"We"re Not Stupid" - Top US Nuclear Commander Would Disobey "Illegal" Trump Orders

A few short months after Admiral Scott Swift, Commander of the US Navy’s Pacific Fleet, said he would obey a hypothetical order to launch a nuclear strike against China if the president chose to give it, Air Force Gen. John Hyten - America"s top nuclear commander - said Saturday he would push back against President Trump if the president ordered a nuclear launch the general believed to be "illegal."

When an audience member asked Hyten, who was speaking at a national security conference in Halifax Canada, about the hypothetical scenario, he responded by assuring his interlocutor that military commanders “aren’t stupid.”

Here"s CBS:

Air Force Gen. John Hyten, commander of the U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM), told an audience at the Halifax International Security Forum in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on Saturday that he has given a lot of thought to what he would say if Mr. Trump ordered a strike he considered unlawful.

 

"I think some people think we"re stupid," Hyten said in response to a question about such a scenario. "We"re not stupid people. We think about these things a lot. When you have this responsibility, how do you not think about it?"

 

Hyten explained the process that would follow such a command. As head of STRATCOM, Hyten is responsible for overseeing the U.S. nuclear arsenal.

 

"I provide advice to the president, he will tell me what to do," Hyten added. "And if it"s illegal, guess what"s going to happen? I"m going to say, "Mr. President, that"s illegal." And guess what he"s going to do? He"s going to say, "What would be legal?" And we"ll come up with options, with a mix of capabilities to respond to whatever the situation is, and that"s the way it works. It"s not that complicated."

Hyten said he has been trained every year for decades in the law of armed conflict, which takes into account specific factors to determine legality - necessity, distinction, proportionality, unnecessary suffering and more. Running through scenarios of how to react in the event of an illegal order is standard practice, he said.

And Hyten is not the only one who’s been thinking about how they might react to a hypothetical order to launch a nuclear strike. A few months ago, Vanity Fair reported that Defense Secretary Mattis, Chief of Staff John Kelly and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had discussed the issue, though it’s unclear, exactly, how they would respond.

Hyten apparently believes that an order from the president could be illegal, under certain unspecified circumstances. And if you execute an illegal order, he said, you could be prosecuted.

John Hyten

"If you execute an unlawful order, you will go to jail. You could go to jail for the rest of your life," Hyten said.

As CBS pointed out, Hyten’s comments come at a time when Congress is reexamining the authorization of the use of military force and power to launch a nuclear strike.

In a hearing earlier this week, Sen. Ed Markey, D-Massachusetts, said Mr. Trump "can launch nuclear codes just as easily as he can use his Twitter account."

Hyten said the military is always ready to respond to the threat of North Korea, even at that very moment. Trump has been embroiled in a war of words with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un since shortly after taking office, and has repeatedly threatened to respond with overwhelming force if he the North continues to threaten the US.

"And we are ready every minute of every day to respond to any event that comes out of North Korea. That"s the element of deterrence that has to be clear, and it is clear," Hyten said.

But Hyten also said handling North Korea and its unpredictable leader Kim Jong Un has to be an international effort. Mr. Trump has continued to put pressure on China to help manage its tempestuous neighbor.

"President Trump by himself can"t change the behavior of Kim Jong Un," Hyten said. "But President Trump can create the conditions that the international community can reach out in different ways where we can work with the Republic of Korea, where we can work with our neighbors in the region."

However, Admiral Swift, who has led the Pacific Fleet since 2015, has a very different view of the obligations that come with being a military commander in charge of the US’s nuclear arsenal.

“Every member of the US military has sworn an oath to defend the constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic and to obey the officers and the president of the United States as commander and chief appointed over us.”

When it comes to nuclear war, North Korea, for many, is the first adversary that comes to mind. But in the long run, China, which is reportedly developing hypersonic fighter jets that would be able to reach the Continental US within 14 minutes and has been slowly expanding its military footprint in the Pacific, may pose the bigger threat.

Tesla Unveils Its "Mind-Blowing" Semi And New Roadster, The "Fastest Production Car Ever Made"

Update 2: there were some rumors of a surprise during tonight"s presentation, and Musk did not disappoint when just as the semi-introduction was ending, Tesla also unveiled a new Roadster, the new version of its original sports car. According to Musk, It’s the fastest production car ever made, with speeds of just 1.9 seconds for 0 to 60 and 4.2 seconds for 0 to 100. It can handle a quarter mile in 8.9 seconds.

“This is the base model,” Musk said, then went on to mention that its top speed is above 250 mph. and it has a 200 kWh battery pack that offers 630 miles of highway driving range.

This just drove out of the Tesla Semi. A next gen Roadster!!!!! #TeslaSemiTruck pic.twitter.com/3gmyzhPHkl

— Lance Ulanoff (@LanceUlanoff) November 17, 2017

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Update 1: this is what the new Semi truck, which Tesla will give a 1 million mile guarantee for, looks like:

This doesn"t look bad #TeslaSemiTruck pic.twitter.com/VrwHXb6qN8

— Madi ?????? (@Phalanxia) November 17, 2017

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Tonight"s the night!! In what has been promised to "blow your mind," Elon Musk will unveil an all-electric Class 8 semi truck.

In the works for two years, it’s a project that’s aimed squarely at cleaning up the freight industry, which accounts for one-fifth of global oil demand... and which Goldman Sachs has warned will cost 300,000 jobs per year.

As Bloomberg notes, Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk has promised a truck that will “out-torque any diesel semi” and drive “like a sports car.” Seeing what an all-electric semi is capable of may be the most entertaining part of the night, even if it’s not a key metric for Tesla’s trucking customers.

It can transform into a robot, fight aliens and make one hell of a latte pic.twitter.com/8h9vvWu4f5

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 15, 2017

“If you had a tug-of-war competition,” Musk bragged at a Ted Talk in April, “the Tesla Semi will tug the diesel semi uphill.”

The show is due to start at 8pmPT, 11pmET.

If the transmission is interrupted, readers can go to Tesla’s website by clicking the image below...

Here"s what to watch for - including some potential wild cards (via Bloomberg)

1. How Long Is Long Range?

The range of any electric vehicle is the critical metric—it defines how the vehicle can be used and the size of its potential market. Five years ago, few would have thought that a long-range heavy duty-truck was even possible. That’s changing fast. Daimler, the leader in Class 8 diesel trucks, recently unveiled a 220-mile range electric big rig, establishing a new bar for the industry. Long-range hauling across vast stretches of the U.S. would likely require more than 500 miles of range.

2. At What Cost?

Batteries are the single most expensive component of any electric truck, and the battery of a cross-country hauler could cost $100,000 even before you build the truck around it. The sticker price, regardless of size, is going to be higher than its diesel equivalent because of those pricey batteries.

Can Tesla keep the upfront price low enough to be offset by cheaper operating costs from fuel savings and simpler maintenance? Tesla may provide such figures, though many fleet operators will want to put them to the test with hundreds of thousands of road miles before they’ll be convinced.

Source: Bloomberg analysis

3. Platooning on Autopilot

Will the truck, expected to roll out by 2020, come with some level of autonomous driving? Tesla has been in talks with California and Nevada regulators about testing semis that can automatically follow a lead vehicle, a technique known as “platooning.” Platooning cuts fuel costs by reducing wind drag. And if the autonomous driving system is good enough to run without a driver, it could also dramatically cut labor expenses.

