Apple Announces $1 Billion Fund For U.S. Manufacturing Jobs – Is $230 Billion Repatriation Deal Next?

Yesterday in an interview with CNBC’s Jim Cramer, Apple ($AAPL) CEO Tim Cook said the tech giant would be devoting $1 billion to promote “advanced manufacturing” jobs in the United States.

“We’re announcing it today. So you’re the first person I’m telling,” Cook told “Mad Money” host Jim Cramer on Wednesday. “Well, not the first person because we’ve talked to a company that we’re going to invest in already,” he said, adding that Apple will announce the first investment later in May. –CNBC

Tim Cook announces a $1 billion investment in "advanced manufacturing" jobs in the U.S. https://t.co/zKZKNObjYw pic.twitter.com/h5BL1o7fec

— ZeroPointNow (@ZeroPointNow) May 4, 2017

Cook did not elaborate on what kind of “advanced manufacturing” jobs would be brought to the U.S., however Apple unveiled a webpage focused on job creation in conjunction with the CNBC announcement. This is not the first we’ve heard of Apple considering manufacturing in the U.S.; rumors were swirling late last year in The Nikkei, owner of the Financial Times, that in July of 2016, Apple had asked it’s Taiwanese manufacturer Foxconn to estimate the cost of relocating iPhone assembly back to America in the event that Donald Trump won the US election – a move which could lead to nearly 700,000 jobs.

And while yesterday’s $1b announcement doesn’t necessarily mean iPhone manufacturing will to move the US, it does add Apple to a long list of U.S. companies focused on jobs in the United States. In the weeks after the November 8th election, companies including Ford, Carrier, General Motors, and Wal Mart made commitments to increasing or keeping jobs in the United States, in an effort to avoid a 35% tariff Trump had threatened on imports.

Thank you to General Motors and Walmart for starting the big jobs push back into the U.S.!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 17, 2017

Repatriation

Possibly related to Apple’s decision to invest $1 billion in advanced U.S. manufacturing jobs is increasing talk of a deal between the U.S. government and corporations to repatriate income currently held overseas – a move which would currently cost Apple nearly 40% on more than $230 billion in cash outside the United States. In January, both Donald Trump and Tim Cook were talking about a repatriation “holiday,” with Trump proposing a one-time 10% tax rate on cash brought into the United States, and Apple’s Cook saying such a move would be “very good for the country, and good for Apple.”

For Apple, the largest company in the world which employs over 80,000 employees in the United States alone, repatriation would mean savings of around $50 billion in taxes. For other tech giants such as Microsoft, it would amount to roughly $28 billion on it’s $124 billion cash hoard. Other industry titans would save massive amounts on their tax bill as well; Oracle would stand to avoid $9.5 billion in taxes, and Citigroup ($C), Amgen ($AMGN), Qualcomm ($QCOM), Gilead Sciences ($GILD) and many others would benefit to the tune of $5 to $10 billion in tax savings. Overall, Fortune 500 companies stand to reap over $500 billion in tax savings from Trump’s 10% “repatriation holiday.”

The notion of repatriation is not a new idea. Former President Barack Obama proposed a similar tax deal, and when his predecessor George W. Bush announced a one-time repatriation rate of 5.25%, corporations brought back over $300 billion into the United States – though it failed to translate to job growth per a 2011 Senate investigation of the Jobs Creation Act. In stark contrast, however, U.S. companies appear to be committing to job growth before any announced ‘repatriation holiday,’ which may bode well if in fact one is announced.

Documents have surfaced on 4chan which purport to be show French Presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron using an offshore tax haven in the Caribbean island of Nevis. The documents, dated May 4th, 2012, consist of an ‘Operating Agreement’ to form an offshore limited liability company called ‘La Providence,’ as well as what appears to be correspondence between banker Brian Hydes at FirstCaribbean International Bank and Macron’s corporation.

Of note, Macron has previously denied owning any offshore assets.

Below are screenshots of portions of the document, the fax, and a bit of investigation into the parties involved. The full docs are linked at the bottom.

Page 1

 Signature Page:

Macron’s signature from a book he signed (note the arched “M”):

Next we have a fax from FirstCaribbean bank to Richard Palmer at Macron’s ‘La Providence’:

Brian Hydes is in fact a banker at FirstCaribbean:

And a close-up of Richard Palmer’s info:

Palmer’s number leads us to Dixcart Management Nevis, Ltd. 

