Category: zerohedge

Submitted by Joshua Krause via ReadyNutrition.com,

It seems like you can’t watch the news anymore without stumbling onto a story that contains terrifying global implications. Not since the Cold War have tensions been so high among the nations of the world. You can strike sparks just about anywhere. The threat of another global war is downright palpable.

Most people shrug at the thought of World War Three, either because they’re ignorant or because they don’t think there would be any chance of surviving it, so why bother? But preppers know better. Just about anything can be survived under the right conditions and with the right preparations. And when it comes to World War Three, your best chance at survival rests in your ability to see it coming. And to do that, you need only pay attention to world events, and keep an eye on the following places:

Syria

At the moment, this fractured Middle Eastern nation is probably the most likely candidate to spark WW3. You have armed Russian and American aircraft in close proximity to each other at all times, radicalized Islamic extremists battling the Syrian government, Iranian backed Hezbollah units (who happen to be enemies of Israel), Turkish machinations, and Saudi financiers. And let’s not forget that all of these actors are in it for themselves, and alliances are constantly shifting. Syria is one hot stew that could boil over at any moment.

 

Eastern Europe

After the Ukrainian government was ousted by rebels who wanted out of Russia’s sphere of influence (and some say with the help of Western governments), Russia annexed Crimea and helped support counter rebels in Eastern Ukraine. And that may not be the end of it. NATO and the EU are constantly trying to wrangle Eastern European nations into their own sphere of influence, and the Russian government feels like it’s being encircled by the West. Their only remaining friend in the region is an aging dictator in Belarus who is deeply unpopular. How long before Eastern Europe blows up again is anyone’s guess.

 

East China Sea

The Chinese government claims that this region rightfully belongs to them. Why? Because there’s tons of oil there, which mainland China is severely lacking. However, just about every nation on the planet disagrees with their claim, especially their neighbors like Japan, South Korea, and Vietnam, who have fought countless wars against them throughout history. Two of those nations are close allies of the US, and are capable of building nuclear weapons at any time.

 

North Korea

The only thing propping up the North Korean regime is China, and for good reason. If North Korea ever fell under the influence of the South, then an American ally would be about an eight hour drive away from Beijing. They’ll do everything in their power to keep American forces away from their borders. Unfortunately, North Korea is run by the most insane and antagonistic governments on the planet. Any small conflict here could quickly escalate into a global conflagration.

 

Russia-Chinese Border

These days it seems like Russia and China are real tight. They’ve been building a military and economic alliance for many years now, as they both view the United States as their biggest threat. However, this is a relationship of convenience and nothing more. In fact, there is a long history of antagonism between the two nations, which came to a head in 1969 when the two nations fought a border dispute.

 

And there’s no doubt that this border dispute could flare up again in the future, and the reason why has to do with the demographics of these nations. On the one hand you have China, which is brimming with people huddled in overpopulated cities, and then you have Russia, which has one of the lowest birth rates in the world. The Russians fear that one day the Chinese will seek to expand their territory into Eastern Siberia, which is sparsely populated, poorly protected, and resource rich. Given those conditions, the lower latitudes of Siberia would certainly be a tempting conquest for densely populated China.

 

India-Chinese Border

India and China are natural rivals. They’re both large, post-colonial nations with over a billion people, and they’re both trying to leverage their massive impoverished populations to build their economies. Essentially, they’re both vying for the same niche in the global economy; that of a nation with an endless supply of cheap labor. However, there’s only room for one at that table.

 

So it wouldn’t be surprising if these two nuclear armed nations came to blows in the future. In fact, they fought a border skirmish back in 1962, which India handily lost. A lot of bad blood still exists between these nations, and they both still argue about the dimensions of their borders.

 

Kashmir

Most people don’t talk or even think about Kashmir anymore, but they should. This region is quiet now, but it’s at the center of the single most dangerous border dispute in the world. India and Pakistan fought a war over this territory in 1999, but China has also laid claim to parts of Kashmir. So you have three nuclear armed nations with nearly 3 billion people all vying for this single chunk of land. That should end well right?

 

And don’t forget that Pakistan is on the footsteps of Afghanistan; a nation whose central location in Asia has made it one of the most hotly contested regions in human history. The US is currently struggling to maintain control over Afghanistan, so obviously a war over Kashmir could easily pull us in. After that, it’s anyone’s guess what happens next.

*  *  *

But apart from that, doom-and-gloom is pure fiction…

via http://ift.tt/2a9HByM Tyler Durden

"Clinton Cash" author, Peter Schweizer, recently took to the airwaves to explain why the IRS investigation of the Clinton Foundation should be a "big deal" (also see Clinton Cash: "Devastating" Documentary Reveals How Clintons Went From "Dead Broke" To Mega Wealthy") even though he expressed some "skepticism" over the ability of Obama's IRS to run an impartial investigation.  As we we've reported (see "IRS Launches Investigation Of Clinton Foundation"), the IRS recently launched an investigation of the Clinton Foundation after receiving a letter signed by 64 Republicans of the House of Representative which described the Clinton Foundation as a “lawless ‘pay-to-play’ enterprise that has been operating under a cloak of philanthropy for years.” 

