I grew up in a typical conservative middle-class household in the 90s. Like most conservative families, I grew up hearing about how horrible Sheikh Mujib became after 71, and how people were so relieved after he was murdered in 1975. This is something I heard from everyone, relatives, friends, etc. I, too, used to hate Sheikh Mujib. I thought he was a dictator, pro-India, anti-Islam, traitor, just wanted to be Pakistan's PM, etc.
Of course, I was a teenager in the 2001-2006 period when the BNP-Jamat government rammed the entire country into the ground. There were hartals and oborodhs all the time, electricity used to go off every other hour, terrorist would blast a bomb every other week while the government would term it all as a "conspiracy", there was no development and we would stagger from one crisis to another. Mullahs would carry out misils all the time calling for Shariah law, and attacking Ahmadiyya houses. Khaleda Zia had zero control over the country. She just didn't have any leadership qualities. I felt that I wanted to leave this shithole as soon as I got the first opportunity.
The BNP regime was interrupted by the caretaker government. Full of "highly educated" bureaucrats, I naturally supported them. But their "Minus 2" plan went nowhere, and they weren't being able to handle the country either. Fakhruddin Ahmed and Moinuddin Ahmed just didn't' have any leadership qualities either. Facing an unfavourable situation, they at least had the decency to organize elections and arrange a respectable exit for themselves.
Then we the Awami League get power in 2008. I still hated them back then. Their first term, 2009-2013 was full of turmoil, with the "Shahbag movement" and the "ICT Tribunal" and the hanging of the senior Jamat leaders. But the country gradually started getting into shape. If you look at the economic indicators we started taking off in 2010. By 2014 political stability was re-established. This was all possible due to Sheikh Hasina's leadership qualities, which others lack. The Awami League's electricity reforms paid off, and loadshedding is largely over in Dhaka. Awami League drastically reduced prices of broadband internet, and we got access to bufferless YouTube for the first time. BNP was jumping up and down screaming that government was looting crores of taka under the name of quick rental power plants. But our forex reserves zoomed from 10 billion to 30 billion. New roads were being built everywhere and Bangladesh's Debt-to-GDP ratio remains one of the lowest in South Asia, and in the world.
So I was really forced to re-evaluate my hatred of Awami League, Sheik Hasina and Sheikh Mujib. When I looked back at the life of Sheikh Mujib, I found that he dedicated his life to the people of East Bengal. He was a part of the Muslim League to get independence for us, and after witnessing the bloody religious riots changed his worldview to secular democratic socialism. That's something very admirable! That's not anti-Islam at all! And then he joined forces with India to free East Pakistan. That's not treason, his loyalty was to the people of East Pakistan. He single-handedly united 60 million very backward and uneducated people and led them to independence. After that, he presided over the creation of a Constitution that was secular, in a overwhelmingly rural, uneducated Muslim country. He could easily have given in to Saudi Arabia in return for oil, like so many Muslim countries, but did not compromise. He could have chosen to recognize Israel, and have gotten instant recognition and support from the West, but stayed firm to his principles of loyalty to the Palestinian people. All of his actions point towards the qualities of a great leader. Sheikh Mujib did not allow the Indians to stay in Bangladesh and ensured their withdrawal.
Just have a look at countries around the world today. Look at Syria, where they have a bastard dictator who murders his own people, and an opposition full of traitors and terrorists. Look at Libya, where the people have no leadership. Look at India, where they are under the thrall of a fascist religious dictator Modi. Sudan is only establishing secularism in their constitution in 2020, while Bangladesh did it 50 years ago!!! Look at Iran, where people are all trying to escape their religious government. Look at Pakistan with their blasphemy laws and their mullahs trying to oppose any law against child marriage! We bypassed all of this thanks to Sheikh Mujib and his foresight!!!
The closest leader who resembles Sheikh Mujib would be Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. While Ataturk was objectively greater than Sheikh Mujib, since he was an accomplished military leader who led the actual Turkish War of Independence himself, Ataturk also modernized a backward, rural, uneducated nation overnight into a modern, secular and democratic state. Of course, Ataturk has many haters. They also accuse him of being a dictator. But his achievements greatly overshadow any sacrifices that may have been required to achieve the goal of a modern independent Turkey. The same goes for Shiekh Mujib. Whatever are his faults, Rakkhi Bahini, BAKSAL, I am willing to forgive him for his leadership during our independence and his creation of a secular and democratic Bangladesh.
Today we are blessed to have his daughter Sheikh Hasina in power. Lots of you might call her "fascist". That's such a lazy and pathetic position to take. Trust me, if there was any other leader other than SH as PM the government would be just as "fascist" as her government is now. Its so easy to sit back behind a PC and cry "fascist fascist fascist". YOU try organizing a political party in a nation of 165 million people, and then successfully leading that country on the path towards economic development. Without a doubt, if those crying 'fascist fascist' were put into power as PM they would be 100 times more fascistic than Sheikh Hasina is right now.
Without a doubt, human rights abuses occur under her. Abrar was beaten to death by BCL thugs (which was fully supported by the 'humanist' Taslima Nasrin btw). But those BCL thugs are in jail now. Major Sinha Rashed Khan was murdered by OC Liakat and Prodip. Both of them are in jail. If SH was as fascist as people claim, they would be out in the streets, like the Hindu thugs who carried out the Delhi riots in February, or the terrorist Mullahs in Pakistan who forcibly convert and kidnap Christian girls.
So, from what I have seen, Awami League is an organic political party of the people of East Bengal. They have deeper roots in the hearts of the people than any other political movement. And they should be lauded because they have established secularism and inclusive nationalism where there is space for Bangladeshis of all religions and ethnicities in a united Bangladesh. While sometimes they have acted in a fascist manner, it is excusable because there is no other alternative in Bangladesh who can win elections and be more liberal than BAL. Instead of pathetically criticizing them, those who want the best for Bangladesh should work with them in order to reduce the human rights abuses which do still occur. BAL will be remembered in history like the PAP of Singapore, or the UMNO of Malaysia, or the Chinese Communist Party; all of whom were authoritarian, who were accused of being fascist, but ultimately ensured the evolution of their societies from backward uneducated agricultural societies to modern, secular democratic industrial ones.

October 2022
East Africa is quickly emerging as one of the premier destinations for oil and natural gas exploration, with numerous foreign companies engaged in exploratory and extractive ventures in countries like Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Tanzania, Mozabique, and Uganda. This new boom in the oil industry, driven by growing global demands and new investments from rising powers like China, has already made several significant oil discoveries, including the 560 million barrel oil find in Turkana, Kenya.
So far, Ethiopia's own share of this East African hydrocarbon rush has been something of a mixed bag. Early speculation regarding Ethiopia's oil reserves--which suggested that the country may have some 2.7 billion barrels of oil hidden away in its southern provinces--has so far failed to materialize into concrete finds, with Tullow Oil (the firm responsible for the Turkana find) failing to find any productive wells in the South Omo Block. Tullow remained in Africa until 2018, when it and partner Africa Oil began the process of withdrawing their operations in the South Omo Block. For a time, it seemed like the promise of hydrocarbon reserves in Ethiopia was dead, with investors looking to proven exploration markets in Uganda and Kenya instead.
And then, payday. In 2018/19, Chinese oil and gas firm Poly-GCL announced the discovery of some 7 to 8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas at the Calub and Hilala gas fields in Blocks 11 and 15, which was quickly followed by British firm NewAGE's discovery of 1.6 trillion cubic feet of natural gas near Elkuran in Block 8. These discoveries, amounting to some 272km³ of gas and a smaller quantity of oil, were significant not just for their size (between these two discoveries alone, Ethiopia gained enough natural gas reserves to surpass current gas exporters like Israel, Bangladesh, and Brunei), but as proof that there were hydrocarbon resources in Ethiopia (which drew attention from firms that previously had not invested in exploration in Ethiopia, including oil giant Chevron in late 2019. Ethiopia and Djibouti immediately teamed up to build a 760km+ pipeline connecting these gas fields in the Ogaden basin to the Red Sea. Revenues from the export of natural gas, which started in 2022 with the completion of the pipeline, are expected to amount to some 1b USD annually (increasing as more projects are drilled), bringing a critical influx of FOREX to the Ethiopian government.
With the first exports of Ethiopian hydrocarbon reaching international markets, and with historic oil finds in neighboring Eritrea, Ethiopia is hoping to leverage the possibility of further finds to attract additional investment into its hydrocarbon sector. At present, Ethiopia has several concession blocks that still lack investment, which the government is hoping to rectify by offering exploration rights to international hydrocarbon firms.
South Omo Block
With Tullow's withdrawal from Ethiopia in 2019 after failing to renew their license, the oil concession for the South Omo Block is once again up for licensing. Located in southern Ethiopia along the South Sudan and Kenya borders, the South Omo Block is a geological continuation of the Turkana basin and other major East African hydrocarbon blocks, leading many to speculate that it may share in some of that oil wealth. While the initial estimates that the block may hold up to 2.7 billion barrels of oil seem to have been overstated, if the block contains even a fraction of that amount, it would still be considerably valuable for whomever takes the block.
The Poly-GCL Blocks
Chinese firm Poly-GCL is easily the largest hydrocarbon operator in Ethiopia, owning the extraction rights for the bulk of the new discoveries (7-8 TCF of the total 9.6 TCF). With their ten total exploration blocks in the Ogaden basin, they also have the greatest presence in the region. However, only two of the ten blocks under the license have been properly explored, with the remaining eight awaiting further exploration. Ethiopia is hoping to reach out to Poly-GCL to persuade them to begin exploration activities in the remaining eight (as well as any other blocks they feel like leasing), with the goal of discovering my natural gas or oil.
The Remaining Ogaden Basin Blocks
Out of the 21 blocks in the Ogaden Basin (the site of the most recent natural gas finds), seven are still unlicensed and more or less unexplored, Blocks 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 10, and 14. Ethiopia hopes to attract foreign firms to begin exploration in these blocks. They are more likely to contain natural gas than oil, as indicated by the discovery of natural gas in blocks 7, 11, and 15, but natural gas is still valuable and desirable.
Adigala Block
The Adigala Block is viewed as an extension of the oil-bearing geological formations of Somaliland, which oil exploration firm Genel anticipates to contain at least 2 billion barrels of oil. Genel previously expressed interest in moving into the Adigala Block, but as of 2019, it was NewAGE, the same firm that made the Elkuran find in Block 8, that entered into license negotiations with the Ethiopian government.
Ethiopia is hoping to finalize license negotiations for the Adigala Block, which Ethiopia hopes will contain some amount of oil, similar to the neighboring oil seeps in Somalia.
Amhara Blocks
The blocks in Amhara state are some of the least explored in the country. Neighboring blocks AB1, AB4, and AB7, operated by Falcon, reported some crude oil finds around 2018, which Ethiopia is hoping will attract additional exploration and investment in the remaining six blocks of the region.
North West Oil Shale
The Ethiopia-Eritrea border is home to some 3.9 billion tons of oil shale--enough to produce a staggering trillion barrels of oil, if it can ever be economically extracted. So far, there has been very little investigation into the viability of these resources, owing to low oil prices in the world. However, with production costs set to continue dropping over the foreseeable future with technological advances in extraction, and with Ethiopia's demand for oil set to grow astronomically as the country's economic development continues, Ethiopia is hoping that some segment of this oil shale can be economically developed. As such, Ethiopia has invited oil shale leaders from around the world, most notably Canadian, Chinese, Estonian, and American firms, to invest in oil shale extraction in northern Ethiopia.