Where Richard Palmer works!

So, while this information has not been verified beyond what you see here as well as the 4chan post – if true, it means that Macron set up an offshore company / bank account.

Full docs:

Operating Agreement

Fax

A former high school science teacher in Las Cruces, New Mexico has pleaded guilty to manufacturing and possessing methamphetamine, according to the District Attorney’s Office.

John W. Gose, 56, of San Miguel was arrested October 2, 2016 during a traffic stop in which officers became suspicious after noticing a styrofoam ice chest containing glassware, chemicals, and rubber tubing – all items which can be used to manufacture meth.

During a subsequent search of Gose’s property, more laboratory equipment and chemicals indicating illegal activity was turned up. Investigators determined that Gose was in possession of enough ingredients to manufacture at least a pound of methamphetamine, with an estimated street value of over $44,000.

Gose pleaded guilty to two counts of trafficking methamphetamine by manufacturing, one count of possession of a controlled substance, as well as and possession of drug paraphernalia.

According to the District Attorney’s office, Gose taught science for over eight years in El Paso, TX until 2008, after which he moved to Las Cruces, NM to teach at Oñate High School and then Camino Real Middle School until February of 2016.

After pleading guilty, Gose – who faces over 20 years in prison, was ordered into a 60-day diagnostic evaluation by the New Mexico Department of Corrections prior to sentencing.

District attorney Mark D’Antonio issued a statement:

That the defendant in this case chose to plead guilty to all of the charges is a testament to the strength of the investigation.

Thanks to the hard work of the Las Cruces Police Department, the New Mexico State Police and the prosecutors in this office, we are able to close the books on this case of life imitating art while saving the taxpayers of New Mexico the cost of a jury trial.

Gose’s case bears a resemblance to the AMC hit show Breaking Bad, which follows the exploits of an Albuquerque high school science teacher Walter White, played by Bryan Cranston. After being diagnosed with terminal cancer, White teams up with high school student Jesse Pinkman to manufacture methamphetamine, becoming a drug kingpin in the process. Fortunately or unfortunately for Gose, his meth manufacturing days have come to an abrupt end.

The Wall St. Journal reported yesterday that Top white house advisor and son-in-law of President Trump, Jared Kushner, failed to disclose business ties to Billionaires George Soros, Peter Thiel, and Goldman Sachs. Kushner also failed to mention his stake in Cadre, a real estate company he co-founded in 2014 with his brother Joshua and friend Ryan Williams. What’s more, Kushner has loans totaling over $1 billion with over 20 lenders – $300 million of which he has personally guaranteed.

Kushner’s lawyer Jamie Gorlick – former deputy Attorney General to Bill Clinton, told the Wall St. Journal that Kushner would revise his government financial-disclosure forms to include Cadre once ethics officials have reviewed them.

Ms. Gorelick also said that Kushner has “resigned from Cadre’s board, assigned his voting rights, and reduced his ownership share. Ms. Gorelick characterized the update to Kushner’s form as “very normal,” however questions remain over whether or not one of the President’s top advisors should have disclosed his ownership of Cadre in the first place:

Trevor Potter, a Republican former chairman of the Federal Election Commission, and other ethics experts said investments such as Mr. Kushner’s ownership of Cadre typically need to be disclosed.

They said Mr. Kushner didn’t appear to violate disclosure rules by not publicly reporting his business-related debts and guarantees. But they said such arrangements ideally should be disclosed, in part because they could force Mr. Kushner to recuse himself from certain issues involving the lenders.

“Anything that presents a potential for the conflict of interest should be disclosed so that the public and the press can monitor this,” Mr. Potter said. –WSJ

The news of Kushner’s undisclosed ties to George Soros and his outstanding loans comes less than a month after eyebrows were raised when Ivanka Trump’s company won three new trademarks from China, the same day Chinese President Xi Jinping dined with the Trumps at Mar-a-lago, stoking concerns over conflicts of interest and pay-to-play politics within the White House. Moreover, Trump has decided not to label China a “currency manipulator,” after spending much of the 2016 Presidential campaign promising to do so. Mr. Trump’s reasoning is that China is cooperating in regards to North Korea.

