Word of Warning – They Can’t Put Trump in Prison But They Can You for Protesting


Armstrong Economics Blog/Politics Re-Posted Jun 14, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

This will be a day remembered in the history of the entire world. It is the day that the United States indicted and arrested a former president to prevent him from running in the 2024 election. Even Richard Nixon was pardoned because they fear that the civil unrest that might unfold would tear the fabric of the nation apart. Today, the Department of Justice is praying for anything to start to arrest anyone protesting for Trump and call them a domestic terrorist to set an example by striking fear into the heart of people to vote for Biden and shut the hell up. This was the day that the United States begins its decline and fall.

The Arrest of Donald Trump on charges related to the alleged mishandling of classified documents has demonstrated to the world that the United States is no longer the beacon of liberty and justice for all. Besides Biden having classified documents, taking actual bribes, and Hillary setting up a private server on which there were also classified documents so nothing she had on that would be accessible under the Freedom of Information Act because it was private – not government. This has clearly shown that the Biden Administration has weaponized the Department of Justice just like every other corrupt government including Ukraine – Zelensky criminally charge his opponent as well.

Today marks the very first time a former president has ever been arrested by the U.S. government. Trump pleaded not guilty to all charges. MSNBC Chief Legal Correspondent Ari Melber reports was so excited, it probably pissed his pants. No doubt the jubilation is static at CNN, NY Times, Washington Post, etc, etc.  As they said when Rome fell, they too were still laughing.

ANY Republican politician that abandons Trump you now know their true colors. The reason why, the rumor running around is that the DOJ is cheering for they intend to indict Trump supporters on whatever scheme they can make up before the 2024 election. So you will see, Republican throwing Trump under the bus. This is a warning to anyone who thinks they really can drain the swamp. DeSantis – please stay here in Florida. You will NEVER make a difference in that town. The time for declaring the Democracy of Florida is rapidly approaching.

And to those who hate Trump, this has nothing to do with Trump. If the Republican gain power, they will retaliate with the same vengeance and lack of rule of law. We have crossed the Rubicon. As for the RINOS who will not defend the country, the constitution, or even speak up about the weaponizing of the DOJ against political opponents, we now know who you really are and you do not stand by the Constitution. We live in a full-blow authoritarian dictatorship. As even the cartoons use to sign off  – That’s All folks! We now have less than 8 years left. Protesting will do nothing at this point, The Die has been Cast, as Caesar said when crossing the Rubicon. There is absolutely nothing we can do to reverse the trend.

Indictments, Republicans and Opposition to Donald Trump


Posted originally on the CTH on June 14, 2023 | Sundance 

As customary in this era of a great awakening, there are a lot more Republican masks dropping this week.  There is a great deal of sunlight upon the professional and institutional Republican politicians that hold office, when contrast against the indictment of Donald Trump.  As we bear witness to the establishment opposition of candidate Donald Trump, once again it is valuable to understand the motive at the heart of this opposition.

CTH can get down in the weeds of each specific issue to discuss the motives and intents (we will, and do), but the big picture MUST remain at the forefront of understanding. If we lose track of the big picture, the weeds are overwhelming.

…“It must be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to plan, more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to manage than a new system. For the initiator has the enmity of all who would profit by the preservation of the old institution and merely lukewarm defenders in those who gain by the new ones.”

Niccolò Machiavelli

♦POTUS Trump was disrupting the global order of things in order to protect and preserve the shrinking interests of the U.S.  He was fighting, almost single-handed, at the threshold of the abyss. Our interests, our position, is zero-sum. His DC opposition seeks to repel and retain the status-quo. They want to return to full economic control.

In these economic endeavors, President Trump was disrupting decades of financial schemes established to use the U.S. as a host for their endeavors. President Trump was confronting multinational corporations and the global constructs of economic systems that were put in place to the detriment of us.

There are trillions at stake. The need for control is a reaction to fear. The billionaire donor class fear losing control over economic policy and finance. They are funding every candidate, media resource, influencer operation, RNC, RGA, and every institution possible to retain their equity position. Opposition is based on economics; everything else is chaff and countermeasures.

Familiar faces, perhaps faces you previously thought were decent, are now revealing their alignment with larger entities that are our abusers. In an effort to awaken the victim to the cycle of self-destructive codependent behavior, allow me to cue an audio-visual example from March 2018 with U.S. Senator John Thune. WATCH:

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What South Dakota Senator John Thune is showcasing here is his full alignment with big multinational corporate agriculture (BIG AG). Big AG is not supporting local farmers. Big AG does not support “free and fair markets.” Big AG supports the interests of multinational corporations and multinational financial interests.

For those interests the U.S. is the host; from our perspective they are the parasite.

It is critical to think of BIG AG in the same way we already are familiar with multinational manufacturing of durable goods.

We are already familiar how China, Mexico and Southeast Asia nations exported our raw materials (ore, coking coal, rare earth minerals and recycled aluminum etc.). The raw material to manufacture goods was exported from the U.S. and then shipped back into the U.S. as durable goods for purchase.  This is the origin of the “rustbelt” collapse.

To avoid tariffs and other restrictions, some of the finished goods are trans-shipped through other ports in order to hide the originating manifest.  It is within this decades-long process where we lost the manufacturing base, and the multinational economic planners (World Trade Organization) put us on a path to being a “service driven” economy.

The road to a “service-driven economy” is paved with a great disparity between financial classes. The wealth gap is directly related to the inability of the middle class to thrive.

