Month: July 2017

Schwab: “New Accounts Are At Levels We Have Not Seen Since The Dot Com Bubble” As Millennials Rush Into Stocks

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– Schwab: “New Accounts Are At Levels We Have Not Seen Since The Dot Com Bubble” As Millennials Rush Into Stocks:

 We can now officially close the book on the “cash on the sidelines.”

One week ago, we reported that in the latest weekly survey of Bank of America high net worth clients, the cash allocation had fallen to an all time low of just 10.4%, below the previous record low of 11% in April 2007 as everyone is “forced” to dance in this market, in which the music is still playing.

Now, in a separate confirmation of what Deutsche Bank recently classified as market “froth”, Jonathan Tepper points out that the stock euphoria has finally spread to the retail investor.

Read moreSchwab: “New Accounts Are At Levels We Have Not Seen Since The Dot Com Bubble” As Millennials Rush Into Stocks

High Court blocks bid to prosecute Tony Blair over Iraq War

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– High Court blocks bid to prosecute Tony Blair over Iraq War:

Lord Chief Justice says there is ‘no prospect’ of the case succeeding

The High Court has blocked a bid by a former chief of staff of the Iraqi army to bring a private prosecution against Tony Blair over the Iraq War.

Read moreHigh Court blocks bid to prosecute Tony Blair over Iraq War

Scaramucci Fired As Trump’s Communications Director After Just 10 Days

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– Scaramucci Fired As Trump’s Communications Director After Just 10 Days:

That didn’t take long: just over a week after Anthony Scaramucci was appointed as the new White House communications director, and just three days after Trump fired the Mooch’s arch nemesis Reince Priebus, the NYT reports that Trump has removed Scaramucci from the role of Communications Director, under instruction from Trump’s new chief of staff, Gen. Kelly.

According to the NYT, Scaramucci’s abrupt removal came just 10 days after the wealthy New York financier was brought on to the West Wing staff, a move that convulsed an already chaotic White House and led to the departures of Sean Spicer, the former press secretary, and Reince Priebus, the president’s first chief of staff.

Read moreScaramucci Fired As Trump’s Communications Director After Just 10 Days

South Korea Is Preparing A “Surgical Strike” Against The North: Report

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And what could possibly go wrong?

– South Korea Is Preparing A “Surgical Strike” Against The North: Report:

According to a report in South Korea’s Munhwa Ilbo newspaper, which cites an unidentified government official, South Korea’s military is preparing a “surgical strike” scenario that could wipe out North Korean command and missile and nuclear facilities following an order by S.Korea’s President Moon Jae-in. Munhwa adds that the military is to report the scenario to presidential office after completing it as early as August 1.

As the report details, South Korea’s Special Forces are preparing a special strike op which would be launched in response to President Moon Jae-In’s order to remove the North Korean leadership in case of emergency. This operation is taking place in addition to separate preparations currently conducted by the country’s military forces.

Read moreSouth Korea Is Preparing A “Surgical Strike” Against The North: Report

Trump: “We’ll handle North Korea. It Will Be Handled. We Handle Everything”

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– Trump: “We’ll handle North Korea. It Will Be Handled. We Handle Everything”:

With Gen. John Kelly set to be sworn in as Trump’s new Chief of Staff, just days after the latest and most advanced North Korean ICBM test yet, one which can reportedly reach as much as half the major metro areas on the continental US, President Trump on Monday pledged to “handle” North Korea’s provocative belligerence, without specifying exactly how he would do so as he faces rising tensions and limited options.

“We’ll handle North Korea. We’re going to be able to handle North Korea. It will be handled. We handle everything,“ Trump told reporters at the start of Monday’s first Cabinet meeting with his new Chief of Staff, flanked by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defense Secretary James Mattis.

The comments follow “guidance” from the US Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, who on Sunday told CNN that the “time for talk” is over. As CNN noted, “it was a seemingly stark admission – the US ambassador to the UN suggesting the North Korean crisis couldn’t be solved through diplomatic channels in the Security Council.”

Read moreTrump: “We’ll handle North Korea. It Will Be Handled. We Handle Everything”

Here Comes The Next Escalation: Pentagon Offers To Arm Ukraine

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And why not????? Putin will be delighted.

