The Collapse Will Be Very Visible: “For Lease” And “Space Available” Signs Are Going Up All Across America

The Collapse Will Be Very Visible: “For Lease” And “Space Available” Signs Are Going Up All Across America

Tyler Durden

Thu, 05/21/2020 – 14:50

Authored by Michael Snyder via TheMostImportantNews.com,

Initially, we were told that the coronavirus lockdowns would just “temporarily” disrupt the U.S. economy, but now it is becoming clear that a lot of the damage will be permanent. 

We are starting to see businesses go belly up all over the country, and this includes some of the most iconic names in the retail world.  When J.C. Penney announced that it would be declaring bankruptcy and closing hundreds of stores, I warned that would just be the tip of the iceberg, and that has definitely turned out to be the case.  In fact, on Wednesday many analysts were absolutely shocked when news broke that Victoria’s Secret has decided to shut down about 250 stores

Victoria’s Secret plans to permanently close approximately 250 stores in the U.S. and Canada in 2020, its parent company L Brands announced Wednesday.

L Brands also plans to permanently close 50 Bath & Body Works stores in the U.S. and one in Canada, according to information the company posted online as part of its quarterly earnings.

If this pandemic had passed quickly, perhaps those stores wouldn’t have needed to be shut down.  But at this point it has become obvious that this virus is going to be with us for a long time to come.  In fact, the WHO just announced that on a global basis we just witnessed the largest number of newly confirmed cases on a single day so far.

Another major retailer that is closing down stores is Pier 1 Imports.  In fact, it is being reported that not a single one of their locations will survive

Pier 1 Imports, which previously said it would close half of its fleet of stores, now plans to close all of its locations.

The retailer, based in Fort Worth, Texas, announced in a news release Tuesday that it was seeking bankruptcy court approval to begin an “orderly wind-down” when stores are able to reopen “following the government-mandated closures during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

I was never a huge fan of Pier 1 Imports, but my wife liked to visit and see what they had, but now we will never be able to do that again.

Something about that really saddens me.

Of course it isn’t just retailers that are collapsing.  Car rental giant Hertz “is on the verge of bankrutpcy”, and things are not looking good at all…

Hertz is on the verge of bankruptcy. At the end of April, it disclosed it had missed a large amount of lease payments on its rental cars. Since then, it has entered into forbearance and waiver agreements with these lenders that give it until May 22 to come up with the money and a plan. Its cars, now parked at various parking lots around the country, are collateral for this debt.

Some of you old timers might remember the old Hertz commercials featuring O.J. Simpson.  Those were much simpler times, and to be honest I really miss them.

Unfortunately, times have really changed, and I seriously doubt that Hertz will be able to survive much longer in this very harsh economic environment.

Needless to say, a lot of businesses are going to die in the weeks and months ahead of us.  As I discussed the other day, it is now being projected that approximately one out of every four restaurants in the United States will be closing down permanently.

Can you imagine what this is going to look like?

We are going to have abandoned buildings all over the place, and this will especially be true in our more impoverished communities.

The only chance we have of pulling out of this economic death spiral is if there is a full scale return to normal economic activity all across America, but that isn’t going to happen any time soon.

Fear of COVID-19 is going to paralyze small and big businesses alike for the foreseeable future, and every new outbreak is going to spark more overreactions.

For instance, Ford just shut down two major production facilities just a few days after “reopening” them

Just days after reopening its American assembly plants, Ford temporarily shut down two separate factories because employees tested positive for Covid-19.

One plant in Chicago that builds the Ford Explorer, the Lincoln Aviator and the Ford Interceptor police car stopped operations Tuesday afternoon after two employees tested positive for Covid-19. Then, Ford’s plant in Dearborn Michigan that makes its bestselling F-150 pickup, shut down Wednesday.

If we keep shutting things down every time someone gets sick, our economic problems are just going to get worse and worse.

Look, the truth is that lots more people are going to get sick and lots more people are going to die.  In fact, one new study has concluded that the U.S. death toll will more than triple by the end of 2020 “even if current social distancing habits continue for months on end”

A new study suggests the number of Americans who will die after contracting the novel coronavirus is likely to more than triple by the end of the year, even if current social distancing habits continue for months on end.

