Sep 272019
 
 September 27, 2019  Posted by at 9:44 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , ,


Salvador Dali Self-portrait in the studio 1919

 

These Once-Secret Memos Cast Doubt On Joe Biden’s Ukraine Story (Solomon)
Democrats Reveal the Real Purpose of the Impeachment Investigation (PCR)
Chelsea, Reality Hope New Approval Of Whistleblowers Will Set Them Free (Onion)
Wall Street To Dems: We’ll Sit Out, Or Back Trump, If Warren Nominated (CNBC)
Fed Will Need To Grow Its Balance Sheet ‘Permanently’ – Morgan Stanley (CNBC)
US Annual Health Insurance Costs Hit Record High Above $20,000 (BBG)
Quarter Of UK Rural Businesses ‘Could Be Bankrupted By No-Deal Brexit’ (G.)
China’s Giant $400 Billion Iran Investment Complicates US Options (F.)
Yemen’s Houthis Are Bringing Down A Goliath (Escobar)
Spanish Security Company Spied On Julian Assange In London For US (El Pais)
Trump Administration Proposes Historically Low Refugee Limit (AP)

 

 

John Solomon’s account is really important in the impeachment hearings.. And everything he says is documented.

Watched quite a lot of the House hearing yesterday, and thought: this is a circus. Everyone knows Trump is guilty or not before they’ve seen anything, just depending on what party they belong to. And no, no fan of Adam Schiff.

These Once-Secret Memos Cast Doubt On Joe Biden’s Ukraine Story (Solomon)

Former Vice President Joe Biden, now a 2020 Democratic presidential contender, has locked into a specific story about the controversy in Ukraine. He insists that, in spring 2016, he strong-armed Ukraine to fire its chief prosecutor solely because Biden believed that official was corrupt and inept, not because the Ukrainian was investigating a natural gas company, Burisma Holdings, that hired Biden’s son, Hunter, into a lucrative job. There’s just one problem. Hundreds of pages of never-released memos and documents — many from inside the American team helping Burisma to stave off its legal troubles — conflict with Biden’s narrative.

And they raise the troubling prospect that U.S. officials may have painted a false picture in Ukraine that helped ease Burisma’s legal troubles and stop prosecutors’ plans to interview Hunter Biden during the 2016 U.S. presidential election. [..] Some media outlets have reported that, at the time Joe Biden forced the firing in March 2016, there were no open investigations. Those reports are wrong. [..] the Ukraine Prosecutor General’s office still had two open inquiries in March 2016, according to the official case file provided me. [..] In a newly sworn affidavit prepared for a European court, Shokin testified that when he was fired in March 2016, he was told the reason was that Biden was unhappy about the Burisma investigation.

“The truth is that I was forced out because I was leading a wide-ranging corruption probe into Burisma Holdings, a natural gas firm active in Ukraine and Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, was a member of the Board of Directors,” Shokin testified. “On several occasions President Poroshenko asked me to have a look at the case against Burisma and consider the possibility of winding down the investigative actions in respect of this company but I refused to close this investigation,” Shokin added.

Read more …

“..keeping him under investigation, at least through the November election, will increasingly erode the support of both Trump and the Republican party brand..”

Democrats Reveal the Real Purpose of the Impeachment Investigation (PCR)

The Democrats know that there is no impeachable offense. What they intend to do is to use the investigation to look into every aspect of Trump’s life and try to make dirt out of things unrelated to his talk with the Ukrainian president. This “impeachment investigation” is a political act to help their candidate win the next presidential election. Democrats themselves describe it in this way. For example, here is how Rob Kall, the director of one of the progressive Democrat websites, described the purpose of the investigation: “The idea should be to keep the impeachment going as long as possible, with new testimonies and new releases of disclosures of alleged corruption and treason on a regular basis.

“Looking at impeachment as a process for removing the president is the wrong way of thinking about it. Looking at it as a key that gives access to investigative tools is the smarter, more strategic, way of looking at it. “Ideally, it will get so bad for Trump that the Republicans will end up putting up someone else to run in the general election. “But keeping him under investigation, at least through the November election, will increasingly erode the support of both Trump and the Republican party brand, making a Democratic takeover of the Senate and the White House, and an increased control of the House even more likely.” In other words, it is a political power play.

