Mexican Oil Hedging Desk “Covered Against Downside Risk”
Mexico’s oil hedgers, one of the world’s most-active sovereign oil-trading desk, has spent nearly $1 billion on options contracts to protect the government’s revenues from oil sales for 2020 against volatile price action, Reuters reported, citing data from the country’s Ministry of Finance.
The news is especially notable because, as we reported last month, Russia is considering oil prices could drop to as low as $25 in 2020.
WTI prices remain in a 12-month bear market from last October’s 76.90 high as oil products demand worldwide have dropped, as well as a synchronized global slowdown continues to gain momentum.
Sources told Reuters that Citigroup Inc, Goldman Sachs Group Inc, NP Paribas SA, and JPMorgan Chase & Co are among some of the top firms on Wall Street aiding Mexico in building out the hedging program for next year.
Reuters noted, “It was not immediately clear what volumes Mexico had hedged or what price protection it had secured. One Wall Street source estimated that the program was nearly complete while another put it at about 75%.”
Mexican Deputy Finance Minister Gabriel Yorio told the Congress of the Union on Tuesday that the hedging program would enable Mexico to sell oil around the $49 level for next year, allowing the government to create a 2020 budget.
“This is a price at which we can control the risks of a fall in the oil price and, obviously, if the price is higher, we’ll have higher income,” he told Congress. “So, I believe we are covered against the downside risk.”
Yorio faces a difficult challenge in getting the hedging program right. Tensions are soaring across the Strait of Hormuz, helping to stabilize oil at higher prices, but then there’s the global slowdown that is also weighing on demand and depressing prices.
The former finance ministry official Julio Ruiz told Reuters that “this year, I believe they’ll do something similar to what we did back in 2017.”
And if that’s the case, the 2017 strategy bought nearly $1.25 billion of put options to lock in export prices for the next year.
If geopolitical tensions continue to soar in the Middle East, then it’s likely oil prices will remain elevated in 2020 — likely to only expire Mexico’s hedging program completely worthless.
But if geopolitical tensions remain mute, and the synchronized global downturn continues to broaden, then the hedge would be rewarding.
Why is Russia preparing for $25 oil prices in 2020? Is Mexico’s latest hedge a sign that the net direction of the market for 2020 is down?
Edward Snowden recently talked to Joe Rogan for nearly three hours. Snowden has a book out (“Permanent Record“) about his life and his decision to become a whistleblower who exposed lies and crimes by the U.S. national security state. As I watched Snowden’s interview, I jotted down notes and thoughts I had. (The interview itself has more than seven million views on YouTube and rising, which is great to see.) The term in my title, “turnkey tyranny,” is taken from the interview.
My intent here is not to summarize Snowden’s entire interview. I want to focus on some points he made that I found especially revealing, pertinent, and insightful.
Without further ado, here are 12 points I took from this interview:
1. People who reach the highest levels of government do so by being risk-averse. Their goal is never to screw-up in a major way. This mentality breeds cautiousness, mediocrity, and buck-passing. (I saw the same in my 20 years in the U.S. military.)
2. The American people are no longer partners of government. We are subjects. Our rights are routinely violated even as we become accustomed (or largely oblivious) to a form of turnkey tyranny.
3. Intelligence agencies in the U.S. used 9/11 to enlarge their power. They argued that 9/11 happened because there were “too many restrictions” on them. This led to the PATRIOT Act and unconstitutional global mass surveillance, disguised as the price of being kept “safe” from terrorism. Simultaneously, America’s 17 intelligence agencies wanted most of all not to be blamed for 9/11. They wanted to ensure the buck stopped nowhere. This was a goal they achieved.
4. Every persuasive lie has a kernel of truth. Terrorism does exist – that’s the kernel of truth. Illegal mass surveillance, facilitated by nearly unlimited government power, in the cause of “keeping us safe” is the persuasive lie.