Somehow we, too, are doubtful that the IRS will lead this investigation with the same kind of vigor they displayed when looking into local Tea Party organizations and religious charities during the last election cycle. 

When asked why the IRS should be concerned about the Clinton Foundation, Mr. Schweizer explained:

"The big deal is that…there are international anti-bribery standards that say bribing a public official can mean giving them money, giving their family money, or giving their charity money.  Just because it's a charity doesn't mean that it's not important or not interesting…it constitutes bribery every bit as much as if somebody's putting money in somebody's pocket for a benefit."

Mr. Schweizer continued by calling into question why foreign governments and wealthy foreign individuals, many from the middle east, would contribute money to the Clinton Foundation given the limited scope of their actual charitable outreach:

"When you look at the people who are giving large sums of money overseas they are people who have histories of corruption or being involved in bribery scandals."

We're certain Mr. Schweizer is "overreacting".  After all we're pretty sure the State of Kuwait, Friends of Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, The Government of Brunei Darussalam and The Sultanate of Oman, all Clinton Foundation contributors (see full list below), are eagerly involved in the Clinton Foundation's project entitled "No Ceilings: The Full Participation Project" whose stated goal is building an "evidence-based case to chart the path forward for the full participation of girls and women in the 21st century."

A full list of entities/individuals that have made bribes contributions in excess of $1mm to the Clinton Foundation over the years can be found below (click for a larger image):

Finally, when asked why the Obama administration would allow the Clinton Foundation to continue to solicit cash from foreign governments even as she served as Secretary of State, Mr. Schweizer noted that, in fact, Obama conditioned his appointment of Clinton to Secretary of State on her agreement to "disclose all donors"…a condition which Clinton promptly ignored. 

"We know now that there at least 1,100  contributions from foreign sources they still haven't disclosed."

The full interview with Mr. Schweizer can be viewed below:

 

In light of the IRS investigation, we also decided to take a quick look at the Clinton Foundation financials (full reports can be found here). To our "surprise," we discovered that, in fact, only 13.6% of the $248 million of expenditures made by the Foundation in 2014 were for "direct program expenditures" while the remainder went to salaries and amorphous expense buckets like "Professional and Consulting" and "Meetings and Training."  We're very hopeful that this is the type of "efficiency" that Hillary can bring to the various federal organizations.  After all, spending 13.6 cents of every dollar on actual stated objectives would be a huge improvement for many federal entities.

The full 2014 audited financials of the Clinton Foundation can be viewed below:

via http://ift.tt/2aCLw6Y Tyler Durden

Submitted by Michael Shedlock via MishTalk.com,

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel brags about balancing the Chicago budget and fixing the city’s pension plans. Reuters writer Dave McKinney took the lies hook line and sinker.

Mark Glennon at Wirepoints Illinois separates fact from fiction in his article Chicago’s Friday Bunk Dump. This is a guest post by Glennon.

Chicago’s Friday Bunk Dump

Fridays in the summer are a great day to dump news you don’t want scrutinized, as reporters will tell you. Today, we got a new financial report from the city, the actuarial reports for its police and firefighter pensions and news of a private offering by Chicago’s school district.

The Report

First, the city released a carefully written, glitzy, Annual Financial Analysis. At least they put it online this year, a departure from the past, but that’s probably because it’s such meticulously prepared misinformation. Hooray, said most headlines and Mayor Emanuel in his cover letter: The 2017 deficit for the city will only be $138 million.

Only under a perverted meaning of “deficit,” they should have added. The report means little because it doesn’t include losses sustained in pensions and tax hikes for pensions deferred to the future, and it’s pensions that are Chicago’s primary problem. The kicked can isn’t included. Instead, the report is centered on near term, annual contributions to the pensions, which are made up by politicians and are inadequate even using the phony accounting that goes into them. That’s a primary reason why unfunded liabilities grow routinely.

Specifically, here’s what they didn’t tell us: The deficit appears low now because taxpayer contributions gradually ramp up and then, in 2020, go up further to whatever-it-takes, sky’s-the-limit, annual amounts sufficient to fund the pensions, and property taxes automatically increase to cover those amounts.

That’s for the police and firefighter pensions. For the small Laborer’s fund, that date is 2022, paid for mostly out of a telecom tax. MEABF, the city’s largest fund, will be dealt with in a yet-to-be announced plan funded by a “dedicated revenue source,” the city tells us, which means a new tax of some kind.

Following is a schedule of taxpayer contributions to the police and firefighter contributions, taken from the report. Those will have to be covered by property tax increases. Expect the same on different taxes for the other two pensions.

The city gloats in the report that, “For the first time since 2011, the gap for the coming year is put forward without separate consideration of the City’s pension funds. As of July 29, 2016, the City has identified a permanent, reoccurring source to fund three of its four pension funds.” That source is years of tax increases that haven’t been properly explained to the public.

Most reporters have accepted the report as good news. Perhaps the worst was Dave McKinney at Reuters, whose headline is, “Chicago deficit narrows despite pension uncertainty.”  To the contrary,  a better headline would be, “Chicago ignores pension tax certainty to claim deficit narrows.”

