Too funny. Um, I don’t think the political opinion writers at ABC are “writing” that headline with the same perspective as voters “reading” it. [Story Here]
Republican candidate Greg Gianforte easily won his election bid for congress. The media are apoplectic about the brazen victory – without even considering the possibility that Gianforte is less angry with national media than the voters who elected him.
Too funny. Um, I don’t think the political opinion writers at ABC are “writing” that headline with the same perspective as voters “reading” it. [Story Here]
Republican candidate Greg Gianforte easily won his election bid for congress. The media are apoplectic about the brazen victory – without even considering the possibility that Gianforte is less angry with national media than the voters who elected him.
While the Fed may be raising rates, there is still a flight to quality underway that is giving a bid to US Treasury issues. Low Treasury yields may remain the norm even if the Federal Reserve raises rates again. At about 2.25%, 10-year yields have dropped to 2017 lows, even with the central bank signaling an imminent rate hike. Many still see the stock market crash and that also supplies a bit of an underlying bid right now. However, The Fed has also made it clear it will maintain a gradual approach to shrinking its massive bond portfolio thereby reversing the Quantitative Easing. We are in never-never-land where the Fed tightening will not yet have a direct impact upon the bonds on a one-for-one relationship.
When we compare the 10-year to the 30-year, we see strikingly different patterns. The high on the 30 year is 2016 in price (low in yield), whereas the high on the 10-year in price (low in yield) remains 2012.
Now look at the 2-year rate bottomed in September 2011 (high in price). Clearly, 2-year rates have been rising gradually for 6 years already.
Now when we look at the 30-year on our Proprietary Perpetual 30 Year Contract back to 1798, we gain true perspective in how rates have performed in the long-term. We are clearly looking at a bond bubble, but the breaking point appears to be 2018. Because of the extreme flight to quality, we can still see a pop up in the 10-year before this is all over. This depends entirely upon the capital flows.
QUESTION: Mr. Armstrong, when you were here in Barcelona, you said that Catalonia would vote to separate from Spain. Most thought you would be wrong. I myself confess I was not sure you would be right. Well you were right, or your amazing computer was correct, and the fever to separate only grows bolder. Do you still see this and the ultimate end of the EU?
ANSWER: Yes, but this is a process that is slow. The speed will being to pick up next year and it appears to be increasing in velocity between 2018 and 2022. El Pais ran a story: “Catalonia to immediately declare independence if no referendum held” with the leaked excerpts from what appears to be the Catalonian regional government’s road map to independence. The secret document included a plan where the region would unilaterally break away from Spain if Madrid tried to prevent its citizens from holding a referendum on independence in the fall. The proposed question is straight forward:
“Do you want Catalonia to be a state that is independent from Spain?”
I reported back in 2015 that Barcelona was preparing to issue its own electronic currency. Since then, the city is still moving forward with a plan to introduce its own currency, despite warnings from Spain’s central bank. The new so-called “social currency” would be used to buy local goods and services at a discount while having a one to one parity with the euro. This is plan B in order to set up for separation. Catalonia is the richest region in Spain and is supporting the rest of the country. So it is very much like Margaret Thatcher once warned, that Socialism works until you run out of other people’s money. That is exactly what is taking place in Spain. They have been bleeding Catalonia dry.
The real question is what will Spain do? Spain is the Eurozone’s fourth largest economy. It is distinctly on the verge of breaking up. Spain and the EU seem intent upon not letting that happen. If there is any attempt by force from Madrid under the pretense of a police action, then the gloves will come off.
Madrid will take drastic actions, including that will most likely first attempt to invoke article 155 of the constitution, which will effectively put an end to all forms of Catalan self governance. Will the people tolerate that? This will not merely strengthen the resolve of Catalan separatists, it could very well lead to a civil war erupting between 2018 into 2020, but the latest we should see the separation is by 2022.
The previous Spanish Civil War took place between 1936 and 1939 lasting about 3 years. It broke out when the Spanish army in Morocco led by General Francisco Franco, rose up against the democratically elected Republican government, presided over by Manuel Azaña. Typically, there will be a divergence and split within the military. That is how these things erupt. We may see this in the USA also around 2022, which may be a contagion at that time. The potential for the collapse of the EU looms on the horizon for 2022.
