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Submitted by Antonius Aquinas,

The purported pope of the Catholic Church recently attacked “libertarianism.”  As a number of theologians have ably shown, Jorge Bergoglio, a.k.a Pope Francis, cannot be a legitimate pope since he was neither ordained as a priest or consecrated as a bishop in the traditional Catholic rite of Holy Orders.  And, since he is not a bishop, he cannot be “bishop of Rome” – a prerequisite for being the head of the universal Church.

While “technically” he is not the pope, Bergoglio is a notorious heretic who has said a mind-boggling number of heresies, engaged in the most scandalous of actions, and has attempted to change doctrine and Church teaching.  He is not the pope since a heretic is necessarily outside the Church and, thus, cannot hold ecclesiastical office, especially that of supreme pontiff.

If Bergoglio’s “invalidity” is not damnable enough, “Pope Francis” is a neo-Marxist who has repeatedly called for the redistribution of wealth, promoted mass migration, and has denigrated capitalism, accusing it of impoverishing the poor.

Naturally, with such a dossier, Bergoglio would be hostile to the concept of libertarianism.  And, as a skillful demagogue, he has deliberately mischaracterized the subject.

In a message to a meeting of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, Bergoglio harshly stated:

“I cannot fail to speak of the grave risks associated with the invasion of the positions of libertarian individualism at high strata of culture and in school and university education.”*

If Bergoglio thinks that higher education is infected with “libertarian individualism,” he is more delusional than he has been given credit for!  Academia has long been a bastion of collectivist thought.  Libertarianism and, for that matter, conservative ideas have little voice in higher education.  Moreover, Western culture is dominated by the ideals of social democracy, a philosophy that is anathema to libertarianism and also to real Catholicism, not the kind that is preached by imposters such as “Pope Francis!”

It is probably deliberate that Bergoglio uses the word “invasion” in his description as he subtly mocks his audience.  The only invasion that has happened is not a takeover of academia by free-markets zealots, but by the millions of “asylum seekers” that have been thrust upon European soil which has been encouraged and orchestrated by the likes of multiculturalists such as Jorge Bergoglio.

“[T]he libertarian individual denies the value of the common good,” Bergoglio continues, “because on the one hand he supposes that the very idea of ‘common’ means the constriction of at least some individuals, and on the other hand that the notion of ‘good’ deprives freedom of its essence.”

Of course, to arch collectivists like “Pope Francis,” the common good always trumps individual rights.  While he does not explicitly say it, the “common good” means for the good of the state, and for those who place their own self interest or that of their family before the state’s interest, they are to be ostracized or worse.

Libertarianism to Bergoglio is an “antisocial radicalization of individualism” that “leads to the conclusion that everyone has the right to extend himself as far as his abilities allow him even at the cost of the exclusion and marginalization of the more vulnerable majority.”  By living “independently of others” a person can attain freedom.

Once again, as he had done throughout his “papacy” Bergoglio demonstrates that he is an economic ignoramus who does not grasp a basic tenet of social relationships.

Libertarians are proponents of the market economy and markets are the result of the division of labor, specialization, and exchange.  Society, in part, is the amalgamation of numerous markets and advanced societies are ones with a highly developed division of labor.  Overwhelming empirical evidence has shown that such societies are not only richer, but are more culturally advanced than self- sufficient societies (autarky) where individuals produce everything for themselves.

In such an order, an individual produces or provides services which he does best.  Since he does not produce everything himself, he, therefore, depends and needs to interact with others in exchange of goods he does not produce.  In the market economy, very few live “independently of others” as Bergoglio stupidly believes, but must rely and depend on their fellow man.  Even entrepreneurs, who Bergoglio implicitly condemns in the above passage, have to rely on consumers to patronize their products and services or they will quickly go out of business.

Bergoglio, of course, does not understand that there are many shades of libertarianism running a wide spectrum of social, political and economic thought.  If there is a common theme among libertarians, it is opposition to the modern state and the welfare/warfare system upon which it rests.  The modern state will not tolerate any competition for the minds, hearts, and souls of men.

Until the Second Vatican Council (1962-65), the Church recognized that the modern state was not only its enemy, but the enemy of mankind.  In this respect, the Church had common ground with the libertarian and conservative movements of the 20^th century.

The Second Vatican Council and the “reforms” which came in its wake produced an environment that has led to the likes of cretins like Jorge Bergoglio who has not only repeatedly blasphemed the Divine Founder of the institution in which he supposedly heads, but regularly spews out all sorts of discredited neo-Marxist nonsense.

