This morning’s key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

ISIS slaughters hundreds from the Abu Nimr tribe in Iraq


Iraqi security forces guard a checkpoint in Ramadi, Anbar province. (Reuters)

As the Islamic State continues to close in on Baghdad, in recent weeks, they have beenspecially targeting the Abu Nimr tribe. Reports during the last weekindicate that hundreds of tribe members have been abducted and killedin a mass slaughter. It’s not known how many more of the 10,000 AbuNimr people have also been killed.

Abu Nimr is a Sunni tribe that developed a reputation for having stoodup to Saddam Hussein. In the years after the 2003 Iraq war, Abu Nimrwas one of the few Sunni tribes to fight against Al-Qaeda in Iraq.Later, during the “Anbar Awakening” and the American troop “surge,”Abu Nimr worked with the Americans to expel the Sunni terrorists.

Recently, Abu Nimr has been one of the few Sunni tribes fighting ISIS,but they’ve been running out of ammunition, and Baghdad has refused toresupply them, because the Shia government fears that the Sunni tribeswill turn against them later.

ISIS has been changing its tactics since the American-led bombingraids have begun. ISIS took control of much of Iraq by means of largesweeping operations. But because of the bombings, ISIS fighters nowtravel in small convoys, and try to stay out of side by hiding invillages. ISIS depends for its success on the cooperation of Sunnitribes in Anbar province, but Abu Nimr was one of the holdouts. (Guardian (London) and CNN and Musings on Iraq)

Wall Street posts hyperbolic five-day surge

Wall Street stocks surged again last week, with the Dowincreasing by almost 600 points, and the S&P 500 Price/Earnings index(stock valuations) once again approaching the astronomically highvalue of 19, putting the stock market into an enormous bubble. Thehistorical average for the P/E ratio is 14, and every 30 years or soit falls to the range 5-6, which is where it was last in 1982. A fallin the P/E ratio to 5-6 again will push the Dow down below 3000.

Friday’s surge particularly was apparently caused by a shockannouncement by the Bank of Japan that they would start a new massiveto the program that the American Federal Reserve has been pursuing.It’s widely believed that the Fed’s QE program, which ran as high as$85 billion per month, just pumped money into the stock market,benefiting the rich people and the Washington elites, withoutimproving the income of ordinary people.

It’s now assumed that the BOJ’s new QE program will have thesame effect.

However, the surprise BOJ announcement was a shock to individualinvestors who been expecting a further dive, and had a portfolio ofshort sales (essentially betting that the stock share prices wouldcontinue to fall). According to stock market guru Art Cashin:

“And anybody who was bearish, is now scrambling tocover. … What we’re seeing is a massive global short-covering.That’s why stocks are rallying.”

Cashin added that short-covering rallies seldom last long. However,other analysts point out that the European Central Bank may make asimilar announcement soon, pushing the stock market bubble even moreenormous.

Generational Dynamics predicts that, like all bubbles, this bubblewill burst, in the context of a global stock market panic andfinancial crisis, pushing the Dow back down to the 3000 level. 
(CNBC and Reuters)

Boko Haram ridicules Nigeria’s government, says abducted girls are married

Few really believed the Nigerian government’s claim thatthey had struck a deal with Boko Haram to release the 219 schoolgirlsabducted on April 16 from the town of Chibok

Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau has appeared in a video thatmocks and ridicules the government, saying that that the girls havebeen converted to Islam and have all been married off. The video is adouble humiliation for Nigeria’s government, because it had claimed Shekau had been killed by the army.

Excerpts from the transcript translation of Shekau are as follows:

“Without wasting time, we hereby send a message to thetyrants of Nigeria and other infidels as well as their worldtyrants as a whole in Hausa language.

You people should understand that we only obey Allah, we tread thepath of the Prophet. We hope to die on this path and get eternalrest in our graves, rise up in bliss before our Lord and enterParadise (quotes from the Koran). Our goal is the Garden ofEternal Bliss. May Allah protect us. …

Therefore I tell you (that) we have not made ceasefire withanyone. Only battle, hitting, striking and killing with gun whichwe long for like tasty meal. This what we believe in and fightfor. …

When did we release Chibok schoolgirls that we seized, those thatShekau who is now talking, seized, brought them and kept them inthe place he chose for more than six months now. …

Surprisingly, if the women of Chibok, I mean the mothers of theChibok schoolgirls and their fathers, if you know the conditionyour daughters are in today it could lead some to convert to Islamand some to die from grief.

Don’t you know the over 200 Chibok schoolgirls have converted toIslam? They have now memorised two chapters of the Koran. Theyhave seen themselves in the Books of Luke and John that Christianshave corrupted the Bible. Girls from Chibok confessing Islam isthe true religion! A six-grader, liars.

We married them off. They are in their marital homes. (Laughter)…

What is negotiation? We did not negotiate with anyone. It is alie. It is a lie. We will not negotiate. What is our business withnegotiation? Allah said we should not.”

Premium Times (Nigeria) and Independent (London)

KEYS: Generational Dynamics, Iraq, Abu Nimr, Baghdad, Saddam Hussein,Islamic State / of Iraq and Syria/Sham/the Levant, IS, ISIS, ISIL,Anbar Awakening, Bank of Japan, quantitative easing,Art Cashin, European Central Bank, price/earnings ratio,Nigeria, Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau
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