– Here Comes The Next Escalation: Pentagon Offers To Arm Ukraine:

When we reported yesterday about Putin’s surprisingly harsh response to last week’s House legislation to launch new sanctions against Russia, which also binds Trump from unilaterally removing sanctions without getting Congressional approval, we concluded that “now we await the US re-retaliation in what is once again the same tit-for-tat escalation that marked the latter years of the Obama regime, as the US Military Industrial Complex breathes out a sigh of relief that for all the posturing by Trump, things between Russia and the US are back on autopilot.”

We didn’t have long to wait.

Read moreHere Comes The Next Escalation: Pentagon Offers To Arm Ukraine

Cities dumping human sewage on farm land across America is contaminating the food supply and destroying the ecosystem

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– Cities dumping human sewage on farm land across America is contaminating the food supply and destroying the ecosystem:

Since the EPA started promoting the “land application” of sewage sludge in 1993, millions of tons of this toxic biosludge have been spread on the farmland and public parks in our nation. It also sometimes makes its way to the organic compost and fertilizer section of your favorite garden supply store. What happens to it next? No one can say for sure because it is not tracked once it leaves the wastewater treatment plants and there is no national system for reporting problems related to it, but there is no doubt that is has the potential to cause significant harm given its contents.

One lawsuit from 2008 shows how pervasive this waste can be. In that case, a federal court acknowledged that sludge applications on a Georgia farm killed hundreds of dairy cattle and contaminated the supply of milk across several states. Federal Judge Anthony Alaimo said in his ruling that “senior EPA officials took extraordinary steps to quash scientific dissent and any questioning of EPA’s biosolids program.”

Read moreCities dumping human sewage on farm land across America is contaminating the food supply and destroying the ecosystem

An Ohio Factory Owner Is Eager To Hire Workers, There Is Just One Problem…

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– An Ohio Factory Owner Is Eager To Hire Workers, There Is Just One Problem…:

The co-owner of Warren Fabricating & Machining in Ohio said that four out of 10 applicants otherwise qualified to be welders, machinists and crane operators will fail a routine drug test. For 48 of the 50 years her company has been around, drug abuse had never been an issue, until now.

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U.S. Sanctions Venezuela’s President Maduro, Freezes U.S. Assets

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– U.S. Sanctions Venezuela’s President Maduro, Freezes U.S. Assets:

The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has personally sanctioned Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, adding him to the list of specially designated nationals, freezing any U.S. assets he may have and generally blocking U.S. persons from transactions involving him.

Today’s sanction is a follow up to last week’s announcement by the Trump administration in which the Treasuey revealed sanctions on 13 senior Venezuelan officials in an attempt to deter Maduro from moving forward with plan to rewrite Venezuela’s constitution in what opponents regard as a potential power grab move. Needless to say, that particular attempt failed.

Read moreU.S. Sanctions Venezuela’s President Maduro, Freezes U.S. Assets

Mangoes might be the ultimate superfood for diabetes: New science finds they control both blood sugar and blood pressure

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– Mangoes might be the ultimate superfood for diabetes: New science finds they control both blood sugar and blood pressure:

Eating mangoes may hold potential in preventing metabolic disorders and diabetes, according to four separate studies presented at the 2017 Experimental Biology Conference.

In one of the studies, a team of researchers at the Texas A&M University’s Department of Nutrition and Food Science examined how lean and obese individuals absorbed, metabolized, and excreted gallic acid, galloyl glycosides, and gallotannin following mango consumption for six weeks. According to the researchers, eating mangoes for an extended period can increase the fruit’s anti-inflammatory effects compared with irregular consumption.

Read moreMangoes might be the ultimate superfood for diabetes: New science finds they control both blood sugar and blood pressure

Chemotherapy found to activate cancer tumor growth mechanism in the body, MULTIPLYING cancers everywhere, usually killing the patient

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– Chemotherapy found to activate cancer tumor growth mechanism in the body, MULTIPLYING cancers everywhere, usually killing the patient:

It is considered the most effective treatment to fight cancer, but chemotherapy can do more harm than good, according to a shocking new study published in Science Translational Medicine.

The extremely aggressive therapy, which kills both cancerous and healthy cells, has been found to increase the chance of cancer cells migrating to other parts of the body. When this happens, the disease is called metastatic cancer, which is the most lethal form.

