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There’s a loophole along the closed U.S.-Canada border. Couples are getting married there. (Washington Post) Nick Smith and Leah Bosello were desperate to see each other. Ever since the border between the United States and Canada closed to nonessential travel in mid-March because of the novel coronavirus, cross-border couples like them were blocked from being together. So the pair found a workaround: They started meeting at a ditch just off 0 Avenue, a heavily patrolled road in British Columbia that divides the two countries. As the weather warmed and shutdowns lifted, a superior reunion spot emerged in mid-May: Peace Arch Park. There, cross-national couples and families could actually embrace—at long last. On June 6, the couple got married there. Other marriages have followed. The park is considered equal parts American and Canadian—a shared territory for citizens of both countries to visit. The southern half is owned by Washington State Parks, while the northern half is owned by British Columbia Provincial Parks. Entryways from both the American and Canadian sides are patrolled, and the park itself is surveilled to ensure no one exits the wrong side. But as long as visitors stay within the 42-acre area, they are permitted to roam freely throughout the grounds. According to the park’s website, it is a space that is “devoted to peace and serenity.”

Reconsidering the Past, One Statue at a Time (NYT) The boiling anger that exploded in the days after George Floyd gasped his final breaths is now fueling a national movement to topple perceived symbols of racism and oppression in the United States, as protests over police brutality against African-Americans expand to include demands for a more honest accounting of American history. Across the country, monuments criticized as symbols of historical oppression have been defaced and brought down at warp speed in recent days. The movement initially set its sights on Confederate symbols and examples of racism against African-Americans, but has since exploded into a broader cultural moment, forcing a reckoning over such issues as European colonization and the oppression of Native Americans. The debate over how to represent the uncomfortable parts of American history has been going on for decades, but the traction for knocking down monuments seen in recent days raises new questions about whether it will result in a fundamental shift in how history is taught to new generations.

Why People Are Still Avoiding the Doctor (It’s Not the Virus) (NYT) While hospitals and doctors across the country say many patients are still shunning their services out of fear of contagion—especially with new cases spiking—Americans who lost their jobs or have a significant drop in income during the pandemic are now citing costs as the overriding reason they do not seek the health care they need. “We are seeing the financial pressure hit,” said Dr. Bijoy Telivala, a cancer specialist in Jacksonville, Fla. “This is a real worry,” he added, explaining that people are weighing putting food on the table against their need for care. “You don’t want a 5-year-old going hungry.” The twin risks in this crisis—potential infection and the cost of medical care—have become daunting realities for the millions of workers who were furloughed, laid off or caught in the economic downturn. It echoes the scenarios that played out after the 2008 recession, when millions of Americans were unemployed and unable to afford even routine visits to the doctor for themselves or their children.

Children are only half as likely to get infected by the coronavirus, study finds (Washington Post) Children and teenagers are only half as likely to get infected with the coronavirus as adults age 20 and older, and they usually don’t develop clinical symptoms of covid-19, the disease caused by the virus, according to a study published Tuesday. The findings could influence policymakers who are facing tough decisions about when and how to reopen schools and day-care centers. Distance learning has been challenging for teachers, students and parents, and there is pressure on officials to restart in-person schooling and day care to free up parents who have been juggling work and child care. From the start of the pandemic, it has been known that children are typically spared the worst effects of the disease. They rarely die of it. But they can still get sick and can spread the virus, including to older family members who are more likely to have a severe illness. The reasons for the apparent protective effect of youth are not clearly understood.

