Tuesday 27 June 2017
“Massive Cyberattack” Hits Ukraine Central Bank, Government, Russian Oil Giant; Russia Blamed
Now that CNN is officially out of the “Russia hackers” fake news business, the Ukraine has decided to fill in the void, and moments ago Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Pavlo Rozenko said that the government’s computer network was down, in what he claimed was a “massive cyberattack”, one which claimed the central bank, power plant and airport, and promptly accused Russia of being behind it. To “prove” the charge, he posted a picture on Twitter of a computer screen showing an error message.
“We also have a network ‘down’,” he wrote. “This image is being displayed by all computers of the government.” The photo showed his PC displaying a message claiming a disk “contains errors and needs to be prepared”, urging the user not to turn it off.
??-???! ??????????? ??? ?? ???? ??? “????????”. ?????? ??????. pic.twitter.com/J2yoPPe37n
— Rozenko Pavlo (@RozenkoPavlo) June 27, 2017
According to local press, numerous Ukrainian institutions were hit by a wave of cyber attacks earlier in the day, including banks, the state energy distributor and Kiev’s main airport. “We also have a network ‘down’,” Rozenko said on Facebook.
Ukrainian state-run aircraft manufacturer Antonov was among the companies hit, along with state power distributor Ukrenergo, which said the attack did not affect power supplies.
Who’s to blame? Why Russia of course.
Speaking to Interfax,the advisor to the Interior Minister of Ukraine, MP Anton Gerashchenko said that “a huge cyber-attack at Ukrainian companies on Tuesday has been organized by Russian intelligence services and it is one of the elements of the hybrid war against Ukraine,
“A huge cyber-attack has been started against Ukraine. It was done under the disguise that it is allegedly a virus… According to the preliminary information, this is an organized system, a kind of training by the Russian intelligence services. The attack aims at banks, media and transport communications,” he said on 112.Ukraine TV Channel on Tuesday.
One wonders if that preliminary information came from the same FBI that incorrectly claimed the Qatar hack was organized by Russia, when Qatar itself later blamed the “blockade” countries as being behind it.
Gerashchenko said that the virus reached computers during several days and even weeks via getting mails. “Today, at 11:00 [the computers] that were affected by the virus in advance were activated. Thus, this is another example of using cyber-attacks in the hybrid war against our country,” he said.
“I think that soon officers of the SBU, the cyber security department of the National Police will unveil the ways how this virus reached the targets and they propose the options to tackle the problem,” he said.
* * *
Meanwhile, the fall out in Ukraine, which claimed the cyberattacks are a modified version of the “WannaCry” virus, has been extensive with Ukrainian state-run aircraft manufacturer Antonov among the companies reportedly hit, along with state power distributor Ukrenergo, which said the attack did not affect power supplies. The National Bank of Ukraine said an “unknown virus” was to blame, saying several unnamed Ukrainian banks were affected along with financial firms.
“As a result of cyber attacks, these banks have difficulties with customer service and banking operations,” a statement said.
“The National Bank bank is confident that the banking infrastructure’s defense against cyber fraud is properly set up and attempted cyber attacks on banks’ IT systems will be neutralised.”
Oschadbank, one of Ukraine’s largest state-owned lenders, said some of its services had been affected by a “hacking attack” but guaranteed that customer data was safe.
Computers and departure boards at Boryspil International Airport in Kiev – the largest in Ukraine – were also down. “The official site of the airport and the scoreboard with the schedule of flights aren’t working!” the airport’s acting director, Pavel Ryabikin, wrote on Facebook.
* * *
It wasn’t just Ukraine however. As The Independent writes, Danish shipping giant Maersk said its IT systems were down across “multiple sites and
businesses due to a cyber attack”, although it was unclear whether it
was related to the situation in Ukraine. The congolmerate is the largest container shipping
company in the world and also operates in the oil and gas sectors.
Russia’s Rosneft, a government-owned oil firm, also said it was targeted by a “massive hacker attack” on its servers, as was steel maker
Evraz. “The cyber attack could lead to serious consequences, however, due to
the fact that the Company has switched to a reserve control system,
neither oil production nor preparation processes were stopped,” a
statement from Rosneft said.
British advertising company WPP also said several units were affected by a suspected cyber attack.
Or, as Reuters summarizes:
- SWISS GOV’T AGENCY SAYS UKRAINE, RUSSIA, ENGLAND AND INDIA ARE MOST AFFECTED BY VIRUS, NO INDICATION THAT SWISS COMPANIES AFFECTED
- SWISS GOV’T AGENCY SAYS THERE ARE INDICATIONS THAT PETYA RANSOMWARE VIRUS IS CIRCULATING AGAIN
It was not clear how and why Russian hackers would be able to hack the entire world, Russia included, but that probably does not matter: Ukraine has blamed Russia for repeated cyber attacks targeting
crucial infrastructure during the past three years, including one on its
power grid that left part of western Ukraine temporarily without
electricity in December 2015. Today was just a continuation, and after all the world still demand Russia hacking narratives.
source http://capitalisthq.com/massive-cyberattack-hits-ukraine-central-bank-government-russian-oil-giant-russia-blamed/
More Negative Data For The U.S.!
