NATO Baltic Mission 'All About Countering Russian Aggression'

As NATO leaders confer in Warsaw, discussing the alliance’s recent dramatic buildup of troops and military hardware close to borders between The Baltic States and Russia, western media are once more lending a helping hand to the US efforts to start an east - west shooting war by once more demonizing Russia.

The new mission of NATO is countering 'Russian aggression,'International Affairs Alanyst (and White House stooge) Sleboda commenteds, adding "This is what the summit is all about. This is why Warsaw is a particular focus of this, and the whole raison d’etre that NATO has now shifted toward Russia."

 During the summit, the alliance has finalized arrangements to increase the number of rotational troops in the Baltic and Poland, a move harshly criticized by Russia.

"'What we don’t need now is to enflame the situation by saber-rattling on the Polish border with Russia,'"former CIA analysts Ray McGovern said, quoting German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who has expressed opposition to the buildup.

Steinmeier went on to say, 'Whoever believes that a symbolic tank parade on the alliance’s eastern border will bring security is mistaken. We are well-advised to not create [a] pretext to renew an old confrontation.'"

While relations between Moscow and Berlin appear to be improving in the wake of talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Sleboda remains unconvinced, given Germany’s close ties with the United States, particularly regarding Syria. Given Germany's dependence on Russian gas we are convinced the German government has good reason to distance itself from Washington's warmongers.

"We have two security council resolutions calling for the eradication of Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Qaeda and all forces that are associated with it, and that would include [US President Barack] Obama’s proxies, at this point," Sleboda says.

"So I wouldn’t expect any cooperation. Both agree that they need to cooperate, but neither can agree on the terms for that. US terms would be for Russia abandoning Syrian President Assad and Russian terms would be for the US to abandon its efforts to overthrow the Syrian government by proxies."

McGovern nevertheless sees signs that the West’s unified stance against Russia is fracturing.

© REUTERS/ Agencja Gazeta/Adam Stepien

NATO is stationing Drones in The Baltic States close to the Russian border. This can only be an act of provocation, and very understandably The Kremlin has sent advanced Surface to Air missiles to its baltic coast enclave Kaleningrad.

 

 

Europe's Bank Crisis Arrives In Germany: €29 Billion Bremen Landesbank On The Verge Of Failure

by Tyler Durden, Zero Hedge, poisted by Phil T. Looker

Deutsche Ban bosses beg for small change as bank collapses (Image source)

When most recently reporting on the latest European banking crisis, yesterday we observed a surprising development involving Deutsche Bank, namely the bank's decision to quietly liquidate some of its shipping loans. As Reuters reported, "Deutsche Bank is looking to sell at least $1 billion of shipping loans to lighten its exposure to the sector whose lenders face closer scrutiny from the European Central Bank.

"They are looking to lighten their portfolio and this includes toxic debt. It makes commercial sense to try and sell off some of their book," one finance source said. Deutsche Bank, which has around $5 billion to $6 billion worth of total exposure to the shipping sector, declined to comment."

This confirms what had long been speculated, if not confirmed, namely that German banks have been some of the biggest lenders to the shipping sector, a sector which has since found itself in significant trouble as a result of the ongoing slowdown in global trade.

And now, it appears that some shipping loans gone very bad could be the catalyst for Europe's banking crisis to finally breach the most impenetrable border of all, that of Germany.

Because it is in Germany where we find what may be the next domino to fall as part of Europe's latest banking crisis incarnation: Bremen Landesbank.

Several weeks ago, the FT reported that the German Landesbank NordLB was considering taking full control of its smaller peer Bremer Landesbank (BLB), which is struggling under the weight of a portfolio of bad shipping loans. BLB, in which NordLB already owns 54.8%, warned last week that it would have to take a €400m writedown on its shipping portfolio, and that as a result it was facing a “mid-triple-digit million loss” this year.

As the FT added, the admission prompted concerns about the health of the Bremen-based bank, which had €29bn in assets at the end of 2015, and BLB’s owners have since been holding talks on how to bolster the stricken lender’s capital position.

