While the world is transfixed by the fireworks unleashed by the plunge in China’s yen to a record low, the real geopolitical hotspot for China remains Hong Kong, and there things are getting progressively uglier following Monday morning’s press conference by Karrie Lam who once again said she will not resign, and warned that “some people” have put Hong Kong in a very dangerous situation as protesters’ actions challenge the “one country, two systems” model and threaten prosperity by seeking to ruin the city by calling for “revolution” or the “liberation of Hong Kong.”
Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam on why she will not resign: “I don’t think at this point in time resignation of myself or some of my colleagues will provide a better solution.” https://t.co/mADFNtmUa3pic.twitter.com/C3KHxf2Aen
In a press conference in which Lam was flanked by eight top officials, including chief secretary, chiefs of finance, commerce, transport, security, health and civil service as well as home affairs undersecretary, she said she is taking responsibility by staying on to serve, arguing that resignations by her or others won’t help (several million protesters would beg to differ). Her solution: “Upholding the rule of law is the way out”, by which she means the people conceding to Beijing’s demands.
“Such extensive disruptions in the name of certain demands or uncooperative movement have seriously undermined Hong Kong’s law and order, pushing our city, the city we all love and many of us helped to build, to the verge of a very dangerous situation,” Carrie Lam says.
“The government will be resolute in maintaining law and order of Hong Kong and restoring confidence” she said, adding that “we all love Hong Kong and have made various contributions to its stability and prosperity … it’s time to say no to chaos and violence.”
The only problem is that the only ones who are eager to say “no to chaos and violence” are various Triad-linked thugs, and of course, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, which according to report is massing on the Hong Kong border, just waiting for the green light to, well, “liberate.”
Additionally, Lam said that protests have already deviated from the original demand, Lam said. She didn’t say much on calls for an independent inquiry into police action and recent events. The General Chamber of Commerce has joined protesters in calling for an inquiry.
In a surprising reversal from prior periods when China would sternly ignore the events in Hong Kong, today even the People’s Daily tweeted account has been following every twist in the much anticipated Lam presser, quoting her verbatim as mainland China’s attention is now squarely focused on how Beijing will quell the Hong Kong rebellion.
#HongKong is on the verge of a very dangerous situation; HK govt respects protestors’ rights to express opinions but they should also respect others’ rights, HK Chief Executive Carrie Lam said Mon, adding that an emergency mechanism has been put in place to deal with Mon strikes. pic.twitter.com/mZu1BmqYuf
Meanwhile, financial Secretary Paul Chan warned Hong Kong risks a recession on protests and outside factors like trade.
He may be on to something: on Monday, a paralysing citywide strike as part of the escalating anti-government protests forced Hong Kong airport authorities to cancel some 230 flights on Monday morning. Air traffic controllers have called in sick en masse, echoing the actions of an estimated 500,000 Hongkongers from more than 20 business sectors.
The number of flights that can take off, or land, has been affected as a result, and authorities said only one of the two runways would be in operation from midday on Monday until 6am on Tuesday. Only 34 flights would be permitted per hour during that, instead of up to the 68 per hour that normally take off from the city’s international airport, according to SCMP, with flights across Asia bearing the brunt of the cancellations.
Trains and planes are also being disrupted, with multiple subway lines suspended or delayed and hundreds of flights canceled.
Finally, as Bloomberg notes, Hong Kong Police will start holding daily press briefings from today and there will be a cross-departmental briefing by the government.
Of course, after weeks of protests and with today’s crippling strike, the last thing Hong Kong stock investors needed was for the yuan to break 7 per dollar on Monday, however that’s what they got, and between the trade and now currency war, and the ongoing tensions in Hong Kong, as well as the paralyzing strike, the pace of equity losses accelerated ahead of the midday break, with the MSCI Hong Kong Index tumbling 3.3% and the bottom is not yet in sight.
But all that pales in comparison to the USD-pegged HG dollar, which in sympathy with the offshore yuan has tumbled, sliding as much as 0.11% to 7.8354 Monday, its lowest since June 12. Will it plunge further and validate Kyle Bass’s thesis of massive capital outflows and a banking sector crisis, it remains to be seen.
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2OBTmTd Tyler Durden
While the media likes to make a fuss about shady ‘Russian hackers’ and ‘Russian bots’ subverting democracy, did you know that America is actually full of Russian assets plying their trade openly?RT exposes the worst of the worst…
If the mainstream media is to be believed, the Kremlin’s network of hackers and bots could give the Illuminati a run for its money. When its operatives aren’t electing British prime ministers, embarrassing American politicians on debate night and flogging dildos to undermine democracy, they’re overseeing a team of assets earning their borscht openly in the United States.
Thankfully, the intrepid detectives in the American press have named and shamed these double agents. We’ve compiled a list here.
Mitch McConnell, alias: Moscow Mitch McTreason
An Internet meme of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell that has been widely shared online.
Cleverly posing as a Republican Senator from Kentucky since 1985, Mitch McConnell was outed as a Russian asset by the Washington Post last week when he shot down a trio of bills that would have supposedly beefed up American election security from foreign interference.
Never mind that McConnell opposed the bills based almost entirely on partisan disagreements with the Democrats, the Post exclaimed “Mitch McConnell is a Russian asset,” and MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough dubbed the southern Republican “Moscow Mitch.”
With his nefarious plan exposed, #MoscowMitchMcTreason had no choice but to shrug, and continue about his day.
