Dec 232019
 
 December 23, 2019  Posted by at 10:07 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , ,


Mathew Brady Three captured Confederate soldiers, Gettysburg, PA 1863

 

ECB’s Knot Says Low Rate Policy Risks Becoming Counterproductive (R.)
Doomsday Debt Machine: Impeach Congress, Too! (Stockman)
Nancy Pelosi: The Woman Who Stood Up To Trump (G.)
Adam Schiff Has ‘No Sympathy’ For FBI Victim Carter Page (ZH)
SmoCo Sneaks Home Amid The Ashes Of His Government (MB)
Why Public College Should Be Free (Covert)
London Will Never Give Independence – We Must Take It (Craig Murray)
West Africa Renames CFA Franc But Keeps It Pegged To Euro (R.)
Erdogan Says Turkey Can’t Handle New Migrant Wave From Syria, Warns Europe (R.)

 

 

Central banker who makes an excellent case against central bank interference in interest rates. But he doesn’t even get it himself, so how can a petty journalist? The idea that somehow magically conditions will (re-)appear that favor raising rates is as faulty as it is dumb. There is no way back. They’ve entered a black hole, they’ve crossed the event horizon.

ECB’s Knot Says Low Rate Policy Risks Becoming Counterproductive (R.)

Interest rates in the euro zone could remain historically low for years, but the European Central Bank’s (ECB) ultra-loose monetary policy risks becoming counterproductive, ECB governing council member Klaas Knot said in an interview published on Monday. “I do not have a crystal ball, but I cannot rule out that the current low interest rate environment could last another five years”, Knot told Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant. “This worries me, because temporarily low interest rates are something quite different from persistently low interest rates.” The Dutch central bank president said the current low rates lead to excessive risk taking among investors, while younger generations on the other hand might feel forced to keep increasing their savings.


“From a macro-economic perspective that would be undesirable,” Knot said. “And it is also an example of how our low interest rate policy may eventually shoot itself in the foot. If people start saving more in response to the low interest rates, this will add further downward pressure on inflation.” Knot is a frequent critic of the ECB’s ultra-easy monetary policy, and slammed the bank’s new stimulus measures earlier this year as disproportionate. The Dutchman has repeatedly said he is looking forward to the strategic review of ECB policy, promised by its new President Christine Lagarde, and has called for the bank to adopt a more flexible inflation target. “The balance between positive and negative effects of the low interest rates is shifting in the wrong direction”, he told the paper.

Read more …

High crimes.

Doomsday Debt Machine: Impeach Congress, Too! (Stockman)

If bringing one’s country to fiscal ruin were an impeachable offense, you’d have to impeach the entire city of Washington. On December 16 the gross Federal debt breached a new level to $23.1 trillion, while the net debt after $401 billion of cash weighed in at $22.71 trillion. The latter monstrous figure is notable because on June 30, 2019 it stood at $21.76 trillion. So what has happened in the last 167 days is a $948 billion increase in the Uncle Sam’s net debt, which amounts to a gain of $5.7 billion per day – including, as we like to say, weekends, holidays and snow days.

Worse still, not a single dollar of that gain got absorbed in government trust funds. The Treasury float held by the public actually rose by $953 billion. So why in the world do the knuckleheads on bubblevision not understand where the spiking rates and ructions in the repo market came from? The law of supply and demand is still operative, and the US Treasury is literally flooding the bond pits with new supply. Even at the bottom of the Great Recession, Uncle Sam did not drain $5.7 billion per day from the bond market.


But nary a soul down in the Imperial City has noticed this borrowing eruption at the tippy-top of the business cycle, which now teeters on borrowed time at a record 127 months of age. Instead, this very day the Congress is busily engaged in what is a fair approximation of abolishing the election process at the heart of American democracy. We will address today’s hideous impeachment Gong Show below. But here we note that every talking head showing up on the screen today is claiming that the market can keep on bubbling higher because the pending impeachment of the nation’s 45th president is a great big nothingburger. Au contraire!

Read more …

It’s not easy to even imagine, but there are people who see Pelosi as a hero. That they need to quote Leon Panetta to make that case should say enough. Still, after, Russiagate, Mueller, Ukrainegate, Pelosi refusing to send article to the Senate, this is just deaf, dumb and blind.

Nancy Pelosi: The Woman Who Stood Up To Trump (G.)

