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By Roger StoneThe Wall Street Journal and the New York Times have both reported that President Donald J. Trump intends a major staff shake-up now that he has returned from his international tour. Both the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post said that experienced D.C. political hand David Urban, former Chief of Staff to Sen. Arlen Specter and now a Washington lobbyist known for his quiet and low-key efficiency will be tapped for the White House staff in some capacity in the near future. Urban, from Aliquippa Pennsylvania, is a former altar-boy, son of a union card carrying steelworker, graduate of West Point, who served his country on both the field of battle and in the US Congress. Urban served as the no-nonsense Administrative Assistant and Chief of Staff to the meanest, smartest, toughest man ever to serve in US Senate, Senator Arlen Specter. Urban’s ability to manage the affairs of the one of the most driven, resourceful and relentless men in American political history makes him a tailor-made fit to serve the hard driving Trump. Lobbyists and government officials alike agreed that he ran one of the most effective and efficient US Senate offices in the nation’s capital. Urban has the US Army discipline and snap that would make Bob Haldeman proud, combined with a shrewd ethical sensibility. He is fiercely loyal to Trump. He also knows his way around Washington and the federal bureaucracy. Urban ran the campaign in the Keystone state, delivering heavily Democratic Western Pennsylvania to Trump, helping propel the Manhattan billionaire to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. I detailed Urban’s key role in my book, The Making of the President 2016: How Donald Trump Orchestrated A Revolution. Urban’s hard-charging nature, relentless drive, and meticulous organization delivered the prize that eluded Mitt Romney and John McCain. Urban promoted the Trump message successfully to blue-collar Catholics, Jews, and union members. This helped the Trump campaign run up the numbers in Western Pennsylvania, doing better in Democratic strongholds than past GOP nominees. These are the new “Trump Democrats.” President Trump would be wise to utilize Urban’s talent, a point that the New York Times even made, claiming that Urban was “going in.” With Urban, he can expect loyalty and competence, the two things he desperately needs as the Obama hold-overs who continue to populate the government, work to leak to undermine his Presidency. In many of the same newspaper stories is the ‘fact” that fired Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski will be returning to the first circle of Trump’s advisors. Lewandowski would supposedly spearhead an effort to “find the leakers” and to enforce ‘discipline” and “security” in the Trump White House. This is the worst idea of all time. This “covert-op” to stop the leaks on Trump’s staff is allegedly a joint effort with David Bossie. Mr. Bossie is the man behind the stunning “Citizens “United” supreme court decision. **FULL DISCLOSURE: Bossie’s wife Susan served for several years as my assistant. She is one of the most decent, capable, organized and intelligent women I have ever known. ** If the President is concerned about leaks, he should ask the FBI to investigate under their cloak of legal authority. Appointing Lewandowski and David Bossie to such a role would be reminiscent of the Watergate “plumbers.” Like E. Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy, these unsophisticates will get the President into trouble. Also in the works is allegedly a “war room” run by Steve Bannon to push back against the President’s critics, although it’s not clear Bannon could run a bath. Instead of a PR offensive, the White House needs to score on policy and focus on the agenda that got Trump elected. At the same time, they need to turn the tables on those inside government who seek to undermine him. Trump should direct Attorney General Sessions to appoint Bob Barr as the special counsel. Barr, a former US Attorney, should investigate the unconstitutional breaches at the NSA under Obama as well as the illegal use of intelligence information for political purposes by Susan Rice and others.
Source: stonecoldtruth.com from http://capitalisthq.com/will-trump-save-himself-with-white-house-shake-up/ from http://capitalisthq.weebly.com/blog/will-trump-save-himself-with-white-house-shake-up The following article by David Haggith was published on The Great Recession Blog:If I can show you that economists, central bankers and stock analysts are blind in the area of their expertise to the most obvioussetup for disaster ever, then you’ll realize we are perfectly poised for potentially the greatest stock market crash in history. Many times in the past few months, I’ve heard these people say that the present bull market cannot crash spectacularly yet because we have not seen the kind of irrational exuberance that is required to set things up for such a crash. I shake my head in amazed disbelief as I listen to the most irrational nonsense about a stock market rally that was by far the most exuberant we have ever seen! When the end of the financial world comes, it comes quickly. Because of the irrationality that allows such events to build up, it also comes unexpectedly to the majority of people in the financial world (and to others). The one essential ingredient for a truly massivefinancial crash is that almost no one sees it coming. Simply put, the higher and steeper the rise, the more spectacular the fall; but the market and the economy it is operating in have to be rickety in order for things to go down like a house of cards. For that kind of situation to develop, market analysts have to be blind to the flaws around them (which looks completely irruption to those who can see). Otherwise, they’d be counseling everyone to get out of the market, not to keep bidding it up into the stratosphere, and so the market would never rise to such absurd heights in such a perilous situation.
Trump Rally displayed irrational exuberance with the worst possible timing
We are now exiting the longest period of central bank stimulus in the history of mankind. As that time dragged on, central banksters began to see nothing but diminishing returns for all their extravagant money printing, known as quantitative easing coupled to the lowest interest in the history of the modern world. So, the Trump Rally happened just as we are exiting a time when even central bankers know their ability to save a falling market or a failing economy is more limited than ever before. Their old tricks for recovery are ceasing to work because they are played out, and the banksters know it. The knowledge that their usual tricks have lost potency is pressuring the governors of the Federal Reserve to get out of stimulus mode quickly now so that they have something they can throw at the next downturn that is not already in play and completely exhausted. The economy needs a rest from stimulus if the next round of stimulus is to have any shock value. It doesn’t do any good to just hold the shock paddles of the defibrillator on the patient’s chest and administer a continual shock. The defibrillator needs to recharge and then hit suddenly in order to have any shock value to a dying heart. The law of diminishing returns, like entropy, trumps everything — even Donald Trump — and the Trump Rally has exhausted itself just as the Federal Reserve has determined that it has to remove the shock paddles and give the defibrillator time to recharge. So, stimulus is coming off just as the stock market fades out. Not only has the rally ended, but the Federal Reserve’s recovery is going into cardiac arrest just as the board of governors are putting the defibrillator away. Figuring out whether the currently now unfolding collapse of the Federal Reserve’s “recovery” is due to the stupidity of central bankers (to have ever thought money printing would work in a world rife with examples of its catastrophic failure)) or is due to a bankster conspiracy that is plotting to force a new monetary paradigm on the world, doesn’t matter for our understanding of what is about to happen. The only difference that conspiracy adds is that it means people need to go to jail at the end of all of this. I’ll leave that for others to decide when the dust settles. What matters right now is that I convince my readers how extraordinarily exuberant and remarkably irrational the present bull run in the stock market became during the Trump Rally. Because, if you can see that, you’ll recognize the end is here, and you might be able to exit before the rush when the exits become so jammed that no one else can get out. Those who understand basic economics (such as diminishing returns) and who can learn from stock market history will be able to see that the Trump Rally ends in disaster and that it’s not Trump’s fault. (Though the globalists will certainly capitalize on the opportunity to say that this completely foreseeable disaster was due to Trump and his supporters.) The truth is that the disaster was baked in long ago; that’s why I can tell you it is coming and have been saying for many months that it would show up in June or July. Whether by the sheer stupidity of banksters who have ascribed to fantasy economics or by nefarious design, the Fed’s phantom recovery is fading right as the Fed ends the life support that created the appearance of recovery. That is characteristic form for the Fed. My position for the past decade has been that this patient (the economy) was only kept alive after the official part of the Great Recession by artificial life support and that it would die when support was removed. Clearly, the doctors of disaster are now stripping that life support away, even as the patient goes into his final paroxysms.
