- An Alleged Muslim Spy Ring – Is This Why Rex Tillerson Cleaned House?
Submitted by Duan via Free Market Shooter blog,
Shortly after Trump took office, and before Rex Tillerson was even confirmed as Secretary of State, a slew of State Department officials were removed from their positions (or were forced to resign) as part of an effort to “clean house” at the State Department. The whole affair was haphazardly covered by the media, especially by Jeff Bezos’s blog, which insinuated that the departures were “an ongoing mass exodus of senior Foreign Service officers who don’t want to stick around for the Trump era.”
Further analysis revealed that the officials were actually removed from their positions shortly after Tillerson visited the State Department office in Foggy Bottom prior to his confirmation:
“Any implication that that these four people quit is wrong,” one senior State Department official said. “These people are loyal to the secretary, the President and to the State Department. There is just not any attempt here to dis the President. People are not quitting and running away in disgust. This is the White House cleaning house.”
And, just a few weeks after the fact, it appears we know why Tillerson was so quick to purge existing staffers: he just didn’t trust them. It also appears his mistrust was more than justified.
On January 29th, United States Special Forces executed an operation inside Yemen, against al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), with the aim of gathering intelligence and killing leaders of the group. The raid was planned under the Obama administration, but the decision to execute the raid was “punted” to Trump, using the pretext of waiting for a “low loom” (moonless) night to execute the raid with maximum secrecy:
While the operation had been proposed, it was never green-lighted. Kahl said Obama felt going the mission would mark a “significant escalation” in Yemen and should be left to the next administration to decide.
“Obama … believed this represented a significant escalation of U.S. involvement in Yemen, and therefore … thought the next administration should take a careful look and run a careful process,” he told the WSJ.
In addition, defense officials expected the Trump administration to be more willing to approve dangerous missions, something that was almost certainly known by any remaining personnel who stayed on after Obama left office:
While seemingly indicative of a more aggressive stance by Trump, one official described the raid and new proposal as an outgrowth of earlier Obama-era operations that have pushed al-Qaida militants from their sanctuaries into areas and provided more opportunities for U.S. strikes.
“We expect an easier approval cycle [for operations] under this administration,” another defense official said.
Navy SEAL William “Ryan” Owens
Though the Trump administration attempted to push the raid as a success, at very best, the mission was anything but, resulting in the death of Navy SEAL William “Ryan” Owens, as well as injuries to three other servicemen. While the commandos did everything necessary to maintain the element of surprise, it appears as though AQAP adversaries on the ground had advance warning of the attack:
“Initial reports are always wrong, but it doesn’t appear to be a failure of planning or intelligence,” said the former special forces officer.
Almost immediately, the raiding force on the ground took intense fire, according to the briefing paper and a senior military official. Occupants of the targeted house and its compound, along with their guard force, moved to a separate cluster of houses nearby where families, including women and children, were staying. Armed women fired on the U.S. and Emirati forces.
“There were a lot of female combatants who were part of this,” said Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, the Pentagon’s chief spokesman, on Monday. “We saw during this operation, as it was taking place, that female fighters ran to pre-established positions — as though they had trained to be ready, and trained to be combatants — and engaged with us.”
While most know about the Yemen raid, most do not know about the dismissal of the three Aman brothers, Abid, Imran, and Jamal Awan. On February 2nd, they were abruptly removed from their positions of managing information technology for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Though they were initially suspected merely of stealing equipment, a connection with the previously-hacked computers of Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) revealed something far more sinister:
Three members of the intelligence panel and five members of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs were among the dozens of members who employed the suspects on a shared basis. The two committees deal with many of the nation’s most sensitive issues and documents, including those related to the war on terrorism.
As Mad World News reported, the Aman brothers were hired by the Obama administration, and access to top secret information regarding military operations. The committees they allegedly worked for had access to “the most sensitive and secretive government intelligence, including covert anti-terrorism activity… including the Yemen operation”:
The House Oversight Committee
The brothers were assigned access to three members of the intelligence panel and five members of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs along with dozens of congressmen who employed the suspects on a shared basis. This gave them direct access to our military secrets, like missions carried out by Navy SEAL Team Six.
They retained their jobs after Obama left, which is not unheard of since their positions were not seen as political appointments. However, they were fired by Trump’s administration within hours after Navy SEAL William Ryan Owens was killed in Yemen during the top secret raid on Al-Qaeda operatives.
So, in case you’ve gotten lost, here’s a recap of the timeline of events:
- Jan 20 – Trump takes office, and DoD officials are expecting him to be more willing to approve dangerous missions
- Jan 26 – Rex Tillerson visits State Department headquarters prior to his confirmation, and either terminates or forces the resignation of many existing State Department personnel
- Jan 29 – The botched Yemen raid is executed, resulting in the death of Navy SEAL Owens
- Feb 1 – Rex Tillerson is confirmed by President Trump as Secretary of State
- Feb 2 – The Awan brothers are terminated on suspicion that they accessed congressional computers without permission
As Mad World News previously stated,
“…it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to connect the dots. The firing of the Awan brothers is linked to the Yemen raid where al-Qaeda knew we were coming, and it tragically ended with Navy SEAL Owens being killed in action.”