There is a very serious hypocrisy over this whole issue of Russia trying to influence the 2016 election when the Obama Administration directly intervened in Canada, Britain, and France and is expected to do so again in Britain and Germany. The New York Times, Washington Post, and just about every other mainstream media, are biased and are NOT REPORTING THE TRUTH. They act as if this is something unusual and sinister yet Obama has continued in this very posture even after leaving office with respect to the French elections. Obama also intervened to overthrow Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and failed as he did in BREXIT. The United States routinely interferes in foreign elections. So what is the big deal with Russia? Mainstream Media is not telling the truth that this is standard operational procedure. The United States has far too over stages coups to overthrow leaders they dislike. The propaganda about Iran and weapons of mass destruction is but a recent example. The Vietnam War was also a hoax with President Johnson is famous for saying in 1965: “For all I know, our Navy was shooting at whales out there.” There never was any attack to start that war and Johnson made a very deceitful speech of August 4th, 1964, while New York Times editorial writers cheered and proclaimed that Johnson “went to the American people last night with the somber facts.” The recorded American soldier deaths for the Vietnam War was 58,220 U.S. military fatal casualties.
The New York Times has deliberately misled everyone with its latest story once again: “Top Russian Officials Discussed How to Influence Trump Aides Last Summer”. They wrote that two of Trump’s people “had indirect ties to Russian officials” and after all the ifs, possibilities, and perhaps, they conclude “It is unclear, however, whether Russian officials actually tried to directly influence Mr. Manafort and Mr. Flynn.”
We all know that Obama sought to influence the British BREXIT vote telling the British if they voted for BREXIT, they would have to get queque . We all have watched the video intervening in the French Election for Macron. However, what has not been widely know is that the Obama Administration intervened in Canada with operative and money to overthrow the conservatives.
The real question is what is going on with the New York Times and the Washington Post? They both endorsed Hillary and this seems like a desperate act to claim that Trump is not a legitimate president and he should be overthrown. In the years of research studying the economy and the press accounts over the centuries, I have never seen such a totally dishonest level of reporting than we see today. They have devolved into a biased media that withholding the truth to shape opinions as they desire. This, in my view, is the ultimate treason against the sovereignty of the people. The Washington Post boldly claims as their motto: “Democracy Dies in Darkness” which is exactly what they are doing. PRINT THE TRUTH!
The Pension Crisis is serious and is the catalyst that will bring everything down. Nearly 600 State & Local governments are now in the hole and has reached nearly $1.2 trillion of unfunded pension liabilities in FY 2014. This reflects total pension liabilities of $4.798 trillion and total pension assets (or fiduciary net position) of $3.607 trillion. This staggering number is nearly 25% of the annual GDP and accounts for roughly 97% of all public pension funds in the United States. California is raising taxes to cover the short-fall for now, but this is going nowhere fast. Government pensions are what destroyed the Roman Empire and history is going to repeat.
I have stated before that there are people on Capitol Hill who support confiscating all private 401K plans in the country and replacing them with an allotment monthly. We know what will happen to that one, so you better have something else besides cash. The government cannot meet the promises for its own employees and they will turn to increasing taxes and confiscating private property.
Minutes from the Fed’s May policy meeting showed board members thought that if jobs growth remains healthy with a rebound in investment and consumer spending then rates could rise “soon”, which many took to mean June. The economy has shown some signs of weakness, the Fed still thinks its broad strength would justify winding down its balance sheet, essentially sucking cash out of the system and putting upward pressure on borrowing costs. As long as rates rise, it shows the economy is still holding.
The Fed is more concerned about the stock market. A correction would help ease the upward pressure, but the Fed also realizes that it has to get rates back up because of the looming crisis in State *& Local pension funds.
Keep in mind that as rates rise, so will the problems with fiscal budgets both on the Federal and States levels within the United States and externally it will hurt emerging markets and Europ
Today former CIA Director John Brennan testified to congress on the Russian counter-intelligence operation which began in July 2016. Today, John Brennan completely contradicted the March 20th, 2017, testimony of former FBI Director James Comey.
We have previously drawn attention to a particular part of former FBI Director James Comey’s testimony to congress from March 20th. The issue is when was congressional leadership, specifically the congressional intelligence oversight group called the “Gang-of-Eight”, notified of the Russian investigation (a counter-intelligence operation).
Pay close attention. On March 20th FBI Director James Comey -together with NSA head Admiral Mike Rogers- testified to congress specifically about this notification (first three minutes of the video):
Rep. Stefanik: [01:12] …”when did you notify the White House, the DNI or congressional leadership”?
James Comey: …”good question. Congressional leadership, sometime recently they were briefed on the nature of the investigation, as I said. Obviously the department of justice has been aware of it all along”…
Watch the first 3 minutes of that video. Notice the discomfort etc. We have previously outlined why THAT is such a big deal –SEE HERE– Comey is discussing the recent notification to congress that took place approximately a week earlier. Prior to that congressional notification FBI Director Comey admits to keeping congress in the dark “because of the sensitivity of the matter” from July 2016 through March 2017.