Good day… And a Tom Terrific Tuesday to you! Well, I was wrong… (Mark that down!) I thought we would be up and running with the email version of the Pfennig yesterday… But there’s more “tweaking” that has to be completed first, so… This remains the only way to view the Pfennig each day… Pink Floyd greets me this morning with their song, and my fave Pink Floyd song at that: Comfortably Numb…
I’ve used that song title as a phrase to describe the majority of the people in the U.S., saying that they had become comfortably numb about debt. I recall when I first began using the phrase in my writings, and it’s been quite some time ago!
Well, the currencies woke up yesterday, and through the night they partied on Wayne… Party on Garth! I told you yesterday, that I thought the Aussie dollar (A$ ) was heading for 76-cents, and that’s where it sits this morning… And kiwi, WOW! up to 73-cents this morning. So, I guess there’s no more sneaking around in a dark room so nobody notices for these two. The lights have been turned on, for everyone to see them on the rally tracks!
And someone finally got up to answer the door, and the euro stepped through 1.12, on its way to 1.1250 this morning. Last week, when I made the call for a return to the euro, I titled it. “A Kiss of Death, or a Good Call?” I’m glad to say that we’ve seen no “kiss of death” here… In my Thursday article for the Dow Theory Letters, I really get into how “sentiment” rules these days, and the sentiment toward the dollar is wearing very thin these days… I’m just saying…
I read a report this morning that Lola, aka Goldman Sachs was talking down the dollar, saying that “sentiment” toward the dollar was fading. They even talked about how the dollar gets sold by large sums on small negative data and can’t seem to mount a strong rally on any positive data prints… Well, when I read that, it just confirmed my thought that the strong dollar trend is ending… It will take a while for it to work its way out of portfolios, but it’s ending, folks… I can feel it in my bones!
Yesterday morning, I told you that Gold was down $ 14 in the early morning trading… Have you heard what caused that move? When I heard what caused it, I said, “Yeah, I believe that one.. NO! and if you do, I’ve got a bridge I would like to sell you!” So, here’s how the story goes… Apparently, someone with “fat fingers” caused 1.8 Million ounces of Gold to trade in one minute, taking out the whole bid side stack… Really? That’s what you want to go with to explain this move? I shake my head in disbelief, for this was an “engineered” move if I ever saw one!
So, did you back up the truck and load some Gold onto it at the cheaper prices yesterday? I hope you did, because Gold is up $ 5 in the early morning trading today… Oh! And this is BIG folks! Lola, aka Goldman Sachs came out with a call yesterday saying that their bullish on Gold! And you know what I always say… What Lola wants, Lola gets! I’m just saying…
Did you hear the news from India about what is being proposed by the Gov’t regarding Gold? First the Gov’t took some high denomination rupee notes out of circulation last year, and now they want to monitor all Gold held by the citizens. If the Indian citizen holds unreported Gold, the Gov’t wants them to come clean… So, if it were me… I would tell the Gov’t to go whistle Dixie somewhere, because if I held unreported Gold, it would remain that way!
The Big 3 Central Bankers are on the docket today to speak… First up was European Central Bank (ECB) President, Mario Draghi, who I hear is continuing to tout persistence in his monetary policy, which is all about stimulus… Next will be Bank of England (BOE) Gov. Mark Carney, who will do his best to keep investors “interested” in the U.K. markets… And then finally, Fed Chair, Janet Yellen, takes the microphone, to do a little Karaoke, no wait! That’s not what she’s taking the microphone for, Chuck! Oh, sorry… No, karaoke? Oh darn it! No, instead, Yellen will be in London, talking about global economic issues…
Of these 3, I would think that Yellen has the best chance to really move the markets today, and that “best chances” is like one in 10! But, you never know, right? Stranger things have happened with Central Bankers talk, that’s for sure!
Remember about a month or so ago, I told you how the Chinese were allowing the renminbi to appreciate, almost daily? Well, that ended a couple of weeks ago, and since then, the renminbi has been getting marked down with each fixing… You know, I thought we would know more by now about how China was going to change the way they price the renminbi VS a basket of currencies. I guess I’ll have to just take the route of good things come to those who wait!
