Monthly Archives: May 2020

May 5 2020

Food Shortages Set in Motion by Politicians


Armstrong Economics Blog/Economics

Re-Posted May 5, 2020 by Martin Armstrong

COMMENT:  Dear Martin,
it is amazing what your computer is picking in advance. In Germany we now have the French fries crisis. (Reported now by N-TV) Doe to the fact, that all restaurants are shut down, the Farmers cannot sell most of their potatoes. So we will see a lot of farmers get in financial troubles. Welcome to the beginning food crisis which Socrates is telling us.
Keep up the fantastic work
MG
TH

REPLY: Absolutely everything is connected. Governments always function linearly and never understand that cycle exists. I got along with Margaret Thatcher because she kept an open mind. This is her address from our World Economic Conference. Here, she admits that governments think in trend, but perhaps they should think in cycles.

Once you see that everything is connected, it becomes so easy to grasp the fact that a single decision will set off a chain reaction that becomes unstoppable. Because politicians think in a linear manner, they do not comprehend the basic principle from physics which allies to everything. Newton’s third law: for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

They cannot shut down the economy in the manner that they have done, for the damage to the entire supply chain is tremendous. You already have brick & mortar stores filing for bankruptcy. This is having a profound economic impact that will not simply rebound. The damage will take two years to work its way through and only then will see fully grasp the complete damage this stupidity has caused. We will see food shortages because they have destroyed farmers who sold in bulk to distributors who supplied the restaurants. Retail food stores typically did not deal with farmers directly. That was a different supply chain.

We are cursed with politicians who take absurd actions without any understanding of even how everything functions.

 

May 5 2020

Fraud in New York Overstating COVID Deaths to Get More Money


Armstrong Economics Blog/Disease

Re-Posted May 5, 2020 by Martin Armstrong
May 5 2020

WHY is Nobody Investigating Bill Gates?


Armstrong Economics Blog/Conspiracy

Re-Posted May 5, 2020 by Martin Armstrong

 

QUESTION: Marty; Do you think Gates can be stopped?

FK

ANSWER: I believe based upon his conduct, Bill Gates is such an elitist he lacks wisdom. He sees the world only through the lens of his climate change philosophy which was instilled in him by his father who obviously was a believer in Malthus. He is no scientist, knows nothing about economics no less history, and even admits that in his interview with the London FT. Politicians are attracted to money like bugs to pretty blue lights. They lack any comprehension of economics or history, so our fate has been handed to the most unqualified group of people probably in recorded history. That said, Gates will find his ideas of pressing the people to forge his new world order of ZERO CO2 will lead to massive violence. He may go down in history for killing more people than the ideas from Karl Marx.

I know so many people will hate what I am about to say, but here it goes anyway. Our greatest hope remains Donald Trump. Why? Make no mistake about it, Bill Gates meets would world leaders around the globe. They are impressed by his money and hope to hit him up. Money will not buy Trump and that is why he does not get along with Trump — he cannot be bought. What is interesting is that Gates has not met with Trump since he became president. He did meet with him at Trump Tower when he was president-elect. The meeting was claimed to have been about technology, but in fact, it was Gates trying to manipulate Trump into promoting his climate change agenda which failed. Ever since that meeting, Gates has been opposed to Trump and works to undermine him whenever possible.

Gates meets world leaders around the globe. He is there for only two possible reasons: (1) pitch his vaccine, and/or (2) offer political donations/favors.

Gates openly meets with many other world leaders who are willing to help him in his climate change/virus agenda. He was even given a residency in Estonia. He has met with just about every European leader including Portugal’s leader.

Bill Gates gives more money to the World Health Organization than every other government except the United States, which Trump has suspended and should TERMINATE.

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Exactly what is Gate’s agenda? He is not a medical doctor, an economist, and even admits he has no idea about economic history. He is not a scientist on climate, and he never wrote the program DOS that made Microsoft — he bought it for peanuts. He has basically shut down meat production but conveniently has investments in meat substitutes. In fact, Bill Gates and Leonardo DiCaprio joined forces, not just in climate change, but in promoting meat substitutes because cattle eat grass and emit CO2.

Gates has huge investments in vaccine companies. If he vaccinates the entire world and made just $1 from each person, that is $7.5 billion. This is a huge violation of the Securities Exchange Act as he has major conflicts of interests. If I did that without disclosing my conflicts, I would go to jail for 20 years.

