Ironic Headline Of The Day: Billionaire Buffett To Stump For Hillary’s “Everyday Americans” Campaign

Ironic Headline Of The Day: Billionaire Buffett To Stump For Hillary’s “Everyday Americans” Campaign:

Warren Buffett – billionaire investor, opposer of Citizens United but major donor to super-PACs, previous fan of Bernie Sanders, and vehement supporter of the ‘fairness doctrine’ on taxes for everyone but himself – will be joining ‘campaigner for everyday Americans’ Hillary Clinton as she stumps in Omaha this month.

Warren-Buffett

In May 2015, Buffett backed Hillary…

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett is backing Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election.

“I think that she is the most likely person to be president of the United States, elected in 2016, and I’m going to vote for her,” Buffett tells the Fox Business Network in an interview that will air Monday evening.

Read moreIronic Headline Of The Day: Billionaire Buffett To Stump For Hillary’s “Everyday Americans” Campaign

Puerto Rico Avoids $354 Million Default With Absurd Revenue “Clawback”

Puerto Rico Avoids $354 Million Default With Absurd Revenue “Clawback”:

 Earlier today, we noted that it was decision time for Puerto Rico.

Staring down a $354 million debt payment, Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla had to decide between defaulting on $273 million in GO debt (the portion of the payment guaranteed by the National Public Finance Guarantee Corp.) and holding onto cash the government needs to provide public services for the island’s citizens. 

Read morePuerto Rico Avoids $354 Million Default With Absurd Revenue “Clawback”

Zuckerberg To Donate 99% Of His Facebook Shares – Currently About $45 Billion – To “Advance Human Potential”

“We will give 99% of our Facebook shares — currently about $45 billion — during our lives to advance this mission. We know this is a small contribution compared to all the resources and talents of those already working on these issues. But we want to do what we can, working alongside many others.”


Zuckerberg To Donate 99% Of His Facebook Shares To “Advance Human Potential”:

Moments ago, in a joint letter with his wife Priscilla, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg announced that his wife had just given birth to a daughter, Max, but the real highlight of the letter is the part in the text in which he discloses that in order to “advance human potential” and “promote equality” for all children in the next generation, Zuckerberg begins the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and that in order to advance this mission, Zuckerberg will give 99% of his Facebook shares, currently worth $45 billion, to “advance this mission”

Read moreZuckerberg To Donate 99% Of His Facebook Shares – Currently About $45 Billion – To “Advance Human Potential”

Britain May Launch ISIS Strikes “Within Days”; Germany To Join With Warship, Planes, Troops

Britain May Launch ISIS Strikes “Within Days”; Germany To Join With Warship, Planes, Troops:

On Saturday, in “‘The Redcoats Are Coming!’ Britain Moves Closer To Launching Anti-ISIS Airstrikes,” we warned that the skies above Syria were about to get even more crowded as David Cameron pushed British lawmakers to approve RAF strikes on Raqqa.

“It is wrong for the United Kingdom to expect the aircrews of other nations to carry the burdens and the risks of striking ISIL in Syria to stop terrorism here in Britain,” Cameron said.

“I don’t think this is a country that lets others like the French or the Americans defend our interests and protect us from terrorist organizations – we should contribute to that effort,” Finance minister George Osborne added, underscoring the perception that Britain’s military prowess is but a shadow of what it once was.

We also noted that Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn would not use a party whip to influence MP’s decisions. Over the weekend, Corbyn expressed serious reservations about the number of “moderate” rebels on the ground in Syria and also suggested that to the extent there are enough fighters to occupy the territory held by Islamic State once the group is routed, the UK shouldn’t assume that the fighters can be trusted. “I seriously question the number, I seriously question the motives and loyalty of those forces,” Corbyn said.

