NBC Unnamed Source Says Putin Directly Involved in Hacking of American Presidential Elections, Due to ‘Vendetta’ Against Hillary

Let’s crystallize what the media is attempting to do here. Through the revelations of the DNC leaks and the Podesta emails, the American people learned how corrupt the democrats were and how they’ve coopted the media on every level to the point where the major networks are nothing more than state media shills.

Instead of addressing and trying to correct their ill behavior, they’re doubling down on it by blaming the whistleblower and then fomenting hatred against Russia — by accusing them of interfering in our elections because of Putin’s personal ‘vendetta’ against Clinton. It’s equal to a pedophile being caught with unseemly material on his computer and then getting mad at the police for finding it.

Bottom line, democrats, you’re still pedophiles. I meant that anecdotally of course (no Pizzagate).

Here we are, once again, bearing witness to the democrats trying to overturn a democratically elected President and attempting to start World War 3 with a country who has nearly 8,000 ICBMs in their arsenal, using unnamed sources, and zero evidence to do so.

By simply stating ‘the Russians did it, obviously’, isn’t enough evidence to overturn American elections and certainly not grounds for a war that would cost the lives of millions.

Are these people insane?

This from NBC.

U.S. intelligence officials now believe with “a high level of confidence” that Russian President Vladimir Putin became personally involved in the covert Russian campaign to interfere in the U.S. presidential election, senior U.S. intelligence officials told NBC News.

Two senior officials with direct access to the information say new intelligence shows that Putin personally directed how hacked material from Democrats was leaked and otherwise used. The intelligence came from diplomatic sources and spies working for U.S. allies, the officials said.

Putin’s objectives were multifaceted, a high-level intelligence source told NBC News. What began as a “vendetta” against Hillary Clinton morphed into an effort to show corruption in American politics and to “split off key American allies by creating the image that [other countries] couldn’t depend on the U.S. to be a credible global leader anymore,” the official said.

Ultimately, the CIA has assessed, the Russian government wanted to elect Donald Trump. The FBI and other agencies don’t fully endorse that view, but few officials would dispute that the Russian operation was intended to harm Clinton’s candidacy by leaking embarrassing emails about Democrats.

The latest intelligence said to show Putin’s involvement goes much further than the information the U.S. was relying on in October, when all 17 intelligence agencies signed onto a statement attributing the Democratic National Committee hack to Russia.

The statement said officials believed that “only Russia’s senior-most officials could have authorized these activities.” That was an intelligence judgment based on an understanding of the Russian system of government, which Putin controls with absolute authority.

Now the U.S has solid information tying Putin to the operation, the intelligence officials say. Their use of the term “high confidence” implies that the intelligence is nearly incontrovertible.

“It is most certainly consistent with the Putin that I have watched and used to work with when I was an ambassador and in the government,” said Michael McFaul, who was ambassador to Russia from 2012 to 2014.

“He has had a vendetta against Hillary Clinton, that has been known for a long time because of what she said about his elections back in the parliamentary elections of 2011. He wants to discredit American democracy and make us weaker in terms of leading the liberal democratic order. And most certainly he likes President-elect Trump’s views on Russia,” McFaul added. Clinton cast doubt on the integrity of Russia’s elections.

As part of contingency planning for potential retaliation against Russia, according to officials, U.S. intelligence agencies have stepped up their probing into his personal financial empire.

I will summarize the financial media talking points for you, so that you don’t have to consume it on your own.

Higher rates are good because it means the economy is getting stronger.
Lower rates are good because low borrowing costs enables companies to finance share buybacks and economic expansion.

A strong dollar is good because it means our economy is doing well.
A weaker dollar is good because it helps our exporters.

Higher crude is great for stocks, because it helps earnings for energy, industrials and transport companies.
Cheaper crude is good because it gives the consumer more money to shop at the mall.

Trump will be disastrous for Wall Street because of his protectionist policies.
Trump is great for stocks because of fiscal stimulus prospects, lower taxes and less regulations.

Got it?

In light of the hawkish Fed comments, suggesting we’re in for 3 rate hikes in 2017, 2yr bond yields skyrocketed — higher by 10bps to 1.27%, the highest level since 2009. With hawkish Fed policy comes a whirlwind of dollar buying. The greenback soared v the yen by 1.6% to the 117 mark and +0.92% v the euro to 105.

