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Bond King Jeff Gundlach Hates Bonds, Says ‘Stuck’ Holding And Warns Of Evaporating Liquidity In 2018

Bond King Jeff Gundlach dropped a bombshell at Vanity Fair’s New Establishment Summit when he told an audience member “I’m not a big fan of bonds right now,” adding “and I haven’t really been for the past four years, even though I manage them, and institutions have to own them for various reasons.”

Gundlach manages a $116 billion bond portfolio out of his Los Angeles-based firm, DoubleLine Capital – of which he casually joked “I’m stuck in it,” adding that he views his job “to get them [clients] to the other side of the valley” – referring to upcominginterest rate hikes. “I’ll feel like I’ve done a service by getting people through,” he said. “That’s why I’m still at the game. I want to see how the movie ends.

Vannity Fair‘ s William D. Cohan writes:

To illustrate his point about the risk in owning bonds these days, Gundlach shared a chart that showed how investors in European “junk” bonds are willing to accept the same no-default return as they are for U.S. Treasury bonds. In other words, the yield on European “junk” bonds is about the same—between 2 percent and 3 percent—as the yield on U.S. Treasuries, even though the risk profile of the two could not be more different. He correctly pointed out that this phenomenon has been caused by “manipulated behavior”—his code for the European Central Bank’s version of the so-called “quantitative easing” program that Ben Bernanke, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve, initiated in 2008 and that Mario Draghi, the head of the E.C.B., has taken to heart.

After explaining that European interest rates should be much higher, Gundlach pointed out that once Draghi realizes this, the order of the financial system will be turned upside down and it won’t be a good thing. 

It will mean the liquidity that has been pumping up the markets will be drying up in 2018 . . . Things go down. We’ve been in an artificially inflated market for stocks and bonds largely around the world.

Gundlach thinks “the day of reckoning is probably five or six years away, I think, and it has to do with these things I talked about with the entitlements” 

Vannity Fair also notes that fixed-income guru James Grant of Grant’s Interest Rate Observer cited two recent examples of bond insanity in his Sept. 22 issue.

Grant noted that a senior unsecured bond, due in 2022, issued by Carrefour S.A., the world’s second-largest food retailer after Walmart, yields just 50 basis points, or half of 1 percent annually. Period. While it is true that Carrefour has a modest debt-to-cash-flow ratio of a little more than two times, the yield on the bond suggests the company is virtually risk-free, which is almost certainly not the case. Grant also mentioned a senior unsecured bond, due in 2018, of Toys “R” Us, the toy retailer that recently filed for bankruptcy. The bond, he noted, “spent the summer vacation lounging in the vicinity of 95 cents on the dollar” before “[e]arly Septem­ber rumors of a debt restructuring inter­rupted that idyll.” The bond now trades at 26 cents on the dollar. “Like the flu, mispricing is communicable,” Grant wrote.

Watch the entire interview below: 

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Bond King Jeff Gundlach Hates Bonds, Says ‘Stuck’ Holding And Warns Of Evaporating Liquidity In 2018

Bond King Jeff Gundlach dropped a bombshell at Vanity Fair’s New Establishment Summit when he told an audience member “I’m not a big fan of bonds right now,” adding “and I haven’t really been for the past four years, even though I manage them, and institutions have to own them for various reasons.”

Gundlach manages a $116 billion bond portfolio out of his Los Angeles-based firm, DoubleLine Capital – of which he casually joked “I’m stuck in it,” adding that he views his job “to get them [clients] to the other side of the valley” – referring to upcominginterest rate hikes. “I’ll feel like I’ve done a service by getting people through,” he said. “That’s why I’m still at the game. I want to see how the movie ends.

