Category Corrupt DC Uni-party

Oct 15 2022

Canadians Beware


Armstrong Economics Blog/Canada Re-Posted Oct 14, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

QUESTION: Martin

If we are going to have a war is my money safe in my Canadian banks, or should I have some cash?

Regards

ANSWER: Canadians should keep some US dollars in cash. Trudeau canceled high-value notes. As of January 2021, he obtained the power to cancel Canadian currency as they do in Europe. Once that power was exercised, he would do it again. He is entirely on board with Klaus Schwab and this agenda of the World Economic Forum is intentionally pushing for war with Russia.

As I have said, Putin had ZERO intention of conquering Ukraine. This has been a propaganda war. The first thing you do is take down the power grid. I think if war is to come, Putin can wipe out Europe very easily – take down the power grid. With digital currencies and electric cars, this will only leave society extremely vulnerable as never before. So you want cash, for banks can be shut down by targeting the power grids.

Oct 15 2022

Retail Sales Growth Drops Below Rate of Inflation, What Does That Tell You?


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on October 14, 2022 | Sundance 

You often hear me talk about how financial pundits and economic analysts are disconnected from Main Street.  Today we get a prime example of that from the Wall Street Journal.

The topline of the WSJ article is essentially that people are not spending money on anything except essential goods (housing, energy, fuel, food, etc), which is somewhat of a ‘duh tell us something we don’t know‘ type article.   However, the analytical part of the article is where you find the insufferable disconnect.   Here’s one example:

[Data Point 1] “Gasoline prices dropped in September for the third month in a row, falling 4.9% from August.”  [Data Point 2] Sales at gasoline stations, a proxy for spending by car owners, declined 1.4% last month.” 

If gasoline dropped 4.9% in price, but sales only declined 1.4% that would indicate more physical gasoline was purchased at a lower price than the month before.   It’s not a hard concept to understand.

This is a retail sales reality even identified in the article itself, “Unlike many government reports, retail sales aren’t adjusted for inflation, so some swings reflect price changes rather than shifts in the amounts purchased.”

However, now look at this:  “Spending at restaurants and bars grew 0.5% in September from the prior month. But prices at restaurants grew 0.9% in the same month, according to a separate Labor Department report released Thursday, meaning that consumers are getting less for their spending.”

No, that’s not what this means.

If restaurant prices increase 0.9%, but restaurant sales only increase 0.5% it means you are selling/serving fewer customers.  It doesn’t mean consumers getting less food, it means fewer consumers are eating at restaurants….   Which is caused by consumers having to prioritize their spending.

(WSJ) – […] Spending declined in categories linked to big purchases like cars, televisions, beds and golf clubs. Purchases at electronics and appliance stores declined 0.8% in September while spending at furniture stores fell 0.7%.

[…] Scott Brave, the head of economic analytics for Morning Consult, said consumers have started to pull back on optional purchases while still spending on the essentials.  “They are having to make tough decisions,” he said. (more)

Oct 15 2022

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis Wins Coveted Paul Ryan Endorsement for 2024


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on October 14, 2022 | Sundance

Folks, I’m not trying to bust on Ron DeSantis, I’m just highlighting the dynamic in the background to include the political players and deep connected GOP club operatives.  If the truth makes me a critic, then so be it; but I’m not going to play the pretending game.  Quite frankly, I’m tired of it.

Ron DeSantis is backed by the same assembly of political insiders, donors, corporations and financial backers that supported Jeb Bush.  The professionally republican class know what they have in DeSantis, and he is brand organized, packaged & managed to deliver on their intents.

Former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan is as dialed in to the GOP club system as it gets.  Ryan’s brass nameplate is rivetted to one of the select mahogany chairs at the club table.

Speaking Wednesday at the Robin Hood conference before billionaires Steve Cohen and Paul Tudor Jones went on stage, Paul Ryan noted the GOP 2024 nominee will be “someone other than Donald Trump.”

According to a recording of his talk, Ryan named Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, and South Carolina Senator Tim Scott as his three favorites. {source} DeSantis fighting Disney was “really good for him, from a political perspective,” Ryan said.

DeSantis didn’t raise $200+ million, with 94% coming from billionaires and multinational corporations, for a gubernatorial reelection race in Florida.  Keep in mind all of the major expenses (television ads, mailers, etc.) are coming from outside PACs and affiliated groups.

DeSantis has raised a massive war chest and he is not spending it.   He has willingly accepted the positioning for a 2024 nomination effort.  It is intellectually dishonest not to see what the Club is doing.

The DNC Club is doing the same thing with California Governor Gavin Newsom.

