Are We Watching the End of an Empire?

A 40-year-old essay predicted the end of an empire and current events sure make it look like we’re watching it happen in real time.

I spend a fair bit of time scanning the news every day for my site, Preppers Daily News. And some days, I just have to shake my head as I realize that people are so desperate for…something…that they just keep going to further and further extremes to try and find that elusive thing their lives are missing.

The more I read, the more likeness I see to Sir John Glubb’s essay, The Fate of Empires and Search for Survival. (It’s only 24 pages and you should definitely read it – it’s brilliant.) Sir Glubb wrote this outstanding work when he was 79 years old, after a lifetime of being a soldier, traveling the world, and analyzing history. It’s well worth a read as he goes into detail about the fall of empires past.

The final stage of the end of an empire is the Age of Decadence. Some signs of this age are political dissensions (Antifa, anyone?), an influx of foreigners (Europe, anyone?), the welfare state (America, anyone?), despair (350 million people diagnosed), depravity (see below), and the rise of frivolity as people try to fill lives that have less and less meaning.

Sound familiar?

- Source, The Organic Preppers

Corruption: Emails Reveal Bill Clinton Met With Vladimir Putin Just Before Uranium One Deal

If President Trump or anyone even remotely close to his presidency, including his best friend from 2nd grade that he hadn't seen in 40 years, sought to meet with key Russian nuclear officials, in Moscow, just months before the federal government approved a very controversial deal handing Vladimir Putin 20% of U.S. uranium reserves, despite an ongoing investigation into Russian fraud, bribery, extortion and money laundering, it would be the only story played on a 24 x 7 loop on CNN and MSNBC.

Ironically, that is exactly what new emails dug up by The Hill show that Bill Clinton did in June 2010, just months before the Uranium One deal was approved by a committee on which his wife, then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, sat. Oh, and did we mention that Bill's Clinton Foundation just happened to collect millions of dollars in bribes donations from Russian sources and Uranium One shareholders shortly after his Moscow meetings?

As you will recall, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), approved the Uranium One transaction in October 2010. According to new emails revealed by The Hill, just months before that approval, Bill Clinton sought permission from the State Department, run by his wife at the time, to meet Arkady Dvorkovich, a top aide to then-Russian President Dmitri Medvedev and one of the highest-ranking government officials to serve on Rosatom’s board of supervisors, the company which was ultimately approved to purchase Uranium One.

As he prepared to collect a $500,000 payday in Moscow in 2010, Bill Clinton sought clearance from the State Department to meet with a key board director of the Russian nuclear energy firm Rosatom — which at the time needed the Obama administration’s approval for a controversial uranium deal, government records show.

Arkady Dvorkovich, a top aide to then-Russian President Dmitri Medvedev and one of the highest-ranking government officials to serve on Rosatom’s board of supervisors, was listed on a May 14, 2010, email as one of 15 Russians the former president wanted to meet during a late June 2010 trip, the documents show.

“In the context of a possible trip to Russia at the end of June, WJC is being asked to see the business/government folks below. Would State have concerns about WJC seeing any of these folks,” Clinton Foundation foreign policy adviser Amitabh Desai wrote the State Department on May 14, 2010, using the former president’s initials and forwarding the list of names to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s team.

While we apparently still don't know whether Bill Clinton was ultimately approved to hold those meetings, his team did confirm that he met with Vladimir Putin at his private residence.

The documents don’t indicate what decision the State Department finally made. But current and former aides to both Clintons told The Hill on Thursday the request to meet the various Russians came from other people, and the ex-president’s aides and State decided in the end not to hold any of the meetings with the Russians on the list.

Bill Clinton instead got together with Vladimir Putin at the Russian leader’s private homestead.

Meanwhile, The Hill revealed yet another facet to the story from a "close associate of Bill Clinton" who says that his trip to Russia may have been as much about helping family members “grow investments in their business with Russian oligarchs and other businesses," businesses in which we're sure Bill and Hillary just happened to have a stake, as it was about trading American uranium reserves for Clinton Foundation donations.

