In Bizarre Warning JPMorgan Says “Beware The Shadow World” As “Speed Of Asset Rally Is Scary”

Originally published by ZeroHedge

While the Fed may still be confused by the lack of inflation, if only in the “real economy”, if not in financial assets, increasingly more analysts have realized that what the Fed has done is tantamount to blowing an roaring inflationary bubble, if largely confined to the realm of asset prices. And while we used a Goldman chart to demonstrate this divergence a little over a month ago…

… now it’s JPMorgan’s turn to undergo the proverbial epiphany.

In a note from JPM’s Jan Loeys, titled “Financial overheating a problem yet?”, the strategist writes that “growth-sensitive assets, such as equities, credit, cyclicals, and commodities continue to gain and outperform, keeping us comfortably in the Growth Trade. Growth prospects have been rising and accelerating over the past two months from the only slow and dispersed upgrades of the previous 12 months. By now, we are in a full-fledged and globally synchronized move up in growth optimism.” Perhaps, but there is a catch as JPM unwillingly concedes:

The speed of these upgrades and asset price rallies is both exhilarating and scary. The faster we rally, the greater the joy, but the more one should be worried about the eventual reckoning. How far from now is that and what should we do about it?

JPM’s answer to this rhetorical question is ambivalent: while the largest US bank says that the current rally still has upside, it quietly advises its clients to start selling.

We stay in the Growth Trade as we believe that the steady upgrading of growth prospects and asset price moves is still benefiting from greater positive feedback loops and that the negative feedback from economic and financial overheating are both still too weak or too far off. At the same time, the speed of the rally is inducing us to start trimming slowly, through going neutral on HY.

Going back to the top chart, JPM then distinguishes between economic and financial overheating:

Economic overheating to us means that as companies start spending more, they eventually push up input prices – wages, resources – and the cost of borrowing, which all eat into profits and then future capital spending, making the economy vulnerable to the downside. The good news here is that so far, these negative feedback forces remain quite weak with even today’s US Jobs report showing no wage pressures. Corporate bond yields are down on the year, oil is flat and only industrial metals are up a lot, but that is too narrow to drive company costs.

Financial overheating, in contrast, is well advanced and feels so late 90s, that it merits monitoring a lot more closely for signs of bubble-trouble.

JPM then goes so far as suggesting that the asset bubble is closest to bursting in the US: “The country to focus on for signals of financial bubble risk is the US, because its expansion is much further advanced than that in other large countries, and because dollar assets make up half of all investable assets in the world.”

Here’s why JPM, along with everyone else, is worried the financial bubble is on the verge of bursting:

The signs of financial overheating in the US can be seen from elevated equity multiples, which for the S&P500 reached 24 on a trailing reported GAAP basis, the same as in 1997; new cycle lows on HG spreads and lower than the last cycle lows when adjusted for maturity and ratings changes; HY yields below 6%, which cannot be called high yield anymore; US Households with a higher share of equities in their financial assets than anytime except 1999-2000; and US household confidence back to the highs of the 90s, and their unemployment rate back to the lows then.

JPM eases client concerns, claiming that at least for now, the feedback loops of the bubble’s melt-up phases are self-reinforcing in a positive feedback loop:

The immediate impact of asset price inflation, and rising confidence and risk investing is to actually boost the positive growth shock that started it, reinforcing and providing positive feedback which in turn feeds risk asset prices further.

However, this benign initial state is unstable:

The reason we monitor financial overheating closely, despite its initial reinforcing impact, is that the last few cycles have shown that it leads to excesses that eventually make the markets and economy vulnerable to any setback, innocuous as the setback may be initially. The low vol and easy money environment of the current cycle, both at historic extremes, are a perfect breeding ground for financial excess. Simple leverage and low risk premia signals are to this analyst not the most worrying areas.

And then the best phrase perhaps ever penned by a JPM analyst, one who may have been watching Stranger Things a little too much in recent days: beware the shadow world.

It is instead the stuff we can’t see, hidden in the shadow world, outside the control of the regulators, as well as the economic and financial innovation that in the end leads to extremes.

Following these rather explicit warnings from JPM about the risk of “financial overheating”, the bank has some advice for clients on what they should do next:

What should investors do about the risk of financial overheating? There are in principle three options: i) full speed ahead with risk assets, but run fast away at the first sign of serious trouble; ii) start trimming and hedging risk asset positions; or iii) cut now and move to cash as the eventual correction will be ugly. We choose the middle road, and have started trimming, despite remaining net long the growth trade.

• The first approach – pedal-to-the-metal and then brake all you can when trouble is in sight – requires ultimate timing, is vulnerable to head-fakes, and is challenged by the fact that is analyst did not react fast enough in 2000 and 2007.
• The last option – to cut and run fast now – faces the risk that the market and economy may still only be in 1997, and could thus miss the doubling of the equity markets that was still coming.
• Hence, our preference to dollar average over the next year or so into a more neutral, and eventually defensive risk position. Some of that can be done by slowly building downside protection through 3-year out options, during
  periods of extreme volatility and good liquidity. Another way is to sell some of the longs in risk assets that do not always perform well late cycle and that are at their most extreme valuation now. For that we selected HY bonds. US HY yields fell this week to under 6%. From these levels, in the past the next 12-month returns were only just positive.

In conclusion: “The rolling fundamentals of earnings and default rates remain positive for HY, but these data are backward looking and do not tell us that much about the future. Our bullish view on growth and the rising odds of US tax reform keep us long and OW US risk assets, but the challenging value of HY make us prefer equity to credit longs. Go neutral on the HY asset class.”

