Monthly Archives: March 2019

Mar 6 2019

Border Report: Since October 260,000 Illegal Aliens Apprehended Crossing Border, 66,000 in February Alone…


Re-Posted from The Conservative Tree House on March 5, 2019 by 

~ Compare and Contrast ~

To adequately absorb the scale being outlined here: it must be remembered in July 2014 President Obama and DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson declared a “border crisis” and requested $3.7 billion in budget appropriations for a total of 60,000 illegal border crossings during the migrant travel season.  That’s 60,000 TOTAL in 2014.

According to NPR, citing current DHS Border Patrol stats, in the period of October 2018 through last week there have been more than 260,000 border apprehensions.

(Via NPR) The U.S. Border Patrol apprehended more than 66,000 migrants at the Southern border in February, the highest total for a single month in almost a decade.

The majority of those arrested were migrant families or children traveling alone or without a parent, according to figures released Tuesday by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Many of the migrants say they’re fleeing criminal gangs and poverty in Central America to seek asylum in the United States.

“This is clearly both a border security and humanitarian crisis,” said CBP Commissioner Kevin McAleenan at a press briefing.

Between October and last week, Border Patrol agents have picked up more than 260,000 people — a 90 percent jump over the same period a year ago.

“The entire system right now is at full capacity. Actually, it’s overwhelmed,” said Manuel Padilla, a veteran Border Patrol agent who’s now director of Joint Task Force-West in San Antonio, part of the Department of Homeland Security. (read more)

Again, for scale: 2019 (Trump) -vs- 2014 (Obama):

July 10th, 2014 – Facing pushback from congress as well as sticker shock at the $3.7 billion he was requesting, President Obama sends his DHS team to Capitol Hill to ramp up anxiety, and threats of consequences:

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said Thursday that as many as 90,000 unaccompanied child migrants could cross the southwest border before the end of this fiscal year in September.

That will place a huge strain on immigration agencies, which will badly need new money to get through the summer, Johnson says.

The 90,000 number — the highest yet given by the administration — is spelled out in written Senate testimony by Johnson as well as Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell, who must also deal with the border crisis.

“We are preparing for a scenario in which the number of unaccompanied children apprehended at the border could reach up to 90,000 by the end of fiscal 2014,” Johnson’s testimony reads, and he bluntly warns that without an infusion of new funds, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will run out of money in August. (read more)

Now to 2019:

[…] Between October and last week, Border Patrol agents have picked up more than 260,000 people — a 90 percent jump over the same period a year ago. (read more)

CBP

✔@CBP

February 2019 had the highest number of encounters of any February in the last 12 years with more than 76,000 total apprehensions and inadmissible arrivals. More here: https://bit.ly/2DZrwJ8 

320

365 people are talking about this
Twitter Ads info and privacy

 

Advertisements
Mar 6 2019

Justin’s Troubles: Ezra Levant and Manny Montenegrino Discuss Growing SNC-Lavalin Crisis…


Re-Posted from The Conservative Tree House on March 5, 2019 by 

Rebel Media host Ezra Levant and legal analyst Manny Montenegrino discuss the ongoing Canadian political scandal now engulfing Justin from Canada. {Background Here} and {Update Here}.  On the surface the SNC-Lavalin bribery, corruption and political obstruction case may seem small, but the ramifications are huge.

Amid growing public sentiment that Justin Trudeau did indeed use his office for corrupt purposes; and with a second well-regarded cabinet minister leaving because she cannot support the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO); it was stunning to watch Trudeau’s political appeal to the Canadian electorate for support yesterday.

Prime Minister Trudeau pleaded with his political supporters to consider “the big picture” at stake.  Trudeau argued his political value in achieving the progressive agenda was worth more than the Canadian judicial system. There’s a full blown constitutional crisis.

[Understanding the BACKSTORY Here]

 

[Second Cabinet Minister Resigns HERE]

.

A Conservative motion in the House of Commons calls on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to testify. Calgary Nose Hill MP Michelle Rempel lays out exactly what this is about and why it matters:

Advertisements
Mar 6 2019

Hillary Clinton, Michael Bloomberg and Eric Holder Announce They Will Not be Running for President in 2020…


Re-Posted from The Conservative Tree House on March 5, 2019 by 

Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were all potential presidential candidates.  However, in the last 24 hours all three have publicly stated they will NOT be running for President in 2020.  [Bloomberg here – Holder here – Clinton here]

The timing here is very interesting.   The odds on three of the top-tier politicos randomly announcing their lack of intent within 24 hours of each-other is very small.  Therefore, it would appear a decision on DNC club’s ‘Chosen One‘ has been cemented and dispatches distributed to the executive offices.