The study, conducted by the Comparative Health Outcomes, Policy and Economics Institute at the University of Washington’s School of Pharmacy, found that 1.3 percent of those who show symptoms of COVID-19 die, an infection fatality rate that is 13 times higher than a bad influenza season.

Of course it certainly doesn’t help that we continue to allow people from other countries where COVID-19 is raging to fly into the U.S. without any special screening whatsoever

A glamorous Russian blogger says she has proved that the US is open for foreign tourism again, despite the pandemic, according to video obtained by DailyMail.com.

Sofia Semyonova, 33, a fitness model, told how she traveled on a crammed Aeroflot flight with 500-plus passengers with ‘no social distancing’ from Moscow to New York City.

She used her B2 tourist visa to enter America from Russia’s coronavirus epicentre ‘in 30 seconds without any extra questions’.

I don’t know how this could possibly be happening, but apparently it is.

Eventually, COVID-19 will literally be just about everywhere, and almost everyone in the entire country will be exposed to it.

And fear of this virus will paralyze our economy for the foreseeable future.

So the truth is that the “for lease” and “space available” signs that you are now seeing are just the start.

A lot more are coming, and it is going to be a very dark chapter for our nation.

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/3bRyUEf Tyler Durden

Lockdown Left Versus Restoration Right – A Nation Divided-er

Lockdown Left Versus Restoration Right – A Nation Divided-er

Tyler Durden

Thu, 05/21/2020 – 14:30

The American people are dying to go back to work and normalcy… but the left says no, let’s wait, and wait, and wait… as the partisan divide in America has overflowed into the pandemic

As The New York Times recently noted, Robert Griffin, research director of the nonpartisan Democracy Fund Voter Study Group, provided The Times with demographic data from a May 7-13 survey describing voters who oppose lockdown policies. They are decisively Republican (at 55 percent) compared with 27 percent Democratic and 17 percent independent; majority male, at 58 percent; largely white (69 percent compared with 7 percent black and 17 percent Hispanic); and less well educated, 74 percent without college degrees, 24 percent with degrees.

What are some of the forces driving the split between those who prioritize the economy and those whose primary concern is the physical health of the population?

W. Bradford Wilcox, a sociologist at the University of Virginia, emailed in response to my inquiry:

Progressives have grown more likely to embrace a culture of “safetyism” in recent years. This safetyism seeks to protect them and those who are deemed the most vulnerable members of our society from threats to their emotional and physical well-being.

In the case of Covid-19, he continued,

progressives are willing to embrace the maximal measures to protect themselves, the public, and the most vulnerable among us from this threat.

In contrast, according to Wilcox,

many conservatives are most concerned about protecting the American way of life, a way of life they see as integrally bound up with liberty and the free market.

Because many on the political right see the lockdowns as impinging “on their liberty, the free market’s workings, and their financial well-being,” he continued, “many conservatives want the lockdowns ended as quickly as possible.”

*  *  *

Liberty Nation’s Tim Donner discusses  the state of our divided nation with Political Columnist Joe Schaeffer, Economics Maven Andrew Moran and Legal Affairs Editor Scott Cosenza…

This week’s show is all about resetting the nation, the economy, the presidential race – and let’s not forget no less than 468 congressional races that will shape our political future. We’ll go from where things were before we hit the pause button for two months, to where we stand as we begin rebuilding an economy with over 38 million of our fellow Americans filing for unemployment in the last 9 weeks… through no fault of their own.

 

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Global Investors Demand Gold As Protection Against Financial Repression

Global Investors Demand Gold As Protection Against Financial Repression

Tyler Durden

Thu, 05/21/2020 – 14:15

Via dlacalle.com,

Disconnect between markets and economic reality:

“There is a huge disconnect between markets and the economic reality, and it’s fundamentally based on the view that 2020 is a lost year and therefore what investors need to think about is 2021 is a recovery year. It looks a very dangerous bet to me because if there’s anything that we have learned from this crisis is that estimates for 2021 remain excessively optimistic, and that the V-shaped recovery is more than elusive.”