The price of Oil gained about 25-cents in the past 24 hours… Hey! 25-cents doesn’t sound like a lot, but when you’re talking about the number of barrels of Oil that’s traded each day, 25-cents is BIG! And any positive move gets the Petrol Currencies all lathered up. The Russian ruble at one point this year, was the best performing currency, but not any longer, as the drop in the price of Oil has taken a HUGE bite out of the ruble…
When I wake up my laptop each day, I look at the currencies to see what’s happened while I slept, and I look for the Russian ruble, because I can usually tell what the price of Oil is doing, by the performance of the ruble… An unabashed Oil Play if I’ve ever seen one! By that I’ll repeat what I’ve said for a few years now, and that is… If you believe that the price of Oil is going to rally, then look to buy rubles, if you don’t believe the price of Oil is going to rally, then don’t look to buy rubles! that’s right, move along… for these are not the droids you’re looking for!
Speaking of waking up… Man, I did NOT want to wake up this morning! I even had to resort to eating something crunchy this morning while my fat fingers worked the keyboard… Eating something crunchy gets your inner system going, and from there, you’re ready for the day!
The U.S. Data Cupboard yesterday saw May Durable Goods Orders fall -1.1%! I told you it would be negative, but even I didn’t think that it would be THAT negative! And Capital Goods Orders also printed negative, posting a -0.2% decline for May… So, chalk up another “real economic data” print as negative, thus proving my point over and over again that the economy is heading to recessionville, but, yet, the Fed keeps hiking rates into the weakening…
Before I head to the Big Finish today, I wanted to just mention that the President of the NY Fed, Bill Dudley, was talking about the markets the other day, and he said something that just about made me fall out of my chair! He mumbled something about “not paying attention to the bond market”… Wait! What? Are you kidding me? The bond market just keeps telling everyone that will pay attention that things aren’t great, and that rates shouldn’t go higher right now, but the man that is on the Fed’s Open Market Committee, which sets the Fed Funds rate, and dishes out monetary policy, says he isn’t paying attention to the bond market… Well, shut my mouth! OK, Chuck, stop right there! You don’t want to carry this out any further, or the men in black suits, white shirts, black ties, and sunglasses will be showing up at the door, “requesting” that I go for a ride…
I’ll just tell them the great Mogambo Guru had me say those thing! HAHAHAHAHA!
To recap… The currencies got of the porch to chase the dollar down the street yesterday, and that carried through overnight and into this morning… U.S. data printed very weak yesterday, with Durable Goods Orders at -1.1%! That got the dollar on the selling blocks, and then sour sentiment toward the dollar took over from there!
For What It’s Worth… I thought since we had a very negative print of economic data yesterday, that I would feature this article that talks about why Americans accept mediocre performance in the economy… You can find the article here:https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-06-26/why-americans-feel-so-good-about-a-mediocre-economy?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_term=170626&utm_campaign=sharetheview
Or, here’s your snippet: “Why the divergence between the “soft” numbers of the confidence surveys, and the “hard” numbers of the real economy? One possibility is that this is just a momentary spot of economic weakness, and the numbers that measure sentiment point to better days ahead? But survey numbers have been rosy for one-half year now, so if they were doing their job of forecasting the real economy, it seems that the good times that they forecast would be showing up in the numbers by now.”
Chuck again… Yes, Retail Sales, Durables, Capital Goods, car sales, etc. just seem to be falling month after month…
Currencies today 6/27/17… American Style: A$ .7604, kiwi .7301, C$ .7560, euro 1.1250, sterling 1.2749, Swiss $ .9673, … European Style: rand 12.8847, krone 8.4680, SEK 8.6936, forint 274.88, zloty 3.7463, koruna 23.3555, RUB 59.09, yen 111.77, sing 1.3865, HKD 7.8006, INR 64.48, China 6.8315, peso 17.89, BRL 3.3232, Dollar Index 96.99, Oil $ 48.83, 10-year 2.16%, Silver $ 16.72, Platinum $ 921.95, Palladium $ 871.00, and Gold… $ 1,252.00
That’s it for today… A little later than usual today, but no biggie… I had a great time at the ballgame yesterday. The rain stopped, and even though the sun never appeared during the game, the temps were great! And the Cardinals won! Old colleague, and friend, Ty Keough, was at the game and came over to where I was sitting to say hi… I need some coffee, so I’m going to tie this up and get it out, and head for a cup o’ Joe! Billy Joel takes us the finish line today with his song: Scenes From an Italian Restaurant… I hope you have a Tom Terrific Tuesday… And Be Good To Yourself!
Chuck Butler
source http://capitalisthq.com/more-negative-data-for-the-u-s/
UW Study: Low Income Workers Hurt By Seattle’s $15 Minimum Wage Law
A new University of Washington study found the new $15 minimum wage is actually hurting low income workers in the city.
Low income workers in Seattle are bringing home $125 less a month since the ruling.
FOX News reported:
Seattle’s first-in-the-nation $15 per hour minimum wage law is hurting the workers it aimed to help, a new study has found.
