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Kim discusses Horowitz. The mass media never sought to report on this. Just another cover up, by way of ignoring, that demonstrates how biased the mass media are when it comes to Trump, pursuit of the truth etc.. (See 1 below.)
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Lucid explanations pertaining to the whistle blower matter.
John Solomon, a reliable source ….
and here's the "Lawfare" aspect of the brouhaha by Andy McCarthy
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Candace Owens is confronted and responds in kind:
WATCH: White Liberals Lecture Candace Owens On White Supremacy. She Leaves Them In Tatters.
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1) Mr. Horowitz Speaks
By Kimberley A. Strassel
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler held another spectacle of a hearing Tuesday as part of his impeachment dramaturgy. Former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski testified to a thronged hearing room and was grilled on Russia interactions and Oval Office discussions. The day produced no new information, yet cable stations broadcast it live and newspapers ran breathless coverage.
A House Oversight subcommittee held its own hearing Wednesday. The room was almost empty; all but a few Democratic members didn’t even bother showing up. Apart from Fox News and a few conservative publications, news organizations ignored it. The featured—and substantive—witness: Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz.
This is today’s Washington: theater upstaging truth. The headlines go to a long debunked “collusion” and “obstruction” narrative that liberal and media partisans refuse to quit. A press blackout is meanwhile imposed on those investigators—including Mr. Horowitz—who have rooted out gross misconduct by the officials at the Federal Bureau of Investigation who first spun that narrative.
In contrast to the Lewandowski moment, Mr. Horowitz’s testimony was informative and significant. And in contrast to former special counsel Robert Mueller’s vague testimony, the inspector general demonstrated a whip-sharp command of facts. He was officially there to talk about a standards-and-training panel, the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency, of which he is chairman. Yet it was inevitable Republicans would ask about his recent and forthcoming reports on FBI behavior during the 2016 election. Mr. Horowitz is a straight arrow and he refused to provide political talking points. Yet his answers were candid and damning.
The real merit of the hearing was to bring home the magnitude of the leaking and lying offenses by former FBI Director James Comey (as detailed in an August 2019 inspector-general report) and former acting Director Andrew McCabe (as detailed in a February 2018 inspector-general report). It was momentous to hear Mr. Horowitz acknowledge that his office found enough wrongdoing to require criminal referrals to the Justice Department for two successive heads of the FBI.
He expanded on how grave a problem it is for senior law-enforcement officials to think they get to operate outside rules and procedures. Asked by Georgia’s Rep. Jody Hice why he’d chosen in his August report to score Mr. Comey for setting a “dangerous example” in leaking his Trump memo, Mr. Horowitz blew up the former director’s claim that his actions had been necessary or justified.
“Our concern,” Mr. Horowitz said, “was empowering the FBI director, or frankly any FBI employee or other law-enforcement official, with the authority to decide that they’re not going to follow established norms and procedures because in their view they’ve made a judgment that the individuals they are dealing with can’t be trusted.”
Put another way, Mr. Comey wasn’t entitled to leak sensitive FBI information simply because he didn’t like Donald Trump. Mr. Horowitz later repeated that such behavior was “completely inconsistent with department policy.” And he went out of his way to remind the committee that a 2018 inspector-general report had also “criticized [Mr. Comey] for usurping the authority of the attorney general to make prosecutorial decisions.”
Mr. Horowitz also confirmed a crucial new detail from his August report. The FBI has always maintained that the sole purpose of Mr. Comey’s Jan. 6, 2017, briefing of President-elect Trump was to inform him of Russian interference and about a “salacious” portion of the Steele dossier. But the Horowitz report suggested that, in fact, Mr. Trump was already a target of investigators and that Mr. Comey was using the meeting for evidence-gathering. Ohio’s Rep. Jim Jordan asked: So this “wasn’t just information going one way; they were trying to get information from the president as well—is that right?” Mr. Horowitz: “That’s what we’ve reported.”