Read moreChemotherapy found to activate cancer tumor growth mechanism in the body, MULTIPLYING cancers everywhere, usually killing the patient

Wasserman Schultz IT Staffer “Frantically” Liquidating $2 Million In Real Estate Assets

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– Wasserman Schultz IT Staffer “Frantically” Liquidating $2 Million In Real Estate Assets:

The rather curious case of Imran Awan continues with the latest development coming courtesy of the Daily Caller who notes that Imran was frantically liquidating nearly $2 million in real estate holdings right up until the day has was arrested at Dulles airport.

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Bitcoin Is Rallying As ‘Fork’-Day Arrives

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– Bitcoin Is Rallying As ‘Fork’-Day Arrives:

With only a few hours remaining before the widely-expected Bitcoin network’s SegWit activation and its anticipated fork, there is a bifurcation in the crytpo-world with Bitcoin higher (up 5%) and the rest of the major virtual currencies lower (down 4%). For now, crypto markets seem relatively calm and stable ahead of what was feared to be an extreme volatility moment.

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Foxconn’s corporate welfare deal will cost Wisconsin taxpayers more than 3 billion dollars

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– Foxconn’s corporate welfare deal will cost Wisconsin taxpayers more than 3 billion dollars:

The recent trumpist trumpeting about the plans of Chinese manufacturer Foxconn to open a manufacturing facility in Wisconsin omitted a few key details — like the fact that Foxconn is being given a sweetheart tax-break that’s topped up with 15 years’ worth of guarantees of up to $200m/year in cash subsidies at taxpayer expense — a record-setting taxpayer subsidy that exceeds the previous Wisconsin record-holder by a factor of fifty.

The total bill for this incentive package that Wisconsin is giving the super-profitable Chinese manufacturer? Three billion dollars.

Read moreFoxconn’s corporate welfare deal will cost Wisconsin taxpayers more than 3 billion dollars

Why Illinois Is In Trouble – 63,000 Public Employees With $100,000+ Salaries Cost Taxpayers $10B

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– Why Illinois Is In Trouble – 63,000 Public Employees With $100,000+ Salaries Cost Taxpayers $10B:

Source: Forbes

The ‘Big Dogs’ of local government in Illinois.

Illinois is broke and continues to flirt with junk bond status. But the state’s financial woes aren’t stopping 63,000 government employees from bringing home six-figure salaries and higher.

Whenever we open the books, Illinois is consistently one of the worst offenders. Recently, we found auto pound supervisors in Chicago making $144,453; nurses at state corrections earning up to $254,781; junior college presidents making $465,420; university doctors earning $1.6 million; and 84 small-town “managers” out-earning every U.S. governor.

Read moreWhy Illinois Is In Trouble – 63,000 Public Employees With $100,000+ Salaries Cost Taxpayers $10B

Court Strips Immunity From Sheriff’s Office That Raided Hobby Gardener’s Home Over Tea Leaves

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– Court Strips Immunity From Sheriff’s Office That Raided Hobby Gardener’s Home Over Tea Leaves:

Early last year, a federal court granted immunity to a sheriff’s office that raided someone’s house based on nothing more than faulty field drug tests and an officer witnessing a resident buying gardening supplies seven months earlier. This is the short version of what went down that day, via the Washington Post.

The family was held at gunpoint for more than two hours while the police searched their home. Though they claimed to be looking for evidence of a major marijuana growing operation, they later stated that they knew within about 20 minutes that they wouldn’t find any such operation. So they switched to search for evidence of “personal use.” They found no evidence of any criminal activity.

The whole ordeal lasted two-and-a-half hours. Robert and Addie Harte, along with their children, were held at gunpoint for most of it. The supposed probable cause were tea leaves pulled from the Hartes’ trash, which supposedly tested positive for marijuana. There was no follow-up lab test. The gardening supplies were… well, gardening supplies. Robert Harte was a stay-at-home dad who liked gardening.

Read moreCourt Strips Immunity From Sheriff’s Office That Raided Hobby Gardener’s Home Over Tea Leaves

An “Angry, Frustrated” China Hits Back Over Trump’s Latest Tweets

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– An “Angry, Frustrated” China Hits Back Over Trump’s Latest Tweets:

Two days after President Donald Trump tweeted he was “very disappointed” in China
following Pyongyang’s latest missile test adding that “we will no longer allow this to continue”, Beijing has hit back at Trump on Monday, saying the problem did not
arise in China and that all sides need to work for a solution, according to a statement sent to Reuters by China’s Foreign Ministry.