A teaser animation released by Tesla on Wednesday suggests the realization of one of Musk’s design aspirations: cameras instead of side door mirrors.

Tesla Semi unveil, 8pm PT tomorrow — watch live at https://t.co/8uVlhvzpu5 pic.twitter.com/hCIm5iCW6J

— Tesla (@Tesla) November 15, 2017

 

4. Who Are the First Customers?

The biggest players in freight are good at keeping their trucks in top driving condition and averse to messing with the supply chain. Convincing companies like Swift, Ryder, and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. to bring an electric drivetrain into their fleets will be a tough sell. Musk says Tesla has been gathering feedback from trucking companies throughout the development process (at least one, Ryder, confirmed it), so it would be a good sign if Tesla comes out of the gate with some early partnerships.

It could be that Musk’s own empire will be the first demonstration customer of the big rig. Tesla’s automotive reach is growing, and its SolarCity arm is the biggest rooftop solar installer in the U.S. Musk"s SpaceX could potentially use the vehicles to transport rockets, satellites, capsules, and equipment.

During earlier unveilings of Tesla’s passenger cars—the Models S, X and 3—the company started taking paid reservations immediately, at least 18 months before the first deliveries. Is that a strategy that can work with commercial trucks? How long until the first rigs hit the road?

A new 40-stall Supercharger station and customer lounge opens in Kettleman, California.

Source: Tesla

5. Infrastructure Solutions

A lot of infrastructure goes into servicing big rigs. Truck stops line the world’s highways, and fleet operators stand by with mountains of replacement parts ready to fix anything that might go wrong. How does Tesla plan to deal with these hurdles? Will they introduce a whole new type of charging system, with ultrafast chargers or a robot that swaps out used batteries for fresh ones? Who will build out and operate the charging network? Who handles maintenance and roadside assistance?

6. Location, Location, Location

Tesla’s car factory in Fremont, California, is running out of room. Musk wants to build 500,000 electric passenger cars there next year, and even if he misses that goal by half, it’s very unlikely Tesla would be able to squeeze in a big rig assembly line. Tesla’s massive battery factory near Reno, Nevada, which is still under construction, seems like a more natural fit. That factory is also where Tesla makes electric motors and drivetrains—primary components for an electric semi.

7. “Driver Comfort Features”

In a profile in this week’s Rolling Stone, Musk hinted at an unspecified “driver comfort feature” that he’s fond of. “Probably no one will buy it because of this,” he said, “but if you’re going to make a product, make it beautiful.” One possibility? A sweet coffee maker. In a Twitter post on Wednesday, Musk joked that the truck “can transform into a robot, fight aliens and make one hell of a latte.”

The Model 3 motor sits in line with the wheel axle. The semi will use multiple Model 3 engines in tandem to power the big rig semi trucks.

Source: Tesla

8. Shared Parts

Perhaps Tesla’s biggest advantage over other truck makers is that its Semi will share some core parts with its first mass-market car, the Model 3. Musk disclosed during an earnings call in May that the Semi uses “a bunch” of Model 3 motors, which sit in line with the truck’s axles. These relatively cheap electric motors will give the Semi unparalleled electric torque for getting quickly up to speed with a heavy load.

Tesla’s foray into commercial trucking is coming at an impossibly tough time for the company. The Model 3 is already months behind schedule, and Tesla is spending $1 billion a quarter to get things cranking.

But if Musk can get Model 3 production lines up to their promised rates, and the motors and battery cells are truly interchangeable between the Semi and the new passenger car, the scale of those operations would be profound. While traditional diesel truck makers are testing truck-suitable electric motors by the hundreds, Tesla could be making them by the hundreds of thousands—even before its first big rig hits the road.

*  *  *

Tesla shares have been on the downtrend since mid-September...

So this event could be just what Musk needs to turn things around and distract investors from the massive cash burn the company is suffering while hand-making Model 3s...

Media Says You’re to Blame for Shootings Unless You Report Odd Behavior

Via The Daily Bell

“How do we fit the latest tragedy into our political agenda?” The media wondered. “Gun control is so cliché. And even though the tragedies get bigger and bigger, we still have little luck!”

“I have an idea!” Exclaimed one outlet, “We can convince people that if they don’t report their neighbors and family members to authorities for acting subjectively crazy, then they are to blame for crazy people’s actions!”

“Yes!” Agreed another, “And we can tell them that ‘micro-aggressions’, criticism of the government, and just getting a bad feeling from someone are all worthy of reporting to the authorities!”

And just like that, the media was able to turn their frowns upside down. They exploited the good crisis in the name of the progressive dream. It’s easy to keep citizens under strict watch when fellow citizens do the policing for you! And they all lived happily ever after, sewing fear and mistrust into the fabric of society. The End.

Snitch to Absolve Yourself of Guilt

You may think these events are engineered, or rather that real tragedy will be used to push political agendas. Either way, perhaps the old gun control push is out of style.

A possibly more sinister attempt is underfoot to get Americans to turn on each other. Be suspicious of anyone that makes you feel icky. Rat out your neighbor. Being politically incorrect is just one step shy of a shooting rampage. That is the message.

And if you don’t call the police to report suspicious behavior, you are just as guilty as a mass murderer. That is the story the media is selling.

Instead of ignoring, mocking or laughing off the people in our society who seem disgruntled, angry or somehow “off” we must report them. We need to take a more active role in not just paying attention to the people who give us an uneasy feeling, but in taking the next step by alerting law enforcement when we have uneasy feelings or are worried about a person’s potential for violence.

That’s right, the true problem is that we haven’t been proper social spies.

But if the problem is mental health, this will only exacerbate it. When people feel restricted, they literally go crazy. If someone seems angry and disgruntled now, imagine how they will feel after you report them as a suspected terrorist.

How many people on the edge might be pushed to violence when they find out that their neighbors alerted the authorities to their “potential”, whatever that means, for violence?

Coercion is linked to mental illness. When people feel trapped, a small minority will act out violently.

Imagine if you feel that your neighbors are constantly judging your quarks, and calling you crazy. This could easily move more people on the continuum towards violence. This would just be yet another injustice they feel they have suffered at the hands of an oppressive society.

What kind of person does the mainstream media consider a potential candidate to be the next mass shooter?

Let’s take snippets of information about the last mass shooter. Let’s generalize those behaviors to assume anyone guilty of such acts is a potential killer.

“He was the king of microaggression,” his brother, Eric, said…

The other thing that set Paddock apart was his “irreverence toward authority,” Mr Alarcon said.

If you hate political correctness or are anti-authority, you might be a terrorist.

Other suspicious behaviors: not being sociable with neighbors, and not being talkative at bars. The media wants to make sure people are all together, keeping an eye on each other. Don’t let someone be a loner, don’t let anyone keep to themselves. You must probe and prod. The desire for privacy is suspicious. What are they hiding?

There are always clues. Threats posted online, angry or violent sentiments conveyed in conversations, guns purchased, and ammunition stockpiled are among them.

Do you know anyone who has posted rants on Facebook, seems angry sometimes, or is just a little too into guns? Probably a terrorist. Report them.

For More Snitching to be Effective, Criminalize More Behaviours

So you snitch on someone for acting suspiciously. The police interview him, he hates society a little bit more, and then the police let him go. They can’t charge him with anything because he hasn’t done anything illegal.

The media thinks the solution is to simply criminalize behaviors which they think could lead to later crimes.

