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Rod Rosenstein, who served as both Deputy Attorney General and Acting-Deputy Attorney General. (Photo: Reuters)
Rod Rosenstein, who served as both Deputy Attorney General and Acting-Deputy Attorney General. (Photo: Reuters)

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein will resign after the U.S. Senate confirms Attorney General nominee Bill Barr, multiple sources confirm.

Mr. Barr was nominated after Attorney General Jeff Sessions was fired following the 2018 midterm elections.

Mr. Rosenstein, who appointed and oversaw the special counsel investigation conducted by Robert Mueller, allegedly wants to ensure a smooth transition.

The nation’s second highest law enforcement officer in the land has had a controversial tenure at the Justice Department (DOJ). Congressional investigators repeatedly accused him of stonewalling their investigations into DOJ corruption, including abuses to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

In October 2018, Mr. Rosenstein snubbed the House Oversight and House Judiciary Committees, both of whom wanted to question him over a report published by The New York Times in September. It claimed he met with now-disgraced officials to discuss the possibility of entrapping President Donald Trump.

James Baker, formerly the general counsel at the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), told lawmakers in explosive testimony a week before that Mr. Rosenstein “seriously” considered secretly recording the president.

The former top FBI lawyer said the meeting included fired deputy director Andrew McCabe, disgraced lawyer Lisa Page and Mr. Rosenstein. The potential plan to secretly record President Trump was an extension of the “insurance policy” to remove the president.

Mr. Baker said he met with fired former FBI deputy director Mr. McCabe and former FBI attorney Lisa Page shortly after their meeting with Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein in May 2017. Mr. McCabe was fired for “lack of candor” and leaking to the media “to advance his personal interests.” Ms. Page and Mr. Baker resigned together in disgrace for their center role in the scandal surrounding the probes into Hillary Clinton and Russia.

It was not the only report implicating Mr. Rosenstein in wrongdoing.

In February 2018, multiple sources told People’s Pundit Daily (PPD) that Mr. Rosenstein expressed frustration with the select committee’s oversight investigation during a meeting that took place on January 10. The meeting in question took place before the highly-anticipated release of a memo prepared by Mr. Nunes and other Republicans on the committee.

It detailed government surveillance abuses by Mr. Rosenstein, fired former FBI director James Comey, his fired deputy Mr. McCabe and other former Obama Administration officials.

The DOJ released heavily-redacted documents used to justify the FISA warrant application to spy on Team Trump via peripheral advisor Carter Page on their own. It confirmed crucial and disturbing details of the memo prepared by Rep. Devin Nunes.

Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) allows intelligence agencies to collect information on foreign targets abroad. However, as PPD also previously reported, it has been “routinely” abused and misused to spy on domestic targets, including President Trump, his associates and other U.S. citizens.

The FISA court was not explicitly made aware that the dossier(s) came from political opposition research funded by the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and the campaign for Hillary Clinton.

The deputy attorney general, who was serving as the acting attorney general in the Russia probe, signed off on an additional FISA warrant even after all the information was brought into the light.

The bombshell revelation came after Mr. Rosenstein appointed Special Counsel Robert Mueller against DOJ policy and the laws governing special counsels.

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein will resign

On this episode of Liberty Never Sleeps, Tom talks about all of the lies and misinformation the left likes to promulgate, from borders to gun control.

*Cervices and Poop
*The Speech and Response
*The TSA ‘Layoffs’ and Coffee
*Health Care For All
*Expand This…

Bumper Music:

Be My Yoko Ono- Barenaked Ladies
Call Me- Blondie
Going the Distance- Cake
My Little Runaway- Del Shannon
Fooled Around in Love- Elvin Bishop
Runaround Sue- Dion

Closing Music on podcast provided by The Dead Cat Bounce*

The money pledged thru Patreon.com will go toward show costs such as advertising, server time, and broadcasting equipment. If we can get
enough listeners, we will expand the show to two hours and hire additional staff.

To help our show out, please support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/LibertyNeverSleeps

All bumper music and sound clips are not owned by the show, are commentary, and of educational purposes, or de minimus effect, and not for monetary gain.

No copyright is claimed in any use of such materials and to the extent that material may appear to be infringed, I assert that such alleged infringement is permissible under fair use principles in U.S. copyright laws. If you believe material has been used in an unauthorized manner, please contact the poster.