The outcome depends on whether Americans see the impeachment investigation as another orchestrated hoax like Russiagate or whether they fall for the hoax as they iniatially did with the Russiagate investigation. The United States does not have a media. It has a propaganda ministry that helps the ruling elites control the explanations that Americans are given. Polls show that Americans have lost confidence in the media. If so, the impeachment investigation will backfire on the Democrats.

Read more …

Personally, I’m very much torn between tragedy and comedy.

Chelsea, Reality Hope New Approval Of Whistleblowers Will Set Them Free (Onion)

Following a CIA officer’s much-applauded decision to disclose evidence that President Trump urged his Ukrainian counterpart to interfere in the 2020 election, former intelligence analysts Chelsea Manning and Reality Winner expressed confidence Thursday that the nation’s newfound appreciation for whistleblowers would get them out of jail. “Now that everyone really seems to like it when wrongdoing is exposed, I’m sure it’s just a matter of time before they clear my name and let me go,” Winner said by phone from a federal prison in Texas, echoing the sentiments of Manning, who told reporters she expected not only to be released from jail but also to be allowed to return immediately to active duty in the Army.


“Americans recognize that what this anonymous whistleblower did was both courageous and patriotic, so I’m sure to be commended for releasing a report on interference in the 2016 election, right? I was ahead of my time, really. I’m not saying there will be a parade in my honor, but I sure wouldn’t be surprised. I’ll be out of here in a day or two, and then, who knows? Maybe I’ll even run for public office.” At press time, sources confirmed a chipper Edward Snowden had informed officials in the Justice Department that he was finally ready to leave Moscow and fly back home.

Read more …

The differences in fund-raising amounts are scary. The DNC is going to need Tulsi just for that.

Wall Street To Dems: We’ll Sit Out, Or Back Trump, If Warren Nominated (CNBC)

Democratic donors on Wall Street and in big business are preparing to sit out the presidential campaign fundraising cycle — or even back President Donald Trump — if Sen. Elizabeth Warren wins the party’s nomination. In recent weeks, CNBC spoke to several high-dollar Democratic donors and fundraisers in the business community and found that this opinion was becoming widely shared as Warren, an outspoken critic of big banks and corporations, gains momentum against Joe Biden in the 2020 race. “You’re in a box because you’re a Democrat and you’re thinking, ‘I want to help the party, but she’s going to hurt me, so I’m going to help President Trump,’” said a senior private equity executive, who spoke on condition of anonymity in fear of retribution by party leaders.

The executive said this Wednesday, a day after Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that the House would begin a formal impeachment inquiry into Trump. During the campaign, Warren has put out multiple plans intended to curb the influence of Wall Street, including a wealth tax. In July, she released a proposal that would make private equity firms responsible for debts and pension obligations of companies they buy. Trump, meanwhile, has given wealthy business leaders a helping hand with a major corporate tax cut and by eliminating regulations. Warren has sworn off taking part in big money fundraisers for the 2020 presidential primary. She has also promised to not take donations from special interest groups.

She finished raising at least $19 million in the second quarter mainly through small-dollar donors. The third quarter ends Monday. Trump, has been raising hundreds of millions of dollars, putting any eventual 2020 rival in a bind as about 20 Democrats vie for their party’s nomination. Trump’s campaign and the Republican National Committee have raised over $100 million in the second quarter. A large portion of that haul came from wealthy donors who gave to their joint fundraising committee, Trump Victory. In August, the RNC raised just over $23 million and has $53 million on hand. The Democratic National Committee have struggled to keep up. The DNC finished August bringing in $7.9 million and has $7.2 million in debt.

Read more …

No Greyerz yesterday, MS today. People do understand. But nobody acts.

Fed Will Need To Grow Its Balance Sheet ‘Permanently’ – Morgan Stanley (CNBC)

The Federal Reserve’s asset purchases likely will total $315 billion over the next six months as it seeks to stabilize overnight funding markets and contain the movements of its target interest rate, according to projections from Morgan Stanley. Those permanent moves will be necessary because the current temporary purchases likely won’t be enough to stabilize the market for overnight purchase agreements, or repos, the bank said. The Fed just a month ago halted a process that saw a more than $600 billion reduction of the balance sheet, which consists mostly of Treasurys and mortgage-backed securities that it had acquired in its efforts to pull the U.S. economy out of the financial crisis.