5. The government uses classification (“Top Secret” and so on) primarily to hide things from the American people, who have no “need to know” in the view of government officials. Secrecy becomes a cloak for illegality. Government becomes unaccountable; the people don’t know, therefore we are powerless to rein in government excesses or to prosecute for abuses of power.
6. Fear is the mind-killer (my expression here, quoting Frank Herbert’s Dune). Snowden spoke much about the use of fear by the government, using expressions like “they’ll be blood on your hands” and “think of the children.” Fear is the way to cloud people’s minds. As Snowden put it, you lose the ability to act because you are afraid.
7. What is true patriotism? For Snowden, it’s about a constant effort to do good for the people. It’s not loyalty to government. Loyalty, Snowden notes, is only good in the service of something good.
8. National security and public safety are not synonymous. In fact, in the name of national security, our rights are being violated. We are “sweeping up the broken glass of our lost rights” in today’s world of global mass surveillance, Snowden noted.
9. We live naked before power. Companies like Facebook and Google, together with the U.S. government, know everything about us; we know little about them. It’s supposed to be the reverse (at least in a democracy).
10. “The system is built on lies.” James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, lies under oath before Congress. And there are no consequences. He goes unpunished.
11. We own less and less of our own data. Data increasingly belongs to corporations and the government. It’s become a commodity. Which means we are the commodity. We are being exploited and manipulated, we are being sold, and it’s all legal, because the powerful make the policies and the laws, and they are unaccountable to the people.
12. Don’t wait for a hero to save you. What matters is heroic decisions. You are never more than one decision away from making the world a better place.
In 2013, Edward Snowden made a heroic decision to reveal illegal mass surveillance by the U.S. government, among other governmental crimes. He has made the world a better place, but as he himself knows, the fight has only just begun against turnkey tyranny.
Morgan Stanley: The “Growth Stock” Crash Has Begun
Authored by Michael Wilson, chief US equity strategist at Morgan Stanley
Over the past few months, equity investors have received a lot of good news. First, the Fed cut interest rates at the end of July. Next, the ECB announced it would restart QE in November, adding €20 billion per month for as long as it deems necessary. Two weeks ago, we saw “significant progress” from the US and China on trade with Phase 1 of a much larger deal, according to White House officials. If that wasn’t enough, the Fed decided to deal with front-end funding market distress by announcing a US$60 billion-per-month balance sheet expansion, and Brexit seems to be reaching a conclusion.
So why hasn’t the S&P 500 been able to definitively break out above July’s highs? We think it’s pretty simple. Growth has disappointed this year, and many leading indicators suggest it will continue to do so, particularly in the US (Exhibit 1). This is precisely why so many central banks are easing and why there are calls for more fiscal stimulus.
The bottom line is that the risk of a global and US recession next year is higher than it’s been, well, since the last recession. Arguments against a recession next year rely on the still-strong US consumer remaining resilient. The counterargument is that the consumer depends on Corporate America for a paycheck, and Corporate America is hurting, with the average company’s earnings shrinking by 5-10% year-to-date. In other words, the probability is rising that companies may need to start cutting back on labor via layoffs instead of just reducing hours worked and slowing the pace of wage gains. While jobless claims haven’t risen yet, if investors wait until that happens, it will be too late to do anything about it. We’ve been skewed defensively in our portfolios for the past year in anticipation of this growing risk, and it’s worked well.
Over the past few weeks, many high-flying growth stocks continued the tumble that began back in July. Software has been hit particularly hard, in line with our advice to avoid expensive growth stocks due to lofty valuations and unrealistic earnings expectations, given the tepid outlook for economic growth and the austere capital spending backdrop.
Until recently, many argued that software companies would be immune to the capital spending slowdown that began last year, but now there’s evidence that some of these companies are seeing a slowdown via pushouts of new billings. While the deceleration in software and other secular growth sectors hasn’t been as severe as in the more industrial segments, these stocks were not priced for any slowdown, which is why the correction has been so severe for some of the most expensive names. As usual valuation does matter, even for momentum growth stocks.