Elite financial interests, including those within Washington DC, gain wealth and power – the U.S. workforce is reduced to servitude, “service”, of their affluent needs.

The destruction of the U.S. industrial and manufacturing base is EXACTLY WHY the middle class has struggled, and exactly why the wealth gap exploded in the past 30 years.

With that familiarity, did you think the multinationals would stop with only “DURABLE GOODS”?

They don’t.

They didn’t.

The exact same exfiltration and raw material exploitation has been happening, with increased speed, over the past 15 years with “CONSUMABLE GOODS“, ie food.

Raw material foodstuff is exported to China, ASEAN nations and Mexico, processed and shipped back into the U.S. as a finished product. This is the same design-flow with food as previously exploited by other economic sectors, including auto manufacturing.

Multinational corporations, BIG AG, are now invested in controlling the outputs of U.S. agricultural industry and farmers. This process is why food prices have risen exponentially in the past decade.

The free market is not determining price; there is no “supply and demand” influence within this modern agricultural dynamic. Food commodities are now a controlled market just like durable goods. The raw material (harvests writ large) are exploited by the financial interests of massive multinational corporations, known collectively as BIG AG.

Again, if we were to pull out of these export arrangements, our domestic food bill would drop 25% (or more) within the first year. Further, if U.S. supply and demand were part of the domestic market price for food, we would see the prices of aggregate food products drop by half almost immediately. Some perishable food products would predictably drop so dramatically in price, it is unfathomable how far the prices would fall.

Behind this dynamic, we find the international corporate and financial interests who are inherently at risk from President Trump’s “America First” economic and trade platform. Believe it or not, President Trump is up against an entire world economic establishment.

When we understand how trade works in the modern era, we understand why the agents within the system are so adamantly opposed to U.S. President Trump.

♦The biggest lie in modern economics, willingly spread and maintained by corporate media, is that a system of global markets still exists.

It doesn’t.

Every element of global economic trade is controlled and exploited by massive institutions, multinational banks and multinational corporations. Institutions like the World Trade Organization (WTO) and World Bank control trillions of dollars in economic activity.

Underneath that economic activity, there are people who hold the reins of power over the outcomes. These individuals and groups are the stakeholders in direct opposition to principles of America First national economics.   They are collectively known as “The Big Club”.

The modern financial constructs of these entities have been established over the course of the past three decades. When you understand how they manipulate the economic system of individual nations, you begin to understand why they are so fundamentally opposed to President Trump.

In the Western World, separate from communist control perspectives (ie. China), “Global markets” are a modern myth; nothing more than a talking point meant to keep people satiated with sound bites they might find familiar. Global markets have been destroyed over the past three decades by multinational corporations who control the products formerly contained within global markets.

The same is true for “Commodities Markets”. The multinational trade and economic system, run by corporations and multinational banks, now controls the product outputs of independent nations. The free market economic system has been usurped by entities who create what is best described as ‘controlled markets’.

U.S. President Trump understood what had taken place.  He used economic leverage as part of a broader national security policy; and to understand who opposes President Trump, specifically because of the economic leverage he creates, it becomes important to understand the objectives of the global and financial elite who run and operate the institutions. The Big Club.

Understanding how trillions of trade dollars influence geopolitical policy, we begin to understand the three-decade global financial construct they seek to retain and protect.

That is, global financial exploitation of national markets.

FOUR BASIC ELEMENTS:

♦Multinational corporations purchase controlling interests in various national outputs (harvests an raw materials), and ancillary industries, of developed industrial western nations. {example}

♦The Multinational Corporations making the purchases are underwritten by massive global financial institutions – multinational banks. (*Note* in China it is the communist government underwriting the purchase)

♦The Multinational Banks and the Multinational Corporations then utilize lobbying interests to manipulate the internal political policy of the targeted nation state(s).

♦With control over the targeted national industry or interest, the multinationals then leverage export of the national asset (exfiltration) through trade agreements structured to the benefit of lesser developed nation states – where they have previously established a proactive financial footprint.

Against the backdrop of President Trump confronting China, and against the backdrop of NAFTA renegotiated, and against the necessary need to support the key U.S. steel and aluminum industries, revisiting the economic influences within the modern import/export dynamic will help conceptualize the issues at the heart of the matter.

There are a myriad of interests within each trade sector that make specific explanation very challenging; however, here’s the basic outline.

For three decades economic “globalism” has advanced, quickly. Everyone accepts this statement, yet few actually stop to ask who and what are behind this – and why?

Influential people, with vested financial interests in the process, have sold a narrative that global manufacturing, global sourcing, and global production was the inherent way of the future. The same voices claimed the American economy was consigned to become a “service-driven economy.”

What was always missed, in these discussions, is that advocates selling this global-economy message have a vested financial and ideological interest in convincing the information consumer it is all just a natural outcome of economic progress.

It’s not.

It’s not natural at all. It is a process that is entirely controlled, promoted and utilized by large conglomerates, lobbyists, purchased politicians and massive financial corporations.

Again, I’ll try to retain the larger altitude perspective without falling into the traps of the esoteric weeds. I freely admit this is tough to explain and I may not be successful.

Bullet point #1: ♦ Multinational corporations purchase controlling interests in various national elements of developed industrial western nations.

This is perhaps the most challenging to understand. In essence, thanks specifically to the way the World Trade Organization (WTO) was established in 1995, national companies expanded their influence into multiple nations, across a myriad of industries and economic sectors (energy, agriculture, raw earth minerals, etc.). This is the basic underpinning of national companies becoming multinational corporations.