#LeningradLindsey began trending after the South Carolina lawmaker helped push a controversial asylum bill through the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday. Though the bill had nothing to do with Russia, the nickname stuck.
#LeningradLindsey is breaking procedural code, lying to the American people, and has betrayed the principles this country was founded upon.
Cleverly, Leningrad Lindsey has spent his career on Capitol Hill posing as a Russia-baiter. Graham has repeatedly called for Russia to “pay a price” for allegedly meddling in the 2016 presidential election, and co-sponsored an anti-Russia “sanctions bill from hell.” With a record like that, nobody would suspect that he was secretly a Russian asset all along.
Note too that Leningrad does not exist any more. Perhaps Graham’s treachery dates back to the communist era? Either that or Letnerechenskiy Lindsey didn’t have the same ring to it.
There is absolutely zero need to spell out the case against President Donald Trump. He’s clearly a Russian asset, and has been since Soviet times. He rigged the 2016 election, paid Russian hackers to give Hillary Clinton’s emails to WikiLeaks, had Russian dressing on his salad that one time, and remains in constant telepathic contact with Vladimir Putin.
However, were it not for the brave detective work of CNN, MSNBC, Buzzfeed, Hollywood actresses and late night comedians, Trump might just have gotten away with it. The collusion was so well hidden that not even an FBI probe and a two-year-long investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller could find a trace of it.
Ahh hamburgers, the cornerstone of the American diet. President Trump is known for his fondness for the handheld calorie-bombs, which set alarm bells ringing at Washington Post headquarters.
Lo and behold, the Post found out that “even one of Trump’s favorite foods has a hidden Russia connection.” The storygoes that then-Soviet food minister Anastas Mikoyan visited the US in 1936 and brought home some hamburger-making machines. The Russians took to the American staple with glee, and after putting a few of their own twists on them, renamed them “Mikoyan cutlets.”
Though the Post didn’t elaborate any further, the Russian plot is visible if you read between the lines. In his infinite duplicitousness, Vladimir Putin clearly funds the American hamburger industry in a bid to fatten and weaken the American people. If two years of Russophobic coverage have taught us anything, it’s that no story is too far-fetched to be true.
Asset rating: $2.99, would you like fries with that?
There is precisely zero evidence to suggest that the Washington Post is a Russian asset. However, that evidentiary standard hasn’t stopped the Post from labeling Trump, McConnell and Ronald McDonald as Russian agents.
Based on that logic, we have no reason to disbelieve Donald Trump’s assertion this week that the Capitol’s paper of record is in fact an asset of the Kremlin.
Asked by reporters on Tuesday to respond to the Post’s ‘Moscow Mitch’ story, President Trump said, “The Washington Post called Mitch McConnell what? I think the Washington Post is a Russian asset by comparison.”
Asset rating: 10/10, на здоровье Comrade Bezos
* * *
We hope this guide has laid bare the extent of the Russian operation in America. However, we fear that the stooges exposed here are only the tip of the iceberg. Join us next week when we take a closer look at Barney the Dinosaur, Beyoncé, and Mister Snuffleupagus, all of whom are suspected Russian assets too.
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2yCLdmu Tyler Durden
Mass shootings are happening more and more often in America. Yesterday, there were two mass shootings within 24 hours that claimed the lives of 29 people and injured 52 more. A mass shooting in a Texas Wal-Mart took the lives of 20 people, and a shooting in a popular nightlife area in Dayton, Ohio killed 9 more. Being caught up as a victim in something like this is a hellish nightmare you wouldn’t wish on your worst enemy.
A synopsis of the event came from a Facebook live video. (Is it just me or do you find it strange that someone was recording a video and not running like hell?)
At the start of the video, a woman runs toward the store, past a truck that a shopping cart has run into, with a body lying on the groundbeside it.
Children were holding a fundraiser at the store and some reportedly were among the casualties.
At the front of the store, victims’ bodies are shown near a table that appeared to have items for sale. The body of a man in blue jeans and a blue shirt is seen on the ground near the table, lying on his stomach, seemingly dead, as a woman rushes over to help. Near him is a woman, taking cover between a garbage can and the wall.
A person is shown lying motionless to the left of the table, under a shade covering set up over it, as a woman tries to help. Nearby, by the wall of the building, a man lies on his side in a pool of dark blood, with a bandage on his back.
A voice tells him, “Try not to move,” adding, “Stay with me, OK?”
Wailing is heard in the background, as people tend to others lying injured nearby. (source)
You have to know what to do before an event like this occurs.
One factor that allows shooters to get so many victims is that most folks don’t know what to do in such an event. Most people don’t think ahead when they’re going to Wal-Mart or enjoying an evening in a popular pedestrian area.
But these days, a person has to have a plan anywhere they go, it seems. And they also have to have a survival mindset, practicing the 3 steps of survival repeatedly until it becomes completely natural for them.
If you are in the first wave of victims, that’s just bad luck, and there isn’t much you can do about that. But if you are not in that first wave, then you have a chance to take action and survive. But you have to know what to do and be able to take those life-saving actions.
What is not important if you find yourself in the midst of a shooting
This is an unpopular opinion, but here goes.
Strictly from a survival point of view, it doesn’t matter who it is doing the shooting or whether it’s a “false flag.” If you were present during these events, it does not aid your survival to know who committed the acts of terror that occurred on 9/11, on the streets of Boston, in London, or in Paris. It doesn’t matter whether the shooting at Sandy Hook was perpetrated by a kid with behavioral issues or by operatives with an agenda. It doesn’t matter that the guy shooting up a Walmart in Texas wrote an anti-Hispanic manifesto.
