11/15/18

NoisyRoom Daily News Links – 11/15/18

MICHAEL AVENATTI ARRESTED FOR DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

Homeless man and couple ‘MADE UP’ heart-warming story that he gave woman his last $20 as all three are charged with scamming donors who raised $400,000 for him on GoFundMe

Dashcam captures driver open fire on officer who stopped him for traffic violation before he throws female passenger out of the car and flees the scene

China Speeding Up Large-Scale Military Buildup

ISIS Group Claims California Wildfires Are Retribution, Vows ‘You Will See More Fires’

Officials add razor wire to shoreline border fence

22 Buses with 900 Caravan Migrants Nears U.S. Border

Tijuana Airbnbs ‘completely booked’ for caravaners — paid for by American attorneys

Thugs Vandalize American Flag Mural, Call Old Glory “Offensive”

New Documents Reveal CIA Spied on Congress, Whistleblowers

Wow! What A Statistic!!

Why Supreme Court Opinions Are Not The “Law Of The Land”, And How To Put Federal Judges In Their Place.

DEMOCRACY DIES IN A LEFTIST COUP

ON LOCATION AT THE BORDER: BORDER PATROL REINFORCING BORDER FENCE WITH RAZOR WIRE

Smith aims to scrap Trump’s nuclear weapons policy

Weekly Featured Profile – Spencer Resnick

New Committee Chair Cummings Has 64 Subpoenas For Trump

11/15/18

New Committee Chair Cummings has 64 Subpoenas for Trump

By: Denise Simon | Founders Code

Yup, Maryland Congressman Elijah Cummings will become the Oversight Committee Chairman in the new Congress and he has readied 64 subpoenas for Trump and his family over conflicting business deals, the hotel and more.

Meanwhile, the Democrats are likely going to work to cut funding for the military, ICE, and DHS. They will advance legislation to move the Federal minimum wage to $15.00 an hour and will continue to bail out health insurers to save Obamacare.

Ah, but this Democrat agenda can become more contentious and nasty if the Democrats want to play a legal warfare game as the Republicans can take some major counter-measures. Of course, none of this is really good for the country but as President Trump declared more than once, we will restore law and order and those who violated the law should, in fact, receive a consequence.

So, what should the Republicans consider?

  1. Declassify and release all Fast and Furious documents.
  2. Declassify and release all HolyLand Foundation trial documents.
  3. Declassify and release all IRS targeting scandal documents and subpoena emails and documents of Lois Lerner, Eric Holder, Doug Shulman, John Koskinen, Steven T. Miller, Daniel Werfel, Peter Kadzik, Elijah Cummings, among others.
  4. Department of Justice to formally open a case on Debbie Wasserman Schultz and the Pakistan IT scandal.
  5. Announce a formal investigation into Dianne Feinstein’s Chinese operative employed in her California office and to demand Feinstein submit her investments in Chinese corporations/organizations.
  6. Defund Planned Parenthood.
  7. Defund the Export Import Bank.
  8. Investigate Maxine Waters and her use of campaign funds employing her daughter’s company.
  9. Investigate newly elected Congresswoman Debbie Muscarel Powell and her association(s) with Ihor Kolomoisky, a corrupt Ukrainian oligarch.
  10. Open a formal investigation into Keith Ellison.
  11. Re-open the criminal case against New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez.
  12. Refer Bernie Sanders to the Senate Ethics Committee on his loan scandal.
  13. Release all the text messages and emails of Peter Strzok and Lisa Page.
  14. Open a formal and announced investigation into the Clinton Foundation and release what is in the file now.
  15. Need we explain the Hillary email server thing? Git ‘er done.
  16. Comey, McCabe, Ohr, and that crowd with the FISA warrant, communications and the dossier.
  17. Investigate Sheila Jackson Lee’s office for the staffer’s doxxing operation.
  18. How about Uranium One, Rosemont Capital and Vistria?
  19. Then there is John Podesta, Tony Podesta, Huma Abedin, Cheryl Mills and all of that.
  20. But we cannot overlook the tarmac meeting and the role Loretta Lynch and her DoJ played in the coverup.
  21. Benghazi? Was that ever resolved or the billions to Iran?
  22. How about releasing the details on the side deals or payments for the Taliban 5 and Bergdahl or the Iran nuclear deal? Include Susan Rice and Ben Rhodes in these details.
  23. Release communications on why Obama and the Justice Department canceled Operation Cassandra.
  24. Release the full report on John Brennan, former Director of the CIA and his role in ‘spygate’ along with his spying on members of the Senate.
  25. Declare via Treasury and DHS, ANTIFA a domestic terror organization.
  26. Release all payments made by the Office of Compliance due to congressional member’s misconduct.

There, of course, are many other things to add to this list. You are invited to include some of your own ideas in the comments.

11/15/18

Weekly Featured Profile – Spencer Resnick

KeyWiki.org

Spencer Resnick

Spencer Resnick is a PoughkeepsieNew York activist. He is an organizer at Nobody Leaves Mid-Hudson, a “community organizing,” voter registration group with ties to the pro-China Freedom Road Socialist Organization. He is a former Field Canvasser with the far-left Working Families Party.