While Ivanka Trump has stepped away from her fashion line since becoming “assistant to the President,” she will remain the sole beneficiary to a trust holding all assets of the company bearing her name, as will Jared Kushner with his prior holdings. Jamie Gorlick, who also represents Ivanka Trump, stated that Ms. Trump will no longer appear in advertisements for her company, and she has separated her business and personal social media accounts – replacing photos of herself with her products with those of official business.

“Ivanka created the trust to separate herself from the business and implement controls and processes that facilitate compliance with ethical requirements,” –NYT

While it appears that the creation of trusts and stepping away from their businesses may legally shield Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner’s from prosecution, they are skating a fine line with Title 18 section 208 of the Code of Federal Regulations, which states “an officer or employee of the executive branch of the United States Government” may not have a financial interest which may directly benefit from their activities while employed by the Federal government. It is unclear at this time if Ivanka violated Federal law or the terms of her trust by having dinner with Chinese President Xi while her company was granted Chinese trademarks – however she is required to recuse herself from official business or veto business deals which may conflict with each other. It should also be noted that Ivanka Trump will still retain her stake in the Trump International Hotel.

Between Jared Kushner’s undisclosed debts, ownership in Cadre, and business ties with George Soros – the man who spent much of 2016 allegedly hiring agitators to protest and disrupt Trump events, and Ivanka’s fashion line receiving curiously timed trademarks from China, questions over nepotism, conflicts of interest, and pay-for-play may haunt the Trump White House for years to come.

McDonald’s is helping consumers maximize caloric intake of their brand new sandwiches with the ‘Frork,’ a three pronged French fry holding quasi-utensil that’s sure to be a hit with those who just can’t bear the thought of leaving hamburger drippings behind after a feeding. The Frork resembles a fork – except there are fries where you might expect to find metal prongs!

To use, simply insert three hand crafted artisan French fries into the expertly molded Frork, and go to town…

McDonald’s has released an infomercial-esque video to help guide your purchasing decision:

“Will the Frork change your life? Probably not.”

Well, it’s been a little over four days since thousands of attendees at an ill fated music festival in the Bahamas were left to fend for themselves in a Millennial’s worst nightmare of dying cell phones, cardboard sandwiches, burning tents, roving bands of thieves, feral dogs, and worst of all – anarchy at the bar.  Advertised as having “first-class culinary experiences and a luxury atmosphere,” things like the “Private Luxury Villas” turned out to be nothing more than USAID disaster relief tents:

Welcome to the festival, enjoy your USAID disaster relief tents. https://t.co/gRdcg3oKGb pic.twitter.com/BeGYeuvfqe

— ZeroPointNow (@ZeroPointNow) May 1, 2017

The festival was quickly canceled after the story broke, with event organizers Ja Rule (real name Jeffrey Atkins) and Billy McFarland sort of apologizing:

@Ruleyork .@Ruleyork OMG. This is the only way I'm apologizing from this moment on: pic.twitter.com/zxlwBc1ITF

— Omri (@Omri_Rawrlan) April 28, 2017

And hours ago, a class-action lawsuit was filed against event organizers Ja Rule, Billy McFarland, and their company, Fyre Media, Inc. A copy of the filing was provided to iBankCoin.com by Geragos & Geragos – the high profile law firm which has represented such clients as Michael Jackson, Chris Brown, Winona Ryder, Ke$ha, and former Bill Clinton business partner Sousan McDougal.

We just filed Federal Class Action against Fyre Media for festival of horror. Refunding ticket price is not enough! @markgeragos pic.twitter.com/5CsNtQ6yjh

— Ben Meiselas (@meiselasb) May 1, 2017

Filed in a California Court, Plaintiff Daniel Jung asserts:

The festival’s lack of adequate food, water, shelter, and medical care created a dangerous and panicked situation among attendees—suddenly finding themselves stranded on a remote island without basic provisions—that was closer to ‘The Hunger Games’ or ‘Lord of the Flies’ than Coachella.

Damages in excess of $100 million:

Plaintiff brings this class action on behalf of all ticket buyers and festival attendees defrauded and wronged by Defendants, and seeks damages in excess of $100,000,000.00 on behalf of himself and the Class.