If your focus is preparedness and survival, the most important thing you can be doing right now is learning from horrific events.
Whether you believe these acts are at the hands of Muslim extremists waging jihad, someone who hates Hispanic people, a guy who hates women because he can’t get a date, or a state-sponsored act of terror to clamp down and take away more freedom, the single most important thing you can take away from any of these events is a lesson in survival.
This article is not a debate about the different conspiracy theories. If you are present during a terror attack, my opinions on the culprit don’t matter and neither do yours. All that matters in those minutes or hours is surviving.
So let us try not to get bogged down in a debate over how these two shootings within 24 hours make it easy for all the 2020 candidates to pull on the heartstrings about gun control. What matters is whether you can survive in such a scenario.
Here are the things you need to do before a shooting ever happens.
First things first, even when you’re there for fun, you must be paying attention. You should always scan an area for exits and potential cover. You should pay attention to the people around you. You should understand what the baseline behavior is for your setting so that if something is not baseline, it immediately catches your attention. Let me explain this further.
We can maintain a high level of situational awareness merely by being observant. One way to develop your skills is to play something called Kim’s Game. My friend Scott, at Graywolf Survival, used to use the game to train his soldiers in situational awareness. He wrote:
Situational awareness is key to understanding your environment so you can know better both your circumstances and your options. There are myriad examples that could be given but would you notice the bulge (called printing) of someone’s ankle from a concealed weapon if you were asked to follow him to barter for goods? Would you remember enough details of the turn of a path you passed two hours ago to be able to find it again? If you were attacked, would you be able to give a good enough description of the subject and getaway vehicle to have him identified?
A higher level of situational awareness can help you in many ways, should you be unfortunate enough to be present during a mass shooting.
It can help by:
Allowing you to identify a threat before it becomes active
Allowing you to locate exits and routes to the exits
Allowing you to determine sources of cover
If you can identify a potential threat before it exists, you can sometimes prevent an attack or at the very least, you can protect yourself and your family more effectively. A book by Patrick Van Horne and Jason A. Riley describes this as being on the “left of bang”. The left of bang is a term used to describe the moments before something bad happens, when you have an inkling that something is wrong, but you just can’t put your finger on what it is.
A baseline is a “normal” for your immediate environment. Once you have a baseline for behavior in a specific environment, then it’s easier to spot anomalies. According to Left of Bang, it’s the anomalies that should put you on high alert. “Anomalies are things that either do not happen and should or that do happen and shouldn’t.”
The earlier you’re aware that something is going down, the better your chances are of survival.
Know what gunfire sounds like.
A lot of people who were interviewed after the Walmart shooting said that when they first heard the shots, they didn’t realize what it was. They thought it was noise from construction or boxes being dropped. There were precious seconds when people were frozen targets while they tried to wrap their brains around what was actually happening. During an event like this, a pause of a few seconds could mean the difference between life and death. The faster you take action the more likely you are to survive.
Always have a plan.
We can’t foresee all eventualities, like this one, for example, but it helps to always have a survival mindset. It has long been a game with my kids (yeah, we’re a strange family) to identify exits and potential weapons if we sit down to eat at a restaurant or go to the movies. Something we focused on in Selco’s Urban Survival Course in Croatia was finding alternative exits in a mall, locating cover, and finding everyday items that could be used as weapons.
Knowing where to go without having to look for it in the heat of the moment will save time that could be spent acting. We also look for sources of cover.
Understand the difference between cover vs. concealment.
Every NRA course I’ve ever taken discusses the difference between cover and concealment, because in many cases when you are forced to use your own firearm, there’s another person who is ready and willing to shoot back. Concealment is enough to hide you but not enough to protect you from bullets. Cover is something sturdy enough to stop a bullet – a concrete structure like a road divider, the engine block of a car, a refrigerator, a steel door, a brick wall.
When watching the video playback of the Las Vegas shooting, many people were seeking concealment behind flimsy barriers, and that is not enough to protect yourself in a situation with a high-powered gun and a shooter spraying an area.
Separate from the crowd.
In a mass shooting, the shooter is trying to take down as many people as possible, so most likely he will aim at the crowd instead of picking off people who moved away from the bulk of the group.
One possible strategy would be, then, to get away from the crowd. You and the person/people you are with would be less alluring than a group of a hundred panicked people all huddled together where maximum harm could be achieved.
Don’t get down or play dead.
Lots of people crouched down and got as low as they could. In many situations, this would be the best bet, but not this one. The person was shooting from up high, aiming downward. Being still and crouching down wouldn’t do much to protect you from a person firing from this angle, nor would playing dead.
Action is nearly always a better choice than inaction. As well, getting down would make it more likely that you’d be trampled by a panicked crowd of people trying to get away from the area. Clark County Fire Chief Greg Cassell said after the Las Vegas shooting that some of a “wide range” of injuries included people who were trampled by the panicked crowds.
Listen for reload.
In a situation like this, there will be pauses in the shooting when the person stops to either reload or change firearms. That is your opportunity to make a dash for the exits or to take down the attacker. Don’t wait too long to make your move, because it only takes an experienced gunman a few seconds to reload a familiar gun and then your chance is gone.
There are only 3 courses of action.
Sometimes regardless of how alert and observant we are, we can’t predict when an attack is about to happen. There might be no indications in your immediate surroundings to alert yourself to the fact that something is going down. You may be blithely unaware until the moment that a perpetrator starts firing.
