Showing posts with label Crime. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Crime. Show all posts

Friday, May 01, 2015

BALTIMORE: Who Is To Blame?

By Jim Quinn

I’ve seen the liberal, lying media pondering how we could allow the riots, looting, burning and lawlessness to happen, as if it is our collective fault. Obama stands before his teleprompter and pontificates about the need for us to end the poverty that supposedly led to Purge Night in Charm City. That term cracks me up. The city has so much charm, its football team once snuck out of town overnight and headed to Indianapolis. It has so much charm its baseball team was forced to play a game with no fans in the stands.

I think most people can agree that Freddie Gray, a petty drug dealer, was killed in police custody for the crime of looking suspicious. The policemen who killed him deserve to go to jail for murder. As usual, the powers that be circled the wagons and intended to exonerate the hero first responders. The people of Baltimore had a right to be pissed. They had a right to protest. They didn’t have a right to burn businesses and cars. They didn’t have the right to riot, loot, and injure others.

It is the police department created and controlled for decades by Democratic progressive politicians that has committed the atrocities against the people who have been electing these progressives year after year. Baltimore has a corrupt, reckless, out of control police department enabled by a crooked and incompetent Baltimore politicians. The rap sheet for Baltimore’s finest is long:

  • Police commissioner Ed Norris was sent to prison on corruption charges (2004)
  • Two detectives were sentenced to 454 years in prison for dealing drugs (2005)
  • An officer was dismissed after being videotaped verbally abusing a 14-year-old and then failing to file a report on his use of force against the same teenager (2011)
  • An officer was been fired for sexually abusing a minor (2014)
  • The city paid a quarter-million-dollar settlement to a man police illegally arrested for the non-crime of recording them at work with his mobile phone.

The cries of racism and white oppression ring hollow. It’s a tired storyline. Facts are always inconvenient to race baiters with an agenda to extract more money from whites with a guilty conscience and the inability or unwillingness to speak the truth. Let’s examine some facts about good old Charm City, USA.

Thursday, April 30, 2015

HILLARITY: Top 10 Times Hillary Lied About the Clinton Foundation During Her Confirmation Hearings

With a tip o' the cap to James:

#1: Clinton: "...the Office of Government Ethics and the career ethics officials at the State Department have looked at the rules and concluded there is not an inherent conflict of interest in any of my husband’s work at all. However, the foundation and the president-elect decided to go beyond what the law and the ethics rules call for to address even the appearance of conflict and that is why they signed a memorandum of understanding, which outlines the voluntary steps that the foundation is taking to address potential concerns that might come up down the road.” (Committee On Foreign Relations, U.S. Senate, Hillary Clinton Confirmation Hearing, 1/13/09)

#2: Clinton: “The memorandum of understanding is, as you know, public and the president-elect and the foundation and I have all worked to be very transparent. My team has stayed in close touch with the committee and we’ve addressed the committee’s questions on these issues in a broad range of written answers which are part of the so-called QFRs, the questions for the record.” (Committee On Foreign Relations, U.S. Senate, Hillary Clinton Confirmation Hearing, 1/13/09)

#3: Clinton: "...when it was all submitted to the Office of Government Ethics, they said there was no inherent conflict. My husband doesn’t take a salary. He has no financial interests in any of this. I don’t take a salary. I have no financial interests. So out of that abundance of caution and a desire to avoid even the appearance, the president-elect’s transition team began working with the foundation to try to craft an agreement that would avoid the appearance of a conflict but would also ensure that the foundation can continue its work.” (Committee On Foreign Relations, U.S. Senate, Hillary Clinton Confirmation Hearing, 1/13/09)

#4: Clinton: “So the work of the foundation, the confidence that it has created with donors who know that it has an extremely low percentage that goes to any overhead. It has a very transparent way that it uses the money...” (Committee On Foreign Relations, U.S. Senate, Hillary Clinton Confirmation Hearing, 1/13/09)

Long Hot Summer Coming

Lee relays the following 'from a proven reliable source in a position to know this as true':

Introduction

CBS Baltimore: "Sheriff: ‘I Was Sick To My Stomach’ After Being Told To Stand Down"

But what shocked [Wicomico County Sheriff Michael Lewis] the most, he said, was when city police told him not to confront and accost the rioters...

