Key Witness Poisoned In “Mysterious” Death Surrounding Colombian Corruption Probe

The mysterious death of a witness in a corruption probe taking place in Colombia has cost the founder of Colombia’s biggest banking group $1 billion of his fortune, after already losing another $1 billion earlier this year, Bloomberg reported.

Luis Carlos Sarmiento, founder of bank Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores SA, has watched the market value of his fortune decline as government investigations into Brazilian construction company Odebrecht SA have cast a shadow over Sarmiento’s bank and its former partners.

A subsidiary of Aval had partnered with Odebrechtto build a section of the 621-mile Ruta del Sol highway connecting Colombia with the Caribbean coast. The partnership fell through when Odebrecht admitted using a bribe to win the contract.

Shares of Aval are down 27% in dollar terms this year, which makes it easily the worst performance among the 20 biggest banks in Latin America. For comparison, Bancolombia was higher by 2% over the same period.

The vaporizing of value comes after an auditor for one of Sarmiento’s companies – Jorge Enrique Pizano – who had previously expressed concern for his own safety and provided evidence to the FBI – died this month from a heart attack. Pizano was outspoken about suspicious payments by Odebrecht dating back to 2013.

His son, who went home from Spain for the funeral, also recently died in a poisoning – the circumstances of which are being called “mysterious”.

Since Pizano’s death on November 8, Sarmiento has seen his personal fortune fall by about $1 billion, after falling another $1 billion earlier this year. One of the contracts that Pizano was interested in was a $2.7 million payment to a bank in Panama that wound up going through New York. Reportedly, Pizano had taken a four hour meeting with the FBI at the US Embassy in Bogotá to discuss it.

Aval’s net income was up 79% in the third-quarter, but the company still finds itself under the cloud of these investigations.

Carlos Rodriguez, head of equities at Ultraserfinco brokerage in Bogota told Bloomberg: “When international authorities get involved, and above all, U.S. authorities, there’s a risk of something additional coming out, something we don’t know about.”

Aval has claimed its innocence and “repeatedly denied that it knew about its partner’s illegal actions” in its U.S. SEC filings.

It’s been found that Odebrecht had bribed politicians and government officials to help it win contracts to build things like highways and power plants in various parts of Latin America. The company has already reached settlements in countries like the United States and the Dominican Republic. The Colombian case and the investigation into the deaths are both still ongoing.

Meanwhile, Pizano reportedly made secret audio recordings of his conversations with Nestor Humberto Martinez, the lawyer who represented Aval, when he brought up his concerns about these irregular payments. Martinez, who is now the Nation’s Attorney General, stated on Colombian TV that he passed on Pizano’s comments to Sarmiento himself.

Nothing to see here…

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Brace Yourselves: A 163% Meat Tax Could Be Coming

Authored by Meadow Clark via Daisy Luther’s Organic Prepper blog,

How would you like to pay a 163% meat tax every time you want a steak or a burger? What about when you want some bacon with breakfast, or when you’re craving a ham sandwich?

After much talk, economists and so-called health experts have finally decided what’s best for society: no steak for you! 

Do you think you and your family deserve an extra tax for having a steak every now and then? Well, brace yourselves…because social taxes are what’s for dinner.

Remember when smoking was the only socially engineered target of government health nannies? Then fat, then sugar, then caffeine and now even soda.

The American public has been encouraged to gorge themselves on decadent, calorie-rich food for decades. Now people are being watched with microscopes and being shamed for doing just that. Or rather, for enjoying themselves occasionally because who can even afford steaks now? After all, you are responsible for other people’s healthcare costs.

It looks like the “experts” have finally figured out a way to remove your steak right out from under your forks. By inflicting yet another sin tax on the individual and making lifestyle choices more akin to the austere, Big Brother commands in pure Orwellian 1984 style.

Are you ready to get ascetic?

I didn’t think so!

Why a Meat Tax?

A study published this month states:

The consumption of red and processed meat has been associated with increased mortality from chronic diseases, and as a result, it has been classified by the World Health Organization as carcinogenic (processed meat) and probably carcinogenic (red meat) to humans. One policy response is to regulate red and processed meat consumption similar to other carcinogens and foods of public health concerns. Here we describe a market-based approach of taxing red and processed meat according to its health impacts.

And, “Including the social health cost of red and processed meat consumption in the price of red and processed meat could lead to significant health and environmental benefits,…”

Based on the broad correlation that meat equals death, they calculated “optimal” tax levels to curb meat buying or rather, offset soaring healthcare costs that are caused by the Big Pharma/insurance racket.