While “Pope Francis” condemns libertarianism, the solution to the financial, political, and many of the social problems which confront the Western world will only be solved by “libertarian means” – a gold/silver monetary standard, political decentralization/secession, de-militarization/non-intervention, free trade, and the application of private property rights to the migration crisis.

For the good of mankind, not only should Jorge Bergoglio be ignored as supreme Roman pontiff, but he should likewise be ignored when speaking on any and all public policy matters.

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The largest solar-energy company in the U.S. has been called out by The Wall Street Journal for manipulating a key sales metric shortly to try and boost the company's share price ahead of its IPO.

In a report published Monday, WSJ got the jump on investigators at the SEC, who had announced their own investigation into shady reporting practices at solar-energy companies earlier this month. WSJ alleges that Sunrun Inc., the largest solar-energy company in the U.S., encouraged its managers to delay reporting hundreds of contract cancellations – figures that would've prominently factored into the company's sales metrics – during the months leading up to the company’s August 2015 IPO.

Sunrun's shares have dramatically underperformed in recent years as solar demand in California, the U.S.'s largest market, has slowed, contributing to a string of bankruptcies. Sunrun shares recently traded at $4.91, about one-third of their IPO price.

The SEC is also investigating Elon Musk’s Solar City for engaging in similarly shady reporting practices, WSJ reported earlier this onth.

The paper hangs the story on on Darren Jennings, a former manager at the company who says he was pressured to delay reporting more than 200 cancellations – amounting ot a whopping 40% of total orders – while working for the firm in Hawaii, it’s biggest market, and three other former managers. Solar firms typically give customers a few days after installation to reconsider. 

 “The big internal push was to cram as many sales as we could through the pipeline,” Jennings said. “If those deals cancelled, we would not report it.”

When approached by WSJ, Lynn Jurich, Sunrun’s chief executive and co-founder and Edward Fenster, Sunrun’s co-founder and chairman, both declined to comment.
However, they did provide a statement to WSJ – but it didn’t directly address the allegations that the pair had overseen a managerial culture where employees were encouraged to misreport material information and mislead investors, all to try and boost the offering price.

Jurich said the company “reviewed the digital audit trail in our systems” and “turned up no evidence that our sales employees changed cancellation dates in our systems to delay the reporting of cancellations.”

 

“I proudly stand by Sunrun’s workplace culture, our values and our unwavering commitment to customer satisfaction and the principle of integrity upon which our company was founded.”

 

Solar City was headed for bankruptcy when Musk – who had installed his cousin, Lyndon Rive, at the helm of the perpetual cash burner – announced last June that Tesla Inc. would step in and buy the troubled energy company, combining two firms where Musk is the largest shareholder, raising questions about whether the acquisition was really in the best interest of Tesla's other shareholders.

It's important to note that the solar energy industry as a whole has developed a reputation for shadiness that stretches beyond these two firms: As WSJ reports, many have complained about solar companies' aggressive sales tactics, with WSJ reporting one incident where a sales representatives literally following people home from Home Depot Inc.

And let’s not forget about “Solyndra-gate,” when the Obama Administration approved a more than $500 million loan to solar energy firm Solyndra, only to see it file for bankruptcy soon after, leaving taxpayers on the hook.

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Authored by Irina Slav via OilPrice.com,

The addition of another couple of smaller producers to the OPEC-non-OPEC oil production cut deal will be enough to bring global supply to a more acceptable level. That’s what Saudi Oil Minister Khalid Al-Falih said at a news conference in Riyadh.

The reduction will take the whole nine months of the output cut extension that should be announced next week at OPEC’s Vienna meeting, Al-Falih said.

“We believe that continuation with the same level of cuts, plus eventually adding one or two small producers … will be more than adequate to bring the five-year balance to where they need to be by the end of the first quarter 2018.”

The initial deal failed to bring supply back within the limits of the five-year average, which is considered by OPEC to be a fair measure of oil’s fundamentals.

The new potential additions to the deal were not named, but there are also reports that OPEC may deepen the cuts, according to Reuters. This pushed prices up, so both Brent crude and West Texas Intermediate started the week with gains. For now, the prospect of deeper as well as more extensive cuts is only a rumor, but it could turn into reality as OPEC is eager to demonstrate its willingness to do whatever it takes to prop up prices. 

Meanwhile, shale producers are continuing to boost their production, with Goldman Sachs reporting a staggering 128-percent increase in the number of active drilling rigs since May. In absolute terms, the increase is of 404 rigs, allowing the shale patch to increase output to 9.3 million bpd, or 10 percent more than in mid-2016. This has the U.S. breathing down Saudi Arabia’s neck as the world’s third-largest producer, and raises the stakes for the output cut extension.

