The Peanut Gallery

Statements, comments and forecasts that have no substance, but just might turn out to be relevant.

1. The right wing revolution against the elites and the immigrants continues. First Brexit and now Trump. Soon Italy and then France and Holland. A fascinating chapter in humankind history. We will now witness how the politics of fear and the theory of "divide and conquer" play out. It's no longer important what Trump says....a divided US is already the name of the game. Its important what Trump does. COMMENT: Some folk believe Trump has a plan. I believe that what you see is what you get.

2.Stratfor: Beijing is set to invest an additional $8.5 billion in Pakistan's railways and energy infrastructure, Pakistan's Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal said Nov. 23, Reuters reported. The funds come in addition to the two countries' $46 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor project, a deal aimed at building roads and energy infrastructure in Pakistan and connecting northwest China with Pakistan's deep-water Gwadar port. COMMENT: If Trump thinks that threatening China will bring the desired result...clearly the law of unintended consequences is showing a different result.

3.South Korean prosecutors raided Samsung’s headquarters and the country’s state-run pension on Nov. 23 fund over allegations that the office of embattled President Park Geun-hye pressured the fund’s decision to back the company’s merger plan in 2015, Yonhap reported. The president’s office is suspected of pressuring the state fund to support the company in return for favors given to Park’s close associate, Choi Soon-sil, who was indicted over the weekend on corruption charges. COMMENT: When it rains...it pours.

4.Financial Times columnist Wolfgang Münchau: "One day Italy will be led by a party in favour of withdrawal from the euro. When that happens, euro exit would turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy. There would a run on Italy’s banks and its government’s bonds. The next Italian prime minister will need to explain to the next German chancellor, presumably Angela Merkel, that her choice will not be between a political union or no political union, but between a political union or Italy’s withdrawal from the euro.The latter would imply the biggest default in history.

5.Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said it foiled a terrorist attack plotted by the Islamic State, International Business times reported Dec. 15. An FSB statement said four suspects from Tajikistan and Moldova have been arrested in connection with the plot, which it said involved using improvised explosive devices in Moscow. It said a high-level Islamic State commander from Turkey helped plan the failed attack. Security forces reportedly seized automatic weapons, ammunition, chemicals and explosive devices during the arrest raids. COMMENT: This is a disease and nobody is immune.

6.A private 5 billion euro ($5.22 billion) recapitalization plan to save Italy's third largest lender, Monte dei Paschi di Siena, collapsed Dec. 21, Financial Times reported. The rescue plan failed to find an anchor investor, according to several informed sources. Italy's government will now move forward with a state-run rescue plan to save the bank, sources said. Both houses of the country's parliament approved Dec. 21 a possible 20 billion euro ($20.85 billion) rescue of some of the country's struggling banks. COMMENT:The Ukraine just nationalized its largest bank. It starts as a few drops....

7.Gatestone: The police released a report noting that Sweden is at the top of the EU's statistics on physical and sexual violence against women, sexual harassment and stalking. The report stated unequivocally that it is "asylum-seeker boys" and "foreign men" who commit the vast majority of the reported crimes. COMMENT: From the rape trucks of Syria to the blond emancipated women of Sweden.

8.Two Israeli women of Ethiopian descent were sworn in as judges by President Reuven Rivlin on Tuesday, marking a first in the country’s history. The ground-breaking appointments of the two attorneys were announced by the Judicial Nominating Committee in late September. At the time, Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked said the appointments helped realize the wishes of late Israeli President Shimon Peres, who authorized the covert evacuation of thousands of Ethiopian Jews to Israel in 1984 while serving as prime minister.
COMMENT: Go Israel!!

Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity - Martin Luther King, Jr.

The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits - Albert Einstein

I am patient with stupidity but not with those who are proud of it - Edith Sitwell