How to Teach Your Kids About Taxes


Armstrong Economics Blog/The Hunt for Taxes Re-Posted Feb 28, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

COMMENT: Marty, you are 100% spot on about governments only ever being capable of lying and mismanaging money and raising taxes.
The Australian Labor party that ran on a mandate to not change superannuation are now proposing to change superannuation.
Their plan is the abolish tax benefits for accounts with balances above $3M, using the usual argument of targeting only the rich.
That is always the selling pitch isn’t it? Only the rich and of course the majority take the bait.
I have desperately tried to inform people that it is NEVER just the rich that re impacted. I have can not for the. life of me get people to understand that the so called rich, will be required to sell assets to meet tax commitments and have less money to buy assets into the future, and that, that in turn will impact asset prices and thus affect everyone. Rich and poor.
And then there is the obvious. Thresholds never remain where they begin and are always lowered.
Government is on the hunt for money in every country.
Cheers

AQ

REPLY: That is the problem. Most people do not want to believe that the government only looks out for its own power. It is so critical to prohibit career politicians no matter which direction they lean. For in the end, they will always lean in their own favor.

Perhaps you might remind them of the “Luxury Tax” that the sales pitch was they were going to tax their Ferarries, Fur Coats, & their French Wines. I was there in Australia back then. Maybe I saw two Ferraries because they were already 100% taxed to import. Some perhaps wore a fur coat down in Melbin, and nobody ever served me French wine – its was always Australian. People cheered then too – get those evil rich people. Then they woke up and ALL electrical products were suddenly a luxury.

The bulk of all taxes is always from the common people simply because we outnumber the billionaires. There are less than 500 such people in the USA. Confiscate all their wealth and you will not balance the budget even for one year.

Biden – Wokeness over Experience


Armstrong Economics Blog/Politics Re-Posted Feb 28, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

COMMENT: Marty; You said in passing that a Congressman asked you to “get back in the game” because they had nobody with your experience in Washington from the Cold War era. I know you laughed at that and said that was just 1991. Perhaps this clip explains why just maybe we need you more than ever. This “woke” Administration is taking us to World War III because as you have said, they are making you look like a diplomatic prophet. This is why. Wokeness over experience. This is what she actually says:

“The Cabinet is majority people of color for the first time in history. The Cabinet is majority female for the first time in history. A majority of White House senior staff identify is female and a record 7 assistants to the president are LGBTQ+.”

CH

REPLY: This is incredible. Maybe you are right. This is why the Neocons have been able to seize control. There is nobody with even common sense left in this Administration. This just confirms what I have been saying. This is historically the worst crop of world leaders I have ever seen in my 40+ years. When color and gender are more important than qualification, how can society survive? Obviously, being black and a female she ticks off two boxes and is more qualified than just a black male or a white female. Biden is proud of his statistics?

Everyone who has ever eaten a carrot has died. So, obviously, carrots must be lethal. Just Washington logic these days.

James O’Keefe Will Attend CPAC to Deliver Speech


Posted originally on the CTH on February 27, 2023 | Sundance

Everyone here knows my inherent dislike for CPAC in general.  Too stuffy, too corporate, too much establishment politicking and not scruffy and scrappy enough – except when Andrew was there.   That said, it’s cool that James O’Keefe will be attending CPAC because it gives the attendees an opportunity to boost him up, show the resounding support he has from the regulars -outside corporate stuff- and charge up O’Keefe’s internal warrior energy.  Good stuff.

Matt Schlapp made the announcement on Steve Bannon’s War Room earlier today {Direct Rumble Link} – WATCH:

No weapon formed against you shall prosper.” CTH Stands With O’Keefe!

Corruption inside the Deep State


Armstrong Economics Blog/Ancient History Re-Posted Feb 23, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

History repeats because human nature never changes. During the Roman Republic, the name of the moneyer would appear on the coinage just as today the Secretary of the Treasury’s signature appears on our paper currency – i.e. Steven T. Munchin.  To this day, our coins are denoted by which mint produced them – Philadelphia, Denver, or San Francisco.

The collapse of the monetary system following the capture of Emperor Valerian I in 260AD by the Persians, set off a collapse in public confidence whereby the people suddenly saw Rome as vulnerable. What is fascinating is that the “hyperinflation” of Rome which took place in just 8.6 years,  was aided by the corruption within the Deep State of the Roman Empire. This raises the question: We will see the same thing take place during our final 8.6 years into 2032 which begins by May 2024. The debasement of the coinage was NOT on the decree of the Emperor. This was the greed of those in the Deep State.

Following the assassination of Emperor Gallienus, that is when Claudius II came to power and the debasement reached it lowest point during his reign. The Goths invaded Rome and brought the plague with them from the East. Emperor Claudius II died of the plague. Claudius’s brother, Quintillus tried to succeed him, but Aurelian and his troops marched against him. His troops deserted him and he committed suicide.

