3160-ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES? | View Thread

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-02-25/john-kerry-threatens-us-banks-over-russia-bond-sale

Russia wants to sell some bonds and President Obama isn’t happy about it.

Moscow is looking to issue “at least” $3 billion of foreign bonds in what amounts to the country’s first international issuance since the West imposed sanctions on The Kremlin in 2014 after the annexation of Crimea and Russia’s alleged role in “destabilizing” Ukraine (because it was very “stable” before).

Since the sanctions were imposed, relations between Moscow and Washington have only gotten more contentious and when Russia began flying combat missions from Latakia on September 30, it was trotted out as evidence that Vladimir Putin is indeed determined to reassert Russian influence by sheer force.

Meanwhile, the Russian economy is in trouble. Granted, Russia isn’t Brazil and Moscow isn’t running a double-digit budget deficit like Riyadh, but times are most assuredly tough. The ruble has plunged through 75 and will probably see the mid-80s if oil spends too much time in the 20s, inflation is running high, and collapsing crude threatens to weaken Moscow’s fiscal position.

All of that is just fine with Washington and its European allies who attribute a large part of the malaise to sanctions even though slumping crude probably plays a larger role.

It’s against this backdrop that Russia is set to sell $3 billion in debt and officials in the State Department and the Treasury are out warning US banks not to underwrite the deal.“The U.S. government has warned some top U.S. banks not to bid on a potentially lucrative but politically risky Russian bond deal, saying it would undermine international sanctions on Moscow,” WSJ reports, adding that “the rules don’t explicitly prohibit banks from pursuing the business, but U.S. State Department officials hold the view that helping finance Russia would run counter to American foreign policy.”

Russia has invited BofA, Citi, Goldman, JPMorgan, and Morgan Stanley to bid on the business, but Washington’s threats have left the Street in a rather tenuous position. In response to banks’ inquiries as to whether they are allowed to participate, John Kerry’s State Department said this: “It is essential that private companies—in the U.S., EU and around the world—understand that Russia will remain a high-risk market so long as its actions to destabilize Ukraine continue.[There will be] reputational risks of returning to business as usual with Russia.”

“Business as usual” was tens of billions in sovereign issuance and hundreds of millions in investment banking business for US financial institutions.

By warning of “reputational risks” it certainly appears as though Washinton is threatening to ostracize banks that help to arrange deals for the Russian government. Here’s Moscow’s sharp-tongued foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova: “The US is trying to intimidate banks on our bonds.”

The worry, apparently, is that The Kremlin will channel the funds to companies currently under sanctions meaning banks “could run the risk of inadvertently violating the sanctions in spirit.” We’re not entirely sure the best way to promote global security is to forcibly compel banks to help freeze the Russians out of international debt markets at a time when the fate of international peace is effectively in Russian hands thanks to Putin’s intervention in Syria.

