Testimony and court documents from the trial of Noor Salman – the widow of Pulse nightclub shooter Omar Mateen, reveals that Omar’s father – who sat right behind Hillary Clinton at an August, 2016 campaign rally, was an FBI informant for over a decade.
Jurors in Salman’s trial heard from Miami-based FBI Special Agent Juvenal Martin – Seddique Mateen’s contact within the agency, while documents show the senior Mateen was trying to raise $50,000 – $100,000 through donations in order to conduct a terrorist attack against the government of Pakistan – a discovery made by the FBI following the June 12, 2016 massacre at the Pulse gay nightclub by 29-year-old Omar Mateen, killing 49 people before dying in a shoot out with police.
Disturbingly, Omar Mateen was such a threat that his co-workers reported him to the FBI – who had his supervisor wear a wire to try and capture Omar bragging about connections to terrorism.
Martin also testified about investigating Omar Mateen, after co-workers at the security firm G4S reported in 2013 that Mateen had made comments about being connected to Al Qaeda, Hezbollah and the Muslim Brotherhood. Martin had Mateen’s supervisor wear a concealed recording device. –Orlando Sentinel
The elder Mateen also made several money transfers to Turkey and Afghanistan between March 16, 2016 and June 5, 2016 – a week before the Pulse attack.
BREAKING: The US Government has reveleaed that Pulse Night Club shooter Omar Mateen’s father was an @FBI informant from 2005-2016! And at one point based on a tip tried to raise and transfer $50k-$100 overseas to contribute to an attack against the Pakistani govt pic.twitter.com/Jp0F1AGbYr
Seddique Mateen, father of the Orlando terrorist who killed 49 at the Pulse night club, was an FBI confidential human source between 2005 & 2016. Search at his residence found receipts for money transfers to Turkey & Afghanistan. 2nd transfer occurred one week before the attack. pic.twitter.com/gr5Kv4I2QX
Omar Mateen was searching plane tickets to Turkey prior to his attack on Pulse. Fact that Seddique sent money to Turkey one week before the attack indicates Omar Mateen may have been planning to travel overseas prior to or following the attack. pic.twitter.com/9n3uh9TrnL
Appears that Mateen’s father also played a significant role in the FBI’s decision not to seek an indictment from the Justice Department for false statements to the FBI or obstruction of justice against Omar Mateen. https://t.co/4Pl0kRCj5Lpic.twitter.com/zqWtckWUZL
A motion filed by Salman’s defense team on Sunday argued that the case against her should be dismissed because prosecutors didn’t share the fact that the senior Mateen was an FBI asset.
A motion filed by Omar Mateen’s wife, seeking to dismiss the charges, reveal: FBI just admitted that Omar’s father, Seddique, worked with the FBI as an informant for 11 years (2005-16) & himself was under investigation for sending $$ to Afghanistan & Turkey pic.twitter.com/9jH2euP3pJ
Noor Salman’s lawyers say FBI hid these key facts until now out of embarrassment: it was due to FBI’s close relationship w/Mateen’s father that they didn’t arrest Mateen when they investigated him in 2013. Also, prosecution of Noor intended to protect real accomplice: FBI’s asset pic.twitter.com/YGGq92E8Fw
“It is apparent from the Government’s belated disclosure that Ms. Salman has been defending a case without a complete set of facts and evidence that the Government was required to disclose,” attorney Fritz Scheller argued in the court filing.
U.S. District Judge Paul Byron said he would deal with the motion later. “I’m not going to address it right now,” he said. “It’s gonna take too much time.”
Did the FBI lie?
Journalist Jack Posobiec makes some interesting observations about the FBI response to the Pulse shooting, noting that in hindsight James Comey may have been lying through his teeth about what they knew.
When Comey gave a press conference about the Pulse Nightclub shooting, he said the FBI had a confidential source that Mateen was no longer an Islamic radical
1/ Mateen bragging to co-workers about terror ties so badly, they reported him to FBI;
2/ Mateen bragging to others about terror ties led a sheriff’s deputy called FBI;
3/ reported Mateen family ties to domestic & foreign terrorists
Facts Obama’s FBI under #Mueller & @comey knew: 1/ Mateen bragging to co-workers about terror ties so badly, they reported him to FBI; 2/ Mateen bragging to others about terror ties led a sheriff’s deputy called FBI; 3/ reported Mateen family ties to domestic & foreign terrorists
Finally – as Luke Rosiak of the Dailly Caller notes, the “FBI considered making Pulse shooter Omar Mateen a confidential informant after investigating him and finding him clean. Jim Comey later called him a ‘lone wolf.’ Why hire someone as an informant if they have no connections?”