Ryan Bourne writes,

The average household in the poorest fifth of the income distribution dedicates 1.3 percent of spending towards [meat]. That’s over double average household spending in the richest quintile. Yet meat is now a new “public health” target.[…]

Last week, a report by University of Oxford academics calculated supposedly “optimal tax rates” on red meat (lamb, beef and pork) and processed meats (sausages, bacon, salami etc.) For the U.S., the recommend rates were as high as 34 percent and 163 percent, respectively. Such taxes, the report claims, could save 52,500 American lives per year.

…

[…]This research suggests, unbelievably, that 557,000 deaths per year in the U.S. are caused by red and processed meat consumption – over 20 percent of the total. One of its authors has previously suggested everyone must eventually go vegan.

Did you catch that?

To put it in perspective: on meat that now costs $5 per pound, you’d pay either $6.75 or $13.15 per pound, depending on whether it was processed or not.

How would you like to pay a 163% meat tax? 

In other words, rich people can keep their steaks, let others eat cake. (Does it sound like this is going to tackle real health issues?)

Bourne notes, “In his 1937 book The Road to Wigan Pier, George Orwell commented that the poor eat “an appalling diet, but the peculiar evil is this, that the less money you have, the less inclined you are to spend it on wholesome food … You want something ‘tasty’.’”

It seems the experts already know this. Phys.org reported in September:

Eating meat is a symbol of power and status, and those who see themselves as having lower socio-economic status prefer meat, and eat more meat, due to this perception, according to new research from Monash University and the University of Technology Sydney (UTS).

The paper, published this week in the journal Appetite, found participants who rated themselves lower on socio-economic status showed a stronger preference for meat-based foods compared to participants who rated themselves higher on a socio-economic scale.

These two reports just happened to coincide? And the poor are being punished for their unconscious desire for protein (and power apparently)?

It is unclear if these reports mean an actual law is in the works, but it’s definitely a sign of things to come.

According to Alan Watt, the 1980s book The Third Wave by Alvin Toffler discloses the future agenda to move the world towards veganism, whether they want to or not.

Sin Taxes Never Work

A sin tax or a healthcare tax or a “lifestyle tax” punishes the consumer, usually for something innocuous that they enjoy. It doesn’t help the economy and it doesn’t help increase health. It just makes everyone miserable and poorer. It makes certain people richer and all of it royally puts the screw to hardworking people.

And let me repeat, it doesn’t help the economy!

It may bring in lots of revenue for a few, but a sin tax does not help the economy because people like their little life’s pleasures, especially when they’ve been robbed of big pleasures due to a parasitical government tanking the economy and robbing people blind.

What usually happens is people go to great lengths to get their vices. They even cross borders and send their money to other states or countries. They start making things and selling them in the black market.

Deep down, people know they are getting the shaft. They would just be paying more (punished) for something they enjoy. It’s a double standard that the government should capitalize on the very behavior that they deemed immoral.

Let’s not forget that there is also a lot of personal cost incurred from health problems. It’s not all covered by others.

The Fat Tax That Quickly Got Lipo’ed

A perfect example of a failed sin tax was when Denmark decided to enact a “fat tax” on junk food in 2011. Chocolate, potato chips, cookies, shelf-stable pastries, and the like. It was heralded as a great plan to finally cut obesity rates and extend life.

It was a big fat flop.

Sure, it changed consumer buying habits. Most of them hopped the border and flooded Germany and Sweden with their cash and found out their goodies were cheaper there anyway. The Danish government banished the tax within one year. Smokers do the same thing with nicotine. Instead of hopping borders, they just find other ways to enjoy nicotine.

These taxes usually always fail even when industry scientists tell everyone the tax curbed a “bad behavior.” What they are probably seeing is more of an economic deficit than a change of heart.

People don’t respond well to being punished into their veggies. It’s hard enough to “eat right” as it is. Who wants to be punished into having nothing? It doesn’t make psychological sense and diets are a proven failure for similar reasons.

Another thing that happens is the behavior never stops, so the health nuts of the world pay the full brunt of healthcare costs for the ones who don’t care for themselves, and then they also get taxed should they partake of the devil’s food. Ineffective social costs for everyone!

What Would Be a Better Way to Increase Health in America?

There are all sorts of ways to get Americans to care more about their health and none of them include sin tax and punishment.

  • Stop punishing individuals. (It’s better to reward or incentivize when it comes to forcing people anyway)

  • Stop with moral measurements.

  • Stop manipulating the market with speculations and artificial crop shortages.

  • Stop incentivizing GMOs and punishing organic farms with exorbitant fees.

