Baltic Dry Index. 850 +19
LIR Gold Target in 2019: $30,000. Revised due to QE programs.
The
purpose of all war is peace.
St.
Augustine.
More reasons this morning to own fully paid up physical
gold and silver. Tomorrow will not be like today, which was like yesterday.
Tomorrow will be totally unlike casino capitalism gambling or individual freedom.
Tomorrow, World War Three is looming into view. Below, are the four horsemen
riding in or merely their lookalike brothers?
"I
don't know whether war is an interlude during peace, or peace is an interlude
during war."
Georges Clemenceau.
Japan’s Ruling Parties Agree to Allow Military to Defend Allies
Jul 1,
2014 3:47 AM GMT
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Liberal
Democratic Party agreed with its coalition partner to expand the role of Japan’s military to
include the defense of allies, lawmakers from both parties said. Cabinet is set later today to pass a resolution enshrining a reinterpretation of the pacifist constitution, and the government will submit bills to parliament in the autumn for it to take effect. Thousands of opponents to the changes gathered outside Abe’s residence last night, some calling for his resignation and criticizing his Buddhist-backed junior coalition partner New Komeito for compromising.
Abe has sought since taking office in December 2012 to bolster Japan’s security stance amid a territorial dispute with an increasingly assertive China and concerns about the strength of the country’s alliance with the U.S. He increased the defense budget after 11 years of decline, passed an unpopular law toughening penalties for leaking state secrets, and loosened restrictions on defense exports.
More
No Good Iraq Options for Obama as Russia, Iran Jump In
Jul 1, 2014 3:07 AM GMT
As Russia and
Iran step in to bolster the government in Baghdad, U.S. President Barack Obama
has no good options to help defeat the al-Qaeda splinter group that’s
proclaimed an Islamic caliphate in Iraq and Syria. The White House has offered limited military assistance to Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and is pushing for a coalition government to unite Iraqis as Sunni fighters from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant and their allies pose what Secretary of State John Kerry calls “an existential threat” to Iraq.
While it’s in the U.S. interest to prevent one of the largest Arab states -- the second-biggest crude oil producer in OPEC that’s bordered by Syria and Iran -- from falling into the hands of the Sunni militants, it’s not clear what Obama can do to vanquish a militant group that may control 10,000 fighters and $2 billion in assets.
“I don’t think there is a good, obvious solution, no matter what our willingness,” said Linda Robinson, a national security analyst at the Rand Corp in Arlington, Virginia, and a former adviser to the U.S. military’s Central Command. “Any step we might take, like airstrikes, could just make things worse.”
Iran has deployed hundreds of troops from its elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to reinforce its Shiite ally, and Russia last week delivered the first Sukhoi fighter jet to Maliki the day after vowing that it won’t stand by while Iraq collapses.
The swift action by two of America’s adversaries has prompted Obama’s critics in Washington -- and even some members of his administration -- to argue that the U.S. must act quickly to avert an extremist takeover of a country it invaded and occupied for more than eight years.
Obama’s ability to influence events in Iraq is limited, though, according to a U.S. intelligence official.
Two U.S. administrations have inspired distrust among both Shiites and Sunnis by invading in 2003, then failing to stabilize the country or compel Maliki to stop his revenge campaign against Sunnis, and finally withdrawing and leaving a polarized state at the end of 2011, the official said.
More
ISIS Shows Off MASSIVE SCUD Missile in Military Parade
Posted by Jim Hoft on Monday, June 30, 2014, 5:32 PM
ISIS terrorists showed off a
captured SCUD missile today in Raqqa, Syria.
More
Iraq’s Lawmakers Set to Meet Without Bridging Rifts
Jun 30,
2014 10:58 PM GMT
Iraqi political leaders are set to gather today without agreeing on a prime
minister who can narrow sectarian and ethnic divisions, as the U.S. sent more
troops to Baghdad to protect American personnel. Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq’s top Shiite cleric, had urged the appointment by today of a leader able to “avoid sectarianism” and prevent the country’s breakup. Pressure has increased on Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to step aside amid criticism by domestic opponents and world leaders that his Shiite-led government has marginalized minority Sunnis, some of whom have swung behind the militants.
The
National Alliance, which includes the main Shiite groups, hasn’t decided on a
candidate for the top office, Ali al-Allaq, a lawmaker from Maliki’s party,
said by phone. The National Bloc of former leader Ayad Allawi said in a
statement that it would boycott the parliamentary session because politicians
were “still repeating the same mistakes.” Iraq’s Kurds and Shiite followers of
another cleric, Moqtada al-Sadr, have called on Maliki to go.
