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Russia poised for further transformation under Putin: Oligarchs laughed when Putin said he would double Russia's GDP in 10 years

Paul Kaiser
Russia Insider
Wed, 29 Mar 2017 16:59 UTC
Putin Russia
In his state-of-the-nation address in 2003, President Putin said Russia would double its GDP in ten years.

At the time, many thought it could not be done. Russia was still recovering from the 1998 financial crisis, during which the Russian Central Bank devalued the ruble and defaulted on its debt.

According to former Duma Deputy Alexander Zhukov, "Many people doubted that [doubling the GDP] was possible".

Some even laughed at the notion as ridiculous or meaningless ("it's easy to double from zero").

But Russia's GDP more than doubled between 2003 and 2013, and Russia is now gearing up for another economic miracle.

Comment: Despite constant pressure and direct attacks by the West on the interests of Russia, Putin did the impossible and not only turned Russia around, but has Russia poised to further its position as a world leader, policy setter and diverse economic powerhouse. No wonder Putin's approval ratings are so high in Russia and he is so demonized by the Western press and Western governments. If only Western countries had such leadership, then chaos and deterioration wouldn't be the rule of the day.

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Dollars

Florida Dems to Trump: Cut back Mar-a-Lago visits or pay up for local civic costs

Cristina Marcos
The Hill
Mon, 27 Mar 2017 16:45 UTC
Trump florida mar-a-lago
© Joe Raedle/Getty ImagesPresident Donald Trump walks down the stairs after arriving on Air Force One at the Palm Beach International Airport to spend part of the weekend at Mar-a-Lago resort on February 17, 2017 in West Palm Beach, Florida.
The Democratic lawmaker whose district includes President Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate is asking the White House to alleviate the "financial burden" of his near-weekly visits.

Rep. Lois Frankel (D-Fla.) called on Trump to either provide federal reimbursements to the local governments incurring increased security costs or cut back his trips to the resort.

"While we want the fullest protection for your visits, we hope you would be responsive to the losses of small businesses and residents of Palm Beach County," Frankel wrote in a letter to Trump released on Monday, which was co-signed by fellow Democratic Florida Reps. Alcee Hastings and Ted Deutch.

"If compensation is not assured of being forthcoming, we respectfully ask that you curtail your visits until such time as that matter is resolved favorably to our area."

The lawmakers outlined the piling costs of Trump's visits to Mar-a-Lago to date: $1.7 million in overtime work paid by the the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Department and Fire Rescue and $60,000 in overtime to the City of West Palm Beach law enforcement handling protests.

Comment: The Government Accountability Office has been asked to weigh in
In a March 24 letter to the lawmakers, GAO said it will examine how the president's communications and classified information are secured when he's traveling, including whether a secure space exists at Mar-a-Lago.

During the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump and other Republicans sharply criticized Democrat Hillary Clinton for compromising national security by using a private email server.

Democrats have seized on Trump's Feb. 11 visit to Mar-a-Lago with Abe as an example of what they say is Trump's own carelessness with sensitive information.

In a letter sent to GAO last month seeking the review, the lawmakers said Trump reportedly communicated with staff about North Korea's launch by cellphone while sitting with Abe in the middle of a public dining room. Trump, his staff and Abe also may have reviewed potentially sensitive national material in apparent violation of protocols, according to the Democrats.

"In addition to making sensitive phone calls in the dining room, aides reportedly used the camera lights on their cellphones to help President Trump and Prime Minister Abe view the documents — all while surrounded by Mar-a-Lago club members and wait staff," the Democrats wrote in their letter to GAO.

"By conducting discussions in this manner, the president enabled private citizens without security clearances to potentially overhear sensitive or classified national security information," they said.

GAO also will examine what measures, if any, the Secret Service and Defense Department have to ensure that charges for travel-related expenses incurred with providing protecting for trips to Mar-a-Lago are fair and reasonable. The Air Force operates the presidential aircraft, commonly known as Air Force One.

The Democrats, citing press reports, said each of Trump's weekend trips to his Florida estate costs about $3 million. Noting that Trump is accompanied by members of his staff, military aides and Secret Service agents, the lawmakers said it's not clear "how many of these individuals incur travel and room expenses using taxpayer dollars and if they are being charged fair and appropriate rates."

They have also asked GAO to determine if Trump is making good on a promise to voluntarily donate to the U.S. Treasury all profits his hotels earn from payments made by foreign governments. Donating the money would avoid the appearance of self-dealing, according to the lawmakers.


