Monthly Archives: August 2019

Aug 29 2019

MSNBC Lawrence O’Donnell Peddles Fake Russia Conspiracy News – Trump Lawyers Respond – O’Donnell Retracts…


Re-Posted from The Conservative Tree House on August 28, 2019 by 

Just another day in the mainstream media….

MSNBC propagandist Lawrence O’Donnell appeared on television last night to push a conspiracy theory about President Trump’s companies being funded by Russian oligarchs.

WATCH:

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Then This Happens:

Demand Letter – Source Link

Then, about two hours later:

Twitter Retraction Link

Rosie memos@almostjingo

“I should not have said it on air or posted to twitter” (tweet is still up) @MSNBC @Lawrence retract BUT in typical fake news style they leave it with ambiguity… “we don’t know if it was inaccurate” @TheLastWord

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President Trump was correct in 2017 when he said:

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Aug 29 2019

Then There Were Twenty – Senator Gillibrand Drops Out…


Re-Posted from The Conservative Tree house on August 28, 2019 by 

Less than four hours after asking for donations to reach the debate stage threshold, democrat presidential candidate, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, quit the race:

Today, I am ending my campaign for president. I am so proud of this team and all we’ve accomplished. But I think it’s important to know how you can best serve. 

~Senator Kirsten Gillibrand

Before lunch:

Kirsten Gillibrand

Give now to Kirsten Gillibrand for President!

Chip in to help us get to the 130,000 donors we need to keep Kirsten in the debates.

secure.actblue.com

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After Lunch:

Kirsten Gillibrand

✔@SenGillibrand

Today, I am ending my campaign for president.

I am so proud of this team and all we’ve accomplished. But I think it’s important to know how you can best serve.

To our supporters: Thank you, from the bottom of my heart. Now, let’s go beat Donald Trump and win back the Senate.

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Aug 29 2019

Byron York: IG Report on James Comey Conduct Anticipated Soon…


Re-Posted from The Conservative Tree House on August 28, 2019 by 

Byron York has reported something several people noted several weeks ago; the Office of Inspector General for the DOJ, Michael Horowitz, has completed a separate carve-out investigation of former FBI Director James Comey and will soon publish a final report.

Via Washington Examiner – The Comey report is separate from a larger inspector general report on the DOJ’s handling of the Trump-Russia probe. That report, sometimes referred to by Republicans as an investigation into “FISA abuse,” is expected to be released later.

It is not clear why the inspector general, Michael Horowitz, chose to write a separate report on Comey.

Among other things, Comey has been under investigation for his handling of several memos he wrote memorializing conversations with President Trump. The memos began in January 2017, when Trump was still president-elect, and continued until April 2017, the month before Trump summarily fired the FBI director. (read more)

Byron York is habitually late to stories in/around Spygate; however, his current reporting dove-tails with the earlier reporting by John Solomon.

Taken together, and overlaying the formal process for final IG report publication, it would appear Comey’s legal team have responded to the final report (principal notification), and the IG has finished reconciling their replies with responses from his own investigation.

This process would conclude the final report assembly, immediately prior to public release.

NOTE: This is NOT the IG report on DOJ and FBI conduct about IG FISA abuses. This is a carve-out report, specific to James Comey and his leaked memos.

As part of the process, the inspector general report is previewed to James Comey in advance.  According to John Solomon’s earlier reporting, Comey lawyers Patrick Fitzgerald and Daniel Richman, along with spokesperson Keith Urbahn all participated in his review of the report content.  This is called the “Principal Review Phase”.

If the IG sticks to the same general timeline as the 2018 McCabe report, we could see a final IG report very soon; which could line-up with the DOJ delays in the Comey Memo/Archey Declaration FOIA case in the DC Circuit (Judge James Boasberg).

Possibly those delays were/are due to the background of the Comey IG report being released.  That’s the optimistic view for the DOJ delays.

Regardless of connection to the FOIA case, the IG report on James Comey is going to become public very soon.

The inspector general along with the OIG referencer, may (not required) include the responses from Comey’s team as part of their final report.  If Horowitz does include Comey’s responses, likely responses from Comey’s legal team, Horowitz will almost certainly include rebuttals to those responses in his final report.

The report itself is likely quite damning as pre-release reporting by John Solomon outlines the IG sent criminal referrals to the DOJ (John Huber) as part of the overall review.

The DOJ has reportedly declined prosecution on the referral; however, there may be extrajudicial reasons why that declination has taken place. [ex. if the DOJ wants to declassify and release the memos, as part of a larger investigative release.]

