Did Obama Lie About Not Being Able to Wire the Ransom Money to Iran?
The lie is relevant to why they paid cash — a mechanism that looks like ransom, but which Obama hastened to explain was necessary for other reasons.
On August 4, Obama said we couldn’t wire money to Iran to settle a longrunning legal dispute:
“This wasn’t some nefarious deal,” Obama told reporters at the Pentagon. He pointed out that the payment, along with an additional $1.3 billion in interest to be paid later, was announced by the administration publicly when it was concluded in January, a day after the implementation of a landmark nuclear agreement with Iran. “It wasn’t a secret. We were completely open about it.”
Obama allowed that the one piece of new information, first reported this week by The Wall Street Journal, was that the $400 million was paid in cash. It was delivered to Iran on palettes aboard an unmarked plane.
“The only bit of news is that we paid cash,” he said. “The reason is because we couldn’t send them a check and we couldn’t wire the money. We don’t have a banking relationship with Iran which is part of the pressure we applied on them.”
Let’s talk about that “additional $1.3 billion in interest to be paid later.” Claudia Rosett at the New York Sun reports that Treasury transferred just under $1.3 billion to State in 13 identical payments, each a penny under $100,000,000. The transfers were made on January 19, 2016 — two days after the announcement of the settlement of the legal dispute.
Congressional investigators trying to uncover the trail of $1.3 billion in payments to Iran might want to focus on 13 large, identical sums that Treasury paid to the State Department under the generic heading of settling “Foreign Claims.”
The 13 payments when added to the $400 million that the administration now concedes it shipped to the Iranian regime in foreign cash would bring the payout to the $1.7 billion that President Obama and Secretary Kerry announced on January 17. That total was to settle a dispute pending for decades before the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal in at The Hague.
The Sun raises the question why the payments were all barely under $100MM. Our pal Morgen Richmond, who brought this story to my qttention, surely has the answer:
@LeeSmithTWS fyi, $99,999,999.99 is bank system limit for ACH payments (p 34)https://t.co/xnUGP4uGFz pic.twitter.com/tYik2GTWth
— Morgen (@morgenr) August 23, 2016
So here’s another question. Was that money wired to Iran? The administration says it has already been paid. How? Lee Smith at The Weekly Standard asks the question.
Rosett continues: “State has refused to disclose even such basic information as the date on which Iran took receipt of the $1.3 billion. As recently as August 4, a State spokesman told the press: ‘I don’t have a date of when that took place.'”
However, last week Obama administration officials briefed reporters to explain that, according to Associated Press reporter Bradley Klapper’s Twitter feed, the $1.3 billion has already been paid. And, they said, paid “through [the Department of] Treasury” in an “‘above-board way.'”
It’s not clear what the senior administration officials meant by “above-board” but as the Judgment Fund website explains, the “preferred method” for payments is “by electronic fund transfer.”
If, as Rosett’s story suggests, the 13 payments the Judgment Fund sent to the State Department represents the $1.3 billion in interest, the administration has some questions to answer. Was the interest paid in cash like the $400 million, or by wire? If the latter, why was the $400 million paid in cash?
I think we all know the answer.
It was ransom. A very public and obvious ransom.
Well, I’m sure our brilliant, tenacious, and fair Big Media complex will dig further into it.
That was irony. You got that that was irony, right?
Patterico (bcf524) — 8/23/2016 @ 7:36 amthat was $100 million per hostage (and one of them was a useless WaPo propaganda piggy)
and all they accomplished was
1. partially funding obama’s israel genocide project
2. putting a price on every failmerican’s head what gets in snatching range of iran
seems like it would be cheaper faster and safer just to nuke Israel ourselves
happyfeet (28a91b) — 8/23/2016 @ 7:44 amapparently it’s one of those prepayment penalties they talk about.
narciso (732bc0) — 8/23/2016 @ 7:44 amThat the reason the $400 million was paid in cash is because don’t have a banking relationship with Iran because of sanctions is a half-truth. The money was wired to Switzerland and withdrawn there by the United States in cash.
Iran does have some banking relationships in Europe, and didn’t have to take the money in cash on an airplane going to Iran, but it could be:
1) That way the United States maintained control of the money for longer and delayed delivery until the prisoners were freed.
2) Iran needed cash to support its terrorist and military activities in Iraq and Syria.
Sammy Finkelman (7c7fb2) — 8/23/2016 @ 7:46 am2) Iran needed cash to support its terrorist and military activities in Iraq and Syria.
Ding!
AZ Bob (d6a3a9) — 8/23/2016 @ 7:50 amAnd Obama is more than happy to facilitate Iran’s funding of terrorism.
AZ Bob (d6a3a9) — 8/23/2016 @ 7:51 am6. Well, no, he didn’t want to do that, but he didn’t want to haggle any more. He wanted that reactor core at Arak destroyed. After all, Iran had other ways of getting cash, too, so he wasn’t actually making anything possible for Iran that it wouldn’t otherwise be able to do.
If he didn’t send the cash, it would just be a little bit more difficult and complicated for Iran to lay its hands on so much cash, and it would have to be accumulated in smaller batches, too.
Sammy Finkelman (7c7fb2) — 8/23/2016 @ 8:00 amyou really think they don’t have another facilities, they’ve been working on this, for 27 years despite the supposed fatwa,
narciso (732bc0) — 8/23/2016 @ 8:02 amDon’t worry about this it will stop when Hillary becomes President.
Instead of paying $100 million per hostage, she will demand $100 million per hostage to be placed in her foundation account.
Otherwise Hillary “we came, we saw, he [Gaddaffi] died… HA HA HA” will rain hell on top of the hostage takers.