A close associate of Bill Clinton who was directly involved in the Moscow trip and spoke on condition of anonymity, described to The Hill the circumstances surrounding how Bill Clinton landed a $500,000 speaking gig in Russia and then came up with the list of Russians he wanted to meet.

The friend said Hillary Clinton had just returned in late March 2010 from an official trip to Moscow where she met with both Putin and Medvedev. The president’s speaker’s bureau had just received an offer from Renaissance Capital to pay the former president $500,000 for a single speech in Russia.

Documents show Bill Clinton’s personal lawyer on April 5, 2010, sent a conflict of interest review to the State Department asking for permission to give the speech in late June, and it was approved two days later.

The Clinton friend said the former president’s office then began assembling a list of requests to meet with Russian business and government executives whom he could meet on the trip. One of the goals of the trip was to try to help a Clinton family relative “grow investments in their business with Russian oligarchs and other businesses,” the friend told The Hill.

“It was one of the untold stories of the Russia trip. People have focused on Uranium One and the speaking fees, but opening up a business spigot for the family business was one only us insiders knew about,” the friend said.

“We knew of some sort of transactions in which the Clintons received funds and Russia received approvals, and the question has always been how and if those two events are connected,” he said. “I think this provides further evidence the two may be connected.”

Of course, Hillary contends that this entire story is a "big nothing-burger" and that everyone should promptly return their focus to the $100,000 worth of Facebook ads that destroyed her campaign and the entire American democratic process...

Aides to the ex-president, Hillary Clinton and the Clinton Foundation said Bill Clinton did not have any conversations about Rosatom or the Uranium One deal while in Russia, and that no one connected to the deal was involved in the trip. A spokesman for Secretary Clinton said Thursday the continued focus on the Uranium One deal smacked of partisan politics aimed at benefiting Donald Trump.

“At every turn this storyline has been debunked on the merits. Its roots are with a project shepherded by Steve Bannon, which should tell you all you need to know,” said Nick Merrill. “This latest iteration is simply more of the right doing Trump’s bidding for him to distract from his own Russia problems, which are real and a grave threat to our national security.” Current and former Clinton aides told The Hill that the list of proposed business executives the former president planned to meet raised some sensitivities after Bill Clinton’s speaker bureau got the invite for the lucrative speech.

...and we're confident CNN wholeheartedly agrees.

- Source, ZeroHedge

In a Cashless World, You'd Better Pray the Power Never Goes Out

When Hurricane Maria knocked out power in Puerto Rico, residents there realized they were going to need physical cash — and a lot of it.

Bloomberg reported yesterday that the Fed was forced to fly a planeload of cash to the Island to help avert disaster:

William Dudley, the New York Fed president, put the word out within minutes, and ultimately a jet loaded with an undisclosed amount of cash landed on the stricken island...

[Business executive in Puerto Rico] described corporate clients’ urgent requests for hundreds of thousands in cash to meet payrolls, and the challenge of finding enough armored cars to satisfy endless demand at ATMs. Such were the days after Maria devastated the U.S. territory last month, killing 39 people, crushing buildings and wiping out the island’s energy grid. As early as the day after the storm, the Fed began working to get money onto the island,

For a time, unless one had a hoard of cash stored up in one's home, it was impossible to get cash at all. 85 percent of Puerto Rico is still without power, as of October 9. Bloomberg continues: "When some generator-powered ATMs finally opened, lines stretched hours long, with people camping out in beach chairs and holding umbrellas against the sun."

In an earlier article from September 25, Bloomberg noted how, without cash, necessities were simply unavailable:


“Cash only,” said Abraham Lebron, the store manager standing guard at Supermax, a supermarket in San Juan’s Plaza de las Armas. He was in a well-policed area, but admitted feeling like a sitting duck with so many bills on hand. “The system is down, so we can’t process the cards. It’s tough, but one finds a way to make it work.”