Now, it’s important to remember…. 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.

It is also worth remembering that James Comey leaked his memos to Daniel Richmanso that Richman could act as a go-between to pass the information along to the New York Times.  Richman was not only Comey’s friend, it was later discovered that Richman was an unpaid FBI employee given special access by James Comey.

Fox News Catherine Herridge detailed how Daniel Richman held special access privileges to the FBI, as an outcome of former FBI Director James Comey authorizing his friend as a “Special Government Employee” or SGE.

(VIA FOX) […] The professor, Daniel Richman, confirmed the special status in response to an inquiry from Fox News, while referring other questions, including on the scope of his work, to the FBI.

“I did indeed have SGE status with the Bureau (for no pay),” Richman wrote in an email.

Richman emerged last year as the former FBI director’s contact for leaking memos documenting his private discussions with President Trump – memos that are now the subject of an inspector general review over the presence of classified material.

Sources familiar with Richman’s status at the FBI told Fox News that he was assigned to “special projects” by Comey, and had a security clearance as well as badge access to the building. Richman’s status was the subject of a Memorandum of Understanding.  (read more)

A few paragraphs later in the article about Richman you might pay particular attention to this: “Richman’s portfolio included the use of encrypted communications by terror suspects.”

How did Daniel Richman review “encrypted communication”?  Well, likely through access to the FBI/NSA database.  The same database outlined by FISA Judge Rosemary Collyer:

It seems too coincidental to be disconnected. [Backstory]

When considering who were the FBI contractors, with special program access to the NSA database, conducting unauthorized searches and extracting results… there’s a specific type of contractor described by FISA Judge Rosemary Collyer.  One who was able to work around the security protocols: [Page 21] “systems …. that do not interface with NSA’s query audit system“.

I have my suspicions, [backstory] but we would need to see the fully unredacted Collyer FISA report to get the answers.

I digress.

After it was revealed that Richman was an exclusive special government employee of FBI Director Comey; and after it was revealed that Richman was the go-between for the leaked memo distribution; James Comey said Daniel Richman was also his lawyer.

Calling Richman his personal lawyer, conveniently has the benefit of taking Richman away from the reach of the current DOJ investigators via attorney/client privilege.

So we await the IG report on James Comey which could come at any time; and I suspect there will be some good information included within it for those who do research.  The primary question I have is whether the declination to prosecute now means the report will contain the actual memos.

Additionally, knowing this report is soon to be released it will be interesting to see how the DOJ responds to Judge Boasberg’s deadline in the FOIA case that involves the Comey memos.

Stay tuned…

 

Aug 29 2019

FBI and IRS Raid Home of UAW President Gary Jones – Find “Bundles of Cash” – Nationwide Union Corruption Sweep…


Re-Posted from The Conservative Tree house on August 28, 2019 by 

Reports today about FBI raids on the homes of United Auto Workers (UAW) President Gary Jones who is under investigation in a nationwide corruption sweep.

MICHIGAN – FBI and IRS agents raided the home of UAW President Gary Jones in metro Detroit early Wednesday as part of a nationwide sweep of sites tied to the autoworker union.

Agents also raided the California home of Dennis Williams, who preceded Jones as UAW chief; the union’s northern Michigan conference center; and additional UAW locations in Wisconsin and Missouri.

The raids were a major step as federal officials ramped up their corruption investigation of the autoworkers union — which is in the midst of contract negotiations with Detroit automakers.

As many as a dozen agents collected evidence from Jones’ home on Wildrose Drive in Canton, and would remain there “as long as it takes,” Special Agent Mara Schneider said from the site late in the morning. The search lasted six hours. (read more)

 

Aug 29 2019

Brexit Maneuvering – Boris Johnson Requests Queen Suspend Parliament, Queen Elizabeth Agrees – Brexit Opposition Plan Thwarted, For Now…


Re-Posted from The Conservative tree house on August 28, 2019 by 

Internal British opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn was developing a plan to stop the U.K from leaving the European Union through legislation aimed at blocking any Brexit without a pre-existing deal.  Additionally, Corbyn was proposing calling a vote of ‘no confidence’ in a scheme aimed at weakening Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s no-deal brexit.

To thwart that opposition plan, PM Boris Johnson asked Queen Elizabeth to suspend Parliament, thereby cancelling the legislative time Corbyn would have to form his anti-Brexit law and scheme. Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II agreed to suspend Parliament.

