Wells Fargo Resumes Job Cutting As Part Of Plan To Save $10 Billion In Costs

Wells Fargo’s global workforce numbers some 266,000 people.

Wells Fargo posted a $2.4 billion loss in the second quarter

Year-to-date Wells Fargo shares have plunged 54.4%.

U.S. bank Wells Fargo (WFC) has begun cutting jobs in stark contrast to some of its peers, which have refrained from layoffs during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Under pressure to cut costs – especially after posting a $2.4 billion loss in the second quarter – the bank has been quietly slashing its workforce over the past few weeks, Bloomberg reported. The San Francisco-based lender also plans to enact deeper job cuts in the months and years ahead.

“Starting in early August, we resumed regular job displacement activity,” Beth Richek, a spokesperson for Wells Fargo, said in a statement. “We are at the beginning of a multiyear effort to build a stronger, more efficient company. We expect to reduce the size of our workforce through a combination of attrition, the elimination of open roles and job displacements.”

Wells Fargo agreed to suspend job cuts in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak – but now it appears that workers targeted for layoffs in the early part of the year will be the first ones to be let go.

In July, Chief Executive Officer Charlie Scharf said the bank would have to cut $10 billion in costs.

“This cannot continue,” Scharf told analysts. “There’s no reason why as a management team we don’t have the ability to be as efficient as the rest [of our peers].”

Job cuts in the remainder of the year will likely involve management and underperformers, Bloomberg noted. However, the ultimate magnitude of job cuts has not yet been determined.

https://www.ibtimes.com/wells-fargo-resumes-job-cutting-part-plan-save-10-billion-costs-3032645

US Designates 13 Iranians for Alleged Involvement in Assassination in Switzerland, Pompeo Says

In June, AFP reported, citing official correspondence, that Swiss prosecutors were close to closing the case against 14 suspects in the 1990 assassination of prominent Iranian academic and opposition figure Kazem Rajavi.

The United States has designated 13 Iranians for allegedly being involved in an assassination in Switzerland in 1990, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement.

"Friday, August 21 marks the annual Day of Remembrance and Tribute to the Victims of Terrorism. To both remember and honor these victims, today the U.S. Department of State is announcing visa restrictions on 14 Iranian individuals for their involvement in gross violations of human rights on behalf of the Iranian regime, the world’s leading state sponsor of terror", the statement, published on the US State Department's website, said.

According to the statement, the restrictions also apply to the "immediate family members" of the alleged suspects.

"The United States will continue to pressure Iran to treat its own people with dignity and respect. Iran conducts assassinations and terrorism abroad to spread its reign of terror well beyond its own borders. Today’s action includes visa restrictions on 13 officials involved in a brutal and intricately planned assassination carried out in Switzerland in 1990 as part of Iran’s ongoing worldwide terrorism campaign", the statement continued.

The US also designated Hojatollah Khodaei Souri, who as "director of Iran’s notorious Evin Prison, oversaw an institution synonymous with torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment", the statement added.

Pompeo also stated that Washington is "initiating the restoration of virtually all sanctions on Iran lifted under UN Security Council Resolution 2231" and that the sanctions will go "back into effect in 30 days".

I notified the @UN Secretary-General and the Security Council President that the U.S. is initiating the restoration of virtually all sanctions on Iran lifted under UN Security Council Resolution 2231. Those sanctions will go back into effect in 30 days. America will not appease. pic.twitter.com/NGzffu34a4

— Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) August 21, 2020

Washington has announced plans to trigger the snapback mechanism to re-impose all the UN sanctions against Iran — previously lifted under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) — after failing to get the UN Security Council to pass a resolution aiming to indefinitely extend the UN arms embargo on Tehran. The arms embargo is set to expire in October under the terms of the nuclear agreement. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has commented on the matter, saying that Washington’s move to trigger snapback sanctions linked to the JCPOA was "illegal".