The both wings of the UniParty want a Newsom -vs- DeSantis contest.

The professional political approach is as clear now in 2022 as it was in 2014 when the clubs were organizing the Hillary -vs- Jeb contest for 2016.

Oct 15 2022

Danchenko Trial, Clinton Campaign Operative Admits on Witness Stand He Fabricated Evidence for Danchenko to Pass Along to Dossier Author Chris Steele


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on October 14, 2022 | Sundance

As the third day of the trial of Igor Danchenko took place a Clinton campaign operative named Charles Dolan was called to the witness stand to explain his relationship to the accused fabricator of information used within the Christopher Steele dossier.  [TechnoFog has a deep dive on the testimony – HERE]

Charles Dolan has deep ties to the Democrat party. He has been a long-term advisor to Hillary Clinton, served as state chairman of Bill Clinton’s 1992 and 1996 presidential campaigns, and was a key player in Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign.  Dolan is an operative within the larger democrat machinery, a leftist version of Karl Rove.

Dolan was also a source for the Steele Dossier by providing information to Igor Danchenko who then sent the information to Chris Steele for inclusion in the Trump-dirt Steele Dossier.

When Charles Dolan was called to the witness stand, he admitted under direct questioning that he “embellished” and manufactured information provided to Igor Danchenko. He also noticed when the Dossier was made public that information he provided was included.  In essence, Dolan was one of the many people who generated nonsense lies, which became fabrications within the Steele dossier that the FBI later used to gain a FISA warrant.

It is infuriating, albeit not surprising, to see leftist media like Politico report on the Dolan lies as if the held no consequence.  This, after years of pushing the dossier material in order for leftist media to engineer completely fabricated narratives.

(Politico) – […] At one point during questioning, Dolan admitted to having lied to Danchenko in an email in the summer of 2016 about a “GOP friend” he claimed to have met with and who he said provided him with information about former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort’s resignation. Dolan told the jury that he had “embellished” that claim to Danchenko, and that he had actually obtained the information about Manafort’s resignation from watching cable news, not from a Republican friend.

“I thought I would just embellish a bit to make it seem like his contacts were good,” Dolan said.

Prosecutor Michael Kielty pointed out similarities in the information Dolan provided Danchenko in that 2016 email with information that had ended up in a subsequent report from the dossier, dated just two days after Dolan sent the email. Dolan said that he never provided additional insights to Danchenko, and that he wasn’t aware at the time of why Danchenko was seeking information from him.

“I just thought he wanted to know what the atmospherics were around the resignation,” Dolan said.

Dolan also said he called Danchenko the day that Buzzfeed published the dossier, on Jan. 10, 2017, to “see if he knew where this came from.” The witness said Danchenko claimed he wasn’t sure where the dossier came from and would look into it and get back to him, but never did. (more)

NOTE: Keep in mind that Igor Danchenko is being represented by Hillary Clinton’s lawyers [LINK]

Igor Danchenko was working closely with Democrat Party public relations executive Charles Dolan to funnel the fabricated source material to Chris Steele.  Chris Steele, under contract with Fusion-GPS to assemble opposition research that would be used by allies in the media and FBI, then took the Danchenko/Dolan fabricated claims and put it into his dossier.

DOJ official Bruce Ohr, the husband of another Fusion-GPS employee Nellie Ohr, was used as the laundry conduit, the appearance of a second sourcing, to put the dossier into the hands of the FBI.  Simultaneously Glenn Simpson took the dossier and shopped it to his media pals.  That’s how the entire story was created; and yes, we already knew most of this and Durham is simply filling in the details.

We asked years ago: “Think about a New York Times, Politico, CNN or Washington Post journalist now having to accept that every column inch they have written in the past [four years] was built upon a foundation of lies. Do we really think such a catastrophic level of flawed ideology could ever reconstitute into genuine reporting of fact-based information?”  Of course not.

True to form, Politico just brushes aside their years of pushing fabrications by now saying the dossier is “a collection of reports compiled by a former British spy containing now-debunked salacious rumors and allegations about former President Donald Trump’s ties to Russia.”  Move along, move along.  Ignore media efforts over six years to push this mis-dis-malinformation, or what ordinary people simply call lies.

John Durham also questioned Washington Field Office FBI Agent Kevin Helson, who was the handler for Igor Danchenko as a confidential human source (CHS).  Durham blasted Helson for not vetting Danchenko in a variety of customary formats, including the use of a lie detector to ensure Danchenko was not working as a disinformation specialist as directed by a foreign government.

