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Wolves, Sheep and Sheepdogs

12/31/2019

This video shows a gunman open fire at West Freeway Church of Christ in White Settlement, Texas before being shot dead by armed security; the service was being live-streamed on YouTube

The white haired man who put down the shooter from the back of the church was Jack Wilson, the deacon in charge of their volunteer security team. Watch Jack in the upper left of the frame take out the moving shooter with a single head shot from 50 feet away. Amazing skill at arms.

Then watch how many armed men and women move toward the threat to protect the congregation.

There is evil in the world. Best to face it head on.

"We're Heading For Very, Very Bad Places": Dave Collum's 'Pandemonium' Podcast

12/31/2019

"The only thing nearly as enlightening (and time-consuming) as reading David Collum’s epic Year In Review is listening to him and Chris Martenson discuss its highlights. So strap in, grab some eggnog, and listen to this year’s recap:

We are so close to a financial crisis now that we may be way, way past the fail-safe.

We’ve got all these unfunded liabilities that we have to pay or face the consequences of — and they are fantastically enormous.

The pensions are all underfunded — at the top of a financial asset price bubble, mind you.
Social Security is a disaster. And we’re promising so much medical help for everyone that is now profoundly expensive.

There are so many things out there that are unmoored. The Fed is unmoored. The digital world is taking us to this digital gulag, in my opinion — I don’t think I’m being hyperbolic.

I think we’re heading for very, very bad places."

Click this link to listen to Chris Martenson’s interview with David Collum.

The FBI’s Darkest Hour

12/26/2019

"Our Constitution won’t protect us unless our own cops with guns respect it. After 2016, one wonders whether the FBI looks upon the most famous alumnus of its Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, with fear—or envy.”

"One can imagine the unspoken question hanging in the darkness during the January 2017 ride back to the airport. A small gaggle of FBI agents had just concluded their long-overdue interview with Christopher Steele’s primary sub-source. The silence must have been deafening. Steele had tried to conceal his source from the FBI. But the FBI knew his identity and set up an interview behind Steele’s back, and the interview contradicted several Steele assertions. The downcast agents waited for somebody to ask the question on all of their minds: “Now what?”

The right answer would have been to admit to the court that Steele was an unreliable source who exaggerates and lies and put an end to spying on Americans in pursuit of the mirage of Trump’s alleged collusion with Russia.

When presented one last opportunity to do the right thing, the FBI instead pushed harder for their now-discredited hypothesis justifying the investigation."

Click here to read the rest of this article.

THE ERA OF GOOD FASCISM?

12/26/2019

"If and when fascism comes to America, it will not arrive with jackboots, stiff arms, and military uniforms. The attempt to suppress political opposition in anti-constitutional fashion, to regiment the economy by denying constitutionally protected freedoms, and the efforts to change the Constitution to reflect political utility, will come under the auspices of ‘equality,’ ‘fairness, ‘saving the planet, and ‘social justice—as a way to combat ‘climate change,’ ‘racism,’ ‘homophobia,’ and ‘sexism’.”

—Victor Davis Hanson

Click here for the rest of this article.

The Economic-Oil Nexus (EON) Part 1: Why have low oil prices and various economic stimuli over the past several years failed to restore global economic growth?

12/23/2019

"There is NO “break-even” price at which unconventional oils become economically worthwhile, using honest accounting. Low EROEI sources only get harvested on the basis of market fraud and government subsidies/tax breaks and NOT because they can ever generate any profit in a sane market.”

To read this article, click here.

Interview with Congressman Devin Nunes - The Dan Bongino Show

12/22/2019

In this episode, Dan Bongino interviews California congressman Devin Nunes about the biggest political scandal in US history.

Dave Collum: 2019 Year in Review (Part 1) | Peak Prosperity

12/21/2019

Every year, friend-of-the-site David Collum writes a detailed “Year in Review” synopsis full of keen perspective and plenty of wit. This year’s is no exception. As with past years, he has graciously selected PeakProsperity.com as the site where it will be published in full. It’s quite longer than our usual posts, but worth the time to read in full. A downloadable pdf of the full article is available here, for those who prefer to do their power-reading offline. — cheers, Adam
David B. Collum
Betty R. Miller Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology – Cornell University
Email: [email protected] – Twitter: @DavidBCollum

Introduction“I hope David comes to his senses.”
~ Nassim Taleb (@nntaleb), best-selling author and Professor at NYU

It is that time of year again when I sit down and, in a frenzied stream of subconsciousness, bang out my view of the world. It’s my 11th chronicling of human folly and anthropogenic global idiocy (AGI).1 It’s like when Forest Gump jogs: I start writing, go on too long, and then just stop. Forty years of writing about organic chemistry has taught me that you do not understand something till you finish writing about it. Constrained by time—you can’t write an annual synopsis in May—I have made sure to sacrifice quality not length.

