Tag Archives: Sociopath

Dec 2 2019

21 People Killed in Cartel Gun Battle Near U.S-Mexico Border….


Re-Posted from The Conservative Tree House on December 1, 2019 by 

According to multiple media report U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr was already planning a visit to Mexico prior to a massive cartel gun battle near the U.S. border that has left 21 people dead. .

MEXICO – More than a dozen armored trucks filled with Los Zetas cartel gunmen rolled into a small rural town in the border state of Coahuila. The gunmen spread terror as they attacked the city hall building. The incursion turned into a fierce shootout and several chases where at least 14 cartel gunmen, three civilians, and four police officers died. Preliminary reports point to six additional people sustaining gunshot injuries.

The violence began on Saturday morning. More than a dozen armored trucks, some with machine guns mounted on top, left the border city of Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas driving towards the state of Coahuila. The gunmen are members of a faction of Los Zetas called Cartel Del Noreste.

Once in the town, the gunmen drove to the plaza square where they fired several machine guns at the city hall building in a brazen attack that spread terror among local residents. During their attack, several municipal police officers from Villa Union tried to fight off the attackers, however, the gunmen pushed them back and torched several police vehicles.

Authorities called for help leading to a massive deployment of state police officers from various units, and municipal police officers from Piedras Negras, Allende, and several other municipalities who rushed to the scene and clashed with the dozens of Los Zetas gunmen. The cartel gunmen wore body armor and tactical vest emblazoned with the CDN-Los Zetas logo. The armored vehicles that the cartel gunmen used also had similar decals identifying them as members of CDN-Los Zetas. (source)

Nov 29 2019

London Court Rules 1MBD Hearing Will Be Public


Armstrong Economics Blog/Politics

Re-Posted Nov 29, 2019 by Martin Armstrong

Malaysia won a MAJOR victory in a London court that will allow public hearings in the notorious 1MDB case where Goldman Sachs facilitated what is alleged to be the fraud of the century. In this case, Abu Dhabi’s state investment fund is in a legal battle over how billions of dollars intended for Malaysia’s economic development was stolen in a deal orchestrated by Goldman Sachs.

In turn, the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund filed a lawsuit against Goldman Sachs precisely on the Pi Target, Wednesday (Nov 21), for allegedly conspiring against the Middle Eastern fund to further a criminal scheme by Malaysia’s scandal-plagued 1MDB. There have been a number of people indicted in Goldman Sachs and the CEO, Blankfein, had to step down ahead of schedule.

The real test of just how corrupt the American courts are has been how the SEC defends Goldman Sachs and the US courts in New York City. The Center for Economic Policy and Research on Nov. 2018 wrote about how Goldman Sachs controls the SEC:  “How Goldman Still Holds Sway at the SEC”

Goldman Sachs has been sued for $510 million in New York State Court, which is at least more viable than federal court. I wrote back in 2015 about this scandal we all knew about behind the curtain. I wrote that the financial mess even touched the UAE in the mix through IPIC which was established back in the 1980s to focus on energy investments. In 2016 I wrote that the Federal Reserve was preparing an enforcement action against Goldman Sachs related to confidential government information that was leaked from the Fed to one of its bankers. I also wrote that Swiss prosecutors said they were helping the US with the investigation. The Swiss also opened their own criminal proceedings in August 2015, against two former officials of the fund on a string of corruption charges. Their investigation has since been extended to other officials as well.

The question is WHY did the Manhattan Federal prosecutors sit on their hands? Why did it take Brooklyn to bring charges? This seems to be typically New York, New York. The real motto: You don’t shit where you eat. So they protect Goldman at all costs.

Categories: Politics, Rule of Law
Nov 26 2019

Federal Government Protected Species


SOME SPECIES ARE MORE PROTECTED THAN OTHERS

Some political creatures like the “Stone Frog” (Roger Stone) are mercilessly hunted to the edge of extinction.

While others like the money sniffing Biden hound must be protected at any cost.

The DemocRAT (Political Vulgarus) must be keep away from Congress, the White House and State government.

They are easily caught in traps because of their incredible greed for power and cash!

Tina

 

Nov 26 2019

Australians Losing All Freedoms to Socialism


Armstrong Economics Blog/Australia & Oceania

Re-Posted Nov 26, 2019 by Martin Armstrong

QUESTION: I live in Australia but seriously considering living elsewhere as our freedoms continue to be eroded, our economy artificially supports to stop property prices corrected as top 4 banks carry estimate 80% exposure, etc, etc.