NeverTrumpers can rest easy.
PTS (ce7fc3) — 8/23/2016 @ 8:03 amMove along nothing to see here:
http://truepundit.com/wikileaks-bombshell-hillary-directed-state-dept-staff-to-research-parkinsons-drug/
DNF (ffe548) — 8/23/2016 @ 8:05 amapparently seven years ago, she had a case of the bends, around the time the ‘lively debate’ was going on tehran,
narciso (732bc0) — 8/23/2016 @ 8:08 amLots of embedded links for low-info ex-Republicans:
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2016/08/the-ultimate-clinton-scandal.php?
DNF (ffe548) — 8/23/2016 @ 8:08 amIn all this, nobody is calling attention to the dog that didn’t bark:
Gold!
Iran wanted paper money. Hard currency. Valuta. Not gold or silver.
For foreign policy and ideological and propaganda reasons, they rejected the Almighty Dollar, and instead chose mainly Euros and Swiss francs.
But no metals. No pearls, diamonds or rubies.
Gold bugs, pay attention!!
ISIS also uses cash, but they are not averse to holding Dollars.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/21/us/politics/us-drops-bombs-not-just-on-isis-but-on-its-cash-too.html
ISIS also uses oil, but not gold.
Hamas uses Israeli shekels, by the way.
Sammy Finkelman (7c7fb2) — 8/23/2016 @ 8:11 amSimplisme is discarded, normally in an instant:
http://rightwingnews.com/column-2/the-republican-turncoats/
DNF (ffe548) — 8/23/2016 @ 8:14 amthe realization that mosul and raqqua, are the fallback, and molenbeek and st. denis are the front lines seems to elude them,
narciso (732bc0) — 8/23/2016 @ 8:16 amPay for play is so difficult to prove:
http://lawnewz.com/uncategorized/these-newly-released-emails-provide-strongest-evidence-yet-of-preferential-treatment-for-foundation-donors/
Audibly to the deaf that is.
DNF (ffe548) — 8/23/2016 @ 8:22 amremember how the big booze stash in the untouchables was behind the main door in the post office, you just need to know where to look,
narciso (732bc0) — 8/23/2016 @ 8:24 amTrump will demand that his kids get the contract to build Iran’s next nuclear reactor. It will bring the money back to America.
nk (dbc370) — 8/23/2016 @ 8:28 amZman:
Sorta rings true around here too.
DNF (ffe548) — 8/23/2016 @ 8:37 amNot a foreign policy big timer, but it seems counterproductive for Washington essentially gift a sudden and significant liquid capital injection to a regime that is also subject to US and other international sanctions.
But then, I’m old enough (read: not very) to remember when shootings of Iranian protesters was just post-election “robust debate”… Until it wasn’t, with the President essentially reversing his previous congratulations.
JP (bd5dd9) — 8/23/2016 @ 8:39 amTraditional America is exceptionalism. Not the lowest common denominator. But if Trumpkins did not lie, they would not know how to talk at all.
nk (dbc370) — 8/23/2016 @ 8:40 am21. Unintelligible much?
DNF (ffe548) — 8/23/2016 @ 8:46 amSWIFT began the process of lifting sanctions on January 17, in compliance with EU implementation of the JCPOA. The cash ransom payment was made prior to January 17, AFAICT, so Obama is only mostly lying in his statement. The FEDWIRE-SWIFT details on the wire transfer would be interesting to read wrt to the intermediaries involved.
Rick Ballard (ce29ad) — 8/23/2016 @ 8:52 am“Unintelligible much?”
Ha, ha, ha. Right out of the Demented Donna playbook. The soot calling the snow black.
nk (dbc370) — 8/23/2016 @ 8:57 am@DNF:Kevin Williamson at National Review even wrote a weird fantasy article about how poor whites should die.
He wrote no such article. Notice no one quotes it.
Gabriel Hanna (64d4e1) — 8/23/2016 @ 9:02 amhttp://www.ifyouonlynews.com/politics/trump-robs-his-donors-blind-quintuples-rent-for-campaign-hqs-as-soon-as-their-money-rolled-in
Your “self-funding” Saviour*.
*sic He’s half-British.
nk (dbc370) — 8/23/2016 @ 9:05 amTrumpkins lie, Gabriel.
nk (dbc370) — 8/23/2016 @ 9:06 am@nk: Trumpkins lie, Gabriel.
I am sorry to say that many of those who oppose Trump lie as well. It’s a fallen world.
Gabriel Hanna (64d4e1) — 8/23/2016 @ 9:07 amno he’s of the clan mcleod, that’s something else entirely, so 400 million plus, per hostage, that’s the way the sepah would read it, they not the mullahs run everything of significance,
narciso (732bc0) — 8/23/2016 @ 9:17 amso why isn’t spectre, sending their supplies to baton rouge, it’s a notion I pondered a week ago?
narciso (732bc0) — 8/23/2016 @ 9:20 amSure, but we have the inteligence and imagination to make stuff up. The Trumpkin playbook is to take what’s wrong with Trump, and with them, and to attribute it to Trump’s opposition.
nk (dbc370) — 8/23/2016 @ 9:22 amForgot the smiley. 😇😈
As the previous post showed, there are more serious things in the world.
nk (dbc370) — 8/23/2016 @ 9:24 amshe has alway had the charming countenance of a cigar store indian,
https://twitter.com/juliangwan/status/767796123142541312
this was around the time, they wanted to invite pasdaran to the fourth of july,
narciso (732bc0) — 8/23/2016 @ 9:28 amYou can take the Hillbilly out of the woods, but you can’t take the woods outta… no that doesn’t work…
Anyway… Hillary and Bill have a REAL taste for MONEY now that they’ve gone from being broke when they left the White House (if they could’ve put the WH furniture on EBAY, that would’ve carried them through).
