the 1933 Bank Holiday – Can it Happen Again?


Armstrong Economics Blog/Banking Crisis Re-Posted Mar 23, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

QUESTION: Marty there are a lot of people who seem to be trying to create a panic. Some are claiming the stock market will plunge by 50%. Others are saying nothing will survive other than gold. It seems like none of these people have any sense of what is really unfolding. They were saying the same thing for different reasons before the banking crisis. Can you offer any historical perspective?

Thank you. You seem to be the only real source these days.

Pete

ANSWER: The Bank Holiday took place the first week of March 1933. It began with governors closing down the banks in their states. Once one began, like COVID rules, they quickly jumped on the bandwagon. As reported by March 4th, 1933, some 41 states had already declared a banking holiday. Back then, the president took office in March – not January. Thus, Roosevelt was sworn in on March 4th, 1933. As the new president, FDR delivered what is arguably his best-known speech.

“So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is…fear itself — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and of vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory. And I am convinced that you will again give that support to leadership in these critical days.”

The following day, Roosevelt declared a national banking holiday on March 5th, 1933. Then Congress responded by passing the Emergency Banking Act of 1933 on March 9th, 1933. This action was combined with the Federal Reserve’s commitment to supply unlimited amounts of currency to reopened banks. Back then, they effectively created a de facto 100% deposit insurance and this was before the FDIC was created.

However, what the history books have omitted because it revealed the real reason for the major banking crisis, was the confiscation of gold precisely as Germany did in December 1922 seizing 10% of all assets which unleashed hyperinflation in 1923.

In Herbert Hoover’s memoirs (1951), he documents the fact that Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) played a very dirty game of politics. There were rumors that FDR would confiscate gold in 1932 BEFORE the election. These rumors spread and people ran to banks to withdraw their funds. The night before the election in 1932, FDR denied that he would do such a thing. After FDR won the election, the real bank panic began. FDR would not take office until March 1933.

The run on banks began as the Great Depression started. In 1929 alone, 659 banks closed their doors due to mismanagement and speculation. Ironically, to save money on paper, it was also in 1929 when the currency was reduced in size to save money. This time, they want to move to digital and save 100% on printing money. Here in 2023, the failures are due to the WOKE agenda which has deprived the banks of risk management rather than speculation.

However, as the 1931 Sovereign Debt Crisis hit, the number of bank failures skyrocketed. Goldman Sacks and others were selling foreign bonds to Americans in small denominations., As Europe began to default, US banks holding foreign debt and individuals in need of cash led to a banking panic for external reasons. Here is a chart showing the listing of bonds on the NYSE. We can easily see the collapse in the bond market thanks to the 1931 Sovereign Debt Crisis.

By 1932, an additional 5,102 banks went out of business. Families lost their life savings overnight. Thirty-eight states had adopted restrictions on withdrawals in an effort to forestall the panic. By March 4th, 41 states had declared a bank holiday shutting down banks. Bank failures increased in 1933, and Franklin Roosevelt deemed remedying these failing financial institutions his first priority after being inaugurated.

However, it was actually the election of FDR that started the banking crisis post-1931. Hoover pleaded with FDR to please come out and address the gold confiscation rumors. People had been hoarding their gold coins fearing the rumored confiscation. Despite Hoover’s plea for FDR to come out and deny the rumors after the election, he remained silent. Given FDR’s manipulation of Japan and the attack on Pearl Harbor which he appeared to instigate with sanctions confiscating Japanese assets in the USA, denying the sale of any energy to Japan, and then threatening to use the fleet to block them from buying fuel from anywhere else, They Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. There were Senate investigations afterward about FDR’s role because the US had already broken the Japanese code and knew in advance about the attack on Pearl Harbor. He did that to force the US into World War II.

It was in his character to remain silent and create the worst banking crisis in history before he was sworn in as president. FDR was a radical socialist and many viewed that he admired Lenin. If it were not for Mr. Jones exposing the truth behind Stalin, even the corrupt New York Times journalist promoting Stalinism was meeting with FDR. The run on the banks became massive when FDR won the election on November 8th, 1932. FDR allowed the banking system to implode with people rushing to withdraw the money in gold coins.

At 1:00 a.m. on Monday, March 6th, 1933, President Roosevelt issued Proclamation 2039 ordering the suspension of all banking transactions, effective immediately. Roosevelt had taken the oath of office only thirty-six hours earlier.

The terms of the presidential proclamation specified:

[N]o such banking institution or branch shall pay out, export, earmark, or permit the withdrawal or transfer in any manner or by any device whatsoever, of any gold or silver coin or bullion or currency or take any other action which might facilitate the hoarding thereof; nor shall any such banking institution or branch pay out deposits, make loans or discounts, deal in foreign exchange, transfer credits from the United States to any place abroad, or transact any other banking business whatsoever.

For an entire week, Americans would not have access to banks or banking services. They could not withdraw or transfer their money, nor could they make deposits. The entire economy ran simply on cash in your pocket.