In
Washington,
President Barack
Obama ordered another 200 combat-equipped military personnel to Iraq
indefinitely for security at the U.S. embassy, its support facilities and
Baghdad International Airport. In addition to troops, Obama is sending
“rotary-wing aircraft and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance
support,” he said in a letter to House Speaker John Boehner.
----The 200 personnel authorized by Obama will be combined with 100 others now making their way to Baghdad, Rear Admiral John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman, said in an e-mailed statement. In addition, about 170 were sent there two weeks ago, according to a previous Pentagon announcement.
Aside from the security forces,
Obama has authorized as many as 300 military personnel to serve as advisers to
the Iraqi military and to gather intelligence.
The risk of civil war in Iraq
flared after an al-Qaeda breakaway group seized Mosul, the country’s biggest
northern city, as well as Tikrit and advanced on other towns. The movement
announced on June 29 that it was declaring a caliphate and had changed its name
to the Islamic State -- from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL
-- in a bid to assert its authority over territory it has taken.
More
White House fears al Qaeda offshoot may be planning bomb plot on airliner flying to America
US considers asking European allies for extra security measures at airports to counter terror threat
By Raf Sanchez, in Washington and
David Millward 7:31PM BST 30 Jun 2014
The United
States fears that two of al-Qaeda's most deadly international
offshoots are plotting to bring down a commercial airliner with the help of
European jihadists returning from Syria. The White House is debating asking its allies to step up airport security in response to the new threat from the terror group's Syrian and Yemeni branches, meaning British travellers could face intensified screenings.
The American plan, reported by ABC News, could call for an influx of armed US air marshals on British flights or an increase in searches of passengers headed to the US.
British passengers may also forced to arrive early to go through extra checks once they have cleared the airport's main security. Previous terror threats have meant longer queues for travellers at major airports.
President Barack Obama sounded the alarm on Sunday over the threat posed to the US by Europeans becoming radicalised in Syria and using their citizenship to travel more freely than Arab or Pakistani jihadists.
"They've
got European passports. They don't need a visa to get into the United
States," he said.
----It was AQAP that successfully slipped an underwear bomb onto a US-bound flight from Amsterdam on Christmas Day 2009. While the device failed to go off, it rattled US intelligence and prompted a major security review.
US intelligence believes that a
European jihadist may be paired with an advanced AQAP-made bomb and ordered to
attack a passenger flight.
The White House summoned senior
counterterror officials to a meeting within the last week to discuss the issue,
according to ABC News, and is now weighing whether to ask its allies to step up
airport security.
More
Ukraine Ends Truce With Rebels as Putin Seeks to Continue Talks
Jul
1, 2014 12:17 AM GMT
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko ended a cease-fire with separatists and
pledged to retake the country’s easternmost regions as peace efforts faltered. Poroshenko refused to extend the truce a second time, citing more than 100 violations by pro-Russian rebels, according to a statement on his website today.
“A unique chance for a peace plan failed because of the criminal acts of militants,” Poroshenko said in the statement. “We will attack and we will free our land. The protection of Ukraine’s territorial integrity and the safety of its people require not only defense, but also attack.”
The Ukrainian leader, who has championed a peace plan to defuse the crisis since he took office last month, is embarking on a new offensive to put down the separatist unrest after ending a truce first announced June 20.
Poroshenko yesterday spoke by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande. It was the second such call in two days seeking a solution to the conflict that’s led to the deepest rift in Russia’s relations with the U.S. and the European Union since the end of communism.
“This will be a key test for the Ukrainian armed forces, and the first real test of the Poroshenko presidency,” Timothy Ash, an emerging-market economist at Standard Bank Plc (STAN) in London, said by e-mail. “Suffice to say that this crisis is now moving to a new and still very serious, high-risk phase.”
More
Ukraine's military carries out artillery strikes on positions of self-defense forces
July 01, 10:39 UTC+4
KIEV, July 01. /ITAR-TASS/. After Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko had
unilaterally terminated ceasefire, the military forces began an operation
"on destroying terrorist groups" in the south-east, UNIAN agency
reported.The agency said that aviation and artillery strikes are made on strongholds and positions of the self-defense forces.
The Ukrainian Pravda newspaper confirmed that aviation and artillery were used in the attack. Citing sources from the headquarters of the military operation’s commanders, the paper said strikes were carried out against the positions of anti-government forces.
Overnight to Tuesday, a representative of the self-defense forces told ITAR-TASS that powerful explosions and intensive gunfire was heard near the airport in Kramatorsk in the Donetsk Region.
Israeli teenagers: Netanyahu warns Hamas will pay
Israeli PM says three boys were 'kidnapped and murdered in cold blood by human animals.. Satan has not yet invented vengeance for the blood of small child'
Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli
prime minister, swore vengeance on Hamas last night after accusing the
Palestinian Islamist group of murdering three Israeli missing teenagers whose
bodies were found hidden in a field in the West Bank after a massive manhunt.
