So, not a Conspiracy? – Almost 100 Arrested in Global Pedophile and Child Sex Trafficking Ring


Posted originally on the CTH on August 8, 2023 | Sundance 

According to most western media to say there is a vast global network of pedophiles and perverts who traffic children is akin to believing in some Q-minded conspiracy.  Apparently, with headlines that appeared on AOL News today, the conspiracy is not a theory.

“Members used software to anonymously share files, chat on message boards and access websites within the network,” it said. Some were also accused of having produced their own child abuse material to share with members of the network, the agency said.

(Via AOL/NBC) – Almost 100 people in the United States and Australia have so far been arrested over child sexual abuse allegations after the fatal shooting of two FBI agents led to the unraveling of a suspected international pedophile ring, officials announced Tuesday.

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) said that 19 men had been arrested on charges of sharing child abuse material online, while at least 13 children were rescued from further harm as a result of a joint operation with the FBI, dubbed “Operation Bakis.”

The development brought the total number of people arrested as part of the joint probe up to 98, with at least 79 arrests so far carried out by the FBI, according to the Australian agency.

The joint investigation began after the two FBI agents investigating the alleged pedophile ring were fatally shot in 2021 while executing a search warrant in Sunrise, Florida, for a man suspected of being in possession of child abuse material, the agency noted in a news release.

Special Agents Daniel Alfin and Laura Schwartzenberger were fatally shot and three other agents were wounded, while the gunman, David Lee Huber, 55, was also killed, NBC News previously reported.

The Australian agency said the coordinated probe was formally launched in 2022 after the FBI provided the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation with intelligence about Australian individuals suspected of being part of a “peer-to-peer network allegedly sharing child abuse material on the dark web.” (read more)

The BRICS Revolt: Is Biden’s War in Ukraine Fueling the Collapse of US Hegemony? Plus: Film Documents CIA’s Covert Takeover of Hollywood, w/ Roger Stahl | SYSTEM UPDATE #125


Glenn Greenwald Posted Originally on Rumble on: Aug 7, 7:00 pm EDT

The two men that will Destroy the United States of America and will always be remembered for the Evil that they have done!

Joe Binden & Hunter Biden!

Marines Deployed as US-Iran Tensions Rise


Armstrong Economics Blog/War Re- Posted Aug 7, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

World War III continues to heat up as the US Marines have been deployed to the Strait of Hormuz. The military also plans to deploy F-16 and F-35 warplanes and an Amphibious Readiness Group/Marine Expeditionary Unit containing 3,000 troops. France24 says that Iran has attempted, sometimes unsuccessfully, to take control of 20 internationally flagged ships containing oil over the past two years. But the Associated Press reported last month that Iran had seized five ships over the same period.

Coincidentally, this news of the Marine deployment comes days after the ISW announced that Iran plans to build a drone factory in Belarus. Russia has admitted that it was having some difficulties importing weapons from Iran. The US Navy has already been positioned in this area to combat Iranian forces. Around 20% of all crude exports pass through this area of the Gulf, so of course it must be guarded. However, why send in the Marines and fighter jets?

Iran has been building its nuclear capabilities, claiming it is purely peaceful. US-Iran relations deteriorated further in 2015 when Trump withdrew from the 2015 nuclear agreement and slapped Iran with sanctions. Iran produced its Abu Mahdi cruise missile in 2020 that has the capacity to target ships 620 miles away. There has not been a Marine presence in the Persian Gulf since November 2021. They claim this recent deployment is to secure energy prices. Yet, the US, French, and British naval forces have ramped up their presence in recent months. Could they be preparing for a larger event?

United States Debt Downgraded to AA+


Armstrong Economics Blog/Economics Re-Posted Aug 4, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

Inflation was transitory. Now, the credit rating of the United States plummeting from AAA to AA+ by Fitch is “arbitrary,” according to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. “In Fitch’s view, there has been a steady deterioration in standards of governance over the last 20 years, including on fiscal and debt matters, notwithstanding the June bipartisan agreement to suspend the debt limit until January 2025,” the rating agency said in a statement. The last time an AA+ rating was issued was August 5, 2011, and the market took a hit.

In 2011, Standard & Poor cut its rating also after a debt ceiling crisis caused by politicians. The global markets felt the impact of that news. Fitch has been warning of a possible downgrade since May 2023, due to the massive debt burden and political mismanagement. The White House continued its spending spree and our politicians could not agree on a limit for the debt ceiling. The warnings were there.