The hack of CIA hackers (WSJ) A “woefully lax” security culture within the Central Intelligence Agency’s elite hacking unit that favored building cyber weapons over protecting its own computer systems from intrusion allowed for the 2016 theft of top-secret hacking tools, according to an internal report written by the spy agency disclosed on Tuesday. The hacking tools were published by the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks in early 2017, a disclosure totaling more than 8,000 pages. The leak of the so-called Vault 7 documents was widely viewed as one of the most devastating security breaches in the CIA’s history. It included details about the agency’s playbook for hacking smartphones, computer operating systems, messaging applications and internet-connected televisions. The internal audit, published in October 2017 by CIA’s WikiLeaks Task Force, described the theft as the “largest data loss in CIA history.” It said an employee stole anywhere from 180 gigabytes to 34 terabytes of information, a haul roughly equivalent to 11.6 million to 2.2 billion pages in Microsoft Word. The report said it was possible the CIA may have never learned of the theft had the trove not been published by WikiLeaks.

Trump signs police reform executive order that focuses on training (Washington Post) President Trump on Tuesday addressed the issue of police brutality by taking executive action that would provide incentives for police departments to increase training about the use of force and to strengthen a national database to track misconduct. The executive order falls short of the more sweeping policy changes activists have called for following the death of a black man, George Floyd, in police custody in Minneapolis last month. Trump’s executive order comes as the prospects for police reform legislation on Capitol Hill remain unsettled. House Democrats are moving forward with a sweeping package that would ban police chokeholds, make it easier for victims of police violence to sue officers and departments and create a national database of police misconduct, among other measures. But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Tuesday that the House legislation “is going nowhere in the Senate,” blasting the measure as “typical Democratic overreach.” Republicans in the Senate are assembling a package of their own, one that may have some overlap with the Democratic proposal but will likely take a far less aggressive approach.

Scientists made 1 small edit to human embryos. It had a lot of unintended consequences. (The Week) A human embryo editing experiment gone wrong has scientists warning against treading into the field altogether. To understand the role of a single gene in early human development, a team of scientists at the London-based Francis Crick Institute removed it from a set of 18 donated embryos. Even though the embryos were destroyed after just 14 days, that was enough time for the single edit to transform into “major unintended edits,” OneZero reports. The unintended edits exemplify the single biggest concern of gene editing, especially when it involves humans. And to Fyodor Urnov, a gene-editing expert and professor of molecular and cell biology at the University of California, Berkeley, it sends a clear message: “This is a restraining order for all genome editors to stay the living daylights away from embryo editing.”

Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández tests positive for coronavirus (Washington Post) President Juan Orlando Hernández said late Tuesday that he has tested positive for the coronavirus but was suffering only mild symptoms and would continue in his job. He plans to isolate himself but continue running the government, he said in a statement. The president said two of his aides and his wife, Ana García, have also tested positive for the virus.

Suriname president loses (Foreign Policy) Suriname’s electoral authority has now verified that President Desi Bouterse lost in the country’s national elections last month, paving the way for his exit after almost 40 years at the center of Surinamese politics. Bouterse was sentenced to 20 years in prison by a court in November for ordering the execution of 15 of his political rivals. Until now, presidential immunity had kept him out of prison.

Trouble in Dijon (Times of London) Three Chechen men were shot and injured on the French Riviera in the latest clash between migrants from the Caucasian republic and local drug dealers. The violence has thrown President Macron’s government onto the defensive amid claims that police have done little to defuse tensions between Chechens and French people of north African origin. The shootings followed chaotic scenes in Dijon, Burgundy, as dozens of Chechens with firearms and baseball bats occupied swathes of the city for three nights. When they had left, local youths responded by firing shots into the air, burning cars and attacking journalists. Six people were injured, including a pizza restaurant owner who was shot in the back. As 147 riot police were dispatched to Burgundy on Monday in an attempt to restore peace, a gunfight erupted on a council estate in Nice. Three Chechen men were hospitalized and one was in a critical condition yesterday. France Bleu Alpes Maritimes, a local radio station, said the latest shootings came amid “high tensions” between Chechens on the one hand and north Africans and Cape Verdeans on the other, “against a backdrop of provocations, score-settling and drug dealing.”

