.The Federal Reserve Might As Well Use Carrier Pigeons

The Federal Reserve Might As Well Use Carrier Pigeons

Notes From The Field   By Simon Black
August 13, 2019   Spoleto, Italy
 
The Federal Reserve Might As Well Use Carrier PigeonsThe Federal Reserve Might As Well Use Carrier Pigeons

In the early 1760s, Mayer Rothschild began building a banking dynasty that would last for centuries.

The elder Rothschild sent his five sons across Europe to establish banks in cities like Paris and London.

One son, Nathan Rothschild, took the lead and expanded the family’s banking dynasty.

With siblings in different countries, the family now had a trusted network of lenders with whom they could finance large government projects like infrastructure and war.

To quicken the pace of their financial transactions, the brothers used a network of carrier pigeons to send messages to one another across Europe.

This allowed them to quickly react to financial news from other markets. That way they could always be the first in a local market to react to news from abroad.

Bad news in Paris markets could be sent by pigeon to London, where Nathan could sell a stock that would be negatively affected.

Things have gotten a lot faster these days

Scientists have discovered how to accelerate an ion to 99.9999% the speed of light.

The Internet allows us to speak to someone across the globe, instantaneously, anytime of day or night.

We’re even on the verge of commercial space flights. By 2023, SpaceX plans to send a Japanese billionaire around the moon.

And yet, despite all this speed, it can still take several DAYS to send money from one person to another using the traditional banking system.

Rather humorously, the Federal Reserve announced last week that a ‘real time’ payment system would be (hopefully) released in about FOUR YEARS time.

Bear in mind that companies like PayPal that allow for real time payments have been around for 20 years. Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin have been around for more than a decade.

And now, FINALLY, the Federal Reserve might get around to implementing the same thing.

This is pretty crazy when you think about it. The Fed is supposed to be leading the way in banking; they’re the top regulator and largest central bank in the world.

But they’re hilariously far, far behind the rest of the industry.

Domestic money transfers in the United States rely on the ‘ACH’ payment network to send and receive money.

If your paycheck is direct deposited into your bank account, or mortgage payment automatically deducted, these typically use ACH.

 
ACH payments take 2-3 DAYS to clear. That’s totally insane in this day and age. Seriously, the Rothschilds’ network of carrier pigeons didn’t even take that long.

And if you’ve ever dealt with international financial transactions, you have probably heard of the SWIFT network

SWIFT is a worldwide banking network that allows financial institutions to ‘securely’ send and receive messages about wire transfers and payments.

I’m putting ‘securely’ in quotes because the system has been hacked a number of times. And it runs on pathetically outdated technology. 

As many readers know, I own a bank. And I’ll never forget when we joined SWIFT, they told us that in order to run some of their software we needed to install an obsolete version of Windows that Microsoft stopped supporting years ago.

Seriously? This is the ‘secure’ system that is responsible for trillions of dollars of worldwide financial transactions?

Nearly every major worldwide banking authority is playing a pitiful game of catch-up with non-bank technology companies that have developed vastly superior ways to conduct financial transactions.

Think about it-- nearly every single function of a bank-- deposits, loans, foreign exchange, payments-- can be done better, faster, and cheaper outside of the banking system.

You can hold money in the Blockchain (or even something low-tech like T-bills, which pay 100x more interest than your bank account. Or gold.). You can borrow money from peer-to-peer websites. You can send money with firms like Venmo or TransferWise.  LINK

Banks are becoming useless antiques. And by the time the Federal Reserve has figured out how to make real time payments, I expect the technology at that time will have leapfrogged their best efforts.

Facebook could easily have hundreds of millions of people using its digital currency Libra within 12 months.  LINK

So sending money could become as easy as sending an email, all without using a bank, and three years before the Fed joins the 21st century.

Until tomorrow,

To your freedom and prosperity, Simon  Black,  Founder, SovereignMan.com

Top 10 Things You Didn't Know About Money

Top 10 Things You Didn't Know About Money

As the U.S. government debuts a new $100 bill on Apr. 21 — this one will be redesigned to ward against digital copying and counterfeiting — TIME traces the history of banknotes from ancient China to modern cocaine dens. Here are 10 tidbits about money that may surprise you

The Largest Banknote

Measuring in at roughly the size of a sheet of legal paper, the world's largest single banknote is the 100,000-peso note created by the government of the Philippines in 1998. Designed to celebrate a century of independence from Spanish rule, the note was offered only to collectors, who could purchase one of the limited-edition notes for 180,000 pesos, or about $3,700.

