Bitcoin Dominatrix Makes $1 Million Pimping Out Clients In "Crypto Slave Farm"

MarketWatch is out with a hard hitting story of a Paris dominatrix who"s been pimping out clients to mine cryptocurrency in a "Crypto Slave Farm" where they deposit the proceeds in a digital wallet.

NEW! JOIN MY CRYPTO SLAVE FARM ??????

Want to serve me financially, but can"t afford exorbitant tributes?https://t.co/AzzqyT1YAq

A first in the industry...#TheManipulatrix #Findom #Cryptodomme pic.twitter.com/b3Lt4lwRgf

— THEODORA (@TheOnlyTheodora) December 11, 2017

The woman who goes by Theodora is a financial dominatrix, which MarketWatch describes below: 

...clients — many of whom never meet her in person — derive sexual pleasure from giving her gifts and money. Exchanges of money can range from several dollars in “tributes,” as they are called, to gifts of more than six figures. Some clients even become a “human ATM,” meaning they give her complete control over a bank account.

Theodora says she makes between $7,000 and $10,000 per month in cryptocurrencies, on top of $10,000 per month she earns making video hypnosis sessions and financial domination videos. Last year she claims she made nearly $1 million from cryptocurrencies alone.

 Theodora

“It’s a form of psychological domination where money is the tool for the transfer of power,” says Theodora, adding “It’s quite common for powerful men like politicians or CEOs to look for a form of sexual release by submitting to a woman — they are in control all the time during the day — and giving up control financially is a more tangible instrument of power for them.”

Theodora has been working as a dominatrix for eight years, and accepting payment in cryptocurrency for four. Her clients, mostly from the U.S. and U.K., are typically men in their late 30s to early 50s - and include a "core group of 20 to 25 regular big spenders who make donations as high as $100,000 at once - some of whom she does "real time" session with in person." She also has a following of 200 to 300 people who make smaller contributions online for $25 / minute video chats. 

MarketWatch sat down with Theodora for a few questions about her adventures in crypto: 

MarketWatch: When did you decide to start taking cryptocurrency?

 

Theodora: In this business of domination, it’s common for dominatrixes to take crypto payments. We cannot take PayPal because they blacklist sex workers. I have been making my clients mine for me for a couple of years.

 

[Mining is the electricity-heavy process of using computer power to verify cryptocurrency transactions — miners are given a monetary prize for their contributions, which Theodora routes to her wallet.]

 

MarketWatch: What is your crypto slave farm?

 

Theodora: It is a little tool where people use the resources of your computer to mine [cryptocurrency] for me from a distance. So even though it might be a tiny amount, I have quite a lot of traffic on my website so it adds up quite nicely.

 

MarketWatch: How do you make money in cryptocurrencies?

 

Theodora: I take donations and also have people mining for me. I take a lot of geek clients who like new technology and they were really excited when I taught them how to build a mining rig for me so they could mine 24/7 from their home.

Theodora says she has her "favorite currencies" she"s betting on, noting "Bitcoin could crash in two days, you don"t know what"s going to happen, so if you have enough to invest in smaller currency you should," and adding "For me, it"s play money." 

Could The 'China Puke' Signal The Lows In The Dollar?

Authored by Kevin Muir via The Macro Tourist blog,

Trading is difficult. If anyone tells you differently, they are either new (and haven’t been hurt yet), or just plain stupid. You are competing in the greatest game out there, against some of the smartest people on the planet.

Even when you do your analysis and get the call right, it is no guarantee you will make money. The Market Gods have a way of making sure that being right is way easier than stuffing dough in your pocket.

The perfect example of this is my call from early in summer regarding China. In May, Moody’s downgraded China, and everyone got their knickers in a knot predicting the collapse of the world’s largest economy. The guru type hedge fund media outlets were filled with grim forecasts of a spiraling 2008 type crisis. These hedge fund managers sure sounded smart, and they all definitely have a lot more money than me, so I was a little timid when I wrote a piece called China Downgrade- Buy the news?.

The gist of my argument was that China would stimulate to make sure their economy was humming along when the hugely important 19th National Congress of the Communist Party was held this Autumn. Proving that a stopped clock is right twice a day, I managed to get this one right.

The trouble was, I didn’t buy the right stuff. I should have loaded up on copper and the other China centric commodities.

Have a look at the copper chart.

China was downgraded, and then copper ran like it stole something.

Same deal with iron ore.

There is no doubt China put the gas pedal down this summer, and it affected capital markets throughout the world.

None more so than the Chinese Yuan. Although most hedgies were all betting on a massive decline, the Yuan has been strengthening like Lance Armstrong after visiting his bio-chemist.

This massive strength has forced at least one prominent China bear to throw in the towel. From Bloomberg:

Mark Hart spent seven years and $240 million waiting on a crash in China’s currency.

He lost sleep. He lost clients. He damn near lost his sanity.

And now he’s lost his conviction: Hart, who called for a more than 50 percent yuan devaluation last year, has turned bullish on China and its currency.

