A Trump candidacy wouldn’t be complete without a public firing, would it? Without equivocation or delay, after acting AG Yates revolted against Trump in ordering the DOJ to not defend Trump’s refugee ban, Trump shit canned her.
He said she “has betrayed the Department of Justice.”
And just like that, with a bat of an eye and nod of the head, she’s gone.
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Because the democrats are obstructing to approve Trump’s AG pick, Sentator Jeff Sessions, he is stuck is an Obama holdover named Sally Yates. Some are calling her actions a mutiny, I view them more of an act in childish stupidity, as she’s well aware that whatever actions she takes now are both fleeting and irrelevant — since she will be replaced shortly.
In a statement issued today, much to the delight of the leftist press, Ms. Yates ordered the Department of Justice to ignore the wishes of the President of the United States.
Source: NYT
“I am responsible for ensuring that the positions we take in court remain consistent with this institution’s solemn obligation to always seek justice and stand for what is right,” Ms. Yates wrote in a letter to Justice Department lawyers. “At present, I am not convinced that the defense of the executive order is consistent with these responsibilities nor am I convinced that the executive order is lawful.”
The decision is largely symbolic — Mr. Trump’s nominee to be attorney general, Senator Jeff Sessions, is likely to be confirmed soon — but it highlights the deep divide at the Justice Department and elsewhere in the government over Mr. Trump’s order.
Mr. Trump has the authority to fire Ms. Yates, but as the top Senate-confirmed official at the Justice Department, she is the only one authorized to sign foreign surveillance warrants, an essential function at the department.
“For as long as I am the acting attorney general, the Department of Justice will not present arguments in defense of the executive order, unless and until I become convinced that it is appropriate to do so,” she wrote.
Here is her statement.
On January 27, 2017, the President signed an Executive Order regarding immigrants and refugees from certain Muslim-majority countries. The order has now been challenged in a number of jurisdictions. As the Acting Attorney General, it is my ultimate responsibility to determine the position of the Department of Justice in these actions.
My role is different from that of the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), which, through administrations of both parties, has reviewed Executive Orders for form and legality before they are issued. OLC’s review is limited to the narrow question of whether, in OLC’s view, a proposed Executive Order is lawful on its face and properly drafted. Its review does not take account of statements made by an administration or it surrogates close in time to the issuance of an Executive Order that may bear on the order’s purpose. And importantly, it does not address whether any policy choice embodied in an Executive Order is wise or just.
Similarly, in litigation, DOJ Civil Division lawyers are charged with advancing reasonable legal arguments that can be made supporting an Executive Order. But my role as leader of this institution is different and broader. My responsibility is to ensure that the position of the Department of Justice is not only legally defensible, but is informed by our best view of what the law is after consideration of all the facts. In addition, I am responsible for ensuring that the positions we take in court remain consistent with this institution’s solemn obligation to always seek justice and stand for what is right. At present, I am not convinced that the defense of the Executive Order is consistent with these responsibilities nor am I convinced that the Executive Order is lawful.
Consequently, for as long as I am the Acting Attorney General, the Department of Justice will not present arguments in defense of the Executive Order, unless and until I become convinced that it is appropriate to do so.
The Donald doesn’t approve of this type of fuckery.
Comments »The Democrats are delaying my cabinet picks for purely political reasons. They have nothing going but to obstruct. Now have an Obama A.G.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 31, 2017
It’s hard to describe the person featured in this leaked periscope video as anything but unhinged. Whether or not she’s representative of the majority of anti-Trump, Black Lives Matter activists isn’t quantifiable at this time. It is, however, ridiculous to see people supporting this brand of hatred, designed to disrupt the very fabric of western civilization.
That being said, whatever happened to dignity and grace? Are those qualities no longer important to the left?
In this clip, a Black Lives Matter activist demanded that white people hand over their homes, money and property to pay reparations to black and indigenous people.
“The White House must die”.