The same issue plagues city budgets, which is why Rahm regularly gets away bragging about balancing the city’s. “This is the fourth year in a row we have balanced the budget,” he said in his last budget address. In fact, the city lost about $5 billion last year (though that results largely from a change to more realistic accounting standards) and about $1 billion in each of the previous four years, according to its own financial statements.

Actuarial Reports for Chicago Police and Firefighter Pensions

Today, I finally got the actuarial reports for the Chicago police and firefighter pensions, which I had filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request on July 8.

For the police pension, Net Pension Liability (that’s the term for unfunded liability under the new accounting standards) worsened by $260 million, ending 2015 at 8.97 billion. The funded ration worsened from 26% to 25.4%.

For the firefighter’s pension, Net Pension Liability worsened by $304 million in 2015, ending the year at $3.78 billion. Its funded ratio worsened from 23% to 21.7%. That’s actually much better performance for the year than I expected. However, with funded ratios near 20%, these pensions are in truly horrid shape.

Together with the two other Chicago pensions whose reports were released earlier, the total Net Pension Liability for the city is $33.8 billion and they are 23% funded in aggregate. Obviously, that’s far worse than the $20 billion total that’s been commonly reported over the past year. Much of that change results from the shift to new, more realistic accounting standards.

You can add another $10 billion for the CPS pension. We’ll try to add it all up soon for all the other overlapping pension obligations when we can — Cook County, Chicago Park District, Cook County Forest Preserve, Metro Water & Reclamation District, RTA, CTA and state pensions.

None of these numbers include healthcare obligations, which are very hard to nail down, and are not addressed in the Annual Financial Analysis.

Chicago School Borrowing

Also today, CPS announced it borrowed another $150 million. What’s unusual is that it was done as a private placement — a reflection of its difficulty accessing the usual public markets. We don’t know all the terms of the deal because CPS did not release the key documents. The CPS says it will release those on September 2.

September 2, eh? That would be the Friday before Labor Day weekend. Credit these folks with consistency.

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

With the media in full frenzy during the past three days over the public feud between the Pakistan-born Khizr Khan, who last week told the story of his son, a Muslim US army captain who received a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart after being killed in Iraq in 2004, and Donald Trump, earlier this morning the Republican presidential candidate refused to back down, defending his criticism of the parents by complaining on Twitter that the father “viciously attacked” him in his speech at the Democratic National Convention.

I was viciously attacked by Mr. Khan at the Democratic Convention. Am I not allowed to respond? Hillary voted for the Iraq war, not me!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 31, 2016

He added that Khan, who was killed 12 years ago, “was a hero” but that “this is about RADICAL ISLAMIC TERROR and the weakness of our “leaders” to eradicate it.

Captain Khan, killed 12 years ago, was a hero, but this is about RADICAL ISLAMIC TERROR and the weakness of our “leaders” to eradicate it!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 31, 2016

There has been much back and forth between the two parties, with Khan most recently questioning whether Trump had ever read the Constitution and saying “you have sacrificed nothing.” As AP notes, this was the latest bitter rhetorical volley between the defiant Republican candidate and the family of the fallen soldier. A quick recap of the key highlights for those who have not watched TV in the last three days.

At last week’s Democratic National Convention, Khizr Khan told the story of his son who was killed in the Iraq war in 2004. Khan questioned whether Trump had ever read the Constitution and said “you have sacrificed nothing.” During the speech, Khan’s wife, Ghazala, stood quietly by his side. “If you look at his wife, she was standing there. She had nothing to say. She probably, maybe she wasn’t allowed to have anything to say. You tell me,” Trump said, in an interview with ABC’s “This Week.”

Ghazala Khan responded Sunday in an opinion piece published in the Washington Post, saying talking about her son’s death 12 years ago is still hard for her. When her husband asked if she wanted to speak at the convention, she said she could not.

“I didn’t feel anything except the pain,” said Ghazala Khan about Trump’s insinuations.

Let that sink in. http://pic.twitter.com/OME79YMeuH

— Daniel Burke (@BurkeCNN) July 31, 2016

“When Donald Trump is talking about Islam, he is ignorant,” she wrote. “If he studied the real Islam and Koran, all the ideas he gets from terrorists would change, because terrorism is a different religion.”

Her husband told television talk shows on Sunday that he appreciated Trump’s later comments that his son was a hero but that he had no “moral compass”, reverting to more traditional Democratic talking points.

At one point, Trump had disputed Khan’s criticism that the billionaire businessman has “sacrificed nothing and no one” for his country. “I’ve made a lot of sacrifices. I work very, very hard. I’ve created thousands and thousands of jobs, tens of thousands of jobs, built great structures,” Trump said.

Donald Trump to Army Gold Star father Khizr Khan: “I’ve made a lot of sacrifices” https://t.co/ZOHLGCaOyChttps://t.co/Myp4oyHyX4

— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) July 30, 2016

Senior Republican leaders, including House Speaker Paul D. Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, remained silent on Sunday, as did vice presidential nominee Mike Pence. But John Kasich, the Ohio governor who sought the GOP presidential nomination, said on Twitter, “There’s only one way to talk about Gold Star parents: with honor and respect. Capt. Khan is a hero. Together, we should pray for his family.”