Vannity Fair‘ s William D. Cohan writes:

To illustrate his point about the risk in owning bonds these days, Gundlach shared a chart that showed how investors in European “junk” bonds are willing to accept the same no-default return as they are for U.S. Treasury bonds. In other words, the yield on European “junk” bonds is about the same—between 2 percent and 3 percent—as the yield on U.S. Treasuries, even though the risk profile of the two could not be more different. He correctly pointed out that this phenomenon has been caused by “manipulated behavior”—his code for the European Central Bank’s version of the so-called “quantitative easing” program that Ben Bernanke, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve, initiated in 2008 and that Mario Draghi, the head of the E.C.B., has taken to heart.

After explaining that European interest rates should be much higher, Gundlach pointed out that once Draghi realizes this, the order of the financial system will be turned upside down and it won’t be a good thing. 

It will mean the liquidity that has been pumping up the markets will be drying up in 2018 . . . Things go down. We’ve been in an artificially inflated market for stocks and bonds largely around the world.

Gundlach thinks “the day of reckoning is probably five or six years away, I think, and it has to do with these things I talked about with the entitlements” 

Vannity Fair also notes that fixed-income guru James Grant of Grant’s Interest Rate Observer cited two recent examples of bond insanity in his Sept. 22 issue.

Grant noted that a senior unsecured bond, due in 2022, issued by Carrefour S.A., the world’s second-largest food retailer after Walmart, yields just 50 basis points, or half of 1 percent annually. Period. While it is true that Carrefour has a modest debt-to-cash-flow ratio of a little more than two times, the yield on the bond suggests the company is virtually risk-free, which is almost certainly not the case. Grant also mentioned a senior unsecured bond, due in 2018, of Toys “R” Us, the toy retailer that recently filed for bankruptcy. The bond, he noted, “spent the summer vacation lounging in the vicinity of 95 cents on the dollar” before “[e]arly Septem­ber rumors of a debt restructuring inter­rupted that idyll.” The bond now trades at 26 cents on the dollar. “Like the flu, mispricing is communicable,” Grant wrote.

Watch the entire interview below: 

Comments »

Papa Johns Says NFL Pizza Sales Dropping Thanks To SJW Protests

As the NFL suffers from empty stadiums and plummeting ratings thanks to players protesting [insert cause here] by kneeling during the National Anthem, top football advertiser Papa John’s Pizza – which once branded itself as the “Official Pizza of the NFL” tells Fox Business News that sales are down amid the controversy.

Weeks ago, Papa John’s removed the NFL logo and indications of NFL sponsorship from their website with no explanation.

The company issued a statement several weeks ago: “In America, we should respect those who have served AND stand up to injustice,” Papa John’s said. “We need to work together to be better.”

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AG Sessions Goes After MS-13 ‘Like Al Capone’ With New Mandate

Since Hillary Clinton et al are apparently bulletproof despite very obvious incriminating evidence of a pay-for-play scheme with Russia, Attorney General Jeff Sessions is focusing on less untouchable criminals – unleashing a “Crime Task Force” with a mandate to eradicate the street gang known as MS-13.

 

Washington Times reports:

Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced Monday that he’s designated the MS-13 street gang as a priority for the Justice Department’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces — enabling authorities to target the gang with a broader array of federal resources.

Now they will go after MS-13 with a renewed vigor and a sharpened focus,” Mr. Sessions said Monday as he addressed the International Association of Chiefs of police conference in Philadelphia. “Just like we took Al Capone off the streets with our tax laws, we will use whatever laws we have to get MS-13 off of our streets.”

The priority designation will instruct federal agencies such as the IRS, FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration and Immigration and Customs Enforcement to target the El Salvador-based gang not just with drug laws but also tax, racketeering and firearms laws.

In a revealing 2014 interview, White House Chief of Staff, General Kelly, told PRISM magazine that the ‘most concerning’ threat facing the United States comes from international criminal networks trafficking in drugs and sex workers:

These are international criminal networks – everything gets in. Hundreds and hundreds of tons of illicit narcotics. Relatively small amounts are taken out of the flow by our border controls. Tens of  thousands of sex workers, in many cases adolescents, come into the United States every year through these networks to serve the sex industry. I spoke at a human rights conference at the University of South Florida, in Tampa. The audience was shocked when I talked about sex workers. –Gen John Kelly

Trump’s signed an Executive Order in February aimed at international cartels dealing in both drugs and human trafficking – and MS-13 has been singled out as a primary threat.

