It’s really interesting to read the financial presentation of Reuters in their article outlining the Fed, Chair Janet Yellen, decision to raise interest rates a quarter point (.25).  Keep in mind that Reuters traditionally slants left (globally) on all economic presentations.
Those Treepers who have followed our economic analysis will note the disparity between Yellen’s justification and the inconsequential impact therein.   The Stock Market never even flinched today.  Part of the reason is the disconnected (traditional) view of economics within the current Yellen justifications.  It ain’t just us who sees this “new dimension“.

Emphasis in citations are all mine.

(Reuters) The U.S. Federal Reserve raised interest rates on Wednesday for the second time in three months, a move spurred by steady economic growth, strong job gains and confidence that inflation is rising to the central bank’s target.
The decision to lift the target overnight interest rate by 25 basis points to a range of 0.75 percent to 1.00 percent marked one of the Fed’s most convincing steps yet in the effort to return monetary policy to a more normal footing.

{define “normal”}
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I think Senator Rand Paul’s aversion to going to war with Russia over Montenegro just triggered Senator John McCain.
While speaking from the Senate floor, in support of a bill advancing the country of Montenegro’s bid to join NATO, Senator John McCain anticipated opposition from Rand Paul. McCain requested unanimous consent for advancement of the bill.
After Rand Paul objected to the UC, Senator McCain lost it saying:

…”he has no justification for his objection to having a small nation be part of NATO that is under assault from the Russians. So I repeat again, the senator from Kentucky is now working for Vladimir Putin.”

Watch:

Sanity prevails I guess.  It still doesn’t make a lick of sense how her name was even in consideration in the first place. Oh well.

(Via Fox)  Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has withdrawn his nominee for the Pentagon’s top civilian job after opposition from lawmakers concerned about her close ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.
A senior official confirmed to Fox News that Mattis pulled the nomination of former Ambassador Anne Patterson to be undersecretary of defense for policy. The move was first reported by the Washington Post.
Patterson was U.S. ambassador to Egypt between 2011 and 2013, when that country’s president, Mohamed Morsi, was overthrown by the military. Critics opposed her selection by Mattis on the grounds that she was too accommodating to Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood during her tenure in Cairo.  (read more)

When we first saw the news reports that Defense Secretary Mattis was considering former Obama appointee Anne Patterson for undersecretary of policy we thought it was simply fake news.  However, apparently it is not.
Anne Patterson is a severely toxic entity and was considered the epicenter of dangerous political policy because she gave legitimacy to the extremists within the Muslim Brotherhood.  Specifically due to her role in supporting the Brotherhood’s former candidate turned President, Mohammed Morsi in Egypt, Anne Patterson should forever be dispatched into the waste-bin of failed mid-east policy.

No single appointment could bring more political and diplomatic damage to President Trump”s policy and diplomatic agenda around Egypt, Jordan, Israel, Saudi-Arabia, Libya and Syria than putting Anne Patterson into a leadership and policy role in the current defense department.   Good grief, what the heck is Mattis thinking?

(Via Washington Free Beacon) Opposition is mounting on Capitol Hill and in conservative foreign policy circles over Defense Secretary James Mattis’s efforts to hire a former Obama administration official who lobbied in favor of engagement with the Muslim Brotherhood and spearheaded efforts to criticize Israeli counter-terrorism efforts, according to multiple sources close to the Trump administration.

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Tomorrow President Trump will be meeting with members of the House Freedom Caucus to discuss their concerns with the ongoing Tom Price and Paul Ryan healthcare bill to repeal and replace Obamacare.
Today President Trump and Vice President Pence held a listening session with those affected by the current insurance market.
In this video President Trump listening to those who purchase health insurance on the individual market. Each of the people participating in the discussion shared their experience with the collapsing system.  Many of the stories are heart breaking.

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Hopefully the intransigent Freedom Caucus members will be listening to the voices of the average Americans who are being crushed by the ‘status quo’.
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CNN’s Fake News is going to get someone killed.

As we shared last night, CNN is promoting a highly charged false claim about new, heavily edited CCTV footage from the Ferguson Liquor Market on the night before Mike Brown was shot and killed.  We have thoroughly deconstructed the lies HERE.

