May 25

Today’s News 25th May 2017

  • Suspected Berkeley Antifa Bike Lock Attacker Eric Clanton Arrested For Assault

    Eric Clanton, 28, a former Diablo Valley and California State University philosophy professor suspected in the Antifa bike lock attacks was arrested for assault Wednesday afternoon in Oakland.

    Clanton is being held on $200,000 bail after being booked into Berkeley City Jail – though police have not said whether the arrest is connected to online investigative efforts which identified Clanton as a person of interest in bike lock attacks

    “[Clanton] was arrested on suspicion of use of a firearm during a felony with an enhancement clause and assault with a non-firearm deadly weapon. –East Bay Times“

    //platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

     

    4chan unmasking

    Clanton is the suspected Antifa member going around with a bike lock assaulting Trump supporters. The weaponized autists over at 4chan ‘unmasked’ him based on photographic and video evidence along with publicly available information. 

    (Attack at 18 sec)

     

     

    How 4chan did it… 

     

    Content originally generated at iBankCoin.com * Follow on Twitter @ZeroPointNow

  • Snyder: Desperate Liberals Try To Blame The Manchester Terror Attack On Anyone Other Than Islamic Terrorists

    Authored by Michael Snyder via The End of The American Dream blog,

    The left just can’t seem to understand that Islamic terrorists are going to try to destroy our way of life no matter how nice we are to them. On Monday night, a bombing at Ariana Grande’s Manchester concert made headlines all over the globe. 22 people, including an 8-year-old girl, were killed and 59 were wounded. It is exactly the sort of “soft target” attack that I have been warning about, and ISIS quickly claimed responsibility. Within the last 30 days, there have been 169 Islamic terror attacks in a total of 24 different countries. Last year, the number of global terror attacks was up 25 percent from the year before, and this year we will almost certainly see another all-time record high. But many liberals never even want to use the phrase “Islamic terror” because it doesn’t fit their agenda.

    In fact, many liberals immediately jumped on Twitter after the terror attack in Manchester and started warning about the spread of “Islamophobia”.

    For example, Quen Took posted the following tweet…

    Don’t use incident as an excuse for Islamophobia. Stand with our beautiful Muslim siblings & don’t scapegoat innocent people.

    And TheBardAsPundit warned that engaging in “Islamophobia” may provoke more terror attacks…

    I have a good idea. Let’s piss off more Muslims with mindless Islamophobia. That should help.

    Of course the mainstream media here in the United States attempted to put their own politically-correct spin on things. On ABC, there was far more concern about “anti-Islamic backlash” than there was for the victims of the attack…

    Despite the horrific nature and impact, ABC was eager to downplay the motive behind the deadly attack. In fact, ABC was more worried about the perpetrators than the victims, warning that this could provoke an “anti-Islamic backlash” across Europe.

    And on the Today show on NBC, counter-terrorism “expert” Richard Clarke seemed to blame President Trump for the rise in terror attacks that we have been seeing…

    They have a good police and security service and so do we, but we have no ostracized, we’ve embraced our Muslim Americans. That’s why the talk against Muslims in the last year in the campaign and since has been very counterproductive. The only way to solve this problem is to have everyone think they’re on the same side.

    Yes, let’s follow Clarke’s advice and try to convince the Islamic terrorists that we are on their side.

    That should work.

    Until the entire western world is willing to embrace Islam and swear allegiance to Allah, the radical Islamists will never stop. Their faith tells them that it is their destiny to rule the world, and they will never rest until they have achieved that goal.

    Unfortunately, most people believe what they want to believe, and what most politically-correct pundits in the western world want to believe is that radical Islam is not the problem.

    On CNN, one “analyst” even suggested that the attack in Manchester may have been a “false flag” conducted by “right-wing” extremists…

    CNN “Terror Analyst” Paul Cruickshank said Monday night on Anderson Cooper’s AC360 that the bombing attack in Manchester could be a “right-wing” “false flag.”

     

    “It must also be noted that in recent months in Europe, there’s been a number of false flag plots where right-wing extremists have tried to frame Islamists for terrorism,” Cruickshank said. “We have seen that in Germany in recent weeks.”

    Of course that theory didn’t last long once the authorities identified the attacker as a Muslim.

    It is absolutely imperative that we understand the mindset of these Islamic radicals. If they could press a button that would annihilate all non-Muslims on the entire planet, many of them would do it.

    Some of the more “moderate” jihadists would prefer to give everyone a chance to convert to Islam first before killing them, but the end result would be the same.

    There is no possible way to compromise with people that are intent on exterminating you. And as they get their hands on more powerful weapons, the size and scale of these terror attacks is going to increase exponentially.

    We must make every effort to defeat terror groups such as ISIS militarily, but even more importantly we must seek to turn hearts and minds away from radical Islam all over the planet. It is a bankrupt worldview, and we need to show those that are following radical Islam that there is a much better way.

