Vice President Mike Pence said Tuesday that safe spaces and free speech zones on America’s college campuses are “antithetical to the process of learning” and that he is proud of young people for challenging various speech codes on their campuses.
Pence made these comments during an event hosted by Christian conservative nonprofit the Alliance Defending Freedom and made clear that campus free speech is an issue that President Donald Trump takes seriously. Earlier in 2019, Trump signed an executive order tying federal research dollars to free speech on campus, as Campus Reformreported at the time.
WATCH (relevant portion begins around the 14:10 mark):
“We’ve sent a very strong message to campuses, universities, and colleges around the country that the freedom of speech is enshrined in the First Amendment of the Constitution, and we expect our institutions of learning to respect that and respect diverse views on our campuses, and create an environment that is conducive to learning,” Pence said.
The Vice President continued by expressing that he is “encouraged” by young students on college campuses who are standing up to restrictive speech codes.
“And this is — I must tell you: I feel somewhat encouraged not just because of the strong stand the President has taken, but because of the courageous stand that we’ve seen young people taking on campuses around the country, challenging these — what do they call them? — ‘safe zones’ that emerged; you know, challenging speech codes that have emerged on campus,” Pence said. “All of those things are antithetical to the process of learning.”
He noted that more and more students are starting to challenge speech codes, and that it’s no longer just conservatives battling them anymore.
“The encouraging thing…is I see it’s not just conservatives that are speaking out against this now,” Pence said. “It’s actually very encouraging that many liberals are recognizing the political correctness, the reality of speech codes and censorship on our campuses.”
Pence said that it is critical that free speech and discourse are kept safe on college campuses, and told the audience what he does whenever he sees protests.
“You know, I’m reminded, my kids — my kids often quote me. Whenever I was governor or Vice President, or we see — I see somebody waving an unflattering sign or — you know, some people shouting something out — I always look at my kids and I say, ‘That’s what freedom looks like. That’s what freedom sounds like.’ Right? And the ability to disagree,” Pence said, “the ability to be critical of people that are in public life — that’s at the very center of what the people who founded this country had in mind and has been preserved through the generations. And we have to make sure it’s preserved on the campuses of America.”
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2YAWCmn Tyler Durden
A plan to find new work for about 570 resident physicians that will be stranded by Hahnemann University Hospital’s bankruptcy has come under fire for leaving its residents potentially uninsured, according to Bloomberg.
Hahnemann University Hospital, in Philadelphia, filed for bankruptcy in July and began shutting down at the same time that hundreds of doctors were beginning their residencies. Now, the plan to move those doctors has been criticized by both medical education groups and the US government.
Hahnemann came up with a plan to sell its residency program to Tower Health, an operator of other hospitals in the region. The program could wind up being auctioned off if competing offers come in, with plans for an auction to be held this week and the results to later be presented to a judge in bankruptcy court in Delaware.
The proposed sale would give residents a place to go, while at the same time making money for Hahnemann by moving its Medicare contracts along with other elements of its residency program.
However, the US government has been critical of the plan, stating this week that it doesn’t comply with requirements for handing off Medicare arrangements. US authorities are urging the bankruptcy judge to reject the resident program sale when it comes up for review. Pennsylvania medical oversight officials argued on Tuesday that nothing in the deal overrides the state’s licensing authority.
Medical education authorities also cautioned that Hahnemann could be “sticking new doctors with liability if something goes wrong with patients they saw while working at the hospital.”
The Association of American Medical Colleges, the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates and the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Educationor all noted that nothing in the resident program sale protects the residents and that Hahnemann has not assured that it will continue to provide insurance coverage for any medical mishaps that take place as it winds down.
The hospital is closing after failing to return a profit to its private equity owners, headed up by former investment banker Joel Freedman.
The hospital has a limited number of options, but medical groups argue that either the hospital or its buyer has to provide insurance coverage and preserve medical records for residents. Michael D. Brofman, a New York lawyer who has represented unionized residents and interns in other hospital bankruptcies said: “Everyone who signs a chart gets named in a malpractice case.”
Once Hahnemann is completely disbanded, lawyers for those claiming that they were injured by treatment at the hospital will likely try to collect damages from the people that work there. The exposure could be a massive problem for young doctors who already have significant amounts of student loan debt.
Lawyers for the Association of American Medical Colleges and other education groups urged the court to provide answers on how residents would be protected going forward.
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2ThGgt9 Tyler Durden
A few weeks ago, I noticed a woman standing in my neighbor’s yard doing something I thought was pretty damn strange: she was measuring blades of grass with a tape measure.
Then I noticed the city truck parked on the street.
Turns out, the woman was with codes compliance or whatever they call it…apparently, her job is to drive around looking for reasons to harass and extort people for things like tall grass.
When I realized who she was and what she was doing, my next thoughts were:
“Are there not real problems in this city that need attention? There are people who drive around and measure grass for a living? And these employees are paid with taxpayer money…to extort taxpayers?”
