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Gosar fires back after Katie Hill rips his ‘Epstein’ tweets: You taught the country what a ‘throuple’ was

Gosar fires back after Katie Hill rips his ‘Epstein’ tweets: You taught the country what a ‘throuple’ was

Gosar fires back after Katie Hill rips his ‘Epstein’ tweets: You taught the country what a ‘throuple’ was

Gosar fires back after Katie Hill rips his ‘Epstein’ tweets: You taught the country what a ‘throuple’ was

Joe Montana statue vandalized after 49ers game; suspect arrested

Joe Montana statue vandalized after 49ers game; suspect arrested

Minds made up: Democrats barrel toward impeachment

Minds made up: Democrats barrel toward impeachment

The Blob: Still Chasing After Pax Americana

The Blob: Still Chasing After Pax Americana

Jeff Sessions makes his case for Trump’s support in Alabama Senate race

Jeff Sessions makes his case for Trump’s support in Alabama Senate race

Judge Andrew Napolitano: Impeachment and the Constitution

Judge Andrew Napolitano: Impeachment and the Constitution

McLaren’s new $1.7 million car is based on 1960s roadster with no roof

McLaren’s new $1.7 million car is based on 1960s roadster with no roof

These Are The States Best (And Worst) Prepared For Another Recession

These Are The States Best (And Worst) Prepared For Another Recession

Japan’s Economic Growth Falls Sharply as Exports Slow

Japan’s Economic Growth Falls Sharply as Exports Slow

Alibaba Readies $15 Billion Share Sale in Hong Kong

Alibaba Readies $15 Billion Share Sale in Hong Kong

The Manchurian Candidate Theory Will Never Die

The Manchurian Candidate Theory Will Never Die

VIDEO: 4-Year-Old Girl ‘Killed Brutally’ by Caretaker, DA Says

VIDEO: 4-Year-Old Girl ‘Killed Brutally’ by Caretaker, DA Says

‘Bagel Boss Guy’ Chris Morgan hospitalized after apparent stroke

‘Bagel Boss Guy’ Chris Morgan hospitalized after apparent stroke

‘American Horror Story’ Recap: ‘1984’s’ ‘Final Girl’ Revealed

‘American Horror Story’ Recap: ‘1984’s’ ‘Final Girl’ Revealed

Lindsey Graham says any Biden link to whistleblower would be ‘important’ development

Lindsey Graham says any Biden link to whistleblower would be ‘important’ development

WSJ: Democrat John Bel Edwards Has Turned Louisiana into the Trial Lawyers State

WSJ: Democrat John Bel Edwards Has Turned Louisiana into the Trial Lawyers State

VIDEO: Dem Prosecutors Fear For Suburbs’ Safety As Radical District Attorneys, Fueled By Soros Cash, Take Control

VIDEO: Dem Prosecutors Fear For Suburbs’ Safety As Radical District Attorneys, Fueled By Soros Cash, Take Control

Substance Abuse Touches Around Half Of All American Families

Substance Abuse Touches Around Half Of All American Families

Government employees ‘working against the president’ should resign, WH press secretary says

Government employees ‘working against the president’ should resign, WH press secretary says

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Gosar fires back after Katie Hill rips his ‘Epstein’ tweets: You taught the country what a ‘throuple’ was

Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., slammed his former colleague Katie Hill who had criticized his cryptic Epstein tweets, telling her she taught the country a new word: “throuple.”

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Gosar fires back after Katie Hill rips his ‘Epstein’ tweets: You taught the country what a ‘throuple’ was

Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., slammed his former colleague Katie Hill who had criticized his cryptic Epstein tweets, telling her she taught the country a new word: “throuple.”

Continue Reading...

Joe Montana statue vandalized after 49ers game; suspect arrested

Grabbing the face mask of a statue of an NFL quarterback outside a stadium can get a suspected vandal booked into the county jail.

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Minds made up: Democrats barrel toward impeachment

DML News: News you can trust.

The post Minds made up: Democrats barrel toward impeachment appeared first on DML News.

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The Blob: Still Chasing After Pax Americana

The Blob: Still Chasing After Pax Americana

Authored by Andrew Bacevich via TheAmericanConservative.com,

After all the failure, they still look at our wars in the Middle East as some kind of golden age…

I wish to call attention to an…

Continue Reading...

