Koch Brothers Now Supporting "Often Confused" Hillary Clinton...

On July 20th, a Republican U.S. Senator lost his main financial backers for having urged Republicans to vote for Donald Trump instead of for Hillary Clinton. The Koch brothers speak with their words, which can’t be trusted, but they also speak with their money, their investments, which are always honest expressions of their actual beliefs and desires. This time, the Kochs spoke with their money, just a day after that Senator spoke with his words.

America Needs A Good, Old-Fashioned Economic Depression

A good, old-fashioned, pre-1929 depression (like the short-lived, eleven-month depression in 1920-1921, before the days of “modern” central banking and “enlightened” Keynesian intervention “cures”) is the only tonic that can clear out the malinvestment built up since the beginning of the fiat money era.

 

Leaked DNC Emails Confirm Democrats Rigged Primary, Reveal Extensive Media Collusion

• There has been a plot designed to smear Bernie Sanders and to hand the Democratic nomination to Hillary on a silver platter
  
• There has been repeated collusion between the DNC and the media
• There has been questionable fundraising for both Hillary Clinton and the DNC

A Post Western World? A Disturbing Interview With Prof. Harry Redner

The political and economic issues broadly discussed in the media usually revolve around political cycles, terrorism, foreign policy, rising debt levels, sluggish economic performance, academic underachievement, environmental problems, ageing demographics and so forth.  In our view, this all ties into a major cycle of history that has been with us for some time, and which has been gaining traction since the 1990s: the end of "Western Civilization" and the transition towards a globalized society.

France Escalates - Sends Aircraft Carrier To Fight ISIS

Seemingly not satisfied with the domestic blowback from their interventionist-driven Washingtonian foreign policy, Francois Hollande - lagging badly in the polls - has decided to double-down following the recent terror attack in Nice. As Sputnik News reports, France will send artillery to Iraq and its Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier to assist the US-led coalition’s efforts in Syria and Iraq in the coming months.

All You Need To Know About Germany's "Most Stringent" Gun Ownership Laws

An 18-year-old German-Iranian believed to have acted alone killed nine people in a shooting spree with a pistol at a busy shopping center in Munich on Friday evening. This is just the latest in a spree of 'mass shootings' which have prompted increasingly zealous calls for 'gun control' from President Obama and his supporters. With 2 dead and 16 wounded in Chicago (which is among America's most-gun-controlled cities), we thought some facts about acquiring and owning a gun in Germany (which has the "most stringent" rules around gun control in Europe) might be useful in the forthcoming debate about how this 'mass shooting' epidemic will be solved if we all just hand our guns over.

A Collision-Course With Crisis: Making The Wrong Choices For The Wrong Reasons

Life is full of examples where folks make bad choices for noble reasons. Not every decision is a winner: sometimes you make the right call, sometimes you don't. That's completely understandable and defensible. Fate is fickle, and no one is 100% right 100% of the time. But what's much harder to condone is when people embrace the wrong decision even when they have ample evidence and comprehension that doing so runs counter to their welfare.

 

If you want this fixed...make it Mandatory for ALL water going to ALL government offices be recycled water...aka Toilet to Tap...and absolutely ZERO tax dollars can be spent on any other type of water for drinking.

California Drought Worsens – El Nino 'Gains' Flushed Into The Pacific As Water Storage Runs Dry

Californians were recently warned that water levels in the San Luis Reservoir were dangerously low and that water deliveries from the project would likely be shut down as early as this weekend.  So, why are California’s reservoirs drying up in spite of a solid rainy season? 

"If You Can't Touch It, You Don't Own It"

The pending Brexit has, not surprisingly, caused a shakeup in the investment world, particularly in the UK. Of particular note is that, recently, asset management firms in Britain began refusing their clients the right to cash out of their mutual funds. Of the £35 billion invested in such funds, just under £20 billion has been affected. The lesson to take away here is that, if you can’t touch it, you don’t own it. Banks and fund management firms can freeze your wealth, so that you can’t access it. Governments and banks can confiscate your wealth. If you don’t have the power to put your hands on your wealth on demand, you don’t own it.

"As Long As All The Offensive Shit Is Verbatim, I'm Fine With It"

The Market For Lemons, The Market For Bullshit, And The Great Cascading Credence Crash Of 2016

The underlying problem is, I think, a very strange one. But it’s a risk faced by any society that both undergoes rapid technological change, and contains organized interest groups. (Formal or informal.) Something really bad is happening to all our bullshit. In fact, I’ve begun to worry that there’s actually a sort of crash or cascading failure going on in the bullshit market. If there is, I think it’s driven, as previous bullshit crashes were, by changing technology.