One in a Million

The largest banknote ever issued by the Bank of England was the £1,000,000 note, issued in 1948 as a temporary measure during the postwar reconstruction in the Marshall Plan. Designed for use by the U.S. government only, the notes were canceled after just a few months, allowing very few to escape into private hands. But just because the notes are out of service doesn't mean they're valueless — in 2008, one of two known surviving notes fetched almost $120,000 at auction.

Inflation Nation

To deal with hyperinflation that reached the ludicrous level of 231 million % and saw the price for a loaf of bread hit 300 billion Zimbabwean dollars, Zimbabwe's newly formed unity government — including bitter opponents President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai — issued a $100 trillion note in early January. (One hundred trillion, by the way, is a 1 with 14 zeroes — making the note the highest denomination in the world.)

Just weeks later, however, the leaders decided to back-burner the hugely devalued Zimbabwean dollar and began allowing people to do business in other currencies. The move managed to curb inflation for several months until a small uptick in July. One hopes some of those $100 trillion notes didn't get spent all in one place.

Dirty Money

 All money, it turns out, could stand to be laundered: the stuff is filthy. Studies show that a solid majority of U.S. bills are contaminated by cocaine. Drug traffickers often use coke-sullied hands to move cash, and many users roll bills into sniffing straws; the brushes and rollers in ATMs may distribute the nose candy through the rest of the money supply.

Also found on bills: fecal matter. A 2002 report in the Southern Medical Journal showed found pathogens — including staphylococcus — on 94% of dollar bills tested. Paper money can reportedly carry more germs than a household toilet. And bills are a hospitable environment for gross microbes: viruses and bacteria can live on most surfaces for about 48 hours, but paper money can reportedly transport a live flu virus for up to 17 days. It's enough to make you switch to credit.

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1914560_1914558_1914575,00.html

Laurene Powell Jobs says 'It ends with me'

Laurene Powell Jobs says 'It ends with me'

Avery Hartmans, Business Insider February 28, 2020

Laurene Powell Jobs says she won't pass down her and Steve Jobs' billions to their children: 'It ends with me'

Laurene Powell Jobs, the widow of Apple CEO Steve Jobs, isn't interested in "legacy wealth building," according to a new interview in The New York Times.

"Steve wasn't interested in that. If I live long enough, it ends with me," she told The Times.

Powell Jobs is worth an estimated $24 billion, which she inherited after Jobs died in 2011. She invests in causes like immigration, education, and the environment through her organization Emerson Collective.

Laurene Powell Jobs says she isn't interested in passing her fortune down to her children.

The Emerson Collective founder and widow of Apple CEO Steve Jobs said in a new interview with The New York Times' David Gelles that she's dedicated her life to distributing Jobs' fortune "effectively, in ways that lift up individuals and communities in a sustainable way," and that she isn't planning on building a family dynasty.

"I'm not interested in legacy wealth buildings, and my children know that," Powell Jobs told the Times. "Steve wasn't interested in that. If I live long enough, it ends with me."

 Related Video: Steve Jobs’ $12-Million Failure Saved Apple  LINK

Powell Jobs said she believes a massive accumulation of wealth is "dangerous for a society," and pointed to 19th- and 20th-century families like the Rockefellers, Carnegies, Mellons, and Fords as examples.

"It's not right for individuals to accumulate a massive amount of wealth that's equivalent to millions and millions of other people combined," she said. "There's nothing fair about that."

Powell Jobs inherited her husband's Apple and Disney shares when he died in 2011, and is currently worth $24 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/laurene-powell-jobs-says-she-155855598.html 

The Real Value Of Money

The Real Value Of Money

By Mark Manson

One summer afternoon, a group of recent college graduates decided to visit their favorite professor at his home. The grads had been out of school for about a year and they were each making their foray into the quote-unquote “real world” and dealing with all of the frustrations and confusion that come with it.

Over the course of the afternoon, the grads complained to their professor about how difficult life was after school. They complained about the long hours, the demanding bosses, the competitive job market, and how all anybody seemed to talk about or care about was money, money, money.