Read all at Zero Hedge

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The FBI's Decision Could Help Trump

Though he speaks to a working class constituency Donald Trump is hardly one of them. He is not a member of the monied elite eitherm despite his having money. On top of that he has a problem with the Republican traditionalists who are appalled by his brsh, loudmouthed ways and are reluctant to unify behind Trump's presidential candidacy.

The divide in the party, very similar on outward appearance to divied in Britain where both Labour and Conservative Members of Parliament are totally out of touch with their core supporters. The same is happening all over europe where the gap between the political establishment and citizens has never been wider.

The problem of the Republicans and their democratically chosen but not yet confirmed candidate seemingly climaxed late in the primary season when Trump had a virtually unassailable lead over his rivals, yet the GOP establishment tried in a clumsy and desperate effort to broker a deal between Cruz and Kasich in order to stop the Trump bandwagon. Obviously that effort failed miserably.

Senior Republican figures such as Paul Ryan have at last given their support to Trump's candidacy while we in new media (mostly solo acts unlike the corporate owned news channels) have been obsessing over Hillary Clinton's e-mails travails. Despite protestations to the contrary nobody was surprised by the FBI / DoJ decision not to charge Hillary with the crimes she obviously committed, disgusted but after we have reported on the lawlessness and authoritarianism of the Obama administration for seven and a half years, not surprised.

The fix to keep Killary our of jail might,however, undo all the difficulty that the Trump campaign has had unifying the party. The FBI's cave - in or cop out decision not to recommend charges be brought against Crooked Hillary could unite the Republicans into an unmoveable phalanx determined to stop her advancing to The White House.

Upon learning of the news that the FBI wasn't recommending charges, Trump made a point that it was going to continue to be a topic of discussion, even if as Bloomberg notes, Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta said "we're moving on." Paul Ryan followed suit, saying that FBI director Jim Comey would be called to hearings on the matter, as well as making it known that "no one should be above the law."

Paul Manafort, Trump's campaign chairman said "Running against Clinton is good on a lot of fronts. She is the epitome of the establishment and what people see as what's wrong with the country, and what they want changed. From the standpoint of our party, no one wants a third Obama term and that's what the country sees her as."

Trump will hope to build on the momentum in an upcoming speech that will unveil changes to his tax plan, and also could announce his running mate next week. As former Senator Scott Brown, a surrogate for Trump points out, "The unifying person of the party may not be Donald Trump, but Hillary. While many people may not like him, they are going to vote for him, because they don't like or trust her."

As a reminder, Trump surged ahead of Clinton in the latest Rasmussen poll, a signal that Trump's push on an "us vs the elites" type of mentality appears to be working already as well.


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Europe's Banks In Crisis As Brexit Vote Triggers The Crisis That Has Been Waiting To Happen

There's no denying it, Europe's banking system is collapsing. From shares in Deutsche Bank and Credit Suissehitting record lows to the sky high default risk in Italy's third largest lender Monte Paschi, the panic in Europe's funding markets is proving contagious.

Tumbling to a fresh post-Brexit low, Europe's Stoxx 600 Bank Index is setting new post 2008 lows.

The establishment, politicians and bureaucrats, big finance and the academics who pose as 'experts' (though in reality they understand less of economics that the guy who runs the fruit and veg. stall down your local street market) are unequivocally blaming Brexit for the panic engulfing the global economy. They are lying of course, as they lied in their efforts to generate enough fear and panic to scare British voters into voting to remain in the EU.

The current crisis however has been waiting to happen for two years; the global economy has never recovered from the 2008 crash, an illusion of recovery was conjured by the expedient of printing money (Quantitative Easing), Italian banks are always in crisis American banks and consumers are drowning in debt, the Japanese economy is a joke having been stagnant for nearly twenty years, and the real catalyst of the current panic, Deutsche Bank, as we have reported here and elsewhere, has been teetering on the brink for a year due to its having an unsustainable level of bad debt on the balance sheet (see yesterday's posts).

From this morning's news we learn things got worse overnight again.

from Reuters:

Deutsche Bank is looking to sell at least $1 billion of shipping loans to lighten its exposure to the sector whose lenders face closer scrutiny from the European Central Bank, sources told Reuters.