I find it hard to believe any ‘normal’ democrat wants this sordid brand of activism representing their interests. For the republican party, this is like a gift that keeps on giving. The further entrenched the leftist media and activist organizations become, the more Americans become disgusted by them. Say what you want about the popular vote during the elections, the fact remains — republicans have been making strident gains over the past 8 years in every facet of government, both national and local — netting more than 1,000 legislative positions since 2010.
In my estimation, the behavior of the left is the result of decades of social engineering, which taught children that everyone was a winner and to avoid dangerous objects, like see-saws or playing dodgeball. They seem to be unable to deal with adversity; and instead of coping with defeat, like any normal well-adjusted person after an appropriate period of mourning, they become unhinged and resort to primeval animalistic behavior.
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Here is the game plan for Uber.
Create a cool app that people can use to order a cab. Lie to limo and cab drivers about earnings potential, creating chaos amongst your competitors.
Poach as many cab drivers as possible, even if that means oversupplying market with livery cars.
Use growth to raise more capital.
Invest capital to create autonomous car technology that will replace the drivers you just hired.
Launch self driving cars, lay off all workers. Reap the benefits of not having to share fares with drivers.
Fin (cue dystopian society music).
NYC medallion owners are going bankrupt, en masse, thanks to a 50% drop in medallion prices — due to the advent of Uber and Lyft.
At Capitol One and Bank United, distressed loans are greater than 50%, more than 3x last year’s level.
“This is the portion of our loan portfolio that we keep the closest eye on, for obvious reasons,” Rajinder Singh, then BankUnited’s chief operating officer, told investors last January.
Shares of $MFIN, formerly known as TAXI, a play on NYC medallions, have been ravaged.
Once the Fed gets around to raising rates again, the remainder of the taxi medallion owners will be destroyed — just in time for Uber to unleash their self driving cars on the masses and cool new update to their app.
NYC employs 42,000 cab drivers, 13,000 of which are yellow cabs. Nationwide, over 230,000 men and women drive taxis, most of whose are targeted for full unemployment by Uber.
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The gurus at Goldman have spoken. European markets, buoyed by the clowns at the ECB, will enjoy twice the returns in 2017 than their American counterparts.
Due to the Fed’s intervention, by jacking up rates, Goldman sees limited upside here. Once those pesky elections are concluded overseas, Europe will shine like a S. African diamond.
It’s worth noting, from current levels, they only see very little gains ahead, less than 4%. You’re probably better off taking the year off and practicing your dart throwing skills, than investing in stocks, according to Goldman.
Comments »European equities will catch up to their U.S. peers once the uncertainty surrounding near-term elections is lifted, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
The Stoxx Europe 600 Index will return 8 percent including dividends by end-2017, boosted by a weak euro, strong global growth and recovered oil prices, according to Christian Mueller-Glissmann, managing director of portfolio strategy and asset allocation at Goldman Sachs in London. The S&P 500 Index will return 4 percent, Goldman predicts, as optimism about economic growth in the U.S. fades and mutes the stock rally. The return forecasts are in local currencies.
“U.S. equities will net still be up, but less than Europe, which is catching up,” Mueller-Glissmann said in an interview at Goldman’s offices in London. “What is generating optimism in the U.S. right now are the tax cuts and fiscal spending, and both of those might be watered down over the course of the year. We have a pretty good set-up for Europe to do well.”
“It will be tough to deliver on all of the promises while rates are catching up and valuations are extremely high,” he said, referring to the U.S. Goldman’s asset allocation strategy is overweight European equities and underweight U.S. stocks over a 12-month horizon. It’s neutral on the Stoxx 600 and overweight the S&P 500 over a three-month timespan.
Banks are among Goldman’s preferred sectors in Europe this year, as they benefit from a steeper yield curve. Investors can buy bank stocks to hedge their portfolios’ sensitivity to higher rates, Mueller-Glissmann said. Other strategists have warned the link between banks and bond yields will eventually fade.
Goldman predicts the Stoxx Europe 600 Index will end the year at 380, 3.7 percent higher than its closing level on Friday, while it estimates the S&P 500 will end the year at 2,300.