Be that as it may, it is – as Loeys poetically puts it – all about the “shadow world” from this point on…

A leaker from FBI Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation told NBC that there is enough evidence to charge President Trump’s former National Security advisor of 24 days, Mike Flynn, along with Flynn’s son, as part of the FBI’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Of note, the investigation into Flynn and Flynn Jr. has nothing to do with the recent indictment of lobbyist and short-lived Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, the Podesta Group, or Uranium One.

Flynn, a registered Democrat and Obama appointee to Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, was reportedly pushed out of his role in 2014 over poor management skills, interpersonal conflicts, and a break from the Obama administration over how to deal with Islamic terrorism.

Over the next two years, Flynn and his son Michael G. Flynn ran the Flynn Intel Group Inc, which provided intel services for businesses and governments beginning in the fall of 2014. The Flynns consulted with various companies connected to Russia and Turkey, as well as domestic clients Palo Alto Networks, Francisco Partners and Adobe Systems. Flynn shuttered his firm in 2016 in advance of his role with the Trump administration.

Rundown of possible charges in the Mueller probe

According to NBC’s source, the FBI Special Counsel are looking into the following:

Flynn made $530K in 2016 for work which benefitted the government of Turkey. Flynn was hired to gather information about Turkish political enemy Fethullah Gulen, and elderly Muslim cleric living in the U.S. who Turkish President Erdogan blames for the 2016 attempted coup to overthrow him. Loretta Lynch’s Justice Department did not find enough evidence linking Gulen to the coup despite documents which Turkish officials say back up their claims.

While gathering intel against Gulen was completely legal, the FBI is investigating whether or not Flynn had a 2016 quid-pro-quo arrangement with Erdogan’s government to forcibly remove Gulen from the country if and when President Trump was elected.

The FBI is also reportedly looking into Flynn’s retroactive registration as a foreign lobbyist – which Flynn’s attorney says was not necessary since his client was a Turkish businessman and not a government official.

Flynn also made some $35,000 in 2015 for a speech at a Moscow gala event paid for by Russian state television network RT, where he was pictured sitting next to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Flynn was also a frequent guest on the network, appearing to discuss various issues.

Did Flynn launder money or lie to federal agents about his overseas contacts?

While Flynn’s gig with RT and the $35K gala dinner is more or less a nothingburger, and his retroactive registration as a foreign lobbyist may earn a slap on the wrist, Flynn’s potential quid-pro-quo in the Erdogan / Gulan matter may land him behind bars. If Flynn promised to extradite Gulan to face certain death in Turkey in exchange for over a half-million dollars, an indictment for the former Army Lt. General – and possibly his son, is a foregone conclusion.

An internet researcher has uncovered what appears to be proof that the FBI was investigating the Uranium One deal back in 2015 – months after the Peter Schweizer book Clinton Cash exposed the scheme, along with an article in the New York Times which laid out allegations of criminal malfeasance by the Clintons, their charitable foundation, and several associates.

Twitter user Katica (@GOPPollAnalyst) – who notably discovered Hillary Clinton’s IT guy ‘Stonetear’ asking Reddit users how to strip Clinton’s name from archived emails – discovered several Preservation and Records requests sent by an FBI special agent to various agencies involved in the approval of the Uranium One deal on August 28th, 2015, as first published by The Conservative Treehouse. Katica found the requests buried in an FBI file released via the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

Revealing Timeline

While the Clinton email investigation was launched in March of 2015 after it was revealed that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton used a personal server and non-approved email accounts to conduct government business, reports from August, 2015 revealed that the FBI investigation was actually a criminal probe – though most assumed it was simply covering Clinton’s mishandling of classified information and not the content of her emails.

What Katica discovered is that weeks after the criminal probe began, the FBI sent notices to nearly every agency involved in the Uranium One approval process to preserve records.

This is huge… 

The agencies which received the request included the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the U.S. Dept. of Treasury, the Office of Director of National Intelligence (ODNI James Clapper), The National Counter Terrorism Center, and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).

Five days after the initial request, the same FBI agent sent another round of notifications to the same agencies, adding the National Security Agency (NSA) and the U.S. Secret Service (USSS).

The next day, September 3rd, 2015, three more agencies were added to the preservation request: The CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and the Department of Defense (DOD)

At this point, every single member of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) which signed off on the Uranium One deal was served with a notice to preserve records. 

As The Conservative Treehouse notes:

It would be intellectually dishonest not to see the very likely attachment of the special agent’s action.  That is to say an FBI probe originating as an outcome of information retrieved in parallel to the timing of the “criminal probe” of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s email use.

The sequence of events highlights a criminal probe starting [early August 2015], followed by notifications to the “Uranium One” CFIUS participants [late August 2015].

If you consider the larger Clinton timeline; along with the FBI special agent requests from identified participants; and overlay the Nuclear Regulatory Commission as the leading entity surrounding the probe elements; and the fact that the CFIUS participants were the recipients of the retention requests;  well, it’s just too coincidental to think this is unrelated to the Uranium One deal and the more alarming implications.

FBI Mole 

Let’s not forget a bombshell report from The Hill two weeks ago which revealed that as early as 2009, the FBI – led by Robert Mueller at the time, had a mole in the Russian uranium industry, and that the agency had evidence that “Russian nuclear officials had routed millions of dollars to the U.S. designed to benefit former President Bill Clinton’s charitable foundation during the time Secretary of State Hillary Clinton served on a government body that provided a favorable decision to Moscow” – a deal which would grant the Kremlin control over 20 percent of America’s uranium supply. 