I love living in Sydney beaches for climate, beaches + surf, incredible quality of raw ingredients for food and a healthy lifestyle. But I believe we are on a downward spiral which may well last a generation or longer.

I’m location independent economically with both Australian and UK passport.

Where my best options to move and make a home where the next 20 years will flourish rather than suffer?

I’m very open to suggestions?

DF

ANSWER: The UK will most likely adopt a worldwide income tax. As an Australian resident, you are taxed on your worldwide income. This means you must declare all income you receive from foreign sources in your income tax return. You might want to look at moving to Thailand. They are outside of the CRS and a very reasonable country, if not the most reasonable in SE Asia. It is hard to say what will unfold there going forward. However, the only thing that is certain is that the West is in the decline & fall mode. The financial power will shift to Asia post-2032.

We have to understand that all the promises of socialism are crumbling to the ground. The governments will become much more aggressive to enforce taxation in a desperate attempt to retain power. That will fail. The only thing this is causing is rising separatist movements and inevitable violence

Nov 25 2019

Governments Playing with Numbers


Armstrong Economics Blog/Economics

Re-Posted Nov 25, 2019 by Martin Armstrong

QUESTION: Hi Mr. Armstrong.
I’ve learned more reading your blog last 4 years than working in finance for 20 years. As you say, the average employee in finance hasn’t got a clue about what’s going on.
Question: There’s one thing that has bothered me for a long time; uncertainty about numbers regarding GDP, unemployment and so forthcoming from governments; are they trustworthy?
The reason behind the question is what happened during 2007 to 2009, where banks, rating companies as Fitch, Standard & Poor, Moodys, SEC, and all who are supposed to be reliable were lying about the real situation for several months before the bubble popped. Subprime loans didn’t get downgraded for several months even though there were severe defaults all over.
Are the key numbers revealed trustworthy when we know what the finance sector is capable of regarding lying/hiding, and now there are the government’s own bonds at stake?
Best regards
FF

ANSWER: Thank you. They just do not teach international analysis anywhere. It is the foundation of hedge fund management. It is also why we have the largest international client base anywhere. I have been asked now by three universities to teach. I just do not have the time. I keep telling myself I should do a textbook. I think I will get to do it in my next life perhaps. There never seems to be enough time.

Regarding the numbers, I have two factual encounters that have formed my conclusion. Because I have been an international adviser, I had to look at the numbers globally. What I discovered back in the 1980s was that every country had its own formulas. Comparisons were not realistic. I was asked if I would debate the top economist in Canada because my comments on economics were different from everyone else’s. I said sure. I debated him in Vancouver and it was hosted by Michael Campbell. The economist kept trying to compare GDP and inflation for Canada and the USA, and I would just respond that the formulas were completely different. He knew that, but economists only have the government numbers to play with. After I corrected him several times, he lost his cool on stage and said, “I am sick and tired of you Americans coming to Canada and telling us what to do!” At that moment, Mike Campbell stood up and ended the debate. After that, the AAP in Australia asked me if I would debate the top three economists in Australia on national TV. I said sure, why not. They all declined.

I hired a staff member, Lynn, who worked for me before she got married back in the 1980s. She was fantastic. Her job was to analyze the numbers of every country (below is one of her notes on inflation). We tore apart every country and created our own set of numbers that allowed us to actually do real-world comparisons to identify global trends. By the end of the 1980s, I was named the Top Economist in America all because we had the real numbers and not the government’s fake numbers they like to play with.

Going into 1980, just about everything was indexed to inflation basis the CPI. Even private contracts for rents were typically indexed to the CPI. The government discovered that if they could change the formula to reduce inflation, they could reduce expenditures. The CPI revisions began removing real estate and replacing it with rents on the theory that real estate was an investment — not your cost of living. They then reduced the sample to rents where they were controlled, which further reduced inflation. They have altered the number so many times that it is IMPOSSIBLE to ever get inflation based on the CPI back to the 20% level of the late 1970s.

One day Lynn came to me and asked me to review her work for she could not find a mistake that was so obvious. In GDP, the government calculates total government spending as a component. They also add total personal income. The mistake stared us in the face. It appeared that GDP was counting workers for the government TWICE: (1) total spending, and (2) total personal income. We searched every calculation to try to find where they were accounting for this blatant era. I knew the top people at the BEA (Bureau Economic Analysis) so I called, explaining the error, and asked for assistance in showing me where it was backed out. They said they would check and get back to me. Several weeks passed and no return phone call. I called my friend again. His response: “No comment.”

