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Americans are pigging out on bacon as Trump's trade war cuts chicken demand


NBC News
Tue, 13 Nov 2018 12:49 UTC
bacon
© Tannis Toohey / Toronto Star via Getty Images
Americans are losing their taste for chicken and eating more beef and pork as President Donald Trump's trade wars reduce U.S. pork exports to China and Mexico and leave cheaper bacon and ribs at home.

An expansion in the number of U.S. hogs and cattle is contributing to the change in diets by boosting supplies of pork and beef. Restaurants are seizing on the increases to promote hamburgers instead of chicken, while grocery stores have featured pork.

The shift is set to end an unprecedented streak of 27 profitable quarters for chicken producers such as Tyson Foods, which reports results on Tuesday, and Sanderson Farms, said Bill Roenigk, an agricultural economist and consultant for the National Chicken Council trade group. He said the chicken sector would generally lose money or break even in the fourth quarter of 2018.

Comment: See also:

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2 + 2 = 4

11 signs that the US economy is on increasingly shaky ground

Michael Snyder
The Economic Collapse Blog
Tue, 13 Nov 2018 00:00 UTC
eleven signs
The pace at which things are changing is shocking the experts. Just a few months ago, many of the experts were still talking about how the U.S. economy was "booming", but since then a major shift has taken place. Most of the headlines have been about the huge stock market declines that we have been witnessing, but things have not been going well for the real economy either. Home sales are way down, auto sales are plummeting, the retail apocalypse is escalating, the middle class continues to shrink and economic optimism is rapidly evaporating. We haven't seen anything like this since 2008, and many believe that the economic downturn that is now upon us will ultimately be even worse than what we experienced a decade ago. The following are 11 signs that the U.S. economy is starting to slow down dramatically...

#1 When economic activity is rising, demand for oil increases, and oil prices tend to go up. But when economic activity is slowing down, demand for oil diminishes, and oil prices tend to go down. That is why what is happening to the price of oil right now is so alarming...
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Arrow Down

Decayed U.S. Military would lose war against Russia or China - Congressional report


RFE/RL
Wed, 14 Nov 2018 22:24 UTC
US military

The report warn that a sense of “complacency” is undermining efforts to maintain the U.S. military’s dominant position.
The United States military has "lost its edge" and could potentially lose a war against Russia or China, a report by a bipartisan panel established by Congress says.

The report by the National Defense Strategy Commission on November 14 said U.S. military superiority has "eroded to a dangerous degree" and could suffer unacceptably high casualties and loss of major capital assets in its next conflict."

"It might struggle to win, or perhaps lose, a war against China or Russia," it said, adding that new threats were also being realized as Iran and North Korea bolster their capabilities.
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Eye 1

The Crucifixion of Julian Assange

Chris Hedges
Truthdig
Wed, 14 Nov 2018 19:59 UTC
Julian assange
© Mr. Fish/Truthdig
Julian Assange
Julian Assange's sanctuary in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London has been transformed into a little shop of horrors. He has been largely cut off from communicating with the outside world for the last seven months. His Ecuadorian citizenship, granted to him as an asylum seeker, is in the process of being revoked. His health is failing. He is being denied medical care. His efforts for legal redress have been crippled by the gag rules, including Ecuadorian orders that he cannot make public his conditions inside the embassy in fighting revocation of his Ecuadorian citizenship.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has refused to intercede on behalf of Assange, an Australian citizen, even though the new government in Ecuador, led by Lenín Moreno - who calls Assange an "inherited problem" and an impediment to better relations with Washington - is making the WikiLeaks founder's life in the embassy unbearable. Almost daily, the embassy is imposing harsher conditions for Assange, including making him pay his medical bills, imposing arcane rules about how he must care for his cat and demanding that he perform a variety of demeaning housekeeping chores.

Comment: How many lies and crimes would have gone unexposed without the dedication of the Wikileaks team? Julian Assange has performed more service in the cause of press freedom than any individual on record.

A political prisoner in the heart of the so-called democratic West, he is the journalist that Western media OUGHT to be focusing on before lecturing other countries about freedom of speech and freedom of the press... Assange held up a mirror to the West, and the US in particular, and for that the Deep Staters running this 'democratic' freak-show hate him...

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Light Sabers

Liberati rage as Melania Trump clashes with WH staffer and Trump's chief of staff


Sputnik
Wed, 14 Nov 2018 20:16 UTC
melania
© AP Photo / Carolyn Kaster
Social media users aren't quite sure what to make of the historically unprecedented news that the First Lady was trying to publicly call the shots on White House staffing policy amid reports that John Bolton aide Mira Ricardel would be fired after a spat with Melania Trump.

A former Trump aide has told Politico that the unrest which has broken out inside the White House after last week's midterm elections is comparable to an episode of the Maury Povich Show, adding that "the only thing that's missing is a paternity test."