It isn’t like there aren’t real problems in this city. Like most regions in the US, there are things like potholes, traffic light outages, crime, and other random issues that, to a logical thinker, seem more pressing than the height of residents’ lawns.
Since when did having tall grass become a crime?
In many parts of the United States, allowing your grass to reach a certain height will lead to an unpleasant visit from the Grass Gestapo. I know, because it happened to me a few days after I spotted the Lawn Police measuring my neighbor’s grass. We were the lucky recipients of a letter informing us that OUR grass was too tall and that if we didn’t address the “violation” there would be consequences.
So, we mowed the grass and thought the issue was resolved.
A few weeks later, we got another letter from the city. Apparently, we are now on some kind of lawn maintenance watch list.
Here is an excerpt from the second letter. I have added my own observations and commentary (the parts in bold and italics):
An inspection of the above described property (so much for private property – pretty sure this is trespassing) was conducted and the following violation of the [redacted for privacy] municipal code was observed:
On 06/25/2019 you were sent a letter stating the following violation. Once again on 07/23/2019 I inspected your property and the grass and weeds were again exceeding the allowed 7 inches. (Again, this woman admits she trespassed on our property)
VIOLATION:
All premises and exterior property shall be maintained free from weeds or plant growth in excess of 7 inches in height. All noxious weeds shall be prohibited. Weeds shall be defined as all grasses, annual plants, and vegetation, other than trees or shrubs provided; however, this term shall not include cultivated flowers and gardens. (Now every property “owner” is expected to be able to identify noxious weeds and other plants? I’m surprised the city hasn’t hired botanists to come out to identify each and every piece of vegetation on every yard and fine us per plant.)
Any owner of agent having charge of a property who fails to cut and destroy weeds after service of a notice violation, they shall be subject to prosecution in accordance with (code redacted) and as prescribed by the authority having jurisdiction. Upon failure to comply with the notice of violation, any duly authorized employee of the City or contractor hired by the City shall be authorized to enter upon the property that is in violation and cut and destroy the weeds growing thereon, and the costs of such removal shall be paid by the owner or agent responsible for the property. (Translated: We will trespass on “your” property whenever we want, and there is nothing you can do about it.)
Also in accordance with state statutes (redacted for privacy), if weeds are allowed to grow on the same property in violation of (code redacted) more than once during the same growing season, no additional notification is Department of Planning and Community Development required and the weeds will be cut by a contractor employed by the City with the cost thereof placed as an additional special tax on the property if it is not paid within 30 days of receiving invoice.
Additionally, if it is determined that compliance is not met, a citation may be issued in the (redacted) court which will require an appearance in Court and may include a fine of up to $1000 per day (What the heck?) that the violation is allowed to occur. (This is extortion. What if a property owner is disabled or injured and can’t afford to hire lawn service? What if they are in the hospital? What if they just happen to like tall grass?)
The letter included copies of photos the Grass Police took of our yard.
A man may lose his home due to the height of his grass.
While some people might think “Well, just cut your grass regularly and the government will leave you alone,” it isn’t always that simple.
Jim Ficken knows this all too well.
The city of Dunedin, Florida, is trying to steal his home because the grass was too tall.
The Institute for Justice (IJ) – known as “the National Law Firm for Liberty” – is helping Ficken fight the government in court.
Here is a summary of the case:
In May 2018, Jim left his home in Dunedin, a Tampa Bay suburb, to go to South Carolina to work on settling his late mother’s affairs. While Jim was out of town, the man he paid to cut his lawn unexpectedly died. Grass grows quickly in Florida, and the lawn soon grew longer than the ten inches allowed by the city. The city immediately began fining Jim, having classified him as a “repeat offender” because of a warning he got back in 2015. Jim finally found out he was being fined when a code inspector told him he would be getting “a big bill.” Jim then immediately cut the grass, figuring he would be fined no more than a few hundred dollars.
It was $500 per day—the same as the fine for driving 50 mph in a school zone. And the city assessed it every day for over 57 days. With fees loaded on top, the total fine was nearly $29,000. That’s not the kind of money Jim has lying around. He begged the city to reconsider—to fine him something fair—but the city refused.
Come February, it was time to pay up. The city gave him 15 days to come up with $29,000, otherwise the city was going to get its money another way: by foreclosing on his home. And on May 7, that’s just what the city voted to do. (source)
Ficken is not the only American who is being subjected to this kind of treatment, IJ goes on to explain:
No one should lose their home because they let their grass grow too long. In February 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that governments cannot impose excessive fines. And losing your home because the grass was too long is excessive. Jim is nearly 70 and on a limited income. Fining him $29,000 is outrageous. And it’s part of a wider trend: all over America, local governments are padding their budgets by assessing crippling fines on their own residents.
That’s why Jim and the Institute for Justice are fighting back in court. It’s not just about Jim’s home in Dunedin, Florida. It’s about ensuring—for everyone—that abusive governments can’t trump the Constitution. (source)
Ficken filed a lawsuit against Dunedin and members of its Code Enforcement Board. He’s seeking $1 in nominal damages, attorneys fees, and injunctions that would relieve him of the fines. The suit also hopes to end Dunedin’s practice of fining people “without considering a homeowner’s ability to pay.”