If you find yourself suddenly in the midst of a mass shooting, your actions should be one of the following:
1) Escape. Get as far away from the threat as possible. This is where your early observant behavior comes in handy because you’ll already know the escape routes. If you are in charge of vulnerable individuals like children, your first choice of actions should be to get them to safety if at all possible.
2) Take cover. If you can’t get away, get behind something solid and wait for your opportunity to either escape or fight back. This is something else you may have observed when doing your earlier reconnaissance.
3) Take out the threat. If you are armed (and I really hope you are) and/or trained, use your abilities to help remove the threat. But know that sometimes you can’t get a clear shot without putting other people at risk. Understand the power of your firearm and ammunition – will your bullet go through the perpetrator
The most important thing to consider here is not necessarily which action you will take. It’s that you willtake an action, not just stand there in shock. You can be a victim or you can be a warrior. Unfortunately, modern life seems to have made our survival instincts obsolete but you can overcome this with practice and study.
Keep in mind that fighting back doesn’t always mean a fancy Krav Maga move that takes down two armed men with one trick maneuver. There are many ways to fight back, and not all of them require physical prowess. Don’t let fear incapacitate you. Your brain is a weapon too.
Are you going to wait for someone to save you or are you going to save yourself? Don’t be a kamikaze, but look for your opportunity.
And there comes a point in some of these situations in which survival is unlikely. Don’t go down without a fight.
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2KklF2Y Tyler Durden
Corn is extensively used to feed livestock, but the surge in spot prices has forced US farmers to search elsewhere for low-cost substitutes, reported Reuters.
The persistent wet weather that swamped the Midwest this spring is now reducing corn yields.
More recently, dry, hot weather continues over large swaths of the Midwest, is also wreaking havoc on corn yields. Volatile weather as a whole, in 2019, could lead to one of the lowest corn harvests in years.
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) last month projected 2019 corn production at 13.88 billion bushels, an 8% drop YoY.
Agricultural organizations, equipment dealers and factories that convert corn into ethanol have already felt the pressure from farmers because of millions of acres went unplanted due to wet weather across the Central and Midwest, including corn and soybean belts.
Accurate picture of how the spring of 2019 has been so far. (Yes, that is a turtle swimming in the corn) pic.twitter.com/LUAoDbnY03
Reuters spoke with meat producers who are now rushing to find substitutes to avoid margin compression from skyrocketing corn prices; they’re attempting to stretch out supplies of corn held in storage.
Higher prices for corn could translate into higher meat prices, which are already soaring after China’s African swine fever crisis has led to the deaths of hundreds of millions of pigs.
USDA supermarket data showed retail pork prices had soared 9% YoY versus this time last year, while beef prices are up 2%. Rising food costs are occurring at a time when the overall economy is rapidly slowing.
The wettest 12 months on record in the Midwest has put thousands of farmers behind the planting season. The number one risk is that corn might not reach full maturity and early frost could devastate crop yields even further.
The USDA shows about 57% of the US corn crop is in good condition, plunging from 75% at this time last year.
High corn prices have led to margin compression for major meat producers like Tyson Foods, who will ultimately pass on the costs to consumers.
Cargill said last month its quarterly net profit crashed 67% from last year, partly due to disruptions in the growing season in spring.
“End users are in a panic,” said Tanner Ehmke, industry research manager for agricultural lender CoBank.
Crop traders, ethanol plants, and livestock producers “want corn now because of the unknowns on this crop.”
Jason Britt, president of Central States Commodities, said rains and floods are making farmers “tighter-fisted. Britt said his family’s northern Missouri farm has 100,000 bushels of corn in storage; traders are already offering him a premium for the crop.
“The circumstances have changed this year, so for us [we need] a larger security blanket,” Mr. Britt said.
Ohio farmer Jim Heimerl sells 700,000 pigs per year, has swapped out corn with expired pet food, which he acquired in bulk through a broker. Heimerl is feeding the pigs other substitutes, including wheat middlings.
“We’re already starting to ration our corn out,” he said.
Corn spot prices chart
For the first half of August, weather models show cooling weather prevailing through the Central and Midwest. Reuters noted this could further delay crop development at a time when corn needs it the most:
“1-15 Day Forecast: Model guidance (both GFS & EC) remains consistent showing cool weather prevailing through the first half of August across the Central and Midwest U.S., including the Corn and Soybean belts. As mentioned in previous reports this could further delay crop development and be the potential catalyst of future issues should the season be pushed back even further as a result. Moreover, both models agree on expected rainfall across most areas through 10 days. A widespread pocket of dryness is expected across Wisconsin, Iowa, northern Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. Furthermore, the GFS extends this period of dry weather through the 11-15 day time frame. As mentioned in recent updates, continued dryness across some areas in Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio could become more of a concern for corn and soybeans in key developmental stages if prolonged.
Extended Outlook: The EC extended run from 01 August paints a different picture than the former run from 29 July. This most recent backs off from extensive coolness across the central/Midwest U.S. which was shown in the 29 July scenario, and rather limits lasting coolness to Canada and the far northern U.S. Plains. The rest of the U.S., including the Midwest, is now expected to be warmer than normal when averaged through the next 4 weeks, though this is just one model run. This most recent run also depicts wetter conditions across the Midwest U.S., opposed to the run from 29 July which shows dry conditions across much of the region. Overall, if materialized later in the month this would be a more favorable scenario with warmer and wetter conditions possibly returning.”