Jeff Sessions makes his case for Trump’s support in Alabama Senate race

Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions made the case Wednesday for President Trump to support his second run for to represent Alabama in the Senate, saying that if he elected he would support the president aggressively.

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Judge Andrew Napolitano: Impeachment and the Constitution

As public hearings on impeachment begin, we will see the case for and the case against impeaching President Trump. The facts are largely undisputed, but each side has its version of them.

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McLaren’s new $1.7 million car is based on 1960s roadster with no roof

DML News: News you can trust.

The post McLaren’s new $1.7 million car is based on 1960s roadster with no roof appeared first on DML News.

Continue Reading...

These Are The States Best (And Worst) Prepared For Another Recession

These Are The States Best (And Worst) Prepared For Another Recession

When the US economy finally starts to cool, and the inevitable recession arrives, the slowdown will affect different states differently. Some states, like Texas, are wel…

Continue Reading...

Japan’s Economic Growth Falls Sharply as Exports Slow

DML News: News you can trust.

The post Japan’s Economic Growth Falls Sharply as Exports Slow appeared first on DML News.

Continue Reading...

Alibaba Readies $15 Billion Share Sale in Hong Kong

Chinese e-commerce and entertainment giant Alibaba may raise up to $15 billion through a secondary listing of its shares in Hong Kong. The move would be the largest share offering this year and comes despite the ongoing civil strife in the Asian financ…

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The Manchurian Candidate Theory Will Never Die

The Manchurian Candidate Theory Will Never Die

Authored by David Harsanyi via NationalReview.com,

…but now it’s much more than a kooky conspiracy shouted from the margins. It’s headline news.

One of the most durable conspiracy theori…

Continue Reading...

VIDEO: 4-Year-Old Girl ‘Killed Brutally’ by Caretaker, DA Says

DML News: News you can trust.

The post VIDEO: 4-Year-Old Girl ‘Killed Brutally’ by Caretaker, DA Says appeared first on DML News.

Continue Reading...

‘Bagel Boss Guy’ Chris Morgan hospitalized after apparent stroke

“Bagel Boss Guy” Chris Morgan has been hospitalized after suffering an apparent stroke, his manager revealed Wednesday.

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‘American Horror Story’ Recap: ‘1984’s’ ‘Final Girl’ Revealed

SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not yet watched “Final Girl,” the finale episode of “American Horror Story: 1984.” The final episode of “American Horror Story: 1984” is appropriately called “The Final Gi…

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Lindsey Graham says any Biden link to whistleblower would be ‘important’ development

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham said he is looking to find whether the anonymous whistleblower in the Trump-Ukraine controversy was connected to former Vice President Joe Biden in any capacity.

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WSJ: Democrat John Bel Edwards Has Turned Louisiana into the Trial Lawyers State

The editorial board of the Wall Street Journal said on Sunday that Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards has hurt the economy in Louisiana by turning it into the trial lawyers state.

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VIDEO: Dem Prosecutors Fear For Suburbs’ Safety As Radical District Attorneys, Fueled By Soros Cash, Take Control

DML News: News you can trust.

The post VIDEO: Dem Prosecutors Fear For Suburbs’ Safety As Radical District Attorneys, Fueled By Soros Cash, Take Control appeared first on DML News.

Continue Reading...

Substance Abuse Touches Around Half Of All American Families

Substance Abuse Touches Around Half Of All American Families

According to Gallup, the effects of substance abuse are felt by around half of all American families, with, as Statista’s Katharina Buchholz notes, only slight differences were r…

Continue Reading...

Government employees ‘working against the president’ should resign, WH press secretary says

White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham slammed the House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry Wednesday, suggesting that Foreign Service officials should resign if unprepared to carry out orders based on President Trump’s constitutionally recognized p…

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CMAs 2019: Pregnant Maren Morris hits the red carpet in two-piece gown
Maren Morris hit the CMA red carpet after announcing her pregnancy in October.
CMAs 2019: Carrie Underwood, Dolly Parton, Reba McEntire dazzle on the red carpet
The 53rd Annual CMA Awards is in full swing and the evening's hosts -- Carrie Underwood, Reba McEntire and Dolly Parton -- stepped out to strike a pose on the red carpet before taking the Bridgestone Arena stage in Nashville, Tenn.
Princess Martha Louise of Norway’s American boyfriend Shaman Durek details their romance: 'She's real'
Shaman Durek, a spiritual guide to Hollywood stars such as Gwyneth Paltrow and Nina Dobrev, is enjoying a fairy tale romance of his own.
Billy Ray Cyrus on why he almost turned down 'Old Town Road' collaboration
It's hard to imagine Billy Ray Cyrus never collaborating with Lil Nas X on "Old Town Road" -- but that was almost the case.
Whoopi Goldberg talks double standard on 'The View:' 'They're paying us for our opinions'
Whoopi Goldberg doesn't think her job as a co-host of "The View" is stressful.

