Steve Bull's Blog, page 1273
October 27, 2017
Catalan Leaders Face 30 Years In Jail As Spain Brings “Rebellion” Charges
Earlier in the week, The Express reported that Spain’s ‘attorney general’ gave a blunt message that if he declares independence for Catalonia he will be charged with “rebellion” and could face 30 years in prison, to the President of the north east region and said he would call on the Catalan police – Mossos d’Esquadra – to detain Mr Puigdemont, who has been the focal figures in the region’s push to break away from the rest of Spain. Mr Maza, speaking at an event on cybersecurity in Madrid, said:
“I am surprised that this is surprising. This is normal and natural in a state of law and, therefore, it is logical to pursue.
The rebellion crime is punishable by 30 years in prison if it is a crime of considerable gravity, of course.”
And now that Independence has been proclaimed, The Independent reports that Spain’s top prosecutor will seek rebellion charges for those responsible for a vote in favor of declaring an independent Catalan republic, an official spokesman said.
The spokesman said the prosecutor is looking to determine if the charges should be limited to the Catalan cabinet, including President Carles Puigdemont and Vice President Oriol Junqueras, or if they should also include members of the parliament’s governing board and lawmakers.
The official, who spoke under condition of anonymity in line with internal rules, said the charges could be brought as early as Monday.
As Mr. Maza warns:
“The rebellion crime is punishable by 30 years in prison if it is a crime of considerable gravity, of course..…if the Catalan police did not comply with the order, Spain would take over control of the force.”
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
J. Edgar Hoover: “Need To Convince Public That Oswald Is Real Assassin”
Amid the thousands of new files released yesterday – though less than expected – were two intriguing memos to, and from, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover on November 24th, 1963 – the day that Jack Ruby killed Lee Harvey Oswald as the gunman was being transported to the Dallas County Jail after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
In a memo issued by Hoover, he appeared to be particularly concerned that the public would have to be compelled to believe that Oswald was a lone actor – not part of a larger conspiracy.
“There is nothing further on the Oswald case except that he is dead.”
In the 1964 Warren Report on Kennedy’s assassination, NBC notes, Hoover was firm in stating that he hadn’t seen “any scintilla of evidence” suggesting a conspiracy – a sentiment he expressed in other public forums, as well, but not in words as blunt as those he used the day Oswald was killed.
Referring to Nicholas Katzenbach, the deputy attorney general at the time, Hoover dictated:
“The thing I am concerned about, and so is Mr. Katzenbach, is having something issued so we can convince the public that Oswald is the real assassin.”
It’s not clear from the memo whether Hoover thought there might have been a conspiracy but didn’t want it to be known or whether he sincerely believed Oswald acted alone and hoped to head off public fear and confusion. Hoover also indicated that his concern may have been influenced, in part, by diplomacy, dictating that there could be serious international complications if the public thought Oswald might have been part of a larger plot. Katzenbach is known from previously released documents to have shared Hoover’s concern, writing in a memo the next day, on Nov. 25, 1963, that:
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“The Nightmare Scenario” Revisited: Albert Edwards Lays Out The Next “Black Monday”
Is it the onset of a recession or the fear of a recession that causes a crash? That is what SocGen’s bear (or, as he calls himself this time, wolf) Albert Edwards contemplated on the 30th anniversary of Black Monday, before reaching the conclusion that it’s the latter. Having taken several weeks off from publishing his ill-named global strategy “weekly” report to meet with clients, Edwards finds that most clients “seem to harbour similar fears as I, namely that the QE-driven bubble will burst at some stage and lay low the global economy, just as it did in 2007.” Yet where clients differ, is on the timing of said burst:
“despite my bearish (or is it wolfish) howling, virtually no clients think the denouement will come any time soon and that the equity bull market should have at least 12-18 months left to run. Most can see nothing on the immediate horizon that might burst this bubble.”
So, doing his public service to boost the overall sense of dread, and perhaps fear, Albert takes it upon himself to reprise recent discussions with clients, and in his latest letter explains “what might catch them out in the near term.” To do this, Edwards focuses first and foremost on the catalysts behind the abovementioned 1987 “Black Monday” crash.
