President Trump Delivers Remarks on U.S. Energy and Manufacturing Revival – 2:10pm EST Livestream…


President Trump travels to Pittsburgh, PA, today to tour the Shell cracker plant and deliver remarks on “America’s Energy Dominance and Manufacturing Revival.” The anticipated start time is 2:10pm EST. [Update – Video Added]

The GST Livestream is active now – all others will activate closer to speech time.

White House Livestream – Fox News Link – RSBN Link – GST Link (active now)

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The Legacy of Tiananmen Square at 30


Published on Jun 10, 2019

The Tiananmen Square democracy protests in 1989, and the subsequent brutal crushing of the movement by the Chinese government on June 4, remain one of the key moments in China’s modern history. On the 30th anniversary of the protests and the crackdown, what is the legacy of Tiananmen Square, and how has it shaped modern China? How did the Communist Party maintain its grip on power, even while losing legitimacy in the eyes of many at home and abroad? Why has there been no follow-on democracy movement in China over the succeeding third of a century? In an era of populism and nationalism around the world, are there any prospects for a Chinese pluralism that embraces democracy? Hoover Institution Research Fellow Michael Auslin, famed Chinese democracy activist and former political prisoner Wei Jingsheng, student leader of the 1989 Tiananmen Square Democracy Movement Wang Dan, Claremont McKenna College Professor Minxin Pei, and Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation Executive Director Marion Smith discuss the legacy of Tiananmen Square.

 

“The Evil that Men Do”


Founder and CEO Mr. Trogdon,

Your Publisher’s Notebook, “The Evil that Men Do” is a lazy attempt to encourage feel-good legislation that won’t move the needle on mass shootings. You question the “wisdom of letting just about anybody owning an assault weapon.” You go on to say you never felt the need to use a “machine gun.” Is this your definition of an assault weapon because if it is you should sleep well knowing that machine guns were banned in 1934. Or did you mean to say semi-automatic weapons? You fail to articulate what exactly your definition of an assault weapon is. Those on the left do the same thing, by design.

Did you know there have been many more mass shooters, (killed four or more,) who have used semi-automatic hand guns than semi-automatic rifles? If the left is successful at banning the long guns how long will it be before they come after the hand guns. I’ll tell you: immediately after the next mass shooting occurs.

And how about the proposed “red flag” laws? Who exactly determines who’s not fit to own a fire arm? Will due process be adhered to? We’ve seen the left try and push their way around due process during the Kavanaugh hearings. If the left had their way anyone attending a Trump rally or wearing a MAGA hat would be banned from owning a gun. I question Congress’ ability to craft legislation that will prevent mass shooting while maintaining the rights of freedom loving Americans.  There are too many dishonest brokers in Congress. Give them an inch and they’ll be back for a mile.

In my opinion, you left out two options on your reader poll, “what should be done to prevent mass shootings?”

  1. Eliminate gun free zones. These are areas that these sick animals know they can go where there will be the least resistance. They’re free to kill until law enforcement arrives.
  2. Craft policies that will help rebuild the family unit. This would also start the healing of a very divided nation.

The left will never be satisfied until there is a government confiscation of all guns. Any legislation has to be tight enough to ensure the rights of law-abiding gun owners. Anything less should be seen as unacceptable.

Jeff Longo
North Royalton

 

Thomas Sowell on the Origins of Economic Disparities


Published on May 17, 2019

Recorded on April 1, 2019 Is discrimination the reason behind economic inequality in the United States? Thomas Sowell dismisses that question with a newly revised edition of his book Discrimination and Disparities. He sits down with Peter Robinson to discuss the long history of disparities among humans around the world and throughout time. He argues that discrimination has significantly less of a role to play in inequality than contemporary politicians give it credit for, and that something as incontrovertible as birth order of children has a more significant and statistically higher impact on success than discrimination. He discusses why parental attention is the most important aspect of a child’s intellectual development. Sowell goes on to break down different minority groups around the world who went on to have more economic and political success than their majority counterparts, such as the Indians in East Africa, Jewish people in Eastern Europe, Cubans in the United States, and the Chinese in Malaysia. He argues that there is an underlying assumption that if discrimination was absent equality would prevail, which historically has been proven wrong. Sowell goes on to discuss changes in crime rates and poverty since the expansion of US welfare programs in the 1960s and how this has had a huge impact on the success of African Americans. He talks about his own experience growing up in New York, how housing projects used to be considered a positive place to live, and his experience as the first member of his family to enter the seventh grade. Robinson asks Sowell his thoughts on the case for reparations currently being made in Congress, and Sowell presents an argument about why a plan for reparations is not only illogical but also impossible to implement, with so many US citizens’ ancestors arriving long after the Civil War. He also explains that slavery was common throughout the known world for thousands of years and that abolition movements didn’t begin anywhere in the world until the late 18th century. He reminds us that the United States was not the only country guilty of participating in slavery and yet is the only country debating reparations.