“I was sick to my stomach like everybody else. … This was urban warfare, no question about it. They were coming in absolutely beaten down. The [city officers] got out of their vehicles, thanked us profusely for being there, apologized to us for having to be there. They said we could have handled this, we were very capable of handling this, but we were told to stand down, repeatedly told to stand down,” he said. “I had never heard that order come from anyone — we went right out to our posts as soon as we got there, so I never heard the mayor say that. But repeatedly these guys, and there were many high-ranking officials from the Baltimore City Police Department … and these guys told me they were essentially neutered from the start. They were spayed from the start. They were told to stand down, you will not take any action, let them destroy property. I couldn’t believe it, I’m a 31-year veteran of law enforcement. … I had never heard anything like this before in my life and these guys obviously aren’t gonna speak out and the more I thought about this, … I had to say a few things. I apologize if I’ve upset people, but I believe in saying it like it is.”

What we know so far:

- Valerie Jarrett is the coordinator of "demonstrations" in cities nationwide. She is "on the phone" with mayors, radicals and activists. NYC is the next big one and has already started.

- Every incident of a black person getting shot by police or roughed up resisting arrest is being examined by a Democrat team to see how useful it could be. Media allies will be told which to go after and what messaged to include.

- They will occur in Democrat-run cities and the police will be hamstrung (stand down, fall back, don't look aggressive, etc....) to maximize vivid scenes of violence and destruction and make authorities look powerless.

- This is an IW [information warfare] campaign that will go on all summer and escalate in cities around the country. The overarching memes will be economic injustice, judicial prejudice, income inequality, white racism and police brutality. They are throwing the police and firefighter unions under the bus on this.

- The goal? Set up another Dem messianic candidate and blame Republicans for the violence. Party before country for Democrats, always.

- Despite the Democrats owning this (cities dominated by Democrats for many decades... like Baltimore) they are convinced they can turn it around and their constituency is dumb enough to buy. They are probably right.

- Louisville and Baltimore were the test events. Baltimore went well. Sharpton is on his way to cement it in, then on to NYC.

- Thug is the new "N" word.

- Pointing all this our too loudly may get you a Breitbart event. Yes, it has gotten that bad.

Long hot summer coming.


Read more at BadBlue News.

Wednesday, April 29, 2015

IRAN ANNOUNCES OBAMA WILL BE LIFTING NUKE SANCTIONS IN JULY: "Whether Sen. Cotton Likes It or Not"

By Sara Noble

Our president has emboldened the Iranians so much that they feel comfortable telling Americans sanctions will be lifted in July while at the same time informing U.S. Senator Tom Cotton he will basically have nothing to say about it.

President Obama is allowing Iran to become a superpower in the region. He has abandoned our allies and has embraced Iran for a terrible deal. While Mr. Obama won’t sit down or try to work with the Republican Congress, he will sit down with Iran and give them more power than he gives Congress.

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif blasted Sen. Tom Cotton in a speech today. He said there will be a relief of sanctions in July, “whether Sen. Cotton likes it or not.

Zarif is the head of the negotiations and he obviously believes all sanctions will be lifted immediately in accordance with his agreement.

Anyone who thinks Mr. Obama isn’t trying to establish a one-party system, needs to look at how he treats Congress and consider his other policies such as open borders.

The congress is letting Americans down at every turn. Sen. Ron Johnson put in an amendment to the Corker bill which would require a final Iran deal to be submitted to the Senate as a treaty.

The Senate voted 57-39 to reject the measure. They have every intention of approving the Iran deal no matter how bad it is. It is obviously a treaty.

In case you didn’t see these tweets, we are literally in bed with the enemy.

