Where are Republicans getting the Kurds don't share our values because they are communist talking point from? I've seen it all over. Is that a Hannity or a Rush thing? Someone is feeding it to them.
I know this was posted already, but if you haven’t read this...you should. Someone very close to Trump is making Billions off of Trumps antics manipulating the stock markets.
Wall Street “There Is Definite Hanky-Panky Going On”: The Fantastically Profitable Mystery of the Trump Chaos Trades The president’s talk can move markets—and it’s made some futures traders billions. Did they know what he was going to say before he said it? By William D. Cohan October 16, 2019 In the last 10 minutes of trading at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange on Friday, September 13, someone got very lucky. That’s when he or she, or a group of people, sold short 120,000 “S&P e-minis”—electronically traded futures contracts linked to the Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index—when the index was trading around 3010. The time was 3:50 p.m. in New York; it was nearing midnight in Tehran. A few hours later, drones attacked a large swath of Saudi Arabia’s oil infrastructure, choking off production in the country and sending oil prices soaring. By the time the CME next opened, for pretrading on Sunday night, the S&P index had fallen 30 points, giving that very fortunate trader, or traders, a quick $180 million profit. It was not an isolated occurrence. Spoiler Three days earlier, in the last 10 minutes of trading, someone bought 82,000 S&P e-minis when the index was trading at 2969. That was nearly 4 a.m. on September 11 in Beijing, where a few hours later, the Chinese government announced that it would lift tariffs on a range of American-made products. As has been the typical reaction in the U.S. stock markets as the trade war with China chugs on without any perceptible logic, when the news about a potential resolution of it seems positive, stock markets go up, and when the news about the trade war appears negative, they go down. The news was viewed positively. The S&P index moved swiftly on September 11 to 2996, up nearly 30 points. That same day, President Donald Trump said he would postpone tariffs on some Chinese goods, and the S&P index moved to 3016, or up 47 points since the fortunate person bought the 82,000 e-minis just before the market closed on September 10. Since a one-point movement, up or down, in an e-mini contract is worth $50, a 47-point movement up in a day was worth $2,350 per contract. If you were the lucky one who bought the 82,000 e-mini contracts, well, then you were sitting on a one-day profit of roughly $190 million. A week earlier, three minutes before the CME closed on September 3, someone bought 55,000 e-mini contracts, with the index at about 2906. At around 9 p.m. in New York—9 a.m. in Hong Kong—the market started moving and kept rallying for the next six hours or so, reaching 2936. Around 2 p.m. in Hong Kong—2 a.m. in New York—Carrie Lam, the Hong Kong leader, announced that she would be withdrawing the controversial extradition bill that had been roiling the city in protest for months. Whoever bought those e-mini contracts a few hours earlier made a killing: a cool $82.5 million profit. But these wins were peanuts compared to the money made by a trader, or group of traders, who bought 420,000 September e-minis in the last 30 minutes of trading on June 28. That was some 40% of the day’s trading volume in September e-minis—making it a trade that could not easily be ignored. By then, President Trump was already in Osaka, Japan—14 hours ahead of Chicago—and on his way to a roughly hour-long meeting with China’s President Xi Jinping as part of the G20 summit. On Saturday in Osaka, after the market had closed in Chicago, Trump emerged from his meeting with Xi and announced that the intermittent trade talks were “back on track.” The following week was a good one in the stock market, thanks to the Trump announcement. On Thursday, June 27, the S&P 500 index stood at about 2915; a week or so later, it was just below 3000, a gain of 84 points, or $4,200 per e-mini contract. Whoever bought the 420,000 e-minis on June 28 had made a handsome profit of nearly $1.8 billion. Traders in the Chicago pits have been watching these kinds of wagers with an increasing mixture of shock and awe since the start of the Trump presidency. They are used to rapid fluctuations in the S&P 500 index; volatility is common, of course. But the precision and timing of these trades, and the vast amount of money being made as a result of them, make the traders wonder if all this is on the level. Are the people behind these trades incredibly lucky, or do they have access to information that other people don’t have about, say, Trump’s or Beijing’s latest thinking on the trade war or any other of a number of ways that Trump is able to move the markets through his tweeting or slips of the tongue? Essentially, do they have inside information? Theoretically, market regulators are supposed to be keeping an eye on big trades such as these, to try to figure out whether they are just happy coincidences or whether there is something more nefarious afoot. And they say they do. But calls to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, where