Amid Brexit impasse, Germany urges no-deal preparations (Reuters) The German government is urging other EU states to prepare for a no deal Brexit, according an internal document that casts doubt on Britain’s optimism over chances of an early agreement on its future ties with the bloc. Britain left the European Union on Jan. 31 and their relationship is governed by a transition arrangement that keeps previous rules in place while new terms are negotiated. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who confirmed last week that Britain has no intention of extending that transition beyond 2020, wants to strike a free trade deal quickly. But the German government document, dated June 15 and seen by Reuters, shows Berlin expects the negotiations to take longer. “From September, the negotiations enter a hot phase,” it read. “Britain is already escalating threats in Brussels, wants to settle as much as possible in the shortest possible time and hopes to achieve last-minute success in the negotiations.” “It is therefore important to preserve the unity of the 27, to continue to insist on parallel progress in all areas (overall package) and to make it clear that there will be no agreement at any price,” the document read.

China and India Point Fingers After Deadly Clash (Foreign Policy) A picturesque Himalayan border region between India and China became the site of military conflict on Monday, as tensions that had been building between the nations for the past few months finally led to deadly hand-to-hand clashes. The Indian army initially said three of their soldiers had been killed, but this figure was later revised to 20, after adding that an additional 17 had died from their injuries. Although it’s likely China also suffered casualties, Chinese authorities have yet to release any figures. An Indian foreign ministry spokesman said the clash arose from “an attempt by the Chinese side to unilaterally change the status quo.” His Chinese counterpart laid the blame on India for “provoking and attacking Chinese personnel, resulting in serious physical confrontation between border forces on the two sides.” The skirmish comes at a time when Chinese officials are under increasing pressure to be “performatively nationalist,” leading to concerns that this won’t wind down quickly. If cooler heads do not prevail, the mountainous region may prove to be a brake on any quick escalation. “The conditions in the Himalayas themselves severely limit military action; it takes up to two weeks for troops to acclimate to the altitude, logistics and provisioning are extremely limited, and air power is severely restrained.”

Beijing faces new coronavirus outbreak (AFP, Yahoo) Beijing on Tuesday urged its residents to not leave the city and closed schools again as authorities scramble to contain a “severe” new coronavirus outbreak in the city of 21 million people. The coronavirus resurgence—believed to have started in the capital’s sprawling Xinfadi wholesale food market—has prompted alarm as China had largely brought its outbreak under control through mass testing and draconian lockdowns. “Anyone leaving Beijing must have a negative reading on a nucleic acid test taken within seven days (prior to departure),” Chen Bei, deputy secretary general of Beijing municipal government, said at a press conference. Residents of “medium- or high-risk” areas of infection are completely banned from leaving. Non-residents and outside vehicles are prohibited from entering communities and villages in medium and high risk areas, Chen said. He added that the higher risk residential areas are “fully enclosed and controlled”—similar to strict local measures imposed in Wuhan at the height of the pandemic. The local education commission announced that all schools, which had mostly reopened, would close again and return to online classes. Universities were told to suspend the return of students. “The epidemic situation in the capital is extremely severe,” Beijing city spokesman Xu Hejian warned at a press conference.

Korean peace process explodes (Foreign Policy) There is private despair among Chinese diplomats following Pyongyang’s explosive provocations this week, including the destruction of the inter-liaison office with South Korea. Pyongyang’s recalcitrance about economic and social reform has long baffled Chinese counterparts, who point to their own economic success as an example of what the country could achieve if it followed in China’s footsteps. “I don’t know what they’re thinking,” one Chinese academic who has had frequent contact with North Korean diplomatic delegations said.