Luis Miguel 1162 61587 Lima	RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES? 2/25/2016 11:25:42 PM
	Zerohedge: John Kerry Threatens US Banks Over Russia Bond Sale Posted on February 25, 2016 [by Jean Haines]by Jean http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-02-25/john-kerry-threatens-us-banks-over-russia-bond-sale Russia wants to sell some bonds and President Obama isn’t happy about it. Moscow is looking to issue “at least” $3 billion of foreign bonds in what amounts to the country’s first international issuance since the West imposed sanctions on The Kremlin in 2014 after the annexation of Crimea and Russia’s alleged role in “destabilizing” Ukraine (because it was very “stable” before). Since the sanctions were imposed, relations between Moscow and Washington have only gotten more contentious and when Russia began flying combat missions from Latakia on September 30, it was trotted out as evidence that Vladimir Putin is indeed determined to reassert Russian influence by sheer force. Meanwhile, the Russian economy is in trouble. Granted, Russia isn’t Brazil and Moscow isn’t running a double-digit budget deficit like Riyadh, but times are most assuredly tough. The ruble has plunged through 75 and will probably see the mid-80s if oil spends too much time in the 20s, inflation is running high, and collapsing crude threatens to weaken Moscow’s fiscal position. All of that is just fine with Washington and its European allies who attribute a large part of the malaise to sanctions even though slumping crude probably plays a larger role. It’s against this backdrop that Russia is set to sell $3 billion in debt and officials in the State Department and the Treasury are out warning US banks not to underwrite the deal.“The U.S. government has warned some top U.S. banks not to bid on a potentially lucrative but politically risky Russian bond deal, saying it would undermine international sanctions on Moscow,” WSJ reports, adding that “the rules don’t explicitly prohibit banks from pursuing the business, but U.S. State Department officials hold the view that helping finance Russia would run counter to American foreign policy.” Russia has invited BofA, Citi, Goldman, JPMorgan, and Morgan Stanley to bid on the business, but Washington’s threats have left the Street in a rather tenuous position. In response to banks’ inquiries as to whether they are allowed to participate, John Kerry’s State Department said this: “It is essential that private companies—in the U.S., EU and around the world—understand that Russia will remain a high-risk market so long as its actions to destabilize Ukraine continue.[There will be] reputational risks of returning to business as usual with Russia.” “Business as usual” was tens of billions in sovereign issuance and hundreds of millions in investment banking business for US financial institutions. By warning of “reputational risks” it certainly appears as though Washinton is threatening to ostracize banks that help to arrange deals for the Russian government. Here’s Moscow’s sharp-tongued foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova: “The US is trying to intimidate banks on our bonds.” The worry, apparently, is that The Kremlin will channel the funds to companies currently under sanctions meaning banks “could run the risk of inadvertently violating the sanctions in spirit.” We’re not entirely sure the best way to promote global security is to forcibly compel banks to help freeze the Russians out of international debt markets at a time when the fate of international peace is effectively in Russian hands thanks to Putin’s intervention in Syria. We’re also not entirely sure why the federal government feels like it has the right to dictate with whom private enterprises can do business. Besides, if John Kerry is really interested in curtailing the financial activities of nefarious actors, he should be warning the Russians not to do business with Wall Street – the bankers are much more dangerous than Vladimir Putin.
	"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)
	+1

