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After Project Veritas just exposed Hillary’s genius idea to launch the “Donald Ducks Releasing His Tax Returns” campaign, we get the following “Trump Tin Foil Hat” for all of the “alt-right” conspiracy theorists out there.  This is actually a very clever idea, we’ve seen it executed with amazing results in numerous high school student body elections.

 

Of course, our favorite Hillary conspiracy theory is that one about how she’s really sick…that one was great. 

 

Or, the one about how the Clinton Foundation is a massive pay-to-play organization that accepts donations from questionable foreign leaders.

 

Or, there is also that really crazy one where people allege that Hillary conspired to delete federal email records despite the existence of a Congressional subpeona. 

 

Perhaps Jimmy Kimmel said it best:

“You know, these conspiracy theories about Clinton’s health would be a lot harder to believe if they didn’t actually come true.”

via http://ift.tt/2ekna1P Tyler Durden

Submitted by Alice Salles via TheAntiMedia.org,

Shortly after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, the Pentagon hired Bell Pottinger, a London-based PR agency. The PR firm was tasked with promoting what the Pentagon called “democratic elections” in Iraq, ultimately earning over a hundred million dollars yearly. Part of the firm’s job included producing “fake al Qaeda propaganda films,” the Bureau of Investigative Journalism recently reported.

Despite the PR operation’s hefty price tag, the Pentagon seemed to have no issue allocating taxpayer resources to have these videos produced. But over ten years after the Iraq invasion, the Pentagon is now concerned about its past appropriations — at least part of them, anyway.

Ten years after promising $15,000 bonuses to soldiers willing to re-enlist in 2006 and 2007, the Pentagon is now forcing California veterans to pay the bonuses back.

In California, the Los Angeles Times reports, “officials signed up soldiers in assembly-line fashion” in 2006 and 2007, outlining the “generous terms available for six-year reenlistments” to those willing to sacrifice their safety, leaving their homes, once again, to fight abroad in exchange for a large bonus. Now, the Pentagon wants their money back.

To Get Soldiers to Re-enlist, the National Guard Lied

In 2008, the movie “Stop-Loss” highlighted a reality few members of the public were informed about.

With the growing involvement of U.S. military forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, soldiers who had already served in Iraq and Afghanistan for several tours were being asked to reenlist. Sometimes, these soldiers’ term duties were extended forcefully via the government’s controversial stop-loss policy, which allows the government to extend the period a soldier must spend on active duty involuntarily.

In California, the state’s National Guard began promising thousands of soldiers that they would receive $15,000 bonuses for going back to war.

Now, nearly 10,000 soldiers who took the National Guard’s promise at face value are being ordered to pay the bonuses back plus interest charges. In some cases, their wages are being garnished to fund the payments.

This issue was first brought up when veterans “whose only mistake was to accept bonuses offered when the Pentagon needed to fill the ranks” were the target of an investigation launched in 2010.

After receiving reports of improper payments, a federal probe found “thousands of bonuses and student loan payments were given to California Guard soldiers who did not qualify for them, or were approved despite paperwork errors.”

As a result of the investigation, Army Master Sgt. Toni Jaffe, who also served as the California Guard’s incentive manager, pleaded guilty to filing false claims totaling $15.2 million in 2011. He was sentenced to spend 30 months in federal prison, and three other officers who also pleaded guilty to fraud were put on probation.

Breaking the National Guard’s promise to soldiers whose reenlistment depended on the bonus distribution, the California Guard “assigned 42 auditors to comb through paperwork for bonuses and other incentive payments given to 14,000 soldiers.”

In September 2016, these auditors finalized the investigation, finding roughly 9,700 current and retired soldiers who had been given “improper” bonuses. These soldiers have been told “to repay some or all of their bonuses” since the probe was launched and the first cases were discovered.

According to the California National Guard, these repayments have recovered more than $22 million so far, compromising veterans like Robert Richmond, who now works for a construction company in Texas. He was an Army Sergeant First Class living in Huntington Beach when in 2006, he was asked to reenlist.

