Senate Confirms Rex Tillerson As Secretuary Of State

The Senate has confirmed Rex Tillerson as secretary of state in a narrow vote that was among the most contentious for that role in recent history. Tillerson surpassed the 51 votes needed, enough for a simple majority to approve his nomination.

The former Exxon CEO Tillerson will take over his post as the country’s top diplomat as lawmakers remain skeptical about President Trump’s foreign policy, including his stance toward Russia and a recent executive order that temporarily banned refugees and citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries.  Bob Corker specifically pointed to Russia as one area where he expects Tillerson to hone in on. 

“I would say the place that, if I were him, that I would want to be focused is my strategy on the Russia issue,” he told reporters. “It’s one where you know the president seems fairly engaged and I think as secretary of State he probably wants to make sure that he’s developed his thinking on how to push back on Putin.”  He added that the administration also needs to “get on with” naming Tillerson’s deputies.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) also noted his belief that the secretary of a State “is the most important cabinet position that the president has to nominate” as explanation for why he is supporting Tillerson despite concerns. “There is so much uncertainty and debate about our role in the world these days,” he said. “A lot of our allies have questions. Our adversaries are obviously watching very closely.”

Previously, Democrats launched a failed effort to delay Tillerson’s nomination until after he had time to weigh in on the executive order from Trump banning individuals from seven Muslim-majority countries.  As The Hill reports, Chuck Schumer moved on Monday to delay a procedural vote, but was blocked by Sen. Tom Cotton. Afterward Democrats tried to shift republicans’ votes away from a vote for Tillerson. They noted that dozens of GOP lawmakers had raised concerns about Trump’s executive order and that Tillerson, a former ExxonMobil CEO, had not backed new sanctions targeting Moscow.

“This is all an advertisement for a very simple idea — that this is probably the absolute worst time to have the first American President with no government experience and no diplomatic experience pick the first Secretary of State with no government experience and no diplomatic experience,” said Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a member of the Foreign Relations Committee.  Sen. Ben Cardin, the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, added: “We need, as the next Secretary of State, a person who is going to be a leader in saying: We are going to use every one of our diplomatic tools to isolate Russia if they continue this activity of interfering with our elections.”

With Tillerson’s official nomination he now faces a full plate including escalating tensions between Russia and Ukraine, a proxy war in Syria, a boisterous North Korea, a Taiwan and South China Sea diplomatic snafu and much more.

“Rex Tillerson will have the most demanding and complex agenda to face a secretary of state in a very long time,” said R. Nicholas Burns, a Harvard professor and career foreign service officer.

Another crucial question will be how much influence Tillerson has on Trump. All cabinet secretaries must compete for power with White House aides who have long personal relationships with and frequent access to the president. But Mr. Trump’s reliance on a close circle of advisers to write and vet executive orders while keeping departments that must implement them largely in the dark is without precedent.

Trump invited Tillerson for a private lunch at the White House on Wednesday, the first time Mr. Tillerson has appeared on the president’s official schedule.

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Seattle Social Justice Warrior Demands ‘Reparations’ Or “We Need To Start Killing People…”

Submitted by Mac Slavo via SHTFPlan.com,

We recently warned that America is about to see unprecedented protests and rioting from coast to coast.

But don’t take our word for it.

A social justice warrior involved in the Seattle street protests tells you everything you need to know about what the future holds and lends further evidence to the notion that America sits on the precipice of widespread civil unrest.

The woman, who also claims to be a pre-school teacher, implies that it’s time for extreme measures, including but not limited to killing people, starting at the White House.

Just so you know… we need to start killing people… first off we need to start killing the White House… the White House might die… your fucking White House… your fucking White House must go…

As you’ll see below, when she claims it’s time to start killing people she is most likely referring to white people exclusively. But killing isn’t enough.

If you’re white, it’s time you started kicking some of your hard-earned wealth her way, including your cash and your house:

White people… give your fucking money… give your fucking house… your fucking property… we need it fucking all… you need to reparate black and indigenous people right now… Pay the fuck up… it ain’t just your fucking time… it’s your fucking money…

Watch the her full speech (and then be sure to register your kids with her pre-school):

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Gen. Flynn: “Today We Are Officially Putting Iran On Notice”

When Iran test fired a new ballistic missile on Sunday, an act it confirmed this morning, it was aware it was taking a calculated risk and, more importantly, was testing America’s response and resolve to preserve Obama’s nuclear deal. It got the answer this afternoon, when shortly before 2pm, President Trump’s national security adviser, Michael Flynn, said the United States was officially putting Iran on notice on Wednesday over its “destabilizing activity” after it test-fired a ballistic missile over the weekend.

