Monday, February 29, 2016

"The GOP Is On The Verge Of A Meltdown": Senior Republicans Threaten To Vote For Hillary



It's an all out panic for the GOP establishment faithful, and now some senior Republicans are saying privately that they might consider voting for Mrs Clinton if Mr Trump were to end up as their party nominee as one conservative commentator exclaimed "we are on the verge of a real meltdown in the Republican party."


set-up by the GOP?

Caught On Tape: Aggressive Time Reporter "Choke Slammed" At Trump Rally By Secret Service

"We choke slammed some folks"...
 

Gold Leaps, Stocks Sleep As February Bounce Burns Out









This Is The Last Stage Before Recession

The probability of recession is increasing. Contrary to popular belief, the beginning of a recession is not deflationary but the exact opposite. We expect a recession by the end of 2016, and if that projection turns out to be wrong due to a massive turnaround in Fed policy, the cataclysmic event will only be postponed till 2017.



“We’ll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American people believe is false.”
 William Casey, CIA Director, 1981


Keynesian Youth? Boston Fed Unleashes "Wishes & Rainbows" Children's Story Book

"Designed to stimulate students' imagination as they explore the economic problem of scarce resources, various methods of allocation, and how societies react to alleviate such problems," The Boston Fed has unleashed a chidren's story book called "Wishes and Rainbows" indoctrinating the American youth into the ways of the Keynesian.



Ackman Losses $200 Million In An Instant After Valeant Reveals SEC Investigation; Stock Crashes

One wonders just how much more pain Pershing Square's LPs can continue to suffer before they send Ackman that final redemption request. Pershing Square reveals its latest weekly performance report tomorrow night. As of this moment we expect nothing less than a 25% drop.



Peak Complacency (Again)

As stocks have risen in recent weeks on the biggest short-squeeze in 7 years, so VIX - the expected volatility of the market - has dropped to 2016 lows. However, with VIX at around 20, remains almost double the peak-QE-suppression lows of July 2014. Complacency is peaking though as VVIX - the expected volatility of VIX - has collapsed to its post-QE lows and erased all fear since before China's August 2015 devaluation.



How To Beat The Market Trading Just 30 Minutes Per Day

Trading is was easy. Sleep in. Don't fight The Fed. Grab some lunch with friends. Then execute the following two trades...


Your future...

This Is How Bad It's Got In Latin America's Socialist Utopia

Socialism works so well that this Venezuelan man was caught smuggling... not drugs, not guns...



Six Reasons To Buy Gold In 2016

“Betting against gold is the same as betting on governments. He who bets on governments and government money bets against 6,000 years of recorded human history.” – Charles De Gaulle



The Cushing Spillover "Domino Effect" Has Arrived

As of February 19, 2016, Gulf Coast stocks, including those in Houston, Beaumont-Nederland, TX, and Corpus Christi, TX, reached near 75mn bbls, only 739,000 bbls shy of the record high level reached in October 2015. On January 5, 2016, Cushing inventories surpassed a previous record high level by 125,000 bbls.



America's Been Committing Suicide-By-Bad-Choices For Decades

Perhaps this is America’s true imperial moment, when all party politics surrenders to the pre-tsunami undertow of events. None of the idiot network commentators or Wash-Po or NY Times columnists seem to notice that the global economy is sinking into a coma, and in so doing is igniting cluster-bombs of default through the financial system. The biggest surprise of all yet-to-come is that television will fail to explain it. The second coming will not be the reappearance of the celebrity known as Jesus Christ, but rather of the event called the American Civil War.



This Is How The Great CLO 2.0 Collapse Will Play Out

Over the past two weeks, we’ve begun to document what may end up being a dramatic unwind in the CLO market. New issue spreads are rising, issuance is collapsing, and both S&P and Moody’s recently downgraded several CLO 2.0 tranches for the first time ever. Unless you think the acute stress in the HY market is set to abate - and trust us, it’s not - you can bet that things are about to get very ugly, very quickly at least for junior CLO tranches. For those curious to know how this debacle plays out, history offers a useful guide.