Using as their first witnesses two conscientious, apolitical diplomats, Democrats built a foundation for a case that Trump abused his far greater power
Dramatic new disclosures on Day 1 of the House impeachment hearings painted an incriminating picture of Donald Trump as a President instinctively willing to sacrifice America's interests for his own.
Trump responds to new allegation from impeachment hearing
During a joint press conference with Turkish President Erdogan, President Trump was asked about top US diplomat in Ukraine Bill Taylor's testimony that an aide of his overheard a phone call between Trump and EU Ambassador Gordon Sondland.
Analysis: Ukraine accusations come to life in public hearings
Diplomat Bill Taylor on Wednesday played the role of the unimpeachable truth-telling Vietnam vet in Congress that a lot of people thought Robert Mueller would play.
What the first public impeachment hearing tells us
The first public impeachment hearing on Wednesday lived up to the hype, and the daylong affair gave both parties plenty to chew on as the inquiry moves forward.
Late night takes on the first day of impeachment hearings
"It's finally here."

CMAs 2019: Pregnant Maren Morris hits the red carpet in two-piece gown
Maren Morris hit the CMA red carpet after announcing her pregnancy in October.
CMAs 2019: Carrie Underwood, Dolly Parton, Reba McEntire dazzle on the red carpet
The 53rd Annual CMA Awards is in full swing and the evening's hosts -- Carrie Underwood, Reba McEntire and Dolly Parton -- stepped out to strike a pose on the red carpet before taking the Bridgestone Arena stage in Nashville, Tenn.
Princess Martha Louise of Norway’s American boyfriend Shaman Durek details their romance: 'She's real'
Shaman Durek, a spiritual guide to Hollywood stars such as Gwyneth Paltrow and Nina Dobrev, is enjoying a fairy tale romance of his own.
Billy Ray Cyrus on why he almost turned down 'Old Town Road' collaboration
It's hard to imagine Billy Ray Cyrus never collaborating with Lil Nas X on "Old Town Road" -- but that was almost the case.
Whoopi Goldberg talks double standard on 'The View:' 'They're paying us for our opinions'
Whoopi Goldberg doesn't think her job as a co-host of "The View" is stressful.

Using as their first witnesses two conscientious, apolitical diplomats, Democrats built a foundation for a case that Trump abused his far greater power
Dramatic new disclosures on Day 1 of the House impeachment hearings painted an incriminating picture of Donald Trump as a President instinctively willing to sacrifice America's interests for his own.
Trump responds to new allegation from impeachment hearing
During a joint press conference with Turkish President Erdogan, President Trump was asked about top US diplomat in Ukraine Bill Taylor's testimony that an aide of his overheard a phone call between Trump and EU Ambassador Gordon Sondland.
Analysis: Ukraine accusations come to life in public hearings
Diplomat Bill Taylor on Wednesday played the role of the unimpeachable truth-telling Vietnam vet in Congress that a lot of people thought Robert Mueller would play.
What the first public impeachment hearing tells us
The first public impeachment hearing on Wednesday lived up to the hype, and the daylong affair gave both parties plenty to chew on as the inquiry moves forward.
Late night takes on the first day of impeachment hearings
"It's finally here."

The Blob: Still Chasing After Pax Americana

14 November 2019

The Blob: Still Chasing After Pax Americana

Authored by Andrew Bacevich via TheAmericanConservative.com,

After all the failure, they still look at our wars in the Middle East as some kind of golden age...

I wish to call attention to an instructive essay about U.S. policy in the Middle East—instructive in the sense that it reveals the utterly impoverished nature of establishment thinking on this subject.

The title of the essay is “The US Has One Last Chance to Halt Its Withdrawal from the Middle East.” The author is a former deputy assistant secretary of defense, who shall remain nameless since I bear him no ill will. Let us refer to him simply as X, in honor of George Kennan, author of a famous 1947 essay offering counsel on how to deal with the Soviet Union. Kennan published that essay under the pseudonym X. And so shall I refer to the author of “One Last Chance.”