Here’s where the fraud comes in:

Shockingly, Defendants had been aware for months that their festival was dangerously under-equipped and posed a serious danger to anyone in attendance…  …the few contractors who had been retained by Defendants were refusing to work because they had not been paid.

At the same time, however, Defendants were knowingly lying about the festival’s accommodations and safety, and continued to promote the event and sell ticket packages. The festival was even promoted as being on a “private island” once owned by drug kingpin Pablo Escobar—the island isn’t private, as there is a “Sandals” resort down the road, and Pablo Escobar never owned the island.

The suit describes the harrowing conditions:

Festival-goers survived on bare rations, little more than bread and a slice of cheese, and tried to escape the elements in the only shelter provided by Defendants: small clusters of ‘FEMA tents,’ exposed on a sand bar, that were soaked and battered by wind and rain.

“With only unsecured tents as accommodations, rather than the promised villas, attendees had no secure area to store valuables and other personal items. Similarly, the ‘world-class cuisine’ was nowhere to be found, replaced by meager rations that were in dangerously short supply. Even more troublingly, festival staff were nowhere to be found to address attendees’ concerns, and the medical staff was similarly absent.

As the weekend turned to chaos, attendees found themselves trapped at the ‘cashless’ event:

Faced with the complete lack of even the most basic amenities, as well as no assistance from Defendants, festival attendees began to panic. Predictably, Attendees began attempting to leave the island en masse, but found themselves trapped—even locked inside an airport awaiting delayed flights.

Attendees’ efforts to escape the unfolding disaster were hamstrung by their reliance upon Defendants for transportation, as well as by the fact that Defendants promoted the festival as a ‘cashless’ event—Defendants instructed attendees to upload funds to a wristband for use at the festival rather than bringing any cash. As such, Attendees were unable to purchase basic transportation on local taxis or busses, which accept only cash. As a result … at least one attendee suffered a medical emergency and lost consciousness after being locked inside a nearby building with other concert-goers waiting to be airlifted from the island.

We have been locked indoors with no air NO FOOD and NO water #fyrefestival #fyrefest fyrefraud pic.twitter.com/wg5pZmSvnx

— Lamaan (@LamaanGallal) April 28, 2017

Ja Rule and McFarland even warned performers not to attend!

Mr. McFarland and Mr. Atkins began personally reaching out to performers and celebrities in advance of the festival and warned them not to attend—acknowledging the fact that the festival was outrageously underequipped and potentially dangerous for anyone in attendance.

Meanwhile, this was what people thought they were getting:

Ja Rule’s pre-festival toast:  

Ja Rule's pre-#fyrefestival toast. @50cent have you seen this? https://t.co/gRdcg3oKGb pic.twitter.com/gtPrHHxn56

— ZeroPointNow (@ZeroPointNow) May 1, 2017

A statement from Jung’s attorney:

#fyrefestival official Statement. pic.twitter.com/O8HMGqnvLg

— Ben Meiselas (@meiselasb) May 1, 2017

While we don’t know how solvent Fyre Media, Inc. is at this point, event organizer Ja Rule (Jeffrey Atkins), a rapper and actor who spent two years in federal prison on gun and tax evasion charges, is estimated to be worth at least $8 million dollars.

Maybe it’s time to give Mariah a call? Then again…

Bill Nye, the Mechanical Engineering undergrad who self-identifies as a scientist, is doing more for the conservative movement than that time Michael Moore dropped a MOAB on Hillary Clinton during the election.

You may have heard about Nye’s new SJW agenda peddling Netflix show that’s bombing – the one which featured an ice-cream orgy and a degenerate performance about transgenderism by Rachel Bloom – a statutory rape advocate whose vagina apparently has a voice:

If you watched that, I’m sorry. Anyway, because of that steaming pile of garbage, normal people on the left are flocking to the right thanks to whatever the fuck that was:

Good job Nye, keep trying to normalize degeneracy – it’s become free advertising for the right.

The fallout from the failed #FyreFestival has been nothing short of spectacular. To recap; Ja Rule and some millennial promoter cobbled together an ill fated two weekend festival in the Bahamas. They advertised it using CGI or drawings with what it was supposed to look like, and charged $4K – $12K per person to attend. Then Ja and Millennial guy completely fumbled the ball – leaving thousands of trust-fund babies to play Hunger Games: Ja Rule edition.