The working poor are making more per hour but taking home less pay. The University of Washington paper asserts the new wages boosted worker pay by 3 percent, but also resulted in a 9-percent reduction in hours and a $125 cut to the monthly paychecks.
The law also cost the city 5,000 jobs, the report said.
Seattle’s minimum wage ordinance, passed by the Seattle City Council and signed by Mayor Ed Murray in 2014, was sold as a way to close the income inequality gap and help those struggling at the bottom of the economic ladder. More than a dozen cities and counties, mostly in California and New York, followed suit.
source http://capitalisthq.com/uw-study-low-income-workers-hurt-by-seattles-15-minimum-wage-law/
Infographic: Emissions Change Starts at the Top
Emissions Change Starts at Top
Some of the largest companies in America are also those leading the charge toward a more sustainable future, according to a joint report by Calvert Research, WWF, CDP, and Ceres.
Today’s infographic comes from Fortune’s Nicolas Rapp, who used this data to visualize the CO2 emissions saved by 56 of the Fortune top 100 firms. In the graphic, each company’s CO2 savings are represented by an equivalent mass of coal not burned.
Big Companies, Big Goals
Nearly half (49%) of Fortune 500 companies in 2016 set targets to increase renewable energy sourcing, improve energy efficiency, or reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs).
Over the course of the year, 190 of these companies managed to report a total $ 3.7 billion in cost savings thanks to some 80,000 emissions-reducing projects. That’s roughly equal to the impact of taking 45 coal-fired power plants offline.
Computing Giants Using Power Responsibly
Apple has done more than any other company on the Fortune list to reduce their environmental impact, saving the equivalent emissions of 35 billion pounds of burned coal. This alone would be enough to meet the year-round power consumption needs of 9.7 million homes – more than in the entirety of New York state.
What types of initiatives are they implementing to make these kinds of efforts?
According to their 2017 Sustainability Report, 96% of Apple’s electricity comes from renewable sources, including hydroelectric and solar. The company also recently issued $ 1 billion in “green bonds”, the proceeds of which are to be used in eco-friendly projects. This is in addition to an existing issue of $ 1.5 billion of green bonds from 2016.
On the other hand, Microsoft is focused on energy efficiency, with the bulk of its work going towards improving the efficiency of data centers and buildings. As of 2016, roughly 44% of the electricity used by Microsoft data centers originates from wind, solar, and hydro energy sources.
Solar Power Shines for Big Box Retailers
Walmart, the largest brick and mortar retailer in the U.S., is also one of the biggest corporate users of solar power in the country. In 2005, Walmart’s former CEO, Lee Scott, set goals for the company’s store network to be powered entirely with renewable energy.
Though they have not met this goal yet, Walmart’s adoption of solar has reduced its energy costs per square foot of retail floor space by 9% chainwide. Other companies with large installations of onsite solar panels include Prologis, Apple, Costco, Kohl’s, and IKEA.
Are Clear Skies Ahead?
With the impending review of the Clean Power Plan’s role in American energy policy, the onus on large and powerful corporations to minimize their environmental impact is now greater than ever. Though we can already see the massive scale on which these firms have been able to improve their carbon footprints, even the equivalent of 35 billion pounds of burned coal is just the tip of the iceberg.
Sponsored Infographics
The Money Project
The post Infographic: Emissions Change Starts at the Top appeared first on Visual Capitalist.
source http://capitalisthq.com/infographic-emissions-change-starts-at-the-top/
Project Veritas Undercover Investigation: CNN Producer Admits Network Hyping ‘Mostly Bullsh*t’ Trump-Russia Scandal for ‘Ratings’
James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas has struck again: This time, a senior CNN producer was caught on camera by one of O’Keefe’s investigators admitting that the network’s relentless bashing of President Donald Trump with the Russia scandal lacks proof.
“Could be bullshit. I mean, it’s mostly bullshit right now,” the CNN producer, John Bonifield, said in a video O’Keefe’s Project Veritas released on Tuesday, when asked about his thoughts on the Russia investigation. “Like, we don’t have any giant proof. Then they say, well there’s still an investigation going on. And you’re like, yeah, I don’t know. If they were finding something we would know about it. The way these leaks happen, they would leak it. They’d leak. If it was something really good, it would leak…. The leaks keep leaking and there’s so many great leaks, and it’s amazing. I just refuse to believe that if they had something really good like that that wouldn’t leak because we’ve been getting all these other leaks. So, I just feel like they don’t really have it but they want to keep digging. And so I think the president is probably right to say, like, look you are witch hunting me. You have no smoking gun. You have no real proof.”
WATCH: PROJECT VERITAS VIDEO INVESTIGATION OF CNN:
The video also shows Bonifield admitting that he has not seen evidence that Trump has committed any crimes.