Fears that the Middle East most
enduring conflict could be entering a violent new phase grew as the Israeli
leader reacted to the discovery of Gilad Shaer and Naftali Fraenkel, both 16,
and Eyal Yifrah, 19, buried under a pile of rocks near the West Bank city of
Hebron, more than two weeks after they disappeared on June 12.
The teenagers had apparently been
shot soon after having been abducted while hitchhiking. “They were under a pile
of rocks, in an open field,” said Lt-Col Peter Lerner, a military spokesman.
“They
were kidnapped and murdered in cold blood by beasts,” Mr Netanyahu told an
emergency meeting of the security cabinet called to consider a response to the crime.
“Satan has not yet invented vengeance for the blood of a small child. Hamas is
responsible and Hamas will pay.
His comments raised the prospect
of massive Israeli military action against Hamas - especially in its political
stronghold of Gaza - and elicited a sharp warning from the Islamist movement,
which vowed to hit back strongly against any strikes by Israel.
“If the occupiers carry out an
escalation or a war, they will open the gates of hell on themselves,” Hamas
spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said.
More
Court gave NSA broad leeway in surveillance, documents show
The United States has long had broad no-spying arrangements with those four countries — Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand — in a group known collectively with the United States as the Five Eyes. But a classified 2010 legal certification and other documents indicate the NSA has been given a far more elastic authority than previously known, one that allows it to intercept through U.S. companies not just the communications of its overseas targets but any communications about its targets as well.
The certification — approved by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and included among a set of documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden — lists 193 countries that would be of valid interest for U.S. intelligence. The certification also permitted the agency to gather intelligence about entities including the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the European Union and the International Atomic Energy Agency.
The NSA is not necessarily targeting all the countries
or organizations identified in the certification, the
affidavits and an accompanying exhibit; it has only been given authority to do
so. Still, the privacy implications are far-reaching, civil liberties
advocates say, because of the wide spectrum of people who might be engaged in
communication about foreign governments and entities and whose communications
might be of interest to the United States.
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Fear, suspicion undermine West Africa's battle against Ebola
By Umaru Fofana KENEMA Sierra Leone
(Reuters) - When Mohamed Swarray contracted the deadly Ebola disease in
June, he was confined to a tented isolation ward at Kenema in eastern Sierra
Leone. But he didn't stay there long.Suspicious of the doctors in their masks and body-length protective suits, he slipped out and fled to the capital Freetown 300 km (185 miles) away. There, he was nursed in a private home for a week before being traced by officials and hurriedly returned, weak and frightened, to the Kenema unit.
With West Africa facing the deadliest Ebola outbreak ever, with 400 dead so far, this kind of fear and mistrust is driving dozens of victims to evade treatment, frustrating foreign and local doctors trying to contain the epidemic.
The outbreak in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia has left some of the world's poorest states, with porous borders and weak health systems undermined by war and misrule, grappling with one of the most lethal and contagious diseases on the planet.
Dr. Amara Jambai, Sierra Leone's director of disease prevention and control, said at least 57 suspected and confirmed Ebola cases were "missing", the victims having fled or gone into hiding.
"When you lose cases that way, you will not know where the next case will appear," he told Reuters.
More
And in other news as we close for the day, more
revisionism in the global warming scam. Another inconvenient truth surfaces. Oh
well, it’s only science after all, and we started out on a flat earth.
Two thousand scientists, in a hundred countries,
engaged in the most elaborate, well organized scientific collaboration in the
history of humankind, have produced long-since a consensus that we will face a
string of terrible catastrophes unless we act to prepare ourselves and deal
with the underlying causes of global warming.
Al Gore, Sept. 9, 2005.
NOAA Reinstates July 1936 As The Hottest Month On Record
12:58 PM 06/30/2014
July 2012 became the hottest month on record in the U.S. during a summer that was declared “too hot to handle” by NASA scientists. That summer more than half the country was experiencing drought and wildfires had scorched more than 1.3 million acres of land, according to NASA.
According to NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center in 2012, the “average temperature for the contiguous U.S. during July was 77.6°F, 3.3°F above the 20th century average, marking the warmest July and all-time warmest month on record for the nation in a period of record that dates back to 1895.”
“The previous warmest July for the nation was July 1936, when the average U.S. temperature was 77.4°F,” NOAA said in 2012.
This statement by NOAA was still available on their website when checked by The Daily Caller News Foundation. But when meteorologist and climate blogger Anthony Watts went to check the NOAA data on Sunday he found that the science agency had quietly reinstated July 1936 as the hottest month on record in the U.S.