    Unfortunately, nations all over the western world are turning away from the values and the principles that they were founded upon, and so western leaders have very little to offer at this point.

    One recent report found that Islam is on track to surpass Christianity and will become the largest faith on the entire planet by the year 2070. Violence and bloodshed will continue to be used by jihadists to advance their faith, but another way that the goal of global domination is moved forward is by migration. Paul Nehlen, the author of an upcoming book entitled “Wage The Battle”, recently explained how this works…

    “Hijrah means ‘migration in the name of Allah,’” said Nehlen, who explained that the ultimate goal is to populate non-Muslim nations to the extent needed to impose Shariah law.

     

    “The hijrah is one way of spreading the Shariah, spreading the law of Islam, this political doctrine, to land where Islam isn’t,” Nehlen said. “That’s what this documentary covers. It talks about the bigger picture here of what we saw here. It stems directly from their fundamental texts.”

     

    He said hijrah is another method by which Muslims can earn their salvation.

     

    “Quite unlike a Christian, who believes you can’t earn your way in and only by the grace of God are you granted access to heaven through Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, Muslims believe they can earn their way in,” Nehlen said. “They believe they have to earn their way in.”

    Radical Islam has declared war on us, but most liberals don’t even think that we are in a war.

    And in any war, if one side chooses not to fight the other side wins by default.

    The western world desperately needs to wake up, because we are in a life or death battle, and right now this fight is only in the early rounds.

  • Japan's "Womenomics" Is Working Just As Well As Abenomics… Terribly

    Via Japan Subculture Research Center,

    Japan is getting serious about gender equality – and there were absolutely no bribes paid by Japan to win the right to host the 2020 Olympics – and the nuclear disaster at Fukushima is under control. Decide for yourself which of these three statements is the most untrue.

    Womenomics was touted by Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as his progressive policy to elevate the status of women in what is still a very sexist and unequal society, where women are far from being empowered. The Global Gender Gap report published last year noted that Mr. Abe and the LDP’s pledge to bridge the gender divide resulted in actually widening the gulf, with Nippon sliding down a few notches to 111th in terms of world gender equality. 

    It’s hard to see women in Japan being “empowered” when they can be sexually assaulted with near impunity. The odds that their assailant will be arrested, or prosecuted are low–less than a coin toss. And if he is actually prosecuted–he can sometimes walk free, with no jail time and no criminal record,  by paying damages and saying, “I’m sorry.” It’s a situation that the Abe administration could have changed but neglected to do so, tabling newly revised criminal codes to instead focus on passing a conspiracy bill that the United Nations warns could erode civil liberties.

    Of course, some would argue that “womenomics” have never been about elevating the status of women in Japan – it’s always been about keeping Japanese business thriving and hopefully encouraging woman to work – and breed. Of course, pregnancy in the workplace often is greeted with bullying from all sides. Abe’s vision of Womenomics has certainly never been about improving the lives of Japan’s single mothers, 50% of whom live in poverty. In fact, other than talking about “shining women–it’s not clear exactly what he wants for Japan’s future potential birthing machines.*

    The current Minister of Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment, is of course, also a man, and also in charge of improving Japan’s birthrate. Do we need to say more?

    Yes, Japan’s Prime Minister Abe and the LDP are gungho about Gender Equality. Meet Katsunobu Kato, his home page will convince you.

    Recently, Bloomberg published an interview with Democratic Party leader Renho, in which she pointed out the obvious, Womenomics is all talk and no walk.

    “They should be ashamed to use the word ‘Womenomics’,” Democratic Party leader Renho, the 49-year-old mother of twins, said in an interview in Tokyo late Thursday when asked about the term Abe often uses to describe his efforts. “It’s an embarrassment.”

    Abe had vowed to eliminate waiting lists for childcare in a bid to draw more women into the workforce to make up for Japan’s shrinking population. He also sought to have women take 30 percent of management positions in all fields by 2020.

    On both goals he’s falling well short: Japan was 111th in the World Economic Forum’s Gender Gap ranking for 2016, down 10 places on the previous year.

    “About 80 percent of those who take childcare leave are women, and if they’re forced to wait for daycare, that means unemployment,” Renho said.

     

    “You either get demoted or you give up on work. What’s womenomics about if women are being forced to make such sad choices?”

    For the rest of the article, go to

    Abe’s Policies Failing Women, Japan Opposition Chief Says

    *Reference to women as “birthing machines” is sarcasm. We know that the LDP also thinks of women as much more than that–as potential nurses for the elderly, expert green tea brewers for the office, and caretakers of the children that they should be giving birth to right now for the greater prosperity of Japan."