“As of today, we are officially putting Iran on notice,” Flynn told a White House briefing, without explaining exactly what that meant, although it is clear that any more provocations by Iran and whatever existing deals Iran had with the Obama administration will almost certainly be revised if not torn up.

Flynn also added that in his view the ballistic missile launch on Sunday was in defiance of a U.N. Security Council resolution that called on Iran not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons; prior to Flynn’s clarification.

The retired general did not detail what actions the administration would take in response to the test, but said that National Security Council staff would brief reporters at 4 p.m. on Wednesday.

Flynn also criticized former President Obama for being soft on Iran and claiming his administration “failed to respond adequately.”

Flynn’s full statement is below:

Statement by the National Security Advisor

 

“Recent Iranian actions, including a provocative ballistic missile launch and an attack against a Saudi naval vessel conducted by Iran-supported Houthi militants, underscore what should have been clear to the international community all along about Iran’s destabilizing behavior across the Middle East.

 

The recent ballistic missile launch is also in defiance of UN Security Council Resolution 2231, which calls upon Iran “not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using such ballistic missile technology.”

 

These are just the latest of a series of incidents in the past six months in which Houthi forces that Iran has trained and armed have struck Emirati and Saudi vessels, and threatened U.S. and allied vessels transiting the Red Sea. In these and other similar activities, Iran continues to threaten U.S. friends and allies in the region. Iran continues to threaten U.S. friends and allies in the region.

 

The Obama Administration failed to respond adequately to Tehran’s malign actions—including weapons transfers, support for terrorism, and other violations of international norms. The Trump Administration condemns such actions by Iran that undermine security, prosperity, and stability throughout and beyond the Middle East and place American lives at risk.

 

President Trump has severely criticized the various agreements reached between Iran and the Obama Administration, as well as the United Nations – as being weak and ineffective.

 

Instead of being thankful to the United States for these agreements, Iran is now feeling emboldened.

 

As of today, we are officially putting Iran on notice.”

* * *

Meanwhile, in a separate matter, the WSJ reported that Flynn himself has some ongoing problems of his own when several top Democratic members of Congress asked the Defense Department to investigate whether retired Lt. Gen. Flynn violated the Constitution when he accepted money from a Russian television network that U.S. intelligence officials say is part of a state-funded media apparatus.

In a letter sent Wednesday to Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, the lawmakers said that since Mr. Flynn retired from the Army in 2014, he has appeared regularly on Russia Today, or RT, a state-sponsored television network. The letter also notes that Mr. Flynn acknowledged he was paid to speak at a gala in Moscow celebrating RT’s 10th anniversary in December 2015. At the event, he dined alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The lawmakers said Mr. Flynn may have violated the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution, which prohibits someone “holding any office of profit or trust”—meaning a public office or military position—from accepting gifts or payments from a foreign country.

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Cable Unimpressed As Theresa May Wins Commons Brexit Vote

As was largely expected – and in spite of a whiney distraction from Jeremy Corbyn on Trump – UK Prime Minister Theresa May crossed the first hurdle towards Brexit as The House of Commons easily passed a bill authorizing the start of European Union exit talks.

Cable was largely unimpressed (dominated by USD flows from The Fed)

 

As AP reports, British lawmakers have backed a bill authorizing the start of European Union exit talks, voting by a decisive 498 to 114 to push the measure past its first major legislative hurdle.

During two days of debate in the House of Commons, many legislators from both government and opposition said they would respect voters' June 23 decision to leave the EU and back the bill.

 

But pro-EU members of Parliament from opposition parties will try to insert more amendments at the next stage of the process, seeking to prevent an economy-shocking "hard Brexit."

 

The Conservative government wants to have the bill approved by early March so it can meet a self-imposed March 31 deadline for triggering two years of EU divorce talks.

The FT notes that the vote saw Mrs May lead virtually all Conservative MPs through the voting lobbies alongside Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, who had instructed his MPs to respect the Leave vote in last year’s EU referendum.

Parliamentary approval was required after the Supreme Court ruled Mrs May could not trigger Article 50 using royal prerogative.

 

But Brexit continued to wreak havoc for Labour, with dozens of pro-EU MPs refusing to back the bill. Dawn Butler, shadow equalities minister, and Rachel Maskell, shadow environment secretary, were the latest rebels to quit the front bench after refusing to obey Mr Corbyn.

 

Even as the prime minister celebrated her victory — and the sight of the Labour party in disarray — senior members of her own party and her former ambassador to the EU, Ivan Rogers, gave sober assessments of the talks to come.