Reaction to liquidity injections:

“The reaction of markets has been very aggressive to the liquidity injections coming from the Federal Reserve and the European central banks. But I think that at the same time that level of risk-taking is too high considering the challenges both on the economic growth recovery, but more importantly, because it’s been driven by the most cyclical sectors, the recovery in earnings cash flow and balance sheets.”

Gold miners/ BANG stocks:

“I personally always say that if you want to look at the world of metals or commodities, and you want to invest in the fundamentals of those metals or those commodities, the best way to play it is through the commodity itself, or the macro, not through equities, because cost of capital is also rising and there are challenges of financing.”

Covid-19 vaccine/implications for gold:

“There are two things that we know about Covid viruses.

One is that there has never been a vaccine for a coronavirus. That’s something that we need to pay a lot of attention to when we get these levels of optimism in the market about the vaccine. When 18 previous types of viruses have never seen a vaccine, you cannot expect it to happen or at least happen as quickly as markets would want.

The second is there is likely to be a treatment, there is likely to be a way to live with Covid-19.

What is the outlook for gold in that environment? Well if anything gold is proven in 2019 that in an environment in which markets remain positive and remain attracted to a certain level of expectation of economic growth, gold and the dollar do and can rise in tandem.”

“Gold is currently working as an alternative and as a de-correlated asset to a downturn. But we must remember as well that it is a pretty good inflation hedge. So, in general I think that the outlook for gold even in and in a recovery is actually pretty good.”

Gold/silver ratio

“I always tell my clients that if you like gold you certainly have to like silver.  I don’t understand why you would be long silver short gold or have it as a pair. I think that you need to have both. But I don’t believe in the debate about the ratio of gold to silver. Reminds me of the debate about the ratio of oil to natural gas. And I think that that was a mistake in the past.”

Silver has its own fundamentals. They’re pretty good fundamentals in supply and demand. Silver is a precious metal that has numerous positive elements in order to be comfortably bullish. However, it is not money. This is the important thing in a monetary debasement craziness like the one that we’re living is that the only asset that has been proven for centuries to be money is gold. And I think that will maintain the ratio high.

Will gold continue to be bullish?

“I don’t think that gold is going to be as bullish relative to the dollar because of the high shortage of US dollars that exists in the economy right now, which is about between 13 to 20 trillion.

However, global investors are likely to look for opportunities to find a good investment relative to their currency now.

So Brazilian investors, Turkish investors, Chinese investors, Japanese investors, European investors are likely to see a much better return of gold relative to their currencies than relative to the US.”

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2ToOkcv Tyler Durden

IMF Chief Asks Banks To Halt All Buybacks And Dividends

IMF Chief Asks Banks To Halt All Buybacks And Dividends

Tyler Durden

Thu, 05/21/2020 – 14:00

While certain companies have continued with their buybacks even if it might seem ill-advised from a corporate strategy standpoint, banks have mostly abstained, while plunging profits have prompted some to suspend their dividends.  

That’s probably for the best, according to a new opinion column published in the FT by the head of the IMF. As shares of banks around the world take a pounding thanks to the twin headwinds of low interest rates and a bleak economic outlook, we suspect more management teams – perhaps at the behest of activists nipping at their heels, or simply to try and hit their performance targets – might relapse and indulge once again in corporate America’s favorite mechanism for returning capital to shareholders.

Unfortunately, returning capital to shareholders is not what banks should be doing right now, according to the IMF’s Kristalina Georgieva, who penned a column in today’s FT calling on banks to stop all buybacks and dividends and shore up cash to ensure they have adequate capital buffers to withstand any turbulence that might be coming down the pike.

* * *

After the 2008 financial crisis, global regulators required banks to increase their prudential buffers of high-quality capital and liquidity. That significantly strengthened the resilience of the financial system. Many observers now cite those buffers as a bulwark against the adverse effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. But as we brace ourselves for a deep recession in 2020, and only partial recovery in 2021, this resilience will be tested. Having in place strong capital and liquidity positions to support fresh credit will be essential. One of the steps needed to reinforce bank buffers is retaining earnings from ongoing operations.

