My message folks tonight is as much as I don’t want a second referendum it would be wrong of us on a Leave Means Leave platform not to get ready, not to be prepared for a worst-case scenario.”

Putting pressure on Brexiteers is also the reason there’s more talk of delaying the U.K.’s departure. At the moment, many Brexit-backers are talking openly about running down the clock to March so they can get the hard Brexit they want. Extending the process — which is easier than many appreciate — takes that strategy off the table.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has continued to call for May to put her deal to a vote principally because its defeat is a necessary precursor for another referendum (or a no-confidence vote pushed by an alliance between Labour, and some combination of rebel Tories, the SNP and the DUP).

“The last 24 hours have shown that Theresa May’s Brexit deal is dead in the water,” said Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. “She’s failed to deliver any meaningful changes. Rather than ploughing ahead and recklessly running down the clock, she needs to put her deal to a vote next week so Parliament can take back control.”

The upshot is that the Brexit trainwreck, which has been stuck at an impasse for months, could finally see some meaningful movement in the coming weeks. Which means its a good time to bring back this handy chart illustrating the many different outcomes that could arise:

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