The mainstream media seemed far more interested in obfuscating the details regarding the Tillerson terminations than they were in covering what could be one of the most dangerous intelligence leaks in years, of which there has been but a peep out of any major news outlet. Captain Joseph R. John (Navy-Ret.) has stated that he believes the Muslim Brotherhood “fifth column” has “infiltrated U.S. Government,” and if he is correct, the Awan brothers could very well be a part of this infiltration.
Yet, there as been but a peep of information about the Awan brothers from nearly all major news outlets. Are they in jail? What are they accused of? Does the Trump administration suspect them of leaking details about military operations to terrorist organizations? And most importantly, if so, did these three men directly or indirectly contribute to the death of Owens during the Yemen raid?
One thing is for certain – as Politico seemed to take delight in stating, “Trying to nail down who the leakers are is like trying to count the cockroaches under the couch.” However, it seems most of the “leaks” are coming from Obama holdovers. Which makes Tillerson’s “cleaning house” look like not just the correct move, it leaves you wondering if he did enough cleaning house.
Just don’t expect to hear that from the mainstream media anytime soon.
- "Panic" Spreads Among Hispanics After Hundreds Of Illegal Immigrants Arrested
As reported earlier, one of the immediate consequences of the Trump immigration executive order – and one which has so far gone largely unchallenged – has been a crackdown against illegal immigrants residing in the US. This promptly led Mexico’s Foreign Ministry to say on Thursday it has intensified efforts to protect Mexican migrants, “foreseeing the hardening of measures by immigration authorities in the U.S., as well as possible constitutional violations during raids or in due process.”
We also noted that according to the WSJ, influential Mexicans are pushing “an aggressive and perhaps risky strategy to fight a likely increase in deportations of their undocumented compatriots in the U.S.: jam U.S. immigration courts in hopes of causing the already overburdened system to break down.” The proposal calls for ad campaigns advising migrants in the U.S. to take their cases to court and fight deportation if detained. “The backlog in the immigration system is tremendous,” said former Foreign Minister Jorge Castañeda. The idea is to double or triple the backlog, “until [U.S. President Donald] Trump desists in this stupid idea,” he added.
For now, however, these efforts to, well, trump Trump’s anti-illegal alien directive have failed to generate traction, and according to Reuters, federal immigration agents arrested hundreds of undocumented immigrants in at least four states this week in what officials on Friday called routine “enforcement actions.” The enforcement actions took place in Atlanta, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and surrounding areas, said David Marin, director of enforcement and removal for the Los Angeles field office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
U.S. ICE officers conduct a targeted enforcement operation in Atlanta on
February 9, 2017.Marin called the five-day operation an “enforcement surge.”
While the agency did not release a total number of detainees, the Atlanta office alone, which covers three states, arrested 200 people, Bryan Cox, a spokesman for the office, said. An additional 161 arrests were made the Los Angeles area in a region that included seven highly populated counties, Marin also said that of the people arrested in Southern California, only 10 did not have criminal records, and of those, five had prior deportation orders.
U.S. ICE officers detain a suspect as they conduct a targeted enforcement
operation in LA on February 7, 2017“The rash of these recent reports about ICE checkpoints and random sweeps, that’s all false and that’s dangerous and irresponsible,” Marin said. “Reports like that create a panic.” He described the arrests as largely routine.
Perhaps, yet we have to recall one time in the past 8 years in which a story about mass illegal immigrant arrests made the landing page of Reuters or the WSJ.
Others agree. Michael Kagan, a professor of immigration law at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, said immigration advocates are concerned that the arrests could signal the beginning of more aggressive enforcement and increased deportations under Trump. “It sounds as if the majority are people who would have been priorities under Obama as well,” Kagan said in a telephone interview.
“But the others may indicate the first edge of a new wave of arrests and deportations.”
Which likely explains why there is suddenly a palpable sense a panic among Hispanic communities, as The Hill reports.
One of the first cases to receive national attention, the deportation of Arizona resident Guadalupe Garcia de Rayos, has put undocumented and mixed status communities on edge. “It’s fair to say we’re all extremely troubled by the deportation action we saw take place yesterday in Arizona,” said Janet Murguia, president of the National Council of La Raza. “The first deportation [after] his executive order is of a working mom with two U.S. kids,” she added.
U.S. ICE officers conduct a targeted enforcement operation in Atlanta, on
February 9, 2017.And yet, what Trump is doing is precisely what he had promised to do. On the campaign trail, Trump initially promised to enact a deportation force to deport all 11 million undocumented immigrants, starting with dangerous criminals. “They’re going to be out of here so fast, your head will spin,” Trump told Fox News in August. “As far as the rest, we’re going to go through the process, like they are now — perhaps with a lot more energy.” As president-elect, Trump said his government would seek out “three or four million” dangerous criminals immigrants for deportation.
Many Hispanic advocates feel that the Garcia de Rayos case shows the Trump administration will aggressively pursue all undocumented immigrants. “This reaffirms that when the Trump administration said they would go after criminals, they really meant everybody,” Murguia said.
The perception that Trump is shifting back to his early campaign proposals has shaken many Hispanics, including many who are legally in the country, the Hill noted.
“The uncertainty and the confusion is prevalent with undocumented, legal residents and also citizens,” said Telemundo anchorman José Diaz-Balart. “There are millions of mixed status families in the United States of America.” And community organizers admit they have few tools to quell the trepidation.