In December 2018, weeks after the Democrats’ conquest of the House, the soon-to-be speaker arrived for a White House meeting with Donald Trump. The subject was a government shutdown but the subtext was a showdown between the most powerful woman in American politics and the president of the United States. In the extraordinary, televised exchange that followed, Trump sought to undermine Nancy Pelosi, whom he repeatedly addressed as “Nancy”, by reminding his audience in the Oval Office – and those watching at home – that she had yet to secure the 218 votes needed to reclaim the speakership and was “in a situation where it’s not easy for her to talk right now”. Her response was sharp and sure. “Mr President, please don’t characterize the strength that I bring to this meeting.”

It was the first test of a new power dynamic in Washington and when it ended, there was little disagreement over who had won. Pelosi emerged from the White House wearing a now-famous burnt-orange coat, sunglasses and the triumphant smile of a woman who has never forgotten the advice imparted to her by the late Louisiana congresswoman Lindy Boggs: “Darlin’, know thy power and use it.” That 15-minute Oval Office meeting marked the beginning of a struggle between Pelosi and Trump that culminated last week in the president’s impeachment by the House of Representatives for “high crimes and misdemeanors”. Pelosi, dressed in funeral black, banged down her speaker’s gavel to finalize the vote, binding together their legacies for all time.

It was not how Pelosi, who once said Trump was “not worth” impeaching, had hoped to end a year that began with her historic, second ascension to the speakership. Pelosi, the first – and only – woman ever to serve as Speaker of the House, would rather be remembered for legislative accomplishments – the Affordable Care Act above all – than for impeachment. But Trump, Pelosi said, left her “no choice”. She quoted Thomas Paine: “The times have found us.” In the wake of Trump’s impeachment, however, Democrats believe there was perhaps no leader better suited to the times. “She is, thank God, the exact right person in the right place at the right time,” said Leon Panetta, a former defense secretary and CIA director and a California native who’s known Pelosi for decades.

“I’m not sure anybody else would have had the experience or capability to be able to do what she has done.” “Donald Trump really has met his match with Nancy,” Panetta added. Her grace under fire as speaker has earned comparisons to Sam Rayburn, the country’s longest-serving speaker, who died in 1961. One Democrat called her an “as good or better” legislative leader than Lyndon Johnson, who was a Senate majority leader before he was president. And when the question is asked whether a female presidential candidate can beat Trump in 2020, the Democrats point to Pelosi, who “does it every single day”.

Read more …

It’s OK for the FBI to break the law 6 ways from Sunday because Schiff doesn’t like the guy they spied on. And it’s not even 2020 yet.

Adam Schiff Has ‘No Sympathy’ For FBI Victim Carter Page (ZH)

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) says it’s hard to feel sympathetic for former Trump campaign aide Carter Page, despite the fact that he was spied on by the FBI after the agency fabricated evidence to obtain a surveillance warrant from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court. After the FISA court denied their request, FBI attorney Kevin Clinesmith fabricated evidence to exclude the fact that Page was a CIA source, with “positive assessment,” despite the fact that the CIA informed Clinesmith of Page’s prior work for the agency. Schiff, however, has no love for Page despite DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz finding 16 significant ‘errors’ in the FBI’s FISA applications used to surveil Page.


“I have to say, you know, Carter Page came before our Committee and for hours of his testimony, denied things that we knew were true, later had to admit them during his testimony,” Schiff told PBS News’ Margaret Hoover. “It’s hard to be sympathetic to someone who isn’t honest with you when he comes and testifies under oath. It’s also hard to be sympathetic when you have someone who has admitted to being an adviser to the Kremlin.” Hoover countered, noting “But then was also informing the CIA,” to which Schiff replies “Yes, yes.” “Which we didn’t know about,” replied Hoover. “Who was both targeted by the KGB but also talking to the United States and its agencies and that should have been included, made clear, and it wasn’t, according to the inspector general,” Schiff responded.

Read more …

When is the last time Australia had an actual politician? How is the entire country not a province for US and UK bankers to loot?

SmoCo Sneaks Home Amid The Ashes Of His Government (MB)

There are moments in politics when everything that has come before is crystalised in a moment. Malcolm Turnbull branded himself a phony when he leapt into bed with the Coalition’s right wing. Tony Abbott captured himself when he recommended Prince Phillip be offered an Australian knighthood. Before him, John Howard made himself a political legend when he threw children overboard. Julia Gillard did it in her act of backstabbing. Kevin Rudd did it when he dumped climate change mitigation for Big Australia. Paul Keating branded himself forever with the “recession we had to have”. So on and so forth. These are moments when the truth about a leader’s character is revealed for all to see and branded that way forever more.

