America

In a speech given in Elkhart, Indiana on Wednesday, President Obama called for a strengthening social security, and even expanding the benefits of the program.

Submitted by Mike Krieger via Liberty Blitzkrieg blog,

When you first go on duty at CIA headquarters, you raise your hand and swear an oath — not to government, not to the agency, not to secrecy. You swear an oath to the Constitution. So there’s this friction, this emerging contest between the obligations and values that the government asks you to uphold, and the actual activities that you’re asked to participate in.

 

Here’s an Open Letter To The American People signed by “writers [who] are particularly aware of the many ways that language can be abused in the name of power.” What do they wish to convey to their countrymen? That:

we, the undersigned, as a matter of conscience, oppose, unequivocally, the candidacy of Donald J. Trump for the Presidency of the United States.

Golly. That should do him in.

The two-state solution for Israel-Palestine conflict is long past its sell-buy date as Palestinians have desperately tried to point out to the US. The Jewry in America are beginning to see the solution of two states existing side by side, and are now forcing the issue in Zionist circles. Palestinians are constantly accused of being the real obstacle to peace in the Middle East but a new initiative by a group of America’s most influential Jews may just prove otherwise this week, according to British journalist Yvonne Ridley.

There are just two drivers setting the pace for today's risk mood: the OPEC meeting in Vienna which started a few hours ago, and the ECB's announcement as well as Mario Draghi's press statement due out just one hour from now. Both are expected to not reveal any major surprises, with OPEC almost certainly unable to implement a production freeze while the ECB is expected to remain on hold and provide some more details on its corporate bond buying program, although there is some modest risk of upside surprise in either case.