NCLR is one of many organizations that has set up a legal defense structure and started programs to inform immigrants of their rights, but under current law, an undocumented immigrant who comes in contact with federal enforcement officers has relatively few options. “We want people to stay calm and we want to give them assurances but we can’t give them assurances,” Murguía said.
Diaz-Balart, the anchor for Noticieros Telemundo, the network’s nightly news program, is hosting a town hall event Sunday for his viewers to better understand the administration’s immigration actions. “[Immigrants are] now asking, ‘how is this going to have an impact on me?'” said Diaz-Balart.
“It’s a town hall that is going to be dealing with the questions that we hear over and over and over again from the people that we serve,” he said. “It’s not about telling people what they want to hear, it’s about making sure the people are informed about things.”
In the first days of the Trump administration, immigration has emerged as the most important target for the president, seemingly of greater importance than repealing Obamacare or cutting taxes. Through his executive orders, Trump has gone after so-called “sanctuary cities” that restrict the degree to which their law enforcement agents collaborate with federal immigration enforcement. He has also redefined who could be labeled a “criminal alien.” That redefinition greatly expanded the number of undocumented immigrants liable to be targeted for removal, beyond the “three or four million” that Trump had mentioned.
José Magaña-Salgado, an attorney at the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, cited a study that said as many as 8 million people could now be targeted for deportation. Under Trump’s order, the definition of criminality was expanded to include misdemeanors like illicitly crossing the border. It also expanded the definitions for immigrants to be considered priorities for deportation. Foreigners who have “committed acts that constitute a chargeable criminal offense” are priorities, even before conviction. It also includes those who have committed “fraud or willful misrepresentation in connection with any official matter or application before a governmental agency,” a category that includes using fake Social Security numbers to work.
To be sure, lacking a legal challenge for the time being, Hispanics are refuting the logic of Trump’s order.
While Trump campaigned on the prospect of removing dangerous criminals, Magaña-Salgado said the very structure of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) would provide an incentive for indiscriminate enforcement. “The general philosophy of ICE agents and CBP agents, they view their job as expelling as many people from the country as possible,” said Magaña-Salgado. “It benefits them to have high deportation numbers because they can justify their budget, they can justify their mission,” he added. And cases like Garcia de Rayos provide an easy target for federal agents.
Garcia de Rayos was apprehended during a yearly inspection at her local ICE headquarters, in which she voluntarily presented herself keeping with orders given to her when she was originally apprehended. As a low-risk offender — Garcia de Rayos was convicted of using a fake Social Security Number to work — she was not on the Obama administration’s deportation priority list despite have been slated for deportation by an immigration judge.
She was, however, very much likely an eligible Democrat voter, which while undiscussed is the bedrock behind Trump’s aggressive pursuit of undocumented illegal immigrants in the US.
Beyond the detention of Garcia de Rayos, ICE conducted large raids this week on homes and workplaces that further alarmed Hispanic communities. Karen Tumlin, legal director of the National Immigration Law Center, said agents denied access to immigration lawyers after one such raid in Los Angeles that rounded up about 100 people. “Immigration attorneys flocked to the scene,” Tumlin said. “They were shut out.” “[It’s] absolutely unacceptable and potentially unlawful,” she added.
Similar cases to Garcia de Rayos could also attract the attention of federal enforcement officers because of the shortage of immigration judges to prosecute cases. People who have already been slated for deportation by a judge can be removed without further due process. The lack of immigration judges is “certainly going to be a constraint,” said Magaña-Salgado.
But agents can use expedited removal procedures, curbed under the Obama administration but not taken off the books, to get detainees to accept a quick deportation over a lengthy wait for an immigration judge, in many cases while incarcerated.
“They’re going to use that tool to take people out of the court system and due process,” Magaña-Salgado said. It will also hinder the previously discussed attempt by influential Mexicans to “jam US courts” by increasing the number of deportation cases. Ultimately, that strategy may dramatically backfire if the law were to be further streamlined.
Meanwhile, Hispanic activists warn that going after easy targets can damage communities in several ways.
People who would otherwise be economically active could go into hiding, trust in law enforcement agencies could be diminished, and dangerous criminals could more easily slip through the cracks as federal agents pursue non-dangerous undocumented immigrants.
“People want to comply with the enforcement agencies,” Murguia said. “They’re supposed to report in with these check ins; if they see they’re going to put themselves at risk, it’s a very difficult situation.”
“These are gut wrenching, heart-breaking stories,” she added. “In a civilized society, we can’t find a better way to deal with these issues?”
Well, Obama tried, and failed. Which is why “civilized” American society is now where it is, and reflecting the will of the majority.
- North Korea Launches Ballistic Missile, Tests Trump
With the news cycle clearly far less interested in Trump’s golf game or Abe’s handicap, just before 8am local time (6pm ET), North Korea decided to provide CNN with some “exciting” news when it fired a ballistic missile into the sea off its east coast, South Korea’s military said, in what was the latest test of Trump’s resolve to retaliate to North Korean provocations.
This was the first missile launch by North Korea since Donald Trump – who has repeatedly threatened of taking retaliatory measures against such an act – took office. The launch also comes just one day after the US Air Force test-fired a Minuteman ICBM from California.
Cited by Reuters, a US official said that while the U.S. military had detected the missile launch and was assessing it, it was probably not an intercontinental ballistic missile.