For Keating it was arrogance. For Howard it was opportunism. For Rudd it was narcissism. For Gillard it was illegitimacy. For Abbott it was archaic ineptitute. For Turnbull it was hollowness. That moment arrived last week for Scott Morrison. He will henceforth be remembered as SmoCo, the guy that fled to Hawaii – sand, sun and Mai Tais – as his nation burned to the ground. No doubt his minders will kid themselves that he can spin his way out of it. That the marketing guru will find a new angle to shift the blame elsewhere. They are wrong. The Morrsion Government is now covered in ash and forever will be. Over Christmas tables across the nation for the next week, SmoCo will be a combined laughing stock and object of incredulous anger.

SmoCo of the “quiet Australians” has become instead the incredible vanishing PM. In truth, it’s not all SmoCo’s fault. His party is really to blame. It has made destructive climate politics the centre of its value system for thirty years. It has unilaterally blockaded global action. It has embraced and defended carbon interests. It has ruined the debate with pseudo-science. It has trashed energy policy and twisted mitigation policy to such an extent that Australia now faces combined environmental and energy calamity. From day one, it has divided and conquered instead of uniting and acting.

Read more …

Another one of those discussions that cannot be avoided or ignored. Still, Sanders and Warren haven’t found the solution yet.

Why Public College Should Be Free (Covert)

Nearly all of the Democratic presidential candidates have plans to reduce the exorbitant cost of college. But there’s an emerging rift: On one side, candidates like Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders have proposed making public college free for all; on the other, candidates like Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar want to make it free for only a slice of the population. The latter worry that by providing free college to everyone who wants it—including, in Buttigieg’s words, “the children of millionaires and billionaires”—too many resources will be squandered on the rich. In reality, we already subsidize college for kids from wealthy families, and those further down the income scale would benefit the most if public institutions were free.

In 2017, the most recent year for which we have data, all of the tuition and fees charged by public colleges came to $75.8 billion. That’s less than what the federal government spends to subsidize the cost of college. In the same year, the government disbursed about $160 billion in the form of student loans, grants, and tax breaks to help make higher education less of a burden on American families. Certainly the students who take advantage of those federal funds use them to go to a variety of higher education institutions, not just public colleges. But it would be more efficient to simply eliminate public college tuition than to spend all that money propping up institutions through a maze of grants and tax breaks.

Right now, the government’s money flows largely to well-off students. After student loans, the biggest chunk of student aid is delivered through the tax code; excluding loans, it makes up more than half of all aid. In 2012 the federal government gave $34 billion in tax breaks, a billion more than it spent on Pell Grants for those in financial need. And most of that money is going to the wealthiest families. In 2013, for example, families that made $100,000 or more a year captured more than half of the tuition and fees deduction as well as the exemption for dependent students.

Read more …

Murray is a proud Scot.

London Will Never Give Independence – We Must Take It (Craig Murray)

Yesterday the Scottish Government published “Scotland’s Right to Choose“, its long heralded paper on the path to a new Independence referendum. It is a document riven by a basic intellectual flaw. It sets out in detail, and with helpful annexes, that Scotland is a historic nation with the absolute and inalienable right of self-determination, and that sovereignty lies not in the Westminster parliament but with the Scottish people. It then contradicts all of this truth by affirming, at length, in detail, and entirely without reservation, that Scotland can only hold a legitimate Independence referendum if the Westminster Parliament devolves the power to do so under Section 30. Both propositions cannot be true. Scotland cannot be a nation with the right of self-determination, and at the same time require the permission of somebody else to exercise that self-determination.


I was trying to find the right words to discuss the document. One possibility was “schizophrenic”. The first half appears to be written by somebody with a fundamental belief in Scottish Independence, and contains this passage: “The United Kingdom is best understood as a voluntary association of nations, in keeping with the principles of democracy and self determination. For the place of Scotland in the United Kingdom to be based on the people of Scotland’s consent, Scotland must be able to choose whether and when it should make a decision about its future. The decision whether the time is right for the people who live in Scotland again to make a choice about their constitutional future is for the Scottish Parliament, as the democratic voice of Scotland, to make.”

