The Ossoff Aftermath: Teaching Dems How to Fail, or Was It Just the Bad Weather?

Frankly, I don’t understand how the democrats ever thought they were gonna win in Georgia. Sure, Trump only won that district by 2 points. However, and this is what the dems don’t seem to understand, you’re pissing off all of the republicans with this very obvious ginned up Russian conspiracy — trying to unseat a democratically elected President. I mean, you’re not even waiting a year or two before trying to remove him. You’ve got the investigations going, the former FBI director out to get him, and a special counsel hiring Clinton attorneys. What did you think would happen in Georgia, especially in light of all of the Californian money pouring into the Ossoff campaign, with high profile celebrities shilling for his victory?

Rule number 1: never use celebrities to get out the vote. While it might help young morons vote for your candidate, the larger voting block, who are more mature, view celebrities as social outcasts — pigeon holed for entertainment — not to be taken seriously.

So, in spite of Ossoff spending 7x the amount of money than Handel, in the most expensive congressional race ever — lauded and praised by the media as a referendum against Trump — polling way ahead in FAKE POLLS, he still took the L.

CNN’s Cuomo tried to console viewers, teaching them how to fail. You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.

“They teach you in campaign school … that you’ve gotta learn from failure, otherwise you’re doomed to repeated it,” Cuomo said.

“And there’s an acronym for ‘fail’: the Future Always Involves Learning. And that’s going to be the test … for Democrats, right?” he asked.

Rachel Maddow blamed the weather.

The Morning Shill so wanted Ossoff to win, in order to teach Trump a lesson. Alas, he says this is a ‘wake up call for the dems.’ Joe still thinks the dems will take the house in 2018.

I think it’s fair to say the DNC agenda to ‘resist’ Trump didn’t work, says Bill Bennett.

Alan Dershowitz said trying to make a criminal out of the President backfired.

It’s all fun and games until your planes get shot out of the sky. Following an earlier incident when a Russian fighter came within 5 feet of a US spy plan — a NATO F-16 had to be warned off by a Russian SU-27 for inappropriately shadowing a plane carrying Russia’s Defense Minister, Sergey Shoigu.

The incident occurred over neutral waters in the Baltic, en route of Kaliningrad.

This video was captured by a Russian journalist aboard the plane. This is a pretty amazing clip.

Get in here deep staters and explain yourselves.

Do you remember when Rep. Nunes found out some information about the unmasking of key Trump personnel during and after the elections, which tossed former National Security Advisor, Susan Rice, on the barbie?

It was believed that Rice had some vital information that could shed some light on who Obama was spying on and why. The fact that Trump was, in fact, unmasked raised questions as to the veracity of the ‘incidental’ intelligence claims. Well, if you were hoping for Susan Rice to pay for her sins, exposing Obama to potential criminal charges for spying on Trump — too bad fuckers — that’s not going to happen.

See, the information is now locked up in the Obamas library and will not be released for another 5 years. Why is this the case? No one really knows, other than the fact that it’s in there and it is impossible to get out.

Judicial Watch is going apeshit over this.

“Documents from the Obama administration have been transferred to the Barack Obama Presidential Library. You may send your request to the Obama Library,” Powers wrote. “However, you should be aware that under the Presidential Records Act, presidential records remain closed to the public for five years after an administration has left office.”

Judicial Watch’s FOIA request sought to obtain documents related to Rice’s communications with intelligence officials on a range of issues, including any efforts by the Russian government to influence the 2016 presidential election and the hacking of Democratic National Committee and Clinton campaign computer systems.

“Judicial Watch has filed six FOIA lawsuits related to the surveillance, unmasking, and illegal leaking targeting President Trump and his associates,” the watchdog group said.

Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton said he is considering other legal options to obtain the records.

“Prosecutors, Congress, and the public will want to know when the National Security Council shipped off the records about potential intelligence abuses by Susan Rice and others in the Obama White House to the memory hole of the Obama Presidential Library,” Fitton said.

“We are considering our legal options but we hope that the Special Counsel and Congress also consider their options and get these records,” he added.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA (pause) HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAH (takes breath) HAHAHAAHAHAHAHHAAH

American democracy.

Ever since the election season began, the left has been going ‘literally’ apeshit over Trump’s usage of Twitter. In recent month’s they’ve been autistically screeching over it — demanding that Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter, ban him. They’ve trotted out GOP deep state shills, neocons, professors, think tankfags — all trying to dissuade the President from using a platform that communicates directly to the people.

The main stream media, feeling threatened by the President cutting them out from the middle man position, have been pursuing a scorched earth strategy — attempting to remove him from the White House, while also reminding him that ‘voters’ hate his fucking twitter account.

Today, Mika Brzezinski called out the men inside the White House for failing to stop the President from using his Twitter account.

Main stream media has been constant with their opeds, some even trying to accuse the President’s use of the social media platform as ‘unconstitutional.’ Here are just as handle of titles by those livid with the President.

