Category Blogger Martin Armstrong

Jun 23 2026

Germany’s Political Class Wants Your Children for War


Posted originally on Jun 23, 2026 by Martin Armstrong |  

GermanyUkraineWarPropogandaRecruitment

German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius declared that “not all deployed soldiers will be volunteers” as Germany continues expanding its military presence in Lithuania. For years, the public was told that military service would remain voluntary. Pistorius is openly stating that a military conscription is coming. Some may believe this is solely about soldiers volunteering to be stationed in Lithuania, but in truth he is saying that Germany will do everything to honor its agreements to foreign governments and foreign wars.

Germany suspended conscription in 2011 and spent years portraying itself as a modern, peaceful nation. Now politicians are openly discussing mandatory military service, compulsory registration, mandatory medical examinations, and the possibility of forcing young men into military service if volunteer numbers fall short. Pistorius has already stated that if the military lacks sufficient volunteers, recruitment could become mandatory.

“We to achieve that everybody who is coming here do this on his on his own decision. But still it might happen […] that some will not go because they wished to go. But this is not unusual in the German Bundeswehr. So we see about what’s going to happen in the next months,” he said. “Once we have fully exploited all available means, we will start looking into alternative options,” the German minister said.

Germany deploy to Lithuania

The real question nobody wants to ask is simple: who exactly are they preparing to fight? European leaders continue talking about Russia as though Moscow is preparing to invade Berlin tomorrow. Instead of fixing domestic problems, they are now spending hundreds of billions on military expansion. Germany’s military budget has surged dramatically, with plans to build what officials openly describe as Europe’s strongest conventional military force.

Governments never begin with full-scale conscription. They do not want to panic the public, and in this situation, the nation is not yet at war. Germany already enacted a system requiring young men to provide information to the military and is preparing mandatory examinations beginning in 2027. The infrastructure is being built before the public fully understands where the road leads. The government is openly declaring that Germans will face warfare.

Young Europeans who cannot afford homes, who face rising taxes and shrinking economic opportunities, are now being told they may have a duty to serve. Politicians who helped create many of the geopolitical disasters of the last decade are increasingly willing to place the burden on the next generation.

Our models have been warning that 2026 marks a Panic Cycle year tied to rising geopolitical tensions and military escalation. The trend extending into 2027 becomes increasingly dangerous. Once governments begin preparing populations for compulsory service, they are implicitly acknowledging that they no longer expect peace. The era of purely voluntary military service is ending.

Categories:GermanyWar

Jun 23 2026

Starmer’s Fall & The Rise of Farage


Posted originally on Jun 23, 2026 by Martin Armstrong |  

r/Conservative - Bye Kier

Keir Starmer’s resignation comes as absolutely no surprise. The shocking part is not that he quit, but that it took this long. The British people delivered one of the largest electoral victories in modern history to Labour in 2024, only to discover that changing the party did nothing to change the direction of government. The economy remained stagnant, the cost of living crisis continued, migration remained out of control, taxes rose, public services deteriorated, and confidence collapsed. Even members of his own party eventually concluded that Starmer could no longer survive politically.

What we are witnessing is not merely the failure of one politician. This is the collapse of confidence in the entire political establishment. Britain has now burned through six prime ministers in less than a decade. That level of turnover is not normal. It is a symptom of a government that no longer knows how to govern and a population that no longer believes anything politicians say. The old system is fracturing before our eyes.

The Labour Party spent years attacking the Conservatives, promising competence, stability, and growth. Once in power, they quickly discovered that slogans do not create prosperity. Britain remains buried under excessive regulation, soaring debt, rising taxes, and an economy that has struggled for years. Politicians continue pretending they can tax, borrow, and regulate their way to prosperity. History shows that every government eventually learns the same lesson. You cannot spend your way out of structural decline.

2024_10_29_07_16_13_Sir_Keir_Starmer_suffers_biggest_fall_in_popularity_for_new_prime_minister

The most significant political development is not Starmer’s resignation. It is the continued rise of Nigel Farage. The establishment spent years treating Farage as a fringe figure while millions of voters quietly agreed with him. Reform UK has been leading national polls and delivered major gains in local elections because people are desperate for an alternative. They no longer trust either Labour or the Conservatives. Farage understood something that Westminster refused to acknowledge: ordinary people feel abandoned by the political class.