THE CLINTONS: Suffering from the World's Worst Clinically Diagnosed Case of Financial Anorexia

Erick Erickson has a great turn of phrase to describe the Clintons. He says they have "financial anorexia", i.e., no matter how many hundreds of millions of dollars they accumulate, they look in the mirror and see the same middle class Americans they once were.

Which explains the crushing, ever-expanding hydraulic of scandals in which the Clinton Crime Family finds itself engulfed. The latest revelation: they concealed     failed to disclose     forgot to report more than 1,100 foreign donations.

Bloomberg (the news service, not the crackpot ex-mayor) - ...The reason this is a politically explosive revelation is because the Clinton Foundation promised to disclose its donors as a condition of Hillary Clinton becoming secretary of state. Shortly after Barack Obama was elected president in 2008, the Clinton Foundation signed a “memorandum of understanding” with the Obama White House agreeing to reveal its contributors every year. The agreement stipulates that the “Clinton Giustra Sustainable Growth Initiative” (as the charity was then known) is part of the Clinton Foundation and must follow “the same protocols.”

It hasn’t…

...The reason this is a politically explosive revelation is because the Clinton Foundation promised to disclose its donors as a condition of Hillary Clinton becoming secretary of state. Shortly after Barack Obama was elected president in 2008, the Clinton Foundation signed a “memorandum of understanding” with the Obama White House agreeing to reveal its contributors every year. The agreement stipulates that the “Clinton Giustra Sustainable Growth Initiative” (as the charity was then known) is part of the Clinton Foundation and must follow “the same protocols.”

Oh, and that's not all: at least 181 companies, individuals, and foreign governments that "donated" to the Clinton Foundation also lobbied the State Department while Hillary ran the joint.

Even the Clinton Scandal Manual (deflect, blame the accuser, ignore the charges, etc.) may not be enough this time.


Hat tip: BadBlue News

Tuesday, April 28, 2015

NO, NOT SUSPICIOUS: At least 180 Clinton Foundation donors also lobbied Hillary State Department for favors

Perhaps we can check Hillary's emails to determine whether there were criminal wrongdoings. Oh, wait.

Anyhoo:

The size and scope of the symbiotic relationship between the Clintons and their donors is striking. At least 181 companies, individuals, and foreign governments that have given to the Clinton Foundation also lobbied the State Department when Hillary Clinton ran the place, according to a Vox analysis of foundation records and federal lobbying disclosures...This list of donors to the Clinton foundation who lobbied State matters because it gives a sense of just how common it was for influence-seekers to give to the Clinton Foundation, and exactly which ones did.

Bear in mind that this analysis only includes the disclosed donors.  The recently-revealed Russia/uranium deal involved undisclosed donations (part of a pattern, it turns out), in violation of a transparency agreement Hillary signed upon joining the State Department.  Team Clinton's excuse for failing to disclose the information has unraveled under cursory scrutiny. Clinton's defenders insist that nobody has offered concrete proof that this multi-million-dollar "slush fund" favor bank ever resulted in direct action by the State Department; at some point, though, enough smoke convinces people there's a fire.  And the smoke is billowing:

NOTHING TO SEE HERE, NOTHING AT ALL: Boeing and GE Refuse to Turn Over Hillary Emails

The Washington Free Beacon's Lachlan Markay reports that industrial giant Boeing is refusing to release emails with Hillary Clinton's State Department that could implicate the candidate in (yet another) pay-for-play scandal.

Airline giant Boeing said this week that it will not release correspondence pertaining to the State Department’s work in securing a Russian contract for the company, a donor to the foundation of then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton...

...Boeing donated between $1 million and $5 million to the Clinton Foundation. It also lobbied the State Department while Clinton helmed the agency...

...Clinton went to bat for Boeing early in her tenure at State. She pushed Russian officials to approve a multi-billion-dollar contract for Boeing planes...

Last year, the Washington Post reported how the Clinton State Department had disregarded its usual rules of engagement for Boeing:

Monday, April 27, 2015

DEAR ARKANSAS A.G. LESLIE RUTLEDGE: It's time to subpoena the Clinton Foundation's records

By Richard Henry Lee

The first Republican attorney general for the State of Arkansas in the modern era must immediately launch an investigation into the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation, and the first step is to subpoena the foundation records.  With the revelations of possible violations of law occurring almost daily, there is probable cause to launch an investigation.