“I signed a contract that I literally risked my life to fulfill,” Richmond explained, adding that he only agreed to go back to war because he was told he qualified for a $15,000 bonus as a special forces soldier.

The veteran had gone through a divorce after being deployed to Afghanistan in 2002 and 2003. Asked to consider the bonus to reenlist, Richmond thought the money was going to give him “breathing room,” so he agreed. In 2007, he was sent to Iraq’s “Triangle of Death,” an area a few miles south of Baghdad known for intense fighting.

In one of the hundreds of missions against insurgents he was a part of, Richmond sustained permanent back and brain injuries after his vehicle triggered a roadside bomb.

In 2014, the California Guard headquarters contacted him, letting the former special forces soldier know he was being urged to repay the $15,000 bonus he received in 2006. If he failed to make the payment, the letter said, he would face “debt collection action.”

Richmond refused to give the government any money back, filing appeal after appeal. “[Impacted soldiers] want somebody in the government, anybody, to say this is wrong and we’ll stop going after this money,” he said.

‘Support the Troops!’: Code for ‘Don’t Question War?’

In Washington, D.C., lawmakers have condemned the Pentagon, saying the soldiers were not at fault for accepting a bonus they were promised.

Promising to open an investigation into the enlistment bonus problem, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) called the Pentagon’s demands “disgraceful.”

“The Department of Defense should waive these repayments,” McCarthy said in a statement. “The House will investigate these reports to ensure our soldiers are fully honored for their service,” he added.

Rep. McCarthy says the government should not be demanding any money back from veterans in his statement. The California Republican and also argued that “we are the ones who owe a debt for the great sacrifices our heroes have made — some of whom unfortunately paid the ultimate sacrifice.‎”

Instead of using this opportunity to highlight the importance of safeguarding our soldiers and keeping them from engaging in unconstitutional wars that are only successfully sold to the American public because administrations lie, McCarthy celebrates these very soldiers’ sacrifices.

Using this discussion to repeat the traditional “support the troops” line, lawmakers like McCarthy steer the debate away from what’s causing these soldiers so much pain and distress, acting as if relentless war hasn’t been the reason they were lied to. Instead, McCarthy and others are pushing the government to keep its promise without reevaluating how the U.S. government goes about irresponsibly sending these men and women abroad to fight insurgents who didn’t pose a threat to Americans at the time.

In the 1964 film, “The Americanization of Emily,” which was based on a novel written by a veteran who had been a SeaBee officer on D-Day, character Lt. Comdr. Charles E. Madison gives a short speech explaining that “[those] who make heroes of our dead and shrines of our battlefields … perpetuate war by exalting its sacrifices.”

Failing to discuss the real costs of war with the American electorate while exalting the sacrifices made by those who serve in the military is part of an ongoing campaign — deliberate or otherwise — to keep America involved in perpetual war.

Don’t believe me? Don’t take my word for it. Instead, read what journalist Randolph Bourne had to say about the country’s thirst for war in 1918:

“In times of peace, we usually ignore the State in favour of partisan political controversies, or personal struggles for office, or the pursuit of party policies. It is the Government rather than the State with which the politically minded are concerned. The State is reduced to a shadowy emblem which comes to consciousness only on occasions of patriotic holiday. …

 

“With the shock of war, however, the State comes into its own again. The Government, with no mandate from the people, without consultation of the people, conducts all the negotiations, the backing and filling, the menaces and explanations, which slowly bring it into collision with some other Government, and gently and irresistibly slides the country into war.”

War, Bourne concluded, “is the health of the state.” This is not because all individuals involved with governing enjoy death and destruction per se, but because “it is … in war that the urgency for union seems greatest, and the necessity for universality seems most unquestioned,” which forces the public to unite behind the state no matter what — especially if the occasion leading to war is “terrifying” the public.

While veterans whose bonuses are being questioned ten years later should be heard and protected from government abuse, we must not forget it was government’s own thirst for war that initiated this cycle of deception. Let us not ignore the reasons why we should support our troops — and how we should go about it; simply claiming to be interested in celebrating U.S. soldiers for their sacrifice does nothing for them.

via http://ift.tt/2dSS0iJ Tyler Durden

Recall that in a March 2015 interview with CBS, just after the NYT reported of Hillary’s use of a private email server, president Obama told the American public he had only learned about Hillary’s use of a private server from the press.