A retrospective macro-narrative was inevitably wrapped around the ?Black Monday? 19 October 1987 equity market crash. My 30-year recollection is pretty good: 1987 saw a buoyant equity market rising briskly through most of the year as the oil price recovered from the previous year?s collapse (from $30 to $8, see chart below). After a year in the doldrums the US economy started to accelerate notably through 1987 as the impact of 1986 interest rate cuts and a lower dollar worked.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Chaos Unleashed: Catalan Parliament Votes For Independence, Spain Activates “Nuclear Option”
Update: Just minutes after the Catalan government voted for Independence from Spain, with a former Decision of Independence likely to follow momentarily, over in Madrid wasted no time in responding, and moments ago, with 214 for and 47 against, voted to approve Article 155 of Spain’s 1978 Constitution, aka the Nuclear Option which has never been used before, suspending home rule in Catalonia, and giving Prime Minister Rajoy the power to oust the Catalan government.
What happens next?
Spain will promptly move to remove the Catalan president, suspend his ministers and assume authority over the region’s public media, police and finances, the only question is how, and what this process will look like.
Indeed, as Bloomberg reported earlier, Spanish politician Garcia Albiol tweeted that Spanish Prime-Minister Mariano Rajoy will restore democracy in Catalonia, adding that courts will reprimand the “plotters.” Furthermore, Spain’s El Pais reported that rebellion charges will likely be leveled soon at Catalans for Secession.
An angry Rajoy spoke to reporters in Madrid after the Catalan parliament declared independence and said that “the Catalan parliament has approved something that in the opinion of the great majority of people doesn’t just go against the law but is a criminal act because it supposes declaring something that is not possible which is the independence of Catalonia.”
He also said that he will address Spain at the end of the evening.
In terms of immediate next steps, there will be a Spanish Cabinet Meeting, which has been moved ahead to 5pm local time.
After that, things may get delicate, especially if Spain sends in the proverbial cavalry.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Observations on Wealth-Income Inequality (from Federal Reserve Reports)
There’s a profound difference between assets that produce no income and those that produce net income.
To those of us nutty enough to pore over dozens of pages of data on wealth and income in the U.S., the Federal Reserve’s quarterly Z.1 reports and annual Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) are treasure troves, as are I.R.S. tax and income reports.
Allow me to share a few observations on family wealth and income drawn from my review of these documents:
Changes in U.S. Family Finances from 2013 to 2016 (42 pages)
Financial Accounts of the United States (198 pages)
Corporate profits clock in at $2.135 trillion annually, around 11% of the nation’s GDP (gross domestic product). (Page 10 of Z.1) This has changed very little over the past few years; corporate profits totaled $2.140 trillion in 2014.
Most people who follow financial matters closely probably know corporate profits have been around $2 trillion annually for awhile.
But how many know that proprietors’ income from small businesses ($1.375 trillion) and rental income of persons–i.e. not corporations–($740 billion) together equal corporate profits? ($2.115 trillion for small biz/rentals, $2.135 trillion for corporate profits.
How many financially savvy people know that proprietors’ income and private rental income rose by $189 billion since 2014, while corporate profits flatlined?
Clearly, the families that own the proprietorships and rentals pulling down $2.1 trillion in annual profits are doing a bit better than OK.
As the charts below reveal, most of this profitable business equity is owned by the top 10% of families. There are a few clues that suggest that family-owned business equity is distributed along a power-law curve, i.e. the majority of wealth and income is held by the top and the rest is distributed over the rest of the owners.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
This Is What a True Liberty-Loving Politician Would Look Like
What would a real friend of freedom say if he was offering himself for political office?
In modern democracies, political cycles never end. As soon as one election is over, those seeking office are already running for the next election. Having recently attended a public forum of state-level candidates looking to the 2018 election, I wondered what a real friend of freedom might say if he was offering himself for such a political office.
Liberty Rhetoric, But Interventionist Policies
At a luncheon event several candidates running in the forthcoming Republican Party primary in South Carolina made their pitch as to why they should be their party’s nominees for state legislative offices in the next general election. They answered questions submitted by attendees at the lunch and made opening and closing statements about who they were and what they stood for.