The cash economy has reigned in Puerto Rico since Hurricane Maria decimated much of the U.S. commonwealth last week, leveling the power grid and wireless towers and transporting the island to a time before plastic existed. The state of affairs could carry on for weeks or longer in some remote parts of the commonwealth, and that means it could be impossible to trace revenue and enforce tax rules.

Note the deep concern with "trac[ing] revenue" and "enforc[ing] tax rules" — as if making payroll for ordinary people were not the real problem here.

Puerto Rico has been fortunate that the United States, so far, has not attempted to implement many anti-cash measures that have been popular among central bankers in recent years.

Abolishing cash, of course, has become de rigueur among mainstream economists who have long argued that physical cash is an impediment to "nontraditional" monetary policy like negative interest rates. Moreover, advocates claim, physical cash makes it harder to control the flow of money, collect taxes, and control black markets.

This drive to supposedly fight crime and corruption was given as the justification for the disastrous war against cash in India in 2016. Hatched as a scheme to assert more government control over the economy, the Indian government removed mostly large bills from circulation in India, which accounted for 85% of its physical cash by value.

The demonetization badly damaged the economy. The Wall Street Journal reported in December:


Not surprisingly, shock waves from the announcement continue to crash through the economy. The Asian Development Bank cut its growth estimate for India for the financial year ending March 31 to 7% from 7.4%. JP Morgan expects growth to decline by half a percent to 6.7%.

Meanwhile, falling sales have begun to translate into layoffs spanning various sectors, including construction, textiles and jewelry. The Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy estimates the transaction costs alone of swapping out an estimated 14.2 trillion rupees’ worth of currency to be 1.28 trillion rupees, or about $19 billion.

India’s economy will eventually recover from this self-inflicted wound, but there’s no question that demonetization has created doubts about Mr. Modi’s competence. The decision, reportedly hatched in secret with a coterie of trusted bureaucrats, showcases the prime minister’s faith in the command-and-control ethos of the civil service rather than in the “minimum government” he once promised.

One can only imagine how much more grim matters would be for Puerto Rico if most physical cash were made illegal as happened in India.

It's unlikely, however, that any well-known economists — such as Kenneth Rogoff who has deemed physical cash "a curse" — will be recanting their anti-cash views.

If you want to make an omelet, you have to break some eggs, and while some of the "little people" like Indian peasants and Puerto Rican workers might have to suffer greatly whenever the power goes out, we all have to make sacrifices.

Perhaps this is what Richard Thaler — the newly announced economics Nobel-Prize winner — had in mind when he came in out in favor of demonetization in India.

Certainly, abolishing cash is likely to devastate a poor economy more than a wealthy one. A wealthy country, with more advanced and reliable infrastructure, and with greater access to resources in general, is more fully able to weather a shortage of physical cash, and natural disasters. Overall, though, going cashless makes an economy more fragile, and makes ordinary people sitting ducks whenever there is a natural disaster, or even worse disruptions such as wars.

- Source, Mises Institute

Trump Slams Comey Who "Lied And Leaked And Protected Hillary Clinton", Rips NFL, Democrats

In an early Wednesday tweetstorm, Trump blasted fired FBI Director James Comey and questioned the DOJ, following the FBI's confirmation that Comey began drafting his statement about Hillary Clinton's private email server use long before the investigation was complete.

"Wow, FBI confirms report that James Comey drafted letter exonerating Crooked Hillary Clinton long before investigation was complete. Many people not interviewed, including Clinton herself."

Trump then accused Comey of perjury, and asked why the DOJ has not addressed this yet: "Comey stated under oath that he didn't do this-obviously a fix? Where is Justice Dept?"

Trump also accused Comey of lying and leaking to protect Clinton. "He was the best thing that ever happened to her!"