“We maintain that these temporary repo operations will not prove to be a sufficient long-term solution to the recent funding pressure,” Morgan Stanley strategist Kelcie Gerson said in a note. “Ultimately, the Fed will need to increase the size of its balance sheet permanently.” The Morgan Stanley forecast is a bit smaller than one recently from Bank of America Merrill Lynch, which estimated balance sheet expansion at $400 billion this year. The balance sheet currently stands about $3.9 trillion, pushed by three rounds of asset purchases in a process known as quantitative easing. Starting in October 2017, the Fed started allowing some proceeds from its maturing bonds to roll off each month, with a corresponding decrease of bank reserves that has taken the total down to about $1.5 trillion, the lowest in more than eight years.

Read more …

Another issue that nobody acts upon.

US Annual Health Insurance Costs Hit Record High Above $20,000 (BBG)

The cost of family health coverage in the U.S. now tops $20,000, an annual survey of employers found, a record high that has pushed an increasing number of American workers into plans that cover less or cost more, or force them out of the insurance market entirely. “It’s as much as buying a basic economy car,” said Drew Altman, chief executive officer of the Kaiser Family Foundation, “but buying it every year.” The nonprofit health research group conducts the yearly survey of coverage that people get through work, the main source of insurance in the U.S. for people under age 65. While employers pay most of the costs of coverage, according to the survey, workers’ average contribution is now $6,000 for a family plan.


That’s just their share of upfront premiums, and doesn’t include co-payments, deductibles and other forms of cost-sharing once they need care. The seemingly inexorable rise of costs has led to deep frustration with U.S. health care, prompting questions about whether a system where coverage is tied to a job can survive. As premiums and deductibles have increased in the last two decades, the percentage of workers covered has slipped as employers dropped coverage and some workers chose not to enroll. Fewer Americans under 65 had employer coverage in 2017 than in 1999, according to a separate Kaiser Family Foundation analysis of federal data. That’s despite the fact that the U.S. economy employed 17 million more people in 2017 than in 1999.

Read more …

Yeah, it’s the Guardian, and yeah, it may be a little less bad than they say, but the Tories’ lack of preparedness for what they themselves promote is nuts regardless.

Quarter Of UK Rural Businesses ‘Could Be Bankrupted By No-Deal Brexit’ (G.)

As many as one in four rural businesses could be left facing bankruptcy in a no-deal Brexit, and the staunchly Conservative rural vote may be in doubt as a result, the head of the UK’s landowners’ group has warned on the eve of the Tory party conference. Farmers are particularly vulnerable to a no-deal Brexit because tariffs would be levied on exports, imports of cheap food could flood the market, and because decisions must be made now which will have an impact for the next year. Arable farmers are putting crops in the ground now for spring, and livestock farmers are preparing to breed sheep and other livestock for next year.


Tim Breitmeyer, president of the Country Land and Business Association, said farms and the rural businesses that rely on them were not in a position to absorb the shock of Brexit, and estimates suggested a large number would be in danger. “Agriculture is not making very much money. In many cases, they’re losing [money] without the single farm payment [subsidy]. If you have a tariff to add to your problems, if you have increased costs to add to your problems, it’s only going to make matters worse and tip some businesses over the top,” he told the Guardian. “Now I don’t know whether that’s 15% or 25% but I’m absolutely sure there will be quite a few farming businesses for which it actually just tips them into receivership.”

Read more …

China was never going to let Iran fall. But now Trump’s sanctions policies drive it straight into Beijing hands: “Chinese firms will maintain the right of the first refusal to participate in any and all petrochemical projects in Iran, including the provision of technology, systems, process ingredients and personnel required to complete such projects.”

China’s Giant $400 Billion Iran Investment Complicates US Options (F.)