They all clearly believed that growth needed to be harnessed within “reasonable” rules and regulations.
Not too surprisingly they all, in their respective ways, said they were “pro-business,” advocated lower taxes, a freer enterprise market environment, greater transparency, and more accountability for those in power in the state capital.
Why did each say they were running for elected office? They all had been in business but now wanted to “give back” and “serve” their communities.
What were major themes in many of the questions directed at them? South Carolina is a growing state where international corporations are opening more manufacturing facilities, and, as more people move to the Palmetto State, it has an increasing population to match. Those who submitted questions wanted to know what the candidates would do, if elected, to improve and widen road infrastructure to reduce increasing congestion, and how they would “manage” growth in the state?
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
How The Elite Dominate The World – Part 4: They Buy Politicians, And Incumbents Almost Always Win
Once we wake up to how the game is being played, then we will have a real shot at changing things. For decades, the elite have been pulling the strings behind the scenes in both major political parties. That is why nothing has ever seemed to change very much no matter which party has been in power. The agenda of the elite has always seemed to march forward, and ordinary people like us have always been frustrated that we can’t seem to make a difference. But now a shift seems to be taking place. Donald Trump took on the establishment in both major parties, and he miraculously won the presidency. Down in Alabama, the elite spent more than 30 million dollars to defeat Roy Moore, and he still defeated Luther Strange. A political awakening is taking place, and I can’t wait to see what happens during the mid-term elections in 2018.
In Part I and Part II of this series, I talked about how the elite use debt as a tool of enslavement. In Part III, I went over how the elite use the colossal media corporations they own to control what we think. Today, I want to talk about their influence in the realm of politics.
In Washington D.C., it is well understood that the game of politics is all about the money. If I win my election, and online polling suggests that there is a ton of enthusiasm for my campaign, I will be expected to spend most of my time on the phone raising money. As a freshman member of Congress, at orientation it will be explained to me that I am supposed to spend approximately four hours a day doing fundraising, and that is why the House and Senate floors are so empty most of the time.
By law, members of Congress cannot make fundraising calls from their offices, and so both parties have huge call centers just across from the Capitol. Especially around lunch and dinner times (because those are some of the best times to reach people), those call centers are packed as members of the House and Senate run through lists of potential donors.
And it isn’t just about raising money for their own campaigns. As a freshman member of Congress I would be expected to raise at least $200,000 for the NRCC (the National Republican Congressional Committee). If I don’t pay my dues, I would get into big trouble with party leadership.
But you know what? I have already pledged that I am not going to participate in this very corrupt system. If I am sent to Congress, I am going to spend my time doing the job that the people of Idaho sent me there to do.
So will Paul Ryan and the others in leadership get very upset with me for not “paying my dues”?
Of course.
But it is time for some of us to take a stand and do what is right. Congress has become a cesspool of filth and corruption, and it is time to flush the toilet.
Because if we don’t fight this corrupt system, the influence of money in politics will just get worse and worse. Today, the elite pour millions upon millions of dollars even into small campaigns, and in 2016 it took an average of more than 10 million dollars to win a U.S. Senate seat…
Minority Communities Suffer from Storms as GOP and Trump Admin Promote Oil and Gas
While victims in Texas, Florida, and Puerto Rico are still reeling from the devastation of three hurricanes worsened by a warming climate, the Trump administration and GOP senators in the Gulf continued to push fossil fuel extraction.
On October 18, two senators who reject the science of climate change, Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Bill Cassidy (R-LA), teamed up to introduce a bill to fast-track the regulatory process for exporting small-scale liquefied natural gas (LNG). And on October 24, Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke proposed the largest ever sale of oil and gas leases in the United States. The plan would offer nearly 77 million acres of federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico for auction to the fossil fuel industry.
Prince Hall Village Apartments across from Valero’s Port Arthur refinery on October 13, 2017.
FEMA interviewing residents at Prince Hall Village Apartments on September 20, 2017.