Perhaps Mr. Comey’s candor—with Mr. Trump, Congress and the nation—will be a subject in Mr. Horowitz’s upcoming surveillance report. The inspector general was mum on its contents, though he confirmed that it is currently undergoing classification, after which his office will still need to write up a “public” version. And he disclosed that his office has had “communications” with U.S. Attorney John Durham, who is also investigating the FBI’s actions.
You might think an inspector-general report that excoriates the former head of a powerful agency might be worthy of bipartisan attention. Think again. Democrats avoided Comey questions Wednesday, and Mr. Horowitz told Mr. Jordan that neither the Oversight nor the Judiciary committee has asked him to testify on the August report. Mr. Horowitz was also unaware of any request for testimony on his upcoming report on FBI surveillance.
Democrats talk a lot about their dedication to “oversight” and “truth.” And the media keep promising not to let democracy die in darkness. This week’s tale of two hearings proves otherwise.
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2) Libor is set to end all use by the end of 2021, however it may be chaotic. Many companies and lenders are saying they will not be ready when that date arrives. It is not simple to make the change. There are many documents, legal issues, outstanding Libor loans, computer programs, and trading strategies that need to be changed. Each of the things changed must be tested and certain to work perfectly or there could be potentially huge losses if mistakes are made.
There was a near crisis in the capital markets this week when the repo market suddenly went into panic, and there was not enough cash in the system to meet demands by repo borrowers. Repos are when a brokerage firm, bank, or other big cash user, needs to fund very short term cash needs for a day or two, and they pledge treasuries to an institution that has cash available to lend. It is the Fed funds market. In the event this past week, there was just not any cash left in the system, hard as that may be to understand, and the NY Fed had to infuse $53 billion and then $75 billion instantly to keep the repo market from imploding. Rates shot to 10% briefly when they are normally 2% or less. The infusion worked immediately, and rates returned to normal, but the issue did not go away. There were additional cash infusions. The Fed is very likely to reinstitute bond buying in order to keep the system liquid. The problem is caused by the Fed trying to reduce its balance sheet this year, which we have pointed out several weeks ago, removes cash from the system as the Fed does not infuse cash with new purchases. The demand for cash was intensified by the need for corporations to pay quarterly taxes, which were large. When the Fed is not a buyer of bonds, and the treasury is issuing huge amounts of bonds, the available cash in the system dries up for other demands. When they talk about the deficit causing the government to issue large amounts of bonds, and that crowds out other bond issuers, this is an example. Deficits matter, and right now there seems to be no limit. If the Dems get into office, it will be disastrous with all the spending programs they are pushing. Currently they are again pushing for cutting military spend so they can fund more useless entitlements instead of cutting out all the worthless programs already in existence which would free up tens of billions to fund all the new useless waste of money programs. That is the issue in the current budget standoff in Congress this week. Pundits who say the size of the deficit does not matter, are not understanding the implications. Deficits matter a lot. Just look at many states like IL and NJ that cannot invest in infrastructure or police because they have huge deficits due to teacher pensions. The same will happen to the Federal budget in time with deficits.
The Fed cut 25BP. Low rates do not make economies grow. Just look at the EU and Japan with negative rates. Borrowing is at nil cost, but the economies remain stagnant, or headed to recession. Economies grow because they are deregulated, taxes are low, and the government takes steps to encourage business and start-ups. Just look at the housing crisis in CA. It is solely due to the vast over regulation that makes it too costly to build affordable housing. Then they added $8000 to require solar roofs. Now they cannot understand why they have a homeless crisis, nor how to fix it. Cut regulation and time to entitlement and the housing crisis would be over in 2 years. It is the same issue of regulation in the EU and Japan, except it applies to all things. Growth in population of skilled labor is the other key. All you need to do is look at the US over the past 11 years. As Obama Biden ramped up regulation and deficits, the economy barely grew for most of the time, and in fact GDP was declining by late 2016. Trump can rage over low rates, but it would not help. The cost of capital is already historically low. Resolving the China trade war and getting Congress to pass USMCA would be the things that matter to growth. It is very likely that rates will remain low for at least two more years, and very possibly longer. Buying bonds gets you no return, and likely losses when rates rise. Big problem for Insurance companies, annuity issuers and pension funds. The Fed will continue to be accommodative. That means higher stock prices. It also means the housing market will improve as refi and new mortgages are now in higher demand, and will likely remain so. Refi of mortgages to lower rates also means consumers will have more spending money and far less pressures than in 2008.