Now, watch the opening statement from former CIA Director John Brennan today:
Pay very close attention to the segment at 13:35 of this video of Brennan’s testimony:
Brennan: [13:35] “Third, through the so-called Gang-of-Eight process we kept congress apprised of these issues as we identified them.”
“Again, in consultation with the White House, I PERSONALLY briefed the full details of our understanding of Russian attempts to interfere in the election to congressional leadership; specifically: Senators Harry Reid, Mitch McConnell, Dianne Feinstein and Richard Burr; and to representatives Paul Ryan, Nancy Pelosi, Devin Nunes and Adam Schiff between 11th August and 6th September [2016], I provided the same briefing to each of the gang of eight members.”
“Given the highly sensitive nature of what was an active counter-intelligence case [that means the FBI], involving an ongoing Russian effort, to interfere in our presidential election, the full details of what we knew at the time were shared only with those members of congress; each of whom was accompanied by one senior staff member.”…
Brennan goes on to say the main substance of those Go8 meetings was the same as the main judgements of the January classified and unclassified intelligence assessments published by the CIA, FBI, DNI and NSA (intelligence community).
That January reference was the infamous 17 agencies report, from CIA (Brennan), DNI (Clapper), FBI (Comey) and NSA (Rogers), all who had confidence, according to the report, that Russia was attempting to interfere in the 2016 election.
Now, a critic might think that Brennan is informing congress on one thing, and Comey is NOT INFORMING congress on another. However, that angle is rebuked by Brennan’s own testimony that his specific intelligence product (CIA) was given to the FBI who were exclusively in charge of the “counter-intelligence investigation“.
What’s happening here is actually John Brennan throwing James Comey under the bus.
[…] Brennan gave Comey the investigative product -which had nothing to do with the Trump team- and Comey used it to carry out Obama, Hillary, and Susan Rice’s dirty work for them. Of course Brennan was in on the whole thing and is now saving his own skin by saying ” I briefed ya’ll on everything I had with regards to Russia, anything additional that arose please talk to my buddy Comey”.
Brennan is making Comey own the “Counter-Intelligence ‘Muh Russia’” claims about the Trump campaign. Brennan trying to make Comey the fall-guy for a Robert Mueller investigative outcome. Brennan knows there’s no ‘there’ there.
The entire construct of the “Russian Investigation” was the political use of a claimed investigation in order to weaken President-Elect Trump. There simply is no ‘there’ there because there’s no substantive evidence to support a “Trump Campaign Collusion Narrative”.
As such, John Brennan has realized that someone has focused attention on Comey’s admission to congress that the FBI intentionally kept congress in the dark during the construct of the counter-intel narrative. Congress was kept in the dark during this phase because the narrative can only thrive with innuendo, rumor, gossip etc. The appearance of the investigation itself was the political need; the substance was non-existent and immaterial to the creation of the narrative.
If Comey notified congress, via the Gang of Eight oversight, the counter-intel narrative would have been harder to manufacture as details would have to be consistent. That’s the benefit to keeping any oversight away while creating the politically useful narrative.
John Brennan, facing the looming certainty of the underlying Russian ‘collusion evidence’ being non-existent, is now trying to give the appearance that he briefed congress on larger Russian election interference issues. However , the trouble for Brennan is his own admission that these issues were the underlying principle for the FBI counter-intelligence investigation. Brennan specifically says he gave his intelligence product to the FBI.
Brennan is throwing Comey under the bus and attempting to create plausible deniability for his role in a constructing a political narrative; a false narrative.
WATCH THE RETREAT:
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It’s not accidental this Brennan retreat is facilitated by a member of congress John Brennan admits to briefing last year. Gang-of-Eight member, Adam Schiff.
President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump meet Pope Francis at the Vatican in Rome on the fifth day of Trump’s first foreign presidential trip; after visiting the cradles of Islam (Saudi Arabia) and Judaism (Israel).