Perhaps a perfect storm of factors mentioned above could result in the second leg up in corn spot prices in the months to come, especially around harvest time in fall.
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2KijZIN Tyler Durden
The Congressional Budget Office reveals shocking forecasts for immigration, debt and spending for the next 30 years…
How do you know a politician is lying to you? Simple: His lips are moving.
Yes, it’s an old one – but none the worse for that.
The 2020 election season is getting into full swing. Politicians on all sides are ramping up their rhetoric, including their promises, forecasts and accusations.
But it’s fascinating what you can find out if you just read official documents. Especially some of the fine print.
And here are 10 remarkable forecasts and assumptions that Washington is making and isn’t telling you. These are all contained in the Congressional Budget Office’s most recent Long-Term Budget Outlook, the cornerstone document of government financial and economic planning.
1. We’re going to have a lot more immigrants. A lot. They’re expecting a net 22.5 million more immigrants to come to the U.S. over the next 20 years. By 2049, they’re expecting immigration to account for a stunning 87% of annual population growth.
2. We’re going to have a lot more illegal immigrants. Despite the current bluster and the scandals at the border, the CBO expects we’ll have 2.4 million more illegal immigrants (or “undocumented residents,” or whatever) in 20 years’ time than we have today.
3. We’re going to be up to our eyeballs in debt. The national debt is expected to skyrocket to an “unprecedented” 144% of gross domestic product by 2049, or twice the level today. That would put the debt just under $100 trillion. The figure today: Around $18 trillion. As recently as 2000: $4 trillion. Oh, and this isn’t even the worst-case scenario: The national debt could exceed 200% of GDP in 30 years’ time, the CBO acknowledges.
4. We’re going to owe so much money that by 2049 the annual interest on the debt will be about 5% of gross domestic product — roughly the share that we spend today on Social Security. And that’s even if interest rates stay low. Despite rising debt and federal spending, the government is expecting — or hoping — the average rate on federal debt will rise only from today’s lowly 2.4% to 4.2%, still modest by historic standards, by 2049.
5. This debt, and these deficits, will damage the economy. They will crowd private investment out of the debt markets, reducing income and growth, says the CBO. And as we’ll have to borrow more and more from abroad to finance the government, they’ll lead to bigger and bigger interest payments leaving the country.
6. Social Security, Medicare, other health programs and net interest are going to soak up so much of the budget that we’re going to have to slash everything else to the smallest share of the economy in 70 years – just 7%. The average over the past 50 years: 11%.
7. Just to keep the federal deficit to these levels, your taxes will go up. The Obama tax hike on “Cadillac” health-insurance plans will kick in starting in 2022, and the 2017 Trump tax cuts will expire in 2025.
8. Most working stiffs can say goodbye to any other tax cuts. Uncle Sam is explicitly relying on your taxes to go up thanks to “bracket creep,” where income-tax brackets rise only in line with inflation while your income — you hope — rises faster.
9. While tax rates go up for most people, they won’t for those earning the most. That’s because more and more of their income will be above the Social Security “cap,” saving them an effective 12.4% a year. The cap this year is $132,900.
10. Meanwhile, working stiffs will be taxed at twice the marginal rate of those who live on dividends. By 2049, says the CBO, labor income will be taxed at a marginal rate of 32%, compared to just 16% for capital income. Good to know, isn’t it?
It would be great to see some of this stuff come up in the presidential race, wouldn’t it?
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2M0fyo1 Tyler Durden
In a dramatically unsettling move for global stability, China’s offshore yuan just collapsed below 7/USD – plunging a stunning 12 handles to its weakest on record against the dollar.
This is the weakest offshore yuan has ever been against the dollar…
The last time China’s yuan moved with this velocity, the tremors rippled dramatically and rapidly through the rest of global financial markets.
As we pointed out earlier…
If CNH breaks 7, all hell will break loose as China declares start of currency war
“This week’s fixings will send very important signals on the PBOC’s stance,” said Tommy Xie, an economist at Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. “
A rate that’s stronger than 6.9 shows China’s preference for stability, but one that’s weaker will be seen as a strong hint that more drops will be allowed.”
Kyle Bass suggests the capital exodus has only just begun…
The King of Thailand held a ceremony this week to promote one of his top generals and longtime girlfriends as his official mistress and royal concubine – a role that has been vacant since the early 1920s.
King Maha Vajiralongkorn, better known as King Rama X, named Major-General Sineenat Wongvajirapakdi as his official royal consort in a ceremony depicted below.
King Rama X officially names Major-General Sineenat Wongvajirapakdi as his new royal consort
During the ceremony, which took place on Rama X’s 67th birthday, he awarded his new concubine Sineenat with four medals, including the Most Illustrious Order of Chula Chom Klao, 1st Class and the Most Exalted Order of the White Elephant, Fox News reports.
General Suthida Vajiralongkorn, the King’s wife, was present for the ceremony as well.
He married his first cousin Princess Soamsawali Kitiyakara in 1977 and had one child. That marriage ended in divorce, but not before Rama fathered five other children with Yuvadhida Polpraserth, who later became his second wife. They divorced in 2001. Then Rama X married his third wife, with whom he had one child before divorcing in 2014.
This is the first time that a Thai King has had more than one official partner since the end of the absolute monarchy in 1932.
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2YLt6cR Tyler Durden
For the first time in U.S. history, renewable energies briefly generated more electricity than coal in April this year, according to the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis. This development is significant for U.S. clean energy champions, environmental advocates, and a coal industry that has anchored U.S. energy for much of the 20th Century. Renewable energy potential merits review of trends and evolving dynamics in a dramatically changing U.S. energy sector.