While the first phase of the banking crisis unfolded after 1929 due to speculation losses (hence Glass–Steagall Act), then the second phase was the 1931 Sovereign Debt Crisis, it was the third phase with the election of FDR that led to thousands of banks failing as there was a mad rush to withdraw your gold coin. But a new round of problems that began in early 1933 placed a severe strain on New York banks, many of which held balances for banks in other parts of the country. About 4,000 banks failed during this period alone bringing the total to over 9,000.

Much to everyone’s relief, when the institutions that could reopen for business on March 13th, 1933 saw depositors standing in line to return their stashed cash to neighborhood banks. Within two weeks, Americans had redeposited more than half of the currency that they had withdrawn post-FDR’s election on November 8th, 1932. This would prove to be a sneaky trick of FDR to get people to redeposit all the gold coins they had withdrawn – as we are about to explore.

The stock market was also ordered closed when FDR came to power. With the cleverness of a real con artist operating a Ponzi Scheme to gain the confidence of the people, FDR needed the gold coin to be deposited for Phase 4 of the banking crisis. On March 15th, 1933, (The Ides of March), the stock market was allowed to reopen. On the first day of trading, the New York Stock Exchange recorded the largest one-day percentage price increase ever.

The week before the closure, the Dow Jones Industrials fell to 49.68. The week following the closure, the Dow rallied to 64.56 – a percentage gain of virtually 30% over the banking holiday. The shorts who were better on the collapse of the market once it reopened were devastated. It was a major short-covering rally.

With the benefit of hindsight, the nationwide Bank Holiday and the Emergency Banking Act of March 1933, ended the bank runs that had plagued the Great Depression, but it also set the stage for the confiscation of gold. What you have to understand is that Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s (FDR) actions in 1933 were not directed simply at gold. He was embarking on what he called the New Deal, which was a Marxist Agenda that was very popular at the time. His New Deal would end austerity, whereby they were maintaining a balanced budget in the belief that they needed to inspire confidence in the currency.

It was this balanced budget philosophy that also inspired John Maynard Keynes who argued that in times of economic distress when the demand has collapsed, that is when the state needs to run a deficit and increase the money supply. There was a simultaneous international flight of capital from Europe to the United States in the face of European sovereign debt defaults.  That capital flight lasted for nearly two years until FDR won the election in 1932. There was much concern that Roosevelt would do what Germany did in 1922 in confiscating assets. That was the rumor about the possible confiscation of gold.

Milton Friedman criticized the Fed because the capital flows poured into the US but they refused to monetize it. We can see that as Europe defaulted on its debts in 1931, the capital rushed head-first into the dollar. Then we see that the dollar peaked in November 1932 with the election of FDR fearing that would weaken the dollar and exploit the economy. All this gold came to the USA pushing the dollar higher, but the Fed refused to monetize it, was Milton’s criticism. The backing of gold behind the dollar doubled in supply between 1929 and 1931.

So, you must separate gold and the devaluation of the dollar to comprehend what the issue was all about. FDR could have simply abandoned the gold standard, as did Britain, and not confiscated gold. However, that would have also been sufficient to end austerity. But the bankers would have profited and sold the gold overseas at higher prices. Roosevelt in his confiscation of gold was intended to deprive the private sector of profiting from his devaluation of the dollar which was rising the price of gold from $20 to $35. You must keep in mind that he even degraded Pierre du Pont (1870-1954) and called him the “Merchant of Death” because he produced arms for World War I and made a profit off of that war demand. Many saw Roosevelt as a traitor to his own class.

ExecutiveOrder-Gold-Confiscation

The confiscation of the gold was for two reasons. First, FDR was changing the monetary system from one where there was no distinction domestically from internationally to a two-tier system. Gold would freely circulate without restriction only internationally. Therefore, the confiscation of gold was altering the monetary system moving to a two-tier monetary system with gold only used in international transactions.

Consequently, FDR confiscated gold to move to a two-tier system and to deprive Americans of any profit from his devaluation. What FDR then did was confiscate gold from all institutions ordering them to turn over whatever they had. Ironically, this move was intended to target bankers rather than the public. FDR did not have people knocking on every door demanding all their gold. That is why there are plenty of US gold coins that have survived. If individuals possessed them rather than an institution, then they kept what they owned

Therefore, Roosevelt was able to seize whatever gold existed in banks. He declared all contracts void that had gold provisions for payment. It was in Perry v. United States – 294 U.S. 330 (1935) that the US Supreme Court ruled that Congress, by virtue of its power to deal with gold coin as a medium of exchange, was authorized to prohibit its export and limit its use in foreign exchange. Hence, the restraint thus imposed upon holders of gold coins was incidental to their ownership of it, and gave them no cause of action. id/P. 294 U. S. 356.

The Supreme Court held that it could not say that the exercise of this power by Congress was arbitrary or capricious. id/P. 294 U. S. 356. They held that even if the Government’s repudiation of the gold clause in the government bonds was unconstitutional, it did not entitle the plaintiff to recover more than the loss he has actually suffered, and of which he may rightfully complain. id/P. 294 U. S. 354. Therefore, the Joint Resolution of June 5, 1933, held:

“insofar as it undertakes to nullify such gold clauses in obligations of the United States and provides that such obligations shall be discharged by payment, dollar for dollar, in any coin or currency which at the time of payment is legal tender for public and private debts, is unconstitutional. id/P. 294 U. S. 349.