Therefore, Aurelian became emperor in 270 AD and he returned to Rome in 271 AD, where he had to pacify a terrified city. He immediately halted the rioting and restored order to the capital. The controller of the mint in Rome began a rebellion over the monetary reforms laid out by Aurelian. He ordered that all the debased currency be purchased back and replaced with a new currency of higher content in silver. The rebellion was led by Felicissimus. It appears that those who had been running the mint were embezzling the intended silver and issuing the debased coinage at least in part on their own authority.

Obviously, any reform to the monetary system that called for an increase in silver content would have been unprofitable for those running the mint for personal gain. In the rebellion, as many as 7,000 soldiers died when Aurelian was forced to trap and execute them and their allies, some of the senatorial ranks, in a terrible battle on the Caelian Hills. Thereafter, Aurelian then introduced mintmarks to identify if any mint was cheating the silver content.

When Diocletian (284-305AD) reorganized the coinage when he came to power as well as the political structure of the Roman Empire. With respect to politics, he divided the empire in two creating two emperors with their eventual successors given the rank of Caesar. This became the Tetrarchy.

The monetary reform introduced the new bronze coinage silver plated known as the follis terminating the radiate antoninianus which had begun as a double denarius during the reign of Caracalla (198-217AD). Diocletian required each mint to engrave their coins with an identifiable mint mark, and also letters or marks to indicate the individual workshops (officina) within the mints. Thereby, any collusion to debase the coinage would be identifiable to a specific group within each mint.

Each mint mark from Diocletian onwards consists of a group of letters identifying the mint (normally in the exergue) and usually (but not always) letter(s) and/or mark(s), sometimes in the exergue, sometimes in the field, These identified the individual workshop within the mint. In the West, workshops were numbered either in Latin numerals I, II, III or in the initial letters of Latin ordinals such as P(rimus), S(ecundus), T(ertius). The problem with Latin surfaced when trying to distinguish between S(ecunda) and S(exta) or between Q(uarta) and Q(uinta). They had to develop in the West a mixed system of Greek and Latin to give P(rima), B, T(ertia), Q(uarta), E, and S(exta) valid meanings. Western mints sometimes used the Greek system at varying times.

Here we can see a silver Argentius (2.87 grams) with the “R” Roman mint mark. Lugdunum used “PL” for their mint mark as illustrated by this follis of Maximianus – Diocletiuan’s co-emperor.

History repeats because

HUMAN NATURE NEVER CHANGES

This, You Must Watch – Atlanta, GA, “Special Grand Jury” Foreperson Speaks to MSNBC About Their Trump Investigation


Posted originally on the CTH on February 22, 2023 | Sundance

Putting aside the rules of grand juries speaking to media that do not apply because the Fulton County, GA, group was not a regular grand jury – but rather a “special grand jury”, you might be interested to watch the foreperson of the group speak to MSNBC.

No, really, trust me.… you need to see this. Pick your spot on the video, just about any spot, and watch it. I have it prompted to my favorite. WATCH:

.

Keep in mind Ms. Emily Kohrs was the “special grand jury” foreperson.  lolol.  Now that you have an idea about the, well, ‘flavor’ of what the Georgia “special grand jury” was all about, the reminder is below.

In May of 2022 Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis assembled what is called a “special grand jury” to review claims that President Donald Trump attempted to coerce Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to find votes and assist him in winning the November 2020 election.

The “special grand jury” exists outside the traditional justice system and as an outcome cannot produce indictments.  It was assembled, for all intents and purposes, as a quasi-grand jury with the intent on creating a continual political effort through a process best described as lawfare.

Essentially, the “special grand jury” is a panel of 26 selected Fulton County, GA, citizens to give an opinion as to whether District Attorney Willis should move toward holding Trump era officials accountable for unlawful election interference. The ‘special grand jury‘ provided the media with feeder material to maintain a narrative; they also heard testimony from 75 witnesses.  However, President Trump was never subpoenaed by this ‘special grand jury.’

Because the ‘special grand jury‘ is not necessarily subject to the same rules that apply to normal grand jury proceedings, which strictly forbid any traditional grand jury activity from public release (4th and 5th U.S. Amendment issue), Fulton County Judge Robert McBurney said parts of the narrative from the ‘special grand jury‘ assembly could be released to the public.

The excerpt of the ‘special grand jury‘ that was released did not assert any legal issue with the baseline for their formation, meaning no substantive finding of election interference. However, as you are likely aware, ‘lawfare’ focuses on the process side – and the strategy is to find unlawful activity within the process of a target defending himself/herself from the targeting itself.

To that end, the ‘special grand jury’ suspects that some of the witnesses who testified afore them may have lacked candor in their testimony.  The potential for perjury in front of the ‘special grand jury‘ now becomes the issue of focus.

(GEORGIA) – […] “A majority of the grand jury believes that perjury may have been committed by one or more witnesses testifying before it,” the grand jury wrote in the report. “The Grand Jury recommends that the District Attorney seek appropriate indictments for such crimes where the evidence is compelling.”

The report does not list any names of those who grand jury members believe may have committed perjury.

Separately, the grand jury also found “by a unanimous vote that no widespread fraud took place in the Georgia 2020 presidential election that could result in overturning that election.”