After a while, the professor got up and made some coffee. He got out six cups, one for each student. Three of them were cheap disposable cups and the other three were made of his nicest porcelain. He then invited everyone to get up and help themselves.

Within seconds the bargaining had already begun. “Wait, why do you get that cup?” “No, let me have it, I drove here.” “No way, I got here first, go get your own.” The students laughed and gently chided each other over who got to drink what out of what. A silent competition among friends.

When the kids finally sat back down the professor smiled and said, “You see? This is your problem. You are all arguing over who gets to drink out of the nice cups when all you really wanted was the coffee.”

Money is a touchy subject. That’s because most of us, to a certain degree, associate a lot of our self-worth and identity to our job and how much money we make. It is, quite literally, a market valuation of our skills and competence as a person, and therefore we all get a little bit testy and scooch around uncomfortably in our chairs whenever money is brought up.

But money is merely an arbitrary store of value. It is not value itself.

There are many stores of value in life. Time is a form of value. Knowledge is a form of value. Happiness and other positive emotions are a form of value. Money is often just the vehicle of interchanging these various forms of value with one another.

The real value of money - rolled up bills

Money is not the cause of wealth in one’s life. It is the effect. Similarly, when people assume that money is the cause of their problems, they are actually mistaken. Money is usually the most noticeable effect of their problems.

Money is fluid. Its value only becomes realized when it’s put into motion. Therefore, money is a reflection of the owner’s values and intentions.

Most people mistake being rich for owning lots of stuff or achieving some sort of fame or status. I could max out my credit card buying VIP tables in Vegas all weekend and take selfies with Ivanka Trump, but that doesn’t make me rich. On the contrary, it would make me kind of a douchebag.

There is that old saying from Fight Club, “The things you own end up owning you.” Materialism, by and large, is a psychological trap. No matter how much you own, how much you buy, how much you earn, the disease of more never goes away. Meanwhile, you’re working longer hours, taking bigger risks, foregoing more and more parts of your life.

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://markmanson.net/the-real-value-of-money

.How to Be the Executor of an Estate

How to Be the Executor of an Estate

Posted in Dinar Recaps Archives on 7/26/2019

How to Be the Executor of an Estate: Duties & Responsibilities
Beth Braverman Jun 4, 2019

Dealing with the aftermath of the death of a loved one can be an incredibly emotional time. That said, it’s also a very important time financially, for you and for other people named in this person’s last will and testament.

If you’ve been named the executor of an estate, duties include making sure all of your loved one’s belongings are collected and distributed in accordance with their wishes. Being named an executor of a will is a big honor, but it’s also a big responsibility.

Follow these steps to make the process go as smoothly as possible.

1. Find the Will Naming You Executor of the Estate

Start by finding the original will. “There’s only one original document, or there should be,” says Mari Galvin, a partner at the law firm Cassin & Cassin, who specializes in estate planning. “That’s presented to the court to be verified as the true wishes of the decedent, done according to the statutes.”

The deceased person’s attorney will typically have the will. If this person didn’t have a lawyer, or you don’t have their lawyer’s contact information, check file cabinets, safe deposit boxes and desk drawers.

Once you find the will, keep it in a safe place where you’ll have continuing access to it. If there’s no will, a probate court will appoint an executor to administer the will in accordance with the state law. If you’ve been named executor but don’t want to do the job, the court will appoint someone else.

2. Secure the Property

If your loved one has left behind an empty home, it’s important to make sure that the property is protected. Remove any tangible items of value and change the locks on the doors. That way you’ll ensure no one can enter the property without your permission..

You’ll also want to forward any mail to yourself, and update the insurance company that the property is now vacant. If damage occurs to the property while it’s in probate, the executor of the will could be liable for the costs if she hasn’t taken reasonable steps to protect it.

If family members or others ask about specific items in the home, it’s your legal responsibility to inventory everything first. If any creditors are owed money from the estate, they should get paid first, even if other distributions are explicitly outlined in the will. Otherwise, you might end up without enough cash on hand to settle outstanding debts, Galvin says.

To continue reading, please go to the original article at

://meetfabric.com/blog/executor-of-estate-duties-will

Tales From the Crypto: A Dinarian 101

Tales From the Crypto: A Dinarian 101

By Muhammad Ali

Several years ago, if you asked me to get into crypto, I would have just nodded my head and walked away and never thought anything more of it.  I have always been a Gold and Silver guy and had little to no faith on anything that I could not hold in my hand.  Well except for faith in God.  