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saraseo · 4 years

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michaeljtraylor · 6 years

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Anarchy in the GDR | The Nation

German punks, Nov. 29, 1984. (AP Photo / Andreas Pechar)

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Burning Down the Haus, a new book by journalist Tim Mohr, details how a small group of East German teens kickstarted a movement that contributed to the fall of the Berlin Wall. The 1970s were oppressive years in the German Democratic Republic; there was no space, literal or philosophical, to live outside the system, let alone criticize it. Upon hearing The Clash and the Sex Pistols via forbidden British military radio broadcasts, a handful of young people began to embrace punk mentality, dressing differently, and shaking the foundations upon which the authority had been built. And despite the East German secret police, or the Stasi’s best efforts, the movement grew throughout the 1980s as punks developed their own little world, disconnected from society. Punk was the soundtrack to the million-person demonstration on November 4, 1989. A few days later, the Wall came down.

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Mohr, who arrived in Berlin in 1992 and now lives in Brooklyn, learned about this history and has spent 10 years documenting it in as much detail as possible, recognizing, too, the parallels with modern society.

William Ralston: You write that your initial belief in this story was reinforced after you returned to the USA and “recognized an ominous echo in developments in your own country.” Can you elaborate on these parallels?

TM: The book went from a story that was just fascinating to something that was actually disturbingly relevant because of the parallels I began to see in our own society—the revelations from Snowden about the scale of mass surveillance here in the US, the militarization of our police forces, and the treatment of peaceful protesters here. I think we can’t dismiss comparisons between what’s happening in the West to what happened in the Eastern bloc; when our own mass surveillance was revealed, people were quick to say, “but you can’t compare this to the Stasi”—but you can!

I’m not suggesting our situation is completely analogous, and I don’t think the solution to whatever needs to be remedied in today’s society is the same as what’s described in the book—it won’t be solved by passing out a bunch of guitars to teenage rebels and telling them to make anti-government music—but I think this story shows what is possible. It offers a concrete historical example of a grassroots youth movement that made significant changes in its society. Maybe the lesson to be learned is something they used to spray as graffiti: “Don’t die in the waiting room of the future.” Meaning, you can’t sit around hoping for change to happen; you have to make change happen.

WR: The GDR in the late 1970s was not a stable state. It was struggling with a generational transition and the economy was ceasing to function. Why was it vulnerable?

TM: One of the reasons the hardliners of the GDR were able to stay in power for so long was because the GDR didn’t have the type of conditions that we associated with the Soviet Union. There were no food shortages; everybody had modern conveniences, televisions, refrigerators; jobs; booze. I think this created a level of complacency that allowed the regime to stay in power longer. Given halfway decent conditions, the majority of people seem to just go along with the system, regardless of what the system is. The punks were among the first to challenge it in a direct way. They did so by addressing the regime’s failure to practically implement its ideology, an ideology, incidentally, that most of them shared—they were critics of the dictatorship from the left. Punks were among the loudest in making these points, and I think one of the most important roles they played was steeling the resolve of other opposition groups.

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One of the great unknowns in opposition circles was what would happen if you ran afoul of the security apparatus and the punks learned exactly what happened. They showed other opposition-minded people that it was possible to resist and survive the Stasi. They were subject to the harshest crackdown of any opposition group, including serving the longest jail terms. To then come out and keep fighting encouraged everyone else.

WR: They conquered their fears.

TM: Yes, and as a result they were a big component of the early street protests, and these protests created a boomerang effect. In the GDR, as in most societies, conformity ruled the day. But when the protests started to spill out onto the street and into the public eye, ordinary people—who might otherwise be inclined to go along—were confronted with state-sanctioned violence that made many of them cringe. It just snowballed from there. You have the early activists who take things out on the street and they have to convince other opposition groups, and then it’s a matter of converting a significant enough part of the population to your cause. It took the 1989 mass demonstrations for the Wall to fall—but the seeds were planted several years prior in street protests in which punks were indeed central.

WR: And it was in the Protestant churches—which opened their doors to offer shelter—that punks began to rub elbows with other opposition groups.

TM: Yes, the churches were important. Though as an institution, the church didn’t necessarily wish to nurture these groups; many leaders were actually opposed. But individual clergymen took in these so-called enemies of the state. Once they were under the roof of the church, the punks began interacting with different activist groups, who began to take the punks more seriously.