Read more …

Colonialism takes many forms.

West Africa Renames CFA Franc But Keeps It Pegged To Euro (R.)

West Africa’s monetary union has agreed with France to rename its CFA franc the Eco and cut some of the financial links with Paris that have underpinned the region’s common currency since its creation soon World War Two. Under the deal, the Eco will remain pegged to the euro but the African countries in the bloc won’t have to keep 50% of their reserves in the French Treasury and there will no longer be a French representative on the currency union’s board. Critics of the CFA have long seen it as a relic from colonial times while proponents of the currency say it has provided financial stability in a sometimes turbulent region.

“This is a historic day for West Africa,” Ivory Coast’s President Alassane Ouattara said during a news conference with French President Emmanuel Macron in the country’s main city Abidjan. In 2017, Macron highlighted the stabilizing benefits of the CFA but said it was up to African governments to determine the future of the currency. “Yes, it’s the end of certain relics of the past. Yes it’s progress … I do not want influence through guardianship, I do not want influence through intrusion. That’s not the century that’s being built today,” said Macron. The CFA is used in 14 African countries with a combined population of about 150 million and $235 billion of gross domestic product.

However, the changes will only affect the West African form of the currency used by Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea Bissau, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo – all former French colonies except Guinea Bissau. The six countries using the Central African CFA are Cameroon, Chad, Central African Republic, Congo Republic, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon, – all former French colonies with the exception of Equatorial Guinea. The CFA’s value relative to the French franc remained unchanged from 1948 through to 1994 when it was devalued by 50% to boost exports from the region.

Read more …

Another attack on Assad, under a different guise. We eagerly await comment from Bellingcat and the White Helmets. And what’s that smell?

Erdogan Says Turkey Can’t Handle New Refugee Wave From Syria, Warns Europe (R.)

Turkey cannot handle a fresh wave of migrants from Syria, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday, warning that European countries will feel the impact of such an influx if violence in Syria’s northwest is not stopped. Turkey currently hosts some 3.7 million Syrian refugees, the largest refugee population in the world, and fears another wave from the Idlib region, where up to 3 million Syrians live in the last significant rebel-held swathe of territory. Syrian and Russian forces have intensified their bombardment of targets in Idlib, which Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad has vowed to recapture, prompting a wave of refugees toward Turkey.

Speaking at an awards ceremony in Istanbul on Sunday night, Erdogan said more than 80,000 people were currently on the move from Idlib to Turkey. “If the violence toward the people of Idlib does not stop, this number will increase even more. In that case, Turkey will not carry such a migrant burden on its own,” Erdogan said. “The negative impact of the pressure we will be subjected to will be something that all European nations, especially Greece, will also feel,” he said, adding that a repeat of the 2015 migrant crisis would become inevitable. He also said Turkey was doing everything possible to stop Russian bombardments in Idlib, adding that a Turkish delegation would go to Moscow to discuss Syria on Monday.

[..] Turkey is seeking international support for plans to settle 1 million Syrians in part of northeast Syria that its forces and their Syrian rebel allies seized from the Kurdish YPG militia in a cross-border incursion in October. Ankara has received little public backing for the proposal and has repeatedly slammed its allies for not supporting its plans. Turkey’s offensive was also met with condemnation from allies, including the United States and European countries. “We call on European countries to use their energy to stop the massacre in Idlib, rather than trying to corner Turkey for the legitimate steps it took in Syria,” Erdogan said on Sunday, referring to the three military operations Turkey has carried out in Syria.

After a global refugee forum in Geneva last week, the United Nations refugee agency said states pledged more than $3 billion to support refugees and around 50,000 resettlement places. But, Erdogan, who attended the forum, said on Sunday that sum was not enough. U.N agencies say hundreds of people have been killed in Idlib this year after attacks on residential areas. Russia and the Syrian army, which is loyal to President Bashar al-Assad, both deny allegations of indiscriminate bombing of civilian areas and say they are fighting al Qaeda-inspired Islamist militants.