However, surprisingly, in the past week, I have setup several ewallets and have Bitcoin, XRP, Theta and TFuel in my wallets; I am also mining Tfuel on my computer 24/7.  This is a first for me so what changed my mind?  Well, one guy, Mike aka The Dinarian. 

He's been sharing a lot lately on the connection of Central Banks Digital Currencies (CBDC) and its connection to the GCR. Practically every central bank in the world is moving towards a crypto backed by gold currency, providing more evidence towards our GCR.

In my last article on 'Family Planning' I talked about making donations anonymously and finding creative ways to make donations and pay to family members out of the scope of the Tax systems.  It seems that many charitable institutions are accepting crypto payments nowadays and some of the wealthy are using crypto to evade paying their income taxes. 

For example, John Mcafee of the famed Mcafee Anti-virus software has said, “my Crypto goals drive the IRS mad. Privacy coins will obsolete income taxes.”  After claiming in January that he hasn’t filed taxes for eight years, the fugitive tweeted this from his yacht hideout.

Now blockchain, which first emerged as a concept in 2008, is now offering ordinary people the same possibilities. Using cryptocurrency, and with a little technical know-how one can open what is effectively the equivalent of an offshore bank account.

But before we assume that we can rid out lives of the IRS and taxes, according to the IRS, both crypto-to-crypto transactions and crypto-to-cash transactions are taxable events — an unwelcome expense for many traders and investors.

Not only are long-term holders subject to the same tax rules that govern property, like furniture or collectible coins, but short-term traders must pay tax each time that a virtual asset is swapped for another.  Here's a link to a website that provides a tax guide on crypto currencies and how to calculate the Capital Gains Tax.  https://koinly.io/guides/cryptocurrency-tax-guide/

Anyway this article is not about tax avoidance or tax evasion, but just showing how ordinary people can get involved in crypto-currency as another form of investing.

Warning getting involved with crypto currencies is not for the faint of heart!

If you lack IT skills and knowledge of markets; buying and selling and have little patience of transactions that can take several minutes to an hour or more then you'd better think twice about getting involved.  But if you're willing to try, I will give you some advice on how to get started.

For those who are looking for an easy way out, there are new ATM machines popping up around the USA and in some countries of the world, where you can deposit your money into the machine and buy crypto very easily.  For example here's a Bitcoin machine in the Philippines.

So using one of the Crypto ATM's would be the best way to get right into it.  For those, who are little more techno savvy, there are several leading Crypto Exchanges that you can register with.  Here's are a few.  Coinbase, Crypto.com, and Binance.  Crypto.com right now has a promotion that when you sign up you can get $50 worth in their MCO crypto currency.

Once you register with an Exchange, you'll need to complete their registration process by confirming your identity; this would be by sending pictures of your documents such as Passport, driver's licence, a utility bill and including a selfie of yourself.  This process in itself could be a little overwhelming because everything has to perfect and crystal clear or else they will reject your application. 

I myself got very frustrated with one broker recently, because they wanted me to hold up my Malaysia utility bill which has a very small size 7 point font, while doing a selfie, and expect all the information on the utility bill to be clear and legible. 

I tried about 7 times and 7 times they rejected my picture.  And after spending 2 hours, I emailed them expressing my frustration and told them, what they are asking is impossible, their reply was, 'well that's our policy'.  So I registered with another company.

So just be aware that just the registration process can have its ups and downs.  Now if you are successful and get past the KYC (Know Your Customer) stage and have your account activated then you're ready to buy crypto.

My suggestion is to go with Crypto.com because they have a variety of currencies that you can choose from.  They can also provide you a credit card for withdrawals via ATM machines, so that's pretty neat.  And they have the $50 promotion right now.

Try Crypto.com for yourself and get $50 worth of MCO for free when you sign-up and then stake 50 MCO in your wallet after using this link:  https://platinum.crypto.com/r/9t4nwzgz2a

From when I signed up, my free $50 USD in MCO has already increased by $5.64 USD.  That’s really cool!!!

Crypto.com is a Mobile App software that you'll have install and run on your phone.