Using government numbers is Pandora’s Box we dare not rely on. Zeus presented Pandora a box/jar as a gift and when she opened it, sickness, death and many other unspecified evils and plagues were then released into the world. The only thing which did not escape before she tried to close it was hope.

Notes for our 1986 research project: (N.S.A = not seasonally adjusted: S.A = Seasonally adjusted)

Inflation  11/21/86

 

What to say?  US has many measures.  WSJ more or less picks up most of them but seems to emphasize s.a. change in a month.

Best to use year over year for int’l comparisons, probably.  Do we or don’t we have seasonal adjustment problems then?  IN U.S. we get month over year ago n.s.a.

What about the compound annualized rate for calculation of real interest rates? This way we’d have two forward-looking rates.  It’s probably a good idea to work with an average for three months

If we want to talk about GNP growth and consumer price inflation in the same breath, be sure the percentage changes are figured in the same direction: annualized forward, or compared with the same period in the prior year.

BLS says that to look at the trend, it’s best to look at s.a. numbers.  If we want to know about actual prices we’re paying, unadjusted numbers are best

Japan’s CPIs seems to be n.s.a.  UK RPI is n.s.a.  German cost-of-living indexes are n.s.a., but we have s.a. in Supplement on S.A. Economic Data.

Remember that consumer price inflation in Latin American countries is typically reported as changes between the current period and previous period seasonally adjusted at compound annual, rates… i.e. as forward-looking rates.  But there’s another twist. They usually say something like “bringing cumulative inflation to 67% so far in 1986.”

 

Nov 24 2019

Charlie’s Angels Remake Flops Because Men Won’t Watch Hot Chicks Who Kick A$$


148K subscribers

The new Charlie’s Angels film remake flops, a failure that director Elizabeth Banks attributes to the “fact” that men don’t go to see women do action movies. Have men actually decided they no longer enjoy watching “hot chicks who kick a$$”, or are audiences just tired of being force-fed a feminist lecture when they paid to see a fun movie? Bill Whittle, Stephen Green and Scott Ott are three men unashamed of their delight in strong-female action films. They’ve been analyzing culture and news for 11 years thanks to the Members who fund this enterprise. Our Members engage in vibrant conversation at our website, where they have exclusive access to several features that encourage civil dialogue, rational thought and a lot of fun. You can see the full archive of Right Angle there right now: https://BillWhittle.com Listen to Right Angle on the go with your podcast app: http://bit.ly/BWN-Podcasts
Nov 24 2019

86-Year-Old Justice Ginsburg Back in Hospital…


Re-Posted from The Conservative Tree House on November 23, 2019 by 

US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 86, has been admitted to hospital suffering chills and a fever, the Supreme Court said in a statement:

SCOTUS – Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was admitted to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, last night after experiencing chills and fever earlier in the day. She was initially evaluated at Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington, D.C. before being transferred to Johns Hopkins Hospital for further evaluation and treatment of any possible infection.

With intravenous antibiotics and fluids, her symptoms have abated and she expects to be released from the hospital as early as Sunday morning. Further updates will be made when available. (link)

Nov 23 2019

Monty Python’s Politically Correct


Blog/Conspiracy

Posted Nov 22, 2019 by Martin Armstrong

 

Nov 18 2019

Custodial Risk in New York City


Armstrong Economics Blog/Rule of Law

Re-Posted Nov 18, 2019 by Martin Armstrong

QUESTION:

Hello Marty,

Your commentary and Socrates’ predictive capacity is ground-breaking. I have been following you for years. Thank you for your time and efforts.
I find it fascinating that the foretold decline of the West (by Socrates) coincides with the fourth-turning demographic study described by Strauss & Howe. Watching it unfold is causing some careful consideration and sleeplessness!

Few questions regarding the future disruption:

1) Could the pledging of negative-yielding bonds as collateral be causing the liquidity problems? As a private lender myself, how can a central bank (or anyone) lend against its par value (even overnight) when held to maturity you receive less than par?
2) What Brokers can protect against a Corzine / MF Global invasion of segregated accounts?
3) I am an Italian national. Do you think living low-key in Panama may be a way to ride out the coming chaos?