The mole was forced to sign an iron-clad non-disclosure agreement (NDA) which threatened criminal penalties for revealing information, even to Congress. After a request was made by Reps Ron DeSantis (R-FL) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA) calling for the Justice department to invalidate the NDA, the gag order was lifted, and the FBI informant was authorized to speak with congress.

BREAKING: DOJ authorizes FBI Informant to speak with Congress concerning alleged corruption involving Clintons & Uranium One. #MAGA #DTS

— Lou Dobbs (@LouDobbs) October 25, 2017

Tony Podesta and Uranium One

While one-time Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort turned himself in to the FBI a week ago on charges of money laundering, let’s not forget what a former Podesta Group executive interviewed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller told Tucker Carlson Tonight: the FBI probe is now focusing on people in Washington who have worked as de-facto operatives on behalf of Russian government and business. To that end, he had quite a bit to say about his former boss Tony and his relationship to the Uranium One deal.

• In late 2013 or early 2014, Tony Podesta and a representative for the Clinton Foundation met to discuss how to help Uranium One – the Russian owned company that controls 20 percent of American Uranium Production – and whose board members gave over $100 million to the Clinton Foundation.
• In 2013, John Podesta recommended that Tony hire David Adams, Hillary Clinton’s chief adviser at the State Department, giving them a “direct liaison” between the group’s Russian clients and Hillary Clinton’s State Department.
• “Tony Podesta was basically part of the Clinton Foundation.”

As far as the current state of the FBI investigation, “They are more focused on facilitators of Russian influence in this country than they are on election collusion,” Carlson’s source told Fox.

Tying it together – previous reports of Federal investigations into the Clinton Foundation: 

Katica’s FOIA discovery corroborates a New York Times report from November 1, 2016, which asserts that an FBI investigation was kicked off based on revelations of pay-for-play in the book “Clinton Cash” written by Peter Schweizer:

The investigation, based in New York, had not developed much evidence and was based mostly on information that had surfaced in news stories and the book “Clinton Cash,” according to several law enforcement officials briefed on the case.

The book asserted that foreign entities gave money to former President Bill Clinton and the Clinton Foundation, and in return received favors from the State Department when Mrs. Clinton was secretary of state. Mrs. Clinton has adamantly denied those claims. -NYT

The Wall St. Journal also reported last October that five FBI field offices were investigating the Clinton Foundation; New York, Los Angeles, Washington, Little Rock and  Miami, and “were collecting information about the Clinton Foundation to see if there was evidence of financial crimes or influence-peddling, according to people familiar with the matter.”

The FBI field office in New York had done the most work on the Clinton Foundation case and received help from the FBI field office in Little Rock, the people familiar with the matter said. –WSJ

And in November, as tweeted by Wikileaks and reported on by the Dallas Observer, the Clinton Foundation has been under investigation by the IRS since July of 2016, after 64 GOP members of Congress received letters urging them to push for an investigation. The investigation has been notably held at the Dallas IRS office – far away from Washington.

The Earle Cabell Federal Building in downtown Dallas is an all purpose office complex, a bastion of federal bureaucracy located at 1100 Commerce St. Most people come for a passport or to get business done in front of a federal judge. But inside, a quiet review is underway that has direct ties to the raging presidential election: The local branch of the IRS’ Tax Exempt and Government Entities Division is reviewing the tax status of the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation.

So – while the FBI investigation into Hillary Clinton was sold as a simple matter of mishandling of classified material, we now have proof that the FBI set their sights on the Uranium One scandal weeks after they began looking into Hillary Clinton’s emails. We also know that five FBI field offices and the IRS have been investigating the Clinton Foundation on accusations of pay-to-play and other criminal acts. 

Bets on who’s indicted next?

Flashback to October 27, 2016

Wallace Says HARD NEW PROOF Hillary Clinton Foundation/Bill & State Colluded 4PAY4PLAYS via Doug Band #PodestaEmails20 's #Thursdaythoughts pic.twitter.com/CxOpiKtW3w

— ?STOCK MONSTER? (@StockMonsterUSA) October 27, 2016

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman has shaken up the Kingdom, arresting one of the royal family’s most prominent princes from his ministerial role along with nearly a dozen other princes, ministers, and business tycoons in a purge that leaves the king – and later the crown prince, with all levers of power of the middle-eastern Kingdom.

Via Bloomberg

Acting on orders from a newly established anti-corruption committee, headed by his son Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi police arrested 11 princes, four ministers and dozens of former ministers, Al Arabiya television said. Other changes announced separately on Saturday included the replacement of the economy minister and a new head for the powerful National Guard.

The arrest of prominent billionaire investor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal – the second largest shareholder of both Twitter and Citigroup – is sure to send shockwaves through both the Kingdom and the world’s major financial centers.

Via NYT:

Alwaleed, who controls the investment firm Kingdom Holding and is one of the world’s richest men, has major stakes in News Corp, Time Warner, Citigroup, Twitter, Apple, Motorola and many other well-known companies. He also controls satellite television networks watched across the Arab world.

Al-Waleed bin Talal, 2nd largest shareholder of #Twitter, has been arrested on money laundering & corruption charges in #SaudiArabia pic.twitter.com/KaSQHzxpJF

— Dangerous faggot (@MiloYiannopfans) November 4, 2017

Furthermore, Prince Miteb’s ouster as head of the National Guard is huge. As an institution controlled by the clan of the late King Abdullah, “[It’s] not like changing the minister of oil,” said Kamran Bokhari, a senior analyst with Geopolitical Futures and a senior fellow with the Center for Global Policy. “I wouldn’t be surprised if this leads to greater fissures within the royal family.”