“The City had the authority to mow Jim’s grass and send him a reasonable bill,” the filing points out. “Upon information and belief, the City did not do so because it prioritizes revenue over code compliance.”
Some might think cities are justified in fining people who do not maintain their lawns. But if one is concerned about the appearance of a neighbor’s yard (property values and all that), why not…go over and offer to mow the grass yourself? That seems like a neighborly thing to do, doesn’t it?
Is a $29,000 fine – or a person losing their home – proportional to having tall grass for a few weeks?
Does this sound like something that should happen in a free country?
Fining people $500 a DAY is unconscionable and frankly, downright cruel.
People are outraged over how governments are treating property owners.
Thankfully, Fricken’s story has received a lot of attention, and a lot of people are angry about how the city is treating him.
In May, it was reported that the mayor of Dunedin and other city officials received multiple threats of violence in response to the case.
The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office is now investigating after the mayor of Dunedin and other city officials received multiple threats of violence in response to a viral story about a citizen being fined nearly $30,000 for not cutting his grass, according to Dunedin City Manager Jennifer Bramley.
People from across the country unleashed their anger on the city of Dunedin by phone and by email this week.
“This is repeat violations. There were 15 of them and we intervened on behalf of the neighborhood. We are not putting him out on the street without a home. He has 4 homes,” Bramley said.
Bramley is speaking out on behalf of Mayor Julie Ward Bujalski who has been the target of threatening phone calls to her home. The person on the other end threatened harm to the mayor and her family.
“There have been threats to the code enforcement board, the code enforcement division, to city hall, the city manager’s office. Physical threats,” Bramley said.
One emailer wrote: “I hope someone burns your city hall to the ground.”
“We’re going to come down there and visit you, a whole bunch of us,” someone said in a voicemail.
Bramley says some workers are concerned.
“A lot of our employees are frightened to come to work,” Bramley said. (source)
A few weeks after the city reported it was receiving threats, this story broke…
The city of Dunedin has hired a crisis PR firm after coming under fire from the public for moving to foreclose on a homeowner who could not pay nearly $30,000 in fines for tall grass.
I-Team Investigator Kylie McGivern found a month-long city contract with the firm, Sachs Media Group, will cost taxpayers $25,000. (source)
Let’s get this straight: the city is threatening to take a man’s home because his grass was tall. The city faces public scrutiny and backlash for its actions. The city then adds insult to injury by spending $25,000 in taxpayer money to try to save face.
Have we reached peak government stupidity yet?
Ron Sachs, CEO of Sachs Media Group, told the I-Team the following:
“The city’s doing its job the way it’s supposed to do. And it’s making sure your neighborhood is protected and your community quality of life is protected, and the reason they’ve asked for our help is to help them message most effectively the facts and the truth, because some news organizations are not fully and fairly reporting this story.”
Sachs called Ficken, “a chronic scofflaw, who ignores code enforcement notifications and has enjoyed being a scofflaw, being a bad neighbor who doesn’t even live in the home in question.” (source)
“Jim lives in the property, he’s been living there for years. So the extent that the city is suggesting otherwise, it’s just untrue. With respect to previous code violations, I think the city’s putting a really colorful gloss on what actually happened. In every instance in which Jim has received a notice to correct any sort of alleged violation on his property, he’s done it. He was never fined once by the city. He’s been compliant every single time. This is the first time they’ve ever fined him and they decided that they were going to go nuclear,” said Bargil. (source)
John Stossel spoke with Ficken and Bargil:
Governments imposing excessive fines is a widespread problem.
I have yet to figure out who exactly is harmed by tall grass, but it isn’t the only petty “offense” that governments are fining people for.
Slapping unsuspecting individuals with ridiculous fines and fees is becoming increasingly common, as IJ reports:
Ultimately, this case is bigger than Jim. In 2007, the entire amount of fines that Dunedin imposed for code violations was $34,000—only a little more than the amount the city is now demanding for Jim’s lawn alone. A decade later, in 2017, the city was raking in 20 times as much, about $700,000. In fiscal year 2018, it collected almost $1.3 million in total fines.The city’s code‑enforcement attorney—the one who refused to negotiate with Jim—calls the system a “well‑oiled machine.”
It represents a larger trend: governments imposing crippling and excessive fines and fees and then using abusive tactics to collect. For example, Florida is considering taking away the restored voting rights of felons who haven’t been able to pay court fees. Nationwide, about forty states will take away your driver’s license if you owe certain fees to the government. In the most egregious cases, a city might even give a private prosecutor a financial incentive to go after minor code violations and then charge residents for their own prosecutions (source)
It seems that governments seek out opportunities to steal property.
Consider the following examples.
