The US Covert Action to Destroy Nord Stream & Russia’s Economy


Armstrong Economics Blog/Russia Re-Posted Feb 9, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

Seymour Hersch won a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on the My Lai massacre in Vietnam.  He is one of a dying breed of independent journalists. He has revealed that the United States destroyed Nord Stream Pipeline and this was all part of the Climate Change War where the Neocons are now supporting Nazis to exterminate Russia once and for all while they ask China to please wait quietly in line patiently for their turn to be destroyed. His in-depth article includes:

“Last June, the Navy divers, operating under the cover of a widely publicized mid-summer NATO exercise known as BALTOPS 22, planted the remotely triggered explosives that, three months later, destroyed three of the four Nord Stream pipelines, according to a source with direct knowledge of the operational planning.

Two of the pipelines, which were known collectively as Nord Stream 1, had been providing Germany and much of Western Europe with cheap Russian natural gas for more than a decade. A second pair of pipelines, called Nord Stream 2, had been built but were not yet operational. Now, with Russian troops massing on the Ukrainian border and the bloodiest war in Europe since 1945 looming, President Joseph Biden saw the pipelines as a vehicle for Vladimir Putin to weaponize natural gas for his political and territorial ambitions.”

This is Why I am Against Needless Wars


Armstrong Economics Blog/War Re-Posted Feb 8, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

The human costs that these disgusting politicians lie to our faces, look down upon us as the scum beneath their feet and then pretend they actually care.

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Inside Baseball Stuff About the House Oversight Committee and the Twitter Censorship Hearing


Posted originally on the CTH on February 8, 2023 

CTH has never pretended or played the game of pretending, but several people have discussed the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing today on the Twitter censorship issue… and thus, some reminders and clarifications of inside DC politics are needed.

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, hereafter called the House Oversight Committee or HOC, has a very specific function in DC circles that apparently too few understand.  Once again, let us be clear while trying to explain decades of false information founded upon arcane legislative outlooks.

This article is specific only to the House Oversight Committee.

Within Washington DC, the HOC has a very specific and unique function.  What Fox News is to corporate conservative punditry, so too is the HOC to the same DC system of pretending.  The House Oversight Committee is the “Chaff and Countermeasures” committee.  The HOC operates for both parties with the same mission.

The House Oversight Committee was/is created by the House legislative leadership to make money for the party in control of the Chair.  When the House Speaker is notified of a DC corruption issue, inside his/her office they will often be heard saying, “give it to oversight.”  The intent of that instruction is to give the issue to the HOC, so they can hold hearings, create soundbites and fundraise from the issue.

Making money for the party in control of the Chair is the primary function of the House Oversight Committee.  The HOC does not exist to create accountability or oversight; the HOC exists to exploit the issue for fundraising and satiate the base voters of the party in control of the Chair.  The HOC presents the illusion of accountability by constructing soundbites and member performances which are then broadcast on television for appearances to the voting audience.  It is essentially theater.

The HOC is a “general oversight’ committee, not a committee of “specific jurisdiction.”  Thus, the HOC is the vehicle where Democrats and Republicans publicly display their political initiatives, frame their narratives and then broadcast them on MSNBC, CNN (Democrats) or FOX NEWS (Republicans).

Depending on the issues at hand, the HOC committee members are generally those performance actors best known to the audience of both parties.  This is not accidental; this is by design.  Again, for emphasis, I am only talking about the HOC, a “generalized oversight” committee. Only this specific committee has this specific mission.

A hot button topic enters the committee ecosphere. Specifically trained staffers and performance artists, uniquely qualified to put on theatrical productions (both parties), are then deployed to assist the representatives in creating the soundbites that hopefully will go viral and assist them with fundraising and opportunities to say, “here’s what we are doing.”   Outlining this construct is not an exhibition in cynicism; this is the reality of what the HOC is designed and created to do.

When you see the HOC performing at their best, you will see lots of soundbites created.

The Chair of the HOC is always part of the House Speaker’s close inner circle.  From that association you will discover by training, by habit, and by consequence, the HOC framework is developed to sustain the process itself as an end result.   The questioning is the sum total of all accountabilities.  The performance is the interview; the conversation is the point; the smoke is the fire.