The Trump Rally displayed the most exuberant irrational exuberance ever seen in the stock market
That’s the amazing part that leaves me standing in utter bewilderment as the economic gurus of our time say the stock market cannot crash because we have not seen the kind of irrational exuberance that precedes such an end. The rise in the stock market that happened during the Trump Rally was far greater and far faster than any seen in history! And it is so easy to see and to prove on an historic graph. Of course, the rise in cash (liquidity) that the Federal Reserve is determined to remove was also far greater and far faster than at any time, which is why the market has been so irrationally exuberant. The market has never been this juiced for this long, and it was all built on the Fed’s free money, now quickly fading away. Look at the worst market crashes and the bull runs that preceded them, and you’ll never see a sharper, more exuberant upturn at the end of those runs than the Trump Rally. NEVER! I’ll prove it below. Please show me a time on any graph of the stock market where we have EVER seen an exponential rise as steep and prolonged as the Trump rally. I repeat myself because it amazes me that people can be so blind in the area of their overrated expertise. How much more euphoria can you possibly expect than what we just had, given that it exceeds ANYTHING in the history of the stock market? Now the market is flatlining, the euphoria has ended, but that, too, is typical of all major tops before major crashes. None of them instantly blew off and crashed. The fall of the cliff has ALWAYS come after a short term of a few months during with the top flattened out, usually followed by a choppy downward turn, and FINALLY the market suddenly leaped off the cliff a few months later later. We’ve had three months now of such a top. So, the end is fully poised to happen. Let’s prove it now. Look at the last last thirty years of the Dow in the graph below and particularly at the run-ups to the two greatest crashes during that time — the dot-com crash that unfolded slowly at the change of the millennium and the Great Recession that began at the start of 2007. They both show “exuberance,” which means the steepness of the bull market suddenly increases in a sustained manner, and they both flatten out at the top for a time after that exuberance and then tilt downward before the big crash comes. Here are the three periods of greatest irrational exuberance in history:
Note that the sharpest increase in the pitch of any bull market happened during the last half year (the Trump Rally)and has just topped out. It is is more euphoric than any other rise on the graph. That is to say the Dow rose much more steeply during that rally than during ANY other period in history. It is the steepest rise in the entire history of the stock market, and it continued that rise for as long or longer (not in months but in height attained) than any other sharp rise in the history of the Dow. (I use the Dow because it has the longest history of any index, and you know that the history beyond the left border of the graph is minuscule in its ups and downs compared to recent history. Even the Great Depression happened within a much shorter range of highs and lows.) Clearly, before each major crash, the pitch of the market steepened for a heroic last hurrah. The last hurrah is now in! It’s fully there. You can see it. It’s gained as much altitude as any hurrah that ever preceded it. The fact that it did so in half the time of all previous euphoric bouts only makes it ALL THE MORE EUPHORIC! And look at all the tops after those periods of exuberance. Never did the stock market just immediately plunge over the cliff. Instead, we see it rounding off or flattening out, just as it has in the past few months. Then it trends downward for several months or even a year before it finally takes the big plunge. Again, I repeat myself because so many experts are failing to see this, and it SO OBVIOUS! There is nothing more irrational than experts coming out of a period of the most extreme exuberance in history and not even being able to see it at all. Since the Trump Rally was clearly the largest burst of irrational exuberance in history, there is certainly no need for another burst before the big crash and it would be unlike any previous crash if the market did put in another large burst of euphoria. It could happen, of course, but there is no need for it to happen before the next big crash because what has already happened exceeds anything we’ve ever seen. Even the ramp up to the dot-com crash, where Greenspan coined the term “irrational exuberance,” was not as steep or as protracted as the Trump Rally.
The Trump Rally displayed the most irrational irrational exuberance ever seen in the stock market
The graph above proves the exuberant part, but now let’s examine this irrational aspect. The Trump Rally — sprint to the stratosphere that it was — was clearly built on nothing but hot air. It was based entirely on the mere hope that President Trump’s big fiscal stimulus plans will come into effect, and it continued to rise even as every one of his major plans (his big campaign promises) either failed in congress or in the courts … just as I said was likely many months ago … and as continues to be the case. If a market’s period of exuberance (any market, housing, stocks, bonds, whatever) is all based on campaign promises, we ALL KNOW such promises rarely turn out as promised. No group of people is more notorious at failing to deliver their promises than politicians. So, it is irrational to invest based on a politician’s promise, especially when you already see that politician flip-flopping on nearly everything he has said, AND you see his own party members fighting him in congress and the other party unanimously lined up against him. This rally was entirely based on the promises, not on anything that was actually happening. There was no REAL change to merit a surge in the market, and very little likelihood that the hopes would materialize. Moreover, those promises would have to materialize in nation that is more sharply divided politically (on the streets and in congress) than it has been since the Great Society changes of LBJ. So, those promises face huge political battles, which they must overcome before they ever become reality. Nothing defines irrationality like the resolute belief in a reality that does not exist and has more than half the nation united against its ever happening! (I.e., not just Democrats, but a good number of NeverTrumper Republicans who for the first time in history voted against their own party member and voted FOR a president from the opposition party.) That the market would rally during such unlikelihood speaks of a phenomenal level of irrationality driving its exuberant climb. This market has risen more quickly than ever into thinner atmosphere than ever based entirely on hot air. All it needs in order to crash is for the hot air (Trump’s plans) to fail, which they have every likelihood of doing and, so far, is the only thing they have done! Add to that scenario the fact that many experts who are looking at this picture are saying, “We still need to see some sign of irrational exuberance before this bull market crashes,” and you have the most spectacular irrational blindness in the history of the stock market. As the graph proves, exuberance has never risen higher, more quickly on such faint and unlikely hopes than it has now. Add to that the fact that fundamental economic indicators were turning downward during that rise in a way that would cause a rational market, in the very least, to hesitate, if not drop; yet it soared. (See my “List of Seven Troubles Assailing the US Economy as We Head into Summer.”) Add to that the fact that stimulus is being shut off and the Fed has just begun talking about winding down its balance sheet. Add to that the fact that even the world’s leading market analysts see no sign of irrational exuberance in that kind of scenario; then, clearly, irrationality has reached its zenith.
Folks, irrational exuberance is all in, so the stock market is poised to crash!
This market has lost any grasp or concern whatsoever about fundamentals. Thus, I was not suggesting in the article just referenced that the market would fall because of how it responds to fundamentals that are now going down, but exactly the opposite. It will crash severely because it has no grasp of fundamentals whatsoever, and is flying like a hot-air balloon into a cold storm. But fundamentals still fundamentally matter because they arereality. Those who are out of touch with reality, get slammed by it because it happens whether they believe in it or not. It doesn’t wait for their acknowledgment of its existence. So, as auto sales tank, home sales start to slide, the promise of wage growth fails to materialize, commodity prices drop (particularly oil and copper and iron) because China cannot sustain its outlandish construction spree (see referenced article for all of that) society becomes more discordant politically, and the Fed starts subtracting cash from the market, then reality will eventually crush the exuberance out of the market by taking American corporations deep into the red. We’re seeing it now with automakers, and may be about to see it in housing (too early to know for sure if April was a change in trend or a one-off). It is when reality becomes so crushing that it forces knowledge upon us that markets suddenly leap off a cliff as denial finally breaks. They don’t fall. They leap as panicked investors jump for their lives. Economic fundamentals are falling apart right when I thought they would. The fact that they are collapsing immediately after the most stunning rise of irrational exuberance in market history is why I’ve predicted the economy and the stock market will crash this summer. Exactly when that breaks through market denial into the big leap, I don’t know; but I’ve predicted that happens sometime between June and January of 2018. The economy will continue to force companies out of profit and into trouble until irrationality (economic denial) can no longer hold up to the crushing reality. In the present case, the level of denial is so much greater than we’ve ever seen that reality is going to have to crush hard in order to break through the denial. Stock market crashes do not ever play out all at once. So, don’t expect just because I’ve predicted the crash will begin in June or July that the stock market is just going to go BOOM! off a cliff. Historically, the stock market has never fallen that way. Look again at the chart above, and you will see that the tops after the period of irrational exuberance can run horizontal for a long time or take a bumpy ride that rounds ever more steeply downward. They decline from a peak for awhile before reality overcomes investor denial and all the investors finally leap off a cliff like lemmings in what becomes that 20%-or-greater plunge that crashes become famous for (the Black Monday, Black Tuesday or October Surprise kind of event), which technically turns a bull market into a bear market. So I don’t know exactly how and when the stock market will fall apart, but my point is that the chemistry for a crash of epoch scale is finally all in … right at the start of summer, which is when I predicted the chemistry for a crash would all be in play — peak irrationality during the market’s sharpest rate of rise in history at the market’s highest peak in history, ending against a falling economy in a time of extreme political disparity and social turbulence while the Fed is reversing stimulus and removing liquidity. It’s about the worst mojo you could ask for.