“I haven’t seen any good evidence to show the president committed a crime,” Bonifield says in the video.
And even if Russia did try to influence the U.S. election, Bonifield is heard saying in the video, that is not really much of a scandal. He is seen arguing that Russian efforts to influence the election would be normal, and that the U.S. government does the same thing around the world all the time.
“Even if Russia was trying to swing an election, we try to swing their elections, our CIA is doing shit all the time, we’re out there trying to manipulate governments,” Bonifield says.
Bonifield is a supervising producer for CNN Health. According to his biography on CNN’s website, Bonifield works with the CNN Medical Unit and “primarily with CNN Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen.”
These startling admissions from a CNN producer on hidden camera video come amid many other comments the video shows him making that are particularly problematic for a network in crisis. The Project Veritas video was released on Tuesday amid the worst scandal in CNN history. Zucker, the network president, is currently leading an internal investigation into a very fake news hit piece that CNN published Thursday night then retracted late Friday after a Breitbart News investigation. He is joined, per reports from BuzzFeed News, by the head of HR inside CNN at the top of the investigation. Three of CNN’s senior-most editorial staffers have resigned as a result of the growing scandal.
In narration over the video, O’Keefe notes that “Bonifield has worked for CNN as a journalist and producer for nearly 15 years.”
“He not only gave us a tour of CNN’s main newsroom, he gave us a window into the editorial bias and anti-Trump agenda of the organization,” O’Keefe says.
O’Keefe’s Project Veritas is billing this video as part one of a multi-part investigation into what they call: “American Pravda.”
BREAKING VIDEO: #FakeNews CNN Producer admits the CNN Russia narrative is “bullshit.” #AmericanPravda
More to come.https://t.co/m5lQ01keo1
— James O’Keefe (@JamesOKeefeIII) June 27, 2017
“Fake News: We start our American Pravda investigations inside American media with part one: CNN,” O’Keefe says in the video. “Our goal is to expose the real motivations behind the decision-making process at our dominant media corporations. Fake News. One story has monopolized President Trump’s time in office like no other, especially on CNN: Russia. In fact, since the Inauguration, CNN has mentioned Russia on their air nearly 16,000 times. So we sent our undercover reporters inside CNN to understand why and to determine if CNN even believes if the story is even real.”
In addition to those aforementioned revelations in the Project Veritas video, Bonifield is shown on camera saying the reason CNN leadership and management is so focused on the Russia scandal despite the lack of real proof is “because it’s ratings.”
“Our ratings are incredible right now,” the video from Project Veritas shows Bonifield saying.
In the video, Bonifield says that CNN leadership regularly axes coverage of other newsworthy stories to shift coverage back to the Russia story. He provided as an example of the network’s coverage of President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris climate accords—which he is seen saying in the video lasted less than two days—before management deliberately shifted coverage back to the Russia scandal.
“My boss, I shouldn’t say this, my boss yesterday we were having a discussion about this dental shoot and he goes and he was just like I want you to know what we are up against here,” Bonifield is seen saying. “And he goes, just to give you some context, President Trump pulled out of the climate accords and for a day and a half we covered the climate accords. And the CEO of CNN said in our internal meeting, he said good job everybody covering the climate accords, but we’re done with it let’s get back to Russia.”
When asked by the Project Veritas investigator if it was the CEO of CNN—according to O’Keefe they were referring to CNN president Jeff Zucker—who made that determination, Bonifield is heard saying: “Yeah.”
“So, even the climate accords, he was like a day or so it’s okay but we’re moving back to Russia,” Bonifield says in the video.
“It’s a business,” Bonifield says in the video. “People are like the media has an ethical … But, all the nice cutesy little ethics that used to get talked about in journalism school, you’re just like, that’s adorable. That’s adorable. This is a business. Especially cable news. Cable news isn’t the New York Times, and it’s not even like NBC News. I mean NBC News still gets 20 million viewers a night. Cable news is getting a million. So, they got to do what they got to do to make their money.”
Bonifield is also seen saying in the video that CNN treats President Trump much differently than CNN treated now former President Barack Obama when he was in office.
“I think there a lot of like liberal CNN viewers who want to see Trump really get scrutinized,” the CNN producer is seen saying in the video. “And I think if we would have behaved that way with President Obama and scrutinized everything that he was doing with as much scrutiny as we apply to Donald Trump, I think our viewers would have been turned off. I think they would have felt like we were attacking him. And I’m not saying all of our viewers are super liberals, I think there’s just a lot of them.”
