Monthly Archives: March 2018

Mar 1 2018

Massachusetts Man Arrested For Mailing “White Powder” Threat Letter To Don Trump Jr…


RE-Posted from The Conservative Tree House on March 1, 2018 by

Following up on this earlier scare. Today federal authorities arrested a Massachusetts man for mailing a threatening letter to Donald and Vanessa Trump containing powder.

(New York Post) The feds on Thursday busted a 24-year-old man from suburban Boston for sending a letter that contained a white powder that turned out to be cornstarch to Donald Trump Jr. last month, authorities said.

The letter was postmarked from Boston on Feb. 7, and the first son’s frightened wife Vanessa was briefly hospitalized when she opened it on Feb. 12 at her mother’s Upper East Side home.
Daniel Frisiello of Beverly was arrested on federal charges of mailing threats to injure and providing false information and hoaxes, The Boston Globe reported.

US Attorney Andrew E. Lelling said during a news conference Thursday morning that such hoaxes “scare the heck out of people” following the post 9/11 anthrax mailings that killed five people.  Peter Kowenhoven, an assistant special agent in charge of the FBI Boston office, said the message was simple for people seeking to “terrorize” the public, the paper reported. “Don’t do it,” he said. (read more)

Mar 1 2018

“Ice Age Conundrum: Factors Contributing…” w/ Cogent Randall Carlson in the Classroom


Mar 1 2018

The New German Political Hawk?


Armstrong Economics Blog/Germany

Re-Posted Mar 1, 2018 by Martin Armstrong

The German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen was being touted as a possible successor to Merkel. She has spoken at the Munich Security Conference stating that there must be “the common will to actually use the military weight when circumstances require it.” Leyen has come out saying that Germany should no longer hide behind its history, but must accept that soldiers must fight for the security of the nation and the freedom of the people. Leyen’s French colleague, Florence Parly, has also called for closer European military cooperation.

The NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has warned against risks that confront Europe as a whole. He came out and said: “The truth is: the European Union cannot protect Europe alone.”

France has been stating that Europe must be militarily independent of the USA. Nonetheless, t defense of Europe without the help of Norway, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States, would actually be very hard to imagine.

The scuttlebutt is that Leyen is a hawk who would have little problem going to war against Russia. She was seen as on the short-list of successors to Merkel, but she is going to NATO instead. The Hessian Prime Minister Bouffier is surprisingly distant to Chancellor Merkel as the dissatisfaction with Merkel rises.

Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer is also being talked about as a successor to Merkel. She is the first woman to lead the government of Saarland and only the fourth woman to govern any German state.
Mar 1 2018

Swedish Central Bank Voice Alarm


Armstrong Economics Blog/Central Banks

Re-Posted Mar 1, 2018 by Martin Armstrong

QUESTION: Hi Martin,

Yesterday the Swedish Riksbank Chairman Stefan Ingves went on prime time TV expressing fear that public authorities are losing control over the Swedish currency! He also on prime time TV asked rhetorically -We have asked our self what is money?! Can you believe that!?
What the heck is going on? The Chairman of the WORLDS OLDEST CENTRAL BANK goes on prime time TV expressing fear for the public to lose confidence in the Swedish KRONA! Also saying that private companies are taking control over the currency and that cryptocurrencies are a threat.
I know the Swedish Krona is a small currency but one of the oldest still alive today. What does Socrates say about the Swedish Krona?
Stefan Ingves also yesterday published a long article in Dagens Nyheter, a national magazine expressing the same fear. A large finance paper published an article yesterday about this issue. Here is the link.
ANSWER: Sweden is the oldest Central Bank. That is where it all began. The first true banknotes for circulation appeared in Sweden, and these were actually used by the government to support its wars with Germany. In 1661, the government established a 30-year monopoly for its Stockholm Banco to issue these banknotes known as “letters of credit” that were to be payable in Swedish copper plate money that was extremely heavy weighing almost 15 kilos. It was not very practical for actual circulation. However, this practice was abused and ended up supporting the king. This led to the first banking panic in 1663 when there were more obligations than money to now redeem the notes. The bank was forced to close in 1664.
When the Governor of the bank Stefan Ingves is saying is that central banks have actually lost control of the money supply as well as the economy. He is pointing out that the bulk of the money supply is actually created in the private sector by leverage. He believes that the future will be dominated by commercial banks and he views the emerging new electronic currencies as “problematic”.
This is what I have been warning about. The onslaught of cryptocurrencies threatens the monopoly of governments to create and control the core base currency/money supply. Governments will not allow cryptocurrencies to compete. Right now, they are grabbing headlines, but they are not really viable currencies. They are not in use within the day-to-day economy.
Stefan Ingves is voicing what I have been hearing behind the curtain. The cryptocurrencies are problematic within the economy. But the main factor that controls the money supply has been the commercial banking system. The creation of loans creates electronic entries on accounts. If I have $100 in my account and the bank lends you $100, we then both have $100 in our accounts so the money supply is doubled WITHOUT the central bank printing anything.
Mar 1 2018