Here’s the latest…

It’s obviously been canceled:

Ja Rule kind of apologized:

@Ruleyork .@Ruleyork OMG. This is the only way I'm apologizing from this moment on: pic.twitter.com/zxlwBc1ITF

— Omri (@Omri_Rawrlan) April 28, 2017

The other guy apologized and looks forward to the next iteration of the concert:

McFarland said that the island “didn’t have a really great infrastructure — there wasn’t a great way to get guests in here — we were a little bit ambitious.”

“There wasn’t water or sewage,” he continued. “It was almost like we tried building a city out of nothing and it took almost all of our personal resources to make this happen, and everything we had, to make this festival go on. We thought we were ready and built two different festival sites.”

On the morning of the festival, McFarland said a “bad storm came in and took down half of our tents and busted water pipes,” while guests began to arrive. That was when he said the organizers realized, “Wow, we can’t do this.”

“We were on a rush job to fix everything and guests were arriving and that caused check-in to be delayed,” he added. “We were overwhelmed and just didn’t have the foresight to solve all these problems.”

McFarland is hopeful that a Fyre Festival in 2018 will come to fruition, saying that make-up dates in May 2018 will be “free for everybody who signed up for this festival.”

An insider has spilled the beans on why this whole thing was doomed from the start:

@davidfarrier @publicaddress *best* pic.twitter.com/2YjMtHaniA

— Keith Ng (@keith_ng) April 28, 2017

On Wednesday, Ja Rule arrived for a “site visit.” I don’t know if he actually visited the “site” but he did spend a lot of time on a yacht, according to his Instagram. Meanwhile the event planners were holed up indoors putting together a game plan and a budget. With so little having been prepared ahead of time, the official verdict was that it would take $50 million to pull off. Planners also warned that it would be not be up to the standard they had advertised. The best idea, they said, would be to roll everyone’s tickets over to 2018 and start planning for the next year immediately. They had a meeting with the Fyre execs to deliver the news. A guy from the marketing team said, “Let’s just do it and be legends, man.” -NYmag

Raise your hand if you've had *that* marketing guy in your office. #fyrefestival https://t.co/1YyQG5nc4I pic.twitter.com/8WftnYwIY7

— April Wolfe (@AWolfeful) April 29, 2017

The Bahamas is doing damage control 

And reactions around the web have been nothing short of hilarious:

Where should they hold the next #FyreFestival?

— That Throwb△ck Pooka (@TheQuQu) April 28, 2017

Lord of the Flies…

"Ralphie Tell Jack I have the Conch! It's my turn to talk!"-Ja Rule a.k.a. Piggy #fyrefestival #jarulethescammer #LordOfTheFlies? pic.twitter.com/UQevbLs44A

— Ed (@DowdEdward) April 29, 2017

A $5 sandwich vs a 12k sandwich #fyrefestival pic.twitter.com/O8MiJ6E4at

— Yzma (@TheEmpressYzma) April 28, 2017

I was never a Ja Rule fan until he trapped a bunch of rich kids on a island while we all laugh, Kudos @Ruleyork @fyrefestival #fyrefestival

— Life of a Black Nerd (@LOABN1989) April 28, 2017

How it probably went down. #fyrefestival pic.twitter.com/DLkLNAghoH

— Bernierotica (@bernierotica) April 28, 2017

Me: I try to be a compassionate person ☺️✌??
Me reading about #fyrefestival: pic.twitter.com/Sz8bmZjpKc

— Lizzie Tadsen (@tizzieladsen) April 28, 2017

I'm hurting for those who attended #fyrefestival Going to greet them at the airport with my music pic.twitter.com/bUpxk9kyw0

— Reso Lotions (@TrivagoD) April 28, 2017

Now that we’ve all had a nice laugh – let’s hope all those rich kids get home safely. Be on the lookout for overwrought cringeworthy stories from “Fyre Island Refugees” who just went through the height of human suffering…

UPDATE: THE NEXT DAY…

What was set to be the opening weekend of trust-fund millennial debauchery in the Bahamas has turned into nothing short of Lord of the Flies. The Fyre Festival – organized by Ja Rule and some guy who’s scammed millennials in the past was hyped by models and advertised as a boutique luxury music festival held in Exumas, Bahamas. All inclusive tickets ranging from $4,000 – $12,000 were supposed to include a chartered private flight from Miami, private luxury tents, yacht rides, and performances from Blink-182 and about two dozen other artists.