the trades takes place, the Securities and Exchange Commission, which regulates the equity markets, and to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which regulates futures contracts, such as e-minis, were answered in different ways. Christopher Carofine, at the SEC, declined to comment. The CFTC did not respond to my inquiries, while a spokeswoman for the CME says the trades in question did not originate from a single source and they were of no concern. There is no way for another trader, let alone an outsider such as me, to know who is making these trades. But regulators know or can find out. One longtime CME trader who has been watching with disgust says he’s never seen anything quite like these trades, not at least since al-Qaida cashed in before initiating the September 11 attacks. “There is definite hanky-panky going on, to the world’s financial markets’ detriment,” he says. “This is abysmal.” In the case of Trump, market manipulation also yields political dividends. Perhaps the most obvious example dates to late August, when Trump, desperate to reignite trade talks with China, boasted during the G7 summit that his counterparts in Beijing had come back to the table. “We’ve gotten two calls—very, very good calls,” he told reporters. “They mean business.” The market rose more than 900 points over the next few days. But a spokesperson for the Chinese foreign ministry said he was not aware of any such calls. An editor at the Global Times, the state-controlled newspaper, tweeted that he knew of no calls made in the days leading up to the G7 meeting and that “China won’t cave to US pressure.” Two U.S government officials later told CNN that Trump misspoke and “conflated” comments from China’s Vice Premier Liu He with direct communication from the Chinese. According to CNN, the officials said Trump was “eager to project optimism that might boost markets.” Indeed, this single Trump lie briefly inflated domestic markets by hundreds of billions of dollars. “What this describes is, quite literally, market manipulation that constitutes criminal violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934,” commented George Conway, the conservative attorney and Trump critic. Whether Conway is right or wrong is a matter of legal opinion, but given how fishy and coincidental the trading in e-minis seems to be these days, the SEC or CFTC would be doing a great service (and their job) for the American people by investigating who is behind these lucrative trades, and what they knew before they placed them. At the moment, what we’re getting from them is an indifferent shrug. Federal regulators might start here: In the last 10 minutes of trading on Friday, August 23, as the markets were roiling in the face of more bad trade news, someone bought 386,000 September e-minis. Three days later, Trump lied about getting a call from China to restart the trade talks, and the S&P 500 index shot up nearly 80 points. The potential profit on the trade was more than $1.5 billion.
The guardrails are off the Trump presidency Analysis by Stephen Collinson, CNN Washington (CNN)Get over it. That apt mission doctrine for a presidency blazing with abuses of power, conflicts of interest and unhinged behavior is the work of White House acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, whose barn burner of a briefing on a day of political train wrecks, staggering misdirection and reality bending sent a clear message. Democrats can impeach President Donald Trump, Republicans can bemoan his betrayal of the Kurds and the media can fact-check him till the cows come home -- but nothing is going to restrain or moderate him. In fact, he's becoming ever more incorrigible. The President's brazen willingness to do exactly what he wants -- key to his appeal to voters angry with the political establishment in 2016 -- shone through a wild few hours that briefly stole the spotlight from the Democratic impeachment inquiry. Spoiler First, Mulvaney blew away the cobwebs in the White House Briefing Room by announcing that the President would hold next year's G7 summit at his Doral resort in Florida. Even for an administration that has redefined the concept of conflicts of interests, this is a staggering move. Mulvaney insisted with a straight face that Trump would not profit from the summit, even though millions of dollars from foreign delegations will flood into the coffers of the struggling resort and bring a worldwide branding boost. Then Mulvaney made an even more unabashed declaration, admitting that Trump did freeze nearly $400 million in aid to coerce Ukraine into investigating his Democratic opponents. "Get over it. There's going to be political influence in foreign policy," Mulvaney said, coining an instant classic phrase that will help historians understand the story of Trump's presidency. Trump's time in office embodies a defiant repudiation that this presidency should be subject to conventional standards of ethics and accountability. The remark was so striking because suspicions that Trump had abused his power by pressuring Ukraine to fulfill his political wish list are at the center of the Democratic impeachment investigation of the President. The President's blindsided lawyers may be behind a walk-back statement later issued by