In 2011, Eileen Battisti lost her home over an unpaid $6.30 tax bill. Yes, you read that figure right. No, it is not a typo. When Battisti’s husband died, she used the proceeds from his life insurance policy to pay off the mortgage but struggled to keep up with some other bills. She missed a property tax deadline by six days but eventually paid the original bill of $833.88 plus the penalty and late fees. However, she was unaware that additional interest of $6.30 had accrued – that amount was not included on the last bill she received.
In 2010, Battisti was late again with her county tax payments. She again settled up, paying interest and penalty in full for 2010. The $6.30 from 2008 remained unpaid and Battisti claims that she was not made aware of the balance. By 2011, the amount due from the 2008 tax bill had ballooned to $255.84. County officials proceeded to put Battisti’s home up for sale.
Battisti’s home was eventually sold at sheriff’s sale for nearly $120,000. After taxes, interest and costs deducted from the sale, Battisti was entitled to just $108,039 from the proceeds. She was not entitled to her home. (source)
When I first heard about Battisti’s case several years ago, it was quite the wake-up call. For the first time, I realized that we really do not have any true property rights here in the US.
Thankfully, in 2014, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that Battisti was entitled to her home because she was not given clear notice of the amount due. But can you believe this case had to be taken all the way to the state’s highest court – and that it took 3 years for Battisti to get her home back?
Last month, a woman in New Jersey was facing the prospect of losing her house in Cranford – that she has lived in since the 1940s – because of delinquent property taxes. Rose Estwanick is a 106-year-old widow who suffers from a plethora of physical ailments as well as dementia. Estwanick’s daughter created a GoFundMe campaign for her mother, in which she shared the tragic details of the situation:
Having checked with our municipal tax office, we cannot defer property taxes. The State of New Jersey has no hardship exemptions for centenarian homeowners on social security income. We have one option available to avoid the Cranford Township Tax Sale scheduled for September 18, 2019: Make a minimum PAYMENT OF $8,367.18. (source)
On the bright side, Estwanick’s fundraising campaign has raised over $22,000 so far, exceeding the $12,000 goal her daughter established.
All of these cases shed light on a troubling reality: we truly do not own anything.
How independent are any of us, really? We like to think we live in the “free-est” nation in the world, but do we really? Think about it.
You never own your home outright, even when the mortgage is paid off. Every year, you must make your extortion payment to the city or trust me, you won’t be living in that house for long.
The same thing with your car. If you don’t pay your annual extortion payment on your vehicle and pay a hundred bucks for a tiny sticker that gives you permission to drive it, it will be promptly towed away by the city with the government’s blessing. Then, like a hostage negotiation gone wrong, you’ll have to pay even more money to cover their theft and storage of YOUR vehicle.
On a regular basis, you must pay a fee and ask the government for permission to do any number of things, such as driving a car, traveling outside the country, running a business, adding another bathroom to your home, or even catching a fish for dinner.
Permits and licenses are big revenue generators from start to finish – and if you proceed without asking permission, they will extort more money from you in the form of fines. If you refuse to pay the fines (or if you can’t) they’ll kidnap you and lock you in a cage, where you’ll be forced to perform manual labor for 10 cents an hour for whatever length of time the legal authorities feel is sufficient to teach you a lesson.
There are places in our nation where you can’t use your property the way you want. There are areas where you cannot collect the water that falls on your land. There are places where you aren’t allowed to detach your home from the grid. There are places that dictate where your vegetable garden can grow (or even if you’re allowed to have one), places that won’t allow you to hang your clothes out to dry, and places that make it illegal to sleep in your car.
The bottom line is, some places in the United States are freer than others, but we’re all still serfs paying fealty to lords. (source)
Perhaps a little – no, a lot – of rebellion is in order.
What if people started refusing to pay these exorbitant fines?
What if people started helping each other – reaching out to each other to offer help, mowing each other’s tall grass, and offering other forms of assistance?
What if we all worked together to protest massive government overreach and showed tyrants that we aren’t going to put up with their coercion and bullying tactics anymore?
There is power in numbers.
This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, and it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.
Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both.
The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress. – Frederick Douglass
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2KwLzRm Tyler Durden
A new report from real estate company Douglas Elliman shows that second-quarter housing data in New York City is faltering, reported Crain’s New York Business.
Apartments sold in Manhattan in the second quarter plummeted 36.7% from the second quarter of 2017. The median sales price for the units plunged 19.2% during that period to $2.6 million from $3.3 million, according to Douglas Elliman.
Existing-homes make up 87% of all residential sales in Manhattan, fell 12.3% from the year prior. The median sales price for the apartments was $975,000 in the second quarter, marginally higher but off the top of $995,000 that was tagged last summer.
Jonathan Miller, president and CEO of the market research and appraisal company Miller Samuel, warned about the softening Manhattan housing market and said sales prices are a lagging indicator. He notes that the market has been trending down for three successive quarters.
“I characterize that as a reset, and it does have the potential to fall farther,” Miller said.
“Demand is continuing to be softer than it was last year.”