On this episode of Liberty Never Sleeps,

President: Thousands More Lives Will Be Lost If We Don’t Act Now

In his first Oval Office address to the nation, President Donald Trump said he is “determined to end” the “cycle of human suffering” at the U.S. southern border with Mexico.

“There is a growing humanitarian and security crisis on the southern border,” a serious- and sober-toned president told the nation. “We are out of space to hold them and we have no way to promptly return them to their country.”

He called the situation at the southern border a “crisis of the heart and a crisis of the soul,” one that “strains public resources.”

“America proudly welcomes millions of lawful immigrants who would enrich our society and contribute to our nation,” he added. “But all Americans are hurt by uncontrolled illegal immigration.”

“Among those hardest hit are African Americans and Hispanic Americans.”

The president characterized the southern border as a vast pipeline for meth, heroine and and other illicit drugs. The U.S. southern border serves as the entry point for an estimated 90% of the nation’s illicit heroin.

As People’s Pundit Daily (PPD) recently reported, the Justice Department (DOJ) announced the sentences for members of a notorious Mexican sex trafficking organization that “frequently” relies on the U.S. southern border to smuggle their victims.

“These children are used by vicious coyotes. One out of three women are sexually abused on the trek to the southern border,” President Trump said. “Women are the biggest victims by far.”

“This is the cycle of human suffering I am determined to end.”

For over a decade, the Rendon-Reyes Trafficking Organization, based in Tenancingo, Tlaxcala, Mexico, has used the insecurity and lawlessness at the southern border to smuggle young women and girls to the U.S. from Mexico and Central America.

Female victims, some as young as 14 years old, are often lured into fraudulent romantic relationships by male members falsely promising them love and marriage. In other cases, some victims were forcibly abducted and, on one such occasion, the victim’s child was also taken.

At the request of Democrats, it will be a steel barrier rather than a concrete wall. It is also what our border professionals want and need.

In October 2018, the White House announced the United States Mexico Canada Agreement (USMCA), a trade deal to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

While his opposition in the media and Democratic Party have argued he broke the promise to force Mexico to pay for the wall, he also cited trade as the means to offset the cost.

The USMCA represented the fulfillment of a campaign promise over trade and a means to claim Mexico will in fact end up paying on net.

“The wall will also be paid for indirectly by the great new trade deal we have made with Mexico,” the president said, adding the partial government shutdown is solely “because Democrats will not fund border security.”

President Trump initially requested $5 billion for his administration’s proposal, while border personnel requested $5.7 billion.

“Democrats in Congress have refused to acknowledge the crisis, and they’ve refused to provide our great Border Patrol agents with the tools they need,” he said. “This situation can be solved in a 45 minute meeting.”

He told Americans he has again invited congressional leaders to the White House on Wednesday to negotiate an end to the shutdown and a response to the border crisis.

Last week, Democratic congressional leaders interrupted a presentation on border security in the Situation Room at the White House.

“Some have suggested a barrier is immoral,” he said in reference to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who made the remark in a recent interview with Elle. “Then why do wealthy politicians build walls, fences and gates around their home?”

“They don’t build walls around their homes because they hate the people on the outside, but because they love the people on the inside. The only thing immoral is for politicians to do nothing and allow more innocent people to be so horribly victimized.”

He invoked the recent murder of Police Corporal Ronil “Ron” Singh, of Newman, Calif., whose widow just spoke to the president.

“Day after day, precious lives are cut short by those who have violated our borders. How much more American blood should we shed before Congress does its job?” he asked.

“Imagine it was your child, your wife, your husband, whose life was shattered and totally broken.”

President Trump also urged “every citizen” to call Congress and tell them to finally secure the southern border after decades of broken campaign promises.

“This is a choice between right and wrong; justice and injustice. This is about whether we fulfill our sacred duty to the American citizens we serve,” he said in conclusion. “When I took the oath of office, I swore to protect this country and that’s what I’ll always do, so help me God.”

Speaker Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called the border crisis “manufactured” in a televised rebuttal to the president’s Oval Office address.

In his first Oval Office address, President

President Donald Trump addresses the nation about the humanitarian crisis on the U.S. southern border with Mexico from the Oval Office on January 8, 2019.