Mulvaney, in which he denied a quid pro quo with Ukraine, accusing the media of distorting comments he had made on live television -- where he had clearly been asked whether the administration had withheld funding for Ukraine for an investigation into the Democratic National Committee server and responded affirmatively. The administration's approach -- including Mulvaney's denial -- seems to be rooted in a belief that conduct that would normally be viewed as corrupt or impeachable is just fine as long as it unfolds in full public view. It was much the same when Trump appeared on the South Lawn of the White House earlier this month and called on China to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son. Such behavior is a lesson that when a politician is prepared to remove a fundamental underpinning of shame and ethics from his political personality, there's almost no limit to his destructive political behavior. 'A great day for civilization' As Mulvaney combusted on live TV, Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo were in Turkey preparing to unveil a ceasefire deal over its incursion into northeastern Syria after talks with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. "This is a great day for civilization," Trump proclaimed on Twitter. His victory was hollow, however, since the deal is merely aimed at tempering a military and humanitarian debacle. And just hours after Pence announced the ceasefire, Turkey was accused of violating it as clashes, including shelling and artillery fire, continued on the border between Turkey and Syria, according to eyewitnesses and Kurdish fighters. Pence, characteristically, ladled on praise for Trump in announcing a deal that appears to give Turkey everything it wants and to enshrine the betrayal of Kurdish anti-ISIS fighters, who the US has committed to escorting out of the border region. Democratic Rep. Eliot Engel of New York, the chairman of the House Foreign Relations Committee, condemned the administration's efforts to frame a disaster as a triumph. "The immediate cause of this crisis was President Trump's betrayal of our Kurdish partners, which set into motion a humanitarian crisis, a resurgence of ISIS, a strategic victory for Russia and Iran, and irreparable damage to America's standing in the world," Engel said in a statement. "The President is an arsonist who later pretends to be a fireman." An admiral's warning Retired Adm. William McRaven, who oversaw the special forces raid that killed Osama bin Laden in 2011, has just penned a New York Times op-ed titled "Our Republic Is Under Attack From the President" and is accusing Trump of devastating American's constitutional infrastructure. "If you want to destroy an organization, any organization, you destroy it from within. You destroy it from without. Then what you do is you convince everybody you're doing the right thing," McRaven told CNN's Jake Tapper on "The Lead" on Thursday. McRaven accused Trump of undermining the intelligence community, law enforcement, the Department of Justice, the State Department, the press, America's Kurdish allies, its NATO friends and international treaties. "I think Trump forgets that we are a nation of values. That we are not just transactional. He's a transactional President," he said. Normally, it would be remarkable for an American military hero to make such a comment. But such is the tumult whipped up by Trump that his words will probably just get lost in the cacophony. And it's not just McRaven who is concerned. Some congressional Republicans are privately alarmed about Trump's conduct this week and what House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called a "meltdown" at the White House on Wednesday. A source with knowledge of the meeting told CNN's Jamie Gangel that participants were "shell-shocked" and "shaken" by the President's behavior. Thursday's turbulence took the already manic absurdity of the last few weeks up a few notches. After all, Trump ignited an international crisis by paving the way for Turkey's Syria invasion -- and in a bizarre reality-show stunt at the White House tried to bring together a British family with the wife of a US diplomat involved in a car crash that killed their son. This week's turmoil has unfolded as the Democratic impeachment inquiry has raced ahead, acquiring damning testimony about an off-the-books foreign policy operation in Ukraine involving Rudy Giuliani that some alarmed officials feared broke the law. In the latest blockbuster testimony, the US ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland, spent 10 hours before three House committees on Thursday. The hotelier and Republican donor said he had been directed by Trump to work with Giuliani -- who was trying to dig up dirt on Biden -- in Ukraine. Sondland's testimony, in an opening statement provided to CNN, shows Trump put on hold an effort to strengthen relations with Ukraine until top US officials were in contact with Giuliani. Revelations about Trump's back-door Ukraine policy shop may have been one reason why Mulvaney decided Thursday to make such a public omission, even if he later walked it back. But they are yet another indication of Trump's determination to subvert the conventions and guardrails that have governed the presidency for generations.