The JCPOA was signed in 2015 by Iran, China, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom, the United States and the European Union, stipulating the removal of international sanctions from Tehran in exchange for it scaling down its nuclear programme. The deal was then sanctified in UNSC Resolution 2231, including a provision on a five-year arms embargo.

The United States unilaterally abandoned the agreement in May of 2018.​

On 24 April 1990, Exiled Iranian opposition figure Kazem Rajavi was shot dead in his car in the village of Coppet, near Geneva, Switzerland.

Swiss prosecutors voiced suspicions that the Iranian authorities were behind the assassination and drafted a list of 13 Iranians suspected of actively taking part.

https://sputniknews.com/world/202008211080239495-us-designates-13-iranians-for-alleged-involvement-in-assassination-in-switzerland/

Former Army Special Forces Officer Charged in Russian Espionage Conspiracy

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/former-army-special-forces-officer-charged-russian-espionage-conspiracy

Facebook Preparing To Handle Misinformation If Trump Casts Doubt On Election Results, Report Says

Already working to stem the tide of lies in the lead up to November, Facebook is also preparing to handle misinformation in the wake of the election, according to a New York Times report. The social media giant is working on a plan should President Donald Trump cast doubt on or try to actively interfere with the election, the Times said.

Sources close to the situation told the outlet that employees at Facebook are actively developing plans to handle a number of different scenarios. This primarily includes attempts by the Trump campaign to use Facebook’s platform to falsely claim that the president won reelection, or to claim that the Postal Service lost a large quantity of mail-in ballots.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg is said to be involved with daily meetings to discuss the matter. Another possibility discussed has been a sort of “kill switch” to deactivate all political advertising on Facebook around Election Day. Because Facebook does not fact check political ads, many conservative entities have abused the platform’s advertising system to spread misinformation.

Since the revelation that Russia used online platforms to spread misinformation and support Trump’s candidacy in 2016, platforms like Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook have been working to prevent a repeat of that scenario. The 2020 election is said to prevent new challenges for tech companies, as domestic sources of misinformation, including QAnon conspiracy theorists and the president himself, have become increasingly widespread.

While other platforms have recently begun taking Trump and his supporters to task for their lies, Facebook has attempted to remain neutral. Zuckerberg does not want his company to be “the arbiters of truth,” he has said. Despite claims by conservatives that social media is biased against them, Facebook has been accused of preventing right-wing entities from being punished for spreading misinformation.

https://www.ibtimes.com/facebook-preparing-handle-misinformation-if-trump-casts-doubt-election-results-report-3032555

Houthis Released Video Documenting Recent Operation Against ISIS, Al-Qaeda In Central Yemen (18+)

The Houthis’ media wing has released a video documenting the group’s recent operation against ISIS and al-Qaeda terrorists in the central Yemeni province of al-Bayda’. Brig. Gen. Yahya Sari, a spokesman for the group, presented the video via teleconference on August 21. The spokesman also shared new details about the operation.

During the operation, which lasted for two weeks, the Houthis killed, captured or injured around 250 terrorists of ISIS and al-Qaeda. The group’s fighters also destroyed fourteen positions and military camps of the terrorists, liberating 1,000 km2 of the district of Wald Rabi’.

“Among those killed there were five commanders of ISIS, including the group’s leader [in Wald Rabi’] as well as the security and financial officials,” Brig. Gen. Sari said.

According to Brig. Gen. Sari, the terrorists were supporting Saudi-led coalition operations in al-Bayda. The terrorists also received support from the coalition.

“We found complete information and evidence confirming that these elements had carried out various operations during the past years in more than one Yemeni region,” the spokesman said, adding: “We also obtained evidence confirming that the Takfiris [terrorists] were coordinating with other elements in Arab and foreign states.”

The video released by the Houthis confirms that coalition warplanes provided the terrorists with close air support during their battle with the Houthis in Wald Rabi’. The video shows close combat between Houthi fighters and the terrorists as well as loads of weapons and equipment which were seized by the Yemeni group.