“Huge fan. Please continue to remain above the din.”
~ Guy Adami (@GuyAdami), trader and commentator on CNBC’s Fast Money
*I am the din, Guy.

Figure 1. An original by Candace E. Cornell (my wife) dedicated to Jeff Macke (my Bud and the Banksy of Wall Street).

There was a mad chemist named Dave
His Year In Review is the rave
With Epstein and Powell
And repos most foul
His comments are sure to be grave.
@TheLimerickKing

The writeup is a little different this year; there are fewer topics, especially on the finance side. Despite all the reading, sorting, and culling, I have little to add about Trump, impeachments, beltway politics, and swaths of the finance world. Our debts, pensions, and valuations were beyond repair last December; they have only gotten worse. The markets have been muffin-topping for too long; I am waiting for change and tired of being the Gail Dudek of the modern era. I also fought the Balrog way more than usual on a few topics just to get thumbless grasps. That pain is here for all to see.

For the newcomers, I am a non-Easter Worshipping, openly white male who vaguely remembers being heterosexual. The first section is my first-ever authorized autobiography. This is for parents who think their kids are incorrigible idiots; that won’t change, but your kids might become functional. The Table of Contents follows, allowing you to cherry pick topics.

Click here for the rest of this article.

One America News (OAN) Investigates Multibillion Dollar US-Ukraine Political Scandal

12/18/2019

"EXCLUSIVE: Watch the unraveling of the biggest political scandal in US history. Travel with OAN’s Chanel Rion and Rudy Giuliani to Budapest and Kiev to capture explosive first-hand interviews with key Ukrainian officials highlighting DNC collaborated foreign interference into the 2016 presidential election. Hear the shocking first hand testimony of former Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin on why he was fired and what corruption he uncovered.

Watch all 3 parts FREE here.”

The Inspector General’s Report on 2016 FBI Spying Reveals a Scandal of Historic Magnitude: Not Only for the FBI but Also the U.S. Media

12/14/2019

"JUST AS WAS TRUE when the Mueller investigation closed without a single American being charged with criminally conspiring with Russia over the 2016 election, Wednesday’s issuance of the long-waited report from the Department of Justice’s Inspector General reveals that years of major claims and narratives from the U.S. media were utter frauds.

Before evaluating the media component of this scandal, the FBI’s gross abuse of its power – its serial deceit – is so grave and manifest that it requires little effort to demonstrate it. In sum, the IG Report documents multiple instances in which the FBI – in order to convince a FISA court to allow it spy on former Trump campaign operative Carter Page during the 2016 election – manipulated documents, concealed crucial exonerating evidence, and touted what it knew were unreliable if not outright false claims.

If you don’t consider FBI lying, concealment of evidence, and manipulation of documents in order to spy on a U.S. citizen in the middle of a presidential campaign to be a major scandal, what is? But none of this is aberrational: the FBI still has its headquarters in a building named after J. Edgar Hoover – who constantly blackmailed elected officials with dossiers and tried to blackmail Martin Luther King into killing himself – because that’s what these security state agencies are. They are out-of-control, virtually unlimited police state factions that lie, abuse their spying and law enforcement powers, and subvert democracy and civic and political freedoms as a matter of course."

Click here for the rest of this article.

How Should the Senate Deal with an Unconstitutional Impeachment by the House?

12/13/2019

Constitutional Law professor Alan Dershowitz offers the following assessment:

These two grounds [of impeachment] — abuse of power and obstruction of congress — are not among the criteria specified for impeachment. Neither one is a high crime and misdemeanor. Neither is mentioned in the constitution. Both are the sort of vague, open-ended criteria rejected by the framers. They were rejected precisely to avoid the situation in which our nation currently finds itself.
So, what options would the senate have if the House voted to impeach on two unconstitutional grounds? Would it be required to conduct a trial based on "void" articles of impeachment? Could it simply refuse to consider unconstitutional articles? Could the president's lawyer make a motion to the Chief Justice — who presides over the trial of an impeached president — to dismiss the articles of impeachment on constitutional grounds?
Regardless of the outcome, the damage will have been done by the House majority that will have abused its power by weaponizing the House's authority over impeachment for partisan purposes — exactly as Hamilton feared.

Click here to read the rest of this article.

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