Read moreAn “Angry, Frustrated” China Hits Back Over Trump’s Latest Tweets

Trump Touts “Highest Stock Market Ever”, Slams Congress’ Exemption From ‘Disastrous’ ObamaCare

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Related info:

– People Not In Labor Force Soar By 608,000 To 94.983 Million

– Trump Touts “Highest Stock Market Ever”, Slams Congress’ Exemption From ‘Disastrous’ ObamaCare:

President Trump is active this morning. His first tweet of the week was a shot across the bow of Congress (who exempted themselves from Obamacare because it was such a disaster) and suggesting – shockingly to many in DC – that insurance companies may face some pain…

But then, having discussed the “bad”, he pivoted to what he sees as “the good” – the stock market, unemployment, and wages – proclaiming there is “No White House Chaos”…

Which, as we detailed previously, could be a big mistake…

Read moreTrump Touts “Highest Stock Market Ever”, Slams Congress’ Exemption From ‘Disastrous’ ObamaCare

Black Monday: The Deadly 14th Century Hailstorm That Killed Over 1000 Soldiers and 6000 Horses

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– Black Monday: The Deadly 14th Century Hailstorm That Killed Over 1000 Soldiers and 6000 Horses:

On Easter Monday, 13 th April 1360, a freak hail storm broke over English troops as they were preparing for battle with the French during the Hundred Years’ War. So brutal was the storm that over 1,000 men and 6,000 horses lost their lives that night. Convinced it was a sign from God, King Edward rushed to pursue peace with the French, marking the end of the first phase of the Hundred Years’ War.

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H/t reader kevin a.

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Express: Are you watching NATO? Putin rolls out THIS terrifying Russian armada across world

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FYI.

– Are you watching NATO? Putin rolls out THIS terrifying Russian armada across world:

Thousands of highly trained Russian seaman clutched assault rifles as gigantic submarines emerged from the water in a show of force ordered by the Russian President.

Fighter jets soared above the heads of thousands who filled the streets of Saint Petersburg to celebrate Navy Day as Mr Putin oversaw the fleet in Sevastopol.

Flames and smoke lit up the sky over the Neva River at the Kremlin sanctioned event.

Read moreExpress: Are you watching NATO? Putin rolls out THIS terrifying Russian armada across world

Wikileaks Dumps 72,000 Hacked Macron Emails

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You’ll find my commentary down below.

– Wikileaks Dumps 72,000 Hacked Macron Emails: 

In a move that is certain to prompt more allegations that Wikileaks is part of a counter-establishment push, one ostensibly supported by Russia, on Monday morning Wikileaks dumped more than 21,000 “verified” emails associated with the French presidential campaign of Emmanuel Macron. Julian Assange’s organisation claims the batch of  21,075 emails, dating from March 2009 to April 2017, have been uniquely verified through its DKIM system.

As a reminder, in the days before the May 7 French presidential election, Macron’s campaign confirmed it was hit with a “massive, coordinated” hack which released 9 gigabytes of personal documents.

The French electoral commission immediately prohibited the French media from publishing the contents of the leak, and while speculation quickly emerged that Russia was involved in this hacking, France later confirmed there were “no traces of Russian hackers in the Macron cyber attack.”  The head of the French government’s cyber security agency, Guillaume Poupard, told AP  the hack was “so generic and simple that it could have been practically anyone.”

Read moreWikileaks Dumps 72,000 Hacked Macron Emails

Germany ‘spent more than €20 BILLION on refugees in 2016’ as crisis outstrips state budgets

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– Germany ‘spent more than €20bn on refugees in 2016’ as crisis outstrips state budgets:

Government document seen by The Independent shows Berlin spent almost double budget

German states spent more than €20bn (£17.5bn) on refugees in 2016, government figures have indicated as Angela Merkel continues to come under pressure for her policy on migration.

Statistics seen by The Independent for the states of Bavaria, Schleswig-Holstein, Hesse and Berlin show that the cost of housing and integrating asylum seekers has far outstripped official predictions.

Read moreGermany ‘spent more than €20 BILLION on refugees in 2016’ as crisis outstrips state budgets