The Clintons have a long history of making incriminating documents disappear, so it is imperative that the AG act quickly to prevent any destruction of those records.

It is unlikely that the IRS or the Justice Department will investigate the Clintons and their eponymous foundation anytime soon, but the Arkansas attorney general does have the authority to look into any wrongdoing since the foundation is incorporated [PDF] in the state of Arkansas.

The newly elected AG, Leslie Rutledge, will likely be branded by the Clinton machine as a member of the vast right-wing conspiracy, since she holds membership in the National Rifle Association and the Federalist Society and bills herself as a conservative.  The media and liberal bloggers will dig up all the dirt they can find to try to discredit her.  However, the prospect of these attacks must not deter her from performing her duties as the chief law enforcement officer for the state.

Arkansas law requires that charities register with the state and also disclose their financial data, principally by attaching the IRS tax form 990.  In addition, charities must comply with Arkansas law, which one would assume covers a multitude of possible misdeeds.

The AG should obtain details of travel records.  The foundation paid $8.4 million in 2013 in travel expenses out of total expenses of $85 million.  Did the foundation pay for any personal travel unrelated to the mission of the foundation?  Salaries and benefits should also be a target, since they totaled a whopping $30 million.  Did any of those salaries pay for staffers who might be considered political operatives?  The list goes on.

The investigation should include copies of e-mails sent between the foundation employees and Bill and Hillary and other staffers to determine if there is any “shred of evidence” of wrongdoing.

The AG must move quickly, since the Clintons will stonewall all they can to delay and thwart any investigation.  Leslie Rutledge will be doing this country a great service if she decides to investigate.



Read more at AmericanThinker.com

INSIDER: Clinton Uranium Deal Looks Dirtier Than Michael Moore at an All-You-Can-Eat Fudge Bar

The American Thinker's Thomas Lifson highlights an interesting article by Michael R. Caputo, who once ran public relations for Renaissance Capital. He confirms that the Clinton-uranium "coincidence" in Russia stinks to high heaven.

Even when I worked there, Renaissance Capital had close ties to the Kremlin - the relationship made Renaissance executives into oligarchs. By 2010, the firm had become a practical arm of Vladimir Putin. Nobody of sound mind would think otherwise.

Bill Clinton took that half million dollar payment as his wife, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, served as a key member of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). This inter-agency panel must approve foreign purchase of private American companies the government deems vital to our national interest.

Shortly after Bill Clinton delivered the highest paid speech of his life, CFIUS was to consider and approve the key Russian purchase...

... [But in] 2010-2011, I ran acquisition communications for Safran Group, the French government-controlled defense contractor which bought the US biometrics company L-1. It took us almost two years to gain CFIUS approval for France, an historic ally, to purchase a biometrics firm, not even remotely a strategic asset. We were stymied at every turn by an endless stream of questions.

In contrast, the Rusatom acquisition of UraniumOne got CFIUS approval in four months - for control of 20 percent of America's strategic uranium.

These two CFIUS approvals were happening at precisely the same time. Safran couldn't buy a break and was questioned at ever turn. Somehow, Kremlin-controlled Rusatom's purchase sailed through on a cool breeze.

Any insider will tell you that, considering the vital nature of the CFIUS-UraniumOne proceedings, it is certain that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was directly involved. And Bill took $500,000 indirectly from the Kremlin at the same time.

In other words, we have an actual experiment that proves the Clintons are dirty. A control acquisition, with no national security implications whatsoever, was blocked at every turn. A deal for America's precious uranium resources -- a key to nuclear weapons construction -- was approved faster than fecal matter through a goose.

In a separate article, Lifson also notes that Hillary's serial scandals are beginning to affect fundraising.