CNN is promoting this fake documentary, “Stranger Fruit“,  that uses heavily edited footage of an earlier Mike Brown visit to the store.  According to the documentary Mike Brown was exchanging marijuana for store product at 1:13am the night (early morning) prior to his return and strong arm robbery of the same store.  The footage is edited to give the appearance of store employees accepting weed as barter for product.  This is false.
Secondarily, the producer of the video, Jason Pollock, is claiming the police never released the earlier in the day CCTV footage and instead tried to hide it.  Again, this is false.  All of the CCTV video was documented by the police, reviewed, included in all records that were part of the Grand Jury inquiry and given to the FBI. Including footage from the 1:13am visit. However, CNN is promoting the falsehoods by the documentary producers in an effort to stir trouble.
Well, their collective antagonism worked: (more…)

I ignored the first few dozen email notifications requesting opinion about a recent claim by activist and self-described “journalist and reporter” Jason Pollock, because, quite frankly, I’m sick of deconstructing the grievance industry’s lies and false narratives.
The obvious motivation behind “Stranger Fruit”, the Pollock documentary, is to stir up political leverage toward a fraudulent civil lawsuit against the city of Ferguson Missouri.
If Jason Pollock and Mike Brown Sr. had just kept their BS to a minimum, I would never have engaged.  Unfortunately, they didn’t – and specifically because they chose CNN as the outlet to promote their Very Fake News – enough is enough. We can deconstruct their entire narrative with a simple highlight to our previous research of December 3rd 2014.
First their claims as outlined in two segments recently aired by CNN:
New video in Michael Brown case

“Director: Police lied about Michael Brown”

Everything about those two CNN produced segments, and specifically the accusations and claims by Jason Pollock in the interview about the police, are false.
What follows below is the simple evidence that proves their lies using our earlier research dated December 3rd 2014.  The exact video Jason Pollock claims the police withheld, was actually presented to the Ferguson grand jury and the FBI who investigated the entire event.
Here’s proof.  Our outline from December 3rd 2014. (more…)

Representative Jim Jordan lays out a forceful case to destroy the RyanCare healthcare proposal.  Jordan makes a lot of good points; however, the unnerving aspect is Jordan’s response to the long-term ramifications of blowing up the Senate process:  “I don’t care” if we lose elections and end up with single-payer healthcare.
Jim Jordan is scheduled to meet again with President Trump this coming Tuesday.

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Earlier on Fox Business News, House Majority Whip, Representative Steve Scalise, defended the current three-step proposal and extended the conversation into the budget ramifications and the Trump tax reform proposal.
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As more people begin seeing through the fog of political “talking points”, the next response from those suffering from battered conservative syndrome is to say: well, do nothing, and allow ObamaCare to simply self-destruct.
Unfortunately, this is not an option.  At least it’s not a reasonable option.  To understand how battered conservatives are being lead around, used and abused, it is very important to understand the abusers.  There are many.

Last week Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin informed congress it will soon be necessary to raise the debt ceiling.   Immediately, crony-constitutional conservative types, like many who assemble in the House Freedom Caucus, shouted “no way”; apparently, according to their pearl-clutching political position – it unnerves their fiscally conservative sensibilities.
Interesting.
On October 21st, 2015, the Freedom Caucus itself backed Paul Ryan for Speaker of the House of Representatives. (LINK)  A week later, October 28th, 2015, members of the same Freedom Caucus voted to approve a $2+ trillion dollar Omnibus spending bill, a massive continuing resolution, and removed the debt ceiling restrictions (link).  Two days later, October 30th, 2015, at 3:00am in the morning, the Omnibus CR bill passed the Senate (link).
This was yet another year without a federal budget, and a specific decision to fund all of Obama’s spending priorities for 2015 and 2016.  (more…)

Don’t listen to the Western media version of what Syrian President Bashar al-Assad says. It is important to listen to his words directly:

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CNN has intentionally broadcast a filtered version of this interview focusing on the “foreign invaders” perspective. However, pay close attention to the 06:15 point of the video above where Assad discusses President Trump and his policy, and how Assad (correctly) views Turkey as facilitating ISIS.

“We have hopes that this administration in the United States is going to implement what we have heard, taking into consideration that talking about ISIS doesn’t mean talking about the whole terrorism; ISIS is one of the products, al-Nusra is one of the products, you have so many groups in Syria but they are not ISIS – but they are al-Qaeda. They have the same background of the Wahhabi extremist ideology”. [ie. The Muslim Brotherhood]

Asked about cooperation with President Trump specifically, President Assad expands: (more…)