Yet, swapping gold for dollars created no loss that was cognizable even though the taking of gold was unconstitutional. Clearly, the Supreme Court did not consider the loss in terms of foreign exchange. The Court reasoned:

“Plaintiff has not attempted to show that, in relation to buying power, he has sustained any loss; on the contrary, in view of the adjustment of the internal economy to the single measure of value as established by the legislation of the Congress, and the universal availability and use throughout the country of the legal tender currency in meeting all engagements, the payment to the plaintiff of the amount which he demands would appear to constitute not a recoupment of loss in any proper sense, but an unjustified enrichment.”

In my understanding of the law, those who argued before the Court made purely a domestic argument. A dollar was still a dollar in domestic terms so there was no cognizable loss and the Court did not reach the constitutional question. Had they argued that their loss was with respect to some debt owed in British pounds, they there was a loss. Purely domestically, the only loss would have been to inflation and the Court would never rule against the government on such an issue.

All of that said, there does not appear to be any historical precedent for the stock market to collapse by 50%, all tangible assets to turn to dust, and only gold will survive given a banking crisis where Biden and Yellen sit on each other’s hands and do nothing. Trust me. Every major Democratic donor will be screaming. And as for those claiming the Fed will reverse its position, say inflation is suddenly no longer a problem, and monetize everything in sight, this is even too big for the Fed. have to create QE and absorb all the debt, there to things have changed. If the Fed does that, it will also lose all credibility. It squarely understands that inflation comes from handing Ukraine a black check to the most corrupt government in the world. The Fed raised rates yesterday for it cannot back down. It is choreographing the best it can but the bankers do not listen.

If they simply stand behind all the deposits, then there will be no panic. That is what they did in 1933 and the market rallied in confidence thereafter.

Rasmussen Poll Shows 55% of All Voters Agree that DC Republicans Worked With DC Democrats to Keep Trump From Being Reelected in 2020


Posted originally on the CTH onMarch 16, 2023 | Sundance

March 16, 2023 | Sundance | 235 Comments

If you wonder about whether people are really starting to understand the UniParty operation in Washington DC, the answer appears to be a resounding “Yes.”

According to the latest Rasmussen poll [LINK HERE], even a majority of Democrats admit that Republicans likely conspired with Democrats to keep President Trump from winning the 2020 election. The exact wording of the question is:

How likely is it that Republican politicians in DC worked secretly with Democrats to keep Trump from being reelected in 2020?

55% – of all voters agree it is likely.
67% – Republicans
51% – Democrats

Rasmussen’s Mark Mitchell appeared on the Steve Bannon podcast to discuss the results of the poll.  WATCH:

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As CTH has continued to outline, the Republican Party of Bush, Romney, McConnell et al, is dead.  Voters who support President Trump reject the Wall Street professionally Republican donor class.  The Republican Party is the party of MAGA, America First and Donald Trump now.

Recently on Twitter I stated, “There are not enough people who take pictures of their lunches to post on Instagram to support Ron DeSantis for president.”  This is the essential core of the issue.  Working people and people on fixed incomes understand the value of America First and Donald Trump in/on their lives.  Every other coalition is a small segment of elite minded snobbish people who think they know better.  Keep watching.

The Parliamentary Motive Behind the J6 Fedsurrection


Posted originally on the CTH on March 12, 2023 | Sundance

The Ring of Truth – “I am too well accustomed to the taking of evidence not to detect the ring of truth.” 1908, Edith Wharton

Much has been made of the events of January 6, 2021, and with the latest broadcast of CCTV video from inside the Capitol Hill complex, more questions have been raised.

Within the questions: the FBI and government apparatus had advanced knowledge of the scale of the J6 mall assembly yet doing nothing?  Why were the Capitol Hill police never informed of the FBI concerns?  Why didn’t House Speaker Nancy Pelosi secure the Capitol Hill complex, and why did she deny the request by President Trump to call up the national guard for security support?  Why did the FBI have agent provocateurs in the crowd, seemingly stimulating rage within a peaceful crowd to enter the Capitol building?  There have always been these nagging questions around ‘why’?

Long time CTH reader “Regitiger” has spent a great deal of time reviewing the entire process, looking at the granular timeline and then overlaying the bigger picture of the constitutional and parliamentary process itself.  What follows below is a brilliant analysis of the federal government motive to create a J6 crisis that permitted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to trigger an emergency session and avoid the 2020 election certification challenges.

Those congressional floor challenges, known and anticipated well in advance of the morning of January 6, 2021, would have formed a legal and constitutional basis for ‘standing’ in judicial challenges that would have eventually reached the Supreme Court.  The certification during “emergency session” eliminated the problem for Washington DC.