It is concerning that Yellen is trying to stifle this news. “I strongly disagree with Fitch’s decision. The change announced today is arbitrary and based on outdated data,” Yellen insisted. Again, this is the same woman who insisted, along with Powell, that inflation was transitory and nothing to be concerned about. Yellen believes some of Fitch’s models do not accurately indicate the state of the US. Yell said “governance,” under Joe Biden, has improved due to mass infrastructure packages and investments in America that will make the country more competitive.

Yellen and others refuse to admit that the United States has deteriorated under the Biden Administration. “Governance” is one of the nation’s weakest points right now, but that would put blame on the current administration. The right and left are more polarized than ever and cannot agree on anything. The US government is heavily investing in one foreign government to fuel the proxy war while lining the pockets of “the big guy.” This administration has ruined America and there is no sugar coating what’s to come.

A Non-Pretending Discussion About Barack Obama


Posted originally on the CTH on August 4, 2023 | Sundance | 512 Comments

Every once in a while, you stumble upon an article that is insightful and valuable. This outline is intended to draw everyone’s attention to one of those articles.  ~ SEE HERE

Writing in Tablet Mag, David Samuels outlines his discussion with very well-respected historian David Garrow about Barack Obama and Dr. Martin Luther King, but mostly about Obama.

It is an intensely interesting albeit very long read, much of it drawn from a transcript of the conversation initiated by Samuels about the research Garrow did for his 2017 book on Obama called “Rising Star.”

The type of intense, deeply cited and granular research that David Garrow did for his book, is the type of research historians 50-years from now will be citing as they outline the legacy of President Obama.  This is also the type of research and non-pretending analysis you will never see approved for conversation by those who currently maintain the false pretense of the subject.

“I doubt that in the long run, Obama’s foreign-policy failures are going to be seen as the most important part of his legacy. I think future historians are going to look at the Obama presidency and see it as the moment when this new oligarchy merged with the Democratic Party and used the capacities of these new technologies and the power of this new class of people, the oligarchs and their servants, to create a new apparatus of social control. How far they can go with it, what the limits are … you see them trying to test it out every week or so.”  ~ David Samuels

Garrow and Samuels both discuss Barack Obama in a way that is extremely accurate; as a result, antithetical to the populism that surrounds the former President.  People who have followed political events will bathe in the truthfulness of the discussion.  Obama, a man created by his own intent and purpose, to present himself and his transitional identity to a select audience of affluent white liberals.  This audience would help Obama achieve his narcissistic life goal to have a “valet and private plane”, while simultaneously assuaging their white guilt.  The plan worked swimmingly.

Samuels talks about the curiosity of President Obama maintaining his residence in the nation’s capital, an often-visited command center in Washington DC, where important members of the current administration assemble at times, and secret service vehicles are often spotted coming and going. Yet, for some odd reason, the DC media network who are directly responsible for tracking and outlining the comings and goings of those in power, are seemingly incurious about this home/headquarters.

[…] Samuels: “The easy explanation, of course, is that Joe Biden is not running that part of his administration. Obama is. He doesn’t even have to pick up the phone because all of his people are already inside the White House. They hold the Iran file. Tony Blinken doesn’t.”

[Garrow interjecting] “Rob Malley was the guy on that.”

Samuels: “Rob Malley is just one person. Brett McGurk. Dan Shapiro in Israel. Lisa Monaco in Justice. Susan Rice running domestic policy. It’s turtles all the way down. There are obviously large parts of White House policymaking that belong to Barack Obama because they’re staffed by his people, who worked for him and no doubt report back to him. Personnel is policy, as they say in Washington.

Which to me is a very odd and kind of spooky arrangement. Spooky, because it is happening outside the constitutional framework of the U.S. government, and yet somehow it’s been placed off the list of permitted subjects to report on. Which is a pretty good indicator of the extent to which the information we get, and public reactions to that information, is being successfully controlled. How and by whom remain open questions, the quick answer to which is that the American press has become a subset of partisan comms.”  (link)

There is a perspective of genuine historically correct discussion between Samuels and Garrow that is very interesting.  Factually, there are a lot of reference citations in the Obama tenure that reconcile well with how Garrow outlines the process inside the mind of Barack Obama.