FBI considered making Pulse shooter Omar Mateen a confidential informant after investigating him and finding him clean. Jim Comey later called him a ‘lone wolf.’ Why hire someone as an informant if they have no connections?https://t.co/dxCNYFw9Qg
They want you arguing over who should and shouldn’t be called a terrorist based on what ideology you subscribe to and what color the latest killer’s skin was.
They do not want you talking about the way the label “terrorist” itself is being used to justify unconstitutional detentions, torture, mass surveillance, and wars.
They want you arguing over whether to support the Democrats because the Republicans will take civil rights away from disempowered groups or Republicans because the Democrats will take away your guns and force you to bake gay wedding cakes.
They don’t want you talking about the fact that both parties advance Orwellian surveillance, neoliberal exploitation and neoconservative bloodshed in a good cop/bad cop extortion scheme to keep Americans cheerleading for their own enslavement.
They want you arguing about whether Trump did or did not collude with Russia.
They do not want you looking at what preexisting agendas the CNN/CIA Russia narratives are advancing and who stands to benefit from them.
They want everyone fighting over table scraps while they pour unfathomable riches into expanding and bolstering their empire. They psychologically brutalize you with propaganda day in and day out, and then expect you to look to them for protection from the phantoms they invented.
They don’t want you paying attention to the growing number of signsthat the current administration is gearing up for a major military bloodbath which may lead our species into a third and final world war.
They want you talking about Stormy Daniels instead.
The “they” in question are aware that their empire is (according to their own data) entering post-primacy, which will lead to the rise of a multipolar world in which the US-centralized empire suddenly has rivals which can compete on equal footing for resources, assets and allies. Unless they do something very drastic very soon.
This arrival at post-primacy just so happened to coincide with the choice in 2016 between a warmongering establishment stalwart whom the DNC and media propaganda machine tried to force into the White House at great expense, and a billionaire who knew what people wanted to hear and has proven himself to be every bit the violent empire loyalist that his opponent would have been.
The election was fake and meaningless. Both candidates are owned and operated by the same unelected power establishment.
Now the Trump administration is being filled with more and more bloodthirsty neoconservatives of the same strain which backed Hillary Clinton, who are being promoted to higher and higher positions within that administration. Longtime Iran and Russia hawk Mike Pompeo’s promotion into Hillary Clinton’s old job as Secretary of State was quickly followed by the elevation of John Bolton, easily the most virulent neoconservative war hawk in Washington, to the position of National Security Advisor.
There were many perfectly qualified candidates who could have served as Secretary of State and National Security Advisor, but Trump selected the two most violent neoconservatives on the menu. There is no reason to do such a thing unless wars are planned; none of the countless feeble arguments I’m seeing from Trump apologists come anywhere close to a convincing argument to the contrary. All John Bolton does is war. You don’t appoint him to the leading advisory position on national security unless war is what you want.
In response to all this, Trump’s political opponents are of course talking about what he did with his penis.
Please stop this shit, America. If the US war machine goes after Iran or Russia it will likely mean a world war against multiple nuclear-armed countries, which could very easily send our species the way of the dinosaurs should a nuke get deployed in the fog of war. We don’t have time to focus on Stormy fucking Daniels.
Those most fiendishly devoted to the service of the empire would rather take that risk than see the US lose its dominant role on the global stage; for them there is no difference between the end of their empire and the end of their lives. From their point of view they are fighting for their lives, and they are willing to take all-or-nothing gambles with the lives of every terrestrial organism in order to win.
We are staring down the barrel of world war and possible extinction. This should deeply impact the hearts and minds of Trump’s opponents and his supporters. Stop arguing about Stormy fucking Daniels and spread awareness about things that really matter.
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Amid a collapse in the crypto space and under investigations over its ICO, Overstock’s share price is tumbling after-hours – near 6-month lows – after announcing a new offering of 4 million shares.