Luis Miguel 1162 61587 Lima	RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES? 2/26/2016 12:58:44 AM
	Donald Trump and the Central Park Five: the racially charged rise of a demagogue In 1989 five young black men were wrongfully convicted of raping a woman jogging in New York City. Leading the charge against them was a real estate mogul whose divisive rhetoric can be found in his presidential campaign today Oliver Laughland in New York Wednesday 17 February 2016 18.15 GMT Central Park Five member Yusef Salaam recalls Trump: ‘He has not changed’. Video by Laurence Mathieu-Léger Watch video Yusef Salaam was 15 years old when Donald Trump demanded his execution for a crime he did not commit. Nearly three decades before the rambunctious billionaire began his run for president – before he called for a ban on Muslims entering the United States, for the expulsion of all undocumented migrants, before he branded Mexicans as “rapists” and was accused of mocking the disabled – Trump called for the reinstatement of the death penalty in New York following a horrific rape case in which five teenagers were wrongly convicted. The miscarriage of justice is widely remembered as a definitive moment in New York’s fractured race relations. But Trump’s intervention – he signed full-page newspaper advertisements implicitly calling for the boys to die – has been gradually overlooked as the businessman’s chances of winning the Republican nomination have rapidly increased. Now those involved in the case of the so-called Central Park Five and its aftermath say Trump’s rhetoric served as an unlikely precursor to a unique brand of divisive populism that has powered his rise to political prominence in 2016. “He was the fire starter,” Salaam said of Trump, in his first extended interview since Trump announced his run for the White House. “Common citizens were being manipulated and swayed into believing that we were guilty.” It was 1989. The crack epidemic had torn through New York as poverty soared to 25% and the city’s elites reaped the rewards of a booming Wall Street. The murder rate had risen to 1,896 killings a year; 3,254 rapes would be reported in the five boroughs, but only one captured the city’s extended attention and later exposed bias in its criminal justice system and media establishment. On the evening of 19 April, as 28-year-old investment banker Trisha Meili, who was white, jogged across the northern, dilapidated section of Central Park, she was brutally attacked – bludgeoned with a rock, gagged, tied and raped. She was left for dead but discovered hours later, unconscious and suffering from hypothermia and severe brain damage. The New York police department believed they already had the culprits in custody. That same night, a group of more than 30 youths had entered the park from East Harlem. Some engaged in a rampage of random criminality, hurling rocks at cars, assaulting and mugging passersby. Among the group was Salaam, along with 14-year-olds Raymond Santana and Kevin Richardson, 15-year-old Antron McCray and 16-year-old Korey Wise. The teenagers – four African American and one Hispanic – would become known collectively as the Central Park Five. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Yusef Salaam, left, is led away by a detective after being arrested in Central Park for allegedly attacking Trisha Meili. Photograph: New York Daily News Archive/NY Daily News via Getty Images They would all later deny any involvement in criminality that night, but as they were rounded up and interrogated by the police at length, they said, they were forced into confessing to the rape. “I would hear them beating up Korey Wise in the next room,” recalled Salaam. “They would come and look at me and say: ‘You realise you’re next.’ The fear made me feel really like I was not going to be able to make it out.” Four of the boys signed confessions and appeared on video without a lawyer, each arguing that while they had not been the individual to commit the rape they had witnessed one of the others do it, thereby implicating the entire group. The city erupted. The case came to embody not only fears that accompanied the dramatic rise of violent crime in New York, but also its perceived racial dynamics. The case of a black woman, raped the same day in Brooklyn by two men who threw her from the roof of a four-story building, received little media attention. ‘He poisoned the minds of New York’ Just two weeks after the Central Park attack, before any of the boys had faced trial and while Meili remained critically ill in a coma, Donald Trump, whose office on Fifth Avenue commanded an exquisite view of the park’s opulent southern frontier, intervened. He paid a reported $85,000 to take out advertising space in four of the city’s newspapers, including the New York Times. Under the headline “Bring Back The Death Penalty. Bring Back The Police!” and above his signature, Trump wrote: “I want to hate these muggers and murderers. They should be forced to suffer and, when they kill, they should be executed for their crimes. They must serve as examples so that others will think long and hard before committing a crime or an act of violence.” Salaam, now 41, cannot remember exactly where he was when he first saw the ads. He had no idea who Trump was. “I knew that this famous person calling for us to die was very serious,” he recalled. “We were all afraid. Our families were afraid. Our loved ones were afraid. For us to walk around as if we had a target on our backs, that’s how things were.” All five minors had already been paraded in front of the cameras and had their names and addresses published, but Salaam said he and his family received more death threats after the papers ran Trump’s full-page screed. On a daytime TV show two days later, a female audience member called for the boys to be castrated and echoed the calls for the death penalty if Meili died. Pat Buchanan, the former Republican White House aide, called for the oldest of the group, Wise, to be “tried, convicted and hanged in Central Park by June 1”. “Had this been the 1950s, that sick type of justice that they wanted – somebody from that darker place of society would have most certainly came to our homes, dragged us from our beds and hung us from trees in Central Park. It would have been similar to what they did to Emmett Till,” Salaam said. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Kharey Wise in court when he was arraigned in the Central Park jogger case. Photograph: NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images All five boys pleaded not guilty at trial the following year. The prosecution’s case rested almost entirely on the confessions they had given shortly after the incident. As would become crucial later on, there was no DNA evidence linking any of them to the crime scene and Meili, who made a miraculous recovery and testified in court, could not remember any details of the attack. The jury found all five boys guilty. The court condemned them to prison to serve sentences ranging from five to 10 years and five to 15 years. Wise, who had remained in the city’s notorious Rikers Island jail, was sentenced as an adult. Michael Warren, the veteran New York civil rights lawyer who would later come to represent the Central Park Five, is certain that Trump’s advertisements played a role in securing conviction. “He poisoned the minds of many people who lived in New York and who, rightfully, had a natural affinity for the victim,” said Warren. “Notwithstanding the jurors’ assertions that they could be fair and impartial, some of them or their families, who naturally have influence, had to be affected by the inflammatory rhetoric in the ads.” A spokeswoman for Trump’s campaign declined to comment. An impulse to run at controversy Facebook Twitter Pinterest Donald Trump at the opening of the Trump Taj Mahal casino resort in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Photograph: Charles Rex Arbogast/AP For many who have studied Trump’s rise to prominence, the Central Park case provided an early glimpse into how his racially charged views entered his political and tactical mindset. “He has this penchant for what