Kennan’s purpose was to sound the alarm regarding the Soviet threat and to propose what came to be called the strategy of Containment. The purpose of our present-day Mr. X is to sound the alarm about the United States lowering its profile in the Middle East.

To avert that prospect, he proposes what can only be termed a strategy of staying-the-course-while-ignoring-the-facts.

X concedes that throughout the region, things have not gone especially well for the United States over the last couple of decades. He rightly notes that Americans are “still reeling from costly wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the continuing chaos in Syria, Yemen, and Libya.” He ever so briefly acknowledges that this is “a region where even pro-American governments are often undemocratic and can be disdainful of fundamental human rights” and “where billions of dollars are spent that would be better used at home.”

Of course, to say that the U.S. has expended billions in the Middle East is the equivalent of saying that my wife and I paid thousands for the home we purchased last year. While nominally correct, the statement is wildly misleading. X has an aversion to actual numbers. He prefers tidy generalizations to specifics.

Yet the essence of X’s argument boils down to this: setting aside these recent errors of judgment by George W. Bush and Barack Obama, U.S. policy in the region has actually been a smashing success. From the end of World War II until ever-so-recently, Washington pursued a course in the Middle East that was reasoned, careful, and eminently wise. “This bipartisan tradition of American leadership worked,” X asserts. While it might have been “imperfect, time-consuming and often unsatisfying,” the nation’s “vital interests in the region remained protected. The U.S. presence was sized to align with those interests, and we were not overextended.” X approvingly calls this a Pax Americana in the Middle East.

When one encounters a claim of an American-constructed Pax, the first rule is to look for what the writer leaves out. In this case, among the incidents and developments that our X totally ignores are these: treating Saudi Arabia as a de facto protectorate; CIA involvement in the 1953 overthrow of the Mossadegh regime; the pro-Israel tilt in U.S. policy dating from the 1960s, to include turning a blind eye to Israel acquiring a nuclear arsenal; the Iranian Revolution; various Arab-Israeli wars; oil “shocks” during the 1970s; the Beirut debacle of 1983; the U.S. role in destabilizing (and then abandoning) Afghanistan; Washington’s support for Saddam Hussein in the Iran-Iraq War; the rise of al-Qaeda; and the events of 9/11.

Admit these into the conversation and the question you confront is this one: what Pax? In truth, Pax Americana no more describes the postwar Middle East than the phrase “Long Peace” describes the Cold War. The purpose of such formulations is to preclude actual thinking, attaching labels to preempt analysis.

“It took many decades to build a Pax Americana in the Middle East,” X writes.

Not true: it took only a handful of hours—the time he invested in writing his essay. The Pax Americana is a figment of X’s imagination.

Yet once having conjured up his fictive Pax, X easily convinces himself that it can exist again, if only the next president—he writes off Trump as a total loss—will act to “reestablish American leadership in the Middle East, restore deterrence with our adversaries, and begin renewing trust with our partners and allies.” But what does “leadership” actually mean in this context? What will it entail? What will it cost? Once again, when it comes to specifics, X is essentially silent, offering only this:

“The next commander in chief will require political fortitude to lead the United States back to its traditional role in the region, demonstrating what in previous generations was deemed a profile in courage.”

That and four bucks will get you a latte.

All of that said, I submit that X has written something worthy of reflection. Here on full display is a model of establishment thinking—heavy on clichés, light on substance, and short of memory.

Let me briefly sketch out an alternative narrative that more accurately captures our present predicament.

Since the end of World War II, successive administrations have sought to devise a formula for assuring American consumers access to Persian Gulf oil while also satisfying pressing domestic political interests. Over a period of decades, that effort succeeded chiefly in giving birth to new problems. Out of these multiplying difficulties came the 9/11 attacks and their immediate sequel, a “war on terrorism” meant to settle matters once and for all.

To state the matter bluntly, 9/11 was an expression of chickens coming home to roost, a massive strategic failure that the ensuing military campaigns beginning in 2001 and continuing to the present moment have affirmed. Given the dimensions of that failure, the likelihood of resuscitating X’s illusory Pax is essentially zero.

There is no going back to an imagined Golden Age of American statecraft in the Middle East. The imperative is to go forward, which requires acknowledging how wrongheaded U.S. policy in region has been ever since FDR had his famous tete-a-tete with King Ibn Saud and Harry Truman rushed to recognize the newborn State of Israel.