As of March 12th, Overstock had 29.5 million shares outstanding, so this is a significant dilution.
Full Statement:
Overstock.com, Inc. today announced that it intends to offer 4,000,000 shares of its common stock in an underwritten public offering.
Overstock also expects to grant to the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to 600,000 additional shares of its common stock in the offering. All of the shares will be offered and sold by Overstock. The offering is subject to market and other conditions, and there can be no assurance as to whether or when the offering may be completed, or as to the actual size or terms of the offering.
Guggenheim Securities, LLC is acting as sole book-running manager for the offering. D.A. Davidson & Co. is acting as co-manager.
Earlier today, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said he wants hemp removed from the list of controlled substances and would seek to legalize it as an agricultural commodity, according to The Washington Post.
Declassification would allow farmers to grow hemp without a federal permit, offering states more control over the hemp industry and easing the regulatory start-up costs faced by growers. “The Hemp Farming Act of 2018,” a bill co-sponsored by Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.), seeks to lessen the stigma surrounding hemp products.
Hemp—a product that does not contain enough THC to process the psychoactive properties of cannabis—has long been punished by the drug war for being tangentially related to pot. In states where hemp is legal, hemp products must contain no more than .003 percent in order to stay on the market. And yet it’s useful in a number of products, including textiles, food, and oils.
“We all are so optimistic that industrial hemp can become sometime in the future what tobacco was in Kentucky’s past,” said McConnell at a press conference, according to Forbes.
As a Kentucky native, McConnell has long been an advocate of hemp as a cash crop. In 2014, McConnell also supported the Farm Bill, which authorized state agriculture departments to create and commercialize industrial hemp research programs in partnership with universities. Since it’s passing, Kentucky’s hemp industry has been booming.
In 2017, hemp production and cultivation research was approved for more than 12,800 acres in 71 Kentucky counties—and that number is expected to grow, according to the Kentucky Department of Agriculture. Following Kentucky’s lead, 30 other states have approved hemp research programs.
McConnell also mentioned he’s open to speaking with Attorney General Jeff Sessions—a staunch proponent of the Drug War—about the hemp industry.
“Some challenges remain today between the federal government and farmers and producers in Kentucky,” McConnell said at the event, suggesting he will continue to use legislative powers to stress the difference between “hemp and its illicit cousin.”
Silver is down 1% year-to-date, while the dollar has tumbled 3.5% and gold has surged 4%, sending a possible warning signal to the broader market.
This dramatic divergence between gold and silver prices has sent the ratio of the two to multi-year highs.
The divergence between the two means prices for gold are 82 times those of silver, which is 27% more than the 10-year average.
As The Wall Street Journal reports,a higher gold-to-silver ratio is viewed by some investors as a negative economic indicator because money managers tend to favor gold when they think markets might turn rocky and discard silver when they are worried about slower global growth crimping consumption.
“There’s just not many people looking to buy silver at this point in time,” said Walter Pehowich, senior vice president at Dillon Gage Metals.
“There’s a lot of silver that comes out of the refineries, and they can’t find a home for it.”
The precious metals ratio last stayed above 80 in early 2016, when worries about a Chinese economic slowdown roiled markets, and in 2008 during the financial crisis. The ratio’s recent rise comes as speculators have turned the most bearish ever on silver and inventories in warehouses have risen, a sign there could be too much supply.
While investors have flocked toward gold with equity markets wobbling, money managers seeking safety or alternative assets haven’t favored silver.
“It’s not seeing great hedge demand because it’s just easy to go to gold,” said Dan Denbow, who manages the USAA Precious Metals and Minerals Fund . “Gold is a bit more predictable.”
As WSJ conclude, some analysts think silver’s underperformance is a negative sign for precious metals broadly because it is a less actively traded commodity, making it more vulnerable to bigger price swings on the way up and down.
For those who respect the rule of law and value America’s sovereignty, recent developments in California have been cause for dismay. The governor and several mayors there have thumbed their noses at our federal immigration laws, to the point where they are now actually tipping off illegal aliens about operations by federal immigration officers. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has announced a lawsuit against the state, but today’s judiciary has proven to be as infected with political partisanship as any other branch of government. It’s a frustrating mess.
Before you hurl a brick at your monitor or chuck your phone, there is good news.