On Monday, Corbyn apparently attempted to compel party members to vote against military action in line with his own stance on the issue but after what FT described as a “fraught meeting”, the Labour leader bowed to internal pressure and conceded that MPs would be allowed to vote as they choose. Additionally, Corbyn abandoned the idea of setting an official policy of opposing air strikes no matter how party members voted after Andy Burnham, shadow home secretary, said that was “unacceptable”. Here’s where Corbyn’s shadow cabinet stands:

Against airstrikes

  • Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the Labour party
  • John McDonnell, shadow chancellor
  • Jon Trickett, shadow communities secretary
  • Diane Abbott, shadow international development secretary
  • Ian Murray, shadow Scotland secretary
  • John Cryer, chairman of the parliamentary Labour party
  • Nia Griffith, shadow wales secretary

For airstrikes

  • Tom Watson, deputy leader (who has asked Cameron to delay the vote pending proof that there are actually 70,000 moderate rebels on the ground)
  • Angela Eagle, shadow first secretary of state and shadow business secretary
  • Hilary Benn, shadow foreign secretary
  • Heidi Alexander, shadow health secretary
  • Lucy Powell, shadow education secretary
  • Chris Bryant, shadow leader of the house of commons
  • Vernon Coaker, shadow northern Ireland secretary
  • Michael Dugher, shadow culture secretary

With that, the stage is set for Britain to join the fray. As FT goes on to note, Corbyn’s concession to his divided party “effectively guarantees that [David Cameron] can secure a Commons majority for war.” British military action could start “within days” as the PM “reacted quickly to Corbyn’s capitulation, announcing after he returned from the Paris climate summit that he would recommend to the cabinet on Tuesday that a one-day debate and vote on military intervention in Syria be held on Wednesday.”

With the vote thus set, “RAF crews could be bombing the Isis headquarters in Raqqa by the end of the week,”The Guardian says. On Tuesday, Cameron said “the decision to take military action is one of the most serious a prime minister can make. Isis poses a very direct threat to the United Kingdom – and as we have already seen in Iraq, British airstrikes can play a key role in degrading them; but they are only part of a comprehensive strategy for Syria.

But that’s not all. Germany is now set to enter the fight as well. “German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Cabinet approved deploying warplanes over Syria in the fight against Islamic State,” Bloomberg reported on Tuesday. Apparently, Berlin is set to send Tornado surveillance planes, a frigate to protect France’s carrier, and aerial refueling for French fighter jets.

Parliament will need to approve the deployment and a vote is expected within days. All told, around 1,200 German troops are expected to participate. This should do wonders when it comes to stemming the flow of refugees into Germany because as France explained earlier this year, by far the best way to solve a refugee crisis is to drop more bombs on the place from which the refugees are fleeing.

And with that, two more world powers will now have planes in the sky and ships in the Mediterranean. Just to be clear, this means that by the end of next week, it’s possible that American, French, Turkish, Russian, and German planes will all be flying missions above Syria, a decisively dangerous scenario now that Ankara has forced Moscow into a state of paranoia regarding the safety of The Kremlin’s aircraft. With Russian S-400s at the ready, and with Su-34s now armed with air-to-air missiles, the potential exists for another “accident.”

Additionally, it’s worth reiterating that the West and the Russians still haven’t resolved the most pressing issue when it comes to airstrikes in Syria. Namely that Moscow and Iran are still attacking the FSA and other rebel groups that are receiving guns and money on a weekly basis from the US, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar. This means that while the West bombards Raqqa (or perhaps the better way to put is “while the West thinks they’re bombarding Raqqa based on the ‘intelligence’ they receive from Washington”), America and its regional allies are engaged in a proxy war with Moscow and Tehran in the northwest part of the country. This makes absolutely no sense and it isn’t at all compatible with David Cameron telling British lawmakers that the “moderate” opposition is in a position to hold territory formerly governed by ISIS. Not only are the rebels not in a position to secure towns and cities, they are being routed at Aleppo by the Russians and Iranians. At some point this has to be addressed but for the time being, everyone seems content with being invited to the party.

 

Turkey Blockades Russian Shipping, Black Sea Fleet Completely Cut off

bosphorus

Turkey Blockades Russian Shipping, Black Sea Fleet Completely Cut off:

Turkey is authorized to close the Straits to all foreign warships in wartime or when it was threatened by aggression

Turkey has begun a defacto blockade of Russian naval vessels,  preventing transit through the Dardanelles and the Strait of Bosphorus, between the Black Sea and Mediterranean.

According to the AIS tracking system for the movement of maritime vessels, only Turkish vessels are moving along the Bosphorus, and in the Dardanelles there is no movement of any shipping at all.

