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Will Horrendous CNN Ratings, Advertiser Boycotts, And 4Chan’s Memetic War Destroy Billions In Time Warner Value?

  • AT&T announced plans in October to purchase CNN parent company Time Warner for $85.4 billion, or $107.50 / share (currently $101.50 near 15 year highs).
  • According to Reuters, CNN is valued at roughly $10 billion – around 12% of the deal.
  • Since the deal was announced, however, CNN’s brand – and therefore it’s value to AT&T, has been significantly damaged.
  • In addition to recently firing three employees for publishing Fake News, ratings have been tanking, an undercover sting exposed CNN’s extreme bias, and the network blackmailed a Reddit user for which they’re now under intense memetic warfare.
  • Outraged citizens have begun to boycott CNN advertisers.
  • White House sources tell the Daily Caller that the AT&T / Time Warner deal, which requires White House approval, may be in jeopardy if CNN doesn’t fire CEO Jeff Zucker.

CNN is in the middle of a ‘Full Spectrum Dominance Attack’ after three weeks of utter devastation to their brand – which has not been reflected in the share price of parent company Time Warner ($TWX). A week after firing three employees for peddling demonstrably false anti-Trump propaganda, CNN was exposed as a network of hate-filled shills in an undercover sting by James O’Keefe of Project Veritas. Then, the “Very Fake News” network went on a witch hunt to track down the identity of Reddit user ‘HanAssholeSolo’ who they claimed was responsible for creating a video of Trump beating up a man with a CNN logo for a head, which the President tweeted on Saturday.

The result has been the collapse of CNN’s reputation while AT&T’s acquisition of parent company Time Warner hangs in the balance.

Ed Dowd, Former manager of BlackRock’s $15 billion Capital Appreciation Strategies points out the dollars and sense of CNN’s impact on the deal:

And after the last two weeks, it’s hard to imagine that AT&T hasn’t already begun to renegotiate with Time Warner – considering the fact that one of the flagship assets included in the deal is currently self-immolating.

A January Reuters article which described CNN’s pivotal role in the AT&T / Time Warner deal, placing the network’s value at around $10 billion – or just under 12% of the deal. This was written at a time when CNN was enjoying record ratings fresh off the election – despite Trump famously calling the network ‘Fake News‘ the day before.

Since then, it’s been all downhill for the ‘Very Fake News‘ network while CNN’s parent company, Time Warner, has risen to record highs.

TWX is clearly not reflecting the damage done to CNN – especially if the network violated the law when they threatened to reveal the identity of the Reddit user who posted the WWF Trump video.

CNN’s YouTube stats are cliff diving

While CNN.com traffic appears to be steady – which can be bought – their YouTube channel has suffered a significant hit to both views and subscribers, down 15.8% and 28.9% respectively according to socialblade.com. While the network is certainly taking a financial hit from this, the real significance lies in the obvious damage to the brand. People have stopped taking CNN seriously.

Memetic Warfare

In response to CNN’s threat to expose a Reddit user’s identity, online researchers from 4chan who refer to themselves ‘weaponized autists’ have declared war on the network. In a post made on the 4th of July, an ‘anon’ (anonymous user) called fellow anons to arms” to create their best memes.

“Tonight, the enemy launched a surprise attack. Freedom of speech is under attack by the most powerful media outlet in the world. They’re threatening to dox and thus ruin the life of (and possibly get him harmed by leftists) a completely random person, purely because of the memes he posted. Unacceptable.

The war is back on. GamerGate was the tutorial, our war against the media reignites now. Do not allow this assault on our forces – even if he cucked out and said sorry – to go without a response.”

4chan is an unstoppable force, by the way 

The ‘autists’ at 4chan – perhaps the most formidable crowd-sourced research, entertainment, and redpill dispensary on the planet should not be underestimated, and new visitors to the site are advised not to post unless they’ve lurked for a significant period of time – or ever.

4chan users’ Rain Man abilities to quickly connect dots, form theories, discard dead ends, and spread their findings like wildfire through social media giants Reddit, Twitter, and Facebook have led to such happenings as the time they called in an airstrike on ISIS, the ‘breaking’ of beta-cuck Shia LaBeouf, and even got a bunch of Justin Beiber fans to shave their heads.