Valeant Bond Price Pukes As Moody's Threatens Downgrade Over Weak Performance

With CDS markets implying around a 40% probability of default, Moody's has issued a warning over Valeant's deleveraging prospects (and ability to deliver sustainable growth) putting $31 billion of biotech debt on watch for downgrade. VRX bonds are down dramatically on the day.. not the forst day back at work Pearson was hoping for.



Electric Car War Sends Lithium Prices Sky High

With lithium prices skyrocketing beyond wildest expectations, talk heating up about acquisitions and mergers in this space and a fast-brewing war among electric car rivals, it’s no wonder everyone’s bullish on this golden commodity that promises to become the ‘’new gasoline”.



The Oil Price Ceiling Has Been Set: "Above $40 And We Start Pumping Again"


For leading U.S. shale oil producers, $40 is the new $70. Less than a year ago major shale firms were saying they needed oil above $60 a barrel to produce more; now some say they will settle for far less in deciding whether to crank up output after the worst oil price crash in a generation.

Global Anarchy: Woman Waves Severed Head, Man Stabs 10 Schoolchildren, Burnt Horse Head Found In Box



Only In America: An Indiscreet Selfie Can Put A Kid In Prison

from Paul Craig Roberts:

Did you know that if you are an American under 18 years old and you use your cell phone to send a nude “selfie” of yourself to a friend, you can be convicted of manufacturing and distributing “child pornography” and sent to prison? In case you are too old to be in the loop, a “selfie” is a photo that one makes of oneself.
This is how expansively prosecutors, whose main purpose in life is to ruin as many people as possible, interpret laws passed to protect children from sexual exploitation.
Sexting—the exchange of nude photographs—is now a big thing among the 14-17 year old set, especially among females.
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There Is More To Come: “We’re In The Early Chapters… Red Flags Are Screaming… The Economy Is Imploding… Nuclear War”

by Mac Slavo, SHTFPlan:

The beginning of 2016 revealed what some have known for quite some time – financial markets are an epic disaster just waiting to be realized. With stock indexes having rebounded somewhat since the initial meltdown, financial pundits and mainstream analysts would have us believe that the worst of it has passed. But don’t be fooled, warns Economic Collapse Blog publisher Michael Snyder in his latest interview with Future Money Trends, because we’re still in the early chapters of what may be the most devastating financial, economic and monetary collapse in history:
A total of $16.5 trillion dollars had been wiped out from stock markets around the world… that doesn’t even count bonds and other things. So we have seen this massive amount of wealth wiped out globally… almost as much as the U.S. national debt.
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Game Over: Dark Days Ahead

by Dave Hodges, The Common Sense Show:

Steve Quayle, appeared on my show last month and proclaimed in one sentence what is becoming the mantra for many in the Independent Media: “When we talk about what is coming, is no longer coming, it is here“.  When one looks at the economic reports and the prospect of World War III breaking out at any moment, truer words were never spoken.
The Most Recent Stock Market Report
Over 93% of investors lost money in the month of January. This figure was derived from data shared exclusively with CNNMoney by Openfolio, which is an app that follows individual investment portfolios and how they compare with other investors.
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WAGE SLAVE AMERICA: NYC OFFERING 360 SQ FT APARTMENTS FOR $3,150

from The Daily Sheeple:

When Agenda 21 is finally implemented in full, and tens of millions of Americans are crammed into the cities like cattle, where do you think they’re all going to live? How are we going to squeeze all these people into the already crowded urban cores? Don’t worry, there will be plenty of housing for the masses once the micro apartments are built.
Several cities are already trying this out. They’ve lifted building code restrictions to allow developers to build the tiniest apartments you can imagine. The most famous of these is the Carmel Place development in New York City, which contains 55 units that range in size from 265 to 360 square feet, and cost between $2,650 and $3,150 per month.
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Trump Storms To Incredible 33 Point Lead Ahead Of Super Tuesday



There’s every reason to be afraid of Trump, but he’s managed to make voters even more afraid of where the country is headed if he’s not the next president.