In addition, Prime Minister Johnson has significantly diminished the ‘no-confidence’ scheme by stating if Corbyn follows through PM Johnson would continue to proceed with the Brexit process, and call for a snap election immediately following the October 31st ‘no deal’ exit from the EU.   The globalist opposition is going bananas.

LONDON – […] The controversy here lies solely in the timing of the move. Britain is on track to leave the European Union on Oct. 31 and anti-Brexit lawmakers were working frantically to try and thwart the departure via the House of Commons — with plans in motion to try and pass legislation to tie the hands of Johnson’s government when Parliament returns from recess on Sept. 3rd.

Specifically, lawmakers were trying to ensure that Britain is not allowed to leave without a formal withdrawal agreement with the E.U., similar to the kind that May secured with E.U. leaders but failed to get through Parliament — leading ultimately to her resignation in June. Johnson has said he would prefer to leave with a deal, but is prepared to leave without one if E.U. leaders won’t meet British demands.

Tuesday’s announcement torpedoes those opposition plans to tie the government’s hands, icing Parliament for the majority of the remainder of the time left before Oct. 31. Speaker John Bercow, who has made no secret of his anti-Brexit sympathies, called the move a “constitutional outrage.” (link)

With so many prior lies, delays and stall tactics by British leadership beholden to the ideology of multinational influence, there were/are many people concerned about whether Prime Minister Johnson could actually be trusted to deliver on the Brexit referendum supported by the majority of the British voters.

Today’s strong moves by the prime minister seem to dissuade some of those fears.  What Great Britain needs is a strong leader who will stand in the gap against relentless leftist opposition and deliver what the people of Britain have voted for.

Today, despite his prior orientation toward fence-sitting weasel-speak, Johnson provides some cautious optimism that he might just be the strong leader the British deserve.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson sent the following letter to members of the House of Commons:

The Daily Mail has more.

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Aug 29 2019

11:00pm Hurricane Update – Dorian Gains Strength Entering Atlantic – Florida Declares Proactive State of Emergency…


Prep suggestions follow update. At 11:00pm EST (0300 UTC), the center of Hurricane Dorian was located near latitude 19.7 North, longitude 66.0 West. Dorian is moving toward the northwest near 13 mph (20 km/h), and this general motion is expected to continue through Friday. [National Hurricane Center]

On this track, Dorian should move over the Atlantic well east of the southeastern and central Bahamas on Thursday and Friday.  Maximum sustained winds have increased to near 85 mph (140 km/h) with higher gusts. Dorian is forecast to strengthen into a powerful hurricane during the next couple of days (more).

For those in the cone of uncertainty; remember, planning and proactive measures taken now can significantly reduce stress in the days ahead.  Plan when to make the best decision on any evacuation (if needed) consider Friday night the decision time-frame. As a general rule: take cover from wind – but evacuate away from water.

DAY ONE (Today, Thursday)

  • Determine Your Risk
  • Make a Written Plan
  • Develop and Evacuation Plan
  • Inventory hurricane/storm supplies.
  • Withdraw cash based on plan/need.

DAY TWO (Friday)

  • Get Storm Update
  • Assemble and Purchase Hurricane Supplies
  • Contact Insurance Company – Updates
  • Secure Important Papers.
  • Strengthen and Secure Your Home
  • Make Evacuation Decision for your Family.
  • Fill freezer with 3/4 full water jugs.

DAY THREE (Saturday)

  • Get Storm Update
  • Re-Evaluate your Supplies based on storm update
  • Finish last minute preparation
  • Plan for THREE DAYS without power
  • Assist Your Neighbors
  • If Needed – Evacuate Your Family

Communication is important.  Update your friends and family contact list. Stay in touch with family and friends, let them know your plans. Select a single point of contact for communication from you that all others can then contact for updates if needed.

Today/tomorrow are good days to organize your important papers, insurance forms, personal papers and place them in one ‘ready-to-go’ location.

Evaluate your personal hurricane and storm supplies; update and replace anything you might have used. Assess, modify and/or update any possible evacuation plans based on your location, and/or any changes to your family status.  Fill car with gasoline. Review prescriptions, refill if needed.

Check your shutters and window coverings; test your generator; re-organize and familiarize yourself with all of your supplies and hardware. Check batteries in portable tools; locate tools you might need; walk your property to consider what you may need to do based on the storms path. All decisions are yours. You are in control.

Consider travel plans based on roads and traffic density. Being proactive now helps to keep any future stress level low. You are in control. If you have pets, additional plans may be needed.