The other recent change in capital markets weighing on secular growth stocks is the newfound discipline on profitability. In my last Sunday Start, I discussed the impact We Company’s failed IPO would have on investors’ willingness to fund unprofitable businesses. This has played out in lower valuations for the worst offenders. I’ve noticed that several of these companies have reported higher-than-expected profitability during 3Q earnings season. I think this represents an effort to avoid the new scrutiny. But higher profits in the short term likely mean less spending and therefore lower growth in the intermediate term, leaving investors in these hyper-growth companies to figure out the right valuation.
The bottom line is that the winds of change are upon us and the long-overdue adjustment process for the most expensive secular growth stocks is under way and will likely continue until valuations become so cheap that they discount a more achievable outcome on growth and profitability and/or the risk of economic recession and lower capex subsides. I don’t think we’re there yet on either score, so we continue to recommend a more defensively oriented equity portfolio in the US with overweights in Consumer Staples and Utilities, while remaining underweight Technology and Consumer Discretionary. We’re also overweight Financials, because at some point either recession risk will abate or we’ll want to look through the recession once it’s inevitable and the consensus view. Finally, given the aggressive stance of central bankers around the world, the yield curve should re-steepen over the next year, no matter what the outcome, supporting bank earnings and stocks. In short, we favor value over growth, but with a defensive rather than cyclical skew on the value side.
No wonder Democratic Party bosses and mainstream media are trying to bury presidential contender Tulsi Gabbard. She is the only candidate, perhaps the only politician in the US, who is telling the American public exactly what they need to know about what their government and military are really up to: fighting illegal regime-change wars, and to boot, sponsoring terrorists for that purpose.
It didn’t come much clearer nor more explicit than when Gabbard fired up the Democratic TV debate this week. It was billed as the biggest televised presidential debate ever, and the Hawaii Representative told some prime-time home-truths to the nation:
“Donald Trump has blood of the Kurds on his hands, but so do many of the politicians in our country from both parties who have supported this ongoing regime-change war in Syria that started in 2011… along with many in the mainstream media who have been championing and cheer-leading this regime-change war.”
The 38-year-old military veteran went on to denounce how the US has sponsored Al Qaeda terrorists for its objective of overthrowing the government in Damascus.
It was a remarkably damning assessment of US policy in Syria and elsewhere in the Middle East. And it was by no means the first time that Gabbard has leveled with the American people on the brutality and criminality of Washington’s so-called “interventions”.
The other 11 Democratic candidates on the stage during the TV debate looked agog after Gabbard’s devastating and calmly delivered statement. All the others have proffered the false narrative that US forces are in Syria to “fight terrorism”. They deplore Trump’s announcement last week to pull back US troops from northeast Syria because, they say, it will undermine the fight against Islamic State (IS or ISIS) and other Al Qaeda affiliates. They also condemn Trump for “betraying Kurdish allies” by his partial troop withdrawal.
President Donald Trump talks about “ending endless wars” and “bringing our troops home”. But he still premises his views on a credulous belief that the US under his watch “defeated ISIS 100 per cent”. In that way, he essentially shares the same corny view as the Democrats and media that America is a force for good, that it is the “good guys wearing white hats riding into the sunset”.
On the other hand, Gabbard stands alone in telling the American people the plain and awful truth. US policy is the fundamental problem. Ending its regime-change war in Syria and elsewhere and ending its diabolical collusion with terror groups is the way to bring peace to the Middle East and to spare ordinary Americans from the economic disaster of spiraling war debts. American citizens need to know the truth about the horror their government, military, media and politicians have inflicted not just on countries in the Middle East, but also from the horrendous boomerang consequences of this criminal policy on the lives and livelihoods of ordinary Americans, including millions of veterans destroyed by injuries, trauma, suicide, and drug abuse.
