The Smile Of Desperation

This is the smile of desperation.



The desperation is starting to mount. Hillary's recent wobbling on video owing to what is most likely a serious motor disease that has about as much in common with pneumonia and dehydration as this fellow has with objectivity. Toss in billionaire Mark Cuban's $10 million offer to interview Trump and you have some idea of how desperate they're getting.

Frankly, we're getting a bit tired of Cuban's monotonous whining about his differences with Trump, MSM  and their coverage of his candidate of choice. It's getting more boring than he is. But even in a semi-free nation we guess billionaire twerps have their right to complain.

Hillary Clinton ally David Brock is offering to pay for new information on Donald Trump, hoping that damaging audio or video on the Republican presidential candidate will be submitted to his super PAC. Brock, founder of the left-wing Media Matters and operator of Correct the Record super PAC, recently posted the plea on Correct the Record’s website and is referring to the project as “TrumpLeaks,” NBC News reported.

Brock asked for video or audio of Trump that has yet to be released.
“One of the most important things for voters to evaluate in any election is the full measure of a candidate’s views, ideas, and temperament over time,” the website states. “In making a choice for president, voters must also consider how various candidates present themselves to the public and to the world. There are few things more important in that regard than access to video or audio in the form of prior television or radio interviews or more candid video from events a candidate may have attended.” Brock’s super PAC goes on to say they can offer compensation to anyone who has new video or audio that has been obtained legally.

NBC News noted that the project is “highly unusual” and seems to “cross a new line” in modern day politics.

You need to note NBC New's brave journalistic statement at the end.

freebeacon.com/politics/david-brock-offers-money-new-dirt-donald-trump

Cheap Journalism

It's articles like this that will ultimately be the downfall of MSM.

There's enough well-chosen loaded language in here to be a gun. This is cheap journalism. It not only cheapens the integrity of what was supposedly once a half-way decent profession, but it cheapens society at large because it comes from a contemptuous view of the general population.

Some conservatives are hard at work spreading conspiracy theories about Hillary Clinton’s health in an attempt to disqualify her from seeking higher office.Video footage of the Democratic nominee stumbling as she abruptly departed a 9/11 memorial on Sunday, combined with news that she had contracted pneumonia, has fueled rumors on the right that Clinton may be concealing a far worse medical condition. But it’s not just conservatives indulging in wild speculation. At least some die-hard supporters of Bernie Sanders are echoing, and in some cases amplifying, unproven claims that Clinton may be covering up serious health problems.

Latest from Politics

Birther of a Nation

For a contingent of Sanders supporters who remain convinced the primary was rigged and distrust the media and the Democratic establishment, it isn’t much of a leap to believe Clinton has been dishonest about her health. Some have even raised the possibility that she’s gone to great lengths to conceal the truth: In a video posted to Facebook on Monday that has been viewed 11,000 times, Sanders supporter Adryenn Ashley suggests that Clinton may have used a body double after leaving the memorial to conceal health problems. “I think she’s way, way, way sicker than just pneumonia,” Ashley says in the video.

This is very carefully scripted language, designed to attack the attackers. We will make a statement and stand by it. It all professions and occupations there are whores, people for sale. Whether it's money, power, fame or all  of the them. At the very least Clinton's reputation for credibility is suspect. At its worst we all know what it is. And that applies to the entire Clinton clan.

As for Clinton's health problems, anyone with a modicum of medical knowledge and experience knows that what that video and many others have shown is not the result of pneumonia or dehydration. You can pump it, twist it and stomp on it anyway you want, but there is a clear way to prove us incorrect. Release her entire medical records since her first fall, not some phony job recommendation letter.

Despite what the PC crowd wants to shove down your throats, there are pure questions in life. Here's a couple: Do you want to have a heart attack? Do you want to lose a loved one? Do you want to have a serious auto accident anytime soon? This isn't about Trump and his medical record or his BMI. If there is a more fallacious indicator in medicine than the BMI, bring it forth. This is an inflexible net so widely cast that it catches hundreds of people who are nowhere near obese, in many cases in their zeal to find sleep apnea which is another way over diagnosed condition today. In fact, at a time when jobs are hardly robust, this is an indicator that frequently knocks many hardworking poorer people out of their employment. In some cases permanently. So lets hear about how much these elites care about the poor.

A comparable situation--and if you're a true feminist, where are you?--is the number of women put on thyroid medicine with the diagnosis of hypothyroidism. If there's some young enterprising good PI attorneys out there, there's a good market for you. Clinton we're told has hypothyroidism and has been on the standard treatment for such for many years.This is not a person known before all this erupted for her healthy lifestyle and for being an exercise junkie.