“Two years ago during the scorching summer of 2012, July 1936 lost its place on the leaderboard and July 2012 became the hottest month on record in the United States,” Watts wrote. “Now, as if by magic, and according to NOAA’s own data, July 1936 is now the hottest month on record again. The past, present, and future all seems to be ‘adjustable’ in NOAA’s world.”
More
If the facts don't fit the theory, change the facts.
Albert Einstein.
At the Comex silver depositories Monday final figures were: Registered 58.22 Moz,
Eligible 117.28 Moz, Total 175.51 Moz.
Crooks and Scoundrels Corner
The bent, the seriously bent, and the totally
doubled over.
Not the usual suspects today. Today its more on the 30 day game of bluff
between dead beat borrower Argentina, and the vulture fund great vampire
squids, intent on getting a fill 16 ounces for their pound of Argentine flesh.
Will the US court order to send in the Marines? Will Argentina rally Latin
America against a rapacious, if bankrupt itself, Uncle Scam? Is this to be the
straw that breaks the Great Nixonian Error, fiat dollar reserve system, or just
another nail in the coffin? Stay tuned
for the next 30 days. Today is certainly not like yesterday anymore. One half of “Merkozy” that used to run continental Europe, has had his collar grabbed by the long arm of the law. It’s enough to make one order cognac for breakfast.
Singer Says Argentina Won’t Negotiate as Default Looms
Jun 30, 2014 6:48 PM GMT
Elliott Management Corp. said Argentina is
refusing to negotiate a settlement over defaulted bonds, casting doubt on the
country’s ability to avoid another debt debacle after a U.S. court blocked all
its note payments until a deal is reached. “Argentina’s professed willingness to negotiate with its creditors has proven to be just another broken promise,” Jay Newman, a money manager at the hedge fund run by billionaire Paul Singer, said in a statement today. “There are no negotiations underway, there have been no negotiations, and Argentina refuses to commit to negotiations in the future.”
The
nation has a 30-day grace period after missing $539 million of debt payments
due today in dollars, euros and yen to avoid its second default in 13 years.
The U.S. Supreme Court on June 16 left intact a ruling requiring Argentina pay
about $1.5 billion to defaulted debt holders as it makes payments on
restructured bonds that stemmed from its 2001 default. Argentina last week
transferred funds to its bond trustee to pay restructured notes without
providing funds for the holdouts, only to have U.S. District Court Judge Thomas
Griesa order the payment sent back while the parties negotiate.
“Argentina’s position is the same,” he said. “Argentina maintains it is open to dialogue in order to establish conditions for dialogue that satisfy three demands: that they are equal, fair and legal for 100% of bondholders.”
The price on the government’s dollar-denominated 2033 bonds fell for a third day, losing 0.9 cent to 82.79 cents on the dollar as of 1:46 p.m. in New York. The country’s credit default swaps indicate a 67 percent chance of default within the next five years, according to prices from CMA.
Holders of Argentine bonds denominated in euros asked Griesa to help them recover money from the payment that was blocked, arguing that they should be exempt from the ruling since the money they’re owed wouldn’t enter the U.S. and foreign parties aren’t subject to the U.S. court’s jurisdiction.
The payment would be made to a Bank of New York (Luxembourg) account at central bank of Argentina, then to a Belgian entity in Frankfurt and finally to investors through clearinghouses in Europe, according to court papers.
Argentina took out a full-page advertisement in yesterday’s New York Times saying that Griesa favored the holdout creditors and was trying to push the nation to default.
The ruling “is merely a
sophisticated way of of trying to bring us down to our knees before global
usurers,” Argentina said. “But he will not achieve his goal for quite a simple
reason: The Argentine Republic will meet its obligations, pay off its debts and
honor its commitments.”
Economy Minister Axel Kicillof
has said the nation complied with its obligations to bondholders when it sent
the money to trustee Bank of New York Mellon Corp. to distribute
More
French ex-president Sarkozy held for questioning: source
PARIS(Reuters) - Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy was being held on Tuesday for questioning over suspected influence-peddling, a legal source said.
Sarkozy arrived early Tuesday to be quizzed by investigators at their offices in Nanterre, west of Paris, after his lawyer was held for questioning on Monday.
"Mr. Sarkozy has been summoned to Nanterre and is being held for questioning," the source told Reuters.
Developing
War
is cruelty. There's no use trying to reform it, the crueller it is the sooner
it will be
over.
William Tecumseh Sherman
The monthly Coppock Indicators finished June
DJIA: +169 Down. NASDAQ: +332 Down. SP500: +241 Down. The Fed’s final bubble still grows,
but …..
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