The War In Afghanistan Is A Good Thing (If You're A Drug-Dealer)

The “War on Drugs” and the “War on Terror” are more intertwined than the media and our elected officials would like us to think.

Goldman: The Last Two Times P/E Multiples Expanded This Much, The Result Was A Historic Crash

"The current P/E expansion cycle is now one of the largest in history. Since September 2011, S&P 500 forward P/E has grown by 75% (from 10x to 18x). This expansion has only been surpassed twice since 1976, when the multiple rose by 111% from 1984-1987 (ending with the 22% Black Monday collapse) and by 115% from 1994-1999 (ending with the Tech Bubble pop)." - Goldman Sachs

The Essence Of Trump's Appeal To The Flyover Zone: "We Are Not Winning Anymore"

...Massive debts, no good jobs, faltering productivity, soaring entitlements, declining net investment and drastically shrinking household incomes add up to an unprecedented assault on America’s vaunted middle class. In fact, the middle class is shrinking markedly as an empirical matter and fading rapidly as an aspirational possibility. It is profoundly misguided Wall Street/Washington policy regime that has given rise to this massive economic failure. For more than three decades they have sown the wind. Trump is the whirlwind they are now reaping...

In First "Emergency" Decree, Erdogan Seizes Thousands Of Hospitals, Schools, Charities

In his first "emergency powers" decree, published by the Anadolu state news agency, Erdogan authorised the closure of 1,043 private schools, 1,229 charities and foundations, 19 trade unions, 15 universities and 35 hospitals over suspected links to the Gulen movement. The government also announced it would seize the properties of all these schools, universities and private institutions.

Blue Lives Matter: Is Police Exceptionalism Leading America Toward Second Civil War?

Lurched back and forth in the ever-quickening spiral of an American empire circling the drain, we - as a people - have chosen battle lines on nearly every issue from politics to foreign policy, domestic surveillance to policing. Thrust back into national focus, the last issue - policing in the U.S. - might even surpass in contention the ongoing race to the White House.

Q3 EPS Expectations Just Turned Negative: Six Consecutive Quarters Of Declining Earnings

According to the latest weekly update from Factset, as of this moment consensus estimates now expect the third quarter to be the sixth consecutive quarter of declining earnings, with Q3 EPS forecasts just turning negative for the first time, down from +0.4% to -0.1%.

"Policymakers Have Been Calling A 'Depression' A 'Recovery' For Nearly A Decade"

"I'd like to think that logic and reality will prevail; that distaste for being told how great the world is has become sufficiently revolting and obviously false to stir the world’s populace to end the imbalances. But that, again, will take time, perhaps a good deal of time; until then, whenever it hopefully is, central banks continue to operate with impunity even though the risks of their intemperance rise exponentially..."

The Speech Bounce: Trump "Nearly Even" With Clinton In Latest Reuters Poll

It appears the "doom-and-gloom" reality-check that President Obama (and Hillary Clinton) prefer to ignore, is working. Between FBI Director Comey's shocking decision over Hillary's emails and the Convention Bump, Trump appears to have hit enough correct notes with his polarizing speech to give him enough of a bounce to be virtually tied with Hillary in the latest Reuters poll.

Look Who’s Frantically Demanding that Taxpayers Stop Italy’s Bank Meltdown

by Wolf Richter, Wolf Street:
New Opportunities for “America’s Most Corrupt Bank.”
It was a perfect gift to a desperate market. All that was needed was a gentle hint that Italy’s troubled banks and their bondholders might not be hung out to dry. A “public backstop” for Italy’s weakest lenders would be a “very useful” measure in these “exceptional times,” ECB President Mario Draghi said.
Most Italian and European bank stocks surged.
The ECB is the second member of the institutional triad formerly known as the Troika to have called for a taxpayer funded bailout of Italy’s banking system. Earlier this month the IMF used its article IV consultation – an annual economic and financial health check – to warn of “global spillovers” from a full-blown Italian banking crisis, “given Italy’s systemic weight.”
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Held Hostage at Incirlik