These are not insignificant. IMF staff calculate that the 30 global systemically important banks distributed about $250bn in dividends and share buybacks last year. This year they should retain earnings to build capital in the system. Of course, this has unpleasant implications for shareholders, including retail and small institutional investors, for whom bank dividends may be an important source of regular income.

Nonetheless, in the face of the abrupt economic contraction, there is a strong case for further strengthening banks’ capital base. Here are the reasons. Building stronger buffers is aligned with the array of actions undertaken to stabilise the economy. Governments are deploying fiscal measures in trillions of dollars, including financing that provides a backstop for borrowers who are tapping bank loans.

Central banks have innovated and provided extraordinary liquidity support to a wide range of markets. Bank supervisors have exercised flexibility to the fullest possible extent by encouraging banks to restructure loan repayments, easing regulatory requirements, and allowing banks to draw down their buffers temporarily.

The interests of bank shareholders are aligned with those of bank supervisors and customers. All stakeholders will ultimately benefit if banks preserve capital instead of paying out to shareholders during the pandemic. Protecting the banking sector’s strength now means that, once the recovery picks up, shareholders can expect large payouts — indeed the more profits retained now, the larger the eventual payout.

The need to preserve capital is already being recognised and needs to be so more widely. In some countries, banks have voluntarily decided to collectively suspend shareholder payouts and buybacks. In others, supervisors have had to push. In March, the Bank of England asked banks to suspend plans to pay dividends and cash bonuses to executives, indicating it was ready to use its supervisory powers if anyone refused. Eventually the banks all complied. In Brazil, supervisors have had to use their authority to suspend payouts in a collective manner.

Collective decisions are vital. Banks that take action on their own could be penalised by investors who fail to understand the need to restrict payouts. All banks should be covered – whether state-owned or private, whether commercial or investment. But no bank can do it alone, and if banks’ collective will is not there, then supervisors should take the decision for them.

Today, supervisors in many countries use stress tests to determine whether – and by how much – payouts should be restricted.

Pioneered by the IMF more than 20 years ago, these tests quantify the additional capital needed to keep banks resilient in the face of crisis, and are a vital guidepost helping us now to traverse an unfamiliar territory. It is time to update these tests to take into account the increased likelihood of more adverse economic scenarios caused by the pandemic.

To ensure global consistency, international co-ordination is key. The IMF and the Financial Stability Board can help achieve this. Memories from the last global crisis still linger. The public sector is doing what it can to help prevent another banking crisis from happening again. Shareholders have both an interest and an obligation to do the same.

The writer is managing director of the IMF

* * *

Source: FT

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Trump Is “Exposing The Deep State Like No One Since JFK”, Former CIA Spook

Trump Is “Exposing The Deep State Like No One Since JFK”, Former CIA Spook

Tyler Durden

Thu, 05/21/2020 – 13:46

Via Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com ,

With every new revelation about what President Trump calls “Obamagate,” you see the curtain being torn down and revealing the corrupt players who were running America and attacking our Republic.

Former CIA Officer and counter-terrorism expert Kevin Shipp, who wrote a book about the Deep State called “From the Company of Shadows,” says any hint that POTUS is a tool of the Deep State is preposterous.

Shipp explains, “That is absolutely ridiculous…”

Donald Trump has confronted the Shadow Government and Deep State more than any other president in history, and that includes JFK. JFK did, of course, confront the Deep State and we saw what happened there. 

There has been no other president that has had the guts to expose the Shadow Government and Deep State like Donald Trump has. What has the Deep State done? They have gone after him with a vengeance. Why would the Deep State attack their own with attacks to try to destroy him and his family if he wasn’t threatening to expose the Deep State? No, he’s not a Deep State president. He’s not perfect. We all know that. There are members of his cabinet that we are concerned about with connections to some of the central banks. We all know that, but Donald Trump is not Deep State. He is splitting the Deep State wide open.

Look what DNI Rick Grenell just presented to the President. He authorized for release of names of all the unmaskers. Trump is exposing the Deep State, and, personally, I am proud of him because I have been waiting for this for 20 years for a president to come out and expose these things.”