Read more …

 

 

 

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Home Forums Debt Rattle December 23 2019

Viewing 9 posts - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)
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  • #52298

    Mathew Brady Three captured Confederate soldiers, Gettysburg, PA 1863   • ECB’s Knot Says Low Rate Policy Risks Becoming Counterproductive (R.) •
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle December 23 2019]

    #52299
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    Okay, okay; so distilling all of this down; we’re fucked!
    That’s the final, the distilate; we’re fucked!
    No matter how one spins it; interprets it, we’re fucked.
    LOL, finally we know the facts of what’s in store for us; so, now we can finally formulate a plan; for our survival, or at least a hope for such……..
    There’s always an alternative, until there isn’t………..

    #52300
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    Mathew Brady Three captured Confederate soldiers, Gettysburg, PA 1863
    Such an excellent photo…
    It’s real…on second thought, honest, is more to the point…

    #52301
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Looks like a prospective barn there on the ground, and the land has been cleared to the horizon.

    “If people start saving more in response to the low interest rates,”

    Hold on: if rates rose, wouldn’t high interest rates encourage people to save at interest? So your argument is that high interest rates cause savings but LOW interest rates cause saving too? You’re fired. And he’s “this might, maybe, someday cause bad effects.” You mean like ’99 where low rates caused a tech bubble to pop? Or like low rates you put in response to that which caused the housing bubble to pop? Or do you mean now, when thanks to your low rates all the pension funds are going bankrupt?

    “I cannot rule out that the current low interest rate environment could last another five years”

    Wow, it’s almost like you’re suggest YOU are not the person using $1 Trillion a QUARTER in interventions to FORCE those rates to be low while fighting every other market participant on earth with the taxpayer’s money. Must be the weather or lizard space aliens doing it or something. 1-2-3: Not It!

    Doomsday Debt Machine: Impeach Congress, Too! (Stockman)

    Ah, ‘tis but to dream. But if this debt machine pops, I’m sure they will WISH they were impeached rather than what’s more likely to happen involving rope and tall objects. Apparently the people get the government they deserve. They wanted more money, even free money. They wanted corruption, and boy did they get it good and hard.

    Nancy Pelosi: The Woman Who Stood Up to Trump (G.)

    …Or not. There was a “national security emergency” that meant they just couldn’t wait for the natural election but it was vital to impeach immediately. …Until there wasn’t, and now we can wait indefinitely, perhaps until November, who knows? I would think “standing up” would be prosecuting your case, not sitting on it.

    “It’s OK for the FBI to break the law 6 ways from Sunday because Schiff doesn’t like the guy they spied on.”

    That’s the least of his crimes when he wiretaps innocent reporters and the opposition government and leaks their phone records to the public for no particular reason, just ‘cause he can. I’m sorry, but under the 4th, — which despite Clapper, might still be Federal Law – you can’t wire-tap Solomon without probable cause, and even so, you can’t release the records for no reason but personal mischief. But when nobody goes to jail, why not? What’s the rule of law but a big annoyance and obstruction to power anyway?

    If you don’t feel sympathy for someone a CIA employee and informant who was wrongly smeared for years as being a traitor, and who was spied on by his own government due to FBI lying & subterfuge, then you’re not only unqualified to wield power but probably also a sociopath. In other words: Adam Schiff.” –Greenwald

    How similar to Cheney’s treasonous destruction of CIA cover-operations everywhere in Africa simply to take revenge on one agent, Plame, over another fake, warmongering report, yellowcake? And the CIA, Pentagon, and agencies all just nodded their little heads and said, “Yes, Mas”?

    It has ruined the debate with pseudo-science.”

    You mean like the New England Journal of Medicine science? Where the editor says half of all papers are fake? That kind of pseudo-science? Gosh, we’d better start believing them far more earnestly if it’s still only HALF total, fabricated, self-serving lies.

    Why Public College Should Be Free (Covert)

    Seems like a good idea, the problem would be the parameters. First, the Federal level is prohibited under the 10thA. Second, for a thousand reasons, should only apply to students who have the grades and interest to be there and not make every class dumbed-down remedial-ed for the real students. Their stats are dumb, since aid goes to poor students. There is no sense of legal adult in student loans, and there is no rule of law, just as there is no bankruptcy: regardless of if you’re disowned or even know who your parents are, your parent’s income is YOUR income for student loans until you’re like 25. If your parents don’t put up voluntarily, you simply can’t go. That way they can screw the parents white, not just with loans, but with government backed and subsidized loans that are undischargeable in bankruptcy – yours or theirs. So what would you call a loan where the originator collects 100% of profits but has 0% risk? Answer: it’s $1T in corporate welfare to the banks, a DIRECT payment FROM the federal government TO the banking industry, no action required, no questions asked. And it’s the largest debt on our books now. The students are nothing, a zero. As no one can read, clearly college, education, or people are nothing to them. The banks and their free insider profits are all. This is just a ridiculous cover story for the world’s largest fraud. –Largest after medical and military, and probably the brazen embezzlement of that missing $20Trillion.

