Category Endless War

Mar 16 2022

Russia, India Exploring New Trade Payment Channels in Aftermath of Sanctions


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on March 15, 2022

The BRICS trade and economic partnership group is made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa {GO DEEP}.  The alliance was originated in part to explore alternatives to the dollar as a global trade currency.  They discussed several options in their prior meetings long before Russia took action into Ukraine.

With western sanctions against Russia now in place, there are increasing reports that China and India have developed alternatives.  This is one such example:

(Via LiveMint) – Russia, many of whose banks have been cut off from the Swift financial network, is exploring opening alternative payment channels with India, including linking Unified Payments Interface (UPI) with the Faster Payments System (FPS) of the Bank of Russia, to continue cross-border trade.

According to Dmitry A. Solodov, a spokesperson for the Russian embassy in New Delhi, his government has also asked Indian lenders to connect to the financial messaging system of the Bank of Russia to facilitate interbank transactions. In addition, the two sides are discussing accepting RuPay and MIR Cards within national payment infrastructures, Solodov said in an emailed statement.

“All these options are on the table and are being discussed by the two governments, the Reserve Bank of India and the Bank of Russia,” said a senior Indian government official, requesting anonymity. (read more)

Xi Jinping (China), Vladimir Putin (Russia), Jair Bolsonaro (Brazil), Narendra Modi (India) and Cyril Ramaphosa (South Africa), the BRICS group.
Mar 16 2022

Members Only


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on March 15, 2022 | Sundance 

This is the state of our union….

In order for the two-winged UniParty vulture to continue devouring the host they must always do two things:

(1) Present the illusion of choice; and
(2) Pretend not to know things.

The frustration you feel is a feature of the controlled program, it is not a flaw.  We The People are in an abusive relationship with our own government. The only real divide in our nation is the division between two classes: rulers (with wealth) and the ruled (without).  All other divisions are purposefully created by those who operate the system.

Inflation serves their interests.  Inflation cheapens the debt burden they create, which allows them to keep spending and transferring taxpayer wealth to themselves and the club insiders.  We The People are in an abusive and subservient relationship with our own government.

Ukraine is a shiny thing that keeps us from watching them.   Do not be distracted.

Mar 16 2022

Producer Price Inflation Sets New Record at 10 Percent, No Relief in Sight


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on March 15, 2022 | Sundance

The “Producer Price Index” (PPI) is essentially the tracking of wholesale prices at three stages: Origination (commodity), Intermediate (processing), and then Final (to wholesale). Today, the Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS) released February price data [Available Here] showing a dramatic 10.0% increase year-over-year in Final Demand products at the wholesale level.  This is the highest rate of inflation in the PPI ever recorded.

The single month increase in wholesale prices of 2.4% was driven by inflation built into the supply chain at every level that shows up in the final wholesale price.  Those price increases then get passed along to consumers along with the additional costs for warehousing, transportation and delivery.  I modified Table-A to take out some of the noise.

The January, December and November data was also revised significantly upward, and a sketchy footnote is included in the data. “Some of the figures … in this release may differ from those previously reported because data for October 2021 through January 2022 have been revised to reflect the availability of late reports and corrections.”   Remember that temporary drop in December, yeah, that’s wiped out now.

The reason the total demand inflation number is 0.8% is only because inflation in the service sector is lower than inflation in the goods sector.  Two reasons: (1) energy costs embed in goods first before services; and (2) when inflation on goods squeezes budgeted consumers, less services are demanded.

Unfortunately, there is nothing upstream in the supply chain and manufacturing pipeline to suggest that higher prices at the retail level are not coming.  The price of raw materials, and the wholesale energy costs to process those materials into finished goods, are still rising.  Factually, the recent massive increase in fuel and transportation cost is not included in this data.

You can see clearly in Table-B (again, cleaned up) the wave of inflation that took place in April through October 2021.  Inflation is backward looking, so when prices have already doubled in the previous year and the compounding price goes up another 35% this year, well essentially that’s another doubling when compared to 2020.   Put another way, raw materials (unprocessed intermediate goods) have tripled in price in the last two years.