The following story, all names, characters, and incidents portrayed in this post are fictitious. No identification with actual persons (living or deceased), places, buildings, and products is intended or should be inferred.
However, the LINKS to real-life events and inspiring sources are placed here and there throughout the story.
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Truth is the Only Light
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INTRO
☞ [As of 2019] there are plenty of reasons to think the Chinese system will implode spectacularly without Japanese feeling the need to do a thing. — Peter Zaihan, Disunited Nations (Mar 03, 2020)
It's apparent that two nations have been engaged in a high-stakes military & economy arms race. The current US admin has been hitting China with waves of tariffs, but that was merely a small part of what's actually going on. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]
On Oct 11, 2019, when they reached a tentative agreement for the first phase of a trade deal, the fact that China made the concession actually made my jaw drop. From where I sit, it was a worrisome scene. Aren't people saying, when challenging situations are bottled up, they will just grow and mutate into another terrible complications?
Admittedly I was not certain how they are going to adhere to the agreement: It left most of the US tariffs (on China's exports) in place, and at the same time, came with an additional USD $200 Billion burden for China over the next two years. This agreement might seem a bit insignificant, but now China would need to purchase almost twice the size of the US products & services they did before the trade war began.
With their current economic climate? I murmured, "No way."
While watching Trump brag and boast around with said agreement, I expected China would soon come out and fling some improvised excuses in order to delay the document-signing process. It wouldn't be their first time. More importantly, even if China does so, there wouldn't be many (real) counterattack options left for the Trump admin during this year, the US presidential election year.
Then, on Jan 16, 2020, the world’s two largest economies actually signed a partial trade agreement aimed at putting the brakes on an 18-month trade war. China would almost surely not sit down but come back to bite, I thought.
Enter the worldwide chaos following so called the COVID-19 outbreak.
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BACKGROUND
☞ Globalists have been heavily investing in China's economy and its components overseas.
• Here are a couple of well known names: the Great Old One; George Soros; Koos Bekker; and Bill Gates.
• For the sake of convenience, from here on, let's call these globalists, who are foreign investors in China's top tier state-owned/sponsored/controlled enterprises, Team-Z.
• Team-Z has adopted big time lackeys like Henry Kissinger or small time ones like Larry Summers, Stephen Hadley, or Bill Browder as matchmakers to court Team-Z for China's top tier enterprises. When Israel's highest echelons chimed in, it has been through Israeli IT companies and the BRI projects.
• Naturally, multinational investment banks have also been employed; such as Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), UBS Group AG (formerly Union Bank of Switzerland), Blackstone Group, Canaccord Genuity, BlackRock, Hermitage, or Mirae Asset.
☞ Note: The Great Old One didn't use any matchmakers, something peasants would need. Because the Great Old One's power level is over 9000.
• China's Shanghai clique used to keep the nation's state-sponsored enterprises under their firm grip: Enterprises such as Alibaba Group, Tencent, Baidu, Wanda Group, HNA Group, Anbang Group, Evergrande Group, CEFC Energy and Huawei, all of which Team-Z has massively invested in.
• Here is how Shanghai clique and Team-Z, esp. Bill Gates, started to get together: [LINK]
• However, in the name of anti-corruption campaign, Xi Jinping & his Princelings have been taking those businesses away from Shanghai clique's hand, and transforming those state-sponsored private enterprises into the state-owned enterprises, declaring the 國進民退 movement.
• Slaying Shanghai clique's control = [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]
• 國進民退 + Slaying Shanghai clique's control = [A] [B] [C]
• Xi's reign didn't arrive today without challenges though: the BRI projects' poor outcome has frustrated Israel's great expectations. And since the US-China trade war has started, the problems of China's economic systems started to surface, not to mention China's economy has long been decaying.
• Coupled with the US-China trade war, the current US admin has been trying to block Huawei from accessing the international financial systems that the US can influence, as well as the US banking systems. This is a good time to remind you again that Bill Gates has had a very close-knit relationship with Huawei.
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TRADE WAR & INTERNET-BASED COMPANIES
☞ It's the trade war, but why were internet-based companies such as Tencent and Baidu suffering losses?
Answer: The state-sponsored companies like Tencent, Baidu, or Huawei have heavily invested in international trade and commodity markets, which are easily influenced by aspects that IMF interest rates, the US sanctions, or trade war can create.
Example: Let's say, Tencent invests in a Tehran-based ride-hailing company. Then, through said ride-hailing company, Tencent invests in Iran's petroleum industry. Now, China's most valuable IT company is in international petrochemical trade. The business is going to make great strides until the US imposes trade embargoes oand economic sanctions against Iran.
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TL;DR
China's economy going down = Team-Z losing an astronomical amount of money.
★ Wednesday, Sep 26, 2018 ★
"Gentlemen, you guys might want to do something before it's too bloody late, no? His speech last night was .... (sniggers) Mr. Gates, now is as good a time as any. Mr. Soros, hm, don't look at me like that."
".... But,"
"Yes, Mr. Soros, your HNA is going down, too. .... Ah, Schwarzman xiansheng, we're very sorry to learn about Blackstone's Iran & SinopecChina situation. So, we're guessing, you'd be happy to join Mr. Gates's operation, yes? Of course, We already contacted Kissinger xiansheng. .... Okay then, Gentlemen?"
• Now you can take a guess why George Soros has recently been sending out confusing messages regarding Xi Jinping.
• Wait, how about Wuhan Institute of Virology? Doesn't this story concern the COVID-19 outbreak? Is the Wuhan Institute also associated with Shanghai clique? Yes, indeed. Here's How Wuhan Institute of Virology and Shanghai Clique are related: [LINK]
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EIGHT OBJECTIVES
☞ Calling for the tide to be turned, Team-Z and Shanghai clique started to devise the plan. The objectives are:
① By shutting down international trade, crashing world economy, and exploiting its aftermath, the plan should produce an outcome letting Team-Z earn back their loss from the trade war & the US sanctions, and collect additional profits from China's BRI projects & stock markets worldwide, including the US stock markets.
• Don't forget this: This point number ① also concerns the developing nations on the BRI with the large deposits of natural resources that Team-Z has invested in through China. If everything comes together nicely, Team-Z will pick up trillions of dollars from those nations alone as if they are light as a feather. Ironically this will reinforce the BRI project governance and mitigate fraud & corruption risks inherent to the international development projects.
② By utilizing the aftermath in the US, a new US administration consisted of pro-Beijing personnels should be fostered at the 2020 election. In a worst-case scenario, the aftermath should be abused enough to make Robert Lighthizer to leave the admin. Mr. Mnuchin could stay.
③ Sometime next year, the phase one trade deal must be reassessed with the new US admin. The reassessment should help China take the upper-hand at the second phase trade talk.
④ The pandemic crisis should yield a situation which allows China to delay the payments for its state-firm offshore debts. With the point number ①, this will give China a breathing room to manage its steadily-fallen forex reserves.
⑤ Since their current turf (in China) is education industry & medical science industry, Shanghai clique will have no issue with earning hefty profits by managing China's export of medical equipments & health care products which can be supplied worldwide mainly by China. People in the west will bent the knees for the clique's support.
☞ Regarding Jiang Zemin's son and medical science industry in China [LINK]
⑥ The outcome should weaken Xi & his Princelings' political power considerably in favour of Shanghai clique & Team-Z. This will let Jiang's Shanghai clique (A) reclaim some of political status & business interest controls they have lost to Xi & his Princelings.
• And once this point number ⑥, with the point number ② , is realized, it would be much easier for the clique to (B) recover their huge assets hidden overseas that the current US admin or Xi & his Princelings have frozen.
⑦ Combining good old bribery with sex, the outcome should support China to re-secure control over the US governors. Once the plan is executed successfully, those governors would desperately need solutions to local economic problems and unemployment.
⑧ Lastly, implementing an e-ID system in the US similar to Beijing's Alipay and WeChat could be the cherry on top of the operation's entire outcomes. Who's supporting such a system worldwide? None other than Microsoft and Rockefeller Foundation. ಠ_ಠ
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OLD COMRADE BECOMES A NEW RECRUIT
☞ They were afraid more talents were needed. The main target was the world’s largest economy with the most powerful military capability, after all.
They ended up asking Mr. Fridman to see Lord Putin about that. The old Vova was going through a lot nowadays, people said. It could be because his nation's energy business to Europe seems to be hitting wall after wall. He is said to have enough on his plate with no end in sight, so maybe he'll join.
★ Monday, Jan 15, 2018 ★
"(pours a drink for himself) I know, but. ... What would happen if Bashar falls? How long you think you can keep it up? .... Erdogan is many things (sniggers) but he's never gentle. (sips his drink slowly) When Benji's EastMed Pipeline starts to actively compete, then what? They got the China money now. .... Vagit and his buddies will be very unhappy. You know that. Not great, Vova."
"...."
"Ah, you mean what are we going to do? Hm? Hm. I'll tell you what we're going to do. This time, we're going to bankrupt the US shale gas sector. Then, of course, we can maybe convince Benji to take their time with the pipeline. Perhaps for good. (sips his drink slowly) Don't worry, Vova, It'll work. You worry too much. We'll come out the other side stronger."
"So, how long until they set it off?
"Hahaa, yes. They'll soon put all things in place. While marching in place, they'll play the tune a couple of months before the next sochelnik."
"Nearly 20 months to brace things here, then?"
"(nod slowly in happiness) Hm. Оторви́сь там, оттопы́рься, Vova"
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USEFUL IDIOTS
☞ When the directive came, these idiots answered claiming they would be gladly "on it." All in the name of rejuvenating China's economy without grasping the real objective prevailing throughout the entire operation. Thing is, they would never realize what they are to Team-Z & their Asian overlord until it’s too late.
Who are they? It's A and B, not A or B: (A) the American corporations that are too big to fail and have suffered a considerable loss because of the US-China trade war. Among those corporations, (B) the ones that have been structured with massive interest-profit relationships in/with China.
"We need China in order for the US as a nation to continue being prosper," they've been shouting. No surprise there, because they've enjoyed the strides of extraordinary profits over the years while the US middle class has continued to shrink.
But, in 2019 when China's stock markets nosedived for the first time since 2015 and China's authorities in financial stability & resiliency fumbled their response; it wiped that smile off their face. Still, they'll keep behaving not to offend their Asian overlord, nonetheless.
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PERFECT PLAN
☞ Many crucial components had to come into play all at once in order to cause World War I. If one of the components were missing or different, it is unlikely that the World War I as we know of could be produced.
① The US in 2019: Overbought bubbles + Over borrowed corporations
② The US in 2020: It's an Election Year.
③ Russia has been dumping US Treasuries for the past few years.
④ Russia has been hoarding golds as if they were recreating Inca Empire.
⑤ China in 2019: Immense & long term financial troubles has started to surface.
⑥ China in 2020: The phase-one deal has been signed; leaving most of tariffs on China intact and adding another $200 Billion burden for China.
⑦ Team-Z sets up a situation in the US where some event(s) would freeze the US supply chains & demand for the next three to ten months.
• Just like the 9/11, the event will be initiated at the clique's own region. However, unlike in China, the US will report multiple epicentres simultaneously.
• And the CDC and the US medical task force will carry on with a number of sabotage acts, to secure enough time for the infected yet untested in those US epicentres to spread plenty. [1] [2] [3]
• Here's a feasible timeline of the operation.
⑧ Then, the BOOM: Team-Z (a) manipulates the markets to make sure MM will have liquidity concerns (b) when they need it most. The (c) bottomed out oil price will be an enforcement, which will also wreck the US energy sector as a kicker. The (d) WHO will also join as a disinformation campaign office.
• Then a couple of big name investment managers will lead a movement that (will try to) bring back foreign money back to China. [1] [2]
• Meanwhile, in US, the disinformation campaign will continue to be pushed until the second wave of attack arrives.
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MEASURABLE SHORT-TERM OUTCOME
☞ We're now going through World War III. The global structure laid down by World War II had been shaken by globalization and the rise of China. This pandemic event will shock the structure further. Human history will be divided into Before 2021 and After 2021.
① Outcome pt. 1: Immediate Aftermath [pt.1] [pt.2]
② Outcome pt. 2: The US economy goes deep dive along with world economy, and the only thing Team-Z has to do is to exploit the aftermath which has been thoroughly calculated and eagerly anticipated. — Favoured assessment: There won't be a V curve ever, unless drastic measures taken within the timeframe of four months. Unprecedented market crash, the rapid unemployment acceleration because of the supply-chain shut down, and the near-death security which in turn forces consumer confidence to plummet. We're looking at a super long L shape curve unless the US prepares fast for the second wave of their asymmetric warfare.
③ Outcome pt. 3: Arguably the most important outcome. — Because of the unprecedented shutdown of international trade, the nations heavily rely on exporting natural resources will face the extreme financial threats. What if some of those are emerging markets AND massively in debt to China? What do you think China would do to said nations while the aftermath is hitting the globe hard? [PDF] Something comparable to Latin American Debt Crisis will happen.
④ Outcome pt. 4: Not that significant compared to the others but still notable outcome. — The world will need Shanghai clique's help to get medical products and equipments.
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WHAT'S NEXT?
☞ Several analysts have discussed off the record that next it'd be a proxy warfare not using armed conflicts but with spreading a galaxy of counterfeit-currency across every possible channels.
Coincidently, on Dec 13, 2017, Business Insider reported in an article "A $100 counterfeit 'supernote' found in South Korea could have been made in North Korea" that:

"It was the first of a new kind of supernote ever found in the world," Lee Ho-Joong, head of KEB Hana Bank's anti-counterfeit centre told Agence France-Presse.

Reporting the same news, The Telegraph published an article on Dec 11, 2017:

"It seems that whoever printed these supernotes has the facilities and high level of technology matching that of a government", said Lee Ho-jung, a bank spokesman from KEB Hana Bank in South Korea. "They are made with special ink that changes colour depending on the angle, patterned paper and Intaglio printing that gives texture to the surface of a note".

ಠ_ಠ
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• Tale of How Shanghai clique and Globalists Got Together
• Wuhan Institute of Virology, Wuhan City, & Shanghai Clique
• Feasible Timeline of the COVID-19 Operation
• Immediate Aftermath — pt.1.b
• Immediate Aftermath — pt.2.a
• Remdesivir, Gilead Sciences, Its Shareholders, & Silly Concern
• Cases Displaying the Recent Climate of Chinese Economy
• Compliance Report by the US State Department on China regarding Biological Weapons Convention — Click "2019 August Unclassified Compliance Report" and see p45.
• Jiang Zemin's son & Medical Science Industry in China
• What is Guanxi (關係)?
• Israeli IT Companies & China
• Opinion article "Cancel All Debt to China"
• Fun Trivia about Bush Family and China
--------

Hi all,
I created a Discord chat server focused on dividend investing as a place where you can type (and/or talk) real-time with other investors (as well as people interested in becoming investors).
Our 1469th investor just joined a few moments ago.
We have folks in there with decades of experience that became millionaires through investing and people who have never invested and are just interested to learn, and everything in between... From teenagers to people in their 70s from all around the world including China, Croatia, Cyprus, Kuwait, Romania, Finland, Bulgaria, Sweden, Germany, Canada, Belgium, China, Singapore, Israel, England, Australia, Greece, Switzerland, and others.
We have a general chat channel that is basically for normal bs’ing, and then we have specific channels for dividend stocks and well as non-dividend stocks, and investing channels for ETFs & Mutual funds, Crypto, Commodities, Real Estate, and Forex. We also have a channel for talking about your portfolio & watchlist.
I've also created a channel for dividend alerts which automatically posts dividend cuts or increases which attempts to keep people informed as soon as the information is out there, as well as an automated investing news channel which posts investing articles as they come out, and an automated channel for breaking world news as it comes out.
There are also channels for movies & tv & books, politics, video games, general news, politics, sports, health & fitness, and a Polls channel (to optionally query people's thoughts on a variety of topics). This way we keep investing separate from others topics. I and my friend moderate it to keep topics aligned to channels, and to minimize self promotion or toxic individuals.
Feel free to check it out and chat with others, or come and just lurk :)
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For those that are unfamiliar, Discord is just a free chat service that people use for text (and voice) persistent group communication. You can access it via your browser using the link above, or you can download a smartphone app and type in kkSr5FY in the invite field.
Of course, none of the information should be taken as financial advice that you act on without doing your own research.

Hi all,
I created a Dividend Discord chat server focused on dividend investing as a place where you can type (and/or talk) real-time with other investors (as well as people interested in becoming investors).
Our 1755th investor just joined a few moments ago.
We have folks in there with decades of experience that became millionaires through investing and people who have never invested and are just interested to learn, and everything in between... From teenagers to people in their 70s from all around the world including China, Croatia, Cyprus, Kuwait, Romania, Finland, Bulgaria, Sweden, Germany, Canada, Belgium, China, Singapore, Israel, England, Australia, Greece, Switzerland, and others.
We have a general chat channel that is basically for normal bs’ing, and then we have specific channels for dividend stocks and well as non-dividend stocks, and investing channels for ETFs & Mutual funds, Crypto, Commodities, Real Estate, and Forex. We also have a channel for talking about your portfolio & watchlist.
I've also created a channel for dividend alerts which automatically posts dividend cuts or increases which attempts to keep people informed as soon as the information is out there, as well as an automated investing news channel which posts investing articles as they come out, and an automated channel for breaking world news as it comes out.
There are also channels for movies & tv & books, politics, video games, general news, politics, sports, health & fitness, and a Polls channel (to optionally query people's thoughts on a variety of topics). This way we keep investing separate from others topics. I and my friend moderate it to keep topics aligned to channels, and to minimize self promotion or toxic individuals.
Feel free to check it out and chat with others, or come and just lurk :)
https://discord.gg/kkSr5FY
For those that are unfamiliar, Discord is just a free chat service that people use for text (and voice) persistent group communication. You can access it via your browser using the link above, or you can download a smartphone app and type in kkSr5FY in the invite field.
Of course, none of the information should be taken as financial advice that you act on without doing your own research.

Hi all,
I created a Discord chat server focused on dividend investing as a place where you can type (and/or talk) real-time with other investors (as well as people interested in becoming investors).
UPDATE! As of 7/30/2020 we now have over 4,000 investors on it (I can't edit the title unfortunately).
We have folks in there with decades of experience that became millionaires through investing and people who have never invested and are just interested to learn, and everything in between... From teenagers to people in their 70s from all around the world including China, Croatia, Cyprus, Kuwait, Romania, Finland, Bulgaria, Sweden, Germany, Canada, Belgium, China, Singapore, Israel, England, Australia, Greece, Switzerland, and others.
We have a general chat channel that is basically for normal bs’ing, and then we have specific channels for dividend stocks and well as non-dividend stocks, and investing channels for ETFs, Crypto, Commodities, Real Estate, and Forex. We also have a channel for talking about your portfolio & watchlist.
I've also created a channel for dividend alerts which automatically posts dividend cuts or increases which attempts to keep people informed as soon as the information is out there, as well as an automated investing news channel which posts investing articles as they come out, and an automated channel for breaking world news as it comes out.
There are also channels for movies & tv & books, politics, video games, general news, politics, sports, health & fitness, and a Polls channel (to optionally query people's thoughts on a variety of topics). This way we keep investing separate from others topics. I and my friend moderate it to keep topics aligned to channels, and to minimize self promotion or toxic individuals.
Feel free to check it out and chat with others, or come and just lurk :)
https://discord.gg/kkSr5FY
For those that are unfamiliar, Discord is just a free chat service that people use for text (and voice) persistent group communication. You can access it via your browser using the link above, or you can download a smartphone app and type in kkSr5FY in the invite field.
Of course, none of the information should be taken as financial advice that you act on without doing your own research.