 Now the other thing that is very interesting with Cyrpto.com is that you can earn up to 18% p.a. on your crypto assets.  Now that's much, much better than a fixed deposit account.  

You'll have to read the fine print, once you installed the app but think about after RV, you can transfer $100,000 or $1,000,000 to your account and earn 18%.  

Can you now see why I started getting involved in crypto?  You can also add this into the Investment section of your Currency Exchange Planner as another viable investment option.

OK so now that you have your account setup, the next step would be deciding which crypto currency to invest in.  

There are probably over 2,000 different coins available so which ones are good to get into.  Bitcoin has always been popular, but at the moment it is around $10,000 USD for 1 coin.  WOW.

So I will give you a few coin suggestions, sometimes referred to as tokens, that are still very, very low priced that you can consider,  it's not in any particular order but here are several to check in to.

XRP (Ripple), Enjin (ENJ), Chainlink (LINK), Theta (Theta), Huobi Token (HT), and Crypto.com has two coins, Monaco (MCO) and Crypto.com (CRO)

This list has been approved by my good friend The Dinarian.  Mike's really on top of the Crypto side of things and he recommends these as well.

Buying any of these or all these may be a pretty good place to start and you don't need to break the bank in doing so.  If you go thru the link above, you automatically get $50 in MCO, so that's a starting point.  Then once you fund your Crypto.com account, you can buy XRP, CRO, Theta and some of the others, it's all your choice.

The next thing is how to fund your account.  You have several options and two most common would be by credit card or bank transfer.

Now, once your account is funded you select which crypto currency you want to buy.  Usually they would be paired, so what that means, you'll see something like this.  XRP/BTC (XRP Ripple with Bitcoin)

This does not mean you are buying bitcoin but it's just a pairing system on how they calculate the price, similar to Forex such as IQD/USD or IRR/USD, etc.

Now the next thing to be aware is that once you selected which crypto currency you want to buy, it may take time for it to appear in your wallet.  I know this, because when I bought Bitcoin for the first time, I transferred the money to the broker and the coin value did not appear in my wallet. 

I started to panic, was I just cheated?  I even emailed the company and they said, relax it takes some time to appear, and sure enough it finally appeared and I was flabbergasted.  I couldn't believe it, I owned Bitcoin.  Now, I am holding, XRP, BTC, Theta, Theta fuel, Monaco (MCO), next I am looking to add on some CRO and Chainlink.

It's actually becoming very fun!

The nice thing with crypto it is just like currencies, you can buy and you can sell.  So if you bought Theta, for example, and it's not moving, you can sell it to buy Monaco (MCO), for example.  So just like buying and selling currencies there are different rates, it's same with crypto with fees.  So you may lose or gain a little bit depending on what you’re doing, but the point is, you are not locked in, it's completely flexible.

So here are your steps again, in case you got lost a bit from the above.

1. Go to Crypto.com and sign up.  https://platinum.crypto.com/r/9t4nwzgz2a

2. Complete the Identification profile section.

3. Fund your account.  For the beginning, I do not recommend you fund your account with a huge amount, go with small amounts like $10 to $20 just to make sure all goes well.  Later on, you can add more if you like.

4. Choose which Crypto you would like to buy.

5. Wait for it to appear in your wallet.

Then once you've bought your crypto currencies, you can enter them in to the Precious Metals and Crypto Currency section of your Currency Exchange Planner v8.0 along with your projected purchases after RV.  

Remember, right now, you’re getting your crypto accounts ready for when the BIG BUCKS start to roll in.  With my new CEP Companion Edition (coming out soon) you'll be able to track your net worth and your crypto currencies will be part of your net worth.

One last point I would like to leave you with, getting involved in crypto currencies is not an overnight winfall, meaning that it will take time for the coins to increase in value.  The above methods that I have taught you are buying the actual genuine coins. 

So if anyone promises you opportunities where you can get involved with crypto coins and an instant promised profit, then be very weary as more than likely it is a scam Ponzi scheme program designed to take your money.  There have been over 500 Bitcoin Ponzi schemes in the past few years and I could only imagine how much money people have lost.

So get involved with crypto currencies the right and genuine way and you will be fine.

 So I hope this Dinarian 101 has been educational and I highly recommend subscribing to The Dinarian YouTube Channel to keep up to date on the latest Central Banks Digital Currency updates as it’s all connected to our RV/GCR.