These groups are drivers of crime, corruption, violence, and misery. In particular, the trafficking by cartels of controlled substances has triggered a resurgence in deadly drug abuse and a corresponding rise in violent crime related to drugs. Likewise, the trafficking and smuggling of human beings by transnational criminal groups risks creating a humanitarian crisis.

1,378 gang members were arrested by ICE over the last six weeks in an operation which ran from March 26 to May 6, sweeping up suspected gang members. It was the largest anti-gang effort conducted by Homeland Security to date – with priority arrests of those involved in “transnational criminal activity, including drug trafficking, weapons smuggling, human smuggling, sex trafficking, murder and racketeering.”

Fox News reports:

Gangs threaten the safety of our communities, not just in major metropolitan areas, but in our suburbs and rural areas, too,” ICE Acting Director Thomas Homan said Thursday. “Gang-related violence and criminal activity present an ongoing challenge for law enforcement everywhere.”

According to ICE, of the 1,378 total arrested, 933 were U.S. citizens, and 1,095 were confirmed as gang members or affiliates. Also, 104 of those arrested were affiliated with the dreaded MS-13 gang, eight of whom illegally crossed the border as unaccompanied minors.

“Our efforts to dismantle gangs are much more effective in areas where partnership with local law enforcement is strongest,” Homan said.

Great news – but it would be nice to see justice served a bit higher up the ladder.

In addition to AG Jeff Sessions targeting MS-13, Trump vowed to ‘destroy the vile criminal cartel’ in a July speech to law enforcement professionals. “[MS-13 has] transformed peaceful parks and beautiful quiet neighborhoods into blood-stained killing fields,” Trump said. “They’re animals. We cannot tolerate as a society the spilling of innocent, young, wonderful vibrant people”

For a brief look into the gang, Tucker Carlson recently traveled to El Salvador for his week-long series “Hunting MS-13,” which includes an interview with a cartel assassin:

To that end, Gen. Kelly also shared his thoughts on cartels in 2014 with PRISMmagazine:

These are international criminal networks – everything gets in. Hundreds and hundreds of tons of illicit narcotics. Relatively small amounts are taken out of the flow by our border controls.

“Could someone come in with a weapon of mass destruction, biological weapon travel on this network?” Of course! Last year [2013], this network carried 68,000 children into the United States. We are dealing with a very efficient network, which worries me.

At the end of May, El Salvador freaked out when Trump deported thousands of MS-13 gang members.

This year the U.S. government has deported 398 gang members to this country, compared with 534 in all of 2016, according to Salvadoran government statistics. This sharp increase in the rate of gang deportations — and the prospect of more gang roundups in the United States — has prompted Salvadoran authorities to hold emergency meetings and propose new legislation to monitor suspected criminals who are being sent home.

Trump has railed against MS-13

Throughout the 2016 election, Trump mentioned MS-13 in several tweets and speeches – citing the notably violent gang as a prime example of the types of violence illegal immigration, and rightly so. MS-13 is possibly the most notorious street gang in the Western Hemisphere. Originating in refugee-rich neighborhoods in Los Angeles in the 80’s, the gang’s territory now extends all the way from El Salvador to Canada – engaging primarily in human trafficking and drug smuggling.

In Central America, MS-13’s presence has contributed heavily to making the “Northern Triangle” of Guatamala, El Salvador, and Honduras – the most violent place in the world not at war. (more)

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Mueller Investigating Podesta Group In Connection With Russia Probe

Tony Podesta and his firm, the Podesta Group, are now under federal investigation by FBI Special Counsel Robert Mueller in connection with the Russia investigation, three sources told NBC News.