Tyler Durden Thu, 11/14/2019 - 00:10 Tags Politics

These Are The States Best (And Worst) Prepared For Another Recession

14 November 2019

These Are The States Best (And Worst) Prepared For Another Recession

When the US economy finally starts to cool, and the inevitable recession arrives, the slowdown will affect different states differently. Some states, like Texas, are well-positioned to ride out the downturn thanks to the diversity of industry and low per-capita debt. Others, like Hawaii, will likely bear the brunt of the downturn, a "disaster" that we have discussed in the past.

Inspired by surveys claiming that a majority of executives at Fortune 500 companies expect a recession in 2020, Fit Small Business recently conducted a study to determine which states are best-equipped to survive the next recession, and which states are particularly vulnerable to a downturn. To arrive at their conclusions, the researchers factored in a wealth of data about states' economies, including their product exports, housing costs, economic strength and diversity, individual debt-to-income ratios and median home values.

Using these data, they concluded that nearly all of the best states for surviving the recession are spread across the south and midwest. Why? Because these states benefit from diverse economies, and their low cost of living and low property prices make them more liveable.

Meanwhile, all the way down at the end of the list, we find Hawaii, the 48th most well-equipped state to survive the next recession.

Why is Hawaii so vulnerable? Well, for one, the state must import nearly all of its fuel, food and consumer staples, which drives up prices.

But that's not the only reason. Another recent study warned that the slowdown in Hawaii's economy started around the time when JPM's Global Manufacturing PMI topped out in late 2017.

And that slowdown is getting more serious, as Hawaii's tourism-dependent economy struggles with a slump in bookings, and by extension, a slump in tourist spending. The culprit is clear: the strong dollar has hurt tourism from abroad, while anxieties about a slowing economy have caused domestic spending to contract slightly.

And researchers with the state have forecast an increase in Hawaii's unemployment rate over the coming years, expecting it to climb from its current level (2.8%) to 3.9% in 2022.

For Hawaii, the downturn has already begun.

Read Fit Small Business's full report here.

Tyler Durden Wed, 11/13/2019 - 23:50 Tags Business Finance

The Manchurian Candidate Theory Will Never Die

14 November 2019

The Manchurian Candidate Theory Will Never Die

Authored by David Harsanyi via NationalReview.com,

...but now it’s much more than a kooky conspiracy shouted from the margins. It’s headline news.

One of the most durable conspiracy theories of our times finds Vladimir Putin recruiting a billionaire media personality named Donald Trump to the U.S. presidency. In some iterations of the tale, Trump is willingly serving his Kremlin comrades; in others, he is merely the victim of kompromat. In every version he is an asset.

The basic account holds that Putin, who is apparently blessed with seer-like abilities, knew in the late 1970s that Trump, whose political positions would wildly fluctuate over 40 years, was presidential material, and that now, after decades of patiently waiting, the duo’s nefarious plan to cut taxes and place originalists onto the federal bench has finally come to fruition.

In a sprawling July 2018 New York piece headlined, “Will Trump Be Meeting with His Counterpart — Or His Handler? A plausible theory of mind-boggling collusion,” Jonathan Chait offered a fully realized rendering of Trump’s potential sedition. Cobbling together every interaction the real-estate developer ever had with Russians — helpfully laid out in a handy Pepe Silvia–like flow chart — Chait posits that Trump might have become a Kremlin asset in 1987 when visited Moscow.

Chait was just asking questions. And I have no doubt the story seems highly “plausible” to partisans who suddenly treat every Russian-bought social-media ad as the next Pearl Harbor.

Which brings me to John Harwood, the DNC’s man in Washington. Piggybacking on a recent tweet by the New York Times’ Michelle Goldberg, Harwood brings up Chait’s piece, arguing that that while “conservative media dismissed as ridiculous the idea that Russia might have cultivated Trump for decades, Fiona Hill, a leading US govt Russia expert, now makes clear it’s not ridiculous in the slightest.”

Here’s Harwood on Twitter:

Typing this out for those who’ve called it implausible

Q: why do you believe Putin was targeting Trump from his days as a businessman?

HILL: Because that’s exactly what Putin and others were doing. Again, he was part of a directorate in the KGB in Leningrad. That’s what they did exclusively, was targeting businessmen.