The establishment can dismiss Nigel Farage all it wants, but the numbers tell a very different story. Reform UK has spent much of the past year leading national opinion polls, something that would have been considered impossible only a few years ago. An Ipsos poll conducted in May placed Reform UK at 27%, seven points ahead of Labour at 20%. Even in April, Reform was leading both Labour and the Conservatives. For the first time in modern British political history, a party outside the Labour-Conservative duopoly has consistently held a national polling lead. That is not a protest vote. That is a political realignment.

The local election results confirmed what the polls had been showing for months. Labour lost more than a thousand council seats while Reform UK surged across England and established itself as the primary challenger to both traditional parties. Starmer’s resignation did not occur in a vacuum. It followed months of collapsing support, disastrous local election results, and growing fears within Labour that Farage was successfully capturing working-class voters who once formed the backbone of the party.

Nigel Farage 2019 WEC

What is unfolding in Britain resembles the collapse of establishment parties across Europe. Voters are abandoning the old political order because they no longer believe it represents them. Immigration, the cost of living, energy prices, taxation, and declining public services have created a crisis of confidence that neither Labour nor the Conservatives have been able to address. Farage’s popularity is growing because he is benefiting from that anger. Whether the establishment likes it or not, Reform UK is no longer a fringe movement. It is increasingly viewed as a potential governing party.

The British establishment will now attempt to replace Starmer with another carefully selected manager and pretend everything has changed. We have seen this movie before. The names change, the speeches change, but the policies remain remarkably similar. Andy Burnham may become prime minister by September, but replacing the captain does not repair a ship that is already taking on water.

What I find remarkable is how closely Britain now resembles the broader crisis of confidence unfolding across the Western world. Voters are rejecting establishment parties from Germany to France, from Canada to Britain. This is exactly what our models have been warning about. The 2026 Panic Cycle was never simply about markets. It is about confidence in institutions. Governments everywhere are discovering that people have reached their limit.

Farage’s appeal is not that everyone agrees with him. His appeal is that millions of people believe he is at least willing to say openly what others refuse to discuss. Immigration, national sovereignty, the cost of government, energy policy, and the destruction of the middle class have become impossible to ignore. Whether Farage ultimately succeeds or not, the political trend is unmistakable. The British public is searching for an alternative to the establishment that has dominated politics for decades.

Jun 22 2026

Your Car Was Never the Target


Posted originally on Jun 22, 2026 by Martin Armstrong |  

This Company Will Add Phone, AirPod, and Smartwatch Trackers to License Plate Readers

For years, governments assured the public that license plate readers were simply tools to catch stolen vehicles, fugitives, and dangerous criminals. That was always the sales pitch. Now the mask is coming off. According to reports, a new surveillance platform called SignalTrace is being marketed to law enforcement and government agencies that goes far beyond reading license plates. The system can collect identifiers from smartphones, smartwatches, Bluetooth devices, vehicle infotainment systems, Wi-Fi hotspots, tire pressure sensors, RFID devices, AirTags, and even pet microchips. They are no longer interested in tracking your car. They are interested in tracking you.

The frightening part is how openly this is being discussed. The stated goal of the technology is to “bridge the gap between vehicle and occupant.” In other words, the authorities no longer want to know where a vehicle traveled. They want to know who was inside, where they went, who they met, and how often they traveled together. The system creates a unique electronic fingerprint based on the collection of devices surrounding a person. Your phone, your watch, your headphones, your car, and even your dog’s microchip become pieces of a digital identity that can be followed everywhere you go.

This is exactly how governments always expand surveillance. They begin with a limited purpose that sounds reasonable. Then the technology advances and suddenly the scope becomes limitless. License plate readers were sold as crime-fighting tools. Then they became databases of vehicle movements. Now they are evolving into systems that can reconstruct an individual’s entire pattern of life. Privacy advocates have warned that these systems can reveal where people work, where they worship, where they seek medical treatment, and who they associate with. Once that information exists in a searchable database, every government agency will want access.

What is unfolding is part of a much broader trend. Governments around the world are building digital identification systems, expanding financial surveillance, monitoring communications, and centralizing personal data. At the same time, law enforcement agencies are seeking nationwide access to license plate reader networks that provide near real-time tracking capabilities across the United States. The infrastructure is being assembled piece by piece. Most people only see each individual step. They fail to recognize the larger picture until the system is fully operational.