If the U.S. continues to build production, which in all likelihood it will, and with Nigeria and Libya also boosting their crude output, the rest of OPEC, Russia, and their partners face an uphill battle to keep prices rising over the second half of 2017 and the first quarter of 2018.

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President Donald Trump is in Israel, but back home, the Washington Post just released the latest anonymously sourced takedown. This time, the paper is alleging that Trump also asked two of his own appointees, National Security Agency head Mike Rogers and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, for help pushing back against the Russian investigation.

Once again, the report relies on anonymous “current and former” officials.

WaPo reports:

“Trump made separate appeals to the director of national intellifence, Daniel Coats, and to Adm. Michael S. Rogers, the director of the National Security Agency, urging them to publicly deny the existence of any evidence of collusion during the 2016 election.”

Trump sought their assistance after former FBI Director James Comey testified to the House Intelligence Committee on March 20 that the FB was investigating any links between the Trump campaign and Russian government, WaPo noted.

Trump’s conversation with Rogers was documented contemporaneously in an internal memo written by a senior NSA official, according to the officials.

 

It is unclear if a similar memo was prepared by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to document Trump’s conversation with Coats. Officials said such memos could be made available to both the special counsel now overseeing the Russia investigation and congressional investigators, who might explore whether Trump sought to impede the FBI’s work.

Coats and Rogers both deemed the request “inappropriate” and “refused to comply,” WaPo noted, citing two current and two former officials – who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private communications with the president.

The editors at WaPo are probably celebrating their latest scoop that will likely be confirmed by the NYT and CNN in short order, and it is clear that the implications of WaPo's allegations are that Trump is impeachable.

But we maintain that these anonymously-sourced, second-hand stories are a problem, and just the other day Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi explained why in a compelling column for the magazine. There are some major inconsistencies in  terms of what the public knows about this investigation, Taibbi noted.

Whether or not Trump is guilty, somebody should come forward with more evidence, or at least some information from an identifiable and credible source about the exact nature of the charges being pursued, because the public deserves to know.

 

Our legal system was constructed with the aim of not allowing someone to linger under a cloud of suspicion, but remain uncharged. Trump deserves that much at least.

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China’s Global Times, published by the official People’s Daily, said in an editorial in its Chinese and English-language editions that, if reports of China “systematically dismantling CIA spying operations, killing or imprisoning more than a dozen sources” are true, it was a victory for China.

As we previously detailed, an influential state-run newspaper applauded China’s anti-espionage efforts on Monday after the New York Times said China had killed or imprisoned up to 20 CIA sources, hobbling U.S. spying operations in a massive intelligence breach.

And now, as Reuters reports, China’s Global Times, published by the official People’s Daily, said in an editorial:

“If this article is telling the truth, we would like to applaud China’s anti-espionage activities. Not only was the CIA’s spy network dismantled, but Washington had no idea what happened and which part of the spy network had gone wrong,” the paper said.

 

“It can be taken as a sweeping victory. Perhaps it means even if the CIA makes efforts to rebuild its spy network in China, it could face the same result,” it said.

However the widely read paper, which is known for its strongly nationalist stance, said one part of the report was false.

“As for one source being shot in a government courtyard, that is a purely fabricated story, most likely a piece of American-style imagination based on ideology,” it said.

The story has attracted thousands of comments on Weibo, China’s version of Twitter, with many people expressing glee that the spy ring was broken.

“Strike hard against spy traitors, protect the country’s security!” wrote one Weibo user.

 

“Well done! Good on you China,” wrote another.

This is the ally that President Trump holds so close?

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Two loud explosions were reported this evening at Manchester Arena by people attending a pop concert by Ariana Grande in an event that Greater Manchester Police is now describing as ‘serious’.  Members of the public have been advised to avoid the arena.  People reportedly fled the stadium after hearing “two loud explosions”.

One Twitter user wrote: “Honestly worst night of my existence. Just kept running from Manchester Arena for my life.”

Another added: “Just got out of Manchester arena after seeing Ariana perform. There was a loud bang when the lights came on & everyone ran out screaming.”

#Manchester: Heavy explosions at the #Manchester Arena. There are casualties. Panic and chaos.#England http://pic.twitter.com/cOZVHQxpxs

— WorldOnAlert (@worldonalert) May 22, 2017

@SkyNews #Manchester please help us???????? http://pic.twitter.com/qDGjopsmpS

— Justine? (@justinenicoleex) May 22, 2017

 

Emergency services have rushed to the scene.

Ambulance crews make their way to Manchester Arena after major incident. Several injuries being treated and police cordon in place. http://pic.twitter.com/jnNETqfJcM

— Darryl Morris (@darrylmorris) May 22, 2017

 

Developing…

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Authored by Simon Black via SovereignMan.com,

On May 31, 1866, John C. Ringling was born in Iowa to German immigrants in what felt like an extremely bleak year.