WR: You write in the book that the Stasi were “paranoid” about the punk scene from early on. What made punks such a threat?

TM: From a western perspective, it’s not easy to see why a bunch of kids with bad haircuts could be so threatening. The deeper I dug into this, it became clear to me that the Stasi were correct in their fear. They were trying to keep people on a pre-ordained path and people, like the punks, who were influencing youths to stray off that path, were threatening. It’s also important to remember that punks expressed their opposition whenever they were in public. Other forms of protest were often done behind closed doors, whereas the punks were so in your face; their music was loud and even just their appearance on the street was a form of opposition. That’s how the movement grew so quickly: teenagers saw punks and they seemed cool because it was so daring and exciting that many people joined them. Many of these kids, as with the first generation of punks, originally joined for non-political reasons; it was just cool.

WR: You write in the book that the state’s paranoid behavior “backfired.” Can you explain this?

TM: I think this is true all through this battle. To begin with, the punks just wanted to wear these clothes and cut their hair this way, and then suddenly they were being hassled by the police on a daily basis, being kicked out of schools or apprenticeships, having their IDs confiscated. This turned the movement political. And even the smallest signs of rebellion were so impactful; every time people stepped off the path, it was a political act, even if, like the early punks, they themselves didn’t conceive of it to be so. Then, later on, ordinary citizens began to recoil at the level of violence against protestors, significant parts of whom were punks. The security forces kept making the same mistake.

WR: It feels that there was absolutely nothing that the Stasi could have done to stop this. They tried threats, locking up, even removing people.

TM: I think part of this is that the punks had such a fundamental criticism. A lot of the other groups were nitpicking over this or that policy, focusing on specific issues like military training in schools, and they fancied themselves negotiating with the government. They wanted to try to change the government whereas punks wanted to cast off the system, to destroy it. During the fight itself, this was certainly a strength.

I think it’s also important to note that while the Stasi saw the punks as a significant threat, they also tried to blame it on the West. As late as 1989, they listed punk as the top youth problem and yet, in the same report, they say that the scene is being manipulated from the west by punks who had been expatriated, which was completely false. They seemed to overlook that it had become an organic eastern phenomenon.

WR: Do you perceive punk music to have inspired punk’s dissidence, or was it just a vehicle for it?

TM: I think it’s a bit of both. Almost everyone spoke of feeling as if a switch had been thrown inside them when they first heard punk. For the majority of them, I think the thrill was musical: the bassist in Planlos told me that he loved The Ramones because it was the only record he’d ever heard with no slow songs. Only a few of them immediately connected it with anarchist philosophy. But the music also offered an avenue of self-expression that they had never really thought of before and became a soundtrack to rebellion.

WR: The mass protests grew in the late ‘80s. Why do you think law-abiding citizens, who violently opposed the punks to begin with, went on to join the movement?

TM: If we knew the mechanism then we could recreate it elsewhere. Conformity is natural and most people abide by the system and don’t like people who make trouble. I think a lot of people had the feeling that there were things wrong with society but once the protests began to reach a certain mass, when they were in open view on the street in the second half of the ‘80s, then more of the general public joined because the state-sanctioned violence gave credence to their own misgivings about how things were run.

WR: What started off as a resistance eventually cast off the dictatorship. Do you think this the movement exceeded punk’s ambitions?

TM: Even though the Stasi were paranoid about the punk scene, I don’t think anyone felt it was the start of a type of opposition that would bring down the dictatorship. One of the things that the punks were brilliant at was carving out space, both physical and philosophical. They took over all these empty buildings and by the late 1980s untethered themselves from the economy, when some were able to operate in the grey areas by selling homemade jewelry and clothing. At that point they were no longer dependent on being part of society. As opposed to British punks, who railed against “No future,” the East German punks had seen their problem as “Too Much Future.”