One possible proactive measure is to make a list of hotels further inland that you would consider evacuating to.  Make that list today and follow updates of the storms’ progress; make reservations tonight/tomorrow if determined.

Depending on information tomorrow you might call in advance and make a reservation; you can always cancel if not needed.  It is better to have a secondary evacuation place established in advance.  Being proactive reduces stress.  Even if you wait until much later to cancel, it is better to pay a cancellation fee (usually one night charge) than to not have a plan on where to go.   Trust me, it’s worth it.  Protect your family. Make the list of possibilities today, make the booking decision in the next 24 hrs.

♦ Look over the National Hurricane Center resources for planning assistance.

♦ Also a great resource – CREATE A PLAN

NBC News

✔@NBCNews

• Hurricane continues to move away from Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands, NHC says

• Maximum sustained winds are near 80mph; hurricane-force winds extend out to 15 miles.https://www.periscope.tv/w/1nAKEZmwaWgGL 

NBC News @NBCNews

LIVE: Latest Hurricane Dorian forecast and satellite images

pscp.tv

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Aug 28 2019

Private v Public Rate


Armstrong Economics Blog/Interest Rates

Re-Posted Aug 28, 2019 by Martin Armstrong

QUESTION: I am a bit confused. You have forecast that interest rates will rise but official rates will decline. Exactly how does this materialize?

Thank you

GF

ANSWER: People seem to look at just the official interest rates set by the central bank and assume what I am saying is wrong. They have to look at what is really going on in interest rates. We have witnessed the greatest gap between official rates and private rates in history. While deposit rates are virtually zero, car loans which are secured, are at about 4.5% in the United States (up to 9.5% outside the USA). The Bank of America, N.A. prime rate was 5.25% as of August 1st, 2019.

In 1981, the Fed’s Discount Rate for banks was 14% at the peak back in 1981. The Prime Rate peaked at 21.5% at that time. This meant that the Prime Rate was 53.5% above the Fed’s Discount Rate. In August 2019, the Fed’s Discount Rate is 2.75% and the Prime Rate is 5.25% or a 90% markup. The spread between public and private rates has nearly doubled.

Official rates can be manipulated by the central bank for it can control the short-term rates, but not the long-term without instituting some form of capital controls. But they close the free markets in government bonds.

The spread on the private rates v official rates has doubled! I am nor forecasting the superficial trend in manipulated rates by central banks, but the real world rates in the private world. I have stated numerous times, the bankers have NOT passed on the lower interest rates to the people. The spreads have doubled – not declined nor did they even stay the same. If the spread was the same as it was in 1981, then the Prime Rate should be 4.2% instead of 5.25% and a secured car loan should be 3.4% instead of 4.5%.

Categories: I
Aug 28 2019

Is the Thai Baht Finally Ready to Decline Against the Dollar?


Armstrong Economics Blog/Thailand

Re-Posted Aug 28, 2019 by Martin Armstrong

QUESTION: The Thai baht has been very strong for some time now. It doesn’t seem to be affected by the China – US trade war. Is the Thai baht a safe haven in your opinion?

MW

ANSWER: Thailand has been benefiting from the China-US trade war as manufacturing has been moving to Thailand from China. Thailand’s automotive industry has contributed to 12% of the GDP with more than 1.94 million vehicles produced. Thailand is now ranked as the largest automotive producer in Southeast Asia and 12th in the world. Many people now call it the “Automotive Hub of Asia.”

On top of that, you have countless Americans who have gone to Thailand to retire on their visa program. Americans can even open bank accounts in Thailand, unlike in Europe. Many have moved out of Bangkok to the southern region in Cho Brui.

People from Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar, also known as Burma, often move to Thailand to find work. The Thai economy has been stable and a magnet for foreigners. The culture is one of the friendliest in Southeast Asia, more akin to Japan than Hong Kong. The Thai even take their shoes off at the door as do the Japanese.

As far as the currency is concerned, July fell and bounced off of an important Monthly Bearish Reversal for the dollar. As long as the July low holds, the dollar may now begin to rise simply because of the tensions in Asia as a whole.

Aug 28 2019

Life & How it Evolves


Armstrong Economics Blog/Opinion

Re-Posted Aug 27, 2019 by Martin Armstrong

QUESTION: Martin;
What was the tipping point in your investing infancy that flung you to believe you could invest for others?

If so can you tell us the trade? And did you mortgage your house for it?
For it appears that the best in the business made it on their own first.