The argument will always be security. It is the oldest justification in history. Every expansion of government power is presented as necessary for public safety. Yet once these surveillance systems are built, they are rarely scaled back. Instead, new uses are constantly discovered. Today the target is criminals. Tomorrow it may be political opponents, protesters, journalists, or anyone deemed suspicious by those in power. History has repeatedly shown that governments never surrender tools that enhance control over the population.

The greatest threat is not the technology itself. Technology is neutral. The danger lies in believing that governments, corporations, and bureaucracies can be trusted indefinitely with unlimited access to information about every citizen’s movements, associations, and daily life. When your phone, your vehicle, your wearable devices, and even your pet become tracking beacons feeding a centralized surveillance network, we are no longer talking about crime prevention. We are talking about the creation of a digital leash attached to every individual. Once that infrastructure exists, the temptation to abuse it becomes inevitable.

Jun 22 2026

England: Where the Police Investigate Babies


Posted originally on Jun 22, 2026 by Martin Armstrong |  

Baby's Jailbird Convict Prison Inmate Costume (With images) | Baby costumes for boys, First ...

There are moments when a society reveals just how far it has fallen. This is one of them. According to figures from Kent Police, a one-year-old baby girl was recorded as a crime suspect after allegedly causing a minor injury to another child. The same figures included 6 two-year-olds, 11 three-year-olds, and 20 four-year-olds. In what was once the nation that gave the world Magna Carta and the foundations of common law, police are now compiling crime statistics on babies.

Kent Police defended the practice by explaining that they want to understand what causes children to become involved in crime. We are not talking about teenagers. We are not talking about young adults. We are talking about toddlers and infants who, much like the Kent Police, have not yet developed the cognitive skills for advanced thought.

Welcome to the new reality where every incident from birth to death must be logged, categorized, measured, and entered into a database. Governments continue to build systems that collect more information while common sense quietly disappears. Instead of concentrating on violent crime, organized gangs, terrorism, or the growing social tensions facing Britain, officials are recording playground disputes involving children who are not even old enough to attend school.

So even babies are not immune to the two-tiered justice system. The authorities seem perfectly capable of recording a one-year-old baby as a crime suspect, yet when serious crimes involving violent offenders make national headlines, the public is often told there is insufficient evidence, investigations take years, or victims are ignored until it is too late. People look at cases like Henry Nowak who was arrested for racism after a migrant stabbed him to death. Dangerous individuals are permitted to terrorize the public, and the police are warned to turn a blind eye. Police resources are being used to classify toddlers as suspects when there are hundreds, if not thousands, of open rape cases against one particular subset of the population.

r/ConservativeMemes - London has fallen

That is why confidence in government is collapsing. The average citizen cannot understand how a government can find the time to build police records on babies while repeatedly failing to address the crimes that genuinely threaten public safety. It is impossible to take the British legal system seriously, let alone maintain the belief that the law is there for the benefit of society.

Britain has become obsessed with monitoring, tracking, and documenting everything. Everyone, including your baby, mother, and grandmother, is considered a criminal. They will create whatever evidence they believe they need. Thousands are arrested over online communications, surveillance powers continue to expand, and government agencies increasingly treat ordinary citizens as subjects to be managed rather than people to be served. Recording toddlers as crime suspects may seem ridiculous, but it is simply another symptom of a system that has lost all sense of proportion.

The problem is the mindset that believes a one-year-old belongs in a police database. Every empire eventually reaches a stage where bureaucracy expands beyond reason. When police are officially recording babies as criminal suspects, perhaps it is time to ask whether the system itself has become the absurdity.

r/ConservativeMemes - Having grown up there it's a real shame.

Categories:BRITAIN

Jun 22 2026

California’s Hunt IPO Taxes


Posted originally on Jun 22, 2026 by Martin Armstrong |  

These Are The California State Tax Rates And Tax Brackets For 2023-2024

California never seems to learn. Instead of asking why companies are fleeing the state, politicians immediately look at a successful IPO and see a new tax opportunity. The latest excitement surrounds the massive SpaceX public offering and the possibility that thousands of California employees and investors could generate billions in capital gains taxes for Sacramento. State officials have openly acknowledged that these gains could help plug budget holes and support spending programs that have become increasingly dependent on volatile tax receipts.

