Baltic Dry Index. 831 +07
LIR Gold Target in 2019: $30,000. Revised due to QE programs.
“All
animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”
George
Orwell, Animal Farm.
We have reached the last day of the half year. While Scotland is busy commemorating its independence and the 700th anniversary of the Battle of Bannockburn, and the rest if the Europe and the English speaking world is commemorating the event that happened a hundred years ago that led up to World War One and independence for many of the constituent parts of Europe’s great empires, and America gets ready to celebrate its Independence Day on July 4th, we open with a different type of independence getting declared from the Eastern Ukraine to the Middle East. Some independence declarations are more valid than others in our new lawless 21st century era.
Below, while America fiddles in the Ukraine, setting off a new Christian civil war, if not yet World War Three, the Middle East as we knew it is collapsing into Moslem barbarism and medieval backwardness backed up by modern weaponry. But don’t tell the Fed’s final bubble stock market. It’s “dress up” Monday for the end of quarter and half year for stocks.
“The creatures outside looked from
America to Russia, and from Russia to America, and from America to Russia
again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.”
With apologies
to George Orwell and Animal Farm
Isis declares its captive territories an 'Islamic Caliphate'
Jihadist group Isis demands all Muslims declare obedience to its leader as it lays claim to the mantle of the great Muslim empires of the past
Fresh from their victories over the Iraqi army and on the first night of the holy month of Ramadan, the jihadist group Isis has declared its captive territories an “Islamic Caliphate” and demanded all Muslims declare obedience to its leader.In a recorded audio statement, the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham’s spokesman, Abu Mohammed al-Adnani, said the new caliphate ran from Aleppo to Diyala province, north-east of Baghdad, and was expanding every day.
“The time has come for the Ummah [nation] of Mohammed (peace be upon him) to wake up from its sleep, remove the garments of dishonour, and shake off the dust of humiliation and disgrace,” he says. “For the era of lamenting and moaning has gone, and the dawn of honour has emerged anew.
“The sun of jihad has risen. The glad tidings of good are shining. Triumph looms on the horizon. The signs of victory have appeared.”
He spoke in Arabic but written versions were published online in English and other languages.
By making the statement, the group is laying claim to the mantle of the great Muslim empires of the past, ruled by caliphs based in Baghdad, Damascus and Istanbul.
The group has referred to its territories as a caliphate before, but this is a typical piece of aggrandising propaganda intended to attract young followers in particular. Many Arabs, seeing the economic and social decay of their countries, hark back to a golden age of Muslim unity and power.
It is also a plausible threat of the group’s expansionist goals – with Iran, once part of the caliphate, and other Muslim nations such as Lebanon, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey now in the direct line of Isis’s advances.
The triumphalism of Sunni Islam was also emphasised, saying that “crosses and graves” were being demolished, and jizya – a tax for non-Muslims – was being implemented.
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Isis crucifies nine people in Syrian villages
Crucifixions have been meted out by Isis across Syria as punishment to rebels
A man has survived being crucified by Isis in Syria, after the jihadists raided his village and nailed him to a cross for eight hours.The unnamed man from Al-Bab, near the border with Turkey, was crucified as a punishment, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
He managed to survive the ordeal
Isis first emerged in Syria's war in late spring last year – and was initially welcomed by some Syrian rebels, who believed its combat experience would help topple Mr Assad.
But subsequent acts of immense brutality quickly turned the Syrian opposition, including Islamists, against Isis.
Rebels launched a major anti-Isis offensive in January 2014, and have pushed them out of large swathes of Aleppo province and all of Idlib in the northwest.
However, Isis remains firmly rooted in Raqa, its northern Syrian headquarters, and wields significant power in Deir Ezzor in the east near the border with Iraq.
Activists say the group's Iraq offensive and capture of heavy weapons – some of them US-made – appears to have boosted its confidence in Syria.
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Children forced to watch as Pakistani couple who married for love were 'murdered as an example'
Five people – including father of the bride – arrested after honour killing of couple who wed without permission of their parents
A young couple murdered in Pakistan barely a week after they had married for love were killed as a warning to other girls not to marry without the permission of their parents, according to witnesses.Residents of Satrah, Punjab, said relatives of the bride slit their throats and forced children to watch as they bled to death.
A string of similar murders has provoked revulsion around the world and promises of action inside Pakistan. But the nature of the latest deaths is savage even by the warped yardstick of the country’s grisly honour killings.
Local police said they had arrested five people in connection with the murder of Sajjad Ahmed, 31, and Muafia Bibi, 17, including the bride’s father and grandfather.
Muhammad Pervaiz, the local police chief, said: “It is a case of honour killing. The couple were not beheaded but were killed with the knives and had severe signs of torture on their heads.”
Russian Advisers Ready Iraq to Use New Combat Aircraft
Jun 30,
2014 12:29 AM GMT
Russian military advisers helped to prepare Iraq’s air force to
use five newly delivered combat planes in its campaign to recapture areas of
the country’s north that fell to an al-Qaeda breakaway. The used Russian Sukhoi combat aircraft arrived in Iraq as government ground forces, backed by helicopter gunships, pressed their offensive to drive Sunni fighters of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant from the northern city of Tikrit. Al-Mada Press reported late yesterday that government forces recaptured Ouja village, Saddam Hussein’s birthplace, south of Tikrit.