On the virus crisis, Shipp says it’s turned into a political weapon for the Left. Shipp contends, “They (Democrats) want to delay any solution to the Coronavirus until the election so they can keep the economy ruined and point the finger at Donald Trump…”

That’s one of the things they want to do. They also want mail-in ballots because that is one of the easiest ways to engage in election fraud. There is a report that just came out that people are getting mail-in ballots that already have the Democrat party checked on the box when they open it up, and they are not Democrats.

You better believe they are going to try to engage in voter fraud using mail-in ballots. There is no doubt about it because they are going to lose badly, and they know it. So, they have to do that. You bet.”

The Democrats in the House are going to try, once again, to impeach President Trump for Russian collision. Recently released documents show it was a proven total hoax that they made up, and, yet, the Dems are going to try this again before the 2020 election. What’s going on? Shipp says,

This is the last gasp of Democrat Congressional tyrants trying one last time to remove this elected President. It’s laughable…

What this is, is desperation on the part of Pelosi and Schumer. This is desperation on their part knowing that the whole thing was disproven and shot down by the evidence. If Trump gets elected a second time, you will see investigations into Congress, Senate, Obamagate and China. These people are desperate to keep that stuff from coming out.

You think President Trump is exposing them now? You wait until he gets elected a second time. That’s why they are so terrified, and they are trying everything they can to keep him from being elected.”

Join Greg Hunter of USAWatchdog.com as he goes One-on-One with CIA whistleblower Kevin Shipp.

To Donate to USAWatchdog.com Click Here…  

Kevin Shipp’s website is called FortheLoveofFreedom.net

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USAToday Reminds America Why Small Businesses Are In No Rush To Reopen

USAToday Reminds America Why Small Businesses Are In No Rush To Reopen

Tyler Durden

Thu, 05/21/2020 – 13:32

On Wednesday, CNBC declared that for the first time since the coronavirus arrived in the US, all 50 states had started lifting restrictions imposed during the nearly 2-month lockdown that upended the global economy and inspired the most expansive exercise of fiscal and monetary might in the history of the modern world.

And despite the NYT’s certitude when it reported on projections calling for 3,000 days/death by June 1, the number of cases and deaths reported across the US have continued to decline as states like Georgia have aggressively reopened their economies. Nearly a month has passed since Georgia started to reopen, and ironically, deaths and cases have climbed in states that haven’t reopened.

But in an editorial published by the USAToday ed board in Wednesday’s edition, the paper’s editors reminded us why these tactics have been so successful: small businesses and consumers have mostly shown discretion and returned only in drips and drabs, with early indicators of economic activity mostly mixed.

While the government has pumped “emergency liquidity” into the economy at a staggering rate, many businesses are worried about an issue that the federal government has been strangely reluctant to confront: What happens if a customer files a lawsuit claiming they or a family member got sick at your business?

OSHA has been reluctant to tackle the issue as well, mostly because of a difficult political conundrum for President Trump: his administration has been reluctant to issue one set of universal guidelines, saying that each state’s circumstances are different and that they should be responsible for writing their own guidelines.

If the virus wanes and a second wave never arrives, this problem should eventually go away on its own. But with more than 100 million Chinese citizens back under “partial lockdown”, relying on such an unlikely outcome wouldn’t be prudent.

Democrats in Congress have used the issue as leverage to try and pressure the president into releasing comprehensive CDC guidelines that were leaked to the press a few weeks back. They claim that Trump and Congressional Republicans can’t have it “both ways” – demanding that businesses receive protection without releasing guidelines detailing best practices for these businesses to follow.

The USAToday editorial board expounds on this argument in the editorial below (courtesy of USAToday):

* * *

Amid all the economic ruin inflicted by a pandemic, businessman Kevin Smartt said he has tried to do the right thing. “We have chosen to put people first over economics,” the CEO of Kwik Chek convenience stores in Texas told the Senate Judiciary Committee last week.

Smartt has kept all 600 employees working even as fuel sales fell 40% and in-stores sales 17%. Workers wear masks and gloves, and they disinfect counters every several minutes. Hand sanitizers are out, and tape marks are on the floor to keep customers apart.

Federal, state and local health guidelines are confusing and even conflicting, Smartt said, yet he has worked hard to comply, and the last thing he needs is to worry about getting sued: “We should not be punished with unfair lawsuits just because we kept our doors open for the American public.”