On election night the yen was trading 101 v the dollar. This is an unimaginable boon for Japanese exporters.

Bottom line: the groundworks has been prepared to derail the Trump administration. On the political end, they’ll entangle him with Russian conspiracy theories. And on the economic side, they’ve given him a soaring market based on a fiction. Retails sales are not getting better. As a matter of fact, they’re getting worse. Any push for fiscal stimulus will be met with opposition from both parties, supported by comments from the likes of Yellen — who said we don’t need it. Lastly, the soaring dollar and higher borrowing costs are a negative for the economy, none of which, thus far, haven’t been discussed by our idiotic financial media.

The dollar index is at 102, its highest level since 2002.

This is sure to draw the ire of the God Emperor.

In an obvious jab at President Elect Trump, Janet Yellen said fiscal stimulus wasn’t needed in order to achieve full employment. That’s sort of a meangingless shit statement, designed to piss people off.

The point of having fiscal stimulus is to invest to create better paying jobs, instead of the shit at Walmart.

Here she is discussing how highly uncertain the economy is, while pointing to a nonsensical policy of 3 more rate hikes in 2017.

Fed Chair Janet Yellen says the U.S. economic outlook is "highly uncertain" https://t.co/njn9oDsrZA pic.twitter.com/CFuTeNagys

— Bloomberg TV (@BloombergTV) December 14, 2016

The last time the Fed raised was in December of last year, which then soon gave birth to a currency crisis and China became unhinged — making way for the worst January in the history of the stock market.

The initial reaction by the markets is to jack stocks higher and give rise to King Dollars. Everyone knows how great a runaway dollar is for exporters, right?

The euro is lower by 0.45% and the Yen by 0.72% to the 116 level.

Short term yields are spiking, which is normal when you think the Fed will raise more than previously expected. The market is viewing the Fed’s statement as hawkish.

#Breaking – The Federal Reserve votes unanimously to raise Fed Funds rate by 0.25%, increases forecast to 3 rate hikes in 2017. pic.twitter.com/qvqra8EBJB

— FOX Business (@FoxBusiness) December 14, 2016

Highlights.

Source: Briefing.com

Fed says labor market has continued to strengthen and that economic activity has been expanding at a moderate pace since mid-yearJob gains have been solid in recent months and the unemployment rate has declined.

Household spending has been rising moderately but business fixed investment has remained soft. Inflation has increased since earlier this year but is still below the Committee’s 2 percent longer-run objective, partly reflecting earlier declines in energy prices and in prices of non-energy imports.

Market-based measures of inflation compensation have moved up considerably but still are low; most survey-based measures of longer-term inflation expectations are little changed, on balance, in recent months.

The Committee expects that economic conditions will evolve in a manner that will warrant only gradual increases in the federal funds rate; the federal funds rate is likely to remain, for some time, below levels that are expected to prevail in the longer run.

The Fed is signaling for 3 hikes in 2017, one more than previously expected. Naturally, with the economy doing so great, 2% GDP, and inflation out of control, sub 2%, this makes sense.

As widely expected, the @FederalReserve hiked by 25 bps. More interestingly, #Fed officials are now signaling more hikes-3 in total-for 2017

— Mohamed A. El-Erian (@elerianm) December 14, 2016

UPDATE:
Stocks are no longer celebrating policy designed to literally kill it. The NASDAQ is pressing lower.

UPDATE: The 2yr bond yields are blowing out, now higher by nearly 6bps — the highest since 2009.

Crude is lower by nearly 4%.

The media has finally gentrified China’a massive underground banking system by calling it ‘social finances.’ How quaint?

The shadow banking system in China roared in October, by $69 billion, an indicator that the good times of wanton criminality are back.

The cause for the rise is most likely due to the deleterious condition of the Chinese renminbi and the resurgence in inflation.

Some analysts fear cracking down on thr criminals in China might cause US bond yields to rise. You cannot make this shit up. Redemptions might cause China to sell more Treasuries, which in turn will cause yields to spike and America will suffer under harsh credit conditions.

Clearly, China should just let the social finance scene flourish without interruption.

“Today’s surprising data will likely trigger some regulatory concerns,” David Qu, China economist at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd, wrote in a note to clients on Wednesday, citing the size and opacity of off-balance sheet lending from trust companies, brokerages, micro-lenders, pawn-shops and even real-estate companies.