Should we criminalize stockpiling ammo? Should acting crazy be a crime? Should we start locking people up on suspicion, or for being disgruntled at the government?

The whole mental health thing is a terrifying possibility. What if they start locking people up based on some arbitrary definition of what constitutes crazy? Of course, we know exactly what will constitute crazy. Saying anything critical of the government.

We also must take a hard look at our laws and consider much more stringent penalties for making terrorist threats. Given the crisis we face, perhaps we should abandon the mentality that mass murderers and terrorists are innocent until proven guilty. Threats alone should be as intolerable as actions. Promising to commit these abhorrent acts should be grounds enough to bring them to swift and harsh justice before they act.

The laws against making terrorist threats are a joke. There are people in prison for posting violent rap lyrics on social media.

It is already illegal to make threats. But what is the media suggesting? Locking people up and throwing away the key?

That’s what we need, to do away with innocent until proven guilty. Everyone is guilty according to the media.

Why not just skip the extra steps, and arrest anyone who doesn’t fit the media/ government definition of normal? Citizens will be properly assimilated, or citizens will be reeducated.

Jim Rickards: This Is The Only Russia Story That Matters

Authord by James Rickards via The Daily Reckoning,

The World Gold Council has reported that the Central Bank of Russia has more than doubled the pace of its gold purchases, bringing its reserves to the highest level since Putin took power 17 years ago.

Russia’s desire to break away from the hegemony of the U.S. dollar and the dollar payment system is well-known. Over 60% of global reserves and 80% of global payments are in dollars. The U.S. is the only country with veto power at the International Monetary Fund, the global lender of last resort.

Perhaps Russia’s most aggressive weapon in its war on dollars is gold. The first line of defense is to acquire physical gold, which cannot be frozen out of the international payments system or hacked.

With gold, you can always pay another country just by putting the gold on an airplane and shipping it to the counterparty. This is the 21st-century equivalent of how J.P. Morgan settled payments in gold by ship or railroad in the early 20th century.

Russia has now tripled its gold reserves from around 600 tonnes to 1,800 tonnes over the past 10 years and shows no signs of slowing down. Even when oil prices and Russian reserves were collapsing in 2015, Russia continued to acquire gold.

But Russia is pursuing other dollar alternatives besides gold.

For one, it’s been building nondollar payments systems with regional trading partners and China.

The U.S. uses its influence at SWIFT, the central nervous system of global money transfer message traffic, to cut off nations it considers to be threats.

From a financial perspective, this is like cutting off oxygen to a patient in the intensive care unit. Russia understands its vulnerability to U.S. domination and wants to reduce that vulnerability.

Now Russia has created an alternative to SWIFT.

The head of Russia’s central bank, Elvira Nabiullina, has reported to Vladimir Putin that “There was the threat of being shut out of SWIFT. We updated our transaction system, and if anything happens, all SWIFT-format operations will continue to work. We created an analogous system.”

Russia is also part of a reported Chinese plan to install a new international monetary order that excludes U.S. dollars.

Under that plan, China could buy Russian oil with yuan and Russia could then exchange that yuan for gold on the Shanghai exchange.

Now it appears Russia has another weapon in its anti-dollar arsenal.

Russia’s development bank, VEB, and several Russian state ministries are reportedly teaming up to develop blockchain technology. They want to create a fully encrypted, distributed, inexpensive payments system that does not rely on Western banks, SWIFT or the U.S. to move money around.

This has nothing to do with bitcoin, which is just another digital token. The blockchain technology (now often referred to as distributed ledger technology, or DLT) is a platform that can facilitate a wide variety of transfers — possibly including a new Russian-state cryptocurrency backed by gold.

“Putin coins,” anyone?

The ultimate loser here will be the dollar. That’s one more reason for investors to allocate part of their portfolios to assets such as gold.

God is Dead

From the Slope of Hope blog:

That"s something I"ve got in common with Private Pyle: he wants to be different. For whatever reason, I"m a contrarian to the core. Indeed, one of the appeals of messing around with personal computers back in 1980 was that practically nobody else was doing it (in case you hadn"t noticed, the unusualness of microcomputers vanishes decades ago, so that aspect of the appeal is likewise gone).

This contrarian view of the world extends to the "cover curse", a theory to which I strongly subscribe. Any bold declaration made by a prominent publication seems to invariably mark an inflection point. There"s this cover, for instance, which came out immediately before the demise and near-bankruptcy of Apple:

This cover from The Economist (itself quite famous for its covers being so often dead wrong) when oil was $10 per barrel and was about to explode hundreds of percent higher.

This homoerotic image of the strength of the US dollar, just before it commenced its very steady slide promptly at the start of 2017:

Barron"s decided Facebook was a lousy stock, just before it started a gargantuan run up to "blue chip" stock status, almost exactly to the day......

And, perhaps the most famous of all, Business Week decided just before 1980 began that stocks were doomed, after which time literally trillions of dollars of new wealth were created.

So, time and again, newspapers and magazines get it wrong - - but plenty of other media does too. This book, for instance, was all about the coast-to-coast millionaires in the United States, and it came out June 2007, precisely at the apex of the housing bubble.

So with mountains of other anecdotal evidence, it would seem that only a fool would declare loudly, on a public stage, anything definitive, since major announcements from prominent publications or thought leaders so often represent the collective consciousness at the point that it"s utterly saturated with some particular notion. Even though they say that no one rings a bell at the top, if you look historically at major turning points, there were always bells ringing - - just in a contrarian, hidden form.

Thus, when Trump was elected, inaugurated, and soon thereafter started bragging about the stock market, it seemed like a major reversal signal. After all, this is the President of the United States, and he"s crowing to the world about a stock market for which he gives himself full credit. So that"s bound to be some kind of peak, right? Surely after a tweet like that, the gods above will shame the man, just like they"ve embarrassed anyone showing hubris since the times of the ancient Greeks. Right?

.......Right?........

And yet there they are. Tweet after tweet, month after month, about high after high. And yet the market just keeps going higher..........which, let"s face it, is just going to egg the man on even more. It"s one thing for an old biddy like Yellen to yammer on about no more crises in her lifetime. But the POTUS is another matter altogether.

It really wasn"t that long ago that acts of hubris, either in the form of cover stories or political braggadocio, were met with swift reprisal from the universe. The biggest question facing us today - - far greater than where interest rates are going, or what the dollar is going to do, or even whether Kim is ever going to launch any of those missiles he"s so proud of - - is whether market forces...........normal market forces..............are gone for good. They might just be, and if so, hubris is not only back in style, but it"s going to be here to stay for a long, long time.

"The End Is Nigh"

Authored by Jeff Thomas via InternationalMan.com,

Recently, US Secretary of the Treasury Steve Mnuchin stated, "If China doesn"t follow these sanctions [against North Korea], we will put additional sanctions on them and prevent them from accessing the US and international dollar system."

By this, he meant that the US would shut China out of the SWIFT system, through which the great majority of international settlements are facilitated. In stating this, the US government is doing nothing less than threatening economic warfare against China, which would unquestionably prove catastrophic to the global economy.

This is astonishingly shortsighted, as the US can no more do without trade with China than China can do without trade with the US. Further, the US will unquestionably pressure its other trading partners (particularly the EU) to endorse and follow the sanctions. This they will not comply with, as it would serve to cut their own economic throats. The relationships between the US and their partners have been wearing thin in recent years, and the present threat against China is very likely to prove to be the final straw. The net effect would be to place the US out on an economic limb, alone.