Late Saturday night, Trump released a statement calling Humayun Khan “a hero” but disputing his father’s characterization. “While I feel deeply for the loss of his son, Mr. Khan who has never met me, has no right to stand in front of millions of people and claim I have never read the Constitution, (which is false) and say many other inaccurate things,” said Trump.

The statement was titled “Setting the record straight.”

 The Trump for President campaign today released the full transcript of Donald J. Trump’s response to a pre-taped ABC This Week question from George Stephanopoulos referencing criticism from Khizr Khan.

 

As shown in the full transcript, Mr. Trump doesn’t compare his sacrifices to anybody else’s, and in fact praises Mr. Khan and wishes him well.

 

Mr. Trump also released a statement Saturday praising Mr. Khan’s son, Captain Humayun Khan, who was killed serving in Iraq:

 

“Captain Humayun Khan was a hero to our country and we should honor all who have made the ultimate sacrifice to keep our country safe. The real problem here are the radical Islamic terrorists who killed him, and the efforts of these radicals to enter our country to do us further harm. Given the state of the world today, we have to know everything about those looking to enter our country, and given the state of chaos in some of these countries, that is impossible. While I feel deeply for the loss of his son, Mr. Khan who has never met me, has no right to stand in front of millions of people and claim I have never read the Constitution, (which is false) and say many other inaccurate things. If I become President, I will make America safe again.

 

“Further, Hillary Clinton should be held accountable for her central role in destabilizing the Middle East. She voted to send the United States to war against Iraq, helped lead the disastrous withdrawal of American troops years later that created the vacuum allowing the rise of ISIS, and has never met a regime change she didn’t like (which have all been disasters) – not to mention her invasion of Libya and her abandonment of American personnel in Benghazi. The loss of these lives in Libya is directly traceable to Clinton, but their families’ testimonials were rejected by the media.

 

Clinton’s actions have been reckless and have directly led to the loss of American lives. And her extreme immigration policies, as also laid out by American victims in Cleveland, will cause the preventable deaths of countless more — while putting all residents, from all places, at greater risk of terrorism.

 

As Bernie Sanders said on numerous occasions, Hillary Clinton suffers from “bad judgement.” She is not qualified to serve as Commander in Chief.”– Donald J. Trump

In this particular case, Trump actually does have a point by pointing out the obvious, namely that it was Hillary’s voting for the Iraq war, and the US Dept of State’s ruinous involvement in the Middle East over the past 6 years, that has precipiated the current geopolitical fallout, which incidentally threatens the political clout of none other than the most important person in Europe, Angela Merkel, who has seen her popularity tumble as a result of Germany’s “open door” immigration policy, which has resulted in a surge in refugee-driven violence acros the continent.

Hillary Clinton should be held accountable for her central role in destabilizing the Middle East. She voted to send the United States to war against Iraq, helped lead the disastrous withdrawal of American troops years later that created the vacuum allowing the rise of ISIS, and has never met a regime change she didn’t like (which have all been disasters) – not to mention her invasion of Libya and her abandonment of American personnel in Benghazi. The loss of these lives in Libya is directly traceable to Clinton, but their families’ testimonials were rejected by the media.

For now, however, the media has its hands full not with looking into Trump’s allegations of Hillary’s culpability involving the unstable Middle East region, but with the ongoing back and forth between Trump and Khan which generates a far more instant and visceral response, does not require knowledge of geopolitics and is generally easier on ad clicks, in what will likely dominate the headlines and prime time slots, at least until the next scandal involving Trump (or perhaps his wife) unveils itself, and resets the Trump-intensive news cycle, one which continues to keep Hillary as far from the spotlight as she wants. What is most ironic in all this, is that Trump is more than eager to provide the media with all the fodder it needs with every new statement he makes.

via http://ift.tt/2ajxk0b Tyler Durden

Via NorthmanTrader.com,

I’d like to take a moment and express my appreciation and gratitude to all your well wishes. I literally received almost a thousand messages and I feel bad for not having been able to respond in the detail that they deserve or even at all in most cases, but I hope this post serves this purpose at least partially. Thank you, your well wishes and support have meant a lot. And perhaps my experience contains a lesson or two for all of us.

A bit over a month ago I had a heart attack. Fortunately a mild one as it turned out, but it is a life changing and quite concerning event nevertheless, not only for me, but also for my family. These last 5 weeks have been marked by substantial changes to my lifestyle. Aside from the medical requirements changes have included altering my diet, drastically cutting down and restructuring my work schedule, refraining from stressful situations, starting to cautiously exercise again and disengaging from twitter/social media altogether:

Who knew that years of extremely long work days, constantly sitting in front of screens, not enough exercise, not the best diet, stress, etc. is not good for you. Well everybody kinda does, but it’s easy to get too distracted by noise and neglect balance especially with markets being a 24 hour non stop merry go round. So I actually have nobody to blame but myself.

And it all finally caught up with me during the Brexit market madness and the alarm bells were ringing loudly:

Then the following morning over breakfast it hit. A sudden realization that this may be it. Done. Lights out.