Amidst historic U.S. – Iran tensions, Beijing is doubling-down on its strategic partnership with Tehran, ignoring U.S. efforts to isolate the Islamic Republic from global markets. Following an August visit by Iran Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif to Beijing, the two countries agreed to update a 25-year program signed in 2016, to include an unprecedented $400 billion of investment in the Iranian economy – sanctions be damned. The capital injection, which would focus on Iran’s oil and gas sector, would also be distributed across the country’s transportation and manufacturing infrastructure. In return, Chinese firms will maintain the right of the first refusal to participate in any and all petrochemical projects in Iran, including the provision of technology, systems, process ingredients and personnel required to complete such projects.


According to an exclusive interview with Petroleum Economist, a senior source in Iran’s petrochemical sector had this to say about the new agreement: “The central pillar of the new deal is that China will invest $280 billion developing Iran’s oil, gas and petrochemicals sectors… there will be another $120 billion investment in upgrading Iran’s transport and manufacturing infrastructure, which again can be front-loaded into the first five-year period and added to in each subsequent period should both parties agree.” This comes at a time when Washington is exerting its so-called ‘maximum pressure’ strategy against Iran, which aims to change its international behavior by bringing oil exports down to zero.

Read more …

Makes me think of how Britain fought back vs Germany, and Viernam vs the US. Once your entire economy moves into self-defense mode, -almost- anything is possible.

Yemen’s Houthis Are Bringing Down A Goliath (Escobar)

“It is clear to us that Iran bears responsibility for this attack. There is no other plausible explanation. We support ongoing investigations to establish further details.” The statement above was not written by Franz Kafka. In fact, it was written by a Kafka derivative: Brussels-based European bureaucracy. The Merkel-Macron-Johnson trio, representing Germany, France and the UK, seems to know what no “ongoing investigation” has unearthed: that Tehran was definitively responsible for the twin aerial strikes on Saudi oil installations. “There is no other plausible explanation” translates as the occultation of Yemen. Yemen only features as the pounding ground of a vicious Saudi war, de facto supported by Washington and London and conducted with US and UK weapons, which has generated a horrendous humanitarian crisis.

So Iran is the culprit, no evidence provided, end of story, even if the “investigation continues.” Hassan Ali Al-Emad, Yemeni scholar and the son of a prominent tribal leader with ascendance over ten clans, begs to differ. “From a military perspective, nobody ever took our forces in Yemen seriously. Perhaps they started understanding it when our missiles hit Aramco.” [..] “Past Yemeni governments had missiles, but after 9/11 Yemen was banned from buying weapons from Russia. But we still had 400 missiles in warehouses in South Yemen. We used 200 Scuds – the rest is still there [laughs].”

Al-Emad breaks down Houthi weaponry into three categories: the old missile stock; cannibalized missiles using different spare parts (“transformation made in Yemen”); and those with new technology that use reverse engineering. He stressed: “We accept help from everybody,” which suggests that not only Tehran and Hezbollah are pitching in. Al-Emad’s key demand is actually humanitarian: “We request that Sana’a airport be reopened for help to the Yemeni people.” And he has a message for global public opinion that the EU-3 are obviously not aware of: “Saudi is collapsing and America is embracing it in its fall.”

On the energy front, Persian Gulf energy traders that I have relied upon as trustworthy sources for two decades confirm that, contrary to Saudi Oil Minister Abdulazziz bin Salman’s spin, the damage from the Houthi attack on Abqaiq could last not only “months” but even years. As a Dubai-based trader put it: “When an Iraqi pipeline was damaged in the mid-2000s the pumps were destroyed. It takes two years to replace a pump as the backlogs are long. The Saudis, to secure their pipelines, acquired spare pumps for this reason. But they did not dream that Abqaiq could be damaged. If you build a refinery it can take three to five years if not more.

Read more …

“The secret probe is the consequence of a criminal complaint filed by Assange himself, in which he accuses Morales and the company of the alleged offenses involving violations of his privacy and the secrecy of his client-attorney privileges, as well as misappropriation, bribery and money laundering.”

Spanish Security Company Spied On Julian Assange In London For US (El Pais)

Undercover Global S. L., the Spanish defense and private security company that was charged with protecting the Ecuadorian embassy in London during the long stay there of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, spied on the cyberactivist for the US intelligence service. That’s according to statements and documents to which EL PAÍS have had access. David Morales, the owner of the company, supposedly handed over audio and video to the CIA of the meetings Assange held with his lawyers and collaborators. Morales is being investigated for this activity by Spain’s High Court, the Audiencia Nacional.

