The business world is buzzing over Amazon’s $13.7 billion purchase of Whole Foods. CTH has received requests for opinion. Amazon stockholders may not like the perspective.

(Via CNN Money) The online retail giant announced Friday that is buying organic grocery chain Whole Foods (WFM) for $13.7 billion in cash. The deal values Whole Foods at $42 a share, 27% higher than where the stock was trading Thursday.

Amazon (AMZN, Tech30) said Whole Foods stores will continue operating under that name as a separate unit of the company. Whole Foods CEO John Mackey will stay on to lead Whole Foods, which will keep its headquarters in Austin, Texas. (link)

Here’s my review. Firstly, Whole Foods was available for purchase because Whole Foods business model was limited; and like the progressively minded organization they are – they allowed their Birkenstocks to travel beyond their limits, which always leads to failure.

In the PC corporate world ‘pending failures’ are called “challenges“, or “opportunities” if you don’t want to get kicked out of the boardroom.

(more…)

President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcer doubled down Friday on recent comments that undocumented immigrants “should be afraid” under the Trump administration.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement Acting Director Thomas Homan said in an interview today that he has “zero regrets” about his remarks before Congress this week, expanding on them. “It needed to be said,” Homan told CNN on the sidelines of a Central American prosperity and security conference.

“And by me saying you should be worried, you should be afraid — if you lie on your taxes, you’ve got to be worried, ‘Is the IRS going to audit me?’ … When you speed down the highway, you’ve got to worry, ‘Am I going to get a speeding ticket?’ You worry. It’s natural human behavior.”

(more…)

The Daily Caller has reported, and Fox News has confirmed, the shooter who opened fire at the congressional baseball practice was carrying a “Kill List” of republican targets for assassination.

The kill list carried by James Hodgkinson included Alabama Representative Mo Brooks, South Carolina Rep. Jeff Duncan and Arizona Rep. Trent Franks, there may be others yet undisclosed.   UPDATE: Six Names appear on the list.  All members of the House Freedom Caucus.

James Hodgkinson was a member of Senator Bernie Sanders election campaign and his social media postings represent the customary writing and positioning of the ordinary Sanders supporters.  There is nothing different in any of Hodgkinson’s espousal’s from the visible proclamations of almost all of Bernie voters; that’s the concerning aspect.

(more…)

According to a Washington Post report, based on two more unnamed “officials”, special counsel Robert Mueller is investigating President Donald Trump for ‘obstruction of justice’ presumably based on the firing of FBI Director James Comey.

This report/outcome is not unexpected as it would be part of Mueller’s investigative duty to follow-up on any assertions made in this regard regardless of merit.

(Washington Post) […] Trump had received private assurances from former FBI Director James B. Comey starting in January that he was not personally under investigation. Officials say that changed shortly after Comey’s firing.

(more…)

GOP House Majority Whip Steve Scalise is in a stable condition after a rabid left-wing activist named James Hodgkinso, 66, opened fire upon the house republican baseball team during practice Wednesday morning.

James T. Hodgkinson was a former campaign volunteer for Bernie Sanders. After asking if those practicing were Democrats or Republicans, he opened fire on players with a high powered rifle from the third base dugout (Eugene Simpson Stadium Park in Alexandria, Virginia) The group was taking grounders and practicing batting at around 7.00am.

Zachary Barth, a congressional staffer for Texas Rep. Roger Williams, was also shot but is expected to fully recover.  Two US Capitol Police officers who were accompanying Scalise were wounded as they exchanged fire with the gunman. They are both in a ‘good condition’ in hospital.

(more…)

The risk represented by Robert Mueller is not connected to or about anything surrounding a Russian Conspiracy; the legal risk is within ‘the leaking‘ of classified intelligence information to undermine the administration, and the potentially illegal ‘unmasking‘.

If we avoid all the shiny things, ignore the shell game and reset our frame of reference to the only illegal activity currently known, the leaking; the fog lifts and the main thing visible is the illegal leaking of classified intelligence information.

Despite his earnest efforts, there is clear and mounting evidence that former FBI Director James Comey was the primary source of leaked information to the media.

THAT reality is the legal risk to former FBI Director James Comey.  That current risk explains everything James Comey has recently done, said and advanced.

If the evidence of James Comey being the source of multiple FBI leaks reaches the primary artery of investigative sunlight, who inside that investigative and prosecutorial decision making process becomes the risk?  Answer that question and you discover the angle Comey is playing to cut off their ability to hold him accountable.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Asst AG Rod Rosenstein et al are the people Comey needs to worry about, isolate and control.  It is not coincidental that Comey is setting up the future action of these participants to be politically motivated.

(more…)

To deflect the Clinton’s embarrassing loss in the 2016 election, the necessary media narrative began as “Russia Hacked The Election“.

The media narrative evolved into a “Russia Trump Campaign Conspiracy”, which eventually morphed into the “Russian Trump Collusion” narrative that has now transmogrified into the “Russian Trump Obstruction Narrative“….

Senator Tom Cotton rises to reset the inquisition and point out the absurdity of it all:

.

Bipartisan absurdity. Did President Obama collude with Emmanuel Macron to win the 2017 French election?  Did UK European diplomat Nigel Farage collude with Donald Trump to win the 2016 U.S. election?   Oh, but “muh Russia“. (more…)

Attorney General Jeff Sessions finally takes exception to democrat Senator Wyden’s insufferable innuendo:

(more…)

During a senate hearing today Democrat Senator Chris Coons complained to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson that the U.S. State Department is: a.) not spending enough money, and b.) not spending fast enough; on foreign aid to third world countries.

Coons was citing the previous Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Joe Biden who said: “show me your budget and I’ll show you your priorities“.  Secretary of State Tillerson took exception and explained how he looks at this differently.  The Trump administration is not spending oriented, they are results oriented.

.

Tillerson: “The statement ‘show me your funding and I’ll show you your level of commitment,’ I do not agree with. Funding does not equal results.  Show me your results, and I’ll tell you your commitment. What are the results, and then I’ll tell you what I need to deliver on those results. Giving me a pot of money and suggesting that confirms our success and commitment is just simply—I have to take exception to that, I’ve never had that experience.”

(more…)

Continuing evidence continues to mount that James Comey is carefully playing an orchestrated scheme leading to counter-positioning he has constructed, and useful idiots are playing along without noticing who is baiting them.  This is so typically Comey.

The latest evidence surfaces as Sara Carter writes an article, based on a leak of a discussion Comey had with lawmakers in the closed intelligence committee session last Thursday.

However, what Carter and later Sean Hannity actually end up doing, under the auspices of catching Loretta Lynch in something sketchy, is restoring the dignity, honor and moral certitude of former FBI Director James Comey – JUST LIKE COMEY PLANNED.

It is actually getting hilarious to watch play out.

.

To understand the Machiavellian construct you must first READ THE SARA CARTER article and see how it favorably positions James Comey as the harbinger of all things moral and virtuous.  Secondly, you must understand James Comey (See Here).

(more…)