With Clinton, Bloomberg and Holder removed, the remaining potential party and donor supported candidates include: Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke, Michelle Obama, Oprah Winfrey, Stacy Abrams or some other, perhaps an outsider.  Who could it be?

Curiouser and curiouser…  Keep watching for the ‘tell’ within the roll-out.

Mar 6 2019

President Trump Signs Executive Order For A “National Roadmap to Empower Veterans and End Veteran Suicide”…


Re-Posted from The Conservative Tree House on March 5, 2019 by 

Earlier today President Trump signed an Executive Order: “President’s Roadmap to Empower Veterans and End a National Tragedy of Suicide”—the PREVENTS Initiative.

The President delivered remarks during the signing ceremony for the initiative:

.

[White House] The Executive Order establishes a task force that includes the Secretaries of Veterans Affairs, Defense, Health and Human Services, and Homeland Security. The task force will develop a comprehensive public health roadmap for helping veterans pursue an improved quality of life and ending the national tragedy of veteran suicide.

  • The roadmap will include a national research strategy for engaging with public- and-private sector stakeholders to better understand the underlying factors of suicide, and to lead to earlier identification and intervention.
  • The roadmap will also include a proposal for equipping State and local governments with the resources and tools they need to empower veteran communities and provide needed services.

* To prevent suicide, the Federal Government must work side-by-side with partners across all levels of government and with the private and non-profit sectors.

* The Administration’s roadmap will help create a national and local ecosystem that cultivates active engagement with each veteran, rather than a passive system wherein the onus for engagement is placed on veterans.

A NATIONAL TRAGEDY: Veteran suicide is a national tragedy that has taken too many of our Nation’s heroes.

* Despite significant efforts and billions of dollars invested, suicide rates among veterans rose 26 percent from 2005 to 2016.

* In 2016, the suicide rate was one and a half times greater for veterans than for non-veteran adults.

* Each day, an average of 20 service members and veterans die by suicide, nearly 70 percent of whom are not engaged with the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) for their healthcare.

* Veterans often endure traumatic experiences—either emotional or physical—which make them susceptible to mental health issues.

STRENGTHENING VETERAN SUPPORT: This Executive Order will amplify the existing efforts of the Trump Administration to improve quality of care for our veterans.

* President Trump previously signed an Executive Order directing his Administration to improve access to mental health treatment and suicide prevention resources for veterans.

* President Trump secured a record $73.1 billion in funding for the VA to provide quality medical care for our veterans.

  • This included $8.6 billion for mental health services and $206 million for suicide prevention.

* The President revolutionized the VA healthcare system by signing the VA MISSION Act.

* The President has expanded access to telehealth services to help reach more veterans, including through his “Anywhere to Anywhere” VA healthcare initiative.

[LINK]

Advertisements
Mar 6 2019

Schiff and Nadler Hiring Lawfare Members for Investigative Staff…


Re-Posted from The Conservative Tree House on March 5, 2019 by 

HPSCI Chairman Adam Schiff and Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler are hiring members of the anti-Trump “legal resistance movement”, ie Lawfare, to fill their key investigative staff roles.

Chairman Schiff announced his hiring of former SDNY U.S. Attorney Daniel Goldman today [See Here].  The associated network surrounding Goldman is filled with familiar names and ideological alignment.  The Schiff hiring of Goldman follows on the heels of Chairman Nadler hiring Obama Administration lawyer Norm Eisen and criminal defense attorney Barry Berke [See Here].

A brutally obvious aspect to this is how all of these Trump-hating characters have interests, multiple tiered conflicts, and are vested in the outcome of the congressional investigation of President Trump.  Heck, many of the players being absorbed by the congressional team staff are direct or indirect stakeholders in the investigative outcome.  Thus we see a typical Lawfare control pattern.

The appointment of Robert Mueller was primarily a shield against discovery of Obama White House, DOJ and FBI misconduct of historic proportions.  Mueller’s team was/is comprised of many active participants in the weaponization of government. The Mueller probe was/is a tool to defend themselves from exposure.

Some have speculated the Mueller probe may be winding down or coming to an end this month.  The most reasonable evidence therein seems to be the planned retirement of DAG Rod Rosenstein who would not be leaving the DOJ if his partner, Robert Mueller, was still deep into his investigative process.

However, I would caution anyone who may think a conclusion to Mueller’s probe is equivalent to the end of the investigative duty of those resistance Lawfare allies within his team.

Exactly the opposite is true.

Remember, Robert Mueller didn’t come into this process as an ‘outsider’, and Mueller didn’t select the team.  The corrupt team already inside government (FBI Counsel James Baker, DOJ Deputy Andrew Weissmann etc.) knew Mueller and they brought him in to lead the team.  Mueller didn’t select the team; the team selected their figurehead – Mueller.