Not to be forgotten – while Reddit’s the_donald is the most popular pro-Trump forum in the world, 4chan was undoubtedly the dominant force doing deep digs to analyze the Wikileaked emails during the election – uncovering “Pay for Play” by Clinton Foundation donors who funded ISIS, DNC cheating against Bernie Sanders, MSM collusion, Hillary’s dreams of open borders, “unaware and compliant” citizens, and other significant finds.

InfoWars is holding a $20,000 contest for the best CNN Meme…

Boycotts

Adding to Time Warner’s woes is a ‘grassroots’ boycott of CNN’s sponsors following the network’s threat to dox an individual. Lists of sponsors are now flooding both Reddit and 4chan – such as this one posted by Reddit user ‘jammich.’

Let’s let CNN’s advertisers know how we feel. I’ve found a list of their advertisers and updated it to include links to contact them. I’ve done my best to find as direct a link as possible to save you from rooting around their site. –jammich

(list below)

 

 

THE PERFECT STORM…

In a nutshell: There’s no way CNN’s recent unlubricated buggering hasn’t negatively impacted parent company Time Warner’s valuation. Ownership of Time Warner stock is 80.99% institutional – meaning it’s largely held in mutual funds, pensions and 401(k) plans, with Vanguard and Blackrock being the top two holders of $TWX.

If I were AT&T, the only thing on my mind would be a renegotiation for Time Warner without CNN – or at minimum a battle plan to completely gut the Very Fake News network – from Jeff Zucker to Wolf Blitzer to Anderson Cooper. Don Lemon can stick around for comic relief.

 

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“Supervolcano” Concerns Rise After Montana Hit By Strongest Earthquake In 20 Years

From ZeroHedge

Following a swarm of over 1100 earthquakes recorded in the Yellowstone caldera over the past month, prompting scientists to voice concerns about a dormant Yellowstone “Supervolcano” slowly waking up, overnight these concerns escalated after a strong M5.8 earthquake hit western Montana early on Thursday morning – the strongest quake to hit the area in the past 20 years – the U.S. Geological Survey reported, with Reuters adding that the tremor was felt hundreds of miles away, from Missoula to Billings and some surrounding states.

The quake appears to be the largest to hit Montana since a slightly weaker M5.6 struck outside of Dillon a dozen years ago. By comparison, the state’s largest quake which struck the West Yellowstone region 58-years ago was 7.2 magnitude.

The quake’s epicenter was about 6 miles south of Lincoln, originating from a depth of nearly 3 miles underground, according to a preliminary report from the U.S. Geological Service.

Subsequently the USGS recorded seven more tremors in the same area within an hour of the initial quake, which ranged in magnitude from 4.9 to 3.8.

The quake which struck at 12:30 a.m. local time was strong enough to knock items off of walls and shelves in Helena and Missoula.  Some Twitter users posted feeling tremors as far as Spokane, Wash., Boise, Idaho and Calgary, Canada.

Mike Stickney, seismologist at the Earthquake Studies Office, Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology on the Montana Tech campus in Butte, said the quake was probably the strongest in Montana since October 1964. The location, he said, is not surprising. “It’s right along the axis of the intermountain seismic belt.” He said the quake occurred on a strike/slip fault, a vertical fault where one side moves horizontally against the other, similar to the kind of movement experienced along the San Andreas Fault in California.

That said, he said he “does not believe” the quake is seismically tied to the recent “swarm” of smaller earthquakes in the Yellowstone National Park area. “I don’t see any direct relationship between these two sequences,” he said. “This is a pretty sizeable earthquake. It would certainly have the potential to do structural damage near the epicenter, but we’ve had no reports indicating damage yet.” Others, however, disagree.

Residents in Lincoln briefly lost power and there was a gas leak in Helena, the National Weather Service in Great Falls said on Twitter. Lewis and Clark County Sheriff Leo Dutton said Lincoln lost electricity as a result of the quake, but the power has since been restored.