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President Donald Trump addresses the nation about

New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) Building in the Lower Manhattan Financial District, New York City. (Photo: Tomasz Zajda/AdobeStock/PPD)
New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) Building in the Lower Manhattan Financial District, New York City. (Photo: Tomasz Zajda/AdobeStock/PPD)

Stocks began the week on a positive note, as major market averages posted steady gains ranging from +0.45 for the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) to +1.7% for the Russell 2000 (^RUT).

Market Internals continue to impress, with Up Volume at 4X Down Volume and advancing issues beating decliners by better than 3½ to 1. While these numbers are a far cry from the epic stats we had Friday on market breadth, we would have welcomed these stats in a heartbeat anytime during the second half last year.

While gains were tempered by some afternoon selling, the rally was clearly broad in scope, with participation from many sectors.

Oil stocks were aided by crude hitting its best level in 3 weeks.

Financials continue to get attention from investors attracted to their dividend yield and well below average p/e valuations.

Retailers are enjoying the afterglow of the holiday spending season, clearly benefiting from gas prices hitting 4 year lows during the peak of the holiday shopping season.

Thank you, President Donald Trump!

Never mind the travesty of past generation icons Sears and JCPenney. While these franchises died years ago, life goes on as Craftsman Tools are readily available at Lowes and Ace Hardware.

The Technology space deserves kudos for shrugging off red numbers from Apple Inc. (^AAPL) and Alphabet Inc. (^GOOG), as the Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC ) settled with gains of better than +1%.

It’s worth noting that overnight Samsung is giving cautious guidance on phone sales, similar to what we heard from AAPL last week. Keep in mind that we’re into day 2 of CES week in Las Vegas, and there will likely be a steady stream of product announcement headlines as the week wears on.

The Early Line:

Investors appear not to be deterred at all by yesterday’s afternoon selling that paired the day’s gains nearly in half, as early trading in stock index futures are pointing toward gains of close to +1%.

This morning the NFIB Small Business Optimism gauge for January held nearly unchanged at 104.4. We’ll take that, thank you very much. At 10:00 AM we’ll get the JOLTS report on job openings.

Tomorrow afternoon we’ll get the release of the minutes from the December FOMC meeting, followed by a full calendar FED speakers to fill out the rest of the week.

Markets began the week on a positive

A team of millennial business owners collaborating on an online project using a touchpad tablet in a modern office space. (Photo: AdobeStock/AYAimages)
A team of millennial business owners collaborating on an online project using a touchpad tablet in a modern office space. (Photo: AdobeStock/AYAimages)

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) Small Business Optimism Index barely budged in December, ticking down just 0.4 points to 104.4.

The consensus forecast was looking for 104 even, and forecasts ranged from 100.7 to 105.0. The skills gap continues to be the top cited challenge, a change from when the tax and regulatory environment was cited as the top concern for businesses under the previous administration.

As People’s Pundit Daily (PPD) previously reported and the NFIB Small Business Optimism Index confirms, job openings set a record high and job creation plans are strengthening.

In December, the U.S. economy boasted 150,000,000 jobs for the first time ever. The survey also confirmed wage growth detailed by the monthly jobs report, indicating higher worker compensation remained near record levels and inventory investment plans surged.

Expected real sales growth and expected business conditions in the next six months, however, accounted for the modest decline in the Index.

“Optimism among small business owners continues to push record highs, but they need workers to generate more sales, provide services, and complete projects, said NFIB President and CEO Juanita D. Duggan. “Two of every three of these new jobs are historically created by the small business half of the economy, so it will be Main Street that will continue to drive economic growth.”

A recent historical perspective (H/T NFIB):

  • Actual hiring strengthened to the highest reading in six months, job openings are at a record high levels, and plans to create new jobs are down only three points from August’s record high.
  • The net percent of owners expecting better business conditions in six months and the percent viewing the current period as a good time to expand have both tapered off since the record high Index reading in August but still remain well above their historical averages.
  • Actual capital outlays are five percentage points higher than in August, although plans for outlays are eight points below the high for this expansion.
  • Plans to invest in inventories are only two points below August, the record high. Satisfaction with inventories is two points better.

“Recently, we’ve seen two themes promoted in the public discourse: first, the economy is going to overheat and cause inflation and second, the economy is slowing and the Federal Reserve should not raise interest rates,” said NFIB Chief Economist Bill Dunkelberg. “However, the NFIB surveys of the small business half of the economy have shown no signs of an inflation threat, and in real terms Main Street remains very strong, setting record levels of hiring along the way.”