There may be those who disagree with this premise, under the assumption that, to cut China out of the SWIFT system would destroy China"s ability to make international transactions, forcing them to cave to US demands.

However, China, Russia, and others have seen this day coming and have created their own SWIFT system, world cable network, and world banking system. All that"s needed to kick it all into gear is a major international need to bypass SWIFT. The US government has just provided that need with this threat. There would certainly be teething pains in getting the new system running on a massive scale, but the sudden worldwide need would drive the implementation.

This threat by the US at a time when it"s broke is, in effect, economic suicide.

But, just as the ink is drying on this announcement, the increasingly impetuous US president has cracked a deal with Democrats to permanently abolish the US debt ceiling. As the debt ceiling was the last safeguard in governmental fiscal responsibility, he"s effectively chosen to assure that the US will experience economic collapse.

Again, economic suicide.

It could be argued that the insatiable ego of “The Donald” has driven him to recklessness. Indeed, it"s been his habit, when opposed on anything he wishes to do, to lash out, often creating far more dangerous deals, and saying, effectively, "So, there. I showed you. I"ll do as I please, no matter the damage." This would suggest that he"s the "Lemming in Chief," leading the US over a fiscal cliff.

It could also be argued that he is, instead, the "Patsy in Chief," and is being cleverly played by those who understand his personality weaknesses and repeatedly goad him into unwise decisions that will benefit them, but will ultimately be disastrous for the country.

Either way, what we"re witnessing is a train wreck about to happen, and we"re all, to a greater or lesser extent, on that train.

For many years, in predicting the economic collapse of what was once known as the “free world,” I"ve stated my belief that, whilst we cannot predict the actual dates when the primary events will occur, we can observe the lead-up events—that they"ll increase in both frequency and magnitude the closer we get to the collapse. We"ve recently been in the stage where lead-up events have become weekly. We now appear to be entering the stage where lead-up events become daily. Once we"ve reached this stage, it"s time to fasten our seat belts.

So, in returning to the image above, is this the end of the world? In a word, no. Those who profess the coming end of the world have been with us for, literally, thousands of years. They"re just as misguided and incorrect today as they"ve always been.

It is true, however, that the world as we know it is about to undergo the most dramatic change that we"ll witness in our lifetimes. Most certainly, we"re presently in the greatest economic bubble the world has ever seen, which assures us that, when it breaks, the damage it causes will be correspondingly great.

But let"s have a second look at the image above. It seems apparent that the three men in it are part of a religious group, recommending that mankind repent. As can be seen on the placard in the middle, "Ye must be cleansed."

Regardless of any religious connotations to this placard, there"s accuracy in its economic connotations. A collapse is inescapable at this point. The system must be cleansed, much in the way an alcoholic must dry out, or an addict must get the drugs out of his system, before the recovery can begin.

When a crisis of these proportions occurs, it"s not possible to simply acknowledge the collapse, then begin anew the next day. Just like the alcoholic or the addict, we can"t just hit the reset button and start anew. After a collapse, a long and painful process must begin to cleanse the system. In a collapse of the severity of the one we"re facing, the cleansing promises to be quite long and quite painful.

Twenty years ago, in predicting the coming collapse, Harry Schultz predicted, “ten years down; ten years up.” It may well be that his prediction was actually conservative, and we"re now looking at a longer period, as so much additional damage has been done since his prediction.

But, before we leave this topic, it"s important to look at one more factor. Historically, economic wars have a habit of becoming shooting wars.

It"s not commonly known that the US war with Japan was precipitated by the US repeatedly putting the squeeze on Japan economically.

President Roosevelt froze Japanese assets in the US. He subsequently succeeded in cutting Japan off from three-quarters of their international trade. Finally, he cut them off from almost 90% of their oil supply.

It could be argued that, at that point, Japan had no choice but to go to war, however badly it might turn out for them.

Could it be that the US government imagines that similar tactics will force China into a war, so that, when that war ends, the US would control China as it did Japan after 1945?

If that"s their intent, the outcome would be unlikely to turn out as they imagine. Although the sabre rattling by US political leaders and retired generals is heard daily on the American news programmes, and the American people are clearly being indoctrinated to believe that war might be necessary, America has never been less ready for a war.

The US is a very different country from what it was in 1941. It does possess a sizable military; however, that military is no match for the combined forces of China and Russia. Moreover, the US is not the industrial giant it was in 1941. Its factories have largely closed and moved overseas. What remains is not sufficient for wartime production. The American people as a whole are heavily in debt and the government itself is broke.

By any standard, the actions being taken by the US are therefore reckless indeed. The end of the world is not nigh, but the end of the world as we know it most certainly is.

If there"s a light at the end of the tunnel, it may lie in the fact that, in previous world wars, there were always countries that simply didn"t take part. They sat it out in peace, while the rest of the world went mad. This is still true today.

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How The Wall Street Journal Turns the Truth On its Head

Via The Daily Bell

And the award for most misleading headline goes to the Wall Street Journal.

What do you think an article entitled, Unlike Most Industries, Drone Makers and Operators Clamor for Federal Regulation, is all about?

If you guessed it is about drone makers and operators clamoring for more regulations, you are wrong.

Exactly the opposite is true. The drone industry is being stifled by overbearing regulation. Because of one size fits all federal regulations, all across America, it is almost impossible to use drones for commercial purposes.

That is why drone makers, operators and many of their would-be customers are bucking the governmentwide trend toward looser oversight. Additional regulations are their sole means of getting a green light for a much broader array of promising uses.

…these contrarian voices argue that swift federal action is essential for the technology to flourish.

They want a green light. Who put up the red light?

…the Federal Aviation Administration has given limited approvals for small, remotely piloted aircraft weighing up to 55 pounds.

With some exceptions, the initial package of rules permits operations only during daylight hours, up to an altitude of 400 feet and within sight of operators on the ground.

Clearly trying to get rid of those regulations is still trending towards looser oversight. The swift federal action they are clamoring for is to undo previous federal action!

The Wall Street Journal says drone operators see more federal regulations as the only way to get rid of tough federal regulations.

That’s like reporting that the marijuana industry needs federal regulations in order to grow. Marijuana growers see federal regulation as the only way to move their industry forward! Yes, because the government made their industry illegal!

A more honest assessment would say that drone operators would prefer a higher number of less stringent regulations, to a handful of all-encompassing terrible regulations.

While the FAA, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and other agencies struggle with legal, technical and public safety challenges unlike any in the past, industry officials increasingly are frustrated. They worry that a prolonged regulatory stalemate threatens to stifle innovation, sacrifice potential American jobs and hand other countries the lead in evolving market segments.

The real story: federal regulations are so draconian that they are destroying an entire sector of business. People in the industry would likely prefer no regulations. That is clearly not a very likely reality, so instead, they prefer less strict regulations. The government is dragging its feet on repealing their old regulations and replacing them. Annoyed, people in the industry are putting pressure on the government to stop ruining their business.

The Wall Street Journal casts this as an industry excited to work with the government! They are just tickled pink to get more regulations, and that is why they are lobbying so hard!

It is absurd. Why are they framing this in a way that casts federal regulations as a solution when they are so clearly the problem?

It almost seems like the WSJ are trying to trick people into thinking more regulations mean more freedom.