Then they try to pass off what are most likely questionable lipid numbers. The LDL before this one was 118, this one 103 and her previous  HDL was 64, this one 56 with no evidence of being on a  statin, again most likely for very good reasons. We don't know her height and her current correct weight, but her current appearance suggests she herself might have a tough time passing the BMI parameter that is used to determine obesity.

So let's see if we can put this together. We have a 68 year old women soon to be 69 with a long
standing diagnosis of hypothyroidism, with a serious medical history of what could only be called vascular disease, with no previous history of following a spartan life style, on no lipid-lowering medicines with lipid numbers many healthy athletes don't have. And that leaves out her questionable blood pressure number 100/70, again absent any blood pressure medicines. And where are serial the follow-up MRIs and neurological exams.

We're not suggesting she could qualify to play linebacker in the NFL, but she is hardly petite. Maybe the renown metabolic specialist Dr. Bill Clinton could come back on the Charlie Rose show and enlighten us about her dietary regimen because nowhere in that job recommendation was there mention of a neurologist being consulted. And even if she had an auto-immune form of thyroid problems and had the gland removed, there are too many holes in this letter job recommendation letter. It's a good tale, but that's all it is, a tale.

What Now?

The policies and actions of the Bank of Japan for some investors has become as scrutinized as those of Federal Reserve.

Next week bank members meet again to discuss and set future policy. What makes BOJ action so attention-grabbing is their experiment recently with negative interest rates. Though not alone in their NIRP scheme, Japan still represents one of the globe's largest economies. So far it been no go in their radical attempt to resuscitate growth and the much desired central bankers nearly everywhere yearn for--some sign of inflation.

The upshot is not a growing economy but growing differences of opinions among bank governors. What's significant here is BOJ board members are not alone. As the WSJ notes:

It is part of a larger unease in the central banking world, where years of easy monetary policy have failed to achieve goals in Europe as well as Japan, and the U.S. Federal Reserve is struggling with how and when to follow through on a long-advertised tightening.

Doubts about where central banks are headed are rippling through global markets, jolting investors who long piled into stocks and bonds as central banks flooded the world with cheap money.

A bond selloff sent yields on longer-term benchmark German and Japanese bonds surging this month, after historic lows earlier this year. The yield on Japan’s 30-year bond nearly hit zero in July but has jumped to about 0.55%. The S&P 500 stock index, which went two months without a 1% move, recently posted three of that size in three trading days.

The suspicion that central-bank firepower is reaching its limits finds support in Japan, where the BOJ has yet to generate steady inflation despite buying nearly $800 billion of bonds annually since late 2014, plus billions of dollars worth of exchange-traded funds. Economic growth is fragile, while the yen has been on a tear—the opposite of what the central bankers wanted and of what Japan’s exporting companies need. Japan’s stock market is down 12.7% this year. 

 As these next two charts from the WSJ show the BOJ has been buying government bonds with both hands, but core consumer prices have been declining not rising. Perhaps more importantly prices on the long end of the bond curve have been falling and yields rising, not necessarily what those BOJ board members intended let alone expected. So here again we have the yin and yang of expected and intended. Buried somewhere in the middle is credibility, the loss of which will be this global gaggle of bureaucrats' worse bad dream should investors finally catch the drift.

Keep in mind that both the BOJ and the Fed have meetings planned for next week.

Japanese government bonds held by the Bank of Japan

 
    
Falling Consumer Prices 



Like the words of an old song, "What now, my love?" It's a question you should be figuring out the probabilities.

Credibility Matters

 
Here is the real story, one MSM and its lackeys have been twisting and covering up for years now, just another reason why MSM in its overt bias and dishonesty has no credibility.  As one writer, not related to this article in anyway, wrote, revenue is important to us all and revenue for MSM particularly the print media has been declining for years.

About the only power you have left is that of your purchasing power. What you purchase and from whom speaks louder, way louder than your vote. It is the one way you have a voice after all. Credibility matters.

 In a recent study entitled "Problems Unsolved and a Nation Divided" (study can be viewed in its entirety at the end of this post), Harvard University points out that, despite claims of an "Obama Recovery," in fact, the U.S. economy has continued to deteriorate in the aftermath of the "great recession."  Among other things, Harvard attributes the economic deterioration to a "lack of economic strategy, especially at the federal level" and a "political system was once the envy of many nations" but has now "become our greatest liability."  Below are a couple of the key conclusions:

America’s economic performance peaked in the late 1990s, and erosion in crucial economic indicators such as the rate of economic growth, productivity growth, job growth, and investment began well before the Great Recession.