History repeats itself because we’re irrational
Fitting another historic norm, the Fed doesn’t see that its interest rate increases will help trigger the disaster that is already unfolding. It will once again unwind its stimulus into a falling economy. (That, or it wants to push things over the edge as a conspiracy to force monetary change upon the world and start a whole new tier of robbing from the middle class to stuff the bellies of the rich under a new paradigm — the old having gone as far as it can). Even if the Trump stimulus plan happens, it’ll come far too late.. And, with or without the Fed’s help, the crash is going to play out between now and the start of next year. It’s just a question of how big and close together the chunks are by which it goes down. As you can also see in the chart above, epoch crashes take a couple years or more to play out completely. Double steep climb combined with double irrationality for as long of a run of that kind as we’ve ever seen at the same time that the market is priced about as rich in view of actual earnings as we’ve ever seen and richer in terms of total market value than we’ve ever seen makes this the highest risk for a historic crash we’ve ever seen. And, yet, the professional market bulls (the investment analysts) say, “Where’s the irrational exuberance? We haven’t seen any of that yet! We can’t have a huge crash without that!” So, I think, Oh my gosh, Dude’s, can you really be that dumb? You’re standing up to your eyeballs in a manure pile, and you’re so irrational you can’t smell the stuff that’s already covering your nose or see it while it laps around your eyelids. Surely, this is set to be the biggest wipeout in history when irrationality is that severe. I think of Ben Bernanke in 2008, standing in the middle of the second greatest recession in US history telling congress, “So far, there is not a recession anywhere in sight!” Then, after the first quarter GDP numbers for 2008 were revised and the second quarter numbers came in, we all found out that he (and we) were in the middle of a recession that had begun half a year earlier! It was something I had no doubt we were in, but the nation’s top expert couldn’t see it to save his soul, and real estate experts at the time argued with me that I was nuts! In November or December of 2007, I was absolutely certain the housing market was entering its worst imaginable crash, yet Ben Break-the-banky was still convinced in June or July of 2008 that housing would keep rising as would the overall economy. It was all rosy in his view. I was so certain in 2007 of an imminent housing market collapse that I told my wife to push her family to sell the small estate they had been holding on to immediately, even if it made them really angry with her — to do all she could to force their hand because they’d be REALLY THANKFUL they did within just a matter of months. (They had been holding on to it because the housing market was rising so exuberantly that just sitting on it, rather than selling it and dividing it up, was the best investment they all could hope for.) I told her that housing was on a breaker that was going to destroy the banking industry on a global scale within months! I convinced her that it would be the worst thing WE had ever seen (having not lived through the Great Depression). Half a year later, Bear Sterns went down. Three months or so after that Lehman Bros. died, and the rest is history; but ol’ Ben Bernanke was singing of eternal glory days for housing all the way up to a month before Bear Sterns died. Fortunately, her family sold the estate before all of that went down. We are poised now on the brink of a collapse even worse than that. Whether the big part of the crash happens this summer or doesn’t become real evident until the end of the year, I cannot say any more certainly than I did back then. I only knew then that it would be a matter of months, not years, as I do now. The situation is already perfectly poised. The irrational exuberance has taken place, and the cracks in the overall economy are already becoming evident. It is just a matter of how long it takes before everything falls. We are sailing in a hot-air balloon into a dark storm, the likes of which we’ve never seen, and the Fed is shutting off the fuel to the burner that is the only thing that has kept us afloat in our passage over the Great Recession. They are largely out of fuel anyway; so, even if they turn it back on, we won’t get much more than a sputtering flame and couple more minor bounces on our journey down. And, in case you just cannot bring yourself to take my word for it, here are the parting words of an old-world market analyst and economist retiring after 47 years who parts with “a scathing critique of capital markets, modern economists, central bankers, and everything else that is broken in today’s society.” It is a must read for all market participants, as well as economists, politicians and central bankers: “After 47 Years, Stephen Lewis Calls It Quits In A Scathing Critique Of Modern Markets.” Yes, folks, it really is that bad, and the ignorance (or irrationality) of economists that let us fall into the Great Recession, as Stephen Lewis rants about, remains as dim-witted now as it was then. Due to economic denial, arrogant economists learned absolutely nothing from their embarrassing and colossal failure to see the worst economic event in their lives as it was unfolding, and now they are joyfully cheering the nation into the next storm once again. Enjoy the remaining ride while you can because it will be short and downward for a long, long way. The greater the height, the greater the fall. The greater the irrationality, the more likely the fall. from http://capitalisthq.com/irrational-exuberance-during-trump-rally-exceeded-all-records-were-sailing-into-a-massive-stock-market-crash/ from http://capitalisthq.weebly.com/blog/irrational-exuberance-during-trump-rally-exceeded-all-records-were-sailing-into-a-massive-stock-market-crash Good day… And a Tom Terrific Tuesday to you! I hope your Memorial Day Holiday weekend was grand… I have to tell you straight up, I did not cook, smoke or grill anything this past weekend. Probably the first time in my adult life that I didn’t light up a fire at some point to cook. I didn’t really get the opportunity to do so, I guess that’s my excuse!… Saturday, Andrew grilled for all the guests at Braden’s Birthday Party… Saturday, I was lost and all alone, and Sunday I attended the Cardinals game with my boys… I was doing much better with my CPAP machine, until last night… I had an awful night! And I’m doing something a little bit different this morning, instead of the wide variety of music that’s on my iPod I’m listening to the Allman Brothers concert that closed the Fillmore East in June of 1971… The recording is a little raw, and wouldn’t be acceptable in today’s digital word, but to me, I’m there… standing in the crowd, listening to Dickey Betts play his big red guitar, and Duane Allman slide guitar with Gregg Allman’s bluesy voice… We lost Gregg Allman this past weekend.. And so that’s why I’m reliving my days in the blues/ rock band playing my bass guitar to: In Memory of Elizabeth Reed… Oh, and don’t forget Jai Johnson on the drums! The currencies lost their mojo on Friday in what seemed to be some interesting trading given most senior traders had already headed to the Hamptons. But Gold took a shot at the dollar, and didn’t miss, gaining more than $ 11 on the day, with 411,000 contracts traded! WOW! That’s just crazy, and I’m crazy for crying, and I’m crazy for trying and I’m crazy for loving you! It’s days like this for Gold that I tend to forget all the days that Gold gets sold for no particular reason… I guess it’s like the weather, for if it weren’t for the rainy days, you wouldn’t treasure the beautiful blue umbrella skies filled with sunshine. The Currencies continued to slide in yesterday’s thinly traded market, with both the U.S. and U.K. on holiday, the euro slide further but the slides were small, and range bound it appeared to me, as I checked them out last night. This morning, the slide continues for the currencies, but again, the moves are small, and it appears that everyone is not in their places with bright shiny faces yet this morning. Well, looky there! 1st QTR GDP was revised upward to 1.2% from the first print of 0.7%… Recall that I told you that it was thought that an upward revision to 0.9% was expected, so the revision beat expectations, and that lit a fire under the dollar to end the week and head into the weekend. The euro took the brunt of the dollar buying, just as it had benefited in reverse in the overnight trading on Friday, and was up VS the dollar. While this revision is nice in GPD, and does alleviate some of the fears that investors had about the economy, one has to take a step back and look under the hood… Come on, let’s look together, it’s fun looking under the hood! Well, well, well, what have we here, a worn drive belt? (do cars today even have one of those?) No, what I’m talking about is a slowing of consumer spending… Yes, Consumption as it’s called, which always reminds me of the presentation Frank Trotter gave in Bermuda a few years ago, when he said, “everyone wants consumption, but as I walked through the cemetery here in Bermuda, the cause of death on most of the graves was “consumption”, so to me that doesn’t look like a very good thing to want.” And now back to what I was talking about… Consumption was revised up from 0.3% to 0.6%, but come on.. that still doesn’t pay the bills folks! This GDP revision was more about revisions to: Government spending (down, can you really believe that one?) and intellectual property investments (up, can you really believe that this is part of GDP?) I shake my head at the games that are played with this data.. isn’t GDP supposed to be as easy as pie? But adding intellectual property sounds like someone is just trying to find things to add to make the number better… And reducing Gov’t spending? Really? Who are they trying to kid here, and I don’t think we’re their favorite goats! I wouldn’t buy that thought that Gov’t reduced spending, with your money! So, in my mind, I see the GDP for the 1st QTR as still very tepid, and right now having been goosed, because there’s no way the Fed could continue to hike rates with growth at just 0.7%… I’m just saying… Oh, and remember the addition of Research & Development (R&D) to GDP a couple of years ago in hopes that it could goose GDP to get it to 3%? Once again, we’ve