Not “little” money, but “BIG” money… private jets, 5 Star hotels, maids, butlers, hangers on, sychophants, security to keep the little people (working and voting class democrats) at a distance, etc.
And ALL this requires BIG money OR the Presidency… so why not both?
The old style Al Capone protection racket will move into the WH along with HillBill and countries will pay Hillary so their “store fronts” don’t magically blow up in the middle of the day taking out the neighborhood. “Syndicates” might be given to her buds.
Meanwhile, Bill is slowing down, but he’d just LOVE to sit down with a few beers, cheese doodles and bunker down beneath Las Vegas and fly one of them video game-like drone laser guided death rocket drone things. Kind of a role reversal in his waning years, he’d be the “enforcer” for a change.
Zap a few “uncooperatives” then go upstairs, gamble and party with some hookers… slots and sluts… then back to the game.
The First Laddie is going to have a great second time around!
PTS (ce7fc3) — 8/23/2016 @ 9:38 amWhen everyone disconnects from cable and tells the sponsors to GTFOH. Then it will change.
mg (31009b) — 8/23/2016 @ 9:43 am16. DNF (ffe548) — 8/23/2016 @ 8:22 am
Jonah Goldberg said you misunderstand corruption, and the Clinton corruption, if you think it’s a matter of pure cash. It’s favor trading.
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/439184/clinton-foundation-corruption-hillary-clinton-bill-clinton-love-power
he says this is reciprocal altruism, or logrolling. Trading favors. Trading power, information, offices, access, recommendations of all sorts, status, and also taxpayer dollars.
Sammy Finkelman (643dcd) — 8/23/2016 @ 10:07 amThe quid and the quo wouldn’t often be closely connected in time. What counts is whether someone or other is a “friend.” (a word that roiginated with the Outfit)
Things were not and are not simply for sale to the highest bidder. Drawing simplistic connections between money one day and a favor the next is wrong and it won’t check out quite right most of the time, and Judicial Watch shhouldn’t be trying to do that.
This was and is all much more a case of long term relationships.
Sammy Finkelman (643dcd) — 8/23/2016 @ 10:08 amawesome pic
happyfeet (28a91b) — 8/23/2016 @ 10:11 amnk @26.
There’s more. People who go to his website can set up monthly donations.
But they can’t stop them.
They can only change the credit card number.
The only way to stop it would be to dispute the charge and/or change the credit card number (which is easy – credit card companies will do that very readily, but someone has to know about that)
A person could also give a credit card number tahat’s about to be changed anyway.
Sammy Finkelman (643dcd) — 8/23/2016 @ 10:11 am“no he’s of the clan mcleod, that’s something else entirely
I know a McLeod joke:
nk (dbc370) — 8/23/2016 @ 10:36 am— Mick Jagger sings: Hey you, get off of my cloud!
— A Scotsman shouts: Hey McLeod, get off of my ewe!
Well, I’m sure our brilliant, tenacious, and fair Big Media complex will dig further into it.
It deals with two subjects that are beyond their rather limited expertise: finance and banking. Today’s reporter comes from an educational background that is only suitable for judging whether Party A is microaggressing Party B, or determining the updated rankings on the international grievance list. They simply cannot understand anything to do with engineering, science (with the exception of the environmental “the science is settled!” balderdash), mathematics, statistics, finance, banking, entrepreneurialism, religion, philosophy, or ethics. Never before have our watchdogs by and large been a more useless collection of impressively-credentialed ignoramuses.
JVW (aa050c) — 8/23/2016 @ 11:36 amholy jesus
happyfeet (28a91b) — 8/23/2016 @ 1:30 pmNothin’ from nothin’, but has anyone heard from Perrywinkie lately???
http://thesmokinggun.com/documents/bizarre/ohio-gorilla-who-is-not-harambe-273498
Colonel Haiku (ad9235) — 8/23/2016 @ 2:24 pm36. AP says approx. half of CGI donors met with HRC at State:
http://www.breitbart.com/2016-presidential-race/2016/08/23/ap-many-donors-clinton-foundation-met-hillary-state/
DNF (755a85) — 8/23/2016 @ 3:02 pm31. “Imagination and intel[l]igence”.
Methinks those terms are an instance of arcane, and obsolete usage.
DNF (ffe548) — 8/23/2016 @ 3:05 pmDNF @44
No, it’s not that half of the donors met her at State.
It’s that half of the people who met her at State and were from out\side the government, were donors to the Clinton Foundation.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2016/08/23/most-who-met-hillary-at-state-donated-to-clinton-foundation.html
85 out of 154 = 55% (At least 20 gave over $1 million)
Most of the others probably had some different connections to Bill or Hillary Clinton.
Sammy Finkelman (643dcd) — 8/23/2016 @ 3:22 pmThey apparently had to give the money to Iran before they lifted sanctions, because the lifting of the banking sancctions was supposed to followq the destruction of the Arak reactor core.
Yes of course Iran had other reactirs and even barack Obama knew that, but taht was one problem out of the way.
I don’t think Obama is figuring on the possibiliuty of Iran buying a bomb from North Korea, (part of his compromising with reality) but, it is still true that North Korea probably wants some deniability, meaning Iran has to at least be able to pretend it create dthe bomb fuel, even though it won’t be plausible, but they may not think it won’t be plausible.