The judicial investigation into the director of UC Global S. L. and the activities of his company were ordered by a judge named José de la Mata, and they began weeks after EL PAÍS published videos, audios and reports that show how the company spied on the meetings that the cyberactivist held in the embassy. The secret probe is the consequence of a criminal complaint filed by Assange himself, in which he accuses Morales and the company of the alleged offenses involving violations of his privacy and the secrecy of his client-attorney privileges, as well as misappropriation, bribery and money laundering.

Morales, a former member of the military who is on leave of absence, stated both verbally and in writing to a number of his employees that, despite having been hired by the government of then-Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa, he also worked “for the Americans,” to whom he allegedly sent documents, videos and audios of the meetings that the Australian activist held in the embassy. “We are playing in another league. This is the first division,” he told his closest colleagues after attending a security fair in the US city of Las Vegas in 2015 where he supposedly made his first American contacts. Despite the fact that the Spanish firm – which is headquartered in the southern city of Jerez de la Frontera – was hired by Senain, the Ecuadorian intelligence services, Morales called on his employees several times to keep his relationship with the US intelligence services a secret.

The owner of UC Global S. L. ordered a meeting between the head of the Ecuadorian secret service, Rommy Vallejo, and Assange to be spied on, at a time when they were planning the exit of Assange from the Ecuadorian embassy using a diplomatic passport in order to take him to another country. This initiative was eventually rejected by Assange on the basis that he considered it to be “a defeat,” that would fuel conspiracy theories, according to sources close to the company consulted by this newspaper. The meeting took place on December 21, 2017 in the meeting room of the diplomatic building and was recorded both on video and audio by cameras installed by Morales’ employees.

Read more …

This is absolutely nuts. You need 100,000 at the very least, or mayhem will ensue. And the US can easily absorb those numbers. There are a million people coming, minimum, each year.

Trump Administration Proposes Historically Low Refugee Limit (AP)

The Trump administration wants to cap the number of refugees admitted into the United States to the lowest number since the resettlement program was created in 1980. A State Department proposal released Thursday would put a cap on the number of refugees at 18,000 for the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1. Of those refugee admissions spots, 5,000 would be set aside for persecuted religious minorities — an attempt to bolster President Donald Trump’s heightened focus on global religious freedom — and 1,500 would be set aside for nationals of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, who are seeking asylum in the United States in far greater numbers.


Last year, the administration placed the cap at a record low of 30,000. The historically low limits have drawn protests from human rights groups as well as government officials. “To cut the number of refugees the U.S. will accept to this low of a number reflects nothing more than this administration’s attempts to further hate, division and prejudice in a country that once valued dignity, equality and fairness,” said Ryan Mace, Grassroots Advocacy and Refugee Specialist at Amnesty International USA. The group dismissed arguments that the U.S. lacks the capacity to adequately vet and settle refugees, calling this “a purely political decision.”

Read more …

 

Whistleblowers: WikiLeaks has never revealed a source.

 

 

 

 

 

Home Forums Debt Rattle September 27 2019

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  • #50154

    Salvador Dali Self-portrait in the studio 1919   • These Once-Secret Memos Cast Doubt On Joe Biden’s Ukraine Story (Solomon) • Democrats Reveal t
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle September 27 2019]

    #50155
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    Another issue that nobody acts upon.

    • US Annual Health Insurance Costs Hit Record High Above $20,000 (BBG)

    This is an issue I just don’t get and as you say: nobody acts upon.
    The healthcare here in Thailand is just plain awesome.
    Last week I scraped my arm on a very rusty fastener breaking the skin. It’s been at least 12 years since my last tetanus shot. So, I went to a private hospital; got a tetanus shot and my scrape dressed. This was in the emergency ward (their choice). Total for my Social Insurance was zero baht, including no co pay or anything else. My Social Insurance cost me $USD 14.40 per month.
    Two weeks ago I went to our government hospital to see if there was any remedy for my arthritic flare-ups. A specialist’s visit including x-rays was fully paid by my wife’s insurance (which I qualify to use) netting us a zero outlay.
    I’m not bragging! Just offering that there are options out there if you dare…

    #50156
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    Salvador Dali Self-portrait in the studio 1919

    An interesting painting. Lovely location; and view from his studio.
    The colors are primarily red, even going outside; except the walls around the door; hmmm…
    There’s got to be some symbolism there…
    Anyhoo, I like it very much.