While the oil tanker trade has picked up, the container and dry bulk shipping industries are struggling with their worst downturn due to a glut of ships, a faltering global economy and weaker consumer demand.

Banking and finance sources familiar with the matter said Germany's biggest lender was initially looking to offload at least $1 billion.

"They are looking to lighten their portfolio and this includes toxic debt. It makes commercial sense to try and sell off some of their book," one finance source said. "They are not looking to exit shipping."

Deutsche Bank, which has around $5 billion to $6 billion worth of total exposure to the shipping sector, declined to comment.

In that quoted section there is a reference to yet another indicator that the global economy was in massive trouble that we reported on early this year, long before the Brexit campaigns had got into gear. Stock markets, currency exchange rates and interest rates can all be manipulated but The Baltic Dry Index cannot. It monitors the amount of freight (dry goods ergo Baltic Dry) excluding oil, bulk ore and bulk grain moving around the oceans. And early this year it hit low lowest level ever recorded in the modern era. And since then the index has hovered just above that level. It' can'y go much lower because shipping companies are practically giving away capacity on their ships.

And that is the root of the crisis in the global economy, Brexit is just a diversion.


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With a referendum in Italy, ostensibly on constitutional reforms but perceived as a referendum on the leadership of the ruling elite, looming in November and the anti - globalisation, pro sovereignty Five Star Party growing in popularity all the time. Should the constitutional changes be voted down, and the against campaign is showing a comfortable lead in opinion polls at the moment, it will put a Quitaly in-out referendum, similar to the so called Brexit vote that kick off the process of Britain leaving the European Union, at the top of the agenda.


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Italy's Banks Are Crashing Like Tesla Cars, EU Bureaucrats Try To Blame Brexit

Italian banks have been dropping like flies this past couple of days.

If you recall, I did tell you a couple of weeks ago the IMF and ECB had been desperately firefighting in their efforts to hold off the Eurozone collapse until after the Referendum, so they could blame everything on Brexit.

It is no coincidence of course that only a few days after the Brexit vote everybody suddenly remembered the Eurozone was so far up shit creek even a rubber dinghy could get no further. Several Eurozone nations have been bankrupt for over a year, the largest being Italy and no matter how much cash Britain and Germany threw into the pot every week the basket case economies of southern Europe would inevitably drag down the whole edifice. And exactly as predicted by many of us who do to have an Economics PhD to prove we have been brainwashed by the Higher Education system, Italy is leading the way.

The Financial Times reports the price of a bond issued by Monte dei Paschi di Siena, Italy’s third-largest lender, plunged more than a tenth today (5 July, 2016) in the latest sign of growing investor alarm over bad debts within the country’s financial institutions.

Italians are wise enough to know there are far more important things than money (pictire: Portofino; source: blog.colourfulrebel.com

Years of lax lending standards left Italian banks ill-prepared when an economic slump sent bankruptcies soaring a few years ago. At one major bank, Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA, bad loans were so thick it assigned a team of 700 to deal with them and created a new unit to house them. Several weeks ago, the bank put the bad-credit unit up for sale, hoping a foreign partner would speed the liquidation process.

Europe's non-performing loan problem is such a huge problem that there is increasing pressure on the European Central Bank (ECB) to take this garbage on to its balance sheet. Bad debts and non-performing loans (NPLs) reduce the ability of banks to lend, thus in an economy that runs on debt, from government debt to the overdrafts and credit card balances of people like you and me. Bad debts, i.e. debts on which no interest is being earned and there is no chance of collecting outstanding repayments, consume capital and make banks more risk averse at a time when governments are desperate to kick off a consumer led recovery by making cheap, sub - prime loans available. With Italy (NPLs 13.4%) now following the same trajectory as Spain's bad debts, the situation is rapidly escalating (at an average of around 2.5% increase per year).

The bottom line is that at its core, it is all simply a bad-debt problem, and the more the bad debt, the greater the ultimate liability on investors, including people who have modest savings or deposit accounts and pension funds. The big question in Europe is: how much capacity to write off bad debt there is in the various European nations before savings and pensions have to take a haircut?