Brig. Gen. Sari said the operation was launched after extensive intelligence work. The operation was carried out in cooperation with local tribes from Wald Rabi’ as well as tribes from the nearby district of al-Qurashiyah.

The operation dealt a major blow to ISIS and al-Qaeda remnants in al-Bayda’. The two terrorist groups have been solidifying their influence in the central province since the outbreak of the war in 2015. The Saudi-led coalition rarely took action against them.

https://southfront.org/houthis-released-video-documenting-recent-operation-against-isis-al-qaeda-in-central-yemen-18/

U.S. Judge Urges Supreme Court to End U.S. Police State It Imposes

A black U.S. District Court Judge in Mississippi — one of America’s most bigoted-against-Blacks states — issued on August 4th a 72-page decision, Jamison v. McClendon, containing a plea for the U.S. Supreme Court to discontinue its imposition of police legal immunity when police are being accused of — while on the job — having violated Constitutionally guaranteed rights of American citizens (such as by shooting innocent persons — such as George Floyd). Legally immune police is what defines a police state; and, so, this was a black judge’s request for the U.S. Supreme Court to end the existing police state it imposes in America — to end a police state that this judge attributed to (and which he documented to have been produced by) choices that the U.S. Supreme Court itself had made, and that only they therefore can possibly reverse.

His basic point was that nothing which allows a public official to violate the U.S. Constitution is Constitutional, and that therefore these U.S. Supreme Court decisions themselves violate the U.S. Constitution, and should therefore be reversed by the U.S. Supreme Court, which created this situation of legal immunity for police misconduct.

The decision by this judge, Carlton W. Reeves, asserted: “The Constitution says everyone is entitled to equal protection of the law — even at the hands of law enforcement. Over the decades, however, judges [at the U.S. Supreme Court] have invented a legal doctrine to protect law enforcement officers from having to face any consequences for wrongdoing. The doctrine is called ‘qualified immunity.’ In real life it operates like absolute immunity.” Because of U.S. Supreme Court rulings, he had to — in the particular case at hand that he was ruling on — grant a police officer’s “qualified immunity” from prosecution, regardless of what is Constitutional, or even justice in any meaningful sense. Implicitly, he is saying, in this ruling, that because of the existing legal tradition of stare decisis or adhering to existing juridical tradition — and especially of doing so when the prior rulings come from a higher court, most especially from the U.S. Supreme Court — he is required, in the present case, to issue a ruling that violates the U.S. Constitution itself. And so, he did that, he admits. This is an exceptionally bold ruling, far beyond what is normal. Basically, he says that in order for him not to be reversed on appeal, he had to rule against the U.S. Constitution, in the particular case that he was ruling on. He was pleading with the U.S. Supreme Court to end this, so that judges in the lower courts will be able to enforce — instead of compelled to violate — the Constitution.

https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2020/08/21/us-judge-urges-supreme-court-to-end-us-police-state-it-imposes/

Lisa Page Offers To Build Support Group For Bureaucrats If Trump Remains In Office. What Would You Call It?

Former FBI lawyer Lisa Page who actively participated in the FBI’s concocted investigation into President Donald Trump’s campaign and Russia, is now suggesting the creation of a support group for bureaucrats caught in his crosshairs.

Remember it was Page who wanted to sue Trump for her therapy bill after she was caught red-handed with her cohorts at the FBI attempting to overthrow his administration.

However, her idea for a support group would be awesome. I would love to be a fly on the wall at one of their meetings. I wonder who all would attend.

My guesses: her former lover FBI Special Agent Peter Strzok, former CIA Director John Brennan, former Deputy Director Andrew McCabe and definitely leading the group session, former FBI Director James Comey.

Still, this group would not be complete without the shortest lived White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci, retired Gen. Jim ‘Mad Dog’ Mattis, and former Trump advisor Omarosa Manigault Newman.

Can you imagine? This is the best idea Page has ever made public.

So, if you have any suggestions for participants in the group or what the support group might be called please let us know and we will repost your suggestions for Page?