This Russian government's state funded "news network" RT News is so comical to me, they would love to convince the whole world that the US has become a declining power, the US dollar is not the world's number one reserve currency, that the Chinese Yuan is and that all next generation high-tech in this planet is now being indigenously innovated in China.
https://i.redd.it/typ9ikw5wat31.jpg
It seems laughable to me watching RT news coverage of the Hong Kong demonstrations making real hard efforts to protrait the pro-democracy movement as being demonstrations of people "experiencing economic hardship" confusing democracy with "economic prosperity" whilst at the same time accusing the demonstrators of being manipulated and funded by Western intelligent services including the CIA.
I told myself "well which one is it? Are they confused demonstrators experiencing economic hardship or manipulated puppets of the West?" LOL!
At the end I just said to myself what an insult to the Hong Kong pro-democracy demonstrators. Portraying them of not being intelligent enough to organize themselves and accusing them of not knowing their own cause.
China's CGTN in the other hand while just as bad if not worse than RT, does a lot better job at spreading propaganda. Perhaps because they are much better funded. Doing it a lot more tactfully and assertively.
Their efforts being more concentrated at projecting China as a highly-developed Nation under the rule of law, and a "responsible world leader", minimizing if not censoring the impact the trade war with the US has had on their economy. With it's market widely open to foreign investment where IP property protection takes highest priority.
Covering the situation in Hong Kong more or less as a "city under siege of rioters and vandalism".
Even going as far as calling Xin Jiang China a "prosperous paradise for Uighur Muslims". And you can forget any mentioning of "re-education camps". Even devoting entire segments to "China's human rights developments".
It's extraordinarily unbelievable the claims networks like RT news and CGTN from China make and how far they're willing to go to misinform their domestic population and now International audiences through their multilingual news branches wich most governments where they operate consider them "Kremlin and Beijing propaganda outlets" rather than legitimate and credible news networks.
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/nov/29/24-hour-putin-people-my-week-watching-kremlin-propaganda-channel-rt-russia-today
https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/2174927/uk-watchdog-may-probe-china-state-medias-role-confession-peter
If such claims were true, 90% of all foreign business transactions worldwide would not be conducted in US dollars.
And that is just one statistic. 61% of all world foreign currency reserves are in dollars. According to the international monetary fund.
Eclipsing the next 4 other currencies put together with the Euro at 20%, the Japanese Yen at over 5% the British pound at just under 5% with the Chinese Yuan last under 2%.
The Chinese Yuan has not replaced the USD and won't be replacing it anytime soon:
https://www.investopedia.com/articles/forex-currencies/091416/what-would-it-take-us-dollar-collapse.asp
https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/08/why-us-dollar-will-remain-strong/
https://www.thebalance.com/world-currency-3305931
China has made great progress modernizing itself and deserves credit for it. With new high-tech hub cities like Shenzhen attempting to rival Silicon Valley.
Keyword "attempting to". In addition to Shenzhen, Tel Aviv Israel, Tallinn Estonia, Melbourne Australia and Toronto Canada are also considered cities rivaling Silicon Valley:
https://www.theneweconomy.com/technology/top-5-tech-hubs-to-rival-silicon-valley
But that isn't the important story. 90 - 95% of all the high-tech in China has been imported from abroad, rebranded and falsely claimed to have been innovated indigenously. In other words "invented in China". Through various means raging from forced tech transfers, intellectual property and Trade secrets theft by either cyber attacks on foreign competitor's databases, corporate spying and bribery.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-02-28/from-bounty-payments-to-espionage-u-s-alleges-chinese-ip-theft
The list of companies whose intellectual property and trade secrets were stolen is so vast it couldn't be compiled in this article alone. But here are some important ones:
AMSC - Wind Turbine technology
Westinghouse - Nuclear technology
Solar World - Solar panel technology
Kawasaki Heavy Industries - High-Speed rail technology
US Steel - Steel Technology
Alcoa - Aluminium Technology
Micron - Semiconductor Technology
T-Mobile, Motorola, Cisco Systems and Nortel Networks - Wireless and Telecommunications Technology
Sources:
https://youtu.be/AzZlymlpPmU
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/the-unreal-scope-of-chinas-intellectual-property-theft/
https://www.wsj.com/articles/huaweis-yearslong-rise-is-littered-with-accusations-of-theft-and-dubious-ethics-11558756858
It's for these masterful intelligence operations expanding 2-3 decades, that I give China most credit for.
As to whether American is a declining power or not depends on how a state's power is measured but most importantly how it's perceived, individually and collectively by other nations.
What you personally believe, What region of the world you're in, which language you speak and what sources of information you have access to is actually more important than any public survey taken or any official state statistic or international ranking.
But a most recent survey conducted by 2019 Best countries and multiple other organizations surveyed 20,000 individuals from 4 different regions around the world. And when asked to name the most powerful countries in the world taking into consideration military, political and economic influence the US came in first followed by Russia with China surprisingly in 3rd place.
http://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/most-powerful-countries/
To summarize, in this modern day in age of false news, state propaganda and politically biased misinformation campaigns the most important thing is to no longer depend on a single source of information but multiple sources of information.
During my research I've compiled a list of reliable international news sources with at least an "attempt to report the news with limited bias" and report verified news with some degree of neutrality.
My most reliable news and information sources list is:
1 DW News (Germany)
2 PBS (U.S.)
3 Al Jazeera (Qatar)
4 BBC News (UK)
5 France 24 (France)
6 Wikipedia (US) in 285 languages.
Additionally here is a list of most unreliable, bias and heavily censored state funded international news organizations fiercely criticized for attempting to further domestic political propaganda abroad:
1 RT News (Russia)
2 CGTN (China)
3 CCTV (China)
4 TRT News (Turkey)
5 HispanTV / IRIB (Iran)
Finally, the following is a list I felt also needed to be compiled as it merits mentioning. News organizations that despite being politically biased, do report real news and events although be it spined to fit their narrative. But also exclude important and relevant news topics and/or allocate limited coverage to further their in-house political agendas:
1 TRT News (Turkey)
2 CNN News (US Far-left)
3 Fox News (US Far-right)
4 MSNBC News (US Far-Left)
5 Sky News Australia (Far-right)
For more information I recommend visiting the following websites:
https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/trt-world/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2014/10/21/lets-rank-the-media-from-liberal-to-conservative-based-on-their-audiences/
By Allan Rios
Please subscribe to my YouTube channel and get updates on articles and original content videos: https://www.youtube.com/usededoshucos
UPDATE OCT 19, 2019
Here is an extraordinary piece from DW news debunking Hong Kong fake social media posts: https://youtu.be/9AB32zU_EW8
This is one of the reasons why I chose to place DW news at the top of my list. After watching this piece, Notice how besides exposing the chinese communist government's misinformation campaign it also exposes Twitter and Facebook as co-conspirators facilitating the spread of fake news propaganda in it's platforms. "Accepting money from the CCP".
Reporting news with a high degree of objectivity, covering this report from multiple sides, not just telling one side of the story.
Rick Sanchez and Michele reenstein RT News at the top of my list for reporting fake news

Hi, got a question. I consider myself a pretty savvy card user, but I just discovered a discrepancy in the exchange rates I've received when using different cards - both advertised as no forex fee cards. Is this normal, and if so is there a card issuer that offers a more favorable rate?
I was in Argentina and Israel last month. In both countries, I used my Chase Sapphire Preferred card for purchases and my Schwab debit card for ATM withdrawals. In all cases, the rate that Chase charged me was about 1% worse than the Schwab rate. I'm comparing transactions made on the same day.
I understand that rates can vary even during the same day according to the market. But it really does seem like Chase is calculating the exchange rate differently here. I had always thought that it was the card association (Visa/MC) that set the base exchange rate, with the individual card issuer than adding any fees of its own on top of that. But that seems to be incorrect.
Does anyone have insight into this? Thanks!

I live in Australia. I'll be visiting Israel for an extended period of time. I'll need to live of my Australian funds while I'm there.
I don't want to use my Australian credit and bank cards with their 3% charge for every international transaction.
So I'm looking for any general advice on banks, banking and foreign transfers for visitors.
Specifically:
Can I open a bank account as a visitor to the country?
What is the most effective way to transfer money to Israel, minimizing losses on exchange rates or transfer fees?
Is there any advantage to one large transfer vs. several small ones over time?
Who tends to have the best ForEx rates (banks vs. online ForEx vs. brick and mortar ForEx)?
Thank you Reddit!