His reversal hasn’t come easily. From his base in Fort Worth, Texas, the hedge fund manager spent countless nights on the line to Hong Kong, parsing market news and exchange rates. At times, the stress took a toll on Hart personally and left his employees demoralized.

“I always thought we had a good risk-reward trade on, but we made a number of mistakes, including being way too early,” Hart, who started the yuan bet after predicting both the U.S. subprime mortgage bust and the European debt crisis, said in a telephone interview. “And now the world has changed.”

In cool hindsight, the 45-year-old founder of Corriente Advisors sees last year’s Group of 20 summit in Shanghai as a key turning point. Like many investors, Hart suspects the meeting resulted in a tacit agreement among world leaders to prevent the yuan from tumbling. He calls it China’s “whatever it takes” moment – when policy makers resolved to prop up the currency at any cost.

“China now has the breathing room it needs to either temporarily stave off a slowdown with fiscal and monetary stimulus, or reform, grow and upgrade itself into the world’s largest developed economy,” Hart said.

Whether or not China got help from other G-20 nations, the government has clearly succeeded in stabilizing the exchange rate. The yuan ended a three-year slide in late December and has rallied almost 7 percent in 2017, including a 0.5 percent increase on Thursday. It’s now trading at the strongest level in more than a year versus the greenback.

Even at its weakest point, the yuan never dropped enough to move the needle on Hart’s wager, which started in 2009. His dedicated China funds, which had fixed lifespans, bought options that were designed to deliver one of two outcomes: a massive payoff in the event of a currency crash, or a near total wipeout if a major devaluation failed to occur.

The trade went against him almost from the beginning. After holding steady for the first six months of 2010, the yuan strengthened for the next three and a half years. It eventually reversed course, but the sharp devaluation that Hart had anticipated never materialized. His second China fund shut in December. All told, he lost between $240 million and $250 million.

When long time bears finally cry Uncle, it’s most likely a short term top. These trades are taken off at a point of maximum pain, not in the midst of a cool, well thought out, investment decision process.

This morning copper is unexpectedly down 1.5%. Gianclaudio Torlizzi, an LME Metals Trader, has posted a couple of terrific longer term charts of Iron Ore and Rebar that show potentially bearish developments.

I know the Chinese have not had their big assembly. But it sure feels like we are close to the point where many of these trades are about to roll back over.

Right now everyone is all bulled up on gold, and extremely bearish on the US dollar. No one can imagine any of the short term trends stopping. I wonder if copper is the canary in the coal mine that a turn is at hand.

*  *  *

Here is another thought. If China has been goosing their economy for their plenum, then could market strategists be misreading the recent economic global strength? Did China create a false positive for world growth?

I am not sure, but it is worth considering. I have long said that what happens in China is by far the most important determinant of financial asset prices. We all sit staring at US economic releases, but we should really be spending more time trying to figure out what China is up to.

*  *  *

If a turn in the US dollar is indeed close, then take a look at the Eurostoxx chart.

With EUR screaming higher, it is no wonder that the Eurostoxx has been declining. Yet what happens if USD gets a bid? A break in the Eurostoxx downtrend line could be explosive to the upside.

China Capitulation: Corriente Advisors' Mark Hart Ends 7-Year Bet On A "Massive Yuan Devaluation"

China bears like Kyle Bass claimed victory last year after bets that the Chinese yuan would weaken paid off handsomely – particularly if they were supercharged by leverage. Hopefully, for their sake, yuan decided to lock in those gains early this year. Because since January, China’s currency has whipsawed higher, reversing most of its 2016 depreciation as the US dollar has endured a period of broad weakness, and Chinese policy makers have turned their attention to managing the currency’s valuation against a basket of currencies.

But Mark Hart, who, like Bass is a Texas-based fund manager, and who built his bear case against China on the theory that the PBOC would opt for a series of one-off devaluations in the yuan, instead of allowing it to gradually depreciate, which would be tantamount to a policy error.

Here’s more from a post on Hart’s outlook that we published last year:

“Hart believes that the Chinese crawling devaluation is an error as it carries with its the latent threat of much more devaluation in the future, thus encouraging even more outflows, which in turn forces China to sell even more reserves, which destabilizes the economy even further, forcing even more devaluation and so on.

Instead, a one-off devaluation would allow policy makers to “draw a line in the sand” at a more appropriate level for the yuan, easing pressure on China’s foreign-exchange reserves and removing an incentive for capital outflows, according to Hart, who’s been betting against the currency since at least 2011. He adds that China should devalue before its $3.3 trillion hoard of reserves shrinks much further, he said, because the country can still convince markets it’s acting from a position of strength.”

According to Hart, while a devaluation this year would be “jarring” and may initially accelerate capital outflows, it would ultimately put China in a stronger position. He said the country could explain the move by saying it would put the yuan at a level more reflective of market forces and allow the currency to catch up with declines in international peers.

However, the 50% devaluation that Hart had been anticipating never materialized. So, after seven years, Bloomberg is reporting that Hart has (pun intended ) had a change of heart after spending $240 million on his losing bet against the currency, which nearly cost him his sanity.