The Fed, and most economists and bankers, say consumers are in very good shape with higher wages, low mortgage rates, and solid jobs, low gas prices, nil inflation at 1.4%, making real rates almost zero, and lower debt than in the past. That is key to the economy growing. Add on that the attack in Saudi did nothing after two days to oil prices. Fracking in the US made all the difference. For consumer spending, this is about as good as it gets. Housing starts are up 7.7% last month. A very good indicator. Industrial production grew .4%, up from where it had been. GDP will probably grow around 2.25%. The problem now is there is simply there is nobody left to hire, and so that slows labor growth and consumer spend growth. The Fed reported that surveys of low income workers show they are feeling very good, and that they feel this is the first time in the lives for many that they have real full time jobs and rising wages at 6%. Unemployment for single black women is at a historic low. Consider what a difference that makes compared to the old days of welfare mothers getting paid to have babies. These people are the same ones the Dems claim are being left out. This has huge implications for the election. The risks remain the trade situation, and the weak EU and China economies. Between big fiscal spend and low rates, the chance of recession is very low at this time. It all comes down to a trade agreement with China. If the Oct meeting with the Chinese shows some real progress, then the stock market will go up. The Fed will restart QE before we ever get to negative rates. The black swan is if there is a war with Iran, it will be ugly for a while, but very likely Iran will be destroyed in short order. A lot of people will die quickly, but then it will be over. We are very unlikely to invade. We and Israel will just blow them up with unrelenting air and cyberattacks. My guess is there will be, or already are, ongoing cyberattacks which are deniable, and can do a lot of damage. This and major new sanctions on the central bank will be what happens vs a shooting war. Iran is being squeezed to death financially. What would have happened 5 years ago if Obama Biden had not done the insane nuke deal which funded the regime and terrorism.
The gig economy is not viable in some areas as demonstrated by the We Work fiasco, and the losses at Uber and Lyft. We Work was never viable. It is purely rent big space long term, and rent it out for a spread short term. You need a big mark up on the rent to make it viable, and in weak economic times, you have unpaid rent and vacancy. It is real estate plain and simple, not technology. Uber and Lyft are international taxi companies. Competition is rough. Regulation is rough. They simply make no sense as investments in my mind unless they continue to find other areas to apply their technology, but those areas are easily subject to intense competition. The same goes for the food delivery companies. It is labor intensive, and expensive to operate, and is subject to customers unwilling to pay a lot for the service. The venture investors who funded We Work at the $47 billion value are idiots who are enamored with their own supposed smarts, when reality is they have no understanding of what makes a lot of these businesses viable. I never invest in any of these sorts of gig deals. I might miss some quick hit deal, but I invest in real businesses, and I do not speculate. If you read the WSJ article about the CEO of We Work, you really wonder what the venture investors were thinking. Or more likely they loved the drunken parties he threw. It reminds me of the old glory days of Drexel and Nomura, and the annual extravagant parties, for those of you who were part of that scene. It was great to go to the parties, but they were a sure sign of a coming collapse. Those of us at the final Nomura party in San Fran knew the end was near, but it was a great going away party. You will see more of these gig companies blow up.