You might remember, the day after the Sept 11, 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, a seemingly detached Obama hops a flight aboard AF1 that morning at 6:00am to go west campaigning and collecting donor checks in Nevada and California.  The ego legacy superseding the potential for damaging political consequences.

In addition to Garrow outlining the lack of deep consequential relationships in the life of Obama, a man perpetually unmoored from any roots or familial guidance, able to morph himself to the framework of an image he also was responsible for creating – there are a lot more events in/around the era of Obama that reconcile.

I am going to draw attention to one such example, because this is the first time I have seen anyone, other than myself, connect the dots of the new surveillance state to the intents and purposes of Obama’s tenure in office.   As noted during the conversation, David Samuels says…

….”So Obama starts out as an eloquent opponent of the Patriot Act, etc., etc. By the end of his presidency, his people are unmasking intercepts of his political opponents every day, and the FBI is spying on Donald Trump.”… 

The response from Garrow is as succinct as it is accurate, “that’s right!

This is my happy place.  I cannot tell you how refreshing it is to see an article that drops all of the pretending and starts to talk about the reality of our situation.  If we stop pretending we unite as a country, because we all start to accept the same baselines.

The fraud that has been purposefully deployed as a tool for fundamental change, can only exist if people pretend that fraud and corruption does not exist.  Stop pretending, and the sunlight of commonality begins to unite our nation.

This weaponized national security state will be the legacy of President Obama.

While future historians may reference the obvious failures in almost all of Obama’s foreign policy, specifically the events in the Middle East and ISIS manifest, the core of what will be attributed to President Obama will be the weaponized surveillance state using all the tools created, fine-tuned and deployed during his time in office.

All of that machinery within the, DHS, NSA, FBI, DOJ-NSD, ODNI, is still running on autopilot – massively controlling the mechanics of communication and social media, thanks to the pathways, networks and systems President Obama authorized.

More to follow…

They See It Coming – Fitch Joins S&P to Downgrade USA Credit Rating


Posted originally on the CTH on August 2, 2023 | Sundance 

Collapse is never a sudden occurrence; it is an outcome of gradual erosion over time. A weakening that takes place almost invisible to those who pass through the construct, until eventually, at an uneventful time in the mechanics of history, the process gives way.

Fitch has joined with the prior position of Standard & Poors to downgrade the USA credit rating. The weight of debt, in combination with reverberations from the continued hammering deep inside the political fundamental change operation, has triggered another flare.

In the bigger picture, this is a self-fulfilling prophecy driven by the latest focus on unsustainable economic policy, aka The Green New Deal. The efforts of the fiscal, monetary and economic policy are all aligned to shrink the U.S. economy, thereby creating the era of “sustainable energy” a possibility. Unfortunately, this is akin to a household intentionally shrinking their income while at the same time taking on credit card debt. The process itself is not sustainable.

(Reuters) – Rating agency Fitch on Tuesday downgraded the U.S. government’s top credit rating, a move that drew an angry response from the White House and surprised investors, coming despite the resolution of the debt ceiling crisis two months ago.

Traders’ immediate response was to embark on a safe-haven push out of stocks and into government bonds and the dollar.

Fitch downgraded the United States to AA+ from AAA, citing fiscal deterioration over the next three years and repeated down-the-wire debt ceiling negotiations that threaten the government’s ability to pay its bills.

[…] “In Fitch’s view, there has been a steady deterioration in standards of governance over the last 20 years, including on fiscal and debt matters, notwithstanding the June bipartisan agreement to suspend the debt limit until January 2025,” the rating agency said in a statement.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen disagreed with Fitch’s downgrade, in a statement that called it “arbitrary and based on outdated data.”

[…] In a previous debt ceiling crisis in 2011, Standard & Poor’s cut the top “AAA” rating by one notch a few days after a debt ceiling deal, citing political polarization and insufficient steps to right the nation’s fiscal outlook. Its rating is still “AA-plus” – its second highest.

After that downgrade, U.S. stocks tumbled and the impact of the rating cut was felt across global stock markets, which were in the throes of the euro zone financial meltdown.

In May, Fitch had placed its “AAA” rating of U.S. sovereign debt on watch for a possible downgrade, citing downside risks, including political brinkmanship and a growing debt burden. (read More)

What do Barack Obama and Joe Biden have in common?  They were both in office, executing an identical economic, fiscal and monetary policy, when the USA credit was downgraded.

