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Bless Their Hearts! News & Markets for 6-14-18

RCragwallJun 14, 2018, 9:18:59 PM
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OIG Report

The DOJ released to the public the 500 page DOJ Inspector General report of the Clinton email probe.

James Comey was noted for being "insubordinate" and showing poor judgment during the 2016 election.  It found no evidence to show his key decisions in the Clinton email investigation were improperly influenced by political bias.

On the other hand, it also raised questions about the role of FBI counterintelligence agent Peter Strzok, whose texts with FBI lawyer Lisa Page the IG found suggested he "might be willing" to take official action to impact Trump's electoral prospects, or as one might put it, "clear bias" against Trump.

The OIG found that other senior bureau officials showed a “willingness to take official action” to prevent Donald Trump from becoming president.

Bless their hearts!  LOL

In another example of the OIG report's damning findings vs its weak conclusion, we find that: "[W]e did not have confidence that Strzok’s decision to prioritize the Russia investigation over following up on the Midyear-related investigative lead discovered on the Weiner laptop was free from bias."

While the IG does not fault the FBI for not charging Clinton, it did find that Comey used personal email for official business which was "inconsistent with the DOJ Policy Statement."

Hillary was being investigated for using personal email to conduct business. According to the report, the OIG identified numerous instances in which Comey used a personal email account (a Gmail account) to conduct FBI business.I suppose he found nothing wrong in what Clinton was doing because he was doing it himself.

The report found that five FBI officials expressed hostility toward Donald Trump before his election and says that their actions have been referred to the bureau for possible disciplinary action.

FBI general counsel was "concerned with potential Hatch Act violations" by McCabe after he met with Clinton operative Terry McAuliffe at the governor's mansion to raise money for his Democrat wife's campaign, as well as conflicts of interest concerning investigations

— Paul Sperry (@paulsperry_) June 14, 2018

The most explosive new revelation from the report, Strzok told Page "We'll stop it" when asked, "[Trump's] not ever going to become president, right? Right?!"

That text, the report said, was "indicative of a biased state of mind" and suggested that Strzok may have intentionally slowed the review of emails connected to the Clinton investigation discovered after the probe was closed, on a laptop belonging to former congressman Anthony Weiner. Strzok, as the number two official in the Clinton investigation, was one of several individual figures who was made aware of the existence of the emails when they were initially uncovered.

A lawyer on Special Counsel Mueller's team said "I never really liked the Republic anyway," adding "As I have initiated the destruction of the Republic would you be so kind as to have coffee with me."

FBI Employee in #IGReport 1 day after election: “All the people initially voting for her would not, and were not, swayed by any decision the FBI put out.  Trump’s supporters are all poor to middle class, uneducated, lazy POS that think he'll magically grant them jobs for nothing." pic.twitter.com/9V5MZXRQlS

— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) June 14, 2018

The second email probe into Clinton was only opened days before the election because one or more FBI agents had threatened to leak that the FBI was sitting on a potential stash of documents which incriminated Hillary, while both Strzok and McCabe tried to keep it all under wraps.

According to the IG, the so-called "Midyear" team, the investigative unit that had handled the Clinton investigation, did not move to review the emails until just days before the end of the election, almost a month after FBI officials in New York found them.

Strzok told investigators that at the time, he was prioritizing the investigation into then-candidate Donald Trump's campaign's ties to Russia.

Ah yes, Russia, Russia, Russia.  LOL Aren't they cute? 

"Under these circumstances, we did not have confidence that Strzok's decision to prioritize the Russia investigation over following up on Midyear-related investigative lead discovered on the Weiner laptop was free from bias," the inspector general said.

Horowitz's report did not find any evidence that political bias or improper influence impacted any decisions made in the Clinton case prior to Comey's announcement that he was closing the case including the decision not to recommend charges against Clinton.

Bless their hearts!

The full report is here for your reading pleasure! (pdf link)

Yellowstone

The largest geyser in Yellowstone has just gone off for the ninth time this year having been dormant since 2014.