Not so much…

The “chartered flight from Miami” turned out to be severely delayed coach seats, and upon arrival shocked concert-goers were met with partially constructed USAID disaster relief tents:

Early report is that many of the tents aren't assembled. Here's their tropical private island owned by Escobar! #FyreFestival pic.twitter.com/TNzBDbNAUJ

— FyreFestivalFraud (@FyreFraud) April 27, 2017

“Luxury” meals:

“Secure” lockers:

And an attentive concierge booth:

Hundreds of pieces of luggage were lost in transit, though a big container truck showed up in the dark to toss bags to a mob:

Just in time for the robberies!

Reports are rolling in of burning tents and anarchy:

Phones are dying, passports are missing:

Feral dogs are roaming around:

And relationships have been destroyed:

The US embassy is reportedly involved:

Oh, and Blink 182 canceled…

Only one question remains; WHERE IS JA?

Thanks to the influx of migrants, Germany’s Department of Terrorism Crime is expecting 500 – 600 lawsuits related to Islamic Terrorism in 2017. Last year there were 250 such terrorism-linked cases, up from 68 in 2013, according to general prosecutor Peter Frank.

The influx of migrants and refugees in recent years is a major cause of this development , said Frank. “There you can see what has come to us, both in the past few years, as well as escaped or has come from all countries to Islamic terrorists.”

According to this, the proportion of procedures with an Islamic background is explosive: it currently accounts for 85 to 90 per cent, four or five years ago it still lay at 50 to 60 per cent. The rest is attributable to legal or left-wing extremists and nationalists.  –T-Online.de (translated)

Moreover, Germany’s President of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Hans-Georg Maaßen said that there are at least 10,000 Salafist extremists roaming around Germany, with at least 1,600 considered at extremely high risk for terrorism. Every day, two to four threats are received by the OPC.

Violence among extremists has increased. Maaßen complained that the development culminated last year in five terrorist attacks in Germany. Of the perpetrators, however, only the assassin from the Berlin Christmas market had been noticed before, the other assassins did not. Just a lot of young people often radicalized themselves in secret. (Translated)

Coincidence? Germany’s admission of migrants seeking asylum leads the pack:

And some are saying Angela Merkel has single handedly destroyed German culture by allowing the greatest number of Islamic migrants of any country in the EU:

And surprise, surprise – crime is spiking:

The Telegraph reports that the crime rate in Germany among ‘refugees, asylum-seekers, and illegal immigrants’ rose by more than 50% last year, and had “increased disproportionately” even when the “huge influx” of refugees entering the country under Merkel’s opern-door refugee policy was taken into account.

“The proportion of foreign suspects, and migrants in particular, is higher than the average for the general population.”

Also interesting to note:

While the general crime rate in Germany fell slightly last year, Islamist-inspired crime rose by 13.7 per cent, according to the figures. -Telegraph

This echoes what Breitbart reported last May – migrants in Germany are committing a vastly disproportionate number of crimes, and account for almost the entirety of the increased crime-rate since 2014.

The data reveals that without migrants considered, crime rates in Germany would have remained roughly static since 2014. –Breitbart

It is unclear whether victims in the increasing number of terrorism-related lawsuits are able to sue the German government or just the perpetrators, however the prospect of Germany being held financially accountable for Merkel’s refugee program would add a completely new dimension to the costs of this ill-fated experiment in forced migration.

And as the United States considers the prospect of resettling Syrian immigrants – which “has to be part of the discussion” per the increasingly influential and effervescent Ivanka Trump’s statements this week, let’s consider the best use of resources per Stefan Molyneux (who has insightful and often lengthy “Freedomain Radio” podcasts):

For the cost of resettling 10,000 refugees in the United States – 121,797 can be resettled in the Middle East. #MuslimBan pic.twitter.com/W6WLMaots9

— Stefan Molyneux (@StefanMolyneux) January 29, 2017

And if you think the spike in German lawsuits over terrorism are bad, just imagine what an influx of migrants would do to the US legal system… Better Call Saul.