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By Tyler Durden

The colder weather in the Midwest was supposed to bring with it a reprieve for the police and residents of Chicago from the historic levels of violence that have devastated that city this year. Unfortunately, while the colder weather came the violence never subsided.

According to the Chicago Tribune, 61 people were shot over the long Christmas weekend and as many as 12 of those people have since died from their wounds, a level of holiday violence not seen in Chicago for years. Meanwhile, per the Chicago Police Department, as much as 90% of those wounded over the weekend “had gang affiliations, criminal histories and were pre-identified by the department’s strategic subject algorithm as being a potential suspect or victim of gun violence.”

The city has seen eight multiple-victim shootings, including two double homicides. One was an attack in the East Chatham neighborhood that left two dead and five others wounded, and an attack in the Austin neighborhood left two dead.

Much of the violence happened in areas “with historical gang conflicts on the south and west side of Chicago,” said Anthony Guglielmi, a spokesman for the Chicago Police Department. He also referenced the department’s “strategic subject list,” which is generated daily from a computerized algorithm and assigns a score from 1 to 500 based on such factors as a person’s arrests and the activities of his associates. Those people with a score in the upper 200s or higher are considered in danger of being shot or of shooting someone else.

“Ninety percent of those fatally wounded had gang affiliations, criminal histories and were pre-identified by the department’s strategic subject algorithm as being a potential suspect or victim of gun violence,” Guglielmi said Monday.

While one might expect violence to subside as people gather with family to celebrate Christmas, per data from HeyJackAss!, the number of fatal shootings actually surged on Christmas day.

Meanwhile, the annual total of murders in Chicago for 2016 is creeping ever closer to the 800 mark.

While shooting totals were supposed to decline in the colder fall and winter months, as depicted in the chart below, 2016 did not follow the same trends as 2014 and 2015. Unlike previous years, the number of shootings recorded in October/November of 2016 remained elevated at around the 400 level which matches the rate of shootings recorded during the summer months.

Finally, the estimate for 800 murders in 2016, which now looks all but inevitable, will be the highest level recorded in over two decades.

…read more

Source: 61 Shot, 12 Dead As Bloodiest Christmas In Years Rocks Chicago

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By Tyler Durden

The dollar's up but oil's up and gold's up. Stocks are up (as Dow nears 20k) but VIX is up too. Treasury yields are up.

The dollar is up and bond yields are rising…

Despite dollar strength, commdoities are all bid… (NOTE the spike in gold at the open in Asia)…

Dow 20k looms even with VIX higher…

But as US equities opened, the VIX-smashed algo struck in another desperate attempt to get Dow 20k…

Wondrring why the panic bid? Here's why – to get the S&P 500 back to unchanged from The Fed…

…read more

Source: Everything’s Up In Volumeless Post-Christmas Buying Spree

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By Tyler Durden

The aftermath from the shock announcement that Afghanistan’s first woman fixed-wing pilot is seeking asylum in the US has been a to spark a “spirited national debate” on many of the country’s most vexing issues: insecurity, women’s rights and mass exodus of young people.

It all started when Niloofar Rahmani, a 25-year-old pilot described widely domestically as the “Afghan Top Gun”, was scheduled to return to Afghanistan last week after a 15-month training course with the US air force. But on the eve of her departure, she announced she will not be returning according to AFP, citing fears for her safety, triggering a storm of criticism in Afghanistan for “betraying” her nation but also garnering support from activists.

For a country whose love-hate relationship with the US in the past two decades has mostly gravitated to the latter, the defection was a huge blow: “What she said in the US was irresponsible and unexpected. She was meant to be a role model for other young Afghans,” defense ministry spokesman Mohammad Radmanesh said on Monday. “She has betrayed her country. It is a shame.”

Rahmani had emerged as a symbol of hope for Afghan women when she surfaced in the press in 2013 after becoming Afghanistan’s first woman pilot since the Taliban era, dressed in tan combat boots, khaki overalls and aviator glasses. The once-unimaginable feat last year won her the US State Department’s “Women of Courage Award”.

But with fame came death threats from insurgents and she routinely faced contempt from her male colleagues in a conservative nation where many still believe that a woman does not belong outside the home. In an interview in Kabul last year, Rahmani said she always carried a pistol for her protection and though she has grown accustomed to the ogling eyes of men, she never left her airbase in uniform, lest it make her a target.

Fast forward to her decision to defect which her lawyer, Kimberly Motley, said had been a “heartbreakingly difficult decision”. “Niloofar and her family have received vicious threats which have unfortunately confirmed that her safety is at significant risk if she were to come back to Afghanistan,” Motley said. “The real betrayal to Afghanistan is against those who threaten her life, her family’s life, and also to those who continue to oppress women.”

But some of the most virulent criticism over her decision has come from women: feminism taken to the point where it becomes anti-feminist.

