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War Whore

US weapons manufacturers' stock prices rise as Trump pulls out of Iran deal

Boeing Raytheon stocks
© Brendan McDermid / Reuters
While President Donald Trump's decision to pull the US out of the Iran nuclear deal has been negatively criticized by most of the international community it has brought good news for some. Weapons manufacturers.

The stock price of all of the top US weapons manufacturers shot up just as Trump announced he's pulling his country out of the pact which lifted sanctions on Iran in exchange for Tehran limiting its nuclear program.

Northrop Grumman's stock price took the largest leap and the aerospace and defense technology company has maintained those gains, rising more than 12 points (3.8 percent) since Trump's announcement.

Lockheed Martin is up 6.4 points (2 percent) while Raytheon's price rose 5.3 points (2.55 percent). Boeing also gained more than three points, it was unable to maintain those advances however it is still up two points on its price before Trump said the US was exiting the 2015 deal.

Stock Down

Baltimore's wave of restaurant closures ain't the millenials' fault

baltimore flames
It is official. Consumers in Baltimore appear to be tapped out.

The Central-Bank-free-money-anything-goes-induced restaurant bubble in the most dangerous city in America: Baltimore, has begun a violent period of deflation - on par with a possible collapse.

At least 24 restaurants have closed since the start of 2018, "including Federal Hill stalwart Regi's American Bistro, Hampden's popular Corner Restaurant and Charcuterie Bar and Canton's Fork and Wrench," said the Baltimore Sun.

Chris LeBarton, a market economist for CoStar Market Analytics, warned that increased vacancy rates for small commercial real estate spaces reflect the recent wave of closures.


Comment: The same can be seen in even the most desirable retail districts in the UK with retailers requesting rent reductions, shutting stores and laying off staff as the economy tanks.


Comment: Blaming millennials is quite trendy these days and is much easier than facing the reality that the Western economies are failing thanks to the choices of the generations that went before them:


Info

N.Y. AG and #MeToo champion Eric Schneiderman accused of violence, resigns

Eric Schneiderman
© Andrew Burton/Getty Images
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who positioned himself as a combatant of sexual harassment and abuse in the #MeToo era and a major opponent of President Donald Trump, abruptly announced his resignation Monday after four women accused him of physical violence and illicit drug and alcohol use.

Schneiderman, a Democrat, stepped down hours after a New Yorker article was published Monday evening detailing allegations that he repeatedly slapped, choked and degraded women with whom he had been romantic.

The article was based on similar-but-separate stories from four women who had relationships or encounters with the state attorney general.

Comment: If these women were assaulted or battered, they should have gone to the police and not a reporter. A trial by media in the court of public opinion is not the place to seek justice.


Bullseye

Americans finally getting a clue: Now believe Russia investigation is 'politically motivated'

PutinTrump
© Unknown
A majority of Americans now say that the investigation into Russian involvement in the 2016 presidential election is politically motivated, according to a new poll.

The CBS News poll found that 53 percent of Americans believe that US Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into alleged 'Russian meddling' in the election is "politically motivated" while 44 percent think the investigation is "justified."

The poll also found that, overall, 76 percent of Americans still believe US President Donald Trump should cooperate if he is asked to be interviewed as part of Mueller's investigation. In January, the percentage of people who believed Trump should cooperate was at 84 percent.

Comment: Americans are encouraged, by political shenanigans and congressional proxies, to choose a side and remain divided between Republican and Democrat ideologies. This is the same biased structure, often petty, that keeps the US from moving forward in agreement as a nation - leaving it open to diabolical plots such as 'Russiagate' and the suffocating influence of Israel. Without utilizing choice and perspective, clueless to what they could achieve based on truth and working together, Americans increasingly compromise their freedoms and rights. Isn't that The Plan?


Shoe

Citing high taxes and cost of living, more people are leaving New Jersey than almost any other state

Mass exodus New Jersey

Fewer residents might mean less traffic.
For the past five years, New Jersey has lost a larger percentage of its population than any other state. For the first time in half a decade, we rank number two on this list, with Illinois being the number one state facing a mass emigration. Still, over sixty percent of New Jersey moves in 2017 were residents moving out, not in. This isn't a great thing. It often means less tax revenue and decreased purchasing power, but it isn't all bad.

More than two million people left New Jersey between 2005 and 2014. That may mean two million less cars on the road. Rush hour can get pretty chaotic and we could all use a little less traffic. This photo was taken on the Garden State Parkway.

Comment: See also:


Footprints

Not a surprise: The mass exodus from Illinois continues

illinois exodus
People move for a lot of reasons. Mostly job related, that's why I've moved around a lot. When I moved to Quincy in 2016, it was my fifth state in as many years. In 2011 I moved from Michigan (where I had moved to in '03 for college) to California, then to Kansas in 2012, back to Michigan for the summer of 2014, down to Missouri that fall, then finally here to Illinois to kick off 2016. Apparently I was the odd man out on moving TO Illinois, as Illinois has been high on the list of people leaving the state each year for the past four decades.