Outside of this, in the few paragraphs that were released of the report’s introduction, conclusion, and section on perjury, there were no details revealed regarding whether or not the grand jury recommended changes for anyone related to efforts to overturn the election.

The report does not name any potential targets for indictment, nor does it offer any rationale for its allegations of perjury. It does not mention Trump by name, nor any of the 75 witnesses interviewed as part of their probe. (read more)

You did not hit the dog in downtown Atlanta on I-75 with your Mercedes on August 14th, 2020. You do not own a Mercedes and you were not in Georgia at all that year.  However, your brother testified you were in the Bahamas on vacation in August 2020, and the evidence shows that vacation was in July. Therefore, while you are not guilty of hitting the dog, your brother is guilty of perjury.  That’s lawfare. See how it works?

Sign the plea for misdemeanor endangerment of the dog, pay the fine, and the D.A. will leave your brother alone.

From the article: “[…] Norman Eisen, a senior fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institute who served as special counsel to the House Judiciary Committee from 2019 to 2020, told ABC News that despite the judge shielding most of the report, “it’s clear from the judge’s order that the grand jury recommended charges.”

“The question is: I don’t think that if people are being charged, Trump can logically be left out, because he was the ringleader,” Eisen told ABC News. “He was the mastermind of the plots.”

Lawfare Assisting Democrats in Congress

America’s biggest threat – China


Newsmax TV Posted originally on Rumble on February 15, 2023

The Coming War


Armstrong Economics Blog/War Re-Posted Feb 13, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

COMMENT:

Hi Marty,

As it appears the US is marching toward war, what is notable this time, unlike what happened in the run-up to US participation in WW2, was the sense of isolationism in this country. Roosevelt was clearly walking a fine line, knowing there was no stomach for US involvement in Europe. US involvement in WW1 also started out similarly with many in the US, in particular those of Irish descent who opposed helping the British in their battle in Europe. Wilson, another Democrat, also walked the straight and narrow, professing neutrality which history shows was a lie. Later, his 14 points, the forerunner to an imposed peace on Germany, would backfire. The League of Nations would die off.

But today, unlike the prior two world wars, both democrats and republicans appear to embrace an escalation in conflict. And with an old, decrepit mannequin in the WH, it looks like there’s nothing stopping this push toward war. Republicans especially are a total disgrace. They stabbed Trump in the back repeatedly or let him twist in the wind for 4 years and for the first two when they were the majority party…did little to show their one chance to lead. Trump did more for peace than any president since Kennedy. Trump at least tried to engage Xie, met with the North Korean leader and focused more on building up the US domestic economy. He tore up US participation in these climate pacts. He focused on building the wall to stem the flow of illegals crossing the border. Her met with the Mexican president and forced his counterpart to accept an arrangement that kept illegals inside Mexico pending and petitions later to the US government for entry based on their applications.  And for all this, he was the target for a fraud based on collusion to get elected with Russian help. Which turned out to be baseless. Later, he was implicated in the Jan 6 insurrection…courtesy of both parties. Which itself was a total fabrication.

Both Dems and R’s are now marching lockstep toward war. It’s no wonder public opinion toward the government is sinking to all-time lows. In both parties. Both of which will be swept away in the years ahead for betraying this country on so many levels.

MS

REPLY: Hillary, started this whole mess by launching the fake dossier and blaming Putin for interring in the election. She managed to convince 70% of Democrats that Russia was the enemy. RussiaGate, despite being discredited, set in motion this hatred for Russia. Still, 65% of Americans support Ukraine when in fact what they are doing is relying on a border drawn by Kruschev for administrative purposes and demanding that the Donbas is their territory when NEVER for even a single day have Ukrainian people ever been the majority in that region. This is a land grab and nothing more that is engulfing the entire world all because our idiot politicians want to destroy the world economy so they can blame it on war and default on all the debt.

I get hate mail and death threats from Ukrainian Nazis pretty regularly now. This only shows that we are historically on the wrong side. In WWII, we fought against the Nazo movement. This time, we support ethnic cleansing.

Americans fled here to escape the political chaos and warmongering in Europe. So when WWI and WWII took place, the American people saw no reason to go support a political movement that they had fled. Indeed, FDR’ solemn campaign promise was no boys would be sent to fight in a foreign war. That is why he did everything possible to get Japan to attack Pearl Harbor for that was the ONLY way to overcome the anti-war position of Americans. They have done the same to get Russia to act to protect the Donbas from the Ukrainians who began the civil war.

FDR repeated that solemn promise in Boston which was predominantly Irish. They refused to defend Britain openly recalling what the English did to the Irish. That was why FDR needed Japan to attack Pearl Harbor. Today, they needed Russia to launch its special operation which was absolutely legal under the United Nations Rules for he was protecting the Donbas, not seeking to conquer Ukraine.

All of those memories of past wars are long gone. Today, we cheer on war because we think it will be like watching Iraq on CNN after nightly dinner. As they say:

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


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

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

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

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