As we reminded readers one month ago, CBS News senior White House correspondent Bill Plante asked Mr. Obama when he learned about her private email system after his Saturday appearance in Selma, Alabama. “The same time everybody else learned it through news reports,” the president told Plante. “The policy of my administration is to encourage transparency, which is why my emails, the BlackBerry I carry around, all those records are available and archived,” Mr. Obama said. “I’m glad that Hillary’s instructed that those emails about official business need to be disclosed.”

Unfortunately, the transparency of Obama was tarnished substantially in late September, when in the FBI’s interview notes with Huma Abedin released by the FBI it was first revealed that Obama had used a psuedonymous email account: Once informed that the sender’s name is believed to be pseudonym used by the president, Abedin exclaimed: ‘How is this not classified?'” the report says. “Abedin then expressed her amazement at the president’s use of a pseudonym and asked if she could have a copy of the email.”

Fast forward to today, when in the latest Podesta dump we learn that in an email from Chryl Mills to John Podesta, the Clinton aide, upon learning what Obama had just said, countered with something quite stunning:

we need to clean this up – he has emails from her – they do not say state.gov

Some would say this is prima facie evidence of an attemp to cover up a presidential lie.

via http://ift.tt/2er775K Tyler Durden

Authored by The Daily Sheeple's Melissa Dykes vis SHTFPlan.com,

Unaccountable power multiplies, but this is astounding. This is a very good example of the reasons that the founders sought to limit and check power. But of course, over the years, those protections have been whittled down, and the loopholes are big enough drive tanks through. Corruption doesn’t even begin to cover it if wealthy donors – and even foreign powers – can just write checks, contribute to the Clinton Foundation, etc. – and just buy a law in return.

 

Why is no one standing up to this tyranny? Critics have taken George W. Bush and Barack Obama to task for abusing their power to write executive orders – and legislate with a pen when they have no constitutional power to make law at all. But Hillary, before she even takes power, is already leaving these two in the dust. So everyone is just going to take it, along with the ‘first female’ t-shirts they will be sending out as promos in the mail?

 

As MLK famously wrote from his Birmingham jail cell: “At first glance it may seem rather paradoxical for us consciously to break laws. One may well ask: “How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?” The answer lies in the fact that there are two types of laws: just and unjust. I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that “an unjust law is no law at all.”

Executive Orders for Sale? Leaked Email Shows Hillary Camp Answering Wealthy Donor’s Questions about How Executive Orders Work

by Melissa Dykes

If you already thought the Executive Order system falls somewhere between problematic and completely unconstitutional, this takes it to a whole new, never before seen level of corruption.

Thanks to all the leaks, America now knows our government is essentially one giant pay-for-play operation. That’s how it works. That’s how the DNC works. That’s how the Clinton Foundation works.

But how far does that go?

How about bypassing Congress entirely with money in the most literal sense possible.

This leaked email chain hints at something that kind of makes votes and lobbyists and, well, all of it rather pointless.

If someone’s wealthy enough, can they straight up buy an executive order?

These days, the president uses Executive Orders to bypass Congress, even though there is no constitutional provision that explicitly permits the use of executive orders. It’s a system that’s been heavily abused in the past but now, apparently, it’s for sale.

A new revelation buried in the Wikileaks trove of tens of thousands of Hillary campaign chairman John Podesta’s emails shows him discussing executive orders in relation to an “idea” a wealthy donor has.

In a leaked email thread between Podesta and Mary Pat Bonner, a “donor adviser” who  gets millions for her elite connections in bringing in donors and for being what The New York Times describes as a “master of making donors happy,” it’s all but admitted that Executive Orders are another pay-for-play item on the corrupt American political menu.

Read this from the bottom up:

(click to enlarge)

In an email with the subject line, “Is there someone in your shop,” Bonner writes, “Who totally understands ‘executive orders’. It is to answer a very big donors questions.”

Podesta responds with simply, “Me.”