And it was only last year when we cited a report from Bank of America that rang the proverbial bell on the US real estate market, which said existing home sales have peaked, reflecting declining affordability, more significant price reductions and deteriorating housing sentiment.
“Call your realtor,” the BofA note proclaimed: “We are calling it: existing home sales have peaked.”
Last week, home sales in June dropped more than expected, suggesting that the housing market across the country continues to falter despite lower rates.
The National Association of Realtors said existing-home sales fell 1.7% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.27 million units last month.
The slowdown in housing comes despite lower mortgage rates, an uptick in wages, and the lowest unemployment rate in nearly 50 years (that’s if you believe the government’s statisticians).
The Wall Street Journal recently reported that foreign buyers plunged 21% YoY. The participation of foreigners has been a critical element in driving luxury markets across the country, and specifically — ones in New York.
Miller said inventory is quickly building with more than 6,000 units for sale in Manhattan.
The slowdown in Manhattan is a combination of an exodus of foreign buyers; President Trump’s income tax changes, which limited the deductions for mortgage interest to the first $750,000 borrowed and capped state and local taxes (including property taxes) to $10,000; the increasing probability of a window of vulnerability for the U.S. economy that could generate a shock large enough that would spark the next recession; trade war uncertainty that has resulted in companies reworking supply chains out of China into Southeast Asia; and a global synchronized slowdown.
“We’re definitely going through a period of change,” Miller said, “and it’s not entirely clear where it’s heading right now.”
With the Federal Reserve embarking on the first interest rate cut since the 2008 financial crisis, Wall Street and most investors have the whole rate cut narrative wrong – it’s not pre-emptive whatsoever but rather several quarters too late. Once the Fed starts cutting – they will eventually stop at zero. A recession is ahead, this is more bad news for real estate markets like the ones in New York City that could soon experience significant reversals.
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2M7ASYD Tyler Durden
Is the president a stable genius taking on the globalist empire and succeeding?
Since announcing his candidacy for the highest office in the land, President Donald Trump has been accused of playing grand 4D chess. Lately, you have to wonder if the billionaire real estate mogul is not only competing in a chess match against the world but also playing backgammon, checkers, Risk, and Hungry Hungry Hippos blindfolded, arms tied behind his back, and underwater without an oxygen tank.
The latest events in the world of economics are just too connected to be a coincidence.
Is Trump accidentally stumbling into these developments, or is he the stable genius taking on the globalist empire and succeeding?
Powell Pause To Hurt China
After months of global financial markets enduring a case of will he or won’t he, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell met the White House halfway and gave the administration a quarter-point cut in interest rates at the July Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting. Moving forward, the target Fed funds rate will be in the 2.00% to 2.25% range.
Despite the US economy residing in the boom phase of the business cycle, Powell acknowledged that the dovish measure was a “mid-cycle adjustment,” adding that this is not the beginning of a series of long-term rate cuts. However, considering how the trade war has intensified, it is more than likely the central bank will pull the trigger on another rate cut before the year is finished.
That brings us to the next development.
One day after the Eccles Building caved and delivered a rate reduction, President Trump shocked markets and announced new 10% tariffs on the remaining $300 billion in Chinese imports. It was surprising because Washington and Beijing agreed to a second trade truce and American and Chinese trade representatives renewed talks that very week.
By having a more accommodative monetary policy, in addition to strong economic figures, Trump has wiggle room to take risks on trade policy. Although escalating trade disputes inevitably will impact the world’s two largest economies, pumping money into the market will produce short-term stimulus. It might be enough until President Trump uses his Art of the Deal methods and nabs a trade agreement with President Xi Jinping that would, in theory, spark a rally in equities.
But that is not all.
The new tariffs destroyed the Chinese yuan in foreign exchange markets. To kick off the trading week, the yuan cratered 1.5% and tumbled below the crucial seven mark against the US dollar. Now, there are a few things to consider on this subject.
The first is that this could result in a spike in capital outflows, which would depress domestic market sentiment. The second is that a devalued yuan might encourage US officials to grieve about a weaker currency that would make Chinese exports even cheaper, hurting foreign competitors and adding to its trade surplus. The third is that the White House could get the Treasury Department to finally label the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) as a currency manipulator.
Why is this important? Here is what the president tweeted soon after the yuan plunged to an 11-year low:
“China dropped the price of their currency to an almost historic low. It’s called ‘currency manipulation.’ Are you listening Federal Reserve? This is a major violation which will greatly weaken China over time!”
President Trump has already suggested that he wants the Fed to emulate the European Central Bank (ECB), meaning he desires enhanced easing – lower rates, bond-buying, and other stimulus measures. It is true that the Fed’s purview does not consist of interfering in exchange rates, but its policies would affect forex markets. So, turning on the printing press would debase the greenback and make its exports appear more attractive, though it would diminish Americans’ purchasing power.
