News Items

Sheldon Adelson Revealed as Mystery Buyer of the Las Vegas Review-Journal

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Just yesterday, we published a post titled, Largest Newspaper in Nevada Was Just Purchased Anonymously for $140 Million, which speculated that multi-billioniare, oligarch Sheldon Adelson was behind the purchase. We now have confirmation that it was indeed him.

From Fortune:

For nearly a week, the media and political worlds have been wondering who paid $140 million to purchase Nevada’s largest daily newspaper, The Las Vegas Review-Journal. The primary buyer had taken great pains to remain anonymous, but Fortune has learned from multiple sources familiar with the situation that it is Sheldon Adelson, chairman and CEO of casino operator Las Vegas Sands Corp.

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The Foreign Criminals Using Los Angeles Real Estate to Launder Money and the Developers Who Help Them

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Here, as in other roosting places of the superrich, the recent influx of foreign money has gone hand in hand with the rising use of shell companies — generally limited liability companies. Shell companies were used in three-quarters of purchases of over $5 million in Los Angeles over the last three years, a higher rate even than the roughly 55 percent in New York, according to a New York Times analysis of data from PropertyShark. What is more, in Los Angeles, where so many of the new palaces are spec houses — luxury magnets for global wealth — not only are the buyers shielded by shell companies, but the developers are, too.

– From the New York Times article: A Mansion, a Shell Company and Resentment in Bel Air

While New York City and London are already well known as top destinations for shady, foreign-money laundering oligarchs who often attain untold riches by thieving from their own people, the Los Angeles area has likewise morphed into a criminal real estate hub.

Monday’s article in the New York Times, titled, A Mansion, a Shell Company and Resentment in Bel Air, sums up so much of what is wrong about the U.S. economy and society as we reflect on how far we’ve fallen in 2015. A culture in which not only are the rich and powerful above the law, but where foreign criminals also can do whatever the heck they want and get away with it as long as they have billions to throw around. The fact that no one seems to be doing anything about any of it tells you all you need to know.

What follows are a few excerpts, but you should really read the entire article. From the New York Times:

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A Majority of Americans Oppose “Assault Weapons Ban” – Highest Number on Record

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The person who bothers me the most on this entire topic is Mayor Michael Bloomberg, of my hometown NYC.  You can tell when someone is disingenuous if they freak out over gun violence like it is the biggest issue in America today and at the same time protect the banksters and their “too big to fail” culture, which has and continues to systemically steal trillions of dollars from the poor.  This is Michael Bloomberg to a tee, so this man should have no credibility on any moral subject when he protects and coddles the most dangerous criminal organizations on this planet.  I guess there is something “liberal” about white collar crime.

The other way to spot a hypocrite is to see whether they ever speak out about other acts of violence, or if they only open their mouths when it comes to gun incidents.  I see this attitude all over the “fake left” landscape. If someone you know, or someone in the media never decries American drones strikes that kill children regularly in the forgotten parts of the globe, yet jumps at every gun incident like it is the end of the world, that person has an agenda. That person hates guns, not necessarily violence.  They do not have a clear head in this argument.

– From the post: How to Spot a Hypocrite in the Gun Debate and Other Reflections on Newtown

U.S. President Barack Obama is not just the world’s best gun salesman, he’s also the world’s worst gun control spokesperson.

Despite immediately politicizing every single shooting event in recent years by using his bully pulpit to lecture the American public on why citizens must give up their rights to feel safe, his message has fallen on deaf ears. Why?

Mainly because a man who consistently orders drone strikes on women and children all over the world, intentionally bombs a Doctors Without Borders hospital into oblivion, and who launched more shady wars across the globe than George W. Bush, doesn’t exactly hold much credibility as a humanitarian pacifist looking to “save the children.”

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Latest Poll Shows 50% of British Voters Would Choose to Exit the EU

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Although everyone watching has been convinced that Europe’s disastrous economy and related debt crisis would be the spark to unravel the European Union project, it appears history has its own plans.

While EU technocrats have demonstrated an uncanny ability to scheme, threaten, kick the can and lie their way around the debt crisis, the migrant crisis will prove to be a much graver threat to the project. Strikingly, all it took was a few weeks of unrelenting migrants crossing into EU borders to put an end what is essentially the only achievement of the European Union — the Schengen system of borderless travel.

Without that, what is the EU really? A collection of nation-states forced by bureaucrats to pretend they are part of an artificial fantasy superstate called Europe? An amalgamation of debt serfs and technocratic overlords? See what I’m getting at?

–  From the post: Does the Migrant Crisis Represent the End of the European Union?

What is currently happening between the UK and the EU as relates to the former’s continued membership in the union is not only fascinating, but presents wide-ranging implications for the future of Europe.

In a nutshell, UK Prime Minister David Cameron is trying as hard as he can to keep the British people in the European Union by getting the Brussels bureaucracy to agree to certain terms important to UK voters. The biggest point of contention at the moment relates to welfare benefits given to migrants. Specifically:

The fourth basket on social benefits and the free movement of persons is the most delicate and will require a substantive political debate at our December meeting. While we see good prospects for agreeing on ways to fight abuses and possibly on some reforms related to the export of child benefits, there is presently no consensus on the request that people coming to Britain from the EU must live there and contribute for four years before they qualify for in-work benefits or social housing. This is certainly an issue where we need to hear more from the British Prime Minister and an open debate among ourselves before proceeding further.

For more details on the subject, I strongly suggest reading: Letter by President Donald Tusk to the European Council on the Issue of a UK In/Out Referendum.

Despite these negotiations, it appears British voters are becoming increasingly amenable to the idea of a Brexit. We learn from the Telegraph that:

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The Billionaire’s Pick – How Marco Rubio Has Become the Preferred Puppet for GOP Oligarchs

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As much as I dislike all the leading candidates for President of these United States, there’s no one on the Republican side who disgusts me more than Marco Rubio.