The quote Harwood highlights from Hill’s October 14 testimony specifically points to Putin’s role in exclusively “targeting” American businessmen in the late 1970s, not “for decades.” In an adjacent quote, in fact, Hill argues that everyone was targeted by Russians for decades — not that Trump was “cultivated,” as Harwood asserts — and that it was a mistake to focus only on meddling in relation to the president rather than on meddling in a broader perspective.

Here is Hill:

I firmly believe he was also targeting President Trump, and he was targeting all of the other campaigns as well. And I think that that was the mistake when the 2015 investigations were launched, not to take it from the point of view [of] what Russia was doing to target Americans, no matter who they were in the system.”

And again:

I think that there’s a good chance that was the case and that, you know — and, again, compromising material was being collected on a whole range of individuals. And it was most definitely being collected on Secretary, former First Lady and Senator Clinton as well.

And still again:

So, if Secretary Clinton had won, there would have been a cloud over her at this time if she was President Clinton. There’s been a cloud over President Trump since the beginning of his presidency, and I think that’s exactly what the Russians intended.

The context of her statements are a far cry from “Russia might have cultivated Trump for decades.” Of course, no one can dispute that Russians have been digging up dirt on prominent Americans citizens forever, but the word “cultivate” or “handler” — or any other term that intimates that the president is working for Russians — does not appear, even hypothetically, in any form in the transcript of Hill’s testimony.

Also, does anyone really believe that Harwood types in the media would be grappling with the “cloud” that Fiona Hill, “a leading US govt Russia expert,” now makes clear would be hovering over Hillary Clinton’s head as well, if she had won?

Even if Harwood had accurately conveyed Hill’s claims, we’ve now had three years of intense journalistic effort, wide-ranging congressional investigations, and an independent inquiry that have been unable to turn up a single instance in which Trump was compromised or colluded with Russians.

Anyone paying attention during the 2016 campaign was already well acquainted with the president’s views on Russia: Trump isn’t going to bash Putin because Trump respects Putin, and he strives to build friendly relations with Russia.

I’m sorry to say, Trump’s policies towards Putin differ very little from those of his predecessors. Perhaps no better, they are certainly no worse.

As many others have noted, it was Obama who mocked Romney’s claim that Russia was our most dangerous geopolitical foe.

It was also Obama who told Putin’s stooge Dmitry Medvedev that his administration would have more “flexibility” on missile defense after the 2012 election.

It was Obama who refused to offer lethal military assistance to Ukraine.

It was Obama who canceled the sale of American missile-defense systems to Poland and the Czech Republic to appease Russia.

It was the Obama administration, according to Bill Browder, one of the driving forces behind the Magnitsky Act, who spent two years trying to kill the Act before acquiescing to bipartisan pressure.

It was Obama, not Trump, who capitulated to Russia and gave in on accession to the World Trade Organization.

It was Joe Biden, not Mike Pence, who in 2009 told Medvedev that “the most important item on our agenda” was to restore Russia–U.S. relations after eight years of the Bush administration’s antagonism.

It was also Obama who abandoned the Syrian “red line,” leaving Russia’s allies to massacre thousands of civilians in a broader effort to appease the Iranians. Just because the 44th president habitually aligned the United States with the Islamic regime in Iran doesn’t mean he was a foreign Muslim interloper.

The Manchurian Candidate conspiracy theory is much like birtherism. Too many conservatives rationalized their anger over politics by convincing themselves that Obama wasn’t only a dangerous ideological adversary but a seditious and illegitimate one as well. (One of the people rightly pilloried for doing this was Donald Trump.) The only difference is that Democrats have mainstreamed this kind of destructive paranoia.

Tyler Durden Wed, 11/13/2019 - 23:30 Tags Politics

Substance Abuse Touches Around Half Of All American Families

14 November 2019

Substance Abuse Touches Around Half Of All American Families

According to Gallup, the effects of substance abuse are felt by around half of all American families, with, as Statista's Katharina Buchholz notes, only slight differences were recorded by the survey regarding race or sex.

46 percent of U.S. adults reported having dealt with substance abuse in their families. 18 percent said those were related just to alcohol, while 10 percent said their problems were related just to drugs. Another 18 percent said they had dealt with both.

You will find more infographics at Statista

Women were slightly more likely to report substance abuse being a problem in their families. The difference between non-Hispanic whites and nonwhites reporting problems with substance abuse were two percentage points for alcohol and just one percentage point for drugs.