Sammy Finkelman (643dcd) — 8/23/2016 @ 3:27 pmIt’s not even that, Sammy. What favor did we get in trade? Free hummus for a year? It was straight-up humiliation. The Iranians know very well that Obama will bend over and grab his ankles willingly. They found out they could do just about anything they want to our Ear Leader, and he will acquiesce. This came home in a big way when a couple of our patrol boats, allegedly with engine and navigational problems, surrendered to an Iranian bass boat on open waters without a shot being fired. It was the Iranians that transmitted photos of our crews on their knees, hands behind their heads.
The unmarked plane and the full load of non-US currencies on a pallet was a particularly piquant touch. The reason why they didn’t want gold is fairly simple: 1) it has to be converted. Euros, Swiss francs and GBP spend anywhere easily. 2) Refusing our money and our gold was just another way to stick a finger in our eye, and make paying the ransom that much more onerous. It’s also possible they didn’t want the money to be traceable by way of serial numbers.
Bill H (971e5f) — 8/23/2016 @ 3:27 pm25. Login required: https://www.nationalreview.com/nrd/articles/432569/father-f-hrer
Behind an Ad-Blocker firewall.
Now, if you want to trade blows, put your big-boy pants on.
DNF (755a85) — 8/23/2016 @ 3:42 pmThe fact that the United States agreed to ship the money in the humiliating ‘Miami Vice’ drug cartel fashion that we did, suggests that Iran was calling the shots.
It also suggests that Barack is always happy to acquiesce to humiliating the United States in the international arena.
He hates America.
Cruz Supporter (102c9a) — 8/23/2016 @ 3:44 pm25. Cont. Here is a rebuttal:
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/03/17/a-rebuttal-to-national-reviews-claim-that-white-working-class-deserves-to-die/
and another,
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/03/12/national-review-white-working-class-communities-morally-indefensible-they-deserve-to-die/
nk postures that its Trumpkins who are innured to lying, plainly you two prove the inverse rule.
DNF (ffe548) — 8/23/2016 @ 3:50 pmTo laugh is to cry.
Steve57 (41f53d) — 8/23/2016 @ 3:56 pmSo let’s try to increase wages despite no market growth or improved productivity, (Starbucks raised wages nationwide to Seattle’s minimum wage):
#nevertrump says “What, me worry?. Are there no debtors prisons?”
DNF (ffe548) — 8/23/2016 @ 4:21 pmMe no clickee pervy Breitmart (sic) Trump butt-boy. Take granted it lie alla time. No wanna bother fiskee.
nk (dbc370) — 8/23/2016 @ 4:24 pm54. Your pidgin becomes you. We are a nation of inmigrantes.
DNF (ffe548) — 8/23/2016 @ 4:28 pmSi, es, verdad. We are immigrantes. But so long as we aspire to become Americanos is cool.
Steve57 (41f53d) — 8/23/2016 @ 4:39 pmAnd war on the rock, Cyrus mahousian, shows how this game of thrones has been poorly played on all sides, except for the kingdom.
narciso (732bc0) — 8/23/2016 @ 4:41 pmSomos imigrantes, e por se move, what is to be done with the men of labor, the Mumbai man has little answer, this is where williamson got his start,
narciso (732bc0) — 8/23/2016 @ 4:44 pmDid 0bama lie?
Is teh Pope Catholic? Does a bear defecate in teh woods?
Colonel Haiku (ad9235) — 8/23/2016 @ 4:44 pmYou not numbah one you numbah ten, nk. You likee teh cream of sum yung gai.
Colonel Haiku (ad9235) — 8/23/2016 @ 4:46 pmYou are better at the Espanol than me, narciso.
Steve57 (41f53d) — 8/23/2016 @ 4:53 pmNo. Next question.
Steve57 (41f53d) — 8/23/2016 @ 4:56 pmSome bizarre form of pelagianism I think.
narciso (732bc0) — 8/23/2016 @ 4:59 pm58. And his moral imperative, that the world be graced with Americans as their end consumer, has foundered on the rocks.
While in recent weeks money has again flooded into EM markets due to a weak dollar, that trend has already reversed and the dollar grows strong once more.
This week its the Japanese banks that are under threat, finding profits in Abe and Kuroda’s NIRP regime difficult to come by, and as of Oct. 14 US short-term notes will be the only game around as money market funding of the world’s overnight loans bank are to bank becomes a UST monopoly with money market investments gated in repayment.
This is precisely the condition bringing down Lehman, LIBOR was interrupted for days.
DNF (755a85) — 8/23/2016 @ 5:07 pmToo busy with new computer and new razor.
nk (dbc370) — 8/23/2016 @ 5:08 pmArouse your own disgust.
Not impressed with the MS Edge browser. Not impressed with Chrome, either, but I give it the edge.
nk (dbc370) — 8/23/2016 @ 5:11 pmEurope is on holiday right now, at the world’s seashores.
On return it will be a very good time to sell and go away ’til fall 2017.
DNF (755a85) — 8/23/2016 @ 5:11 pmThe edge on Kai blades is impressive.
nk (dbc370) — 8/23/2016 @ 5:12 pmWhat went up came down and went up again no longer sticks or bounces:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-08-23/us-real-estate-big-picture-thesis-moral-hazard
Note the very last chart at the articles’ end.
DNF (755a85) — 8/23/2016 @ 5:17 pm69. Oh, me disculpe, nk can’t read zerohedge either, his little brain might ‘splode.
DNF (755a85) — 8/23/2016 @ 5:19 pmNo. Next question.
Steve57 (41f53d)
=======================
Already asked, Mr. Whipple.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 8/23/2016 @ 5:23 pma lot of you don’t understand why not to put a criminal stinkypig in charge of what all them soldiers died fighting to preserve
you need to remediate on this cause of you are deficient
remediate like yesterday
happyfeet (28a91b) — 8/23/2016 @ 5:34 pm64. While short-term UST are preferentially sold and purchased at the moment(by banks), and 30-year bills hard to buy at any price(from pensions and insurers), the 10-year notes are being sold by foreign governments, $335 Billion over twelve months.