I appreciate your insights and opinion.

All the best,
JTK

ANSWER: There is about $17 trillion in outstanding negative-yielding bonds. It is far too complicated to go into great detail on a mere blog post. Suffice to say that the negative-yielding bonds are going to crash like something not witnessed since 1931. While a complete default is not likely prior to 2025/2026, we are going to witness the start of the collapse in 2020. These bonds have been bought by PUNTERS who are just trading them back and forth like a game of musical chairs. When the music stops, a lot of people will get caught holding these new 2.0 versions of financial debt bombs. Nobody is buying these things to actually hold. It is more akin to trading commodities where people are not actually interested in taking deliveries of lumber, hogs, silos of wheat or bars of silver. These are trading instruments only.

 

I strongly urge people to write to the White House and demand LEGAL REFORM in New York City. The entire fate of both the world economy and the domestic economy rests on the integrity of the rule of law which no longer exists. President Trump has the power to address this problem. He could clean house in the SEC and CFTC who will ALWAYS protect the bankers, as is the case in the Department of Justice. The banks have blown up the entire world economy. M.F. Global was using their clients’ money for its own punting and lost big time. Not a single banker was EVER changed, no less Corzine.

GlennJudge Martin Glenn presided on M.F. Global bankruptcy and created the first BAIL-IN without Congressional Authority. He was the first one to engage in FORCED LOANS by abandoning the rule of law to help the bankers and protect Corzine from losses by taking client accounts to cover M.F. Global’s losses. That is no different from what we saw in Cyprus. He simply allowed the confiscation of client funds when in fact the rule of law should have been that the bankers were responsible and M.F. Global’s losses and it should have been reversed. Never should the clients’ funds be taken for M.F. Global’s losses to the NY Bankers.

What Judge Martin Glenn’s ruling warns is you should NOT trust any company based in New York City. No other circuit would uphold what Glenn did to protect Corzine. While Glenn could not prosecute Corzine, the Department of Justice closed its eyes as did the SEC and CFTC. We lack legal integrity and that leaves a COUNTRY RISK that we would have to warn a client about if we were dealing with a third-world country. This is part of the reason China is still lagging behind. There MUST BE a straight forward Rule of Law or capital that cannot invest if there are no definitive rules.

As far as Panama is concerned, it has been one place that people have moved. Another is Thailand if you are looking at Asia

Nov 13 2019

When Justice Isn’t


by Tabitha Korol

A letter written by a local elementary school teacher, I’ll call “Mrs. Krieg,” was brought to my attention by a mutual acquaintance.  In light of the notice that honor classes will be discontinued, she thoughtfully agreed that equity (defined as fairness and impartiality) in the schools should benefit all students.  Regrettably, she has been influenced by terminology that has been devalued and redefined to become a tool for social engineering among students.  Such revisionism has been applied to Equity, Diversity and Social Justice, and comes at the expense of freedom and true justice.

Honors classes were designed to challenge students academically.  The advanced work, faster pace, and higher course-credit weight have provided for smarter, happier, well-rounded children who had the opportunity to flourish according to their capabilities and not misbehave out of boredom.  But now, the authorities have determined it best to cancel the honor courses across the country because of a “lack of diversity” – that is, more Caucasian and Asian students were engaged than Blacks, Latinos and Native Americans.  Instead of also providing honors classes that meet the interests of the low-energy students – perhaps music, theater, artisanal handicrafts – the Department of Education has decided to close the achievement gap by lowering the bar and expectations and discontinuing all incentives.  Mrs. Krieg did not foresee that by eliminating the incentives and opportunities, the resulting “equity” would be mediocrity and the loss of exceptional achievement.

Now the Department of Education will generate equity in boredom, discontent, resentment, truancy and delinquency.  Academia is not unaware of these inevitabilities.  Their purpose is not an improved education but the decline of achievement and the elimination of the exceptional. Former President Obama expressed a similar derogatory outlook when he denounced high-achieving Americans with, “You didn’t build that.”