Not fun I can tell you.

I was lucky. It turned out to be a mild heart attack and I got to leave the hospital after several days of prodding, testing and checking.

Despite this health scare I consider myself fortunate, I’m in the process of making changes, adjusting and hopefully going on living much longer. I can still pursue my passion of markets but with a different balance toward life. It was simply too much, too stressful and social media was a big contributor. Too busy, too distracting, too addictive. It all adds up.

My doctors were very clear on this: Unplug before life pulls the plug on you. And I’m listening.

And to answer the questions I’ve had from many: I think I’m going to be ok and I’m starting to feel better. The first month following a heart attack is the riskiest and, knock on wood, so far so good although when it rains it pours as my wife was also hospitalized this week with a major abdominal inflammation (she’ll be ok, but nonetheless it’s been another stressful week). Rough patch, but such is life.

So again I am grateful for all the positive wishes, however, sadly it’s been brought to my attention that parts of twitter choose to engage in an alternate reality. One that’s nasty, spiteful, gleeful and frankly utter nonsense. Shameful. Take this tweet below as an example by a popular poster, someone who should know better than to present a running rumor as a fact:

Really? Aside from the fact that I’m not British the same week I apparently had “fled to Jamaica” I had the pleasure of meeting and having dinner with CNBC’s John Najarian and his lovely family. Not in Jamaica, but in London. Great people and I thoroughly enjoyed the evening. And this experience contrasts the positive side of twitter that I have loved versus the utter nonsense that goes on there as well.

I’ve met some great people via twitter, including my wife, but unfortunately twitter, the medium, also gives license to abuse, harassment and outright stupidity. Hence the reason my wife had been begging me for a long time to get off twitter.

Now let me be clear: I’m not singling this tweet out for any reason other than that it was sent to me but also to highlight what a cesspool of hate and ignorance twitter has become. Apparently some people take anything they hear on twitter at face value and they spread it with joy.

I don’t want those type of people in my life, especially not given my health situation.

I know of no social setting where people have a license to mock people that get ill. Anyone make fun of cancer patients lately? If there’s open season on victims of heart attacks I was unaware.

It would almost be comical if these type of tweets weren’t also associated with hate mail, threats, harassment, invasion of privacy. And that’s exactly what witch hunts and lynch mobs produce: They incite irrational hate, anger, even violence, panic, etc. and people that stir this kind of stuff up should be ashamed and shunned.

But I’m obviously not the only one that has been subject to harassment and online trolling or has come to realize that social media, especially popularity on social media, can be too much of a distraction.

CNBC’s Kelly Evans called it quits recently as well making her the latest high profile personality to make this choice. Good for her I say. $TWTR the company has big structural issues. Aside from figuring out how to make the company profitable and attractive for advertisers it’s rapidly developing a reputation for becoming a platform where haters can spew their nonsense and harass people without consequences. The result: The company risks losing the positive voices and ends up being a platform for the mob. Bad news all around and plenty of examples can be found:

Joss Whedon is right: Twitter is a loud, shallow waste of time — and I’m leaving, too

Why I Quit Twitter — and Left Behind 35,000 Followers

13 Big Names Who Quit Twitter – and Why

Stephen Fry perhaps summarized it best by calling Twitter “a stalking ground for the sanctimoniously self-righteous“.

The company has recently reacted in at least one case now by banning one of its most notorious trolls for life. Too little, too late? I don’t know, but if twitter (down over 75% off its highs) wants to save itself it better react in a much bigger way. As it stands individual users have virtually no options to protect themselves against harassment and abuse. Yes you can block and mute and you can report a user, but twitter never does anything about it. And users have had enough. It’s a fine balance between free speech, censorship and harassment/defamation protection. My sense is one big problem is that trolls are generally not shunned on social media, but rather encouraged in many cases, or worse their nonsense is even believed by many.

Who wants to hang out in a neighborhood where anyone has license to spit on you? Hence it’s no surprise that many companies are actually shutting down message boards altogether. Just too much nastiness, anger, attacks, trolls, stalking, etc. It’s a shame, but it’s a reflection of parts of humanity.

And who can forget Microsoft’s recent experience:

Twitter taught Microsoft’s AI chatbot to be a racist asshole in less than a day

My general view of social media: If you are behaving toward others in a way that would get you thrown out of a party or a meeting or job interview then you should probably get thrown out of a social network for same/similar behavior. Self-annointed keyboard warriors taking out their life frustrations on others they don’t even know, but would not dare saying same things directly to stranger’s faces if they actually met them in real life. Just pathetic.

My bottom line: My priorities are my family, my health, and the commitment we have made to our members and I have no time nor wish to involve myself with internet trash. I’m not the idiot whisperer and since my health scare twitter is no longer part of our lives.

Those that have been supportive of us while we shared so much information on twitter over the years we thank you for all your love and support. I have loved all the positive interaction on twitter, but it has become too much. And to those that hate, troll and constantly obsess about and stalk people they haven’t even met and know nothing about: Get a life and seek some counseling, you have obsession issues.