  • San Francisco Launches Public Defender Office Dedicated To Illegal Immigrants

    To our complete ‘shock’, the liberal bastion of California’s northern shores has just announced that it will create a brand new branch of the Public Defender’s office to specifically defend illegal immigrants in deportation cases.  Adding insult to injury, taxpayers will have to pony up an additional $200,000 each year to cover the cost of 3 public defenders and a paralegal, all of whom will be dedicated to making sure that federal laws are ignored.

    As an NBC affiliate in the Bay Area notes, the new office is expected to handle just 50 clients per year of the 1,500 detained immigrants that currently have scheduled court dates.  All of which just means that taxpayers should expect that $200,000 price tag to grow exponentially over the coming years.  

    Unlike in criminal court, immigrants are not automatically entitled to legal representation in deportation proceedings. However, studies have shown that detained immigrants with attorneys are six times more likely to win their cases.

     

    While San Francisco also provides funding to nonprofits specializing in legal aid to immigrants, the public defender’s office is intended to serve those already in detention, a demographic the nonprofits generally don’t serve.

     

    The unit’s attorneys are each expected to handle around 50 clients per year — a small portion of the estimated 1,500 detained immigrants who currently have court dates in San Francisco, around 85 percent of whom do not have attorneys.

    Meanwhile, thanks to a press release issued by the San Francisco Public Defender’s office, we learn that the enforcement of federal laws is apparently “against our core values as Americans and San Franciscans”…who knew?

    Adachi noted that in the 100 days since President Donald Trump signed his executive order expanding immigration enforcement priorities, immigration arrests have risen 38 percent nationwide.

     

    “Mass deportation is against our core values as Americans and San Franciscans,” Adachi said. “Due process still means something in this country and we are not going to let the federal government ship off our friends and neighbors without a fight.”

     

    Unlike in criminal court, non-citizens in immigration detention do not have the right to court appointed counsel, explained Francisco Ugarte, managing attorney of the Public Defender’s Immigration Unit. Approximately half of the 1,500 detained immigrants with court dates in San Francisco have been in the U.S. for more than a decade. More than 50 percent have one or more close family members who are citizens.

     

    “These are longtime residents who work, attend school, and contribute to our city,” Ugarte said. “Without this program, most would be forced to defend themselves in court against trained government lawyers.”

    Can we also declare that ‘grand larceny’ is “against our core values as Americans” because we think it’s absolutely bogus that we can’t have a couple of Lamborghini’s just because we’re “economically challenged.”

    http://www.nbcbayarea.com/portableplayer/?cmsID=423977644&videoID=tEXs4tolM5J0&origin=nbcbayarea.com&sec=news&subsec=local&Width=600%20Height=337

  • Meet JK2 Westminster LLC – The Kushner Family Real Estate Subsidiary Preying On Poor People

    Authored by Mike Krieger via Liberty Blitzkrieg blog,

    Cox stopped cooking for herself and her son, not wanting food near the sink. A judge allowed her reduced rent for one month. When she moved out soon afterward, Westminster Management sent her a $600 invoice for a new carpet and other repairs. Cox, who is now working as a battery-test engineer and about to buy her first home, was unaware who was behind the company that had put her through such an ordeal. When I told her of Kushner’s involvement, there was a silence as she took it in.

     

    Very few of the complex residents I met, even ones who had been pursued at length in court by JK2 Westminster, had any idea that their rent and late fees were going to the family company of the president’s son-in-law. “That Jared Kushner?” Danny Jackson, a plumber in his 15th year living at Harbor Point Estates, exclaimed. “Oh, my God. And I thought he was the good one.”

     

    At the Carroll Park complex, I met Mike McHargue, a private investigator, and his girlfriend, Patricia Howell. “They’re nothing but slumlords,” Howell told me of Westminster Management. “They take everyone’s money.” When I asked if they knew who was behind the company, they said they did not. “Oh, really?” Howell said when I mentioned Kushner’s name. “Oh, really. And I’m a Trump supporter.”

     

    From The New York Times Magazine article: Jared Kushner’s Other Real Estate Empire

    Yesterday, The New York Times Magazine published a deeply disturbing story about a Kushner family real estate subsidiary with a consistent pattern of aggressive and questionable collection practices aimed at lower income people who can’t defend themselves properly.

    Excerpts from the piece are below, but it should really be read in full.

    Warren sent a letter reporting the problem to the complex’s property manager, a company called Sawyer Realty Holdings. When there was no response, she decided to move out. In January 2010, she submitted the requisite form giving two months’ notice that she was transferring her Section 8 voucher — the federal low-income subsidy that helped her pay the rent — elsewhere. The complex’s on-site manager signed the form a week later, checking the line that read “The tenant gave notice in accordance with the lease.”

     

     

    So Warren was startled in January 2013, three years later, when she received a summons from a private process server informing her that she was being sued for $3,014.08 by the owner of Cove Village. The lawsuit, filed in Maryland District Court, was doubly bewildering. It claimed she owed the money for having left in advance of her lease’s expiration, though she had received written permission to leave. And the company suing her was not Sawyer, but one whose name she didn’t recognize: JK2 Westminster L.L.C.