The larger alliance of lawyers, insiders, and corrupt DOJ and FBI officials have metastasized tentacles that reach inside and outside of government.  In essence, Mueller’s official and unofficial crew will just move offices and become part of Adam Schiff and Jerry Nadler’s staff.

With some additions, the names and intentions stay the same for all of these characters, their location within the larger Lawfare resistance movement is all that changes.

The same career workers, officials and U.S. attorney’s who were within the corrupt Obama DOJ and FBI; some of whom exited to the private sector for a more effective resistance approach; will re-enter into the realm of House investigative staff to continue the same process under a different file name.   However, the activity is exactly the same.

Each of the corrupt metastatic worker bees shifts from weaponizing the Intelligence Community, White House, National Security Council, DOJ and FBI into weaponizing House committees.  The objectives and agenda remains the same.

In addition to the removal of U.S. President Donald Trump each of the crew also have a responsibility to cover for the higher level external stakeholders: President Obama, Susan Rice, Denis McDonough, Ash Carter, James Clapper, John Brennan, Loretta Lynch, Sally Yates, James Comey, Andrew McCabe, James Baker, Robert Mueller, Rod Rosenstein, Dana Boente and the former facilitating White House officials writ large.

New Yorker – Representative Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, has hired a veteran prosecutor with experience fighting Russian organized crime to lead his investigation of the Trump Administration.

Last month, according to a committee source, Daniel Goldman, who served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York from 2007 to 2017, joined the committee’s staff as a senior adviser and the director of investigations.

The hiring of Goldman, who will be joined by two other former federal prosecutors on Schiff’s staff, underlines Schiff’s decision to conduct an aggressive investigation of the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia during the 2016 Presidential campaign. In the rough division of labor among the various committees in the House of Representatives, Schiff’s panel is tackling the most provocative and, so far, most elusive subject related to the President: whether so-called collusion occurred between the Trump campaign and Moscow.

In public comments, Schiff has suggested that Trump’s interest as a private citizen in building a tower in Moscow led him to curry favor with Vladimir Putin, the Russian President. American intelligence agencies long ago concluded that the Russian government made significant efforts, through the hacking of e-mails and use of social media, to help elect Trump over Hillary Clinton. The question of whether the Trump campaign facilitated, assisted, or knew about these efforts has been at the heart of the investigation by the special counsel, Robert Mueller—and will also be central to Schiff’s inquiry.

Goldman seems well suited to lead this effort. As deputy chief of the organized-crime section of the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s office, Goldman supervised the prosecution of more than thirty defendants accused of racketeering, gambling, and money laundering. During his decade in the office, Goldman convicted individuals associated with Russian organized crime of securities fraud and health-care fraud, and convicted leading figures in the Genovese crime family of racketeering and murder.

One of Schiff’s previous committee hires drew a critical comment from the President. Last month, Schiff hired Abigail C. Grace, who served as an Asia-policy staffer on the National Security Council during the early part of the Trump Administration. In response, President Trump tweeted that the Democrats were going “nuts” and that Schiff was “stealing people who work at the White House.” In response, Schiff pointed out that congressional committees often employ individuals with experience in the executive branch. (read more)

Notice how the rats abandon their corrupt DOJ ship with Captain AG William Barr at the helm; and now jump into the corrupt House Committee ship for safe passage.

In actuality the corrupt usurpers were running amok inside the Executive Branch for over two years; now they transfer to the Legislative Branch to continue.  Setting the stage for a siege of the Executive.

All of this made possible by….

Wait for it…..

Yup, primarily DAG Rod Rosenstei

Mar 6 2019

Government Ordering Agriculture Be Removed From Commodity Indexes


Armstrong Economics Blog/Agriculture

Re-Posted Mar 6, 2019 by Martin Armstrong

I am in Europe ahead of the May elections as the crisis begins to build. It appears that the powers that be may be talking about Global Warming to justify more taxes, but behind the curtain, these freezing winters are having their impact. The potato crop in Germany has hit a historic low due to the severe summer drought. The yield is down 25-30% and it may be worse after processing. As a result, seed potatoes are not sufficiently available and it is now expected that this will reduce the 2020 crop as well.

The indexes put out by the banks on commodities were told to remove agricultural products from their indexes. The belief is if we do not pay attention, then nobody will notice the rise in prices. There are clearly concerns that food prices are going to rise.

Categories: Agriculture, Corruption
Mar 6 2019

World Economy – Which End is Up?


Armstrong Economics Blog/Central Banks

Re-Posted Mar 6, 2019 by Martin Armstrong

QUESTION: Hey Martin
First of all, great work with the new Socrates. Thank you very much for getting it to us.

You have said that rates are exploding with fed raising rates for the pension funds and because of the lost confidence in government, at least here in Europe.
Am I correct when I take what you have said, as European, to invest in short term US government paper, short term US corporate paper?
That way I won’t get much yield but I get to benefit from the currency also?
Isn’t floating rate paper also good in times like this?