I’ll leave you with one final thought, perhaps applicable to all of us:

One of my favorite historical writers is Seneca the Younger. He, like all of us, was a flawed human being but I appreciate his wisdom, realism and philosophical musings. Born in Spain he became a personal tutor and advisor to Emperor Nero and had a front row seat to power in Rome during some of its glory days and time of madness. In the “Shortness of Life” he, a man in his own time, wrote among other things:

“The part of life we really live is small….Consider how much of your time was taken up with a moneylender, how much with a mistress, how much with a patron, how much with a client, how much in wrangling with your wife, how much in punishing your slaves, how much in rushing about the city on social duties. Add the diseases which we have caused by our own acts, add, too, the time that has lain idle and unused; you will see that you have fewer years to your credit than you count. You will hear many men saying: “After my fiftieth year I shall retire into leisure, my sixtieth year shall release me from public duties.” And what guarantee, pray, have you that your life will last longer? Who will suffer your course to be just as you plan it? Are you not ashamed to reserve for yourself only the remnant of life, and to set apart for wisdom only that time which cannot be devoted to any business? How late it is to begin to live just when we must cease to live! What foolish forgetfulness of mortality to postpone wholesome plans to the fiftieth and sixtieth year, and to intend to begin life at a point to which few have attained!”

The slavery bit aside, these passages could have been written today and are just as applicable now as they were nearly 2000 years ago and they resonate with me. Deeply.

And perhaps this is the larger message: It’s time to focus on real life not cyber life. And after all, how many years of one’s life can/should one spend day in and day out on cyberspace?

Adios Twitter, it’s been real. I’m unplugging (for the summer at least) and likely the foreseeable future.

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

via http://ift.tt/2arswEN williambanzai7

Just like the good ol’ days, Russia is now a useful ‘enemy’ being used to justify whatever needed from Washington, whether it be more money for NATO expansion, more spying powers on the domestic population, or more reason to justify the USA’s generally jingoistic, xenophobic attitude about foreign policy.  As we explain in Splitting Pennies – Understanding Forex – the USA has created a wall of stupidity surrounding the USA via sophistocated propoganda techniques developed over a period of 60 years utilizing advanced technology, combined with bio-chemical layer through aerosol sprays, chemicals in the food, and nervous system manipulation through 1/2 Hz coming from your Television (See US Patent 6506148 here).  

The event that changed the global power structure was World War 2.  History, whether business, technical, political, or social – should be looked at through 3 prisms; before, during, and after the war.  Before & during the war, Washington had a clear agenda – engage the US population & American business in the new hot industry: war.  Hitler provided them with an easy villian and a brand; Nazi.  It was the Evil Empire, something out of a b-novel.  It gave America an easy way to paint the world in a black and white brush for the domestic US population that wasn’t aware of how the world really works (pratically speaking, Europeans need to be more clued in and speak 2 or 3 languages due to Europe’s density and wide diversity of cultures).

Here’s a list of FACTS that the Elite doesn’t want you to know.  Everything you know about Russia – is wrong.

• Russia is 25 years old.  
• Russia, and the Soviet Union, are 2 completely different countries.  They are like comparing the British colonies and the United States of America.  It’s a different system, different rules, different territory, different everything.   
• The United States developed a long term strategy to destroy the Soviet Union – in order to create Russia today (an open, market based economy).  In other words, Russia today is what Washington had planned for during a 40-50 year period after World War 2, spent billions of dollars, built countless missile silos and other hardware.   
• Russia has one of the fastest growing middle classes in the world See here
• Russia is currently the #3 country ranked in terms of total immigrants in the world, closely behind Germany and the United States.  See here
• Unlike most of European powers, Russia was not a very ambitious or successful colonial power.  The extent of Russia’s colonialism was Alaska, but this was really just the business idea of some fur-trappers; it wasn’t supported by Moscow very much.  With a few rare exeptions, Russia never ‘invaded’ another country.  Mostly Russia has defended itself from invaders, at least historically speaking.  Even today, Russia’s foreign policy surrounds a ‘defense’ doctrine, not an ‘invasion’ doctrine.  Being attacked nearly every 20 or 30 years throughout history, the Kremlin has reason for such a policy.  Why did every Empire throughout history want to invade Russia?  Because of the nice weather?  No, because of the vast untapped resources.  For a more academic answer, checkout Brzezinski’s “Grand Chess Board” – certainly Sun Tzu would agree, controlling Russia and North America is necessary for real global domination, for a number of geostrategic, logistic, and economic reasons.
• Russia is an Emerging Market (EM) – Why is it emerging?  Because it’s just starting to build economic systems.  In Russia there’s no class action litigation industry.  There’s no FTC.  There’s no bankruptcy rules.  But all that’s changing.  Change takes time – it will likely be a generation or several generations.
• The Forex software that runs the algorithmic Forex world, Meta Trader, is from Russia.  Although primarily used outside of Russia, it’s built native in Russian language, from Khazan (although headquartered in Cyprus).
• Russia has massive untapped resources unlike any other country in the world, most notably but not only oil.  Russia includes 11 time zones and is one of Planet Earth’s most rich and undeveloped land masses, which includes mountains, forests, deserts, tundra, and ice oceans.
• No one is starving in Russia.  In fact, due to the trade war between Russia, the EU, and the United States, they’re even burning and destroying food if it is found to come from blocked countries.