As concerning and hateful as so much of Trump’s commentary is, we can at least be sure he speaks from his own twisted mind. This is precisely why he appeals to so many people in this day and age of completely captured politicians. People like the fact that every word out of his mouth hasn’t been carefully placed there by some billionaire patron.

On the exact opposite end of that spectrum we find Marco Rubio. A man so incapable of free-thought, he becomes the ideal target for billionaires looking to craft the perfect puppet. Forget Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio is now the establishment GOP’s pick, and they will do everything in their power to get him the nomination.

There are three billionaire oligarchs in particular who seem to really love Rubio. They are Sheldon Adelson, Paul Singer and Ken Griffin. Let’s look at the evidence so far.

Although Adelson hasn’t officially endorsed Rubio, it’s likely just a matter of time. See the following excerpt from yesterday’s Miami Herald:

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At Facebook, Some Hate Speech is More Equal Than Others

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Just in case you harbor that sneaking suspicion that Facebook’s “hate speech” policy is inconsistent and incoherent, you now have your answer.

From FastCompany:

Facebook has gone out of its way this year to clarify its hate speech policy, explaining in March that it aims to be consistent with the type of content it removes.

So why has the social network appeared to have made an exception for Donald Trump, who recently posted a video saying Muslims should be barred from entering the United States? Facebook has removed statements similar to Trump’s proposal in the past, according to employees. And the decision to let Trump’s post remain public was made by the highest levels of management.

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More Corporate Cronyism and Shadiness Revealed in Newly Released Obamatrade Report

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The good news is that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell recently admitted that the TPP, aka Obamatrade, has very little chance of passing Congress before next year’s Presidential election. The bad news is the main reason for this is because the RINOs in charge don’t think it represents enough of a giveaway to multi-national mega corporations.

All that aside, David Dayen just published a very valuable piece detailing the findings of a 121-page report critiquing the TPP by the Labor Advisory Committee.

Here’s more from Naked Capitalism:

The U.S. Trade Representative’s Office has been maligned for its network of Trade Advisory Committees, allegedly “independent” counsel for trade agreements. The Washington Post did the best work on the Advisory Committees back in February of last year, showing that 85 percent of the cleared advisors (meaning cleared to read the text of trade agreements as they are being negotiated) either worked directly for private industries or their trade groups.

But there’s another, more obscure group called the Labor Advisory Committee. Its 19 members are all the heads of major labor unions (Clayola Brown, president of the A. Phillip Randolph Institute, I guess technically isn’t, but that organization is a constituency group of the AFL-CIO). And like all Advisory Committees, they are required by law to write a report to Congress expressing their opinions about any finalized trade agreement. That means we now have this 121-page document, giving labor’s full argument against the TPP, from the people who have been following it from the inside for several years.

It gets off to quite a start in the first words of the executive summary:

On behalf of the millions of working people we represent, we believe that the TPP is unbalanced in its provisions, skewing benefits to economic elites while leaving workers to bear the brunt of the TPP’s downside. The TPP is likely to harm the U.S. economy, cost jobs, and lower wages.

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Largest Newspaper in Nevada Was Just Purchased Anonymously for $140 Million

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This is a story that demands much closer attention.

The Huffington Post reports:

NEW YORK — Las Vegas Review-Journal staffers have a simple question for their new owner: Who are you?

Several staffers at the Review-Journal, the largest media outlet in Nevada, have questioned their new owner’s decision to remain secret, an unusual arrangement that’s stunned not only the newsroom, but journalists nationwide. 

Sean Whaley, a capital bureau reporter based in Carson City, tweeted Saturday night that he was “offended & embarrassed” that the paper’s new owner — News + Media Capital Group LLC — has not disclosed its financial backers since announcing Thursday night that it had acquired the paper. 

In addition to the secret ownership arrangement, industry watchers have also been shocked by the sale price.

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Tens of Thousands of Properties to Be “Dumped” on London Real Estate Market by 2017

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One of the most spectacular bubbles inflated as a direct result of the oligarch giveaway colloquially known as “central bank policy” in the years since the global economic meltdown, has been the London real estate market. There are many reasons for this, but the primary one is the fact that London was seen as one of the best places for shady billionaires to park illicit funds, i.e., money laundering.

With a cratering in emerging market economies, as well as tax changes in the UK, much of that trade is now over. As such, some players are now scrambling to get out before the bottom drops.

If the following article is even remotely accurate, London real estate investors need to pay close attention.

From the Evening Standard:

As many as 60,000 homes bought off-plan in new developments in areas such as Nine Elms are scheduled for completion by the end of 2017 and many will be put up for sale immediately because of the growing disillusion with London, it says. 

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Hit and Run Driver Arrested After Her Car Calls Police

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As technology generally continues to advance, one thing you can be sure of is the criminal justice system’s use of innovative new “tools” will grow exponentially. This can be a good thing, but it can also be a very dangerous thing. Pennsylvania’s new law that permits the use of data showing whether people are “deemed likely to commit additional crimes” in criminal sentencing, is a perfect example of how an over reliance on technology can be a threat to liberty and due process.

– From the post: Pennsylvania to Become First State to Use “Precrime” Statistics in Criminal Sentencing

Welcome to the future, ladies and gentleman.

From ZDNet:

A driver allegedly involved in two hit-and-run incidents was tracked down after her car alerted the police.

As reported by local news outlets, an unusual 911 call to emergency services took place on Friday in Port St. Lucie, Florida. You would usually expect a human voice on the end of the line, but in this scenario, a Ford vehicle alerted the police to a collision.

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