The missile was launched from an area named Panghyon in North Korea’s western region and flew about 500 kilometers (300 miles) before falling into the sea, the South’s Office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said in statements. “Our assessment is that it is part of a show of force in response to the new U.S. administration’s hardline position against the North,” the office said.
#ROK military says #DPRK missile flew about 500km and fell into sea.
— Steve Herman (@W7VOA) February 12, 2017
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The South’s military said Seoul and Washington were analyzing the details of the launch. Yonhap News Agency said the South Korean military is assessing the launch to confirm whether it was a Musudan intermediate-range ballistic missile, which has a designed flight range of 3,000 kilometers (1,800 miles). The U.S. military also said it had detected a missile test launch by the North and was assessing it, according to a U.S. defense official in Washington.
Japan’s government said it had asked the UN to issue “a strong message” against North Korea for the latest provocation.
Japan gov’t says it’s asking #UN to issue “a strong message” against #DPRK for latest provocation.
— Steve Herman (@W7VOA) February 12, 2017
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The North tried to launch a Musudan eight times last year during the Obama presidency, but most attempts failed. One launch that sent a missile 400 km (250 miles), more than half the distance to Japan, was considered a success by officials and experts in the South and the United States.
Sunday’s launch comes a day after Trump held a summit meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and said he agreed to work to ensure strong defense against North Korea’s threat. South Korea’s presidential Blue House said a National Security Council meeting was called and chaired by President Park Geun-hye’s top national security advisor.
One month ago, during his New Year speech, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said that the country was close to test-launching an intercontinental ballistic missile and state media said such a launch could come at any time, leading Trump to write on Twitter, “It won’t happen!” Trump did not give specifics of how he’d stop Kim’s missile development.
He may have to now.
At the time, Kim’s comments prompted a vow of an “overwhelming” response from U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis. North Korea conducted two nuclear tests and a number of missile-related tests at an unprecedented rate since early last year and was seen by experts and officials to be making progress in its weapons capabilities.
If indeed today’s launch is a “show of force” in response to the US hardline position, the entire world will be closely watching to see if Trump is about to fold again as he did on Friday, when he was called a “paper tiger” by China’s media after reversing his position on the “One China” policy, and agreeing that he would not challenge China’s legacy status with Taiwan.
According to the press, the White House – and president Trump at Mar-A-Lago – has been briefed on the launch.
–@WhiteHouse officials say @POTUS has been briefed on #DPRK missile launch.
— Steve Herman (@W7VOA) February 12, 2017
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We expect either a very angry tweet in response shortly, or a mushroom cloud to emerge in the middle of Pyongyang any minute.
- Jim Rogers: "We're About To Have The Worst Economic Problems Of A Lifetime, A Lot Of People Will Disappear"
"Get prepared," warns billionaire commodity guru Jim Rogers, "because we're going to have the worst economic problems in your lifetime and a lot of people are going to disappear." In this wide-ranging interview with MacroVoices' Erik Townsend, the investing legend discusses everything from whether Russia is being scapegoated ("yes, ask Victoria Nuland"), the war against cash ("governments love it… they want to control everything"), to his views on gold and the demise of freedom.
Full podcast below:
https://publisher.podtrac.com/player/NzE4NDQ1/Nzc1
Key Excerpts…
Are Russians the bad guys?
Well I do know that during the last administration, Mr. Obama's administration as you probably remember we started, we tried to pull of an illegal coup in Ukraine, we got caught at it, what's her name, Victoria Nuland, whatever the woman’ name the State Department they have there several pieces of evidence where we know she tried to instigate an illegal coup then of course the Russians outsmarted us and so the State Department started blaming it on the Russians and the hype against the Russians has gotten bigger and bigger ever since after we started– or tried to start, tried to instigate the illegal coup Crimea and Ukraine.
So yes we are certainly at fault to some extent and obviously you then, when you're caught you've got to keep the rhetoric up and keep throwing more and more accusations and so the State Department has done that.
I know that before the illegal coup Obama, Bush everybody was trying to be friends with the Russians rightly so, cold war had ended long ago, the Russians wanted to be friends with America. We didn’t need NATO anymore. Who needed the Cold War etc. all the money we were spending on some of these arms manufactures and soldiers so until the illegal coup took place we were all trying to be great friends you remember George Bush said I looked him in the eye and he's a man I can admire and work with etc.
So now of course the Democrats especially since they lost the election are trying to blame it on the Russians. It's unfathomable to me how the Russians could have determined the outcome of the elections. Maybe they planted a story a two but so what? It's inconceivable to me that the Russians could influence much less determine the election.
I think if we start having investigations of the illegal voting I'm afraid we're going to find more for the Democrats than for the Republicans places big cities in America won't name names but so far the few investigations that have taken place we find that the voting irregularities are in big cities which are Democratic strongholds.
On the Greater Depression…
…get prepared because we're going to have the worst economic problems we've had in your lifetime or my lifetime and when that happens a lot of people are going to disappear.
In 2008 Bear Stearns disappeared, Bear Stearns had been around over 90 years. Lehman Brothers disappeared. Lehman Brothers had been around over 150 years. A long, long time, a long glorious history they’ve been through wars, depression, civil war they've been through everything and yet they disappear.