Following the TV debate this week, it seems that Gabbard won the popular vote with her truth-telling. A major online poll by the Drudge Report found that she stole a march on all the other candidates, winning approval from nearly 40 per cent of voters. Top ticket candidates Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden were trailing behind with 7 per cent or less.
Gabbard has clearly struck a deep chord with the US public in her honest depiction of American wars.
Despite her shattering exposé and seeming appreciation by the public, most mainstream media tried to bury her after the TV debate. Outlets like Vox and CNN declared that Warren was the winner of the debate, whose talking points were mainly about domestic policy issues. Like the other candidates, Warren plies the propaganda narrative of US forces “fighting terrorism”. Vox even slated Gabbard as “a loser” in the debate and claimed she had made “blatantly false” statements about the US’ role in Syria.
Other mainstream news outlets chose to ignore reporting on Gabbard’s demolishing of the official propaganda about American wars. Earlier this week, CNN and the New York Times smeared her as a “Russian asset” and an “apologist for Assad”, referencing a visit she made to Syria in 2017 when she held talks with President Assad.
The Democratic National Committee is claiming that Gabbard does not have sufficient support in polls it deems worthy for her to qualify for appearing in the next TV debate in November.
International events, however, are proving the Hawaii Representative right. US troops, as with other NATO forces, have been occupying Syrian territory illegally. They have no mandate from the United Nations Security Council. The pullback of US troops by Trump has created a vacuum in northeast Syria into which the Syrian Arab Army is quickly moving to reclaim the territory which US-backed Kurdish fighters had de facto annexed for the past five years. Several reports show the local people are joyfully welcoming the arrival of the Syrian army. The scenes are reminiscent of when Syrian and Russian forces liberated Aleppo and other cities previously besieged by terror groups.
America’s war machine must get out of Syria for the sake of restoring peace to that war-torn country. Not because “they have defeated ISIS 100 per cent”, as Trump would conceitedly claim, nor because “we are betraying Kurds in the fight against terrorism”, as most Democrats and US media preposterously claim.
Peace will come to Syria and the Middle East when Washington finally ends its criminal regime-change wars and its support for terrorist proxies. Tulsi Gabbard seems to be the only politician with the intelligence and integrity to tell Americans the truth.
MSM Pans Al-Baghdadi Raid; ISIS Leader Remembered As “Religious Scholar”, “Promising Young Footballer”
Following the announcement that ISIS founder and leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi blew himself up along with his three children during a raid conducted by United States special forces, the mainstream media has done their best to downplay the victory – going so far as to praise al-Baghdadi.
For starters, the Washington Post lead with the headline: “Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, austere religious scholar at the helm of Islamic State, dies at 48.”
The Times of London called al-Baghdad “A promising young footballer and a student of the Koran who became a terrorist, mass murderer and the world’s most-wanted man.”
The absurd headlines have also sparked a new hashtag – #WaPoDeathNotices– in which Twitter users envision similar obituaries for terrible people.
Adolf Hitler, passionate community planner and dynamic public speaker, dies at 56.#WaPoDeathNotices
Mainstream US news, meanwhile, went to great lengths to downplay the event.
James Clapper – Obama’s former National Intelligence Director (who is now under criminal investigation) said that al-Baghdadi’s death could “galvanize” ISIS, telling CNN‘s “State of the Union” “What is going to be interesting is to the extent to which this negatively affects ISIS or does it galvanize ISIS, the remnants of ISIS, which still survives as an ideology and has franchises in other places besides Syria.”
CNN also knocked President Trump for the level of detail President Trump went into about the raid – suggesting it has increased the risk to sources that may still be on the ground.