Efforts to curtail shadow lending may exacerbate this month’s liquidity squeeze, as the yield on 10-year government bonds shoots up to 3.24 percent from 2.74 percent at the end of October — their highest level in more than a year.

“If Chinese regulators start to restrict shadow banking activities, there may be spillover effects to the bond market due to liquidity tightening,” Qu adds, referring to the prospect that redemptions from wealth-management funds would force asset managers to trim their bond positions.

Total social finance, the broadest measure of new lending, expanded the most since March at 1.74 trillion yuan, up from 896.3 billion yuan in October. While TSF data can be volatile, and there’s typically a month-on-month bounce given the October holidays, the rise was notably above median expectations of 1.1 trillion yuan, according to a Bloomberg survey. The 11.8 percent increase on a year-on-year basis was driven by household lending growth, reflecting how property curbs have yet to kick in, as well as expansion in the shadow-banking sector.

“Seven months after the People’s Daily called time on the credit binge, the data suggest that little progress has been made,” Tom Orlik, analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, wrote in a note to clients.

This is what you fucksticks get for ordering livery through an app, like moron monkies. The employees of Uber are dishelveled pigs who used the ‘God’s Eye’ tool to spy on celebrities, former love interests and whoever the fuck they wanted to.

In fairness, Uber is trying to take measures to prevent this, but people are pigs and they won’t be stopped until they’re electrocuted dead.

I don’t understand why cabbies are joining Uber, a company that is literally using the money they make from their employees to eliminate them via autonomous cars.

Like all big onerous corporations, Uber is a huge piece of shit and should never IPO.

Source: Guardian
Uber employees regularly abused the company’s “God view” to spy on the movements of “high-profile politicians, celebrities and even personal acquaintances of Uber employees, including ex-boyfriends/girlfriends, and ex-spouses”, according to testimony from the company’s former forensic investigator Samuel Ward Spangenberg. Even Beyoncé’s account was monitored, the investigator said.

Spangenberg, who is suing the minicab company alleging age discrimination and whistleblower retaliation, made the claims in a court declaration in October. He says he told Uber executives including the company’s head of information security, John Flynn, and its HR chief Andrew Wegley, of his concerns around the lack of security, and was fired 11 months later.

As well as a lack of oversight regarding customer data, Spangenberg alleges numerous other ethical breaches at Uber. The company stored driver and employee information in an insecure manner, he says, while it operated a vulnerability management policy which allowed data to be stored that way if the company deemed there to be a “legitimate business purpose” for doing so.

Uber said it ‘continues to increase our security investments and many of these efforts, like our multi-factor authentication checks and bug bounty program, have been widely reported’.

In his testimony, given under penalty of perjury, Spangenberg also objected to Uber’s protocols to deal with raids on its offices – a relatively common occurrence at the company, which has been frequently criticised for riding roughshod over local regulations.

“As part of Uber’s incident response team, I would be called when governmental agencies raided Uber’s offices due to concerns regarding noncompliance with governmental regulations,” Spangenberg said. “In those instances, Uber would lock down the office and immediately cut all connectivity so that law enforcement could not access Uber’s information. I would then be tasked with purchasing all new equipment for the office within the day, which I did when Uber’s Montreal office was raided.”

Spangenberg’s allegations were reported by the Centre for Investigative Reporting’s (CIR) Reveal project, but it isn’t the first time Uber has been accused of mistreating customer data. In 2014, Buzzfeed revealed the existence of the “God View” tool, after Uber’s New York general manager discussed using it to track a reporter’s journey. The tool’s existence appears to date back to 2011, when venture capitalist Peter Sims says he was tracked by a visitor to Uber’s Chicago offices, where the God View data was shown on a large public screen.

Spangenberg told CIR that Uber had increased security provisions during his time there, as well as renaming the tool “Heaven View”. Uber confirmed that some employees – “fewer than 10” – had been fired for abusing the tool, and said that it needs to provide relatively widespread access for a number of reasons, including refunding customers and investigating accidents. To prevent spying on celebrities, Uber implemented a flag for searches for customers considered “MVP”, but Spangenberg pointed out that that did nothing to protect non-MVPs.