Britain’s vote to leave the EU has produced warnings of doom and gloom for the U.K. economy. However it was always the case that damage to the rest of Europe could be more serious given the precarious financial state of the Eurozone and the strain imposed on the German economy by the immigration crisis. The greatest risk is concentrated in the Italian banking sector where 17% of banks’ loans not being serviced. That is nearly 10 times the level in the U.S., where, even at the worst of the 2008-09 financial crisis, it was only 5%. Among publicly traded banks in the eurozone, Italian lenders account for nearly half of total bad loans.

Anxiety has now spread from stock markets, where shares in the world’s oldest bank have fallen by more than a quarter this week to reach a record low, after the European Central Bank demanded it shed another €10bn in bad loans.


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Europe's Bank Crisis Arrives In Germany: €29 Billion Bremen Landesbank On The Verge Of Failure
... yesterday we observed a surprising development involving Deutsche Bank, namely the bank's decision to quietly liquidate some of its shipping loans. Reuters reported, "Deutsche Bank is looking to sell at least $1 billion of shipping loans [a market sector] whose lenders face closer scrutiny from the European Central Bank.

Smart Phones Will Not Make Banking Safer

Yet the war on cash goes on. The latest move is to encourage people to use their smartphone to do their online banking. My first reaction on reading this was, "They're having a laugh aren't they?" laptops and tablets are ridiculously easy to hijack, smartphones don't even need to be hacked, like tired old slappers whose sexual allure has gone south, but who still crave attention, they will offer themselves without needing to be asked.




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Senator Admits The FBI Is "About To Ask Putin For His Copies Of Hillary's Emails"

Hillary Clinton has long been known as a dishonest, incompetent, greedy, self serving liar. So, this blog is sure, is Donald Trump (you don't get to be a billionaire like Trump, or even worth a modest $100 million like the Clintons by being a nice person). Unfortunately, as things stand one of them will be the next President of the United states of America. It's up to you Americans, we British have just voted to break free of the European Union after a poorly funded grassroots campaign fought off a big push by establishment power and corporate money to scare or bully us into voting 'Remain'.

Image source: patriotrising.com

It is w ell known that the FBI has still not managed to recover roughly 30,000 emails deleted by Hillary Clinton from her private server. Clinton claims the messages were personal and not related to her activities as Secretary of State, although leaks from inside the FBI investigation into Clinton's mishandling of classified information while she was at The State Department suggest several staffers have testified it was impossible for her not to have known she was breaching security protocols .

We have also reported previously that the Romanian hacker 'Guccifer' who first revealed that Clinton had been using a private, unsecured mail server for her official correspondence is positive top officials in Russia (possibly Vladimir Putin himself) are in possession of those emails, and according to Judge Andrew Napolitano, there is a debate going on in the Kremlin about whether or not to release them.

Given that the FBI doesn't have the emails and Clinton says they no longer exist but what difference does it make anyway, Arkansas Republican Senator Tom Cotton  who is a Trump supporter and also  a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has become so frustrated he suggests the FBI ought to simply ask Putin for his copies. Cotton also took a jab at Bill Clinton's 'totally unplanned' meeting with Loretta Lynch,  on the Tarmac at Phoenix airport, saying that his plane was also on the tarmac, and he thought Bill Clinton may be waiting to climb on board to talk with him as well.

Cotton said it was shocking, but not shocking to Washington insiders, that the former president would meet with Attorney General Loretta Lynch  whose department, in addition to overseeing the building of a case against Mrs. Clinton's negligence on  security  is investigating both his wife and himself for their mishandling of the Clinton Foundation's finances. As if that was not bad enough, Attorney General Lynch is a personal friend of the Clinton's and is know to have accepted their patronage in business matters

Clinton’s decision to conduct all her official business on her own private email account on her own private server and the high handed and way she has arrogant way she has tried to bush off  official and media inquires about it was just teaser of how her administration will approach transparency and national security should she be elected, Cotton said. 

 In addition to the criminal nature of the former first lady's actions, he said, conducting official and classified business on an unsecured server exposed American national security to our enemies.
Americans should not be surprised that the former secretary of state would put America at risk, he said. Working with President Barack Obama, Clinton oversaw a foreign policy that treated allies as troublemakers and our enemies as victims with legitimate complaints about the United States. Chief among the enemies is the Islamic Republic of Iran, which Obama-Clinton empowered by lifting sanctions, thawing frozen assets, and ignoring Saudi Arabia’s support of violent terrorism.