What will people assume from this reputable news source if they only read the headline? It took some great journalist-gymnastics to frame an entire article about how regulations are stifling the drone industry as the drone industry being pro-regulation.

But this is the classic way that government operates.

They ban something, and then as they slowly loosen their restrictions, it seems like the government is handing out freedoms left and right.

A couple years ago gays across the country celebrated the Supreme Court decision which struck down gay marriage bans. The government was the only entity restricting them! And marriage wouldn’t even matter if the government didn’t give special privileges and tax incentives to married couples. The whole thing was a non-issue until the government made laws about marriage, and laws banning marriage, regulations about hospital visits, and regulations about financial partnerships.

It was the same thing with black slaves being freed. Then it was repeated with Jim Crow Laws. Is the government the great freer of slaves? No! The government simply reversed their own policy of giving legal protection to people to enslaved certain other people. Did the government give blacks more rights by repealing Jim Crow Laws? Nope! They simply undid the harm that was previously legally enforced.

Basically, all the “progress” society makes is simply undoing stupid things the government has implemented in the past. And they say we need government in order to move society forward. The only good thing government does is undo previous bad things the government has done!

Don’t get me wrong, it is great when the government reverses their terrible policies. But why are they given credit for moving society forward? All they do is reverse their own terrible policies!

Instead, the fact that governments so often have to undo their terrible laws and regulations should make us clamor for them to stop making them in the first place! We should be taking power away from the government to make sure they can never again legally protect slaveholders. We should be making sure the government cannot outlaw or incentivize certain types of consensual adult relationships.

Comparably, drones are a small issue. But the way the Wall Street Journal words the headline and makes their arguments is ridiculous.

Regulations are the problem, not the solution.

In a world where people can’t do their own thinking, the WSJ is handing them a thought pattern. Did you hear that more regulations are required in order to make drones more popular? Oh yes, if we want widespread drone usage, we need the government to regulate the hell out of the industry. Yay government! They are so progressive.

Don’t trust the media to give it to you straight. Even The Daily Bell should not be considered the final word on anything. We certainly hope to present a worthwhile perspective and useful information. But if an individual is not adding their own analysis they are better off not reading the news at all.

News can help you get information about the world outside your immediate knowledge. News can help give you another perspective to consider. It can provide intellectual exercise.

But it seems like too many people these days are simply taking in the unfiltered news–or headlines–as truth. The Wall Street Journal is a big respected name in news. But all they are doing with articles like this is serving up propaganda for the government.

Florida Sheriff Will Check For Warrants At Hurricane Shelters

Authored by Mac Slavo via SHTFplan.com,

If you have a warrant out for your arrest and manage to safely make it to a Florida hurricane shelter while Hurricane Irma barrels down on the state, a Florida sheriff will make sure you’re escorted right to jail.

As Hurricane Irma approaches his state, a county sheriff in Florida said that law enforcement authorities would check the identities of people who turn up at shelters and take to jail anyone found to have an active arrest warrant. On Wednesday, Grady Judd, the sheriff in Polk County, announced the maneuver in a series of messages on Twitter.

If you go to a shelter for #Irma and you have a warrant, we"ll gladly escort you to the safe and secure shelter called the Polk County Jail https://t.co/Qj5GX9XQBi

— Polk County Sheriff (@PolkCoSheriff) September 6, 2017

“We cannot and we will not have innocent children in a shelter with sexual offenders & predators,” the sheriff said, adding law enforcement officers would be posted at shelters to check IDs. “If you have a warrant, turn yourself into the jail — it’s a secure shelter.”

We cannot and we will not have innocent children in a shelter with sexual offenders & predators. Period. https://t.co/DlhqjqFrkM

— Polk County Sheriff (@PolkCoSheriff) September 6, 2017

A spokeswoman for the sheriff, Carrie E. Horstman, said that the authorities hoped the effort would encourage turnout at shelters if county residents know they are safe. Horstman said, “We hope it actually leads to more people turning themselves in.” In a telephone interview on Wednesday, Ms. Horstman said that officers are obligated to take a person into custody if there is a warrant for their arrest and that in some misdemeanor cases a person can be released on bond immediately before they even go to a shelter.

“Our hope even before they reach a shelter is that they will turn themselves into law enforcement prior to that,” she said. “It is normal protocol to have an accountability log and to know the names of each person going in,” she said. “We need to know who is in there.”

But not everyone was thrilled with the Sheriff’s announcement, however.

So basically this guy is encouraging anyone with a warrant, which are issued for things such as outstanding parking tickets, to risk death?

— Alt Sarah H. Sanders (@AltUSPressSec) September 6, 2017

The Polk County sheriff’s announcement that the authorities would use the hurricane as an opportunity for arrests drew widespread criticism online, leading some to question just how far the checks would go, such as whether Sheriff Judd would jail those wanted on traffic or drug charges, The Orlando Sentinel reported.

Oh hey and look at this history they have of framing people https://t.co/NRBivBWvRy

— Brooke Binkowski (@brooklynmarie) September 6, 2017

The backlash over this announcement was swift and more appear to be against the arrests at the shelters than for them. These announcements also come as word of police turning away volunteers bringing supplies to Hurricane Harvey victims in Texas, and yelled at for trying to help others.

The sheriff’s office made these announcements as residents of the state of Florida stocked up on supplies or made preparations to evacuate ahead of Hurricane Irma. Making arrests a top priority over human lives appears callous to Florida residents, especially in the wake of the damage currently being inflicted by Irma on the Caribbean.

The massive hurricane, which battered the northeast Caribbean on Wednesday is now moving on to the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. According to a majority of the latest projections, the Category 5 hurricane could make landfall in Florida by Sunday, although it was unclear where exactly that might happen. But the state is already bracing for impact. On Wednesday, Governor Rick Scott activated the state National Guard and declared a state of emergency across the state.

Polk County boasts a population of over 600,000 people, and none of the hurricane shelters have begun accepting evacuees just yet.

Van Halen, M&Ms, And The Next Market Downturn

The planet-sized egos of rock & roll performers are legendary.

Few things symbolize this better than the outrageous requests they often make when on tour.

These requests are referred to as "riders", and appear in the contract a tour venue receives in advance of the artist"s arrival. These contract riders specify the physical conditions that the singer/band requires to be in place before arriving to perform. Stage lighting settings, sound equipment, furnishings, etc -- that kind of stuff.

And these rider requests can get pretty funky - often extremely so -- when it comes to backstage perks the performers want.

For example: A wooden pond filled with koi carp (Eminem). A driver who will not speak or make eye contact (Katy Perry). 20 white kittens and 100 doves (Mariah Carey). Seven dwarves (Iggy Pop). 50,000 bees (Slayer). A sub-machine gun (Mötley Crüe). And, yes, even a great white shark (Hank III).

The practice of making these kind of outrageous demands stems from a rider Van Halen inserted into the contract for its 1982 world tour, which insisted on a bowl of M&Ms to be provided backstage, but with all of the brown M&Ms removed.

As this image below of the actual rider shows, the band was very explicit in its seriousness about this:

Once the media got whiff of this, it had a field day roasting the band"s narcissistic chutzpah. A new high-water mark of diva capriciousness had been established, which quickly became legend. A feat of prima donna pampering that subsequent performers have been trying to top ever since.

But as crazy as it sounds, Van Halen"s "no brown M&Ms" rider had nothing to do with caprice. There was a solid rationale behind it.

In fact, it was quite brilliant.