You better hope you already have a good doc, and he is not too old. The just retired former associate dean of U of Penn med school, rated as one of the very best, wrote an op ed where he decried the shift in med school education to also include subjects like climate change, gun control, racism, and other things that do not belong in med school, in place of more time teaching science and medical practice. The dean responded that the school was "devoted to inclusion and diversity as fundamental to effective health care" -how about the old time devotion to quality teaching of medical science so the rest of us have good docs in the future, instead of diverse students who did not qualify by their entry tests, and who now are in class learning about political issues instead of learning medical science. Of course the Doc who said this new curriculum was bad, was viciously attacked on social media, but he is correct. Our future medical care is now at serious risk. Think about that if they try to have you see a diversity doc who studied all this useless crap. This is a real problem, and it is just beginning. It will be worse as time goes on and the real qualified docs retire. Research your doc if you need to go to a new one in the future.
The new allegations against Trump that there is a whistle blower who reported the Ukraine scandal is curious. The real issue is Biden is on tape bragging about how he blackmailed the Ukrainians to stop the investigation of his son. People who read the Trump transcript say there was no such quid pro quo. Trump is correct, there are at least 5 or more people taking notes and transcribing the call. Plus there are intel people on the other end of the call who would like nothing more than to be able to compromise and black mail Trump. Second the president can make any deal he wishes. In the old days he could even order the assassination of a leader- Allende if you are old enough to recall. The president has to be able to talk to foreign leaders about whatever, without worrying that someone will leak the content. No foreign leader will want to talk openly after this. Here we go with Schiff holding a press conference again. Do you think it coincidental that just before the IG report and indictments of the Obama people is about to come out, that suddenly an intel agent suddenly comes up with this, and there is Schiff holding a news conference, followed by talking heads on all the mainstream media claiming this will do in Trump for criminal scandal. Impeachment is here again. Russia collusion did not fly, nor did the Nadler impeachment circus, so now we have this, and the attacks on Kavanaugh to try to discredit the Supreme Court. This is very dangerous stuff for a democracy based on the rule of law, and respect for the court.
If you want to know what the real impact is of lack of free speech and no history classes on campus, and the left wing teaching the kids now get, just look at how young people think Warren is their candidate-free tuition, free healthcare for everyone, wipe out student loans, break up the big nasty and corrupt corporations, raise taxes on the people and companies who actually pay most of the taxes, and put bankers in jail. They have absolutely no concept of reality, economics or geopolitics. That she could actually be a very viable candidate should scare the hell out of you as to where the younger generation is headed. The good news is one of my die hard Dem friends who owns a company admitted he could not vote for her. He likely will just not vote. Wall St, corporate execs and others are now going to donate huge sums to Trump to stop her.
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2) Libor is set to end all use by the end of 2021, however it may be chaotic. Many companies and lenders are saying they will not be ready when that date arrives. It is not simple to make the change. There are many documents, legal issues, outstanding Libor loans, computer programs, and trading strategies that need to be changed. Each of the things changed must be tested and certain to work perfectly or there could be potentially huge losses if mistakes are made.
There was a near crisis in the capital markets this week when the repo market suddenly went into panic, and there was not enough cash in the system to meet demands by repo borrowers. Repos are when a brokerage firm, bank, or other big cash user, needs to fund very short term cash needs for a day or two, and they pledge treasuries to an institution that has cash available to lend. It is the Fed funds market. In the event this past week, there was just not any cash left in the system, hard as that may be to understand, and the NY Fed had to infuse $53 billion and then $75 billion instantly to keep the repo market from imploding. Rates shot to 10% briefly when they are normally 2% or less. The infusion worked immediately, and rates returned to normal, but the issue did not go away. There were additional cash infusions. The Fed is very likely to reinstitute bond buying in order to keep the system liquid. The problem is caused by the Fed trying to reduce its balance sheet this year, which we have pointed out several weeks ago, removes cash from the system as the Fed does not infuse cash with new purchases. The demand for cash was intensified by the need for corporations to pay quarterly taxes, which were large. When the Fed is not a buyer of bonds, and the treasury is issuing huge amounts of bonds, the available cash in the system dries up for other demands. When they talk about the deficit causing the government to issue large amounts of bonds, and that crowds out other bond issuers, this is an example. Deficits matter, and right now there seems to be no limit. If the Dems get into office, it will be disastrous with all the spending programs they are pushing. Currently they are again pushing for cutting military spend so they can fund more useless entitlements instead of cutting out all the worthless programs already in existence which would free up tens of billions to fund all the new useless waste of money programs. That is the issue in the current budget standoff in Congress this week. Pundits who say the size of the deficit does not matter, are not understanding the implications. Deficits matter a lot. Just look at many states like IL and NJ that cannot invest in infrastructure or police because they have huge deficits due to teacher pensions. The same will happen to the Federal budget in time with deficits.
