United States

Bullish traders who insist that US economic fundamentals remain rock-solid despite tepid growth, inflation and other signs the postelection “Trump bump” in consumer confidence is already beginning to fade should take a look at the International Monetary Fund’s latest batch of quarterly forecasts for global growth.

The fund left its all-world forecasts for 2017 and 2018 unchanged from its previous quarterly update, which was released in April: It anticipates 3.5% and 3.6% growth, respectively.

Having tried and failed to introduce his "impeach Trump" bill, Rep. Al Green won't give up that easy as The Hill reports he plans to introduce a bill that would prevent presidents from being able to pardon themselves.

Green's bill follows increasing reports from the 'fake news media' that Trump is considering using his power to pardon on himself or other members of his administration for any offenses related to the Russia probe, though Trump attorney Jay Sekulow has insisted that officials are not even discussing Trump’s ability to issue pardons.

Two Chinese J-10 fighter jets intercepted a U.S. Navy surveillance plane flying over international waters in the East China Sea on Sunday, with one jet coming within 300 feet (91 meters) of the American aircraft, U.S. officials told Reuters.

Preface by Washington's Blog: We asked top NSA whistleblower Bill Binney what he thought about a report claiming that the DNC emails were transferred too quickly to have been accessed by a hacker, and could only have been copied by a DNC leaker. This article is his response.   Background here and here.

MEMORANDUM FOR: The President

FROM: Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS)

SUBJECT: Was the “Russian Hack” an Inside Job?

Executive Summary

Authored by Michael Snyder