At the same time, both from the Black Sea, and from the Mediterranean Sea, there is a small cluster of ships under the Russian flag, just sitting and waiting.

Read moreTurkey Blockades Russian Shipping, Black Sea Fleet Completely Cut off

Chinese Auto Sales Crash, Inventories Soar In November

Chinese Auto Sales Crash, Inventories Soar In November:

Despite ongoing exuberance at auto sales in America (which disappointed) – as crashing credit standards enable every Tom, Dick, and Muppet to buy too much ‘depreciating asset’ for their incomes – there are numerous problems few are talking about for automakers worldwide. Aside from “plans to buy a car” tumbling in the latest confidence surveys, and inventories-to-sales surging, China just poured ice cold water on any hope of stability in that ‘growth’ market as auto dealers issue the highest inventory alert since June. November data from China shows demand plunging, sales collapsing, and inventories soaring – a triple whammy of “no, things are not ‘stabilizing’.”

Scientists challenge EFSA claim of glyphosate safety

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Scientists challenge EFSA claim of glyphosate safety:

Over 90 international scientists call German government report underpinning EFSA decision “not credible”

In November, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) concluded that glyphosate is “unlikely to pose a carcinogenic hazard to humans”.

The EFSA decision, based on the Renewal Assessment Report provided by the German federal risk assessment institute BfR, ran counter to the finding earlier this year by the international Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), the cancer arm of the World Health Organization, that glyphosate is a probable human carcinogen. The IARC review linked glyphosate to dose-related increases in malignant tumours at multiple anatomical sites in experimental animals and to an increased incidence of non-Hodgkin lymphoma in exposed humans.

Read moreScientists challenge EFSA claim of glyphosate safety

Rahm Emanuel Fires Chicago Police Chief

Rahm Emanuel Fires Chicago Police Chief:

While the rest of the world has ISIS to contend with, the US has Chicago, a city where the number of annual homicides will easily outpace the death count of even the most gruesome terrorist incident – a sad reality which most of America, and certainly Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, has closed its eyes to.

But in the aftermath of the latest police shooting controversy involving the dashboard video documenting the shooting death Laquan McDonald, as well that following the gang execution of Tyshawn Lee, which stirred national tempers, there had to be a fall guy, and sure enough moments ago the Chicago Police Chief Garry McCarthy was fired by Mayor Rahm Emanuel, according to the Chicago Sun Times.

Read moreRahm Emanuel Fires Chicago Police Chief

Legendary Hedge Fund Calls It (Semi) Quits: $8 Billion BlueCrest To Return Outside Client Money

Legendary Hedge Fund Calls It (Semi) Quits: $8 Billion BlueCrest To Return Outside Client Money:

Hedge funds are dropping like flies now.

Following news that both Ackman and Einhorn have suffered dramatic losses, in the -20% ballpark YTD, and after reporting that numerous metal-focused commodity hedge funds have liquidated in recent months, most notably Trafigura’s own Galena, the latest firm to wave the flag of surrender to the forced of central planning is none other than Michael Platt’s legendary $8 Billion BlueCrest Capital, which until recently was the third largest hedge fund in Europe, and as recently as two years ago was the topic of the Bloomberg profile “BlueCrest Builds a Hedge Fund Empire“, will return a whopping $7 billion of its current $8 billion AUM held currently in the form of outside money.

Just hitting the headlines:

Read moreLegendary Hedge Fund Calls It (Semi) Quits: $8 Billion BlueCrest To Return Outside Client Money

Spending Was At An All Time Low For Black Friday This Year And Corporations Lost Billions

black-friday

Spending Was At An All Time Low For Black Friday This Year And Corporations Lost Billions:

For years, Black Friday brawls and rampant materialism on the day after Thanksgiving have become a sort of twisted American celebration. However, each year the excitement continues to die down as people reject the Black Friday antics and instead do their shopping online or on other days. According to a survey by the National Retail Federation, Black Friday attendance was down over 3%, from 58.7% last year to 55.1% this year.

The survey noted that the average shopper was expected to spend $380.95, which was down from $407.02 the previous year. According to the group’s estimates, sales slipped from $57.4 billion to $50.9 billion.

Read moreSpending Was At An All Time Low For Black Friday This Year And Corporations Lost Billions

Kerry: Climate Change a ‘Threat’ to National Security- Video

Kerry: Climate Change a ‘Threat’ to National Security- Video:

“Climate change isn’t just about Bambi. It’s about us.”