This Russian government's state funded "news network" RT News is so comical to me, they would love to convince the whole world that the US has become a declining power, the US dollar is not the world's number one reserve currency, that the Chinese Yuan is and that all next generation high-tech in this planet is now being indigenously innovated in China.
https://i.redd.it/1fywkb9vnat31.png
It seems laughable to me watching RT news coverage of the Hong Kong demonstrations making real hard efforts to protrait the pro-democracy movement as being demonstrations of people "experiencing economic hardship" confusing democracy with "economic prosperity" whilst at the same time accusing the demonstrators of being manipulated and funded by Western intelligent services including the CIA.
I told myself "well which one is it? Are they confused demonstrators experiencing economic hardship or manipulated puppets of the West?" LOL!
At the end I told myself what an insult to the Hong Kong pro-democracy demonstrators. Portraying them of not being intelligent enough to organize themselves and accusing them of not knowing their own cause.
China's CGTN in the other hand while just as bad if not worse than RT, does a lot better job at spreading propaganda. Perhaps because they are much better funded. Doing it a lot more tactfully and assertively.
Their efforts being more concentrated at projecting China as a highly-developed Nation under the rule of law, and a "responsible world leader", minimizing if not censoring the impact the trade war with the US has had on their economy. With it's market wisely open to foreign investment where IP property protection takes highest priority.
Covering the situation in Hong Kong more or less as a "city under siege of rioters and vandalism".
Even going as far as calling Xin Jiang China a "prosperous paradise for Uighur Muslims". And you can forget any mentioning of "re-education camps". Even devoting entire segments to "China's human rights developments".
It's extraordinarily unbelievable the claims networks like RT news and CGTN from China make and how far they're willing to go to misinform their domestic population and now International audiences through their multilingual news branches wich most governments where they operate consider them "Kremlin and Beijing propaganda outlets" rather than legitimate and credible news networks.
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/nov/29/24-hour-putin-people-my-week-watching-kremlin-propaganda-channel-rt-russia-today
https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/2174927/uk-watchdog-may-probe-china-state-medias-role-confession-peter
If such claims were true, 90% of all foreign business transactions worldwide would not be conducted in US dollars.
And that is just one statistic. 61% of all world foreign currency reserves are in dollars. According to the international monetary fund.
Eclipsing the next 4 other currencies put together with the Euro at 20%, the Japanese Yen at over 5% the British pound at just under 5% with the Chinese Yuan last under 2%.
The Chinese Yuan has not replaced the USD and won't be replacing it anytime soon:
https://www.investopedia.com/articles/forex-currencies/091416/what-would-it-take-us-dollar-collapse.asp
https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/08/why-us-dollar-will-remain-strong/
https://www.thebalance.com/world-currency-3305931
China has made great progress modernizing itself and deserves credit for it. With new high-tech hub cities like Shenzhen attempting to rival Silicon Valley.
Keyword "attempting to". In addition to Shenzhen, Tel Aviv Israel, Tallinn Estonia, Melbourne Australia and Toronto Canada are also considered cities rivaling Silicon Valley:
https://www.theneweconomy.com/technology/top-5-tech-hubs-to-rival-silicon-valley
But that isn't the important story. 90 - 95% of all the high-tech in China has been imported from abroad, rebranded and falsely claimed to have been innovated indigenously. In other words "invented in China". Through various means raging from forced tech transfers, intellectual property and Trade secrets theft by either cyber attacks on foreign competitor's databases, corporate spying and bribery.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-02-28/from-bounty-payments-to-espionage-u-s-alleges-chinese-ip-theft
The list of companies whose intellectual property and trade secrets were stolen is so vast it couldn't be compiled in this article alone. But here are some important ones:
AMSC - Wind Turbine technology
Westinghouse - Nuclear technology
Solar World - Solar panel technology
Kawasaki Heavy Industries - High-Speed rail technology
US Steel - Steel Technology
Alcoa - Aluminium Technology
Micron - Semiconductor Technology
T-Mobile, Motorola, Cisco Systems and Nortel Networks - Wireless and Telecommunications Technology
Sources:
https://youtu.be/AzZlymlpPmU
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/the-unreal-scope-of-chinas-intellectual-property-theft/
https://www.wsj.com/articles/huaweis-yearslong-rise-is-littered-with-accusations-of-theft-and-dubious-ethics-11558756858
It's for these masterful intelligence operations expanding 2-3 decades, that I give China most credit for.
As to whether American is a declining power or not depends on how a state's power is measured but most importantly how it's perceived, individually and collectively by other nations.
What you personally believe, What region of the world you're in, which language you speak and what sources of information you have access to is actually more important than any public survey taken or any official state statistic or international ranking.
But a most recent survey conducted by 2019 Best countries and multiple other organizations surveyed 20,000 individuals from 4 different regions around the world. And when asked to name the most powerful countries in the world taking into consideration military, political and economic influence the US came in first followed by Russia with China surprisingly in 3rd place.
http://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/most-powerful-countries/
To summarize, in this modern day in age of false news, state propaganda and politically biased misinformation campaigns the most important thing is to no longer depend on a single source of information but multiple sources of information.
During my research I've compiled a list of reliable international news sources with at least an "attempt to report the news with limited bias" and report verified news with some degree of neutrality.
My most reliable news and information sources list is:
1 DW News (Germany)
2 PBS (U.S.)
3 Al Jazeera (Qatar)
4 BBC News (UK)
5 France 24 (France)
6 Wikipedia (US) in 285 languages.
Additionally here is a list of most unreliable, bias and heavily censored state funded international news organizations fiercely criticized for attempting to further domestic political propaganda abroad:
1 RT News (Russia)
2 CGTN (China)
3 CCTV (China)
4 TRT News (Turkey)
5 HispanTV / IRIB (Iran)
Finally, the following is a list I felt also needed to be compiled as it merits mentioning. News organizations that despite being politically biased, do report real news and events although be it spined to fit their narrative. But also exclude important and relevant news topics and/or allocate limited coverage to further their in-house political agendas:
1 TRT News (Turkey)
2 CNN News (US Far-left)
3 Fox News (US Far-right)
4 MSNBC News (US Far-Left)
5 Sky News Australia (Far-right)
For more information I recommend visiting the following websites:
https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/trt-world/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2014/10/21/lets-rank-the-media-from-liberal-to-conservative-based-on-their-audiences/
By Allan Rios
Please subscribe to my YouTube channel and get updates on articles and original content videos: https://www.youtube.com/usededoshucos
UPDATE OCT 19, 2019
Here is an extraordinary piece from DW news debunking Hong Kong fake social media posts: https://youtu.be/9AB32zU_EW8
This is one of the reasons why I chose to place DW news at the top of my list. After watching this piece, Notice how besides exposing the chinese communist government's misinformation campaign it also exposes Twitter and Facebook as co-conspirators facilitating the spread of fake news propaganda in it's platforms. "Accepting money from the CCP".
Reporting news with a high degree of objectivity, covering this report from multiple sides, not just telling one side of the story.

I moved to Israel six years ago.
How that happened:
I am Jewish (you probably guessed) and bought into the idea that it is our ancestral homeland.
After being taken on one of those free two weeks tours, I became captivated by the country and planned to move there. It took a few years of planning for that wish to come to fruition.
To be honest, I still believe in Jewish people's right to be here and that a Jewish country is the only natural environment for a Jew (particularly an observant one) to live in. I just happen not to like the one country that fits that criteria very much, or many of its citizens - and that also happens to be the country I live in!
I also believe that is Israel's responsibility to help realize a just and lasting solution to the Palestinian "problem". In my view, that is not reconcilable with endlessly occupying the land they live on and subjecting them to military law. But that aside...
The Israel I visited as a tourist and the Israel I live in as a citizen are like two completely countries. So much so that if I were a conspiracy theorist (I am not!), I would practically believe the whole thing was an illusion.

Manners (Or Lack Thereof)

For whatever reason, manners are virtually absent here.
The stereotypes are 100% true.
Maybe I missed that earlier? I'm not sure, because some people with parents who were born here have told me that people have become ruder and more aggressive over the years. I tend to believe it.
You buy stuff in the market and shopkeepers just glare at you and slam your change on the counter without even bothering to say "thank you".
I feel like if someone tried that in NYC they might be asking for a fight!
Not a single person in my building knows how to close their door. My table jars every few minutes from the vibration of people slamming their doors.
People play music at all hours. And blare private conversations over their phone's loudspeakers because they can't be bothered bringing the handset to their ears. This varies a little by city (Tel Aviv is slightly more refined), but in general the culture is incredibly inconsiderate. Shouting is very commonplace (of course, it's just a "friendly argument"), honking on the roads is incessant, and people are too inpatient and inconsiderate to be able to form a queue. People will push grandmothers out of the way to get on a bus sooner. If it weren't sad, it would be funny.
Social cohesion is sorely lacking, IMO, as evidenced by the massive amount of splinter and minority parties that form before every election.
Everybody is in a tribe or, if not, an "enemy" (read: an Arab).
The sad and blunt truth is that it's a crude, racist society that even has a problem with some of its own (see: treatment of Ethiopian Jews).
(BTW, this is something that gets discussed a lot among Jews that voluntarily move here. People come up with all manner of BS excuses to justify it. "It's directness." No, it's atrocious manners. "There are no words for basic courtesies in Hebrew". Yes, there are - open a dictionary! "It's Middle Eastern". Travel to Egypt and Jordan. People have manners there. Unfortunately, most people that have negative things to say about the country get silenced by the aggressive "nothing can be wrong here" brigade.)

Prices

Prices are insanely high and, as far as I can tell, the situation is only getting worse.
Generally, those prices are for crappy products imported from China and heavily marked up. Or the local stuff sold by a company that is part of an oligopoly and would never survive in a free market environment. Customer service is almost non-existent - or at least, has the local twist which is "the customer is always wrong". And of course - those wonderful overpriced products and services are sold to you by often rude ungrateful people.
Working here also flat out sucks, IMO.
The world has bought into the myth that Israel is a land of amazing startups where everybody is swimming in opportunity.
The reality is that more than 90% of the economy is employed in protectionist dysfunctional companies and Israel has one of the lowest per-capita productivity rates in the OECD (feel free to check the numbers - it's late at night here and I'm trying not to lose the 'flow' of this). It's capitalism with all the benefits taken out. The socialist/kibbutznik backbone that formed the society is dead. Income inequality, as measured by the Geni coefficient, is among the highest in the world.
If you're not a Java developer or help run one of the ports (don't ask - monopoly!) you can expect to be paid a salary roughly a third lower than the West - while living in one of the most expensive countries in the world. A good chunk of immigrants here are employed in scam industries, including (but not limited to) binary, forex, and other international "scams." They attempted to regulate these, but due to corruption and cronyism, largely failed. Just as they attempted to pass a fair rental law which had about the same result.
To add insult to injury ****, Israelis are C-H-E-A-P***\* in my opinion (given the pejorative Jewish-money stereotypes, I realize that this is something that would be problematic/difficult for a non-Jew to assert).
You see this in the workplace. You're expected to work like a slave while your miserly employer tries his best haggling skills to pay you as little as possible. Unsurprisingly, Israelis founded Fiverr and have proven very eager exponents of the offshoring model, where they can find people willing to work for even less than olim hadashim (Jewish immigrants). Israelis love bargaining and will treat anything that involves money as a game whereby they attempt to keep as much of it as possible.
In terms of conditions - the minimum number of vacation days are 12 while the working week is 45 hours. Again, for pretty miserable salaries. Public holidays, which are relatively few, do not roll over if they fall out on a weekend. In general, a cultural of professionalism is sorely lacking. My strongly held opinion is that the best have already left.
Also: a bunch of Israelis sponge off their families until well over their forties. The country is also awash with Jewish immigrants who mysteriously seem to survive despite never having held a job in their life. The explanation? Their familiar are sponsoring them.

Religious Coercion / Weekends

Because of the Jewish Sabbath (during which public transport does not run; shops start closing half-way through Friday), you never even really feel like you've had a proper weekend.
Property is the worst of all. Astronomically expensive.
Taxes on new cars are almost 100% so almost everybody drives beat-up second hand ones, if they have one at all (it's considered a luxury). And the standards of housing - from anybody comparing it to the West - is relatively abysmal. There's a great Facebook page with some photos of the worst rentals on the market. Even if you don't read Hebrew, just take a look at some of the photos.
The first generations that came here have done a nice job at monopolizing large segments of the market and housing stock so are well taken care of.
For virtually anybody else, their future is renting (from rude slumlords!)
Hotel prices are also outrageous, and there's the added insult of having to pay more for rooms if you're from the country. People here literally fly to Europe because it's cheaper than staycationing in this ripoff!
Want to console yourself about that with a nice mango? Even fruit here has become expensive recently. The only thing that's cheaper here than the West is healthcare and public transport. It's a great country to be on the breadline in. To thrive financially? Not so much.