Laser Pointers
Is this hypothesis giving the president too much credit? Perhaps. But the president has shown us that we are all cats and he holds the laser pointer, ensorcelled as we are by every tweet, announcement, and off-the-cuff remark – good or bad. He could say that all human beings are gorgeous, and that would somehow ignite an international incident and encourage millions to ask, “What about extraterrestrials? #SpaceAliensAreNotAliens!”
Trump made the Democratic leadership stand beside far-left anti-Semites because he called out the Squad. The president got the left to dismiss the reality in Baltimore, drawing attention to just how bad it is in the Democratic-run city. He told the press he gets them to do the vetting for any name he touts. Heck, Trump even managed to persuade the Democrats to defend MS-13 gang members after he called them “animals.”
Why wouldn’t the same be true of economics?
Yes, it is true he is employing 19th-century mercantilist policies that will hurt the average American in the end. Yet, it is still a fascinating look into how just one man can perturb political opponents, spook global financial markets, and send the media into a tizzy and at the same time miraculously appear to be winning and advancing his America First agenda.
If it is all part of the plan, then it is impressive politicking unseen before in America.
Trumponomics
The tale of Grigori Rasputin is one of the fascinating folklores in Russian history. A religious figure and good friend to the Romanov royal family, Rasputin had a hypnotic relationship with the royals, and the disgruntled subjects of the czar took matters into their own hands. Conjecture has it that he was poisoned with potassium cyanide and shot in the heart but still survived. The assassins shot him four times and finally wrapped him up in linen and dumped his body in the icy Neva River.
This is Trump. No matter how many times you try to kill him, he just keeps coming back. Perhaps it is all that MAGA power.
Whether you agree or disagree with President Trump, you cannot help but admire everything he has accomplished in nearly three years. Flanked by neoconservatives? No problem, he will have a photo-op at North Korea’s DMZ. Democrats and the mainstream media foaming at the mouth over Russia since the 2016 election? That’s okay, his administration will help pass a historic tax reform bill. Threatened with impeachment again? Fine, he will just send out an unapologetic tweet that initiates a nuclear meltdown at CNN.
It waits to be seen if he can ink a landmark trade agreement with China, maintain growth, and boost exports. If he can do all of this unscathed and win re-election, maybe The Donald Reddit page is right: His title should be God Emperor of the United States.
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2MPLxXG Tyler Durden
Equity futures and bond yields traded lower ahead of the yuan fix following reports that Washington will not grant any licenses for deals with Huawei (in response to China not buying US ag products). But a weaker than expected fix by the PBOC sparked further selling pressure in US equity futures.
“China wants to prevent panic now,” said Gao Qi, a strategist at Scotiabank.
“The PBOC will continue to send signals to stabilize the yuan in the near term.”
The PBOC Fix was at 7.0136 (weaker than yesterday and towards the weak end of the range of analyst estimates)…
Source: Bloomberg
This weaker fix enables downside for offshore yuan…
Source: Bloomberg
“I suspect the authorities will want to gain more comfort over the next few days and weeks that we’re not seeing a huge intensification of capital outflow pressures, before they possibly allow it to go a little weaker,” said Andrew Tilton, chief Asia Pacific economist at Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
“Right now I suspect they want to desensitize the market to this magic number of 7, and make sure that they are not going to have a capital outflow problem.”
This sparked further losses in Nasdaq futures…
Of course, by the time US cash markets open, a miraculous ramp would have re-appeared, but now, things are ‘escalating’.
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2MQrUPc Tyler Durden
On Thursday, Breitbart’s Joel Pollak asked former Vice President about a lie he’s been peddling – namely that President Trump called neo-Nazis “very fine people” during his speech in the aftermath of the Charlottesville Unite the Right rally.
Biden began his remarks at the “Political Soapbox” at the Iowa State Fair by repeating the claim that Trump had called neo-Nazis “very fine people”: “Charlottesville — that hate and that venom that we saw, and then the president saying, when asked about the groups … as well as the young woman, when she was killed, he said there were very fine people in both groups. Very fine people. No president, sitting president has ever said something like that. And the only thing that’s happened is it’s gotten worse.” –Breitbart
When asked by Pollak “Mr. Vice President, are you aware that you’re misquoting Donald Trump in Charlottesville? He never called neo-Nazis very fine people?” Biden angrily replied “No, he called all those folks who walked out of that, neo-Nazis shouting hate. Their veins bulging.”
“But he specifically said he was condemning them,” replied Pollak, to which Biden erupted “No he did not. He said he walked out and he said it. He said there were very fine people in both groups. They were chanting anti-Semitic slogans and carrying flags.”
Biden then stormed away from Pollak.
Enter Biden spokesman, Bill Russo – who tweeted pure disinformation trying to prove Breitbart wrong, with a partial transcript of Trump’s Charlottesville comments.
“You also had people that were very fine people, on both sides.”
What Russo failed to include was what Trump said shortly after – which Breitbart‘s called him out for over Twitter for omitting the part where Trump says “I’m not talking about the neo-Nazis and the white nationalists, because they should be condemned totally.“
After his public shaming, Russo doubled down, tweeting “Ok so exactly which of the torch-wielding, Nazi-saluting fanatics chanting “Jews will not replace us” fit your gaslighting narrative?”