Regitiger explains below, only edited by me for clarity and context:

I think most, not all, but a large number of people, are totally missing what happened; and why this happened on Jan 6th.  I am going to try my best to outline the events that day, blast past the commonly held assumptions and get right down to the core corruption.

I will present this as a series of questions and answers.

♦ Q1: How do you prevent congress from delaying the certification of state electoral votes?

A: It requires a crisis. A crisis that creates an “emergency” …An “emergency” that invokes special house rules.

FACTS: Remember carefully, focus please. Just moments, literally 3 minutes before two representatives issued a vote for motions to suspend the certification, the House members were “informed” by capitol police and other “agents” that a protest was about to breach the chambers. It was at this time that key people: Pence, Pelosi, Schumer, Mcconnell can be seen being walked out and escorted from the chamber. This effectively halted the Entire Chamber Process.

♦ Q2: Why was it necessary to halt the chamber process?

A: The crisis was created to eliminate the motion challenges to halt the certification and to begin voting to look into voting irregularities and fraud

FACTS: The two motions were completely legal and constitutional under at least two constitutionally recognized procedures… procedures that would REQUIRE the house to pause the certification and then vote to determine whether the motions of suspend could move forward.

♦ Q3: What was so important to refuse this motion and the subsequent votes to suspend the electoral certification?

A: It was important to remove that process entirely and continue the fraud and certify the fraud with no detractors on record. This effectively gives no standing for a SCOTUS ruling appeal!  Understand this.  If those two motions, even just one had successfully been voted EVEN IF THE MOTIONS were DENIED IN VOTE, this gives those who presented them with STANDING FOR A CONSTITUTIONAL LEGAL ARGUMENT BEFORE SCOTUS. 

♦ Q4: Could this have been done some other way other than creating a crisis/protest?

A: Unlikely. In order to prevent those two motions, requires that speaker of the house, minority leaders, and the president of the congress (vice president of the United States: Pence), to NOT BE PRESENT IN THE CHAMBERS.

Once the capitol police and other “law enforcements agents” informed the speaker and these three other individuals, Pelosi UNILATERALLY UNDER EMERGENCY RULES, suspended the business of the congress. This protest was necessary. The crisis was created because there is no other way to suspend the business of certification UNILATERALLY. By creating a crisis invokes emergency procedures. No other circumstances other than war or mass simultaneous explosive diarrhea can create such unilateral speaker delivered suspension of the certification.

♦ Q5: Why did the motions, once that the speaker RECONVENED congress, move forward back again to the floor for votes? Why were members disallowed to even consider putting forward ANY motions to the floor in when the chamber business was reopened?

A: The Speaker initiated the NEW sessions under special emergency rules. These rules abandon and make it clear that the ONLY purpose of the new session was to EXPEDITE the certification and dismiss all prior regular session procedural rules. This is why those two motions to table votes to consider a debate and pause to the certifications of state vote electors never happened later that evening when the house business was reconvened!

♦ Q6: Other than new rules, emergency rules, what other peculiar things occurred when the speaker reconvened?

A: Members were allowed to “vote” in proxy, remotely, not being present.  You can use your imagination about what conditions were placed on ALL members during this time to prevent anyone from “getting out of line”.

Also clearly, it was at THIS NEW SESSION that VP Pence, President of Congress, would also have no ability to even consider pausing the electoral certification, because there were no motions of disagreements on the matter. So, in a technical legal claim, he is correct that he had no constitutional authority to address any issues of fraud or doubts about electoral irregularities. But this completely dismisses the FACT that congress created rules in this crisis/emergency that never allowed them to be floored!

Understand what happened in Jan 6, 2021.  Don’t get hung up on Viking impostors, stolen Pelosi computers, podium heists, and complicit capitol police. Understand the process and what happened and what WAS NOT ALLOWED TO HAPPEN.

This was a coup….it was a very organized and carefully planned coup. VP Pence without a doubt as well as most members of the house were quite aware of how the certification was going to be MANAGED.  It would require new rules to prevent the debate clause from occurring!  New rules that ONLY AN EMERGENCY CRISIS COULD CREATE! So, they created an emergency.

•NOTED: I understand why many people have great interest in debunking the j6 event. I get that. I think it is important to dissect and examine the events of that day but please, step back and understand WHY these things happened. Examine the chain of events in congress.  Why those two motions that would have at least paused the certification THAT WOULD GIVE VP PENCE THE CONSTITUTIONALLY RECOGNIZED POWER TO MOVE TO SUSPEND THE ELECTORAL CERTIFICATION AND THEN EXAMINE THE IRREGULARITIES AND CLAIMS OF FRAUD!

At the very center of this coup stands Mike Pence, the same individual who also spoiled President Trump’s first opportunities in the earlies hours of his Presidency just 4 years prior, when he created and facilitated the removal of Lt General Michael Flynn. I will not spend much time on this thread explaining why Lt Gen Flynn was so important to President Trump and why the IC was so afraid he would have advisory power to the President. That I will leave for another day, another time. But understand this clearly: MIKE PENCE WAS AND IS WORKING FOR THE MOST CORRUPT CRIMINAL TREASONOUS PEOPLE IN GOVERNMENT.