#BREAKING – Full list of all arrest warrants issued by #Saudi Arabia against many of the most powerful men in the country pic.twitter.com/o5K8jqYGlU

— SURA (@AlSuraEnglish) November 4, 2017

Furthermore, the heads of the main three Saudi owned TV networks were arrested, Alwalid Bin Talal (Rotana), Walid Al Brahim (MBC), Saleh Kamel (ART)

The heads of the main three Saudi owned TV networks were arrested, Alwalid Bin Talal (Rotana), Walid Al Brahim (MBC), Saleh Kamel (ART)

— Ali Hashem علي هاشم (@alihashem_tv) November 4, 2017

Paving the way

In June, King Salman had already demoted other senior members of the royal family who might oppose the ascension of the crown prince, Prince Mohammed, 32, who replaced his cousin Muhammed bin Nayef as heir apparent in June.

The prince appears to be quite the moderate – announcing plans to sell his stake in Saudi oil giant Aramco and create the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund by 2030, along with several state supported socio-cultural changes – starting with giving women the right to drive at the end of September.

Via ZeroHedge

King Salman also issued an decree forming an anti-corruption committee headed by the crown prince. Its powers include the ability to trace funds and assets, and prevent their transfer or liquidation on behalf of individuals or entities, along with the right to take any precautionary actions until cases are referred to relevant investigatory or judiciary authorities, according to a government statement.

The committee’s formation was deemed necessary “due to the propensity of some people for abuse, putting their personal interest above public interest, and stealing public funds,” the Royal Order said.

Crown Prince: Every person, who has engaged in #corruption, regardless of their status, will be held accountable, provided there's evidence. pic.twitter.com/sTxKfqvjo2

— CIC Saudi Arabia (@CICSaudi) November 4, 2017

Fun fact: Alwaleed bin Talal owns the Four Seasons, which in turn owns floors 35-39 of Mandalay Bay in Las Vegashttps://t.co/8nzZDrk117

— William Craddick (@williamcraddick) November 5, 2017

Former interim Chairwoman of the DNC Donna Brazile admits in her upcoming book “Hacks: The Inside Story of the Break-ins and Breakdowns That Put Donald Trump in the White House,” that she was so spooked by the murder of DNC IT staffer Seth Rich she installed security cameras at home and drew the blinds at work to avoid being murdered by snipers.

Brazile writes that she was haunted by the still-unsolved murder of DNC data staffer Seth Rich and feared for her own life, shutting the blinds to her office window so snipers could not see her and installing surveillance cameras at her home. She wonders whether Russians had placed a listening device in plants in the DNC executive suite. –Washington Post

Why, if the Seth Rich murder was simply a random mugging, would the former head of the DNC – an organization with 447 members in 2016, think snipers were going to murder her after a lowly IT guy bit the dust?

Since Seth Rich didn’t hand over a trove of DNC emails to Wikileaks – an alt-right conspiracy theory with zero merit, why ever would she worry? After all, two days after the murder Rich’s brother Aaron told reporters “There had been some kind of a struggle, but he also had all of his belongings with him.” And just because the murder remains unsolved and Julian Assange’s body language told everyone but the most autistic of sociopaths Rich was the source, people shouldn’t attempt to use common sense to draw their own conclusions. Check Snopes, silly Donna Brazile had nothing to fear.

Julian Assange heavily implies Seth Rich was DNC leaker… https://t.co/W6FG4IFe5Q pic.twitter.com/6ytad7kRLZ

— ZeroPointNow (@ZeroPointNow) March 29, 2017

• Howard ‘Howie’ Rubin, 62, is being sued for rape and assault by three former Playboy bunnies
• Rubin’s staff lured the women to New York where he raped them in a sex dungeon in an $8 million penthouse apartment bought specifically for raping
• Rubin is accused of ordering them into ‘fetish clothes’ before drugging them and bringing them to his ‘Dungeon’ where he immediately began hitting the women.
• Rubin then bound and gagged the women, allegedly telling them: “I’m going to rape you like I rape my daughter,” before punching one of them so hard in the breast it ‘flipped’ her implant
• Rubin paid them $5,000 each in hush money, and his associates gave them funds to cover medical expenses
• The alleged victims are seeking $27 million in a 63-page lawsuit
• Rubin, a 30 year Wall Street veteran, worked for George Soros’s fund between 2008 and 2015, and notoriously lost $377 million at Merrill Lynch in 1987

Former George Soros fund manager Howard ‘Howie’ Rubin stands accused of raping and torturing three former Playboy bunnies in an $8 million Manhattan penthouse which contains a secret ‘dungeon’ of sex toys, masks and BDSM ‘apparatus.’

The three women describe their horrific claims in a 63-page lawsuit filed in Brooklyn, NY on Thursday.

The lawsuit describes four separate incidents in 2016. Each accuser said she returned after the first violent encounter because they needed the money. Once the women flew to New York, they were taken to Rubin’s penthouse and forced to sign NDAs. The women then claim they were taken to a nearby bar for drinks, then taken back to the penthouse where they were drugged, beaten and raped.

He then punched them in the backs of their heads, breasts and rib cages, calling them c**ts and becoming more violent if they screamed, they said.

Rubin then allegedly threw one woman to the ground and ordered her to call him ‘daddy’ while he beat her in the back of the head until she lost consciousness.