The NFIB Small Business Optimism Index barely

Liberals are attempting to tamper with the president’s constitutional authority and responsibilities with this new Congress, and circumvent his authority.

*Ginsberg Should Go
*The Speech and the Wall
*Mattis and Expansionism
*Rashida Tlaib is PLO
*Alexa has An Accent

Bumper Music:

Nights on Broadway- Bee Gees
Der Kommissar= Falco
Those Were the Days- Mary Hopkins
A Fifth of Beethoven- Walter Murphy
Moonlighting – Al Jarreau
Ode to Billie Joe- Bobbie Gentry

Closing Music on podcast provided by
The Dead Cat Bounce*

The money pledged thru Patreon.com will go toward show costs such as advertising, server time, and broadcasting equipment. If we can get
enough listeners, we will expand the show to two hours and hire additional staff.

To help our show out, please support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/LibertyNeverSleeps

All bumper music and sound clips are not owned by the show, are commentary, and of educational purposes, or de minimus effect, and not for monetary gain.

No copyright is claimed in any use of such materials and to the extent that material may appear to be infringed, I assert that such alleged infringement is permissible under fair use principles in U.S. copyright laws. If you believe material has been used in an unauthorized manner, please contact the poster.

Liberals are attempting to tamper with the

Canada crisis concept. (Photo: AdobeStock)
Canada crisis concept. (Photo: AdobeStock)

Canada’s current top politician, Justin Trudeau (a.k.a., Prime Minister Zoolander), increased the top tax rate from 29 percent to 33 percent after taking office in late 2015.

It appears, though, that he wasn’t aware of a concept known as the Laffer Curve(or, like some folks on the left, maybe he simply didn’t care).

In the real world, however, it turns out that increasing tax rates is not the same as increasing tax revenue.

Here are some excerpts from a story in the Globe and Mail.

The Liberal government’s tax on Canada’s top 1 per cent failed to produce the promised billions in new revenue in its first year, as high-income earners actually paid $4.6-billion less in federal taxes. …The latest available tax records show that revenue from Canadians earning about $140,000 or more – which had previously been the fourth and highest tax bracket – dropped by $4.6-billion in 2016, the first full year that the Liberal tax changes were in effect. Further, 30,340 fewer Canadians reported incomes in that range for 2016 compared with the year before. …The new top bracket with a 33-per-cent tax rate was predicted to raise about $3-billion a year in new revenue… Critics of the Liberal plan say the CRA’s 2016 numbers justify their concern that a new top tax bracket hurts Canadian efforts to boost competitiveness and attract top talent.

It’s quite possible, as noted in the article, that some of the foregone revenue might be the result of one-time changes, such as upper-income taxpayers shifting income from 2016 to 2015 (rich people do have considerable control over the timing, level, and composition of their income).

report from Global News reviews a report about the degree to which revenues dropped for transitory reasons.

The Liberal government’s 2016 tax hike on Canada’s top one per cent not only failed to yield the promised billions, but resulted in a net revenue loss for government coffers… After adjusting for economic changes and one-time factors, the paper estimates, based on 2016 tax data, that the Liberals’ new tax bracket for top earners creates $1.2 billion in new revenue for the federal government but a $1.3 billion loss for provincial governments. …Finance Minister Bill Morneau’s office, however, has maintained that the revenue drop for 2016 was a one-off event. …But an analysis of the data that adjusts for the impact of the dividends maneuver and economic factors still shows that the tax hike would have fallen far short of the hype… Studies have shown that top earners are more likely than lower-income taxpayers to react to tax increases by reducing their taxable income. This may be because the wealthy have access to more sophisticated tax advice, are more easily able to shift assets to lower-tax jurisdictions or can afford to simply decide to work less given that they get to keep less of their money.

Much of the data in this story came from an analysis by the C.D. Howe Institute.

Here’s the key chart from that study, which disentangles the one-off changes and permanent changes caused by the higher tax rate.

Source: C.D. Howe Institute
Source: C.D. Howe Institute

The bottom line is that the experts at the C.D. Howe Institute believe that the central government eventually will collect more revenue from the higher tax rate, but:

  1. The revenue will be less than projected by static revenue estimates because of permanently lower levels of taxable income.
  2. The added revenue for the central government is more than offset by lower tax receipts for subnational levels of government.

In other words, Trudeau’s tax hike was a big mistake. The only tangible results are that the private sector is now smaller and the country is less competitive.