A recent decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit strongly upheld Senate Bill 4, a law in Texas that requires all local police agencies in the state to honor immigration detainers issued by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and forbids cities, counties and local agencies from enacting or imposing non-cooperation or sanctuary policies.
Yes, America, sanity and state governments are not total strangers in some pockets of the country.
The Immigration Reform Law Institute submitted a friend-of-the-court brief in support of Texas in the appeals court case for some very specific reasons. The Supremacy Clause of the constitution is under attack in this country. Grandstanding governors and mayors seeking to burnish their open borders credentials are treating federal law as if it were an a la carte restaurant menu. America suffered the bloodiest war in its history over this issue and, as Attorney General Jeff Sessions recently commented, the matter has been settled. States must comply with federal law and if they do not, what we have is not a country but a loosely-affiliated group of de facto nation-states who are free to deviate from whatever laws they wish. This cannot and must not continue.
While the media gives it minimal coverage, violent crimes committed by illegal aliens continue unabated. One of the fastest-growing groups in America today is “angel” parents: those whose children lost their lives at the hands of illegal aliens. It should be noted that not all people here illegally are violent criminals, but it doesn’t change the fact that more and more innocent people are being killed by those who have no right to be in the country. Such violent offenders do not discriminate between those here legally or illegally as their victims. Illegal aliens in sanctuary communities have just as much a chance, and arguably more of a chance, to be victims of criminal aliens as anyone else. How is that being compassionate to anyone?
Simple deductive reasoning tells us that sanctuary cities and states act as a magnet to illegal aliens who may be wanted for previous criminal behavior. When it is known that criminal behavior is tolerated or even facilitated in a certain place, criminal behavior is likely to occur in that place. Pro-sanctuary politicians may preen about how empathetic they are, but the plain truth is that their defiance of federal immigration laws makes their communities decidedly less safe, and almost certain to create more angel parents. Because of this, California’s future is not nearly as bright as its opportunistic leaders would have us believe. Given the divergent paths of Texas and California on sanctuary policy, which one is more likely to thrive? Which one would you and your family rather live in? The answer is clear.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbot and Attorney General Ken Paxton, among others, deserve credit for taking the road less traveled with a bold stand against California-style sanctuary anarchy. Those who follow the Texas example will create safer, more prosperous communities for native-born Americans and legal immigrants alike.
Update: It will come as no surprise that following Trump lawyer Michael Cohen’s sent a fresh cease-and-desist letter to Stormy Daniels that her lawyer would fire one right back alleging in court that his personal attorney Michael Cohen defamed her by insinuating that she lied about an affair with Trump more than a decade ago.
Which remember she actually said herself three times and even signed a statement confirming it.
Daniels amended her existing lawsuit against Trump, adding Cohen as a defendant in the pending case.
Besides accusing Cohen of defamation, the amended complaint broadens Daniels’s contention that the confidentiality agreement was illegal, because it lacked Trump’s signature.
And finally we get the real meat of the litigation – as we detailed below:
The new complaint says the payment violated federal laws that impose limits on campaign donations and require those donations to be publicly reported.
Cue Maxine Waters’ cries of “impeachment.”
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As we detailed earlier, following an eye opening60 Minutes interview which gave the CBS production its highest ratings in a decade, President Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, sent a cease-and-desist letter to Stormy Daniels, demanding she apologize for fingering him as the person behind an alleged 2011 threat made in a parking lot.
Cohen’s lawyer fired back almost immediately after the Daniels interview with this letter saying allegation of goon threatening her was false >> pic.twitter.com/TWH2djrFPq
The letter accuses Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, of making a false claim against Cohen – “namely that he was responsible for an alleged thug who supposedly visited Ms. Clifford, while she was with her daughter, and made an alleged threat to Ms. Clifford.”
The letter goes on to read “In truth, Mr. Cohen had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with any such person or incident, and does not even believe that any such person exists, or that such incident ever occurred. You and your client’s false statements about Mr. Cohen accuse him of criminal conduct and constitute, among other claims, liber per se and intentional infliction of emotional distress.”
Cohen’s letter demands that Daniels and her attorney, Michael Avenatti refrain from making “further false and defamatory statements” and that they both retract and apologize for the claims made on 60 Minutes.
“A guy walked up on me and said to me, ‘Leave Trump alone. Forget the story,’” Daniels told Anderson Cooper. “And then he leaned around and looked at my daughter and said, ‘That’s a beautiful little girl. It’d be a shame if something happened to her mom.’ And then he was gone.”
Daniels said that while she never saw the man again, she would “100 percent” recognize him. “Even now, all these years later. If he walked in this door right now, I would instantly know.”
Of note, Cohen paid daniels $130,000 prior to the 2016 election, claiming he did so with his own money.
President Trump hinted at the interview Monday morning, tweeting “So much Fake News. Never been more voluminous or more inaccurate. But through it all, our country is doing great!”
So much Fake News. Never been more voluminous or more inaccurate. But through it all, our country is doing great!
Daniels’s lawyer, Michael Avenatti, previously teased the interview by tweeting a picture of what appeared to be a compact disc in a safe – hinting that he has video or photographic evidence of Clifford’s affair with President Trump.
“If ‘a picture is worth a thousand words,’ how many words is this worth?????” tweeted lawyer Michael Avenatti.
When asked about “what is the point of this tease” on The View Monday, Avenatti said “it wasn’t a tease, it was a warning shot to Mr. Cohen and to the President.”
When CBS Evening News‘ Julianna Goldman asked Avenatti if he had photos, texts or videos of her alleged relationship with Trump, he replied “No comment,” adding that Clifford just “wants to set the record straight.”
Sex sells
Stormy’s 60 Minutes interview gave CBS its highest ratings in nearly a decade, with 21.3 million viewers – second only to a November 16, 2008 interview with the Obamas that saw an audience of 24.5 million viewers – with all three segments devoted to the then-president-elect and his wife Michelle.
Although as Fox’s Greg Gutfeld said: “Finding out Donald Trump slept with a porn star is like finding out Mike Pence didn’t…”
The United States, the United Kingdom, and 13 European countries announced they’re expelling more than 100 Russian diplomats in response to a nerve attack against a former Russian spy in England. It’s the largest expulsion since the Cold War. The Russian consulate in Seattle has also been ordered closed.
The attorneys for Noor Salman, wife of Orlando Pulse nightclub shooter Omar Mateen, are calling for a mistrial after discovering that Mateen’s father was a confidential FBI source up until 2016 and argue that authorities pointed the finger at Salman as assisting Mateen to hide his father’s relationship.
An attorney for President Donald Trump’s attorney, Michael Cohen, hit back at the Stormy Daniels interview on 60 Minutes last night, denying claims that somebody in Trump’s orbit threatened her and her daughter if she came forward.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) announced he’d be introducing legislation to legalize hemp as an agricultural product and attempting to remove it from the controlled substances list. The bill’s co-sponsors are Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).
Police say an Iraqi teen living in Texas with her parents was beaten and burned with hot oil for resisting an arranged marriage. The parents face felony charges.
Yeah, keep your eyes on the road, your hand upon the wheel
Keep your eyes on the road, your hands upon the wheel
Yeah, we’re goin’ to the Roadhouse
We’re gonna have a real
Good time
The Doors – Roadhouse Blues
Spending a week driving around a western state 1,700 miles from my stomping grounds in Pennsylvania provides a different perspective on the level of economic, social and political degradation impacting the country. With a daily commute along the crumbling, crummy, gridlocked deathtrap roadways into West Philadelphia, the squalor and decomposition of our civilization is self-evident.
I live in a corrupt state with the highest gasoline taxes, highest tolls, massively underfunded government pension liability, failing government run public schools, suburban sprawl dotted with ghost malls, vacant industrial parks, and urban ghetto shitholes plagued by drugs, murder, welfare mentality, excessive taxes, and left wing politicians.
Politically, the state is virtually split down the middle, with the urban enclaves of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh dominated by Democrats, rural areas dominated by Republicans, and suburbs capable of going either way – but leaning left. Trump won the state mostly due to the lack of enthusiasm for Hillary in Philly and Pittsburgh. If the Democrats weren’t so dysfunctional and beholden to the far left, a moderate Democrat would win the state easily.
The governor is a Democrat and the legislature is Republican controlled, so budgets are virtually impossible to pass, with the only predictable outcome being higher taxes, fees, tolls, and deferral of essential actions to address the billions in underfunded government pensions. The Federal prison has a wing just for corrupt PA politicians. At least life is predictable.