‘He continued to punch her, stating that: “Howie is the daddy. The daddy has to beat his baby.’  The woman says he then raped her so violently it caused ‘tears to her vagina’.

“Once in the penthouse, the women say Rubin turned on them and had violent sex, often beating them so severely that they required medical treatment,” according to the Daily Mail.

“One alleged victim says he once beat her so badly that her breast implant ‘flipped’. Another says he once threatened: ‘I’m going to rape you like my daughter.'”

Lured to the dungeon

Rubin’s associates and co-defendants, Stephanie Shon and Jennifer Powers, a former model herself who says she slept with Rubin before working for him, lured the women to New York.

After initially declining Shon’s request over Instagram to meet Rubin, Powers allegedly contacted one of the victims by telephone and WhatsApp to try and convince the woman to change her mind.

‘Powers assured her that Rubin was “a great guy,” and would not do anything to make her feel uncomfortable. Powers told her that if she ever felt uncomfortable she could simply ask to leave, and would not only be allowed to do so, but would still be paid the initial $2,000 for her time,’ it continues.

She reluctantly agreed on the condition that she could bring one of the other Plaintiffs, who she was friends with, with her.

That woman had already received a similar request from Shon and Powers, she said. In their messages to her, they said Rubin liked ‘large breasted’ women.

To her, they allegedly insisted that she would not be required to have sex and that ‘at most’ Rubin wanted to engage in ‘fetish play’.

The two women then flew to New York from Florida on JetBlue flights paid for by Rubin, they said.

 Several publications have reached out to Rubin for comment, saying he has declined to weigh in.

Rubin began his career in the mortgage-backed securities division at Salomon Brothers in 1982, after which he joined the Mortgage Department at Bear Stearns where he rose to Senior Managing Director and the head of the CMO trading desk.

In 1987, Rubin caused Merrill Lynch to suffer historic losses as high as $377 million through a series of unauthorized trades – buying billions in mortgage bonds without approval from his seniors. When the housing market softened, the bonds suffered unrecoverable losses.

In 1999 he retired, however in 2008 Rubin came out of retirement to manage Mortgage-Backed securities for financier George Soros, quitting in 2015.

Rubin’s wife is Harvard Business School graduate and philanthropist, Mary Henry. The couple has three children together – two daughters and a son who just graduated from college.

John Balestriere, a lawyer for one of the women told DailyMail.com in a statement: ‘While arrogance and self-import may convince certain men otherwise, neither money nor power gives any person the right to victimize a woman.

‘It is our collective responsibility to ensure that victims’ voices are heard, and that abusers’ positions of privilege do not exempt them from the grasp of justice.”

Mr Balestriere added: “We implore other victims of the Enterprise to contact us.’

Another day, another accusation against some asshole in a position of power.

Three years ago, Mother Jones magazine investigated their Washington bureau chief David Corn for sexually harassing female staffers and making rape jokes. Corn is Mother Jones’ most high-profile employee, with regular appearances on MSNBC, a book on the Bush administration and the Iraq war, and an upcoming book on Trump-Russia collusion (which should be interesting considering recent developments that have flipped the script).

The magazine’s CEO and editor told Politico that Corn’s behavior had stopped – however two emails written in 2014 and 2015 and obtained by Politico have embedded corn firmly back in the shit.

Politico writes:

One of the emails, written in 2015 by a former staffer outlining concerns she had heard from other women in the Washington office, said Corn, now 58, made “rape jokes,” “regularly gave [several women] unwelcome shoulder rubs and engaged in uninvited touching of their legs, arms, backs, and waists,” and “made inappropriate comments about women’s sexuality and anatomy.” The other email, from 2014, was by a former female staffer who claimed that Corn “came up behind me and put his hands and arms around my body in a way that felt sexual and domineering.”

In his defense, Corn told Politico “I am an exuberant person and have been known to pat male and female colleagues on the shoulder or slap them on the back, but always in a collegial or celebratory way.”

Mother Jones CEO and editor Monika Bauerlein and Clara Jerffery said they haven’t seen the emails, but will look into them.

“What we heard about in the past were concerns about nonsexual touching (patting on the shoulder, slapping on the back, poking in the arm),” Bauerlein and Jeffery said. “At no time did anyone claim that any kind of sexual touching occurred. In fact, the people who raised concerns about touching told us that they did not consider it sexual, but simply didn’t want any physical contact at all.”

Politico continues:

Bauerlein and Jeffery defended management’s response. “When concerns about the DC bureau were brought up in 2014, we immediately investigated,” they wrote. “Both of us personally interviewed staff in the bureau more than once. We addressed the concerns with David, counseling him and directing him to avoid specific conduct. We followed up to ensure that the situation had improved.”

In addition to touching, Bauerlein and Jeffery said some concerns raised in the past were about “insensitive discussion of difficult issues in the news, including sexual violence, in a way that could have been offensive or triggering to some.” However, they said, “what was described to us did not constitute joking about sexual violence, much less ‘rape jokes.’ ”

The allegation that Corn made “rape jokes” came in the 2015 email that compiled incidents reported to the magazine’s union from women in the Washington office. “Several expressed concern about the ‘gleeful’ tone of these remarks and David’s seeming indifference to the discomfort they created,” it read. “In the summer and fall of 2014, some women staffers reported that they had quit pitching stories involving rape because David’s reactions made them so uncomfortable.”

The woman who outlined her own experiences in the 2014 email claimed Corn put his arms around her from behind “in front of several DC staffers, and I felt humiliated and undermined.” The former staffer also alleged that Corn hovered around some female staffers “in a way that they say feels disturbing and distracting from their work.”

A ‘rogue’ Twitter customer support employee suspended Donald Trump’s Twitter account on Thursday on his last day at the job – leaving the President’s nearly 43 million followers Trumpless for approximately 11 minutes, and raising major concerns over the security of a platform used by Trump to speak directly to the world.

Trump's Twitter account has vanished pic.twitter.com/B0hQpBO9OW

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) November 2, 2017

President Trump BANNED from Twitter?! pic.twitter.com/hNxSK0Q3ri

— Josh Caplan (@joshdcaplan) November 2, 2017

Before Trump’s account was restored, people proceeded to lose their shit – and speculation over what it meant spread like wildfire.

11 minutes later, democracy was restored and tits calmed around the country.

Through our investigation we have learned that this was done by a Twitter customer support employee who did this on the employee’s last day. We are conducting a full internal review. https://t.co/mlarOgiaRF

— Twitter Government (@TwitterGov) November 3, 2017

though Twitter’s explanation of a disgruntled employee’s last-day revenge on the President is seriously alarming. What if a rogue employee could gain access and send a tweet as Trump, saying something to the effect of “Nukes are headed to Little Kim right now, enjoy the fireworks!”

So there ya go – disgruntled $TWTR employees can apparently do whatever the fuck they want to anyone’s account. Maybe this explains the well documented selective enforcement of their TOS.

we have found footage of the disgruntled employee who pulled Trump’s account pic.twitter.com/INCyVeSH7G

— Tom Martin (@TomKCTV5) November 3, 2017

Twitter employee uses last day at work to deactivate US President Donald Trump's account https://t.co/FV3wk9OU4B pic.twitter.com/vnxmc5uEHS

— ABC News (@abcnews) November 3, 2017

I survived the Trump twitter outage

November 2, 2017

6:58PM to 7:04PM #neverforget

— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) November 2, 2017

Trump's twitter account vanishing and then reappearing moments later is the best evidence yet that the events of the past 2 years are the result of warring sects of time travellers

— Nfinit (@Nfinit) November 2, 2017

Singer and songwriter Joy Villa made waves in February when she showed up to the 2017 Grammy awards in a controversial “MAGA” dress, shocking the music industry and gaining international attention as a Trump supporter. Villa’s sudden conversion from liberalism to the MAGA movement left many scratching their heads.

Last week, Villa teased a foray into politics – telling Fox News that she’s looking at a potential run for congress in Florida, California or New York.

Since her ‘coming out‘ as a Trump supporter, the 31 (or 26?) year old California native has been hard at work, releasing best-selling music such as her hit song “Make America Great Again,” while promoting herself through social media, talk shows, and a trip to Houston, TX to help with the Hurricane Harvey relief efforts. In September, Villa proudly announced her inclusion in an advisory board for the Trump campaign.

I'm so proud to announce I'm OFFICIALLY a member of the Advisory Board for President Trump's Campaign! ??✅? pic.twitter.com/d7LZHo5Bw9

— Joy Villa (@Joy_Villa) September 6, 2017

Given Villa’s seemingly overnight transition into a Trump supporting minority in the liberal-dominated music industry, many – such as the folks behind maga45pac.ml and musician Vinnie James who brought Villa’s contradictory positions to light over Twitter, have questioned the authenticity of her ‘conversion’ to the Trump train – pointing to a stack of evidence suggesting she’s actually a chameleon who reinvented herself as a conservative in order to capture a new demographic. The shift is indeed dramatic, and many suggesting she’s simply an opportunist have taken to Twitter with the hashtag #JoyVillaExposed.

Let’s take a look at some of the key points of contention with Mrs. Villa’s sudden shift to the right:

Election night liberal activism

Villa called Trump a “Crazy” candidate the night of the election, while retweeting President Obama and Democrat Congresswoman Karen Bass telling people, ostensibly Democrats, to go out and vote:

If you don't like the two crazy candidates running, write in or vote for the OTHER 3 on the ballot! Don't dismiss… https://t.co/KjtjU7AOQj

— Joy Villa (@Joy_Villa) November 8, 2016

a

President Trump shot off a similar “go vote” Tweet on Nov. 8th which Villa could have also retweeted.

Villa called Trump supporters stupid

Villa loved Obama – even appearing in a video for his 2012 reelection campaign

Just did a cameo in an #Obama campaign music video for Upheaval Films out of Miami! #Timessquare

— Joy Villa (@Joy_Villa) July 12, 2012

So cool to be in Manila during #APEC2015. Trying to get a selfie with #PresidentObama and @MichelleObama 😉 <3 @BarackObama @POTUS

— Joy Villa (@Joy_Villa) November 16, 2015

@BarackObama Rock it Mr. Prez!

— Joy Villa (@Joy_Villa) April 29, 2011

Villa deleted a March 2016 tweet accusing the Trump campaign of photoshopping a clothing model to look black: 

Intergalactic warlord Xenu or Jesus Christ?

Villa, an ardent Scientologist, tweeted On November 5, 2016 “I’m clear!!” – a reference to a level one can achieve within the religion’s complicated hierarchy.

One of the greatest moments of my life…I'm Clear!! #singer #artist #scientologist #actress #spirtualgangster… https://t.co/klRKeN22lh

— Joy Villa (@Joy_Villa) November 5, 2016

In a nutshell, Scientology – created by Sci-Fi author L. Ron Hubbard, teaches that Xenu – dictator of the “Galactic Confederacy,” solved an interplanetary overpopulation problem by traveling around in his spaceship collecting souls called ‘thetans,’ which he then deposited in volcanoes on Earth 75 million years ago before blowing them up with H-bombs – releasing the souls. As a result, all humans born on Earth are ‘infected’ with thetans and must rid themselves of them through Scientology.

