NC Renegades

via 90 Miles from Tyranny

From Blue’s Blog

Your pResident’s assertion that the Taliban are not terrorists may just be another attempt at misdirection. And a pathetic attempt at that. So what do you classify a group who just killed three American contractors (mercenaries?) in Afghanistan? I know what I call your pResident.

David DeGerolamo

Taliban Claim Kabul Attack That Killed 3 Americans, 1 Afghan

The Taliban have claimed responsibility for an attack at the Kabul airport in which a gunman shot and killed three American contractors and one Afghan man.

Friday’s claim came in a message from the Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid.

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Back when the BRICs were the source of marginal global growth, the punditry couldn’t stop praising them. However, in the past year, now that China’s housing bubble has burst and its shadow banking system has imploded, those who remember what BRIC actually stood for are about as rare as those who recall what it means for the Fed to hike rates. Which is precisely why nobody in the mainstream financial media has commented on the absolutely abysmal economic update reported earlier today out Brazil.

We are happy to do so because today’s data follows up quite well to our article from a month ago “Brazil’s Economy Just Imploded” and as the earlier article on the crashing Brazilian Real hinted, things for the Brazilian economy how gone from imploding to, well, worse because not only did the twin fiscal and current account deficits rise even more, hitting a whopping 11% of GDP – the worst since August 1999, but its government debt soared to 63.4% in 2014, up from 56.7% a year ago, and the highest since at least 2006. In short – the entire economy is now on the verge of total collapse.

This is what happened in a few bullet points:

• The fiscal picture has deteriorated very sharply since 2011 at both the flow (fiscal deficit) and stock (gross public debt) levels. The primary and overall nominal fiscal surpluses at year-end 2014 were at levels last seen in the late 1990s.
• The steady decline of the public sector savings rate is leading to a wider current account deficit despite weaker growth and low investment. In fact, the twin fiscal and current account deficits are now tracking at a combined, very troublesome 10.9% of GDP, the worst picture in 15 years (since August 1999). Repairing the severely unbalanced macro picture would require a deep, structural and permanent fiscal and quasi-fiscal adjustment and a significantly weaker BRL.
• The new economic team faces, among other things, the very significant challenge of repairing the severely deteriorated fiscal picture.
• The steady erosion of the fiscal stance pushed net and gross public debt up. Furthermore, fiscal and quasi-fiscal activism undermined the effectiveness of monetary policy, contributed to keep inflation very high and drove the current account deficit to a very high level despite weak growth.

More details from Goldman:

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When Obama released senior Taliban leadership in exchange for a deserter who went AWOL to join the jihad, patriotic Americans were outraged.

Who is surprised that these devout Muslims are returning to wage bloody holy war in the cause of Islam? No one. It was predicted by all of us immediately.

Why is the enemedia not calling out Obama on his treachery? Because they are complicit.

There is a divide in America. Patriots versus the destroyers, and I suspect it will come to war eventually. I do not believe we will go silently into night. The left scored a deathblow with the election of Obama, but it ain’t over yet.

“Officials: Detainee swapped for Bergdahl suspected of militant activities,” By Barbara Starr, CNN Pentagon Correspondent, January 30, 2015

WASHINGTON (CNN)The U.S. military and intelligence community now suspect that one of the five Taliban detainees released from Guantanamo Bay in return for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl in May of last year has attempted to return to militant activity from his current location in Qatar by making contact with suspected Taliban associates in Afghanistan, multiple officials tell CNN.

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A patient is being treated for possible Ebola symptoms in Sacramento County. UC Davis Medical Center confirms they have a patient with a suspected case of Ebola.

They said in a statement the patient had “symptoms consistent with Ebola infection”. A spokesperson also told FOX40 in order for their Ebola response team to be activated, the patient must have traveled to a country where the disease is active.

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