    Anyway, the stats just show that richer families GO to college, and their kids are more likely to go to EXPENSIVE college, therefore they are willing and able to take out more loans, where their higher costs are matched by higher aid. …Which just like “bailouts” of Greece or wherever, they act like is a gift, a scholarship. No, this may come as a shock but a student “loan” is not a help, it’s a hardship. It’s not an asset, it’s a liability. You’re not “helping” people when you put them far deeper in debt, you’re hurting them. It also shows that people, especially the upper middle class, are dumb as h—l and don’t have any financial sense while enslaving their children to a lifetime of servitude and despair. …Then wonder why their kids snort coke and misbehave.

    London Will Never Give Independence – We Must Take It (Craig Murray)

    Quite correct, and they have the right. However, like Poland, Scotland continually is destroying themselves by doing the wrong thing at exactly the wrong time. Maybe should have called independence when you could take the North Seas, not the moment those wells and their money collapse? England would be thrilled to let you go, there’s no more shipyards or coal mines and the transfer payments north are legendary.

    “And what’s that smell?”

    Reminds me of the backpack CNN was sniffing to prove it has sarin gas.

    P.S., Sarin is odorless? Oh, and also maybe deadly? That’s why it’s a “deadly weapon” but don’t tell the Skripals or the 40 Bobbies who rubbed their doorknob.

    Civil War update: most of VA decides to join “sanctuary cities”, while the central government has said legally there’s no such thing. Really? Well they said the State police will risk leaving the ten richest zip codes of Farifax county and go to occupied Virginia to arrest gun owners door to door, and they said they wouldn’t. Then they said the Virginia National Guard is going to go down there and arrest all gun owners in Western Virginia AND the policemen who don’t obey, and they said they wouldn’t.

    So apparently, Virginia is giving orders and nobody’s going to follow them: not the people, the police, the counties, or their own Army. So, Governor Northam, is there no such thing as nullification, or are the people sovereign over the government? If you’re the King, and nobody in the country follows your orders, sounds like you’re the garbageman, not sovereign or legal at all. So who’s really legal when nobody will follow your orders?

    “…That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…”

    Pretty dangerous stuff. And Barr was just on TV talking about election tampering to install officials, especially D.A.s, who would make sure this war and dissent happen. But I’m sure Barr is just part of this vast conspiracy theory, along with all the people and half the government, and despite having warehouses filled with evidence, doesn’t know nothing about no crimes. But WaPo does. When have they ever lied to you?

    “Afghan Papers Inadvertently Document WaPo’s Role in Spreading Official Lies

    Afghan Papers Inadvertently Document WaPo’s Role in Spreading Official Lies


    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afghanistan_Papers

    Since we have moles burrowing tirelessly throughout the system:

    Trump’s Space Force Is Now Officially the Sixth Military Branch

    The other three branches are taking out the Air Force by creating a ground-up Space Force, then rolling the non-CIA parts from them into the new organization. Then a decade or so later, they can shut the doors on the Air Force as “redundant.” No surprise for a force that in military games always sides AGAINST the American People (and therefore against the Army and Marines) and FOR the CIA/Government. A pity it took so long, with so many thousand acts of complicity with illegal drone strikes in Yemen, illegal civilian bombings in Syria, all at the call of a drug-oil-and-slave trafficking CIA.

    …Or maybe you can tell me how they can’t see oil convoys 2 miles long in the desert, and once they find them, can only strafe them with leaflets. That’s our Air Force! Whenever ISIS needs help, the U.S. Air Force is there! The Spice must flow.

    #52302

    Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg has resigned. Or been fired, same difference. Merry Christmas.

    #52303
    zerosum
    Participant

    Sexy
    Dr. D’s programming of sexy has failed.
    Dr. D does not see the same illusion of sexy.
    Dr. D is no longer stimulated with the illusion of sexy.
    Santa is coming!
    Joy to the world!
    Merry Xmas!
    In other words
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_thinking
    Critical thinking is the analysis of facts to form a judgment.[1] The subject is complex, and several different definitions exist, which generally include the rational, skeptical, unbiased analysis, or evaluation of factual evidence. Critical thinking is self-directed, self-disciplined, self-monitored, and self-corrective thinking. It presupposes assent to rigorous standards of excellence and mindful command of their use. It entails effective communication and problem-solving abilities as well as a commitment to overcome native egocentrism[2][3] and sociocentrism.