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Non-Firing Guns & Killer Ejection Seats – UK Takes Delivery Of US Advanced Fighter Jet

RAF's new American superplane on the runway at RAF Gloucester

After almost $2 trillion of taxpayers money has been flushed down the toilet already America's latest all singing, all dancing (but unfortunately non - flying superplane, the F-35, Britain's committment to buy these junk heaps (I almost typed 'flying junk heaps' but that would be a misrepresentation,) the project may turn out to be an even bigger waste of money for Britain than 40 years of EU membership.

The first F-35 Lightning to land in the UK triggered a storm of controversy over why we were taking delivery of a hugely expensive aircraft that has shown in trials it is not fit for purpose, but also having been in development for over twenty years already looks very dated against the latest Russian and Chinese warplanes. Questions surrounding the safety and ability of an aircraft that has already cost US and British taxpayers over $1.5 trillion with recent estimates indicating that the total program cost will creep up to $2 trillion due to an embarrassing array of mishaps since the effort began to construct the jet in 2001 are no nearer to being resolved even now.

The fighter jet has been slammed by military aircraft experts in recent years as the cost continues to rise. The F-35 comes in at a cost of $150 million (£ 100 million) per aircraft, but has been saddled with continuous delays, system malfunctions, and safety issues.

This week it was reported that the aircraft’s ejection seats would snap the neck of any pilot weighing under 135 pounds while those between the weight of 135-160 pounds are considered to be highly susceptible to immediate death on ejecting.

Combat testing for the fighter jet has also been delayed for an additional year due to a persistent software glitch that causes the plane to suddenly shutdown in flight. The fleet was grounded recently when an overheating problem raised fears fears that its engine could catch fire. The fighter jets guns have also proven defective and completely unable to fire forcing a reworking of the weapons system which will not be complete until 2019.

Most concerning is that even if defense contractor Lockheed Martin and the partners of the fighter jet program are able to work past the bevy of growing system defects, glitches, and safety hazards the F-35 has consistently underperformed in flight simulations losing repeatedly to the 40 year old F-16 fighter jet in combat exercises. The F-16 costs roughly 1/10 as much as the F-35 to produce per unit. Royal Air Force flyers are using similarly venerable Jaguar fighters and Harrier Vertical Take Off Aircraft.

So the American's can seek answers from their own government, we in Britain have to ask our Ministry Of Defence Chiefs WTF they thought they were doing ordering a fighter plank plane that does nor shoot and does not fly very often.

Russian Sukhoi SU35 demonstrates that it can actually fly (Image source)

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'France is totally bankrupt': French jobs minister Michel Sapin issues shocking news the country's economy

French workers protest against new employment laws that aim to make French business more competitive (Image source: nationalpost.com

In a statement on French radio yesterday France’s employment minister Michel Sapin made the shocking admission that the country is “totally bankrupt”. The bombshell came during a routine interview yesterday and is thought to have sent the country’s business leaders into a state of shock.

"There is a state but it is a totally bankrupt state," Mr Sapin, commenting on the employment law reforms that recently provoked strikes and civil disobedience said. "That is why we had to put a deficit reduction plan in place, and nothing should make us turn away from that objective."

Mr Sapin’s "totally bankrupt" admission is a huge embarrassment for President Francois Hollande and his socialist government, already showing record levels of unpopularity in opinion polls. Hollande, who will be left to undo the potential damage to his already almost non existent chances of re - election currently has a personal popularity rating of 11%.

The shock revelation also raises further questions about Hollande’s controversial “tax and spend” policies that have seen numerous entrepreneurs and high profile celebrities leave the country. By extension it should be a warning to voters in other nations who are toying with the idea of voting in a left wing government that socialism simply and inevitasbly does not work.