    #50157

    remember, Dali was born in 1904

    #50158
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    remember, Dali was born in 1904

    It’s good you remind me of that…I do forget…

    #50159
    christopher cobb
    Participant

    ‘Makes me think of how Britain fought back vs Germany, and Viernam vs the US. Once your entire economy moves into self-defense mode, -almost- anything is possible.’

    If you substitute Russia for Britain and self-defense mode for socialism that statement would be accurate.

    #50160
    Dr. D
    Participant

    It is probably cheaper to fly to Thailand to get that shot than get it in Tallahassee. I’m not joking. It’s already cheaper to fly to Tokyo for an MRI than have it in Tulsa.

    …But we’re not ready for reform yet. Now is not the time for a market.

    #50161
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Since China discovered they like to, you know, eat, and that food is better than no food, they’ve started buying millions in U.S. meat and soy. So much for their farm-boycott and attempt at foreign election rigging (in this capacity).

    In honor of this victory, I think we should unequivocally surrender the way the NY Times economists told us we must.

    Britain has the same advisors: they claim that Britain will be boycotted by Europe; okay, sure, why not? However, in the same breath, an independent Britain will leave their markets open to all dumping, and let their farmers collapse. …And I’m sure they would if May and Corbyn were in charge, just to punish those uppity Brexiteers, aka, everyone outside of London.

    Here’s a more realistic scenario: Europe will TRY to boycott Britain and kill as many Britons as they can, however their own internal pressure won’t allow it, as Spanish produce farmers would collapse instead. At the same time, Britain will give great preference to local produce – hey isn’t that environmental or something, just like Westminster and the EU natter on about? – however, they can finely tune the cost of food by keeping it as low as possible for the country, while not allowing too many farms to suffer.

    In addition, like ALL production – and shhh, apparently this is a secret that economists never heard of – when farms and factories go into bankruptcy, their productive assets are not set on fire, nuked, put through an industrial shredder, loaded on a ship, and scattered at sea. No really: it may seem a miracle, but farms and factories, industrial assets stay right where they are, unharmed. Honest. Their ownership simply transfers to another person. While that is a human tragedy, it’s also a human benefit of the first order since the debt is erased by the transfer, and the banks take a 2×4 to the face for making idiotic, unadvised loans.

    Unfortunately, they’ll just have Westminster get the money back from the people, the very farmers that just lost their shirt, now sleeping rough in Yorkshire. …Or for exactly so long as you reject capitalism, and endorse socialism, which does not allow bankruptcy for the insider party members and protected class. No optimism that will happen soon.

    “You need 100,000 at the very least, …. There are a million people coming, minimum, each year.”

    Why? You’re saying the U.S. is required to build a new American city each year, just ‘cause, while a city of one million — their own home, which they are a fully free citizen of — is vacated and lies empty. Does that seem logical? Don’t we have to cut down a hundred new forests and pave a hundred new miles that way? And how did the number of applicants reach 1M/year? Because for decades they have always said yes to every thing, exactly for this reason: to disrupt and destroy both nations involved. Before this began there was as much, or even more suffering, yet the U.S. was not expected by law to accept every person on earth who felt like moving. So it’s a matter of expectations, not reality.

    As I’ve said before, what you’re really doing is taking the most active, hardworking people with the most talent and initiative, and sucking them out of their home countries rather than fix them. It’s called “brain drain” and it’s a well-known method of attacking and destroying other areas or nations. Yet somehow doing that, economically and socially attacking poor, small places like Guatemala is now a social good.
    Same with Europe. The promise that the poorest of Europe must accept all, with unlimited, unimaginable social benefits is the sole reason hundreds, now thousands, of people, children, have drowned in boats. If they didn’t think they would be accepted, if they thought they would be turned around, they would be safe at home, and by being there, wanting a better life, would be fighting for their home country, fixing it, and their home country could not get so bad in the first place. They know this, and since the plan of the paymasters of the NGOs is to destroy everything in “disaster capitalism”, well-known, whole books published, as obviously it’s easier to attack and extract a nation you’ve eliminated all the people, all the defenders from. Don’t help this their rapacious destruction, and attack the U.S. too.