On Monday, the FBI posted a document revealing Comey began drafting a letter in July of 2016 in which he did not recommend charges against Clinton. FBI official James Rybicki in mid-May requested in an unclassified email that officials "send any comments on this statement so we may roll it into a master doc for discussion with the Director at a future date." Comey would make his announcement roughly two months later, criticizing Clinton for being "extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information."

Trump also took aim at Senate Democrats, and Republicans, urging "all Senate Republicans" to vote for "the largest Tax Cuts in U.S. history."

Speaking on Monday at the White House Rose Garden, Trump said “If we get it done, that’s a great achievement,” while standing next to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. “But don’t forget it took years for the Reagan administration to get taxes done. I’ve been here for nine months, a little more than nine months.” Despite the president's efforts, the only 52 percent of Americans in a new CNN poll say they oppose the president's tax reform plan, while only 34 percent say they support it. Trump is set to meet with the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday to discuss tax reform efforts.

Trump then moved on to the NFL, which he ripped for its decision to allow players to kneel during the national anthem, saying it shows "total disrespect for our great country!"

"The NFL has decided that it will not force players to stand for the playing of our National Anthem. Total disrespect for our great country!" the president said in a tweet.

Trump's anger was prompted by the NFL decision on Tuesday not to implement a rule that would require players to stand during the national anthem. The NFL Network's Ian Rapaport was the first to report the decision. Trump has taken aim at players who kneel during the anthem to protest racial and social injustice in the U.S.

Finally, Trump ripped Rep. Frederica Wilson, saying the Florida Democrat's claim that he made an insensitive comment about a fallen soldier's wife was "totally fabricated."

"Democrat Congresswoman totally fabricated what I said to the wife of a soldier who died in action (and I have proof). Sad!"

Wilson said on Tuesday that she overheard Trump tell the widow of Army Sgt. La David Johnson, who was killed in an ambush in Niger nearly two weeks ago, that Johnson “knew what he signed up for..but when it happens it hurts anyway.”

Wilson told CNN that she was in a car with Johnson’s widow, Myeshia, during a trip to meet her husband's casket when Trump called, and that Myeshia was "very distraught after the call."

“She has just lost her husband, she was just told that he cannot have an open casket funeral which gives her all kinds of nightmares about what his body must look, what his face must look, and this is what the president of the United States says to her,” Wilson told CNN. Trump launched a fresh round of controversy on Monday when at a press conference he made the claim that his predecessors did not call the families of fallen soldiers. He then attempted to walk back the claim at the same press conference.

- Source, ZeroHedge

Trump Deliberately Weakening Obamacare to Force Congress to Act to Fix Healthcare

It is being widely alluded to that President Trumps recent actions against Obamacare, are a direct effort by him to weaken it to the point in which congress will have no choice, but to take action and replace it. 

Will this work, or will the elites, aka the Swamp, hold out and resist his latest efforts? The Democrats will never agree, but perhaps he can get the Republicans to finally do their jobs. We shall see.

- Video Source

Dr. Ron Paul on Big Brother's War on Cash

Everyone is surely aware by now that all of our digital communications are being sent to government databases for storage. If our American ancestors could see it, they wouldn't believe their eyes. We still, however, have the ability to use cash. All of our economic decisions are not under constant government surveillance. Ron Paul discusses the dangers of Big Brother's War on Cash.

- Source, Dr Ron Paul

Russia and China Strengthen Their Alliance, Weakening the US Dollar in the Process

Month after month, year after year, the mighty King Dollar is slowly being weakened, its monopolistic grip as the fiat reserve currency of the world is steadily lessening. To many, this reality passes them by, as they are blissfully ignorant to the facts, living their lives without knowing the true ramifications that this will have on their lives.

People have simply taken for granted the reality that they live in and the power that comes along with having the unique status of "reserve currency of the world". This has granted the United States the ability to expand its empire and military might, despite the fact that it is utterly bankrupt, with its debt levels just recently exceeding the stunning $20 trillion mark. A debt that will never be repaid.

Yet, it has not just been the United States that has benefited, their closest allies have also experienced a trickling down effect and benefited from the close relationships they have formed with their ally and chief trading partner.