This according to the 41st Annual National Movers study from United Van Lines. The annual study tracks state-to-state migration of the previous year, and Illinois came in at number one for people leaving the state, ending the five year reign of New Jersey. Meanwhile the number one state for inbound moves? Oddly Vermont. Oddly because A) Really? Vermont? and B) The rest of the top 10 is dominated by the south and the west. I guess one should not underestimate the allure of Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream.

Comment:


Better Earth

Greeks protest after 17% increase in refugee arrivals in April - once warm feelings turning sour as refugee crisis sees no end in sight

greece protest migrants

Locals argue with riot police during a protest against the visit of Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras in Mytilene, on the Greek island of Lesbos.
Less than a week after the Greek government sent additional police forces to reinforce its land border with Turkey as fears mount over a sharp rise in the number of refugees and migrants crossing the frontier, The Guardian reports that Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras faced down protests from citizens Thursday upset over how he's handled April's 17% increase in the influx of migrants.

The Daily Caller's Audrey Conklin reports that the protests in Lesbos, Greece, represent a stark shift in attitude among a people once significantly more welcoming to migrants fleeing as part of a years-long refugee crisis.

Huge numbers of people seeking asylum are flooding into the country by bus and boat every week, and while an agreement between the EU and Turkey signed in 2016 states that illegal refugees are supposed to be sent to Turkey after crossing European borders, Greek camps are overcrowding and in bad shape. Experts estimate that as many as 500 refugees new people cross the island's borders each week.

Cardboard Box

Tapped out? Colorado eviction courts overwhelmed amid unfolding housing crisis

Colorado housing crisis

It is official. Consumers in Colorado appear to be tapped out.


This comes at a time when the recovery is now tied for the second-longest economic expansion in American history. The stock market is near an all-time high, unemployment is the lowest in two decades, consumer confidence is beyond euphoric, and Trump tax cuts are stoking the best earnings quarter since 2011 - unleashing a record amount of corporate stock buybacks.

While a real economic recovery could be plausible this late in the business cycle, the unevenness of the recovery has left many residents in Colorado without a paddle. Accelerating real estate and rent prices across Colorado are squeezing residents out of their homes at an alarming pace.

According to ABC Denver 7, Denver metro area's skyrocketing cost of living, stagnate wage growth, and lack of affordable real estate has fueled an enormous housing crisis - overwhelming the state's eviction courts.

Comment: Colorado residents aren't alone in feeling the housing pinch, as high costs of living are forcing many to leave their home states:


Heart - Black

Debate over appointing 'Bloody Gina' Haspel as CIA chief shows America's soul sickness

CIA torture report
© all-len-all.com
Editor's note: John Kiriakou is a former CIA counterterrorism officer. He served 23 months in prison as a result of his attempts to oppose the Bush administration's torture program.

The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence will hold hearings Wednesday to decide if Gina Haspel should be the next CIA director. The vote in committee and on the floor of the Senate is going to be close. And if Haspel wins, we will have the Democrats to thank for it.

You remember "Bloody Gina" Haspel. She's already the CIA's acting director and has had just about every high-level job in the building. She's the godmother of the CIA's immoral, unethical and illegal George W. Bush-era torture program. She was the chief of a secret prison, where she oversaw the implementation of the torture program and was personally responsible for directing the torture of Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the alleged mastermind of the USS Cole bombing. Nashiri's attorneys say the torture of their client was so severe that he has lost his mind and can no longer participate in his own defense.

Comment:


Eiffel Tower

French FM expresses 'firm disapproval' over Trump claims that Paris attacks could have been halted by armed citizens

November 13 2015 terror attacks paris
© Dominique Faget / Getty
Rescue workers evacuate an injured person near the Bataclan concert hall in central Paris, on November 13, 2015. At least 39 people were killed in an 'unprecedented' series of bombings and shootings across Paris and at the Stade de France stadium on November 13.
When President Donald Trump spoke to the NRA convention on Friday, he suggested fewer people could have died in Paris on November 13, 2015, if Parisians had been allowed to be armed for self-defense.

The Daily Mail reports that French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian responded by expressing "firm disapproval" of Trump's suggestion that allowing people to be armed for self-defense would have made them safer.

The Los Angeles Times reported that Trump referenced the attack as proof that gun control does not control bad people. He said, "Paris, France, has the toughest gun laws in the world. Nobody has guns in Paris." He talked of how the gun-free status of patrons allowed the attackers to methodically kill at will. He said, "They took their time and gunned them down one by one."