Think of these multinational corporations as global entities now powerful enough to reach into multiple nations – simultaneously – and purchase controlling interests in a single economic commodity.

A historic reference point might be the original multinational enterprise, energy via oil production. (Exxon, Mobil, BP, etc.)

However, in the modern global world, it’s not just oil; the resource and product procurement extend to virtually every possible commodity and industry. From the very visible (wheat/corn), to the obscure (small minerals, and even flowers).

Bullet point #2 ♦ The Multinational Corporations making the purchases are underwritten by massive global financial institutions – multinational banks.

During the past several decades national companies merged. The largest lemon producer company in Brazil, merges with the largest lemon company in Mexico, merges with the largest lemon company in Argentina, merges with the largest lemon company in the U.S., etc. etc. National companies, formerly of one nation, become “continental” companies with control over an entire continent of nations.

…. or it could be over several continents, or even the entire world market of Lemon/Widget production. These are now multinational corporations. They hold interests in specific segments (this example lemons) across a broad variety of individual nations.

National laws on Monopoly building are not the same in all nations. Most are not as structured as the U.S.A or other more developed nations (with more laws). During the acquisition phase, when encountering a highly developed nation with monopoly laws, the process of an umbrella corporation might be needed to purchase the targeted interests within a specific nation. The example of Monsanto applies here.

Bullet point #3 ♦The Multinational Banks and the Multinational Corporations then utilize lobbying interests to manipulate the internal political policy of the targeted nation state(s).

With control of the majority of actual lemons the multinational corporation now holds a different set of financial values than a local farmer or national market. This is why commodities exchanges are essentially dead.

In the aggregate, the mercantile exchange is no longer a free or supply-based market; it is now a controlled market exploited by mega-sized multinational corporations.

Instead of the traditional ‘supply/demand’ equation determining prices, the corporations look to see what nations can afford what prices. The supply of the controlled product is then distributed to the country according to their ability to afford the price. This is essentially the bastardized and politicized function of the World Trade Organization (WTO). This is also how the corporations controlling WTO policy maximize profits.

Back to the lemons. A multinational corporation might hold the rights to the majority of the lemon production in Brazil, Argentina and California/Florida. The price the U.S. consumer pays for the lemons is directed by the amount of inventory (distribution) the controlling corporation allows in the U.S.

If the U.S. lemon harvest is abundant, the controlling interests will export the product to keep the U.S. consumer spending at peak or optimal price. A U.S. customer might pay $2 for a lemon, a Mexican customer might pay .50¢, and a Canadian $1.25.

The bottom line issue is the national supply (in this example ‘harvest/yield’) is not driving the national price because the supply is now controlled by massive multinational corporations.

The mistake people often make is calling this a “global commodity” process. In the modern era, this “global commodity” phrase is particularly nonsense.

A true global commodity is a process of individual nations harvesting/creating a similar product and bringing that product to a global market. Individual nations each independently engaged in creating a similar product.

Under modern globalism, this process no longer takes place. It’s a complete fraud. Massive multinational corporations control the majority of production inside each nation and therefore control the global product market and price. It is a controlled system.

EXAMPLE: Part of the lobbying in the food industry is to advocate for the expansion of U.S. taxpayer benefits to underwrite the costs of the domestic food products they control. By lobbying DC, these multinational corporations get congress and policymakers to expand the basis of who can use Food Stamps, EBT and SNAP benefits (state reimbursement rates).

Expanding the federal subsidy for food purchases is part of the corporate profit dynamic.

With increased taxpayer subsidies, the food price controllers can charge more domestically and export more of the product internationally. Taxes, via subsidies, go into their profit margins. The corporations then use a portion of those enhanced profits in contributions to the politicians. It’s a circle of money.

In highly developed nations, this multinational corporate process requires the corporation to purchase the domestic political process (as above) with individual nations allowing the exploitation in varying degrees. As such, the corporate lobbyists pay hundreds of millions to politicians for changes in policies and regulations – one sector, one product, or one industry at a time. These are specialized lobbyists.

It is ironic when we discuss corporate financial payments to government officials in foreign countries we call them corrupt.  However, in the United States we call it lobbying, the process is exactly the same.

EXAMPLE: The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS)

CFIUS is an inter-agency committee authorized to review transactions that could result in control of a U.S. business by a foreign person (“covered transactions”), in order to determine the effect of such transactions on the national security of the United States.

CFIUS operates pursuant to section 721 of the Defense Production Act of 1950, as amended by the Foreign Investment and National Security Act of 2007 (FINSA) (section 721), and as implemented by Executive Order 11858, as amended, and regulations at 31 C.F.R. Part 800.

The CFIUS process has been the subject of significant reforms over the past several years. These include numerous improvements in internal CFIUS procedures, enactment of FINSA in July 2007, amendment of Executive Order 11858 in January 2008, revision of the CFIUS regulations in November 2008, and publication of guidance on CFIUS’s national security considerations in December 2008 (more)

Bulletpoint #4 ♦ With control over the targeted national industry or interest, the multinationals then leverage export of the national asset (exfiltration) through trade agreements structured to the benefit of lesser developed nation states – where they have previously established a proactive financial footprint.

The process of charging the U.S. consumer more for a product, that under normal national market conditions would cost less, is a process called exfiltration of wealth. This is the basic premise, the cornerstone, behind the catch-phrase ‘globalism’.