That widened to 6 and 9 percent, respectively, between people reporting weekly church attendance and people seldom or never attending church service. Whether respondents held a college degree or not actually had a similar impact – people who did not go to or finish college were 7 percent more likely to report alcohol abuse and 4 percent more likely to report drug abuse in their families.

The highest discrepancies were actually recorded in terms of region. Easterners were 9 percent less likely to report alcohol abuse than Westerners, while Midwesterners were 10 percent less likely to report drug abuse than people in the West.

Tyler Durden Wed, 11/13/2019 - 23:10 Tags Social Issues

Lacalle: Why A "Crypto-Yuan" Won't Threaten The Dollar

14 November 2019

Lacalle: Why A "Crypto-Yuan" Won't Threaten The Dollar

Authored by Daniel Lacalle,

A state-owned cryptocurrency is, in itself, a contradiction in terms. The main reason why citizens want to use cryptocurrencies or gold is precisely to avoid the government or central bank monopoly of money.

For a currency to be a world reserve of value, widespread means of exchange and unit of measure, there are many things that need to happen, but the first pillar of a world reserve currency is stability and transparency.

China cannot disrupt the global monetary system and dethrone the US dollar when it has one of the world’s tightest capital control systems, a lack of separation of powers and weak transparency in its own financial system.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbRi7MvHo4I]

The U.S. dollar is the most traded currency in the world, and growing according to the Bank of International Settlement. The Yuan is 4% of the currency trade. This is because the financial balance of the US is the strongest, legal and investor security is one of the strongest in the world, and the currency and capital markets are open and transparent.

Unfortunately for China, the idea of a gold-backed cryptocurrency starts from the wrong premise. China’s own currency, the Yuan, is not backed by either global use nor gold. At all. China’s total gold reserves are less than 0.25% of its money supply. Many say that we do not know the real extent of China’s gold reserves. However, this goes back to my previous point. What confidence is the world going to have on a currency where the real level of gold reserves is simply a guess? Furthermore, why would any serious government under-report its gold reserves if it wants to be a safe haven, reserve status currency? It makes no sense.

The Yuan is as unsupported as any fiat currency, like the U.S. dollar, but much less traded and used as a store of value. As such, a cryptocurrency would not be backed by gold either. Even if the government said it was, and deployed all its reserves to the cryptocurrency, what confidence does the investor have that such backing will be guaranteed when the evidence is that even Chinese citizens have enormous limits to access their own savings in gold?

China’s gold reserves are an insignificant fraction of its money supply. Its biggest weakness comes from capital controls, lack of open and independent institutions safeguarding investors and constant intervention in its financial market.

China’s Yuan may become a world reserve currency one day. It will never happen while capital controls remain and legal-investor security is limited.

Tyler Durden Wed, 11/13/2019 - 22:50 Tags Business Finance

The Crown Series 3: Olivia Colman and Helena Bonham Carter lead the glamour at premiere

13 November 2019

Screen stars Olivia, 45, and Helena , 53, were the picture of sophistication as they attended the world premiere for The Crown series three, held at Curzon Mayfair in west London on Wednesday.

Nigel Farage and Jo Swinson both come out swinging for photo ops

13 November 2019

Nigel Farage, who paid a visit to boxing club in Ilford, London - admitted he had suffered 'very heavy blows' in recent days. While, Jo Swinson made efforts to help the Lib Dems punch above their weight.

Duke and Duchess of Sussex confirm they'll have US Christmas

13 November 2019

Buckingham Palace has confirmed the Duke and Duchess of Sussex will not be spending Christmas with the Queen.

Donald Trump boasts he and Turkish strongman Erdogan 'have been friends for a long time'

13 November 2019

Trump's warm welcome of the Turkish president comes amid anger about Ankara's offensive into Syria to drive out a Kurdish militia, Washington's main partner in the fight against ISIS.

Apple employee texts a woman's intimate photo to himself when she handed over her iPhone

13 November 2019

Gloria Fuentes had been visiting the Apple store at the Valley Plaza in Bakersfield on November 4 to get her phone screen repaired. She plans to take legal action against the employee.

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Many of the links and stories on this site contain copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making this material available in an effort to advance the understanding of environmental issues, human rights, economic and political democracy, and issues of social justice. We believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of the copyrighted material. Copyright Law which contains a list of the various purposes for which the reproduction of a particular work may be considered fair, such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. If you wish to use such copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’…you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. (17 US/Code 10)

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