Based off its recent capital raise, Uber is worth in excess of $66b.

I created Exodus in 2008 to analyze and test key levels for over 4,000 stocks and 200 industries. Ever since our algorithms have been running, the gold mining sector has never been this oversold.

Observe our hybrid oscillator, which tracks both technicals and fundamentals of every stock in the gold sector, which then determines if said level is at a critical stress point.

Here is that same oscillator, but over the past year.

Today is Fed day. Expect the Fed to raise rates and offer a slightly hawkish outlook. Anything short of hawkish will spur an immense rally in gold. Taking into consideration the 18% median drop in gold miners over the past 3 months, I think they’re well worth the risk here and would be buying them hand over fist, had I not already owned a bunch.

I am long $GLD, $AUY, $ABX and $AU.

Also, and this is worth noting, gold has performed exactly how it always does during the Fall — trade lower. Based upon Exodus‘ seasonality engines, heading into the winter months may prove to be a wellspring for the maligned sector — a counter reaction to the recent surge in risk on assets.

PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT: For the first time since 2012, the price for an Exodus membership is rising, for both annual and semiannual durations. All current members will be grandfathered into the cheaper rates, before prices rise on 1/1/17. If you’ve been on the fence, now is the time to join the league of gentlemen and gain access to the best damned market intelligence platform out there.

Robert McElvaine has been a busy little bee on Huffington Post, fomenting strife, disunity and complete horseshit, following the electoral college win by Donald J. Trump.

Let’s review some of his recent ‘work’ and then segue over to Tucker Carlson’s debate with the good Professor, attempting to get to the bottom of this great big Russian ordeal.

Source: HuffPo

12/12/16
How Putin Would Be Able to Control Trump

Ronald Reagan completed the winning of the Cold War. Donald Trump as president would be very likely to transform that American victory into a Russian triumph.
Are Republicans prepared to live with that outcome? Those who aren’t need immediately to join with concerned Democrats and hammer out a Compromise of 2016 that will create a National Unity Government without a Putin puppet in the Oval Office.

12/11/16
Where Is the Outrage? Where Are the Patriots?

We have only seven days to save the Republic from a hostile takeover by billionaire American oligarchs and their Russian backers. Are there no courageous patriots in the top ranks of the news media? How about political leaders from both parties who could come forward and work out a compromise Government of National Unity not including Trump, such as the one suggested here, that could be presented to the Electors. Are there not at least 38 Republican Electors who would be willing to put their nation above their party and do what the Framers of the Constitution intended Electors to do in a crisis such as this: prevent the election of a dangerous demagogue and a foreign power gaining, as Alexander Hamilton put it in The Federalist No. 68, “an improper ascendant in our councils … by raising a creature of their own to the chief magistracy of the Union?”

12/10/16
Save America through a Compromise of 2016

After each side comes up with a proposal, leaders from each group can enter negotiations to reach an agreement acceptable to both by next weekend that can be announced before December 19, with a call on Electors from both parties to support the chosen candidates. In light both of her large margin of victory in the actual vote and of the Russian intervention against her, it is entirely reasonable that the president chosen in these negotiations should by Hillary Clinton, with a Republican Vice President. Only if acceptance of that outcome proves impossible to achieve should Mrs. Clinton agree to step aside and call for the Electors from both parties to join together in choosing a ticket of sane people not under the influence of Mr. Putin.

12/07/16
Hillary Can Be A Hero By Saving America From Trump

Given the general disarray of the Trump campaign during the primaries, it is likely that a good number of the people chosen as Republican Electors in states that he carried are not particularly loyal to him. One, Chris Suprun of Texas, declared on Monday that he will not vote for Trump. “I am here to elect a president, not a king,” he said. He is leaning towards voting for Gov. Kasich. If Hillary Clinton and Democratic Electors get the ball rolling, it is likely that more Republicans who are fearful of what Trump might do can be brought into the compromise for the good of the nation.

It is a no-lose proposition for Democrats, because, as Mr. Cannon says, “If Democrats believe Trump poses a unique threat to the republic, and signal this is not okay by reaching across the aisle to marginalize and stop him, then win or lose, Democrats could legitimately claim they put partisanship aside for the good of the country.”