Oversight, in the HOC framework of narrative creation, has evolved into reveling in the endless process (a fundraising proposition) and, as a consequence, it completely ignores the end point, misses the bottom line, doesn’t actually SEE the subject matter, and never actually applies accountability toward what might be discovered.  This is why you end up with high blood pressure, frustrated with the questions not asked, and throwing bricks at the screen or monitors when viewing.

The point of HOC hearings is to create what are now described as “viral moments” that can be used to generate money.   The second, and lesser objective, is to give the illusion of accountability while not actually ever holding anyone or anything accountable.  See prior HOC reference points like Fast and Furious, IRS targeting, Benghazi which outline the latest intent with the Twitter censorship issue.

If you watch the HOC Twitter hearing through the prism of expecting some form of accountability for the violations of the First Amendment, you will be frustrated and disappointed.   However, if you watch the HOC Twitter hearing through the prism of how well the panelists will do at raising money from their performances, then you can evaluate the effectiveness; the proverbial winning and losing.

The HOC is designed by House leadership to perform the same basic function for both Democrats and Republicans.  The HOC committee assignments are selected based on the theatrical skills of each representative.  This is not to say the motives of the members are sullied or impure, it is simply to point out the motive of the committee itself is to generate fundraising from the skillsets of the members on the committee.

Once you fully grasp what the intent of the House Oversight Committee is about, and once you drop the expectation that any accountability in oversight is the intent, then you can watch the performances through the entertainment prism of partisan politics and genuinely enjoy them.  There are, after all, some exceptional soundbites and moments created by the hearings themselves.

The HOC is called the “Chaff and Countermeasures” Committee, because that’s essentially what the committee does.  It gives the appearance of targeting, steering the target to a controlled destination, and then distracting the audience from the outcome of accountability.

If sunlight is achieved, meaning the Mainstream Media cannot ignore the issue as presented and questioned, and if the general public become more familiar with the controversial subject matter or topic at hand, and if the party of the Chair can fundraise from the issue, then the committee has succeeded.  However, if you are looking for something to change as an outcome of any HOC hearing, you will be disappointed.

All of the insiders in Washington DC know this to be true; but, when discussing the HOC specifically, the insiders cannot violate the DC code and make this reality a part of the public consciousness.  To make this operational mission widely understood is to diminish the financial value of it.

Now, let’s ENJOY:

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Details Surface of Biden Administration Deliberately Destroying Nord Stream Pipeline, Then Lying About It Repeatedly


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

One of the things about big lies is the sheer weight they create, and the effort needed to maintain them.  Everyone of reasonably intelligent disposition knew the Russians did not blow up their own Nord Stream gas pipeline last year; they had no motive to do so.  All indications were always that the U.S. government conducted the operation and then obfuscated blame toward Russia.

Investigative journalist Mr. Seymour Hersh now writes a comprehensive outline showcasing just how the Biden operation to destroy Nord Stream was conducted.  [SEE HERE]

[Seymour Hersh] […] “In December of 2021, two months before the first Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine, Jake Sullivan convened a meeting of a newly formed task force—men and women from the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the CIA, and the State and Treasury Departments—and asked for recommendations about how to respond to Putin’s impending invasion.

It would be the first of a series of top-secret meetings, in a secure room on a top floor of the Old Executive Office Building, adjacent to the White House, that was also the home of the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (PFIAB). There was the usual back and forth chatter that eventually led to a crucial preliminary question: Would the recommendation forwarded by the group to the President be reversible—such as another layer of sanctions and currency restrictions—or irreversible—that is, kinetic actions, which could not be undone?

What became clear to participants, according to the source with direct knowledge of the process, is that Sullivan intended for the group to come up with a plan for the destruction of the two Nord Stream pipelines—and that he was delivering on the desires of the President.” (read more)

As the article notes, initially in the planning stage, Joe Biden and his administration were all in for the operation, assuming of course the resulting action -essentially a declaration of war- came with plausible deniability.

What is unclear, despite all the details revealed, is whether in the final decision-making Joe Biden actually had anything to do with it; or whether the dark handlers running his covert administration from the Intel and State Dept., felt they had enough prior approval to just carry out the order without him.