“Dear Niloofar, do you think your problems are bigger than that of millions of other Afghan women?” photojournalist Maryam Khamosh wrote on Facebook. “I sometimes wish I were Niloofar and could soar in the sky and bomb the enemies of my people. But you, Niloofar, who touched the skies from the ashes of our land have shamed our flag.”

Nato forces also took umbrage at her media comment that the security situation in Afghanistan is “getting worse and worse”. “Afghan security forces have seen definitive progress… and their performance in 2016 was better than 2015, …read more

Source: "She Betrayed Our Country" – Afghan "Top Gun" Pilot Seeks US Asylum, Sparks Domestic Outrage

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By Tyler Durden

• Monte dei Paschi Rescue Cost Jumps as Deposits Fall (WSJ)
• Russia finds first black box from Black Sea crash jet (Reuters)
• Prat-Gay Fired as Argentine Finance Minister After One Year (BBG)
• Fear of Trump Triggers Deep Spending Cuts by Nation’s Second Largest Union (BBG)
• Xi’s Power Play Foreshadows Change in How China Is Ruled (WSJ)
• China to launch probe for soft landing on the far side of the moon by 2017 (Global Times)
• CEO’s Winning Gamble May Keep Scrooge From Deutsche Bank Bonuses (BBG)
• Outrage Over the Economy Doesn’t Explain Surging Global Populism (BBG)
• Toshiba Says Nuclear Writedown May Reach Billions of Dollars (BBG)
• ‘Rogue One’ Pads Disney’s Year as Movie Sales Near Record (BBG)
• One of 2016’s Worst-Performing Assets: Frontier Markets (WSJ)
• China Industrial Profits Climb 14.5%, Led by Coal And Metals (BBG)
• Russia says Syrian government and opposition in talks (Reuters)
• German lawmakers urge tougher security measures after market attack (Reuters)
• Bankruptcy Is an Option for Some Burdened by Student Loans (WSJ)
• Britney Spears Isn’t Dead: Sony Says Twitter Account Compromised (BBG)
• Russia Urges Libya Leadership Role for UN-Defying Military Chief (BBG)

Overnight Media Digest

WSJ

– Japanese electronics giant Toshiba Corp said it would record another hefty write-down connected to its U.S. nuclear business, clouding the company’s plan for turning around after an accounting scandal in 2015. http://on.wsj.com/2i9lB7G

– A strengthening dollar is re-emerging as a threat to U.S. manufacturers by making their exports more expensive and their foreign earnings less valuable. http://on.wsj.com/2i9bAr7

– Citing attorney-client privilege, U.S. law firms keep secret the owners of money that moves into and out of their pooled accounts, a money-laundering vulnerability that U.S. prosecutors say was exploited in a multibillion-dollar fraud at Malaysian state fund 1MDB. http://on.wsj.com/2i9ihK4

– Israel’s settlement-building in disputed areas is accompanied by an edging away from support for a Palestinian state, thanks partly to domestic political rivalries-a trend that helped spur a United Nations condemnation of the country but also could limit the impact of that censure. http://on.wsj.com/2i9cbJs

– The nearly $1.4 trillion student-loan market is expected to be far more hospitable to private lenders under a Donald Trump administration than during the last eight years. http://on.wsj.com/2i9fSik

– The concentration of wealth among president-elect Donald Trump’s nominees is setting up an arduous and expensive Senate confirmation process that could slow implementation of the White House agenda. http://on.wsj.com/2i9bVdn

– Argentina’s Finance Minister Alfonso Prat-Gay was forced out of his post on Monday as the economy struggles to rebound a year after President Mauricio Macri took office and introduced a series of market-friendly reforms. http://on.wsj.com/2i9ipJu

NYT

– President-elect Donald Trump has said he would like to create a “tax holiday” so that American companies can bring back profit that was generated overseas at a lower rate. However, corporate boards and executives may have different ideas. http://nyti.ms/2hIXThH

– Undeterred by a resounding defeat at the United Nations, Israel’s government said Monday that it would move ahead with thousands of new homes in …read more

Source: Frontrunning: December 27

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Stocks have soared so dramatically in the final few weeks of the year due to optimism about Donald Trump’s plans for economic stimulus and tax cuts once he takes office. But some worry that the market is now way ahead of itself. …read more

Source: Trump rally could hit speed bump in 2017

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By Tyler Durden

Submitted by James E. Miller,

With precious few weeks before Donald Trump takes the oath of office and officially becomes President of the United States (and, if you listen to the fraidy-cat Left, ushers in the eschaton), the taste of victory keeps getting sweeter.

First, there was the Carrier deal which saved hundreds of U.S jobs from being outsourced to Mexico. Then there was Trump’s twitter-shaming of Boeing over the bloated cost of the new Air Force Once, after which the airline giant conceded to the Donald’s demands and cut costs. And, of course, there was the cultural triumph of everyday Americans being able to say “Merry Christmas!” once again with joyful abandon.