Their whole lives were planned out for them almost from birth and it felt stifling. Once they were able to at least partially wrestle control of their futures, they had probably already gotten farther than many of them realistically expected. Though of course there were some who were always quite convinced they’d succeed in toppling the regime.

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keywestlou · 3 years

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FORGET THEM NOT

Today special for Americans. Even with all the the strife confronting our governments and people. One thing must be kept in mind. Each side believes they are doing right. That they are on the side of God and country.

It is Memorial Day.

Memorial Day is a federal holiday in the United States for honoring and mourning the military personnel who died in the performance of their military duties while serving in the U.S. Armed Forces.

By law, celebrated on the last monday of May.

The day recognized also as the “unofficial” beginning of summer.

Every American should visit Arlington National Cemetery. I stood in awe. My eyes filled with tears. All the grave stones representing someone who made it possible for me to live a protected life.

Arlington was my second military cemetery. My first one 30 years ago. I was staying in Livonia, Italy. A small community near Anzio where the Allied troops landed during World War II.

A horrendous battle. Many died.

National cemeteries exist today where gallant men fell.

I was driving around with no particular place to go. Suddenly, I came upon what had to be a military cemetery. It was. It contained the remains of British military who died in the Anzio battles.

The cemetery was the first military one I had seen anywhere. Arlington came a good 30 years later.

I stopped and walked among the white grave stones representing who lay below.

I was first impressed with the preciseness by which the cemetery was laid out. Straight lines horizontally and vertically. Not one stone out of line. The grounds and shrubbery meticulously manicured.

Reading cemetery grave stones has been an historical activity for me for years. Wherever I am, I find time to stop at least at one.

The inscriptions at the Anzio Cemetery blew my mind!

First, most who died were young. Kids in many instances. Eighteen, nineteen and twenty. At 24, many were already majors.

My most difficult moment came when I found myself among grave stones which all contained the same description: “Known To God Alone.”

The national Democratic Party does not fight as its rival the Republican Party. Republicans wage war. Democrats pussy foot around believing Republicans lies, looking for bipartisanship, etc.

What’s the saying? Fight fire with fire!

Democrats in the Texas House of Representatives showed gumption this past week. They pulled a Mitch McConnell. Utilized the rules. Did the unexpected.

It was the last day of the session. All bills left to be passed had to be passed by midnight.

A quorum is needed before a vote can be taken.

The bill in question was intended to be the new Texas voting rights one. Considered the worst in the country when it comes to preserving and protecting voting rights.

The Democrats without fanfare walked out of the legislative chamber before the vote was to be taken. A quorum no longer existed. The bill would die an automatic death since not dealt with at the moment.

Not only did the Democrats walk out, they en mass went to New Mexico. The reason simple. The Governor has the power to have them arrested and returned to the State Legislature. Such an arrest is considered legal.

The reason the Democrats escaped to New Mexico is that the arrest power of the Texas governor does not extend in this instance over the Texas state line.

The Democratic win may be a short one. The Governor has called for a Special session. Not scheduled yet. Will the Democrats be able to walk out again?

One party walking out to avoid a quorum is not uncommon.

The most famous occurred in 1840 in the Illinois House of Representatives. Lincoln and his party were in the minority. The opposition was sure to vote for the bill. To avoid a quorum, Lincoln jumped out a first floor window.

More recent avoidance of a vote to preclude a quorum has occurred in Oregon, Indiana, and the U.S. Senate. The U.S. Senate one occurred in 1988. The Republicans did not have the necessary votes to block a bill. They played the lack of quorum game.

The Republican avoidance appears to have been a last minute thing. The Republicans were running all around the Capitol looking for places to hide. The Sergeant at Arms was looking for Republicans. His instructions were to arrest and return them to the Senate floor.

Senator Packwood tried to hide in his office. He was pushing one side of his office door to prevent it opening while Sergeant at Arms people were pushing from the other side.