Remember that cabinet member who refused to divest his investment holdings? Yeah that guy.... Or Jared Cushner.
I can't tell Tulsi Gabbard is a fascist stalking horse or just some fucking weirdo. But the Breitbart crowd sure seem to believe she is a fellow traveler.
Interesting, but i don't understand the framimg of "most vunrenable." Dunno if i misread something, but Katie Porter is mentioned as a frosh rep the GOP probably shouldn't target ...
her district is R+4.3, she was the first Dem to ever win the district in even a relatively normal presidential year they'd go hard after that type of district
I was thrown off by the LA market mention and forgot she was OC. So yeah, that's actually pretty dope
If Republicans feel so strongly that Democrats are making a huge mistake not nominating her, then they should definitely nominate her to run on the Republican ticket...
That the SEC seemingly brushed aside the need to investigate says a lot. That it’s mentioned to be difficult to determine who benefit, it’s a farce. The rich are protecting the rich. Period.
Wow looks like Trump supporters are demanding free stuff and not willing to pay for things they committed to previously. Awful people.
Fact check: Trump falsely claims Texas 'made a fortune' on Hurricane Harvey at Dallas rally cnn.com/2019/1...
Classic: Trump Interrupts First All-Women Spacewalk to Get His Facts Wrong NASA astronaut Jessica Meir corrected the President, who seemed to think this was the first time women had ever performed a spacewalk, while making history. by Becky Ferreira Oct 18 2019, 12:18pm As NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Christina Koch were completing their history-making spacewalk (the first with an all-woman crew) on Friday, President Donald Trump decided to butt in. Naturally, it was very confusing. Trump connected with Meir just before 12:30 PM ET on Friday, as she was working on the International Space Station’s exterior with Koch. The two women were nearing their fifth hour outside the station. “We’re thrilled to be speaking live with two brave American astronauts who are making history and joining us during their spacewalk,” Trump said during the livestreamed call, which started somewhat normally. The President was seated with his daughter Ivanka Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, and NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine. Trump seemed to be confused about the nature of the event, announcing that “this is the first time for a woman outside of the space station,” and repeating seconds later that it was “the first-ever female spacewalk.” Many women have performed spacewalks, or extravehicular activities (EVAs). Cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya was the first woman ever to conduct an EVA in 1984. NASA astronaut Kathryn Sullivan became the first American woman spacewalker later the same year. Koch and Meir are the first all-woman crew to perform an EVA, however. Meir took the opportunity to clarify the historic milestone. “First of all, we don’t want to take too much credit, because there have been many other female spacewalkers before us,” she said. “This is just the first time there have been two women outside at the same time.” “For us, this is really just us doing our jobs,” Meir continued. “We were the crew that was tasked with this assignment. At the same time, we recognize that it is a historic achievement and we do of course want to give credit to all those who came before us. There have been a long line of female scientists, explorers, engineers, and astronauts, and we have followed in their footsteps to get us where we are today.” “We also hope we can provide an inspiration to everybody—not only women, but to everybody—that has a big dream and is willing to work hard to make that dream come true,” she concluded. Trump complimented Meir and Koch and told them to “have a good time” before ending the brief call.
Amazing how we are just beholden to deciphering his moronic tweets instead of getting press briefings or interviews. This is just the dumbest timeline
It's only 2 degrees. That's 1/49 as hot as the supergroup 98 degrees. - people who don't know the difference in Celsius and Fahrenheit.