The Podesta Group was subpoenaed in late August along with four other public relations firms who worked with former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort during a 2012-2014 lobbying effort for a pro-Ukraine think tank – the European Centre for a Modern Ukraine (ECMU) – tied to former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych.

Yanukovych fled from Ukraine to Russia after he was unseated in a 2014 coup.

Two of the subpoenaed firms include Paul Manafort’s Mercury, LLC and the Podesta Group, founded by John and Tony Podesta and operated by the latter.

Manafort’s firm earned $17 million between 2012 – 2014 consulting for Yanukovych’s centrist, pro-Russia ‘Party of Regions.’ During the same period, Manafort oversaw a lobbying campaign for the pro-Russia “Centre for a Modern Ukraine,” a Brussels based think tank linked to Yanukovych which was pushing for Ukraine’s entry into the European Union.

The Podesta group, operating under Manafort, earned over $1.2 million as part of that effort.

In a statement to NBC, a spokesman for the Podesta Group said the firm “is cooperating fully with the Special Counsel’s office and has taken every possible step to provide documentation that confirms timely compliance. In all of our client engagements, the Podesta Group conducts due diligence and consults with appropriate legal experts to ensure compliance with disclosure regulations at all times — and we did so in this case.”

White House Special Access

Visitor logs reveal that Tony Podesta visited the White House at least 114 times during the Obama administration according to White House visitor logs, and was said to have had ‘special access‘ to the administration through his brother, John Podesta, while lobbying for various pro-Kremlin interests.

During a 2015 interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria, former president Obama admitted that his administration ‘brokered a deal‘ for the 2014 coup in Ukraine – all while John Podesta was a West Wing advisor and Tony Podesta lobbied for an organization which opposed the coup.

Podesta Group and Russia

While Robert Mueller’s investigation is ostensibly focused on the Trump campaign – conducting a surprise raid on Paul Manafort’s home in July, it will be interesting to see if the Special Counsel chooses to delve into the bevy of documented ties between the the Podesta brothers and Russia.

For example, Russia’s Kremlin-owned Sberbank paid the Podesta group $170,000 over a 6 month period to lobby against 2014 economic sanctions by the Obama administration:

Podesta’s efforts were a key part of under-the-radar lobbying during the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign led mainly by veteran Democratic strategists to remove sanctions against Sberbank and VTB Capital, Russia’s second largest bank.

The two Russian banks spent more than $700,000 in 2016 on Washington lobbyists as they sought to end the U.S. sanctions, according to Senate lobbying disclosure forms and documents filed with the Department of Justice.

The Podesta Group charged Sberbank $20,000 per month, plus expenses, on a contract from March through September 2016. –Daily Caller

In March of this year it was revealed that the Podesta group forgot to register as a “Foreign Agent” for their work with Sberbank.

Uranium One and Joule Unlimited

The Podesta group also earned $180,000 lobbying for Russian-owned mining company Uranium One during the same period that the Clinton Foundation was receiving millions from UrAsia / U1 interests.

Last week, two bombshell reports published by The Hill revealed that the FBI – headed by Robert Mueller at the time – discovered 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, as detailed by author Peter Schweitzer’s book Clinton Cash and the New York Times in 2015.

After Russia took control of the Uranium, the Podesta Group received $180,000 to lobby for Uranium One during the same period that the Clinton Foundation was receiving millions from U1 interests, and after Russia took majority ownership in the “20 percent” deal (source – you have to add up the years).

the Podesta Group received $180,000 to lobby for Uranium One during the same period that the Clinton Foundation was receiving millions from U1 interests, and after Russia took majority ownership in the “20 percent” deal (source – you have to add up the years).