Hart is now taking the other side of the trade, joining the ranks of Bridgewater Capital’s Ray Dalio and other yuan bulls:

“Mark Hart spent seven years and $240 million waiting on a crash in China’s currency.

He lost sleep. He lost clients. He damn near lost his sanity.

And now he’s lost his conviction: Hart, who called for a more than 50 percent yuan devaluation last year, has turned bullish on China and its currency.”

According to Bloomberg, Hart’s dedication to his short-yuan position left employees demoralized at his Fort Worth, Texas fund. Hart claims that his investing thesis was sound. His biggest mistake? Hart says he was “too early” in putting on the trade.

“His reversal hasn’t come easily. From his base in Fort Worth, Texas, the hedge fund manager spent countless nights on the line to Hong Kong, parsing market news and exchange rates. At times, the stress took a toll on Hart personally and left his employees demoralized.

‘I always thought we had a good risk-reward trade on, but we made a number of mistakes, including being way too early,’ Hart, who started the yuan bet after predicting both the U.S. subprime mortgage bust and the European debt crisis, said in a telephone interview. ‘And now the world has changed.’”

Hart now believes that G-20 leaders tacitly conspired to a “Plaza Accord”-type agreement to stanch the dollar’s appreciation while putting a floor under the yuan last February during a G-20 summit in Shanghai.

“In cool hindsight, the 45-year-old founder of Corriente Advisors sees last year’s Group of 20 summit in Shanghai as a key turning point. Like many investors, Hart suspects the meeting resulted in a tacit agreement among world leaders to prevent the yuan from tumbling. He calls it China’s “whatever it takes” moment - when policy makers resolved to prop up the currency at any cost.”

The agreement has tremendously benefited China, Hart says.

“‘China now has the breathing room it needs to either temporarily stave off a slowdown with fiscal and monetary stimulus, or reform, grow and upgrade itself into the world’s largest developed economy,’ Hart said.”

Regardless of whether Hart’s “conspiracy theory” is accurate, China has clearly succeeded in stabilizing the exchange rate. The yuan ended a three-year slide in late December and has rallied almost 7 percent in 2017. China’s central bank strengthens its daily reference rate for onshore yuan for a ninth day on Thursday, the longest run of increases since January 2011. The PBOC raised the yuan reference rate by 0.06% to 6.5269 per dollar, extending the strengthening streak since Aug. 28 to 2%. Meanwhile, the offshore yuan surged, sending the USDCNH below 6.50 for the first time since May 3, 2016.

Even at its weakest point, the yuan never weakened enough for the options that Hart originally purchased in 2009 to pay off. His dedicated China funds, which had fixed lifespans, bought options that were designed to deliver one of two outcomes. According to Bloomberg, a massive payoff in the event of a currency crash, or a near total wipeout if a major devaluation failed to occur.

The Inside Story Of How The Saudi King's Son Plotted To Oust His Rival

Less than a month after the Saudi king stunned the world when on the morning of June 21 he unexpectedly announced a "historic shakeup" in which he removed the existing successor to the royal line, his nephew Mohammed bin Nayef - the country’s counterterrorism czar - and instated his eldest son, the 31-year-old Mohammed bin Salman and de facto "OPEC"s most important man" as Saudi Arabia"s crown prince, and following a surprising report ten days later that the "deposed" Mohammed bin Nayef has been barred from leaving the kingdom and confined to his palace in the coastal city of Jidda, the full story of what really happened in this transition of power has finally emerged.

As a reminder, the conventional timeline of this dramatic power transition focused on how "seamless" it was and unopposed:

In response to questions from The Times, a written statement by a senior Saudi official denied that Mohammed bin Nayef had been pressured and said that the Allegiance Council, a body of senior princes, had approved the change in “the best interest of the nation.”

The statement said Mohammed bin Nayef was the first to pledge allegiance to the new crown prince and had insisted that the moment be filmed and broadcast. The former crown prince receives guests daily in his palace in Jidda and has visited the king and the crown prince more than once, the statement said.

As it turns out, nothing could be further from the truth of what really happened: as the NYT details, contrary to the widely-accepted narrative it was Mohammed bin Salman, or MBS as he is also called, who orchestrated his succession to power. His motive is clear: a massive power grab, or as the NYT writes, "the collection of so much power by one young royal, Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has unsettled a royal family long guided by consensus and deference to elders.

“You may have now such a concentration of power within one branch and within one individual who is also younger than so many of the cousins and sons of former kings that it may begin to create a situation where the family is out of whack,” said Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, a fellow for the Middle East at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, who studies Persian Gulf politics.

Furthermore, a different image of the future Saudi ruler is starting to emerge:

Mohammed bin Salman’s supporters praise him as a hard-working visionary who has addressed the kingdom’s challenges with extraordinary directness. His programs, including increasing entertainment opportunities inside the hyperconservative kingdom, have won him fans among the two-thirds of Saudis who are younger than 30.