New innovations and technologies, including large-scale shale extraction, has led to an abundance of domestic oil and gas. The cheap price of natural gas enabled it to surpass coal as America’s primary power source in 2016. Now, renewable energy sources (e.g., wind, solar, hydroelectric, and bioenergy) have shown capable of outperforming coal and are projected to bump it to third place for the long-term.
Natural gas and renewable energies are proving to be more efficient, cleaner and more cost-efficient than coal. Furthermore, the average U.S. coal plant is approximately 40 years old, requiring costly maintenance and repairs. New coal plants are more expensive to build than renewable and natural gas counterparts.
Coal is also the country’s leading source of carbon emissions that contribute to climate change. The American Lung Association believes the effects of coal pollution kill about 7,500 Americans every year.
These factors have taken a significant toll. The coal industry that employed almost 900,000 American workers at its height in the 1920s, now employs approximately 53,000. According to The Week, there are more Americans “who work at nail salons, bowling alleys or Arby’s.” Since 2014, six of the top 10 U.S. coal mining companies have at one time declared bankruptcy.
This strategy seemingly resonated in the 2016 presidential election. In most of the top coal producing states, Donald Trump won by margins of 15 to 47 percent.
Robert Murray, CEO of leading coal producer Murray Energy, has been an influential, behind-the-scenes player. Murray donated at least $300,000 to Trump’s presidential inauguration and another $1 million to a super political action committee (PAC) to support Trump’s agenda for the 2018 congressional elections.
A January 2018 New York Times article uncovered an “Action Plan” drafted by Murray and sent to the White House shortly after the inauguration which outlines numerous demands. Some of these include eliminating environmental regulations and standards, such as the Clean Power Plan; dismissing scientific findings; abandoning international climate agreements, such as the Paris Climate Accord; overhauling U.S. mining safety and health standards; and cutting the staff of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) by at least half. EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler, a former coal industry lobbyist and attorney for Robert Murray, has been a key ally. According to the Times, “the White House and federal agencies have completed or are on track to fulfill most of the 16 detailed requests.”
Despite these efforts, demand for coal and coal competitiveness has not seen a meaningful turnaround. In President Trump’s first two years in office, more coal-fired power plants shut down than during the entirety of Barack Obama’s first term, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). The year 2018 alone represented a near-record for coal-fired plant closures. Demand for coal for energy and steel production are declining in Europe, the main target for US coal exports. In Asia, where there is still growing coal demand, US coal faces logistical disadvantages and competition from China, the world’s largest producer of coal. Looking forward, EIA’s 2019 projections call for coal production to decline even faster than it would have under the Obama Clean Power Plan.
One measure currently under executive consideration is a 90-day coal stockpile mandate for national security purposes under the Defense Production Act. Such a requirement could artificially inflate domestic demand for coal. It remains to be seen if it will be enacted and whether it, and the overall reform efforts, will help Trump’s reelection bid in coal mining states or fall short of expectations set in 2016.
Risk Outlook
Coal currently produces 28 percent of US electricity annually compared with 34 percent provided by natural gas and 18 percent by renewables. Globally, coal accounts for roughly one-third of current energy production. While approximately 90 percent of US coal is used for energy production, it is also used for steel production and cement manufacturing.
The coal industry has, at times, boosted productivity and increased employment through the export market and particularly when overseas markets have needed to supplement supplies. Productivity and employment increases have been short-term and temporary anomalies to an otherwise downward trend. US EIA forecasts a slight increase for natural gas in the coming decades, a sharp rise for renewables, and a steady decline for coal energy. By 2050, renewables are projected to supply 31 percent of US energy to 17 percent for coal.
Coal assuredly will continue to be a significant part of the global energy sector for the foreseeable future. That future is likely to be characterized by fluctuating and diminishing demand, changing regulatory and market conditions, the potential for slowed global growth, and the likelihood of continued technological advances that provide for cleaner, cheaper alternatives. For investors in a position to assume higher risks, there could be short-term opportunities in buying and consolidating coal assets. Making such opportunities profitable would require close market monitoring and a capacity to react quickly. More cautious energy sector investors will want to diversify their portfolio and keep an eye on trends that have dramatically reshaped the sector in recent years and ultimately will yield an energy market quite different than the one today.
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2ZHsamU Tyler Durden
Douglas Adams famously suggested that the answer to life, the universe and everything is 42.
In the world of the political elite, the answer is Russiagate.
What has caused the electorate to turn on the political elite, to defeat Hillary and to rush to Brexit? Why, the evil Russians, of course, are behind it all.
It was the Russians who hacked the DNC and published Hillary’s emails, thus causing her to lose the election because… the Russians, dammit, who cares what was in the emails? It was the Russians.
It is the Russians who are behind Wikileaks,and Julian Assange is a Putin agent (as is that evil Craig Murray).
It was the Russians who swayed the 1,300,000,000 dollar Presidential election campaign result with 100,000 dollars worth of Facebook advertising.
It was the evil Russians who once did a dodgy trade deal with Aaron Banks then did something improbable with Cambridge Analytica that hypnotised people en masse via Facebook into supporting Brexit.
All of this is known to be true by every Blairite, every Clintonite, by the BBC, by CNN, by the Guardian, the New York Times and the Washington Post. “The Russians did it” is the article of faith for the political elite who cannot understand why the electorate rejected the triangulated “consensus” the elite constructed and sold to us, where the filthy rich get ever richer and the rest of us have falling incomes, low employment rights and scanty welfare benefits. You don’t like that system? You have been hypnotised and misled by evil Russian trolls and hackers.