gone the extra yard to gather enough sticks to make a fire, and the fire still is just smoldering… Well, this week is Holiday shortened, but that doesn’t mean we won’t get a ton of data around the world, but especially here in the U.S., starting with today’s Personal Income and Spending, the Case/Shiller Home Price Index, and Consumer Confidence. Thursday’s fare will include the ADP Employment Report, and the ISM Manufacturing Index, but most important to all data this week will be the May Motor Vehicle Sales report on Thursday.. I’ve talked about this in a previous Pfennigs (May 16 & 19) So, just know that this will be an important print… And on Friday, it will be a Jobs Jamboree Friday, but I don’t care about that anymore, so I mention it because everyone else seems to think it matters… The Eurozone will see the final print of their May CPI (we’ve seen the flash reports, which showed consumer inflation backing off a bit, which is probably more of a reflection of the timing of Easter than anything bad) The Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) will issue their Financial Stability & Review tonight, followed by a press conference by RBNZ Gov. Wheeler. I’ll be holding my breath tonight in anticipation of Wheeler dissing kiwi like he always does… I would think he would spend most of his time worrying about the housing bubble in Auckland instead of thinking of ways to talk down kiwi strength… And, come on Chuck tie all this data talk up, it’s getting boring! OK! Finally, In Canada this week, they’ll print their latest Current Account Deficit, which will most likely show a widening, but don’t get your pants all twisted up here, Canada’s Current Account Deficit is only 2% of GDP… Now worries here, move along now… So, the price of Oil really took off on Friday after the OPEC announcement… At first it was not pretty to watch the Oil traders take a pound of flesh from the price of Oil, but after they got that off their chests, they decided to buy once again, and the price of Oil rebounded back to a $ 49 handle, and last night when I checked the prices, Oil was $ 49.90, but… it has slipped about a quarter this morning, but still much better than the initial reaction after the OPEC meeting… The Petrol Currencies got caught up in the Oil selling late last week, and they haven’t recovered with the price of Oil rebounding. And with the euro a bit weaker, the Norwegian krone, which last week was benefitting from euro and Oil price strength, is seeing the double boost it received last week, getting reversed now… UGH! I was reading a Tweet I received the other day about how this person believes that China A shares will finally get included in the MSCI Emerging Markets (EM Index later in June… this would be HUGE for China to be included in this index, which is the bellwether for Emerging Markets Indexes. China has been banging on the MSCI’s door for years now to get their A Shares included, and I think that being included in the IMF’s roster of reserve currencies for Special Drawing Rights (SDR’s) last year, will go a long way toward seeing China reach their goal… This will be another step in their distribution of their currency folks.. Just another brick in the wall…. We don’t need no education… We don’t need no thoughts controlled, no dark sarcasm in the classroom, Teachers leave those kids alone… All in all it’s just another brick in the wall… And here’s something that I borrowed from Ed Steer’s letter this morning (www.edsteergoldandsilver.com ) The Baltic Exchange’s main sea freight index, tracking rates for ships carrying dry bulk commodities, reported on Thursday that its index had fallen to its lowest since early March as demand slowed across all vessel segments. Interesting eh? I sure pulls the stakes holding down the Global Tent Revival’s tent! This could be a very wild and wacky week for the currencies and metals, with all the data in the U.S., the fact that President Trump sent out a flurry of Tweets this weekend, and the fact that N. Korea fired off another missile this weekend, that was dangerously close to Japan, has the markets on edge, so we’ll have to roll with the punches this week and see where it takes us… Gold, in the early morning trading is down nearly $ 5 today, maybe that’s an indication of what we can expect this week? I certainly hope not! To recap… A Holiday shortened week will be chock-full-o-data this week ending with the Jobs Jamboree on Friday, and having some very important prints in between, like the Vehicle Sales data for May on Thursday… The currencies lost their mojo on Friday, and haven’t been able to get it back since, but the moves are small and range bound. But Chuck thinks that will all change once everyone returns to their trading desks this week. Lots of things going on around the world this week, so strap yourself in, keep your arms and legs inside at all times, and let’s go for this ride! For What It’s Worth… OK. Straight up here, I’m not promoting Apple.. I’m merely following up on something that Frank wrote about a couple of weeks ago in a Sunday Pfennig, regarding robots, and artificial intelligence… This can be found on Bloomberg here: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-05-26/apple-said-to-plan-dedicated-chip-to-power-ai-on-devices Or, here’s your snippet: “Apple Inc. got an early start in artificial intelligence software with the 2011 introduction of Siri, a tool that lets users operate their smartphones with voice commands. Now the electronics giant is bringing artificial intelligence to chips. Apple is working on a processor devoted specifically to AI-related tasks, according to a person familiar with the matter. The chip, known internally as the Apple Neural Engine, would improve the way the company’s devices handle tasks that would otherwise require human intelligence — such as facial recognition and speech recognition, said the person, who requested anonymity discussing a product that hasn’t been made public. Apple declined to comment.” Chuck again… We live in interesting times, eh? Currencies today 5/30/17… American Style: A$ .7452, kiwi .7072, C$ .7423, euro 1.1170, sterling 1.2865, Swiss $ .9760, … European Style: rand 13.1487, krone 8.4377, SEK 8.7442, forint 276.21, zloty 3.7373, koruna 23.6882, RUB 56.49, yen 110.96, sing 1.3856, HKD 7.7926, INR 64.58, China 6.8575, peso 18.55, BRL 3.2628, Dollar Index 97.37, Oil $ 49.53, 10yr 2.23%, Silver $ 17.31, Platinum $ 944.47, Palladium $ 795.23, Gold 1,266.00, and SGE Gold $ 1,266.53 That’s it for today… Thank you for Reading the Pfennig, and thank you for putting up with my long descriptions or recounts of my playing days regarding music… Here’s some more… It was less than 100 days that Duane Allman had to live after the June, 27 1971 concert that closed down the Fillmore East. He died in a motorcycle accident and then about 1 year later, bass player Berry Oakley also died in a motorcycle accident , less than 3 blocks from Duane’s fatal accident. The Allman Brothers would go on and continue making music for many years… But there was always something missing, in my humble opinion… I had just finished my sophomore year in High School in June of 1971… And don’t recall if I even knew the Allman Brothers existed then, but would get to know them the next couple of years, and by 1974, I was playing their music! I had a grand time at the Baseball Game yesterday with my “boys”.. .Andrew, Alex and Jerry… We had a blast! Even though we had to watch the Cardinals anemic offense! The 4 of us were together for Game 7 of the 2011 World Series Championship. I’ll never forget the feeling of being there with my “boys”… I’m on the 19 minute version of Whipping Post by the Allman Brothers to take us to the finish line today… And with that, I hope you have a Tom Terrific Tuesday… Be Good To Yourself! Chuck Butler The post A Shortened Week Chock-Full-O-Data! appeared first on Daily Pfennig. from http://capitalisthq.com/a-shortened-week-chock-full-o-data/ from http://capitalisthq.weebly.com/blog/a-shortened-week-chock-full-o-data Video has just been released that shows “black power” students at Evergreen State College harassing professors and attempting to shut down classes. Students can be seen shouting “BLACK POWER!” inches away from a disoriented-looking white professors face while, ironically, later on claiming “whiteness is the most violent system to ever breathe!” During a meeting which was supposed to be a forum for them to express concerns with the school President, George Bridges, students decided to forgo any sort of conversation and instead get aggressive. Activists behind the “black power” group of students are furious that the video of their behavior has been publically released and have said: “We demand that the video created for Day of Absence and Day of Presence that was stolen by white supremacists and edited to expose and ridicule the students and staff be taken down by the administration by this Friday.” The video, which can be seen below, includes expletives shouted at the President of their college and at other white professors. Professor Bret Weinstein told Fox News’ Tucker Carlson that the recent behavior of these students is becoming “far crazier” than ever before.This is what This is what happens when the left repeatedly tells minority students the false narrative that America is “run by the patriarchy” and that they’re victims “systemic oppression”, then they let them run wild with false understandings of this country and the purpose of college itself. from http://capitalisthq.com/finally-too-far-unhinged-black-power-students-at-evergreen-state-college-harass-white-professors-disrupt-classes-video/ from http://capitalisthq.weebly.com/blog/finally-too-far-unhinged-black-power-students-at-evergreen-state-college-harass-white-professors-disrupt-classes-video Advertisement – story continues below President Donald Trump Monday denounced an Oregon white supremacist who killed two men and injured a third on Friday. The men were trying to stop the anti-Muslim rant of Jeremy Joseph Christian, who was harassing two women, one of whom was not a Muslim. Christian has been charged with two counts of aggravated murder, attempted murder, intimidation and being a felon in possession of a restricted weapon.
Advertisement – story continues below “The violent attacks in Portland on Friday are unacceptable,” Trump said on Twitter, using his official POTUS account. “The victims were standing up to hate and intolerance. Our prayers are w/ them.” Vice President Mike Pence seconded Trump’s comments.