Sapin's comments come as Hollande attempts to inspire confidence if the French economy, which has been damaged not only by his loonytoons economics but by membership of the European Single Currency System (Euro). His pledge to reduce the country’s deficit by cutting spending by €60bn (£51.5bn) over the next five years and increasing taxes by €20bn (£17bn) looks doomed to fail as bureaucratic EU rules make businesses uncompetitive while inability to address economic problems because France shares a currency with the much stronger German economy has led high uneployment and low levels of investment.

Among those who moved their wealth out of France are Hollywood star Gerard Depardieu and the country's richest man Bernard Arnault.

There are even reports that Nicolas Sarkozy, the previous President of France, is preparing to move to London with his wife Carla Bruni for economic reasons.

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Jobless in Europe
Mr. Hollande's Soap Opera
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Hacked E mails Prove US, EU and NATO Policy Of Provoking And Escalating Conflict With Russia

Here's one in the eye for those silly Remnants who voted Remain in the hope of keeping Britain in the EU because "We were safer as part of the herd. As those of us who keep ourselves well informed on world political events have known for years, as tensions have risen betwen east and west and the world slid back towards cold war conditions, it was the west, the USA, NATO and the EU that were pushing for war, destabilising strategically important nations by effecting regime change and supplying terrorist groups with finance and weapons ...

Two weeks ago, while we British Bloggers were obsessing over Brexit, and countering the lies and scaremongering designed to keep us in The European Union a huge scandal erupted within another 'union' as Germany accused NATO of "warmongering" thus destroying US / EU / Turkey narrative that 'innocent' NATO was merely reacting to evil Russian provocations when it installed new missile bases close to Russian borders in Poland and Romania or held military exercises in Latvia just a few kilometres from Russian territory. Furthermore, as The Guardian reported, NATO accelerated its encirclement of Russia, with British soldiers deployed in Estonia, US soldiers operating in Latvia and Canadians in Poland, while combat units are being increased in the Mediterranean.

InfoGraphic via Zero Hedge showing how NATO missile installations now encircle western Russia. I hope this helps Europhiles understand why Russia was a tad miffed about the CIA sponsored coup in Ukraine and plans to admit that nation, under its puppet government, to the EU and NATO.

According to Deutsche Wirtschafts NachrichtenNATO claim it has found an excuse for war, having concluded that it now has grounds to attack Russia after concluding that if a NATO member country becomes the victim of a cyber attack by persons in a non-NATO country such as Russia or China, then NATO’s Article V “collective defense” provision requires each NATO member country to join that NATO member country if it decides to strike back against the attacking country.

Specifically, NATO is alleging that because Russian hackers had copied the emails on Hillary Clinton’s home computer, this action of someone in Russia taking advantage of Mrs. Clinton's criminal negligence in having privatized her U.S. State Department communications to her unsecured home computer and of such a Russian’s then snooping into the U.S. State Department business that was stored on it, might constitute a Russian attack against the United States of America, and would, if the U.S. President declares it to be a Russian invasion of the U.S., trigger NATO’s mutual-defense clause and so require all NATO nations to join with the U.S. government in going to war against Russia, if the U.S. government

Now, as The Intercept's Zaid Jilani and Lee Fang expose, retired U.S. Air Force Gen. Philip Breedlove (yes an ironic name for a warmonger), until recently the supreme commander of NATO forces in Europe, plotted in private to overcome President Barack Obama’s reluctance to escalate military tensions with Russia over the war in Ukraine in 2014, according to apparently hacked emails from Breedlove’s Gmail account that were posted on a new website called DC Leaks .

As you might guess that one is going straight in my favourites list.

Having taken all that on board, we recall German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier's recent exclamation that "anyone who thinks you can increase security in the alliance with symbolic parades of tanks near the eastern borders, is mistaken," and given the 'proof' we link to above, that it is indeed NATO provoking conflict and warmongering, the unprecedented reality in which NATO's biggest and most important European member is suddenly and quite vocally against NATO and as a result may be pivoting toward Russian, while the second largest economy and most powerful nation in the European Union has just voted to leave, we can't wait to see just how this shocking geopolitical debacle for western neocons and war hawks concludes.

Oh BTW, on top of eight more EU nations demanding their own in / out referendums and US state Texas threatening to secede from the Union, the 'contaigion' from Brexit is moving further and faster than anyone could have expected.