Gates obviously has scared the hell out of people running around TV worldwide, advocating lockdowns, and then justifies his actions by saying people do not want to leave their homes. He has destroyed more jobs than any invader in history, has set in motion massive food shortages which may help his reduction in population for rebuilding a ZERO CO2 environment. He has no respect for democracy nor how he has destroyed people’s pensions.

You cannot vaccinate the entire world. The CDC’s data shows that the very best vaccines are only 60% effective. There will NEVER be 100% guarantees. Then the formula has to change every year. So this is something he intends to use to rule the world and sell his vaccines yearly. For what? Around $15 to $50 billion annually? Vaccines are NOT 100% safe and they are endless for every new virus mutation would require another vaccine.

God help us. Will some government PLEASE investigate? If he really believes what he is saying, how many people will starve and how many domestic violence cases will there be? How much sexual abuse against children will take place? He takes no responsibility for any of this. Then we have city and states who intend to raise property taxes more than 30% to compensate for their lost revenue already. What about more than 50 million people losing their jobs in the USA alone? Less than 1 million people were diagnosed with this virus. That does not warrant guaranteeing the world. Never in human history has that EVER been done! More than 30% of Americans will lose their homes who have mortgages. Does he care about any of this?

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The press asks nothing about all of this. Nothing! Just maybe they should stop hating Trump so damn much and look at someone who is impacting the entire world and changing everyone’s future.
May 5 2020

Why Lock-downs are Unconstitutional


Armstrong Economics Blog/Gov’t Incompetence

Re-Posted May 4, 2020 by Martin Armstrong

I believe Republican Governor of Massachusetts is unqualified for public office. He has no idea about the Constitution nor does he really seem to even care. The First Amendment is the Freedom of Religion and there is NO exception in there that allows for a lock-down anywhere including in the Commerce Clause. He imposed a law without justification that there cannot even be religious practices with gatherings of more than 10 people. The average age of people who have died in his state is 82. He licks the ground Bill Gates walks on and that is a very sad statement.

In Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker’s executive order of March 23 limiting most gatherings to 10 people which included what the order calls “faith-based” events. The also imposed a $300 fine for not wearing a mask. Baptist Pastor Casey first held an in-person service exceeding 10 people on Sunday, April 26. On that day, the church encouraged people to stay six feet apart, offered masks and gloves to attendees, and required that they pass a temperature check to enter. None of that was sufficient for the governor.

This is the entire problem with the way laws are carried out in the United States and I STRONGLYurge people to write to Congress and to the White House to demand change! Congress can actually pass a law that say you MUST kill your first born on Friday the 13th whenever that occurs first regardless of the month. Nobody has any right to stop that law UNLESS they try to enforce it. Then you have to have the money to hire lawyers and go all the way to the Supreme Court. You are looking at way over $1 million for that exercise.

This is all ass-backwards. There should be a Constitutional Court set up where any law they pass MUST go to court BEFORE they try to enforce it. The burden should not fall to the individual to have to prove government is violating the Constitution. Until that takes place, there will only be injustice for those in power know that they can do whatever they want to you and will NEVER be held accountable.

May 5 2020

Delicious Dynamic – John Ratcliffe ODNI Confirmation Hearing Tomorrow – Senate Intel Committee 9:30am ET


Posted originally on The Conservative Tree House on May 4, 2020 by 

An interesting dynamic unfolds tomorrow as the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) will be holding the confirmation hearing for President Trump’s nominee, John Ratcliffe.  As a result of earlier political moves the SSCI is between a rock and a hard place.

The SSCI is the drain-plug in the swamp. They use their corrupt oversight power and confirmation authority to control the intelligence apparatus (swamp guards) and ensure that no executive branch officer can disrupt or disclose their corrupt Senate schemes.

President Trump nominated Representative John Ratcliffe, an intelligence community reformer, for the position of Director of National Intelligence (DNI).  The SSCI previously rejected Ratcliffe because his existence is adverse to their interests.  However, in response Trump installed honey badger Richard “Ric” Grenell as the acting DNI.

The SSCI hates Grennel with the ferocity of a thousand supernovas because Grenell doesn’t give a f**k about their swamp life. Better yet, Grenell smacks them around publicly on Twitter whenever the SSCI dispatch the orcs from the deep swamp intelligence apparatus.  Every time orcs poke their heads out of the DC labyrinth, Grenell smacks them with a billion mega-watt sunlight hammer. They shriek and retreat to the dungeon.