As a reminder, in late September 2022, Joe Biden denied the U.S. involvement….  He lied.

(Via CBS) – […] President Biden called the damage to the Nord Stream natural gas pipelines “a deliberate act of sabotage,” rebuking Russia’s claim that the West was responsible for the explosions. The president said Friday that divers would eventually be sent to the pipelines, which were designed to bring gas from Russia to Europe, to determine what happened. 

“It was a deliberate act of sabotage and the Russians are pumping out disinformation and lies,” Biden said. 

“At the appropriate moment, when things calm down, we’re going to be sending divers down to find out exactly what happened. We don’t know that yet exactly,” he added. (read more)

For the U.S. to deliberately attack the Nord Stream gas pipeline, that is a direct act of war against a sovereign country, Russia.

The coverup of this story is going to make the coverup of all prior Obama/Biden stories pale in comparison.

Head’s Up – Apparently, There’s a Limit on Tweets Now?


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

Just an fyi, I encountered this issue with Twitter and cannot even express the problem on The Twitter due to the restriction.

If you want to help share the word, see if you can retweet this notification.

Like I said I cannot tweet or reply to tweets. So I have no way to notify followers or those who use Twitter to get feeds from CTH.

The CTH Account: “TheLastRefuge2” sent or re-tweeted 15 times today.  Apparently, there’s a new limit.  Additionally, exceeding the limit also means I cannot reply to any messages. So, there’s that.

Great job Elon Musk.  NOT!

The Great Lou Dobbs Nails It


Posted originally on the conservative Tree house on February 8, 2023 | Sundance 

Sundance is that quietly salty cuss who prefers to swing the sharp machete alone amid the deep weeds; clearing the path simply for the sake of creating clarity and larger understanding about the topography of the stuff the professional political class would prefer to keep hidden in the weeds.   At times, he settles himself atop the bluff, opens his lunchbox and thermos to eat a simple sandwich, shirt sleeves will suffice as a napkin, while looking at the flow coming into the clearing…

Amid this era of insufferable pretending, our dear and rebellious non-pretending CTH friend, the Great Lou Dobbs, is a voice to cherish – he gets it.  There is a wisdom that comes with age and experience battling against the Machiavellian schemes of the professional political class; it also can make you quick-tempered, and that’s ok. Hell, it’s to be expected.

In this brief video segment {Direct Rumble Link}, Lou Dobbs cuts to the chase when analyzing the Republican party rebuttal to the Joe Biden state of the union speech.  Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee-Sanders delivered the remarks, they were poignant deliberate and accurate; however, they were also party managed, and party approved.

Just as Lou Dobbs has accurately and presciently called the Wall Street play-by-play for decades, amid the multinational schemes of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce & Business Roundtable, Mr Dobbs accurately notes the Republican Governor’s Association (RGA) as the originating approvers for the prepared rebuttal.  WATCH:

The Great Lou Dobbs is 100% correct.

The approved GOPe script, a construct of multinational financial influence and background motive, was/is intended to write President Donald Trump out of the Republican political framework. Governor Huckabee-Sanders went along with the plan. She, along with all of the non-pretenders, knows this, as all of them do. It is a sad acceptance to realize just how metastasized the political cancer has become, and how few can hold firm against the power of the corrupt political apparatus.

As I said last night, Huckabee-Sanders points about the damage from the Biden administration were accurate and well delivered.

That said, her acquiescence to the machinery of the professional republican system is both disheartening and pathetic.

Oh sure, she will backtrack sometime soon, filled with artificial pearl-clutching prose and promises of mistaken intent…. that’s the way it rolls. But once you see the strings attached to the marionettes you can never unsee them. Authenticity, trust and integrity are lost in sunlight moments when decisions are made.

CTH noted several weeks ago that based on the background moves in advance of Ron DeSantis’s reelection efforts, it became increasingly clear the Republican Governor’s Association (RGA) was going to play a bigger role in 2024 in full alignment with the GOP establishment.

