from corbettreport
Proposal Would Prevent Financial Services from Blacklisting People For Non-Financial Reasons
by Penka Arsova
LaCorte News
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is considering a rule that aims to put an end to the financial blacklisting of businesses and individuals for political reasons.
The rule would essentially stop banks from discriminating against businesses and individuals because of non-financial reasons, like political pressure, political viewpoints, or the category/ industry they belong to. If enforced, banks will only be allowed to deny services to a business solely based on previously established risk assessment standards.
According to a press release from the OOC, it “would prevent banks … from limiting fair access to banking services by preventing a business or person from entering, or limiting their ability to enter, a particular market, or disadvantaging a person to benefit another person or interest.” In other words, the OCC is looking for a way that will ensure all services are available to every customer, except in cases where the risk factors dictate otherwise.
Suicide of a City
by James Rickards
Daily Reckoning
I updated my economic forecast last month to include a recession in the first quarter of 2021, based on the reemergence of lockdowns. It was one of those forecasts I hoped I’d be wrong about.
Yet, all of the news since then confirms its accuracy. With governors like New York State’s Andrew Cuomo, you can take it to the bank.
Cuomo has banned all indoor dining in New York City due to the rise in COVID-19 cases, starting today.
But, the state’s contact tracing data reveal that restaurants and bars account for only 1.43% of recent infections. So Cuomo is destroying the city’s restaurant industry to prevent a negligible rise in cases, an industry that’s still reeling from the previous lockdown. Why?
The Technology Solution to Hysterical Mythmaking
by Bret Swanson
Real Clear Politics
In an MSNBC interview last Monday, Steve Coll, dean of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, was contemplating a staggering dilemma. He noted that Facebook had performed a bit better in 2020 than in 2016 at suppressing inconvenient election content, but it still is not adequately policing the ideas of its 3 billion users. CEO Mark Zuckerberg “profoundly believes in free speech,” Coll lamented. “And,” Coll continued,
those of us in journalism have to come to terms with the fact that free speech, a principle that we hold sacred, is being weaponized against the principles of journalism. And what do we do about that? As reporters, we march into this war with our facts nobly shouldered, as if they were going to win the day. And what we’re seeing is that because of the scale of this alternate reality … our facts, our principles, our scientific method, it isn’t enough. So what do we do?
Offstage Noises
by James Howard Kunstler
Kunstler.com
Friday night, the US Supreme Court booted the Texas case against the swing state election janksters, the citation of “standing” likely a cover story for another reason that isn’t strictly legal doctrine but rather a sentiment, namely, that a presidential election dispute belongs more properly in the elected House of Representatives than in the unelected SCOTUS — at least for now, with more cases probably coming at them. The justices didn’t explain their decision.
This wasn’t so with Bush v. Gore in 2000, by the way, but we are a different country now, one mired in institutional paralysis and failure, thanks to the bureaucratic “resistance.” Anyway, the Supremes wouldn’t hear the evidence of ballot fraud, nor has any state court yet, so ignore the plaintive cries from the seditionist news media that claims of gross election irregularities are “baseless.”
A Nation Divided Shall Surely Fall
by Michael Snyder
The Economic Collapse Blog
It is often said that a house divided will surely fall, and the same thing can now be said for the United States as a whole. If there is anything that this election has made clear, it is the fact that there is little hope of healing the very deep divisions that exist in our country. Most of those on the political left absolutely hate those on the political right, and most of those on the political right absolutely hate those on the political left. But it isn’t as if the two opposing sides are even united. The radical left is absolutely disgusted with “moderate Democrats” such as Joe Biden and is very much looking forward to the day when their “progressive revolution” finally triumphs in America. Meanwhile, the right is hopelessly divided into countless political, religious and economic factions, and there is endless conflict between “conservatives” that are pro-Trump and those that are anti-Trump. Over the past 30 years, not much has actually gotten done in D.C., but what little has been accomplished has almost always involved more spending, more debt and more socialism.
Why the Number ‘3’ May Make You Rethink Covid Hysteria
by Simon Black
Sovereign Man
Yesterday I promised to explain why the number three is among the most compelling data points discovered so far in Covid-19 research.
And it’s something that you most likely won’t see in the mainstream media, even though the data is right there in the FDA’s research.
Covid has clearly been THE most heavily researched topic of 2020. Google Scholar shows roughly 90,000 scientific studies and academic papers on SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 that were published this year, which is a great testament to how quickly researchers can mobilize.
Many of these studies, however, were limited in nature. They were small-scale, involving only a handful of test subjects. Or they relied upon data from numerous, disparate sources, which introduced a lack of uniformity into the experiment.
Compared to the Last Three Treasury Secretaries, Janet Yellen is Mother Teresa
by Pam Martens and Russ Martens
Wall Street on Parade
President-elect Joe Biden’s nomination of Janet Yellen as Treasury Secretary is being viewed cautiously in some progressive circles. As the post-financial crisis Chair of the Federal Reserve under President Obama, Yellen had the opportunity to interpret the rules of the Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation in a manner that would rein in the risks of the mega banks on Wall Street. She failed in that regard while attempting to reassure a skeptical public that the Fed’s stress tests on the banks were adequate to prevent another crisis.