•PRO TIP: If you really want to get a true understanding of this matter videos of protesters walking in the capitol is not going to address them. Actual video and timeline records of events and the specific actions taken by the speaker just moments before TWO MAJOR ELECTORAL ALTERING MOTIONS WERE ABOUT TO BE FLOORED.

This crisis was developed just in time with a precise coordination to prevent those two motions to be entered into the chamber record. The two motions do not exist. The emergency powers established in the new session made sure they never could be entered. The emergency powers could never happen without a crisis.

God Bless America!”

[link]

Note from Author: “I started this effort years ago.  To date, no one and I mean no one has replied.  It’s as if everyone that can expose it that has a larger platform is either disinterested, or suspiciously withdrawn from the issue.  I made several comments about this over the years right here at CTH, on article threads that are relevant to the topic.

I was watching the certification live that day. I recorded it ALL on every channel. I was doing this because no matter what happened that day, I KNEW IT WOULD BE A PROFOUND AND SIGNIFICANT EVENT TO REMEMBER. I never in my wildest imagination (and I have a pretty vivid imagination, always have), expected to see the unmistakable perfectly timed “coincidences” that occurred.

One member raises a motion (with another in waiting for his turn) those two motions were well known and advertised. These were motions to vote for a pause in the certification to examine electoral vote fraud and irregularities. I can’t speak to the veracity and substance of those motions. They were never allowed to even be floored. it was at that exact moment that the house chambers were suspended and 4 of the key members, Pence, Pelosi, Schumer and McConnell were escorted OUT right after initiating the end of the session.

Effectively, this resulted in that motion never being floored at all.  Then, when reconvened under special emergency rules, inexplicably those two motions (and perhaps more – we will never know – or will we?) were not even attempted to be motioned. That was not just peculiar to me.

It all started to make more sense when I did some study on constitutional law AND THE HISTORY of specific special authorities given to president of the congress, Pence in this case. Not only did he have the authority and power to suspend the certification, but the duty to address the motion in the same sense that it becomes vital to the debate clause.

There really is no higher significance of weight given to the debate clause than the certification of the votes. This was more than odd to me the way that the media and pence framed their narrative: Pence would not have the constitutional power to suspend certification.  Then it hit me, like the obvious clue that was there all the time. He was right. But the reason he is right, is because there WAS NO MOTION ON THE FLOOR TO CAUSE HIM TO SUSPEND!

Understanding this, happened for me about 4 or 5 months after this Jan 6 day.  I took me this long to examine the facts, look at the video again, compare it to the arguments made by several leading constitutional academics, and again, inexplicably even some that I respect seemed to dodge that central reality.  The motions were never allowed to be floored in the re-convened house rules later that evening. Most would not even venture to address the exotically coincidence that the moment those two members would stand to place the motion before the house, that the House Speaker Pelosi AND Pence ended the session, effectively blocking the motions from being heard in normal house rules.

It’s been a journey for me. A journey that was initiated because I am just a simple but curious person. Perhaps even to a point where I get obsessive in those efforts. Many days and nights combing over the details. praying and trying to make sense of what makes little sense. With over 6 states having serious well known and obvious defects in the voting process, some more credible to believe – some less, but one would not expect the house would be so deliberate in marching past the motions that were definitely going to be present to slow this process down and take the time to get it right. Even IF the claims never reached an intersection that would change the outcome.

There are two possibilities: Millions of people, against all the odds, hitting all-time records even past Obama and Clinton, voted for a naval gazing ambulatory pathological racist moron. And chose Joe Malarkey as their leader.  Or this was a coup, a conspiracy, and a treasonous manipulation regime change because President Trump could not be controlled by the deep state and globalists who OWN AND OPERATE WASHINGTON DC.

BOTH POSSIBILITIES ARE TERRIFYING.

The only way for THE PEOPLE to gain power in this country is to force the transfer of it.  If truth isn’t the fuel and vehicle, we will just be replacing deck chairs and hitting the next series of expected ice bergs.

Knowing the truth is not enough; however, it is truth that makes it a righteous cause.

God Bless America!”

Regitiger

Sundance provides an addendum in support:

Julie Kelly – […] Just as the first wave of protesters breached the building shortly after 2 p.m., congressional Republicans were poised to present evidence of rampant voting fraud in the 2020 presidential election. Ten incumbent and four newly-elected Republican senators planned to work with their House colleagues to demand the formation of an audit commission to investigate election “irregularities” in the 2020 election. Absent an audit, the group of senators, including Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) pledged to reject the Electoral College results from the disputed states.

The Hail Mary effort was doomed to fail; yet the American people would have heard hours of debate related to provable election fraud over the course of the day.

And no one opposed the effort more than ex-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). 

During a conference call on December 31, 2020, McConnell urged his Republican Senate colleagues to abandon plans to object to the certification, insisting his vote to certify the 2020 election results would be “the most consequential I have ever cast” in his 36-year Senate career.