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Arrow Down

Looming "black swans"? The US market has its head buried deep in the sand

Dave Kranzler
Investment Research Dynamics
Wed, 29 Mar 2017 16:28 UTC
black swan 2
© Getty Images
Several "black swans" are looming which could inflict a financial nuclear accident on the U.S. markets and financial system. I say "black swans" in quotes because a limited audience is aware of these issues - potentially catastrophic problems that are curiously ignored by the mainstream financial media and financial markets.

The most immediate problem is the Treasury debt ceiling. The Treasury is now projected to run out of cash by mid-summer. Of course, in the spurious manner in which the markets evaluate the next trade, July may as well be a decade away. My best guess is that the "market" assumes that, after drawn out staging of DC's version of Kabuki Theatre, Congress will raise the debt ceiling, probably up to $22 trillion. Then the Fed will extend its highly secretive "swap" operations to foreign "ally" Central Banks (hint: Belgium and Switzerland) in order to fund the onslaught of Treasury issuance that will ensue. Problem solved...or is it?

(Note: Plan B would be another one of Trump's bewildering Executive Orders removing the debt ceiling. Plan B is another form of "fiat" currency issuance)

The second "black swan" seen by some but invisible to most is the ongoing collapse the shopping mall business model, erroneously blamed on the combative growth of online retailing. But when I look at the actual numbers, that argument smells foul.
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Alarm Clock

Le Pen smacks down the BBC: "You want war at all costs! What is your problem?"

Alex Christoforou
The Duran
Wed, 29 Mar 2017 15:59 UTC
Zbob objave fotografija zločina ISIL-a na Twitteru Marini Le Pen Europski parlament ukinuo imunitet
Just weeks ahead of the French presidential elections, Front National candidate Marine Le Pen sat down with the BBC's Emily Maitlis to discuss Brexit, Putin and NATO.

Le Pen did not hold back, dishing out realpolitik answers to the BBC's neo-liberal propaganda...

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Bad Guys

Analysts: US seeks lasting dominance in Middle East with latest troop buildup in Iraq


Sputnik
Wed, 29 Mar 2017 15:53 UTC
us army mosul soldiers
© REUTERS/ Ammar Awad
The decision to send 200 more US troops to support the Iraqi Army in its drive to retake Mosul is part of Washington's longstanding strategy to establish and maintain complete domination over the Middle East, analysts told Sputnik.

The US strategic agenda for the region could be clearly understood in a simple five point plan, University of Pittsburgh Professor of International Affairs Michael Brenner said on Tuesday.

Successive US presidents shared their determination to gain and hold "Permanent bases in Iraq and Kurdish Syria, [exercise] obedience to Israeli and Saudi strategic designs [and] topple the IRI [Islamic Republic of Iran]," Brenner said.

This overall strategy and the continuing US-led coalition against Daesh (outlawed in Russia) now had the additional aim of driving Russian influence out of the region too, Brenner observed.

"It's not very complicated: the same as it was in 2003. Establish American dominance — political as well as military — throughout the greater Middle East," he explained.

Comment: The operation to retake Mosul isn't going so well:

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Bad Guys

Pentagon admits it 'probably' had a role in the mounting 200+ death toll from Mosul bombing


RT
Wed, 29 Mar 2017 15:09 UTC
Mosul bombing
The Pentagon has admitted that its air campaign in Mosul "probably had a role" in the mounting civilian death toll in Mosul, including the recent loss of dozens of lives under the rubble of a house that was allegedly booby-trapped by ISIS to maximize casualties.

Mounting evidence of an underreported civilian death toll in Mosul has recently been noted by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. Both organizations have criticized the modus operandi of the US-led military campaign.

Entire families in Mosul are being killed by airstrikes in their own homes following repeated instructions from Iraqi authorities to stay inside, AI said this week. The NGO emphasized that the coalition forces must have known the strikes were likely to result in civilian deaths.

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Gold Bar

He who has the gold makes the rules: China claims discovery of its largest gold mine with $22 billion potential


RT
Wed, 29 Mar 2017 15:05 UTC
China gold
© Bobby Yip / Reuters
The biggest ever gold deposit of an estimated 380 tons has been discovered in China, announced Shandong Gold Group during a news conference in Beijing on Tuesday.

According to local media reports, the Xiling gold seam in eastern China is more than 2,000 meters long and 67 meters wide. At full capacity, the mine could produce gold for 40 years.

The mine is located in the Laizhou-Zhaoyuan region of northwest Jiaodong Peninsula, in eastern China's Shandong. The region has the largest gold deposits in the country.