So the next time around it's going to be worse than anything we've seen and a lot of institutions, people, companies even countries, certainly governments and maybe even countries are going to disappear. I hope you get very worried.
when you start having bear markets as you I’m sure well know one bad thing happens and another bad thing happens and these things snowball just like in bull markets good news comes out then more good news comes out the next thing you know you're five or six or seven years into a bull market.
Well bear markets do the same thing and so we have a lot of bad news on the horizon. I haven't even gotten to war. I haven't even gotten to trade war or anything like that but you know things do go wrong.
On Trump and the possibility of trade wars…and real wars
Mr. Trump has also said he's going to have trade war with China, Mexico, Japan, Korea a few other people that he has named. He swore that on his first day in office he would impose 45% tariffs against China. He's been there three weeks, two or three weeks and he hasn't done it yet but he still got it in his head I'm sure or maybe he's just another politician like all the rest of them. He says one thing and he doesn't mean it at all but he does have at least three people in high levels in his group who are very, very keen to have trade wars with China and other people.
If he does that Eric, it's all over. I mean history is very clear that trade wars always lead to problems, often to disaster, sometimes even to real war, a shooting war. So I don't know, I'm not sure Mr. Trump knows. He said so many things and many of the things are contradictory. Now if he's not going to have trade wars with various people then chances are for a while happy days are here…
[The dollar is] going to go too high, may turn into a bubble, at which point I hope I'm smart enough to sell it because at some point the market forces are going to cause the dollar to come back down because people are going to realize, oh my gosh, this is causing a lot of turmoil, economic problems in the world and it's damaging the American economy. At that point the smart guys will get out. I hope I'm one of them.
On governments continued war against cash…
Governments are always looking out for themselves first and it's the same old thing you know Eric this has been going on for hundreds of years. The Indians recently did the same thing they withdrew 86% percent of the currency in circulation and they have now made it illegal to spend more than, I think it's about $4000 in any cash transaction. In France you cannot use more than, I think it's a €1000.
Many countries are already doing this. Some states in the U.S. you cannot make cash transactions above a certain amount. Governments love it. Then they can control you. If you want to go and buy a cup of coffee they know how many you drink, where you buy them etc. if they can all put it into electronic formats and they will the world is all going electronic. My children will probably never go to a bank when they're adults, maybe never go to a post office maybe even never to a doctor or rarely to a doctor when they're adults.
So the Internet and the computers changing everything that we know, money can certainly be easily converted to computers not today because there are still, some people who don't have computers and the system is not ready it but it can be done and when it's done the governments are going to be very, very happy they going to say they're doing it for our own good Eric, this is not them, this is for our good. That they're doing this, but it’s coming and it's going to be a whole different world in which we live. Probably we are not going to have as many freedoms as we have now even though we are already losing our freedoms at a significant pace.
On the demise of freedom…
…history shows that people always would like a little more safety and a willing to “give up some things for more safety and security.” Benjamin Franklin said well anybody who would give up some freedoms for security is going to wind up with neither security nor freedom and they deserve to lose both and of course that's the way it is.
I’m not the first to realize that people who are rising to become dictators start taking away freedoms first in Germany they took away the guns, they wouldn’t let people have guns in Germany and lots of places have done that or things like that.
In America now you and I probably remember when we were kids, you had to have a search warrant, now they can just break your door down if they have what they consider enough good reasons, they don't even have to go to the court and get a search warrant anymore.
So it's already happening and if you said to somebody that you know they could break your door down they say they’re not going to break my door down I’m not a terrorist or a drug dealer, well that's how it all starts people say it's OK but then the next thing you know they're breaking your door down too.
So it's already happening do I like it? No I don't like it but I'm not the first– what was his name Goebbels the German who said if you say something to people enough times they believe it no matter how absurd it is and you and I have certainly seen it in the news in America you say something enough times people believe it and it becomes politically correct and then you can’t even say something that's not politically correct in America any more.
Full Transcript available here.
- The Megacity Economy: How Seven Types Of Global Cities Stack Up
Back in 1950, close to 30% of the global population lived in cities.
As Visual Capitalist's Jeff Desjardins notes, that has shifted dramatically, and by 2050, a whopping 70% of people will live in urban areas – some of which will be megacities housing tens of millions of people.
This trend of urbanization has been a boon to global growth and the economy. In fact, it is estimated today by McKinsey that the 600 top urban centers contribute a whopping 60% to the world’s total GDP.
Courtesy of: Visual CapitalistSEVEN TYPES OF GLOBAL CITIES
With so many people moving to urban metropolitan areas, the complexion of cities and their economies change each day.
The Brookings Institute has a new way of classifying these megacities, using various economic indicators.
According to their analysis, here’s what differentiates the seven types of global cities:
Important note: This isn’t intended to be a “ranking” of cities. However, on the infographic, cities are sorted by GDP per capita within each typology, and given a number based on where they stand in terms of this metric. This is just intended to show how wealthy the average citizen is per city, and is not a broader indicator relating to the success or overall ranking of a city.
1. Global Giants
These six cities are the world’s leading economic and financial centers. They are hubs for financial markets and are characterized by large populations and a high concentration of wealth and talent.
Examples: New York City, Tokyo, London
2. Asian Anchors
The six Asian Anchor cities are not as wealthy as the Global Giants, however they leverage attributes such as infrastructure connectivity and talented workforces to attract the most Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) out of any other metro grouping.