The chaos and devastation from the Civil War that had ended in 1865 were still keenly felt, and the US economy was in the midst of a deep recession

The country was still shaken from the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.

And the new President, Andrew Johnson, was embroiled in a major political crisis with Congress that would soon lead to his impeachment.

(Johnson was also a noted buffoon, once giving a speech in early 1866 to honor George Washington in which he referred to himself over 200 times and accused Congress of plotting his assassination.)

No doubt those were some of the darkest days in US history. And it would have been hard for Mr. and Mrs. Ringling to imagine a bright future for their children.

But John and four of his brothers went on to build the most successful circus empire in modern history– the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus, known as the “Greatest Show on Earth.”

There were countless traveling circuses crisscrossing the United States in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

But what made the Ringling Brothers’ event so spectacular was sheer scale. They didn’t hold anything back– lions, tigers, elephants.

The Ringling brothers were also masters of efficient logistics.

Like Ray Kroc and Henry Ford, the brothers developed an assembly line approach to the construction, deconstruction, and transportation of their event so that they could swiftly move from town to town.

It was a spectacle itself simply to see their train of railway cars packed with exotic animals stretching on for more than a mile.

Their circus was considered the ultimate in entertainment back then, and John Ringling became one of the wealthiest men in America as a result of this success.

It seemed like the empire would last forever.

But it didn’t.

After peaking in the Roaring 20s, the circus took a major hit during the Great Depression that effectively bankrupted John Ringling, the sole surviving brother.

At the time of his death in 1936, in fact, Ringling only had about $5,500 in the bank (that’s after adjusting for inflation to 2017 dollars).

The circus limped along in the Depression and barely made it through World War II.

Towards the end of the War in 1944, right before they thought their luck would turn, the circus had a major accident in Hartford in which the tent caught fire, killing 167 people.

That nearly bankrupted the company a second time, and several executives went to jail for negligence.

In the decades that followed, American consumer tastes changed.

Television, movies, and music were far more interesting than circus performances, and Ringling Brothers went into terminal decline.

Fast forward to the age of Facebook and YouTube, and there simply wasn’t a whole lot left in the circus that was exotic or interesting anymore, not to mention the animal rights issues.

So yesterday, the Greatest Show on Earth held its final performance in Uniondale, New York, after 146-years in the business.

A century ago this would have seemed impossible.

The early 1900s were the absolute peak for Ringling Brothers, and no one imagined a future where consumers weren’t standing in line to buy tickets.

Candidly I find this story to be an interesting metaphor for the United States itself.

Rise from the ashes. Remarkable growth. Peak wealth and power. Bankruptcy. Gross negligence and incompetence. More bankruptcy. Terminal decline.

And just like how people viewed Ringling Brothers 100-years ago, it’s difficult for anyone to imagine a world in which the US isn’t the dominant superpower.

Instead of the Greatest Show on Earth, it’s the Greatest Country on Earth. And most of us have been programmed to believe that this primacy will last forever.

But nothing lasts. History is full of failed dominant superpowers, from the Roman Empire to the Ottoman Empire. Many no longer exist.

Their declines were almost invariably due to excessive spending, unsustainable debt, military overreach, and a society that abandoned the core values which made it wealthy and powerful to begin with.

Every successive superpower always believes that they will never suffer the same fate. And every time they’re wrong.

This time is not different.

Yes, it’s still a wonderful country with plenty of positive things going for it.

But at its core the United States still has $20 trillion in public debt (over 100% of GDP) and an additional $46.7 trillion in net, unfunded future social obligations (like Social Security and Medicare).

Plus, the government spends an appalling amount of money, far more than they collect in tax revenue.

(In 2016 their total net loss exceeded an incredible $1 TRILLION.)

Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers summed it up when he quipped, “How long can the world’s biggest borrower remain the world’s biggest power?”

The answer is– no one knows. Maybe months. Maybe decades.

Either way, this trend is one of the biggest stories of our time. And though few people want to acknowledge it, it’s already happening.

We now regularly witness government shutdowns, debt ceiling crises, and gross government incompetence. But this is just the beginning.

The national debt is growing far faster than the economy as a whole. And, especially if interest rates continue to rise, the trend will accelerate.

It’s simple arithmetic.

So while it seems impossible now, the Greatest Country on Earth will some day have its final show as well.

That doesn’t mean the US simply disappears.

But it’s foolish to assume that the insolvency of the world’s largest superpower will forever be consequence-free.

What’s your Plan B?

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