Trump was right: All this winning sure gets tiresome.

The victory campaign wages on, and the latest win is quickly becoming my personal favorite. “Trump posse browbeats Hill Republicans,” ran the headline in Politico. The inevitable feud between the most conservative members of the House of Republicans and the President-elect has already begun.

“We all agree that some of President Trump’s proposed policies are not going to line up very well with our conservative policies,” said Bill Flores, an unassuming representative from Texas’s 17th District, during a D.C. conference in early December. The Lonestar rep. isn’t wrong. During the Republican primary, Trump put GOP orthodoxy in a headlock. He pledged to cut back on free trade, punish companies that move overseas with tariffs, stop military adventurism and nation-building à la Iraq, and not cut a dime from entitlements. One of his first initiatives in office will be a trillion-dollar infrastructure plan aimed at alleviating unemployment and rebuilding the nation’s roads and ports.

For the party of cutting taxes and spending, unfettered global trade, and military might, this is apostasy of the first order. Trump is no Ayn Rand acolyte, as the New Yorker’s John Cassidy and James Hohmann of The Washington Post have suggested. He’s a visceral populist with nation-centric instincts. Think-tank darlings and Hayek-adorers despise his lowbrow instincts.

This puts ideological policy-makers in a tough spot. For questioning the President-elect’s agenda, Rep. Flores was the first to feel the Trumpian wrath. His twitter feed was attacked relentlessly by Trump’s supporters.

Other lawmakers are taking note. Republican House members are flummoxed about how to deal with Trump. Many reside in districts that went heavily for the populist billionaire (that oxymoron never ceases to amaze). They no longer occupy the snug position of defying Obama, much to their constituents’ delight.

It’s a “damned if you do, damned if you don't” situation, as one GOP aide put it.

When politicians are forced onto a tightrope, entertainment is guaranteed. And to my never-ending delight, the sellouts are coming, hard and fast.

A long profile piece by Tim Alberta was just published in National Review detailing the internecine squabbling between congressional Republicans. …read more

Source: Trump Proves All Politicians Have A Price

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By Tyler Durden

Submitted by Patrick Coburn via Strategic-Culture.org,

European political leaders are making the same mistake in reacting to the massacre at the Christmas fair in Berlin, in which 12 died, as they did during previous terrorist attacks in Paris and Brussels. There is an over-concentration on the failings of the security services in not identifying and neutralising the Tunisian petty criminal, Anis Amri, as the threat he turned out to be. There is too little focus on bringing to an end the wars in Syria and Iraq which make this type of atrocity unstoppable.

In the aftermath of the killings the visibility of Amri, who was shot dead in Milan Friday morning, as a potential threat looks misleadingly obvious, and the culpability of those who did not see this appears more glaring than it really was. The number of possible suspects – suspected before they have done anything – is too great to police them effectively.

No politician or security official wishing to retain their job can tell a frightened and enraged public that it is impossible to defend them. Those in charge become an easy target for critics who opportunistically exploit terrorism to blame government incompetence or demand communal punishment of asylum seekers, immigrants or Muslims. At such times, the media is at its self-righteous worst, whipping up hysteria and portraying horrifying but small-scale incidents as if they were existential threats. This has always been true, but 24/7 news coverage makes it worse as reporters run out of things to say and lose all sense of proportion. As the old American newspaper nostrum has it: “if it bleeds, it leads.”

But in over-reacting, governments and media play into the hands of the terrorists who want to create fear and demonstrate their strength, but whose greatest gains come when they provoke an exaggerated self-destructive response. 9/11 was the most successful terrorist attack in history, not just because it destroyed the Twin Towers but because it lured the Bush administration into invading Afghanistan and Iraq. Subsequently, Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, rendition, torture and “targeted killings” (otherwise known as assassination campaigns), all justified by 9/11, have acted as recruiting sergeants for al-Qaeda type organisations.

The war on terror has failed more demonstrably than most wars: al-Qaeda numbered in the hundreds in 2001, but today – along with ISIS – it has tens of thousands of fighters and supporters spread across dozens of countries.

Political leaders are not blameless, but they tend to be blamed for the wrong thing. Contrary to talk about “lone wolf” terrorism, most people like Amri turn out to have had sympathetic or supportive connections. In his case, US officials say he had communicated with Isis and was in contact with a Salafi preacher. He would have needed little more than inspiration and encouragement, since driving a truck into a crowd of people celebrating Christmas requires no special expertise.

Isis remains crucial to the present wave of terrorist attacks in Europe because it provides ideological motivation and justification and can, as in Paris …read more

Source: The War On Terrorism Just Keeps Making It Worse

    

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