Except virtually none of this is true. Mueller’s inability to defend in person his deeply flawed report took a certain amount of steam out of the blame Russia campaign. But what should have killed off “Russiagate” forever is the judgement of Judge John G Koetl of the Federal District Court of New York.
In a lawsuit brought by the Democratic National Committee against Russia and against Wikileaks, and against inter alia Donald Trump Jr, Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort and Julian Assange, for the first time the claims of collusion between Trump and Russia were subjected to actual scrutiny in a court of law. And Judge Koetl concluded that, quite simply, the claims made as the basis of Russiagate are insufficient to even warrant a hearing.
The judgement is 81 pages long, but if you want to understand the truth about the entire “Russiagate” spin it is well worth reading it in full. Otherwise let me walk you through it.
This is the crucial point about Koetl’s judgement. In considering dismissing a case at the outset in response to a motion to dismiss from the defence, the judge is obliged to give the plaintiff every benefit and to take the alleged facts described by the DNC as true. The stage of challenging and testing those facts has not been reached. The question Koetl is answering is this. Accepting for the moment the DNC’s facts as true, on the face of it, even if everything that the Democratic National Committee alleged happened, did indeed happen, is there the basis for a case? And his answer is a comprehensive no. Even the facts alleged to comprise the Russiagate narrative do not mount up to a plausible case.
The consequence of this procedure is of course that in this judgement Koetl is accepting the DNC’s “facts”. The judgement is therefore written entirely on the assumption that the Russians did hack the DNC computers as alleged by the plaintiff (the Democratic National Committee), and that meetings and correspondence took place as the DNC alleged and their content was also what the DNC alleged. It is vital to understand in reading the document that Koetl is not stating that he finds these “facts” to be true. Doubtless had the trial proceeded many of them would have been challenged by the defendants and their evidentiary basis tested in court. It is simply at this stage the only question Koetl is answering is whether, assuming the facts alleged all to be true, there are grounds for trial.
Judge Koetl’s subsequent dismissal of the Russiagate nonsense is a problem for the mainstream media and their favourite narrative. They have largely chosen to pretend it never happened, but when obliged to mention it have attempted to misrepresent this as the judge confirming that the Russians hacked the DNC. It very definitely and specifically is not that; the judge was obliged to rule on the procedural motion to dismiss on the basis of assuming the allegation to be true. Legal distinctions, even very plain ones like this, are perhaps difficult for the average cut and paste mainstream media stenographer to understand. But the widespread failure to report the meaning of Koetl’s judgement fairly is inexcusable.
The key finding is this. Even accepting the DNC’s evidence at face value, the judge ruled that it provides no evidence of collusion between Russia, Wikileaks or any of the named parties to hack the DNC’s computers. It is best expressed here in this dismissal of the charge that a property violation was committed, but in fact the same ruling by the judge that no evidence has been presented of any collusion for an illegal purpose, runs through the dismissal of each and every one of the varied charges put forward by the DNC as grounds for their suit.
Judge Koetl goes further and asserts that Wikileaks, as a news organisation, had every right to obtain and publish the emails in exercise of a fundamental First Amendment right. The judge also specifically notes that no evidence has been put forward by the DNC that shows any relationship between Russia and Wikileaks. Wikileaks, accepting the DNC’s version of events, merely contacted the website that first leaked some of the emails, in order to ask to publish them.
Judge Koetl also notes firmly that while various contacts are alleged by the DNC between individuals from Trump’s campaign and individuals allegedly linked to the Russian government, no evidence at all has been put forward to show that the content of any of those meetings had anything to do with either Wikileaks or the DNC’s emails.
In short, Koetl dismissed the case entirely because simply no evidence has been produced of the existence of any collusion between Wikileaks, the Trump campaign and Russia. That does not mean that the evidence has been seen and is judged unconvincing. In a situation where the judge is duty bound to give credence to the plaintiff’s evidence and not judge its probability, there simply was no evidence of collusion to which he could give credence. The entire Russia-Wikileaks-Trump fabrication is a total nonsense. But I don’t suppose that fact will kill it off.
The major implication for the Assange extradition case of the Koetl judgement is his robust and unequivocal statement of the obvious truth that Wikileaks is a news organisation and its right to publish documents, specifically including stolen documents, is protected by the First Amendment when those documents touch on the public interest.
…
These arguments are certainly helpful to Assange in the extradition case. But it must be noted that the extradition request has been drafted to try to get round the law by alleging that Wikileaks were complicit in the actual theft of documents by Chelsea Manning. Judge Koetl does not address this question as he was presented with no evidence that Wikileaks had contact with the “hackers” prior to their obtaining the documents, so the question did not arise before him. In the extradition request, the attempt is to argue that Assange encouraged and abetted Manning in obtaining the material. This is supposed to be a different argument.
In fact this attempt to undermine the First Amendment has no merit. Cultivation of an insider source is a normal part of journalistic activity, and encouraging an official to leak material in the public interest is an everyday occurrence in such cultivation. In the “Watergate” precedent, for example, the “Deep Throat” source, Mark Felt of the FBI, was cultivated and encouraged over a period by Bernstein. In addition to which, Manning’s access to the documents could not be characterised as “theft”. Leaking of official secrets by an insider is a very different thing to a hack from outside.