Workforce participation, the proportion of Americans in the productive workforce, peaked in 1997. With fewer working-age men and women in the workforce, per-capita income for the U.S. is reduced.

Median real household income has declined since 1999, with incomes stagnating across virtually all income levels. Despite a welcome jump in 2015, median household income remains below the peak attained in 1999, 17 years ago. Moreover, stagnating income and limited job prospects have disproportionately affected lower-income and lower-skilled Americans, leading inequality to rise.

zerohedge.com/news/2016-09-15/harvard-debunks-obama-recovery-farce



 charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/2016/09/the-mainstream-media-bet-farm-on

Corrupt Money?

 The track of George Soros. There is money. Then there is corrupt money.  A rich outsider, not a resident or voter in your state interfering in local politics that should be decided locally only because he is rich and can. Not something that American people should tolerate.

Corruption here?

azfamily.com/story/33096287/tough-phoenix-sheriff-may-have-new-foe-george-soros

Credibility Of Nation On The Line

Nothing new here. Exactly what we expected. The cover up continues. Just as an aside one group that might be in deep trouble is the vaccine maker. Here you have the former First Lady, Secretary of State and former U.S. Senator taking one of the vaccines and still getting pneumonia according to this report. This is a woman who supposedly has access to the best medical care in the country.

She had the scan on Friday? Where? This isn't medical records; this is just a letter of recommendation. If the American public let's this slide, they deserve what they get. We need to see the scan if one was one done. Forgeries exist even in medicine. People keep talking about seizures, loss of consciousness and convulsions. There no evidence in that video she had any of these. What there is evidence of is she lost motor control. Neither is caused by pneumonia or dehydration.

She is also on B12, not an uncommon thing, but B12 is vital for the nervous system and neurological function. The good doctor in her letter did some CYA noting she had consulted with Clinton's hematologist and it was again decided to keep her on Coumadin. The was an oblique shot at Pinsky, the MD who lost his job at CNN for hinting that up-to-date standards of medical practice might be in question here.

A letter from Clinton's doctor states the Democratic presidential nominee last Friday was diagnosed with mild, non-contagious bacterial pneumonia.

"She is recovering well with antibiotics and rest. She continues to remain healthy and fit to serve as president of the United States," said Dr. Lisa Bardack, Clinton's doctor.

Dr. Bardack also revealed she evaluated Clinton on Sept. 2 for a fever, congestion and fatigue.
"Over the next several days as she traveled, her congestion worsened and she developed a cough. She was advised to see me when she returned from her travels for further testing," Dr. Bardack wrote. During the follow-up, a non-contrast chest CT scan revealed the pneumonia.

They have yet to explain the head bobbing. Happened more than once. Yet to explain the freezing. Happened more than once. Yet to explain the open mouth, staring fancies. Happened more than once. Yet to explain the falls, started reportedly in 2007 and have been several documented since.

Other highlights from the letter include:
Clinton is currently taking Armor Thyroid, Coumadin, Levaquin (temporarily), Clarinex and B-12 as needed.  Her blood pressure is 100/70; heart rate of 70; respiratory rate of 18; temperature of 97.8 and pulse-oximetry of 99 percent.
 
Clinton's vaccinations are "up to date" and include Prevnar and Pneumovax.
She has had a normal mammogram and breast ultrasound. Lab testing (vitamin D, CBC, fasting blood glucose, comprehensive metabolic panel, hemoglobin A1-C, vitamin B-12) is "normal," including cholesterol of 189, LDL of 103, HDL of 56 and triglycerides of 159.
Dr. Bardack said, "the remainder of her complete physical exam was normal and she is in excellent mental condition."

They know what they 're hiding. And you know whatever it is, it's big.  Pneumonia and dehydration are laughable.  But what happens to the nation if she turns out to have a serious illness the elites and MSM were hiding won't be. The credibility of the entire system will go down. And it just might be what they really want.

Hey, Bernie: Say It Isn't So

 
 With Bernie safely out of the way, ensconced somewhere in his new $600,000 lakeside home, his form of socialism rides the high road to success down in South America.

He and his older ilk will invoke their form of socialism and then kick not the can but the bucket before the masses storm his lakeside villa. It's an ingenious plan, one another member of that astute gathering called Congress is implementing on her way out the door to luxuriate in retirement.