Advertisement – story continues below “Well said, Mr. President,” he tweeted. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the heroes in Portland and the loved ones they left behind.” Friday’s incident began when Christian started yelling at two girls on a commuter train. “He told us to go back to Saudi Arabia, and he told us we shouldn’t be here, to get out of his country,” said Denise Mangum, 16, who said she is not a Muslim, although her 17-year-old friend is a Muslim. “He was just telling us that we basically weren’t anything and that we should kill ourselves,” she said, adding that the girls moved away from Christian to get off the train at the next stop. Advertisement – story continues below “And then we turned around while they were fighting, and he just started stabbing people, and it was just blood everywhere, and we just started running for our lives,” Mangum said. Taliesin Myrddin Namkai Meche, 23, and Ricky John Best, 53, were killed. Micah David-Cole Fletcher, 21, was stabbed in the neck but is expected to recover. In the wake of the attack, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler has said a “free speech rally” this weekend and an anti-Muslim march the following weekend should be canceled. He has called upon the federal government, which handles the permit process for the venue for this this weekend’s march, to revoke its permit. Christian participated in a past “free speech rally” sponsored by the same group sponsoring Portland’s upcoming rally and is alleged to have said, “Die Muslims.” Participants are “coming to peddle a message of hatred,” Wheeler said, adding that hate speech is not protected by the Constitution. from http://capitalisthq.com/trump-condemns-portland-attack-that-left-two-men-dead/ from http://capitalisthq.weebly.com/blog/trump-condemns-portland-attack-that-left-two-men-dead The Money Project is an ongoing collaboration between Visual Capitalist and Texas Precious Metals that seeks to use intuitive visualizations to explore the origins, nature, and use of money. Today, we all know the U.S. dollar as an iconic currency that is recognizable to people around the world. And while we’ve previously looked at the buying power of the U.S. dollar over time, as well as important events like the Great Depression, we have not looked at the history of the dollar itself. How and why was it conceived, and why do we call it a “dollar” or a “buck”? How did the dollar’s early history help to shape today’s world? Before the DollarFor the early colonists, currency was a bit of a free-for-all. Officially, cash was denominated in pounds, shillings, and pence, but in reality things were a different story. Cash was often scarce, and colonists needed to be innovative to fulfill transactions. At various points in time, they used tobacco, beaver skins, and wampum in the place of money. Some colonies even tried to issue their own fiat currencies – many of which went bust. As it turned out, the Spanish dollar was often the most abundant form of cash – and this is what led to U.S. currency eventually being denominated in dollars. The RevolutionDuring the American Revolution in 1775, the Continental Congress issued a money known as the Continental Currency to try and fund the war. The government printed too many, and the value of a Continental diminished rapidly. Just five years later, after runaway inflation, the Continental was worth 2.5% of its face value. Benjamin Franklin rightly noted that the depreciation of the Continental had, in fact, acted as a tax to pay for the war. Holders of the currency – everyday people – were punished by losing massive amounts of buying power. Interestingly, this is where we get the phrase “Not worth a Continental”. Birth of the DollarThe failure of the Continental Currency must have been top of mind during the writing of the Constitution. A clause was even added, under Article 1, Section 10, to make sure such a failure would never happen again. It was written that states were not permitted to “coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; [or] make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts.” And so, the Coinage Act of 1792 created the U.S. dollar as a standard unit of currency. The U.S. Mint was authorized to oversee coinage, and the Act also established a penalty of death for debasing coinage issued by the Mint. The Almighty BuckIn the 19th Century, a new slang term emerged for the dollar. Especially in the Great Lakes area, different amounts of money were equated with animal skins. One particular reference showed that in Ohio in 1851, the skin of a muskrat was worth $ 0.25, and that of a doe was worth $ 0.50. Meanwhile, the skin of a buck was equal to the “almighty dollar” – and hence, the word “buck” became synonymous with the U.S. dollar. The Civil WarLeading up to the Civil War, private banks around the country issued their own paper currencies. With 10,000 or so of these currencies in circulation as the war broke out, governments soon found it very cumbersome to try and pay debts with many different types of notes. As a result, the $ 10 Demand Note was the first official paper currency issued in 1861 by the government to help finance the war. The North began paying debts with a fiat currency called the “greenback”, while Confederate states issued their own paper currency as well. The latter was worthless by the time the Confederacy lost the war. The Counterfeiting ProblemAround this time, counterfeiting was a widespread problem with greenbacks and all the private notes that were circulating. More than 1/3 of bills were fake at this time. Sophisticated counterfeit operations were happening in British Canada, and some bank engravers would even moonlight as counterfeiters, using the same plates and dyes they had from their day job. To deal with the problem, the Secret Service was formed in 1865. The Modern DollarCounterfeiting measures have come a long way since the late 19th century. Today, it’s estimated that less than 0.01% of notes are fake. Learn more about the modern U.S. dollar in the next part of this series. The Money Project is an ongoing collaboration between Visual Capitalist and Texas Precious Metals that seeks to use intuitive visualizations to explore the origins, nature, and use of money. The post 31 Fascinating Facts on the Early History of the U.S. Dollar appeared first on Visual Capitalist. from http://capitalisthq.com/31-fascinating-facts-on-the-early-history-of-the-u-s-dollar/ from http://capitalisthq.weebly.com/blog/31-fascinating-facts-on-the-early-history-of-the-us-dollar With the market pricing in near certainty of a June rate hike despite the Fed’s tacit warning that it would like to see evidence the recent economic slowdown is over, a recurring question among trading desks is why aren’t long-dated bonds selling off more, or rather why is the 10 and 30Y seemingly bid the closer we get to the next Fed hike with everyone – from hedge funds, to central banks to primary dealers – buying in surprising amounts. Overnight, an answer came from Wes Goodman, a Bloomberg columnist, who explains that the more the Fed hikes, the more bullish it is for bonds, i.e., the entire market is once again betting on “policy error” by the Fed. Here is latest Macro View note titled “The Fed Is Going to Hike. That’s Bullish for Bonds“
Goodman’s conclusion: “All this demand may be enough to drive benchmark 10-year yields to a new low for 2017, below 2.16%.” Of course, if this is correct, the implication is that the higher the Fed hikes short-term rates, the lower long-term rates go, flattening the curve and eventually inverting it. And, at some point in the near future, this will once again bring up the even more ominous question: is the Fed once again making a policy error by hiking into an economy that can not sustain it. For now the jury is out. from http://capitalisthq.com/the-fed-is-about-to-hike-why-that-is-bullish-for-bonds/ from http://capitalisthq.weebly.com/blog/the-fed-is-about-to-hike-why-that-is-bullish-for-bonds Listen to the Playbook Audio Briefing http://bit.ly/2s9BPTg … Subscribe on iTunes http://apple.co/2eX6Eay … Visit the online home of Playbook http://politi.co/2f51Jnf Good Tuesday morning. We hope you are enjoying your Memorial Day week. Congress is out, and we’re seeing a lot of out-of-office messages pop up. But we expect President Donald Trump’s decision this week on the Paris climate accords. In the last few days, Trump administration officials have publicly and privately predicted the president is open to remaining a part of the climate deal, will absolutely pull out of the agreement and will attempt to renegotiate the accord. Story Continued Below THERE IS NOT MUCH on President Donald Trump’s public schedule today — just lunch with Vice President Mike Pence at 12:30 p.m. Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc is slated to meet with President Donald Trump Wednesday at the White House. Vietnam Airlines flight number 1 — a Boeing 787 — is scheduled to land at Andrews Air Force Base today at 3:05 p.m. from New York. The plane is scheduled to leave Andrews at 9:10 p.m. Wednesday for Frankfurt. http://bit.ly/2riGeVD SPOTTED — COREY LEWANDOWSKI on Memorial Day at Peet’s Coffee across from the White House, “suitcase in hand,” per our tipster. AND THERE’S MORE … MATT ROSENBERG, MARK MAZZETTI and MAGGIE HABERMAN on NYT, A1– “Investigation Turns to Kushner’s Motives in Meeting With a Putin Ally”: “Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, was looking for a direct line to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia — a search that in mid-December found him in a room with a Russian banker whose financial institution was deeply intertwined with Russian intelligence, and remains under sanction by the United States. “Federal and congressional investigators are now examining what exactly Mr. Kushner and the Russian banker, Sergey N. Gorkov, wanted from each other. The banker is a close associate of Mr. Putin, but he has not been known to play a diplomatic role for the Russian leader. That has raised questions about why he was meeting with Mr. Kushner at a crucial moment in the presidential transition, according to current and former officials familiar with the investigations.” http://nyti.ms/2r6Ak9T **SUBSCRIBE to Playbook: http://politi.co/2lQswbh INSIDE THE WEST WING — WAPO A1, “How President Trump consumes — or does not consume — top-secret intelligence,” by Phil Rucker and Ashley Parker (print headline: “Serving intelligence to Trump in small bites”): “President Trump consumes classified intelligence like he does most everything else in life: ravenously and impatiently, eager to ingest glinting nuggets but often indifferent to subtleties. Most mornings, often at 10:30, sometimes earlier, Trump sits behind the historic Resolute desk and, with a fresh Diet Coke fizzing and papers piled high, receives top-secret updates on the world’s hot spots. The president interrupts his briefers with questions but also with random asides. He asks that the top brass of the intelligence community be present, and he demands brevity. “As they huddle around the desk, Trump likes to pore over visuals — maps, charts, pictures and videos, as well as ‘killer graphics,’ as CIA Director Mike Pompeo phrased it. … Though career intelligence analysts often take the lead in delivering them, Trump likes his political appointees — Pompeo and [DNI Daniel] Coats — to attend, along with national security adviser H.R. McMaster. Pompeo and Coats, whose offices are in McLean, Va., have had to redesign their daily routines so that they spend many mornings at the White House. Vice President Pence usually attends, while other administration principals join depending on the topic of the day, including Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly. Senior members of the West Wing staff sometimes float in and out of the Oval Office during the briefings. … “Jared Kushner … often observes quietly; he receives his own intelligence briefing earlier in the morning, according to two White House officials. … Trump also has encouraged his briefers to include as many visual elements as possible. This is a reflection, aides said, of Trump’s career as a real estate developer who evaluated blueprints and renderings to visualize what a property eventually would look like. ‘Sometimes,’ Coats said, ‘pictures do say a thousand words.’” http://wapo.st/2sgKNNC HOW THE PRESIDENT MANAGES – “Snubs and slights are part of the job in Trump’s White House,” by WaPo’s Ashley Parker: “In Trump’s White House, aides serve a president who demands absolute loyalty — but who doesn’t always offer it in return. Trump prefers a management style in which even compliments can come laced with a bite, and where enduring snubs and belittling jokes, even in public, is part of the job. Allies say the president’s quips are simply good-natured teasing, part of an inclusive strategy meant to make even mid-level staff members feel like family. But others consider Trump’s comments pointed reminders to those who work for him that he is in charge — barbs from the boss that keep aides on guard and off kilter, and can corrode staff morale. “Trump sometimes refers to his 45-year-old chief of staff, Reince Priebus, as ‘Reince-y,’ a diminutive nickname that some aides and outside rivals recount with gleeful relish. … The president has described House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), in theory one of his top allies on Capitol Hill, as a ‘Boy Scout’ — a dig that the lawmaker joked he chose to take as a compliment even though ‘I’m not sure he meant it that way.’ … And during the transition, Trump would make a point of noting that Vice President-elect Mike Pence’s crowds paled compared to his, teasing that even his daughter Ivanka and son Eric attracted more attention, said two people familiar with the comments, which they considered demeaning.” http://wapo.st/2s94Jm8 — HOPE HICKS’ statement to Ashley: “President Trump has a magnetic personality and exudes positive energy, which is infectious to those around him. He has an unparalleled ability to communicate with people, whether he is speaking to a room of three or an arena of 30,000. He has built great relationships throughout his life and treats everyone with respect. He is brilliant with a great sense of humor … and an amazing ability to make people feel special and aspire to be more than even they thought possible.” — @TVietor08: “Hope Hicks does a hilarious impression of North Korean propaganda in this quote to @AshleyRParker” http://bit.ly/2r6stZU ****** A message from Morgan Stanley: Morgan Stanley helped E-commerce leader Alibaba Group advance technologies to give rural communities access to goods and services once considered out of reach. Capital creates change. Read the full story at morganstanley.com/alibaba CRC 1221469 06/15 ****** ALEX ISENSTADT SCOOP: PENCE REEMERGING -- “Pence to make campaign push amid GOP concerns over Trump”: “Vice President Mike Pence is embarking on a cross-country summer campaign tour amid rising fears that the GOP, reeling from a barrage of Trump-fueled controversies, is headed for a midterm election disaster. Pence is mapping out a schedule that will take him through several Midwestern battlegrounds and to traditionally conservative southern states like Georgia, where an unexpectedly competitive June special election runoff is alarming party strategists. The vice president will also attend a series of Republican Party events that will draw major donors and power-brokers, where talk about 2018 is certain to be front-and-center. “The push comes at a time of growing consternation among senior Republicans who say the White House has given them little direction on midterm planning. Many complain that they do not even know who to contact about 2018 in an administration that has been consumed by chaos. ‘He has an appetite to fight so he’s going to get out there and fight on the president’s behalf,’ said Nick Ayers, a longtime Pence strategist. At the same time, the vice president’s increased electoral activity has stoked speculation that Pence is positioning himself for a post-Trump future in the party, something his advisers strenuously deny.” http://politi.co/2qBpsNH 2018 WATCH — NYT A16, “‘Narrowcast’ Trump? Republicans Seek Formula to Keep House Majority,” by Jeremy Peters in Roswell, Georgia: “In the northern suburbs of Atlanta, where what is likely to be the most expensive House campaign in history is being waged, a band of conservative advocacy groups is grappling with a question that may decide whether the Republican Party keeps its House majority after 2018: Do you run with President Trump or against him? Somehow, the groups are discovering, they will have to do both. … “The trick for Republicans and their allied outside groups is figuring out how to avoid conspicuously embracing the president without alienating conservative voters who would view any overt rebuff as a betrayal. ‘That is the question we are trying to answer right now,’ said Ralph Reed, whose Faith and Freedom Coalition is based in Georgia and is involved in the special election. As for Mr. Trump, Mr. Reed added: ‘I don’t think you really look to broadcast him. You narrowcast him.’” http://nyti.ms/2quX3O0 JUST POSTED — STEPHEN MILLER PROFILE – WILLIAM D. COHAN in Vanity Fair’s summer issue, “How Stephen Miller Rode White Rage from Duke’s Campus to Trump’s West Wing”: “Despite Miller’s penchant for outrageous provocation, his family was very much like others in Santa Monica. His mother, Miriam, from Johnstown, Pennsylvania, came from a well-known Jewish family that had made a fortune in retailing. His father, Michael, a Stanford graduate, was a lawyer and real-estate mini-mogul. These days, the Millers together own Cordary Inc., a real-estate investment company … [which] owns and manages three multi-family residential ‘communities’ in the Los Angeles area comprised of 471 rental units. “Ironically, the family would not have made it to the United States had someone like Stephen Miller been in the White House a century ago. Facing religious persecution, Miriam’s family — the Glossers — fled Belarus, arriving in New York in 1903. ‘Imagine living in a place where armed Cossacks ride through the streets, looking to cripple or kill you,’ wrote Robert Jeschonek, in ‘Long Live Glosser’s,’ a 2014 book about the family. … One former Duke student remembers Miller’s behavior in class more than she does his political views. In a freshman history course about the American Revolution, she recalls, ‘Just right away, he’d just walk in, put his head down, and go to sleep.’ After giving Miller a few good-natured warnings, the professor kicked him out. ‘He’s got that sleepy-eyed, sloe-eyed look, but he’s just saying ‘F*** you’ to the world,’ she says.” http://bit.ly/2r6MfVd COMING ATTRACTIONS — “Debt fight blindsides Congress,” by Burgess Everett and Rachael Bade: “President Donald Trump’s top economic aides are urging Capitol Hill leaders to raise the debt ceiling by the end of July. And Congress is totally unprepared to do so. Lawmakers in both parties thought they’d have until the fall to act, and had planned to roll the always-difficult vote into a broader spending package that could be more easily swallowed. That strategy may now have to be tossed aside with the debt limit deadline approaching faster than expected. “The White House request raises the prospect of a bruising fight over the debt limit — not just between Republicans and Democrats but within both parties. The GOP is torn over whether to combine spending cuts with the debt ceiling lift, and Senate Democrats are already signaling they may push for their own concessions since their votes are going to be needed to avoid a devastating government default. The request will also scramble the congressional calendar. The GOP is currently embroiled in an effort to repeal Obamacare and rewrite the tax code, two massive legislative items that are expected to suck up time and energy all summer.” http://politi.co/2rQ2GGq FOR YOUR RADAR — “North Korea warns of ‘bigger gift package’ for U.S. after latest test,” by Reuters’ Ju-min Park and Jack Kim in Seoul: “North Korean leader Kim Jong Un supervised the test of a new ballistic missile controlled by a precision guidance system and ordered the development of more powerful strategic weapons, the North’s official KCNA news agency reported on Tuesday. The missile launched on Monday was equipped with an advanced automated pre-launch sequence compared with previous versions of the ‘Hwasong’ rockets, North Korea’s name for its Scud-class missiles, KCNA said. That indicated the North had launched a modified Scud-class missile, as South Korea’s military has said.” http://reut.rs/2sgB2yW — “Former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega dies at 83,” by AP’s Juan Zamorano and Kathia Martinez in Panama City: “Former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega, a onetime U.S. ally who was ousted as Panama’s dictator by an American invasion in 1989, died late Monday at age 83. Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela wrote in his Twitter account that ‘the death of Manuel A. Noriega closes a chapter in our history.’ Varela added, ‘His daughters and his relatives deserve to mourn in peace.’ Noriega ruled with an iron fist, ordering the deaths of those who opposed him and maintaining a murky, close and conflictive relationship with the United States.” http://apne.ws/2qBlKUl THE JUICE… — FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: JOHN HEILEMANN is now a national affairs analyst for NBC News and MSNBC. — OBAMA ALUMNI: FRANK BENENATI is starting a new job in Chicago at United Airlines as director of corporate communications. He previously served as the director of public affairs for the EPA and also was as a White House spokesperson and assistant press secretary. THE N.Y. POST and N.Y. DAILY NEWS have the same front page today. A mugshot photo of Tiger Woods with the headline “DUI OF THE TIGER.” The Post http://nyp.st/2algwpl … The Daily News http://bit.ly/2sgRGhO REP. DEVIN NUNES (R-CALIF.) SPEAKS, via Sarah Wire in the L.A. Times: “Embattled House Select Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes told hundreds of local Republicans at a recent private dinner fundraiser that congressional investigations into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election are about Democrats trying to justify Hillary Clinton’s loss. “‘The Democrats don’t want an investigation on Russia. They want an independent commission. Why do they want an independent commission? Because they want to continue the narrative that Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump are best friends, and that’s the reason that he won, because Hillary Clinton would have never lost on her own; it had to be someone else’s fault,’ Nunes told Republicans at the $75-per-plate Tulare County Lincoln Dinner on April 7. His remarks were recorded on video and provided to The Times. “‘They have tried to destroy this Russia investigation, they’ve never been serious about it, and one of the great things now that I’ve stepped aside from this Russia investigation, I can actually say what I want to say. I know that there’s probably media in here, you can write it but just try to get it right when you do,’ he said.” http://lat.ms/2riC4gt BEYOND THE BELTWAY — “Threats of violence, unfinished business, rowdy protesters mark end of tumultuous legislative session,” by Dallas Morning News’ Brandi Grissom, Robert T. Garrett, Lauren McGaughy and James Barragan in Austin: “Lawmakers threatened to shoot and beat one another up on the final day of a legislative session beset by angry fights and emotional outbursts that often got in the way of completing their agenda. ‘Our nerves are frayed. It’s the last day of a long session,’ said Rep. Pat Fallon, R-Frisco. ‘We just want to go home.’ … “Reps. Ramon Romero and Cesar Blanco said Rep. Matt Rinaldi, a staunchly conservative Republican from Irving and ardent supporter of the anti-immigration legislation, approached them. Rinaldi told them he had called U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to report the protesters, many of whom were Hispanic. The Democrats were infuriated. A shoving match and threats of violence ensued. Rinaldi said Rep. Poncho Nevarez, a Democrat from Eagle Pass, threatened to ‘get me on the way to my car.’ Rep. Justin Rodriguez, D-San Antonio, said he heard Rinaldi warn Nevarez that he would ‘put a bullet in your head.’ “Rinaldi issued a statement that said he threatened to shoot Nevarez in self-defense only after the Democrat threatened him. The Republican said he was under Department of Public Safety protection following the kerfuffle.” http://bit.ly/2rfnYe5 — “Cities join call for impeachment,” by POLITICO Illinois Playbook’s Natasha Korecki: “Congress may not be ready to launch impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump, but a growing number of cities and towns are trying to push members in that direction. Brookline, Mass., became the 10th and latest local government Thursday to pass a resolution calling for impeachment, a step designed to add pressure on the state’s congressmen to launch a formal investigation that could ultimately lead to the president’s removal from office.” http://politi.co/2rzT1E2 ****** A message from Morgan Stanley: Capital creates more commerce. New technology can make even small businesses big. E-commerce leader Alibaba Group built an online and mobile marketplace connecting small businesses to customers in China and beyond. Morgan Stanley helped take the company public, leading a $25 billion IPO—the largest in history1. Alibaba’s subsequent growth is helping fulfill the company’s ambition of giving rural communities access to goods and services once considered out of reach. Across the globe, we’re working to advance the technologies that help more people to prosper. Capital creates change. morganstanley.com/alibaba DISCLAIMER: THE OPPOSITION — “Since election, yoga rises off the mat to take on Donald Trump,” by USA Today’s Paul Singer: https://usat.ly/2sgzXqS OFF MESSAGE PODCAST: Sen. Ben Sasse joins Isaac Dovere on the latest episode of POLITICO’s Off Message podcast talking about how President Donald Trump comes to the presidency from the world of reality TV. “And I have lots of anxiety about whether or not that kind of world is really what we want for our kids,” the Nebraska Republican senator said. Listen and subscribe http://apple.co/2nEa7y0 — “Is Trump an ‘adult’? Ben Sasse won’t say,” by Isaac Dovere: http://politi.co/2rivyGC REMEMBERING FRANK DEFORD – NYT’s Daniel Victor: “Frank Deford, who mined the sports world for human stories and told them with literary grace over six decades in Sports Illustrated, a shelf of books and many years of radio and television commentary, died on Sunday at his home in Key West, Fla. He was 78. … Mr. Deford retired from NPR’s “Morning Edition” on May 3, signing off with what the radio network said was his 1,656th weekly commentary since 1980. He also appeared on HBO’s ‘Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel’ for 22 years and wrote for Sports Illustrated for more than 30 years. At Sports Illustrated, he became a leader in a form of literary sports journalism nurtured by its managing editor, André Laguerre, who recruited him as one of a blue-ribbon roster of writers that included Mark Kram, Dan Jenkins and Roy Blount Jr.” http://nyti.ms/2riAUSq VALLEY TALK — “Court Documents Shed Light on Theranos Board’s Response to Crisis: Two former directors didn’t follow up on allegations that the blood-testing firm was relying on standard technology,” by WSJ’s Christopher Weaver: “Two former Theranos Inc. directors said they didn’t follow up on public allegations that the Silicon Valley blood-testing firm was relying on standard technology rather than its much-hyped proprietary device for most tests, according to newly released court documents. “In depositions, the highly decorated former directors — former U.S. Navy Adm. Gary Roughead and former U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz — who were board members when concerns of employees and regulators became public—said they didn’t question Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes about the matter.” http://on.wsj.com/2r6XWes MEDIAWATCH — “Tronc plan to buy Sun-Times may face competition,” by Natasha Korecki: “At least two outside parties have shown interest in buying the Chicago Sun-Times, possibly scuttling what was thought to be a done deal with the owner of the Chicago Tribune, a newspaper guild representative told POLITICO. David Roeder, a consultant with the Chicago News Guild, which represents the newsrooms of the Sun-Times and the Chicago Reader, said that at least two other interested groups of buyers have reached out to the guild and expressed an interest in buying the news organization.” http://politi.co/2rzu4bS –TEDDY SCHLEIFER to Recode — per Joe Pompeo’s Morning Media: “Recode has nabbed Teddy Schleifer from CNN, where he has been a Washington-based politics and campaign finance reporter. At Recode, Schleifer will be a senior editor based in San Francisco.” TRANSITIONS — FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: Theo LeCompte, former deputy chief of staff at the Commerce Department and COO at the 2012 Democratic National Convention, is joining MemoryWell as COO. Former TIME correspondent and current contributor Jay Newton-Small started the organization to use a network of freelance journalists to write “life stories” for patients entering long term care to help improve their care. WEEKEND WEDDINGS -- Warren Bass, senior editor of the Wall Street Journal’s Review section, was married Sunday to Jenna Slutsky, a psychologist at Columbia University Medical Center, at Wainwright House in Rye, N.Y. The couple met on the subway going from Brooklyn to the Upper West Side. The waterside ceremony was performed by Rabbi Aaron Panken, the president of Hebrew Union College, and Rabbi Angela Buchdahl of New York’s Central Synagogue. SPOTTED: Susan Rice and Ian Cameron, Adam Entous, Emily Bazelon, Brooke Anderson, David Greenberg and Suzanne Nossel, Salman and Cat Ahmed, Andrew Weiss and Kate Julian, Jen Simon, Ken Baer and Caron Gremont, Mieke Eoyang, Krishanti Vignarajah and Collin O’Mara, Grant Harris and Tara Bahrampour. ANOTHER SCHUMER MARRIAGE! — Meghan Taira, legislative director for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, and Gerry Petrella, policy director for Leader Schumer, were married on Monday by Danny Akaka Jr. at the Sunset Ranch on the north shore of Oahu in front of friends and family from Hawaii, Long Island, Washington and beyond. Pool report: “The bride wore her mother’s beautiful dress, the groom