And in conclusion, I should state emphatically that while Judge Koetl was obliged to accept for the time being the allegation that the Russians had hacked the DNC as alleged, in fact this never happened. The emails came from a leak not a hack. The Mueller Inquiry’s refusal to take evidence from the actual publisher of the leaks, Julian Assange, in itself discredits his report. Mueller should also have taken crucial evidence from Bill Binney, former Technical Director of the NSA, who has explained in detail why an outside hack was technically impossible based on the forensic evidence provided.
The other key point that proves Mueller’s Inquiry was never a serious search for truth is that at no stage was any independent forensic independence taken from the DNC’s servers, instead the word of the DNC’s own security consultants was simply accepted as true. Finally no progress has been made – or is intended to be made – on the question of who killed Seth Rich, while the pretend police investigation has “lost” his laptop.
Though why anybody would believe Robert Mueller about anything is completely beyond me.
So there we have it. Russiagate as a theory is as completely exploded as the appalling Guardian front page lie published by Kath Viner and Luke Harding fabricating the “secret meetings” between Paul Manafort and Julian Assange in the Ecuadorean Embassy. But the political class and the mainstream media, both in the service of billionaires, have moved on to a stage where truth is irrelevant, and I do not doubt that Russiagate stories will thus persist. They are so useful for the finances of the armaments and security industries, and in keeping the population in fear and jingoist politicians in power.
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Unlike his adversaries including the Integrity Initiative, the 77th Brigade, Bellingcat, the Atlantic Council and hundreds of other warmongering propaganda operations, Craig’s blog has no source of state, corporate or institutional finance whatsoever. It runs entirely on voluntary subscriptions from its readers – many of whom do not necessarily agree with the every article, but welcome the alternative voice, insider information and debate. Subscriptions to keep Craig’s blog going are gratefully received.
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2OBnTAu Tyler Durden
The state of California is taking a page out of Malcom X’s book to ensure that future generations of students know that capitalism is an inherently ‘racist’ – and just as bad as the patriarchy, white supremacy and ‘ableism,’ according to a recent Op-Ed by Stanford University Hoover Institution research fellow Williamson M. Evers.
At issue – the state’s Department of Education has solicited public comments on a new “Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum” until Aug. 15, which will dictate how public school teachers can instruct their students in the field of “ethnic studies.” It was created by an advisory board of teachers, academics and bureaucrats – and “It’s as bad as you imagine,” writes Evers.
Ethnic studies is described in the document as “the interdisciplinary study of race, ethnicity, and indigeneity with an emphasis on experiences of people of color in the United States.” But that’s not all it is. “It is the study of intersectional and ancestral roots, coloniality, hegemony, and a dignified world where many worlds fit, for present and future generations.” It is the “xdisciplinary [sic], loving, and critical praxis of holistic humanity.”
The document is filled with fashionable academic jargon like “positionalities,” “hybridities,” “nepantlas” and “misogynoir.” It includes faddish social-science lingo like “cis-heteropatriarchy” that may make sense to radical university professors and activists but doesn’t mean much to the regular folks who send their children to California’s public schools. It is difficult to comprehend the depth and breadth of the ideological bias and misrepresentations without reading the whole curriculum—something few will want to do.
Begin with economics. Capitalism is described as a “form of power and oppression,” alongside “patriarchy,” “racism,” “white supremacy” and “ableism.” Capitalism and capitalists appear as villains several times in the document. –WSJ
California is turning public schools into political brainwashing centers. They’re going to teach far left ideology to kids as fact and if you have a kid who won’t go along with it… How’ll they be graded or ostracized?
So glad we left the insane asylum known as California.
As far as politics go – one of the proposed courses would explore the African-American experience “from the precolonial ancestral roots in Africa to the trans-Atlantic slave trade and enslaved people’s uprisings in the antebellum South, to the elements of Hip Hop and African cultural retentions.”
Because the best way to move beyond the (Southern Democrat) history of slavery in America is to constantly remind everyone about it, apparently.
Teachers are encouraged to cite the biographies of “potentially significant figures” such as Angela Davis, Frantz Fanon and Bobby Seale. Convicted cop-killers Mumia Abu-Jamal and Assata Shakur are also on the list. Students are taught that the life of George Jackson matters “now more than ever.” Jackson, while in prison, became “a revolutionary warrior for Black liberation and prison reform.” The Latino section’s people of significance include Puerto Rican nationalists Oscar López Rivera, a member of a paramilitary group that carried out more than 130 bomb attacks, and Lolita Lebrón, who was convicted of attempted murder in a group assault that wounded five congressmen.
Housing policy gets the treatment. The curriculum describes subprime loans as an attack on home buyers with low incomes rather than a misguided attempt by the government to help such home buyers. Politicians—Republicans and Democrats—imposed lower underwriting standards on the home-loan industry. Republicans billed it as a way to expand the middle class, while Democrats crowed that it would aid the poor. –WSJ
When it comes to Native Americans, California’s new curriculum would have students “offer their responses to a fictional environmentalist speech by Chief Seattle as well as an anodyne quote about relationships from the recently deceased rapper Nipsey Hussle,” according to Evers, who adds that “the Chief Seattle error is part of a larger problem. The curriculum perpetuates the myth that the Indians had the same values as present-day ecologists. In truth, Native Americans had a mixed approach to nature. The curriculum writers should have looked carefully at the scholarly evidence presented in Shepard Krech’s 1999 book, “The Ecological Indian”—about, for example, the setting of brush fires that got out of control and the needless killing of buffalo, beaver and deer.“