The prime minister will set out what Downing Street called a “substantial” white paper setting out her negotiating objectives on Thursday, although the policy plan will cover the same ground as her Lancaster House speech last month which laid out her Brexit goals. Mrs May expects the bill to complete its passage through the Commons and Lords by March 7, although a decision has yet to be taken on precisely when Mrs May will send a letter of notification that Britain wants to withdraw from the EU.

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Is Time to Short America?, Part 2: Crony Capitalism Leads to Socioeconomic Stratification – the Rich Get Richer!

Continuing the conversation of whether it’s time to short America, we investigate the administration’s plans for protectionism and a tax holiday for corporate capital repatriation. The first question that needs to be asked is, “Who benefits from this, and why do they want it done?”

For the outline that we are working from, reference Is Time to Short America? Macro Risks + Unpredictable Administration / Geopolitical Uncertainty = ?. Two of the Trump administration’s biggest selling points are protectionism and tax holidays. 

Protectionism

Trump has already authorized the building of an $18B dollar wall. This is a monumental undertaking which he already speculated would enrich certain manufacturing companies, reference Some of the Biggest Beneficiaries From Building a Mexican Border Wall May Be Mexican Materials Companies. As a matter of fact, some companies’ share prices have already started moving in anticipation (chomping at the bit, so to say) or getting a chunk of that deal, look!

1200x 1

Do you know why number 6 on that list is moving so much? Take a guess! It’s because the swimming among the many standing conflicts of interest in the Trump administration… (click any graphic to expand so you can see those little words)

thumb Trump economic netowrk

Is his pick for Secretary of Transportation, Elaine Chao. Ms. Chao just so happens to be director on the board of Vulcan Materials. Helluva coincidence, eh?

Elaine Chow economic netowrk

I’ll give you three guesses, and a bonus round if you still can’t catch up, as to who will get a good portion of the $18B wall building businesses when it comes up to bid (or sole source, as it may be).

Trump also floated the idea of a tax holiday to repatriate foreign capital into the US to fill our coffers and provide capital for hew jobs and hiring. It sounds very good, except for two things:

  1. It doesn’t work like that,and 
  2. it exacerbates the problem by making the rich people richer and the poor people poorer.

Now, rich people may like that concept – at least at first, and if they didn’t think it through. Of course, once you start thinking, you realize the world (nor this country) can live solely off of financial assets. Somebody, somewhere has to work to build or make something of tangible value. Herein lies the rub. You have to enable workers to maintain a better then living wage, or the amount of time the capitalist class can take advantage of them is limited. Let’s step through some historical facts and analysis, shall we? (Download the full document here)

 tax holiday1

tax holiday2

So, if tax holidays don’t work, and they have been proven not to work in the past, why in the world would Trump, et. al. recommend a tax holiday? The answer is quite simple – follow the money! These are the companies that have the highest holdings offshore, and the best tax/bailout deals with the government. I don’t have time to get into the finance dudes, but the tech side drives the message home.

thumb tech offshores1100

Now, does this answer the question as to why Trump will declare a tax holiday if it actually loses money for the American people and costs jobs? Of course it does, just look at the Secretary of Commerce nominee. He’s the multi-billionaire, Wilbur Ross. Wilbur is a very, very connected man. Among those connections, he ran the Rothschild’s financial arm as Chairman, CIO and Executive Managing Director.

The Rothschild’s are one of the oldest money families in the western world, dating back to the 1760s. They control a lot! Now they control the US Presidency through Secretary of Commerce (the Democratic Party cannot block it).

Wilbur Ross Economic Network

What else does he control? Well, he’s also Chairman and Chief Strategy Office of Invesco, Ltd. To put this into perspective, Invesco has over $2,000,000,000 of holdings of the yellow highlighted companies in just ONE (1) fund. There are at least 3 to 4 other funds that hold these stocks too. There’s no conflict there, is it?

thumb Invesco tech hodlings

Now, to be fair, Mr. Ross has said he would divest of assets that pose a conflict, as I’m sure Ms. Chao has promised as well. Then again… That’s what Donald said, wasn’t it? Even if he does fully (operative word) divest his linkages and ability to bestow favoritism is not only extant, but strong and deep. Expect Goldman and Rothschilds to take issue in their divvying of the booty. I can go into Trump’s wooing of the auto industry, and Mr. Ross’s extensive auto industry businesses and connections, but I think you get the point. 

So, now you know why we can have a tax holiday and and build a wall, when neither is in the country’s best interest. For those investors who have running less than $16B or so in AUM, there is actually a need for sustained economic activity uptick, and not the temporary trading spike to be had from these one time machinations. That, I’m afraid, will not happen if these policy proposals actually go through.