Anchorage Mayor to Fly Homeless to Los Angeles




Armstrong Economics Blog/USA Current Events Re-Posted Aug 1, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

“We are going to offer them a chance to stay warm this winter,” Anchorage, Alaska, Mayor Dave Bronson stated regarding the growing homeless population. Eight people died of exposure last year, and Bronson said it is cheaper to pay for a one-way flight than to create makeshift housing. Bronson said a one-way ticket to LA would cost the city about $286 per person. In comparison, the city would need to spend over $100 daily for temporary shelter.

The program has not been funded or approved. Obviously, LA is not too happy about the announcement. “Someone says, ‘I want to go to Los Angeles or San Diego or Seattle or Kansas,’ it’s not our business,” Bronson said of their final destination. “My job is to make sure they don’t die on Anchorage streets.” About 40% of Alaska’s population lives in Anchorage, but they host 65% of the homeless population. “The taxpayers to whom I’m responsible to can’t keep footing the entire bill,” he said. “We need a statewide solution to a statewide problem.”

LA Mayor Karen Bass declared a state of emergency in 2022 regarding the growing homeless population. “It will create the structure necessary for us to have a true, unified and citywide strategy to set us on the path to solve homelessness,” Bass said after promising to house at least 17,000 people during her first year in office. This was before the US-Mexico border was opened to the world. The homeless population in LA continues to grow at a record pace.

No one knows exactly what to do about the growing homeless problem in America. Our politicians are willing to send hundreds of billions to Ukraine but refuse to address the issues we face at home.

The Biden Administration From Hell


Armstrong Economics Blog/WOKE Re-Posted Aug 1, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

I have dealt with governments around the world. NEVER in my entire career have I EVER witnessed an administration so intent upon pushing a dictatorial regime that is so against the founding principles of a free society as this Biden Administration. To be VERY clear, this really is not an attack on Biden personally. He is not the one calling all of these insane shots designed to undermine the very fabric of the nation because stupid zealots in so many fields think they have the right to change society to conform to what they think it should be. That is what Karl Marx tried with communism – remove all personal wealth and control the business cycle.

With absolutely NO science behind any of these agendas from transgender pushing, those who go through this procedure have a significantly higher rate of suicide. Instead of ending discrimination, it has caused it and all of this is to push an agenda of reducing population. Just as the BLM movement was taken over for a covert agenda. The same is taking place with this Pride agenda where gay people are getting thrown into the same cauldron as Transgender. The White House does not do the same for all the other groups or religions.

Then we have the CDC moving COVID vaccines to be an annual shot. They are too busy taking money from Pfiszer to protect the people anymore. I know people who have died, others who have heart problems, and even my lawyer took the shot so he could travel, got blood clots, and not can no longer fly. This is outrageous! My next-door neighbor had COVID and was forced to get vaccinated to go on a family cruise. She was 27 and rushed to the hospital, and almost died the day after being vaccinated. I’m sorry, but these vaccines are not traditional, and there is no long-term risk assessment. Mandy Cohen should be in prison for abandoning her fiduciary duty to protect the public.

Then we have the cleanest fossil fuels being outlawed by this insane Biden Administration that has been taken over by every insane group possible. I grew up with gas heat and a stove. They want to claim that such a small fraction of people warrant shutting down this entire industry. What about smoking? How about peanuts? I have been on a flight and you were not allowed to have a pack of peanuts because one person was extremely allergic to peanuts.

Then we have the Neocons who run the White House and push us into World War III. Now, Blinken, the current leader of the pack in the White House, publicly says nuclear war is no worse than Climate Change. So don’t worry; it will be no big deal if he starts pushing buttons and China and Russia.

The Neocons have already destroyed the world economy with sanctions against Russia. Now you have the death of the SWIFT system and alternatives from China and Iran, so now the threat of removing a non-compliant state from SWIFT no longer has the power it once did.

And now they are moving for a totalitarian state eliminating all cash and moving to a digital currency so they can regulate what you are allowed to buy and sell and make sure they collect every penny of tax they think you have. Just one EMP pulse, even from a nuclear blast, will wipe out electronics, and your wealth will vanish overnight.

This Biden Administration is the final straw that is destroying America. It will never be the same; instead of unity, they create division on every front. Even the EU is moving to separate from the United States policies.