From the Senate floor on the afternoon of January 6, McConnell gave a dramatic speech warning of the dire consequences to the country should Republicans succeed in delaying the vote. He downplayed examples of voting fraud and even mocked the fact that Trump-appointed judges rejected election lawsuits. 

“The voters, the courts, and the States have all spoken,” McConnell insisted. “If we overrule them, it would damage our Republic forever. If this election were overturned by mere allegations from the losing side, our democracy would enter a death spiral.”

Roughly six hours later, McConnell got his way. Cowed by the crowd of largely peaceful Americans allowed into the building by Capitol police, most Republican senators backed off the audit proposal. McConnell, echoing hyperbolic talking points about an “insurrection” seeded earlier in the day by Democratic lawmakers and the news media, gloated. “They tried to disrupt our democracy,” he declared on the Senate floor after Congress reconvened around 8 p.m. “This failed attempt to obstruct Congress, this failed insurrection, only underscores how crucial the task before us is for our Republic.”

Congress officially certified the Electoral College results early the next day. (read more)

US is Losing Another War – Ukraine


Armstrong Economics Blog/Neocons Re-Posted Mar 7, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

The United States has launched a proxy war, unconstitutionally, circumventing Congress and the American people no less the entire world. What must be understood, is that the Biden Administration, the puppet of the Neocons led now by Victoria Nuland, has brought the entire world to the brink of World War III and they have now begun the countdown to the decline and fall of Western Civilization

Who is Victoria Nuland and why has she the queen of the Neocons? Victoria Nuland has been one of the leading Neocons always advocating war with Russia. She is behind the propaganda that Russia is on the verge of defeat and that the Russian army is really dysfunctional. This is standard propaganda. They put out the same exact line about the troops in Iraq. This is to convince Americans that they can wage war and it will be over in just a few hours or days. This is the typical Neocon sales pitch to justify their endless thirst for war. They are trying to provide justification to rush in for an easy defeat of their target.

Besides the Neocons’ treason against the Constitution always manipulating proxy wars without the consent of Congress in violation of Section I, Article 8, there is also one huge very serious undisclosed conflict of interest and the Biden Administration should immediately fire Victoria Nuland and all her supporters within the Biden Administration to save the world and our nation.

Victoria Nuland is really of Ukrainian Jewish descent. Her family changed their name to try to hide their Jewish ethnic background. She really would be Nudelman, not Nuland. She is actually the daughter of Yale bioethics and medicine professor Sherwin B. Nuland, who changed his surname from Nudelman to Nuland. She has retained her family name Nuland to perhaps further hide her Jewish connection by being married to Robert Kagan. Victoria speaks Russian, French, and some Chinese. Hiding her Jewish background is critical. Her father was raised by parents who were Orthodox Jewish immigrants from Ukraine. Hence, her grandparents were Jewish Meyer Nudelman (1889-1958) and Vitsche Lutsky (1893-1941). This explains why Nuland has been a public proponent for Ukraine to wage war against Russia.

Her husband, Robert Kagan, authored the “real Iraq Study Group” report of the American Enterprise Institute. This was the Neocon view of regime change. Kagan was said to have convinced President George W. Bush, to order the “surge” plan for changing the course of the Iraq War. It was Kagan who co-founded the neoconservative think tank in 1997 which was known as the Project for the New American Century (PNAC) with fellow Neocon William Kristol, who has a track record of usually being wrong. This has been the legacy of the Neocons in general.

Ron Paul plainly wrote: “Victoria Nuland exemplifies the neocons who have led US foreign policy from one disaster to another for the past 30 years while evading accountability. “ It is indeed time that we examine their Neocons who constantly usurp American foreign policy and will drive us straight into World War III. This may indeed be a family feud with Russia given both the Jewish and Ukrainian backgrounds.

Her Husband and Kristol used PNAC, from 1998 onward, to further the Neocon wars and their quest for Regime Change. Kagan was an early and strong advocate of military action in Syria, Iran, and Afghanistan as well as to “remove Mr. Hussein and his regime from power”. Kristol and Kagan teamed up and wrote an opinion piece in the New York Times where they put forth what is now known as fake news: They actually wrote:

“It is clear that Mr. Hussein wants his weapons of mass destruction more than he wants oil revenue or relief for hungry Iraqi children.”

They put forth their idea that the United States had the right to engage in regime change in other countries. They also wrote in the New York Times:

“And Iraq’s Arab neighbors are more likely to support a military effort to remove him than an ineffectual bombing raid that leaves a dangerous man in power.”

What I know from sources was that there was an intelligence report dated September 21st, 2001, that stated bluntly that there was NO evidence linking Saddam Hussein to the 9/11 attacks. Later, in the 2004 9/11 Commission report, they too concluded that there was NO “collaborative relationship” between Iraq and al-Qaeda. Nevertheless, Kristol and Kagan with the rest of the Neocons, including Nuland, supported the Iraq Invasion which began on the 20th of March in 2003. They used the national security excuse to keep Bush sequestered after 9/11 so Cheney could run the government unobstructed.