China had the fifth largest gold reserves in the world after the United States, Germany, Italy, and France. The mine is estimated to have the equivalent of 20 percent of the country's 1,843 tons of gold reserves.

Comment: China does not export gold mined in country and has been acquiring significant amounts of gold in recent years. As some alternatives writers have commented, the gold is flowing from East to West and he who has the gold makes the rules. The physically gold market is notoriously opaque. It is very difficult to truly know how much gold countries hold and where the gold flowing into China and its shanghai gold exchange, one of the few physical precious metals exchanges in the world, is going. The topic of who has the gold in all likelihood will impact most of the world at some point as geopolitical and economic changes come to a head. For further reading on the topic, check out the links below:

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Info

UK court declares Ukraine has no 'justifiable defense' for non-payment of $3bn debt to Russia


RT
Wed, 29 Mar 2017 15:25 UTC
statue of late Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin
© John Macdougall / AFPA statue of late Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin painted with the colours of the Ukrainian flag in the town of Velyka Novosilka, Western Ukraine.
The High Court in London has ruled Ukraine failed to offer a "justifiable" or court-ready defense for not paying back the $3 billion lent by Russia in 2013. The judge refused to send the case to a full trial.

The decision rejected Kiev's claim the non-payment was a countermeasure against Russian interference with Ukraine's sovereignty.

"Ultimately this is a claim for repayment of debt instruments to which the court has held there is no justifiable defense. It would not be right to order the case to go forward to a full trial in such circumstances," said Judge William Blair, stressing that the court had given the case careful consideration.
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Info

Trump asks why Intelligence Committee isn't probing the Clintons

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Tue, 28 Mar 2017 08:59 UTC
Trump
© Doug Mills/The New York Times After meeting with trucking executives, President Trump was told the health law vote was off.
Following a day of drama involving the Chair of the House Intelligence Committee, Devin Nunes, who has been under constant onslaught by Democrats ever since his disclosure last week that Trump had indeed been the object of surveillance, and whose Democrat peer at the Intel panel, Adam Schiff, on Monday night called for Nunes to recuse himself, moments ago Trump waded into the news cycle when he asked on Twitter why the House Intelligence Committee is not investigating the Clintons for various ties of their own to Russia. He then slammed the ongoing anti-Russian witch hunt, saying "the Russia story is a hoax."

"Why isn't the House Intelligence Committee looking into the Bill & Hillary deal that allowed big Uranium to go to Russia, Russian speech, money to Bill, the Hillary Russian 'reset,' praise of Russia by Hillary, or Podesta Russian Company. Trump Russia story is a hoax. #MAGA!" Trump wrote in two tweets Monday night.
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MIB

Trump adds anti-Putin propagandist Fiona Hill as National Security Council director

Karen DeYoung
Washington Post
Tue, 28 Mar 2017 14:25 UTC
Fiona Hill
Fiona Hill worked at the Brookings Institution with Danchenko for years before serving as the Russia expert on Trump’s National Security Council
Fiona Hill, a Russia expert and frequent critic of President Vladi­mir Putin, will join the White House National Security Council as senior director for Europe and Russia, officials said Tuesday.

Hill, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and former member of the National Intelligence Council, was first recruited for the NSC job under Michael Flynn, President Trump's now-former national security adviser.

Flynn was forced to resign after barely three weeks in office after the White House said he had misled Vice President Pence about contacts he had with Sergey Kislyak, Russia's U.S. ambassador, before Trump's inauguration.

Russian efforts to influence the U.S. election and contacts between Flynn and other Trump associates and Russian operatives during the campaign have since become the subject of FBI and congressional investigations.

Comment: It's apparent Hill doesn't intend on even trying to establish better relations with Russia. Hill is described as a 'Russian scholar' in the mainstream media, yet it's quite apparent that she is driven by a neo-Cold War ideology which ultimately seeks continued estrangement between Russia and the EU. Russia has stated repeatedly that it doesn't expect a normalization of relations with the US, and that any such pursuit would be an uphill battle (pun not intended). Her comment that Russia 'will get all giddy with expectation' over normalizing relations demonstrates a substantive lack in understanding of Russia's position. Lavrov can clear things up for her:
"We are not getting our hopes up but... are ready to do our part of the work to ensure that relation with the United States are normalized. this can be done, of course, solely on the basis of equality," Lavrov said.
See also: Return of the zombies: Fiona Hill to take over President Trump's Russia desk

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