It is never discussed.

To control the market price, some contracted product may even be secured and shipped with the intent to allow it to sit idle (or rot). It’s all about controlling the price and maximizing the profit equation. To gain the same $1 profit, a widget multinational might have to sell 20 widgets in El-Salvador (.25¢ each), or two widgets in the U.S. ($2.50/each).

Think of the process like the historic reference of OPEC (Oil Producing Economic Countries). Only in the modern era massive corporations are playing the role of OPEC, and it’s not oil being controlled; thanks to the WTO it’s almost everything.

Again, this is highlighted in the example of taxpayers subsidizing the food sector (EBT, SNAP etc.), the corporations can charge U.S. consumers more. Ex. more beef is exported, red meat prices remain high at the grocery store, but subsidized U.S. consumers can better afford the high prices.

Of course, if you are not receiving food payment assistance (middle class) you can’t eat the steaks because you can’t afford them. (Not accidentally, it’s the same scheme in the ObamaCare healthcare system)

Agriculturally, multinational corporate Monsanto says: ‘All your harvests are belong to us‘. Contract with us or you lose, because we can control the market price of your end product. Downside is that once you sign that contract, you agree to terms that are entirely created by the financial interests of the larger corporation – not your farm.

The multinational agriculture lobby is massive. We willingly feed the world as part of the system; but you as a grocery customer pay more per unit at the grocery store because domestic supply no longer determines domestic price.

Within the agriculture community, the (feed-the-world) production export factor also drives the need for labor. Labor is a cost. The multinational corps have a vested interest in low labor costs. Ergo, open border policies. (ie. willingly purchased Republicans not supporting border wall etc.).

This corrupt economic manipulation/exploitation applies over multiple sectors, and even in the sub-sector of an industry like steel. China/India purchases the raw material, coking coal, then sells the finished good (rolled steel) back to the global market at a discount. Or it could be rubber, or concrete, or plastic, or frozen chicken parts etc.

The ‘America First’ Trump-Trade Doctrine upset the entire construct of this multinational export/control dynamic. Team Trump focused exclusively on bilateral trade deals, with specific trade agreements targeted toward individual nations (not national corporations).

‘America First’ is also specific policy at a granular product level looking out for the national interests of the United States, U.S. workers, U.S. companies and U.S. consumers.

Under President Trump’s Trade positions, balanced and fair trade with strong regulatory control over national assets, exfiltration of U.S. national wealth is essentially stopped.

This puts many current multinational corporations, globalists who previously took a stake-hold in the U.S. economy with intention to export the wealth, in a position of holding contracted interest of an asset they can no longer exploit.

Perhaps now we understand better how massive multi-billion multinational corporations, and the political institutions they pay for, are aligned against President Trump.

Perhaps now we understand why he is uniquely qualified to begin the American restoration.

Perhaps now we understand why Donald Trump carries a very unique economic policy agenda that is entirely different from the other nine candidates.

Perhaps now you know why there are nine corporate Republicans trying to defeat him.

Perhaps now you know why I stand, steadfast…. with TRUMP!

There is only one candidate with an economic restoration platform.

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Listen Carefully, Special Counsel Jack Smith Delivers Statement Following Trump Indictment – Indictment Link Included


Posted originally on the CTH on June 9, 2023 | Sundance 

I would strongly urge people, especially those who walk the deep weeds, to READ THE INDICTMENT carefully, before watching the remarks by special counsel Jack Smith as delivered today.  What you will notice is that 31 of the 37 counts alleged in the indictment are individual counts, one per document, specific to Statute 793(e) which pertains to defense department information.

There were, as claimed in the justice department prior court arguments, and again affirmed today in the indictment itself, 100 classified documents located by the FBI and DOJ after the Trump certification of compliance.  Of those 100 documents, 31 of them were specifically selected to represent the baseline for the 793(e) charge. Listen to Smith emphasize Defense and Defense Intelligence, and soon you will see why.  WATCH:

READ INDICTMENT HERE ~

Jack Smith is relying on 18 U.S. Code 793, a law created in 1948 intended to stop contractors to the Defense Dept from stealing, selling, or copying U.S. defense system secrets, or patents on defense products. [READ THE LAW] The premise of 31-counts [each an individual document] pertain to “National Defense Security.”  The subsequent six counts are predicated around the claimed 793(e) violations.

The DOJ is not, repeat NOT, arguing a classified documents case.  The entire legal framework is centered around documents they define as vital to the defense security of the United States.  EVERYTHING is predicated on this 18 U.S. Code § 793(e) violation:

18 U.S. Code § 793 (e) Whoever having unauthorized possession of, access to, or control over any document, writing, code book, signal book, sketch, photograph, photographic negative, blueprint, plan, map, model, instrument, appliance, or note relating to the national defense, or information relating to the national defense which information the possessor has reason to believe could be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of any foreign nation, willfully communicates, delivers, transmits or causes to be communicated, delivered, or transmitted, or attempts to communicate, deliver, transmit or cause to be communicated, delivered, or transmitted the same to any person not entitled to receive it, or willfully retains the same and fails to deliver it to the officer or employee of the United States entitled to receive it. 

Despite the verbose language in the indictment, a key element of Lawfare, the case is weak. The prosecutors know it. I will explain.

NOTE:  Sixty nine documents in a Deep State rabbit hole!  ~Sundance

Canadian Wildfires – CLIMATE LOCKDOWNS BEGIN


Armstrong Economics Blog/Conspiracy Re-Posted Jun 9, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

There is something strange in the air. Are we to believe that what is occurring is simply the result of wildfires in Canada all occurring simultaneously? Official reports claim that droughts caused the conditions for the fires. Quebec said that the fires were ignited by lightning, Alberta admitted the cause of their fires is still unknown. Other provinces also blame lightning and dry conditions, but no one seems to have a clear answer for why over 9.4 million acres in Canada have burned.

Trudeau seemed unemotional and unsurprised during his press conference. He was utterly tone-deaf for a leader of a country where millions of people were just displaced from their homes. This will certainly fuel his desire to implement harsher carbon taxes. The people of Canada were not properly warned, as you can see in the video above. I share videos from the TikTok platform because it is one of the only peer-to-peer sites available where users can share their uncensored experiences. The man speaking learned that his home was burning down through posts shared on Facebook, not the Canadian government.

And the claims of lightning storms? The weather trackers did not seem to pick up on any extreme storms:

Some may say they are strategically burning areas to prevent the fire from spreading. What’s really happening here?

President Joe Biden is already blaming “the climate crisis” for these unexplainable events. The smoke spread to the US in 18 states from South Carolina to New Hampshire. The New York skyline turned a vibrant shade of apocalyptic orange. The smoke contains fine particulate matter, or PM2.5, the tiniest yet most dangerous pollutant. The Air Quality Index (AQI) is safe at levels around 50. New York and New Jersey experienced levels of over 400 this week. New York topped global charts and had the worst AQI in the world.

Experts say breathing in the air is equivalent to smoking half a pack of cigarettes. “There is no safe aspect of wildfire smoke,” explained Kari Nadeua, Naddisy Foundation Professor of Pediatric Food Allergy, Immunology and Asthma at Stanford University, in an October 2020 Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment wildfire research report. “Exposure to wildfire smoke over 5 to 7 days can cause damage to the lungs, blood, and heart and cause strokes. There is no safe distance from smoke.”

New York Governor Kathy Hochul has urged residents to wear masks and stay indoors. We’re entering a lockdown once again. New York even provided over 1 million N95 masks, and this time around, people may want to put them on. Schools and sporting events across New Jersey and New York have closed along with some businesses. The governments are testing an ECONOMIC LOCKDOWN.

Conspiracy theories are spreading faster than the fires. Some believe that the missing 30 tons of ammonium nitrate were used for this attack, and are calling it economic terrorism. Others believe that Canada deliberately started the fires. With countless areas covered in smoke, the people cannot see. This would be a great way to test a potential attack in broad daylight. Some are concerned that there are chemicals in the air that they intend to use to start the next pandemic, as numerous agencies have said they are preparing for a second one. I won’t even go down the rabbit hole of the conspiracy theories regarding the sun or the Chinese balloons. No one trusts the government or the mass media anymore.

One thing is for sure – the governments will blame this on climate change when they allegedly do not have a clear answer. We are experiencing our first economic lockdown, unofficially.

Has the World Simply Gone Mad?


Armstrong Economics Blog/Uncategorized Re-Posted Jun 8, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

 The indictment of Trump federally confirms what our computer has been warning about for the 2024 election – there will be none – at least a fair one at that. Never has any former president running for office been targeted and the Department of Justice has been completely weaponized. All for documents that he clearly had no intention of handing to some foreign enemy. They had to do with the stolen election and Hillary using the intelligence agencies to even spy on Trump when in the White House.

I do not say that as a Trump supporter. We have Hunter Biden who has committed crimes that anyone else would be in prison for and the IRS and DOJ have been protecting him. You have the FBI brought to the brink of contempt for refusing to release documents that could justify not just impeaching Biden, but charging him with Treason. The point here is that these are the tactics normally seen in banana republics and even Ukraine where the former president is somehow always criminally charged to eliminate opponents in the future.

Yet none of this matters anymore. The media has committed treason and is doing everything to destroy this country by refusing to EVER just be balanced anymore. All we get is endless propaganda and with the Canadian fires, they will not even ask how did all these fires start simultaneously and whether will they be used for now Climate Lockdowns to further destroy our economy?

V

Remember Schwab’s cheering on how great lockdowns were for society? This is why we now have a Commerical Real Estate crisis for they deliberate;y used the lockdowns to stop commuting to work to reduce CO2. They had no basis in mitigating COVID. Now people were compelled to work Virtually and that killed offices which was their end goal. While kids are back in school, physical local stores are doing better than expected, and even retirees have started to return to cruise ships. But the primary target was to undermine small businesses and terminate office buildings in general.

Commercial real estate is in far worse shape than most care to look at. Offices buildings are struggling and the implications set off a contagion that will engulf banks, landlords, municipal governments from a tax perspective, and individual investment portfolios. The economic damage from the lockdowns is far-reaching and it is due to make everyone sit up and say OMD post-2024.

This will be the next real estate crisis and this one will invoke a catastrophic change that will not come back anytime soon. There is nearly $1.5 trillion of US commercial real estate debt that comes due for repayment before the end of 2025. This impact the larger banks and many assume that the defaults of banks have been driving the cash from regional banks to the big banks in hopes of stemming this tide.

During the first quarter of 2023, U.S. office vacancy topped 20% nationally for the first time really since the Great Depression. Then there are cities that have embraced WOKE to their detriment and are witnessing the worst. In San Francisco, the vacancy rate in the first quarter of 2023 climbed to 29.4%, up from 27.6% in the fourth quarter of 2022. Manhattan has a vacancy rate of n the first quarter of 2023 at 22.2% according to Cushman & Wakefield.  Dallas has been absorbing the flight from California so its vacancy rate is 18.7% according to Cushman & Wakefield.  The commercial vacancy rate in Miami, Florida office market has an overall vacancy which has been declining counter-trend to the rest of the nation falling now to 15.8% according to Cushman & Wakefield. In Chicago, Class-A vacancy rate stands at 19.3% while Class-B vacancy jumped to 28.3% according to Cushman & Wakefield.

These figures understate the severity of this crisis. While Biden’s staff is stuffed with LGBTQ which overrepresents their portion of society, we are hanging by a thread economically. You have the standard people running around screaming the sky is falling and selling all stocks. But selling stocks is typically followed by the flight to quality which is government debt. Yet somehow that seems strange in the period of a collapse in the confidence of government.

Meanwhile, Ukraine is the MOST untrustworthy government on the planet. The United States intelligence learned of a Ukrainian plan to attack the Nord Stream natural gas pipelines three months before they were damaged last September by underwater explosions, The Washington Post reported on this citing leaked information posted online. The damn they blew up and tried to blame Russia just so happens to also impact the water supply of Crimea.

It was Ukraine which blew up the dam because it would cut off the water supply to Crimea. Everything also results in Zelensky demanding more and more money from the world. He is “shocked” that the Red Cross and the UN are not pouring money into Ukraine for disaster after every disaster they create. This is the man determined to draw in the entire world to destroy Russia. When we foolishly give them F16s, they will attack Crimea and we will have World War III.

Meanwhile, the losses of Ukrainian troops have exceeded 200,000 according to reliable sources inside Ukraine. This is why NATO is actually looking at sending in ground troops for Ukraine is losing badly. Nato countries now say that they may be willing to put troops on the ground in Ukraine if member states including the US do not provide tangible security guarantees to Kyiv. As I have warned, NATO’s only purpose is to create war – not peace.

Will It All Explode by the Ides of May 2025?


Armstrong Economics Blog/Ukraine Re-Posted Jun 8, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

I know some people send emails alleging I am some sort of Putin supporter. Most of my sources come from inside Ukraine. There is NO government on this earth that EVER has 100% approval of its people. There are ALWAYS two sides just as we have in the polarization of the United States. Many have been forced to flee Ukraine. Zelensky has been forcing young boys to fight on the front line and they are inexperienced and dying by the thousands. Zelensky is wiping out a generation rather than simply honor the Minsk Agreement for the Donbas are Russians who they will NEVER accept anyhow. This is simply a land grab and he is destroying his country for the Neocons and will fly off to his estate in Miami to live like a king forever after.

I believe Zelensky is pure evil. He promised peace and is killing off an entire generation for his greatest European Investment of all time in rebuilding Ukraine with Blackrock – another evil private empire. His constant propaganda that Putin is evil will backfire. The Russian Presidential elections are scheduled to be held in Russia in March 2024. This will be the first round on Sunday, March 17th. If no candidate receives more than half the vote, then a second round will take place exactly three weeks later on April 7th, 2024. The winner of the election is scheduled to be inaugurated on May 7th, 2024. When we look at the computer, it has a Directional Change in 2024 and a Panic Cycle in 2025.

Absolutely NOTHING that comes out as news from Ukraine, NATO, or any mainstream media is EVER going to be the truth. NATO is really a terrorist organization. They exist only for war – not peace. Ask people who live in the former Yugoslavia how they were bombing civilians and the media covered that up as well. They have built this up all about how Putin is evil and Zelensky refused to allow even the Pope to mediate for peace saying you cannot negotiate with Putin. In truth, it is Zelensky who is the Judas and has sold out his own people for a handful of silver.

My fear is that Putin will step down and then we will see the hardliners take the helm. I do not see Putin there post-2024. The hardliners feel Putin has been too “soft” and had he simply invaded Ukraine instead of defending just the Donbas, then this war would have been over in 6 weeks using the same tactics the USA used on Iraq – shock and awe.

This does NOT look good for the future and these damn Neocons never consider what if they are wrong! They BS themselves into thinking Russia is weak and they can destroy it once and for all and divide it up into their EuroAsia and then turn on China. If the hardliners come in, they will do whatever is necessary to defend Russia against our insane Neocons like Lindsey Graham, Victoria Nuland, John Bolton, etc, etc. The United States will lose this war just as they did in Vietnam. People like Graham care nothing about the dead civilians who always outnumber the soldiers. He relishes the idea of washing his hands in Russian blood.

It was Ukraine that waged war on the Donbas calling them terrorists because they sought independence from Kiev which in itself sought independence from Russia. That was the pot calling the kettle black as they say.

It was John McCain preaching war and revolution at Maidan. What if Putin came to the USA and delivered a speech on January 6th calling for the overthrow of Biden? I seriously doubt that the American press would have looked at that very kindly. But our Neocons could care less about anything. All they want is endless wars.

Zelensky has done precisely the opposite of what he promised. The people wanted peace – not the destruction of their country. Zelensky is filling his pockets and as I warned from the very start, this would be the man put in place by the Neocons to begin World War III. Our lives mean nothing to the Neocons. They are absolutely evil people who cheer over the deaths of others. Communism fell. People like Lindsey Graham and John McCain never could stop their hating of Russians and Chinese. They should NEVER be allowed anywhere close to the government. Russia will defend itself and Putin has been the moderate. What comes after the next Russian election will not be moderate. Their Neocons are saying – See, I told you so. America is Evil! Thank you Lindsey Graham – there are people judging all Americans because of you.