from Rogue Money:
We had to do a double-take at the headline posted at Debka.com today, namely, “Erdogan locks US airmen, nuclear arms in Incirlik”. Keeping in mind that Debka, as with so many news services, may operate largely by the good graces of Israeli intelligence, it is nevertheless remarkable that even Debka feels a bit disillusioned at the apparent media blackout of this story. (See PDF version here if link is unavailable.) Quote:
Some 1,500 US airmen and their families have been locked in the southern Turkish air base of Incirlik together with a stock of tactical nuclear bombs since President Reccep Erdogan crushed an attempted coup on Saturday, July 16. In the four days up until Wednesday, July 20, therefore, no air strikes against ISIS in Syria and Iraq have been staged that Turkish base.
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The Lessons of Turkey’s “Failed Military Coup”

by Martin Berger, New Eastern Outlook:
The results of “the failed military coup” in Turkey have simply confirmed the pre-planned nature of this event and the fact that US intelligence services were heavily involved in this operation.
First of all, this notion can be proven by the fact that Erdogan has taken advantage of social networks during this event, even though he opposed their usage vigorously back in 2013, when the country had plunged into anti-government demonstrations. Back then, Erdogan threatened to block access to all social platforms across the whole of Turkey. Under these circumstances, it’s highly unlikely that the Turkish president, who adheres strictly to conservative views and despises innovations has suddenly “seen the light” of progress and come up with a viable strategy on how with the use of social media he could derail the “coup” within the relatively short time he had.
At the same time, it should be recalled that the White House and US intelligence agencies have been taking advantage of social networks to overthrow unwanted regimes and organize massive civil unrest. It won’t be an exaggeration to say that the US has created an entire industry of disinformation and manipulation of public opinion. Acting on the request of Washington, various activists, both real or virtual, are perfectly capable of launching a “spontaneous” anti-government protest, and engage in psychological warfare, while pretending to be using their rights of freedom of expression on their own behalf.
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When Bad Means Good: How to Spot a Resource Market Poised to Skyrocket

by Marin Katusa, Katusa Research:
Buy low, sell high. Buy when there is blood in the streets. Be greedy when others are fearful.
If you study the careers of investment legends, you’ll hear this advice over and over. You’ll quickly learn that buying stocks, real estate, and natural resources during times of crisis, panic, and fear is how you make enormous returns.
“Buy when there is blood in the streets” has become a cliché because it works. (Read this essay for more.)
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TYRANNY: DHS Is Enforcing The ‘Consitutional Free Zone’, A Violation Of The Constitution – Episode 1029b

from X22Report:

Thoughts on Trump’s Speech (Why I Can’t Vote for Him and Why He Could Win) — Michael Krieger

by Michael Krieger, Liberty Blitzkrieg:
It is in the social sphere, in the realm of politics and economics, that the Will to Order becomes really dangerous. Here the theoretical reduction of unmanageable multiplicity to comprehensible unity becomes the practical reduction of human diversity to subhuman uniformity, of freedom to servitude. In politics the equivalent of a fully developed scientific theory or philosophical system is a totalitarian dictatorship. In economics, the equivalent of a beautifully composed work of art is the smoothly running factory in which the workers are perfectly adjusted to the machines. The Will to Order can make tyrants out of those who merely aspire to clear up a mess. The beauty of tidiness is used as a justification for despotism.
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Edward Snowden Develops Phone Case To Alert Users If Their Data Is Being Compromised

by Matt Agorist, Activist Post:
Three years ago, when Edward Snowden fled from the US and met with reporters in Hong Kong to reveal his reasons for leaving — he asked them to put their phones in the hotel room refrigerator. He asked them to do so in order to block the signals sent to and from the phones. Now, three years later, Snowden and Andrew ‘Bunnie’ Huang have used that same principle to design a phone case that warns users when their data is being monitored. Say hello to the Snowden phone case.
Snowden and Huang revealed their plans for the case via video link to an event at the MIT Media Lab in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The duo showed how the device connects to the phone’s radio transmitters and alerts the owner when a cellular, Wi-Fi or Bluetooth connection is being used to share or receive data.
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Nigel Farage Announces European Referendum Tour

from ZeroHedge:
Proclaiming his support for new British PM Theresa May, former UKIP head Nigel Farage explained “she has said ‘Brexit means Brexit’ and I believe her,” before announcing plans for his European Referendum Tour during a much at the Republican national convention yesterday. Farage told Politico that he would start a tour of European cities in September to help spread the appetite for referendums on EU membership beyond the UK.
“One of the joys of not continuing as party leader is having more time, so I will be traveling around Europe helping other independence movements, but I won’t be telling them how to vote,” Farage said.
“We should be celebrating a diverse Europe of independent nation states, and if I can do anything to help that, then I will,” he added. “I’m going to go to Athens in September and have a big symposium about alternatives to the euro.”
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