For what it’s worth, I view the lack of additional tax revenue as a silver lining to an otherwise dark cloud. Maybe, just maybe, this will put a damper on some of Trudeau’s irresponsible plans for more spending.

Justin Trudeau increased the top tax rate

Mark Morgan, who served as Border Patrol chief under Barack Obama and was removed by Donald Trump, told ‘Tucker Carlson Tonight’ that the president is right, the wall will work.

“I was removed as the chief, and I’m here today to tell you… the president is right. The president of the Border Patrol Council is right.”

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders announced President Trump would visit the southern border on Thursday. On Twitter, the president announced that he would hold a primetime address in the Oval Office to discuss the humanitarian crisis at the border.

Democrats claim to support border security, but have thus far refused each offer, opting instead to introduce a spending bill to reopen the government that is void of wall funding.

“A wall, in my view, is an immorality. It’s the least effective way to protect the border and the most costly,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said in a recent interview with Elle. “I can’t think of any reason why anyone would think it’s a good idea — unless this has something to do with something else.”

As People’s Pundit Daily (PPD) reported Monday, the Justice Department (DOJ) confirmed a notorious Mexican sex trafficking organization “frequently” relies on the U.S. southern border to smuggle their victims.

For over a decade, the Rendon-Reyes Trafficking Organization, based in Tenancingo, Tlaxcala, Mexico, has used the insecurity and lawlessness at the southern border to smuggle young women and girls to the U.S. from Mexico and Central America.

Female victims, some as young as 14 years old, were often lured into fraudulent romantic relationships by male members falsely promising them love and marriage. In other cases, some victims were forcibly abducted and, on one such occasion, the victim’s child was also taken.

When asked if there’s “a real argument against the wall,” Mr. Morgan promptly and frankly responded.

“No, there’s not.”

Mark Morgan, who served as Border Patrol

Markets concept depicting the American flag draped over the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) at Wall Street. (Photo: AdobeStock)
Markets concept depicting the American flag draped over the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) at Wall Street. (Photo: AdobeStock)

New York City, N.Y. — Friday was much more than a “rebound rally” following the -2.5% drubbing the S&P 500 (^SPX) suffered on the second trading day of the year. The stats on market breadth were in the historic category.

Up Volume finished at 20 times Down Volume. Adding an exclamation point, advancing issues beat decliners 10-fold.

Having followed data on Market Internals for a few decades, I’m struggling to pinpoint a day in the annals of market history where we have been treated to the exacta of UVOL at 20 times DVOL and adv/decl logging in at 10 to 1.

What Does This Mean?

Data on market internals can only get this lopsided under a few circumstances:

First, the market must be extremely oversold, following a steep and/or lengthy decline. Clearly we have had a steep decline, although in a very condensed period of time.

Second, there must be some very recent indications of the selling pressure having been recently exhausted, or what many would call capitulation selling.

We likely experienced this in waves that spanned from the second week of December, fueled by the December 19 press conference by FED Chairman Jerome Powell, and reaching a crescendo with the “throw in the towel”, “just sell it”, “I’m out until January 7”, final “tax loss selling” on the abbreviated trading session December 24.

Third, markets likely need an actionable news event to Ignite a Market Reaction that metaphorically gets investors off the sidelines, reversing near term negative sentiment. Friday investors were treated to a double header.

At 8:30 am the blockbuster jobs report included every positives from every possible internal component of the report, including upward revisions of +60,000 jobs from Oct and Nov, that was hardly mentioned.

Two hours later, FED Chairman Powell speaking at a forum on Central Bank policy, walked back his “auto pilot” comment regarding the current FOMC balance sheet reduction schedule, in addition to hinting much more “doveish” on interest rate hikes for 2019.

The Take Away

No doubt, there remain unresolved issues that pose potential risk for the market. Possibly the upside here is that skepticism will remain elevated, giving markets the opportunity to climb the proverbial “wall of worry”.

We will continue to monitor Market Internals very closely with the conviction that continually improving data on UVOL/DVOL and Advance/Declines is a key ingredient for improving market averages.

90 minutes into the trading day these internals are giving encouragement, as advancing issues are ahead of decliners by 4 to 1.

We mention this with some caution given the frequent intraday reversals during the Q4 selloff, but less than half a day into what should be an action packed week, we’ll take it.

Friday was much more than a “rebound

People's Pundit Daily
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