Ok so exactly which of the torch-wielding, Nazi-saluting fanatics chanting “Jews will not replace us” fit your gaslighting narrative? pic.twitter.com/hWDWXDL71Q
A bombshell interview with William Binney, an NSA Whistleblower, has just been released! Binney says that President Donald Trump is being framed and that we the people are subjected to the constant surveillance and tracking authoritarian regimes are known for.
We are all subjected to the state’s mass surveillance scheme and many have given up any hope that there’s anything we can do to stop it. Listening to Binney speak with Michelle Holliday with Portfolio Wealth Global.com, it sure seems like there is little we can do.
In this interview, Binney horrifyingly describes how his former employer, the government agency known for it’s spying, has built a massive system to track, monitor and record phone and Internet communications of U.S. citizens and other people around the world. Binney resigned from the National Security Agency in 2001 to protest the growing domestic mass surveillance and privacy violations. He was a senior NSA crypto-mathematician largely responsible for automating the agency’s worldwide eavesdropping network. He was one of the two co-founders of the agency’s Signals Intelligence Automation Research Center.
“[Former Vice President Dick] Cheney wanted to know everything about everybody that could possibly be a political issue,” said Binney.
“Stellar Wind is the spying program on everybody in the United States,” and it all began right after 9/11. Americans are now under 24-hours per day surveillance by their own government.
If anyone still believes this is the “land of the free” they are delusional at best.
Binney goes through the process that unfolded in order for the government to get access to every single American’s personal data, information, and be able to conduct mass surveillance of all of us on a scale only heard of in tyrannies. Binney also says that the government used 9/11 as the excuse to spy on all of us, but they had wanted to for a long time. By the end of September 2011, the equipment began to pour into the NSA that would allow mass surveillance.
It really gets horrifying when Holliday asks Binney what the implications are for all of us. He responds:
“If you become a target, the implication is, they will retroactively analyze every phone call, every email, every financial transaction, everything electronic that you’ve ever done. And like for example in the case of Elliot Spitzer, when he was going after the bankers for defrauding people in the 2007/2008 financial crisis, he was actually going to criminally prosecute them. They [elitists] had to protect their bankers so they had to get rid of Elliot Spitzer. So what was the cause for Elliot Spitzer to be investigated? There wasn’t any, ok? But he’s going after our bankers and so they went into the data and found some exchange with him with a prostitute and they used that against him. If you have all the data about somebody, this is the kind of thing you can do.” –William Binney
If you think this interview gets more comforting from there, you’d be wrong.
“The secret government, the military-intelligence complex, all of the deep state, can now protect itself because they have this data from anyone trying to expose what they’re doing.”
As Holliday said:
“That answers the question ‘Why?’”
Binney also says that there was a definite coup to get rid of Donald Trump.
“You can see they tried an attempted coup on Trump. The Mueller report is a piece of junk, you know? A bunch of allegations unsupported by anybody. They wish they could get rid of President Trump.”
As the interview progresses, there is one incredible mass surveillance bombshell after another!
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2YuKZxc Tyler Durden
Two reports out this week worth paying attention to which could greatly impact oil prices at a crucial moment in which leaders in Tehran are desperately urging China to purchase more Iranian crude:
First, Reuters notes China continued importing Iranian oil in July for the second month since a US sanctions waiver ended, though at greatly diminished levels compared to the year prior, citing numbers from three data firms:
According to the firms, which track tanker movements, between 4.4 million and 11 million barrels of Iranian crude were discharged into China last month, or 142,000 to 360,000 barrels per day (bpd). The upper end of that range would mean July imports still added up to close to half of their year-earlier level despite sanctions.
And second, this via CNBC early this week, Brent and WTI price could crash if China buys Iranian oil.Bank of America is warning oil prices could potentially crash by $30 a barrel if China ramps up Iranian crude purchases.
The report summarized:
Bank of America Merrill Lynch warns the oil price could slip sharply if China buys Iranian oil.
Beijing could undermine Washington’s foreign policy stance by ignoring U.S. sanctions placed on Iran.
BofA is keeping its $60 per barrel price estimate in place for 2020.
Currently the Trump administration puts Iran’s oil exports at a range of 50-70% going to China, and with around 30% going to Syria.
President Trump’s sanctions were meant to choke off Iran’s oil exports, its main source of income. But our investigation shows China and other countries are defying them, underscoring the difficulty the administration has had in countering Iran. https://t.co/2RcdP9ndLt
With the US and UK now aggressively choking the Tehran to Damascus trade, given last month’s UK Royal Marine intercept of the Grace 1 tanker off Gibraltar, Tehran’s economic survival is ever more dependent on selling to China – a country powerful enough to bust US sanctions.
Last week Iran’s Vice President Jahangiri made a direct appeal to Beijing and “friendly” countries to up their Iranian crude purchases in statements made during a Chinese diplomatic delegation visit.
“Even though we are aware that friendly countries such as China are facing some restrictions,we expect them to be more active in buying Iranian oil,” Jahangiri reportedly told visiting senior Chinese diplomat Song Tao.
Meanwhile, figures just prior to ending the waiver program:
China’s crude imports from Iran have been plunging this summer, sinking almost 60% in June compared to a year earlier. But Beijing could unleash severe oil volatility on global markets if it decides to reverse course; the General Administration of Chinese Customs is set to publish exact details of July imports by origin in the last week of August.
This also as the Chinese Ministry of Commerce threatened countermeasures in response to Trump’s fresh threats of a 10% tariff on $300 billion dollars of Chinese goods made a week ago.
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2YOvQ5i Tyler Durden
Something big is about to hit in the Jeffrey Epstein drama, which in recent days has quietly slipped to the last page in the local media.
Moments ago, the Miami Herald whose reporting in 2018 reincarnated the Epstein pedogate scandal, reported that Marie Villafaña, the lead federal prosecutor who helped negotiate the controversial plea deal for accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, has submitted her resignation to the Justice Department.
Villafaña’s lawyer, Jonathan Biran, confirmed her resignation to the Miami Herald, saying that she has long planned to transition to a legal career in healthcare, and now plans to join the federal Department of Health and Human Services, because allegedly, she handled a number of healthcare fraud cases in South Florida in recent years.
Assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of Florida. Marie Villafaña
Her shocking departure comes amid a sprawling federal probe into the role she and other federal prosecutors, including her former boss, Alexander Acosta, had in sidelining the 53-page indictment against the wealthy New York schmoozer and convicted pedophile in favor of a state plea to minor prostitution charges in 2008. Epstein, 66, was accused of molesting dozens of underage girls, most of them 14 to 16 years old, at his Palm Beach mansion more than a decade ago. He is now facing federal sex trafficking charges involving minors brought against him last month by prosecutors in the Southern District of New York.
The DOJ’s Office of Professional Responsibility is probing whether Acosta, who resigned his cabinet post as Trump’s secretary of labor last month — and other U.S. prosecutors involved in the 2007-2008 case — committed misconduct in negotiating the secret pact with Epstein. A federal judge in February ruled that the prior deal was illegally negotiated because Epstein and federal prosecutors concealed it from his victims in violation of the Crime Victims’ Rights Act.
Villafaña, 51, has worked in the Southern District of Florida, mostly based in West Palm Beach, for the past 18 years. She is the last member of the federal prosecution team that handled Epstein’s case in 2008 still employed by the Department of Justice. The other members of the team, including Acosta, left in the years after Epstein’s case was closed.
Palm Beach Sheriff Ric Bradshaw’s role in the case is also under scrutiny the Herald reports, since under his watch he permitted Epstein liberal work release privileges that allowed the multimillionaire to be chauffeured by his valet from the jail to his office in West Palm Beach six days a week, 12 hours a day. Even when Epstein was in his cell at night, sheriff’s deputies reportedly allowed him to keep his door open.
* * *
While there is no specific reason to doubt the motive behind her resignation, a much more likely reason behind Villafana’s abrupt departure is that several people involved in the Epstein case have been questioned by the Justice Department in recent weeks as part of its ongoing OPR investigation, and something unexpected “popped up.”
Villafaña has never spoken publicly about the case. Sources close to her have said that she disagreed with Acosta’s decision granting Epstein and others involved in his activities immunity from federal charges.
Those close to Villafaña said that in the end, she was a loyal career prosecutor who toed the line of her boss while focusing her efforts on a provision in Epstein’s agreement that forced him to pay restitution to his victims. At the time of the deal, the FBI had identified 34 underage victims, most of them middle and high school girls who came from underprivileged backgrounds.
Recently released documents revealed that Villafaña strenuously objected to Epstein’s work release, and wrote a letter to the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office in December 2008 pointing out that the crimes he committed were not accurately reflected in his work release paperwork and that those records contained “omissions” that should have disqualified him for the program.
Biran said Villafaña’s resignation had nothing to do with the Epstein matter, and that she has recently completed a two-year training program on healthcare compliance. Most of her career has been spent advocating for the rights of victims, and she has received numerous awards for her work, he added.
“Ms. Villafaña is confident that, when DOJ’s internal investigation has been concluded, the department will find that she acted properly in all respects as the lead prosecutor in the federal investigation of Jeffrey Epstein,’’ Biran said.
Her departure is unlikely to derail OPR’s probe according to Michael R. Bromwich, a former federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York. “There is no reason that they couldn’t continue the investigation, especially in a case like this where there is broad public interest in knowing what happened,’’ said Bromwich, a former inspector general for the Justice Department. He added that it’s important for the department to make its findings public given that so much secrecy has surrounded the Epstein case.
Meanwhile, Epstein was denied bail and remains jailed in Manhattan pending his trial, tentatively set for next June. Many have speculated that it is unlikely that he will survive that long.
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2Kq6xTg Tyler Durden