Apprehensive at this point in time;

RH

ANSWER: No. There was no trade. I was very young and was really trading bullion as a dealer in the cash markets prior to 1975. One of my clients was a senior executive at a major New York bank. The floating exchange rate system began in August 1971. There were no courses to take. He knew I understood how to trade and called me in to look at a foreign exchange loss involving the Italian lira. After that, institutions with FX problems would call me more or less saying get that guy that helped the other bank.

That is why by 1985 I was called by Congress for the G5. I was regarded as one of the top forecasters in foreign exchange. I realized that I was called into a dog and pony show where they had already made up their minds to create the G5 and just wanted experts to testify to pretend they relied on someone other than themselves. I protested and wrote to the president warning that lowering the dollar by 40% would cause a panic in 2 years because the Japanese would sell US assets since they would lose a fortune after buying 1/3rd of the US national debt.

The White House had to respond. I suppose that opened the door to governments. Ever since I have been called into just about every single major international event from China to Europe and the Middle East.

As far as trading was concerned, people were soliciting me all the time. I declined to manage money for individuals. Post-1985, I managed money only on an institutional level. I also tended to specialize in crisis management whereas I would be called in to manage a particular market crisis and get them out of some crazy trade.

DeutscheBank-1

I was asked by Deutsche Bank to manage a public fund that would be a hedge fund but onshore in Australia, which would be the first regulated hedge fund. I also manage funds for Magnum.

The London Financial Times had reported on our forecast in 1998. The computer projected the collapse and I took major short positions and more more than 60% in a single month. I was then named Hedge Fund Manager of the Year.

The banks lost big on that and from then on it was outright war. They do their best to try to slander me all the time in desperate hopes somebody will listen. As Nigel Farage said at our WEC in Rome, we have become the alternative to Davos.

Categories: Opinion
Aug 28 2019

The True Nature of Socialism – Exerting Power


Armstrong Economics Blog/Economics

Re-Posted Aug 27, 2019 by Martin Armstrong

QUESTION: Dear Mr. Armstrong, Thank you for everything you do so well.
My question to you is, “Do you agree that absolutely anything paid for using collected/extorted tax dollars is socialism?”
Thanks in advance.
Dave

ANSWER: No. Building roads, schools, and infrastructure is not socialism. You cross that line when you engage in class warfare. This often starts with promises to treat people differently under the law based solely upon their status or income, and “redistribute” their wealth as if it were a charity. This violates the Equal Protection of the law and Obamacare was a good example. The Supreme Court upheld it as a TAX rather than as advertised. It was to punish the youth for not buying insurance they did not need nor could afford to lower the cost for others.

Social Security is another example. They rob people of their income under the pretense that they will provide for you in your old age, then lower the benefits and keep raising the age qualification. They then seize your income and buy only government bonds, denying the average person the right to invest. They blame the “rich” for everything, but the “rich” get rich NOT by wages but by investment. So they deny the lower classes the right to provide for their own future and deny them the right to invest.

Socialism is when they tax people under the pretense of helping in a way that goes beyond the common needs of society. Once you move beyond the infrastructure that is a common function to allow for commerce, you then begin to approach the Marxist theory which has been proven time and time again to fail. Self-interest is critical and government will NEVER act in the self-interest of others, only itself.

The government should be the unbiased arbitrator standing between people like King David judging which of the two women the child belonged to. As soon as the government has a stake in the game, courts became corrupt.

Volksgerichtshof, Reinecke, Freisler, Lautz

Our own conviction rate is nearly 99%. Even Adolf Hitler had a conviction rate of about 90% at his notorious People’s Court under Roland Freisler (pictured in the center) who was the most bloodthirsty of all the head judges to rule that court. Even Wikipedia writes:

“The number of death sentences rose sharply under Freisler’s stewardship. Approximately 90% of all proceedings ended with sentences of death or life imprisonment, the sentences frequently having been determined before the trial. Between 1942 and 1945, more than 5,000 death sentences were handed out, and of these, 2,600 through the court’s First Senate, which Freisler headed. Thus, Freisler alone was responsible, in his three years on the court, for as many death sentences as all other senate sessions of the court together in the entire time the court existed, between 1934 and 1945.”

Our conviction rate today of about 99% in federal court has surpassed the most notorious court Hitler maintained in determining if you were Jewish or any part thereof which had a 90% conviction rate. That is not something we should be proud of. There can be no liberty when the courts are controlled by the government. Socialism ends up being the excuse used to exert power and nothing mor