CNN’s Vinograd on al-Baghdadi raid: The level of detail that President Trump went into in that press conference increases the risk to sources that may still be on the ground. It’s really unprecedented when you think about how much detail he actually went into. It is irresponsible pic.twitter.com/RnqZNzQAq8
CNN’s @npwcnn says President Trump’s remarks “echoed frankly the crudeness you would often expect to hear maybe from ISIS.” pic.twitter.com/ueGxy5J4c0
— Trump War Room (Text TRUMP to 88022) (@TrumpWarRoom) October 27, 2019
Speaking on CBS “Face the Nation,” President Obama’s Jt. Chiefs Vice Chair James Winnefeld slammed Trump for “piling humiliation” on ISIS after the operation.
“If you look back at the bin Laden raid, we treated his body with respect that is due under Islam,” he said. (h/t Paul Sperry)
Admiral James Winnefeld tells @margbrennan that he’s worried about Trump’s “piling on” by describing al-Baghdadi as a “dog.” Says it sends a signal to followers “that could cause them to lash out possibly more harshly in the wake.” pic.twitter.com/L6y7a17bm0
Perhaps US forces should dump chunks of al-Baghdadi’s body in the ocean, just to be safe?
The Democrats are unbelievable. On a day where @realDonaldTrump’s order to strike led to the death of our most wanted terrorist leader, somehow the Democrats are using it as an opportunity to criticize the President. Elected Democrats hate Trump more than they love our country. https://t.co/SWcpZRJ037
I once had a Twitter war with a Canadian, who was spewing some nonsense from a wing-nut article that San Francisco was a third-world city. Using the Socratic method in our debate, the first question I asked was if he had ever been to San Francisco? “Nope.”
Next question: Do you have a homeless population in your city? “Yep.”
I then tried to explain the reason why San Francisco has such a high homeless density was because the city is so wealthy, which drives up rents and home prices. How could SF be a third-world city if it was so wealthy? It didn’t even register with the peckerhead.
Now we have the data.
Full Disclosure
I lived in San Francisco for several years. It’s by far the best and most beautiful city in the world, in my opinion. One of three of the world’s most exotic cities: San Francisco, Hong Kong, and Rio de Janerio. Not to mention it has three World Series and three NBA championship rings (kinda, sorta) in the past ten years.
Live And Let Die
I would spend a week in New York and fly back home, and after landing at SFO, a river of peace would just flow through my veins. Seriously, it was like smoking some serious potent weed as I disembarked from the plane. Not that I partake, of course.
After arriving back to the City, I once got into a taxi and the driver asked where I had come in from. “New York City. ” He responded, “I used to live in New York. It’s a place where people spend the whole day barking at each other.” A lot of truth in that statement
It’s a city of everything for everybody, from lefty weirdness to the right-wing weird, and everything in between. Love it.
We once were going to move to Chapel Hill, NC, a great place to raise kids, great schools, great people, but I told the family, “it’s just not California.”
Too Many Billionaires
The following data helps explain San Francisco’s homeless problem, caused, in part, by skyrocketing rents and home prices. Not all of it can be explained by the following , but a large part can.
The City’s billionaire density if off the charts: one billionaire per every 11,600 inhabitants. If the U.S. as a whole had the same billionaire density, the country would have 28,200 billionaires instead of just 705 of the uber-wealthy.
What’s the solution? That’s above my paygrade but we are starting to hear a lot of proposals as the presidential campaign unfolds. And you know what I am talking about.
The San Francisco Paradox
How is it that San Francisco is by far the wealthiest city in the world as measured by billionaire density, yet, what some will say, is the country’s most liberal city?
We have always kind of believed it’s an evolutionary and natural selection thing. It goes back to the Gold Rush days.
America was birthed by risk-takers and the riskiest of those risk-takers moved out west in the mid-1800s – the 49ers – to chase their dreams panning for gold.
That Wild West spirit and risk-taking culture still lives South of Market Street in San Francisco and Silicon Valley. It has also been helped by a huge Unicorn bubble, which is in the process of deflating.