 Wow! I can’t believe that this is my 30th article.  Please visit my website and take a look at my other articles written to motivate our Dinar community and please check out my Currency Exchange Planner.   AND, I also accept payments in Crypto :)

Thank you and I wish you all the success in your currency exchange.

 Muhammad Ali  www.CurrencyExchangePlanner.com

The No. 1 Planning Tool for the Dinar community.

Available in Desktop PC/MAC and Mobile App (Android & IOS) versions

https://www.currencyexchangeplanner.com/article-30-cryptos

.Millionaire Statistics, Facts and Resources for 2020

Millionaire Statistics, Facts and Resources for 2020

How Many Millionaires Are There?

There are several methodologies used to determine an answer to this simple question, resulting in many different answers. Be sure to understand how the calculations were made so that it’s consistent with how you want to use the data. After much of our own research, below are the sources and statistics that we believe are the best.

Credit Suisse’s latest global wealth report shows there are 46.8 million millionaires (measured in USD) worldwide, up 1.1 million over the last 12 months.

Of those, 40% or 18.6 million individuals are in the United States

This means that about 7.6% of the U.S. adult population are millionaires

Which indicates that approximately 14% of U.S. households are in the millionaire club

With a median wealth of $65,904 for an adult in the U.S., $1,000,000 represents 1517% of the median

The annual increase in global wealth per adult was 2.6%

After the U.S at 40%, the next highest 5 countries for millionaires are China 10%, Japan 6%, United Kingdom 5%, Germany 5%, and France 4%.

These top six countries represent 70% of the world’s millionaires

If you’re a millionaire, you are in the top 0.6% of wealth for the world’s population

The nine cities with the most millionaires, in decreasing order are Tokyo, New York City, London, Paris, Frankfurt, Beijing, Osaka, Hong Kong, and Shanghai

There is often debate on how to calculate how many millionaires there truly are. Some researches use household wealth to identify millionaires, which can be misleading.

For example, in the U.S. there are 2.58 people per household on average, which calculates to average wealth per person of $388,000 if the household had exactly $1,000,000. Therefore, research based on households will typically overstate the number of individual millionaires.

 Another difference that can be misleading is that some researchers consider the equity an individual has in their home as part of their wealth, while other researches only count those with liquid investable assets of at least $1,000,000.

Those that use liquid asset methodology may undercount individuals worth at least $1,000,000 especially in regions where housing is expensive. Neither methodology is superior, but it’s important to know what’s underneath the numbers so that you can cite the right statistics for your application.

Current projections are that 1,700 new U.S. millionaires are made every day

Millionaire Behaviors

Education is important, with 84 percent of millionaires having a college degree according to Spectrem

From another Spectrem study, on a 100 point scale, millionaires rated the importance of having a regular saving program at 82, reflecting their strong belief of its importance to their wealth

One in three funded their own college education without debt

 there’s More:

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://millionairefoundry.com/millionaire-statistics/

Iraq’s New Prime Minister May Not Last Long (Opinion)

Iraq’s New Prime Minister May Not Last Long (Opinion)

By Bobby Ghosh  February 5, 2020

(Bloomberg Opinion) -- The prime ministership of Iraq comes with both the proverbial encumbrances of ill-fated political power: a crown of thorns and a poisoned chalice. Pity Mohammed Tawfik Allawi, who must now wear one and drink from the other.

His nomination, after two months of wrangling between the country’s biggest political blocks, has been rejected out of hand by the young Iraqi protesters whose anticorruption demonstrations undid his predecessor.

 His chances of addressing their grievances are slim: The parties backing him have no interest in any reforms.

Allawi is the compromise candidate agreed by Iraq’s most powerful Shiite leaders — Hadi al-Amiri, who is Iran’s man in Baghdad, and the radical cleric-politician Moqtada al-Sadr.

Tehran has welcomed his nomination. Sadr has gone farther, by withdrawing his supporters from Tahrir Square and other spaces occupied by the protesters. Indeed, the Sadrists are now trying to force the protesters to leave.

The new prime minister knows what Amiri and Sadr expect of him: a carve-up of lucrative government ministries among their supporters and the expulsion of U.S. forces from Iraq.

Amiri will push for more pro-Iran policies, deepening Iraq’s economic dependence on the Islamic Republic. Sadr will seek political dominance, which requires weakening the influence of Iran-backed militias.