  • Stop artificially driving down the costs of crap food and raising the costs of produce.

  • Stop removing access to fresh food in poor communities and help find non-forceful ways for SNAP holders to choose healthy foods.

  • Stop giving school cafeteria contracts to low-quality food companies and prepare fresh foods.

  • Bring back parity farming.

Silly Government…Taxes Are for Kids?

The government should learn by now that they cannot legislate social behavior. But, this, my friends is probably part of the bigger plan. By pricing people out of their periodic pleasure, it gets them used to the idea of not having it when the item is finally permanently removed like a blanky or a pacifier.

So actually, the meat tax itself IS part of the social engineering plan.

The greater question here is why are all the health studies, economists, and sustainability fanatics trying to get people to live off of so little? Few calories, no meat, little protein, less consumer goods, tiny spaces, cheap clothing, and don’t even think of having a real hot shower! You’re a total Hitler for using a straw at a restaurant because the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is all your fault and you must be socially aware at all times, even when you’re trying to have fun.

Sort of sounds like Agenda 21 or Agenda 2030 psycho-babble doesn’t it? You know, that plan where all the land, water, animal and crop resources will go to a few, powerful controllers? Hmmmm….

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Greenwald Goes Ballistic On Politico “Theory” Guardian’s Assange-Manafort Story Was Planted By Russians

After The Guardian attempted to shovel what appears to be a wholly fabricated story down our throats that Trump campaign manager met with Julian Assange at the London Embassy – Politico allowed an ex-CIA agent to use their platform to come up with a ham-handed cover story ever; Russia tricked The Guardian into publishing the Manafort-Assange propaganda. 

To that end, The Intercept‘s Glenn Greenwald (formerly of The Guardian) ripped Politico an entirely new oriface in a six-part Twitter dress down. 

Greenwald also penned a harsh rebuke to the Guardian‘s “problematic” reporting in a Tuesday article titled: “It Is Possible Paul Manafort Visited Julian Assange. If True, There Should Be Ample Video and Other Evidence Showing This.”

In sum, the Guardian published a story today that it knew would explode into all sorts of viral benefits for the paper and its reporters even though there are gaping holes and highly sketchy aspects to the story.

It is certainly possible that Paul Manafort, Roger Stone, and even Donald Trump himself “secretly” visited Julian Assange in the Embassy. It’s possible that Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un joined them.

And if any of that happened, then there will be mountains of documentary proof in the form of videos, photographs, and other evidence proving it. Thus far, no such evidence has been published by the Guardian. Why would anyone choose to believe that this is true rather than doing what any rational person, by definition, would do: wait to see the dispositive evidence before forming a judgment?

The only reason to assume this is true without seeing such evidence is because enough people want it to be true. The Guardian knows this. They knew that publishing this story would cause partisan warriors to excitedly spread the story, and that cable news outlets would hyperventilate over it, and that they’d reap the rewards regardless of whether the story turned out to be true or false. It may be true. But only the evidence, which has yet to be seen, will demonstrate that one way or the other. –Glenn Greenwald, The Intercept

In short, The Guardian tried to proffer a load of easily disprovable claims – which if not true, are pure propaganda. Once it began to blow up in their face, Politico let an ex-CIA operative try to save face by suggesting Russia did it. Insanity at its finest. 

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Facts That Privileged Americans Don’t Want Us Yo Know

“Why should privileged Americans want to avoid this issue?” writes Buchheit.

“Because they’re not about to make a financial commitment to the root cause of most of the violence in our country, which is the overwhelming stress and suffering brought on by deprivation in the richest nation in the world.”

Authored by Paul Buchheit via CommonDreams.org,

It’s strange that most media outlets rarely if ever report on these realities… until you remember who owns most media outlets…

Many of us are ill-informed about certain critical economic and social issues. The following facts should have been reported by the mainstream media, but unfortunately most of that media is controlled by the very people who have reason to hide the facts.

Tax Haven Cheating is Much Costlier than the Annual Safety Net—But the IRS Keeps Getting CUT

Offshore hoarding of private American wealth is estimated to be $3.3 trillion (4% of U.S. $82 trillion financial wealth).

The safety net costs about $400 billion per year, or, including Medicaid, about $900 billion per year.

Taking on the tax cheaters seems like an obvious response, instead of cutting the safety net. But the IRS budget itself has been steadily cut. Amazingly, and perversely, the Internal Revenue Service, which could be recovering much of our hidden money, has seen its staff and budget slashed 14 to 18 percent since the recession.