Politics

The public endlessly votes for a lying, corrupt prime minister who has just let the parliament dissolve in his pathetic bid to avoid fraud charges.
The country is apparently rapidly descending into a religious dictatorship and nobody seems to care - yet it still has the nerve to call itself "the only democracy in the Middle East."
The school system is failing and a segment of the population which doesn't work or paid taxes (the ultra-Orthodox) have somehow wound up in the position where they pull all the political strings.
People, for a reason I can never understand, generally seem to simply accept the status quo.
They are content with simply surviving and not being obliterated by Iran/Hamas/Hizbullah. As someone that didn't grow up in that security environment, this seems baffling to me. I feel like grabbing hold of one of Netanyahu's voters and asking him/her "That's truly all you aspire towards?"
The most that happens is some journalist (automatically branded a "leftist" by the right-wing majority) writes some article in the Opinion section of Ha'aretz. The last time people got out on the street to protest in significant numbers was years ago (remember the cottage cheese protests?). In Greece, the riot police get called out to put down mass protests. Here, people are happy to simply survive (sort of).
Why does the average person here vote for Netanyahu?
You know, because things are so great here and some third-world tycoon has been to visit (this is advertised as "unprecedented diplomatic achievements.").
Oh, and the economy has "never been stronger" (even though the country also has an enormous poverty problem and many people are struggling to simply get by).
I have a bad habit of checking Google News every few hours.
Reading those articles just makes me angry.
But it's really nothing more than a reflection of how people are on the street.
Rude. Aggressive. Argumentative. Demanding. Always in the fricking right. Also locals here literally never apologize for anything (that would be considered too "weak" to fit in with the local culture).
There's also this weird fetish with strength and the military here that I find disturbing. You see it in slang a lot (an "explosion" also means a good thing, like "that party was an explosion" is an idiom for "that party was a great time").
Being human (such as letting somebody cut ahead of you in line at the supermarket because they only have a couple of items) is branded as "weakness" and frowned upon. As is having manners. To be honest, I believe that the culture here is best described as "sick".
Israel has made me feel like an old man, even though I'm far from that.
All I want, at this point, is a basic quality of life.
Things like a non-minuscule apartment in which to live. Decent professional opportunities that don't involve working for some (usually shady) startup simply trying to use my English to get some investor to pump money into them so they can offshore everything to the US. The possibility of a week's vacation in somewhere that isn't a dingy ripoff staffed by rude people! And to hear somebody say "thank you, have a nice day" when I buy an apple from them!
I travel abroad a couple of times a year and usually feel like I've stepped into another planet. It's like somebody is dispersing a fine mist of Valium from the air. Hard to put my finger on it but people just seem kind of sedate and relaxed!
People are less direct (I'll admit, I actually like the directness here!), but know basic manners, everything isn't overpriced, and people enjoy a real weekend! You can order stuff from Amazon and it actually arrives on time! Somehow, there's no shouting! People know how to actually form a line! You don't have to stand up for yourself simply to not be pushed over!
I'm planning my escape (among other things), but I have to hold this in every day until I get out. I don't feel comfortable telling this to my friends (I rebrand it as "I'm finding it difficult here" without going into details) and I can't exactly broadcast my feelings to the average person on the street.
The truth is that I'm not as miserable as I sound.
I've been doing some self-work recently just to cope with living here. Stress and all that.
My mindset has taken a shift to the positive. And I'm really grateful by how much it has helped.
But it doesn't make living here any less distasteful and actually made me much more inclined to write this here (why wouldn't I tell the world like it is - at least as I see it?).
BTW, I'm a real Reddit user but, because I'm paranoid about privacy, I set up a new account just to write this post.
So thank you, Reddit, for giving me the chance to put this into writing!
If you're also living, or have lived here, feel free to let me know your thoughts in the comments.
And if you haven't and are considering doing so, please take everything you have read and heard about the country with a pinch (actually, make that the entire carton-full) of salt!

Some Links / Further Reading:

• https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3763310,00.html
• https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-israel-has-widest-wage-gap-in-oecd-1001244670
• https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-cost-of-living-among-highest-in-developed-world-report-finds/
• https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/why-is-customer-service-in-israel-so-bad/
• https://www.facebook.com/dirot.medakot/
• https://www.timesofisrael.com/the-wolves-of-tel-aviv-israels-vast-amoral-binary-options-scam-exposed/
• https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/eurovision/MAGAZINE-in-photos-tel-avivians-learn-how-to-be-polite-ahead-of-eurovision-2019-1.7041982
• https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/New-Jerusalem-Light-Rail-video-urges-Israelis-to-adopt-UK-manners-while-traveling-466631

Best Aussie Investment Brokers

Trading the financial markets in Australia when conditions are volatile can be difficult, even for experienced traders.
Apart from the educational and other resources made available online, another important factor for traders to consider is the platform that a broker offers.Aussie brokers forex
Choosing a reliable and trustworthy forex broker that meets your needs and specific trading goals is essential, but in such a highly competitive market, how do you make the best decision?
To gain access to the financial markets, you'll need a broker that you can rely on. Read on to learn more about the factors you should consider when choosing a broker.
You can see a list of the best Australian brokers here.

5 Factors to Consider when Choosing a Broker

Follow these five rules for selecting a broker that's right for you:

Trusted/Established Provider

Look for a broker that has a good track record/longevity in the market so that your strategy is your primary concern for navigating the markets.
Established in 2008, and in operation for 11 years Plus500 have a head office in Israel.
Plus500 is regulated. This means Plus500 are supervised by and is checked for conduct by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 509909) and Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (License No. 250/14) regulatory bodies.

World-Leading

Choose a broker that's at the forefront of innovation and generally considered an industry-leader.
Plus500 offers both an online trading platform as well as a mobile platform giving clients easy access to markets. In addition, Plus500 supports the popular third-party trading platform, MetaTrader 4(MT4)enabling access to a variety of markets worldwide that can be traded with the assistance of expert advisors or a customizable automatic trading strategy. Plus500 is a world-leader when it comes to innovation and they are always looking at ways to improve and to maintain their competitive advantage.

Commissions and fees

Ensure that your broker is transparent with fees and those dues are competitive. Plus500 offers competitive spreads for Forex trading with an average of 0.9 pips for EUUSD and a margin requirement ranging between 2 – 5% depending on the pair traded.

Round-the-clock support

Plus500 offers 24-hour support where clients are able to call or contact the helpdesk via email, twitter or a chat service.

Comprehensive Trader resources

Make sure your broker offers free resources like analysis, education and risk-management tools. With a wealth of knowledge from top analysts, Plus500 work together to bring the latest news and insights to traders.
For most traders, the first – and sometimes only – concern is pursuing their 'edge'. While that is surely important, along with sound money management habits, to navigating the markets; that step alone does not represent the full preparation.
As each trader dives into this important venture, it is important not to forget the most rudimentary yet crucial steps such as selecting the best broker to access the markets.
If you are interested in learning more about investing you can learn more here.

Let me begin by saying that despite my ongoing criticism, i appreciate Bancor's protocol for enabling speculative tokens exchange.
I don't think Bancor is a scam or a worthless investment
However, i think that investors have the right to be informed about projects they are about to invest so i took the time to collect that information.
Techcrunch and other articles that mention invest.com as some veteran company raking in gazzilions of dollars and Stox as a fresh, exciting company (Yay journalism propagating press releases) are slightly inaccurate. for both of these cases.
Invest.com is a domain that was bought specifically for Stox for a hefty sum of $5M (Yep. not making this up). Stox was once called Stox, then renamed itself to Getstocks (45K monthly visitors) and now set up a "new" company called Stox.
In essence, they were a "regular" investment platform that raised $20M (technically Invest.com raised the amount, but Invest.com is basically Stox) from investors (and dealt with fiat, so no need for that new token, obviously) for a social forex investing platform not unlike Etoro, before their current "prediction market" route they've taken. they got into financial problems and had to fire employees because of it and if their annual volume couldn't sustain 30 employees, forget about the $50M in profits. from what i gather, they had around a couple of millions in volume.
As for Invest.com. Don't confuse Investing.com and Invest.com. both are Israeli platforms but with a slight difference:
Investing.com has 66M visitors a month, for an average of 10 minutes a visit and 50% bounce rate. it is an established trading news platform and a very popular one at that. if it was investing.com which issued the ICO, i'd be all over it.
Invest.com has 400K visitors a month, for an average of 48 seconds a visit and a 82% bounce rate. there is no way this is an active platform with the volumes they suggest they have. no fricking way. the numbers simply doesn't add up.
So where do those magical numbers come from? Invest.com bought a binary options company called AnyOption.com and retained their databases.
Binary options were having a hard time in Israel because many realized they were basically gambling platforms rather than trading ones, despite marketing themselves as the latter. many of these got closed due to legal implications.
a typical company like AnyOption used to hire hundreds of sales people that were spending hours aggressively calling all over the world trying to convince people to trade in their platform. they were hard spammers that promised easy entry into stock trading but in practice provided for a high risk, low reward gambling.
With the purchase of AnyOption.com, Invest.com supposedly got AnyOption.com's costumer base so they could claim their volume as the former AnyOption volume, however, a quick glance at their website data shows that their lack of activity really hurt them (down to 250K visitors a month). **It is also important to know that AnyOption founders have recieved shares in Invest.com, so investing in Stox is rewarding AnyOption founders as well.
So those billions in volume, tens of millions in profit and millions in clients are A. not Invest.com figures, B. outdated and diminished by now.
To summarize, i am not saying Stox is a scam, or that Stox doesn't have potential. i just want to stress out that the information you are getting is vastly inaccurate and i believe you are entitled to a more honest overview.

I'm trying to do arnona with no success getting an appointment (because go figure both the site and app go down and the phone lines require waiting)...and a friend of mine appears out of the woodwork to talk a bit..He tells me he's making yerida with his yorida-sh-hazra wife this summer...and it got us going about what is good and bad here..and then it hit me...
​
Israel is a case study of all the worst parts of every form of ideology. We have the worst predatory capitalist measures (things like forex, cartels, limited distribution), the worst socialist measures (i.e. paperwork up the wazoo, lines, and general "I don't care" attitude), the worst nationalism (i.e. everyone not like me needs to get out or die), the worst globalism (i.e. I want me and mine to die because poor poor person somewhere doesn't like us), and more.
​
We literally succeeded as a society in taking the worst elements of any and all belief systems and abusing the fuck out of them on ourselves, each other, and the rest of the world...

Duterte wants all OFWs in Kuwait to come home, "because there are jobs here now." Really?
Did you know that our workers in Kuwait remitted $806.48 million in 2017? That around PHP41.67 billion, at current forex of P51.67:$1

Middle East Remittances (In 000, US$)

Country	Remittance	Percentage
Bahrain	229,025	2.93%
British Arab States	2	0.00%
Egypt Arab Republic	838	0.01%
Iran	2	0.00%
Iraq	356	0.00%
Israel	134,192	1.72%
Jordan	59,288	0.76%
Kuwait	806,484	10.33%
Lebanon	65,825	0.84%
Libya	8,889	0.11%
Oman	345,406	4.42%
Qatar	1,110,413	14.22%
Saudi Arabia	2,508,948	32.12%
Syria	0	0.00%
United Arab Emirates	2,540,480	32.53%
Yemen	0	0.00%

OFWs in Kuwait contribute 10.33% of remittances from the Middle East, which contributes 27.83% of the total amount of remittances per month.

Worldwide Remittances by region (In 000, US$)

Region	Remittance	Percentage
Asia	5,273,268	18.79%
Americas	10,298,024	36.70%
Oceania	706,078	2.52%
Europe	3,857,187	13.75%
Middle East	7,810,148	27.83%
Africa	115,084	0.41%
Total	28,059,789	100.00%

From 2010 to 2017, Kuwait OFWs sent home $3.34 billion, or PHP174.38 billion.