This is an opportunity that must be seized immediately. Go for it, Mrs. Clinton and Democrats! There’s not a moment to waste. This proposal can determine, in Lincoln’s words, whether we shall “nobly save or meanly lose the last best hope of earth.”

Such a selfless, patriotic act would be a crowning achievement for Secretary Clinton’s career of public service.

What in the actual fuck?

You get the gist. Sorry to have put you through that drivel. Now bear witness to Professor Robert McElvaine’s complete and total destruction.

Apparently, the Obama White House and republic shill, John McCain, didn’t do a good enough job cow towing to the demands of their Chinese overlords, following Trump’s outrageous behavior of receiving a phone call from the democratically elected Taiwanese President and also suggesting that the American people weren’t bound to accept the absurdity of a ‘One China’ policy.

These people would’ve been great friends of Germany in the 1930s and 40’s, perhaps ceding to a ‘One Germany’ policy — pan Europe.

In response to Trump’s lack of servile behavior, China has announced they will penalize an unnamed American automaker for price rigging.

Source: Reuters

China will soon slap a penalty on an un-named U.S. automaker for monopolistic behavior, the official China Daily newspaper reported on Wednesday, quoting a senior state planning official.

Investigators found the U.S. company had instructed distributors to fix prices starting in 2014, Zhang Handong, director of the National Development and Reform Commission’s price supervision bureau, was quoted as saying.

“We are unaware of the issue,” said Mark Truby, Ford’s chief spokesman for its Asia-Pacific operations.

GM did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Following the Trump-Wallace interview, where he displayed an egregious level of disobedience to Chinese slavers, the White House scrambled  to appease Beijing with sweet words of surrender.

The White House on Monday insisted that Washington’s “one China” policy should not be used as a “bargaining chip” with Beijing after President-elect Donald Trump said the United States did not necessarily have to be bound by its long-standing position that Taiwan is part of China.

Signaling further resistance Trump will face in Washington if he tries to overturn a principle that has underpinned more than four decades of U.S.-China relations, Republican U.S. Senator John McCain said he personally backed the “China policy” and no one should “leap to conclusions” that the president-elect would abandon it.

“I do not respond to every comment by the president-elect because it may be reversed the next day,” McCain told Reuters when asked about Trump’s statement in an interview broadcast over the weekend.

Trump set off a diplomatic firestorm when he told Fox News: “I don’t know why we have to be bound by a ‘one China’ policy unless we make a deal with China having to do with other things, including trade.” This followed an earlier protest from China over the Republican president-elect’s decision to accept a telephone call from Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen on Dec. 2.

After Trump’s phone conversation with Taiwan’s president, the Obama administration said senior White House aides had spoken with Chinese officials to insist that Washington’s “one China” policy remained unchanged.

Both Ford and GM have been posting record sales in China — representing their highest growth markets in the world. Sales for Ford vehicles in China have topped 1 million for 2016 — higher by 17.1% in November, or 124,113 vehicles.

Ford Explorer sales were up 73% and Ford Edge sales were higher by 21%. (source: DetroitNews)

“Ford is gaining more momentum in China each month and we are on pace for a record year in China,” Peter Fleet, vice president of marketing, sales and service for Ford Asia Pacific, said in a statement. “We are seeing increasing demand across our lineup, particularly our full family of SUVs.”

GM sales in China leaped higher by 7% in November — recording sales of 371,740 vehicles. Buick, Cadillac and Baojun are all enjoying record sales in China and have sold upwards of 3.4 million vehicles for 2016 — an increase of 8.5%. (source: GMAuthority)

“With less than a month to go, we are on track for record sales in 2016,” said GM Executive Vice President and GM China President Matt Tsien. “All recently launched products, such as the new-generation Buick GL8 and Baojun 310, have gotten off to a very good start of deliveries.”

In a bizarro world, both $F and $GM will shoot higher on this news.

Jim Brown stumped for Hillary Clinton during the Presidential campaign, but now loves Donald Trump. This is a most unfortunate and inconvenient narrative for the shills at CNN.

NFL great Jim Brown tells @BrookeBCNN about his meeting with Donald Trump at Trump Tower: "He got my admiration" https://t.co/JO7zGL6zQW pic.twitter.com/v4DOidNQFu

— CNN (@CNN) December 13, 2016

Long live Jim Brown, forever and always a Martian head puncher.