Near...

Jeremy Grantham, an investor credited with predicting the 2000 and 2008 downturns, told CNBC that investors should get inured to lackluster returns in the stock market for the next two decades, after a century of handsome gains.

Grantham, who has been predicting a meltdown in stocks since last year, said that not even the recent go-slow reversal by the Federal Reserve on rate increases and the European Central Bank’s decision to roll out a fresh batch of bank stimulus will push stocks significantly higher. “You can’t get blood out of a stone,” he told the network.

“In the last 100 years, we’re used to delivering perhaps 6%,” but the U.S. market will be delivering real returns of about 2% or 3% on average over next 20 years, the value investor and co-founder of Boston-based asset manager GMO told CNBC in a rare interview.

Sigh...

Not going anywhere!

Say it ain't so...

As if R. Kelly didn't have enough legal woes, now his ex-lawyer, who saw him through child porn charges more than a decade ago, told a Chicago newspaper columnist that the R&B star was "guilty as hell."

No doubt Kelly and his current lawyer would not be thrilled that his ex-defense lawyer is commenting on his guilt. 

Meanwhile, Genson's comments sent shock waves through the Cook County legal community for seemingly betraying his former client, who now faces 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse against four women, including three who were allegedly underage at the time.

Ed Genson, a famous Chicago defense attorney who says he's dying of cancer, might be in trouble for violating legal ethics rules, which say attorney-client privilege is sacrosanct and permanent unless the client lifts it. 

Say it ain't so or just.  Just a thought.

Scammers...

Scammers are flooding the United States with Chinese-language robocalls, causing major headaches from coast to coast.

Your phone rings, you pick up, a prerecorded voice message meets your ears. The recording, which often sounds like a young woman, usually delivers a message about lowering credit-card rates or buying into cheap health insurance.

The Chinese scammer s claim to be counselate rep.

The important thing to remember is that sales robocalls are illegal in the United States. So, don’t expect the person on the other end of the line to follow through on whatever deal they claim to offer. 

If you get a call or message like this, hang up or delete it, and then tell the FTC. If you have business with the real Chinese Consulate and you’re worried, contact the real Chinese Consulate by looking up your local office’s number. But, whatever you do, don’t give out your information – or your money – to anyone who contacts you out of the blue.

Me...

Freshman Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar has wasted no time making a name for herself. One group will not benefit from the brouhaha  from use of familiar anti-Semitic themes, are the Palestinians themselves. Being anti-Israel is different from being pro-Palestinian.

There’s no end to the urgent tasks she could champion. Palestinians are enduring a crisis in relations with the U.S. and desperately need effective political support in Washington. A disastrous set of developments needs to be reversed, but no one in Congress is effectively addressing them.Washington mission of the Palestine Liberation Organization was closed last year.
Failure to bring humanitarian and reconstruction aid to that, polluted and impoverished almost 1.5 million people, most of them also refugees.

Instead of championing the urgent Palestinian interest in any of those imperatives, Omar’s rhetoric has provoked a pointless debate over the motivations and national loyalty of Americans who support Israel.
She is for herself and only herself .  Just a thought.

Break...

Senator Elizabeth Warren wants to break up the big three: Amazon, Facebook and Google. The Massachusetts Democrat and presidential contender wants to create a regulatory regime that would treat tech companies with more than $25 billion in revenue differently from small tech companies.

 

She is, by nature, a wonk in that she can articulate complicated policy proposals better than most. And breaking up Big Tech is an idea that will require deep dives into the nature of platforms, the meaning of antitrust law, and all sorts of other things. 

Passing a bill to break up Amazon, Facebook and Google in the Senate requires someone who has the ability to get into the weeds and write legislation that makes sense — and can then argue for that bill in ways her colleagues will understand. As a senator, Elizabeth Warren could do that.  

How about break the healthcare cost down? Just a thought.

Insurgency...

Egypt's Interior Ministry says security forces have killed seven members of a militant group with suspected links to the now-outlawed Muslim Brotherhood in Cairo shootouts.

The ministry says three militants were killed on a highway known as Ring Road in Cairo's district of Giza while the remaining four were killed in a firefight when police raided their hideout in the Egyptian capital's suburb of Sixth of October.

The ministry says weapons and ammunition were found among the militants' possession. A police officer was wounded.

Egypt, which has been under a state of emergency since April 2017, has been battling Islamic militants for years.

The insurgency gained strength after the 2013 overthrow of elected but divisive Islamist President Mohammed Morsi.

Militants mainly target security forces and minority.

Woman's...

Complicated...

Surprise...

A steady stream of men wandered in and out of the Bridge Day Spa, a massage parlor in a strip mall anchored by a Publix Supermarket and a Sherwin-Williams Paint Store. Police say the men engaged in illicit sexual activity with Chinese masseuses inside the spa, with two or three women reportedly exchanging sexual acts with up to 10 men a day. 

That complex and painstaking – and, to some, controversial – teamwork was at the center of a four-county, seven-month sex trafficking investigation of massage parlors that included hidden cameras, billionaire johns, semen-stained napkins and a $20 million suspected network that stretched from China to New York to Florida. 

More than 10 people connected to the spas have been charged with offenses ranging from racketeering and money laundering to profiting from prostitution.  

Surprise..!!!!