    #52304
    Dr D Rich
    Participant

    The apt comparison is between CIA assets Ciaramella and Carter Page AND what appears to be distinctly different treatment/regard of these two CIA employees by the elected government officials at this saga’s forefront. As for fellow USNAer Page, the traits his IC handlers found useful, toxic levels of earnestness, copious venality and servility to authority are found in abundance at The Boat School (TBS). Distinct from academic and overall performance at TBS, I give you Admiral Stansfield Turner and his link to the CIA as a point of reference. Page “rates” as much sympathy as Ciaramella which is to say none. They both knew/know the game. The common thread is they both have yet to be arrested and subjected to pretrial confinement. I digress.
    I offer my firsthand observation of these characters from communications with Sy Hersh when the Iraq War was in its infancy and Dick Cheney as recently as a little over a year ago. Sy Hersh, the person observable near the end of Netflix’s Wormwood is the real deal, whatever his deal might be with the IC. He will engage you in debate about your valid experience and correct his thinking/writing when appraised of the illogic he has been subjected to by the IC. However, when pressed to do a damn thing about it, Hersh will retreat to the same predetermined warning he have gave Frank Olsen’s son, Eric, beware the level of vicious vindictiveness the IC can and will subject your life. In the end, Hersh exists to maintain access. Glenn Greenwald it seems is auditioning to be Hersh’s heir apparent.
    As for Dick Cheney, a fellow who congratulates an officer and combat veteran for helping to “defeat Russia in Iraq” during Desert Storm when he was asked do you support prosecuting the Iraq War decision-makers IS engaged in grandiose delusional thinking that is megalomaniacal in scale.
    Why this enormous distraction from what is usually not a publicly viewable contest? I agree with Dr. D. It IS a massive theft, trillions of dollars again for the third time that we know since 2008, 1) 2008 Bernanke’s Big Bank Bailout, 2) Quantitative Easing under Barack/Geithner and 3) Not-QE Overnight REPO. AND to announce the disclosure of the Afghanistan Papers, again a massive transfer of wealth to DoD and military contractors, in manner which guarantees inattention by the viewing public and their elected government representatives.
    Btw, I roomed across the hallway from Mike Silva, yes that right hand man of NY FEDs Tim Geithner, who fired Goldman-Sachs monitor Carmen Segara.

    #52306
    zerosum
    Participant

    More links with supporting documentation
    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/hunter-biden-accused-156m-ukraine-money-laundering-scheme-court-filing-linking-debunked

    Hunter Biden Denies Ukraine Money Laundering Allegations
    https://contexte.aoc.arkansas.gov/imaging/IMAGES/DMS/CK_Image.Present2?DMS_ID=8A2F2177801FD69D24715B11C43387377319B07CFC6B56472CF08D3C21A5EA3F77FD3E16AA1A75FBAF35E6365DC7ABCB1F6E9D8D16857A8176E1E0C5259A7E4F&i_url=https://contexte.aoc.arkansas.gov/imaging/IMAGES/DMS

    Filed by private investigator Dominic Casey of D&A Investigations on behalf of Lunden Alexis Roberts – with whom Hunter fathered a child, Monday’s “Notice of Fraud and Counterfeiting and Production of Evidence” alleges that Hunter Biden and associates Devon Archer and John Kerry stepson Christopher Heinz engaged in a money laundering scheme which accumulated over $156 million between March 2014 and December 2015.

    According to the document, Biden, Archer and Heinz became directors of consulting firm Rosemont Seneca Bohai, LLC in order to “conceal their family members ownership,” establishing financial accounts at Morgan Stanley and China Bank, the latter of which was used in a money laundering scheme.

    https://advisor.morganstanley.com/the-finnegan-markey-moye-schatz-group

    #52307
    WES
    Participant

    Zerosum:. Money laundering is perfectly legal when done by members of Congress and their family and friends.

    The same for lobbying fees and insider trading. Congress passed laws making all this stuff perfectly legal.

    So, not sure what the big deal is.

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