Brokeback Fed just keeps ahumpin’.
DNF (755a85) — 8/23/2016 @ 5:34 pmMy point, #nevertrump, is that the status quo is riding a conveyor into the wood chipper.
Now your claim that this is all a conspiracy is just a claim, another azzpull you do so well.
But the fact is HRC is one of the engineers of your ride into the chipper. Yes, many of the unwashed will perish before you, and this will amuse you, but you are just as dead.
WTFU.
DNF (ffe548) — 8/23/2016 @ 5:45 pmI think bob Dylan, had it right when he said ‘a hard rain’s going to fall’
narciso (732bc0) — 8/23/2016 @ 5:45 pm75. An’ “Anyone not busy being born is busy dyin'”(roughly).
DNF (ffe548) — 8/23/2016 @ 5:48 pmJohn Bolton told Hugh Hewitt today that he’d be happy to serve as Trump’s Secretary of State.
Cruz Supporter (102c9a) — 8/23/2016 @ 6:05 pm“Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son?
Oh, where have you been, my darling young one?
I’ve stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains
I’ve walked and I’ve crawled on six crooked highways
I’ve stepped in the middle of seven sad forests
I’ve been out in front of a dozen dead oceans
I’ve been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard
And it’s a hard, and it’s a hard, it’s a hard, and it’s a hard
And it’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall
Oh, what did you see, my blue-eyed son?
Oh, what did you see, my darling young one?
I saw a newborn baby with wild wolves all around it
I saw a highway of diamonds with nobody on it
I saw a black branch with blood that kept drippin’
I saw a room full of men with their hammers a-bleedin’
I saw a white ladder all covered with water
I saw ten thousand talkers whose tongues were all broken
I saw guns and sharp swords in the hands of yourng children
And it’s a hard, and it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard
And it’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall
And what did you hear, my blue-eyed son?
And what did you hear, my darling young one?
I heard the sound of a thunder, it roared out a warnin’
Heard the roar of a wave that could drown the whole world
Heard one hundred drummers whose hands were a-blazin’
Heard ten thousand whisperin’ and nobody listenin’
Heard one person starve, I heard many people laughin’
Heard the song of a poet who died in the gutter
Heard the sound of a clown who cried in the alley
And it’s a hard, and it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard
And it’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall
Oh, who did you meet, my blue-eyed son?
Who did you meet, my darling young one?
I met a young child beside a dead pony
I met a white man who walked a black dog
I met a young woman whose body was burning
I met a young girl, she gave me a rainbow
I met one man who was wounded in love
I met another man who was wounded with hatred
And it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard
It’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall
Oh, what’ll you do now, my blue-eyed son?
Oh, what’ll you do now, my darling young one?
I’m a-goin’ back out ’fore the rain starts a-fallin’
I’ll walk to the depths of the deepest black forest
Where the people are many and their hands are all empty
Where the pellets of poison are flooding their waters
Where the home in the valley meets the damp dirty prison
Where the executioner’s face is always well hidden
Where hunger is ugly, where souls are forgotten
Where black is the color, where none is the number
And I’ll tell it and think it and speak it and breathe it
And reflect it from the mountain so all souls can see it
Then I’ll stand on the ocean until I start sinkin’
But I’ll know my song well before I start singin’
And it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard
It’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall”
http://bobdylan.com/songs/hard-rains-gonna-fall/
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 8/23/2016 @ 6:13 pm69
kishnevi (37d538) — 8/23/2016 @ 6:22 pmWhich is why ZeroHedge always predicts doom and never reality.
The problem back in the 2008 bubble was not overpriced real estate. It was over mortgaged real estate. The problem was not that prices were too high. The problem was the level of debt was too high.
nk@65
kishnevi (37d538) — 8/23/2016 @ 6:33 pmThis may be of use to you
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2016/08/windows-10-microsoft-blatantly-disregards-user-choice-and-privacy-deep-dive
They use several metric all rather disconcerting.
Fisher wants to pump another 4 trillion, I don’t think we’re good for it
narciso (732bc0) — 8/23/2016 @ 6:44 pmblack lives matter
happyfeet (28a91b) — 8/23/2016 @ 6:54 pmYes, I’ve been battling to set defaults all afternoon. I’ll let IE have Bing for default search engine, but Chrome with Google is the default browser.
I’m making allowances for the fact that I got accustomed to the Satellite with Windows 7 for six years, and now I have to get used to a Pavilion with Windows 10, and trying not to reminisce about Windows 3.1. 😉
But it’s a very nice machine, i5 processor, 12 MBs memoey, 1T solid state disk drive, fullsize keyboard and touch screen, under $500 at Costco.
nk (dbc370) — 8/23/2016 @ 6:56 pmNot eight hours ago, I took a class on Anti Money Laundering. They talked about structuring. Like, just a splash under the reporting limit, numerous times. I’m smelling something.
Richard Aubrey (472a6f) — 8/23/2016 @ 7:08 pmGb
happyfeet (28a91b) — 8/23/2016 @ 7:10 pm#79 If you don’t understand that both are intertwined please avoid commenting on bubbles.
Rodney King's Spirit (a2db57) — 8/23/2016 @ 7:10 pmClearly but the money was for the victims of terrorism, its like paying ransom out of confiscated property
narciso (732bc0) — 8/23/2016 @ 7:13 pmI realize that it was in the Wash. Post which has layers of fact checkers and editors, but the word isn’t pallettes (google it), but pallets. The wooden things that you pile money on. Like in Breaking Bad and its cash generating car wash.