In some ways the leveraging of the RGA is the difference between the Big Club’s 2016 (Jeb!) effort, and the 2024 (Ron!) effort. It was obvious in 2022 with the amount of money the RGA poured into the FL governor’s coffers, a reelection race with a consistent double point lead, the RGA was not doing it for the 2022 reelection – they were building the DeSantis war chest for 2024.

The DeSantis management and branding group are in alignment with, and in close coordination with, the RGA.

At CTH we accept things as they are, not as we would wish them to be.

The Big Club is fooling many, but not here, not now and not today – or ever.

Once you see the strings on the marionettes, you can never return to that moment in the performance when you did not see them.

There are far more of us than them, and once people realize the scale of the duplicity and professional Republican corruption, the backlash against this Big Club branding and management team -together with their “influencers” and willing conscripts- is going to leave a lot of “conservative pundits” very isolated, alone and irrelevant.

:::SPIT:::

War Against Conservatives


Armstrong Economics Blog/Press Re-Posted Jan 10, 2021 by Martin Armstrong

People are leaving Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and were moving to Parlar. Google and Apple removed the Parlar APP and then Amazon kicked then off of AWS. This is a complete purge going on of all conservatives. We are in the midst of nothing short of a real live Russian version of a revolution. Cheer up – you get to see what it was like to live history in a major confrontation between left and right. But make no mistake about it, the super-rich remains in power just behind the curtain. They own the press and social media while they use the virus to prevent people from gathering or organizing. It is their way or no way. Their motto: Resistance is Futile!

The SciFi Verison of Communism

Tucker Carlson Notes the Insufferable Absurdity of Biden Administration Officials About Chinese Spy Balloon


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on February 7, 2023 | Sundance 

As Mr. Carlson notes, everything about the Biden administration’s claims, reversals, contradictions and justifications surrounding the China spy balloon is ridiculous in the extreme.  All of it, just plain nuts.  WATCH:

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Intel Community Says They Discovered Prior Chinese Spy Balloon Operations, Only After President Trump Left Office


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on February 6, 2023 | Sundance 

This is so stunningly incredulous, and transparently politically orchestrated, it’s laughable.

The U.S. Intelligence Community (IC) defended the actions of the Biden administration last Saturday by saying three Chinese spy balloons had previously been deployed during the Trump administration.  However, President Trump and all national security heads including Mike Pompeo (CIA), Richard Grenell and John Ratcliffe (DNI) denied ever hearing about these balloons.

To reconcile the claim of historic Chinese spy balloon operations, against the denials and absence of briefings for the Trump IC officials, the current Intel Community (and Biden Administration) are now claiming they only discovered the prior balloon flights *AFTER* President Trump left office.

Oh, and due to national security issues, the IC cannot explain how they found out after the fact.

Yes Alice, that’s their story, and they’re sticking to it.

WASHINGTON DC – The Biden administration is willing to brief former Trump officials on newly discovered intelligence that China sent spy balloons into U.S. airspace during their time in charge.

The offer, described by senior Biden administration officials on Sunday night, comes as former President Donald Trump and senior members of his national security team say they were never briefed on such an incursion by a Beijing-sent aircraft.

“This information was discovered after the prior administration left. The intelligence community is prepared to offer key officials from the Trump administration briefings on [China’s] surveillance program,” one of the officials said. The official, along with several others, asked not to be named in order to discuss sensitive information.

Briefers would also be willing to discuss Beijing’s similar operations in East Asia, South Asia and Europe over the last several years, the official said.

The proposal to brief the Trump officials is the latest development following the military’s shootdown of a Chinese spy balloon on Saturday, seven days after it entered U.S. airspace. Republicans and former Trump officials said this week that they would have downed the airship as soon as it appeared, and criticized President Joe Biden for waiting until the balloon was over water before bringing it down.

Yet on Saturday, a senior Defense Department official said that Chinese spy balloons entered American airspace three times during Trump’s tenure and once before during the current administration. The administration officials didn’t detail how they learned of those events long after they happened.

Still, it helps explain why five senior Trump administration officials POLITICO spoke with on Sunday said they were never told of such incidents occurring when they were in office. “This never happened. It would have never happened,” Trump told Fox News on Sunday. (read more)