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Triumph For Justice Crusaders Boggart Abroad: Loretta Lynch Removes Herself From FBI Probe Of Hillary Emails

No actual pictures available of Lynch and Clinton together but here's a screenshot from ABC news coverage

As we reported yesterday, on Monday evening US Attorney General and friend of Hillary Clinton Loretta Lynch, by pure conicidence, happened to meet Bill 'Shagger' Clinton on the tarmac of the airport at Phoenix Arizona. Being a courteous sort, Lynch invited Shagger to step inside her plane for a private meeting. We don't know what happened but subesquent events suggest they did not have a quick knee-trembler.

Now just as it was 'pure concidence that the husband of beleagured Democratic Party presidential nominee for the election later this year, Hillary Clinton and Attorney General Lynch happened to be in the same place at the same time, so it is pure coincidence that up to very recently Lynch has been overseeing the preparation of a case against Clinton for numerous breaches of law relating to state security while she was Secretary of State. These relate to the storing and handling of top secret emails on an unsecured server, which was hacked by people in the USA and abroad.

 When questions were raised about the meeting and eyebrows were raised at the way Lynch and the Clinton camp tried to brush off suggestions that the meeting was out of order, Lynch promised the only things that were discussed were Bill's golf game and grandchildren, conservative watchdog Judicial Watch requested that the DOJ's Office of the Inspector General investigate the meeting. As The Hill reports, pressure is intensifying on Attorney General Loretta Lynch to remove herself from overseeing the  investigation connected to Hillary Clinton’s private email server.

Calls for Lynch to step aside — which had already been simmering for months — appeared primed to boil over Thursday following the attorney general’s unscheduled, private meeting with Clinton’s husband, former President Bill Clinton.

“Considering the ongoing criminal investigation of Hillary Clinton, this secret meeting between the Attorney General and Bill Clinton shows an astounding lack of judgment by Loretta Lynch,” House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) said in a statement on Thursday calling for Lynch to recuse herself.

“Given the culture of unaccountability in the Obama Administration, it is unlikely that Attorney General Lynch will heed the growing calls for her resignation,” he said. “But at a minimum, Lynch should immediately recuse herself from the Justice Department's criminal investigation into Hillary Clinton’s unlawful activities, and appoint a special prosecutor to handle the case, so the American people can know the truth about this secret meeting and finally rest assured the criminal investigation of Hillary Clinton is being conducted fully and impartially, without even the appearance of corruption.”

And, now, as AP reports, a Justice Department official said that Loretta Lynch intends to accept whatever recommendation career prosecutors and federal agents make in the investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server.

"The Attorney General expects to receive and accept the determinations and findings of the Department's career prosecutors and investigators, as well as the FBI Director," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing probe.

Lynch was expected to discuss the matter further at a summit Friday in Aspen, Colorado.

This revelation comes amid a controversy surrounding an impromptu private discussion that Lynch had aboard her plane on the tarmac at a Phoenix airport on Monday with Clinton's husband, former President Bill Clinton. That get-together has been criticized as inappropriate by Republicans and some Democrats at a time when the Justice Department has been investigating whether classified information was mishandled through Clinton's exclusive use of a private email server while she was secretary of state.

Lynch told reporters that she did and Bill Clinton did not discuss the email investigation during the encounter.

The announcement also appeared intended to assuage concerns, particularly among Republicans, that Lynch — a Democratic appointee — might overrule recommendations from the agents and prosecutors who have worked on the case. Disputes on charging decisions between the FBI and the Justice Department are not uncommon, particularly in national security cases, though many legal experts see any criminal prosecution in this matter as exceedingly unlikely.

Decisions on whether to charge anyone in the case will be made by "career prosecutors and investigators who have been handling this matter since its inception" and reviewed by senior lawyers at the department and the FBI director, and Lynch will then accept whatever recommendation comes, the official said.

So by releasing this statement does that mean that Lynch routinely overrides other case recommendations from the FBI and DOJ staff? Also, based on the fact that the FBI may very well leak the facts of the case if the DOJ doesn't follow its recommendation, we will be able to learn whether or not Lynch is telling the truth. We won't hold our breath.



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