Update: Video Added:
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Ongoing Livestream Below:
President Trump’s schedule for Wednesday, 5/24/17
All Times Local // Eastern Time
8:25 AM // 2:25 AM The president and first lady participate in an arrival ceremony at the Vatican – Vatican City
8:40 AM // 2:40 AM The president participates in an audience with His Holiness Pope Francis – Vatican City
9:05 AM // 3:05 AM The president and first lady participate in an expanded audience with His Holiness Pope Francis – Vatican City
9:25 AM // 3:25 AM The president participates in a bilateral meeting with Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin – Vatican City
10:00 AM // 4:00 AM The president and first lady tour the Sistine Chapel and St. Peters Basilica – Vatican City
11:30 AM // 5:30 AM the president participates in a bilateral meeting with President Sergio Mattarella of Italy – Quirinal Palace
12:35 AM // 6:35 AM The president participates in a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni of Italy – Villa Taverna
1:55 PM // 7:55 AM The president and first lady depart Rome, Italy en route to Brussels, Belgium – Fiumicino Leonardo da Vinci International Airport
3:55 PM // 9:55 AM The president and first lady arrive in Brussels, Belgium and participate in an airport welcome ceremony – Brussels International Airport
4:40 PM // 10:40 AM The president and first lady take an official photo with Their Majesties King Philippe and Queen Mathilde of Belgium – Royal Palace
5:15 PM // 11:15 AM The president participates in a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Charles Michel of Belgium – Royal Palace
The all out war going on in Washington is to get rid of Trump to prevent him from “draining the swamp” and to stop any tax reform or reform of the Deep State. At this point anyone can say whatever they want and the press as well as Congress will take it as absolute Truth. Trump stands no chance at this point regardless of what the truth may be. Michael Flynn served as the twenty-fifth national security advisor from January 20, 2017, to February 13, 2017. The Comey Memo was dated the day AFTER Flynn resigned, according to the New York Times.
Even if Trump did say “I hope you can let this go” after Flynn was fired because he is a decent guy is quite obstruction of justice since Flynn was removed. Prosecution is always the “discretion” of the Justice Department and not the FBI, which merely investigates. The FBI has no power to bring changes it only can make a recommendation to the Justice Department. Trump fired Flynn on the recommendation of the Justice Department, not Comey.
The reason Comey was terminated upon the recommendation of the Justice Department was because during the Clinton investigation, Comey overstepped his authority and made the decisions about Hillary that were the jurisdiction of the Justice Department. The FBI has no such authority other than to investigate.
Nevertheless, The Washington Post is pushing really hard to get Trump thrown out of office. This is their end goal. The Washington Post has once again revealed how the Deep State leaks confidential material directly to them all the time to help in this effort to overthrown Trump. They now reported:
Trump made separate appeals to the director of national intelligence, 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.
Coats and Rogers refused to comply with the requests, which they both deemed to be inappropriate, according to two current and two former officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private communications with the president.
Where the Comey memo written after Flynn is fired is not obstruction of justice to keep Flynn, these allegations can be used to impeach Trump and the question becomes how many Republicans are willing to risk a backlash from their own party supporters to protect the Deep State?
We are witnessing the break-down of government on a grand scale. This is a desperate measure to get rid of Trump to protect the privileged class in Washington politically as well as the Deep State, which is showing just how corrupt they truly are and the links with the New York Times and Washington Post. They are setting the world up for a complete collapse in any civil society. They are proving that democracy does not work and we are clearly living in an authoritarian oligarchy out to protect itself at all costs. They underestimate the seriousness of the issue and will send a shock-wave into world politics by undermining the American political system and proving that they people have no say in anything anymore.
There are those in the Fed who are desperate to find an excuse to raise interest rates. The one being bantered about is the Fed needs to raise rates to help the poor. Yes – you heard correctly. To protect the poorest Americans, the argument is that the Fed needs to raise interest rates faster according to Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City President, Esther George. She said “inflation is a tax and those least able to afford it generally suffer the most.” Her twist is focused narrowly on just rental inflation, which she said will continue to rise if the Fed doesn’t take steps to tighten monetary conditions.
The idea of inflation as a tax that hits the poor the hardest is by no means a new theory. Of course you must ignore the fact that interest the poor pay on just about everything is far higher because the Fed wanted to fight inflation back in 1980 and had to abandon the usury laws in order to raise rate to 14%. As always, they never put back whatever it is they suspect for some solution. The Fed is responsible for the poor paying interest rates at over 20% to live on credit cards.
If the Fed really cares about the poor, knock off the BS and restore the usury laws. Oops! The banks would like that now would they!
I have created this site to help people have fun in the kitchen. I write about enjoying life both in and out of my kitchen. Life is short! Make the most of it and enjoy!
This is a library of News Events not reported by the Main Stream Media documenting & connecting the dots on How the Obama Marxist Liberal agenda is destroying America
Republican candidate Greg Gianforte easily won his election bid for congress. The media are apoplectic about the brazen victory – without even considering the possibility that Gianforte is less angry with national media than the voters who elected him.
Centinel2012 