John Pomeroy (778831) — 8/23/2016 @ 7:13 pmi’m an old p.o.s. arkansas lady with pissy panties
all i want is a pickle
lookit me go!
happyfeet (28a91b) — 8/23/2016 @ 7:17 pmWhen each increment is just under 100 million, who were they trying to fool?
narciso (732bc0) — 8/23/2016 @ 7:25 pmYes, 12GB, thank you, happyfeet. Still stuck in the 386 days.
nk (dbc370) — 8/23/2016 @ 7:29 pmLook to the future.
The lie to ferret out is Hillary’s health.
Last night on Kimmel when asked directly, “Is your health good?” — she did the classic Clinton ‘look-over-there’ diversion: ‘ they’re wacky–check my pulse’… but she never directly answered the question wih a definitive ‘yes.’
The Ragin’ Cajun is protesting too much as well, snaking his way across the cablers with venomous denials. Even the aging Cher is trying to dispel the rumors. And a spinner on a cabler this morning said with a straight face that even if she was ill, her running mate is more popular than her so there’s nothing to worry about. To quote a former Texas governor: “Oops!”
Politics aside, there is something off with this woman. It is subtle, but it is there. The history of blood clots; the coughing; the falls, the concussion glasses… the pillows. The long times off — and no presser for 280 days. Watch her gait. Look into her eyes and compare past video to the present. Then consider the future.
And it is not a ‘conspiracy’ to look into it, as MSNBC or CNN would have you believe.
The 1960 Kennedy campaign vehemently and ‘vigorously‘ denied JFK was in poor health and did not have Addison’s Disease. They even had ‘doctors” notes.
They lied.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 8/23/2016 @ 7:30 pm79. A nice hovel in Milwaukee or Detroit’s slums costs $2500. What do you suppose happens to the price of the dump next door when an unemployed tenant that’s not making rent buys his starter home with no money down?
Yes, the price goes up.
College at an elite MN school cost me just over $3000 a year back in the day. Then the government started guaranteeing student loans.
DNF (ffe548) — 8/23/2016 @ 7:35 pmugh i need a new machine too
this one has to last though until i get more clarity on chicago
i think we’re closing this bitch out
happyfeet (28a91b) — 8/23/2016 @ 7:41 pmomg that was opposed to be moderatered
i don’t really talk that way
happyfeet (28a91b) — 8/23/2016 @ 7:41 pmWell there’s less immediate evidence for that, besides her charming strigoi demeanor, the donor list should fill a dozen editions
narciso (732bc0) — 8/23/2016 @ 7:43 pmYes you do, David spade.
narciso (732bc0) — 8/23/2016 @ 7:45 pmMaybe it’s funny. I confronted three black teenagers who were hogging the Kroger electric wheel chairs. I was just, sick of it. It wasn’t just that I needed to vent. but goddam they’re capable of better. I know. I lead them. Honored.
Steve57 (41f53d) — 8/23/2016 @ 7:47 pmBlack lives matter.
Steve57 (41f53d) — 8/23/2016 @ 7:48 pmAnd, I was lead by them.
Steve57 (41f53d) — 8/23/2016 @ 7:48 pmDNF – which MIAC school? You a Tommy or a Johnny?
urbanleftbehind (847a06) — 8/23/2016 @ 7:58 pmhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0eHWOVjDSw
Yeah.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4HTXBTkcpg
Steve57 (41f53d) — 8/23/2016 @ 7:58 pmGlad you called those yoots out, but in some of the more crime ravaged parts of Chicago, 3 black teens in wheelchairs might actually have severed spines from gunshots. My friend from college owns a sports bar in West Town and one night I was there, there was a wheelchair party, something like 20 paralyzed dudes in their 20/30s. They had that old school “what you be about?” vibe, so I made my way toward the exit.
urbanleftbehind (847a06) — 8/23/2016 @ 8:10 pm@101, I invite you to insult me. Or not. It’s up to you.
Steve57 (41f53d) — 8/23/2016 @ 8:11 pmI don’t know what you mean @101.
Steve57 (41f53d) — 8/23/2016 @ 8:13 pm101. Now I live among Johnnies but went to St. Olaf, a lesser sports power, comparable student body.
DNF (ffe548) — 8/23/2016 @ 8:23 pmYes, the price goes up.
No, it goes down, because the neighbors see who moved in, and sell.
But you and RKS seem never to have met Mr. Micawber.
kishnevi (37d538) — 8/23/2016 @ 8:24 pmA house that you bought for $1,000,000 and on which you can afford to make the payments is fine. A house that you bought for $50,000 and on which you can not make the payments is very bad.
Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. St. Thomas and St. John’s are 2 of more well renowned schools plus liberal arts stalwarts Carelton and Macalester. Aimed at DNF to see which prestigious schol in MN. My sister went to St. Bens the sister college of St.John’s.
And I have lead and been lead by black males and no problem with it, though in endeavors not nearly as vital as yours.
urbanleftbehind (847a06) — 8/23/2016 @ 8:24 pmBishop O’Dowd my ho fro.
And I have been led by Black MEN.
Not males.
Steve57 (41f53d) — 8/23/2016 @ 8:43 pm102. Pitching deck was cool, thanx.
DNF (ffe548) — 8/23/2016 @ 8:47 pm108. I am very close to St. Bens. In my day Carleton(across town) was the most selective school in the country, Bork was President my last year or two.