Lisa Large, a bartender at the Wheel Inn Tavern in Lincoln, said the power went out and bottles flew off the shelves when the earthquake hit. Other than that, she said, there wasn’t any major damage there. She was in a fairly jovial mood when called by a Missoulian reporter near closing time at 1:50 a.m. “It slopped all the grease outta the fryer,” she said. “The kitchen’s a mess right now. The lights have been out and they just came back on. Hopefully we don’t get any more aftershocks.”

Quoted by the Missoulian, Dutton said the fire chief in Lincoln was sending people out to check for damage, but they have not found any yet.  Missoula Police Department Corporal Mick McCarthy said the department has had calls from people asking what was going on with the earthquake and some medical calls, but no power outages reported or gas leaks. “No property damage reported yet, but it’s still early,” McCarthy said.

Ray Anderson, 76, told the Associated Press that it was the strongest quake he had ever felt.

Carolyn Kennedy, who lives in South Calgary, said she felt about 20 seconds “of waves” from the tremors. “We heard rumbling noises,” she messages FoxNews.com, adding that perfume bottles on her desk shook from the tremblor.

Twitter lit up around Montana seconds after the quake, with people weighing in from Bozeman to Kalispell to Glacier National Park to Billings and elsewhere in Montana.

“Did the entire state of Montana just have an earthquake?” tweeted Brandon Furr. Sean Ryan of Butte tweeted, “Now that everyone in Montana is awake from that earthquake … you guys want to play Monopoly or something?” Glacier National Park account tweeted, “Western Montana just had a decent-sized earthquake. Good shake here at Park HQ in West Glacier #geology.”

Musician John Mayer, a part-time Bozeman resident, took to Twitter to marvel at the event. “Wow,” he wrote on Twitter. “Earthquake in Montana.”

While minor earthquakes are fairly common, Thursday’s moderate quake was the strongest felt in western Montana in two decades. The last one to exceed 5.0 magnitude was reported 12 years ago near Dillon, according to the USGS. Most of those incidents had epicenters farther south, many centering in the famously active Yellowstone National Park. In total, there have been more than 70 quakes measuring larger than 4.5 in Montana and parts of Wyoming and Idaho since 1925, according to the USGS. The largest quake in state history was magnitude 7.2 in 1959 near west Yellowstone.

The USGS reports the Lincoln quake was one of 20 within the last week and 236 within the last month.

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VIDEO: Trump Shuts Down Snotty Reporter Over Russia, Invokes Bad Iraq WMD Intel

During a joint press conference in Warsaw, Poland with Polish President Duda, U.S. President Trump took the opportunity to thoroughly disarm a reporter – whose mic was cut after she wouldn’t stop needling him with questions.

NBC’s Hallie Jackson asked if Trump would ‘once and for all, definitively say that Russia interfered in the 2016 election?

Trump hit back, stating “I think it was Russia, and I think it could have been other people in other countries. I’ve said it very simply.”  The President then turned the question around on the reporter, pointing out that President Obama did absolutely nothing about Russian interference before the election.

Trump: I think a lot of people interfere. I think it’s been happening for a long time. It’s been happening for many, many years.

Now, the thing I have to mention is that Barack Obama found out about this in terms of if it were Russia – found out about it in August. Now the election was in November. That’s a lot of time he did nothing about it.

Why did he do nothing about it? He was told it was Russia by the CIA, as I understand it, it was well reported – and he did nothing about it. They say he choked. Well, I don’t think he choked. I think what happened is he thought Hillary Clinton was going to win the election and he said “let’s not do anything about it.”

That’s the real question – why did he do nothing from August all the way to November 8th?

Jackson then pressured the President on the disconnect between his position and what US Intelligence agencies have reported over Russia:

Jackson: you again say you think it was Russia. Your intelligence agencies have been far more definitive. They say it was Russia. Why won’t you agree with them?

Trump: Let me just start off by saying, I heard it was 17 agencies. I said ‘boy that’s a lot, do we even have that many intelligence agencies?’ And we did some very heavy research. Turned out to be 3 or 4, it wasn’t 17. And many of your compatriots had to change their reporting and they had to apologize and they had to correct.

I remember when I was sitting back listening about Iraq. Weapons of Mass Destruction. How everybody was 100% sure that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. Guess what? That led to one big mess. They were wrong, and it led to a mess. 

Watch (1hr 14 min in)

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CNN Self Immolates: Deleted Tweets, Airport Shunning, Oh – And They Got The Wrong Guy

One week after James O’Keefe destroyed CNN’s last shred of credibility, the network rife with ham-handed propagandists has doused itself in gasoline and lit a match – forever condemning themselves to irrelevancy and ridicule.

As you are now aware along with the rest of the world, CNN went on a witch hunt over the weekend to track down the identity of Reddit user ‘HanAssholeSolo,’ who they claimed is responsible for creating a video of Trump beating up a man with a CNN logo for a head, which the President tweeted on Saturday.

After discovering the man’s identity – through possibly illegal means, the network threatened to expose the Redditor’s identity, ‘doxing’ him. In response, the internet exploded with rage – creating dozens of new similar CNN memes and receiving a formal declaration of war from 4chan users, who have begun ‘unmasking’ CNN employees for the world to harass.

Deleted Tweets

After the immense public backlash over CNN’s witch hunt, CNN’s Chris “that sucks” Cuomo – a giant douche, deleted a tweet asking followers “Should CNN reveal name of Reddit user who made trump wrestling video?”

CNN journalist Andrew Kaczynski who went on the Witch Hunt for HanAssholeSolo also deleted a tweet from 2012 – and was promptly called out by Donald Trump Jr. (whose Twitter account has been on fire).

Airport Shunning

After a tweet from Mike Cernovich it’s been reported, with a crappy photograph, that Atlanta international airport has shut CNN off!

Last but not least – it appears that CNN GOT THE WRONG GUY

As Buzzfeed of all places points out “As Reddit was celebrating HanAssholeSolo’s victory, one user pointed out that what Trump tweeted wasn’t actually HanAssholeSolo’s GIF.”

While Solo maintains it was his video with sound added, Buzzfeed also notes that HanAssholeSolo’s original GIF was shorter, had a different aspect ratio, and had a WWE logo in the corner.

Also – according to TweetDeck, Trump’s tweet was sent from an iPhone, so someone would have had to send it to the President via private message or emailed attachment, and was uploaded to Twitter via his camera roll.

Per Buzzfeed:

So what does this all mean?

“Someone downloaded the GIF that HanAssholeSolo originally posted to Reddit. Then that person cropped it to better fit a video player like Facebook or YouTube. Then they went through the effort of syncing it back up with audio from the original clip. Then that person put it somewhere where Trump or one of Trump’s people could see it and download it. Then whoever found the video version had to get it to Trump’s phone.”

Extra Lastly – an unverified 4chan user from Mexico claims to have created the GIF months ago…

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Bill Gates: African Refugees Will Decimate Europe Unless They’re Given Tons Of Cash

In an interview published Saturday, Bill Gates told German newspaper Welt am Sonntag that Europe will be devastated by African refugees if they don’t “make it more difficult for Africans to reach the continent,” and the solution lies in European nations committing billions of taxpayer money towards overseas aid.

According to Gates, the combination of explosive population growth in Africa combined with Europe’s notoriously generous open-border migrant welfare programs – as illustrated by the ‘German attitude to refugees’ have incentivised migrants to flood into Europe.

“On the one hand you want to demonstrate generosity and take in refugees, but the more generous you are, the more word gets around about this  — which in turn motivates more people to leave Africa.” –Bill Gates

How to stop them?

Gates, whose third world vaccination programs have contributed to Africa’s population explosion, suggested that heaping tons of money onto Africa while taking steps to prevent transit into Europe is the best solution.

After calling Germany’s commitment to allocate .7% of GDP towards foreign aid ‘phenomenal,’ Gates encouraged ‘other European nations to follow its example.”

(Because Africa is of course known for efficiently managing billions in foreign aid without corruption to ensure that their people are taken care of. Surely Europe’s donations will create an Africa that rivals downtown Hamburg.)

Italy

Gates’ comments come as European leaders discuss the surge of Africans washing up on Italy’s shores every week, with Rome calling on other EU nations to accept more refugees.

On sunday, Italy’s interior minister Marco Minniti begged for help – telling an EU summit in Tallinn “We are under enormous pressure”

If the only ports where refugees are taken to are Italian, something is not working. This is the heart of the question” –Marco Minniti

Italy has taken in over 82,000 migrants in the first six months of 2017, 19% more than the same period last year.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the rescue organization SOS Mediterranee which runs an aid vessel along with Doctors Without Borders said that it would be logistically difficult to redirect migrants to other European ports.

If the order came “we would have no choice, we would obey. But it would be completely impossible with more than 1,000 people on board,” Mathilde Auvillain told AFP.

So there you have it

After years of liberal open-border policies predictably resulted in a flood of North African (economic) migrants into europe, the EU is panicking. And the solution to preventing millions of migrants from upgrading their lifestyle by picking up sticks and moving is to throw more money at Africa…

Meanwhile, President Trump is in Poland this week – one of the only European nations to refuse refugees.

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CNN Blackmails Reddit User Over Trump Wrestling Video, Threatens To Expose Identity

CNN is taking heat for threatening to publish the identity of a private citizen who posted a video lampooning the network.

Redditor ‘HanAssholeSolo’ is credited as the creator of a clip showing President Trump beating up a man with a CNN logo superimposed over his face, which the President then tweeted on Sunday morning.

In response, CNN and it’s MSM brethren caught the vapors – with pundits from the network suggesting that the President was inciting violence against journalists. CNN media reporter Brian Stelter tweeted this pissy little screed:

While the White House has said the video didn’t come from Reddit, CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski  – a total dick, went on a deep dive, uncovering now-deleted posts from ‘HanAssholeSolo’ which the network deemed offensive. CNN decided not to publish the the user’s personal details, for now, because HanAssholeSolo has ‘showed his remorse’ for the ‘offending posts’ and ‘ugly behavior’ – effectively threatening to expose a private citizen if he doesn’t stay in line.

 

Apology

HanAssholeSolo issued an apology on Reddit Tuesday, calling the video a “prank, nothing more.”

“The meme was created purely as satire, it was not meant to be a call to violence against CNN or any other news affiliation… …I had no idea anyone would take it and put sound to it and then have it put up on the President’s Twitter feed.”

Here’s what people thought about that:

Meanwhile, CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski has said that people are misinterpreting the article.

Sure Andrew… CNN isn’t publishing his name “because he is a private citizen” who “showed remorse,” yet you reserve the right to expose his identity if you don’t like how he behaves in the future. Sounds like a threat. 

How did they find him?

While CNN maintains they were able to link HanAssholeSolo’s posts to his Facebook account, a 4chan user claiming to be a CNN insider suggested that CNN obtained his IP address from his ISP and ‘unmasked’ him.

EPIC REACTIONS

CNN’s latest blunder follows a devastating week for CNN, whose last shred of credibility was destroyed in a blaze of glory by James O’Keefe last week. Reactions to the network’s threat to expose (or ‘Dox’) Redditor HanAssholeSolo have been hilarious… you can see for yourself by searching the hashtag #CNNBlackMail on Twitter.

Finally – 4chan has declared WAR

This should go well for CNN…

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Trump Hints At Steel And Aluminum Duties After Touting Jobs Numbers $AA $CENX $X

On Sunday, President Trump shifted gears to the economy in a series of tweets, and specifically mentioned the steel and aluminum industries.

Anti-Dumping

During the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump spoke extensively about ‘fair trade’ with America, and in April, the administration launched two investigations into steel and aluminum dumping. Dumping is a type of predatory trade in which foreign manufacturers flood a region with exports at prices which significantly undercut those offered by domestic producers.