The good news for the SSCI is that Grenell can only stay in the ‘acting’ role until September of this year.  However, the bad news is if the SSCI rejects John Ratcliffe then Ric Grenell gets another year to antagonize the corrupt senators, swing the sunlight hammer & expose the darkest secrets of their beloved swamp.  {{Grumble – Grumble}}

As a result President Trump has pinned the SSCI into the corner of their cave.  If the SSCI rejects Ratcliffe, they are stuck with Grenell; and Ric really is a guy who doesn’t give a f**k about the SSCI’s indulgent self-interest and thirst for power.

As Senator Angus King said: “If we vote down Ratcliffe, we’re stuck with Grenell.”

[Insert Angus sad face here]

Too darned funny.

New York Times -President Trump first picked Representative John Ratcliffe of Texas to be the nation’s intelligence chief last summer, but resistance in the Republican Senate was so firm that Mr. Ratcliffe’s name was withdrawn before his nomination ever became official.

Eight months later, Mr. Ratcliffe is back. On Tuesday, he will step before many of those same lawmakers on the Senate Intelligence Committee for a confirmation hearing to be the director of national intelligence — this time as a full-fledged nominee whose prospects have vastly improved as Republican opposition has softened.

[…] The reversal in fortune has been remarkable, even by the standards of Trump-era Washington. It arguably has as much to do with Richard Grenell, the acting director of national intelligence, as it does with Mr. Ratcliffe, officials involved in the confirmation process said.

Key Republican senators including Richard M. Burr of North Carolina, the Intelligence Committee chairman, are uneasy about Mr. Grenell, an aggressive defender of the president who has moved to reshape the office while making liberal use of his Twitter account to spar with the news media and Democrats. (Mr. Grenell also continues to serve as the ambassador to Germany.)

[…] Mr. Ratcliffe will say that depoliticizing the intelligence agencies would be one of his top priorities as director — a promise that could alarm Democrats who see such comments as a euphemism for pulling the agencies closer to Mr. Trump’s views.

[…] Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, the panel’s top Democrat, said he would give Mr. Ratcliffe a respectful hearing but made clear he viewed him as part of a broader attempt by Mr. Trump to politicize the nation’s intelligence apparatus.

[…] The White House has made clear the only alternative to Mr. Ratcliffe is Mr. Grenell, the acting director, who can continue in the role through September, although his term would be extended further if the Senate rejects Mr. Ratcliffe.

Even on an interim basis, Mr. Grenell has declared that he is “not a seat warmer” and set about remaking the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, beginning a review aimed at shrinking the office, replacing the leader of the National Counterterrorism Center and studying whether to reduce intelligence sharing with countries that criminalize homosexuality.

Senators acknowledge that the vote could come down to their preference between the two men.

“The fellow that is the acting is just as partisan, if not more so than Congressman Ratcliffe,” Mr. King said. “If we vote down the congressman, we are still left with a partisan in the position. In effect, we are choosing between Grenell and Ratcliffe.” (read more)

May 5 2020

Tom Cotton Discusses COVID-19 as a Pandemic Virus That Escaped a Laboratory in Communist Wuhan, China…


Posted originally on The Conservative Tree House on May 4, 2020 by 

Senator Tom Cotton appears on Fox News to discuss the latest revelations that COVID-19 came out of a laboratory in Wuhan, China.  Martha MacCallum attempts to push the Beijing propaganda of wounded panda as a victim; Senator Cotton outlines the importance of accepting that China is a communist totalitarian state.

May 5 2020

Jim Jordan Blasts FBI Director Chris Wray in Letter Demanding Answers and Interviews With Bill Priestap and Joe Pientka…


Posted originally on the Conservative Tree House on May 4, 2020 by 

Ranking Member of the House Oversight Committee, Jim Jordan, sends a scathing letterto FBI Director Christopher Wray questioning why the evidence of gross political corruption within his institution has to come from judicial documents in the Flynn case rather than honest production of material from the FBI.

Within the letter Mr. Jordan implicates Director Wray in an institutional effort to hide prior abuses in order to keep the American public blind to the corruption within it.  Given recent comments by President Trump about Director Wray, Jordan appears to be in-line with POTUS:

[…] “We write to request that you immediately review the actions of the FBI in targeting LTG Flynn. The American people continue to learn troubling details about the politicization and misconduct at the highest levels of the FBI during the Obama-Biden Administration.

Even more concerning, we continue to learn these new details from litigation and investigations—not from you. It is well past time that you show the leadership necessary to bring the FBI past the abuses of the Obama-Biden era.”