What Durham outlined is essentially that the FBI didn’t care whether Danchenko was a viable and trustworthy source for information, nor did they care the information he was providing was accurate – only that it fed the need of the FBI operatives who were working under the political motive to target Trump.   The FBI paid Danchenko over $200,000 for his false information and his handler agent Helson even recommended to pay Danchenko a lump sum $346,000 after they were finished with him.  That payment was never made.

As noted by Techno:

“This is the second day in a row that Durham has basically treated the FBI Agents/Analysts as hostile witnesses. First it was Auten, now it was Helson. It’s just not about the incompetence and their basic investigative failures.

It’s also that these FBI Agents and Analysts come across as arrogant, at least from my reading of the transcripts, and continue to hold themselves essentially blameless. All the while, they have at times defended Igor Danchenko, the witness who didn’t tell them the truth. It’s not a good look for the Bureau.” (more)

Keeping all of this Durham information in mind…. The million-dollar question that DC will avoid:

….. What was Special Counsel Robert Mueller doing for two years?

Oct 14 2022

New Interview: The Plot to Seize Russia


Armstrong Economics Blog/Armstrong in the Media Re-Posted Oct 14, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

Watch the video above or click here to listen to my latest interview.

Commentary from Rico Potkaars:

"Historian and Economist Martin Armstrong, as a computer programmer created the system called socrates that analyses history, current affairs and the flow of money and extrapolates to what may lie ahead. It gave him the nickname ‘the Forecaster’ and a documentary that to this day is forbidden in the USA.

Armstrong through FOIA retreived information from the Clinton Library about what happened after the Soviet Union fell. He’s written that down in a book called ‘the Plot to Seize Russia.

In this interview we discuss his upcoming book, the current state of collapsing global finance and the inescapable war on Russia as a result of that.."
Oct 14 2022

Grand Theatrics on Final Day, J6 Committee Votes Unanimously to Subpoena President Trump


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on October 13, 2022 | Sundance

The J6 Committee attempted to culminate their super serious grand theatrical performance with their closing effort.  A vote to subpoena President Trump and compel him to testify before the sham committee.   The made-for-television production was as ridiculous as it sounds.  WATCH:

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There is no precedent for the legislative branch to subpoena a former President of the United States, the executive branch.  No court, including the Supreme Court, would validate a congressional subpoena against the President.  The separation of powers would not permit the enforcement mechanism and there is no constitutional authority within the legislative branch to compel the executive. Period.

As a result, the effort of the J6 committee is essentially a made for television performance intended to create some goofy October surprise in advance of the November midterm election.  The transparency of the insufferable political nonsense is clear.   President Trump responded via Truth Social:

As even Politico admits, “There is little precedent for such a move against a former president, which would raise thorny separation of powers issues that have rarely, if ever, been litigated. Only one former president has ever been subpoenaed by Congress — Harry Truman in 1953 — and he defied the summons, contending it would set a dangerous separation-of powers precedent.”

The committee will likely create some ridiculous multi hundred-page report, created under the auspices of some authority they have manufactured out of thin air.  The entire enterprise has been a massive waste of taxpayer funds as the baseline for the committee itself is nothing more than a partisan election effort.

Even die-hard democrats acknowledge the pantomime is a grand waste of time.

Oct 14 2022

NBC Nibbles Carefully During Report on Fall Harvest Inflation


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on October 13, 2022 | Sundance

In this brief segment on fall harvest inflation, NBC notes consumer prices for food stuffs continue increasing regardless of the economic action by the Biden administration. The reason is very simple and is outlined within the segment by Jacob Goebbert, the Goebbert’s farm general manager.  WATCH:

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The current inflation is embedded in the cost of products, because it’s a supply side issue.

Financial “experts” can shout all day long about the fiscal policy (spending) being the origin of inflation (ie. demand side), they’re wrong.  Our current inflation cycle, most notably evident within massive increases in food prices, is a supply side issue created by the increased energy costs.  Full stop.  It’s a Biden policy outcome.

Oct 14 2022

Social Security Administration Announces 2023 Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) at 8.7 Percent, Biggest Inflation Driven Increase Since Jimmy Carter Era


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on October 13, 2022 | Sundance

Joe Biden’s economic and energy policies have resulted in another record matching former President Jimmy Carter.  The Social Security Administration (SSA) has announced an inflation driven increase in SAA benefits of 8.7% beginning in January 2023.  This is the largest cost of living adjustment in 40 years.

(Social Security Administration) – Approximately 70 million Americans will see a 8.7% increase in their Social Security benefits and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) payments in 2023. On average, Social Security benefits will increase by more than $140 per month starting in January.

Federal benefit rates increase when the cost-of-living rises, as measured by the Department of Labor’s Consumer Price Index (CPI-W). The CPI-W rises when inflation increases, leading to a higher cost-of-living. This change means prices for goods and services, on average, are higher. The cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) helps to offset these costs.