Packwood was not giving up without a fight. They carried him onto the Senate floor feet first.

Yesterday’s blog spoke of the pillory. I would like to follow it up with a specific occurrence.

Men were generally the ones to be pilloried. A lady on occasion.

The most famous pilloried woman was Elizabeth Needham. Known also as Mother Needham.

Elizabeth was an English procuress and brothel keeper. In short, she ran a whore house. The most exclusive one in London. Her clientele were from the highest strata of fashionable society.

Elizabeth ran her brothel beginnig around 1710, ending in 1731.

In 1731, she ran afoul of moral reforms. Led by the wives of the most prominent men in London. Most Elizabeth’s customers, of course.

Her “well connected” customers had kept her protected for years.

She was tried and convicted. Her “friends” tried to protect her. They were powerless to prevent her arrest and trial. It would have meant separate bedrooms at home.

Her sentence was lenient. In spite of the fact her judge was an adamant reformer. He never the less had a soft spot in his heart for brothels. I suspect his friends must have drummed the hell out of him to go easy on Elizabeth.

Elizabeth was convicted of keeping a disorderly house. She was fined one shilling, sentenced to stand twice in the pillory, and to find sureties to speak for her good behavior for 3 years.

The pillorying was thought to be better than several years in jail. The overall sentence considered the work of her male friends continued harassing of the judge.

Her first pillorying was April 30, 1731.

Again because of the influence of her male clientele, she was allowed to lie face down in front of the pillory. A favor. Considered a “safe” approach to the pillorying. Her friends also paid guards to protect her during the pillorying.

Despite the protections, Elizabeth “received such a pillorying” from the very large crowd assembled that she died before her punishment was completed.

It is reported Trump is frustrated about his mounting legal fees. The probe into the Trump organization is heating up. Trump needs more attorneys.

Two interesting observations. Trump’s attorneys are advising him he won’t get indicted. I find it hard to believe he will not. Additionally, Trump announced he is not paying Giuliani’s legal bill. Trump claims he was unhappy with Giuliani’s services in the second impeachment trial.

An interesting afternoon of golf yesterday. The final round of the 2021 Charles Schwab Challenge. John Kokrak was a 2 stroke victor over Jordan Spieth.

I thought Spieth would win. He has been playing excellent golf the past couple of months. He failed to come through when needed yesterday, however.

The last 5-6 holes were tough for both players. Spieth coming from behind, then falling back to 3 strokes behind. It was obvious that Spieth was pushing to win. Such was his problem. He was quick to his shots and did not take his usual deliberate time before hitting.

As a result most of his shots were all over the place

Such is a professional golfer’s life. Calmness does not always prevail.

Money wise, Spieth did not come out badly finishing second. His check for second place $817,500. Kokrak’s for winning $1,350,000.

Stayed in again last night. The finals of the golf tournament and the selection of Memorial weekend movies in the final analysis appealed more.

Enjoy your day!

FORGET THEM NOT was originally published on Key West Lou

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martinfzimmerman · 7 years

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Sleeper Issues Poised to Rattle Markets

Investors have been well-trained in complacency. They have spent the past few years watching markets shrug off momentous geopolitical events – each more quickly than the last. Brexit’s impact faded within days. Trump’s election faded within hours.

Stocks traded at all-time highs this summer and volatility made all-time lows. That is the set-up as we head into the fall…

Almost nobody seems nervous. In this age of central planning and highly artificial markets, it is hard to tell when this period of strange market serenity will end. But vigilant investors should have a few ideas. The next few months are going to challenge the status quo.

President Trump Is Under Siege

It has been clear from the beginning of his term that President Donald Trump has very few supporters in Washington DC. Democrats and progressives naturally oppose him. Deep staters have been working hard to undermine the administration. And you don’t need enemies when you have “friends” like John McCain, Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan in the Republican led Congress.