This is precisely the problem. Governments begin to treat one-time wealth creation events as recurring revenue streams. California has built a fiscal structure that relies heavily on a small percentage of wealthy taxpayers. When the stock market is booming and IPOs are plentiful, tax collections surge. Politicians then expand programs and spending commitments as if the money will continue forever. When the cycle turns, revenues collapse and deficits explode. We have seen this movie repeatedly, from the dot-com bubble to the technology boom of recent years.

Elon Musk moved both Tesla and SpaceX headquarters out of California because of the state’s hostile business climate, regulations, and taxes. Yet California still hopes to collect a substantial windfall because many employees remain in the state and will owe capital gains taxes when shares are sold. Instead of recognizing that entrepreneurs are escaping, politicians are celebrating one last opportunity to reach into their pockets.

California is simultaneously debating a billionaire wealth tax that could impose a one-time 5% levy on the state’s richest residents. Supporters claim it could generate roughly $100 billion, while critics warn it would accelerate capital flight and ultimately reduce future tax collections. The very fact that such proposals are being seriously considered tells you everything about the mentality in Sacramento. They see wealth not as something to encourage and cultivate, but as a resource to be harvested whenever government spending gets out of control.

Governments never solve fiscal problems by raising taxes on success. They simply encourage capital to move elsewhere. California became an economic powerhouse because it attracted innovators, entrepreneurs, and investment. Now the state increasingly views every successful company, every IPO, and every wealthy resident as another source of revenue. That mentality marks the transition from encouraging growth to hunting wealth.

Jun 21 2026

Interview: Will the US/Iran Deal Hold?


Posted originally on Jun 21, 2026 by Martin Armstrong |  

Jun 20 2026

Interview: Wars, AI, and the Great Reset


Posted originally on Jun 20, 2026 by Martin Armstrong |  

Jun 20 2026

Slovakia’s Constitutional Court Fires a Warning Shot at Debt Addiction


Posted originally on Jun 19, 2026 by Martin Armstrong |  

Transparency Case Study: Public Procurement in the Slovak Republic ...

The politicians always promise everything to everyone because that is how they get elected. They hand out benefits, expand programs, borrow endlessly, and then leave the bill for the next generation. What has made this crisis even worse across Europe is that governments have become addicted to debt while pretending there are no consequences. Now Slovakia’s Constitutional Court has stepped into the middle of that problem and delivered a message that politicians everywhere should be paying attention to.

The court ruled that when government debt breaches constitutional limits, the government cannot simply continue business as usual. It must immediately seek a vote of confidence in parliament. In other words, if politicians drive the country into dangerous debt territory, they must answer for it politically rather than hiding behind accounting tricks and bureaucratic delays. This decision strikes directly at the heart of the modern political model where governments spend first and worry about the consequences later. The ruling reinforces the principle that excessive debt is not merely an accounting issue. It is a constitutional and democratic issue because taxpayers ultimately become responsible for the promises politicians make.

What makes this so important is that virtually every Western government is facing the same disease. The United States has surpassed $37 trillion in federal debt. France, Italy, Britain, and numerous EU member states continue running deficits despite years of promises about fiscal discipline. Politicians talk endlessly about sustainability while debt levels continue climbing. They always assume growth will save them tomorrow. Then when growth slows, they simply borrow even more. We are watching governments consume future generations in real time. The debt crisis is no longer coming. It is already here.

The European Union has spent years criticizing member states over budget deficits while simultaneously encouraging massive spending programs, energy transitions, military expenditures, and endless bureaucracy. The contradiction has become impossible to ignore. Slovakia’s court has essentially acknowledged what politicians refuse to admit: debt accumulation eventually becomes a constitutional issue because it threatens the stability of the state itself. Once governments become dependent upon borrowing simply to maintain operations, democracy begins to erode because every political decision becomes subordinate to debt servicing and creditor confidence.

This is why I have repeatedly stated that the sovereign debt crisis remains the biggest threat facing the developed world. Governments cannot borrow forever. History has never produced a single example where endless debt expansion continued indefinitely. Every empire eventually reaches the point where the cost of maintaining the system exceeds the productive capacity of the economy. The ECM continues to warn that we are moving into the most dangerous period for sovereign debt since World War II. The panic cycle of 2026 is exposing the cracks. By 2028 the economic pressures intensify, and by 2032 we are looking at the potential climax of the sovereign debt crisis that has been building for decades. Slovakia’s Constitutional Court may have issued a ruling aimed at one government, but the warning applies to every government drowning in debt around the world.

Jun 20 2026

Israel’s Conscription Crisis Exposes a Nation Divided


Posted originally on Jun 19, 2026 by Martin Armstrong |  

Ultra-Orthodox Jews protest against army enlisting. They prefer death over enlisting – Ya Libnan

Tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews have taken to the streets, blocking highways, shutting down rail lines, and clashing with police over mandatory military conscription. Some demonstrations have brought major cities to a standstill. This is no fringe protest. It is a direct challenge to the authority of the state itself and highlights a deep fracture that has been growing within Israeli society for decades.

What the outside world often fails to understand is that the issue goes back to the founding of Israel in 1948. Ultra-Orthodox Jews, known as Haredim, were granted exemptions from military service if they devoted themselves to full-time religious study. At the time, the numbers were relatively small. Today, however, the ultra-Orthodox population represents roughly 13% of Israel’s population and is one of the fastest-growing demographic groups in the country. After years of legal battles, Israel’s courts ruled that the blanket exemptions could no longer continue indefinitely. The military has now issued tens of thousands of draft notices, yet only a fraction have responded.

Ultra-Orthodox Jews block highway over Israel military draft law

Israel is simultaneously fighting multiple conflicts while suffering manpower shortages. Reservists have been called up repeatedly, many serving hundreds of days away from their families and businesses. As casualties mount and military commitments expand, resentment has grown among secular and traditional Israelis who see themselves carrying the burden while a large segment of society remains exempt. The result has been a political explosion that has destabilized Netanyahu’s government and contributed to the collapse of his coalition.

Manpower shortages are happening throughout the world as nations see that their troops are disposable until there is no one left to replace the last men. Israel was entirely dependent on support from the US, which is why Trump’s recent pivot is peculiar in timing, as it corresponds with our War Cycle that indicated heated tensions over the summer. Come August, the cycle is turning up; peace, unfortunately, is not going to happen.

Polls show 61% of Israelis do not want Netanyahu to seek reelection. Now, 13% of the population is at odds with Bibi and his unholy wars. This is why there is extreme danger ahead: Netanyahu needs a military victory to secure power.

Orthodox Jews storm Israeli army's conscription center | Daily Sabah
Jun 20 2026

Ukraine’s Army+ App Reveals a Much Larger Problem


Posted originally on Jun 19, 2026 by Martin Armstrong |  

Nearly 200 military personnel are returning from AWOL via the "Army+" app - Fedorov

Ukraine’s government is celebrating a new feature inside the Army+ app that allows soldiers who went AWOL to return to military service and even select a new unit. Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov announced that nearly 200 requests had already been submitted through the system, with dozens approved in just a matter of days. The government presents this as a technological success story. I see something very different. When a nation at war needs a smartphone application to bring soldiers back after they have abandoned their units, that is a sign that the manpower crisis has become impossible to hide.

Earlier this year Fedorov acknowledged that roughly 200,000 Ukrainian soldiers were listed as AWOL while another 2 million Ukrainians were being sought for draft evasion. Those are not normal wartime statistics. Even Reuters previously reported that Ukraine was offering second chances to thousands of soldiers who had abandoned their positions because the military desperately needed personnel back on the front lines.

Videos have circulated showing military recruitment officers hunting down men in broad daylight and throwing them into windowless vans. Ukrainians do not want to continue fighting a war that has already consumed hundreds of thousands of lives. Regardless of where one stands politically, a government does not need aggressive mobilization campaigns when volunteers are lining up to serve. The world is applauding Zelensky and the neocons while those forced to battle are pleading for peace, not another multi-billion-euro package to prolong the war.

What makes the Army+ program so revealing is that it effectively acknowledges the problem. Soldiers can now submit applications, select preferred units, and return through a simplified digital process. The government is trying to make military service more attractive because it knows morale and retention have become major issues. The Ministry of Defense itself has promoted these reforms as a way to quickly reintegrate personnel who left without authorization.

The existence of an app designed to bring back soldiers who abandoned their units may be presented as innovation. In reality, it may be one of the clearest signs yet that Ukraine’s manpower crisis is coming to a head. This is precisely why Europe should be on edge. They will come for your sons next.