Joule

While NBC reports that Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager and presumed Secretary of State John Podesta is not currently affiliated with the Podesta group and not part of Mueller’s investigation, it should be noted that he sat on the board of Massachusetts energy company called Joule Unlimited, along with senior Russian official Anatoly Chubais and Russian oligarch Ruben Vardanyan – who was appointed by Vladimir Putin to the Russian economic council. 

Two months after Podesta joined the board, Joule managed to raise $35 million from Putin’s Kremlin-backed investment fund Rusnano.

Not only did John Podesta fail to properly disclose this relationship before joining the Clinton Campaign, he transferred 75,000 shares of Joule to his daughter through a shell company using her address.

In an interview with Fox Business News’ Maria Bartaromo, Podesta denied that he failed to disclose his ties, emphatically stating “Maria, that’s not true. I fully disclosed and was completely compliant,” adding “I didn’t have any stock in any Russian company!” in reference to Massachusetts based Joule Unlimited – with its two Russian dignitaries on the board board and a $35 million loan from a Russian investment fund founded by Vladimir Putin.

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NJ Officer Arrested After Posting ‘Cheese Pizza’ Craigslist Ad Seeking Child Porn

A New Jersey corrections officer has been charged with receiving images of child sexual abuse, after posting an ad on Craigslist looking for women and moms “that are into Cheese Pizza,” a reference to child pornography – U.S. Attorney William E. Fitzpatrick announced Thursday.

Stephen Salamak, 37, was arrested by ICE and Homeland Security agents after an investigation revealed Salamak used several email accounts to seek and obtain child pornography.

In May, an undercover agent responded to Salamak’s Craigslist ad, seeking “Woman/Moms that are into Cheese Pizza.” The complaint said that Salamak and the undercover exchanged several emails, with Salamak asking for photos of an 8-year old child.

In July, officers searched Salamak’s email account, only to discover that he had been communicating with multiple people about child pornography and pedophilia.

A search of Salamak’s home was conducted last Thursday after a warrant was obtained, when the corrections officer admitted that “Cheese Pizza” was a reference to child pornography, and that he knowingly engaged in emails with various individuals regarding child porn and pedophilia.

Reminder that the signs are everywhere…

 

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Google, Facebook and Twitter Dropped Millions On Lobbyists Last Quarter

In the quarter leading up to a Nov 1 congressional testimony on Russian election interference, tech giants Google ($GOOG), Facebook ($FB), and Twitter ($TWTR) have been dropping millions on lobbyists while under increased regulatory scrutiny from Washington, according to government documents.

CNBC reports:

The disclosures, required by the Lobbying Disclosure Act, revealed Google spent $4.17 million lobbying Congress this most recent quarter. Facebook spent $2.85 million, while Twitter spent $120,000. The figures were first reported by Bloomberg News.

Last quarter Google spent $5.93 million lobbying lawmakers, while Facebook and Twitter spent $2.38 million and $120,000 respectively.

The Silicon Valley behemoths are sending lawyers to U.S. congressional committees Nov 1 to testify on Russian political ads bought during the 2016 election.

On October 19, three senators — Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Mark Warner, D-Va., and John McCain, R-Ariz. — co-sponsored the bi-partisan “Honest Ads Act,” which would require heavy disclaimers and disclosures to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) for online political ads. Platforms with 50 million or more unique monthly users would have to keep a public database of political ads, and the companies would have to make “reasonable” efforts to prevent foreign nations from interfering with U.S. elections through ads, according to CNBC.

Microsoft, Amazon, Oracle and Apple also spent close to $10 million lobbying Congress last quarter.

 

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FBI Source: Russia Aggressively Pursued Relationship With Hillary Clinton And State Dept

One week after The Hill reported on a massive Clinton Foundation pay-for-play scheme resulting in Russia’s ability to mine 20 percent of American uranium and sell it back to U.S. nuclear power plants, a new report has surfaced claiming Russia was trying to infiltrate U.S. politics by targeting the State Department.

As Hillary Clinton began her tenure as Obama’s Secretary of State in January, 2009, the FBI observed several attempts by Russia to gain access to the former First Lady and her team at State.