I also get that there is no other place, so the Dow will go up so I want some exposure to that also?
The commodities are bottoming in 2020 so I want to get some exposure to them also?
But how about real estate?

We as small investors don’t have any other choice but REITs, especially apartment REITs and you have talked against them, saying that they are volatile. So is it best to AVOID REITs and that way real estate all together?
Even if it is a hard asset and a inflation hedge? Also as a European it would not hurt to have some USD income?

With the taxes going up and socialists getting in to power all over I guess it is better to invest in accumulating funds instead of distributing ones?
If you could please find the time to comment on this. I know that there are lots of people asking the same questions as I am.

JP

ANSWER: We are all connected. There is no possible way for any country to move counter-trend to the whole. The European Central Bank and the Bank of Japan have destroyed their bond markets. Their stupid idea of Quantitative Easing and lowering rates to zero and negative was under their theory that people would borrow if it was cheap enough. Over the years, I have received calls from banks asking me if I wanted to borrow money. They call because we run high cash balances and have no debt. They always want to lend money to people who do not need it, but that then begs the question, what would I do with it anyway? If you have nothing in mind you want to buy then you are not interested in borrowing. Yes, there are margin loans for investors in shares. But I am talking about borrowing to expand or buy some business. That is what the Central Banks failed to grasp. If there is no CONFIDENCE in the future, you will not borrow at any rate.

The Bank of Japan could simply agree to tear up its federal bonds. That would impact its balance sheet whereas Japanese bonds are not really held outside the country. The ECB, on the other hand, has no such option for the debt it holds is of individual member states since there was never any consolidation of the debt federally. As far as the US Federal Reserve, its holding of federal debt is under 20% of the $22 trillion and 30% of the debt is held by foreign governments with 28% held by interagency. The US could not be saved if the Fed tore up its bonds. It is not enough.

The pension funds are also linked to government debt. Defaulting on government debt would wipe out all pension funds. The interconnectivity is not considered by so many who summarily assume we can just tear it all up.

Rates will rise to start 2020/2021 as the general public begins to see there is trouble in the wind. The Bank of Japan and the ECB have already destroyed their bond markets and there will be no going back. There will be no buyers when they need them. This is why you need to stay short-term as a buyer of debt and if you are a borrower, then lock it in for as long as you can at a fixed rate.

This is a cycle where governments are collapsing. Clearly, stay in the private sector.  Blue-Chip corporate debt SHORT-TERM is better than a government. Even during the Great Depression, AAA corporate debt appreciated. The spread above US Treasury dropped from about 1.3% to 0.5% and the US was the safe haven back then as well. It was Europe which defaulted along with South America and Asia.

Real Estate is not a movable asset so it can be taxed and you cannot leave. They will raise taxes dramatically trying to survive. But governments cannot avoid their collapse for nobody is willing to step up and take decisions for the long-term.

Equities are liquid. This is going to be a game between value and liquidity. Remember! The City of Detroit suspended all debt in 1937. They resumed and paid it off with cheaper dollars in 1963. So they claim they never defaulted. Liquidity is also a top priorit

Mar 6 2019

AOC’s Support May Be More Vulnerable Than Anyone Wants to Talk About


Armstrong Economics Blog/Politics

Re-Posted Mar 6, 2019 by Martin Armstrong

QUESTION: Mr. Armstrong, you said that that AOC won for the same reason that Trump won, just vote against the incumbent. Do you see her being elected again in 2020?

PL

ANSWER: If you look at the numbers of the 14th district there in New York, you can see what I have been talking about. Joe Crowley won 147,587 votes in 2016, which was 74.80% of the total votes. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez won only 100,044 votes, which was 78% of the total vote, while Crowley won only 8,505 votes. This is why she was called the lion slayer. It reflected that people are fed up with incumbents.

Nonetheless, she was elected with almost 33% fewer votes than Crowley in 2016. That reflects the difference between a presidential year election and a midterm. The highest voter turnout was the 2004 United States presidential election which was Bush v Kerry. The lowest (186,688) turnout was the midterm election in the middle of Democratic President Barack Obama’s second term (50,352). Clearly, her election was a bounce and not a breakout toward a new trend.

It appears that the Democratic vote in the stronghold is declining sharply. That does not mean the Republicans will become the victor. It appears that the Democratic number of votes will make a new low for the 2024 election and this is more likely than not pointing to an independent.

 

Mar 5 2019

The Solution


COMMENT: If every 16-year-old school student had to write a thousand-word essay on this presentation the world as we know it would change miraculously within a generation.

JM

REPLY: Thank you. I agree. If we stopped and looked at the facts, putting politics aside, we would see that we deserve what we get if we do not act.