This is all very well and good. The IMF have made demands to their puppets in Greece, which if not met, will result in the entire EU bailout to crumble to pieces. Most assuredly, this would result in markets reeling from the shock — plunging freely towards the pits of hell.
The condensed version of the aforementioned crisis, which is definitely beginning to loom, has to do with lack of progress by the Greek government to balance a budget.
Should the IMF pullout, Germany has stated that a new deal would need to be voted on by national parliaments. The world is a much different place now, than when the last bailout was forged. With nationalism running high across Europe, there’s no guarantee that a new Greek bailout will pass now, at least not without drama.
The result of this chicanery is a notable divergence between German bonds and the PIGS (Portuguese, Italian, Spaniard, Greek).
The spread between Portuguese and German bunds is now 372bps.
Almost two-thirds of the actions creditors have demanded for the disbursement of the next tranche of emergency loans have yet to be completed, the government conceded in a memo discussed between Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos and bailout auditors last week in Brussels, a person familiar with the matter said.
Even though the memo laid out a series of commitments to ensure the work will be completed, creditors said the proposals weren’t good enough, a separate official said. The people asked not to be named as the contents of the memo haven’t been made public.
Europe’s most indebted state is locked in talks with officials representing the European Stability Mechanism, the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the IMF over the terms attached to the loans keeping it afloat since 2010.
IMF staff said in a draft report obtained by Bloomberg that the current structure of Greek public finances is “fundamentally inefficient, unfair, and ultimately socially unsustainable,” adding to doubts about whether the Fund will eventually re-join the Greek bailout. Euro area governments — notably Germany — have said failure to get the IMF on board would require a new agreement, which needs to be approved by national parliaments.
In addition to asking for a lower income tax threshold and pension cuts for current retirees, a demand the Greek government doesn’t accept so far, the IMF is also pushing for the European creditors to off more debt-relief measures.
“We believe that Greece’s debt burden can be manageable if the agreed reforms are fully implemented,” a spokesman for the euro area’s crisis fund said Sunday.
A European official told reporters in Brussels last week that Greece must resolve the standoff by the next meeting of euro area finance ministers on Feb. 20, before as many as five European nations hold elections that will make negotiations politically difficult.
Greek stocks plunged today by more than 3.5%.
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This was one of those moments that the second you heard it, you knew what it meant.
Wall Street loves their low wage’d immigrants. When you fuck with the plantation workers, there will be hell to pay for it. Hence, we’re seeing a sharp decline in stocks today, all to do with panic and protest, crying, and loathesome despair.
Then Trump did a presser where he said “people thought the market would go down under me. Pffff. People who know me, know what I’m about and the market went up massively.”
Well fuck me running sideways in a field filled with cactai. This is an ominous statement.
Trump: “We are going to simplify, reduce, eliminate regulations” for small businesses https://t.co/6OZtrfIwim https://t.co/Jwhrj5Kpvo
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) January 30, 2017
Take it back. Say you didn’t mean it.
Aside from dooming the market, Trump made fun of a few people, said regulations were going out. He signed an executive order declaring that for every 1 regulation enacted, two must be revoked. In other words, all of the shills at the EPA are out of work, completely homeless.
Stocks are haranguing lower. Expect carnage and bloodshed. For the sake of digital finance, we need a market crash. Maybe we’ll even get an Exodus oversold signal. Its been more than 6 months since the last one, unprecedented lack of volatility.
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I never understood why someone would want to be tethered to a fucking tracking device, willingly. Criminals have been wearing fitbits for decades, under the watchful eye of law enforcement to make sure they weren’t leaving their home-jails. Enterprising criminals would spend countless hours trying to jimmy their way out of the fuckers — totally uninterested in the number of steps they were taking. They were only interested in robbing another bank. But you fuckers, you stupid shits, need to know how many steps you’re take on a daily basis and become somewhat elated by reaching meaningless goals, like 10,000.