Chicago PMI Collapses From 'Mysterious' January Bounce As Employment Crashes To 7 Year Lows

Following the biggest beat on record in January jumping to 55.6, Chicago PMI collapsed in February to a stunning 47.6 - below the lowest estimate from economists. The entire report is a disaster with New orders tumbling, production sharply lower, and employment contracting for the 5th month in a row - to its lowest since March 2009. As one respondent warned, business was just "limping along at the moment with little promise in sight."




The Three Charts That No Small Cap Asset Manager Wants You To See

A funny thing happens to an index's valuation when you choose not to entirely ignore the companies that have negative earnings (i.e. losses). Ever wondered what the P/E ratio of the Russell 2000 was given that it is full of companies where the 'E' is negative? The answer is simple - and ugly - as The Wall Street Journal exposes, the aggregate P/E of the Russell 2000 is over 200x which perhaps explains the gaping chasm between bond and equity valuations for this highly credit-sensitive cohort.



A Coherent Explanation of Obama's Foreign Policy

Obama has been carrying out a bipartisan Republican-and-Democratic foreign policy; it’s the policy of America’s aristocracy. Its results have been horrible for the world, but they’ll be even worse if it succeeds.



Caught On Tape: 500 Syrians Storm Greek Border Fence With Homemade Battering Ram





What If There Are No More Googles, Facebooks, Or AirBnBs?

If you think Tinder for dogs and talking fridges are poised to reap billions in profits, by all means invest your own capital in these ideas. But don't expect any of the current batch of wanna-be's to ever scale up and generate billions in profit. Put another way: if tech no longer powers the stock market's central narrative, then we've run out of bubble-engines. And if we run out of bubble-engines, the system can no longer depend on "the wealth effect" to power consumption, fund property taxes, and everything else the current arrangement depends on for its financial survival.



USDJPY Spike Sparks Panic-Buying In Stocks; S&P Green

And - as if by magic - stocks are green.



Key Events In The Coming "Payrolls" Week

The week was supposed to start off quiet on the macro news front, but the PBOC spoiled that with an unprecedented Monday, Feb 29 RRR cut, its fifth since the start of 2015. In any case, it slowly builds up to the week's biggest event on Friday, when the BLS reports February payrolls and will be hard pressed to find all the seasonal adjustments it needs to cover for not only the lost jobs in the devastated energy sector but, as we reported over the weekend, the sudden dramatic air pocket in Silicon Valley jobs.



Lumber Liquidators Liquidates Guidance

Just when you thought it was safe to buy the dip and pile into this "value" stock, Lumber Liquidators does it again. On a conference call this morning, and hot on the heels of Valeant doing the same, the embattled firm just removed guidance for 2016 (due to "too much uncertainty" and having discovered "material weakness" in FY15 financials). The stock is re-crashing over 8% in the pre-market, to its lowest since March 2009.



Small Caps At Crucial Resistance - Beware Shenanigans

Amid a recent exuberant short-squeeze-driven bounce, the 'real' valuation of the Russell 2000 remains at insanely high levels (and gravely decoupled from credit markets). But as Dana Lyons' explains the market likes to do whatever will fool the most people. So while this level should at least be an interesting one in producing a battle between the Russell 2000 bulls and the bears, it would also be an ideal spot for the market to unleash its shenanigans.



"The Liquidity Just Dries Up In A Stressed Market" - How HFT Killed FX Trading

Collin Crownover, head of currency management at State Street Global Advisors Inc., which oversees about $2.4 trillion,  who during a panel presentation said that "we are concerned. During volatile periods, market participants are backing away until conditions settle down, making it harder to complete large orders."“A lot of the electronification of the market, which by and large is a good thing, has led to kill switches on a lot of that algorithmic-provided liquidity,” Crownover said. “The liquidity just dries up in a stressed market.”



China's Panicked RRR Cut Leads To Feeble Stock Rebound; Gold Resumes Climb

After the G-20 ended in a wave of global disappointment, leading to the biggest Yuan devaluation in 8 weeks, and sending Chinese stocks into a tailspin on concerns the PBOC has forsaken its stock market as well as speculation the housing bubble is now sucking up excess liquidity which in turn pushed global market deep in the red to start the week, it was the PBOC's turn to scramble in a panicked reaction to sliding risk exactly one month after Japan unveiled its own desperation NIRP, and as reported before unexpectedly cut its Reserve Requirement Ratio by 0.5% to 17.0%, the first such cut in 2016 and the 5th since the start of 2015.