     

     

    Warren was raising three children alone while taking classes for a bachelor’s degree in health care administration, and she disregarded the summons at first. But JK2 Westminster’s lawyers persisted; two more summonses followed. In April 2014, she appeared without a lawyer at a district-court hearing. She told the judge about the approval for her move, but she did not have a copy of the form the manager had signed. The judge ruled against Warren, awarding JK2 Westminster the full sum it was seeking, plus court costs, attorney’s fees and interest that brought the judgment to nearly $5,000. There was no way Warren, who was working as a home health aide, was going to be able to pay such a sum. “I was so desperate,” she said.

     

     

     

    If the case was confounding to Warren, it was not unique. Hundreds like it have been filed over the last five years by JK2 Westminster and affiliated businesses in the state of Maryland alone, where the company owns some 8,000 apartments and townhouses. Nor was JK2 Westminster quite as anonymous as its opaque name suggested. It was a subsidiary of a large New York real estate firm called Kushner Companies, which was led by a young man whose initials happened to be J.K.: Jared Kushner.

     

     

    In August 2012, a Kushner-led investment group bought 5,500 multifamily units in the Baltimore area with $371 million in financing from Freddie Mac, the government-backed mortgage lender — another considerable bargain. Two years later, Kushner Companies picked up three more complexes in the Baltimore area for $37.9 million. Today, Westminster Management, Kushner Companies’ property-management arm, lists 34 complexes under its control in Maryland, Ohio and New Jersey, with a total of close to 20,000 units.

     

    Kushner’s largest concentration of multifamily units is in the Baltimore area, where the company controls 15 complexes in all — which, if you assume three residents per unit, could be home to more than 20,000 people. All but two of the complexes are in suburban Baltimore County, but they are only “suburban” in the most literal sense. They sit along arterial shopping strips or highways, yet they are easy to miss — the Highland Village complex, for example, is beside the Baltimore-Washington Parkway, but the tall sound barriers dividing it from the six-lane highway render its more than 1,000 units invisible to the thousands traveling that route every day.

     

    At the time of the 2012 Baltimore purchase, Kushner raved about the promise of the low-end multifamily market. “It’s proven over the last few years to be the most resilient asset class, and at the end of the day, it’s a very stable asset class,” he told Multifamily Executive. He said things were proceeding well in the Midwestern complexes he purchased a year earlier. “It was a lot of construction and a lot of evictions,” he said. “But the communities now look great, and the outcome has been phenomenal.”

    Awesome!

    Meanwhile, back to Warren…

    Kamiia Warren still had not paid the $4,984.37 judgment against her by late 2014. Three days before Christmas that year, JK2 Westminster filed a request to garnish her wages from her in-home elder-care job. Five days earlier, Warren had gone to court to fill out a handwritten motion saying she had proof that she was given permission to leave Cove Village in 2010 — she had finally managed to get a copy from the housing department. “Please give me the opportunity to plead my case,” she wrote. But she did not attach a copy of the form to her motion, not realizing it was necessary, so a judge denied it on Jan. 9, on the grounds that there was “no evidence submitted.”

     

    The garnishing started that month. Warren was in the midst of leaving her job, but JK2 Westminster garnished her bank account too. After her account was zeroed out, a loss of about $900, she borrowed money from her mother to buy food for her children and pay her bills. That February — five years after she left Cove Village — Warren returned to court, this time with the housing form in hand, asking the judge to halt garnishment. “I am a single mom of three and my bank account was wiped clean by the plaintiff,” she pleaded in another handwritten request. “I cannot take care of my kids when they snatch all of my money out of my account. I do not feel I owe this money. Please have mercy on my family and I.” She told me that when she called the law office representing JK2 Westminster that same day from the courthouse to discuss the case, one of the lawyers told her: “This is not going to go away. You will pay us.”

     

    The judge denied Warren’s request without explanation. And JK2 Westminster kept pressing for the rest of the money, sending out one process server after another to present Warren with legal papers. Finally, in January 2016, the court sent notice of a $4,615 lien against Warren — a legal claim against her for the remaining judgment. Warren began to cry as she recounted the episode to me. She said the lien has greatly complicated her hopes of taking out a loan to start her own small assisted-living center. She had gone a couple of years without a bank account, for fear of further garnishing. “It was just pure greed,” she said. “It was unnecessary.” I asked why she hadn’t pushed harder against the judgment once she had the necessary evidence in hand. “They know how to work this stuff,” she replied. “They know what to do, and here I am, I don’t know anything about the law. I would have to hire a lawyer or something, and I really can’t afford that. I really don’t know my rights. I don’t know all the court lingo. I knew that up against them I would lose.”