President Trump hands United Steel Workers International President Leo W. Gerard the pen he used to sign an executive memorandum on investigation of steel imports on April 20. Commerce Secretary Wilbur L. Ross Jr. is on the left. (Associated Press)

In March, the Trump administration began investigating China for dumping aluminum foil as a review of existing anti-dumping duties, and in in mid April, Trump launched an investigation into steel dumping while surrounded by steel company executives and the President of United Steel Workers International.

“Steel is critical to both our economy and our military,” said Trump. “This is not an area where we can afford to become dependent on foreign countries.”

And while the President was hesitant to directly blame China (two weeks after meeting with Chinese President Xi), U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross did not mince words – telling reporters “Steel imports have continued to rise, despite repeated Chinese claims that they were going to reduce their steel capacity, when instead they have actually been increasing it constantly. In the first couple months of this year alone, steel imports rose 19.6 percent. It’s a very serious impact on the domestic industry.”

One week later, Trump ordered his administration to also look into wider scale aluminum dumping.

Looks like they’re serious…

Fast forward to June 20, Secretary Ross told a room full of Germans at an economic convention attended by Chancellor Merkel that the United States may have to resort to ‘broad-scale’ measures to fight steel dumping if foreign producers can’t agree on a solution.

“If President Trump takes action on dumping it will be in the hope of provoking a collective solution by importing nations”

“Lacking strong action in conjunction with our partners we may have no alternative but to engage in self help… If we do so it might have to be on a broad scale.” –U.S. Commerce Sec. Wilbur Ross

Without specifying the specific actions which would be taken, Ross said that even countries which were not direct sources of dumping might be affected by whatever solution was employed.

“If President Trump takes action on dumping it will be in the hope of provoking a collective solution by importing nations,” Ross told members of Merkel’s conservative Christian Democratic Union. “Lacking strong action in conjunction with our partners we may have no alternative but to engage in self help,” he said. “If we do so it might have to be on a broad scale.”

India’s Anti-Dumping Duties

In a similar effort to curb Chinese and EU dumping, India’s finance ministry is cracking down on the practice as well, with their own anti-dumping investigation slated to wrap up at the end of September.

“The entire steel industry would have been killed otherwise…in the last three-four years, not just India but the whole world has been shaken by China dumping the surplus across the globe,” said India’s Supreme Court Justice A.K. Skiri.

Who’s going to benefit?

If Trump announces anything resembling a serious import duty on foreign steel and aluminum producers, expect Alcoa (AA), Century Aluminum (CENX), and U.S. Steel (X) to directly benefit – along with several others.

Here are a few steel & iron manufacturers listed by hybrid score in the Exodus algorithm. Note that MT (Arcelor Mittal) is currently flagging overbought, and has an average 10 day gain of 4.42%, 6 out of the last 6 times the system has flagged. Indeed, many times when a stock is considered overbought, it will knife higher – which is why it’s useful to use an algorithm that keeps track.

You can check out the rest of ’em and their various overbought / oversold stats inside Exodus.

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Trump Wades Into EU ‘Death Panel’ Case, Tweets Support To Save Baby Charlie Gard

Last week, a European Court ruled that the parents of a critically ill child cannot privately pay for treatment in the United States. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) denied the request after the distraught parents lost a battle at UK’s Supreme Court.

Baby Charlie has a rare genetic condition called mitochondrial depletion syndrome and has serious brain damage, and had degenerated to the point where doctors sought a declaration from the court to withdraw artificial ventilation to allow Charlie to “die with dignity.”

The parents, Chris Gard, 32 and Connie Yates, 31, raised over £ 1.3 million to bring Charlie to the United States for an experimental treatment – which the ECHR denied.

Backlash

After the story made headlines around the world, Pope Francis reversed a statement issued by the Vatican’s newly appointed head of the Academy for Life. Papal Spokesman Greg Burke said of the Pope: “He prays for them, wishing that their desire to accompany and care for their own child to the end will be respected.”

President Trump weighed in over Twitter, tweeting: “If we can help little #CharlieGard, as per our friends in the U.K. and the Pope, we would be delighted to do so.”

At the end of the day, who the fuck is the ECHR or any organization to tell the parents of a child that they can’t use their own resources on an experimental treatment?

Update: Trump admin has contacted Charlie’s parents

 

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