The Fed cut 25BP. Low rates do not make economies grow. Just look at the EU and Japan with negative rates. Borrowing is at nil cost, but the economies remain stagnant, or headed to recession. Economies grow because they are deregulated, taxes are low, and the government takes steps to encourage business and start-ups. Just look at the housing crisis in CA. It is solely due to the vast over regulation that makes it too costly to build affordable housing. Then they added $8000 to require solar roofs. Now they cannot understand why they have a homeless crisis, nor how to fix it. Cut regulation and time to entitlement and the housing crisis would be over in 2 years. It is the same issue of regulation in the EU and Japan, except it applies to all things. Growth in population of skilled labor is the other key. All you need to do is look at the US over the past 11 years. As Obama Biden ramped up regulation and deficits, the economy barely grew for most of the time, and in fact GDP was declining by late 2016. Trump can rage over low rates, but it would not help. The cost of capital is already historically low. Resolving the China trade war and getting Congress to pass USMCA would be the things that matter to growth. It is very likely that rates will remain low for at least two more years, and very possibly longer. Buying bonds gets you no return, and likely losses when rates rise. Big problem for Insurance companies, annuity issuers and pension funds. The Fed will continue to be accommodative. That means higher stock prices. It also means the housing market will improve as refi and new mortgages are now in higher demand, and will likely remain so. Refi of mortgages to lower rates also means consumers will have more spending money and far less pressures than in 2008.
The Fed, and most economists and bankers, say consumers are in very good shape with higher wages, low mortgage rates, and solid jobs, low gas prices, nil inflation at 1.4%, making real rates almost zero, and lower debt than in the past. That is key to the economy growing. Add on that the attack in Saudi did nothing after two days to oil prices. Fracking in the US made all the difference. For consumer spending, this is about as good as it gets. Housing starts are up 7.7% last month. A very good indicator. Industrial production grew .4%, up from where it had been. GDP will probably grow around 2.25%. The problem now is there is simply there is nobody left to hire, and so that slows labor growth and consumer spend growth. The Fed reported that surveys of low income workers show they are feeling very good, and that they feel this is the first time in the lives for many that they have real full time jobs and rising wages at 6%. Unemployment for single black women is at a historic low. Consider what a difference that makes compared to the old days of welfare mothers getting paid to have babies. These people are the same ones the Dems claim are being left out. This has huge implications for the election. The risks remain the trade situation, and the weak EU and China economies. Between big fiscal spend and low rates, the chance of recession is very low at this time. It all comes down to a trade agreement with China. If the Oct meeting with the Chinese shows some real progress, then the stock market will go up. The Fed will restart QE before we ever get to negative rates. The black swan is if there is a war with Iran, it will be ugly for a while, but very likely Iran will be destroyed in short order. A lot of people will die quickly, but then it will be over. We are very unlikely to invade. We and Israel will just blow them up with unrelenting air and cyberattacks. My guess is there will be, or already are, ongoing cyberattacks which are deniable, and can do a lot of damage. This and major new sanctions on the central bank will be what happens vs a shooting war. Iran is being squeezed to death financially. What would have happened 5 years ago if Obama Biden had not done the insane nuke deal which funded the regime and terrorism.