STUNNING NEW CHART O` THE DAY: How the Clinton Foundation Spent its Money in 2013

Before Hillary left office in 2013, the Clintons appeared bound and determined to slurp up as much money into their Foundation as possible, spending as little on direct aid as one could imagine for a "charity". The New York Post reports:

The Clinton Foundation's finances are so messy that the nation's most influential charity watchdog put it on its "watch list" of problematic nonprofits last month.

The Clinton family's mega-charity took in more than $140 million in grants and pledges in 2013 but spent just $9 million on direct aid.


The group spent the bulk of its windfall on administration, travel, and salaries and bonuses, with the fattest payouts going to family friends.

In 2013, according to the Clinton Foundation's IRS Form 1990 filing [PDF], the organization actually spent more than twice as much on travel, conferences, conventions and meetings than on actual, eh, grants.

Even the grants that were made were dubious "investments". One such grant was nearly half a million dollars to a San Francisco-based group called "Architecture for Humanity". Earlier this year the group announced it was closing its doors.


The average compensation for the top Clinton Foundation executives we know of was roughly a quarter of a million dollars a year. In fact, as Karl Denninger explains:

You might be interested in knowing that the "charity" had 35 employees with reportable compensation (that is, over $100,000) and their top five combined had $2.6 million in direct (that is, cash) compensation and another $278,000 in benefits for approximately $3 million -- or 1/3rd of all spending on "charitable causes". On a grossed-up basis the charity spent $21.8 million on salaries and wages or approaching three times what it spent on "charity."

In 2013 The Clinton Foundation employed 400 people, which means it doled out only $22,000 per employee.

In other words, it was -- as the Sunlight Foundation describes it -- "a slush fund", not a charity.


Related: CHART O' THE DAY: How the Clinton Global Initiative Used its Funds During Hillary's Tenure at State

Sunday, April 26, 2015

Will Hillary Get the Petraeus Treatment?

By Investor's Business Daily

Scandal: Which is worse — keeping classified information in a personal journal at home or doing government business and transmitting classified data on a private email account managed from the Clinton family home?

This adds a new level of premeditated secrecy and deceit to the actions of the presumptive 2016 Democratic presidential nominee.

It also adds a new level of hypocrisy to the most transparent administration in history's pursuit of former CIA Director and commander of American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, Gen. David Petraeus.

Petraeus, who had an extramarital affair with biographer Paula Broadwell, pleaded guilty, after a lengthy government investigation, to a misdemeanor charge of mishandling classified information.

Petraeus had kept in his home a set of eight "Black Books" containing his notes and observations about his experiences, as well as classified information including conversations he had with the president, diplomats, and national security officers. Petraeus provided Broadwell access to these documents but, as far as we know, the information went no further.

So why has no criminal investigation been launched into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email account linked to a home-based Internet service, presumably vulnerable to foreign hackers, used to send emails also possibly containing classified information to people who shouldn't have access to it?

Saturday, April 25, 2015

THE CONFIRMATION OF LORETTA LYNCH: Treasonous Sellout #828 by the Establishment Republicans

By Terresa Monroe-Hamilton

The Republican Party is becoming more and more detached from their conservative base. They seem to vote against anything the conservatives want and do all they can to enable our Marxist president. As Andrew McCarthy put it, “Voting to confirm an attorney general who won’t uphold the Constitution isn’t a way to inspire confidence among conservatives.”

Last Thursday, Karl Rove couldn’t wait to announce that, “The dysfunctional Congress finally appears to be working again as the Founders intended.” Really? Because this isn’t the way I perceive the Founders having intended it at all. They would have impeached and removed a sitting president who acted like a monarch. Then to validate Rove’s proclamation, the GOP-controlled Senate confirmed as attorney general Loretta Lynch who blatantly supports the systematic non-enforcement of federal law. Ms. Lynch also supports President Obama’s boldly unconstitutional usurpations of legislative authority, including Congress’ power to set the terms of lawful presence by aliens in our country. Ted Cruz slammed the Republican majority in the Senate for allowing the Lynch nomination:

CHART O' THE DAY: How the Clinton Global Initiative Used its Funds During Hillary's Tenure at State

In 2010, when Barack Obama said, "I do think at a certain point you’ve made enough money," he definitely wasn't referring to the Clintons.