“Please facilitate making former FBI Assistant Director of the Counterintelligence Division Bill Priestap and FBI Agent Joe Pientka available for transcribed interviews about their actions related to LTG Flynn.”

Here’s the full six page letter:

(Source PDF)

With this specifically pointed focus, things are getting interesting.

Here’s a reminder of President Trump’s most recent statements on Director Wray.  This was the day after the IG report which outlined the FISA abuse, and FBI Director Chris Wray downplayed the findings…

.

May 5 2020

White House Advisor Peter Navarro Discusses ‘America-First’ Manufacturing Realignment…


Posted originally on The Conservative Tree House on May 4, 2020 by 

White House Manufacturing Policy Advisor and lead on execution of the Defense Production Act, Peter Navarro, appears on Fox News to discuss the ongoing initiatives to secure, produce and/or manufacture critical healthcare products in the U.S.

There are multiple reports in media today about the White House assembling a variety of new policies and regulations to go full wolverine on ‘America-First’.  USTR Lighthizer, Treasury Secretary Mnuchin and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross are leading the effort.

Additionally, Navarro notes FEMA, HHS and DoD will soon have rules requiring USA manufactured purchases for their government contracts.

May 5 2020

Wall Street Multinationals Exploit Coronavirus Pandemic To Demand Tariff Removal…


Posted originally on The Conservative Tree House on May 4, 2020 by 

Wall Street’s U.S. multinationals moved the majority of U.S. apparel manufacturing to southeast Asia for the past several decades; as a result they virtually wiped out major apparel hubs in the United States.  Now those same multinationals are claiming their production shift to making masks and PPE in China means the tariffs on imports should be lifted; and they are sending their corporate lobbyists into DC to pitch that message.

Nonsense.

There are no tariffs on U.S. healthcare products made in the USA.  If the apparel industry wants to avoid tariffs, then bring the manufacturing back home.  Critical manufacturing in the United States is what U.S. consumers of those and other goods want.

President Trump should not lower tariffs on imported PPE, he should actually raise those tariffs as high as needed to shift that manufacturing back to the U.S.

The time is now to wage battle against the Wall Street manufacturers & K-St lobbyists.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Trump administration is “turbocharging” an initiative to remove global industrial supply chains from China as it weighs new tariffs to punish Beijing for its handling of the coronavirus outbreak, according to officials familiar with U.S. planning.

[…] “We’ve been working on [reducing the reliance of our supply chains in China] over the last few years but we are now turbo-charging that initiative,” Keith Krach, undersecretary for Economic Growth, Energy and the Environment at the U.S. State Department told Reuters.

“I think it is essential to understand where the critical areas are and where critical bottlenecks exist,” Krach said, adding that the matter was key to U.S. security and one the government could announce new action on soon.

The U.S. Commerce Department, State and other agencies are looking for ways to push companies to move both sourcing and manufacturing out of China. Tax incentives and potential re-shoring subsidies are among measures being considered to spur changes, the current and former officials told Reuters.

“There is a whole of government push on this,” said one. Agencies are probing which manufacturing should be deemed “essential” and how to produce these goods outside of China.

[…]  “This moment is a perfect storm; the pandemic has crystallized all the worries that people have had about doing business with China,” said another senior U.S. official.

“All the money that people think they made by making deals with China before, now they’ve been eclipsed many fold by the economic damage” from the coronavirus, the official said.  (read more)

This is not only good policy, it’s good politics.  The vast majority of Americans now realize how important it is for critical manufacturing to return to the United States.

Considering the position of the new USMCA trade agreement, this is the perfect moment to put additional punitive pressure on China, increase tariffs on imported goods, and support an entire government approach to incentivize a resurgence in American manufacturing independence.

May 5 2020

Secretary Steven Mnuchin Discusses Paycheck Protection Program and Small Business Relief…


Posted originally on The Conservative The House on May 4, 2020 by 

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin appears for a wide-ranging interview with Maria Bartiromo. Topics include international travel, the Paycheck Protection Program progress, small business relief, and overall rebuilding of the U.S. economy amid COVID-19 mitigation.

The first few minutes of the interview are weird because Bartiromo doesn’t seem to recognize the PPP program is essentially a grant to small business to keep their employees on payroll. Ms. Bartiromo appears to want the PPP grants to be shifted to free money to replace business revenue, and she’s pushing hard for her Wall St buddies.

Secretary Mnuchin tries to remind Bartiromo that businesses can apply for bridge loans, but the PPP is actually a grant. Bartiromo argues that all businesses should have free money bailouts to replace revenues; an impossible suggestion.