In my estimation, the massive price increases the bureau quantified through January were the end of the first wave of massive inflation that CTH warned about last October.

“Do what you can do now to start preparing your weekly budget in ways you may not have thought about before.   Shop sales, use coupons, look for discounts and products that can be reformulated into multiple meals or multiple uses.   Shelf-stable food products that can be muti-purposed with proteins is a good start. Consider purchasing the raw materials for cleaning products and reformulate them yourself to avoid these massive increases in petroleum costs.” [October Warning]

The recent announcement of price increases we have discussed, from food producers specifically (Kraft-Heinz, Proctor and Gamble, etc.), in combination with massive fertilizer and farming costs for future yield, is the second wave that has yet to be fully quantified.  The second wave of retail inflation, only just beginning to arrive now in the February results, will extend throughout the spring.

Next month, March data reported in April, the second wave of inflation data should carry the first big jumps in gas and diesel prices.  For ordinary people, this next round of food inflation will be focused predominantly in the ‘Fresh Foods‘ categories.  Fresh produce, vegetables and fruits have short life cycles, and rapid increases in transportation costs hit that segment fast and hard.

On the positive side, our victory gardens are going up in value, very quickly.   A few backyard growing boxes can generate an easy $200 to $500/month in fresh produce as the price of ordinary row crops at the store starts to double and triple.  Mature citrus trees are worth their weight in gold right now.

FJB!

Mar 15 2022

Did Manchin Just Save the Federal Reserve?


Armstrong Economics Blog/Central Banks Re-Posted Mar 15, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

Once again Joe Manchin has broken away from party lines to prevent the Democrats from destroying the global economy. Manchin announced that he would not support President Biden’s pick for Fed chair, Sarah Bloom Raskin, as her personal views on climate change could drastically alter Fed policy. “I have carefully reviewed Sarah Bloom Raskin’s qualifications and previous public statements. Her previous public statements have failed to satisfactorily address my concerns about the critical importance of financing an all-of-the-above energy policy to meet our nation’s critical energy needs,” Manchin stated. “I have come to the conclusion that I am unable to support her nomination to serve as a member of the Federal Reserve Board.”

A group of senators wrote an urgent letter to Joe Biden in February, citing “concern about Ms. Bloom Raskin’s potential abuse of power to inflict harm upon the traditional fuel industry.” The Federal Reserve is intended to operate as an independent body that is not swayed by politics. However, Raskin is an advocate for pushing forward the Build Back Better agenda by banning investments in fossil fuels. In May 2020, Raskin wrote an op-ed that stated the Federal Reserve should simply refrain from investing in energy. “The decision to bring oil and gas into the Fed’s investment portfolio not only misdirects limited recovery resources but also… undermines urgent efforts to counter surging carbon dioxide and methane emissions, which are bringing us closer to the catastrophe of an unlivably [sic] hot planet,” she stated. She reiterated her position countless times and has urged all financial regulators and auditors to “mitigate climate-related threats by stepping forward and incentivizing a rapid, orderly, and just transition away from high-emission assets.”

The letter penned by concerned senators claimed that Raskin is an “activist” who is unfit to be placed in a top leadership position at an allegedly non-partisan central bank. Interestingly, the letter was penned before the war in Ukraine that has only led to worsening energy prices. The Federal Reserve is the most important financial entity in the United States, and the United States is currently the leader of the global economy. Biden is showing the people once again that he does not care about them or the economy by appointing someone dangerously unqualified to support this New Green World Order. The Biden Administration is continuing to back Raskin and has said that any claims against her are simply baseless lies funded by the evil fossil fuel industry. The only way Raskin could be appointed now would be for one Republican to back her nomination, which seems quite unlikely.

Mar 15 2022

DuckDuckGo Has Been Compromised


Armstrong Economics Blog/Censorship Re-Posted Mar 15, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

Gabriel Weinberg has violated the trust of myself as well as the integrity of his entire company. I do not care what he thinks about Ukraine. He is obviously is easily influenced by the media and does not look at events with an open mind because BOTH sides will put out misinformation in a conflict. He has no right to censor Russia when what it says merely contradicts what the US says. How does he know who is telling the truth? That is not his job and engaging in censorship thinking what the US says is always true, guess he never looked at the whole Weapons of Mass Destruction that the US used to invade Iraq that was not part of any terrorist movement against the US or the West because Addam was an anti-religious fanatic. Both sides will spin the news in their own favor. We have a right to make those judgments for ourselves.