The Importance Of Effective Indicators

Van Halen"s 1982 world tour was a massive production, involving a tremendous amount of gear and technical complexity. The contract the band sent in advance to venues was so thick due to all the details within, it was referred to as the "Chinese Yellow Pages".

Non-compliance with the requirements in the contract could have serious consequences that could ruin the show, or even jeopardize lives.

So when the band rolled up to its next venue, it needed a quick way to determine if the stage crew there had complied with all of the specifications within its contract.

And that"s why the "no brown M&Ms" rider was inserted. The band could simply hop off the bus and check the candy bowl. If they found brown M&Ms, they knew the contract hadn"t been carefully read. And then they"d immediately call for a full-line check of the entire set.

As lead singer David Lee Roth detailed in his autobiography:

Van Halen was the first band to take huge productions into tertiary, third-level markets. We’d pull up with nine eighteen-wheeler trucks, full of gear, where the standard was three trucks, max. And there were many, many technical errors — whether it was the girders couldn’t support the weight, or the flooring would sink in, or the doors weren’t big enough to move the gear through.

The contract rider read like a version of the Chinese Yellow Pages because there was so much equipment, and so many human beings to make it function. So just as a little test, in the technical aspect of the rider, it would say “Article 148: There will be fifteen amperage voltage sockets at twenty-foot spaces, evenly, providing nineteen amperes …” This kind of thing. And article number 126, in the middle of nowhere, was: “There will be no brown M&M’s in the backstage area, upon pain of forfeiture of the show, with full compensation.”

So, when I would walk backstage, if I saw a brown M&M in that bowl … well, line-check the entire production. Guaranteed you’re going to arrive at a technical error. They didn’t read the contract. Guaranteed you’d run into a problem. Sometimes it would threaten to just destroy the whole show. Something like, literally, life-threatening.

Genius.

Through its rider, the band had created a easy-to-monitor and trustworthy indicator. No brown M&Ms, and the show was likely set up to go smoothly. But if otherwise, don"t perform until the entire venue is scrutinized for other missed requirements.

The lesson to take from Van Halen"s wisdom is that having good indicators is key to achieving success.

This is also extremely true for the world of investing, where you are deploying capital based upon an expected future return. How do you determine when it"s a good time to enter into an investment? Once in it, how do you monitor the conditions supporting your rationale for holding it -- are those changing? And if so, are they getting better or worse? When should you exit the position?

For all of these questions, the better the indicators you use, the more accurate and informed your decision-making will be. And the better your returns as an investor will be.

When The Indicators Are Giving A Signal, Pay Attention

Over the years, we"ve compiled a large number of indicators that we monitor closely on an ongoing basis here at PeakProsperity.com. They most definitely inform our economic outlook and forecasting.

We"ll dedicate an upcoming report to laying out the sources and metrics we place the greatest weighting on. But several that we"re watching closely right now come from two market analysts that we highly respect.

The first set comes from Lance Roberts, chief strategist/economist for Clarity Financial. Lance is renowned for his excellent charts and ability to highlight key changes in data trends. Below are several indicators he"s recently featured, suggesting weariness in the US financial markets and growing likelihood of economic recession.

First, the S&P 500 is showing signs of topping out, having broken below the trading range of its latest 8-month bullish trend, and its MACD momentum indicator displaying two recent sell signals:

Lance warns that such signals suggest that further price gains will be "volatile and limited" unless the S&P returns into its bullish channel. If it indeed does not and drops below the key resistance level of 2390, he sees a swift price correction of 12% as a real possibility.

But he then combines this near-term technical analysis with more far-sighted data to make the point that the financial markets are not just overbought, but dangerously overvalued at this point. Similar to John Hussman (another producer of market indicators we value highly), Lance shows that, because today"s prices are the result of pulling so much of tomorrow"s valuation into today (e.g., via the suppression of interest rates and overexuberant speculation), we are living at a rare time in history where the average market return for the next 20 years may well be negative:

And he recently caught our attention by surfacing this chart of the change in annual Real Value Added to the US economy, a metric that hadn"t been on our radar beforehand. This has been a reliable indicator of recession in the US for nearly 70 years, and is now signaling that we"ve likely already entered one:

Couple Lance"s indicators with those of our other expert, Grant Williams, portfolio advisor at Vulpes Investment Management and co-founder of Real Vision TV. Grant and the team at Real Vision recently issued their latest Killer Charts series, which adds validation and additional weight to Lance"s warnings.

First off, Grant and his team see similar technical signs of "exhaustion" in the S&P 500 and predict lower prices ahead:

Note that they don"t just expect the S&P to correct slightly and then continuing powering higher. Other indicators they track, like the equities-vs-commodities ratio, strongly suggests a bubble peak for the S&P. From here they predict a secular bear trend for stocks (possibly paired with a new bull trend in commodities):

And like Lance, Grant sees signs that the US economy is poised to slow further...

.. and is likely, as Lance also concludes, tipping into recession:

When smart analysts independently find the same patterns in the data, it"s time to take notice.

The charts above are only a few of the indicators Lance and Grant monitor that are now sending strong cautionary warnings about the near-term prospects for the financial markets and the underlying economy. What other key metrics should we also be tracing closely right now?

To dig much deeper into this, Lance and Grant will be presenting their latest indicators, analysis and forecasts at the Dangerous Markets webinar on September 13th -- where they will take ample questions live from the audience. For more information on the webinar, click here.

One American Reflects: "The Idiots In Charlottesville... Don't Represent What Most Of Us Think Or Do"

Authored by Joey Clark via Medium.com,

The top story yesterday (and today) - showcased on the Drudge Report, Google News, all the cable news networks, and many social media feeds - is simply an idiotic parade of self-important and domineering busybodies.

A petite horde of white nationalists and their brethren are at odds with their over-zealous anti-fascist opposition in Virginia. They are so at odds Virginia’s governor declared a state of emergency due to the violent clashes at the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville.

The images coming from the scene are so provocative and full of savagery even President Donald Trump saw fit to send out a tweet calling for unity:

“We ALL must be united & condemn all that hate stands for. There is no place for this kind of violence in America. Lets come together as one!”

Yet, what most Americans need to do right now isn’t to appeal to some sense of ‘national unity’ against hate or to “come together as one.” Fine sentiments—if you’re into that sort of thing—but excuse me, pardon me for saying I don’t need this President, or any other, to tell me and most of my fellow Americans that “this kind of violence” has no place in America (which makes me wonder, what other kinds of violence do have their place in the USA?)

Most Americans, most people, already know this sort of stupidity and violence on the march in Charlottesville is unacceptable and a waste of time. The people assembled in Virginia do not represent what most Americans think or wish to do with their precious little free time on a Saturday. The brouhaha from the political media surrounding this event is at best overblown by good intentions and at worst being purposely stoked for website hits, TV ratings, and political agendas.

Rather than heeding the hollow calls for peace and unity from ‘our’ dear political leaders or the foolish pleas from left/right activists on the ground in Virginia, what most Americans need to do right now is keep right on doing what they’re already doing - enjoying what little freedom they still have in so many ways too numerous to list completely.

Keep in mind, while a few hundred deluded racists and hysterical ‘anti-fascists’ clash in Virginia, thousands of Americans are attending baseball, football, and soccer events while millions watch from home.

Do not forget, while the despairing political boobs clash in Charlottesville, millions of Americans are attending pop concerts, cheerleading competitions, neighborhood BBQ’s, jazz festivals, movie showings, yoga classes, college classes, dog-training seminars, baby-showers, weddings, funerals, and pool parties.