Examples: Hong Kong, Seoul, Singapore
3. Emerging Gateways
These 28 cities are large business and transportation hubs for major national and regional markets in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. While they have grown to reach middle-income status, they fall behind other global cities on many key competitiveness factors such as GDP and FDI.
Examples: Mumbai, Cape Town, Mexico City, Hangzhou
4. Factory China
There are 22 second and third-tier Chinese cities reliant on export manufacturing to power economic growth and international engagement. Although Factory China displays a GDP growth rate that is well above average, it fails to reach average levels of innovation, talent, and connectivity.
Examples: Shenyang, Changchun, Chengdu
5. Knowledge Capitals
These are 19 mid-sized cities in the U.S. and Europe that are considered centers of innovation, with elite research universities producing talented workforces.
Examples: San Francisco, Boston, Zurich
6. American Middleweights
These 16 mid-sized U.S. metro areas are relatively wealthy and house strong universities, as well as other anchor institutions.
Examples: Orlando, Sacramento, Phoenix
7. International Middleweights
These 26 cities span across several continents, internationally connected by human and investment capital flow. Like their American middleweight counterparts, growth has slowed for these cities since the 2008 recession.
Examples: Vancouver, Melbourne, Brussels, Tel Aviv
- What Form Will The Great Confiscation Take – And How Can We Prepare?
Submitted by John Rubino via DollarCollapse.com,
For what seems like decades, people have been warning that the next time some over-leveraged corner of the financial system implodes, bank and brokerage accounts will be either confiscated by desperate governments or lost during the resulting chaos.
Here, from 2012, is a representative warning from gold mining eminence grise Jim Sinclair:
My Dear Extended Family,
In bankruptcy of your bank, broker or fund, you can find your assets in the majority of cases are backing the liabilities of the entity in front of yourselves. This is why you must act to protect yourself.
No one in this financial world is going to do it for you, and few will have the courage to recommend you escape Street Name. You can wake up one day and find out that your investments are gone.
The insurance programs will function as long as the incidents of bankruptcy are isolated events.
In a systemic collapse the insurance funds are not capitalized to meet the potential obligations. The guarantor you are relying on will have to be bailed out.
For securities there are only three ways to hold them:
1. Street name.
2. Direct registration.
3. Certificate form.Anyone advising you to stay with the Street Name option is a babbling idiot not interested at all in your welfare.
In street name the inferred ownership is the broker or bank, not you. In Direct Registrationand Certificate form, the distinct ownership is you.
In 99.9% of the cases of retirement accounts the answer is you are in Street Name.
How are your securities held? Do you even know? I dare you to ask!
Do you know what your broker’s capital ratio is? Find out as that number is the order of magnitude at which your broker is gambling on with primarily your money. I dare you to ask.
This time around those investors that are too lazy to consider protecting themselves will be demolished.
How would you like your gold shares at $3500 gold, outperforming gold, and one morning you wake up to having nothing anymore? You now are behind the back burner in a bankruptcy situation with any fiduciary.
The system and their minions will do everything to keep you trapped in Street Name. Articles will be published trying to put you back to sleep on this issue.
Wake up, please.
The fact that this mass confiscation hasn’t yet happened doesn’t mean it won’t, says Jim Rickards, whose previous bestsellers Currency Wars and The Death of Money were already pretty apocalyptic. He believes that a coordinated closure/restructuring/confiscation of the banking/brokerage industry is imminent. Here’s an excerpt from a recent column:
In that interim period between the crisis and the time the IMF can react, central banks will be paralyzed. They’re likely going to lock down the system.
When I say lock down, they’ll start with money market funds. I can’t think of a greater misnomer than the money market funds. People think that money market funds are money. They’re not money; they’re mutual funds regulated by the SEC. People think they can just call up their broker, sell to the money market fund and the money’s in my bank the next day.
That will not be true in this crisis because everyone will be doing the same thing. That is what happened in 2008 when Ben Bernanke and Hank Paulson went to the White House and said to the President that the system’s melting down and he must act.
That was such a shock then, that when it happens again they’re not going to give you your money. They’re going to lock it down. The problem is that when it is spreading you can’t just lock down part of the system.
If you lock down money market funds, people are just going to take their money out of the banks. Then you’re going to have to close the banks. Then people are going to sell their stocks, then you’re going to have to close the stock market. Every time you shut one path to liquidity, people are going to turn to another path.
It happened in part in 1914, 1931, 1933 and to gold in 1971. There’s no precedent for a total freeze but we’re getting closer to that point.
The question is, how do you protect yourself against that? There’s only so much you can do.
I don’t recommend running down and pulling all your money out of the bank. I would not have more than the insured amount, which in the U.S. is $250,000. You can spread it between your selected banks so that each is backed and insured up to the limit.
Rickard’s solution is right out of the stacker playbook:
In the world described, the dollar price of gold will approach the $10,000-level if not much higher. But when all of this begins to play out, you’re not going to be able to get gold.
Because of this, gold and silver need to be in physical form, in safe storage, and a non-bank. Putting it in a safety deposit box in a bank is troublesome because by the time you want it the most, that will be when the banks are going to be closed.