But his critics call him rash and power-hungry, saying he has entangled the country in a costly and so far failed war in Yemen that has killed many civilians, as well as in a feud with Qatar. Neither has a clear exit

Below are the key highlights from the report:

The young prince’s supporters have lauded his elevation as the seamless empowerment of an ambitious leader. But since he was promoted on June 21, indications have emerged that Mohammed bin Salman plotted the ouster and that the transition was rockier than has been publicly portrayed, according to current and former United States officials and associates of the royal family.

To strengthen support for the sudden change in the line of succession, some senior princes were told that Mohammed bin Nayef was unfit to be king because of a drug problem, according to an associate of the royal family. The decision to oust Mohammed bin Nayef and some of his closest colleagues has spread concern among counterterrorism officials in the United States who saw their most trusted Saudi contacts disappear and have struggled to build new relationships.

The rivalry between the princes began in 2015, when King Salman ascended the throne and bestowed tremendous power on his favorite son. Mohammed bin Salman was named deputy crown prince, or second in line to become king, as well as defense minister; put in charge of a powerful economic council; and given oversight of the state oil monopoly, Saudi Aramco.

Mohammed bin Salman elevated his profile with visits to China, Russia and the United States, where he met with Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook chief executive, and dined with President Trump in the White House. He has also guided Vision 2030, an ambitious plan for the future of the kingdom that seeks to transform the Saudi economy and improve life for citizens.

Mohammed bin Salman, 31, in June kissing the hand of Mohammed bin Nayef, 57,

* * *

The prince has risen at the expense of his elder relatives, including Mohammed bin Nayef, 57. As the head of the Saudi Interior Ministry, Mohammed bin Nayef led the dismantling of Al Qaeda in the kingdom after a deadly bombing campaign a decade ago. While he kept a low public profile, even after becoming crown prince in 2015, his work won him allies in the United States and other Western and Arab nations.

But while his removal struck many as sudden, it had been planned out.

On the night of June 20, a group of senior princes and security officials gathered at the Safa Palace in Mecca after being informed that King Salman wanted to see them, according to United States officials and associates of the royal family. It was near the end of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month, when Saudis were preoccupied with religious duties and many royals had gathered in Mecca before traveling abroad for the Eid al-Fitr holiday. That made it advantageous for a change, analysts said, like a coup on Christmas Eve.

Before midnight, Mohammed bin Nayef was told he was going to meet the king and was led into another room, where royal court officials took away his phones and pressured him to give up his posts as crown prince and interior minister, according to United States officials and an associate of the royal family. At first, he refused. But as the night wore on, the prince, a diabetic who suffers from the effects of a 2009 assassination attempt by a suicide bomber, grew tired. Meanwhile, royal court officials called members of the Allegiance Council, a body of princes who are supposed to approve changes to the line of succession. Some were told that Mohammed bin Nayef had a drug problem and was unfit to be king, according to an associate of the royal family.

For years, close friends of Mohammed bin Nayef had expressed concern about his health, noting that since the assassination attempt, he had experienced lingering pain and shown signs of post-traumatic stress disorder. His condition led him to take medication that some friends worried he had become addicted to.  “The weight of the evidence I have seen is that he was more injured in the assassination attempt than was admitted and that he then got onto a pain killer routine that was very addictive,” said Bruce Riedel, a former Central Intelligence Agency officer and director of the Intelligence Project at the Brookings Institution. “I think that problem got progressively worse.”

One American official and one adviser to a Saudi royal said Mohammed bin Nayef opposed the embargo on Qatar, a stand that probably accelerated his ouster.

Sometime before dawn, Mohammed bin Nayef agreed to resign. A video shot afterward shows Mohammed bin Salman kissing his hand.“We will never dispense with your instructions and advice,” the younger prince says. “Good luck, God willing,” the older prince replies.

Mohammed bin Nayef then returned to his palace in the Red Sea port city of Jidda, and he was barred from leaving it.

Also confined to his home was Gen. Abdulaziz al-Huwairini, a colleague of Mohammed bin Nayef who was crucial to the security relationship with the United States, according to current and former United States officials.

Days later, C.I.A. officials briefed the White House on their concern that the ouster of Mohammed bin Nayef and the possible removal of General Huwairini and other security officers could hamper intelligence sharing, United States officials said.

The senior Saudi official’s statement said General Huwairini was still in his job and had pledged allegiance to Mohammed bin Salman along with senior officers. Mohammed bin Nayef was replaced as interior minister by his 33-year-old nephew, Prince Abdulaziz bin Saud bin Nayef, who was an adviser to his uncle and who is believed to be close to Mohammed bin Salman.

* * *

Now that MBS is in charge, the big question is how much support there is for his elevation to Saudi"s ruler-in-waiting: according to the NYT, the answer as of this morning remains unclear. "Saudi state news media reported that 31 of the 34 members of the Allegiance Council supported the change, but analysts said many royals are hesitant to vote against the king’s wishes."

However, in what may be the sign of early trouble, some US officials and well-connected Saudis told the NYT there are rumblings of discontent, and analysts have pointed out hints. "Neither King Salman nor his son attended the Group of 20 summit meeting in Hamburg, Germany, even though one of the two men had attended each of the last three meetings. Analysts say that family disputes may have kept the men at home or that they did not want to face criticism for the isolation they and three other Arab states imposed on Qatar."

