The president has repeatedly disparaged the intelligence of service members, and asked that wounded veterans be kept out of military parades, multiple sources tell The Atlantic. When President Donald Trump canceled a visit to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery near Paris in 2018, he blamed rain for the last-minute decision, saying that “the helicopter couldn’t fly” and that the Secret Service wouldn’t drive him there. Neither claim was true. Trump rejected the idea of the visit because he feared his hair would become disheveled in the rain, and because he did not believe it important to honor American war dead, according to four people with firsthand knowledge of the discussion that day. In a conversation with senior staff members on the morning of the scheduled visit, Trump said, “Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers.” In a separate conversation on the same trip, Trump referred to the more than 1,800 marines who lost their lives at Belleau Wood as “suckers” for getting killed. Belleau Wood is a consequential battle in American history, and the ground on which it was fought is venerated by the Marine Corps. America and its allies stopped the German advance toward Paris there in the spring of 1918. But Trump, on that same trip, asked aides, “Who were the good guys in this war?” He also said that he didn’t understand why the United States would intervene on the side of the Allies. Trump’s understanding of concepts such as patriotism, service, and sacrifice has interested me since he expressed contempt for the war record of the late Senator John McCain, who spent more than five years as a prisoner of the North Vietnamese. “He’s not a war hero,” Trump said in 2015 while running for the Republican nomination for president. “I like people who weren’t captured.” Belleau Wood is a consequential battle in American history, and the ground on which it was fought is venerated by the Marine Corps. America and its allies stopped the German advance toward Paris there in the spring of 1918. But Trump, on that same trip, asked aides, “Who were the good guys in this war?” He also said that he didn’t understand why the United States would intervene on the side of the Allies. demonstrated his commitment to them at every turn: delivering on his promise to give our troops a much needed pay raise, increasing military spending, signing critical veterans reforms, and supporting military spouses.
Minsky moment
As recovery approaches full employment … soothsayers will proclaim that the business cycle has been banished [and] debts can be taken on … But in truth neither the boom, nor the debt deflation … and certainly not a recovery can go on forever.
John Maynard Keynes
Rapid instability occurs because long periods of steady prosperity and investment gains encourage a diminished perception of overall market risk, which promotes the leveraged risk of investing borrowed money instead of cash. The debt-leveraged financing of speculative investments exposes investors to a potential cash flow crisis, which may begin with a short period of modestly declining asset prices. In the event of a decline, the cash generated by assets is no longer sufficient to pay off the debt used to acquire the assets. Losses on such speculative assets prompt lenders to call in their loans. This rapidly amplifies a small decline into a frank collapse of asset values, related to the degree of leverage in the market. Leveraged investors are also forced to sell less-speculative positions to cover their loans. In severe situations, no buyers bid at prices recently quoted, fearing further declines. This starts a major sell-off, leading to a sudden and precipitous collapse in market-clearing asset prices, a sharp drop in market liquidity, and a severe demand for cash.
Asset prices could be on the cusp of a sharp collapse known as a “Minsky moment,” and may retest lows last seen in March. Markets have experienced a broad bullish period in recent months as investors bet on further stimulus from governments and central banks, and the prospect of a coronavirus vaccine. Despite lingering global economic risks from the Covid-19 pandemic and geopolitical tensions, Wednesday saw the S&P 500 and Nasdaq both notch record highs, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above 29,000 points for the first time since February: Nick Note: I have predicted and traded every Minsky Moment that has occurred in the past 25 years. And this next one will be then biggest EVERY. Hope you got the Balls, Brains and Bucks to come to the party!
US Job Growth as the Stimulus bucks ran OUT
Black Lacy underwear on a PIG, this will not be a report to remember! It sucks. And as the infections increase and vaccines fail and Trump tries to become dictator the biggest market colasp ever will occur!
Government hiring helped boost the total, with the growth of 344,000 workers accounting for a quarter of the monthly gain. Most of that hiring came from Census workers, whose tolls increased by 328,000. Despite worries of a revenue crunch among at the municipal level, local government employment rose by 95,000.
Nonfarm payrolls increased by 1.37 million in August and the unemployment rate tumbled to 8.4% as the U.S. economy continued to climb its way out of the pandemic downturn. The unemployment rate was by far the lowest since the coronavirus shutdown in March, according to Labor Department figures released Friday. The total of those on furlough also fell dramatically. There were 24.2 million people who said they not working because their employer either closed or lost business due to the pandemic, down from 31.3 million in July. economists worry that absent another round of stimulus from Congress, the boosts in activity could be short-lived. August’s job gains mean that more than half of those displaced during the pandemic are back at work. Nick Note: let me explain the trick here. The 24.2 million people who lost heir jos because the are ” temporary layoffs” are not counted….. Look at the chart
Trump encourages supporters to try to vote twice, sparking uproar
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump has urged residents in the critical political battleground of North Carolina to try to vote twice in the Nov. 3 election, once by mail and once in person, igniting a furor for appearing to urge a potential act of voter fraud.