What Scientologists DON’T believe in, is God – in any way, shape, or form – and followers are expected to give up other religions. 

Exhibit A: scientology told the IRS people were expected to give up other religions https://t.co/80TfLMDigs pic.twitter.com/vOAGq176PU

— Str8 Up ??? (@str8upandvert) June 6, 2017

You cannot believe in God if you are a Scientologist. Scientologists pretend they can believe in other things to deceive the public.

— Leah Remini (@LeahRemini) October 18, 2017

Meanwhile, Villa has been making very pro-Christian comments all over the place, and held a prayer session at Trump’s hotel in DC.

Maybe her political strategist had something to do with it?

Joy Villa's political strategist, like Joy, is a Scientologist, but VERY high level. And here she's got us believing she's a Christian. ?-VJ pic.twitter.com/fLEJSQzWQy

— RealVinnieJames (@RealVinnieJames) October 27, 2017

ATTENTION: My beef with Joy Villa isn't about her religion. It's about how she HID Scientology and POSED as Christian. That's DECEPTION! -VJ pic.twitter.com/jb8RM3T91R

— RealVinnieJames (@RealVinnieJames) October 27, 2017

Some believe Villa’s MAGA transition was a ploy for the Church of Scientology to expand their reach:

#JoyVillaExposed
The motive of the #MAGA dress…and we all bit!
Shes a FRAUD

excerpt from this article
⬇️https://t.co/wfevLQCUNY pic.twitter.com/xQR91biKsF

— ??????? 2.0? (@DaMama59) October 28, 2017

BLM or Blue Lives Matter?

Villa was using a #blm hashtag the day after the 2016 election, and said in a Wednesday tweet she supported the group “until they started killing Cops.”

Except that Micah Xavier Johnson, who murdered five police officers at a Black Lives Matter protest, carried out his rampage in July, 2016 – four months before Villa endorsed the group. 

Nine days later on July 17, 2016, three Baton Rouge police officers were killed and three more wounded in an ambush said to have been ‘incited and encouraged’ by prominent BLM leaders.

Did Villa lie about her age?

Wikipedia lists Villa as 26 years old – born April 25, 1991, however Villa claims she’s 31:

I've talked about it many times, and it's been on my Wiki for years. I've never denied anything, never will. Also wiki lies I'm 31 ?

— Joy Villa (@Joy_Villa) November 2, 2017

What’s strange are several posts Villa made in 2016 featuring a picture of a birthday cake inscribed ‘Happy 25th’ – which would make her 26, the age Wikipedia lists.

,@Joy_Villa celebrated her "25th" birthday last year at her "second home", the Church of Scientology Celebrity Centre. Blame wiki? #MAGA pic.twitter.com/9krNpp5gNK

— No One ?? (@tweettruth2me) November 2, 2017

Villa’s husband is an eccentric liberal Scientologist

While opposites may attract, Villa’s husband – 52 year old Danish photographer and Scientologist Thorsten Overgaard is a giant liberal – flying out to the Faroe islands to chase Bill Clinton around in the hopes of a “Clinton coffee moment” – settling for a handshake.

The moment we all dream of is the “Clinton coffee moment,” because that was what he did when he visited Copenhagen years ago as the President.

Clinton looks at me, I look at him, I look at his hand. I shake hands with Clinton. His handshake is comfortable, professional. It’s not hard. It’s kind of soft but firm. Thorsten Overgaard–

Apparently feeling the heat over her liberal past, Villa fired off a tweetstorm to tell the story of her Trump train transition in 26 tweets. 

To summarize: Villa was conservative, then she wasn’t, then she supported Bernie, then a friend turned her on to Trump. To cap it off, Villa says “I’m not a longtimer but Im loyal”

I kno I popped out of nowhere as MAGA, I wasn't in my PAST. That may have scared sum. I'm not a longtimer but Im loyal & appreciate u all❤️ pic.twitter.com/Ubpqs5IzIN

— Joy Villa (@Joy_Villa) November 2, 2017

It’s been reported that Villa has been buying Twitter followers after losing support in recent days.

Why is @Joy_Villa adding fake followers? This morning she was at 159.7k in last couple hours she's gained over 6,000! #JoyVillaTheCon pic.twitter.com/gCxHWREMCS

— Dustin ?? (@DustinSnider) November 1, 2017

This is what fake followers look like…. bought and paid for! #Busted pic.twitter.com/I2tiFYy8Cw

— RewindMyLife (@love4_heart) November 1, 2017

What say you?

While the circumstances surrounding Russia’s acquisition of mining rights to 20 percent of American uranium was always shady, the strategic nuclear material was never supposed to leave the United States – per a stipulation in the original agreement which covered the sale of Uranium One to Russian state-owned energy company Rosatom.

The scheme was originally designed to allow Russia to mine American uranium and sell it at an enormous markup to U.S. nuclear power plants, period.

Except that’s not what happened…

John Solomon and Alison Spann of The Hill now report that not only did uranium leave the United States – making its way all the way to Europe, but the Obama administration approved at least some of it.

NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Committee) memos reviewed by The Hill show that it did approve the shipment of yellowcake uranium — the raw material used to make nuclear fuel and weapons — from the Russian-owned mines in the United States to Canada in 2012 through a third party. Later, the Obama administration approved some of that uranium going all the way to Europe, government documents show.