• The question of whether Socialism can be an effective economic system was famously raised when Margaret Thatcher said of the British Labor Party, "I think they've made the biggest financial mess that any government's ever made in this country for a very long time, and Socialist governments traditionally do make a financial mess. They always run out of other people's money. It's quite a characteristic of them. They then start to nationalise everything."
• There are dire reports of people waiting in supermarket lines all day, only to discover that expected food deliveries never arrived and the shelves are empty.
• There are horrific tales of desperate people slaughtering zoo animals to provide their only meal of the day. Even household pets are targeted as a much-needed source for food.
• President Maduro is doubling down on the proven failed policies and philosophies of "Bolivarian Socialism," while diverting attention away from the crisis -- pointing fingers at so-called "enemies" of Venezuela such as the United States, Saudi Arabia and others.
• A dozen eggs was last reported to cost $150, and the International Monetary Fund "predicts that inflation in Venezuela will hit 720% this yea

zerohedge.com/news/2016-09-14/venezuelas-death-spiral-dozen-eggs-cost-150-hyperinflation-horrors-hit-socialist-uto

Overnight

The Nikkei 225 dropped  1.5% in early trading Thursday to 16,359.28 approaching a three week low as investors continue to fret about central bank policy ahead of next week's Bank of Japan meeting September 20-21.

One possibility troubling investors is the prospect to the bank cutting rates further into negative territory as  it's beginning to dawn on many that central banks in general and the BOJ in particular are running out of monetary rabbits to pull out their top hats. At some point it's possible investors will decide these banker don't know what they're doing and then what.

 In other markets, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 edged 0.2% lower but Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rose 0.6%. Elsewhere, South Korea, China and Taiwan were closed for a public holiday. The yen moved higher,0.2%, against the dollar spreading some pain through exporters.

The Federal Reserve will also be holding meetings next week, still another reason for some of these markets to tread water. The session in Asia followed a mixed finish in the U.S. on Wednesday, with the Dow Jones industrial average closing down 31.98 points, or 0.18 percent, at 18,034.77. The S&P 500 index slipped 1.25 points, or 0.06 percent, to end at 2,125.77, while the Nasdaq gained 18.52 points, or 0.36 percent, to 5,173.77, one news outlet reported.

Oil prices rebounded slightly despite news that Libya and Nigeria were set to ramp up production, as the end of troubles there are set to increase production and ramp up supply. The global oil benchmark, Brent crude, was last up 0.4% at $46.04 a barrel. Looking to next week investors will be watching closely U.S. retail sales for August out Thursday, but those numbers would have to be stellar many believe to affect the Fed's mood enough to kick up rates.

It's The Economy, Stupid

It's crying time again for one of Hillary's biggest shills and a gaggle of members from the dismal science crowd whose predictions turned out, well, dismal. Real dismal.

We could say we told you so, but then we would have to confront what the Clinton clan, including that renown metabolic specialist, Dr. Bill Clinton, have been circumventing about Hillary's illness since they've been mining diamonds in Arkansas. Read more:

mishtalk.com/2016/09/14/import-and-export-prices-sink-bloomberg-bemoans-setback-to-improving-inflation-data

Export prices sank 0.8% in August vs. the Econoday Consensus of -0.1%.

Amusingly, the entire range of exports predictions was -0.2% to +0.1%. On a percentage basis, the closest economist missed the mark by 300% and the consensus by 700%.

Import prices fell 0.2% vs. a consensus of -0.1% in a range of -0.4% to +0.2%. At least one economist got the number correct, and at least one economist was on Mars.

Highlights 

August import prices were down for the first monthly decrease since February. Import prices slipped 0.2 percent and dropped 2.2 percent from a year ago. Expectations were for a monthly decline of 0.1 percent. The August downturn was driven by lower fuel prices. Excluding foods and fuels, import prices were unchanged on the month. Fuel prices declined 2.1 percent in August following a 2.5 percent drop in July. Both the August and July decreases were driven by lower petroleum prices which fell 2.8 percent in August and 3.6 percent in July. In contrast, prices for natural gas increased 12.1 percent in August and 28.0 percent the previous month.

Export prices sank 0.8 percent after increasing 0.2 percent last time. This was the first monthly drop since the index edged down 0.1 percent in March. The consensus view was that prices would edge down just 0.1 percent. On the year, export prices declined 2.4 percent. Excluding agriculture, prices were down 2.2 percent from a year ago. Agricultural export prices decreased 3.4 percent in August, the largest monthly drop since the index fell 4.2 percent in August 2013.