“Let them send it in and let them go vote,” Trump said in an interview on Wednesday with WECT-TV in Wilmington, North Carolina. “And if the system is as good as they say it is, then obviously they won’t be able to vote” in person.
Trump has repeatedly asserted, without evidence, that mail-in voting – expanded by some states because of the coronavirus pandemic – would increase fraud and disrupt the November election, although experts say voter fraud of any kind is extremely rare in the United States. At a rally on Thursday night, Trump repeated his call for voters to go the polls even if they have mailed in their ballot, and he suggested Democrats would try to steal the election by manipulating the mail-in vote. Nick Note: Trump is way behind in the polls. They may be “wrong” but i can tell you Trump is concerned…. And he has a plan. I have a bad felling about this. I believe Trump has a screw lose or two. And i could see a constitutional crises if he losses. If he wants to stay in office I suggest he put up walls and a moat around the White House. He can tell his sources its to keep illegals IN!
Would the United States military intervene in the election results?
There are chilling moments in this presidency that tell us everything we need to know, but they are somehow lost in the fog. One occurred just a few days ago, when General Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had to reaffirm for Congress that there would be no role for the United States military in the election this year. For any other presidency, such a statement would be regarded as entirely unnecessary. But in this administration, where anything goes, it was absolutely critical.
His statement came in the remarkable exchange during questions for the record posed by two members of the House Armed Services Committee. Representative Elissa Slotkin of Michigan served as a Central Intelligence Agency analyst and a Defense Department official, while Representative Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey is a former Navy helicopter pilot.
Slotkin and Sherrill have three concerns. First, a “Wag the Dog” moment where Donald Trump orders military action to distract the public instead of protect the country. Second, the deployment of some armed forces to intervene with the election, including stationing military members at the polls. Third, the potential that Trump will claim he is still the commander in chief come January even if the results say otherwise.
These concerns may seem unusual, but they are legitimate with a White House that seems to believe the military serves as a useful tool to secure partisan ambitions. Trump raided the Pentagon budget to build a border wall that Congress opposed, withdrew soldiers meant to protect Kurdish allies and sent them to guard Syrian oil fields, threatened to deploy active duty military to our cities against the wishes of mayors, sent the National Guard to Lafayette Park to move unarmed protesters so he could stage a picture at Saint John Church, and directed the Navy to keep a destroyer hidden during a Memorial Day visit to Japan last year.
Over the question of refusing any executive order to commence military action for partisan gain, Milley answered, “I believe deeply in an apolitical military. I and every member of the armed forces take an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States, and to follow the lawful orders of the chain of command. I will not follow an unlawful order.” But how does he interpret an unlawful from a lawful order?
Slotkin asked him whether he would refuse any order to send active duty military to the polls during the election. Milley replied, “We are a nation of laws. We must follow the rule of law and have done so with regard to past elections, and will continue to do so in the future. I do not see the military as part of this process. This is the responsibility of Congress, the Supreme Court, and the components of the executive branch.”
So how would Milley respond to a potential worst case scenario in which Trump will dispute the outcome of the election this fall? He answered, “In the event of a dispute over some aspect of the election, by law, the courts and Congress are required to resolve any disputes, and not the military. I foresee no role for the armed forces during this process. We will not turn our backs on the Constitution of the United States.”
Dow continues its slide, drops 750 points
The Dow Jones Industrial Average index dropped over 750 points on Thursday as the stock market selloff continued. Tech companies pulled all three major Wall Street indexes down, with Apple, Microsoft, Tesla, Nvidia, AMD and Zoom all losing over 5%. Stocks tumbled just one day after hitting a record high. The Nasdaq had climbed above 12,000 points for the first time in history Wednesday.
So what’s happening? Well for one, the Nasdaq has been outperforming the other two major stock indexes — the Dow and the S&P 500 — for months, so investors might just be taking making some adjustments after Wednesday’s record highs. The Nasdaq remains up nearly 30% in 2020, far outpacing its counterparts.
But there are also technical reasons for Thursday’s decline. As US-China relations sour, investors are moving money out of tech, which could get hit the hardest from a potential increase in tariffs.