NRC officials said they could not disclose the total amount of uranium that Uranium One exported because the information is proprietary. They did, however, say that the shipments only lasted from 2012 to 2014 and that they are unaware of any exports since then. –The Hill

The NRC also told the Hill that the Uranium One exports flowed from Wyoming to Canada and on to Europe – the approval for which involved multiple agencies.

What did Obama mean by this?

Of course, then there was that time Obama promised Putin he'd have "more flexibility" after the US election. ? pic.twitter.com/q2RQ2q5utQ

— ZeroPointNow (@ZeroPointNow) March 2, 2017

THIRD PARTY

In order to obfuscate the transaction and avoid red flags, Russian owned Rosatom used a Kentucky-based trucking firm called RSB Logistics Services to add Uranium One to the list of clients allowed to bring US uranium to Canada.

The license, reviewed by The Hill, is dated March 16, 2012, and it increased the amount of uranium ore concentrate that RSB Logistics could ship to the Cameco Corp. plant in Ontario from 7,500,000 kilograms to 12,000,000 kilograms and added Uranium One to the “other parties to Export.”

The move escaped notice in Congress. –The Hill

Uranium One Responds

While officials at RSB, Cameco and Rosatom didn’t return The Hill‘s phone calls seeking information, Uranium One’s American arm said that 25 percent of the nuclear fuel exported made its way outside North America to Europe and Asia, stressing that all exports climplied with Federal law.

“None of the US U308 product produced to date has been sold to non-US customers except for approximately 25% which was sold via book transfer at the conversion facilities to customers from Western Europe and Asia,” executive Donna Wickers said. “Any physical export of the product from conversion facilities to non-US destinations is under the control of such customers and subject to NRC regulation.”

Grassley on the war path

In response to the revelations, Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) said in a statement:

“It now appears that despite pledges to the contrary, U.S. uranium made its way overseas as a part of the Uranium One deal,” Grassley said in the statement. “What’s more disturbing, those transactions were apparently made possible by various Obama Administration agencies while the Democrat-controlled Congress turned a blind eye.”

“Americans deserve assurances that political influence was not a factor in all this. I’m increasingly convinced that a special counsel — someone with no prior involvement in any of these deals — should shine a light on this ordeal and get answers for the American people.”

Always a shady deal

The Hill continues:

The Uranium One deal has been controversial since at least 2015, when The New York Times reported former President Bill Clinton received a $500,000 speech fee from a Russian bank and millions in donations to his charitable foundation from sources interested in the deal around the time the Uranium One sale was being reviewed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s State Department and eight other federal agencies.

Hillary Clinton has said she delegated the approval decision to a deputy on the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) and did not apply any pressure. Bill Clinton has said the monies he received had no bearing on his wife’s policymaking decisions.

The 2015 Times article included a single reference to Uranium One officials saying they believed some of its American uranium made its way to Europe and Japan without any reference to how that occurred.

NRC officials said the multiple decisions documented in the memos, including the 2012 amendment of the third-party export license, provide the most complete description to date of how Russian-owned uranium ended up getting exported from the United States.

The entire Uranium One episode is getting a fresh look after The Hill disclosed late last month that the FBI had gathered extensive evidence in 2009 — before the mine sale was approved — that Rosatom’s main executive in the United States was engaged in a racketeering scheme that included bribery, kickbacks, extortion and money laundering.

The probe was enabled by an undercover informant working for the FBI inside the Russian nuclear industry, court records show. But the Justice Department did not make that evidence public until 2014, long after Rosatom benefited from multiple favorable decisions from the Obama administration.

The Senate Judiciary, House Intelligence and House Oversight committees have all announced plans to investigate the new revelation, and the Justice Department has given approval for the undercover informant to testify for the first time about what he witnessed the Russians doing to influence Obama administration decisions favorable to Rosatom between 2009 and 2014.

Hillary Clinton and other Democrats have described the renewed focus on the Uranium One deal as simply a distraction from the current investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, in which Donald Trump became the 45th president. She also says that concerns about the Uranium One sale have long ago been “debunked.”

But it’s not just Republicans who have said that the revelation the FBI had evidence that Rosatom was engaged in criminality during the time it was receiving favorable decisions from the U.S. government deserves fresh scrutiny.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), a member of both the Senate Intelligence and Judiciary committees, told The Hill she would like to learn more about what the FBI knew.

Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) has criticized Republicans for investigating Clinton, but said on “Morning Joe” last month he has “no problem looking into” the Uranium One deal.

And Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) said Sunday on CNN that he believed it was appropriate for Congress to investigate the new information.

“One of the House committees has already begun an oversight committee hearing,” King said. “I always think oversight hearings are appropriate. I’ve been trying to understand this deal.”

King also repeated the oft-quoted narrative that the “company changed hands, but the uranium that is mined in the United States cannot leave the United States.” The NRC license now shows now that Uranium One was, in fact, allowed to export American uranium.

A legal expert on the CFIUS process told The Hill that the new revelation that the FBI knew that a Rosatom official was engaged in illegality on U.S. soil before the sale was approved could very well have affected the decision if that evidence had been made public in real time.

“Criminal behavior would be something the committee would take into consideration when evaluating a transaction with a foreign company,” said Stewart Baker, a foreign commerce law expert at the Steptoe Johnson firm. “It is a consideration, but it is not something that would guarantee a particular outcome.”

He said the committee board would need “to consider how serious the criminal behavior is, in the context of this transaction, how likely is it that someone acting against U.S. security interest would take action,” he added.