What does that even mean? You didn’t build those steps, someone else did.
Listen up, fat face. Quit eating so much fat and carbs. Go to the gym at least 3 times per week and do a lot of dead lifts. You’ll be alright in 6 months by following Fly’s fitness regimen.
Now where’s my $199? I’ll slap a fucking watch on your wrist that will tell you to quit eating those fucking pizza pies and/or to get off your fat asses, quit watching Netflix, and go lift something heavy.
As a company, Fitbit is doomed, not because their tech is retarded (which it is), but because they haven’t a moat for their idiot tracking device.
Via Briefing.
Lowers Q4 EPS to ($0.51-0.56) from $0.14-0.18 vs $0.17 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; revs to $572-580 mln from $725-750 mln vs $734.57 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate. The company expects non-GAAP fourth quarter gross margin to be materially below its previously issued 46% guidance due to excess inventory and other related charges as follows: One-time write downs of tooling equipment and component inventory of ~$68 million. Increased rebates and channel pricing promotions of ~$37 million which is recorded as a reduction in revenue and others.
“Fourth quarter results are expected to be below our prior guidance range; however, we are confident this performance is not reflective of the value of our brand, market-leading platform, and company’s long-term potential. While we have experienced softer-than-expected holiday demand for trackers in our most mature markets, especially during Black Friday, we have continued to grow rapidly in select markets like EMEA, where revenue grew 58% during the fourth quarter. To address this reduction in growth and what we believe is a temporary slowdown and transition period, we are taking clear steps to reduce operating costs. Looking forward, we believe Fitbit is in a unique position to stimulate new areas of demand by leveraging the data we collect to deliver a more personalized experience while developing upgraded versions of existing products and launching additional products to expand into new categories.”
Sees FY17 ($0.22-0.44) vs $0.64 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees revs $1.5-1.7 bln vs $2.39 bln Capital IQ Consensus. Preliminary non-GAAP free cash flow guidance of ~negative $50 to $100 million.
Long-term non-GAAP gross margin of ~45% versus previous 50% target.
Fitbit is taking direct action to reduce the expense basis of the co while maintaining necessary investments to drive future growth and maintain its global leadership position in the wearables market.
Targeting a reduction in the 2016 exit operating expense run rate of ~$200 million, to ~$850 million for 2017, which includes realigning sales and marketing spend and improved optimization of research and development investments.
Conducting a reorganization of its business, including a reduction in force, that will impact ~110 employees, constituting ~6% of the co’s global workforce, creating a more focused and efficient operating model. The cost of these reorganization efforts is expected to be ~$4 million to be recorded in the first quarter of 2017.
The stock is down 13% now, amazingly in the $6s.
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I was talking to a friend of mine last night about the Trump immigration ban, which is designed to freeze things until DHS can determine a better strategy to vet people coming into the country. We both agreed that part of the shock from the revelations stems from the fact we’ve been programmed to believe politicians just say stuff to get elected, and then rarely follow through on campaign promises.
The fact that Trump is doing every single thing he said he would in the campaign should instill the fear of God in Hillary Clinton, by the way. Just saying.
Like it or not, Trump got elected on the platform of a stronger border and immigration policy. You should have worked harder when it counted to get Hillary elected. The problem you had is the smug media, incessantly telling you Trump had zero chances of winning. Occam’s razor cuts both ways, doesn’t it?
Trump just fired off a few tweets, mocking Schumers tears, and also explaining why he did the ban immediately, instead of retard style warnings favored by Obama and Bush — which takes away the element of surprise.
When it comes to building walls, no country is better suited and experienced to offer its services than Israel. The entirety of Israel is being fenced and walled in, just like in the movie World War Z. Sometimes life imitates art and vice versa. Anyway, I haven’t seen many people discuss who might profit from the wall, aside from the occasional moribund concrete and steel plays. Recently I schooled you on galvanized metal and how important Zinc was in that process. Now I’m gonna tell you that we’re not just building a big old dumb wall, assholes. This isn’t going to be something you take a ladder to and get your family over.