The Hill‘s John Solomon and Alison Spann report the schemes included a female “sleeper” Russian spy posing as an American accountant with the fake name “Cynthia Murphy,” who gained employment with a top New York-based DNC financier and close friend of Hillary Clinton, Alan Patricof, after the Russian agent lived for nearly 10 years in New Jersey posing as a mundane suburbanite.

Murphy was arrested and deported as she worked her way closer to Clinton’s State Department. The FBI did not believe the Russian spy was going to risk taking a job inside the State Department out of fear that the in depth vetting process would expose her true identity. Instead, she aimed for a job in the private sector as close as possible to State.

Patricof did not return a call to his office Friday seeking comment. But in 2010 he told The Washington Post after the spy case broke he believed he had been a victim of the spy ring, saying Murphy had worked for him but that he only talked accounting and not government or politics with her.

“It’s just staggering,” he told the Post about the idea of being targeted by Russia. “It’s off the charts.”

Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill declined Saturday to say if the secretary was ever alerted or briefed to the Russian spy effort, instead suggesting that any focus on the spy case was a partisan effort to distract from the controversy around Moscow and President Trump. –The Hill

Lobby Racket

The FBI was also curious about Russian state-controlled Uranium One hiring the Podesta Group to lobby the Obama administration. “At the time it was hired, the firm was providing hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in pro bono support to Bill Clinton’s global charitable initiative, and it legally helped the Russian company secure federal decisions that led to billions in new U.S. commercial nuclear business, records show.”

Bill’s $500K Speech and Russian meetings

The Feds were also “surprised by the timing and size” of a $500K speech Bill Clinton gave to a Kremlin-linked bank in the summer of 2010 – the same day he met with Vladimir Putin at the Russian leader’s house

Angel Urena, the official spokeswoman for the former president, told The Hill that Bill Clinton never discussed the issues pending before his wife’s department when he was in Russia and that the money he collected for himself and his charitable efforts never influenced his wife’s decision-making.

The Hill reported last week that Obama’s FBI, headed by Robert Mueller, discovered 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, as detailed by author Peter Schweitzer’s book Clinton Cash and the New York Times in 2015.

The Hill also reported that Bill Clinton sought permission from Hillary Clinton’s state department in 2010 to meet with a Russian nuclear official, as well as fourteen other Russians.

Another investigation, via The Hill:

Away from Bill Clinton’s check and the breaking news of a spy ring, the FBI had another major investigation underway where the Clinton name was surfacing.

Since 2009, the FBI had an undercover informant gathering evidence of a massive bribery and kickback scheme inside the Russian nuclear energy firm TENEX and its American arm TENAM.

Years later, FBI agents would help the Justice Department bring charges against the Russian nuclear industry’s point man in the United States, TENEX director Vadim Mikerin, as well as a Russian financier and an American trucking executive whose company moved Russian uranium around the United States.

But as the informant gathered evidence of the bribery scheme in early 2010, he began to hear a familiar name crop up in conversations. The Russians kept talking about ways they could win access to or favor with the Clintons, and the informant kept reporting it back to his FBI handlers.

The informant has never been publicly identified, but his lawyer told The Hill on Friday he can shed significant light to Congress on what the Russians were doing to try to win favorable treatment from the Obama administration.

“I can confirm that my client while working undercover for the FBI and in the employ of the Russian energy firm TENEX witnessed numerous, detailed conversations in which Russian actors described their efforts to lobby, influence or ingratiate themselves with the Clintons in hopes of winning favorable uranium decisions from the Obama administration,” attorney Victoria Toensing said.

“Unfortunately, he cannot at the present time disclose the specifics of that evidence he reported to the agents in real time because of an NDA he signed with the bureau. But we are working with Congress to find a means in the future for him to transmit the important information he possesses,” she added.