Indeed, it has been a good ride, but like all rides, eventually they must come to an end. This is exactly where we stand now. The ride is slowing down and not because the passengers want to get off, but because those waiting in line are demanding their turn.

China and Russia, have been increasingly growing closer and closer as the years go on. They have been forced into this uncanny partnership due to the numerous economic sanctions placed on Russia and the ratcheting rhetoric used against China. 

This partnership is not one that should be overlooked, as these two economic powers possess a stunning amount of not just military force, but also natural resources, the latter of which they continue to gobble up from lesser nations at a feverish pace.

Two resources that both countries desire, seemingly above all else, are oil and gold, both of which have been highly sought after by both countries.

Russia, luckily, has a massive reserve of oil under the ground, being the worlds largest producer of oil in the world, and China needs it to keep its economic engine running. Both have large reserves of gold both in the ground and in stockpile.

Therefore, it comes as no surprise to anyone following this story, to see that both countries are once again moving even closer together, supplanting the need to settle in USD, and establishing the first ever Yuan to Ruble payment system.

This has to have the United States government and the elites who control the fiat based system worried. The need to have US dollars, also known as the "Petro Dollar", is what drives their might and power. 

They cannot have countries simply abandoning this system haphazardly and setting up their own payment methods, and this is exactly what has led to so many countries in the middle east being ransacked, for even thinking about doing so.

Unfortunately for the West, Russia and China are no pushovers, and other than jawboning and rhetoric, we expect little to nothing to occur.

They know this, and they know that the West is ultimately powerless to stop them, as they forge their alliance and plan for the eventual day when it is "their turn" to hop on board the ride and instill their own reserve currency, one that many speculate will be tied to a basket of hard assets, including gold and oil.

This is just one more chapter in the ever unfolding currency wars and the gradual decline of the US Dollar, as the reserve currency of the world. This book is far from finished, but one thing is certain, it's sure to be a page turner.

- As Originally Seen on Sprott Money

- Think and Grow Rich: The Most Powerful Book You Will Ever Read -

London Analyst: Total Dollar Rejection, Gold & Silver Set to Rise

Alasdair Macleod says the U.S will be forced into raising interest rates, and gold and silver prices will rise because of it. Here’s why the hikes are coming…

Alasdair Macleod is bearish on the U.S. dollar. From rising commodities prices, slow growth and stagnation, inflation is on the horizon.

International demand for the U.S. dollar will decrease as countries move away from using the it for trade.

Other topic include:

• Geo-political situation including the latest from Syria. 
• The oil for Chinese yuan contract. 
• Return of all the Eurodollars (all dollars sloshing outside of the United States, not just dollars in Europe) 
• Gold Vs Cryptocurrency 
• Gold confiscation and real money

- Source, The Silver Doctors

Two Dollar Bills - Five Real Nearly Uncirculated and Rare $2 Bills in Currency Holder

What's Buried in the Fed's Report Reveals the Truth About the Economy

What is actually happen behind the scenes of the Western Economies of the World? Are things going good as the Central Banksters would have us believe, or is our system truly rotten at it's core, with the elites stealing every last drop they can get, before they crash it down upon our heads?

Charles Hugh Smith explains in this recent interview, exactly what he see's happening in the FED reports and tells us the truth about the economy, as he see's it.


- Video Source

Fed Warns: Tax Plan Could Lead to Inflation & Unsustainable Debt

Congressional Republicans moved to hasten an overhaul of the U.S. tax code on Thursday, while Federal Reserve officials warned in rare public remarks that President Donald Trump’s tax plan could lead to inflation and unsustainable federal debt.

In a procedural step forward, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives approved by a 219-206 vote a fiscal 2018 spending blueprint to help advance an eventual tax bill. The blueprint contains a legislative tool that would let Republicans pass a tax bill by a simple majority vote in the Senate, where they hold 52 of 100 seats, allowing them to bypass Democrats.