Our Own Country is the World’s Second Biggest Tax Haven

While the privileged American tax cheaters are taking money from their own country, they’re not shy about taking from the rest of the world. According to the Financial Secrecy Index of the Tax Justice Network, the U.S. is second only to Switzerland as a tax haven. Their report states: “Financial secrecy provided by the U.S. has caused untold harm to the ordinary citizens of foreign countries, whose elites have used the United States as a bolt-hole for looted wealth.”

Record Low Unemployment? Yes, Because One Hour of Work Counts as Employed

Part of that ‘booming’ economy is a low unemployment rate. As noted recently, the Bureau of Labor Statistics bases the official unemployment rate on employees “who did any work for pay or profit” during the week being surveyed. That includes part-time workers who are employed for just one hour a week.

The unemployment rate also fails to include those who have given up looking for work—4% more Americans than in the year 2000.

We’re Gradually Giving Away Our Country’s Wealth to the Children of the Rich

It’s not a Death Tax, it’s a Deadbeat Tax.

Anywhere from 35 percent to 55 percent of U.S. household wealth is inherited. It’s going to get worse. A Boston College study estimated that $59 trillion will be transferred from American estates by 2061. The study calls it “the greatest wealth transfer in U.S. history.” That’s almost as much as the total financial wealth in the U.S. today. But, as Robert Reich notes, in 2014 only 1.4 out of every 1,000 estates owed any estate tax. So most of the money to be passed down from Baby Boomers will be going to kids who never earned any of it and won’t have to pay any taxes on it.

One might argue that the loss of all this tax revenue is a good thing, because then philanthropists will step up and fund the needs of society. Not much chance of that. The super-rich have little incentive to provide housing or education or infrastructure or clean water to poor neighborhoods. Here’s their incentive: Donor-Advised Funds (DAFs). These ‘philanthropic’ funds allow big tax writeoffs, and the ‘donated’ money can be invested and reinvested with little of it going to real causes. The report “Gilded Giving” by Inequality.org states that “this charitable revenue can be warehoused, sitting for years or decades after a charitable deduction has been taken, before any significant payout is made to public nonprofits.”

As We Keep Shooting Each Other, Our Leaders Keep Cutting Mental Health Care

Why should privileged Americans want to avoid this issue? Because they’re not about to make a financial commitment to the root cause of most of the violence in our country, which is the overwhelming stress and suffering brought on by deprivation in the richest nation in the world. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, anxiety affects nearly one-third of both adolescents and adults.

But instead of therapy, we use drugs to treat patients with mental problems, and as a result pharmaceutical companies make billions of dollars at the expense of incapacitated Americans. Incredibly, over 96 percent of “last-resort” mental health hospital beds have been eliminated in the past sixty years. More incredibly, the 2019 budget for the Department of Health and Human Services includes a 21 percent decrease from the 2017 level.

Most incredible of all is the hypocrisy accompanying this disdain for the needs of American adults and children. As when Donald Trump says, “To every parent, teacher and child who is hurting so badly, we are here for you whatever you need, whatever we can do to ease your pain.”

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Stormy Daniels Says Michael Avenatti Went Rogue, Sued Trump Against Her Wishes

Two weeks after his arrest for allegedly abusing his girlfriend, Stormy Daniels says that Michael Avenatti sued Donald Trump against her wishes, according to a statement she gave to the Daily Beast on Wednesday. 

Avenatti also launched a now-deleted legal defense fundraising site without her consent. 

Daniels is now unsure if she will keep Avenatti on as her lawyer. 

Here is her full statement, provided to The Daily Beast – with Avenatti’s response below:

“For months I’ve asked Michael Avenatti to give me accounting information about the fund my supporters so generously donated to for my safety and legal defense. He has repeatedly ignored those requests. Days ago I demanded again, repeatedly, that he tell me how the money was being spent and how much was left. Instead of answering me, without my permission or even my knowledge Michael launched another crowdfunding campaign to raise money on my behalf. I learned about it on Twitter.

“I haven’t decided yet what to do about legal representation moving forward. Michael has been a great advocate in many ways. I’m tremendously grateful to him for aggressively representing me in my fight to regain my voice. But in other ways Michael has not treated me with the respect and deference an attorney should show to a client. He has spoken on my behalf without my approval. He filed a defamation case against Donald Trump against my wishes. He repeatedly refused to tell me how my legal defense fund was being spent. Now he has launched a new crowdfunding campaign using my face and name without my permission and attributing words to me that I never wrote or said. I’m deeply grateful to my supporters and they deserve to know their money is being spent responsibly. I don’t want to hurt Michael, but it’s time to set the record straight. The truth has always been my greatest ally.