If Trump is such a dunce for tweeting and is hurting himself politically, why the fuck do the leftards care? If anything, they should be elated by it — since it only serves to hurt him, as they so readily like to say. Another theory is they’re control freaks who chimp out at the idea that Trump crushed Hillary Clinton, whilst spending 1/3rd of her campaign budget on traditional media, catching waves and having fun —  memeing all day like a boss on Twitter — shitposting his way into the oval office.

Both retail and basic resources got lit up, weak throughout the day, only accentuated after reports out of Brussels that some lad ran about a train station screaming ‘allah akbar’, detonating himself in the process.

A soldier cordons off an area outside Gare Central in Brussels after an explosion rocked the train station in Belgium pic.twitter.com/dNnxCU8UjQ

— AFP news agency (@AFP) June 20, 2017

Markets were heavy from the morning, accelerating declines towards the end of the day — applying a brutal sort of punishment to sectors already in bear market territory. We are truly in a Tale of Two Cities market, where the best performers keep trucking ahead, making news highs, amidst turbulence and tumult in retail and oil and gas names.

Data courtesy of Exodus.

On a separate note, Prodigy from Mobb Deep died today, apparently from sickle cell anemia. I actually read his biography many years ago and was delighted by his sordid tales, regarding the inane NYC rap scene. As a teenager, not knowing what good music was, he was quite popular in Brooklyn and around NYC.

RIP

Illinois, buoyed by its crown jewel and murder capital of the United States, Chicago, is heading towards financial ruin — castigated the once proud state into ‘banana republic’ status, as described by Governor Bruce Rauner (R).

Court ordered payments, unpaid bills amounting to billions, has the state scrambling for cash. Current estimates predict 100% of the state’s monthly revenue will be energetically devoured — causing Rauner to call a special session with the democratically led assembly to pass a budget for the first time in three years.

If the budget fails, and God willing it shall, Illinois will lose their lottery.

(Sausagefags eternally beat down)

Source: Fox

The state lotto requires a payment from the legislature each year. The current appropriation expires June 30, meaning no authority to pay prizes. In anticipation of a budget deadlock, the state already is planning to halt Powerball and Mega Millions sales.

“It is disappointing that the legislature’s inability to pass a budget has led to this development and will result in Illinois lottery players being denied the opportunity to play these popular games,” Illinois Lottery Acting Director Greg Smith told Fox News.

“We’re like a banana republic,” Rauner said earlier this month, after the General Assembly failed, yet again, to pass a budget package by the regular session deadline. “We can’t manage our money.”

Due to the utter incompetence by Illinois legislators, Moody’s recently downgraded their credit rating to the lowest of any state in the union. One of the more notable red flags is the state’s $130 billion unfunded pension obligations. When they say ‘unfunded’, what they really mean is they spent all of the money employees set aside for their retirement — wasting it on pet projects, a grotesque display of debauchery all too familiar with America’s maturing form of crony capitalism.

Additionally, upwards of $13 billion in bills are in arrears.

“Nobody here in Illinois is considering bankruptcy—first of all, it’s not allowed,” said Steve Brown, press secretary for Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan. “Second of all, it would damage the reputation of the state and it’s just not necessary.”

U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth, both Democrats from Illinois, declined to respond to Fox News’ request for comment on whether they would consider getting involved in introducing a measure allowing state bankruptcy.

“Illinois is the fiscal model of what not to do,” Rep. Peter Roskam, R-Ill., told Fox News, while not commenting on the bankruptcy question. “This avoidance in behavior toward dealing with our challenges is what leads to the devastating impacts we are seeing today.”

Just last week, the Illinois comptroller, who is responsible for paying the state’s bills, warned the office would be paying out 100 percent of Illinois’ monthly revenue, leaving negative funds for “discretionary spending. ”

But Rauner claims the Republicans have a new plan that could remedy the state’s crippling financial situation.

“Republicans in the General Assembly have laid out a compromise budget that I can sign,” Rauner said, calling it a “true compromise.”

This little detail at the end of a Trib story on Illinois budget impasse #twill pic.twitter.com/mgrAE0F4i7

— natasha korecki (@natashakorecki) June 16, 2017

The more pertinent question is, since when did Iran have a drone program? Ah, that dates back to 2011, when President Obama literally gave Iran U.S. drone technology, during the RQ 170 incident. I know, you think I’m making this up. Why would Obama do anything at all for the Persians, stemming from giving them drone technology to removing sanctions, to paying them billions for the release of US hostages? You’d have to ask him.

But I do know this.

Source: Wikipedia:

On 12 December 2011, U.S. administration asked Iran to return the captured U.S. drone.[27] The day before, on 11 December, General Salami stated that “no nation welcomes other countries’ spy drones in its territory, and no one sends back the spying equipment and its information back to the country of origin.”[28] On 13 December 2011, Defence Minister of Iran, dismissed the request and said “Instead of apologising to the Iranian nation, it is brazenly asking for the drone back.” And the ministry spokesman, Mehmanparast, stated that “it seems he [Obama] has forgotten that Iran’s airspace was violated, spying operations were undertaken, international laws were violated and that Iran’s internal affairs were interfered with. … Instead of an official apology and admitting to this violation, they are making this request.”[29]

Former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney criticised Obama’s decisions on the drone, saying that, after the aircraft went down, the president should have ordered an air strike within Iran: “The right response to that would have been to go in immediately after it had gone down and destroy it. You can do that from the air … and, in effect, make it impossible for them to benefit from having captured that drone.” Instead, “he asked nicely for them to return it, and they aren’t going to”.[30]

On 17 January 2012, an Iranian company said it would send miniature, pink, toy versions of the captured drone to President Obama as a response to the request for sending the drone back.

Shortly thereafter, Iran announced it has reverse engineered it.

On 10 December 2011, Iran announced that it intended to carry out reverse engineering on the captured RQ-170 Sentinel stealth aircraft.[6] In April 2012, the Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution claimed to have succeeded in extracting the entirety of the data collected by the drone and are currently in the process of building a replica of the aircraft.[33] Iran claimed to have been approached by countries, including China and Russia, seeking information on the drone.[34] Although U.S. officials expressed concern over the possibility of China or Russia receiving the drone’s technology, they cast doubt on whether Iran could replicate the technology of the aircraft, as well as the amount of intelligence data available, due to the precautions installed for malfunctioning drones.[35] On May 2014, Iranian state TV displayed what was claimed to be a reverse engineered RQ-170. Sources familiar with the RQ-170’s design say that the Iranian RQ-170 is merely a static mock-up rather than a flyable aircraft.[36] In November 2014 Iran claimed to have carried out a successful test flight of an aircraft based on reverse engineering of the RQ-170.

Isn’t that heartwarming?

Fast forward to today, the United States shot down an Iranian drone over the Syria — the second drone this month.

The Iranian Shaheed 129 drone looks very similar to the MQ-1 Predator Drone made by General Atomics, who sells these armed UCAVs to UAE and Turkey.

MQ1

Iran’s Shaheed 129

The armed pro-regime Shaheed-129 UAV was shot down by a U.S. F-15E Strike Eagle about 12:30 a.m. after it displayed hostile intent and advanced on Coalition forces. This is the second the U.S. shot down an Iranian drone in less than a month.

The coalition forces were manning an established combat outpost to the northeast of At Tanf where they are training and advising partner ground forces in the fight against ISIS. This is the same location where another pro-regime UAV dropped munitions near Coalition forces before it was shot down on June 8.

The F-15E intercepted the armed UAV after it was observed advancing on the coalition position. The armed UAV was shot down when it continued to advance on the coalition’s position without diverting its course.

While the country obsesses over Russian phantoms, the DOD is in the process of expanding an illegal war in Syria — furthering a neocon strategy that has wreaked havoc upon America’s balance sheet for the past 30 years.

Whenever I see this guy talk, he has those stupid fucking sunglasses on. He wears them inside too.

Look.

All I hear from this guy is how awesome the tax cuts are going to be and how Trump is unlocking liquidity and how long Jeff Bezos dick is. Yet, at the end of the day, Steve is all sunglasses, no vision. Where the fuck are my tax cuts Steve? Why don’t you take the shades off and get serious about making America great again?

Here’s Steve being a pussy about the Fed, not wanting to commit to firing Grandma Yellen.

This guy is just ridiculous, former Goldman guy turned Hollywood weirdo, now Treasury Secretary with a penchant for making terse statements — all the while wearing fucking sunglasses indoors.

We’re doomed.

Just to play Devil’s advocate here, in light of my previous CAT post. We see the markets are record highs. The Fed menacing us with higher rates. Employment, seemingly, full. Yet, here we are with 10yr yields at 2.17%. How in the fuck are all these things happening at the same time?

Robust economic activity, while deflationary pressures mount, as evidenced by bond yields?

I have 10% of my assets in TLT, aka “The Ark”, and it looks like it wants higher.

In the past, economic activity guided yields. In a post apocalyptic world (2008), central banks control yields and cast a perversion upon traditional economic theories. That’s my take on it.

As much as I would like the world to burn, it just isn’t ready to happen. The early 2016 scare, emanating from China, is over. We see that in the share prices of Macau based casinos. And we are seeing strong economic data released on a monthly basis in China.

Caterpillar just released their retail data for May vs April and it’s indicating extreme optimism and a fuckload of sales.

Caterpillar reports May 2017 retail data; total machines worldwide +8% vs +1% in April of 2017
Total Machines (May 2017 vs April 2017)

Asia Pacific +49% versus +47%
EAME: -6% vs -10%
Latin America: -15% vs -30%
North America: +2% vs -7%
World: +8% vs +1%
Total Energy & Transportation (May 2017 vs April 2017)

Power Gen -10% vs -2%
Industrial +4% vs -11%
Transportation +9% vs -3%
Oil and gas +13% vs +4%
Total +4% vs -2%

Industrials are on the rise, perhaps somewhat stymied by recent weakness in crude. Nevertheless, CAT is higher by 41% over the past year, in spite of declining revenues and earnings. But the stock was likely reflecting the turn we’re about to see now. Funny how the market knows, well in advance, when an economic tailwind is coming.

The bigger story here isn’t to shill for CAT, but instead highlight the fact that industrial activity is quickening.