Over 100,000 small businesses have closed

He has a point, as businesses across the nation begin to reopen amid the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Economists project that more than 100,000 small companies have already permanently shuttered under the economic tyranny of COVID-19.

It’s why the Senate is debating whether to grant liability protection to businesses, and why Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the failure to do so in any new stimulus bill would be a red line GOP senators won’t cross. McConnell last week explained that what’s needed is “a legal safe harbor for businesses, nonprofits, governments, workers and schools who are following public health guidelines to the best of their ability.”

Fair enough. But the first question is what exactly are those public health guidelines that, if businesses followed, would grant them immunity from lawsuits?

Companies are still waiting. Most states don’t have the scientific wherewithal to create best-business practices for a deadly illness that, each day, scientists are learning more about. It calls for the kind of expertise within the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the kind of workplace regulation found at the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Second wave of COVID-19 coming

But OSHA has punted on this issue, leaving safety options to businesses.

CDC scientists, meanwhile, drafted precisely what’s needed — detailed steps on how best to protect students, travelers, employees and worshipers for schools, transit systems, businesses and churches. But the White House has shelved that and has chosen, instead, for the CDC to issue a vague and broad checklist to be followed.

The Trump administration has joined McConnell in calling for business liability protection. But the president can’t have it both ways. He can’t urge Congress to protect companies from coronavirus claims if they follow public health guidelines, without providing those companies public health guidelines. Neither can trial lawyers benefit from a Catch-22 where businesses get neither clear direction from public health authorities nor protection from lawsuits.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee that called Smartt as a witness, has it right. “The sooner we can come up with a regulatory, OSHA-driven process to allow big, small and intermediate businesses (guidance), the better off we’ll be,” Graham said last week.

Only a few dozen COVID-19 lawsuits have been filed. But the number could rise, particularly if the virus returns with a vengeance in the fall, as scientists on the White House Coronavirus Task Force are predicting. Temporary liability protection for businesses that are trying to do the right thing as they’re being battered by a virus-driven recession would be fair.

But the federal government must first step up to produce a science-based road map for companies on how best to keep customers and employees safe – how best to do the right thing.

* * *

Source: USAToday

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Flynn Targeted By Christopher Steele After FBI Offered To Pay Ex-Spook ‘Significantly’

Flynn Targeted By Christopher Steele After FBI Offered To Pay Ex-Spook ‘Significantly’

Tyler Durden

Thu, 05/21/2020 – 13:15

In the weeks leading up to the 2016 election, the FBI offered to pay former British spy Christopher Steele “significantly” for collecting intelligence on Michael Flynn, according to the Daily Caller‘s Chuck Ross.

The FBI’s proposal – made during an October 3, 2016 meeting in an unidentified European city, and virtually ignored by the press – has taken on new significance in light of recent documents exposing how the Obama administration targeted Flynn before and after president Trump’s upset victory over Hillary Clinton in 2016.

The inspector general’s report, released on Dec. 9, 2019, said that FBI agents offered to pay Steele “significantly” to collect intelligence from three separate “buckets” that the bureau was pursuing as part of Crossfire Hurricane, its counterintelligence probe of four Trump campaign associates.

One bucket was “Additional intelligence/reporting on specific, named individuals (such as [Carter Page] or [Flynn]) involved in facilitating the Trump campaign-Russian relationship,” the IG report stated.

FBI agents also sought contact with “any individuals or sub sources” who Steele could provide to “serve as cooperating witnesses to assist in identifying persons involved in the Trump campaign-Russian relationship.”

Steele at the time had provided the FBI with reports he compiled alleging that members of the Trump campaign had conspired with the Kremlin to influence the 2016 election. –Daily Caller

Of note, Steele was promoting a discredited rumor that Flynn had an extramarital affair with Svetlana Lokhova, a Russian-British academic who studied at the University of Cambridge. This rumor was amplified by the Wall Street Journal and The Guardian in March, 2017.