I would unquestionably build and support such an organization if DJT remains in office. This is a deeply isolating experience, one that existentially changes those that endure it. We have to build capacity to make sure people who go through it don't do so alone. https://t.co/7nyt652EzC

— Lisa Page (@NatSecLisa) August 19, 2020

https://saraacarter.com/lisa-page-offers-to-build-support-group-for-bureaucrats-if-trump-remains-in-office-what-would-you-call-it/

Tripoli-Based Government of National Accord Announced Nationwide Ceasefire In Libya

The Libyan Government of National Accord (GNA), which is based in Tripoli, announced on August 21 a nationwide ceasefire.

A heated conflict between the GNA and the Libyan National Army (LNA) jeopardized the political process in the war-torn country over the last two years. The GNA received support from Turkey and Qatar, while Egypt, the UAE and Russia backed the army.

“The head of the Presidential Council of the GNA [Fayez al-Sarraj] has issued instructions to all military forces to immediately cease fire and all combat operations in all Libyan territories”, the government said in its official statement.

The GNA also called for the establishment of a demilitarized zone between al-Jufra and Sirte in central Libya as well as for an agreement to preserve oil income until a full political settlement is reached.

Earlier, the House of Representatives (HoR), allied with the LNA, called for a ceasefire in the country. The HoR also suggested that any new Presidential Council should be based in Sirte, wich would be placed under the control of the joint police force.

Both the GNA and the HoR stressed in their statements that the political settlement should be based on the outcome of the Berlin Conference.

The ceasefire announcement was welcomed by several countries, including France, Egypt and the U.S.

The head of the Petroleum Facilities Guard, General Naji al-Maghrabi, announced on Wednesday that the blockade on oil production in the country imposed by LNA Commander Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar had been lifted after over seven months. By order of LNA Khalifa Haftar, the oil terminals and deposits will resume operation after months of closure. Libya will export only oil accumulated in port terminals. The decision was seen as a sign of a close political agreement with the GNA.

The new ceasefire is further evidence that an agreement between the GNA and the LNA is close. International pressure, especially from Egypt, played a key role in pushing the two sides away from a long military conflict.

https://southfront.org/tripoli-based-government-of-national-accord-announced-nationwide-ceasefire-in-libya/

Russian Warplanes Rained Hell On ISIS Terrorists In Central Syria

On August 21, warplanes of the Russian Aerospace Forces (VKS) carried out a series of airstrikes on ISIS hideouts in central Syria.

According to the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the intense Russian airstrikes targeted the terrorist group’s hideouts in the Homs desert as well as in the al-Suwayda desert, to the south.

“Seven warplanes took part in the bombing campaign,” the monitoring group said in its report.

The VKS’ fierce airstrikes on ISIS in central Syria appear to be a response to the terrorist group’s recent attack on Russian troops.

The attack, which took place on August 18, killed Maj. Gen. Vyacheslav Gladkih and injured two other Russian service members.

ISIS confirmed its responsibility for the attack in a statement released by its news agency, Amaq, on August 20. The terrorist group said a Russian patrol operating between Homs and Deir Ezzor was hit by improvised explosive devices previously planted by its fighters.

https://southfront.org/russian-warplanes-rained-hell-on-isis-terrorists-in-central-syria/

Boycott Businesses that Require Face Diapers

"If a store required customers to wear shoes, would you boycott it,"

a dimwitted reader responded to my Twitter call for a boycott.

The difference is that

1. There is no pandemic. COVID 19 is no worse than the common cold/flu. The death rate is less than 1/2 of one percent, mainly the aged.

1. Face Diapers are humiliating and unhealthy. The elite (World Economic Forum) admit that the #scamdemic is a mass hallucination designed to force undemocratic social change.

How do we respond?

Below- Eric Peters urges us to boycott.

Literally everyone corporations, media, education, and politicians is controlled by the banks, who are controlled by the Satanist world banking cartel. Thought you lived in a democracy?

We are forced to hand over our money to the government. We still have the power - and the legal right - to withhold it from businesses that don't deserve it.