Because it wasn't enough for Bill Clinton to sell sensitive missile technology to the Red Chinese for campaign donations. It wasn't enough for Hillary Clinton to sell America's most valuable nuclear technologies to the Russians for "contributions" to her family's personal piggy bank.

That piggy bank, otherwise known as "The Clinton Global Graft Initiative", had an interesting way of doling out the "contributions" it received.


The Clintons are a malignant tumor on the body politic. They have a history of doing anything for money -- including selling out their own country -- and when it comes to their personal bank accounts, there's apparently never enough zeroes.


Hat tip: @amr033.

AND THE HITS JUST KEEP ON COMING: Clinton Crime Family Took Money From Hezbollah Backer

By Investor's Business Daily

Politics: The danger of foreign influence-buying through foreign donations to the Clinton Foundation is seen in millions of dollars of donations from Issam Fares, a Lebanese politician and billionaire enemy of Israel.

In the case of Hillary Clinton, the adage that the past is prologue is both a truism and a warning of possible things to come.

Just as Johnny Chung famously compared the first Clinton White House to a subway turnstile in which you put money to gain access, the Clinton Foundation is looking to be that turnstile on steroids, with dangerous implications for both American and Israeli security.

One of the contributors to the Clinton Foundation, according to an analysis of known donors by Joseph Schoffstall of the Washington Free Beacon, is Issam Fares, a Lebanese billionaire and philanthropist who has donated between $1 million and $5 million.

Some would question the sincerity of his philanthropy, since he is very selective about which of his fellow human beings he wishes to benefit and which he wants to see wiped off the face of the earth.

His connections to the Iranian terrorist sock-puppet Hezbollah and his animus towards our ally Israel speak volumes about his true intentions.

HILLARY'S RESUME: What She Hopes You've Forgotten

By Diane Rigali

Hillary Clinton has been telling America that she is the most qualified candidate for president based on her "record," which she says includes her eight years in the White House as First Lady - or "co-president" - and her seven years in the Senate. Here is a reminder of what that record includes - prior to serving as the most corrupt Secretary of State in modern American history:

HILLARY, As First Lady, assumed authority over Health Care Reform, a process that cost the taxpayers over $13 million. She told both Bill Bradley and Pat Moynahan, key votes were needed to pass her legislation, that she would "demonize "anyone who opposed it. But it was opposed; she couldn't even get it to a vote in a Congress controlled by her own party. (And in the next election, her party lost control of both the House and Senate.)

HILLARY assumed authority over selecting a female Attorney General. Her first two recommendations (Zoe Baird and Kimba Wood) were forced to withdraw their names from consideration, and then she chose Janet Reno. Janet Reno has since been described by Bill himself as "my worst mistake."

HILLARY recommended Lani Guanier for head of the Civil Rights Commission. When Guanier's radical views became known, her name had to be withdrawn.

HILLARY recommended her former law partners, Web Hubbell, Vince Foster, and William Kennedy for positions in the Justice Department, White House staff, and the Treasury, respectively. Hubbell was later imprisoned, Foster committed suicide, and Kennedy was forced to resign.

HILLARY also recommended a close friend of the Clintons, Craig Livingstone, for the position of director of White House security. When Livingstone was investigated for the improper access of up to 900 FBI files of Clinton enemies (Filegate) and the widespread use of drugs by White House staff, both Hillary and her husband denied knowing him. (FBI agent Dennis Sculimbrene confirmed in a Senate Judiciary Committee in 1996 both the drug use and Hillary's involvement in hiring Livingstone. After that, the FBI closed its White House Liaison Office, after serving seven presidents for over thirty years.)

HILLARY, in order to open "slots" in the White House for her friends the Harry Thomasons (to whom millions of dollars in travel contracts could be awarded), had the entire staff of the White House Travel Office fired. They were reported to the FBI for "gross mismanagement" and their reputations ruined. After a thirty-month investigation, only one, Billy Dale, was charged with a crime - mixing personal money with White House funds when he cashed checks. The jury acquitted him in less than two hours.