Saudis shocked by the changes say they have a lot to lose if splits within the family spill into the open and destabilize the kingdom.

“It’s not like people are going to go out on the street and say, ‘We want M.B.N.,’ ” said one associate of the royal family, using Mohammed bin Nayef’s initials. “We want this family. We want to preserve them as best we can.”

For now Saudi Arabia - and mostly the royal family - has managed to keep a calm facade, slamming every report that the crown prince transition was anything but seamless and well-orchestrated. However, it appears that behind the scenes the tensions inside the world"s largest oil producer are rising. Meanwhile, we remind readers of another potential geopolitical shock: as Petromatrix" Olivier Jakob wrote shortly after the Saudi shakeup, "with MBS now having greater control of Saudi Arabia... it is not really a question of if but rather of when a new escalation with Iran starts."

Mnuchin Kills Idea Of Tax Hike For The Wealthy

Last week the Republican party was at arms after Axios reported that Steve Bannon was said to be pushing president Trump to raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans. According to the website, Trump’s chief strategist was urging to raise the top tax rate on individuals, with Axios saying the former Breitbart CEO looking for the top rate to have “a 4 in front of it” (currently, the highest income-tax bracket in the US is 39.6% for individuals earning more than $414,000 a year).

Well, they can now sleep easier after Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Sunday killed that particular idea, saying that the Trump administration is not considering a plan to raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans in order to pay for tax breaks for the middle class. Speaking on ABC"s "This Week," Mnuchin said the administration plans is “absolutely committed” to releasing its tax plan in early September, and getting it through Congress by the end of the year - and that plan won’t include a 40 percent tax rate for the richest Americans.

“Our plan is to have a full-blown release of the plan in the beginning of September, with being able to vote and getting this passed before the end of the year,” Mnuchin said on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday.

The “objective” of the proposal is still that no one in the middle class will have a tax increase, Mnuchin said. “We’re finalizing the details of the plan, so there’s certain issues that are still on the table.”

.@stevenmnuchin1 denies report Steve Bannon is pushing tax hike for the wealthy. "I have never heard Steve mention that." #ThisWeek pic.twitter.com/Tu7q2PSUO4

— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) July 9, 2017

Referring to the Axios report that Bannon was advocating a proposal to raise the highest tax bracket to 40% or above, Mnuchin responded "I"ve never heard Steve mention that" and added that “it’s very clear, kind of, we have a proposal out there that the administration has put out, with a top rate of 35% where we reduce and eliminate almost every single deduction.”

Mnuchin said the administration’s plan would pay for itself, but that’s only if about $2 trillion in increased revenue resulting from projected faster economic growth is included. Yet congressional budget scorekeepers may not agree that tax cuts would produce such growth. Under congressional budget rules, tax cuts can be passed with a simple majority in the U.S. Senate, but only if they don’t increase the deficit after 10 years. That would allow Republicans, who have 52 Senate seats, to pass the bill without any Democratic votes.

The Treasury Secretary also said that the administration is aware of the concerns in high-tax states, where taxpayers could have no tax reductions as well as fewer deductions. “We’ve heard a lot of feedback from New York, California, New Jersey, Connecticut, Illinois, and I think we want to be sensitive to those states and those economies as we shape the plan,” Mnuchin said.

Separately, Mnuchin - who spoke after returning from the Group of 20 meeting in Hamburg - dodged a question about whether President Donald Trump had accepted President Vladimir Putin’s denial of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election.

“Why would President Trump broadcast exactly what he said in the meeting?” Mnuchin said, adding that Trump is focused on “strategically negotiating” with Putin.

.@stevenmnuchin1: "Why would President Trump broadcast exactly what he said" in Putin meeting? "Strategically that makes no sense." pic.twitter.com/VNIU2SEqHQ

— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) July 9, 2017

Are Pope Francis & Angela Merkel Enemies Of European Civilization?

Authored by Antonius Aquinas,

Two of Europe’s greatest contemporary enemies recently got together to compare notes and discuss how they were going to further undermine and destabilize what remains of the Continent’s civilization.  Pope Francis and German Chancellor Angela Merkel met on June 17, in the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace to discuss the issues which will be raised at a Group of 20 summit meeting in Hamburg, from July 7-8.

The Vatican said that Frau Merkel and the Pope discussed the need “for the international community to combat poverty, hunger, terrorism and climate change.” Ms. Merkel, in an obvious swipe at US President Donald Trump, said that “we are a world in which we want to work multilaterally, a world in which we don’t want to build walls but bring down walls.”  The reference to “walls,” of course, was to President Trump’s promise to construct a wall on the Mexican-American border.  The pope, too, has been critical of Mr. Trump’s proposed plan.

Ms. Merkel also lamented about the Trump Administration’s decision to opt out of the 2015 Paris climate accord.  Pope Francis urged President Trump to remain in the accord and gave him a copy of his encyclical, “Praise Be,” when they met earlier this spring.  The encyclical elevated “climate change” and protection of the environment as “moral obligations” while it criticized “perverse” economic development models that “enrich the wealthy at the expense of the poor.”