Living in the northwest suburbs, 30 miles from the City of Philadelphia, and commuting into the city on a daily basis for the last 12 years, has given me a good vantage point in assessing the state of the infrastructure, economic trends, and societal decay in my part of this exponentially delusional, debt dependent, chaotic country. The U.S. and my corner of PA. have supposedly been in the midst of an economic recovery for the last nine years.
The government data shows a declining unemployment rate, rising GDP, non-existent inflation, record corporate profits, low interest rates leading to a growing housing market, soaring consumer confidence, and a record high stock market. In the parlance of Jim Morrison, we’ve been at the Roadhouse having a real good time. We’re gonna need more than a beer to recover from the inevitable hangover.
My suburban slice of Montgomery County is prosperous and growing, based upon demographic and economic data produced by the government. The populace is mostly upper middle class white collar families. I’ve lived in the same house for 23 years, through the 2000 internet bust, the Greenspan created housing bubble, the 2008 Wall Street created financial implosion, and the supposed nine year economic recovery. Within three miles of my house we had two strip centers with 100% occupancy in 1995. For the last eight years one center has been 90% vacant and the other 50% vacant. Office buildings built in 2005 still have numerous vacancies. Entire 600,000 sq. ft. office parks remain unoccupied, except for weeds, rodents, mold and decay.
Grand government plans for new retail outlets never materialized. Numerous gas stations have been shuttered, rotting and weed infested testaments to better times. Numerous grocery stores, locally owned restaurants, and small businesses have gone belly up during these supposed good times. Imagine what will happen during the next official recession.
This Potemkin economic recovery is buttressed by unpayable debt, Federal Reserve easy money, fudged financial industry accounting, fake economic data, endemic political corruption, and a perpetual flow of propaganda from the corporate media spigot convincing the mathematically challenged masses all is well and going into debt to keep up with the Joneses is a brilliant strategy for success. If you ignore the fake news and false rhetoric from politicians, bankers and the media, you can see the continued economic deterioration with your own eyes and your own bank account.
You can tell what our society values and supports by observing your immediate surroundings. The only construction I see are new bank branches, new medical facilities, drug stores, new fast food joints (creating the need for new medical facilities), and new government buildings. The once teetering Wall Street banking industry is alive and well due to tens of trillions funneled their way by the Fed and feckless Washington political machine.
You can’t swing a dead homeless person without hitting a Too Big To Trust Wall Street bank branch. Why do we need these monuments to greed and hubris when you can make a deposit with your smartphone, pay your bills on-line, and use your debit or credit card for every transaction? It’s insane to waste money on thousands of branches. But, when you can get your money from the Fed for free, everything looks like a good investment.
The trillions flowing out of people’s bank accounts and into the coffers of the sick industry complex have enriched these corporations to such an extent; they feel the need to build palatial complexes and numerous outlets for their “legal” drug distribution. You know an industry is rolling in dough when they build high tech glass palaces with concierge service and upscale restaurants, to service sick people.
Those Obamacare premiums and insurance payments are going somewhere, and even after paying the corporate executives their obscene salaries and bonuses, there is plenty left over for the construction of medical Taj Mahals and lobbying corrupt slimy snakes in congress for more. Despite the extravagance of these medical facilities, the service still sucks, a Tylenol costs $25, the physicians are barely adequate, the mis-diagnosis rate is sky high, and the staff is surly and rude.
Local politicians build themselves new grand municipal buildings, even though there are vacant office buildings out the wazoo. New Social Security Administration buildings are constructed at an astounding pace, especially in the Democrat controlled urban ghettos. New Section 8 housing estates are built with union labor on the taxpayer dime. That is the common denominator in all the new building occurring in this country.
The funds for this frenzy of banking, sick care and government construction has materialized out of thin air by a privately owned banking cabal called the Federal Reserve in conspiracy with the Deep State. This entire engineered Potemkin recovery and building boom is built on a liquefying foundation of bad debt and lies. Let it roll, baby, roll.