     

    A search for “JK2 Westminster” in the database of Maryland’s District Court system brings back 548 cases in which it is the plaintiff — and that does not include hundreds of other cases that have been filed in the name of the company’s individual complexes.

     

    In the cases that Tapper has brought to court on behalf of JK2 Westminster and individual Kushner-controlled companies, there is a clear pattern of Kushner Companies’ pursuing tenants over virtually any unpaid rent or broken lease — even in the numerous cases where the facts appear to be on the tenants’ side. Not only does the company file cases against them, it pursues the cases for as long as it takes to collect from the overmatched defendants — often several years. The court docket of JK2 Westminster’s case against Warren, for instance, spans more than three years and 112 actions — for a sum that amounts to maybe two days’ worth of billings for the average corporate-law-firm associate, from a woman who never even rented from JK2 Westminster. The pursuit is all the more remarkable given how transient the company’s prey tends to be. Hounding former tenants for money means paying to send out process servers who often report back that they were unable to locate the target. This does not deter Kushner Companies’ lawyers. They send the servers back out again a few months later.

     

    In March 2009, Joan Beverly, a probation agent, signed the lease for her daughter, Lennettea, for a unit at Dutch Village, a complex on the northern edge of Baltimore. Lennettea moved out a year later, several months before her lease was up. Kushner Companies bought Dutch Village more than two years later. In December 2012, JK2 Westminster filed suit in Baltimore County District Court against Beverly, seeking $3,810.16 — several months of rent it said it was owed, plus about $1,000 in repair costs, including $10 for “failure to return laundry room card.”

     

    That February, Lennettea filed a written court notice explaining that her mother, who was dying of pancreatic cancer, was “in terminal hospice care and is not eligible to work.” She added by way of supporting evidence a letter from the hospice provider to Joan Beverly’s bank, explaining her and her husband’s late mortgage payments on their home: “There has been added financial stress because Mrs. Beverly is very ill at this time.” But JK2 Westminster persisted in seeking a hearing on the suit. In March, a district court judge found in favor of the company — a total judgment against Joan of more than $5,500.

     

    Joan died two weeks later. Her husband, Tyrone Beverly, a retired longshoreman, requested that the judgment against his deceased wife be removed but was denied. The case remains open in the court database. Tyrone, who was married to Joan for 32 years, told me that he had assumed the judgment had been dismissed and was unaware that it was still listed as awaiting payment. “They just didn’t treat us fair,” he said.

     

    Over all, about nine out of every 10 cases brought by JK2 Westminster that I surveyed resulted in judgments against the defendants, who often did not appear in person for the hearings — and if they did, almost never had legal representation. How could it possibly be worth Kushner Companies’ while to pursue hundreds of people so aggressively over a few thousand dollars here and there? After all, the pursuit itself cost money. And it wasn’t happening just in Baltimore — Doug Wilkins, a lawyer in Toledo who has represented some of the complexes bought there by Kushner, told me the company is seeking far more monetary judgments than did previous owners.

     

    Matthew Hertz, whose Bethesda, Md., firm represents landlords and tenants in similar cases, explained to me that there is a logic behind such aggressive tactics. The costs of the pursuit are not as high as you might imagine, he said — people are not that hard to find in the age of cellphones and easily accessible databases. “If I give my process server a name and phone number, it’s generally enough to trace you,” he said. “If I have a date of birth and Social Security number, it’s even easier.” The legal costs can be billed to the defendant as attorney’s fees, if the terms of the lease allow. And garnishing wages is relatively easy to do by court order, assuming the defendant has wages to garnish.

     

    The Highland Village complex, along the Baltimore-Washington Parkway, is one of Kushner Companies’ largest, a vast maze of lanes and courts lined with rows of short brick-and-siding-fronted homes. Like the other Kushner complexes I visited in Baltimore’s southern and eastern suburbs, it is situated in what was once a predominantly white working-class community, within reasonable commuting distance of the harbor and industrial plants, now defunct, like Bethlehem Steel. In recent decades, many black transplants from the city and Hispanic immigrants have arrived as well, and Highland Village is an unusually integrated place.

     

    The complex, like the others I saw, seemed designed to preclude neighborliness — most of the townhouses lack even the barest stoop to sit out on, and at least one complex has signs forbidding ball-playing (“violators will be prosecuted”). At another complex, kids had drawn a rectangle on the side of a storage shed in lieu of a hoop for their basketball game. The only meeting points at many of the complexes are the metal mailbox stands, the Dumpsters and the laundry room. And the only thing that united many of the residents I spoke to, it seemed, was resentment of their landlord.