Turmoil in Trump’s administration escalated last week. The president disbanded two separate business councils following the defection of high profile CEOs who disagreed with Trump’s response to events in Charlottesville, Virginia.

On Friday, Americans learned Steve Bannon, Trump’s Chief Strategist, was kicked out of the White House. That will cost Trump some support from his core constituency, who favored Bannon.

The president is already taking flack from supporters such as Ann Coulter. Bannon’s ouster leaves the President with an inner circle which is completely dominated by Wall Street insiders (with a history of supporting Democrats – such as Gary Cohn, Steve Mnuchin, and Dina Powell) and Pentagon brass.

Should a good portion of Trump’s voters stop backing the president, he’ll be in real trouble. And markets will start pricing that in.

Conflict with North Korea Possible, Even Likely

North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un ramped up the rhetoric again late last week in response to planned military drills conducted by South Korea and the U.S. Should the North Koreans test fire another missile, the U.S. may well respond with force.

The generals advising the President appear to be succeeding in the effort to persuade him to get more aggressive. Steve Bannon’s departure signals that Trump has heard enough counsel for a less interventionist foreign policy.

The former Chief Strategist was one of few voices for restraint in the White House.

Bannon’s views with regards to North Korea in particular seem to be part of what put him at odds with the president. In an interview with the American Prospect, released just days before his ouster, Bannon said;

“There’s no military solution here; they got us. Until somebody solves the part of the equation that shows me that 10 million people in Seoul don’t die in the first 30 minutes from conventional weapons, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

In recent days, fears over a confrontation with North Korea have seeped into the markets. If actual warfare breaks out, investors can expect a much bigger reaction.

Republican Leaders Angle for Debt Ceiling Increase

The Republican leadership in Washington DC wants to increase the borrowing limit, quietly and without fanfare. However, they may not be able to betray rank and file Republican voters and get away with it this time.

Conservatives in Congress look ready to revolt, leaving leadership in the awkward position of having to seek compromise with Democrats.

The problem is that Democrats are looking for any chance to thwart Trump and Republicans.

It’s unlikely we’ll see a fight over the debt ceiling which is big enough, and protracted enough, to have significant implications for markets. Past battles over the debt ceiling have been for show. In the end, Congress has never missed an opportunity to hike the borrowing limit – big government Republicans and big government Democrats always find common ground.

However, the polarization in Washington DC is unprecedented. It might even lead to a genuine stalemate this time around.

Wildcard: Russia Hacking Story May Implode on Democrats & Fake News Media

Democratic leadership and their friends in media bet the farm on convincing Americans that Trump colluded with Vladamir Putin to subvert last Fall’s presidential election. They have been telling the world that Putin stole damaging, confidential party emails and coordinated with the Trump campaign to release them at the most opportune time – just before the people voted in November.

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange says he can demonstrate unequivocally that the Russians are not the source of the leaked information. Last week, Republican Congressman Dana Rohrabacher met with Assange to discuss the matter and agreed to share the details with President Trump.

Investors should get ready for some significant developments to be announced soon.

It will be bad news for the Democrat Party and its legacy media allies if their Russia narrative falls apart. Particularly if it turns out whistleblowers from inside the Democratic National Committee were the source of the embarrassing leaks. Party leaders do not want Americans to turn their focus to scandals such as the DNC’s effort to undermine Bernie Sanders or CNN feeding debate questions to Hillary Clinton.

If, as some on the right have speculated, the murder of Seth Rich is related to the leaks it could turn the political left upside down. That would shake Wall Street as well as Washington DC.

Clint Siegner is a Director at Money Metals Exchange, the national precious metals company named 2015 “Dealer of the Year” in the United States by an independent global ratings group. A graduate of Linfield College in Oregon, Siegner puts his experience in business management along with his passion for personal liberty, limited government, and honest money into the development of Money Metals’ brand and reach. This includes writing extensively on the bullion markets and their intersection with policy and world affairs.

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