107. You have a very great deal to learn son, about everything.
DNF (755a85) — 8/23/2016 @ 8:52 pmYou had me at “Did Obama Lie”
Kevin M (25bbee) — 8/23/2016 @ 8:53 pmOn a different tangent
https://regated.com/2016/08/debbie-wasserman-schultz-accused-rigging-florida-primary/
The first three words should make clear which side Shane Ashton supports.
Early voting started in Miami-Dade last week, in Broward (Ft Laud.) this past Sunday. I early early voted on Sunday on the way to work. Canova is a law prof and a mostly cookie cutter prog, but the only real way to dump Debbie. The sacrificial GOP candidates is someone named Joe Kaufman. He was the sacrificial victim in 2014, as well. In that run, he tried to give himself a Tea Party look. This time, to judge by his website, he is clothing himself in Trumpism.
kishnevi (37d538) — 8/23/2016 @ 8:54 pmThe official primary date is 30 August, but supposedly about half the votes cast will be mail-in or early voting.
It sure sounded like BS when Obama was saying it- I remember distinctly getting that impression.
Reaganite Republican (98e37e) — 8/23/2016 @ 8:58 pmSeems Eastern Europe is saner and freer than we.
http://libertyunyielding.com/2016/08/23/czech-republic-mock-jihadi-invasion-staged-prague-tourists-freak/
DNF (755a85) — 8/23/2016 @ 9:15 pmWhat’s the problem… who cares Obama pays ransom… what people will remember is he says he doesn’t pay ransom.
PTS (ce7fc3) — 8/23/2016 @ 9:58 pmI hope Hillary keeps pay to play once she’s in the WH.
Do you think a $150 will get you a sensual body rub with “full release”?
PTS (ce7fc3) — 8/23/2016 @ 10:13 pm81. ZIRP hasn’t worked so another round of QE(which hasn’t worked) is in order!
But Central Banks have ruined sovereign bond markets by owning the majority of 10-year bills.
The JoB now owns a majority of the NIKKEI, the ECB is buying commercial paper inducing companies to create debt just to get in on the party, and the FED is making direct payments to the Treasury.
When inflation breaks out the house of cards comes down in a few short years.
DNF (755a85) — 8/24/2016 @ 4:31 amHillary will continue the tradition.
cedarhill (8e040b) — 8/24/2016 @ 4:51 amRegardless of the news today, Hillary or Donald will be sworn in as President.
I may have to look into one of those razors. I bought a straight razor a couple of months back. The edge was most definitely NOT impressive. The razor itself, though, was nicely put to together and the Damascus steel blade straightened up and flew right when I put it to my Ken Onion knife sharpener.
But when I visit family I don’t carry any checked luggage, and TSA has its panties in a serious wad when it comes to straight razors and carry-on luggage.
Or, I could keep using the cheap disposables as I bought a 12 pack a few years back and considering how short my visits are it looks like that will last me until I’m 80.
Steve57 (41f53d) — 8/24/2016 @ 6:11 amhttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/08/24/one-killed-30-wounded-by-explosions-in-southern-thailand/
I know it’s tedious, me talking about the Navy. But I don’t think my old adversaries will let me die peacefully in my sleep.
Guess what “southern insurgent groups” is a euphemism for? Go ahead. I’ll give you one guess, and the winner will use a word beginning with “I” or “M.”
I don’t know if any of the rest of you find this interesting, but it’s a joke that Islam is violent because Christianity brutalized it first. For one thing, the time line is wrong. The Crusades came 400 years after Islam waged jihad against the west.
For another, Islam treats Buddhists, Jains, and Hindus exactly the same as they treat Christians. And none of those adherents ever waged anything resembling the Crusades.
You want to know why? Islam is violent.
Steve57 (41f53d) — 8/24/2016 @ 7:01 am48. Bill H (971e5f) — 8/23/2016 @ 3:27 pm
I am afraid the thread got diverted over here, as often happens when someone wants to say something when right at that time there’s no active thread about it. This was in response to DNF @16 about the Clinton Foundation.
The deal with Iran was something else.
Obama was kind of hapless, afraid Iran would back out. Now it actually is to his credit that at least he held up the $400 million till the prisoners were released, but it wasn’t given for that reason, and Iran has no reason to expect it could a similar amount again.
The Administration does not want to say what it was for, because then it would appear, correctly, that he was buying the same thing twice. (Iran was basically saying they weren’t getting the benefit they expected or weren’t going to get the benefit they expected from the lifting of sanctions, but this money helped get them to drop their complaints)
There were 3 separate deals going on at the same time:
1) Iranian prisoners, held for sanctions violations in XCHG for Amerian prisoners in Iran, held unjustly.
2) $400 million with a promise of $1.3 billion more in interest in XCHG for Iran abandoning its claim for the money the shah spent for military planes that were not delivered. Iran was arguing for a higher interest rate.
and
2a) in XCHG for Iran following through with the disabling of the Arak heavy water reactor, and proving it.
Iran wanted, or indicated it would like, money for that, and the settlement of the claims was an excuse to give Iran money.
They found out, or already knew, that Obama knows only how to bargain for one thing at a time. He gave away anything he was willing to give for the nuclear deal, and there was nothing, or not enough, left to pressure Iran on its support for terrorism and Hezbollah, and it’s military intervention and co-operation with Russia in Syria.
At least anyway this time, unlike last year, he got the American prisoners, that they were holding unjustly at the time, out, too. Because handing Iran the money and NOT getting the prisoners, was the alternative policy here. That’s why it wasn’t ransom.
That was my point.