     

    They complained about Westminster Management’s aggressive rent-collection practices, which many told me exceeded what they had experienced under the previous owners. Rent is marked officially late, they said, if it arrives after 4:30 p.m. on the fifth day of the month. But Westminster recently made paying the rent much more of a challenge. Last fall, it sent notice to residents saying that they could no longer pay by money order (on which many residents, who lack checking accounts, had relied) at the complex’s rental office and would instead need to go to a Walmart or Ace Cash Express and use an assigned “WIPS card” — a plastic card linked to the resident’s account — to pay their rent there. That method carries a $3.50 fee for every payment, and getting to the Walmart or Ace is difficult for the many residents without cars.

     

    The worst troubles may have been those described in a 2013 court case involving Jasmine Cox’s unit at Cove Village. They began with the bedroom ceiling, which started leaking one day. Then maggots started coming out of the living-room carpet. Then raw sewage started flowing out of the kitchen sink. “It sounded like someone turned a pool upside down,” Cox told me. “I heard the water hitting the floor and I panicked. I got out of bed and the sink is black and gray, it’s pooling out of the sink and the house smells terrible.”

     

    Cox stopped cooking for herself and her son, not wanting food near the sink. A judge allowed her reduced rent for one month. When she moved out soon afterward, Westminster Management sent her a $600 invoice for a new carpet and other repairs. Cox, who is now working as a battery-test engineer and about to buy her first home, was unaware who was behind the company that had put her through such an ordeal. When I told her of Kushner’s involvement, there was a silence as she took it in.

     

    Very few of the complex residents I met, even ones who had been pursued at length in court by JK2 Westminster, had any idea that their rent and late fees were going to the family company of the president’s son-in-law. “That Jared Kushner?” Danny Jackson, a plumber in his 15th year living at Harbor Point Estates, exclaimed. “Oh, my God. And I thought he was the good one.”

     

    At the Carroll Park complex, I met Mike McHargue, a private investigator, and his girlfriend, Patricia Howell. “They’re nothing but slumlords,” Howell told me of Westminster Management. “They take everyone’s money.” When I asked if they knew who was behind the company, they said they did not. “Oh, really?” Howell said when I mentioned Kushner’s name. “Oh, really. And I’m a Trump supporter.”

     

    Jared Kushner stepped down as chief executive of Kushner Companies in January. But he remains a stakeholder in the company — his share of company-related trusts is estimated to be worth at least $600 million — and the company says it has no intention of selling off its multifamily holdings. (JK2 Westminster was formally dissolved in December, but Kushner Companies still owns the complexes through other entities; lawsuits against tenants are now typically filed in the names of the complexes themselves.) Because Kushner retains his interest in the complexes, the White House told The Baltimore Sun in February that he would recuse himself from any policy decisions about Section 8 funding, as many of his tenants rely on it for their rent. But even as Kushner now busies himself with his ever-expanding White House portfolio, his company is carrying on its vigorous efforts in court.

    On a related note, here’s an article I published earlier this month: Kushner Companies Seen Hawking Shady U.S. Visa Buying Residency Program to Wealthy Chinese

  • "Something's Breaking" – Yuan Suddenly Spikes To 2-Month Highs

    Traders in Asia are bemused as offshore Yuan suddenly spikes by the most in 2 months (following dollar’s post-Fed-Minutes breakdown) to 2-month highs…

    It seems The Fed’s potentially dovish realisation that data-dependence is going to hold them back from their plans to hike rates no matter what is rippling through the world’s risk markets as Yuan spikes suddenly and dramatically in Asia trading…

    Sending offshore Yuan to 2-month highs..

     

    As we warned earlier it seems The National Team are active in stocks…

     

    Rebounding once again even as Iron ore plumbs new depths.

    As one Hong Kopng based trader said “something’s breaking!”

  • Comey 'Friend' Warns Trump "If I Were You, I'd Be Scared"

    First it was anonymous colleagues, then his dad, and now it's a 'friend' of Jim Comey that CNN reports the fired FBI director has a story to tell, adding that he would be scared if he were President Trump.

    As The Hill reports, Benjamin Wittes, who describes himself as a Comey confidant, said on CNN when asked how Comey was doing.

    "He's going to be fine. He's not somebody who spends time feeling sorry for himself,"

     

    "I thought it was interesting and very telling that he declined an opportunity to tell his story in private. He clearly wants to do it in a public setting,"

     

    "I think that's a reflection of the fact that this is a guy with a story to tell. I think if I were Donald Trump that would scare me a lot."

    This comes days after a report said Comey is expected to testify that he believes Trump was deliberately trying to meddle in the FBI's investigation of Russian interference in the presidential election.

    One wonders how long until Ray Dalio, Comey's former boss, and until recently a fan of Donald Trump, is also asked to comment (off the record) on the upcoming Pay Per View show  of the century, as Comey finally sits down to "clear the air."

  • What Is Causing China's Yield Curves To Invert: UBS Answers

    Something strange is taking place in China, and we are not talking about the largely optical, mostly irrelevant first downgrade of China by Moody’s since 1989 (which still managed to unleash diplomatic hell in Beijing), and in which the rating agency simply admitted what everyone else already knew about the 300% debt/GDP economy.