We will mail COLA notices throughout the month of December to retirement, survivors, and disability beneficiaries, SSI recipients, and representative payees. But if you want to know your new benefit amount sooner, you can securely obtain your Social Security COLA notice online using the Message Center in your personal my Social Security account. You can access this information in early December, prior to receiving the mailed notice. Benefit amounts will not be available before December. Since you will receive the COLA notice online or in the mail, you don’t need to contact us to get your new benefit amount.

If you prefer to access your COLA notice online and not receive the mailed notice, you can log in to your personal my Social Security account to opt out by changing your Preferences in the Message Center. You can update your preferences to opt out of the mailed COLA notice, and any other notices that are available online. Did you know you can receive a text or email alert when there is a new message waiting for you? That way, you always know when we have something important for you – like your COLA notice. If you don’t have an account yet, you must create one by November 15, 2022 to receive the 2023 COLA notice online. (more)

A 25% increase in the rate for those who qualify for federal food stamp assistance….

An 8.7% increase in the rate for those who qualify for Social Security benefits….

Meanwhile real wages decreased 3.8% in September and the borders are wide open for cheap labor to pour in.

Oct 14 2022

September Consumer Price Index Shows Inflation Continuing to Rise More Than Expected, Fed Raising Rates Having No Impact Because it is NOT Demand Side Inflation


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on October 13, 2022 | Sundance

The Bureau of Labor and Statistics released the September Consumer Price Index (CPI) today [DATA HERE].  The financial and business media call the continued rise of consumer inflation “unexpected,” however, the results are not a surprise to those who are not pretending.

This CNBC headline highlights the economic pretense still entrenched: “Inflation increased 0.4% in September, more than expected despite rate hikes.”  Those who are not pretending fully understand the economic dynamic, but you will not find reality expressed by the mainstream media.

FED rate hikes can only impact the demand side of the inflation issue. U.S (and global) inflation is NOT the result of excess demand. It has not been driven by demand for over a year.  The root cause of inflation is on the supply side. That root is grounded in the energy policy making everything entering the marketplace more expensive.

The historic rise in energy prices; the result of Joe Biden’s specific energy policy to limit oil, gas and coal as energy resources; are what have driven inflation throughout the economy.  The monetary policy (Fed policy) continues to pretend this dynamic does not exist.  The FED is trying to support the political policy, but the bloom is off the ruse.

Overall inflation increased 0.4% in September, leading to a result of 8.2% year over year.  Food and energy prices continue driving inflation, additionally core inflation (everything except food and energy) continues to be driven by the originating issue of extreme energy costs.

Everything costs more because energy costs more.  That is the reality of this inflation issue.

[Modified Table-1, removing the noise]

(CNBC) […] “The Federal Reserve has made it very clear they’re committed to price stability, they’re committed to reducing the inflationary pressures,” said Michelle Meyer, chief U.S. economist at the Mastercard Economics Institute. “The more inflation comes in above expectations, the more they’re going to have to prove that commitment, which means higher interest rates and cooling in the underlying economy.”

Another large jump in food prices boosted the headline number. The food index rose 0.8% for the month, the same as August, and was up 11.2% from a year ago.

That increase helped offset a 2.1% decline in energy prices that included a 4.9% drop in gasoline. Energy prices have moved higher in October, with the price of regular gasoline at the pump nearly 20 cents higher than a month ago, according to AAA.

Closely watched shelter costs, which make up about one-third of CPI, rose 0.7% and are up 6.6% from a year ago. Transportation services also showed a big bump, increasing 1.9% on the month and 14.6% on an annual basis. Medical care services costs rose 1% in September.

The rising costs meant more bad news for workers, whose average hourly earnings declined 0.1% for the month on an inflation-adjusted basis and are off 3% from a year ago, according to a separate BLS release.  Inflation is rising despite aggressive Federal Reserve efforts to get price increases under control. (more)

I feel like we are living in a parallel universe, where this grand game of pretense continues.

Every financial pundit knows the root cause of inflation is Joe Biden’s energy policy, yet they maintain the lies in order to protect the regime.

Raising interest rates in a supply side inflation economy only does one thing, it makes the economy contract faster.  The only reason to intentionally shrink the economy is to try and reduce the demand for energy resources as part of the “transition to a green economy.”  Together, the Biden administration and Federal Reserve are trying to lower economic output to meet a lowered amount of energy being produced.  That is the reality of our situation.

They are destroying the working and middle class in order to chase their climate change agenda.  These people must be removed from power.