Charles Hugh Smith offers some other possible responses:
So what’s difficult to expropriate? It’s impossible to expropriate one’s skills, experience and social capital. These are intangible forms of capital and so they cannot be confiscated like gold, currency, land, etc.
Land and homes are difficult to expropriate for two reasons: private property is the backbone of capitalism and democracy, and the state confiscating private property would very likely spark a political insurrection that would diminish or threaten the power and wealth of the privileged Elites.
Secondly, it’s very costly for the state to maintain the productive output of real property it has confiscated. Guards must be posted, sabotage repaired, and the immense difficulties of coercing a rebellious populace to continue working what they once owned for the benefit of the state and its privileged Elites must be solved and paid for.
The state can expropriate farms, orchards and workshops for back taxes (or some similar extra-legal methodology), but how do you force people to work these properties productively?
As a general rule, whatever the super-wealthy own will be protected from expropriation. Private real property is the foundation of the Elites’ wealth, and while the land of debt-serfs may well be confiscated for back taxes (the wealthy will buy exemptions from rising taxes), those who own land and buildings free and clear constitute a political force to be reckoned with.
The state will also have difficulty confiscating assets that are outside its reach.This explains the popularity of owning assets in other nations, and the debate over cryptocurrencies: will states be able to confiscate all cryptocurrencies at will, or is that technically unfeasible?
The main takeaway is this: your skills, knowledge and social capital will emerge unscathed on the other side of the re-set wormhole. Land and real property you own free and clear (no debt) is likely to remain in your possession, as long as you can pay soaring taxes/junk fees during the crisis phase. Your financial assets held in centrally controlled institutions will not make it through unscathed; they are simply too easy for central authorities to expropriate.
It’s easy, as the world’s zombie economies just keep shuffling along, to start assuming that the current system will endure forever. That would be wrong, and almost certainly the above warnings will someday seem prescient. All the more reason to forget about timing, and keep buying real assets.
- Did The Judges Lie: New Report Finds 72 Terrorists Came From Countries Covered By Trump Ban
The federal judge who halted President Donald Trump's travel ban was wrong in stating that no one from the seven countries targeted in Trump's order has been arrested for extremism in the United States since the 2001 terrorist attacks. In fact, as a new report finds, 72 individuals from the seven 'mostly Muslim countries' covered by President Trump's "extreme vetting" executive order have been convicted of terrorism since 9/11.
As AP first reported, during a hearing in Seattle last week, Judge Robartasked a Justice Department lawyer how many arrests of foreign nationals from the countries have occurred since 9/11. When the lawyer said she didn't know, Robart answered his own question:
"Let me tell, you, the answer to that is none, as best I can tell. You're here arguing on behalf of someone that says we have to protect the United States from these individuals coming from these countries and there's no support for that."
And now, having denied President Trump's appeal, claiming his policy "would cause irreparable injury," would cause irreparable injury, it seems the entire premise of the seven "mostly muslim" nations' mostly-peaceful, non-terrorist ways are in doubt as The Center for Immigration Studies shows that…
A review of information compiled by a Senate committee in 2016 reveals that 72 individuals from the seven countries covered in President Trump's vetting executive order have been convicted in terror cases since the 9/11 attacks.
In June 2016 the Senate Subcommittee on Immigration and the National Interest, then chaired by new Attorney General Jeff Sessions, released a report on individuals convicted in terror cases since 9/11. Using open sources (because the Obama administration refused to provide government records), the report found that 380 out of 580 people convicted in terror cases since 9/11 were foreign-born. The report is no longer available on the Senate website, but a summary published by Fox News is available here.
The Center has obtained a copy of the information compiled by the subcommittee. The information compiled includes names of offenders, dates of conviction, terror group affiliation, federal criminal charges, sentence imposed, state of residence, and immigration history.
The Center has extracted information on 72 individuals named in the Senate report whose country of origin is one of the seven terror-associated countries included in the vetting executive order: Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. The Senate researchers were not able to obtain complete information on each convicted terrorist, so it is possible that more of the convicted terrorists are from these countries.
The United States has admitted terrorists from all of the seven dangerous countries:
- Somalia: 20
- Yemen: 19
- Iraq: 19
- Syria: 7
- Iran: 4
- Libya: 2
- Sudan: 1
- Total: 72
According to the report, at least 17 individuals entered as refugees from these terror-prone countries. Three came in on student visas and one arrived on a diplomatic visa.
At least 25 of these immigrants eventually became citizens. Ten were lawful permanent residents, and four were illegal aliens.
These facts stand in stark contrast to the assertions by the Ninth Circuit judges who have blocked the president's order on the basis that there is no evidence showing a risk to the United States in allowing aliens from these seven terror-associated countries to come in.
Finally, we reminder readers that while Charles Kurzman, a sociology professor at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, says his research shows no Americans have been killed in the U.S. at the hands of people from the seven countries – Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Sudan and Yemen – since Sept. 11, it's not quite right to say no one from those nations has been arrested or accused in an extremist-related plot while living in the U.S.
23 percent of Muslim Americans involved with extremist plots since Sept. 11 had family backgrounds from the seven countries.
So Judge claims ZERO but in fact the number is 72… Those darn 'alternative facts' are such trouble… or is it racist, sexist, mysoginist, and bogoted when the liberal judiciary is fact-checked?