As has been the case since the Second Vatican Anti-Council (1962-65), popes have spent most of their time on secular concerns in which they have little competency and less on matters of the Faith.  Pope Francis has taken this to a new level and rarely preaches on doctrine.  This, in one sense, is good because when he does speak on religion, he usually spouts out some heresy or falsehood which scandalizes the Church.  His many blasphemies and heresies, plus the fact that he was never ordained as a priest in the traditional Catholic rite or traditionally consecrated as a bishop (neither was Benedict XVI), makes him ineligible to be a true Catholic pope.

The latest fraud that these two cretins are now pushing is the supposed threat of global warming.  The idea that “climate change” has had some nefarious effect on the environment has long ago been debunked by legitimate scientists and scholars.  Climate change is a ruse used by global elites to further tax, regulate and enslave humanity.

Facts and sound theory, however, do not bother the collectivist minds of Pope Francis and Angela Merkel. What they are interested in is power and control and they intend to keep it through lies like global warming and by coercive massive migration which will fundamentally alter Europe’s demographics to their New World Order masters’ advantage.

Had it not been for the likes of Pope Francis and Ms. Merkel, it is unlikely that Europe would be under a deluge of mostly Mohammedan “asylum seekers.”  The claim that the invasion was “spontaneous” due to the turmoil in the Middle East from US and Western nation-states military intervention is implausible.  The region has been unstable for decades.  Why all of a sudden is there a mass exodus and why it is mostly of young single Muslim men?

The invasion of Europe was carefully orchestrated and planned by the world’s power elite whose goal is to eliminate what is left of the Continent’s white Christian heterogeneous male population.  Pope Francis and Ms. Merkel are the New World Order’s puppets carrying out their marching orders.

While the outlook for Europeans may currently appear grim, it is not hopeless.  While Pope Francis and Angela Merkel cannot at present be deposed for their crimes, they can be defeated in the court of public opinion.  For Europe to become once again the center of human civilization, the ideals of multiculturalism and the fraud of global warming must be slain on ideological grounds.

This is the duty that confronts those that seek a return of Europe’s previous glories.  While the task appears monumental, it must be remembered that the pagan Roman Empire was eventually converted by the teaching of twelve men and one indomitable former Pharisee from Tarsus.

Trump's Early Foreign Travel Schedule Unveiled

After two weeks of vigorously signing executive orders, 20 as of February 6, undoing Obama-era regulations, and engaging foreign leaders in often heated exchanges by phone, Trump is gearing up to make offshore visits to, as Axios puts it, "reedem himself as a diplomat" in coming months. According to the AP, his phone call readout reveal significant upcoming overseas travel, "and Europe is the destination."

Some details: "Trump has been burning up White House telephone lines calling his world counterparts and, during those talks, has committed to several trans-Atlantic trips."

He spoke Sunday with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg and agreed to attend a NATO leaders" meeting in Brussels in late May. Trump once dismissed the trans-Atlantic military alliance as "obsolete."

Trump spoke with Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni on Saturday and promised to attend a late May summit of the Group of Seven leading industrial nations in Taormina, Italy.

In talks last weekend with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the White House says Trump accepted her invitation to the Group of 20 economic summit in Hamburg, Germany, in early July.

Here is a quick summary of his key upcoming trips courtesy of Axios:

• Brussels: Trump agreed to attend a NATO leaders" meeting in late May, where he"ll have to live down his "obsolete" gibe.


• Italy: Trump promised Italian PM Paolo Gentiloni that he"d attend a late-May summit of G-7 industrial nations in Taormina, Italy.


• Germany: Trump accepted the invitation of Angela Merkel to attend the G-20 economic summit in Hamburg, Germany in early July.


• UK: Trump will attend a state visit extended by Queen Elizabeth II, expected this summer.

Additionally, Trump is expected to receive more foreign leaders in the coming days, starting with Japan"s PM Shinzo Abe on Friday, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu on Feb. 15, and Canadian PM Justin Trudeau sometime this month. It remains unclear if and when Trump will meet with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, who canceled his Jan. 31 visit over disagreement with Trump over who will pay for the wall Trump has pledged to build along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Angry Germany Slams Trump Criticism: Urges US To "Build Better Cars", Accuses Washington Of Causing Refugee Crisis

An angry Berlin has responded with a staunch defense of its policies after President-elect Donald Trump criticized German Chancellor Angela Merkel in two separate Sunday interviews, one with Germany"s Bild and one with the Sunday Times, for her stance during the refugee crisis while threatening a 35% tariff on BMW cars imported into the US.

Germany’s deputy chancellor and minister for the economy, Sigmar Gabriel, said on Monday morning that a tax on German imports would lead to a “bad awakening” among US carmakers since they were reliant on transatlantic supply chains. “I believe BMW’s biggest factory is already in the US, in Spartanburg [South Carolina],” Gabriel, leader of the centre-left Social Democratic party, told the Bild newspaper in a video interview.