According to the Inspector General’s report, the FBI gave Steele a “general overview” of their Crossfire Hurricane probe – including their efforts to surveil Trump campaign aides George Papadopoulos and Carter Page, along with Paul Manafort and Flynn. In fact – some FBI agents questioned whether the lead agent told Steel too much about the operation, according to the IG report.

Via the Daily Caller

In recent weeks, the release of two documents raise questions about potential links between the FBI’s request of Steele and the Lokhova rumor.

One of the documents is a transcript of longtime John McCain associate David Kramer’s interview with the House Intelligence Committee. Kramer testified on Dec. 17, 2017, that Steele told him in December 2016 that he suspected that Flynn had an extramarital affair with a Russian woman.

“There was one thing he mentioned to me that is not included here, and that is he believed that Mr. Flynn had an extramarital affair with a Russian woman in the U.K.,” Kramer told lawmakers.

Kramer said that Steele conveyed that Flynn’s alleged mistress was a “Russian woman” who “may have been a dual citizen.”

An FBI memo dated Jan. 4, 2017, contained another allegation regarding Flynn and a mysterious Russian woman.

The memo, which was provided to Flynn’s lawyers on April 30, said that an FBI confidential human source (CHS) told the bureau that they were present at an event that Flynn attended while he was still working in the U.S. intelligence community. –Daily Caller

Lokhova and Flynn have denied the rumors – with Lokhova’s husband telling the Daily Caller News Foundation that he picked his wife up after the Cambridge dinner where an FBI informant said they ‘left together in a cab.’

Meanwhile, a DIA official who was at the Cambridge event with Flynn also told the WSJ in March 2017 that there was nothing inappropriate going on between Flynn and Lokhova.

Read the rest of the report here.

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2LPumn8 Tyler Durden

Trump Threatens “Very Strong Reaction” If Beijing “Interferes” With Hong Kong

Trump Threatens “Very Strong Reaction” If Beijing “Interferes” With Hong Kong

Tyler Durden

Thu, 05/21/2020 – 13:00

Did President Trump just crank the belligerent rhetoric up to ’11’?

During a briefing with reporters, President Trump answered questions about the MSM fixations du jour, including his feelings on mail-in ballots and his current COVID-19 infection status (still negative). But amid the fluff, one reporter asked an important question referencing Thursday’s decision to adopt a new “national security” resolution opening the door to new laws allowing Beijing to punish political dissidents with impunity.

Trump replied that if this happens, the US would respond with a “very strong reaction.” You’ll remember that last year, President Xi warned in a speech that any foreign powers who screwed with China’s relationship with Hong Kong and Taiwan would face serious consequences.

  • TRUMP, ASKED ABOUT CHINA’S MOVE ON HONG KONG, SAYS  IF IT HAPPENS U.S. WILL HAVE A VERY STRONG REACTION

A few hours ago, Chinese tech giant Baidu became the first major Chinese company to delist from an American exchange (it de-listed from the Nasdaq) in retaliation against a bill passed by the Senate that would require Chinese companies to submit to certain auditing conditions that Beijing currently resists, for dubious reasons.

With the WHA agreeing to an “independent” investigation of China’s early response to the coronavirus, and President Trump embracing increasingly belligerent rhetoric as his administration pins its reelection hopes on vilifying China as an ascendant American foe that effectively – even if inadvertently – unleashed a potent biological weapon on the world, investors including David Tepper have said they see a tail risk of an armed conflict between the world’s two largest economies.

Fortunately for the Fed, investors haven’t really woken up the possibility yet.

 

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/36v3Hpv Tyler Durden

Joe Rogan Says He Is “Going To War” Against Google And Big Tech

Joe Rogan Says He Is “Going To War” Against Google And Big Tech

Tyler Durden

Thu, 05/21/2020 – 12:46

Authored by Steve Watson via Summit News,

Alex Jones exclusively revealed Thursday that Joe Rogan signed an exclusivity contract for his podcast with Spotify as a way of striking back against YouTube censorship.

Jones, who has been friends with Rogan for 22 years, spoke at length with the podcast king, with Rogan telling him that he should announce to the world that the move is a direct strike against Google, that the “gloves are off” and he is “going to war” against big tech tyranny.

Jones told his audience that Rogan had encouraged him to go on air and “put it all out there.”