wore his finest Tommy Bahama number as the crowd danced the night away to songs including ‘Sweet Child Of Mine,’ the karaoke song that first brought the couple together. The ladies wore local leis, the men kukui necklaces and everyone brought their finest aloha spirit. POG juice and rum flowed and laughter roared late into the night.” — Joel Mowbray, founder of Fourth Factor Consulting, a strategic consulting firm that works with mostly Silicon Valley tech companies, on Sunday married Valeria Bystritskaia, who was Miss Germany 2011 and competed in Miss Universe. Fun facts: she speaks five languages and shares the same immigration attorney as Melania Trump, Michael Wildes. Joel is a former fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. The wedding was in Aspen: all the guests stayed at the St. Regis and the ceremony was outdoors with a chuppah in the grass and the trees and mountains as the backdrop. Festivities kicked off Friday night with a Shabbat dinner at Chabad in Aspen. On Saturday, after Shabbat, guests enjoyed scotch and cigars. The couple met in synagogue at Kiddush last May, the first Shabbat after Passover. He went up to go talk to her and asked her where she was from (her favorite question): She replied: “From everywhere around the world” and promptly walked away. Pics by Ross Daniels Photography http://bit.ly/2qvhKcH … http://bit.ly/2rx6sVw … http://bit.ly/2s9wbAz SPOTTED: Ted and Heidi Cruz, Ed and Marie Royce, David Panton, Larry Mizel, Martin and Rivka Rapaport, their children Ezi and Penina, Sander and Tracy Gerber, Eric and Yvette Edidin, Arie Lipnick, Elliott Broidy, Adam Ross, David Panton, Noah Pollak, Martin Rapaport, Travis Allen, David and Donna Keene, Rich Miniter, Rex Elsass, Reid Spitz, David and Hila Brog, wedding planner Jason Burns. –Sabrina Singh, deputy comms director for American Bridge, and Mike Smith, DCCC national finance director, got married in Newport Beach, at the hotel Pelican Hill. The officiant was Mike’s sister Jaime Smith. DCCC, DGA, and HFA families were well represented in the wedding party. The best man was Tom Mintz and groomsmen included Jonathan Levy, Haley Simmons, and Tanner Ahern. Her bridesmaids/maids of honor included Devon MacLaughlin, Sarah Rothschild, Lauren Wolman, and Tori Murphy. They met at the DCCC in 2011. WELCOME TO THE WORLD -- CNN correspondent Sunlen Serfaty and husband Alexis Serfaty, VP and chief of staff at the U.S.-U.A.E. Business Council, email friends and family: “Sunlen and I are overjoyed to welcome to the world, Roosevelt Jolie Serfaty! Miss Serfaty arrived on Sunday evening at 5:23 pm, weighing 8 pounds and one ounce — twenty one inches long, with beautiful, big, and curious eyes. Her name carries special meaning for us — Roosevelt, ‘Field of Roses’ in honor of Rose Park, where we first met and were married. Mom and baby are well and Roosevelt can’t wait to meet everyone!” Pic http://politi.co/2qBfSdN — Josh Kraushaar, political editor at National Journal, and Hannah Kraushaar, program manager at National Defense University, have welcomed Avi Ethan Kraushaar, who was born on Wednesday. Pic with big sister Shana http://politi.co/2rfavTa BIRTHDAY OF THE DAY: former DCCC Chairman/Congressman Steve Israel (D-N.Y.), now chairman of the Global Institute at Long Island University, is 59. How he’s celebrating: “Once I left Congress, I went from the House to a new house near Theodore Roosevelt’s home on Long Island. I’ll be celebrating there, poolside, with my family and dog, Theo.” Read his Playbook Plus Q&A: http://politi.co/2rzMl97 BIRTHDAYS: Michelle Cottle, contributing editor at The Atlantic and a TNR alum … Jenna Lee, co-host of FOX News’ “Happening Now” (hat tip: James Rosen) … Kim Kingsley … Miryam Lipper, press secretary for Sen. Tim Kaine and alum of HFA and DNC, who celebrated last night at a small Memorial Day dinner with HFA and DNC friends (h/ts Ian Sams and Tyrone Gayle) … Frank Thorp, producer and off-air reporter covering Congress for NBC … Holly Page (h/ts Tammy, Kelley, Jacquie and Jon) … CAA’s Alan Berger … Ashe Schow, reporter at Real Clear Investigations … Eric Levenson, a digital writer at CNN (h/t Sarah Jorgensen) … Hannah Cooper, a staff assistant for Rep. Anthony Brown (D-Md.), is 23 (h/t Sean Gogolin) … Shawnda Westly … WSJ alum Gautham Nagesh, founder and editor of Stiff Jab, the premier fight site on Tumblr … Blake Williams … Larry Silverstein is 86 (h/t Jewish Insider) … … Josh Gatlin is 41 … Lisa Stark, broadcast correspondent at Education Week and the PBS NewsHour who is an ABC News and Al Jazeera America alum … Joe Williams … Reema Dodin, floor director for Sen. Dick Durbin, the Democratic Whip … Marshall Project managing editor Kirsten Danis … PhRMA’s Nicole Longo … Politico’s Pratyusha Sankuratri … Ashley Bender, associate at Arnold & Porter (h/t Trey Herr) … Thomas Brown Dowd, who was a second lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps and was KIA in Vietnam in 1967, would have been 73 (h/t best friend Fred Graefe) … Hunter Williams of Covington & Burling … Brian Infante, associate at Portfolio Advisors … Politico Europe’s Fiona Maxwell … Jorna Taylor … Lauren Nevin … Nicholas Ballasy … Sheila Ali-Oston … Doug Grane, co-founder and partner at PE and angel investing firm St. Andrews Partners … Greg Moore … Thomas Cluderay … Joe Cowie … Scott Froyen … Stephanie Bosh … Chris Gowen (h/ts Teresa Vilmain) … Gary Lee … Sheila Ali-Oston … Wynonna Judd is 53 … Cee Lo Green is 43 (h/ts AP) ****** A message from Morgan Stanley: Capital creates more commerce. New technology can make even small businesses big. E-commerce leader Alibaba Group built an online and mobile marketplace connecting small businesses to customers in China and beyond. Morgan Stanley helped take the company public, leading a $25 billion IPO—the largest in history1. Alibaba’s subsequent growth is helping fulfill the company’s ambition of giving rural communities access to goods and services once considered out of reach. Across the globe, we’re working to advance the technologies that help more people to prosper. Capital creates change. morganstanley.com/alibaba DISCLAIMER: SUBSCRIBE to the Playbook family: POLITICO Playbook http://politi.co/1M75UbX … New York Playbook http://politi.co/1ON8bqW … Florida Playbook http://politi.co/1OypFe9 … New Jersey Playbook http://politi.co/1HLKltF … Massachusetts Playbook http://politi.co/1Nhtq5v … Illinois Playbook http://politi.co/1N7u5sb … California Playbook http://politi.co/2bLvcPl … Brussels Playbook http://politi.co/1FZeLcw … All our political and policy tipsheets http://politi.co/1M75UbX from http://capitalisthq.com/inside-trumps-intelligence-consumption-management-style-spotted-corey-lewandowski-at-peets-coffee-across-from-w-h-pence-to-hit-campaign-trail-shock-congress-in-a-knot-ov/ from http://capitalisthq.weebly.com/blog/inside-trumps-intelligence-consumption-management-style-spotted-corey-lewandowski-at-peets-coffee-across-from-wh-pence-to-hit-campaign-trail-shock-congress-in-a-knot-over-the-debt-ceiling Portland, Oregon Mayor Ted Wheeler, a Democrat, has acted to suspend the First Amendment rights of Trump supporters and those opposed to Islamic sharia law by banning demonstrations planned for Portland in the coming weeks, following the killings of two men (and the wounding of a third man) who intervened against a man harassing a Muslim woman and her friend on public transportation. Wheeler is also demanding the federal government do the same and revoke or not issue demonstration permits for the rallies which are set to be held on federal property in Portland. Mayor Ted Wheeler, Twitter avatar. A rally planned for June 4th is called “Trump Free Speech Rally Portland“. A rally scheduled for June 10th is part of a nationwide effort that day by Act for America called, “March Against Sharia — March for Human Rights“. Both Portland rallies are reportedly being organized by the same person, Joey Gibson. Gibson issued a video statement Monday, reported KATU-TV that he will not cancel.
Gibson’s announcement for the June 4th rally states:
The Act for America rally announcement reads in part:
Democrat Mayor Ted Wheeler announced his moves against the First Amendment in a series of tweets on Monday. The statement reads in part:
Willamette Week notes that Wheeler’s denial of local permitting could allow Portland police to shut down any public gathering by conservatives within the city’s jurisdiction. “It is not a symbolic gesture. Unpermitted marches are the rationale that the Portland Police Bureau has used to crack down on political rallies on the left, deploying tear gas and stun grenades. Wheeler’s statement raises the prospect of riot police trying to shut down a coalition of right-wing extremists that includes biker groups, militia men and celebrity brawlers.” Mayor Wheeler did not issue a call for a planned antifa counter-demonstration for June 4th to be cancelled. The ACLU responded to Wheeler on Twitter in a multi-part statement, this first of which was a blunt rebuke, “1. The government cannot revoke or deny a permit based on the viewpoint of the demonstrators. Period.”
President Trump posted a statement on Monday about the murders in Portland, “The violent attacks in Portland on Friday are unacceptable. The victims were standing up to hate and intolerance. Our prayers are w/ them.”
Photos of attack survivor Micah Fletcher were posted showing how lucky he is to be alive.
Destinee Mangum, the friend of the Muslim woman initially targeted by the killer spoke to the media. Both women were subjected to anti-Muslim comments prompting the three men to intervene, each of whom were subsequently slashed in the throat by the alleged killer, Jeremy Christian. The two men killed in the attack were Rick Best and Taliesin Myrddin Namkai Meche. from http://capitalisthq.com/portland-mayor-moves-to-suspend-first-amendment-for-trump-supporters-in-wake-of-killings/ from http://capitalisthq.weebly.com/blog/portland-mayor-moves-to-suspend-first-amendment-for-trump-supporters-in-wake-of-killings |
ABOUT MEI am Linda Frazier from USA 32 years old. I am working as fitness trainer in local gym and love cooking,reading books chat with friends love my family. Archives
December 2017
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