Yellen famously stated at a London conference in 2017 the following: “Would I say there will never, ever be another financial crisis? You know probably that would be going too far, but I do think we are much safer, and I hope that it will not be in our lifetimes and I don’t believe it will be.”
Two and a half years later, beginning on September 17, 2019, the Fed was back to bailing out Wall Street – months before there was a case of COVID-19 anywhere in the world.
Danger Ahead as Markets Detach from Fundamentals
by Clint Siegner
GoldSeek
Americans may start the New Year without certainty as to who will be sworn in as president on Inauguration Day.
President Donald Trump and his supporters can’t find courts willing to consider their evidence of widespread voter fraud. Trump is not likely to concede.
The battle continues in the courts and in the swing state legislatures.
The election isn’t the only issue dividing Americans. The response to the COVID-19 pandemic also has people at odds.
Some argue government health authorities should be dutifully followed – and we must submit to restrictions in order to keep hospitals from being overwhelmed.
Land Mines
by Michael Pento
Pento Portfolio Strategies LLC
When the market cap of equities reaches 183% of GDP and government bonds yield near 0%, or even less overseas, the notion that one can just buy and hold a balanced portfolio is extremely dangerous. The minefield is not packed with IEDs; it is actually replete with tactical nukes.
One of those land mines would be the failure to keep the government open and pass more stimulus. I have no special insight here, except D.C. is famous for brinkmanship but always opts to spend more money in the end. Another problem would be the failure to have a peaceful transfer of power come January 20th. Also, the failure of vaccines to prove to be safe, effective and long lasting would blow the whole recovery mantra sky high.
Wish a Not-So-Fond Farewell to Outgoing Attorney General William Barr
His Trump toadying was absolutely awful, but still not nearly as bad as his unremittingly harsh approach to justice and policing.
by Scott Shackford
Reason.com
Attorney General William Barr will be going home for Christmas, and not returning.
President Donald Trump dropped the news (as he has done with many resignations and terminations during his term) on Twitter, attaching to the tweet an almost comically fawning resignation letter from Barr.
Of course, it’s normal for outgoing government officials to praise their (almost) ex-bosses and brag about what they’ve accomplished. But Barr’s comically off-topic obsequious gushing is directed right at Trump’s hungering ego: “Your record is all the more historic because you accomplished it in the face of relentless, implacable resistance. Your 2016 victory speech in which you reached out to opponents and called for working together for the benefit of the American people was immediately met by a partisan onslaught against you in which no tactic, no matter how abusive or deceitful, was out of bounds.”
Fauci Advises Biden, Harris to Obtain Vaccine as Soon as Possible ‘For Security Reasons’
by Jon Brown
Daily Wire
Dr. Anthony Fauci urged Democrat Joe Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) to receive the COVID-19 vaccine right away, and also maintained that President Donald Trump should get it even though he already recovered from the disease.
“For security reasons I really feel strongly that we should get them vaccinated as soon as we possibly can. We want him fully protected as he enters into the presidency in January. So, that would be my strong recommendation,” Fauci said Tuesday morning on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”
Fauci, who has already been tapped to be on Biden’s coronavirus task force like he was for Trump’s, went on to advise Trump and Vice President Mike Pence to get vaccinated as well, despite the fact that the president overcame the virus in early October.
Trump’s NDAA Veto Threat Should Force a Conversation on Defense Spending
by Haley Kennington
Mises.org
A dirty secret of congressional military spending is that when the government allocates billions in spending, unnecessary, wasteful, and parochial interests quickly find their way into the legislation. That’s part of the reason President Trump has drawn the ire of a handful of defense leaders on Capitol Hill for threatening to veto the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Simply put, they don’t want key special interest provisions for their donors and districts held up.
President Trump says that the bill won’t receive his signature unless Congress includes provisions that repeal section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which provides social media companies immunity from user-posted content. Some believe the president’s move is strategic, while others find it to be political posturing. Irrespective of one’s personal views on Section 230, let’s make one thing clear: the sky is not going to fall from a slight delay in passing the NDAA, as some have suggested.
Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Colorado Church, Bars State from Restricting Worship
by Mary Margaret Olohan
DailyCaller.com
The U.S. Supreme Court ordered Tuesday that a federal court must reexamine Colorado’s coronavirus restrictions on indoor religious services.
In an unsigned decision, the court threw out a federal district court’s ruling that had rejected High Plains Harvest Church’s challenge to the state’s restrictions on houses of worship, according to the Star Tribune.
The decision comes after the Supreme Court granted temporary relief from Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s coronavirus restrictions on houses of worship. The court also tossed out an order from a Central District of California court that had upheld Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s restrictions on houses of worship.
Poll: Majority Wants Trump to ‘Continue to Fight to Change Washington’
by Hannah Bleau
Breitbart.com
A majority of Americans want President Trump to “continue to fight to change Washington,” a McLaughlin & Associates survey released Monday found.
The survey, taken December 9-13 among 1,000 respondents, revealed 52 percent want the president to continue to drain the swamp in Washington:
[…] The survey also asked, “Do you believe there was election and voter fraud in the Presidential election between Joe Biden and Donald Trump back in November?”
Respondents were virtually split, with 46 percent saying yes and 45 percent saying no. The percentages are well within the survey’s +/- 3.1 percent margin of error: