Posted originally on Jun 11, 2025 by Martin Armstrong
The Japanese government announced that it has been forced to release 200,000 metric tons of reserves from its rice stockpile once again, as the nation has been unable to reverse shortages. The government last released over 300,000 metric tons of rice from its emergency reserves, that was intended to last through July, in addition to the 310,000 tons released since March, but this is not sufficient to meet demand, and consumers are highly dissatisfied with the government’s response.
Retailers and local rice sellers with milling capacity will receive the first 100,000 tons of rice from the 2021 harvest. “We want to continue responding without slowing down so that the stockpiled rice can reach consumers quickly and at a low cost,” Agriculture Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said during a press conference. “We must never allow the virtuous cycle of prices and wages in the Japanese economy as a whole to break down. If the cause lies with rice, then I believe we must address such issues promptly.”
Poor weather conditions in 2023 led to a significant decline in crop yields. The Japanese government placed high tariffs on imported rice, and Japanese consumers strongly prefer domestic varieties. Japan reluctantly began importing rice to meet demand. In February alone, Japan imported roughly 40% of what it imported in FY2023. Japan was self-sufficient in rice production, but was forced to purchase rice from South Korea for the first time in 25 years. Japan has also turned to the United States to fill the gap. Panic buying remains prevalent despite the high cost of rice, as it is a staple in the Japanese diet. A mass uptick in tourism following the end of COVID has also been blamed for increased demand, with foreigners increasing by a record 342,000 in 2024.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications noted that rice prices rose 92.1% year-on-year in March, and despite releasing reserves, prices continued to rise. In mid-April, a 5kg bag of rice reached ¥4,220 (about $29–$30), over an 80% YoY increase. Rice prices hit a record high of ¥4,285 yen ($29.97) for 5kg of rice during the week ending on May 18, with some premium brands like Koshihikari exceeding ¥5,000 yen ($35). As of June 1, the average 5k bag of rice cost about ¥4,223 yen, a 50% annual increase.
This is an extremely serious issue in Japan. The rice crisis controversy is causing the public to lose confidence in the government at large. Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s Administration approval rating sunk to an all-time low of 27.4%. Japanese Minister Taku Etō was forced to resign after stating that he personally has no concern for the rising price of rice. The Upper House election takes place in July, which is certainly unfavorable for the Liberal Democratic Party (LPD) who has been in power since 1955.
The next major rice harvest will be in August. The situation is pessimistic as only 1.458 million hectares were harvested, the lowest on record since at least 1900.
Farmers have been protesting against the government’s policy of rationing harvests. The EU and US allow farmers to produce as much as possible, and the government subsidizes any losses, while Japan has taken an opposite approach. The Japanese government believes it would lose $2.65 billion per year if it were to subsidize harvests, but it is already paying farmers $2.32 billion to ration production. Rice paddies are increasingly abandoned as the next generation has no desire to enter a low-paying industry that they believe has been stifled by government regulation. The Mi/OP: Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) has asked many farmers to focus on rice instead of other crops, but it will take years to replenish the reserves.
Japan has a much more serious issue on its hands as the nation is at risk of an outright default on its outstanding debt. For now, the rice crisis has caused the average person to become disgruntled with the leadership. They say the public is quiet and content when everyone is fat and happy, but now, every meal is a reminder of government mismanagement.
“Every single Democratic governor agrees,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom posted on X along with a letter supporting the rioters. Every single Democrat received the memo that the plan to “fight Trump” entails permitting their minions to burn down another city.
In addition to 4,000 National Guard troops, the White House has deployed a group of 700 Marines to save the city of Los Angeles. Yet, every single Democratic governor does not care about the welfare of our troops or legal citizens. Multiple police officers have sustained injuries after these political activists pelted them with rocks and bricks. Someone even attempted to set a police horse on fire. The scene is completely uncivilized, depraved chaos that not one Democratic governor will condemn.
I reported how this is state-funded chaos with California paying NGOs millions to raise hell with taxpayer funds. We are witnessing the Black Lives Matter chaos repeat with precisely the same actors. We saw similar events at college campuses last year. Professional agitators are leading the riots and ensuring that they continue. A group of masked individualsdistributed riot shields and gas masks to the mostly peaceful protestors. Witnesses say that local law enforcement failed to intervene as the masked individuals distributed tactical gear. A group is arming “civilians” to fight back against the US military. This means that an outside influence, perhaps foreign in the case of Soros, has chosen to attack American forces. This is blatant terrorism at best, and an act of war at worst.
#BREAKING We just saw people arrive in Downtown L.A. with truck loads of Bionic Face Shields that demonstrators quickly grabbed.
It certainly seems like gear you'd wear if you're preparing for conflict with police.
LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell admitted that professional agitators are fueling the literal fires. “When I look at the people who are out there doing the violence, that’s not the people that we [see] during the day.”
BREAKING: LAPD Chief Admits Professional Left-Wing Anarchists Are Fueling the Violence in Los Angeles Riots
This reeks of a Soros op.
LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell just exposed what many already suspected—the chaos unfolding in Los Angeles is being escalated by professional leftist… pic.twitter.com/7vx7lnoyfA
He continued to say that the LAPD is not battling the typical civilian. “These are people who are all hooded up. They’ve got a hoodie on. They’ve got face masks on. They’re people who do this all the time. Get away with whatever they can. Go out there from one civil unrest situation to another, using the same or similar tactics frequently. They are connected. Some would call them anarchists. They’re people that we run across routinely, city to city, and this is what they do. Many of the people who are doing this come in from other places just to hurt people and to cause havoc.”
The people are not fighting back against Trump or ICE. Rather, a select group of paid actors has been incentivized and ordered to destroy a city for political purposes. Thousands of people did not simply take to the streets over deportation. This was a carefully planned and well-coordinated political movement. The Democrats are allowing it to happen and speaking favorably of the paid agitators who they want the public to believe are outraged liberal voters.
FBI Director Kash Patel described the city of LA as “under siege,” and promised to hunt down the mostly peaceful protestors who are physically attacking federal officers and government buildings. Unlike the Black Lives Matter protests, we have some semblance of law and order across the Trump Administration, and those responsible will hopefully see their day in court. More importantly, those responsible for creating the event need to face their day in court. These are often foreign entities that are deliberately meddling in US politics. Imagine if this were the response to any conservative cause? It would never happen. The extremists on the left have been permitted to unleash terror when they feel they are losing power without repercussion. America’s enemies are watching with enthusiasm as they see how broken our system has become. One party in our two-party system is ready to wage war against the other and is counting on the situation to escalate. How far will they go?
COMMENT: The next moron in charge of nato… Rutte… with a psycho propaganda quote: “invest now, or learn Russian later”
Let’s rephrase this with a counter slogan “let’s learn Russian now, let’s listen to Russia and de-escalate, let’s not betray Russia anymore, let’s not waste our money in a bottomless nato money pit based on western lies, and let’s enjoy wealth and freedom later”.
RB
REPLY: While the Democrats embrace alien criminals just because Trump wants to deport them, in Europe, it is NATO and the EU which does everything to undermine Trump and any possible peace in Ukraine. This all brings to mind Smedley D. Butler’s “War Is a Racket” which captures the essence, power, and enduring relevance of war and also civil unrest when it always comes down to money. Butler’s brutally honest book was written in 1935 by one of the most decorated Marines in U.S. history. After a 34-year career fighting in nearly every major U.S. conflict from the Spanish-American War through the “Banana Wars,” Butler reached a shocking conclusion.
Butler came to see that war is not primarily fought for democracy, freedom, or national defense. Instead, it is a carefully orchestrated “racket” – a criminal enterprise designed to generate enormous profits for a select few at the expense of the many. Butler’s critique carried immense weight precisely because of who he was. As a Major General, two-time Medal of Honor recipient, and commander of major expeditions, he had seen the inner workings of war from the highest levels. He couldn’t be dismissed as a naive pacifist.
The “Racket” had three phases, which he identified as:
Lobbying for War: Powerful business interests (bankers, arms manufacturers, industrialists, resource extractors) pressure governments into conflicts that will protect or expand their markets and investments overseas.
Profiteering During War: The same interests make obscene profits selling weapons, munitions, ships, loans, and supplies to the government (funded by taxpayer dollars). Soldiers pay with their lives; civilians pay with blood, suffering, and taxes.
Profiteering After War: These interests often control the post-war settlement, securing lucrative concessions, resource rights, and loan arrangements from defeated nations (reparations), further enriching themselves while saddling populations with debt.The Costs are Borne by Others: The young men who fight and die, the families who lose loved ones, the taxpayers who foot the astronomical bill, and the societies left shattered bear all the real costs. The profits are privatized; the losses are socialized.
Butler pulls no punches, as they say. His language is direct, vivid, and often scathing. He uses stark figures to expose the grotesque disparity between war profits and human cost. (“Out of war nations acquire additional territory… the newly acquired territory promptly is exploited by the few – the self-same few who wrung dollars out of blood in the war.”)
Butler’s first-hand experience draws powerful examples from his own service in Cuba, the Philippines, China, Central America, and the Caribbean, showing how U.S. interventions directly benefited specific corporations (e.g., United Fruit, sugar interests, banks).
The critique of the Military-Industrial Complex (a term Eisenhower popularized later) is central. The dynamics Butler described – corporate influence on foreign policy, war profiteering, the manipulation of patriotism, the human cost vs. private gain – remain potent issues. They still dominate this proxy war against Russia, as Boris Johnson openly stated that Britain is at war with Russia.
Naturally, anyone who speaks the truth will have critics who argue for the continued carnage and bloodshed. Critics of Butler argue that he reduces complex geopolitical events to solely economic motives. While he powerfully exposes a crucial driver often overlooked, factors such as ideology, nationalism, genuine security threats, and diplomatic failures also play significant roles in wars. There is always an economic element. When everyone is fat and happy, there is no war.
Butler’s proposed solution was that the only way to stop the racket was to make war unprofitable. When young men are conscripted to die, wealth should be conscripted to pay for the war. Limit wartime profits to a small, fixed percentage. He also argued for restricting military deployment. Only allow the military to defend U.S. soil. No more expeditions to protect corporate investments abroad. “Take the profit out of war.”
Only those registered for frontline service should be allowed to vote on whether to go to war. Not those who profit from war.
It remains a foundational text for understanding the critique of the Military-Industrial Complex, corporate influence on foreign policy, and the inherent injustice of war profiteering. It forces readers to question the official narratives of war and consider the powerful economic interests that often lurk beneath the surface. While perhaps not the only factor in wars, Butler highlights a factor that is frequently overlooked or downplayed. Mainstream media beats the war drums, and they too profit from sensationalizing war to get readership. The Spanish-American War was created by Pulitzer and Hearst competing for readership, creating biased yellow journalism.
In short, “War Is a Racket” is a short, essential, and provocative read. It’s a powerful dose of uncomfortable truth from a man who knew war intimately. Its message is as relevant and disturbing today as it was in 1935. It’s less a book to agree with on every point, and more one to grapple with and be challenged by.
I, for one, will strongly object to ANY federal funds going to California to rebuild LA. Let Newsom raise taxes in California even more to pay for his protection of non-Americans. He forgot that he swore an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States. He has rejected that and all responsibility to enforce the law simply because he disagrees with whatever any Republican says – he just has to take the opposite, regardless of whether it is right or wrong. It would be nice to expel California from the United States and let it take in all illegal immigrants who cannot possibly have a legitimate job without citizenship or a Greencard. He supports illegal aliens against Americans – plain and simple. He is violating the civil rights of Americans and for that he could even be criminally charged.
The segregation of the South refused to honor the Constitution. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 gave the Department of Justice (DOJ) powerful tools: filing lawsuits against states, cities, businesses, and school districts; withholding federal funds; and sending federal marshals to protect activists and enforce court orders. The Supreme Court consistently upheld the constitutionality of these laws, especially their use of the Commerce Clause (e.g., Heart of Atlanta Motel v. U.S., Katzenbach v. McClung for the CRA ’64) and the enforcement provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (e.g., South Carolina v. Katzenbach). This judicial backing was essential.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 demolished the legal framework of segregation in public spaces, schools, and employment. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 smashed the political system built on Black disenfranchisement. Together, backed by federal enforcement, court rulings, and sustained activism, these laws broke the legal backbone of Jim Crow segregation in the American South, transforming the region and the nation. However, the fight for true racial equality continues.
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a significant U.S. law that prohibits racial discrimination in voting, aiming to enforce the voting rights guaranteed by the Fifteenth Amendment. It was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on August 6, 1965, and has been amended several times to strengthen its protections against discriminatory practices. The Supreme Court just ruled for straight woman who claims she was subjected to reverse discrimination.
What Newsom is doing in California could land him in prison for a very long time. He is engaging in REVERSE DISCRIMINATION against American citizens when illegal aliens are NOT entitled to voting rights any more than I can vote in London just because I got in and refused to leave. Newsom has violated his oath of office, and this is what Democrats do just to win at all costs anymore, for they feel they MUST oppose whatever Trump does, no matter what..
Posted originally on Jun 10, 2025 by Martin Armstrong
The President of the United States has the sole discretion to launch nuclear missiles. A military aide is always within reach of the POTUS, holding the “Presidential Emergency Satchel” or “nuclear football” containing the codes and communications to decimate nations with a moment’s notice. The only key required to open the box of death is a laminated card called the “biscuit” that authenticates the president’s identity using special codes. What would it take for someone to press the button?
President Harry S. Truman was the first and only president to attack a foreign enemy with nuclear weapons. In August 1945, Hiroshima and Nagasaki were the first cities in the history of civilization to experience a nuclear attack. At the time, no one knew the sheer power that these weapons contained.
Albert Einstein described his role in developing the atomic bomb as “the one great mistake in my life.” In his well-known 1939 letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, he admitted that he helped develop the bomb out of fear that the enemy had a superior weapon. “Had I known that the Germans would not succeed in developing an atomic bomb, I would have done nothing.” Over 130,000 people had a hand in the Manhattan Project, with most expressing deep regret for their role in altering warfare.
Robert Oppenheimer, who many call the Father of the Atomic Bomb, famously quoted the Bhagavad Gita after seeing the destruction: “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.” As with Einstein, Oppenheimer spent the rest of his life advocating for nuclear regulation. “If atomic bombs are to be added as new weapons to the arsenals of a warring world, or to the arsenals of nations preparing for war, then the time will come when mankind will curse the names of Los Alamos and Hiroshima. The people must unite, or they will perish.”
“We have made a thing, a most terrible weapon, that has altered abruptly and profoundly the nature of the world. We have made a thing that, by all standards of the world we grew up in, is an evil thing. And by doing so, by our participation in making it possible to make these things, we have raised again the question of whether science is good for man, of whether it is good to learn about the world, to try to understand it, to try to control it, to help give to the world of men increased insight, increased power. Because we are scientists, we must say an unalterable yes to these questions; it is our faith and our commitment, seldom made explicit, even more seldom challenged, that knowledge is a good in itself, knowledge and such power as must come with it.” – K. Robert Oppenheimer
Truman acknowledged his “awful responsibility” of deciding to drop not one but two bombs on Japan. “Sixteen hours ago an American airplane dropped one bomb on Hiroshima and destroyed its usefulness to the enemy. … If they do not now accept our terms they may expect a rain of ruin from the air, the like of which has never been seen on this earth,” the president warned after unleashing the first bomb. Yet, Truman believed that the Japanese would not have surrendered without the use of nuclear warfare. “For myself, I certainly regret the necessity of wiping out whole populations because of the ‘pigheadedness’ of the leaders of a nation, and, for your information, I am not going to do it unless absolutely necessary.”
“And he alone, in all the world, must say Yes or No to that awesome, ultimate question, ‘Shall we drop the bomb on a living target?’” Truman questioned. No world leader has since been faced with such a question.
A Harvard law professor by the name of Roger Fisher believed that the president should feel the weight of choosing to end a life first-hand before deciding to open the nuclear case. Rather than a nuclear football, Fisher believed that the codes should be placed in a capsule implanted near the heart of a volunteer who would always accompany the president. The volunteer would also always be in the possession of a butcher knife, and if the president wanted the code to launch a nuclear weapon, he would be required to personally retrieve the code by murdering the volunteer.
The idea may sound far-fetched, but Fischer presented it to the Pentagon back in the 1980s. “If ever the President wanted to fire nuclear weapons, the only way he could do so would be for him first, with his own hands, to kill one human being. The President says, ‘George, I’m sorry but tens of millions must die.’ He has to look at someone and realize what death is—what an innocent death is. Blood on the White House carpet. It’s reality brought home,” he explained.
The Pentagon naturally refused the concept, acknowledging that the president would be unlikely to ever push the nuclear button if he were required to take an innocent life. And yet, presidents are required to greenlight military attacks that do claim innocent lives.
The neocons continually push this idea of using tactical nukes as if it’s a video game. That’s the real danger—people in power have no sense of consequence.
Posted originally on Jun 10, 2025 by Martin Armstrong
Traditional Catholics were deemed domestic terrorists under the Biden Administration. Newly released Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) records reveal the true extent of the surveillance measures.
In 2023, a whistleblower notified the public that the government was spying on Catholic Churches and patrons who held pro-life views. The whistleblower provided an internal document now known as the Richmond memo, officially titled “Interest of Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremists in Radical-Traditionalist Catholic Ideology Almost Certainly Presents New Mitigation Opportunities.” The internal memo that was distributed to 1,000 FBI agents across the nation deemed “radical-traditionalist Catholics” (RTCs) racially or ethnically motivated extremists.
Then-Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray attempted to retract the memo. Wray claimed that the slander was limited to one memo. As Wray said under oath: The only involvement of the two other field offices was the Richmond authors of the product included two sentences or something thereabouts referencing each of these other offices’ cases, and they sent those sentences about the other offices’ cases to them, not the whole product, and asked them, ‘hey, did we describe your case right?’ That’s all the other offices had. So it was a single field office’s product, and I stand by that. The Department of Justice’s Inspector General reviewed the letter when it was first leaked and determined that there was no religious bias or malicious intent.”
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-IA, continued to look into the matter. On June 2, 2025, he sent a seven-page letter to FBI Director Kash Patel to say that his letters to former FBI Director Wray went unanswered and new findings warranted reopening the investigation. Furthermore, Grassley found that intelligence agencies “produced at least 13 additional documents and five attachments that used anti-Catholic terminology and relied on information from the radical far-left Southern Poverty Law Center.” The extent of spying and internal dialogue regarding Catholics as extremists was far deeper than “two sentences” in one memo. The second of 13 memos was released to the entire FBI department, urging them to continue monitoring Catholics.
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The FBI tracked increases and decreases in mass attendance at traditionalist Catholic churches. They were instructed to monitor the social media accounts of Catholics as a form of “threat mitigation.” The parishioner sitting beside you in the pew could have been a Biden FBI agent in disguise. This was an agency-wide effort that the past administration attempted to hide. The FBI interviewed parishioners and clergy members to instill suspicion and fear in the community.
The First Amendment of the US Constitution grants Americans the right to exercise their religious beliefs. It is hard to believe that the Department of Justice’s Inspector General failed to find evidence of malicious intent when a specific religious group was clearly discriminated against and targeted for their faith. Wray lied under oath and Biden turned on his own faux faith to target anyone who could potentially stand in the way of his pro-abortion stance.
Posted originally on Jun 10, 2025 by Martin Armstrong
The Los Angeles riots exemplify the left’s ongoing approach to dissenting political policies—violence. Rioters are burning the city of Los Angeles to the ground, yet again, while Democrats clap and condemn the Trump Administration for causing the destruction.
Dozens of innocent people have been injured. The financial toll of these riots has not been realized but criminals used the unrest as an opportunity to clear out stores and businesses before burning them to the ground. “Mostly peaceful” protestors attacked LAPD headquarters and the US Courthouse. The Democrats will never miss an opportunity to condemn the events of January 6, but turn a blind eye when their voter base attacks government property. Most Republicans, including Trump, condemned the events of January 6 that do not even come close to what we are witnessing in LA.
(click image for clearer resolution)
The Democrats are actively encouraging riots by congratulating these criminals for “fighting back.” Kamala Harris released a statement to say that Donald Trump “provoked chaos” in “immigrant neighborhoods” by deploying the National Guard. The failed politician blamed the “Trump Administration’s cruel, calculated agenda to spread panic and division.” She then went on to directly applaud the rioters. “Protest is a powerful tool – essential in the fight for justice…I continue to support the millions of Americans who are standing up to protect our most fundamental rights and freedoms.”
The Constitution does not afford anyone the right to loot businesses or light cars on fire. These are outright violent uprisings that in no way resemble a protest. Most of the participants are looking for a way to steal and cause destruction. The immigration battle merely provided an excuse. Democrats know they cannot win this battle legally and are using their favorite tactic of instigation to rile up their minions to do their bidding.
Gavin Newsom lashed out when the National Guard prevented the full destruction of Los Angeles. How many cities have burned under his rule? Newsom accused Donald Trump of “manufacturing chaos” and “eroding public trust.” “Let’s clarify: 1) Local authorities did not require assistance. 2) Trump deployed troops regardless — to create chaos and violence. 3) Trump achieved that goal. 4) Now the situation is unstable, and we must bring in additional law enforcement to address the fallout from Trump’s actions,” the governor stated.
Newsom claimed that the National Guard takeover violated California state sovereignty. His state is already funding the criminals. The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA) played a main role in mobilizing the “movement.” The state of California funds CHIRLA and provided the agency with $34 million in grants last fiscal year. Under the Biden Administration, CHIRLA received federal funding through the Department of Homeland Security. Trump revoked that funding in March and retracted over $100,000 in unused funds. Yet, the public is perplexed by the federal government cutting off funds to these NGOs.
Every single Democratic politician regurgitated the same lines to deflect all responsibility. Donald Trump is “rapidly steering this nation toward authoritarianism,” as Bernie Sanders put it. The far left will never stop their public relations mission to paint Trump as a dictator. Perhaps the federal government should permit the blue states to self-destruct. Taxpayers should not be forced to pay for cities to rebuild every time the Democrats encourage their minions to burn them to the ground. Akin to a child throwing a temper tantrum in their room, let blue states deal with the aftermath of their self-inflicted wounds.
Posted originally on Jun 9, 2025 by Martin Armstrong
The Democrats are so caught up in their own propaganda that they have totally lost all common sense. Demanding that a returning gang member who was deported, now Newsom is daring Trump to have him arrested for violating not just the immigration issue, but his oath to defend the Constitution. California Gov. Gavin Newsom is defiant in his stance on illegal immigration. Instead of prioritizing law enforcement or public safety and the people who actually can vote legally, Newsom has doubled down on protecting illegal immigrants and violent protestors. He has declared that they’re “just trying to live their lives and pay their taxes.”
His comments come as Los Angeles is amid a violent usurpation against the American people. These anti-ICE protestors have terrorized law enforcement and burned Los Angeles to the ground for the third day. All of that is OK, because then Newsom will ask for federal funds to rebuild the city. He is not just a disgrace, but this is precisely what our computer projected when I stood up last November at our World Economic Conference and shocked the audience with the forecast that the Democratic Party would split and collapse as did the Federalists during the 19th century.
The anti-ICE riots in Los Angeles have not just set people’s cars on fire, which is OK with Newsom since he hates fossil fuels anyway, but reached a new level with terrorist chants being heard amid the mayhem, and some displaying flags of other countries. Trump’s National Guard order came at the right moment, and now the U.S. Marines are being activated.
I am sure these are tax-paying, lawful citizens who now represent the Democratic Party?
Are they also paying into Social Security? How, without legal documentation?
Posted originally on Jun 9, 2025 by Martin Armstrong
Some may have heard of the tech geniuses who compose “The PayPal Mafia.” The mainstream media glamorizes them as “tech visionaries,” a band of rebellious geniuses who disrupted finance and went on to build empires. Yet, beneath the surface of the so-called PayPal Mafia is not innovation for the public good, but the construction of a new form of oligarchy—one more dangerous than the robber barons of the 19th century. Why? Because this new class of elites doesn’t merely build companies. These men influence monetary systems, shape global narratives, and fund policy engineering through unelected channels.
PayPal emerged in the late 1990s during the dot-com bubble, which I had warned would crash by 2000. PayPal became a clever workaround to bypass the traditional banking system, cloaked under the premise of convenience. This so-called “mafia” includes Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, Reid Hoffman, Max Levchin, David Sacks, Scott Banister, Roelof Botha, Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, Jawed Karim, Premal Shah, Yu Pan, and Yishan Wong, among others who had roots in PayPal. Each went on to build their own tech empire spanning across biotech, social media, space, venture capitalism, and surveillance.
The “paypal mafia” photographed at Tosca in San Francisco, Oct, 2007. Back row from left: Jawed Karim, co-founder Youtube; Jeremy Stoppelman CEO Yelp; Andrew McCormack, managing partner Laiola Restaurant; Premal Shah, Pres of Kiva; 2nd row from left: Luke Nosek, managing partner The Founders Fund; Kenny Howery, managing partner The Founders Fund; David Sacks, CEO Geni and Room 9 Entertainment; Peter Thiel, CEO Clarium Capital and Founders Fund; Keith Rabois, VP BIz Dev at Slide and original Youtube Investor; Reid Hoffman, Founder Linkedin; Max Levchin, CEO Slide; Roelof Botha, partner Sequoia Capital; Russel Simmons, CTO and co-founder of Yelp
Fortune Magazine ran an article about these men in 2007, and even asked them to dress up as traditional mafia gangsters. These men are the new tech elite who wield immense power and influence. Elon Musk’s deep ties to Donald Trump shone a new light on how deeply the so-called PayPal Mafia has become embedded in politics and geopolitical affairs.
I reported how Peter Thiel provided J.D. Vance a platform to enter politics. Thiel introduced Vance to Silicon Valley and welcomed him into the scene of the tech elite. Theil’s Palantir was recently awarded a massive contract to create the first US federal centralized government database that will house every piece of data on every American citizen. Again, this is happening under the premise of convenience.
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Social Security Administration, and the Department of Education have already begun working with Palantir engineers to develop the most extensive federal database in US history. Social security numbers, medical claims, tax filings, bank information, immigration records, education records, debt—every piece of information that various agencies have collected on American citizens will be transferred to the coming centralized database.
Every world leader from Putin to Pope Leo XIV has issued dire warnings over advancing AI technology, believing it is the biggest threat to the future of civilization. The Big Beautiful Bill has several provisions related to AI, most notably a 10-year moratorium period during which state and local governments will be prohibited from regulating AI.
The bill awards the Department of Commerce $500 million to secure federal IT systems using AI. The Department of Defense, Customs and Border Protection, and the Department of Health and Human Services will also receive direct funding to promote the use of AI technology.
Prohibiting state regulations ensures that all technology is guarded and controlled by the federal government. There is resistance from both parties, as those who understand technology know the power this would provide the federal government.
“We don’t get the full bill text until very close to the time to vote for it, and so that was one section that was two pages that I didn’t see,” Marjorie Taylor Greene stated, adding, “I find it so problematic that I’m willing to come forward and admit there are two pages that I didn’t read, because I never want to see a situation where state rights are stripped away.”
Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) called the provision a “giant gift to Big Tech.” This ban will allow AI companies to ignore consumer privacy protections, let deepfakes spread, and allow companies to profile and deceive consumers using AI. After stopping comprehensive national privacy from passing last year, Republicans are going after states and leaving consumers unprotected online,” she stated.
There are theories that the Elon v. Trump clash is based on this provision. Regardless, the PayPal Mafia tech elite have aligned in a form of techno-feudalism, and they’ve successfully entered the US government. Thiel’s Palantir feeds intelligence to the government. Musk receives massive state subsidies for Tesla and SpaceX while criticizing government inefficiency. Hoffman, the founder of LinkedIn, funds political influence operations and AI censorship platforms under the banner of democracy.
What we are witnessing is the consolidation of influence outside the democratic process.
Posted originally on Jun 9, 2025 by Martin Armstrong
There is a conspiracy theory that the feud between Elon Musk and Donald Trump is directly related to the AI provision in the Big Beautiful Bill. Looking back at Peter Thiel and J.D. Vance, Vance had no political experience before Thiel funded his ascension into the Senate after funding his entry into venture capitalism. Both Thiel and Musk urged Trump to select Vance as his VP candidate, and many believe this was to propel the so-called PayPal mafia into politics. The three men are also strongly associated with Curtis Yarvin (pictured above), the mastermind behind the Dark MAGA, Dark Enlightenment movement.
Tesla doesn't need subsidies. The other unprofitable EV makers do.
We are giving $7,500 to people who buy GAS cars with a small battery. We are capping the price of EVs, hurting the profitability of the industry.
Now, the media claims Musk turned on Trump because he is enraged by the EV tax cuts and subsidies. Yet, only six months ago, Musk was on Capitol Hill arguing for the abolishment of EV tax credits. “Take away the subsidies. It will only help Tesla. Also, remove subsidies from all industries!” Musk posted on his platform, X, on July 16, 2024. Musk had been offloading his White House duties in recent weeks and this over-the-top public feud seems fabricated.
In comes a potential conspiracy of “Dark MAGA” or “Dark Enlightenment.” Curtis Yarvin, a former programmer turned blogger, has long argued that American democracy is irreparable and should be replaced by a corporate-run monarchy led by Big Tech. Yarvin sees democracy not as civilization’s peak but as its degeneration—a system that obscures real power, which he claims is held by a “Cathedral” of media, academia, and bureaucracies that spread progressive ideologies. Yarvin calls his views “the Dark Enlightenment” or “neo-reaction” and firmly believes that the ideal government would resemble a feudal state or a tech corporation with centralized power.
Yarvin wrote “An Open Letter to Open-Minded Progressives” in 2008, which outlines his viewpoints. There is a ton of information he put forth on his substack, Grey Mirror. He believes that the tech elite should rule as they are the only ones intelligent enough to fix our failed society. The R.A.G.E. strategy is to ” Retire All Government Employees and replace them with private corporations under a complete dictatorship run by a “national CEO,” or what’s called a dictator. Yarvin describes his approach as “a humane alternative to genocide.”
CNN reported on Yarvin’s views, as did Politico, Time, the New York Times, The New Yorker, and every other big media agency. His views are not a conspiracy, but whether or not the tech elite has adopted these views is unknown; he has met with numerous members of the Trump Administration, including J.D. Vance. Yarvin has said he is “coaching” Theil, according to Time Magazine, and he even called him a “friend” in an interview with the Hoover Institution.
Yarvin was invited as a guest to Trump’s Coronation Ball in January 2025. In a follow-up interview with Politico, Yarvin stated that Trump’s first administration basically did not achieve anything for its supporters as opposed to its lobbyists. I’m not talking to the high strategic command or whatever, but just my impression from my connections among low- and mid-level people is that they’ve figured some things out.” He said that Congress, not the president, truly runs the nation. “Actually, if the White House didn’t exist, America would still work.”
He also said that the Federal Reserve should be under the executive branch:
“It’s clearly not part of the legislative branch, it’s clearly not part of the judicial branch, so it’s clearly part of the executive branch. And because the Fed actually controls the monetary system, I can order it to mint the trillion-dollar coin, or more to the point, I can basically order the Fed to buy assets. And because I can order the Fed to buy assets, I can order the Fed to buy notes issued by new institutions.
That allows me to basically come face to face with two very clear facts. One is that the U.S. doesn’t really have an executive branch — it has a legislative branch, and it has an administrative branch, which is basically managed not by a monarchical president, but by an oligarchical Congress.”
Washington has been briefed on the Dark Enlightenment movement. The concept itself is not a conspiracy, as Yarvin and others do believe that a corporate-run dystopia is the future. Steve Bannon, as reported by the New York Times, explained that a number of tech elites were on the government’s watchlist:
“I asked him if he saw the same deep-level philosophical tension I did. “A tension?” he asked. “I would almost argue it’s an unbridgeable gap.”
He named a roster of major figures on the tech right whom he saw as enemies: Mr. Andreessen, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, the neomonarchist writer Mr. Yarvin and Balaji Srinivasan, an investor and technologist who promotes the idea of network states, new countries run on blockchain.
Mr. Bannon accused the tech barons of promoting “technofeudalism” and “transhumanism” — bending human life into technologized and unnatural new forms. “This thing is all tied together,” he said. “They have a very well thought through philosophy and a very well thought through set of ideas, and they’re trying to implement that. And to me, everybody’s afraid, everybody’s scared because of their power.”
Before he entered the White House, Vance spoke favorably of Curtis Yarvin. “There’s this guy Curtis Yarvin, who has written about some of these things,” Vance said on a podcast in 2021, adding: “I think Trump is going to run again in 2024 [and] I think that what Trump should do, if I was giving him one piece of advice: Fire every single midlevel bureaucrat, every civil servant in the administrative state, replace them with our people.”
Vance is certainly plugged in with the tech elite. Why did Elon Musk turn on Trump? I will avoid the more elaborate, far-fetched conspiracy theories (such as the Black Eye Club) and focus on what we know—the PayPal Mafia exists, as does the Dark Enlightenment theory. Musk is now calling for Trump to be impeached for a third time. Are the tech elite hoping to install Vance to the head position of POTUS? Time will tell the true plan, but this elaborate feud between Trump and Musk is too sudden not to raise suspicions.
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