Tax holiday for corporate capital repatriation borne on faulty premise, one that history clearly illustrates:

  1. The last tax holiday that we’ve had was in 2004, allowing U.S. multinational companies, allowing them to repatriate foreign profits at a 5.25% tax rate. Consequently, corporations repatriated $362 billion into the American economy. That is $456 billion in 2017. These funds were used primarily for paying dividends to investors, repurchasing shares, and M&A activity – basically, the acquisition of financial assets. In 2011, Senate Democrats, arguing against another repatriation tax holiday, issued a report asserting that the previous effort had actually cost the United States Treasury $3.3 billion, and that companies receiving the tax breaks had thereafter cut over 20,000 jobs.[2] A second repatriation tax holiday was defeated in the United States Senate in 2009.

We are wavering between moderately and strongly bearish in the medium term. We do acknowledge some trading spikes, hence we are researching long/short trades to minimize some of the risk. 

My next article will discuss the possibility of stagflation with plenty of data for paying subscribers. 

See also, Is the Trump Rally Over?

via http://ift.tt/2kWPBEk Reggie Middleton

Delaware’s Largest Prison On Lockdown After Inmates Take Officers Hostage, Live Feed

Developing:  Department of Correction Response Teams and the Delaware State Police are currently responding to a hostage situation at the James T. Vaughn Correctional Center (JTVCC) in Smyrna, Delaware.  According to initial reports from Delaware Online, inmates of the correctional facility have taken over a building and are thought to be holding multiple officers hostage.

Rep. William Carson, a member of the House Corrections Committee, said he had been told it was an “apparent hostage situation.”

 

“The inmates have taken over a building,” he said.

Geoffrey Klopp, president of the Correctional Officers Association of Delaware, confirmed to ABC that prison guards had been taken hostage but did not provide any further details.

JTVCC houses about 2,500 prisoners and, as a Level 5 facility, includes some of the state’s most violent criminals.

The JTVCC released the following statement:

 

Here is a live feed of the scene from CBS Philly:

 

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FOMC Reaction: VIX Flash-Crashes To 9-Handle, Dollar Dumps

Fed rate hike odds dropped on the less-than-hawkish statement…

 

The machines were all primed and ready to juice the market and as The Fed statement hit, VIX collapsed – flash-crashing to a 9 handle.

 

And the dollar dumped…

 

Gold and stocks are higher for now…

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Unanimous Fed Holds Rates As Expected – Suggests March Hike May Not Be Imminent

With gold gaining, dollar declining, a flattening yield curve, and a market not buying The Fed's 3-hikes plan, Janet and her band of merry-men (and women) had to do something to get investors' confidence back to signal 'March is live', as Trumponomics dominates the conversation…but it appears they failed.

  • *FED SAYS CONSUMER, BUSINESS SENTIMENT HAVE IMPROVED OF LATE
  • *FED REPEATS NEAR-TERM RISKS TO OUTLOOK `ROUGHLY BALANCED'
  • *FED SAYS MARKET-BASED INFLATION GAUGES `REMAIN LOW'

Not exactly Hawkish.

*  *  *

As a reminder, Bloomberg offers this Fed Spectrometer…

 

Since The Fed hiked rates, the yield curve has flattened dramatically…

The dollar is down…

 

And gold is the best performer by far…

 

And the market remains unconvinced at the 3-hike plan…

So a flatter curve and soaring gold? "Policy error" anyone?

Additional headlines:

  • *FED SAYS JOB GAINS REMAINED SOLID, UNEMPLOYMENT STAYED LOW
  • *FED: INFLATION INCREASED IN RECENT QUARTERS, STILL UNDER 2%
  • *FED REPEATS BUSINESS INVESTMENT HAS REMAINED SOFT

Full Redline below:

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CNN Producer Sues Trump Over Immigration Order

Having been 'black-balled' by the Trump, it appears CNN is going all-in on alienating itself from The White House as The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports a CNN editor and producer who was detained Sunday at Atlanta's airport has filed a federal lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump's immigration order.

Mohammed Tawfeeq is an Iraqi national who has been a permanent legal resident of the United States since 2013. As an editor, Tawfeeq frequently travels to the Middle East as part of his reporting duties, the lawsuit states. Tawfeeq was detained Sunday at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, where he was subjected to additional screening that delayed his entry into the United States.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that the lawsuit states…

Defendants used Trump's recent executive order to unlawfully detain Tawfeeq, who is a legal permanent resident of the U.S., an immigrant from Iraq, an award-winning Middle Eastern journalist and the current manager of CNN's International Desk.