The lobbying work was perfectly legal, focusing on agencies like State, Commerce and Energy that supervised the U.S.-Russia nuclear relationship. But once again, a connection to the Clintons emerged.

One of the firms TENEX hired in 2010 was providing hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in support to the Clinton Global Initiative, starting in 2008.

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Trump To Put B-52 Nuclear Bombers On 24 Hr Alert After EO To Reactivate Air Force Pilots

After signing an Executive Order on Friday allowing the Air Force to recall up to 1,000 retired pilots to address an “acute shortage of pilots,” the President is preparing to put nuclear bombers back on 24-hour ready alert for the first time since 1991 – according to Defense One.

That means the long-dormant concrete pads at the ends of Barksdale Air Force Base’s 11,000-foot runway — dubbed the “Christmas tree” for their angular markings — could once again find several B-52s parked on them, laden with nuclear weapons and set to take off at a moment’s notice.
“This is yet one more step in ensuring that we’re prepared,” Gen. David Goldfein, Air Force chief of staff, said in an interview during his six-day tour of Barksdale and other U.S. Air Force bases that support the nuclear mission. “I look at it more as not planning for any specific event, but more for the reality of the global situation we find ourselves in and how we ensure we’re prepared going forward.”
While the order has not been given to commence the flights, preparations are under way in anticipation of the resumption of continuous nuclear alert.
Defense One adds:

Goldfein, who is the Air Force’s top officer and a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is asking his force to think about new ways that nuclear weapons could be used for deterrence, or even combat.

“The world is a dangerous place and we’ve got folks that are talking openly about use of nuclear weapons,” he said. “It’s no longer a bipolar world where it’s just us and the Soviet Union. We’ve got other players out there who have nuclear capability. It’s never been more important to make sure that we get this mission right.”

During his trip across the country last week, Goldfein encouraged airmen to think beyond Cold War uses for ICBMs, bombers and nuclear cruise missiles.

“I’ve challenged…Air Force Global Strike Command to help lead the dialog, help with this discussion about ‘What does conventional conflict look like with a nuclear element?’ and ‘Do we respond as a global force if that were to occur?’ and ‘What are the options?’” he said. “How do we think about it — how do we think about deterrence in that environment?”

Asked if placing B-52s back on alert — as they were for decades — would help with deterrence, Goldfein said it’s hard to say.

“Really it depends on who, what kind of behavior are we talking about, and whether they’re paying attention to our readiness status,” he said.

Meanwhile, Barksdale and other bases with nuclear bombers are on track to build new storage facilities to house a new type of nuclear cruise missile currently under development.
Trump pulling air force pilots out of retirement to address an “acute shortage of pilots,” while on the cusp of resuming 24 hour nuclear flights sounds like a very expensive bluff – unless we’re about to level North Korea…

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Trump To Declassify Last Batch Of 3,000 JFK Files, Ignoring Pleas From Intel Community To Keep Sealed

President Trump announced over Twitter Saturday morning that he will allow the release of over 3,000 classified documents from the FBI, CIA and Justice Department on the assassination of John F. Kennedy, no later than October 26 – “subject to the receipt of further information.”

In 1992, congress signed the “President John F. Kennedy Records Collection Act,” which mandated all documents related to the assassination be released within 25 years unless doing so would compromise intelligence, law enforcement, military operations or foreign relations – at the President’s discretion.

The release will include over 3,000 documents which haven’t been seen by the public, and over 30,000 previously released files which were heavily redacted.

According to ZeroHedge

JFK scholars hope the new documents may provide insight into assassin Lee Harvey Oswald’s trip to Mexico City weeks before the killing, during which he visited the Soviet and Cuban embassies. Oswald’s stated reason for going was to get visas that would allow him to enter Cuba and the Soviet Union, according to the Warren Commission, the investigative body established by President Lyndon B. Johnson, but much about the trip remains unknown.