Separately, the Senate Budget Committee approved its own budget resolution and sent it to the full Senate for a vote, expected after Oct 16.

Trump and top Republicans in Congress hope to enact a package of tax cuts for corporations, small businesses and individuals before January, pledging that sharply lower taxes will boost U.S. economic growth, jobs and wages.

Wall Street rose on the steps taken, with major market indexes rising to record high closes again on Thursday as investors warmed to the notion that a sweeping tax overhaul could be in place by the first quarter.

"It sounds like they're serious about drafting tax reform legislation and that gives everyone greater confidence that this might actually happen," said Phil Orlando, chief equity strategist at Federated Investors in New York. He predicted tax reform could lift economic growth and corporate earnings for 2019 and send the benchmark S&P 500 .SPX index above 3,000.

But Federal Reserve officials questioned the rosy Republican scenario, saying that proposed tax cuts could deliver a short-term growth surge but also bring high inflation, burdensome government debt levels and an eventual return to sub-par economic growth.

Unless targeted to raise productivity and underlying potential, San Francisco Fed President John Williams said a tax cut could feed “unsustainable” growth that would ultimately be undone by asset price bubbles, inflation and possible recession.

Fed officials generally refrain from commenting on fiscal policy. But the Trump administration is proposing up to $6 trillion in personal and corporate tax cuts at a time when many economists feel the country does not need massive stimulus.

- Source, Reuters, Read More Here

O'Keefe Strikes Again, Catches NYT Editors On Hidden Camera: Targeting Trump's Businesses and Family

In the latest of a series of undercover operations targeting mainstream media bias, James O'Keefe has just dropped a new undercover video which takes direct aim at the New York Times' Audience Strategy Editor, Nick Dudich, who admits repeatedly to promoting content that intentionally seeks to, among other things, damage President Trump's businesses as a means towards forcing his resignation.

Here is a brief intro from Project Veritas:

While talking about being objective at the Times, Dudich replies candidly, "No I'm not, that's why I'm here."

Dudich considers himself an important player at the New York Times, telling the Project Veritas Journalist "my voice is on... my imprint is on every video we do."

Dudich goes on to explain what he might do to target President Trump:

"I'd target his businesses, his dumb fuck of a son, Donald Jr., and Eric...

"Target that. Get people to boycott going to his hotels. Boycott... So a lot of the Trump brands, if you can ruin the Trump brand and you put pressure on his business and you start investigating his business and you start shutting it down, or they're hacking or other things. He cares about his business more than he cares about being President. He would resign. Or he'd lash out and do something incredibly illegal, which he would have to."

When the undercover journalist asks Dudich if he could make sure that the anti-Trump stories make it to the front, he replied, "Oh, we always do."

- Source, Zero Hedge, Read More Here

Will Markets Be Nationalized During the Next Crises?

We can all feel it in our bones, we know that another collapse lays just on the horizon. NOTHING has been solved from the 2008 crisis and everything has simply been papered over. What comes next? What will the next collapse look like?

- Video Source

The Swamp Attacks Trump Tax Plan

President Trump finally unveiled his tax plan yesterday…

It would be the first major overhaul of the tax code since 1986… the “biggest tax cut of all time,” as the president calls it.

Will it make the American economy great again?

Or will it vanish into the swamp… like Trump’s plan to replace Obamacare?

These are the questions that furrow our brow today…

Trump’s tax plan proposes, in part:

To reduce personal income tax brackets from seven to three (12%, 25% and 35%)…

To cut the corporate tax rate from 35% to 20%…

To double the standard deduction for both couples and single filers (to $24,000 and $12,000, respectively)… and eliminate the estate tax.

The president assured us this is a plan for every man jack… that “the rich will not be gaining at all.”

But the rich did gain yesterday…

Stocks surged to record levels yesterday afternoon as the president trumpeted his plan.

They surged again today.

It was the promise of tax cuts that helped inflate the Trump “reflation trade” since the November election.