Thomas Sowell discusses his newest book, Intellectuals and Race


Published on May 16, 2013

This week on Uncommon Knowledge, Hoover fellow and author Thomas Sowell discusses his newest book, Intellectuals and Race, which argues that the impact of intellectuals’ ideas and crusades on the larger society, both past and present, is the ultimate concern.

 

Epstein His Connection to “The Club” of Manipulators


Ghislaine Maxwell was more than the alleged protector and procurer of young girls for Jeffrey Epstein as well as his girlfriend based upon allegations. However, she is also the daughter of Robert Maxwell who I believe was a member of “The Club.” Interestingly, Maxwell’s protege was also William Browder who loves to run around claiming he is the number one enemy of Putin. While the prosecutor wants to charge Ghislaine with conspiracy, nobody knows where she is. That alone in today’s world seems unbelievable. Use a credit card or turn on your phone and they have you. You need cash and a burner phone just to start. Then you need fake passports for you to book a ticket in your name and they will be there when you land waiting with open arms.

Epstein grew up in Brooklyn with no money to speak of and never finished college. She is Paris-born, Oxford-educated, a jet-setter who partied with princes and billionaires. They are reporting that Jeffrey Epstine hung himself with his bedsheet in isolation when guards were supposed to check on him every 30 minutes. The Los Angeles Times attributed any doubt to just conspiracy theories. But nobody asks the question: Why was Epstein in the hole?

You are thrown in that dungeon supposedly for disciplinary reasons. Epstein at best should have been there for a few days assuming there was no bed space in population. To be in isolation is rare since they need every bed in MCC and they will often send people to Brooklyn’s MCC when they need more space. Epstein had been in prison before so it would be no dramatic shock. To be thrown in the hole from day-one is typically on the phone call from the prosecutor. The MCC is controlled by the prosecutors when that is supposed to be illegal. But nobody will ever investigate that one. Having him in isolation without another cellmate allows for anything to happen without a witness. Who ordered to put Epstein in solitary confinement?

The fascinating connection her is Ghislaine Maxwell is the daughter of Robert Maxwell who I believe was a member of “The Club” deeply involved with Salomon Brothers and had dealings also with Goldman Sachs. You got it. The official report issued by Britain’s Department of Trade and Industrysaid investment bank Goldman Sachs Group, Inc had “substantial responsibility” for allowing Mr. Maxwell to manipulate the stock market prior to the collapse of his businesses reported the Wall Street Journal back in April 2001.

JPMorgan Chase and Deutsche Bank, which did business with Mr. Epstein, are scouring their books for clues. There also runs a conspiracy theory numbering the deaths of people associated with JPMorgan Chase, not just the Clintons. Questions still surround billionaire Les Wexner, the financier’s most prominent client prior to his first incarceration. Exactly how Mr. Epstein used Mr. Wexner’s wealth to finance his own fortune is not clear. In August 2019, following Epstein’s second incarceration, Wexner addressed the Wexner Foundation by letter, delivering a detailed account of his dealings with Epstein, stating that the former financial advisor had “misappropriated vast sums of money” from Wexner and from his family. Wexner retained services of criminal defense attorney Mary Jo White of Debevoise & Plimpton, who used to be the head prosecutor in Southern District of New York. Why does he need a criminal lawyer who was the head of the New York prosecutors?

Then there is the infamous Epstein’s so-called “little black book,” of 92 pages with names, emails, and phone numbers of people Epstein knew or wanted to know, but in any event, had detailed information about.  The list goes on and on includes top people from the entire financial spectrum down the food chain from Goldman Sachs to just low-level billionaires (under $2 bil).

Aside from the fact that they could NEVER allow Epstine to be put on trial with all the connections he had, there is something else beyond the sex scandal. I have explained that there is what I have called “The Club” where a number of players ban together informally to manipulate a particular market. One member will typically take the lead and take the publicity if need be. There were some hedge fund players but mostly bankers and a few big punters.

I also believe one of those in “The Club” was Robert Maxwell (1923-1991), the flamboyant billionaire British publisher, who allegedly drowned after falling off his yacht in the Canary Islands near the northwest coast of Africa. Maxwell’s last words in communication were on November 5, 1991.

Robert Maxwell is Ghislaine Maxwell’s father. The scandal unfolding was the manipulation of the US Treasury auctions back then. Note the date for the Salomon Brothers scandal manipulating the U.S. Treasury Auctions broke August 18, 1991. It was this event that I believe changed the direction of Goldman Sachs. After that scandal where the government was going to shut down Salomon Brothers who was the biggest bond dealer in the USA for manipulating markets, all of a sudden, people from Goldman Sachs started taking posts in government.

Robert Rubin began his career as an attorney at the firm of Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton in New York City which represents many banks in NYC. He joined Goldman Sachs in 1966 as an associate in the risk arbitrage department and became a general partner in 1971. Rubin then joined the management committee in 1980 along with Jon Corzine of MF Global fame. Robert Rubin then became Vice Chairman and Co-Chief Operating Officer from 1987 to 1990. Rubin then served as Co-Chairman and Co-Senior Partner along with Stephen Friedman from 1990 to 1992.

Meriwether-Mozer

This trading atmosphere of “big swinging dicks” had not learned its lesson from the 1987 Crash. This was the culture instilled by PhiBro from the commodity side of the world. Trader Paul Mozer, who had a 12-year career at the firm coming from Morgan Stanley, allegedly submitted illegal bids for U.S. treasury securities in August of 1990, attempting to corner the market by purchasing more than the 35% share allowed per individual transaction. Yet, what he eventually plead guilty to was based on only two transactions in the five-year notes on February 21, 1991 for $6 billion, which was $2 billion more than the bank was allowed to buy. The plea did not match the events.

Other Salomon employees would later tell the NY Times they were shocked: 

“This was not driven by personal gain, if this is true. There’s a game here. And it was a desire to win the game.”

Long-Term Capital ManagmentMozer’s supervisor, John Meriwether who later became a founder and a consultant for Long-Term Capital Management, a hedge fund which collapsed in 1998 forcing the Federal reserve to then bail out a hedge fund. Fed bailout of his hedge fund which had a position of nearly $100 billion. Meriwether, at the time in Salomon, claimed to have chastised Mozer for the manipulation when it came to his attention, but he did not fire Mozer raising serious questions about the trading culture overall inside Salomon Brothers.

Shortly before the Salomon Brothers scandal erupted, Paul W. Mozer must have been aware that the Treasury knew about the trade and there would be ramifications. Before the announcement by Salomon Brothers on August 9th, 1991, Mozer then sold about $1.7 million worth of Salomon stock, which was about 46,000 shares, confirmed by the firm. The government froze the funds for it smelled like insider trading in the real sense.

Within less than two years from the Salomon Brothers manipulation, Robert Rubin took a position in the Clinton Administration. I believe following the Salomon Brothers scandal, Goldman Sachs began to make large political donations. From January 25, 1993, to January 10, 1995, Rubin served in the White House as Assistant to the President for Economic Policy. In that capacity, he directed the National Economic Council, which Bill Clinton created after winning the presidency. Robert Rubinthen became the 70th United States Secretary of the Treasury on January 11, 1995, until he managed to get Glass Stegall repealed. He left the Treasury on July 2, 1999. He was of course followed by Hank Paulson from Goldman Sachs taking the post also of Secretary of the Treasury.

There was the  Robert Maxwell (1923–1991) scandal that he had stolen hundreds of millions of pounds from his own companies’ pension funds to save the companies from bankruptcy. However, behind the scenes, there may have been trading losses with “The Club” and again if there had been a trial concerning the missing $700 million+, then all other parties are exposed. A swim in the Atlantic would certainly prevent that from happening.

Maxwell’s investment bankers included Salomon Brothers, confirmed by the NY Times. Eventually, the pension funds were replenished with monies from investment banks Shearson Lehman andGoldman Sachs, as well as the British government. There were complaints before Maxwell died about dealings between his other public company, Maxwell Communications Corp, and Wall Street bankers Goldman Sachs according to The Guardian.

It was 1991 when William Browder went to work for British billionaire Robert Maxwell as his “investment manager”. The BBC called Maxwell “the biggest fraud in British history”. Just how deep into the investment decisions of Maxwell did Browder participate as an investment manager. Interestingly, after Maxwell died, Bill Browder went to work for the notorious Salomon Brothers. Browder was put in charge of the Russian proprietary investments desk at Salomon Brothers.

Salomon Brothers’ historical dependence on proprietary trading and the type of atmosphere of “big swinging dicks” had on bond arbitrage which almost destroyed the firm, thanks to Warren Buffettwho stepped in to run the firm and himself getting involved in the silver manipulation (see Bonfire of the Vanities movie). If Salomon had not been sold in 1997 with the merger of Travelers Group(which owned retail brokerage, Smith Barney), no doubt Salomon Brothers would have collapsed in the 1998 Long-Term Capital Management debacle created by one of their own – John Meriwether.

William Browder left Salomon Brothers and joined with Edmond Safra (1932–1999) founding Hermitage Capital Management in 1996 for the purpose of investing initial seed capital of $25 million in Russia during the period of the mass privatization after the fall of the Soviet Union. Beny Steinmetz, who is an Israeli businessman, with investments in diamond and precious metals mining among other things, was allegedly another of the original investors in Hermitage Capital Management. This was the firm Safra through Dov Schlein solicited me to invest $10 billion.

I believe Safra lost $1 billion in Russia during the 1998 Long-Term Capital Management crisis over Russian bonds and investments which was why he put his bank, Republic National Bank, up for sale to HSBC in 1999. Following the Russian financial crisis of 1998, Browder remained committed to Hermitage’s original mission of investing in Russia, despite significant outflows from the fund. Hermitage became a prominent shareholder in the Russian oil and gas. It was in 1999 when VSMPO-AVISMA Corporation (Russian: ВСМПО-АВИСМА) is the world’s largest titanium producer, filed a RICO lawsuit against Browder and other Avisma investors including Kenneth Dart, alleging they illegally siphoned company assets into offshore accounts and then transferred the funds to U.S. accounts at Barclays. Browder and his co-defendants settled with Avisma in 2000; they sold their Avisma shares as part of the confidential settlement agreement. VSMPO-AVISMA also operated facilities in Ukraine, England, Switzerland, Germany, and the United States. The company produced titanium, aluminum, magnesium and steel alloys and it does a great deal of business with aerospace companies around the world, such as Boeing and Airbus.

In March 2013, HSBC, a bank that serves as the trustee and manager of Hermitage Capital Management, announced that it would end the fund’s operations in Russia. The decision was taken amid two legal cases against Browder: a libel court case in London and a trial in absentia for tax evasion in Moscow. In June 2018, HSBC reached a settlement with the Russian government to pay a £17 million fine to Russian authorities for its part in alleged tax avoidance.

When I met Edmund Safra in Washington, DC at an IMF dinner he put on, he asked me why I was always fighting the trend. I commented that it was a dangerous club to join. I said I do know how to swim, obviously referring to Maxwell. Safra just smiled. Maxwell was presumed to have fallen overboard from his luxury yacht off the Canary Islands, and his body was subsequently found floating in the Atlantic Ocean. He was identified only by his family. The Spanish declined to take a dental impression and his fingerprints on file in London were too old. This prompted speculation that he was still alive, but that did not seem plausible. Maxwell was buried on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem with great official participation. His cause of death was declared to be an accidental drowning.

Maxwell’s death triggered the collapse of his publishing empire as banks called in loans. Why would they call in loans on a major company unless they knew something was not right? Maxwell’s sons briefly struggled to keep the business together but failed as news emerged that Maxwell had stolen hundreds of millions of pounds from his own companies’ pension funds. That was not to support a lifestyle, that was punting money. The Maxwell companies applied for bankruptcy protection in 1992 with debts of £400 million – $717 million in U.K.-based company pension fund assets are missing from his empire. The DOL joins the probe to see that U.S. affiliates’ $300 million in pension assets are safe. Those funds, I believe, were used as part of the “club” and were lost. Had Maxwell survived and been charged, he may have given up everyone else in the “club” which would never be allowed. In 1995, his two sons,Kevin and Ian, along with two other former directors, went on trial for conspiracy to defraud but were unanimously acquitted by a twelve-man jury in 1996.

Eventually, the pension funds were replenished with money from investment banks Shearson Lehman and Goldman Sachs, as well as the British government. This replenishment was limited and also supported by a surplus in the printers’ fund, which was taken by the government in part payment of £100 million required to support the workers’ state pensions. The rest of the £100 million was waived. Maxwell’s theft of pension funds was therefore partly repaid from public funds. The result was that in general pensioners received about 50% of their company pension entitlement.

 

Former AAG Matt Whitaker – Epstein’s Custodial Suicide is “Fishy”…


Former Acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker appears on Fox News with Lou Dobbs to discuss immigration judges and a unionization ruling.  However, when the discussion turned to Jeffrey Epstein, even AAG Whitaker said common sense tells us something about this is “fishy”.

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Apparently the Bureau of prisons moved Epstein from suicide watch to a room with bunk beds and sheets. Then his cellmate was removed. Then the guards stopped watching him. Then he hung himself with the bed sheets… Alone in the room with the bunk beds… when no-one was watching, and no-one noticed.

Oh yeah, and the FBI went to search his rapey island today.  35 days AFTER he was arrested. Three days AFTER the sealed records of his activity was unsealed; and two days AFTER his suicide.  What were they waiting for?…

Yeah.  “Fishy”!

Federal Judge Completely Rejects DOJ Argument – Orders ‘Archey Declarations’ (Descriptions of Comey Memos) Released…


A U.S. District Judge has rejected the DOJ and FBI motion to block the release of the Archey Declarations (descriptions of Comey memos). [Background Here]

In a strongly worded ruling (full pdf below) released moments ago, Federal Judge James Boasberg blasted the DOJ and FBI for attempting to change their filings, claim national security “sources and methods”, and block his prior court ruling – which instructed the DOJ to release the “Archey Declarations”.  The judge is obviously angry:

It must strike readers as erroneous “with the force of a five-week-old, unrefrigerated dead fish.”…

[Backstory for those unfamilar] In the background of what was The Mueller Investigation, there was a FOIA case where the FBI was fighting to stop the release of the Comey memos.  Within that courtroom fight Mueller’s lead FBI agent David Archey wrote a series of declarations to the court describing the content of the memos and arguing why they should be kept classified.

The FOIA fight shifted; and the plaintiff, CNN, argued for public release of the content of the FBI agent’s descriptions, now known as the “Archey Declarations”.

After a lengthy back-and-forth legal contest, on June 7th Judge James E Boasberg agreed to allow the FBI to keep the Comey memo content hidden, but instructed the DOJ/FBI to release the content of the Archey Declarations.  On August 2nd the DOJ/FBI changed their position and claimed national security, “sources and methods” would be compromised by the release of the Archey Declarations.

Today Judge Boasberg completely rejected their argument:

Here’s the ruling: 

Must read, it’s a thing of beauty.

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OK, so what does this mean?  Well, assuming the DOJ and FBI don’t try to appeal to a higher court…. it means we will get to see the Archey Declarations unredacted.  It also means pressure on the inspector general to release the IG report on James Comey.

The issue at hand is tangentially related to the current Inspector General carve-out report, through the aspect of the Comey Memos.  We are currently anticipating a report from the OIG related to former FBI Director James Comey, his writing of the memos, and the leaking of some of those memos to the media via his friend Daniel Richman.  {LINK}

No-one knows the number of memos that James Comey has written.  [We may get that answer in the IG report.]  There are nine memos written by James Comey surrounding contact and conversations with President-elect and then President Trump (2016/2017).

However, based on the court declarations by Mueller’s former lead FBI investigator David Archey, it sounds like there are many more memos than anyone currently understands; including memos about the investigation of candidate Trump, that were written during the “Crossfire Hurricane” investigation 2016 and 2017, that describe investigative details, sources, operations and code-names of intelligence assets used in the investigation.

The Comey memos are not just about his contact with Donald Trump as a candidate, president-elect or president.   The media keeps downplaying the memos as a few notes taken by the former FBI director, but all of the background information suggest assembled writing is something more akin to a personal diary.

My strongly researched suspicion is that James Comey kept detailed private notes of what was happening during the operation(s) against Donald Trump and his campaign team, both during the campaign and after the election when President Trump took office.  Just take a look at how David Archey described the content and you can see those notes, now called memos, were in addition to FD 302 reports being filed by FBI officials.

Why James Comey would keep detailed notes beyond what was being officially recorded in the FBI 302 reports is likely a question to be answered within the pending inspector general report.   There’s a lot of sketchy non-transparent stuff going on amid all of this….

This is an example of redacted information in the Archey Declarations that Judge Boasberg had ruled must be released with the redactions removed.  This what the DOJ and FBI are working to stop from being released to the public:

(Source Link)

You can read the Archey Declarations, as they are included as exhibits in prior rulings, below:

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The United States Department of Justice Civil Division, Federal Programs Branch, is fighting this court ordered release.  The DOJ Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division is Jody Hunt. That name might be familiar to you because Jody Hunt was Jeff Sessions former chief-of-staff.

We previously anticipated Jody Hunt being involved with this current case; the DOJ and FBI attempt to block release of the memos and declarations.   However, we have recently been informed that Jody Hunt was recused from the case by DOJ lawyers during the time when the Mueller investigation was ongoing.

According to the latest information we can gather, DOJ Asst. Attorney James Burnham  replaced Jody Hunt for all oversight issues in this court battle.