I have warned that the Neocons are NOT Republicans but actually began inside the Democratic Party. They are the political version of transgender keeping a foot in both camps. In 1976, Bill Kristol worked for Democrat Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s United States Senate campaign. Later, in 1988, Kristol was the campaign manager for black Republican Alan Keyes’s unsuccessful Maryland Senatorial campaign against Paul Sarbanes. So Kristol was on both sides of the aisle. He then taught political philosophy and the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. It was 1985 when Kristol first went to work in the White House serving as Chief of Staff to Secretary of Education William Bennett during the Reagan administration. Then Kristol became the Chief of Staff to Vice President Dan Quayle (1989-1993) in the George H. W. Bush administration.  This is when Kristol and Cheney were working together.

Kristol wrote The War Over IraqSaddam’s Tyranny And America’s Mission with his co-author Lawrence F. Kaplan, which was published on February 1st, 2003, one month BEFORE the invasion. Note the timing. This was written to support Cheney. It takes time to publish this book.

Kristol’s book states that the rationale behind the preemptive strategy against Saddam Hussein is simply that he is a dictator who threatens both his own people and the world. That is sufficient to justify the United States invading another country before he does further harm. Kristol offered no evidence to support his case and he simply stated that “we do know that Saddam is a terrorist.” Kristol went as far as to criticize both the first Bush administration and the Clinton administration for allowing the Iraq threat to grow.

The Neocons seem to have been supported by the so-called Republican Lincoln Project, which was so anti-Trump, it endorsed Joe Biden who has had no problem letting the Neocons rule American Foreign Policy which has been anti-Constritution. While the Lincoln Project asks for donations from Republicans, they seem to be worthy of donating your alimony requirements and any other legal expenses you might have. Their agenda was strangely aligned with that of Bill Kristol.

All of these groups were anti-Trump because he was against their regime change agenda and endless wars. That anti-Trump position killed Kristol’s Weekly Standard in 2018 after two years of anti-Trump articles simply to wage war. The PNAC think tank he formed with Nuland’s husband Robert Kagan collapsed even sooner in 2006.

Nuland’s broth-in-law, Frederick W. Kagan, and her father-in-in-law, Donald Kagan, are part of this family of Neocons’ intent of changing the world to their agenda using war and regime change. Father and son wrote “While America Sleeps: Self-Delusion, Military Weakness, and the Threat to Peace Today” in 2000. The book argued in favor of a large increase in military spending and warned of future threats, including from a potential revival of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction program, which never existed.

It gets better. Kimberly Kagan, Frederick’s wife, is the founder of the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), which is the source of much of the fake news. Most curious, even the New York Times wrote about this Kagan family that they were really leftists and very outspoken to the point of manipulating whatever to gain their view of the world. The question is, just why is this family, such warmongers?

This Nuland/Kagan family of Neocons with Kristol and others has one major gold – Regime Change. They seem to be under the delusion that the United States has the right to interfere in other countries and overthrow leaders they simply do not like. Can you imagine if Russia decided it too would adopt the policy of Regime Change and move to overthrow the United State Constitution and end public elections of the leadership? Would the American people support that agenda? Hillary made such a big deal claiming that Putin interfered in her election to ensure Trump would win – Regime Change? Did Hillary accuse Putin of doing precisely what the Neocons are trying to do in Russia?

Perhaps you will recall Biden’s March 26th, 2022 remark calling for Regime Change in Russia. He said: “For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power,” at the very end of a speech in Poland’s capital. The HuffPost, which is always a Left-Biased publication, loved it. They reported that Biden wasn’t really calling for Regime Change, but instead only meant that Biden’s point was that Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbors or the region rather than no longer head Russia.

Yet these Neocons’ view that it is their right to impose Regime Change over nations they disagree with constantly supports that if we overthrow these unacceptable leaders, their population will cheer and give us a ticker-tape parade. That has not taken place in Iraq or any other country these people have ever targeted. Victoria Nuland’s leaked phone call where she pushed her agenda saying “Fuck the EU” if they did not agree with her.

When testifying on March 8th, 2022 about bioweapons labs in Ukraine, Senator Rubio asked if Ukraine had biological or chemical weapons. Nuland hesitated and carefully responded that Ukraine has “biological research facilities” avoiding any description of what the “research” was about and if the US military was involved, it certainly had nothing to do with general public health. Nuland also carefully added that they were concerned that Russia could get its hands on their labs. If they were really nothing, then why be concerned if Russia walked into the lab? We they creating viruses to target just Russian DNA?

The entire mainstream press simply refuses to offer the slightest bit of investigative journalism. Based entirely on Nuland’s avoidance of the question, they declare that Russia’s claim of US involvement in 30 biological labs in Ukraine has nothing to do with weapons. They offered not a single shred of evidence and even if the Russians revealed what they found in a lab, they would call it Russian propaganda as they did with the Hunter Biden Laptop.