Our sense is there will be fewer billionaires in San Francisco, same time next year.
Hillary’s “A Donald Trump Asset” – Bill Maher Urges Clintons To “Go Away”
Outspoken liberal comedian Bill Maher may have crossed the line with his honesty this time.
During his monologue on this weekend’s show, Maher dared to say that it would be best for Bill and Hillary Clinton to just “go away” and steer clear of the 2020 Democratic National Convention.
“It seems like every few months, Hillary Clinton bubbles up again,” Maher said to the audience. “And people are like, ‘Oh, she’s thinking about running.’ Or she says something crazy.”
“The Clintons – they’ve got to go away,” Maher said.
“I’m saying this a year out,” he continued. “They can’t be at the convention. Maybe on the video, waving or something, but I’m serious.”
Maher then concurred “she is!” with Michigan Rep. Justin Amash’s comment that Hillary is a “Donald Trump asset” after the losing presidential candidate’s social media war with Tulsi Gabbard.
“And Bill is damaged goods. And I just thinking they’ve got to go away. We can’t be associating them with the Democratic Party.”
How long before the mainstream media exclaims: Is Bill Maher a ‘Russian asset’ too?
African Swine Fever is killing millions upon millions of pigs all over the world, and this threatens to create a crippling global shortage of protein as we head into 2020. This epidemic began in China last year, and it is now also running wild in North Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar and the Philippines. But this crisis is certainly not limited to Asia. According to the Washington Post, so far in 2019 there have also been outbreaks “in Belgium, Bulgaria, Hungary, Latvia, Poland, Romania, Russia and Ukraine.”
Overall, cases of African Swine Fever have been documented “in nearly 50 nations”, and U.S. pork producers are extremely concerned that it could start spreading here too.
African Swine Fever is extremely contagious, there is no vaccine, and there is no cure. Once it starts spreading in a certain area, there isn’t much that can be done “other than culling herds and loading carcasses into hazardous waste sites”. Literally, we are talking about an unstoppable global plague that is an existential threat to our food supply. Of course many of us don’t eat pork, but there will also be an immense strain on supplies of beef and chicken as those that eat pork are forced to turn to other alternatives. This is an exceedingly serious situation, and with each month it is just getting worse.
China is the epicenter for this crisis, and CNN is reporting that the Chinese herd has “shrunk by around 130 million” since this epidemic first began last year…
The damage that African swine fever has wrecked on China’s pig population is hard to overstate. The country is home to half of all the pigs on the planet, and its herd has shrunk by around 130 million since the outbreak began about 13 months ago, according to a CNN Business analysis of data from the Chinese agricultural ministry. Many farmers are reluctant to restock pigs after they are slaughtered, fearing they’ll catch the disease.
To put that in perspective, there are only about 70 million pigs in the United States.
Yes, that number is for the entire country.
So the damage that has already been done in China is beyond cataclysmic, and this crisis is very far from over.
And according to the Washington Post, the losses in China are even higher than what CNN is reporting. If you can believe it, the Post says that “as many as half of China’s pigs” have already died…
As many as half of China’s pigs, an estimated 300 million, have died of the virus or been exterminated since the disease took hold 13 months ago.
Of course the virus continues to sweep through China like wildfire, and at this point Rabobank is projecting thatup to 70 percent of China’s pigs could eventually end up dead.
And considering the fact that about half of all the pigs in the entire world are in China, that is a very sobering thing to hear.
Needless to say, this crisis has been dramatically driving up the price of pork. According to CNN, the price of pork in China is now nearly 70 percent higher than it was at this time last year…
African swine fever has ravaged China’s pig population, and the country’s consumers are feeling the pain. Some are even switching to other meats as the dietary staple becomes unaffordable.
Pork in China now costs nearly 70% more than it did a year ago, according to data released Tuesday by China’s National Bureau of Statistics.