Allawi twice served as communications minister under a previous Iranian favorite, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, but resigned in protest against corruption and his boss’s overtly sectarian politics.

Under different circumstances, this would have earned him some goodwill with the protesters, but they see him as a hopelessly compromised member of the discredited political elite, and endorsements from Amiri and Sadr have hardened their suspicions.

And yet, the protesters represent Allawi’s only hope of standing up to his benefactors. If he can harness their outrage and embrace their reform aspirations, he might gain some political space of his own.

That is what Allawi’s predecessor, Adel Abdul Mahdi, should have done — or at least tried to do. He, too, was a compromise candidate beholden to political heavyweights.

Rather than coopt the protests, he presided over a brutal crackdown, involving state security as well as the Shiite militias, which only inflamed the situation. Eventually, he had no option but to quit.

Can Allawi do better? He has started by saying the right things, encouraging the protesters to carry on, and promising political and economic reforms. “I’m your employee carrying your trust, so do not retreat until you get what you want,” he said.

Rhetoric alone will not earn him political capital. The real test for Allawi is whether he can protect the protesters from the security forces and militias. Unlike Amiri and Sadr, he does not have any muscle to flex in the streets.

So his best bet might be to seek the support of the one man they both fear: Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani.

There’s More: 

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://news.yahoo.com/iraq-prime-minister-may-not-070011688.html

.Mis-Focus

Mis-Focus

By Anna Von Reitz  Thursday, January 30, 2020

While everyone's attention is focused on the Circus Maxima taking place in Washington, DC, complete with the pot calling the kettle black, and all sorts of "investigation" intrigue taking place all over the world --- it turns out that the "Russian Collusion" was actually about Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, John Kerry, and Mitt Romney, all four, very gainfully employing their children in what used to be called Russia -- the Ukraine.

Name games, again.

Apparently, leaders in BOTH political parties are compromised for the same sins and likely to be painted with the same brush of corruption once the dust settles, so that's why Romney and his RINO buddies are trying to justify impeaching Trump with no credible evidence of wrong-doing on his part at all.

Ukraine was just such a honey pot, they couldn't resist.

And now, they are scared. 

With the lowest unemployment rate in 50 years and lower and middle income families gaining net income for the first time in a decade and average life expectancy in this country on the rise, and many other indicators of Trump's success physically hitting home throughout America, all their lies sound increasingly hollow.

So, what do they do?  They unleash the deadly and naturally occurring Nipah virus and the Corona virus engineered by Bill Gates, at the same exact time, in China, to signal their displeasure with the China-Trump Trade Deal. 

Reminds me of little kids getting mad because they can't win a softball game, and taking their bat and ball and going home.  If they can't bilk China, and extort racketeering and protection money from China, then nobody else is going to be able to do business with China, either.

Unfortunately, their home is here, in America---- and we have the responsibility of dealing with these Infant Terribles. Sooner or later, it's going to come down to dragging them out of the halls of Congress, out of St. Peter's., and out of the banks and military as well. 

We have to do it, and there is nobody here but us chickens.

So, we need to wise up our Democrat friends who are still in a daze from decades of glutting at the trough and assure them that, yes, the dirty laundry is in full view.  The Unions, the Mob, the Oil Companies, Blackwater, Vanguard, Homeland Security, both the RNC and DNC, the FED, the "Marshal Plan", the banks ---- all of it. 

Turns out that Wells Fargo was Crime Central in the time period between the Twin Towers and the 2008 Meltdown. 

 To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

http://www.paulstramer.net/2020/01/mis-focus.html

 See this article and over 2200 others on Anna's website here: www.annavonreitz.com

.Ideas For Those Who Have More Money Than They Can Spend

Ideas For Those Who Have More Money Than They Can Spend

A Few Ideas for Those Rich People Who Have More Money Than They Can Spend
What should you do if the only asset you lack is imagination?
By Harry Cheadle

From Left: Bobby Murphy, Evan Spiegel, Rupert Murdoch, And David H. Koch At Some Time 100 Thing In 2014. Photo Illustration Based On A Photo By Larry Busacca/Getty Images For Time

Axios reported on Thursday that "wealthy people and corporations have so much money they literally don't know what to do with it." According to the outlet, a combination of low interest rates (making it easy to borrow from banks) and globalization (driving down labor costs) have fueled a Scrooge McDuck-style rise in corporate profits since the 2008 financial crisis.