“The US car industry would have a bad awakening if all the supply parts that aren’t being built in the US were to suddenly come with a 35% tariff. I believe it would make the US car industry weaker, worse and above all more expensive." Playing Trump"s threat off Congress, Gabriel added that he "would wait and see what the Congress has to say about that, which is mostly full of people who want the opposite of Trump" as quoted by The Guardian.

In his interviews with Bild and the Times, the US president-elect had indicated that he would aim to realign the “out of balance” car trade between Germany and the US. “If you go down Fifth Avenue everyone has a Mercedes Benz in front of his house, isn’t that the case?” he said. “How many Chevrolets do you see in Germany? Not very many, maybe none at all … it’s a one-way street.”

So, when asked what Trump could do to make sure German customers bought more American cars, Gabriel had a simple suggestion: “Build better cars.”

Asked what Trump could do to make sure German customers bought
more American cars, Sigmar Gabriel said: ‘Build better cars.

Trump"s interview had an adverse impact shares in carmakers BMW, Daimler and Volkswagen, which fell on Monday morning following the President-elect"s comments. BMW shares were down 0.85%, shares in Daimler were 1.54% lower and Volkswagen shares were trading 1.07% down in early trading in Frankfurt. The reason for Trump"s latest outburst at Germany"s car giants is that all three carmakers have invested heavily in factories in Mexico, where production costs are lower than the US, with an eye to exporting smaller vehicles to the American market, a move which Trump vocally disapproves.

Meanwhile, a BMW spokeswoman said a BMW Group plant in the central Mexican city of San Luis Potosi would build the BMW 3 Series starting from 2019, with the output intended for the world market. The plant in Mexico would be an addition to existing 3 Series production facilities in Germany and China.

* * *

Responding to Trump’s comments that Merkel had made an “utterly catastrophic mistake by letting all these illegals into the country”, Gabriel said the increase in the number of people fleeing the Middle East to seek asylum in Europe had partially been a result of US-led wars destabilising the region.

Slamming US foreign policy - and thus the Obama regime, not to mention Angela Merkel"s close friend Hillary Clinton - as a culprit for the European refugee crisis, Gabriel said that “there is a link between America’s flawed interventionist policy, especially the Iraq war, and the refugee crisis, that’s why my advice would be that we shouldn’t tell each other what we have done right or wrong, but that we look into establishing peace in that region and do everything to make sure people can find a home there again,” Gabriel said.

“In that area Germany and Europe are already making enormous achievements – and that’s why I also thought it wasn’t right to talk about defence spending, where Mr Trump says we are spending too little to finance Nato. We are making gigantic financial contributions to refugee shelters in the region, and these are also the results of US interventionist policy.”

Gabriel, who will likely run as the centre-left candidate against Merkel in Germany’s federal elections in September, said Trump’s election should encourage Europeans to stand up for themselves.

“On the one hand, Trump is an elected president. When he is in office, we will have to work with him and his government – respect for a democratic election alone demands that,” Gabriel said. “On the other hand, you need to have enough self-confidence. This isn’t about making ourselves submissive. What he says about trade issues, how he might treat German carmakers, the question about Nato, his view on the European Union – all these require a self-confident position, not just on behalf of us Germans but all Europeans. We are not inferior to him, we have something to bring to the table too.

“Especially in this phase in which Europe is rather weak, we will have to pull ourselves together and act with self-confidence and stand up for our own interests.”

While Merkel has yet to provide a direct response to Trump"s statements and refused to comment on the interview during a news conference with New Zealand Prime Minister Bill English, saying she would wait until after Trump"s inauguration and then planned to work with him at all levels of government, her spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said the chancellor had read the Trump interview “with interest”, but declined to comment in more detail until the president-elect had been sworn in.

“We are now waiting for President Trump to start his term and will then work closely with the new government,” he said, adding that "It’s a clear statement of the positions of the new American president, but the positions of the chancellor on many of these issues are equally clear."

Martin Schäfer, a spokesman for the German foreign ministry, rejected Trump’s labelling of the EU as a “vehicle for Germany”. He said: “For the German government, Europe has never been a means to an end, but a community of fate which, in times of collapsing old orders, is more important than ever.”

The foreign ministry also rejected Trump’s criticism that creating “security zones” in Syria would have been considerably cheaper than accepting refugees fleeing the war-torn country. “What exactly such a security zone is meant to be is beyond my comprehension and would have to be explained,” said Schäfer, adding that there had not been enough willingness among the international community to lend military support to create a no-fly zone in Syria.

* * *

Germany was not the only nation unhappy with Trump"s statement: Pierre Moscovici, European economic affairs commissioner, also found fault with Trump’s assertion that other European countries would follow in Britain’s footsteps and leave the EU.

“I’m not worried, I think this idea that Brexit is going to be contagious is a fantasy, a bad fantasy,” Moscovici told reporters in Paris. “Brexit is not a great thing,” he said, warning Trump that comments advocating a break-up of the EU would not get the trans-Atlantic relationship off to the best start.