“My goal is the same as it has always been—to stand up for myself and take back my voice after being bullied and intimidated by President Trump and his minions. One way or another I’m going to continue in that fight, and I want everyone who has stood by me to know how profoundly grateful I am for their support.”

Avenatti hit back, telling the Beast that he has “always been Stormy’s biggest champion,” and that he’s “sacrificed an enormous amount of money, time and energy toward assisting her.” 

He also became a household name, so let’s not pretend Avenatti did this out of the milk of human kindness. 

His full statement reads: 

“I am and have always been Stormy’s biggest champion. I have personally sacrificed an enormous amount of money, time and energy toward assisting her because I believe in her. I have always been an open book with Stormy as to all aspects of her cases and she knows that. The retention agreement Stormy signed back in February provided that she would pay me $100.00 and that any and all other monies raised via a legal fund would go toward my legal fees and costs. Instead, the vast majority of the money raised has gone toward her security expenses and similar other expenses. The most recent campaign was simply a refresh of the prior campaign, designed to help defray some of Stormy’s expenses.”

According to NYU Law Professor Stephen Gillers, Avenatti could be in deep trouble if he sued Trump without consent. 

“If he filed the case with her name when it was clear that she told him not to, then he could be sued for that,” said Gillers, adding: “He could be sued for malpractice. If true, she has a malpractice case against him. I emphasize if true. And if true, he would be subject to discipline but not as serious as disbarment.”

Avenatti claims that he hasn’t “received a dime in attorneys’ fees” from the crowdfunding efforts – one of which raised over $580,000 for Daniels’ legal defense. He also claims that his firm has spent “well over a thousand hours of attorney time on the case at a value of over $1,500,000 (and no, we do not count interviews or media as attorney time).”

As the Beast notes, Avenatti’s legal work for Daniels hasn’t been the greatest. 

In the April defamation lawsuit against the president, Avenatti argued Trump hurt her by tweeting that she participated in a “total con job.” But in November, a judge dismissed the suit and ordered Daniels to pay the president’s legal bills. Trump’s lawyers asked for almost $350,000 in legal fees; Daniels is now fighting to try to lower that bill. –Daily Beast

Daniels made national news when she and Avenatti stepped into the national spotlight with a claim that President Trump’s former attorney, Michael Cohen, paid her $130,000 to keep quiet about a decade-old affair – a claim Trump denies. Cohen has admitted making the illegal payments at Trump’s direction and has pleaded guilty to eight criminal counts. 

Avenatti, meanwhile, was a rising star in the #MeToo movement until his arrest two weeks ago for allegedly roughing up his girlfriend. 

his White House dreams have faced major challenges; earlier this month, he was arrested under suspicion of domestic violence—allegations he roundly denies. And when he represented migrant children whom the Trump administration separated from their parents earlier this year, long-time immigration lawyers told The Observer he was “fantastically irresponsible.” –Daily Beast

Lastly – according to court records, Avenatti and his companies owe millions in unpaid taxes to the IRS and from other judgements. 

It seems as though the tough talking attorney’s 15 minutes may finally be up. 

 

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Leaked Transcript Proves Russiagaters Have Been Right All Along (Spoiler: Not Really)

Authored by Caitlin Johnstone via Medium.com,

A transcript of exchanges between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin has been leaked to National News Conglomerate by an anonymous source within the Kremlin. We here at NNC have confirmed the authenticity of this document using the same rigorous verification process we’ve been using to authenticate the evidence for all our other reporting on Russia’s involvement in the 2016 US elections over the last two years. These verification methods include hunches, gut intuitions, and an introspective assessment of the way our feelings feel. The following exchanges revealed in this transcript provide the clearest evidence yet that the President of the United States has been in collusion with the Russian government for years.

This introduction has been authored by the editorial board of the National News Conglomerate. Obey.

11/9/2016

Trump: I have done as you commanded, my dominant and all-powerful lord. I have conspired with your hackers to steal the election, and now I’m going to be president! I want to thank you for not releasing that video footage of those Russian prostitutes I hired to urinate on a bed the Obamas once slept in. If that had come out it would have offended and alienated a lot of people, which is something I never normally do.

Putin: Yes that is an old KGB tactic called kompromat, a word which only extremely intelligent people know about. Keep this line of communication open. As long as you do as I command, your pee pee tape will remain secret.

Trump: One thing I’m curious about though my lord, if you don’t mind my asking. If you already had an army of hackers targeting Democratic Party emails, why did you need my help? Couldn’t you just have hacked the emails and published them on your own? Why did you need me to interact with them at all?