At the same time, in a story familiar to generations of Americans, economic gains have disproportionately gone to the world's ultra-rich, who have also recently benefited from policies like Donald Trump's tax cut last year, which rewarded the wealthy and corporations.

And rather than using those windfalls to raise salaries for workers (lol) or even just spend on consumer goods, these entities are either buying back their own stock, sitting Smaug-like on piles of cash, or blowing it on dubious investments. From Axios:

Wealthy households and individuals are pouring money into asset managers, betting on companies that lose $1 billion a year, bonds from little-known Middle Eastern republics, and giving hot Silicon Valley start-ups more venture capital than they can handle…

But even that hasn't been enough to account for all the new money. The top 1 percent of U.S. households are holding a record $303.9 billion of cash, a quantum leap from the under $15 billion they held just before the financial crisis.

So what should the imagination-poor rich people do with all of those commas? A few suggestions:

To continue reading, please go to the original article at

A Few Ideas for Those Rich People Who Have More Money Than They Can Spend

.How to Get Through Tough Times When You Are in Despair

How to Get Through Tough Times When You Are in Despair

From Lifehack  By Daniel Matthews, CPRP  November 5, 2018

A Certified Psychosocial Rehabilitation Practitioner with an extensive background working with clients on community-based rehabilitation. Read full profile

Suddenly, a class 5 hurricane comes out of nowhere and literally wrecks your life; you discover your health is failing; your best friend commits suicide. These aren’t scenarios from a TV show or movie — they’re tough times that many people face all over the world, and even if you’re not dealing with something so major, you’re still in a state of utter despair.

Step back for a second. You’re still able to read this, or you have someone reading it to you. To realize the fact of your existence and what that realization means right now is part of the journey not just to recovery, but to bliss.

When you’re in a state of bliss, what does that look like? Where are you, is there anyone with you, are you relaxed, is there an incredible scent hanging in the air?

Even if the advice I’m about to give you doesn’t put you in a state of bliss, it will help you get closer to a place where bliss is possible.

Below, you’ll discover the initial steps towards recovery — those first essential actions you must take to recover from being in a state of despair. Next, you’ll get tips on maintaining psychological stability once there’s some distance between yourself and whatever is causing you to despair. Finally, you’ll grasp a philosophical standpoint that will help you help others when they are in a state of despair like yours.

Ready to get through this tough moment in your life and emerge a better person? Let’s do this.

1. You Are Not Alone — Cry out for Help

First, know this: Isolation is dangerous while you’re in despair.

If you break down and do something you can’t take back, there’s a good chance no one is helping you think differently.

Some 70 percent of people who commit suicide are not undergoing mental health treatment, and suicide rates for people between the ages of 34 and 65 have increased by 33 percent since the year 2000.[1] If those individuals who killed themselves had been able to get treatment, it could have saved their lives.

Find a counselor. If you don’t have health insurance and it’s going to cost too much, search for free counseling options in your community. Try the SAMHSA Treatment Referral Helpline, 1-877-SAMHSA7 (1-877-726-4727), if you’re at a loss.

Or call a family member or friend if you simply need someone to talk to. Even if you can’t completely unburden yourself, talking to someone is better than the alternative of carrying such a heavy burden.

A caveat: Do not try to substitute your friends and family for an actual therapist. It’s unhealthy for both you and them, because there’s too much emotional attachment.

In short, you’ll be burdening them too much, and they may give you biased advice. A counselor will give you objective advice that can help immensely.

2. Search Yourself and Be Honest About Absolutely Everything

Now that you’ve identified someone to talk to, it’s time to take these important steps:

Take a look at your life and ask whether there are any ongoing physical, external issues in your environment making things worse.

Examine your diet and lifestyle for factors affecting your wellness (more on this soon).

Examine your thoughts and look for the types of thoughts, or the very specific thoughts, that are causing you to despair.

At this point, it will help to go to the doctor and get a physical exam. Find out where you’re at biologically. Maybe you’re not getting enough vitamins or nutrients, or you’re getting too much of something. You may not be getting enough exercise. Be honest with the doctor.

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://www.lifehack.org/814081/tough-times

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