In a speech at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, home to the world’s largest naval base, Kerry called climate change a threat to national security.

Kerry warns of severe droughts, rapid sea-level rise, unpredictable and uncontrollable extreme weather events, shocks to the global agricultural system – all due to human activity.

What a snake.

Read moreKerry: Climate Change a ‘Threat’ to National Security- Video

It’s D-Day For Puerto Rico As $354 Million Payment Comes Due, Padilla Heads To Capitol Hill For Help

It’s D-Day For Puerto Rico As $354 Million Payment Comes Due, Padilla Heads To Capitol Hill For Help:

Puerto Rico has a problem. The commonwealth needs to make a $354 million bond payment on Tuesday and the government is basically out of money.

We previewed this rather precarious situation twice in the last two weeks (see here and here), noting that this time is indeed “different.” Why? Because unlike August when the island paid only $628,000 of a $58 million payment (so, just about 1%), a large portion of what’s due Tuesday is GO debt guaranteed by the National Public Finance Guarantee Corp. A default on that spells litigation.

A default “would likely trigger legal action from creditors, commencing a potentially drawn-out process absent swift federal intervention,” Moody’s warned last month.

As a refresher, here’s a bullet point summary of recent developments from BofAML:

Read moreIt’s D-Day For Puerto Rico As $354 Million Payment Comes Due, Padilla Heads To Capitol Hill For Help

The Greek General staff: Turkish fighter jets were in the skies over Greece for 30 minutes

Google translation:

The Greek General staff: Turkish fighter jets were in the skies over Greece for 30 minutes:

Six Turkish F16 fighter aircraft violated the airspace of Greece and were there for about an hour. This was announced by the Greek General Staff.

The group crossed the Greek air space between the islands of Lesbos and Chios without providing a flight plan, reports Tass. It happened at 15:01 local time (16:01 Moscow time). Four fighter flew back to Turkey at 15:28, two more – at 15:30.

Violation of Greek border Turkish planes – are not uncommon. This happens on average 1.5 thousands of times a year.

Nearly 1,000 Clinton emails had classified info

Hillary Clinton Exposed Part 2 – Clinton Foundation Took Millions From Countries That Also Fund ISIS

Nearly 1,000 Clinton emails had classified info:

The State Department’s latest release of Hillary Clinton documents brings the total number of Clinton emails known to contain classified material to nearly 1,000.

The department on Monday released its largest batch of emails yet, posting 7,800 pages of the former secretary of state’s communications.

The latest batch contains 328 emails deemed to have classified information. According to the State Department, that brings the total number with classified information to 999.

Read moreNearly 1,000 Clinton emails had classified info

Kurds Say US Troops Engaged in Covert Ground War With ISIL for Months

Related:

British SAS Special Forces ‘Dressed Up As ISIS Rebels’ Fighting Assad in Syria


Kurds Say US Troops Engaged in Covert Ground War With ISIL for Months:

US President Barack Obama has maintained that the redeployment of 300 military “advisers” into Iraq is not a return to combat operations. But according to Kurdish fighters, US soldiers have been involved in a covert ground war for months.

In June, President Obama announced a major shift in strategy. To combat Daesh, also known as ISIL/The Islamic State, the US would redeploy 300 “military advisers” into Iraq. But to appease a war-weary constituency, the president insisted that these forces could not be considered combat troops.

Read moreKurds Say US Troops Engaged in Covert Ground War With ISIL for Months

Pentagon gets green light for WAR … of web propaganda against IS

Pentagon gets green light for WAR … of web propaganda against IS:

The Pentagon has been given formal approval to start an online propaganda campaign against the Islamic State following a recent push by the US Department of Defense (DoD).

Congress approved the National Defense Authorization Act for 2016 last week and included in it a whole section (1056) on “Information operations and engagement technology demonstrations.”

The section states that the Secretary of Defense “should develop creative and agile concepts, technologies, and strategies across all available media to most effectively reach target audiences, and to counter and degrade the ability of adversaries and potential adversaries to persuade, inspire, and recruit inside areas of hostilities or in other areas in direct support of the objectives of commanders.”