Spencer Resnick has been involved with Young Democratic Socialists/Democratic Socialists of America since at least 2009. While at Vassar, circa 2009 to 2012, he led the Young Democratic Socialistsgroup on campus.

 left, Alex Deane right

May 2013 Spencer Resnick traveled to Cuba with the 44th Venceremos Brigade, in a group which included his Vassar Young Democratic Socialists comrade Alex Deane.

DUMP TRUMP, DEFEAT RACISM AND MISOGYNY, BUILD THE LEFT was an open letter to the left from 47 grassroots organizers, sent on October 17, 2016.

Continue reading

11/15/18

Why Supreme Court opinions are not the “Law of the Land”, and how to put federal judges in their place.

By Publius Huldah

Central to the silly arguments made by the “Convention of States Project” (COSP) is their claim that 200 years of Supreme Court opinions have increased the powers of the federal government (as well as legalized practices such as abortion); that all these opinions are “the Law of the Land”; and we need an Article V convention so we can get amendments to the Constitution which take away all these powers the Supreme Court gave the federal government.

But the text of Article V contradicts COSP’s claim.  Article V shows that our Constitution can be amended only when three-fourths of the States ratify proposed amendments. The Supreme Court has no power to amend our Constitution.  And it’s impossible for an amendment to take away powers our Constitution doesn’t grant.

1. First Principles

Let’s analyze COSP’s silly argument.  We begin by looking at First Principles:

  • The Judicial Branch was created by Art. III, §1, US Constitution. Accordingly, it is a “creature” of the Constitution. 1
  • The federal government came into existence when the States, acting through special ratifying conventions held in each of the States, ratified the Constitution.2

Since the Judicial Branch is merely a “creature” of the Constitution, it follows that it is subordinate to the Constitution, and is completely subject to its terms.  It may not annul the superior authority of the States which created the Judicial Branch when they ratified the Constitution; 3 and as a mere “creature” of the Constitution, it may NOT change the Constitution under which it holds its existence! 4  

Continue reading

11/15/18

Wow! What A Statistic!!

By: Kent Engelke | Capitol Securities

Many times I have commented about the massive proliferation of passive investing and how it is impacting trading mechanics. According to the Index Industry Association, benchmarking giants like S&P Global Inc., MSCI Inc., and the London Stock Exchange Group PLC, have created 438,000 new indexes over the last 12 months through June 30.

According to the same group, there are more than 3.7 million benchmarks globally, dwarfing the roughly 50,000 stocks that trade on exchanges around the world.

The greatest annual growth in indexes are factor based and smart beta gauges that track stocks with characteristics like momentum or low volatility and often use these features rather than market capitalization to determine how much of these companies to include in a measure.

Fixed income indexes – concentrated primarily in sovereign debt – now make up about 16% of all indexes. Two years ago, 95% of indexes were focused in equities.

Indexes focused on environmental and social concerns jumped about 60% from about a year ago.

Wow! I readily acknowledge that I do not have any idea of the capitalization or structure of each of these indexes but the data is staggering. Talk about slicing and dicing. Depending upon the source, traditional stock research departments have declined from 50% to 75% since 2008, the direct result of this massive move to passive/indexing investing.

What I find interesting is that according to Society Generale, 90% of all stocks, of which only 10% of their ownership is concentrated in ETFs, are investment vehicles similar to that of indexes. Conversely, 10% of companies comprise 90% of ETF capitalization.

In my view, today’s trading mechanics have never been stress tested. How will the markets respond to a crisis?

As widely noted, the major indices are down about 10%-12% in relatively quick order. In my view, the declines would be greater if it were not for retail investors buying ETFs in the face of selling from institutions. What happens if the retail investor stops buying, an environment that may be developing today given the lack of a recovery from the recent rout?

Will the popular indices decline another 15% to 20% which could perhaps cause a massive obliteration of indexes? Will a major sponsor experience financial issues, issues that would create the next financial crisis?

Historically, whenever there is a massive proliferation of an investment vehicle, the first time these vehicles are stress tested it typically ends poorly. Will today be different?

Commenting upon yesterday’s market activity, AAPL dragged the averages lower and is another FAANG company that is now in “bear market territory,” defined as declining over 20% from its highs. Shares peaked about a month ago. Facebook is down over 35% from their July peak and Amazon is off 22% since early September. Netflix has dropped about 33% since last June. Google is the best performer, off about 18.5% from July’s apex.

In my view, the decline of these mega-sized companies has been orderly with many not yet recognizing or accepting the magnitude of these drops, believing a recovery will imminently occur. As noted earlier, this perspective may now be changing.

What will happen today?

Last night the foreign markets were mixed. London was up 0.15%, Paris was down 0.22% and Frankfurt was up 0.08%. China was up 1.36%, Japan was down 0.20% and Hang Sang was up 1.75%.

The Dow should open moderately higher on potential trade optimism and Wal-Mart’s earnings that some stores beat. Oil is nominally higher. Goldman is suggesting crude will rebound to $75 barrel by the first quarter if OPEC reduces production by the amount it has telegraphed to the market. The 10 year is up 5/32 to yield 3.11%.