The gig economy is not viable in some areas as demonstrated by the We Work fiasco, and the losses at Uber and Lyft. We Work was never viable. It is purely rent big space long term, and rent it out for a spread short term. You need a big mark up on the rent to make it viable, and in weak economic times, you have unpaid rent and vacancy. It is real estate plain and simple, not technology. Uber and Lyft are international taxi companies. Competition is rough. Regulation is rough. They simply make no sense as investments in my mind unless they continue to find other areas to apply their technology, but those areas are easily subject to intense competition. The same goes for the food delivery companies. It is labor intensive, and expensive to operate, and is subject to customers unwilling to pay a lot for the service. The venture investors who funded We Work at the $47 billion value are idiots who are enamored with their own supposed smarts, when reality is they have no understanding of what makes a lot of these businesses viable. I never invest in any of these sorts of gig deals. I might miss some quick hit deal, but I invest in real businesses, and I do not speculate. If you read the WSJ article about the CEO of We Work, you really wonder what the venture investors were thinking. Or more likely they loved the drunken parties he threw. It reminds me of the old glory days of Drexel and Nomura, and the annual extravagant parties, for those of you who were part of that scene. It was great to go to the parties, but they were a sure sign of a coming collapse. Those of us at the final Nomura party in San Fran knew the end was near, but it was a great going away party. You will see more of these gig companies blow up.
You better hope you already have a good doc, and he is not too old. The just retired former associate dean of U of Penn med school, rated as one of the very best, wrote an op ed where he decried the shift in med school education to also include subjects like climate change, gun control, racism, and other things that do not belong in med school, in place of more time teaching science and medical practice. The dean responded that the school was "devoted to inclusion and diversity as fundamental to effective health care" -how about the old time devotion to quality teaching of medical science so the rest of us have good docs in the future, instead of diverse students who did not qualify by their entry tests, and who now are in class learning about political issues instead of learning medical science. Of course the Doc who said this new curriculum was bad, was viciously attacked on social media, but he is correct. Our future medical care is now at serious risk. Think about that if they try to have you see a diversity doc who studied all this useless crap. This is a real problem, and it is just beginning. It will be worse as time goes on and the real qualified docs retire. Research your doc if you need to go to a new one in the future.
The new allegations against Trump that there is a whistle blower who reported the Ukraine scandal is curious. The real issue is Biden is on tape bragging about how he blackmailed the Ukrainians to stop the investigation of his son. People who read the Trump transcript say there was no such quid pro quo. Trump is correct, there are at least 5 or more people taking notes and transcribing the call. Plus there are intel people on the other end of the call who would like nothing more than to be able to compromise and black mail Trump. Second the president can make any deal he wishes. In the old days he could even order the assassination of a leader- Allende if you are old enough to recall. The president has to be able to talk to foreign leaders about whatever, without worrying that someone will leak the content. No foreign leader will want to talk openly after this. Here we go with Schiff holding a press conference again. Do you think it coincidental that just before the IG report and indictments of the Obama people is about to come out, that suddenly an intel agent suddenly comes up with this, and there is Schiff holding a news conference, followed by talking heads on all the mainstream media claiming this will do in Trump for criminal scandal. Impeachment is here again. Russia collusion did not fly, nor did the Nadler impeachment circus, so now we have this, and the attacks on Kavanaugh to try to discredit the Supreme Court. This is very dangerous stuff for a democracy based on the rule of law, and respect for the court.
If you want to know what the real impact is of lack of free speech and no history classes on campus, and the left wing teaching the kids now get, just look at how young people think Warren is their candidate-free tuition, free healthcare for everyone, wipe out student loans, break up the big nasty and corrupt corporations, raise taxes on the people and companies who actually pay most of the taxes, and put bankers in jail. They have absolutely no concept of reality, economics or geopolitics. That she could actually be a very viable candidate should scare the hell out of you as to where the younger generation is headed. The good news is one of my die hard Dem friends who owns a company admitted he could not vote for her. He likely will just not vote. Wall St, corporate execs and others are now going to donate huge sums to Trump to stop her.
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