The Iraqi government turned to Russia to bolster its air capabilities, saying U.S. fighter jets were taking too long to be delivered. Russian advisers who arrived in Iraq are helping to put the “logistical procedures in place,” and the aircraft will enter service within three to four days, air force commander General Anwar Ameen said yesterday on state-run Iraqiya TV.
“One day after the Russian deputy foreign minister said that Moscow would not stand by idly, the Kremlin delivered the first of 25 Sukhoi fighter jets to Iraq,” said Theodore Karasik, director of research at the Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis in Dubai.
Ukraine's Poroshenko urges Putin to tighten borders after violence
By Thomas
Grove KIEV
(Reuters) - Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko urged President Vladimir
Putin on Sunday to strengthen Russian control over its borders to prevent
militants and arms entering Ukraine
after violence broke a truce there.The ceasefire, declared by Poroshenko on June 20 to allow for peace talks with the pro-Russian rebels, is due to expire on Monday, a deadline also set by EU leaders considering new sanctions against Russia.
The statement came after a four-way telephone conversation among the Ukrainian and Russian leaders, French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, said a statement from Poroshenko's office.
"Ukraine called on the President of Russia to strengthen control over the Russian side of the state border in order to stop the penetration into Ukraine of militants and mercenaries and supplies of weapons and armoured vehicles," it said.
The four leaders agreed to speak again on Monday, the statement added.
The European Union has threatened more penalties on Moscow beyond existing asset freezes and visa bans unless pro-Russian rebels act to ease the crisis in eastern Ukraine by Monday.
Another military unit stormed in Donetsk on Sunday
DONETSK/KYIV. June 30 (Interfax) - Armed people have attempted to storm a military unit deployed in Donetsk, an Interfax correspondent reported on Sunday evening.Interior Ministry Forces unit No 3036 located on the premises of a military school was put under fire. There were explosions and a fire started on the unit's territory. Tenants of nearby apartment houses had to hide in basements.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov wrote on Facebook that servicemen of Donetsk military unit No 3037 passed through militia roadblocks and joined the army operation.
"More than 300 Guard servicemen led by Lt. Col. Borteyev and carrying Ukrainian flags broke through terrorist roadblocks and joined the antiterrorist operation forces in sector D," the minister emphasized.
He said the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic gave the servicemen an ultimatum. They were told to lay down arms and to pass the unit's arms depot to the DPR.
Avakov said the arms depot was mined and blown up on his orders. "I gave the order to prevent the armaments and ammunition stored in that depot from falling into the hands of terrorists," he said.
Earlier on Sunday Donetsk military unit No A-1402 was taken under control by the Donetsk People's Republic.
"The militia took control of military unit No A-1402 on Stratonavtov Street today," the DPR press service told Interfax without providing any details.
Military unit No A-1402 is an air defense regiment armed with self-propelled air defense missile launchers Buk.
The militia took control of military unit No 3004 on June 26.
Ukraine’s Donetsk airport closed for technical reasons till October 31
June 28, 4:15 UTC+4
International airport of another eastern city, Lugansk, has been closed “for technical reasons” till September 10
International airport of another eastern city, Lugansk, has been closed “for technical reasons” till September 10
We close for what promises to be yet another “interesting day,” with a challenge to the US media, conditioning the long suffering US public for yet another war. No not a war to crush Islamic barbarism and a return to the dark ages of spearing Islam by fire and the sword, but a war to ignite World War Three among the Christians.
Correcting The NYT’s False Narrative: Washington Triggered The Ukraine Crisis, Not Putin
by Robert Parry •
It’s always interesting when the New York Times promotes a false
narrative – as it has on Ukraine by blaming the crisis all on “Russian
aggression” – and then has to shift its storyline
when events move in a different direction, like President Vladimir
Putin’s recent peacemaking initiatives.On Thursday, the Times explained Putin’s call for an extended ceasefire as a case of him caving in to U.S. pressure. Correspondents Andrew Roth and David S. Herszenhorn wrote:
“Faced with the threat of additional economic sanctions from Washington, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia discussed an extension of the cease-fire, which is to expire on Friday, in a telephone call with Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, President François Hollande of France and Ukraine’s new president, Petro O. Poroshenko.”
The article then continued the tough-guy, ultimatum-threatening chest-pounding that has become de rigueur for the State Department and the mainstream U.S. news media.
Normally, when one party in a dispute makes an allegation and fails to provide meaningful evidence to support it, news organizations add something like: “However, the claim could not be independently verified” or the Times might have noted that “similar claims by the State Department in the past have proven to be false.”
But the Times simply can’t seem to deviate from its four-month display of an extraordinary lack of balance, which brings us back to the Times’ attempt to explain Putin’s peacemaking as a development that could only be explained as him caving in to U.S. pressure. [For more on the Times’ bias, see Consortiumnews.com’s “NYT’s One-Sided Ukraine Narrative.” For more on Herszenhorn’s bias, see “Ukraine, Through the US Looking Glass.”]