They didn’t ask for gold. From the American viewpoint it was much better to give away Federal Reserve banknotes, or the electronic equivalent = just computer bits, of which there is a potentially infinite supply, (although technically it must be borrowed) rather than some of a finite amount of gold at Fort Knox or in the custody of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Plus, the gold weighs more. Most nations just move the gold from one vault to another New York, and it never leaves the building, when they want to exchange gold wth another country, although Iran obviously, can’t do that, so it would have to have bene put on an airplane.
It doesn’t matter what they asked for – 500 Euro notes, and Swiss francs, and British pounds, are also traceable.
I don’t know if maybe they asked for some Chinese renmimbi – nobody is saying anything. But however much China wants otherwise, they’re not of much use except for trade with China, and China would ratehr have oil probably..
Sammy Finkelman (7c7fb2) — 8/24/2016 @ 8:46 amIt seemed appropriate, being Islamic. It’s all kind of related to the ransom demanded by the Iranians.
Steve57 (41f53d) — 8/24/2016 @ 8:54 amKevin Williamson didn’t write an article about how poor whites should die. He said their communities should die.
Sammy Finkelman (7c7fb2) — 8/24/2016 @ 10:54 amthat’s so racism
those are the communities where they have the best pancakes and always for a fair price and they don’t skimp on the butter
happyfeet (28a91b) — 8/24/2016 @ 11:35 amRemarkably, what Sammy said. Even if for the sake of argument we don’t have a direct financial relationship with Iran, the Iranians have a banking relationship with third countries that we do have a banking relationship. To use Switzerland as a metaphor, in countries like Iran or (formerly, and wish it were still so) Cuba where we did not have diplomatic relations the Swiss maintain an American Interests section. If you need consular services, go to the Swiss embassy.
There were plenty of ways this money could have been transferred to Iran. Obama is lying when he says the only way was cash. But, why wouldn’t he? It’s worked so well for him.
Steve57 (41f53d) — 8/24/2016 @ 5:11 pmYou forgot the Miracle Whip. Do better next time.
Steve57 (41f53d) — 8/24/2016 @ 5:14 pmSpeaking of White America, what passes for tomato-based spaghetti sauces in Kansas is basically Ketchup. Not to pick on Kansas; I like Kansas. As far as it goes. For Whitetail and pheasant. I found this was true in several spots in the Midwest.
Some friends of mine from the Midwest admitted to me once that they actually prefer ketchup on their pasta. They were embarrassed to admit it for a while, as I can make a better spaghetti sauce than the s**t they were eating and I kept insisting that for the love of god don’t eat that hit me up for some damn sauce, you cheap b@st@rds who won’t even scrape a couple of dimes together for Ragu.
I’m a good friend that way
Anyway that’s a low bar, admittedly. Which if you talked to my DI is where I prefer to set it. Nothing’s changed since Pensacola. I’m not a snob, but it’s just not that hard to put together a decent sauce. And if the meat ball recipe is too hard throw in some sausage.
But they would secretly get together for family night and eat pasta with ketchup.
Because it’s what they grew up with.
White people. A lot of times I don’t understand them.
Steve57 (41f53d) — 8/24/2016 @ 5:35 pmthat was henry hill (liotta’s) complaint in goodfellas, really I think ketchup and spaghetti sauces are a different consistency, but I guess that can be said of cuban food, attempted in other cities,
narciso (732bc0) — 8/24/2016 @ 5:39 pmWorst Mexican food I ever had was in Salzburg, Austria. The owners and chefs had apparently seen pictures of Mexican food but never ate it. So they reasonably approximated the look.
I don’t have the words to describe the eating of it.
There may be a Mexican restaurant in Scotland that’s worse, I hear.
The bottom line is, when in a German country, stick to the Zwiebelrostbraten or the Gulaschesuppe or at the very least Brotchen mit schlag.
Steve57 (41f53d) — 8/24/2016 @ 5:50 pmPeople shouldn’t attempt to produce food unless they know how.
Steve57 (41f53d) — 8/24/2016 @ 5:52 pmyes, I can envisage the unnameable horror being attempted, when in ostreich, do as they do.
narciso (732bc0) — 8/24/2016 @ 5:53 pmWe had been in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria for about a month and being young and foolish decided we needed a change.
It could have been worse. Me and my squadron mates had a bugs and beer dinner in Pusan that looked like the outflow of a dishwasher, then the proprietors decided they were going to send their kids to college on the proceeds of the bill.
Steve57 (41f53d) — 8/24/2016 @ 6:05 pmThere is such a thing as good Korean food. I love, for instance, Bulgogi or Chop Chae or Bibimbap, just to pick three off the top of my head.
This wasn’t good Korean food. The best I can describe it is thistle in detergent water.
And that will be $600.
Steve57 (41f53d) — 8/24/2016 @ 6:20 pm#84, #90, read the post, it explains exactly why it was done that way, and no, it wasn’t structuring.
Milhouse (5a188d) — 8/24/2016 @ 8:54 pm$99,999,999.99 is not any kind of a legal limit – it’s a computer system limit,which should have been everybody’s first guess if you know anything about bytes. That kind of thing has happened many many times in the history of computing.
Sammy Finkelman (643dcd) — 8/26/2016 @ 1:48 pmSpeech by theking of Morocco: (video with subtitles)
http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/5638.htm
From MEWRI:
MEMRI August 20, 2016 Clip No. 5638
King of Morocco Mohammed VI: Can Anyone of Sound Mind Believe that the Reward for Jihad Could Be Some Virgins in Paradise?
The Middle East Media Research Institute
Sammy Finkelman (643dcd) — 8/28/2016 @ 1:42 pmP.O. Box 27837, Washington, DC 20038-7837
Phone: [202] 955-9070 Fax: [202] 955-9077 E-Mail: memri@memri.org
Search previous MEMRI publications at our website: http://www.memri.org