Clearly, the drop in import prices will be a setback to improving inflation data in the U.S. with no pressure yet for finished goods prices.

Another Big Deal

There is a suspicious article ( We would say phony, but we're now half-way through our week of trying to remain civil given the current circus afoot.) in today's Wall Street Journal with the headline, "Family Incomes Rise After Lull."

What makes it especially suspicious is the timing, also the source. Of all the agencies in Washington--and there are far too many to count--the one with probably the least accurate statistics, just slightly ahead of the BLS, is the Census Bureau.
 
A surge in U.S. incomes last year delivered the first significant raise for the typical family after seven years of stagnant and declining earnings, the result of sustained job growth finally lifting a broad swath of American households.

The median household income—the level at which half are above and half are below—rose 5.2%, or $2,798, to $56,516, from a year earlier, after adjusting for inflation, the Census Bureau said Tuesday.
The increase was the largest annual gain recorded since the yearly survey of incomes began in 1967, though it didn’t fully close the gap left by last decade’s recessions. Median household incomes stood 1.6% shy of the 2007 level, before the last recession took its toll, and 2.4% below the all-time high reached in 1999.

 The adjusting for inflation part is interesting.Whose definition of inflation? It's a safe bet they glossed over the rise in service inflation which has been serious over the past few years.  Is near negative or negative rates on your investment inflationary even if you choose to accept the phony inflation number put out by the Fed?

Then there is the good cop bad cop element. the good cop says it's the highest increase since the income surveys started in 1967, a claim designed to make you feel better and to put some trust in the status quo. The bad cop warns you, however, don't get complacent because there are still some speed bumps out there that might pop up. That's a plea for more patients because these geniuses have got your back covered.

Here's another example of good-bad cop.

The figures show how several years of robust employment growth, including 2.4 million people who gained full-time work last year, helped regain ground lost after an especially wrenching downturn, particularly for lower-income households. Longer hours, higher wages and lower inflation also have contributed to the improvement.

One question now is whether a sustained upturn is under way, or whether these gains are likely to peter out as the economy nears full employment, especially given a continuing slide in measured worker productivity.“It has been a long slog from the depths of the Great Recession, but things are finally starting to improve for many American households,” said Chris Christopher Jr., an economist at IHS Global Insight, a research firm.

Here your have the requisite expert quoted for reinforcement. Robust employment growth is laughable, maybe if you're talking hamburger flipper and bartender jobs. The oil industry, one known for higher paid workers, idled thousands of workers. Then roll out this gem, another gleam of hope after nine years of incompetent leadership. At the current pace, household incomes could fall off a bridge next year, too.

At the current pace, median household incomes could surpass their 2007 level next year, according to forecasts by IHS, concluding a lost decade for workers.

The official poverty rate in 2015 was 13.5%, down from 14.8% in 2014, the Census report said. That was still slightly higher than in 2008 and up from 11.3% in 2000. More than 43.1 million Americans were living in poverty last year. The poverty level was $24,257 for a family of four.

Meanwhile, the report showed fewer people lacked health insurance in 2015 than the previous year, largely because of expanded access through the Obama administration’s Affordable Care Act. The Census Bureau found 29 million people, or 9.1% of Americans, lacked health insurance in 2015. That is down from 33 million people, or 10.4% of the population, in 2014. The uninsured rate has dropped significantly since 2008, when millions more Americans lacked coverage.

There is some blatant misinformation in here and you can track it down if you care to. This data is based on "a survey...sent to around 95,000 households that are representative of the U.S. population," the Journal notes. So we're all supposed to jump up and down celebrating and by the way now vote  for the status quo. And that brings us to the timing and the tone of this propaganda piece.

Here's another point about this supposedly representative data. All those econometric models the gaggle of cellar-dwelling, highbrow economists use is also suppose to representative. This report even has the PC feminists' angle, a no need to even consider voting against the status quo if you're female. Among all full-time, year-round workers, women saw substantially larger earnings gains than men, posting an annual increase of 2.7%, compared with 1.5% for men. The increases narrowed the pay gap between women and men to the lowest level on record.




 Finally, you have this telltale sign.

This is a big deal,” President Barack Obama said at a campaign stop for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in Philadelphia. “More Americans are working, more have health insurance. Incomes are rising. Poverty is falling.”

Somewhere along the line, we've seen these big deals of yours before, Mr. Out-Going President
zerohedge.com/news/2016-09-14/17th-obamacare-co-op-exits-due-hazardous-financial-conditions-only-6-left