Among other protected information slated for release are details about the arrangements the U.S. entered into with the Mexican government that allowed it to have close surveillance of those and other embassies, said Tunheim, a federal judge in Minnesota. Jefferson Morley, a former Washington Post reporter who has written extensively about the Kennedy assassination papers, said the remaining documents might include files on senior CIA officers from the 1960s who likely knew details of the agency’s surveillance of Oswald in Mexico City.

 “What’s in those files could tell us how those men did their jobs,” said Morley, who wrote a 2008 book on the agency’s Mexico City station chief.  “Is there JFK material in there? Could be. There might be stuff on why we were interested in the Cuban consulate, how we surveilled the consulate, how we did our audio work, and how did we recruit spies there? We might understand much better why they were watching Oswald.”

Morley is also eager to read a never-before released transcript of testimony given by James Angleton, the CIA’s legendary chief of counterintelligence from 1954 to 1975, to senators in September 1975 investigating abuses committed by the intelligence community.

The files on Angleton and the other CIA officers are important because “these are not just major players in the agency’s history, they are major players in the Oswald story,” said Morley, who has a new book on Angleton, “The Ghost,” coming out Oct. 24. “Oswald didn’t come out of nowhere. Angelton was targeting him for intelligence purposes at the Cuban consulate in Mexico City.”

Not everyone is happy, however, and many experts fear that such a large release of secret JFK assassination documents will spur “a new generation of conspiracy theories.”

Additionally, Politico reported that Trump administration officials were concerned that some of the documents created in the 1990s contain information on recent U.S. intelligence programs and might not be released. Nonetheless, White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters said that the White House is aiming “to ensure that the maximum amount of data can be released to the public” under the act.

Overnight, the WaPo confirmed, reporting that President Trump is being urged to withhold the last batch of government documents that could shed more light on the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

 A National Security Council official said in an interview that federal agencies are asking the president not to release an unknown number of files held by the National Archives and Records Administration related to Kennedy’s murder.

“There will be a request made to the President to withhold documents, absolutely no question about that,” said the NSC official, who agreed to be interviewed only on the condition of anonymity. “There are definitely files related to sources and methods that agencies are asking to withhold.”

The official declined to identify which agencies are asking Trump to keep some of the Kennedy files secret, saying only that the security council is coordinating the requests.

Meanwhile, as we reported last week, longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone was urging Trump to release the files, and said in a recent interview he felt “optimistic” that Trump would make it happen. Stone claimed that the CIA is urging President Donald Trump to delay disclosing some of the files for another 25 years. “They must reflect badly on the CIA even though virtually everyone involved is long dead.”

Earlier this month, Roger Stone, the political consultant and Trump confidante, reported on his website, “Stone Cold Truth,” that CIA Director Mike Pompeo wants the president to delay the record release for another 25 years. Stone, who co-authored a best-selling book in 2013 called, “The Man Who Killed Kennedy: The Case Against LBJ,” said in a Post interview that he opposes any delay.

What is the government hiding?” he asked. “The issue now is transparency.”

Earlier this week, Stone told Alex Jones that  he spoke to Trump himself and urged the president to release all the documents.

“Yesterday, I had the opportunity to make the case directly to the president of the United States by phone as to why I believe it is essential that he release the balance of the currently redacted and classified JFK assassination documents,” Stone said on Jones’s show. “A very good White House source — not the President — told me that the Central Intelligence Agency, specifically CIA director Mike Pompeo, has been lobbying the President furiously not to release these documents. Why? Because I believe they show that Oswald was trained, nurtured and put in place by the Central Intelligence Agency.” 

Stone said it wasn’t clear what Trump will do. “He did not tip off his current decision,” Stone told Jones. “We’re going to have to wait . . . but he was all ears. He took it all in . . . I think he’s going to do the right thing.” This morning it appears that Trump has decided to side with Stone over the arguments from the NSC and various other “covert” U.S. agencies.

I wonder what George H.W. Bush finds so funny about the whole thing? 

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