Just remember, while political nincompoopery reveals its ugly face in one tiny place on the map, millions of Americans are relaxing at home, reading books and guzzling down champagne mixers, sharing high school memories with old friends and smoking hookah pipes, texting the sexy boy or girl they met last night, or emailing a lost love they haven’t seen 10 years.

Americans are shopping. Americans are putting on fundraisers in fun ways. Americans are eating junk food and health food, cheese puffs and brown butter asparagus. Americans are curling their toes in the white sands of the beaches along the Gulf of Mexico or kayaking along little rivers and creeks across this rich and plentiful land. Americans are driving their sports cars or riding their bikes or hiking through the plentiful forests from sea to shining sea.

The point is most Americans don’t give a damn about what’s happening in Charlottesville, VA. And they especially aren’t stupid enough to participate in such a festival of buncombe and blood.

I’m happy they don’t give a damn. And I can only wonder why people with political motives want everyone to pay attention to these petty tyrants in Virginia who would sap Americans’ freedoms in the name of blood and soil or the next great culminating clash of class and racial conflict. Maybe, just maybe, most Americans would be just fine without political conflict. Maybe, most Americans already realize enjoying their freedom doesn’t require being a sheep swift to follow the latest, edgy shepherd who says there is something terribly wrong with world.

Call it apathy or quietism if you like, but if more Americans acted like most Americans who simply enjoy their free time and hard-earned dime, politics would seem very stupid and small indeed - an utter waste of time and energy on something already very stupid and small as it stands.

That said, I’ve wasted enough of my own time and energy by simply writing this.

Time to go enjoy my liberty while I still have it.

White House Confirms Trump Condemns White Supremacists, KKK, & All Neo-Nazi Extremist Groups

Following the media"s brouhaha around President Trump"s apparent decision not to specifically call out and condemn the white supremacists and neo-Nazis who gathered in Charlottesville this weekend, The White House has issued a statement confirmingthat the president "does not condone violence, bigotry, and hatred... from any extremist groups."

As The Hill reports, Trump took bipartisan heat on Saturday for not directly calling out hate groups in his remarks, and for blaming "many sides" for the violence.

"We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides, on many sides," Trump said at a press conference from his New Jersey golf course.

"It"s been going on for a long time in our country. Not Donald Trump. Not Barack Obama. This has been going on for a long, long time," he continued, before highlighting his administration"s accomplishments.

And so, as WaPo reports, in interviews on Sunday morning news shows, national security adviser H.R. McMaster and homeland security adviser Tom Bossert echoed the vague comments that the president made in a statement at his private golf club in New Jersey on Saturday, signaling that Trump does not plan to heed calls from fellow Republicans to bluntly confront and condemn white supremacy.

"What the president did is he called out anyone, anyone who is responsible for fomenting this kind of bigotry, hatred, racism and violence," McMaster said on ABC"s "This Week" on Sunday morning. "I think the president was very clear on that."

On CNN, Bossert repeatedly praised the president for not naming the groups that were involved and instead focusing on an overarching call for Americans to love one another.

He said that people "on both sides" showed up in Charlottesville "looking for trouble" and that he won"t assign blame for the death of a counterprotester on either group, although he said the president would like to see "swift justice" for the victim. After repeated questioning, Bossert did say that he personally condemns "white supremacists and Nazi groups that espouse this sort of terrorism and exclusion." He did not say whether the president agrees with him on that.

"The president not only condemned the violence and stood up at a time and a moment when calm was necessary and didn"t dignify the names of these groups of people, but rather addressed the fundamental issue," Bossert said on CNN"s "State of the Union." "And so … what you need to focus on is the rest of his statement."

But apparently that was not clear enough and so The White House issued a brief statement:

"The President said very strongly in his statement yesterday that he condemns all forms of violence, bigotry, and hatred," the White House said in a statement.

"Of course that includes white supremacists, KKK Neo-Nazi and all extremist groups," a spokesperson added.

"He called for national unity and bringing all Americans together."

Trump"s eldest daughter, Ivanka Trump, took to Twitter on Sunday morning to write two short messages: "There should be no place in society for racism, white supremacy and neo-nazis," and "We must all come together as Americans — and be one country UNITED. #Charlottesville."
 

For Growth to take place, this must hold, says Joe Friday

At the beginning of the year, it was easy to find people discussing the idea that reflation/growth was going to take place in the economy and many positioned portfolios accordingly. Now that we find ourselves at the mid point of the year, we wanted to take a look at an indicator that is pretty good at letting us know how the reflation theme is really doing.

Below is an update on the Treasury Inflation Bond ETF (TIP)/20-year bond (TLT) ratio-

CLICK ON CHART TO ENLARGE

As the reflation theme was getting popular at the start of the year, the TIP/TLT ratio was hitting 2015 highs and 6-year falling channel resistance at (1).

Joe Friday Just The Facts– The reflation indicator stopped on a dime as it was hitting dual resistance at (1) and this is where portfolios should have been selling reflation assets, not buying them!

The swift decline in the ratio now has it testing dual support at (2). What happens at (2), will give investors a good look at really where the reflation theme heads. Now many are starting to question the idea of the reflation theme as this support test is taking place. As this support zone is being hit this week, yields have risen sharply and bonds have given back some of recent gains.

Is the reflation theme now hitting a key support level and about to reverse higher as many are saying the reflation theme is a bust? Below looks updates the Stock/Bond ratio, which could give quality clues to where the reflation theme heads.

CLICK ON CHART TO ENLARGE

Joe Friday Just The Facts– The inflation indicator (TIP/TLT) and the Stock/Bond indicator (ZROZ/SPY) are both testing key support levels at the same time!

The Power of the Pattern suggests what both of the ratios do at these support tests, will send a quality message to investors about where portfolios should be positioned for the next 6-months.

If you would like to stay informed on these Power of the Pattern ideas and more, we would be honored if you were a member.

Wishing all of your a wonderful 4th of July weekend, see you after the holiday. Blessing to you and yours, Chris

This information is coming to you from Kimble Charting Solutions. This is the home of the Power of the Pattern where we provide concise, timely and actionable chart pattern analysis and commentary so in very little time you know the pattern at hand and action to take.   We are honored by your interest in our chart pattern analysis.  

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Another Mika Meltdown: Trump Is Morphing Into A "Dictator Or Someone Who Is Not Well"

MSNBC"s "Morning Joe" co-host Mika Brzezinski has become famous for her on-air Trump meltdowns and apparently she was feeling particularly "triggered" this morning as an entire segment seemingly got derailed when she went rogue and compared Trump"s administration to a "developing dictatorship."  The snowflake moment sparked a minor per-martital tiff between Mika and Joe resulting in some cringe-worthy awkwardness.

It all started when Mika decided to, once again, share her personal thoughts on the Trump administration...

“It does feel like a developing dictatorship.”

...which prompted a swift rebuke from Mika"s future husband, and co-host, Joe Scarborough.

"You see, that"s an inside voice thing....what you just said."

Except, when Joe went "low," Mika went "lower":

“I will say you can do some work reading history and reading books about how dictatorships happen. The development of very negative forces taking over and what you are seeing is either this happening right now, or someone who’s not well. Very few options.  Very very imbalanced.” 