Kuwait	Remittances
2010	106,486
2011	139,839
2012	157,121
2013	235,091
2014	455,353
2015	617,614
2016	856,715
2017	806,484
TOTAL	3,374,703

Source: http://www.bsp.gov.ph/statistics/keystat/ofw2.htm

Hi everyone! Thanks for joining. This sub is for active traders of crypto and stocks, those looking to make a fat YUGE profit. While all are welcome, we are more geared for traders with a serious mindset. Post your ideas for today here.
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Wiki: resources
FINVIZ HEATMAP - FINVIZ FUTURES - FOREX - NEWS FEED
FEB 14th WED Fear & Greed Index
Economic Calendar: Results & More

Time	Release	For	Actual	Expected	Prior
7:00:00 AM	MBA Mortgage Applications Index	10-Feb-18	-4.10%	NA	0.70%
8:30:00 AM	CPI	Jan	0.50%	0.40%	0.20%
8:30:00 AM	Core CPI	Jan	0.30%	0.20%	0.10%
8:30:00 AM	Retail Sales	Jan	-0.30%	0.20%	0.00%
8:30:00 AM	Retail Sales ex-auto	Jan	0.00%	0.40%	0.10%
10:00:00 AM	Business Inventories	Dec	-	0.40%	0.30%

Ex-Dividend: Calendar

Ex- Div	Company	Amt	Yield
AGCO	AGCO Rg	0.15	0.01
AIT	Applied Ind Tech Rg	0.30	0.02
ALE	Allete Rg	0.56	0.03
AMGN	Amgen Rg	1.32	0.03
ARR	ARMOUR Res REIT Rg	0.19	0.10
AWR	American Sts Wat Rg	0.26	0.02
BHB	Bar Harbor BKSHS Rg	0.19	0.00
BHLB	Berkshire Hills Rg	0.22	0.02
BKH	Black Hills Rg	0.48	0.04
CC	Chemours Rg	0.17	0.00
CHD	Church & Dwight Rg	0.22	0.02
CNP	Centerpoint Ener Rg	0.28	0.04
DRE	Duke Realty REIT Rg	0.20	0.03
EXC	Exelon Rg	0.35	0.04
GCBC	Greene County Ba Rg	0.10	0.01
GRC	GORMAN-RUPP RG	0.13	0.02
HCP	HCP REIT Rg	0.37	0.06
HTH	Hilltop Holdings Rg	0.07	0.01
IVZ	Invesco Rg	0.29	0.04
JBL	Jabil Circuit Rg	0.08	0.01
KLAC	KLA-Tencor Rg	0.59	0.02
KR	Kroger Rg	0.13	0.02
LABL	Multi-Color Rg	0.05	0.00
LKSD	LSC Communicatio Rg	0.26	0.08
LLY	Eli Lilly & Co Rg	0.56	0.03
MMS	Maximus Rg	0.05	0.00
MNR	MONMOUTH REAL EST-A	0.17	0.05
MSEX	Middlesex Water Rg	0.22	0.02
MSFT	Microsoft Rg	0.42	0.02
OTTR	Otter Tail Rg	0.34	0.03
PFS	Provident Financ Rg	0.20	0.03
PKOH	Park Ohio Holdin Rg	0.13	0.01
PRI	Primerica Rg	0.25	0.01
RECN	Resources Connec Rg	0.12	0.03
RRD	RR Donnelley&Sons - Registered	0.14	0.00
SALT	Scorpio Bulkers Rg	0.02	0.00
SBRA	Sabra HC REIT Rg	0.45	0.06
SHBI	Shore Bancshares Rg	0.07	0.01
SIGI	Selective Insura Rg	0.18	0.01
SMBC	Sn Missouri Banc Rg	0.11	0.00
SMP	Stand Motor Prod Rg	0.21	0.02
SWX	Southwest Hldgs Rg	0.50	0.03
TCF	TCF Financial Rg	0.15	0.00
TJX	Tjx Companies Rg	0.31	0.02
UMH	UMH Propert REIT Rg	0.18	0.08
VVC	Vectren Rg	0.45	0.03
WBA	Walgreens Boots Rg	0.40	0.02
WYNN	Wynn Resorts Rg	0.50	0.01
XEC	Cimarex Energy Rg	0.08	0.00
XYL	Xylem Rg	0.21	0.01
ZION	Zions Bancorp Rg	0.20	0.01

Earnings Reports: Morningstar Earnings Calendar & Results

Company	Release	Est. EPS	Company	Release	Est. EPS
ACCO Brands (ACCO)	Morning	0.44	Intercept Pharmaceuticals (ICPT)	Morning	-3.39
AerCap (AER)	Morning	1.38	Interpublic Group of Companies (IPG)	Morning	0.77
Agios Pharmaceuticals (AGIO)	Morning	-1.65	Iqvia (IQV)	Morning	1.34
Agnico Eagle Mines (AEM)	Afternoon	0.20	Irhythm Technologies (IRTC)	Afternoon	-0.35
Airgain (AIRG)	Afternoon	0.07	Israel Chemicals (ICL)	Morning	0.08
Alkermes (ALKS)	Morning	0.13	JMP Group (JMP)	Afternoon	0.06
Allison Transmission (ALSN)	Afternoon	0.62	Keysight Technologies (KEYS)	Afternoon	0.61
Allscripts Healthcare Solutions (MDRX)	Afternoon	0.19	Kinross Gold (KGC)	Afternoon	0.04
Altisource Portfolio Solutions (ASPS)	N/A	0.54	Laboratory Corp. of America (LH)	Morning	2.38
Annaly Capital Management (NLY)	Afternoon	0.30	Lincoln Electric (LECO)	Morning	0.96
Apollo Commercial Real Est. Finance (ARI)	Afternoon	0.10	Lithia Motors (LAD)	Morning	2.09
Arista Networks (ANET)	Afternoon	1.39	Live Ventures (LIVE)	Afternoon	N/A
ARRIS International (ARRS)	Afternoon	0.76	Marathon Oil (MRO)	Afternoon	-0.05
Avon Products (AVP)	Morning	0.07	Marchex (MCHX)	Afternoon	-0.01
B&G Foods (BGS)	Afternoon	0.57	Marriott International (MAR)	Afternoon	1.01
Barrick Gold (ABX)	Afternoon	0.21	Martin Midstream Partners (MMLP)	Afternoon	0.35
BCB Bancorp (BCBP)	N/A	0.21	Mattersight (MATR)	Afternoon	-0.10
Blucora (BCOR)	Morning	-0.25	Mazor Robotics (MZOR)	Morning	-0.07
Build-A-Bear Workshop (BBW)	Morning	0.35	MFA Financial (MFA)	N/A	0.17
Bunge (BG)	Morning	1.48	Molson Coors Brewing (TAP)	Morning	0.56
CBIZ (CBZ)	Morning	0.02	Navigators Group (NAVG)	Afternoon	0.59
Cedar Fair (FUN)	Morning	0.22	Neptune Technologies & Bioressources (NEPT)	Afternoon	N/A
Centurylink (CTL)	Afternoon	0.32	NetApp (NTAP)	Afternoon	0.90
Chemed (CHE)	Afternoon	2.27	New Home (NWHM)	Morning	0.64
Chemours (CC)	Afternoon	0.97	NOW (DNOW)	Morning	-0.07
Chimera Investment (CIM)	Morning	0.61	Nu Skin Enterprises (NUS)	Afternoon	1.18
Cimarex Energy (XEC)	Afternoon	1.22	Orbotech (ORBK)	Morning	0.85
Cinedigm (CIDM)	Afternoon	N/A	Parker Drilling (PKD)	Afternoon	-0.17
CMS Energy (CMS)	Morning	0.51	Patrick Industries (PATK)	Morning	1.07
CNX Midstream Partners (CNXM)	Morning	0.39	Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust (PEI)	Afternoon	0.04
Cohu (COHU)	Afternoon	0.31	Photronics (PLAB)	Morning	0.06
Colliers International Group (CIGI)	Morning	1.23	Pilgrim's Pride (PPC)	Afternoon	0.58
Consumer Portfolio Services (CPSS)	Afternoon	0.17	Potbelly (PBPB)	Morning	0.08
Corecivic (CXW)	Afternoon	0.55	Prothena (PRTA)	Afternoon	-1.47
Credit Suisse Group (CS)	Morning	N/A	QuickLogic (QUIK)	Afternoon	-0.04
Criteo (CRTO)	Morning	0.74	RadNet (RDNT)	Morning	0.11
CVR Energy (CVI)	Morning	-0.07	Rexford Industrial Realty (REXR)	Afternoon	0.03
CVR Refining (CVRR)	Morning	-0.02	Sabre (SABR)	Morning	0.28
Cyren (CYRN)	Morning	-0.08	SCANA (SCG)	Morning	0.90
Cytokinetics (CYTK)	N/A	-0.71	Scorpio Tankers (STNG)	Morning	-0.08
Dean Foods (DF)	Morning	0.26	Shire (SHPG)	Morning	3.86
Deltic Timber (DEL)	Afternoon	N/A	Sodastream International (SODA)	Morning	0.78
Diana Shipping (DSX)	Morning	N/A	Stag Industrial (STAG)	Afternoon	0.02
Digital Realty Trust (DLR)	Afternoon	0.37	Stericycle (SRCL)	Afternoon	1.14
Enbridge Energy Management (EEQ)	N/A	0.12	Summit Materials (SUM)	Morning	0.27
Enbridge Energy Partners (EEP)	Morning	0.20	Sun Life Financial (SLF)	Afternoon	0.81
EPAM Systems (EPAM)	Morning	0.98	SunPower (SPWR)	Morning	0.12
Equity Commonwealth (EQC)	Afternoon	0.20	Syntel (SYNT)	Morning	0.39
Euroseas (ESEA)	Morning	-0.03	Teck Resources (TECK)	Morning	1.01
Five9 (FIVN)	Afternoon	0.04	Terex (TEX)	Morning	0.24
FLIR Systems (FLIR)	Morning	0.55	The GEO Group (GEO)	Morning	0.35
Genesis Energy (GEL)	Afternoon	0.36	Time (TIME)	Morning	0.76
Genocea Biosciences (GNCA)	N/A	-0.41	Tucows (TCX)	Morning	0.74
Gladstone Commercial (GOOD)	Afternoon	-0.02	Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical (RARE)	Afternoon	-1.96
GNC (GNC)	Morning	0.23	United Fire Group (UFCS)	Morning	0.57
Gold Fields (GFI)	Afternoon	N/A	Urban Edge Properties (UE)	Afternoon	0.34
Goldcorp (GG)	Afternoon	0.12	US Ecology (ECOL)	Afternoon	0.60
Grand Canyon Education (LOPE)	Afternoon	1.10	Vanda Pharmaceuticals (VNDA)	Afternoon	-0.11
Healthcare Realty Trust (HR)	Afternoon	0.10	Veru (VERU)	Morning	-0.03
Hilton Worldwide (HLT)	Morning	0.44	Warrior Met Coal (HCC)	Afternoon	0.79
Hudson Pacific Properties (HPP)	Morning	0.11	Waste Management (WM)	Morning	0.83
Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII)	Morning	2.93	West Pharmaceutical Services (WST)	Morning	0.63
HV Bancorp (HVBC)	Morning	N/A	Williams Partners (WPZ)	Afternoon	0.44
Hyatt Hotels (H)	Morning	0.22	Wix.Com (WIX)	Morning	-0.13
IMPINJ (PI)	Afternoon	-0.21	Wyndham Worldwide (WYN)	Morning	1.35
Independence Realty Trust (IRT)	Morning	0.07	YuMe (YUME)	Afternoon	N/A
Insight Enterprises (NSIT)	Afternoon	0.79