HILLARY also assumed the duty of directing the "bimbo eruption squad" and scandal defense:

Friday, April 24, 2015

CASH FOR NUKES: The Clinton Crime Family Timeline

Colin Campbell and Pamela Engel offer an insightful summary of the Clinton Crime Family's latest scandal. Yeah, I know, it's hard to keep 'em all straight. I mean the latest one, where Hillary's State Department approved the sale of nuclear weapons material to Russia (and therefore likely Iran) after the Clintons received millions from Russian government entities.

• Canadian company Uranium One owned uranium mines in the US and Kazakhstan.

Uranium One's mines account for 20% of the uranium mined in the US. Uranium is used for nuclear weapons, and it's considered a strategic asset to the US.

• Russia’s state-owned atomic agency, Rosatom, bought a 17% stake in Uranium One in June 2009.

The Russian atomic agency decided it wanted to own 51% of Uranium One in June 2010. To take a majority stake in Uranium One, it needed approval from a special committee that included the State Department, which Hillary Clinton led at the time.

Investors in Uranium One gave money to the Clinton Foundation starting in 2005 and through 2011. On June 29, 2010, Bill Clinton was paid $500,000 to speak in Russia by an investment bank with ties to Russia's government that had a buy rating on Uranium One’s stock.

Thursday, April 23, 2015

NITWIT SAYS WHAT? Critics whine Ted Cruz missed completely meaningless final Loretta Lynch confirmation vote

Radical leftist Loretta Lynch (who actually said she would not enforce the law as written) was confirmed as Attorney General today in the Senate. Ted Cruz, a vociferous critic of Lynch, was absent for the final vote. And that brought out the Cruz-haters of both parties:

The goofy and predictably dense Doug Mataconis
The utterly clueless Sarah Mimms
• And numbskull Maria Recio

Each of whom claimed that the final vote total was relevant. Hint: it wasn't.

The only vote that mattered was to end debate. Any subsequent vote was Kabuki Theater (also known as "GOP Failure Theater"). Pete Kasperowicz explains:

...the key vote on whether to end debate on Lynch’s nomination. The so-called “cloture vote” in the Senate is in fact the critical vote, since an agreement to end debate needs 60 votes, and once that happens, it’s usually a cinch to find the 51 votes needed to confirm a nominee or pass a bill.

Cruz and most other Republicans voted against ending debate, but 20 Republicans voted with Democrats and allowed Lynch to get to a final vote.

Cruz spokeswoman Amanda Carpenter said the cloture vote was the “vote that mattered,” and laid out her argument in a series of tweets soon after the vote:

As usual, the Democrat and Republican establishment dimwits and their sycophants like Mataconis are covering up the real scandal. Which is that these schmucks represent one party, the party of big government, and only Constitutional conservatives like Cruz represent a way out.


Hat tip: BadBlue news.

THANKS, CLINTON CRIME FAMILY: China warns U.S. that North Korea has more nuke capability than anyone imagined

Remember the last time a Democrat President negotiated 'limits' on nuclear weapons with genocidal dictators? Yeah, that was funny.

China’s top nuclear experts believe North Korea may be a much larger and immediate nuclear threat than previously believed.

According to the Wall Street Journal (paywall), Chinese uranium enrichment experts estimate Pyongyang has 20 nuclear warheads and enough weapons-grade uranium to double that arsenal within a year. The comments, made in a briefing with nuclear experts from the United States, are well above current US estimates of between 10 and 16 nuclear bombs.

Sanctions, international condemnation, and negotiations haven’t done much to dent the country’s nuclear ambitions. Pyongyang routinely threatens to nuke New York and turn Seoul into a lake of fire. Relations between North Korea and its longtime patrons in Beijing are also deteriorating.

North Korea watchers have increasingly argued that it may be too late to stop North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, which has also become a cautionary tale for critics of a proposed deal with Iran...

Gee, ya think?


Hat tip: BadBlue News.