One such is Carl's Jr. - the hamburger chain. Which just issued a policy decreeing that Face Diapers must be worn by employees and patrons . . . until the latter get to their anti-socially distanced tables, where they will be allowed to take them off.

This sort of ritual - in the cultic sense - is being performed at restaurants and cafes all over the country. It defies medical sense - because if "the virus" is in the air and if Face Diapers are the only thing keeping "the virus" from infecting and killing people (99.5 percent of whom never actually die) then one should never take them off.

No one should be out and about. People didn't get hamburgers when the Bubonic Plague was about. But we must pretend the Bubonic Plague is about.

It becomes even more obviously ritualistic when you take into account that literally any filthy old rag qualifies as a "face covering" - in the superciliously faux clinical language of these Diapering Decrees.

It is a performance; theater - which even High Priest of the Sickness Cult Dr. Fauci admitted - the admission now memory-holed, along with the related injunctions to not Face Diaper, now retracted.

Because it is now necessary to maintain the impression that the Bubonic Plague is in the air.

The admission still exists - on the box side of "coverings" typically on hand at the entrance to stores and other places with Diapers muss sein polices. It says - right there - that the flimsy thing "will not provide any protection (italics added) against CFOVID-19 or other viruses or contaminants."

https://www.henrymakow.com/2020/08/boycott-businesses-that-require-face.html

Sarah Palin Torches Kamala Harris, Accuses Her Of Prostituting Herself To Get Where She Is

n an interview on “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said she was both “nauseated and just laughing,” from remarks delivered at the Democratic Convention, reflecting a culture that is “just so out of touch with the normal average Americans.”

FOX News reports that Palin said,”Remember, these Democrat candidates, they are treated as delicate pieces of china whereas someone like me, and other kind of hardcore common constitutional conservatives, we’re more like the bull in the china shop.”

Palin specifically highlighted the mainstream media’s favorable coverage of Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris, but told host Tucker Carlson she “would not have prostituted myself in terms of changing any of my positions in order to garner better press” during her vice-presidential bid in 2008.

https://www.dcclothesline.com/2020/08/21/sarah-palin-torches-kamala-harris-accuses-her-of-prostituting-herself-to-get-where-she-is/

Insider at PR Giant Publicis Groupe Reveals Far-left Racism Spreading Through Woke Capitalism

An insider at Publicis Groupe, one of the world’s biggest advertising and PR companies, exclusively shared screenshots from a “diversity” training day in which employees received instructions by proponents of radical politics of race, which included the corporate wokeness indoctrination such as the idea that the slogan “Make America Great Again” is a form of “covert white supremacy.”

During the online day of training, which the insider described as an “insane Maoist jubilee,” employees received instruction on how to favor people in hiring and promotion on the basis of their skin color, that people who don’t feel guilty about racism have “white privilege,” and were advised to direct company money to far-left causes as part of “corporate social responsibility.”

This news comes as American corporations are in the spotlight over intolerance of Trump supporters, anti-white racism, and embrace of far-left politics. Tire manufacturer Goodyear is currently facing a boycott, encouraged by President Trump, after news emerged that it bans the “Make America Great Again” and “Blue Lives Matter” slogans while allowing “Black Lives Matter.”

The presentations and discussions among left-wing employees trying to “out-woke” each other, provides a snapshot of the radical far-left racism that is spreading across major corporations, in which employees are taught that not to consider people’s skin color in their day-to-day interactions is a form of “white privilege” or even “white supremacy.”

In other messages, employees discussed cutting off clients that don’t meet the demands of far-left politics.

In one of the presentations, the slogan “Make America Great Again” was described as a form of “covert” and “socially acceptable” white supremacy.

The slogan “there’s only one human race” is also included on the list, as well as “all lives matter”, the notion of colorblindness, denial of white privilege, and calling the police on black people.

https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2020/08/21/exclusive-insider-at-pr-giant-publicis-groupe-reveals-far-left-racism-spreading-through-woke-capitalism/