C

The Cloward-Piven Strategy


Aemstrong Economics Blog/Civil Unrest Re-Posted Jun 6, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

COMMENT: Your reporting on the Red Cross and other organizations that facilitate the mass importation of illegals into America is well done. But its purpose is about more than just a move to import a bunch of Biden voters to help secure a second term.
Are you aware of the Cloward and Piven strategy? These were two communist professors who devised a plan to take down the capitalist structure of the United States through mass illegal migration that overwhelms U.S. social safety net programs and local governments. It is an intentional plan to collapse the U.S. and bring in a new (global) regime that will issue ‘guaranteed basic income’ to all.
I’ve never seen you comment on Cloward and Piven, would you care to share whether Socrates shows their plan will be successful?

REPLY:

The four steps of the Cloward-Piven Strategy:
1. Overload and Break the Welfare System
2. Have Chaos Ensue
3. Take Control in the Chaos
4. Implement Socialism and Communism through Government Force

Overburden the bureaucracy to break the system, create controlled chaos, usurp power as civil unrest peaks, and offer government aid as the only solution. This was the basis behind the Cloward-Piven strategy created by sociologists Frances Fox Piven and her husband, Richard Cloward. The couple published their theory in The Nation Magazine on May 2, 1966, entitled “The Weight of the Poor: A Strategy to End Poverty.”

This was a decade of political activism in America. The war in Vietnam was raging on and the alternative hippie lifestyle became prominent as people protested the violence. The Black Freedom Movement and the push for equal civil rights had peaked and helped to end the Jim Crow laws in the South by 1965. The LA race riots, also known as the Watts Rebellion, occurred in 1965 as well after the police beat a black man who was arrested for a DUI. That particular riot lasted for six days and led to 34 deaths, 1,032 injuries, and over 3,000 arrests. This began a string of riots in America where black Americans and supporters clashed with police, similar to the events that occurred after the death of George Floyd that started the Black Lives Matter movement.

We had major political activists such as Martin Luther King Jr. making real change in America. The intelligence agencies had a close eye on him, and his death in 1968 is a topic for another post. On the other side were the likes of Malcom X, who originally did not advocate for peace as King did. The cohesive movement fell apart with mass unrest and no one at the helm. The movement began with African Americans asking for basic human rights and understandable anger. The purpose of the movement, again similar to BLM, became lost, and the government aimed to use the civil unrest to its advantage.

“[T]he strategy we propose, is a massive drive to recruit the poor onto the welfare rolls,” the sociologists wrote in their theory. This theory aimed to overburden social programs at the state level to give the federal government the power to control the people.

“Widespread campaigns to register the eligible poor for welfare aid, and to help existing recipients obtain their full benefits, would produce bureaucratic disruption in welfare agencies and fiscal disruption in local and state governments. These disruptions would generate severe political strains, and deepen existing divisions among elements in the big-city Democratic coalition: the remaining white middle class, the white working-class ethnic groups and the growing minority poor.”

Cloward and Piven noted that civil unrest was necessary to create change and encouraged the government to antagonize the masses. “The poor are most visible and proximate in the local community; antagonism toward them (and toward the agencies which are implicated with them) has always, therefore, been more intense locally than at the federal level.” As the anger brews and protests erupt, the government will lasso in the masses, acted as both the hero and the villain.

“In order to generate a crisis, the poor must obtain benefits, which they have forfeited. Until now, they have been inhibited from asserting claims by self-protective devices within the welfare system: its capacity to limit information, to intimidate applicants, to demoralize recipients, and arbitrarily to deny lawful claims.”

Tell the people that they are victims and instill a sense of entitlement for their neighbor’s assets. Remind the people consistently that they are oppressed and only an equal distribution of wealth can save them from the confines of poverty. Cloward and Piven insisted that hard work could not “elevate the poor en-mass from poverty.”

“The ultimate objective of this strategy–to wipe out poverty by establishing a guaranteed annual income,” the theory clearly stated. The theory stated that the creation of unions was a good start to bargain collectively, but still not enough to solve poverty. “Union leaders have understood that their strength derives almost entirely from their capacity to provide economic rewards to members,” the theory noted. “A federal program of income redistribution has become necessary to elevate the poor en masse from poverty,” meaning a shift away from capitalism entirely.

Cloward and Piven stated that a minimum standard of living must be provided to the people through federal welfare. That right must be guaranteed to end oppression, thereby ensuring Guaranteed Basic Income. Furthermore, there could be no conditions for benefits as it “results in violations of civil liberties.” Therefore, expecting able-bodied people to work would be an attack on the welfare system. The sociologists insisted that most people were in fact eligible for welfare and encouraged the government to advertise in brochures, schools, stores, churches, civic centers, and public housing projects. They even advised the government to send people door-to-door to explain to people that they are oppressed and deserving of GBI as a “civil education drive will lend it legitimacy.”

“As the crisis develops, it will be important to use the mass media to inform the broader liberal community about the inefficiencies and injustices of welfare.” To succeed, the shift away from capitalism required “mass influence” and “publicly visible disruption.” “Crisis can occur spontaneously (e.g., riots) or as the intended result of tactics of demonstration and protest, which either generate institutional disruption or bring unrecognizable eruption to public attention.”