Putin: Moral support, mainly. We don’t need to get into specifics.

Trump: Oh okay.

~

1/20/2017

Trump: I’m in! Whew! I was really worried that leaked dossier would be the end of me! What are my instructions, my lord?

Putin: Begin introducing racism and division to the United States. America has never experienced these things before, and it will shock and disorient them. With the US divided against itself, your nation will be far too weak to stand against my plans of total world domination.

Trump: That’s a really tall order! America has always been a harmonious place where everyone gets along up until today. I’ll try my best though. Anything else?

Putin: Yes, make them distrust your nation’s large media outlets and convince them that the US intelligence community is often dishonest.

Trump: That will be really hard because those institutions have always been trusted for their unparalleled integrity. But your wish is my command, oh lord.

~

4/7/2017

Putin: Bomb a Syrian airbase.

Trump: What? Really? Aren’t they, like, your allies?

Putin: Exactly. This will throw inquisitive minds off the scent. We can’t have them finding out about that pee tape.

Trump: Are you sure? Some people are saying that chemical attack looks like it could have been perpetrated by the many terrorist factions in Syria and not the government.

Putin: Who cares? Have you seen how relentless they’ve been in exposing us?? Have you never watched Rachel Maddow? That woman is a psychic bloodhound, masterfully sniffing out the truth at every turn! We can’t afford to take chances. Do as I say.

Trump: Yes sir.

Putin: And see if you can arrest that WikiLeaks guy.

~

5/14/17

Trump: Hey do you want me to do anything about Montenegro’s addition to NATO?

Putin: No. NATO expansion is good.

Trump: Uhhh okay.

~

6/28/17

Trump: Who do you want tapped for Ukraine envoy?

Putin: Kurt Volker.

Trump: Volker? He hates you! He’s like the biggest Russia hawk ever.

Putin: We still need to throw the Russiagaters off the scent. We’re playing 3-D chess here. This is high-level disinformation, or dezinformatsiya as very smart people call it. I want as many Russia hawks in your administration as possible.

Trump: 3-D chess? Alright. I guess you know what you’re doing.

~

8/30/17

Putin: Shut down the Russian consulate in San Francisco and throw out a bunch of diplomats. That will confuse the hell out of them.

~

11/21/17

Putin: Now approve the sale of arms to Ukraine. Not even Obama would do that. This will throw them off the trail for sure.

~

1/1/18

Putin: Happy new year. Force RT and Sputnik to register as foreign agents.

~

1/29/18

Putin: Make sure your Nuclear Posture Review greatly escalates its aggressive posture toward Russia.

~

2/14/18

Putin: Happy Valentine’s Day. Don’t worry about those Russians your guys killed in Syria.

~

2/19/18

Putin: Send a fleet of war ships to the Black Sea.

~

3/25/18

Putin: Better expel a few dozen diplomats over the Skripal thing.

~

4/5/18

Putin: Sanction a bunch of Russian oligarchs.

~

4/10/18

Putin: Bomb Syria.

Trump: What?? Again?

Putin: Yes.

Trump: What the hell, man? Why’d you even recruit me if you’re just going to have me do everything all the Russia hawks want?

Putin: Well, you know how I told you we were playing 3-D chess against the Russiagate investigation?

Trump: Yeah?

Putin: Well that wasn’t enough. Now we’re playing 4-D chess.

Trump: Fine, whatever, I don’t care. Just don’t release my pee tape.

~

7/17/18

Trump: Oh man. They’re really making a major fuss about that summit. What should I do?

Putin: Play it cool. Don’t let them know about our secret diabolical plot.

Trump: Right. Remind me what that was again?

Putin: Make Jim Acosta feel really, really sad.

~

9/2/18

Putin: Have you arrested Julian Assange yet?

Trump: Working on it.

~

10/20/18

Putin: I like John Bolton’s idea. Pull out of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.

~

11/25/18

Putin: Make sure your administration loudly and aggressively backs Ukraine in our Kerch Strait spat.

Trump: OMFG this is getting too weird. Are you just trolling me? What the hell is this?

Trump: Hello?

Trump: Are you there?

Trump: Answer me!

Putin: 5-D chess.

*  *  *

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Ford Says It Won’t Cut Jobs During Planned ‘Restructuring’

By announcing plans to cut 15,000 jobs in two swing states – Ohio and Michigan – General Motors thumbed its nose at President Trump (and his generous tax-cut plan) for insisting on imposing his protectionist agenda over the objections of automakers and virtually every other sector of corporate America. But while a furious Trump has ordered federal agencies to find a way to punish GM, Ford announced that it’s planning a “restructuring” of its own that – but the carmaker was careful to point out, won’t involve any job cuts.

