America

While starting a little later than usual, Trump unloaded his now traditional morning tweetstorm, where in a three tweet salvo the president first lashed out at the "FAKE MSM" accusing it of trying to stop him from tweeting and saying reporters “hate” his use of Twitter while criticizing election analysts that predicted he would lose. In a separate tweet he took credit for Monday night's diplomatic crisis in which a Saudi-led alliance cut ties with Qatar, accusing it of being the region's only source of terrorist funding.

From "Blain's Morning Porridge" by Bill Blain of Mint Partners

“You are about to embark on the great crusade toward which we have striven these many months.”

I find myself in something of a quandary this soggy morning. Wracked with nagging doubt. Why? Nothing to do with Theresa May effectively throwing the UK Election, that auto-loans are in serious trouble, or worries Qatar might escalate into something quite unpleasant (and I don't just mean for Barclays..).. These things are all noise, the daily fun and games.

The United States, unlike many other industrialized countries, has no statuary agreement on taking paid vacation. Meaning: There is no law telling employers the minimum number of days they need to give their employees off work - that are also paid for.

However, as Statista's Dyfed Loesche notes, Project:Time Off, which is sponsored by the U.S. Travel Association, has good news: After two decades of almost steady decline the average days of vacation have risen by 0.6 days year-over-year to 16.8 days in 2016.

Authored by Paul Craig Roberts,

The military/security complex spent seven decades building its empire. The complex assassinated one American president (JFK) who threatened the empire and drove another (Richard Nixon) out of office. The complex does not tolerate the election of politicians in Europe who might not follow Washington’s line on foreign and economic policy.

Authored by Niall Stanage, op-ed via The Hill,

Is President Trump being undermined by a “Deep State” eager to leak damaging information about him?

The president’s allies, both within the White House and in friendly media outlets, say the answer is yes. Trump himself has complained repeatedly that he is being victimized by underhanded leaks.