Wednesday, April 22, 2015

FLASH CRASH: The 36-year old day-trader supposedly behind the 2010 market meltdown

I happened to catch the nadir of the May 6, 2010 "flash crash" (screencap below with helpful background).

The Economist has a fascinating summary of the story behind the story. In a nutshell, a 36-year-old British day-trader named Navinder Singh Sarao, a British day-trader who the U.S. government wants to extradite on a laundry list of charges, was reportedly the trigger event.

Market watchdogs would not have expected the source of the "flash crash", as it came to be known, to be a lone trader based in a nondescript semi-detached house in Hounslow, an unfashionable suburb nestled between central London and Heathrow airport. But they would be less surprised by the methods he is accused of using, most notably "spoofing", a common form of market manipulation.

According to the charge sheet, Mr Sarao would routinely place a series of orders to sell futures contracts that would only be profitable if the S&P 500 share index fell. The authorities claim that a computer programme he devised constantly tweaked the price of his orders to ensure he wasn’t taken up on them. The effect, nonetheless, was to inject pessimism in the futures market, by making it look like lots of investors were expecting prices to drop. (Part of this bearishness spilled over into the stockmarket, causing shares to fall in price.) Mr Sarao, it is claimed, used this as an opportunity to buy cheaply...

...Mr Sarao appeared in court in London on April 22nd, but only to fight extradition. The American authorities claim he made a profit of just $879,018 from the trades linked to the flash crash—a pittance compared to the upheaval caused—though perhaps $40m from subsequent manipulation. Awkwardly, he funnelled his profits from trading to a firm called "Nav Sarao Milking Markets Limited", based in Nevis, a Caribbean tax haven, although he has no obvious ties to the dairy industry.

Why Mr Sarao’s continued use of similar trading strategies did not cause markets to convulse again is not clear. Nor is it established that he was the sole cause of the S&P’s swoon, as the American complaint in effect concedes. It claims he was "at least significantly responsible for the order imbalance that in turn was one of the conditions that led to the flash crash". That leaves plenty of blame to go around.

Regulators had previously thought a mega-investor such as a mutual fund must have had a hand in the mysterious event... That Mr Sarao might be even partly to blame will only add to the alarm the flash crash engendered. Many will ask how a single day-trader could possibly have been allowed to generate $200m of selling orders, over a fifth of the daily volume in the contract he favoured, during a period of known market convulsion without having been blocked by one party or another. The financial watchdogs, who had suggested the blame lay elsewhere, will also have questions to answer. The most pressing of them will be, if a trader from Hounslow can cause the S&P 500 to crash, who or what else could do the same—or worse?

Upon reading this, I immediately thought "Tyler Durden" of Zero Hedge. The financial website, in my view, was founded in part to warn investors of the dangers related to high-frequency trading (HFT), the programmatic bait-and-switch schemes used to manipulate markets.

Sure enough, Durden had the same idea I had:

THE BETRAYAL PAPERS, PART VI: The Chicago Treason Network

Via Terresa Monroe-Hamilton

This, the sixth and final installment of The Betrayal Papers, will explore various projects, schemes, and associations that tie Obama and his associates together. A preponderance of these project are based out of Chicago, the crossroad of the global Left, Islamic “civilization jihad,” and the Communist mafia. The themes to observe in each case are deception, greed, and power.

To have any chance to retain our freedoms and personal safety, we must recognize the depth of the treason from within; we must name the perpetrators and conquer them before they end America.

But first, three profiles of key Obama operatives, and one Maurice Strong.

Rahm Emanuel

As Obama’s initial Chief-of-Staff, Emanuel wielded considerable power during Obama’s early years in office, being the de facto gatekeeper to Obama. A former Clinton man, Emanuel ultimately clashed with Valerie Jarrett, leading to his departure from Washington, D.C. and return home to Chicago. Since being elected mayor (a bid supported by Obama & Co.), Emanuel has faithfully served to keep a lid on a number of Chicago-centric scandals that would damage, perhaps fatally, the credibility of the administration.