South Africa Expropriating White Farmer’s Property


Armstrong Economics Blog/Corruption

Re-Posted Mar 1, 2018 by Martin Armstrong

South Africa is turning extremely left-wing to the point that it is risking any viable economic future. The Parliament of South Africa on Tuesday voted to expropriate the majority white farmers of the country without compensation. This is how the Russian Revolution took place – the just took everyone’s property. The motion was submitted by the left-wing party Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and it was supported by the ruling party ANC (African National Congress). This maneuver is trying to change the constitution. All the work of Nelson Mandella is being gradually eliminated.

Clearly, the topic of land expropriation has been one of the most sensitive issues since the end of apartheid in South Africa. New President Cyril Ramaphosa, in his first major speech after taking office in mid-February, publicly stated that he supported the expropriation of white farmers without compensation. The excuse is that this will lead to increased food production. It has absolutely nothing to do with that. The majority of the agricultural land in South Africa still belongs to the white South Africans even 24 years after the end of apartheid. White ownership has declined slightly from 85% to 73%. However, the idea of a free market in South Africa does not truly survive. The rising chants assert that the “time for compensation is over; now is the time for justice!”

Parliament mandated the Constitutional Commission to report on the issue at the end of August. The ruling ANC party is under pressure before next year’s parliamentary elections, and land seizures of white South Africans could increase popular support in the poor black electorate. Of course economically, when a nation simply expropriates private property, thereafter, it becomes economically a high risk to do business with them.

The hyperinflation of Zimbabwe was in part set in motion by the violent expropriation of white farmers. Zimbabwe saw a sharp decline in production of food plunging the country into chaos. Zimbabwe was formerly known as the breadbasket of southern Africa. Once it expropriated the farms of white farmers, the country fell into complete chaos. South Africa is risking the very same future. Inflicting vengeance upon the white farmers may make many feel better, but it risks sending the economy into total chaos.

Meanwhile, President Cyril Ramaphosa was part of the original movement in South Africa’s peaceful transition to democracy. However, he has also been criticized for his conduct dealing with firms such as his joint venture with Glencore and allegations of benefitting illegally from coal deals with Eskom. Glencore became a huge controversy because of its business activities involving Tony Blair, former Prime Minister of UK. There is a Directional Change due in 2020. The Apartheid era (1948-1994) lasted for 46 years. The current situation appears moving toward a major economic crisis going into 2020.

Mar 1 2018

New York Mayor De Blasio Hires Massively Corrupt Miami-Dade School Superintendent Alberto Carvalho…


Re-Posted The Conservative Tree House on February 28, 2018 by

According to the New York Daily News, New York Mayor Bill De Blasio has hired Miami Dade’s former school head Alberto Carvalho to be the New York School Chancellor. This will NOT end well.  New York parents likely have no idea who their mayor just hired.

In 2013 an investigation into the Miami-Dade School Police Department (M-DSPD) uncovered several police officers, and School Resource Officers, admitting to breaking the law because they were instructed to do so by M-DSPD Police Chief Charles Hurley.  During the investigation, Chief Hurley admitted to giving the police officers instructions to hide criminal conduct by students, because of specific demands by School Superintendent Alberto Carvalho.

Alberto Carvalho is a very well connected political figure among Democrats.  [Carvalho also has a zipper problem] It was Carvalho’s program to use the police to inflate statistical improvements in schools that eventually led to neighboring Broward County doing the same thing in 2013.  Those policies directly led to the recent school shooting in Parkland.

New York – Mayor de Blasio has selected Miami Superintendent Alberto Carvalho — an illegal immigrant who rose to prominence and became a citizen in the process — to lead the city’s school system.

De Blasio will officially announce Carvalho, 53, on Thursday as his chancellor pick to run the nation’s largest school system, City Hall spokesman Eric Phillips said.

Carvalho was born in Portugal to a working-class family and came to the United States in the early 1980s as an undocumented immigrant.

He has served as superintendent of the Miami-Dade County public schools, the nation’s fourth-largest school system, since September 2008, according to the district’s website. (read more)

Superintendent Carvalho instructed Miami-Dade School Police Chief Hurley to stop arresting students solely to improve statistics.  However, what they ended up doing in order to achieve that goal was actually illegal.

M-DSPD Media Advisory - Copy

M-DSPD Chief Charles Hurley was fired shortly after an internal affairs investigation outlined the unlawful program. To keep the story from being widely discovered the reason given for Hurley’s discharge was a “sexual harassment” claim.  However, presumably to reward Hurley for going along with the false reason for the firing – the official reason for termination on Hurley’s file said: “failure to re-qualify with a firearm“, likely having something to do with keeping a pension benefit as a payoff.