    The bigger issue, as we noted previously, is that both the short-term…

     

    and conventional Chinese funding market appears to be breaking…

    … because as of this week, not only has the one-year Shanghai Interbank Offered Rate, or SHIBOR, exceeded the Loan Prime Rate for the first time ever, meaning Chinese banks’ cost of borrowing is now above the rate they charge customers, but the Chinese government bond yield curve has inverted in not just one, but two places, with both the 3s5s and the 7s10s negative.

     

    The question everyone wants answered is why. One attempt at just that, came today from UBS which first give the blow by blow of how we got there:

    As market concerns about financial regulation continued in the first half of May, bond yields kept rising, with the 10-year CGB yield reaching 3.69% on 10 May. The People’s Bank of China (PBoC) renewed MLFs and increased net liquidity injection through OMOs. April economic data, such as FAI released by NBS, came in weaker than market expectations. More importantly, there were media reports that the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) showed a soft tone in requirements for banks to reach standards. Besides, the central bank’s statement on strengthening coordination in financial regulations eased market concerns about financial regulation.

    As a result of these factors, the back end of the yield curve declined while the front end to continued rising moderately. According to Chinabond yield curves, as of 19 May 2017, 1-year, 5-year and 10-year CGB yields were 3.48%, 3.68% and 3.63%, respectively, up 9bp, 20bp and 7bp compared with 5 May 2017. Yields of 1-year, 5-year and 10-year policy financial bonds (CFBs; we use the bonds issued by the Export and Import Bank of China as examples) were 4.11%, 4.45% and 4.51%, respectively, up 21bp, 10bp and 6bp compared with 5 May 2017.

    UBS notes that from the historical data of term spreads, we can see that inversion of 7-year and 10-year has happened more often, which could be attributed to better liquidity in the secondary market for 10-year bonds, but the recent greater than 10bp spread between 7-year and 10-year yields is still the first time that has happened over the past few years. The inverted 3s/10s and 5s/10s curve is also rare to see.

    And while liquidity may be a factor, UBS concedes that liquidity gaps have always existed and may not be the main reason for the recent curve inversion. As such, the Swiss bank admits that “we need to consider some other factors.“

    Below are some of the incremental factors besides liquidity:

    • In terms of CGB issuance in the primary market, auction results in May showed that auction rates were all higher than market expectations, except for the 50-year CGB auction, which came in lower than the market’s expectation. Also, the spread between auction results and market expectations was larger for the less liquid tenors.
    • That indicates that during weak market sentiment, a negative feedback loop formed between the primary market and secondary market. Besides, from an allocation demand perspective, insurance companies have shown increased demand for CGBs in recent months, in addition to banks, the major buyers of CGBs, which may provide support to long-tenor bonds.

    More importantly, however, UBS notes that the inverted curve also reflects a contradiction between market expectations on policies and economic fundamentals.

     On one hand, the slowdown of economic growth may prevent the back end of the yield curve from further going up. On the other hand, financial institutions’ funding costs have kept rising but the financing costs for the real economy measured by loan rates have not risen that much. And investors can hardly expect the monetary policy to ease in the current circumstances.

    • We think the rise in financial institutions’ funding costs shows their intention to maintain the current asset/liability scale. From this perspective, the deleveraging process may continue for a longer period, while the change in economic fundamentals has not been enough to trigger a reversal of the monetary policy tone. We think in the short term, the yield curve is more likely to repair by having the back end go up again when the gap between market expectations and implementation of financial regulations appears again. Among long-tenor CGBs, the spread between 7-year and 10-year yields is quite large, which has made the relative value of 7-year CGBs rise much higher, in our view. We think when market sentiment calms temporarily, the yield of 7-year CGBs may adjust downward and provide a tactical trading opportunity. However, we expect the 10-year CGB yield to fluctuate at a high level, with a short-term cap around 3.7-3.8%. Although economic fundamentals may put some limit on the rise of the 10-year level, we don’t think there is much room for downside adjustment. Over a longer period, considering the progress of deleveraging, we think investors still need to pay attention to the renewal of banks’ funds that are under management of non-bank financial institutions in H2.
    • Regarding the front end of the yield curve, although we think room for money market rates to go lower is limited in the short term, market expectations about liquidity conditions could stabilize, given PBoC’s recent tone, and that may create room for the front end of the CGB curve to go a bit lower. Over a longer period, we think if a more apparent economic slowdown happens in H2 and forces monetary policy to adjust, a larger opportunity for the front end to move down may appear.

    The above not only why the CGB curve is inverted, but also why SHIBOR1Y is now above the LPR.

    And while that may answer why both the CGB and the short-term funding yield curves are inverted, another, just as pressing question emerges: assuming UBS is right, and these yield oddities are merely “contradictions” between market reality and hopes, what happens when this divergence between fundamentals and expectations converges, and more importantly, what will such a mean reversion look like for China’s already bizarrely trading financial assets.