Now they’re in sight — if not yet within reach.

The plan’s promises are many… but its details few.

The devil dwells in the details, of course. But so does God…

Reagan’s 1986 tax reform bill ran to 450-plus pages.

Trump’s runs to nine.

Where is the devil in Trump’s plan… or God?

Without corresponding spending cuts or other means of generating revenue, wouldn’t the tax cuts add trillions to the debt?

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates the plan would add $2.2 trillion to the national debt over the next 10 years.

Kyle Pomerleau of the Tax Foundation pegs it at $5 trillion if every provision makes it home.

But Trump’s tax plan must first make it through the swamp. And therein lies a vast tale…

Trump says he wants filing a tax return so simple it could fit on a postcard.

That means simplifying the tax code.

But simplicity in the tax code is a declaration of war against the lobbyist…

How does he turn the system to his advantage?

How does he work the angles?

At 74,608 pages, the United States Tax Code features lots of angles to work… and dark corners where swamp creatures lurk.

House Speaker Paul Ryan now expects “10,000 lobbyists” to storm Capitol Hill.

Each is out to keep his bucket in the stream… his snout in the trough… and his BMW in gas.

I’m heart and soul for tax reform, says the lobbyist. Just make sure it’s the other fellow’s taxes being reformed.

Texas Republican Rep. Kevin Brady, without exaggeration:

“They will take all of tax reform down to just keep their one special provision.”

And so it goes, with a hundred industries, each with its battalions of lobbyists.

“This could be the single issue that brings out the army of lobbyists more than any other issue we’ve seen in recent years,” says Craig Holman of Public Citizen, a government accountability outfit.

Will Congress withstand the onslaught?

Goldman Sachs predicts the final tax cut — if it passes at all — will be “a pale shadow of its initial proposal.”

Here at The Daily Reckoning, we have our own answer… an answer affirmed by one veteran lobbyist:

“I can’t even imagine Republicans doing full-fledged tax reform that steps on toes.”

We suggest one slight amendment:

“I can’t even imagine Republicans or Democrats doing full-fledged tax reform that steps on toes.”

“You have no idea how hard this is going to be,” warns outgoing Republican Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee.

Ah, but we do, Senator.

And that is why we expect it to fail…

- Source, The Daily Reckoning

Live Stream Taken the Night of Las Vegas Shooting Confirms: NOT JUST ONE SHOOTER

Staff and guests at the Bellagio Hotel confirm multiple shooters, and it was streamed live. Even LV Sheriff Lombardo says “you’ve got to assume shooter had help”. Here’s the latest…

At the Bellagio Hotel (not Mandalay Bay), Rene Downs made a Facebook Live video discussing shots coming in through the front doors of the lobby causing mass chaos and a stampede.

Guests and staff at Bellagio Hotel share horror of lobby shooting and ask why the media is lying about what happened https://t.co/c63VYknCPB

— Your News Wire (@yournewswire) October 4, 2017

Las Vegas Sheriff: “You Got To Assume Shooter Had Help” As “Mystery Woman” Emerges.

During a lengthy press conference update on the investigation into the Las Vegas massacre, Clark County Sheriff Lombardo expressed his belief that gunman Stephen Paddock had to have help at some point but sarcastically says “maybe he’s a super guy.” 

Clearly showing the strains of being awake under serious stress for the last 72 hours, the sheriff explained…

- Source, Silver Doctors

Blowback? NFL Ticket Sales Crash 17.9% As Owners Lose Control Of Players

Probably just a coincidence... or just transitory, but The online ticket reseller TickPick told The Washington Examiner that sales have dropped 17.9 percent, far more than the usual Week Three fall...

• 17.9 percent decrease in NFL orders this week compared to the previous week.

• Last year the drop was 10.8 percent in orders on Monday & Tuesday following Week Three games.

"We have seen a massive decrease in NFL ticket purchases this past week in comparison to years past. Week 3 seems to usually have less ticket orders than week 2, but this year ticket purchases are down more than 7 percent from this time last year," said TickPick's Jack Slingland.