He adds that: “Trump is good for business right now.”
source http://capitalisthq.com/project-veritas-undercover-investigation-cnn-producer-admits-network-hyping-mostly-bullsht-trump-russia-scandal-for-ratings/
After Getting Busted for Bombing Syria Based On a Lie, Trump Doubles Down … Threatens to Bomb Syria Even Harder Based On Same BS
A report yesterday by the Pulitzer-prize winning reporter who broke some of the biggest stories of the Vietnam and Iraq wars showed that Trump bombed Syria on April 4th based upon false pretenses.
Specifically, Trump said the Syrian government carried out a chemical weapons attack on civilians, but U.S. military and intelligence officials say that they told Trump there was no evidence for that claim … and they say that what really happened is that Syria bombed Islamic terrorists, and that accidentally released chemicals being stored by the terrorists.
So how does Trump respond to the report?
He doubles down on the bull …
White House spokesman Sean Spicer said tonight:
The United States has identified potential preparations for another chemical weapons attack by the Assad regime that would likely result in the mass murder of civilians, including innocent children.
The activities are similar to preparations the regime made before its April 4, 2017 chemical weapons attack. [Oh … you mean the Syria government is planning on bombing Islamic terrorists again?]
***
If … Mr. Assad conducts another mass murder attack using chemical weapons, he and his military will pay a heavy price.
After Spicer’s statement, Neocon warmonger – and U.S. representative to the U.N. – Nikki Haley tweeted:
Any further attacks done to the people of Syria will be blamed on Assad, but also on Russia & Iran who support him killing his own people.
Notice that Haley does not say:
Any further attacks CARRIED OUT BY THE SYRIAN GOVERNMENT and done to the people of Syria will be blamed on Assad, but also on Russia & Iran who support him killing his own people.
Anything bad happens – whether it's carried out by Assad, or ISIS, or Al Qaeda, or outside forces trying to destabilize Syria – it will be blamed on Assad as a justification for a lot more bombing.
Postscript: This little game has been going on for 68 years. Specifically, the U.S. government has been trying to replace the Syrian government with folks who will be subservient to America since 1949 … 3 years after Syria became an independent nation.
The CIA succeeded in carrying out a coup in Syria 1949.
In 1957, the American president and British prime minister agreed to launch regime change again in Syria using a false flag. (False flags are not only historically documented, but presidents, prime ministers, congressmen, generals, spooks, soldiers and police have ADMITTED to planning and carrying out false flag attacks).
In 1983, 1986, 1991, 2001, 2009 and 2012, American officials again schemed about regime change in Syria.
source http://capitalisthq.com/after-getting-busted-for-bombing-syria-based-on-a-lie-trump-doubles-down-threatens-to-bomb-syria-even-harder-based-on-same-bs/
Monday 26 June 2017
O’Keefe Undercover Bombshell: CNN Producer Admits Trump-Russia Story is “Bullsh*t” (Video)
James O’Keefe strikes again! Project Veritas just dropped bombshell undercover video of CNN Producer John Bonifield admitting the Trump-Russia story is B.S. but they continue to push the false narrative for ‘ratings’.
O’Keefe teased his Twitter followers on Monday by sending out a cryptic tweet saying, “Independence Day is approaching, but this year the fireworks come early.”
Independence Day is approaching, but this year the fireworks come early.
Stay tuned. pic.twitter.com/IAp1dut0c1
— James O’Keefe (@JamesOKeefeIII) June 27, 2017
James O’Keefe released part one of his ‘American Pravda’ series with CNN. O’Keefe says his goal is to expose the real motivation behind the decision making process in our dominant media corporation. The Russia story has dominated CNN. Since the inauguration, CNN has mentioned Russia on air nearly 16,000 times.
VIDEO Via Project Veritas:
source http://capitalisthq.com/okeefe-undercover-bombshell-cnn-producer-admits-trump-russia-story-is-bullsht-video/
McMansions Are Back And They’re More Hideous Than Ever
The McMansion rose to prominence in the early-to-mid-2000s and to this day is the epitome of the excesses created by the biggest mortgage bubble in the history of mankind. In suburbs all across America, these 3,000 – 5,000 square foot, cookie-cutter monstrosities, with their foam pillars and lots that were just barely larger than the footprint of the houses themselves, were popping up faster than you could say “subprime mortgage.”
Unfortunately, as we’re forced to report frequently here, Americans tend to have very short-term memories and can’t seem but help but constantly repeat the sins of their past. As such, it’s hardly a surprise that the average size of new homes in the U.S. is once again skyrocketing at an even faster rate than the early part of this century.
Apparently people in the Midwest managed to maintain some level of modesty in the early 2000’s but have since decided ‘modesty’ is massively overrated.
Meanwhile, the return of the McMansion epidemic is also helping to push home prices back to all-time highs.
Meanwhile, if you can’t beat em, as the saying goes, then you might as well mercilessly mock and ridicule them…or something like that. Luckily, as the Washington Post points out today, that is where “McMansion Hell” comes in.
Kate Wagner, an architecture critic, wishes America would have learned its lesson about McMansions the first time around. She spends her free time tearing apart their architectural anachronisms on her blog, McMansion Hell.
Wagner describes McMansions as a particular artifact of economic history, one whose physical form was the product of a new American pastime: flipping houses.
And, since Americans will never stop building these hideous dwellings, McMansion Hell should be able to provide us with hours of entertainment for years to come.
“They were built to sell in the year they were selling, not for future generations,” said Wagner. “These houses are kind of disfigured, because they were built from the inside out, to have the most amenities to sell faster.”
A culture of house flipping helped to quantify certain home improvements, like the addition of colossal marble islands and palatial foyers designed to grab the attention of buyers. That gave these houses even more of a cookie-cutter feel.
“It’s about invoking the symbolism of having a lot of money, but not spending a lot of money on the house,” says Wagner.
Whoever owns the house above must be poor…not a single column.
source http://capitalisthq.com/mcmansions-are-back-and-theyre-more-hideous-than-ever/
White House Shrugs Off “Consistently Inaccurate” CBO Score
The White House has released its official statement with regard the CBO score, noting their “consistently inaccurate” and pointing out that “we know the facts.”
Following a Tweet right after the release of CBO’s official score of the House Healthcare Bill…
The White House issued a full statement on CBO Healthcare Report
The CBO has consistently proven it cannot accurately predict how healthcare legislation will impact insurance coverage.
This history of inaccuracy, as demonstrated by its flawed report on coverage, premiums, and predicted deficit arising out of Obanuteare. reminds us that its analysis must not be trusted blindly. In 2013, the CBO estimated that 24 million people would have coverage under Obamacare by 2016. It was off by an astounding 13 million people — more than half—as less than 11 million were actually covered. Then, CBO estimated that 30 million fewer people would be uninsured in 2016, but then it had to reduce its estimate to 22 million, further illustrating its inability to present reliable healthcare predictions.
We know the facts. To date, we have seen average individual market premiums more than double and insurers across the country opting out of healthcare exchanges. As more and more people continue to lose coverage and face fewer healthcare choices.
President Trump is committed to repealing and replacing Obamacare, which has failed the American people for far too long.
source http://capitalisthq.com/white-house-shrugs-off-consistently-inaccurate-cbo-score/
FIGURES=> HuffPost and Twitter Idiots Think Eric Trump’s Haircut is ‘Racist’
HuffPost dubbed Eric Trump’s new haircut “racist” in yet another one of their hard-hitting pieces of necessary commentary.
The HuffPost hit piece was a byproduct of a number of tweets from various individuals wherein they drew comparisons between Eric Trump’s haircut and the alt-right figure Richard Spencer’s haircut.
Eric Trump’s new haircut looks familiar pic.twitter.com/IeAissufcl
— Toby Keef (@BahaMan69) June 25, 2017
Carly Ledbetter, the “Lifestyle Editor” of HuffPost, wrote, “Eric Trump, the son of President Donald Trump who thinks people who oppose his dad are ‘not even people,’ got a haircut over the weekend . . . Many thought the haircut made him resemble white nationalist Richard Spencer.”
Eric Trump has a fascist haircut.
This cannot possibly be unintentional. pic.twitter.com/9mqUbwENqQ
— Ali Gharib (@Ali_Gharib) June 25, 2017
It’s not so new. pic.twitter.com/qdq8RpKyW5
— David Slack (@slack2thefuture) June 25, 2017
Ledbetter went on to reference tweets throughout her condemnation of the President’s son’s haircut.
WOW! That haircut is so damning.
Stay vigilant people!
Here are some other confirmed #Racists pic.twitter.com/idIKPIkBUG
— Aaron Lee Mathis (@aaronlmathis) June 26, 2017
Others, fortunately, pointed out that countless young, Western men are wearing this haircut as it is one of the popular trends of the day.
source http://capitalisthq.com/figures-huffpost-and-twitter-idiots-think-eric-trumps-haircut-is-racist/
Lucy Kellaway on Office Life, Creativity, and Culture
Financial Times columnist Lucy Kellaway writes about office life, pushing back against some deep-rooted habits and misconceptions among workers and job applicants alike.
She discussed her viewpoints on the financial workplace in a Take 15 interview with Lauren Foster, exploring such subjects as happiness, creativity, and the widespread use of misleading euphemisms.
So what is most responsible for workplace satisfaction? It isn’t management, according to Kellaway. “It’s about who’s sitting near you, basically,” she said.
Management only controls so much of what goes on in an office. It is not responsible for your happiness with those around you.
So if you do not fit well with a company, and no mobility exists, Kellaway says, your best option might be to leave. She attributes much of her own professional satisfaction to the people with whom she works.
Creativity Is Overrated
There isn’t much creativity in Kellaway’s office, she says. And that’s a good thing.
“Our obsession with creativity is absolutely moronic,” she said.
Many of her articles have evoked strong responses from readers, but Kellaway’s takedown of the “creativity plague” generated a surprising reaction.
Expecting a backlash, she was shocked to receive widespread praise for challenging a common business trope — that creativity is always good.
Not only is creativity overvalued, most hiring managers and workers misunderstand the meaning of creativity anyway. Coming up with an original idea, design, or product is harder and much rarer than many realize.
“This idea that we’re all mini Steve Jobs is just nonsense,” Kellaway said.
Rather than forcing or faking creativity, successful businesses manage and maintain their models while tweaking them along the way.
Euphemisms
Kellaway also spoke about how business speak too often conceals the truth.
“We use sort of stupid language when we don’t want to tell the truth,” Kellaway said. “And the biggest cause for euphemism is when you’re firing people. And my all-time favorite was EY [Ernst & Young], who got rid of a lot of people, and then said, ‘We look forward to strengthening our alumni network.’ So disingenuous.”
This sort of language obscures the underlying meaning, softening its effect or burying it deep under a lie. For a writer, these manipulations are frustrating. The anger and confusion are even greater for employees who hear euphemisms instead of receiving honesty from their managers.
Equally troubling for Kellaway is the overuse of ambiguous clichés and meaningless jargon.
Common words mean one thing outside of the office, but in the workplace they take on completely different definitions. “You can deliver your sofa from John Lewis,” she said. “You cannot deliver improvements.”
Indeed, the term “deliver” is so misapplied in the office setting that its real meaning and precision have almost been lost.
Management Platitudes
One final observation from Kellaway: Often the advice senior management receives is rubbish.
Common phrases such as “never stop learning” or “always listen” are meaningless when you start thinking about the actual complexities of the management process, she says.
“What you’re actually doing [as a manager] is getting people to do something that they wouldn’t want to do otherwise,” she said. “And that is a very hard job. And you’re under so much pressure from shareholders. And so all of the advice is so platitudinous.”
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All posts are the opinion of the author. As such, they should not be construed as investment advice, nor do the opinions expressed necessarily reflect the views of CFA Institute or the author’s employer.
Image credit: Courtesy of Monica Pedynkowski
source http://capitalisthq.com/lucy-kellaway-on-office-life-creativity-and-culture/
The End Of A Growing Consumer Base… And The Beginning Of The Decline
Authored by Chris Hamilton via Econimica blog,
In 1960, the core population (25-54yr/olds) of the OECD nations (US, Canada, Mexico, Chile, most the EU, UK, Turkey, Israel, Japan, S. Korea, Australia, NZ) was a couple million larger than the combined core of CRB (China, Russia, and Brazil). Since that time, OECD population growth has slowed to a crawl and it was CRB's growth that drove the global consumer base to new heights. However, 2017 is a monumental year when those counting will notice something missing…growth. A simple count of the core populations in the nations that consume over 70% of earths crude oil and nearly 80% of all global exports shows that the core populations of the OECD and the combined CRB begin outright shrinking as of 2018 (chart below).
Abnormally high population growth ended decades ago but only now has the wave crested in the critical heart of these nations economies…the 25-54yr/olds who drive economic growth. These are not projections but simply moving the existing, smaller populations of young into the core. With the core group now beginning decades of depopulation (chart below…and it is unclear when or under what conditions these depopulations will slow or cease), economic models premised solely on growth are obsolete.
Recession and depression (the absence of growth) will be unending as a declining population will consume less (no amount of rate cuts and subsequent debt accumulation can mask the declining demand). But honestly, these terms are nonsensical in a sustained period of depopulation. In a depopulation-ary world, nothing is the same. Homes will go back to their original purpose, providing shelter. A speculative excess of new and existing housing inventory, cars, planes, factories, etc. etc. will crest just as these core populations begin shrinking and the elderly begin selling. Infrastructure footprints have been overextended and much may simply be left to rot. All population growth shifting to the 65+yr/old population is a whole other set of issues. In a depopulation-ary world, many of the things currently considered assets are instead either liabilities and/or potentially worthless.
Finally, the chart below highlights the combined OECD, CRB 25-54yr/old population (the global heart of consumerism) vs. the Wilshire 5000 (the value of all publicly traded US equities selling to that consumer base).
And a period by period view of how the core population and US equities have grown since 1970 (chart below)…and what the future holds over the next decade for a consumption based model with almost a 100 million fewer consumers with the income, savings, and or access to credit to consume.
From 2018 to 2030, the prime global consumer base will decline by about 7%.
Invest accordingly.
source http://capitalisthq.com/the-end-of-a-growing-consumer-base-and-the-beginning-of-the-decline/