So the Democrats in all their idiocy are about to nominate Hillary Clinton, which all but guarantees a Trump Presidency.
I came across two tweets today that summarize the mood perfectly. If you think Trump is going to destroy the GOP, Hillary is just as likely to destroy the Democratic Party by losing to Trump. Enjoy:
It appears the music may have finally stopped for one of the world’s largest luxury real estate bubbles: London.
It’s well known that foreign oligarchs love London real estate as a means to launder funds, typically “earned” by soaking their host countries dry via corruption and fraud. This has caused absurd and irrational spikes in high-end residential real estate in the English capital, as well as a flood of new construction.
With emerging markets now completely collapsing, the seemingly endless flood of foreign money is drying up, and with it, London real estate.
So has the London real estate bubble popped? Probably.
– From the September 9, 2015 article: Luxury London Home Sales Plunge 26% – Has this Mega Real Estate Bubble Finally Burst?
London’s luxury property bubble seems to have popped sometime during the second half of last year, something I’ve written about repeatedly over the past several months.
One of the primary drivers behind the weakness in this “asset class” is a sharp reduction in the numbers of foreign criminals laundering money via London real estate. Just in case you still harbored any doubts about high-end London property being little more than bank accounts for shady foreign oligarchs, we learn the following from Bloomberg:
NBC News reported the following:
A Black Lives Matter activist disrupted a fundraiser for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last night in South Carolina, calling into question the candidate’s rhetoric on race and criminal justice.
Ashley Williams began her demonstration at the $500 a plate event, revealing a sign to guests that read, “we have to bring them to heel.” The quote is from the speech Hillary Clinton delivered in New Hampshire in January 1996 when she told an audience at Keene State College that, “these are not just gangs of kids anymore, they are often the kinds of kids that are called super predators. No conscience, no empathy. We can talk about why they ended up that way but first we have to bring them to heel.”
Now watch the video in all it’s glory:
As the Apple vs. FBI battle rages in the court system and throughout the halls of Congress, Obama decides to do what he does best. Using “his pen” to make consequential decisions unilaterally.
Just another day in the American banana republic.
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is on the verge of permitting the National Security Agency to share more of the private communications it intercepts with other American intelligence agencies without first applying any privacy protections to them, according to officials familiar with the deliberations.
You probably had no idea, but representatives from Silicon Valley, Hollywood and the U.S. government came together earlier this week to privately discuss how they could jointly fight ISIS propaganda online. Never mind the fact that ISIS is the child of reckless and inhumane preemptive wars of aggression perpetrated by the U.S. government. Such introspection naturally never crosses the mind of government bureaucrats ostensibly attempting to understand the epic disasters they created in the first place.
So who attended the meeting? We don’t know for sure because the plebes aren’t entitled to know such things. Fortunately, we have become privy to some information thanks to Buzzfeed News. Here’s what we learned:
WASHINGTON, D.C. — They flew in from New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles to hole up in a windowless D.C. conference room for nearly five hours on Wednesday — representatives of the country’s top tech and entertainment companies brainstorming with U.S. counterterrorism officials to tackle one tough question: how to stop the spread of ISIS online.
For several years now, I’ve periodically observed that China’s increasingly aggressive crackdown on dissent serves as a harbinger of far more difficult times ahead. The thinking goes that if anyone is privy to the severe fragility of the country’s economic situation, it would be Chinese leadership. As such, desperate moves by Chinese leadership should foretell drastically worse economic and social conditions.
The scramble to crack down on dissent has become so intense, Chinese authorities seem to be now exerting illegal force against residents of Hong Kong. Of course, this story is long in the making, as the massive protest that broke out a little over a year ago known as the “umbrella revolution,” was in fact a protest against Beijing’s moves to ensure that Hong Kong leadership remain loyal puppets to the authorities on the mainland.
– From the post: Hong Kong Publishers Reportedly Being Kidnapped by Chinese Authorities and Taken to the Mainland
When it comes to the Chinese economy, you can always tell how bad the situation is based on the panicky actions of the authorities. If the latest moves are any indication, things are not getting any better.
BEIJING — This month, Chinese banking officials omitted currency data from closely watched economic reports.
Just weeks earlier, Chinese regulators fined a journalist $23,000 for reposting a message that said a big securities firm had told elite clients to sell stock.
Before that, officials pressed two companies to stop releasing early results from a survey of Chinese factories that often moved markets.
Turns out electing the first black President hasn’t helped the black community all that much.
Wall Street says thanks for the bailout.
From the Wall Street Journal:
The lowest state jobless rate for black workers in the country matches the highest rate for white workers in a new analysis.
This morning, I read a fantastic article by Nathan J. Robinson in Current Affairs titled: Unless the Democrats Run Sanders, a Trump Nomination Means a Trump Presidency. Several months ago, I would have disagreed with this statement, but today I think it’s entirely accurate.
One thing Clinton supporters remain in complete denial about (other than the fact most Americans who don’t identify as Democrats find her to be somewhere in between untrustworthy and criminal), is that a significant number of Sanders supporters will never vote for Hillary. Forget the fact that I know a few personally, I’ve noticed several interviews with voters who proclaim Sanders to be their first choice but Trump their second. Are they just saying this or do they mean it? I think a lot of them mean it.
Mr. Robinson’s article is a brilliant deep dive into what a real life Trump vs. Clinton matchup would look like, not what clueless beltway wonks want it to look it. What emerges is a convincing case that the only person who could stand up to Trump and defeat him in November is Bernie Sanders. I agree.
So without further ado, here are a few excerpts:
Just in case you need some more evidence that the U.S. economy is rolling over.
Bloomberg reports:
More borrowers with spotty credit are failing to make monthly car payments on time, a troubling sign for investors who have snapped up billions of dollars of securities backed by risky auto debt.
Delinquencies on subprime auto loans packaged into bonds rose in January to 4.7 percent, a level not seen since 2010, according to data from Wells Fargo & Co.
Below are links to some of the more interesting and important reads I came across today, but will not be publishing on in detail.
U.S. Sought Data From 15 Apple iPhones in Last Four Months (FBI wants a lot more than data from one phone, Reuters)
The End of the Establishment? (Excellent read by Robert Reich)
It’s Time to Kick Erdogan’s Turkey Out of NATO (Huffington Post)
Obama’s Plan to Close Guantanamo Would Establish Indefinite Detention on U.S. Soil (The Intercept)
Google Fiber Expanding Faster, Further — And Making Comcast Very Nervous (TechDirt)
Bahrain Jails Secular Activist Over Political Speech (The Guardian)
The NSA’s SKYNET Program May Be Killing Thousands of Innocent People (Ars Technica)