The deal, suggested to be worth $100 million was announced earlier this week. Analysts are saying that it will change the face of media forever.

Jones, who has appeared on The Joe Rogan Experience numerous times, also announced that Rogan had specifically requested in his contract with Spotify that the Infowars host will be allowed to appear uncensored on the podcast on Spotify.

Jones said Rogan wants him as the first guest on the show when it arrives on Spotify on the 1st of September, followed by Elon Musk, who is also currently speaking out against big tech censorship and cancel culture.

The last time Jones appeared on the podcast, it was the most listened to podcast of 2019 with over 17 million views on YouTube..

Google was subsequently caught shadow banning the episode in an attempt to stop its popularity.

Jones said Rogan told him he is sick of being treated poorly by Google, and the straw that broke the camel’s back was that Rogan wanted to interview doctors and experts who have differing opinions on the coronavirus to the officially sanctioned narrative, and was told by YouTube that they would not allow such content on their platform.

Rogan also told Jones that the lockdown has provided him more clarity on the situation.

Rogan has noted on his podcast that YouTube is consistently demonetising his content and removing videos. He told Jones that he sees it not only as ‘un-American’, but also ‘anti-human’.

An excited Jones descried the move by Rogan as “peak internet”.

Rogan’s podcast was downloaded 190 million times per month last year. His YouTube channel has 8.42 million subscribers, and the move away is sure to be a huge strike against big tech thought control.

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2A2oy75 Tyler Durden

Trump In ‘Desperate Effort To Steal Election’ By Opposing Vote-By-Mail, Says DNC’s Perez

Trump In ‘Desperate Effort To Steal Election’ By Opposing Vote-By-Mail, Says DNC’s Perez

Tyler Durden

Thu, 05/21/2020 – 12:30

President Trump is ‘in a desperate effort to steal an election’ by opposing vote-by-mail during the coronavirus pandemic, according to Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez.

In a Wednesday appearance on MSNBC, host Chris Hayes referenced recent comments and tweets by Trump attacking vote-by-mail, saying: “For more on the president’s efforts to subvert the democratic process, I’m joined by the chair of the Democratic National Committee. I’m always conflicted about, you know, stories of the variety the president tweeted.”

He tweets a lot of things and most of it is nonsense or lies or liable or slander or whatever. But the way he attacked absentee voting today struck me as genuinely dangerous and genuinely sort of threatening to democracy. How high on the priority list is it for you to do what you can to the safeguard administration of free and fair elections this fall?” Hayes continued.

To which Perez replied: “It’s the highest priority, Chris because we know that you’re going to see voter suppression on steroids in the months ahead. We had a conversation I know about the election in Wisconsin recently where they tried to weaponize the pandemic to suppress the vote and steal the state supreme court race. It failed miserably. That’s what you’re going to see.”

Hayes said, “I want to play for you something the president just said about voting, which struck me as deeply pernicious, this sort of voting is an honor and going off about how he doesn’t want people mail-in voting. Take a listen.”

In a clip, Trump said, “Common sense would tell you it’s massive manipulation can take place, massive. They — and you do —you have cases of fraudulent ballots where they actually print them and give them to people to sign, maybe the same person signs them with different writing, different pens. I don’t know. A lot of things can happen. If you can, you should go and vote. Voting is an honor. It shouldn’t be something where they send you a pile of stuff, and you send it back.” –Breitbart

 

Perez responded to the clip, saying: “Voting isn’t simply an honor, Chris, voting is a fundamental right. People pay the ultimate price to exercise the right to vote. And in a pandemic, the notion that you have a president going after Republican and Democratic secretaries of state in the middle of a pandemic, Secretary Benson is trying to make it easier for eligible people to exercise their right to vote. She’s trying to allow them to exercise the choice that the Michigan Constitution provides them.”

What we have to do between now and November is make sure that every single voter in every single state has a choice. The choice to vote on election day. So the choice to early vote, the more days of early voting, the more social distancing you do and the right to vote absentee with no excuse, the right to vote by mail. Republicans and Democrats agree on that. This president, in a desperate effort to steal an election, is going to stop at nothing.”

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2ZvyVvb Tyler Durden