PRE-MARKET MOVERS: $FOSL $DBVT $NSPR $ZSAN $CMG $BLDP $TWLO $OLED $DGAZ $RIOT $BIDU $TEUM $DPW
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^{Disclaimer: The opinions in this thread and forum are solely the opinions of the individual account holders and contributors. The info should not be regarded as investment advice or as a recommendation of any particular security. All investments entail risks. As with most things in life, caveat emptor.}

Disclaimer: Extracted from a Facebook post by a senior policy maker.. Pasting it as it is, without any modifications
"Since last few days, I have seen few jokes on Narendra Modi's foreign visits.... and all people are curious why Narendra Modi visits so many countries, What India achieving from it. Few hidden achievements are as given below.

1. BJP Govt. convinced Saudi Arabia to not charge “On-Time Delivery” Premium charges on Crude Oil – Young Petrolium minister Dharmendra Pradhan & External affair minister Sushma Swaraj seal the deal.
   
2. India will build 4 Hydropower station + Dams in Bhutan (India will get share in Green energy will be produce in future)
   
3. India will build Biggest ever dam of Nepal (China was trying hard to get that) – India will get 83% Green energy produce from that hydropower station in free – in future.
   
4. Increased relationship with Japan and they agree to invest $30 Billion in DMIC (Delhi – Mumbai Investment Corridor)
   
5. Increase relationship with Vietnam and Vietnam now agree to give contract of Oil exploration to ONGC-Videsh (UPA was not ready to take because they are worried of china – major conflict on south-china sea)
   
6. Increase Oil Import from Iran despite there is ban by USA. Iran agree to sell in Indian rupees and it save our Forex. India didn’t stop to build “Chabahar” port of Iran.
   
7. India – Australia (NaMo is first PM to visit Australia after 28yrs) Despite Australia is major supplier of Coal & Uranium. NaMo able to convinced Tony Abbott and now Australia will supply Uranium for our energy production.
   
8. China favoring President lost election in Sri Lanka – Remember UPA lost “Hambantota” port development – read latest report of CIA where they mention RAW has major role in power shift of Sri Lanka. Now Modi has confirmed he is visiting Sri Lanka in April.
   
9. With China as Trade Deficit was increasing – NaMo force either Anti-Dumping will be come soon or China have invest into India. – China commit $20 billion Investment in India.
   
10. On Security – I think adding “Ajit Doval” in his team is the best decision by NaMo. See the recent tie-up with Pantagon, Israel & Japan. Remember I.K.Gujaral as PM stop RAW’s offensive operations in foreign countries.. Now see how we stop ‪#‎TerrorBoat‬ and listen his word … “Any Mumbai like attack from Pakistan and Pakistan will lose balochistan”
    
11. India approve the Road in North east and around India china border – Remember Just because China’s oppose ADB (Asian Development Bank) didn’t give us fund during UPA regime and UPA hold that file under “Environment Ministry” node – Remember “JAYANTHI TAX” ?
    
12. India manage to bring back 4000+ Indians from War zone Yemen and also bring foreign nationals of 41 different countries which put India’s name globally in rescue mission – PM Narendra Modi specially talk to Saudi Arabian king and tell him to allow Indian Airforce planes to fly – as Saudi Arabia was attacking on Yemen and Yemen sky was declared NO-FLY Zone.
    
13. India’s Air defense was getting weaker day by day, NaMo has renegotiated Rafale fighter Jets deal with France and bough 36 Jets on ASAP basis.
    
14. First time after 42yrs Indian Prime Minister visits Canada, in Bilateral deal, Indian able convince to Canada to supply Uranium for India’s Nuclear reactors for next 5yrs. It will be great help to resolve India’s Power problems.
    
15. Canada approve On-Arrival visa for Indian tourists. This is incorrect. Its the other way round which actually happened: Canadians can now have visa on arrival in India.
    
16. Till yet we were buying the Nuclear Reactor from Russia or USA and it was much like bagger kind of situation because they were worried about usage of Nuclear reactor for some other use. Now Narendra Modi able to convince France and now France will make Nuclear reactor in India. On MAKE IN INDIA efforts.. with collaboration with Indian company.
    
17. During 26th Jan Visit of Barak Obama, NaMo convince USA to drop rule of Nuclear fuel tracking rule and sort-out Liabilities rules which now open the gates for next 16 Nuclear power plant projects."
    

Edit 1: Corrected the Canadian Visa 'achievement'

India has done exceptionally well in handling the "Palestine issue" from the very beginning.
NAM alignment helped us in avoiding the tag of USSR's proxy or USA's proxy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India_and_the_Non-Aligned_Movement
So, today we are friends of both Israel and Arabs - as proven by Modi's Israel and Palestine visits
If I am not wrong, nobody hates us in middle east , right ?!
Indo-Iranian joint development of Chabahar port was being seen as a big geopolitical advantage for India to connect with Afghanistan.
But, recent developments suggest that Iran is cosying up to Chinese for Chabahar's port development.
So, How do we deal with unpredicatble Iranians ?
Middle east is one of the biggest source of forex remittance back to our country.
So, I hope we continue to have good relations with middle eastern countries.

Link to the article:
https://www.jta.org/2017/10/24/news-opinion/israel-middle-east/israel-bans-a-decade-long-scam-that-bilked-millions-worldwide
Such articles sometimes disappear, but attempts to archive it failed.
Here is a screen shot: https://i.imgur.com/k7YWScx.png
Here is the full text of the article:
(begin quote)
Israel bans a decade-long scam that bilked millions worldwide
By Andrew TobinOctober 24, 2017 11:18am
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel’s multibillion-dollar binary options industry, which has scammed millions around the world over the past decade, is out of business.
On Monday, the Knesset unanimously passed a law to ban the industry, with 53 votes in favor and none against. By the time the measure goes into effect in three months, all binary options firms will have to shutter. Individuals who stay involved in the industry will face up to two years in jail.
“We worry about the BDS movement,” Knesset member Rachel Azaria of the Kulanu party said in her introduction to the law. “This industry has a huge impact on how Israel is viewed throughout the world. Our government officials go to international conferences and their colleagues abroad raise their eyebrows because of this industry.”
According to The Times of Israel, whose dogged English-language reporting on binary options pushed officials to take action, the binary options industry in Israel has brought in up to $10 billion a year over the past decade. Hundreds of local companies have defrauded millions of people worldwide.
Only a handful of Israelis have been arrested for binary options fraud, and none have been indicted, even as international law enforcement against the industry has ramped up. In August, Israel Police Superintendent Gabi Biton said Israeli organized crime was being massively enriched and strengthened because of law enforcement’s failure to grasp the scope of the problem.
Binary options are marketed as a financial instrument that can yield big returns fast. The companies’ websites allow clients to place bets on whether a commodity, like a stock or trading index, will increase or decrease in value over a short time period. In most cases, though, clients lose all or nearly all the money they invested because the game is rigged.
Salespeople regularly use false identities and misrepresent their location, credentials and product.
A Hong Kong woman who asked to remain anonymous lost about $10 million to an Israel-based binary options company over the past two years. Aggressive and dishonest salespeople bilked her of her life savings, the unmarried retiree said, as well as millions of dollars lent by family and friends.
“The cost is not just money. I lost my peace of mind. I’m very jumpy. My health has deteriorated,” she told JTA in April. “The burden of having to repay my family is weighing on me every day.”In 2016, responding to The Times of Israel’s work, Israeli leaders began to call for action. In August, Jewish Agency head Natan Sharansky urged the government to shutter the “repugnant, immoral” industry. In October, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office advocated a worldwide ban on its “unscrupulous” practices.
Early this year, the Knesset’s State Control Committee held a series of sessions to discuss how to stop binary options fraud. Soon after, Israel Securities Authority Chairman Shmuel Hauser drafted legislation that would have outlawed not only binary options companies, but also those involved in the foreign exchange market, or Forex, and CFD financial instruments.
Heavy pressure from the binary options industry and lobbyists on its behalf failed to stop passage of the new law, but it was narrowed to leave out the other investments.
Israeli opponents of the industry welcomed the Knesset action.
Yossy Haezrachy, a partner at the Friedman-Haezrachy law firm in Tel Aviv, said the law, though too long in coming, would aid his pursuit of justice for victims of binary options fraud.
“I think it has an effect on the judicial system,” he said. “The passage of the bill shows judges that a major part of this industry in fraudulent.”
However, Austin Smith, the founder of Wealth Recovery International, a company that reclaims money for binary options victims, called the law “total garbage.” He said it left scammers free to shift into new rackets without answering for their past wrongdoing.
“It’s more a political talking point than actually something with teeth that’s going to stop more fraud from being perpetrated,” he said. “It also does nothing to help victims of fraud recover any of their money.”
Smith said he is working with attorneys around the world to track the heads of binary options companies as they open operations in Cyprus and other countries and move into industries like diamond sales, cryptocurrencies and predatory business loans.
(end quote)
Could it be that some stereotypes exist for a reason?
EDIT: Here is a link to an archive of Google News search results on the topic at this time.
https://archive.is/TZfrO
Mostly Israeli and small time investment websites. One story on Reuters, watered down to hide the depth of the fraud.
Nothing in the US MSM.
Despicable.

We’re excited to welcome Itai Damti to the Metabase advisory team. Itai brings years of entrepreneurial knowledge and experience in global finance and financial technologies.
Prior to his current role as the CEO of Antifragile, a fintech consulting firm, Itai co-founded Leverate in 2008, an Israel based provider of technology solutions for the Forex industry. The company rapidly grew into an industry leader in technology for online brokers, with over $100 billion USD in monthly trading volume and 160 employees in 6 offices.
Read more: https://blog.metabase.network/intrepid-report/metabase-network-advisor-itai-damti/