Rubio and Cassidy now both acknowledge that the climate has changed, but don’t think mankind plays a major role in the stronger and more frequent storms, droughts, heat waves, and floods documented by researchers. Both have touted the expansion of the natural gas industry as good for the climate, citing the fact that gas burns cleaner than coal. But they ignore scientific evidence showing that when accounting for the production of natural gas, from extraction to delivery, the fuel could be worse for the climate than burning coal.
Their proposed legislation, if passed, would likely lead to an expansion of the fracking industry to meet the needs of the global market, as DeSmog’s Steve Horn has reported recently. In his article, Horn explained the misnomer of “small-scale LNG,” writing that “small-scale LNG does not refer necessarily to the actual amount of LNG which will be exported from the site, but rather the size of the tankers carrying the natural gas.”
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Catalan Chaos Continues As Secessionists Prepare Independence Motion
After yesterday’s chaotic Spanish event rollercoaster, when the Catalan leader Carles Puidgement was going to press ahead with independence only to change his mind, and propose elections, before reversing again and punting the independence decision to parliament, we hoped to get some further clarity on how he’s planning to proceed. Today, the chaos continues.
First, Bloomberg reported that Catalonia would seek approval for elections from Madrid:
The rebel government of Catalonia is making a last ditch effort to win concessions from Madrid. According to a person familiar with the matter, Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont, wants to convince supporters to accept regional elections instead of a declaration of independence. A senior Catalan official will ask the Spanish government to suspend the process of seizing direct control of the region if there is a snap election.
However, shortly afterwards, The Spain Report carried breaking news that the secessionists would debate a motion to declare independence in today’s session of the Catalonian Parliament.
The Spain Report @thespainreportMAJOR BREAKING: Separatist Parties Register Motion To Declare Independence Of Catalonia In Regional Parliament https://www.thespainreport.com/articles/1244-171027111459-separatist-parties-register-motion-to-declare-independence-of-catalonia-in-regional-parliament …
5:18 AM – Oct 27, 2017
Separatist Parties Register Motion To Declare Independence Of Catalonia In Regional Parliament
(Breaking story…more to follow)
thespainreport.com
More from the report:
Catalan separatist parties—Junts Pel Sí (“Together For Yes”) and the CUP (Popular Unity Candidacy)—have registered a motion to declare the independence of Catalonia in the regional parliament.
A copy of the document published by Spanish media included the phrase: “We constitute the Catalan Republic as an independent sovereign democratic, social state of law”.
The text would also approve the activation of the secession bill approved by the regional chamber at the beginning of September and voided by the Constitutional Court and “begin the constituent process”.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Self-Assured Destruction (SAD): 21 Incidents Show How Donald Trump’s 24-Hour Nuclear Alert Could Literally Backfire4
Photo by Guido van Nispen | CC BY 2.0
On Sunday, an exclusive from Defense One suggested that Donald Trump’s administration “is preparing to put nuclear armed bombers back on 24-hour ready alert” for the first time in more than a quarter century. The report specifically cites Trump’s “confrontational approach” to North Korea as well as “Russia’s increasingly potent and active armed forces,” a rationale that must well-please centrist Democrats braying for battle with Vladimir Putin.
On hair trigger status, however, the biggest threat may come from the United States’ sordid record of nuclear weapons safety. Self Assured Destruction (SAD) may be a more realistic scenario for nuclear disaster than Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) with Russia or a showdown with North Korea or Iran. At least twenty-one known accidental incidents involving nuclear weapons and the United States military could have been utterly catastrophic and are worth describing in brief. Evidence suggests that the U.S. government may have successfully kept others from public scrutiny.
After much pressure, the United States military eventually copped [pdf] to 32 “broken arrow” incidents priorto the Reagan administration. “Broken Arrow” events are extremely serious nuclear weapons risk situations that do not create the risk of all out war, a more serious situation designated by the term Nucflash. While official government statements about broken arrows consistently attempt to paint a picture of little to no public danger, an astonishing run of luck has meant the deaths, all told in these events, of hundreds orthousands of people rather than hundreds of thousands or millions. Less guarded statements from generals, other military or government officials, as well as once secret documents or expert testimony describe situations where
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