Ukraine at the beginning of 2022 and this Proxy War, had one of the largest forces trained by NATO in Europe as reported by the Wall Street Journal. The Ukrainian force was 200,000 active personnel and 500,000 when reservists and paramilitary forces were included. It draft included the ages of all males 18 to 60 years old to take up arms. As well, they have handed out weapons to all citizens that wish to pitch in along with instructing the population on how to make Molotov cocktails.

The deliberate fraud on Russia with the intentional Minsk Agreement that the former Chancellor of Germany admitted was only a stall tactic to allow Ukraine to build an army demonstrating that they never intended for any peace agreement and that the West has cleverly used the Minsk Agreement to allow Ukraine to raise an army for this intended Proxy War.

Victoria Nuland, who was in Kiev during the Maidan Revolution with then head of the Neocons – John McCain. That is when McCain lied to the people and said this is “about you and no one else.” Why would he use those words except to falsely project the pretense that he was there for the Ukrainian people rather than his hatred for Russia?

Indeed, from 2014 and the US installation of an interim government that was instructed to immediately launch a civil war and attack the Donbas,  the new interim Ukrainian government reinstituted the Draft as reported by NBC News on May 1st, 2014. The Ukrainian people never voted for this war. The Neocons circumvented the Ukrainian people as well. The first election took place on May 25th,2014 after they started the draft and launched their invasion of the Donbas.

By comparison, France had 205,000 active personnel, the UK 194,000, Italy 170,000, and Germany 184,000. Russia’s active force stood at 900,000 and it had 2 million in reserves. Ukraine had effectively the largest military trained by NATO. This presents a very serious question. Zelensky began drafting reservists 18 to 60 one day before the move by Russia to occupy the Donbas on February 24th, 2022.

If Russia has destroyed over 250,000 Ukrainian troops that have been trained by NATO, does this really support the Kagan family narrative that Russia is weak and we can take them in a few days? war review of keen interest for the whole world. Does the United States just sulk in the corner, or does it take the defeat of Ukraine as a battle cry to win one for Gipper? What happens in the future as Ukraine loses after pouring money that is twice that of the entire German military budget? Has the Kagan family fulfilled our model that this is the start of the Decline & Fall of the West? We are facing a very serious crossroads here as Ukraine falls under a massive Russian onslaught.  We are looking at the entire credibility of the Biden Administration and all the fake news that has been told us Russia will collapse any moment.

Nobody has ever been able to beat Socrates – including me. We must consider that the mess of Ukraine and the failure of all this money to bring down Russia to achieve this family’s quest for Regime Change or personal vengeance will be our undoing. As Ron Paul said: “Victoria Nuland exemplifies the neocons who have led US foreign policy from one disaster to another for the past 30 years while evading accountability. 

C

Laura Ingraham Interviews Presidential Candidate After Spending Weekend Retreat With Him, and Never Mentions It…


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

According to Jacksonville 4 News Governor Ron DeSantis spent last weekend “huddled behind closed doors at a south Florida luxury hotel for a “Freedom Blueprint” retreat with more than 100 donors, elected officials and conservative influencers.”  According to the report from those present, “Laura Ingraham hosted a fireside chat with DeSantis on Sunday.” 

You would think this ongoing network and relationship would need a mention, perhaps even a disclaimer, if the Fox News pundit was going to follow up with additional promotion of the same candidate.  Alas, as more people become familiar with the tactics of the professionally Republican, what ends up being highlighted is the transparent effort to manipulate the viewer.  WATCH:

Factually, I’m tired of the lies and manipulations.  It is difficult not to loathe these creatures now.

Ms Ingraham continues her hypocritical false front as a conservative. {GO DEEP} This weekend the multinational lobbying group Club for Growth, headed by David McIntosh, are assembling a strategy session with big Wall Street donors to organize the multi-candidate roadmap for Ron DeSantis.

(Via CBS) – A GOP source familiar with the closed-door donor retreat by the conservative Club for Growth confirmed to CBS News that the group is hosting a closed-press donor retreat for 2024 hopefuls during the same time as CPAC this week. 

Club for Growth’s annual retreat will be held at the opulent Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach, just three miles from former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club. However, Club for Growth, which has been public about looking to move the GOP past Trump, did not invite the former president to the retreat. 

Trump posted on Truth Social on Tuesday morning about Club for Growth, derisively  calling them “Club for NO Growth,” and saying the group “is an insignificant group of Globalists who I have beaten badly because of their anti America First views. They will only get the ‘stragglers.’” 

Trump, meanwhile, will be headlining CPAC, which will be holding its annual conference in Maryland the same weekend. 

[…]  DeSantis and Pence declined invites to CPAC. Haley and Ramaswamy are the only two declared presidential candidates who are attending both CPAC and CFG events. Representatives of Scott had been discussing his attendance at CPAC with event organizers but as of Tuesday morning, Scott does not plan on attending the annual Republican cattle call.

Some GOP operatives associated with the non-Trump political operations have told CBS News that CPAC has become too closely associated with Trump and his campaign, and not worth attending, especially with the annual straw poll likely going to Trump. (read more)

The more DeSantis speaks, the smaller in worm stature he becomes…

People are catching on.  People are really catching on.