My little piece of suburban paradise in this failing and falling empire of debt may be decaying slowly, but my daily commute into the putrid, dilapidated, crumbling ghetto killing field called Philadelphia is a different matter. This corrupt liberal bastion of unfunded government pensions, outrageously high taxes, overpriced union labor, criminal Democrat politicians, dreadful public schools, potholes that could swallow a small car, crumbling infrastructure, murder, mayhem, and an enslaved underclass of welfare dependent minorities, is much further along the track to collapse. This city has pockets of prosperity, but its death rattle is unmistakable. The decay is too far gone and debt too large to realistically reverse course, even if there was a will to do so – which there is not.
My week in Colorado further clarified my view the American empire is in decline, but it is a cascading decline with regions and cities at various stages of collapse. My relatively rural suburban enclave is probably fifty percent of the way there. Philadelphia is eighty percent of the way there. Colorado only appears to be twenty five percent of the way there. I would ponder much of the western U.S., excluding the liberal bastions in California and Washington State, is also further from collapse than the heavily urbanized debt burdened northeastern U.S.
Driving up I-25 to Fort Collins, down to Colorado Springs and west to Boulder and Breckinridge, presented a fairly broad view of the greater Denver area. The most conspicuous aspect of Colorado, from my perspective, is the vast picturesque expanse of open space as far as the eye can see. Every direction seems to be framed by snow-capped Rocky Mountains. It’s the diametric opposite to my daily commute through the 30 Blocks of Squalor in West Philly.
The beauty of the Colorado landscape is somewhat obscured by a seemingly never ending proliferation of retail malls along the entire expanse of I-25. They all look alike, bathed in a beige sandstone design. The malls are populated by the same national retail chains inhabiting the ghost malls on the east coast. They are still constructing new malls, something not done on the east coast for years.
It seems there are still a significant number of people with disposable income in Colorado. Their labor participation rate has actually increased as their unemployment rate has fallen. The plunge in the participation rate has produced fake unemployment levels on the east coast. From that perspective Colorado is in better shape than most of the country.
You can’t help but notice the weed dispensaries sprinkled across the countryside. The legalization of marijuana has certainly had a short term economic benefit, as it has generated jobs and a massive inflow of tax revenue into government coffers. The longer term negative impact is revealing itself by the inordinate amount of homeless addicts in downtown Denver, at interstate off-ramps, under bridge overpasses in Boulder, and loitering in public parks in college towns like Fort Collins. The seeds of collapse are already planted. The influx of liberals fleeing California and the east coast are already indoctrinating a formerly conservative self-reliant state with socialist, feminist, and nanny state philosophies. This was borne out by Hillary’s narrow victory in 2016.
The infrastructure is not in a state of disrepair. Instead of trash and garbage along its interstates, there are clean-up crews picking up tumbleweeds. Everything still has that new smell feel. You just don’t see dilapidated structures. There are no potholes. Stop lights always function. Traffic is heavy at peak times, but not gridlocked. With the best ski resorts, awe inspiring tourist attractions (Garden of the Gods, Red Rocks), the majestic Rockies, growing economy, lack of government pension liabilities, and the weed industry, Colorado will sustain itself far longer than the Democrat run putrefying urban ghettos on the east coast. Make no mistake, the American empire is in the midst of a cascading collapse, and it will reach Colorado eventually.
If ever the lyrics “The future’s uncertain and the end is always near” were more applicable, it would be this past week. The stock market plunged by almost 1,300 points (no tweets from Trump taking credit), Trump accelerated his trade war with the world, he replaced a warmongering general with a warmongering neocon psychopath, the first quarter GDP estimate continued to decline to below 2%, a bunch of useful idiots were manipulated by Soros, Bloomberg and other liberal billionaires to protest against their own rights, and Trump topped it off by stabbing his supporters in the back by signing a bloated Democrat/RINO $1.3 trillion spending bill funding left wing priorities while ignoring everything he supposedly stands for. The Deep State either has pictures, or he is just a wolf in sheep’s clothing with no moral compass or desire to fulfill the agenda he ran on. It was a profoundly disappointing week for Trump supporters, even as the financial markets and economy show unequivocal cracks.