The list can go on and on.  Do your own research – unplug your TV and see what the world looks like.  Open a Forex Account.

See attached photo from a hard currency Foreign Exchange bureau in Moscow (they’re on every street corner).  

If you want a quick Forex education, checkout Splitting Pennies – the pocket guide designed to instantly make you a Forex genius!

If you want to get started looking at investing, checkout Fortress Capital Forex

via http://ift.tt/2ajrOL5 globalintelhub

The formal accusation has officially been launched.

Following days of feverish allegations that Russia was behind escalating hacks of Democratic servers, first that of the DNC, then the DCCC and finally that of the Hillary campaign itself, Hillary Clinton accused Russian intelligence services of hacking into Democratic National Committee computers, while at the same time bashing Donald Trump for showing support for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“We know that Russian intelligence services hacked into the DNC and we know that they arranged for a lot of those emails to be released and we know that Donald Trump has shown a very troubling willingness to back up Putin, to support Putin,” Clinton said in an interview with “Fox News Sunday.”

Wait, we “know” that? Just yesterday we reported that the NSA has launched a campaign to determine if, indeed, as many have claims Russia is behind the hacking. 

In fact, none other than Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told the audience at the Aspen Security Forum Thursday that the U.S. intelligence community was “not quite ready to make a call on attribution,” though he said there were “just a few usual suspects out there.” The next day CIA Director John Brennan said that attribution is “to be determined” and a lot of people were “jumping to conclusions.”

The NSA’s Joyce said that in general it’s very difficult to properly frame someone for a complex attack, since too many details have to be exactly right, requiring a tremendous amount of expertise and precision. But Joyce said that before the U.S. government pins blame on anyone for a cyber attack publicly, the evidence has to pass an “extremely high bar.” So when they do come forward, he said, perhaps based on the results of attribution techniques that have not been publicly described, “You should bank on it.”

For Hillary, however, what “evidence” was available was sufficient, and while the US has not publicly accused Russia of being behind the hack, Clinton did just what Brennan warned against, namely “jumping to a conclusion” that will lead to another sharp deterioration in relations with Russia. That said, she did stop just shy of accusing Putin of interfering in the election.

Asked if she believed Putin wanted Trump to win the White House, Clinton said she was not going to jump to that conclusion.

“But I think laying out the facts raises serious issues about Russian interference in our elections, in our democracy,” Clinton told Fox in the interview, taped Saturday. The United States would not tolerate that from any other country, especially one considered an adversary, she said.

.@HillaryClinton: Trump’s recent comments about Russia raises national security issues. Watch 2/6/9pm ET on @FoxNewshttps://t.co/y5qOIp0nhX

— FoxNewsSunday (@FoxNewsSunday) July 31, 2016

“For Trump to both encourage that and to praise Putin despite what appears to be a deliberate effort to try to affect the election I think raises national security issues,” she added.

To be sure, one can make a similar national security argument about having an unsecured email server for years, in defiance of State Department regulations, and which – oddly enough – has so far emerged as the only one that has not been “hacked” by Russia, at least according to the FBI’s “impartial” assessment.

* * *

Incidentally, the topic of the source behind the DNC hack (and leak) was a question brought up by Julian Assange who spoke to NBC’s Meet the Press, when he declined to name the source of the DNC data.

“I do think it’s an interesting question, of course, as to who our sources are,” Assange said.  “But as a source protection organization that many sources from across the world of many different types rely on to protect their identity, their rights, to communicate the truth to the public. And that’s all we’re talking about here: communicating the truth.“

Assange said it was a “security matter for us as to who our sources are.”, adding that WikiLeaks doesn’t have any concern about who becomes president.

 

“We don’t have any concern as to whether [Democratic presidential nominee] Hillary [Clinton] is elected or Trump is elected. We are concerned that the material we publish is always accurate, on the one hand, and that our sources are protected on the other.”

However, the real punchline came from a previous interview conducted by Assange with CNN in which he said that “Hillary Clinton is trying to undermine our publication, trying to draw attention away from the fact that she conspired with Debbie Wasserman Schultz to subvert an election in the United States. Now what is the result of that? The result is that the free market of electoral candidates was ruined, instead you had a regulatory organization, the DNC, abusing its regulatory function to paint one candidate above another, including by pumping up a black media campaign. Black media campaigns trying to undermine Bernie Sanders in complicity with a lot of the media.”

Julian Assange: Hillary Clinton is “trying to undermine our publication” https://t.co/6OZtrfIwim https://t.co/566hpjohyw

— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) July 31, 2016

And that is why the Russia scapegoating “distraction” will go on for as long as it has to, and certainly until the people of the US forget precisely the real scandal among these revelations. Meanwhile, expect the deflection to the Kremlin to continue as per the following narrative presented as last week’s Aspen Security Forum.