For the average Chinese citizen, this is a really big deal, because pork accounts for about 70 percent of their total meat consumption.
China has also been buying more pig meat from the rest of the world to keep its consumers happy. The country imported more than 1.3 million tons of pork in the first nine months of 2019, a 44% spike compared to a year ago, according to customs data published Monday. Imports of beef were up more than 50%, as people substitute that meat for pork in their diets.
As this virus continues to rapidly spread all over the planet, the supply crunch is only going to get worse.
Global prices are going to continue to escalate, and those on the bottom of the global economic food chain are going to have an increasingly difficult time being able to afford to buy any pork, beef or chicken at all.
And nobody should expect things to turn around in a year or two. In fact, one expert is projecting that “it will be another 4 to 6 years before China will be able to rebuild its herd”…
“We’re past a year now and it’s still spreading and getting worse,” he says. “We believe it will be another 4 to 6 years before China will be able to rebuild its herd, but that’s making assumptions about when and if they will be able to get an effective vaccine.”
Of course that projection assumes that there will be a vaccine, but right now there is no vaccine and we don’t know if there will ever be one.
Meanwhile, this virus just continues to sweep across the globe like wildfire. In fact, we just learned that it has gotten into “two more provinces in the Philippines”…
The highly contagious and deadly African swine fever virus has spread to two more provinces in the Philippines, the world’s 10th-largest pork consumer, officials said on Friday.
Cases of infections were detected in some areas in Cavite, south of the nation’s capital Manila, and in Nueva Ecija on Luzon island.
This is a global plague unlike anything we have ever seen before.
According to the New York Daily News, “more than one-quarter of Earth’s pigs have been wiped out by the virulent disease.”
I put that last sentence in bold to make sure that you caught that.
More than a fourth of our pigs are already gone, and this virus is still raging out of control.
I will continue to keep my readers updated on this crisis. What we are facing is literally a global nightmare, and we are still in the early chapters.
California Fires Spark Massive Mandatory Evacuations; Wineries Burn As Winds Hit 93 MPH
California’s annual wildfires are back despite a series of planned power outages aimed at preventing them – the latest of which is expected to affect as many as 3 million people across huge swaths of the state.
Fire encroaching the highway on 128, both sides, in Sonoma Co. in Healdsburg. Major wind gusts kicking up and and trees and power lines down everywhere. Updates to come #KincadeFire@NBCNews@TODAYshowpic.twitter.com/0vYvsLTLk2
Listen as Graton Fire sounds an air raid siren over abc over to alert people about MANDATORY EVACUATIONS pic.twitter.com/rMiqc4Wa5u
— Sonoma County Scanner Updates (@SonomaScanner) October 27, 2019
“The next 72 hours will be challenging,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said on Saturday. “I could sugarcoat it, but I will not.”
Josh Edelson/Getty Images
As of midnight, Sonoma County resembled a disaster zone – with some 180,000 residents ordered to evacuate their homes.
Approx 180,000 people under evacuation order due to #KincadeFire. This is the largest evacuation that any of us at the Sheriff’s Office can remember. Take care of each other.
Latest Evacuation map. Mandatory evacuations have been expanded and now include much of western and northern Santa Rosa. For most up-to-date map:https://t.co/Hn7WgrrZCz
Highway 101 was closed indefinitely through Santa Rosa as wind gusts of up to 93 mph were reported by the National Weather Service in Healdsburg Hills in the northern part of the county. That said, the NWS now reports that the winds will “start to reduce compared to the peak experienced in the last few hours, but remain strong today with a ramp up tonight.”
As of 7:15 a.m. the Kincade fire near Geyserville had grown to 30,000 acres according to Cal Fire, and is 10% contained. It has destroyed 79 structures and threatens over 31,000 according to the SF Chronicle.