After €670 Billion In QE, European Inflation Plunges To -0.2%: Lowest In One Year

A little under one year after the ECB launched its own QE of €60 Billion/month in bond purchases in early March 2015, a process which has resulted in the ECB monetizing over €670 billion in European - mostly German - sovereign paper, moments ago Eurostat reported European February inflation (even though the month is not over yet), and it was a shock, with headline inflation tumbling form +0.3% Y/Y in January to a depressing -0.2% in February, the worst print since January 2015. It was expected to drop to "only" 0.0%.



China Cuts Reserve Ratio One Day After G20

In the “uninspiring” communique delivered following the G20 in Shanghai, officials pledged to “consult closely” on FX markets. We’re not sure whether there was any “close consulting” between the PBoC and its counterparts around the world on Monday, but China just announced another RRR cut (50 bps), the fifth such move since early last year.



The Empire Will Strike Back

The populist revolt fueling non-mainstream political movements in both Europe and the US flows from a single source: you can not fool all the people all the time. The central lie of our time is that governments can and should forcibly assume control of individuals’ lives, in the name of vague and always shifting greater goods. The Command and Control Futility Principle holds that governments and central banks can control one, but not all variables in a multi-variable system. The number of variables global governments and central banks have arrogated to their purported control has grown beyond measure. Breakdowns are visible everywhere, and as those failures exact their ever-increasing toll on the masses, the masses are pushing back.



The Global Run On Physical Cash Has Begun: Why It Pays To Panic First

If, and when, a run on physical cash begins, there will be roughly $1 dollar in physical to satisfy $10 dollars in savers' claims, a ratio which drops to 20 cents of "deliverable" cash if the $100 bill is taken out of circulation.



Central Banks Shiny New Tool: Cash-Escape-Inhibitors

Negative interests rates are the shiny new thing that everyone wants to talk about. We hate to ruin a good plot line, but they're actually kind of boring; just conventional monetary policy except in negative rate space. Same old tool, different sign. No, the novel tool that has been created is what we're going to call a cash escape inhibitor.


Cities Of Refuge: Why Are People Creating Hundreds Of Places Of Refuge All Over America?

by Michael Snyder, The Economic Collapse Blog:

All over the United States, cities of refuge are being created. Now when I say “cities”, I don’t mean vast areas of land that can hold hundreds of thousands or millions of people. Rather, I am talking about much smaller places of refuge that can accommodate dozens or hundreds of people. In a few cases, I know of places of refuge that will be able to take in thousands of people, but that is about as big as they get. There are individuals all across America that have specifically felt called to build communities where large numbers of people will be able to gather when society totally collapses. So why is this happening? Why do so many people feel such an urgency to create cities of refuge that would presumably never be used if we don’t ever see full-blown societal breakdown?
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The Global ‘War on Cash’: a Country by Country Guide

from Zen Gardner:

The war has been waged through mainstream propaganda outletsTV advertisements and even children’s games.
We’ve heard cash is dirtied by drug dealingtarnished by terrorismtainted by tax evasion(heaven forbid!) and just plain dirty. Not to mention sooooo outdated.
Just this week Norway has jumped aboard the cashless society agenda with DNB, the country’s largest bank, calling for a total end to cash. The story only sounds shocking only to people who haven’t heard the similar stories from Sweden or Denmark or India or Israel or any of the dozens of other countries whose banksters and (bankster-controlled) governments have openly lusted after a world of completely trackable, completely bank-controlled transactions.
Read More…

Now It’s Even Worse Than it Was When Lehman Collapsed, But It’s “Contained”

from Wolf Street:

“Distress” in Bonds Spirals into Financial Crisis Conditions
The pile of toxic corporate bonds in the US, euphemistically called “distressed” debt, ballooned 15% in the single month of February to $327.8 billion, up 265% from a year ago, according to S&P Capital IQ. The number of S&P rated US companies with distressed debt rose 9% in February to 353, up 128% from a year ago.
The last time the pile of distressed debt had soared to this level was in November 2008, and the last time the number of distressed issuers had shot up to these levels was in October 2008; Lehman had declared bankruptcy in September.
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2 Extra Cups of Coffee a Day can Help Prevent Organ Damage – Here’s How

by Julie Fidler, Natural Society:
According to a long-standing myth (and it IS a myth), drinking lots of coffee can sober you up if you’re drunk. While coffee can’t bring you back to reality or fix a sick liver, it may protect the organ against damage.
Researchers at Southampton University (SU) in the UK conducted a meta-analysis of 9 studies covering data on 430,000 people. They found that people who drink 2 extra cups of coffee a day have a 44% decreased risk of developing liver cirrhosis, a condition associated with long-term heavy drinking that kills more than 1 million people worldwide each year. Liver cirrhosis can also be caused by hepatitis, immune disorders, and a buildup of fat in the liver, known as fatty liver disease.
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Obama to Expand Surveillance State Powers by Signing a 21 Page Memo

from Liberty Blitzkrieg:
As the Apple vs. FBI battle rages in the court system and throughout the halls of Congress, Obama decides to do what he does best. Using “his pen” to make consequential decisions unilaterally.
Just another day in the American banana republic.
The New York Times reports:
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is on the verge of permitting the National Security Agency to share more of the private communications it intercepts with other American intelligence agencies without first applying any privacy protections to them, according to officials familiar with the deliberations.
The change would relax longstanding restrictions on access to the contents of the phone calls and email the security agency vacuums up around the world, including bulk collection of satellite transmissions, communications between foreigners as they cross network switches in the United States, and messages acquired overseas or provided by allies.
Read More…



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Sunday, February 28, 2016

HOW YOU KNOW YOU SHOULD SUPPORT TRUMP: The Rothschild’s ‘The Economist’ And Rockefeller CFR Plead “Trump Must Be Stopped” As Financial ESTABLISHMENT PANICS


from Zero Hedge:
It’s one thing for the republican establishment to throw up all over the candidacy of Donald Trump: frankly, the GOP has not been relevant as a political power ever since Boehner started folding like a lawn chair to Obama’s every demand just around the time of the first US downgrade, and as such what the Republican party – torn apart and very much irrelevant as the best of the “establishment” GOP candidates demonstrate – thinks is largely irrelevant.
However, when such stalwart titans of financial establishmentarianism as the Council of Foreign Relations and “The Economist”, who until now had been largely ignoring Trump’s ascent in the political hierarchy finally unleash an all out assault and go after Trump on the very same day, you know that the flamboyant, hyperbolic billionaire has finally gotten on the nerves of some very high net worth individuals.
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Military Would Revolt Against Trump, Former CIA Director Says

"There would be a coup in this country"...



The Global Run On Physical Cash Has Begun: Why It Pays To Panic First

If, and when, a run on physical cash begins, there will be roughly $1 dollar in physical to satisfy $10 dollars in savers' claims, a ratio which drops to 20 cents of "deliverable" cash if the $100 bill is taken out of circulation.



Forward Guidance: The Road Map To Crazy Town

If one puts aside all of the moving metrics and policy talk that happened during Mr. Bernanke’s tenure. How would one assess “the guidance” or the “communications for clarity” we now have emanating from not only the Fed., but also, central bankers globally? Crazy Town is the only thing that comes to my mind. (Hint: look to the SNB or BoJ for clues)



Kuroda's NIRP Backlash - Japanese Interbank Lending Crashes

Not only has the Yen strengthened and stocks collapsed since BoJ's Kuroda descended into NIRP lunacy but, in a dramatic shift that threatens the entire transmission mechanism of negative-rate stimulus, Japanese banks (whether fearing counterparty risk or already over-burdened) have almost entirely stopped lending to one another. Confusion reigns everywhere in Japanese markets with short-term interest-rate swap spreads surging and bond market volatility spiking to 3 year highs (dragging gold with it).