The Big Tech companies such as Amazon, Google and Microsoft, all of which are part of the Nasdaq, have become the safe-haven investment of the summer. But investors have beginning to wonder when the rally will run out of steam, either because of increased regulation or because the economy as a whole picks up enough to void the need for safety picks altogether.
A Bankruptcy Wave For The U.S. Economy
The coronavirus pandemic is bringing on a wave of bankruptcies in 2020. And it’s not just the retail sector that’s suffering. Automotive, aviation, telecom, and oil and gas companies are all feeling the pain as consumer demand dries up. Despite the billions of government support and loans, it might be too late for a lot of companies. Experts say we’re on track to mirror the number of commercial bankruptcies seen during the Great Recession. So what do all of these bankruptcies mean for the economy moving forward? And how do big brands bounce back successfully after they’ve filed for bankruptcy? CNBC explores bankruptcies and the impact it can have on consumers, businesses, and the economy as the race for a vaccine continues.n Nick Note: You will see bankruptcies as an avalanche. Nothing in history will rival the failure that are coming next year!
Doctors at war with Trump administration
Crude declines as coronavirus worries persist
Oil prices has fallen for 2 days on oversupply concerns as OPEC and its allies wind back production cuts and a rise in worldwide COVID19 cases points to a slower pickup in fuel demand.
Oil drops 2%, reversing course as U.S. gasoline demand slumps
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Oil fell more than 2% on Wednesday, reversing early gains after a report showed gasoline demand fell in the United States in the latest week. Futures prices turned negative after weekly government data from showed lower gasoline demand from a week earlier, prompting traders to shrug off bullish U.S. crude inventory data. [EIA/S] Crude inventories USOILC=ECI fell by 9.4 million barrels in the last week to 498.4 million barrels, a far steeper dive than the 1.9 million-barrel drop that analysts expected in a Reuters poll. [EIA/S] The data reflects a period during which Hurricane Laura shut output and refining facilities. Gasoline demand in the week dropped to 8.78 million barrels per day from 9.16 million bpd a week earlier, according to the report. Brent crude LCOc1, the global benchmark, fell $1.15, or 2.5%, to settle at $44.43 a barrel, after two days of price gains. U.S. West Texas Intermediate CLc1 settled lower by $1.25, or 2.9%, to $41.51 a barrel. Other data also fed fears that economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic was lagging. U.S. private employers hired fewer workers than expected for a second straight month in August, suggesting the labor market recovery was slowing as the COVID-19 pandemic persists and government support for workers and employers dries up. Oil has recovered from historic lows hit in April, when Brent slumped to a 21-year low below $16 and U.S. crude ended one session in negative territory. A record supply cut by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies, a grouping known as OPEC+, has supported prices. The producers have begun to return some crude to the market as demand partially recovers and OPEC in August raised output by about 1 million barrels per day (bpd), a Reuters survey found on Tuesday. [OPEC/O] Nick Note: This is a lesson for those of you who live and die on the JOKE weekly crude oil draw. As i have TRIED to point out to you over and over again. NO ONE uses crude. The key to this game is FUCK the crude inventories. Look at what the black shit is turned into. AND that is 80% JET FUEL AND MOST OF THE REST GASOLINE. DESIPTE THE BULLSHIT EVEN THE STUPID MONEY IS starting TO FIGURE OUT YOU FLY YOU DIE. People are NOT flying…. the airports are empty! Pretty simple as we told you for years. the modern Jet liner is a disease infection tube. Its not jet lag its respiratory infections. Sitting in a pressurized tube asshole to elbow with 50% recirculated air with filtration incapable of filtering out aerosolized viruses. Their systems in fact helps pass diseases… End of story. You have scratched you ass and figured out coffee paper filters and toilet paper masks DO NOT PROTECT YOU. And you figured out, excuse the pun, avoid people like the plague. I am sure you understand airplanes spread this cloud of death the world over. And their have been no design changes, which means they are STILL disease incubation tubes of death! Do you really think they are admitting the truth NOW? They are telling you blood plasma is a cure….. NOT! They are getting ready to distribute massive quantities of a not proven or even properly tested vaccine. How many millions will that eventually kill? They are telling people (including Doctors, nurses and other highly exposed health care workers, who they are killing in mass ) to use and get this REUSE the afore mentioned paper masks…. That they KNOW FOR A FACT do not work… Do you really think they are going to admit (or reveal their top secret studies) to you the 3 trillion dollar in capitalization 5% of world GDP and employing 10 million people aviation industry that a jetliner is a disease spreading tube of death? And their is no way to make it safe? DID the tobacco industry reveal the truth? Think about this as you rush out to kill the cats!