Fully involved structure along Hwy 128 near Jimtown. It appears to be a home. Watch how quickly the tree catches fire, sending showers of embers everywhere. This is why it’s so important to evacuate when told to do so. This is situation is changing rapidly. #KincadeFirepic.twitter.com/qVHE9L92HE
As of Sunday morning, PG&E confirmed that it had blacked out over 1 million customers, corresponding to roughly 3 million people.
The outages are unprecedented in scope — larger even than the controversial PG&E shut-offs that affected more than 2 million people earlier this month. Blackouts extending from the far North Coast and the northern Sacramento Valley down into the Sierra Nevada foothills, throughout much of the Bay Area and in parts of the Salinas Valley and Kern County.
In the North Bay, where the Kincade Fire is raging in northeastern Sonoma County, the impact is acute. Much of Sonoma County is subjected to the shut-offs, and in neighboring Marin County, officials said they expected virtually every customer to lose power. –SF Chronicle
This marks the third massive outage in one month, and the second in one week.
“These are difficult calls,” Newsom added at a Napa press conference. “But a society as industrious and entrepreneurial and innovative as ours should not have to face a choice between public safety and public blackouts. We can do both together. And that is what path we are on.“
Chilean President Sebastián Piñera on Saturday said he would reshuffle his cabinet after over 1 million Chileans poured into city streets across the country Friday to demand structural reforms to the country’s government and economic system.
In Chile, more than 1 MILLION people took to the streets yesterday to protest the brutal neoliberal capitalist policies of rightwing billionaire oligarch President Piñera
Many people are calling it the largest protest in Chile’s history
The move by Piñera came as the protest movement mobilized people in the capital Santiago and beyond.
“We’re asking for justice, honesty, ethical government,” protester Francisco Anguitar toldAFP Friday.
Piñera made the announcement late Saturday morning.
BREAKING: Chile’s President
Piñera has asked his ministers to resign, in the most dramatic move since protests began a week ago. The military also announced an end to the curfew. Yesterday’s protest, by more than 1 million Chileans, is forcing change.pic.twitter.com/gZMtMarDnp
The timeline and plan for the replacement of ministers remains unclear. On Saturday, Reutersreported that a document obtained by the news agency “suggested Piñera was considering replacing the heads of at least nine ministries, including the ministries of interior, defense, economy, transportation and environment.”
Chilean senator Felipe Kast on Twitter credited the Friday protests with prompting Piñera’s decision.
“A peaceful day that will leave its mark on our history,” said Kast. “Chile is not the same as it was yesterday.”
The protests kicked off on October 15 after high school students occupied subway stations in Santiago to protest fare hikes. The movement exploded from there as demonstrations quickly became about the country’s neoliberal economic system and Piñera’s government.
Piñera, in response to the protests, authorized a brutal crackdown on protesters by military and police forces. Video from the protests shared on social media showed police and soldiers attacking unarmed demonstrators.
La vibrante democracia chilena de @sebastianpinera queda en evidencia en este video que demuestra cómo actúa @Carabdechile con el pueblo de a pie. Toda una oda a los DDHH y a las buenas prácticas policiales con las que pretenden dar lecciones a #Venezuela. Cortesía al autor. pic.twitter.com/Qwu9rbUyd6
Police aim a shotgun during clashes with anti-government protesters in Valparaíso, #Chile, Friday, Oct. 25, 2019. (@AP Photo/Matías Delacroix) pic.twitter.com/jHdeEeLKEl
Support for the protest movement poured in from across the world.
“The people of Chile have all my love and support,” tweeted writer Naomi Klein. “Their courage is awe-inspiring.”
Journalist Ben Norton called the protests a “massive rejection of neoliberalism” and linked to photos from the protests.
This photo from the protests in Chile yesterday is going viral. The flag on top is from the indigenous Mapuche Nation.
While corporate media outlets churn out nonstop propaganda against US enemies, people are rising up against US-backed right-wing client regimes in Latin America pic.twitter.com/cj3JfAz8lN