The bigger the crisis, the more power the government could usurp. They noted that politicians paid attention to massive uprisings, and they had been used to “reinforce the allegiance of growing ghetto constituencies to the national Democratic Administration.” The sociologists noted that the Conservative Republicans would decry a public welfare system and that the Democrats needed to appeal to the emotions of the people over logic. They also urged for “a coalition between poor whites and poor Negroes” to turn the race war into class warfare.

“Once eligibility for basic food and rent grants is established, the drain on local resources persists indefinitely.” Cloward and Piven wanted to overburden the welfare system at the state level to eliminate state rights. Therefore, under this theory, government is encouraged to market a crisis, antagonize the people, and offer a solution. The only solution being to replace capitalism with socialism or communism by which the people would be entirely dependent on government. You will own nothing and be happy.

The Great Awakening


Armstrong Economic Blog/Disease Re-Posted Jun 2, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

Interview: The Fall of Western Civilization


Armstrong Economics Blog/Armstrong in the Media Re-Posted Jun 3, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

Watch the video above or click here to view the latest interview.

Martin Armstrong returns to the Outer Limits of Inner Truth Podcast to discuss: what Socrates is saying about the 2024 election, the likelihood that CBDCs will not succeed based on what happened in Africa, the fall of Western Civilization, where the elites want to take humanity, and how to preserve your liberty in these trying times.

You Have 8.6 Years Left – Politics of Fools


Armstrong Economics Blog/ECM Re-Posted May 27, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

QUESTION: Dear Martin,
DeSantis announced his run for the Republican candidacy. You’ve mentioned several times he would be eaten by the career politicians in Washington. What if he becomes Trump’s running mate? Would that be a good course?
Sincerely, Martijn

ANSWER: That would be the only way I would see DeSantis as having any real influence. As I have said, I was asked if I would talk Trump out of running and join the advisory team for DeSantis last year. I declined. I replied that everything has changed and that they would just eat him for lunch as they did to Trump when he first walked into Washington.

Washington has declined so much so, that the fools on the Hill now think just switching to a Republican will make it all better. The Biden administration has inflicted so much political damage as well as division among the people, the USA must fall. It cannot stand as one nation with such division. And it is not even Biden – who is the real symbol of the Fool on the Hill. He is only the puppet just like the last emperors of Rome.

I do not care that the propaganda claims the election of 2020 was not rigged. Of course, it was, but not by the Democrats. They too are naive. The Deep State is in full control. The CIA convinced Trump to delay the release of JFK files until after the election. They played Trump like a fiddle. When Biden got in, he granted their perpetual stay to cover up their involvement. The FBI was out to prevent a Trump victory. Anyone who thinks that the CIA, NSA, or FBI cannot change the vote is an even bigger fool. They should grab a gun and go fight for Zelensky.

NONE of this from war to climate would have taken place under Trump. I said I had gone to Mara Largo in March 2020 for dinner and that is when Trump actually impressed me. He said he would pull the troops out of Afghanistan because he was tired of writing letters to parents explaining their son died for God and their country. He said they were fighting over borders that for 1,000 years. What difference are we going to make?

Perhaps you will remember in January 2019, Iran shot down an American drone. There is no question that John Bolton, Trump’s national security adviser at the time, was provoking Iran-U.S. tensions. He wanted another war. Quite frankly, Bolton would invade Canada to hunt down a Russian. Trump fired the Neocons, and rightly so. There is NO WAY they will allow a free election in 2024 and as a last resort they will assassinate Trump for now he understands the real game in Washington. They can now freely assassinate him since they are moving to digital currency and won’t have to look at his face on a coin or dollar bill.

Trump is clearly the better choice because he knows the real game now in Washington. They will eat DeSantis for lunch and spit him out. The Deep State is in full control. And for those who hate Trump, don’t be fooled. Sorry, Dorothy, you are not in Kansas anymore. Party politics is DEAD! This is the decline and fall of the United States and Western Civilization. You have 8.6 years left. In Washington, this has become the politics of fools. The more they lose control, the more totalitarian they will become.

The World Health Organization (WHO) can make recommendations after the declaration of a global emergency. It has no definitive control over any nation’s decisions. However, as we saw with COVID, countries bow to the WHO and that included the Biden Administration. The left zealots love to scream loudly that conservatives falsely claim that amendments proposed by the Biden administration to existing global health regulations, and a new WHO pandemic treaty, will threaten U.S. sovereignty. They are actually correct, but not that the WHO will have absolute control. That would be UNCONSTITUTIONAL. But the Biden Administration wants to push for “voluntary” compliance and surrender our policy to conform to that of the WHO.

Trump was correct – NATO and the WHO should be defunded. They are both power-hungry organizations that exert only their own self-interests. When Communism fell, there was no longer a need for NATO. The days of Kruschev were gone. Putin, Yeltsin, and Gorbachev were never interested in invading Europe to spread communism. That boast died long ago.

The American NEOCONS adopted the opposite view that they would conquer the world and spread their version of “democracy” which is really their pretend version of a free government since they are never elected. NATO had no purpose but kept the idea that Russia wanted to conquer the world. They have always promoted war – never peace.

From the very beginning of the UN, they too have dreamed of becoming the one-world government. This remains the agenda and they too promote war in hopes of rising in their glory to become the great peacemaker and solidify their power. This is why the exercise of power at the WHO is surfacing and it is all promoted by the World Economic Forum which is the Marxist brainchild of Schwab.