Bonner: “It is for Michael King.”

Podesta: “What does he need?”

Bonner: “He has an idea and just need answer [sic] to a bunch of easy questions about how this works.”

Oh goody. Mega wealthy donor Michael King has an “idea” about executive orders…

The Michael King they are likely referencing is rich TV mogul Michael King, the exec who inherited King World Productions later acquired by CBS. To give you an idea, King World Productions launched Harpo’s The Oprah Winfrey Show and Dr. Phil’s talk show.

Back in 2012, Bill Clinton teamed up with King on a pricey fundraiser for President Obama at King’s Pacific Palisades estate where tickets ranged from general seating starting at $1,000 and went all the way up to $40,000 premium seats with meet-and-greets.

While on the campaign trail over a year out from the election, Hillary Clinton has already vowed she will use Executive Orders to pass gun control regulations, for example.

Based on this email thread, you have to wonder what other EOs Hillary plans to pass as president… and whose “idea” they are.

And how much that idea cost.

via http://ift.tt/2eNuEZd Tyler Durden

Just as we warned previously, it appears Russia is spoiling the oil-rally party. IFX reports that Russia’s envoy has stated that they are “against oil output cuts.” Furthermore, seemingly confirming no ‘cut’, Venezuela’s Pino says “freeze” deal may only be temporary. So freeze at best (at record levels) and no cut..

$50 defended again..

As ForexLive notes, Venezuelan and Russian oil ministers met in Moscow today and suggested non-OPEC countries remove 400-500K of supply to supplement OPEC quotas. The initial reaction from Moscow suggests the proposal didn’t get far. It’s shaping up like the best realistic deal is for some non-OPEC and OPEC countries to freeze output but expect the quotas to be routinely violated.

As we noted before, for all the confused oil bulls (and algos), here is an
attempt at laying out the odds of an OPEC production cut from the
perspective of 4 key producers.

1. Nigeria National Petroleum Corp. lowered by at least $1 a barrel its official selling prices, or OSPs, for 20 out of 26 oil grades,
   according to pricing lists. Qua Iboe, Nigeria’s largest export crude
   under normal circumstances, was reduced by the most since 2014. The price reductions are due to a “huge cargo overhang” as the country attempts to regain market share, Mele
   Kyari, group general manager for the oil-marketing division at NNPC,
   the state oil company, said by phone. (Source: Bloomberg, 20 October
   2016)
2. Iran, OPEC’s third-biggest member, plans to boost its oil output to 4 million barrels a day this year, potentially complicating the producer group’s plan to cut supply in an effort to prop up prices.
   Oil
   Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said he hopes the Organization of
   Petroleum Exporting Countries will agree next month at a meeting in
   Vienna to limit output. “We should decide in November how much every
   country should produce,” Zanganeh said. He didn’t comment on Iran’s
   participation, if any, in the OPEC agreement.
3. Al-Naimi (Saudi Oil Minister until May 2016) writes in the book that one of his aides asked him in November 2014 what was the chance of leading non-OPEC countries Russia, Mexico, Kazakhstan and Norway cutting oil production. “I held up my right hand and made the sign for zero,” he writes. (Source: Bloomberg, 17 October 2016)
4. In early October, Sechin told reporters that Rosneft planned this year to raise its oil production, already
   the world’s largest among listed producers, above the 203 million
   tonnes (4.1 million barrels per day) it produced in 2015. Sechin said he
   doubted some OPEC countries, such as Iran, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela,
   would cut their output either: “Try to answer this question yourself:
   would Iran, Saudi Arabia or Venezuela cut their production?”

Still think an OPEC production cut deal is imminent? Then we have a few bridges in Saudi Arabia for sale to the highest bidder.

via http://ift.tt/2eOgVCL Tyler Durden

The Calais “Jungle”, which has been called “home” for up to 10,000 migrants for the past 2 years, is finally being demolished today.  As we previously noted, French authorities conducted a massive evacuation effort over the weekend and arranged for migrants to be transported to over 450 facilities across the country where housing had been arranged and migrants would be given the opportunity to claim asylum.