    Refugee status is by definition meant to be a very narrow thing. It does not include people from Africa who spend $10,000 to fly across the ocean then walk through 10 safe nations because they feel America is the best. I can spend $10k, fly to Berlin first-class, do a backpack tour of Europe, then wash ashore in Monaco and demand they take me because Monaco is richer. This is an extreme, rare, last-case event. Therefore, barring a world war, there cannot possibly be 1 Million refugees for the U.S. alone.

    I’m quite sure every body from Pittsburgh to Cheyenne would love to be a refugee in Milan, coming as they do from cities without safe water, with abusive police, with high crime rates, and with 100,000 people a year being killed from opioids, poor health care, malnutrition, and despair, however, what entitles their refugee status in Zurich? Nothing. You would think it crazy for Ohioans to flood Madrid and Stockholm for a better life, yet, it’s completely acceptable to flood TO Ohio, which is no less desperate. Yet those very same people, who already have no jobs, no houses, no health care, are REQUIRED to provide support to people nearly as desperate as themselves, while letting their own home counties die?

    Here’s a rough definition:

    “In general, eligibility for refugee status requires that: You are located outside the United States. You have been persecuted for fear persecution related to related to one of five things: race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.”

    I guarantee people all over the United States fear, rightly or wrongly, persecution for their race, absolutely. Religion, absolutely, Membership in a group, absolutely. And as they see with Facebook, debanking, and whistleblowers, political opinion, absolutely. I fear so myself, every day. Does that mean Acapulco or Copenhagen has to support me? Apparently yes.

    So my proposal is that all 330 Million Americans move to Europe by New Years’, in search of this freer, better life. You can’t stop us, that’s the law.

    …Or is there indeed some difference?

    Refugee status is meant to be rare and extreme, not to move hundred of millions per decade and create economically exploitable social havoc worldwide.

    #50162
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    It is probably cheaper to fly to Thailand to get that shot than get it in Tallahassee. I’m not joking. It’s already cheaper to fly to Tokyo for an MRI than have it in Tulsa.

    My sister flew here for a root canal and crown.
    She stayed with us for a month and flew back to Oregon with money left over; plus she got a vacation; price included…

    #50163

    ‘Makes me think of how Britain fought back vs Germany, and Viernam vs the US. Once your entire economy moves into self-defense mode, -almost- anything is possible.’
    If you substitute Russia for Britain and self-defense mode for socialism that statement would be accurate.

    It you want to claim the UK and US were socialist countries in WWII, be my guest.

    #50164
    anticlimactic
    Participant

    SAUDI

    The drones are far too small to have flown any distance.

    They are remarkably intact, and I wonder if they had any explosives in them at all. By contrast the front ends of the misslles are completely missing as you would expect from an explosion.

    Having seen a picture of one head on it looks like landing gear was folded into the wings! This means they were not built as suicide drones as the weight and complexity would be pointless, and it would take up fuel space. They look like they are simple reconnaissance drones which were smashed into the target structures! Even the front covering is intact!

    They may have been built to an Iranian design but there seems no reason to believe that Iran had any further input, unless the engines show a sophisticated manufacture.

    If, as I suspect, they were shipped to Saudi on a truck or in a container and launched locally then there is no real defense, except possibly a Pantsir if strategically placed.

    Picture can be seen at :

    https://www.rt.com/usa/469369-redacted-tonight-saudi-oil-attack-media/

    #50166
    christopher cobb
    Participant

    I’m not claiming Britain and America were socialist- although they did institute aspects of a planned economy in war time.

    If you are claiming Britain and America won WW2, go ahead, but you’d be dead wrong again.

    #50167
    Dr. D
    Participant
    #50168

    Dr. D, love the pics and the idea. Took out the last one because it didn’t display properly

    #50169
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    “They are remarkably intact, and I wonder if they had any explosives in them at all.”

    FWIW, commercial drones are designed to detach from packages not blow up with them. The military definition of delivery system differs from the (let’s call it) Amazon model of delivery systems in that Amazon drones aren’t designed to blow up with the package on the delivery site.