The automaker announced on Wednesday that it would move 500 workers to its Kentucky truck plant, from its Louisville Assembly Plant to the same truck plant to help it increase Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator production by 20%. But the restructuring won’t include any layoffs.

Ford

Ford is also planning some shift reductions at its Flat Rock, Michigan plant as part of the restructuring. However, the automaker has already struck a deal with the UAW to ensure that displaced workers will have opportunities elsewhere.

That news follows a Bloomberg from earlier detailing Ford’s plans to accelerate production of its Lincoln brand in China to try and avoid painful tariffs on US-made cars. Meanwhile, the company also plans to increase domestic production of vehicles destined for the US market to avoid US tariffs – which sounds like validation of Trump’s argument that tariffs should benefit domestic producers. The company is hoping to fast-track its expansion in China in a gamble to help improve sales of its Lincoln brand, which have slowed thanks to the tariffs after soaring 66% in 2017.

The automaker has rolled out an electric model called the Ford Aviator that has lower door handles, stringent emissions controls and the capacity to use a smartphone as a key – all features designed to entice Chinese buyers.

Lincoln

Ford’s decision to go all-in on Lincoln in China is effectively a gamble on the Chinese luxury market – a gamble that recent economic data suggest is looking increasingly risky.

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Clintons Face Empty Seats As Trump-Trashing Speaking Tour Kicks Off With A Coughing Fit

Having seen donations to their ‘foundation’ collapse by 90% since they failed in their bid to regain The White House, The Clintons decided a 13-city paid speaking tour was in order to scrape together some coin.

Unfortunately, as the image above shows, the supposed-power-couple’s draw is starting to fade as the  Daily Mail reports that just 3,300 tickets were sold in the Scotiabank Arena, which holds 19,800.

As President Trump tours the nation in front of 10s of thousands of fans, The Clintons faced 83% empty seats in the Canadian hockey arena as it seems fewer and fewer North Americans want to hear their whining scapegoatery.

As The Daily Mail reports, Bill Clinton said the U.S. had ‘compromised’ its moral leadership in the world under Trump, and defended his NAFTA free trade agreement. He said of the recent elections:

“We got a chance to become a democracy again and reclaim a debate,” adding that there were Republicans of good will “who don’t want to make America a single homogenous authoritarian country. We got a chance to have a debate again now.”

The former president apologized for Trump’s angry clash with Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau during his last trip here, setting off a trade clash, though the U.S., Canada, and Mexico ultimately reached a deal.

“All the rhetoric was just for consumption, it was just rhetoric. And we did some real damage I’m afraid to our relationship and if we did I ask for your forbearance because we do love you, most of us, in America,” said Clinton, who inked the NAFTA agreement during his tenure.

But the Trump-bashing had to wait for a few minutes as Hillary suffered the return of the coughing fit that so enlivened her 2016 campaign…

“You need another?” her husband asked, offering her a bottled water. She also took what looked like a cough drop after about an hour on stage.  Her husband filibustered while her voice recovered, and Clinton participated during the event’s final 30 minutes.

As the American Thinker points out, “While 3300 tickets sold at prices ranging from $53 to over $200 still yields a healthy payday, even after expenses, the optics are terrible,” which is something even loyal Democrats and CNN is pointing out:

“I just think the optics of going to an event where people are paying to see them, and they are financially gaining from this, I am not sure that is the right way to re-ingratiate them back into the public sphere,” said a former Clinton aide.

“They haven’t gone away, and I don’t want them to go away, but I am not sure this is the right venue from an optics standpoint.”

Tickets were going a lot cheaper as the event neared…

As American Thinker p[oints out,m Even though curtains were erected cutting the arena in half, the vacant seats far outnumbered the occupied ones.

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Russian Bank “Fat Finger” Gives Poor African Country Loan Equal To Six Times Its GDP

The impoverished state of Central African Republic – one of the poorest countries in the world – landed a paper windfall on Tuesday, when Russian state bank VTB reported it had lent the country $12 billion, or more than six times the country’s entire GDP — but the bank then said it was a clerical error “fat finger” and there was no such loan.

According to Reuters, the loan was mentioned in a quarterly VTB financial report published by the Russian central bank, which included a table listing the outstanding financial claims that VTB group had on dozens of countries as of Oct. 1 this year. There, in the table next to Central African Republic was the sum of 801,933,814,000 roubles, or $12 billion — more than six times the country’s annual economic output of $1.95 billion.