* * *

Yet while Germany and Brussels were unhappy with Trump"s criticism, Moscow was delighted, and sure enough Trump’s remarks on Nato were met more favourably in Moscow, where Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, agreed with the US president-elect that the alliance was “obsolete”.

“Since Nato is tailored toward confrontation, all its structures are dedicated to the ideals of confrontation, you can’t really call it a modern organisation meeting the ideas of stability, steady growth and security,” he said.

But Trump’s suggestion that the US could lift its sanctions on Russia in exchange for an agreement to reduce the countries’ nuclear arsenals elicited a cooler response. Peskov said Russia had not been conducting talks with the US about nuclear arsenal reduction and said cancelling sanctions was not a political goal in Russia. "Russia wasn’t the initiator in introducing these restrictions, and Russia, as the president of Russia has underlined, doesn’t intend to raise the issue of these sanctions in its foreign contacts,” he said.

Last month, echoing similar comments by Trump, Putin said Russia needed to strengthen its strategic nuclear forces. Leonid Slutsky, a Russian MP, said he “wouldn’t connect these two issues and make the cancellation of sanctions a negotiating point in such a delicate area as nuclear security”. Konstantin Kosachyov, head of the foreign affairs committee in the Russian senate, said the cancellation of sanctions was “definitely not an end in and of itself for Russia”.

“It’s not even a strategic goal for which something needs to be sacrificed, especially in the security sphere,” he told state news agency RIA Novosti. “We think [sanctions] are a bad legacy of the departing White House team that need to be sent after it into history.”

* * *

And yet, perhaps Trump"s bluster was merely the latest ruse to get everyone on the negotiating table. It may be working already: as Reuters reports, Chancellor Merkel is working to set a date this spring for a meeting with Donald Trump, who will be sworn in as U.S. president on Friday, German government sources said on Monday. Merkel had offered to meet Trump in the United States in her capacity as chairman of the Group of 20 leading economies, the sources said.

The chancellor has spoken with Trump only once, shortly after his election to succeed U.S. President Barack Obama. Following Trump"s latest "stunning" public statements, she now appears to be in a hurry to not only speak with him again, but also meet face to face.

Wolfgang Schäuble Resorts To Threats And Extortion Over Brexit

Submitted by Michael Shedlock via MishTalk.com,

German finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble warns the UK faces stiff rules on tax breaks and prolonged EU payments.

Such threats are nothing more than an extortion attempt by the EU on the UK.

Schäuble’s threats are laughable because they are unenforceable, yet extremely serious because of likely end results.

 

Please consider yet another foolish EU threat: Wolfgang Schäuble Sets Out Tough Line on Brexit.

Germany’s finance minister has set out a tough line on EU divorce talks with Britain on issues from tax breaks to exit costs, dashing Downing Street hopes Berlin would soften Europe’s stance on a UK departure from the bloc.

Theresa May’s government has been looking to Germany, a net exporter to the UK, to temper French demands that Britain “pay a price” for its decision to leave.

But Wolfgang Schäuble told the Financial Times that, even after Brexit, the UK would be bound by tax rules that would restrict it from granting incentives to keep investors in the country — and would also face EU budget bills for more than a decade.

“Until the UK’s exit is complete, Britain will certainly have to fulfil its commitments,” he said. “Possibly there will be some commitments that last beyond the exit … even, in part, to 2030 … Also we cannot grant any generous rebates.”

In addition to demands for long-term financial payments, Mr Schäuble insisted Britain must stick to international rules on investment incentives, a clear signal Berlin would closely watch commitment like those Mrs May made to carmaker Nissan, which recently won government assurances before it agreed to build new models in the UK

“These rules apply to all whether EU members or not,” he said.

Mr Schäuble noted that Group of 20 agreements commit members to limiting tax avoidance — an initiative, led by Germany and the UK, that would reduce Britain’s ability to grant breaks to companies, even after leaving the bloc.

Amazing Arrogance

The UK is out of the EU as soon as it says so, not as soon as the EU lets the UK go.

The clear answer to the UK’s non-dilemma over group of 20 agreements is to renounce them immediately.

“There is no à la carte menu. There is only the whole menu or none,” said Schäuble, arguing that British restrictions on EU immigration would end financial services companies’ free access to EU markets under so-called passporting rules.

“The UK is still a member of the EU and it is a country which has always upheld the valid regulations, valid laws and valid treaties,” added Schäuble.

Well la-de-friggin-da.

Schäuble acts like a spoiled brat who thinks he has all the marbles, when there is a far bigger pile elsewhere.

The UK does not need 27 nations to agree the UK can leave. Moreover, it is increasingly obvious to anyone watching that the EU is totally dysfunctional and will never agree on much of anything.

The UK can kiss off the EU anytime it wants. I suggest prime minister Theresa May fire off a warning salvo immediately, renouncing Group of 20 Agreements.

EU buffoonery is completely out of hand.

In related news, please consider EU the Toothless Tiger, Totally Dysfunctional Until it Disintegrates Into Oblivion.

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These EU fools are playing with a Smoot-Hawley style global deflationary collapse.