Now, after previous attempts earlier in the year failed, the Calais jungle is finally being dismantled.

And, here is a live feed of the destruction from RT:

 

While the demolition seems to be progressing smoothly today, evacuation efforts by French authorities grew hostile at various points over the weekend with migrants launching stones at police and setting buildings around the camp on fire. 

* * *

Violent clashes erupted overnight in the Calais jungle as 1,200 French police began the process of relocating the camp’s 8,000 migrant residents to 450 separate facilities across France.  The plan calls for a mass evacuation to be conducted on Monday and Tuesday with heavy machinery expected to be sent in Tuesday afternoon to clear any remaining debris and officially demolish the camp.  That said, many of the migrants chose not to leave peacefully launching rocks at French police and setting fires to property adjacent to the camp. 

 

French authorities have arranged for migrants to be transported to over 450 facilities across the country where housing will be provided and they will be given the opportunity to claim asylum.  According to BBC, 2,500 people are expected to leave the camp on Monday with the remainder expected to depart on Tuesday.

The Jungle migrants are being placed into separate queues to determine who are in families, travelling alone or whether they are in vulnerable categories.

 

After processing they will leave for various parts of France and be given the opportunity to claim asylum. If they do not, they could face deportation.

 

There are 7,500 beds being made available in 450 centres across France.

 

By mid-morning there were long lines at the entrance to the registration centre. French officials said the operation was proceeding well, although Calais’ police commissioner said some migrants would have to return to the Jungle and try again on Tuesday.

 

Parts of the camp were emptying quickly, the BBC’s Gavin Lee reported. By 13:30 local time, 23 buses had left carrying 900 people. Officials have predicted that some 2,500 people will leave the camp on Monday.

 

Heavy machinery is expected to be sent in on Tuesday to clear any remnants of the camp left behind by migrants while those who choose not to leave voluntarily will be forcibly removed.

From Tuesday, heavy machinery will be sent to clear the tents and shelters that have been left behind. The whole operation is expected to take three days.

 

The French interior ministry said it “does not want to use force but if there are migrants who refuse to leave, or NGOs who cause trouble, the police might be forced to intervene”.

Below is a live feed of the current evacuation efforts.

 

For those not as familiar with the situation, the “Jungle” camp, near the port of Calais in Northern France, has become home to ~8,000 migrants as Europe has struggled to deal with the flow of refugees from Northern Africa and the Middle East.  The camp has drawn a lot of criticism from nearby French citizens as a haven for violence and crime.  Tensions climaxed last month when French farmers, truckers and police all united to block the Calais port while calling on President Hollande to announce specific plans for the demolition of the “Jungle” camp.

Of course, camps like these have grown as Europe has struggled to accommodate several hundred thousand migrants flowing in from Northern Africa and the Middle East. 

via http://ift.tt/2eCGRAJ Tyler Durden

Sterling is being pounded back below 1.21 – weakest since the flash crash lows, back to 31 year lows. The drop lacks an obvious trigger (more technical levels), but as The FT reports, nerves appear to be building in the run-up to a scheduled appearance by Bank of England governor Mark Carney to a House of Lords committee at 15:35 London time.

Cable plunged ahead of Carney’s speech…

 

back to 31 year lows…

 

It appears the market is not hopeful for Carney’s comments…

Headlines from speech…

• *CARNEY SAYS MONETARY POLICY HAS BEEN OVERBURDENED
• *CARNEY SAYS MONETARY POLICY CAN’T DO EVERYTHIING
• *CARNEY AGREES WITH SPIRIT OF MAY’S COMMENTS ON INEQUALITY

via http://ift.tt/2eNpfkT Tyler Durden

Just as stocks seemed heavy at the open, missing the traditional post-open ramp, the NYSE ARCA Options announced that at 10:12am it had declared self-help and announced it has suspended routing as something broke. The exchange announced that additional information will follow as soon as possible.

However, unlike on previous occasions when market breaks of this kind have resulted in a sharp rebound in risk assets, this time the break appears to have halted the drop in the VIX which leveled out the moment the market broke.

via http://ift.tt/2dSwQB6 Tyler Durden