 

The lawsuit, filed against the U.S. departments of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection and other federal agencies, seeks a declaration of Tawfeeq’s rights under the Immigration and Nationality Act.

 

The suits states that applying this executive order to lawful permanent residents or green card holders returning after a brief trip abroad violates the Immigration and Nationality Act, the Administrative Procedure Act and the U.S. Constitution.

 

“The executive order has greatly increased the uncertainty involved in current and future international travel for returning lawful permanent residents like Mr. Tawfeeq,” the lawsuit states.

What is perhaps most interesting is that since his detention on Sunday, The White House has cleared up any confusion about the status of green card holders…

A senior Department of Homeland Security official told CNN that no legal green card holders have been denied entry, but Trump's order has made it more difficult to enter the United States.

 

Two days since the order has been signed, airlines have begun instructing travelers that permanent green card holders are allowed to travel to the United States.

 

The International Air Transport Association told airlines on Sunday that the Custom and Border Patrol instructed them that "lawful permanent residents of the United States (green card holders) were out of scope of the (executive order)," according to an email obtained by CNN.

So his suit is about his "uncertainty" (and 5 minutes of fame) and not in fact about the actual law itself?

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Trump’s Hostility to Immigration Goes Hand in Hand With His Embrace of Entitlements

Looked at in isolation, President Trump’s rush to enact executive orders restricting immigration reveals plenty about his administration’s incompetence and willingness to engage in petty cruelty. But they are not isolated actions. And taken in context with Trump’s other stated views—in particular his opposition to meaningful entitlement reforms—they reveal a frightening holistic worldview of America as an entitlement state that is hostile to immigrants and closed off to the world.

Although Trump’s immigration order last week did not specifically ban Muslims from entering the country, it targeted majority Muslim nations, and also included an exception for religious minorities that Trump has said was intended to favor Christians rather than Muslims.

The religious favoritism embedded in the order makes clear that it is intended to bolster America’s dominant religion at the expense of another—and to reshape the demographic makeup of the country. Indeed, Trump’s own team has indicated that the initial order is likely to be a first step towards a far more consequential revision of America’s relationship with immigrants and, implicitly, the rest of the world. As the Los Angeles Times reported this week, “Trump’s top advisors on immigration, including chief strategist Steve Bannon and senior advisor Stephen Miller, see themselves as launching a radical experiment to fundamentally transform how the U.S. decides who is allowed into the country and to block a generation of people who, in their view, won’t assimilate into American society.”

Leaked drafts of two potential executive orders may provide a hint as to what the next steps in the new administration’s project could look like. One of those orders would restrict foreign worker visas not found to be in “the national interest,” and would require federal inspections of employers who rely on foreign workers, according to The Washington Post, which reported on the two draft orders yesterday. The order’s explicit purpose is to reduce the number of foreign-born workers in order to prioritize American workers.

The other would deny entry into the country for immigrants who are deemed likely to use social welfare programs such as food stamps and Medicaid. It would also move toward setting up a system in which immigrants are deported for benefiting from those programs. As Dara Lind notes at Vox, which obtained and published a similar draft order last week, immigrants could be required to reimburse the federal government for the cost of providing those benefits.

At this point it is worth stopping to remember that Trump is on record as a defender of the country’s major entitlement programs and a stern critic of those who seek to reform them. In a debate last year, he swore he would “do everything within my power not to touch Social Security, to leave it the way it is.” Around the time he launched his campaign, he criticized Republicans for wanting to cut entitlement programs, saying “Every Republican wants to do a big number on Social Security, they want to do it on Medicare, they want to do it on Medicaid. And we can’t do that.” Trump’s tax reform plans, meanwhile, would blow a $10 trillion hole in the budget.

The combination of Trump’s views on entitlements with the immigration orders that he has issued and the ones he appears to be considering is incredibly telling.

Trump is not concerned about runaway entitlement spending. He is not worried about the nation’s dangerous fiscal trajectory. He is not focused on reducing the federal debt, or on maintaining even a pretense of fiscal responsibility.

Instead, Trump is worried strictly about entitlement spending on immigrants. He’s worried about making sure that the benefits go to the right people—which is to say, the people who backed Donald Trump. Indeed, preserving the entitlement state, regardless of the fiscal consequences, is, like imposing new trade and border controls, central to Trump’s project, because it provides him with a way to reward favored groups and exclude outsiders.

Trump has been in office for two full weeks. Yet it is hard to avoid the conclusion that we now have a president a president who sees America as an isolated ethno-nationalist welfare state in which immigrants and outsiders are dangers to the culture and drains to the system. And his rush to implement his executive orders suggests that he and his administration are fully intent on turning this dark worldview into our national reality.

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