"While we can't specify if this decrease is due to the president's comments, player and owner protests, play on the field, or simply the continued division of consumer's media attention, the conversation around the NFL this week has focused on the president's comments as well as the players' and owners' reaction. As viewers continue to abandon their NFL Sunday habits, both the number of ticket sales and the purchase price of tickets will drop," he told us.

And despite orders from The NFL that players will stand for the National Anthem this week, The Hill reports that at least three Miami Dolphins players (Julius Thomas, Michael Thomas, & Kenny Stills) took a knee during the playing of the national anthem Sunday.

Saints players took a knee before the anthem began, but then stood as it was played.

But as ESPN reports, NFL owners are struggling to retain control of their players...

"It certainly was my takeaway that the commissioner was looking for a way for the protests to end,"DeMaurice Smith (NFL Players Association executive director) said Friday when asked about his 30-minute conversation with Goodell (NFL commissioner), while declining to offer specifics about what was discussed. Goodell declined to comment, but a league source did not dispute Smith's account.

"Knowing the league the way I know the league, they are first and foremost concerned about the impact on their business," Smith said. "That's always their first concern. I mean, who are we kidding?"

Nobody was kidding when many of the NFL's highest-profile owners, including Robert Kraft of the New England Patriots and Jerry Jones of the Dallas Cowboys, expressed concerns last week that the optics of hundreds of players kneeling, sitting or remaining in the locker room during the playing of the national anthem had alienated many fans at a particularly perilous moment for the NFL.

TV ratings for many of this year's games have continued a slide that began last season; some league sponsors have grown skittish about the backlash; and most surveys have shown that a majority of NFL fans are turned off by the politicization of the game.

To the commissioner's suggestion that the protests should end, Smith said,

"My only response was, 'I don't have the power to tell our players what to do.' ... At the end of the day, this is a group of players who are exercising their freedom.

There is no room for me to snap my fingers and tell our players, 'It's time for you to give up a freedom.' Just the idea offends me. It's almost as if the players are being asked, 'What's it going to take for you to stop asking to be free or to be treated like an American?'"

Early on, one of the players pointedly told the assembled owners -- in particular Kraft, who this year gave his longtime friend Trump a Super Bowl 51 champions' ring -- "We know a lot of you are in with Trump. This meeting is going on because the players think that some of the people that they work for are with his overall agenda, and that's not in the players' favor."

"We can't just tell them to stop," Goodell said of the players' protests.

Many owners immediately argued otherwise.

"We need to find a way where Trump doesn't win," one said, and that meant using leverage as employers to end the protests.

Another said, "We'll get our guys in line."

Political infighting contonues to stink up the place...

Some owners were angry that Joe Lockhart, the NFL's executive vice president of communications who worked as President Bill Clinton's press secretary, had told reporters on a Monday conference call that the players' words and actions on the subjects of police brutality and racism were "what real locker room talk is."

It was a brazen shot at Trump, who was captured in a 2005 video talking, in explicit terms, about grabbing women by their vaginas but later dismissed the video's contents as "locker room banter."

Owners, many of whom had supported Trump and seven of whom had donated at least $1 million to him, felt that Lockhart had unnecessarily politicized the league's response.

One owner barked angrily at Lockhart, who declined to comment about the matter, echoing a sentiment that most of them -- especially Jones -- shared: Nobody wanted to engage in a political mud fight with the White House, even if "they were all pissed at the president," a league source said.

As ESPN concludes, by the end of their meetings, the players and owners weren't as unified as they would later publicly state, but as one owner says, "We've gotten out of crisis management and into, 'How do we do this correctly?' There was a chance that we didn't deal with it correctly -- and it had passed."

Perhaps after this week's collapse in ticket sales - and potentially a few more lost advertising dollars - the owners may have some different ideas on how to control their players in their place of work.

- Source, Zero Hedge