you might call otherising,” said Michael D’Antonio, the author of Never Enough, a recently published Trump biography. “I think he knew what he was doing by taking a side, and I think he knew he was aligning himself with law and order, especially white law and order. I don’t think that he was consciously saying ‘I’d like to whip up racial animosity’, but his impulse is to run into conflict and controversy rather than try to help people understand what might be going on in a reasoned way.” I think he knew what he was doing by taking a side, and I think he knew he was aligning himself with white law and order Michael D'Antonio, author, Never Enough Two years before the Central Park case, Trump had briefly considered a run for president that most dismissed as a naked attempt to drum up publicity for his book The Art of the Deal, released later that year. But he couldn’t resist the opportunity to speak in New Hampshire at the invitation of the Portsmouth Republican committee, using the platform to single out allies in Saudi Arabia and Japan while critiquing US foreign policy in the Persian Gulf. He employed the same tactics as he would in 1989, publishing full-page ads in three of America’s biggest newspapers that called for the US to impose taxes on these allies, whom he argued were “taking advantage of the United States”. In February 2000, when Trump was again flirting with a run for the White House, he took out anonymous ads in local upstate New York newspapers, in an effort to shut down a rival casino backed by a group of Native Americans. Beneath a picture of needles and drug paraphernalia, the ad stated: “Are these the new neighbors we want?” It added: “The St. Regis Mohawk Indian record of criminal activity is well documented.” Trump later apologised, but his biographer argued the incident underlined a “willingness to use rhetoric that other people won’t use under the guise of talking straight” that is now a fixture on the campaign trail. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Donald Trump: police killers should get the death penalty Watch video After declaring in his campaign announcement that Mexico was “bringing crime” and “rapists” to the US, Trump quickly seized on the murder case of a 32-year-old white woman in San Francisco in which an undocumented Mexican migrant is the chief suspect. He has since frequently condoned and incited violence against protesters at his rallies, and has vowed to bring back waterboarding of terror suspects. In referencing a promise to issue an executive order to mandatorily execute anyone in the US who kills a police officer, he said: “We just can’t afford any more to be so politically correct.” But examples of overt racism were perhaps kept behind closed doors in the late 1980s. One year after the Central Park Five were convicted, John O’Donnell, a former executive who ran Trump Plaza hotel and casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey, published a tell-all alluding to his former boss’s casual racism behind closed doors. He quoted Trump as saying: “I’ve got black accountants at Trump Castle and at Trump Plaza. Black guys counting my money! I hate it. The only kind of people I want counting my money are short guys that wear yarmulkes every day.” In a later interview with Playboy magazine, Trump labelled his former employee a “**ing loser” but added: “The stuff O’Donnell wrote about me is probably true.” Facebook Twitter Pinterest Trump holds up the March 1990 issue of Playboy with him on the cover as he works the rope line after a campaign rally in Farmington, New Hampshire. Photograph: Gretchen Ertl/Reuters But Barbara Res, a member of Trump’s inner circle through much of the 1980s who served as his executive vice-president in 1989, told the Guardian she never witnessed any signs of racism throughout her time at his company and was “surprised” by his inflammatory rhetoric today. “I think he got angry when he saw what happened to that woman, and I think he reacted to it,” she said of the Central Park jogger case. “I think we were all horrified at what happened. I think everybody basically supported Donald. I don’t think he was trying to be racist – I think he was trying to be a proponent of law and order.” For Salaam, however, the intent was explicit: “If we were white, would Donald Trump had written this in the paper?” ‘He’s still the same person’** In 2002, after Salaam had served seven years in prison, Matias Reyes, a violent serial rapist and murderer already serving life inside, came forward and confessed to the Central Park rape. He stated that he had acted by himself. A re-examination of DNA evidence proved it was his semen alone found on Meili’s body, and just before Christmas that year, the convictions against each member of the Central Park Five were vacated by New York’s supreme court. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Antron McCray, Raymond Santana Jr, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam and Kharey Wise outside a theater before the New York premiere of the Central Park Five, in 2012. Photograph: Michael Nagle/New York Times / Redux / eyevine By this point, Trump had gotten his wish: the death penalty had been reinstated in New York since 1995, at great cost to the state. It was subsequently abolished in 2007, without a single execution carried out. Following a 14-year court battle, the Central Park Five settled a civil case with the city for $41m in 2014. But far from offering an apology for his conduct in 1989, Trump was furious. In an opinion piece for the New York Daily News, he described the case as the “heist of the century”. “Settling doesn’t mean innocence, but it indicates incompetence on several levels,” Trump wrote, alluding to how police and prosecutors initially involved in the case have long maintained the five boys were involved in the rape, even after the convictions were thrown out. D’Antonio, the biographer, met with Trump shortly after the settlement was announced. The billionaire was once again considering a shot at the presidency and would, this time, actually run. Trump was asked if he worried that his publicly confrontational style would affect his political prospects. He retorted instantly with a reference to the Central Park Five. “I think it will help me,” he said. “I think people are tired of politically correct. I just attacked the Central Park Five settlement. Who’s going to do that?” The biographer was shocked by what he heard. “His insensitivity and inability to adjust to reality is sometimes shocking,” D’Antonio said of Trump. “But I don’t think that he is necessarily interested in reality as others experience it or as it’s determined by the courts. “There have been few cases of injustice that are as clear and profound as this one is, but he’s not able to consider that.” Facebook Twitter Pinterest Yusef Salaam, one of the Central Park Five: ‘What would this country look like with Donald Trump as being a president? That’s a scary thing.’ Photograph: The Guardian Salaam, who said he had been scarred for life by his experiences in prison, also felt insulted. But it was the announcement last June that Trump had finally decided to run for president that was, in a way, more alarming. “To see that he has not changed his position of being a hateful person, to see that he has not changed his position of inciting people, to see that he’s still the same person and in many ways he has perfected his sense of being that number-one inciter, you know, I was scared,” Salaam said. He was unsurprised that Trump currently leads polling averages by nearly 20 points in South Carolina, a state that votes for the Republican nomination on Saturday and where only last year the Confederate flag was withdrawn from the state house grounds. (A survey released this week suggests 70% of Trump’s supporters in south Carolina believe that decision was wrong and 38% of his supporters wish the south had won the civil war.) “I thought for a moment: What would this country look like with Donald Trump as being a president? That’s a scary thing,” Salaam said. “That’s a very scary thing.” (the guardian)
	"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)
	+1

Luis Miguel 1162 61587 Lima	RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES? 2/26/2016 1:39:56 AM
	'MACHO' BBC CULTURE ALLOWED JIMMY SAVILE TO ABUSE 72 VICTIMS BY REUTERS ON 2/25/16 AT 11:05 AM Jimmy Savile attends the unveiling of a monument commemorating fighter pilots who fought in the Battle of Britain, London, September 2005. The BBC was guilty of serious failings over Savile, a report said on Thursday. PAUL HACKETT/FILES/REUTERS The BBC was guilty of serious failings over Jimmy Savile, the late TV presenter revealed to have been one of Britain's most prolific sex offenders, a major report by a former judge said on Thursday. It said senior managers were not made aware of what he was up to, because of a prevailing culture in which staff were fearful of making complaints, especially about top stars known internally as "The Talent." In 2012, British police said Savile, one of Britain's best-known celebrities of the 1970s and 1980s, had abused hundreds of victims, mainly youngsters, over six decades until his death aged 84 in 2011. The abuse occurred at BBC premises and at hospitals where Savile was renowned for his charity work. Thursday's report by former Appeal Court judge Janet Smith, commissioned by the publicly-funded broadcaster in the wake of those revelations, concluded Savile had abused 72 victims in relation to his BBC work over almost 50 years. His crimes included raping a 10-year-old boy and a 13-year-old girl. "These events will forever be a source of deep regret and shame," said Rona Fairhead, chairman of governing body the BBC Trust, in a statement accepting all the report's conclusions and apologizing to the victims. Fairhead said that although the events happened in the past, they raised serious issues about BBC culture that remained relevant. She announced measures to reform that culture. Smith said while some reports were made by staff about Savile's conduct, these were never escalated due to a culture of "not complaining about anything." Employees were reluctant to say anything to management that might "rock the boat," for fear it might result in damage to career prospects or even dismissal. There was an even stronger culture of deference toward "The Talent." "The evidence I heard suggested that 'The Talent' was treated with kid gloves and rarely challenged," Smith said. She found that while junior and middle-ranking individuals knew about Savile's behavior, there was no evidence that the BBC, as a corporate body, was aware. "This report makes sorry reading for the BBC," Smith said in the conclusion of her 372,400-word report, which took 2.5 years to complete. "The BBC needs to demonstrate to the public that it has taken the current criticisms seriously and has made, or is making, such changes as are necessary and appropriate to ensure that these terrible events cannot occur again." Savile, a one-time wrestler with long blonde hair, a love of cigars and a penchant for garish outfits and jewelry, started out as a pioneering DJ in the 1960s and went on to host some of the BBC's biggest prime time TV shows. The revelations about him plunged the BBC into crisis and prompted allegations of a cover-up. The ensuing furor cost then Director General George Entwistle his job just 54 days after he had taken over the corporation, which is funded by an annual license fee and respected around much of the world for its news and dramas. The case prompted police to investigate other old allegations involving aging celebrities, leading to a number of high-profile convictions, including of BBC personalities Rolf Harris and Stuart Hall. The British government has also launched a massive public inquiry, due to last five years, into historical child abuse examining whether politicians and powerful figures ignored it or covered it up. (Newsweek)
	"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)
	+1

Luis Miguel 1162 61587 Lima	RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES? 2/26/2016 10:28:16 AM
	Syria: 'Russian generals killed' by massive car bomb at Latakia military base By Staff Reporter February 24, 2016 17:34 GMT The attack against Russian officers was said to have taken place in the Syria town of LatakiaGetty Syrian militant groups have claimed responsibility for a car bomb that killed several Russian military personal in the town of Latakia, according to reports. Ahrar al-Sham and Bayan groups claimed they planted a car bomb at base the eastern city after on 21 February. According to Ahrar al-Sham, the announcement of the attack was delayed until three days later to ensure those responsible returned safely to opposition territories, reported the Jerusalem Post. A statement from the group added: "After weeks of hard intelligence work we were able to determine the location and time of the meeting and planted the car in the location. After the explosion several ambulances and Russian choppers rushed to the location and they were seen evacuating deaths and wounded Russians to Latakia and Jableh hospitals." IBTimes UK has been unable to verify the claims. The alleged attack took place before US and Russia have announced plans for a ceasefire in Syria that would begin from 27 February. The ceasefire will not include targeting against Islamic State (Isis) or the Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front. A Russian SU-34 bomber at Hmeimim military base in Latakia province in north-west SyriaGetty Images (IBTimes)
	"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)
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Zerohedge: John Kerry Threatens US Banks Over Russia Bond Sale

‘No Plan B for Syrian settlement’ – Russian Foreign Ministry

‘He poisoned the minds of New York’

An impulse to run at controversy

‘He’s still the same person’

'MACHO' BBC CULTURE ALLOWED JIMMY SAVILE TO ABUSE 72 VICTIMS

Syria: 'Russian generals killed' by massive car bomb at Latakia military base

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