As we enter the second half of this Fourth Turning, there is a lot of uncertainty regarding the specific events which will propel us towards its climax. We do know the events will be driven by the three catalysts of debt, civic decay, and global disorder. We’ve breached the $21 trillion national debt level, with Trump’s new budget poised to blast through $22 trillion in less than a year. The $200 trillion of unfunded liabilities looms in the foreseeable future. Corporate debt stands at an all-time high. Consumer debt stands at an all-time high. Global debt approaches $200 trillion. The coming financial dislocation will blow this powder keg of debt sky high. Matches are being lit on a daily basis.
Civic decay accelerates as gun grabbing left wing billionaires attempt to disarm the deplorables before the real conflict arrives. The Deep State wages war against the insurrection within their swamp. Surveillance agencies commit acts of treason. The Constitution is shit upon by those in power. An ongoing coup against the sitting president proceeds unabated. The citizens are treated as sheep being led to slaughter.
The few critical thinking dissenters are treated as criminals for exercising their First Amendment rights. The social media conglomerates, acting as the eyes and ears of the Deep State, lure the masses into willingly sacrificing their private information. There will be no compromise. The animosity between right and left has reached civil war levels. There is no middle. This will be a fight to the finish.
Trump has surrounded himself with neo-con war mongering philistines, while provoking nuclear powers, and embroiling our military in unwinnable conflicts across the Middle East. Trade wars, whether warranted or not, will ratchet up the intensity and antagonism. The Muslim hordes invading Europe are already provoking a political uprising across the continent. The North Korea problem is far from solved. Politicians across the globe facing unsolvable domestic issues will turn to foreign conflict as a way to distract the masses. Once the Rubicon is crossed the law of unintended consequences will rear its ugly head. The future of humanity hinges on the push of a button. Do you trust the current lot of feeble minded sociopaths to do the right thing?
The future may be uncertain but the end is always near.
Within the next decade the future will be revealed. I believe we are headed for harder times. There is no going back to better days. Trump is the catalyst for conflict, both domestic and international. He will not save this nation. It will be up to individuals across the land. It’s time to mentally, physically, and financially prepare for the bitter winter ahead. Keep your eyes on the road and your hands upon the wheel. In the meantime, follow Jim Morrison’s advice and get yourself a beer.
A full-court press weekend of press by WH officials (Mnuchin gushing hope) and sure enough… a big bounce in stocks…
China stocks rebounded in the afternoon session (National Team again?)
But European stocks bloodbath’d below Friday’s lows…
And once Europe close today, US equities exploded…
But everything started in US markets with the S&P 500 finding support perfectly at its 200-day moving-average…
The Dow was the first to erase Friday’s losses, followed by S&P and Nasdaq and Trannies into the close (Small Caps remained red from Thrusday)…
Nasdaq outperformed – up 3.25% today!! All started as Europe closed…
Today was the best day for The Dow in two-and-a-half years!! & 3rd Biggest Point Gain in History
Small Caps managed to get back into the green for 2018 today along with Nasdaq but Dow, S&P, and Trannies remain red.
VIX tumbled back to a 20 handle but the term structure remains inverted…
Big Tech was the big leader today with MSFT, AAPL, and NFLX soaring…all started as Europe closed…
Facebook hit new cycle lows into a bear market… then exploded higher to close green!!!
Banks rebounded nicely (but only JPM and GS managed to recover the Friday losses)…
Energy stock rebounded even as WTI/RBOB slipped…
But even as bank stocks jumped, bank credit kept screaming higher, tracking the lagged stresses in the dollar funding markets…
Given the giant moves in stocks, Treasuries were largely unimpressed with 30Y yields up less than 1bps…
G57
For some context – 10Y Yields traded in a 2-3bps range all day… This is the 22nd straight session that 10Y Yield have closed with a 2.8x% handle.
While stocks rebounded at the European close, the dollar index did not, tumbling to its lowest close since Feb 15th…
The ruble was also hit hard and Russian stocks sank as globally sychnronized diplomatic expulsions struck investor appetite…MICEX is at 6-week lows…but as the dollar kept sinking so the ruble rebounded to end the day higher…
It was an ugly day for cryptos with Bitcoin battered back below $8000 after headlines about Twitter banning crypto/ICO ads…
Dollar weakness sparked a bid in PMs (with silver leading) but crude and copper disappointed…
Earlier today, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said he wants hemp removed from the list of controlled substances and would seek to legalize it as an agricultural commodity, according to 
The United States, the United Kingdom, and 13 European countries announced they’re 