Diversity in the schools no longer describes a richness of ideas, course studies, or specialty careers, but defines and categorizes the students themselves, by race, religion, ethnicity, financial status, sexual orientation, and however else the students choose to differentiate themselves.  As with the term “equity,” the meaning of “diversity” has been corrupted, as it now implies division, divisiveness, and discord, the opposite of E Pluribus Unum – Out of many, One.  These differences have led to a totalitarian-style monitoring and bullying – called Speech Control, necessitating “Diversity Officers” with doctoral degrees, credentials in counseling and inclusion techniques, and six-figure salaries reflected in higher tuition costs.  The officers’ mere presence confirms the growing disharmony, isolation, discrimination, harassment, and violence that characterize the socialist strategy.  These points are significant:

  • Many schools have implemented a policy of discouraging the bonding between classmates, beginning with Kindergarten, alleging that “best friends” keep the students from mingling with This is false and destructive.  Best friends are a mutual support system, as they learn to agree, compromise, comfort, accommodate, and be reliable, traits needed throughout their adult lives.
  • Schools now place students at their computers for hours, removing eye contact and discussion opportunities with others, disallowing autonomy over time scheduling, reducing writing and penmanship with its inherent creativity. Presidential hopeful Kamala Harris said she would increase daily school time by three hours, thereby seriously reducing home and family activities, personal growth, and individual achievement.
  • Academia has introduced “intersectionality” to diminish the self and encourage victimhood by race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, family class; the more the classifications, the higher their status.  Instead of a unitedness with school and pride of citizenship in their own country, they are now tribalistic, divisive, and intolerant.
  • Bigotry against Jewish students and staff (antisemitism) is on the rise and spreading.  History has shown that Jews are always the first, but never the only ones, to be attacked.  The hostility is growing to include whites (white supremacy), extending to our founding and history by the socialists and Sharia-compliant; and towards boys (toxic masculinity), diminishing their self-worth and ambitions, and damaging their  God-given purpose of contributing to our nation’s growth and defense.  Boys must become men: marry and support their families, be strong fathers and teach morality to the next generation.
  • The removal of God from the schools and population’s psyche has produced a plethora of new definitions that facilitate a ruling class, convince the public to tolerate lawlessness over sovereign borders, and to submit to the measured demands of sharia made by the Muslim Brotherhood and affiliates on campus and in the media.
  • The Common Core standards introduced new courses: intentionally convoluted math that prohibits parental participation; dystopian and uninspiring literature that offers limited creative vocabulary and replaces inspiration with fatalism; inaccurate and indoctrinating history lessons that misinform students about our growth and successes and secretes the truths about Islam; and social studies that support a political agenda.
  • With individuality stifled, the children are indoctrinated to think alike, falter alike, and expect equal return for widespread mediocrity.  This equity in communist countries has produced  stagnation in education, the economy and real income; slow improvement in everyday services and medical care; shortages of goods; rising criminality and corruption, along with an increase in alcoholism, particularly in Russia.  Socialism kills the spirit of personal endeavor.
  • The introduction of transgenderism is ruining the lives of many children, psychologically and physically, wrecking all opportunities for happiness in marriage and family, leading some to suicide.
  • The threat of climate change, perhaps the greatest hoax, is the extensive control over all life, which would bring a scarcity of energy, failing manufacturing firms and  retail operations, vilified consumerism, diminishing food supplies, curbed transportation for people and food distribution.  The environmentalists purposely falsify the data about climatic conditions in order to throttle human activity – which they hate – to produce their worshipped green planet.
  • In short, the goal of the left is to crush the human spirit.  Pride in accomplishment must be stifled, progress discouraged, and the dispirited population reminted into the globalists’ compliant working class.

Contrary to Mrs. Krieg’s understanding, the term “diversity” was invented to con the populace into accepting all incoming non-citizens.  Regardless of criminality, disease, or hatred for the American flag, they must be housed, fed, clothed, educated and medicated.  Multiculturalism is already the downfall of several European countries due to cultures that are too disparate for assimilation.  Muslims come to replace their hosts’ laws with their sharia and establish yet another oppressive totalitarian Islamic state.

Justice becomes injustice when the word needs a modifier.  “Social justice” means a revision of laws to accommodate a socialist agenda.  True justice is served only when the interests of Americans are considered, when Americans can, of their own volition and in their own time, partake of the promise of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”  The authoritarian government seeks total/totalitarian control over the masses to forcibly produce identical workers, taught and indoctrinated to comply with the needs of the regime.

The final outcome is not unknown to mankind.  We have seen countries fall to socialism, fascism, and Islam, and the vulnerable children are always the first to feel the effects of the increasing control.

Now is the time to act if we are to avoid Orwell’s dire warning: If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face – forever.

Tabitha Korol

https://tinyurl.com/y7e6z63d