This wall is going to be crawling with sensors and intermittent guard towers, robots — state of terror art technology to protect America from World War Z.
There are two companies in Israel who do this, one is $MAGS and the other is Israel’s largest defense company, who also helped build the Arizona-Mexican border fence for $87m, $ESLT.
Since Magal is a lot smaller, the upside is a lot greater.
Very soon, the company will demonstrate their technology for border security to DHS, hoping to land a lucrative contract. If they do, the stock will explode higher.
Source: Reuters
Executives from Magal’s U.S.-based Senstar unit will show off its FiberPatrol product at a Jan. 31 conference on border security. Officials from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and other agencies will talk to the gathering of defense contractors in Alexandria, Virginia, according to Magal Chief Executive Officer Saar Koursh. The system, which embeds fiber-optic sensors in long stretches of fences and walls, is already used for perimeter security at airports and seaports around the world, he said.
“We have the right product and we have the experience in Israel that helps in showcasing our product,” Koursh said in a telephone interview Jan. 26.
Magal was a major contractor on Israel’s West Bank barrier, a stretch of sensor-laden fences and concrete walls that was begun in 2002 to counter a wave of Palestinian suicide-bombings. The company has also helped build a fence along Israel’s border with Egypt, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presented on Saturday as an example for Trump’s Mexican wall.
“President Trump is right,” Netanyahu said on Twitter. “I built a wall along Israel’s southern border. It stopped all illegal immigration. Great success. Great idea.”
In the interview with Fox News, Trump said a wall would be effective in preventing illegal immigration from Mexico.
“All you have to do is ask Israel,” ,” he said. “They were having a total disaster coming across, and they had a wall. It’s 99.9 percent stoppage.”
Palestinians say much of the West Bank barrier intrudes on private land and refer to it as an “apartheid wall.” In an advisory opinion, the International Court of Justice said in 2004 that portions of the project built in occupied territory were illegal.
Here’s a little background on their tech.
Source: Jerusalem Post
The company has helped construct security barriers along the Egyptian and Jordanian borders, and has contracts to do the same in Kenya, Somalia and other countries.
Locally, Magal is better known as the Israeli company that helped develop the security fence around the Gaza Strip.
Koursh credits the steady rise in the stock since Trump’s victory to his company’s good PR, saying that Magal has become a household name in the field of perimeter protection and smart fences.
“Magal did the most border defense projects in history, we worked on over a thousand kilometers of border so far. In Israel we are the main service provider for the Defense Ministry, with 85% of our borders being done by Magal over the past 40 years,” Koursh told the Post.
“Now that Trump is in power there’s a lot of talk of finding solutions for the US borders, and we are a major player in that field. Even before the elections, most of our business comes from the US, in fact more than half of our company is located in North America and we are well known by American institutions and contractors,” he explained.
But Koursh wanted to two things clear, that Magal is not a fence company, and that the firm does more to protect the perimeters of strategic assets than it does borders. “We are not actually a fence company, we are a tech company. We don’t make fences, we make fences smart with tech solutions.
Our advantage is that as the leading company in this field we have the biggest portfolio of solutions, he told the Post.
According to Koursh, there are seven or eight technologies in the world that apply to perimeter security, and usually the other companies in the field offer one or two of these to their customers. “Over the years Magal has incorporated all related technological solutions, either through research and development or through acquisition,” These technologies include motion and shock sensors, temperature change sensors, sound detection and video motion detection tech. Magal has furnished more than 40,000 kilometers of perimeter around the world with its tech.
“Compared to the entire security tech market, perimeter security is a small sector, but within that sector we represent 10% of the global market. And considering the needs that Mr. Trump described in his campaign, I believe that Magal has the best and most appropriate solutions,” Koursh said.
Effectiveness of the fence.
Eblit Systems, Israel’s largest military contractor, has been working with the DHS since 2014 for Arizona’s border fence with Mexico.