There was no indication in the data published by the Russian central bank of who was the recipient of the loan, the purpose of the loan, or when it was issued and on what terms.

When asked about the data by Reuters, the bank said the loan to the former French colony did not, in reality, exist.

“VTB bank has no exposure of this size to any foreign country. Most likely, this is a case of an operational mistake in the system when the countries were being coded,” the lender said in a statement sent to Reuters.

That, or with the Danske Bank money laundering pathway now closed, Russian oligarchs have found a new and even more creative route to launder domestic funds offshore.

Of course, VTB did not say who was responsible for the mistake or how such a large figure could have been published without being spotted.

Meanwhile, the spokesman for the African nation’s government Ange Maxime Kazagui, when asked about the Russian data, said: “I don’t have that information. But it doesn’t sound credible because $11 billion is beyond the debt capacity of CAR.”

“We are members of the IMF (International Monetary Fund). When a member of the IMF wants to take on debt … it has to discuss that with the IMF.”

CAR is a nation of 5 million people emerging from sectarian conflict, with a gross domestic product of $1.95 billion, according to the World Bank.

And while we joke that Russia is now laundering money through deep equatorial Africa, it is not entirely outside the realm of possibilities: Russia has built up security and business ties with CAR in the past few years; all it takes is one or a handful of entrepreneurs to figure out how to use this new “partner” far from regulatory supervision of any developed nation, to funnel, or launder, billions without anyone noticing.

Muscling aside former colonial power France, Moscow has provided arms and contractors to the Central African Republic military, and a Russian national is security advisor to President Faustin-Archange Touadera. Naturally, corruption is rife: it remains one of the poorest countries in the world and is still marked by the humanitarian and security crisis of 2013.

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Firefighters Complain After Californians Hire Private Crews To Protect Their Homes

Authored by Mac Slavo via SHTFplan.com,

After Califonia’s run-in with major wildfires and the deadliest one to date recently ravaging Paradise, many in the hardest hit areas are hiring private firms to protect their homes.  But it’s upsetting the state-funded firefighters.

With California experiencing two years of unprecedented wildfires that have left more than 20,000 homes destroyed and scores dead, the private firefighting business is booming. These brigades work independently from county firefighters; their job is to protect specific homes under contract with insurance companies, according to The Los Angeles Times. 

Private fire crews’ work can vary from pushing back flames as they approach properties to getting to the site before the blaze arrives and spraying the homes covered under their policy with fire retardant. But the firefighters who rely on state funds are not too happy that the free market is making a huge difference and saving homes from the blazes.

Kim Kardashian went on Instagram to thank firefighters for saving her Hidden Hills estate and told Ellen DeGeneres in an interview that she hired a private crew to protect her property.

“Our house is right on the end of a big park, so the whole park had caught fire and so if our house went, then every other house would go,” she said. “I don’t take that for granted, and that was such a blessing that we were able to do that.” –The Los Angeles Times

The taxpayer-funded state firefighters are not happy that the private market is doing a good job. “From the standpoint of first responders, they are not viewed as assets to be deployed. They’re viewed as a responsibility,” complained Carroll Wills, communications director for California Professional Firefighters, a labor union representing “rank-and-file” firefighters in the state.

Private firefighting crews often work on behalf of insurance companies, such as Chubband USAA, so they have a vested interest in saving people’s homes. They also have proven that they can provide an additional layer of protection for homeowners who opt into the service as part of their insurance policies. The insurance policies range in cost from several thousand to tens of thousands of dollars annually, depending on the homes’ insured value and other factors, such as location. Private companies are also effective. During a wildfire, the private crews might not visit every home insured under the program but will base their location decisions on where the flames are advancing and which homes have a high likelihood of being destroyed without their assistance, reported the Los Angeles Times.

What began more than a decade ago as a white-glove service for homeowners in well-to-do neighborhoods has expanded in recent years as the wildfire danger has increased, said Michael Barry, a spokesman for the Insurance Information Institute, a not-for-profit organization that educates the public about the insurance industry.

But not all state firefighters think the free market is a bad thing. “It’s clear, unfortunately, that just when I don’t think it can get any worse in terms of structures destroyed, it seems to get a lot worse,” California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection assistant chief Chris Anthony told the Los Angeles Times. “If these insurance companies are trying to mitigate risk and liability, the trends are pretty clear the numbers are going to rise as fires get worse. From an economic standpoint, it makes total sense what they’re trying to accomplish.”

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