- There Are 66,719 Empty Mansions In Vancouver
One year ago, when we first started discussing the Vancouver housing bubble, which as we first speculated – and was later confirmed – was the result of Chinese oligarch money-launderers parking “hot cash” in this offshore housing market (at least until a 15% property tax on foreign purchases made Seattle the new Vancouver), we said that Vancouver houses had become the de facto new Swiss bank account, and because of that the houses – once purchased – would remain a highly overprized, if vacant tribute to China’s soaring capital outflows.
Now, courtesy of data by urban planner Andy Yan of Simon Fraser University’s City Program, this has been confirmed because according to the latest census numbers, as of 2016 there were 25,502 unoccupied or empty housing units in the City of Vancouver. Expanding to include the entire metro area, Yan found that vacant or temporarily occupied dwellings have more than doubled since 2001 to 66,719 last year as neighborhoods have hollowed out.
A home sits empty, and awaiting demolition, at the corner of Parker Street
and Victoria Drive in Vancouver on WednesdayYan compared census data for Vancouver over several decades to see how the percentage of “unoccupied” units or ones “occupied solely by foreign residents and/or temporary present residents on Census Day” has doubled during that time the Vancouver Sun reported. In 1986, it was 4%. By 2016, it had doubled to 8.2%.
“Exact definitions and measures have changed slightly over 30 years and patterns should be interpreted as directional,” Yan writes in a report released Wednesday.
The number of Vancouver’s prized, if vacant, mansions far outstrips other municipalities with 25,502 units that are either unoccupied or owned by temporary or foreign residents.
Yan said most of these were concentrated in three areas: Coal Harbour, Marine Gateway and Joyce-Collingwood. Surrey came in second at 11,195, Burnaby at 5,829 and Richmond at 4,021. The focus has clearly been on the most expensive neighborhoods: the number of unoccupied units increased 25% in Richmond between the 2011 and 2016 census and by 28 per cent in Burnaby.
To take advantage of this multi-million mansion ghost town, in November 2016 the Vancouver city council voted to approve a tax on empty homes, the first in Canada. Based on self-reporting owners, the tax is a one-per-cent charge on homes that are not principal residences or are not rented out for at least six months of the year. The goal was to improve Vancouver’s tight rental vacancy rate of 0.6 per cent by encouraging owners of thousands of empty units to offer them up for renting.
Last Thursday, Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson said that “it’s unacceptable for so much housing to be treated as a commodity,” even if, ironically, it was the government’s own actions which allowed the city’s houses to become an offshore piggybank for wealthy Chinese. “Housing is for homes first, and as investments second. Vancouver will continue to do all it can to maintain and protect affordable homes, and pursue all tools available to ensure the best use of all our housing.”
As Bloomberg adds, concerns are growing that the Pacific Coast city is turning into a playground for the rich as luxury real estate squeezes industry and prices out the middle class. The provincial economy leads Canadian growth and job creation, yet its public schools are suffering from declining enrollment and households earn below the national median. Businesses using Canada’s largest port struggle to carve out space, while low-wage service sector jobs cater to wealthy retirees and tourists.
While policymakers and real estate experts are calling for more housing supply and greater density near the city center to boost productivity and temper prices, the latest census figures show the opposite may be happening.
Meanwhile, as a result of the influx of Chinese money, the number of residents on Vancouver’s west side, long favored by families and an easy commute to downtown, has fallen 3% since 2001, in contrast to 5% growth in population across the whole city, Yan said. The reason: median single-family house can cost as much as C$4.9 million in that area – about 65 times Vancouver’s median household income. And while the local population can no longer afford houses in the area, last year David Eby, a member of British Columbia’s legislative assembly, identified C$57.1 million worth of residences bought by students reporting no income in his west-side district of Point Grey.
Such neighborhoods “have become just luxury items like Ferraris,” said Yan. “They’re not affordable for most local incomes.”
The bad news for wealthy Americans, if only in Seattle for the time being, is that they will be next to feel the wrath of China’s billionaire “students” gobbling up any and every multi-million dollar house, unless of course the PBOC is successful in halting China’s unprecedented capital outflow.
It also remains unclear if home sellers in the US Pacific coast accept bitcoin as payment.
- Lindsay Lohan Urges Trump-Putin-Erdogan Meeting To Solve Global Refugee Crisis (No, Seriously)
With “Hillary flunkies” proclaiming holier-than-thou perspectives on the president, after failing in their efforts to urge Americans not to vote for Trump, some ‘so-called’ celebrities are choosing not to “obstruct” Congress, but work towards a solution. Have no fear, Lindsay Lohan is here… to solve the Syrian refugee crisis!
After visiting Syrian refugee camps with Turkish dictator president Recep Tayyip Erdogan (and a token seven-year-old refugee)…
Lindsay Lohan urged during a Facebook Live interview with the Daily Mail, that she wanted a sit-down meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin and other Hollywood celebrities to discuss the Syrian refugee crisis.
“I want to try to get the word out to Donald Trump bring him over there, have him see all the positive things they are doing over there and all America can do to help as well.”
Lohan mentioned Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie and Rachel McAdams as possible other celebrities she would want involved with the meeting.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/embed/video/1410489.html
Why did the world’s leaders not think to ask Hollywood before? What fools, the solution was there the whole time… have celebrities adopt immigrants from the seven nations on Trump’s list. Brilliant!
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