Ironically, the only "very negative forces" that seem to be having any impact on Americans at the moment are the forces within the media which are intent upon continuing their fake "Russian collusion" crusade until it results in mass hysteria among the general public...and, of course, we got a small dose of that hysteria recently when a gunman decided to try and assassinate a bunch of Republican congressmen.

Here"s the full clip courtesy of the Daily Caller:

Of course, this is hardly the first time Mika has melted down on live television.  Perhaps our recent favorite was when she shared her thoughts regarding one of President Trump"s weekend tweet storms about alleged wiretapping of his Trump Tower.  Fighting back tears during her opening remarks, Mika lamented that she had "lost hope completely" in President Trump"s competency and declared that "this presidency is fake and failed."

"I had hope and an open mind and I have lost hope completely and my mind is closed.  This presidency is fake and failed."

Keep up the good work, Mika.  Your morning comedy routine is very entertaining for a lot of folks.

Journalists Drink Too Much, Are Dumber Than Average, Study Finds

A recent scientific study just proved something that viewers of CNN have probably suspected for years: Journalists" brains function at a lower level than the rest of the population. 

A study conducted by neuroscientist Tara Swift and the London Press Club determined that "the highest functions of journalists brains were operating at a lower level than the average population, due to dehydration, self-medicating, and fueling their brains with caffeine and high-sugar foods"

"However, the pressures of the job are not affecting journalists ability to endure and bounce back from adversity in the long term, due to a belief that their work has meaning," according to a press release from the London Press Club.

Journalists" brains show a lower level of executive function - that is, the ability of the brain to regulate emotions, suppress biases, switch between tasks, solve complex problems and think flexibly and creatively -  than the average person because to their heavy drinking, and caffeine consumption. They also eat too many high-sugar foods, and don"t devote enough time to mindfulness.  

Dr Swart recruited 31 journalists from across the industry to participate in the study. Participants were required to record their eating and drinking habits, answer a brain profile questionaire, take blood tests, and wear heart-rate variability monitors. 

The study was initially launched to examine how journalists manage to "survive and thrive" while managing such high levels of occupational stress. "Journalism," the press release notes, "is one of many industries under an increasing amount of pressure in the digital age. Low pay, frequent deadlines, and high levels of accountability all contribute to high reported stress levels."

The Final Straw: President Trump Had Two Scoops of Iced Cream, While Everyone Else Had One

Correspondents from Time Magazine recently dined at the White House in the famed "blue room" and were treated like savage animals. All went well with the enemies of America until dessert was prepared and served. As unbelievable as it might seem, the President made sure he was served not one, but TWO, scoops of iced cream, while everyone else got just 1.

These revelations have led to new outrage on the left, with the people demanding swift resignation from the President.

Trump takes TWO scoops of ice cream while everybody else gets ONE! Arrogant Asshole! #impeachTrump #IceCreamGate

— Impeach Donald Trump (@ImpeachPOTUS) May 13, 2017

Others on the right point out that President Obama was once seen with two scoops inside of a waffled cone.

THIS JUST IN: Shocking Photo Reveals Obama Got 2 Scoops AND a Waffle Cone! Possible 3rd Scoop in Cone? #LockHimUp #ScoopGate @TIME @CNN pic.twitter.com/SK9zR8LUUE

— ??Nikki (@Snikk) May 14, 2017

Personally, I think the President was being generous, as I"d ensure the bastards from Time would"ve received nothing at all.

At dinner parties, especially when hosting, I am served 3 scoops of iced cream, everyone else 00.00

— The_Real_Fly (@The_Real_Fly) May 13, 2017

CNN provides coverage on this important topic.

Content originally published at iBankCoin.com

The Tragedy This Weekend At The "Coachella For The Super Rich"

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There is a sad story today at Bloomberg about the "tragedy" (yes tragedy according to the writer) which befell a group of "moneyed millenials" (SJWs) over the weekend. When young SJWs are not pampered, and coddled, and treated like royalty, the rest of us should feel nothing but sorrow for their plight. Because they live such demanding, high-pressure, work-intensive lives. Protesting, rioting, and shouting over the speeches and appearances by conservative speakers, is an exhausting life for these youngsters - so they need time to kickback and chillax. This past weekend was supposed to provide this and be a fun-filled experience, but it was a "disaster" instead. Here"s what happened at this "nightmare":

The same young "moneyed millenials" who have been lecturing and berating the rest of us about our "CO2-intensive lifestyles", decided it was perfectly fine for them to fly to the Bahamas for the weekend: "Fyre Festival chartered planes from Swift Air to fly from Miami to Great Exuma Island." It was billed as a "Coachella for the super rich". And ticket holders thought it would be a: "weekend in paradise, but it  turned into a nightmare when a super exclusive music festival in the Bahamas became a disorganized mess, stranding attendees who in some cases paid tens of thousands of dollars. Hyped by glossy ads featuring such supermodels as Kendall Jenner and Emily Ratajkowski, the Fyre Festival promised the culture experience of the decade in a tropical wonderland of yachts, villas, and gourmet cuisine. Ticket prices went into five figures for special VIP treatment, though general admission packages were available starting at $1,200." But it was not anything like what they had dreamed it would be. Their luxury accommodations were disaster relief tents. And their gourmet cuisine did not even take into consideration animal welfare, nor the environment: "For dinner, they were served bread, cold cuts, cheese slices, and a side salad in a styrofoam box." The event was put together by two "moneyed millenials",  Ja Rule and Billy McFarland, but things went a bit awry: "The event was organized by rapper Ja Rule and entrepreneur Billy McFarland, who is also the founder and chief executive officer of Magnises, a social club for “elite” millennials. According to a report by Business Insider, some members of that enterprise claimed last-minute trip cancellations, scheduling failures, and unwanted charges on their cards. McFarland didn’t immediately return a call and text seeking comment."

The two geniuses who organized the event were even reprimanded by the Bahamian government: "The event’s implosion was so calamitous it prompted a Bahamian government agency to issue a statement on the matter. "We are extremely disappointed in the way the events unfolded yesterday with the Fyre Festival. We offer a heartfelt apology to all who traveled to our country for this event," the Ministry of Tourism said Friday." 

But after the "calamity" which befell the moneyed millenials over the weekend, they decided they wanted their money back: "According to Dylan Caccamesi, who paid about $1,200 to attend, organizers asked those seeking refunds to write their names, email addresses, and phone numbers on pieces of computer paper. He signed the paper in the hope that it would help guarantee a refund. "I’m not sure what the intent was," the 22-year-old from New Jersey said in a phone interview from the Bahamas. "We still have to get a hold of them." Caccamesi said an email was also sent by the festival promising a refund, citing unforeseen circumstances, but detailed information has yet to be provided." As to be expected of course, and what else is new, the "moneyed lawyers" had to butt in on the "tragic" circumstances: "It sounds like a clear breach of contract case, said Randall Kessler, an attorney in Georgia. "They didn’t deliver what they promised.” Maybe there"s a case here for Gloria Alred, as there certainly must have been some sexism involved in this "tragedy" also. 

And "like" is apparently still in, as young Dylan summed it up for us: “I haven’t been on a vacation in a while. I was like, ‘I’ll be living luxurious.’ It was supposed to be good for, like, high-class youth. A higher-expectations festival.” Well obviously young Dylan did not "like" what happened, but as any youngster knows, there"s always alcohol to make it all better: "We have no idea what’s going on. We’re just sitting on the beach getting wasted.”