Trying to Make Heads or Tails about Recessions


Armstrong Economics Blog/Economics Re-Posted Jul 28, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

QUESTION: Looking at Socrates,  do you think that these people who were constantly calling for a recession because there were two quarters that declined with covid really need revision? Socrates was correct, no recession. But it is showing major turning points in 2024 which seem to align with your old ECM forecast calling for commodity inflation into 2024. How would you define a recession?

EJ

ANSWER: In trading, reactions are 1 to 3 time units. I believe that the same definition should be used for classifying a recession. They define a recession as two consecutive quarterly declines. If you look at the “Great Recession” of 2008-2009, you will see three consecutive quarterly declines and a rebound. If we look at the COVID recession caused by locking everyone down, that was just two consecutive quarterly declines.

I personally would argue that a true economic recession MUST exceed three consecutive declines. Here is the chart of GNP from 1929 to 1940. There were three years of negative growth. I simply think that this definition of two quarters is wrong. You can have a slight decline of 1 to even 5%, but that does not suggest a recession. In the case of 1929, that was a decline of 9.5% in 1930 – the first year. Now look at the COVID Crash, which was also a decline of 9.53%. But the difference is that the COVID decline was forced and not natural. That is why it rebounded so quickly. Now the so-called “Great Recession” of 2008-2009 only saw a decline in GDP of 3.47%.

The “Great Recession” was not really so great. It wiped out real estate and bankers but did not fundamentally alter the economy. So who is right and who is wrong will always depend upon the definition. Yes, the AI Timing Arrays point to a recession starting Next Year by their definition. This will most likely be caused by the decline in confidence that will lead to UNCERTAINTY, and as such, the consumer will contract. Up to now, the continued expansion of the economy into 2024 has also been fueled by the shift in assets from public to private.

As originally forecast, we should have seen a commodity boom into 2023,

and we should expect a highly authoritarian attempt by 2028.

CBDC & the Fall of Western Society


Armstrong Economics Blog/Cryptocurrency Re-Posted Jul 28, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

QUESTION: You said that when Rome fell it took 700 years before gold coins reappeared. Are we facing something like that again?

PO

ANSWER: Yes, when Rome fell, gold continued in the East under the Byzantine and Islamic Empires. However, in Europe, the last Western emperor was Romulus Augustus (475-476AD) who was a puppet anyhow. He was a young son, whereas today, we have senile leaders who are puppets and incapable of independent rational thought. The first gold coin to reappear in Western Europe was that of Frederick II of Sicily (1231-1250AD). The Augustale was a gold denomination of about 5 and a half grams which Frederick II introduced to Sicily in 1231AD, and it was primarily issued for international trade.

Fibonacci-1

Actually, Fibonacci (1170-1240 AD) published in 1202 his “Liber Abaci” (Book of Abacus). He introduced Hindu-Arabic numerals into Western culture. Suddenly, this allowed the calculation of numbers that were not taught in schools and was unknown in Christian circles. Only a very small group of intellectuals had access to translations of the Arab mathematician al-Khwarizmi (780-850 AD). The techniques that Fibonacci introduced were groundbreaking to re-establish a culture that lost its identity with the fall of Rome. Fibonacci illustrated practical problems on how to calculate profit margin, money changing, barter, conversion of weights and measures, partnerships, and, last but not least, interest. He also introduced some geometry and algebra.

However, Fibonacci’s work was so earth-shattering it became the topic of discussion and caught the attention of King Frederick II of Sicily. I believe it was Fibonacci’s introduction to mathematics that also inspired Frederick II to even reintroduce gold coinage in order to trade with the outside world. At the time, that included the Arabs as well as the Byzantines. The gold dinar was the Islamic medieval gold coin first issued in 696–697AD by Caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan with a weight of 4.25 grams. Frederick II made his coin about 1 gram heavier in order to project economic power.

The introduction of CBDC is highly dangerous in war; even a nuclear blast also sends out an EM pulse that will destroy electronics. If I were Russia or China, I would NOT move to any sort of digital currency and then use an EMP against the United States. The entire economy would collapse. People would not even be able to buy anything. We have idiots in power who are so greedy, looking at the power this will place in their hands, they are ignoring the risks. This could mark the collapse of Western society, sending us back to the days of Barter.

The Post-2032 era would most likely be fragmented rather than national states as we know them today. There will most likely emerge regional currencies, as we have witnessed throughout history many times. Even during the Great Depression, over 200 US cities resorted to issuing their own money.