All that negative energy has to get released in some way sooner or later. LOL

Bless their hearts!

State Assistance

Food Stamp usage in America has fallen 7.8% since President Trump's election and is the fastest drop in Americans' dependence on the state for sustenance ever.

For the first time since November 1973, there are less than 1.7 million Americans claiming jobless benefits.

It's good to be self reliant.

Bless their hearts!

White Helmets & Syria

President Trump has authorized new funding for the White Helmets which had previously been put on hold.  Hmmm. Why would that be?

Russian Defense Ministry Spokesman Igor Konashenkov said early in the week that US-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) forces are planning a "serious provocation" aimed at justifying a new round of Western coalition missile attacks against Syrian government bases and facilities.

The TASS media release explained further:

According to Konashenkov, FSA militants have delivered chlorine cylinders to the Syrian Deir ez-Zor province to simulate another "chemical attack against civilians."

"After being published in western media a staged video is set to initiate a missile strike on Syria’s state facilities by the US-led coalition and justify an offensive operation by militants against Syrian governmental forces on the eastern bank of the Euphrates River," he said, adding that Russia’s Defense Ministry warns that the use of such provocations for destabilization of the environment on the Syrian territory is unacceptable.

The Washington Post issued a surprising admission, reluctantly declaring that that Assad is "here to stay" —"The writing is now indisputably on the wall: The Syrian regime is going nowhere,".

And the MO is once the media establishment and political leaders in the West begin acknowledging "Assad is here to stay," a major regime change precipitating event is just around the corner.

ROTFLOL - old as dirt.

Bless their hearts!

SCOTUS

The court said that MAGA hats and "#MeToo" pins should be allowed to be visible at polling places across the US.

Tesla

Tesla Model 3 cancellation rate is at 66%

Bless their hearts!

EU

LOL They have truly gone mad.  Bless their hearts!

The EU Parliament's chief Brexit coordinator Guy Verhofstadt, a Belgian, has an explanation for the wave of populism sweeping Europe right now; Putin is bankrolling key members of the movement's leadership - including Britain's Nigel Farage, Dutch MP Geert Wilders and France's Marine Le Pen.

ROTFLOL ok.

Bless his heart!

Obama's Air Force One

The former President's stenographer, Beck Dorey-Stein, has come out with a memoir, From the Corner of the Oval, which contains several claims from her notes taken during her travel to over 60 countries over five years aboard Air Force One, reports the Daily Mail.

'Traveling with the president is like summer camp on steroids – a week on the road is like a year at home', Dorey-Stein writes.

The "steroids" were a steady supply of pharmaceuticals which staffers were constantly taking while cheating on their significant others on the road such as senior staffer Jason Wolf.

She describes experiencing 'the best sleepover party ever' where everyone took their drug of choice on long flights – Sonata, Xanax or Ambien – which made any 'awkward intimacy with colleagues suddenly just funny and bizarre,' she writes. -Daily Mail

Now Obama is no stranger to lewd behavior on a plane, proudly displaying his erection during a flight.

Definitely a #MeToo moment.  For your reading pleasure!

LOL Bless their hearts!

Markets

Up day. Target 3200 remains. As long as there is negativity this market is going higher so hedge funds can say a downturn is coming all they want. That's cool.  The moment they stop is the moment their wish will come true.

S&P 500 Resistance – 2785, 2811, 2824, 2842, 2876, 2905

S&P 500 Support – 2759, 2730, 2715, 2682, 2655, 2638, 2607, 2575, 2560, 2530, 2505, 2478, 2422, 2400, 2375

Cryptos - Bitcoin

A nice rally just over the ceiling which now becomes support. We will see if it can continue and change the momentum but for the moment, the trend is down.

Resistance - 6800, 6930, 8000, 8180, 8990, 9630, 10100, 11330

Support - 6620, 5875, 5800, 4570, 2535

Take care,

Rita

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