The G-20 Meeting Was A Big Disappointment: What Happens Next

It is now all up to the ECB: "If they lowball or grudgingly meet expectations, we could face another December 4 move because market participants will see it as the equivalent of a ‘last ease in the cycle announcement’, basically ECB throwing in the towel. If they move aggressively they will catch market off guard and unwind the view that policymakers see themselves as powerless."



Philadelphia - Heads The Union Wins, Tails The Taxpayers Lose

It’s a perfect storm of governmental incompetence, union greed, political corruption, parental disinterest, societal disintegration, and poor life choices, creating the downfall of Philadelphia and other urban enclaves around the country. A city run by welfare redistributionists eventually runs out of other people’s money.



Ukraine Collapse Is Now Imminent

Two years have passed since Yanukovich was deposed and, as it turns out, another ruthless clan of oligarchs has taken power. No wonder then that Ukraine is heading for a new wave of violence and chaos. It is a just matter of time before the Ukraine nationalistic militias will take power, resulting in a definite split of the country. Poroshenko can postpone the people final verdict by reviving the war in the east, but in the end, he can not escape the day of reckoning.


STATE VICTORY: Virginia NULLIFIES Federal Cannabis Prohibition, LEGALIZES HEMP FARMING!

by Harold Shaw, Natural News:
On January 26, the Virginia House of Delegates unanimously voted to pass a bill that would allow its citizens to grow and process hemp products. Similarly to Oregon, South Carolina, Colorado, Maine, Vermont and other states, Virginia sought to give people the legal grounds to oppose the current unconstitutional federal ban that was in place for this industry. Every single representative voted yes to this proposition, yielding a 98-0 majority in favor of the hemp farming initiative, or House Bill 699.
What does Virginia gain from legalizing hemp?
Hemp, which is not to be confused with marijuana, belongs to the same family of plants, cannabis sativa, but does not contain enough tetrahydrocannabinol or THC in order to be psychoactive.
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Eric Sprott: Silver is The Dark Horse

from The Daily Coin:

Mining silver and gold is a tough business. In order to mine either of these products (money) you need a steady stream of capital into your operation. As we have reported on a number of occasions throughout 2015, and into 2016, that capital is drying up or has left the market completely. This has been causing stress and strain within the mining industry, but not like you might think.
Some of the worlds largest primary silver producers are reporting record mining years. In other words, these mining companies have been digging more silver out of the ground than ever before. Most of these mining operations are located in Mexico, the worlds largest silver producing country, while a lot of the rest of world’s silver producing countries have shown slight declines or flat production for 2015. The mining operations in Mexico have been “high grading” their mines, meaning they are digging out the most productive part of the mine possible.
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New Obamacare Mental Health Policies Can Take Your Gun and Put You In a FEMA Camp

by Dave Hodges, The Common Sense Show:

There is an ongoing battle for the psychological health and welfare of America’s children and eventually all Americans. Since 2002, the government has been intent on testing millions for mental illness. This obsession even extends to our veterans as they return from combat and leave the service. The veterans are increasingly being diagnosed as having PTSD and they are subsequently being adjudicated to not being eligible to own a firearm.
Marti Oakley has been at the forefront on covering elderly abuse in which the courts are stealing the property and incarcerating the elderly into mandatory detention in a care facility because they are mentally infirm. And why is this happening? If an elderly person fails to balance their checkbook, for example, they are robbed and confined by the courts.
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BEWARE TWITTER USERS: YOUR TWEETS HELP THE GOVERNMENT PREDICT THE FUTURE

from The Daily Sheeple:

When it comes to whatever social media platform we use on a regular basis, most of us take it for granted that these websites are spying on us in some capacity. Granted, many social media users don’t know or don’t care, but everyone else at least implicitly agrees that in exchange for using these website for free, their posts will be data mined for information that can be used to target them with ads.
However, the personal information and opinions that we put out on social media doesn’t just provide commercial opportunities for advertisers. It’s a veritable goldmine for governments as well. Everything that people used to keep to themselves in previous generations, is now willingly shouted into the internet abyss for all to hear. Social media users often feel free to share their most controversial, subversive, and inflammatory thoughts on a platform that could reach millions of people. It’s kind of crazy when you think about it, but it’s the world we live in today.
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