The EU is also going after search engines that will NOT censor information from Russia. This only makes the truth more impossible to uncover. The Tor browser is one alternative.

DuckDuckGo marketed its search platform as the antithesis to Google. “Our privacy policy is simple: we don’t collect or share any of your personal information,” the company lists on its website. The engine claims not to track data or sell information to advertisers. However, the site has been compromised.

The alternative search engine gained popularity recently after a heavy marketing campaign that included ads throughout major cities, radio, TV, and even Superbowl commercial time slots. Personally, I have noticed that the website has produced what seems to be targeted results comparable to Google. An online user posted the search phrase “where to get” in their browser, only for the search engine to auto-populate every search term surrounding COVID vaccinations. Try it for yourself.

The final nail in the coffin came when CEO Gabriel Weinberg announced that he would begin censoring search results due to “Russian disinformation.” Who gives Weinberg the authority to decide between “misinformation” and facts? The entire point of a search engine that acted as the antithesis to Google was to provide users with all available information, free from any censorship. Provide us with all the facts, and let us come up with our own independent thoughts. DuckDuckGo is no different from the companies it claims to be against, except it has a worse user interface.

Onion Alternatives

https://www.torproject.org/releases/tor-browser-11-0/

Website addresses ending in “.onion” are not similar to normal domain names, and one cannot access them with the ordinary web browser. They direct you to the Tor hidden services found on the deep web. Thus, .onion sites are a part of a deep web that is not perceptible to search engines and standard users. It is filled with websites for users fanatical about their anonymity and online privacy. Countless onion sites include very malicious things, and lots of them are likely to be rip-offs. It is usually recommended to stay away from them. As a browser, Tor is the best for privacy. It’s a links’ directory, and you’ll find links to nearly anything and everything which isn’t available on the clearnet.

Mar 15 2022

Hispanic Population Abandoning Democratic Party


Armstrong Economics Blog/Politics Re-Posted Mar 15, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

The Hispanic population will now have access to the first conservative network tailored to the Spanish-speaking community in the United States. The network, Americano, will first premiere on SiriusXM radio before hitting TV screens this summer. This comes at a crucial time in US politics ahead of the midterm elections. Americano CEO Ivan Garcia-Hidalgo said that the Democrats should be afraid.

“They’re scared. And they should be. Democrats took Hispanics for granted for too long, and no one thought to create a home for us in conservative media. There is an appetite for this. You see it on social media. You see it in elections,” Garcia-Hidalgo stated.

Countless articles surfaced during the 2020 US Presidential Election condemning Hispanics from voting outside the Democratic Party. Six in ten Hispanic voters selected Biden on the 2020 ballot, but the number who identified as Democrats declined eight percentage points from the 2016 election. Spanish-speakers who lived under Communist rule, such as Cubans, were more likely to vote for the GOP. They have seen the Marxist dream and know it is far from Utopia.

By January 2021, Biden’s support among Hispanic voters plummeted from 59% to 28%. “Sadly, during the course of the pandemic, one-third of our small businesses have closed,” a tone-deaf Kamala Harris stated. Many Hispanic business owners who came to the US for the American dream were affected. The CDC noted that Latinos were hurt by the coronavirus more so than other ethnic minority groups. Although the media would like people to believe that all Hispanics support Biden’s handling of the border, only 23% noted approval in a January Quinnipiac Poll.

Add to this that Latinos are more likely to hold Christian family values, which is in contrast to many Democratic policies and beliefs. A conservative news outlet designed for the large Spanish-speaking population is long overdue.

Mar 15 2022

The Republican Guard Prepares Offensive Weapons Against MAGA Influence – The Right Wing of the National UniParty Begins Assembling


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

With the Sea Island professionally Republican convention completed we now enter that time in Republican politics where the people who assembled for the gathering begin to seed the next election narrative.   The timing is not coincidental, yet few people pay attention, that’s where we come in.