First Lady Melania Trump made headlines on Tuesday after a FLOTUS spokesperson cryptically stated that Melania felt that Bolton advisor Mira Ricardel "no longer deserves the honor of serving in this White House." Later, two unnamed White House officials told NBC News that Trump chief of staff John Kelly may also be on his way out after clashing with Melania by denying her requests to promote her aides.

With the White House itself providing little information on Melania's suspected quarrels with Ricardel and Kelly, speculation has become rife on social media.
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NPC

Left-wing groups organize protests after Oxford announces Steve Bannon will speak there


RT
Wed, 14 Nov 2018 20:05 UTC
bannon
© REUTERS/Nathan Layne
The mastermind behind Donald Trump's bid for presidency, Steve Bannon, is to speak at Oxford University. Left wing groups have begun to organize protests, following the announcement of the far-right strategist's talk.

Bannon is to speak at the Oxford Union on Friday, November 16. Prominent figures on the left slammed the prestigious union for hosting the "fascist" Bannon.

His planned appearance follows the cancellation of a talk by Alice Weidel, the leader of Alternative for Germany (AfD), at the union, which was stopped after planned protests led to security concerns.
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Family

Vigilante group recruits 550 people to counter rise in violent crime in UK's Birmingham


RT
Wed, 14 Nov 2018 19:53 UTC
birmingham attack
© West Midlands Police / Facebook
In an attempt to counter the sharp rise in violent crime in Birmingham, 550 people have joined a vigilante patrol in the UK's second largest city, having lost trust in the police force.

The Facebook group, 'We Stand Determined', was formed by three local people after discovering a friend of theirs had been viciously attacked in his home by hammer-wielding intruders.

Organisers Wayne, Tracy and Michael, who have not revealed their full names, are urging all their recent recruits and the wider community to report any dangers and threats they see, day or night, the Metro reports.

The group run twice-weekly patrols across the city of Birmingham, and insist, despite the vigilante label, they use non-violent tactics, claiming they want to work in partnership with local police and not against them.
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Red Flag

Trump supporter waving 'Trump 2020' banner banned from Disney World for life


RT
Wed, 14 Nov 2018 19:49 UTC
trump banner
© Facebook / Dion Cini
Dion Cini's stunt caught on camera
A Trump-supporting 'guerilla marketer' has been banned for life from Disney World for holding up a 'Trump 2020' banner on the Splash Mountain log ride, weeks after he was booted out of the park for a similar stunt.

Dion Cini, a die-hard Trump supporter, had his lifetime pass to Disney World revoked in September for hanging a massive banner reading "Re-Elect Trump. Keep America Great," over a balcony in the park's Magic Kingdom area.

After a discussion with park officials, Cini got his pass back, on the condition that he would leave his flags at home. Park rules forbid political statements, including "the usage of any flag, banner or sign to incite a crowd."

The 49-year-old New Yorker broke his promise last week, holding a pro-Trump banner high as he went over the park's Splash Mountain log ride, and displaying another one on a rollercoaster.

Comment: Who could have ever predicted that waving a banner supporting an incumbent's re-election would become a revolutionary act?

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V

#ThisIsNotConsent protests erupt in Ireland after lawyer highlights woman's thong in rape trial


RT
Wed, 14 Nov 2018 19:45 UTC
thong
© Global Look Press/ CHROMORANGE / Bilderbox
Protests across Ireland were held on Wednesday against what activists say is recurring victim-blaming in rape cases, after a woman's lace thong was controversially cited as evidence against a 17-year-old alleged victim.

The Cork trial first grabbed the headlines on November 6 when a 27-year-old was acquitted of raping a 17-year-old. The defense counsel, Elizabeth O'Connell, stirred widespread outcry when she said about the teenage girl: "You have to look at the way she was dressed. She was wearing a thong with a lace front."

It prompted a mass movement on Twitter where people posted pictures of their underpants with the hashtag #ThisIsNotConsent.
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Bullseye

Veteran reporter Bob Woodward criticizes CNN White House lawsuit - Better reporting, not a lawsuit, should be focus


RT
Wed, 14 Nov 2018 19:30 UTC
bob woodward
© AFP / Drew Angerer
Veteran reporter Bob Woodward criticized CNN's lawsuit against the White House over the revocation of correspondent Jim Acosta's press credentials, saying media should focus on "serious reporting" and not lawsuits and smugness.

CNN filed the lawsuit on Tuesday, alleging that the Trump administration violated Acosta's First and Fifth Amendment rights when he was banned from entering the White House and had his press pass confiscated. It followed a heated press conference earlier in the day, during which the White House accused Acosta of putting his hands on a female intern who was attempting to remove a microphone from his hand.

Speaking at the Global Financial Leadership Conference in Florida, Woodward said the remedy to Trump isn't a lawsuit, but "more serious reporting" about his actions, according to NBC reporter Dylan Byers who tweeted the comments.
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