Key observations from @AliWatkins on the Russia hack story and how it might progress… read from bottom to top http://pic.twitter.com/lkPtOIKpeP

— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) July 30, 2016

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Submitted by Mac Slavo via SHTFPlan.com,

Officials have said that at least four people in Florida have contracted the Zika virus and warn that the virus now appears to be spreading domestically either through contact with mosquitoes or direct human-to-human transmission. Until recently, the virus only appeared in individuals infected outside of the United States, primarily in South America.

In an alarming development, according to CNN, federal, state and local officials have been deployed to canvas neighborhoods in Florida. The stated purpose is to ask questions, request urine samples and determine the spread of the virus.

Officials believe the local transmission is confined to a small area north of downtown Miami within a single ZIP code. However, local, state and federal health officials are continuing their investigation, which includes going door-to-door to ask residents for urine samples and other information in an effort to determine how many people may be infected. Additional cases are anticipated.

As noted by Erin Elizabeth of HealthNutNews.com it is not clear whether officials are asking or “demanding” these samples.

Folks, you read this correctly. The feds and other local authorities are going DOOR TO DOOR to private residences asking (demanding?) urine samples.

 

What if a resident does not comply?  What else are they testing for? Would you comply?

 

I can tell you right now I am not giving any local or federal agent my urine. If arrest were the alternative then let them arrest me. I have nothing to hide, but no way would I submit to such a test if the feds showed up at my door. Some experts I’m speaking with are saying they’re asking for urine under the guise of “Zika virus” when it is, in fact, for something much more sinister. This is very disturbing to me.

While many Americans may consider the actions of officials as looking out for the interests of the public, this is the first time in recent memory that the government has deployed teams of officers and agents to personal residences following a contagion concern. Perhaps the most recent example of a similar response by the federal government was when they declared a de facto state of martial law after the Boston Marathon bombing.

Given that Zika is not necessarily life threatening, and no actual captured mosquitoes in Florida have been shown to be carrying the virus, it is unclear why officials found it necessary to deploy teams to personal residences.

Perhaps they are doing it out of an abundance of caution, though for the reasons cited above that makes little sense.

One possible reason behind the moves is that, per President Obama’s Executive Order #13707 entitled Using Behavioral Science Insights to Better Serve the American People, the government is using this crisis as an opportunity to collect behavioral data on how residents respond to government officials knocking on their doors.

The ultimate goal of such studies and procedural exercises could have something to do with another EO signed by Obama and dubbed the Executive Doomsday Order. Under that order, the President merely needs to declare an emergency in order to implement a variety of responses including the allocation of health resources, the manpower to support health initiatives, detention of individuals considered to be posing a threat to the public, forced health testing, and the security to ensure the Secretary of Health and Human Services can implement its plans once ordered to do so.

Zika does not appear to be the kind of virus or deadly threat that would require door-to-door visits from government officials.

Thus, one can, arguably, conclude that, as Erin Elizabeth noted, there is something much more sinister at play.

Anytime the government starts knocking on doors their actions should be immediately suspect. In the words of President Ronald Reagan:

The nine most terrifying words in the English language are “I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.”

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

In the din of the relentless theatrics of the US presidential election, and the soaring wave of global populist discontent blamed on a “us” versus “them” narrative, it is easy to lose track of what is not only important, but is the critical catalyst behind much of the build up in world anger over recent years.

Courtesy of Bloomberg’s Chris Maloney, a market strategist and former portfolio manager, here is a much needed reminder of what is truly going on behind the scenes, an explanation for the rising sentment that something is now simply “broken.”

Populism Surfs a Wave of Inflation
By Chris Maloney of Bloomberg

 

The Keynesian belief outlined in the “General Theory” (p.17), that “an increase in employment can only occur to the accompaniment of a decline in the rate of real wages,” appears to be bearing bitter fruit this election cycle.

 

The rise of populism in America is a byproduct of inflationary policies that have helped trigger a dramatic increase in consumer debt, declining real wages and rising prices for food and housing since 1999.

 

From 2000-2014, housing prices have risen 73% and rents were up 45%; the cost of putting food on the table rose 47%, and college costs increased 137%

 

Over the same period nominal real household mean incomes rose just 38% while declining 3% in real terms.

 

 

Consumers covered the gap in part by taking on more debt, with outstanding credit balances up 117% since 1999, which may have helped mask the rise in inequality that dominates the headlines today – and which has been brought to the fore by the inflation in credit engineered by monetary authorities.

 

Ben Bernanke warned of this when he wrote that inflation “induces redistribution of wealth” to the detriment of “less sophisticated investors” (Inflation Targeting, p.17).

 

This is no surprise as the working class and poor get any newly created money and credit last and hence “will find themselves compelled to pay higher prices for the things they buy, which means that they will be obliged to get along on a lower standard of living,” a point made by Hazlitt in his “Economics in One Lesson’’ (p.153).

 

This is what has voters up in arms, and the Fed’s adherence to its 2% inflation target forgets to remember what Dostoevsky’s “The Honest Thief” reminds us, “To poor folk like us, sir, every little counts.”

* * *

And now back to the narrative painted by the global media owned by a handful of giant multinational corporations, who benefit every single day from the same monetary policies shown above, and the endless distraction from what truly matters.

via http://ift.tt/2a9mwUZ Tyler Durden