  • Angry China Slams Moodys For Using "Inappropriate Methodology"

    The market may have long since moved on from Moody’s downgrade of China to A1 from Aa3 (by now even long-only funds have learned that in a world with $18 trillion in excess liquidity, the opinion of Moodys is even more irrelevant), but for Beijing the vendetta is only just starting, and in response to Tuesday’s downgrade, China’s finance ministry accused the rating agency of applying “inappropriate methodology” in downgrading China’s credit rating, saying the firm had overestimated the difficulties faced by the Chinese economy and underestimated the country’s ability to enhance supply-side reforms.

    In other words, Moody’s failed to understand that 300% debt/GDP is perfectly normal and that China has a very explicit exit strategy of how to deal with this unprecedented debt load which in every previous occasion in history has led to sovereign default.

    The Ministry of Finance reaction came after Moody’s first, and very, very long overdue, downgrade of China since 1989 citing concerns about risks from China’s relentlessly growing debt load as shown below.

    “China’s economy started off well this year, which shows that the reforms are working,” the ministry said in a statement on its website.  Actually, it only shows that China had injected a record amount of loans into the economy at the start of the year, and nothing else. And now that the credit impulse is fading, the hangover has arrived.

     

    Moody’s on Wednesday also downgraded the ratings of 26 Chinese government-related non-financial corporate and infrastructure issuers and rated subsidiaries by one notch. It also downgraded the ratings of several domestic banks, including the Agricultural Bank of China Limited’s long-term deposit rating from A1 to A2.  It also eventually downgraded Hong Kong and said credit trends in China will continue to have a significant impact on Hong Kong’s credit profile due to close economic, financial and political ties with the mainland.

    So how did China defend its position? The same way US companies fabricate their own numbers to confuse shareholders: with “pro forma” arguments.

    For example Moody’s noted that the importance Chinese authorities have attached to maintaining robust growth would result in sustained policy stimulus, and such government spending would contribute to rising debt across the economy. “We expect the government’s direct debt burden to rise gradually toward 40 percent of GDP by 2018 and closer to 45 percent by the end of the decade,” Moody’s noted.

    To this, the MOF responded that government bonds reached 27.33 trillion yuan ($3.97 trillion) at the end of 2016, or about 37% of the country’s GDP. The proportion is much lower than the 60% picket line delimited by the EU, the ministry said.  Liu Xuezhi, a senior analyst at the Bank of Communications, said that the proportion of government bonds to GDP has been continuously dropping since peaking in 2013, largely due to the government efforts to manage debt.

    “I think Moody’s reasons are debatable,” he said.

    Of course, what the MOF forgot to mention is the roughly 200% in corporate debt issued in large part by entities that are State-owned enterprises, and which the government for mostly refuses to go bankrupt over fears of mass riots, civil disobedience and even war.  As a result virtually all of China’s corporate debt is effectively sovereign.

    That did not prevent China from spinning more propaganda.

    Zheng Xinye, associate dean of the School of Economics at the Renmin University of China, also told the Global Times on Wednesday that the government has taken effective measures, such as bond swaps and perfecting the issuance and management system of local government debt, to rein in bond risks.  Liu added that China’s fiscal revenue has been rising since 2009. “Besides, the Chinese government has income channels which other countries don’t, such as land transfer money and State assets. Therefore, I don’t think China would be facing serious financial pressure, at least not in the next few years,” he told the Global Times on Wednesday.

    Zheng also said that the government wouldn’t need to use fiscal measures to stimulate growth, as the effects of supply-side reforms would sustain the economy’s momentum.  He may have even said it with a straight face.

    Additionally, China took offense at Moody’s forecast that China’s growth will slow to 5% in five years, because of a smaller working-age population and continuing production slowdown. 

    To this, Liu said the chances are very slim for China’s economy to slip to 5 percent in the next five years. “I believe China’s GDP growth will remain above 6.5 percent at the end of 2020, as China has abundant room for policy adjustments to support economic growth,” Liu said. It has even more abundant room to goalseek its data to whatever it wants, however, without the benefit of “creating” 40% of GDP in the form of new credit, China’s economy will implode.

    Zheng disagreed, and said the economy has not shown any signs of sliding.

    One place where China’s apparatchiks were right is that Moody’s downgrade would hurt overseas investor confidence in the Chinese market or collaborations with domestic companies.

    “It would also make it more difficult for domestic companies to seek financing in overseas markets,” Liu noted.  But Liu said domestic financial markets would not be affected as much, because they’re not entirely open. And for a good, if scary, explanation of what happens as China’s debt issuance shift domestically, read this morning Bloomberg piece “China’s Downgrade Could Lead to a Mountain of Debt.”

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