There is, of course, an alternative explanation for Putin’s recent behavior: that he never sought the Ukraine crisis and surely did not plan it; it resulted, in part, from U.S. and European provocations designed to put Putin in a corner in his own corner of the world; Putin reacted to this Western maneuver but was always willing to compromise as long as the end result was not a strategic threat to Russia.
"The great merit of gold is precisely that it is scarce; that its quantity is limited by nature; that it is costly to discover, to mine, and to process; and that it cannot be created by political fiat or caprice."
Henry Hazlitt
At the Comex silver depositories Friday final figures were: Registered 57.04 Moz,
Eligible 118.43 Moz, Total 175.47 Moz.
Crooks and Scoundrels Corner
The bent, the seriously bent, and the totally
doubled over.
Today, a look at smoke and mirrors Japan. As
Abenomics fails to deliver as promised, plan B increasingly looks like stirring
up trouble with China. Stay long fully paid up physical precious metals. The
Great Nixonian Error of fiat money is headed for a shock as great as the
currencies suffered one hundred years ago in World War One.
“The world is a place that’s gone from being flat to round to crooked.”
Mad Magazine.
Printing Press “Prosperity”: The Complete And Utter Failure Of Abenomics
by Contributor •
By Andy SirkisDespite claims to the contrary in the mass media, Japan’s economy is continuing to suffer mightily under the leadership of Prime Minister Abe Shinzo. Abe is from a famous family and he’s a convincing talker, so he was able to bamboozle people into believing that he could make Japan prosper with his three arrows. These metaphorical arrows stand for “monetary stimulus,” “fiscal stimulus,” and “structural reform.”
When Abe was elected using his “three arrows” symbolism to attract votes, I thought the Japanese people were beginning to believe in magic. Perhaps they were gullible or a little lazy in thinking or thought they would receive “free stuff” from Abe. No matter, Abe became Prime Minister in December 2012 and shot off his arrows.
With his “monetary stimulus” arrow, Abe arm-twisted the central bank into doubling the money supply in just a few months time. I could just imagine Abe rubbing his palms together and fiendishly muttering “We’re going to be rich, rich, RICH!” All that the central bank had to do was type a few numbers into their computers to make this happen. Naturally, the newly created money was distributed to politically powerful banks.
How did all of this money creation affect the common people? Despite claims that Japan has less than 2 percent inflation, I can assure you that the prices of many goods, especially imported goods like energy, have increased dramatically since the monetary stimulus arrow was fired. Wages, on the other hand, have remained depressed. With higher expenses to pay, Japanese people can’t afford other goods they would like to buy and businesses can’t afford to raise wages, hire, or expand. Only Abe’s bankster friends have profited from this scheme by speculating in the stock market with the counterfeited money that had been credited to their accounts with the central bank computer.
Japanese people are mostly smart enough to realize that typing numbers into a computer can’t make an economy strong, yet they just haven’t figured out that Abe’s monetary stimulus is nothing but a sneaky counterfeiting scheme.
At the same time as the monetary stimulus arrow doubled the money supply, Abe and his gang used their fiscal stimulus arrow to enormously increase spending on government works projects.
----To pay for his “fiscal stimulus” arrow Abe decided to raise taxes and take the money he needed by force. He raised car taxes and income taxes and he raised sales taxes by 60 percent, but he also announced plans to raise sales taxes by 100 percent. He is considering increasing taxes on married people and poor people. With each tax increase and threat of further tax increases, the economy has weakened further.
And what of Abe’s third arrow, “structural reform”? No one knows what this political slogan actually means. It sounds like some modern day form of Soviet era Glasnost, but there’s been no significant deregulation or loosening of government controls that have long stifled the Japanese economy. We do know that Abe has spent a great deal of effort making enemies with the neighbors. Effectively, Abe’s aggressiveness in foreign affairs is the real third arrow.
More
As China Flexes Muscle, Obama Frets Over Rival’s Weakness
Jun 29, 2014 11:00 PM GMT
China is tailgating
Japanese warplanes, playing chicken with Vietnamese ships and questioning
America’s toughness. Yet it isn’t Chinese strength that most worries President Barack Obama,
it’s Chinese fragility. As China’s economy grows at its slowest pace in 24 years, the country’s domestic strains are drawing increased attention. While Americans stew over the prospect of being eclipsed by a new superpower, their president frets about instability in the world’s second-largest economy.
“We welcome China’s peaceful rise,” Obama said in a recent NPR interview. “In many ways, it would be a bigger national security problem for us if China started falling apart at the seams.”
Though no one expects that to happen any time soon -- if ever -- Chinese President Xi Jinping confronts an array of potential triggers for unrest. After more than three decades of growth that has raised per capita income to more than 17 times its 1978 level, China’s breakneck change is only intensifying.
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"Deficit spending is simply a scheme for the 'hidden' confiscation of wealth. Gold stands in the way of this insidious process. It stands as a protector of property rights."
Alan Greenspan
The monthly Coppock Indicators finished May
DJIA: +181 Down. NASDAQ: +340 Down. SP500: +246 Down. Crisis? What crisis?