    Naturally, the drones wouldn’t turnaround and fly back home even if they had the fuel. That would be to suicidally point flying arrows at your home base/chosen operating area. The drones were allowed to crash once any bombs were dropped, or deliberately driven into targets for what further damage they might cause.

    “Unlike everything false on T.V., this is what America really looks like:”

    Here in Portland, it’s mostly all new and grand in our little Pacific Northwest prosperity zone. We don’t have run-down homes and buildings. We just have run-down homeless people everywhere.

    Why here? Because:

    a) many people can’t afford to pay the over-priced rent in our over-hyped prosperity zone, and once you hit the streets, it takes enormous lift to pull you off;

    b) this being a prosperity zone, homelessness pays better than it does in, say, Baltimore or Detroit, so local homeless tend to stay while homeless from elsewhere tend to come here to enjoy the relatively good begging;

    c) while it’s wet around here, it doesn’t get too cold nor too warm, and;

    d) weed is legal, and street life without a buzz is hell with a suicide chaser.

    Homeless is as homeless does:

    Homeless Portland

    “The Trump administration wants to cap the number of refugees admitted into the United States to the lowest number since the resettlement program was created in 1980. A State Department proposal released Thursday would put a cap on the number of refugees at 18,000 for the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1. Of those refugee admissions spots, 5,000 would be set aside for persecuted religious minorities — an attempt to bolster President Donald Trump’s heightened focus on global religious freedom — and 1,500 would be set aside for nationals of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, who are seeking asylum in the United States in far greater numbers.”

    There could be a wise, if cruel, logic to this in that refugees from where we create mayhem are likely to have a significantly higher proportion of souls angry at USA and willing to do mayhem within. And most refugees derive from our mayhem (including global warming, of which USA is the official avatar). Just sayin’. I ain’t buying the logic, but that’s cuz I’m a bleeding-heart liberal at the core.

    But that logic doesn’t apply to refugees from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, nations we’ve grievously scarred. These nations are known for producing criminal gangsters of exceptionally violent nature uncommonly adept at besting our oh-so-brave-and-brilliant constabulary as they play Home Soldiers in their used tanks and Operation Desert Storm (that was a recent war, wasn’t it? or just a fashion tag?) bulletproof superhero costumes.

    If one chooses to assume, however briefly, that there is method to this particular madness, then I suggest the rabid conspiracy notion that this is some kind of steroidal Operation Paperclip on krokodil.

    But surely there’s a logical rationale to this that someone can share with us.

    Because I was raised in Chicago but born in South Carolina (’56, y’all, first string of the second wave of Boomers, that generation of Boomers who was too young to remember live broadcasts of Howdy Doody, and know of Him only through the few video remnants), I especially appreciate this telling of the One True Genuine Birth of Funk:

    Hey! Watermelon Man!

    Fiddle you Romans, fiddle!

    #50170
    boscohorowitz
    Participant
    #50171
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    “If, as I suspect, they were shipped to Saudi on a truck or in a container and launched locally then there is no real defense, except possibly a Pantsir if strategically placed.”

    Cost of drones compared to milindustry missile systems says the Houthis win this war, if necessary, on attrition alone.

    #50172
    kultsommer
    Participant

    Great collection of photos Dr.
    Utter destruction by the same people who are telling us that (high rise) buildings can be destroyed by the office fire.
    Arnold, as for the hidden symbolism in Dali’s painting: OUTSIDE light of fiery sunset (I doubt that it was a dawn) pouring INTO the room. That’s all.

    #50173
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    And the US can easily absorb those numbers.

    Back in 2017, when the US government resettled about 33,000 refugees (almost double the new limit), this was still only 102 refugees per one million US residents, which is about one refugee per 100,000 residents. About one refugee added to the population of a small city. I’ve lived in a small town of 3,000 that could easily absorb one refugee per year.

    Refugees resettled per one million residents (2017)
    United States 102
    Norway 528
    Australia 618
    Canada 725

    https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/overview-us-refugee-law-and-policy

    #50174
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    How embarrassing, a decimal point error, should be 1 refugee per 10,000 residents, but it doesn’t change the point about my small town of 3,000.

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