The backstory on last week’s Sea Island meeting IS HERE.  We all know these people, though sometimes we can be distracted by their Machiavellian schemes and manipulations.  Exactly on cue, the Associated Press steps up to deliver the advanced revelations of the quiet discussion:

(VIA AP) –  Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan is planning trips to Iowa and New Hampshire. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., is considering a rough timeline for a potential presidential announcement. And allies of Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., are openly talking up her White House prospects.

More than two years before the next presidential election, a shadow primary is already beginning to take shape among at least three fierce Republican critics of former President Donald Trump to determine who is best positioned to occupy the anti-Trump lane in 2024.

Their apparent willingness to run — even if Trump does, as is widely expected — represents a shift from previous years when “Never Trump” operatives failed to recruit any GOP officeholders to challenge the incumbent president. But with the 2024 contest almost in view, the question is no longer whether one of Trump’s prominent Republican critics will run, but how many will mount a campaign and how soon they will announce.

Those close to Cheney, Hogan and Kinzinger expect one of them, if not more, to launch a presidential bid after the 2022 midterms. While all three are nationally known to some degree, their goal would not necessarily be to win the presidency. Above all, they want to hinder Trump’s return to the White House, at least compared with 2020, when his allies cleared the field of any Republican opponents and persuaded some states to cancel primary contests altogether.

“It’s there as an option, but it’s not necessarily because this is all some big plan so I can be in the White House,” Kinzinger told The Associated Press when asked about his timeline for deciding on a presidential run. “It’s looking and saying, ‘Is there going to be a voice out there that can represent from that megaphone the importance of defending this country and democracy and what America is about?’ There certainly, I’m sure within the next year or so, will be a point at which you have to make a decision.

“If it’s not me doing anything, certainly we’ll be all in for whoever can represent us,” Kinzinger said.  (read more)

Look, let’s cut through the bulls**t, because time is of the essence,and I have far too much respect for you to play the pretend game.  View that Associated Press article for the reality that it represents.

We all know the DC political system is fully aligned against We The People.  We are the threat to them.  The ordinary citizens of this great nation are the elements of society they must control in order to retain their illusions, power and influence.

There is only one overarching political party in Washington DC, and it is made up of two wings, Democrats and Republicans.  As voters enter the 2022 mid-term cycle, the aspect that matters to the DC UniParty is their ability to influence who we select as candidates for the November election.

Despite their earnest efforts, there is still a framework of a voting system that runs adverse to their interests.  To the extent that free thinking people can vote independently, the voting public will always be viewed as a threat.  Mitigating that threat is their primary objective right now.  THAT is the big takeaway from the Sea Island conference that just concluded.

The goal is always the same, protect the business operations in Washington DC at all costs.  With the 2022 election year upon us, and with the primary season starting soon, the GOPe wing of the UniParty must share and discuss their strategic defense initiatives.

People used to call this the “establishment” Republicans, but really, that’s too generic a word for what they do.  These are the deceptive elites – the lying, conniving, scheming bastards. They represent the vile pus at the bottom of a lanced boil from a rotting blue whale carcass that can stink an entire city.

They call themselves conservatives, hence “DeceptiCons” gets the specificity of their intent.

Engage deliberately.

Let’s roll…

Mar 14 2022

US & its Secret Biological Weapons Labs


Armstrong Economics Blog/Corruption Re-Posted Mar 14, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

There are Biolabs in Ukraine funded by the US. There was never any real question if they existed or not. The rumor two days after the Russian invasion began, the claim was that Russia was targeting them for destruction. I wrote on February 26, 2022, that such a rumor was false and I pointed out that Russia would never target those labs for destruction. Instead, they would prefer to capture them to illustrate that people like Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland who is a notorious Neocon just wants war.

Victoria Nuland is a strategic player in government for the neocons who have led US foreign policy from one disaster to another for the past 30 years while evading accountability. They lie awake at night dreaming how they can destroy Russia and China. They sabotage any effort whatsoever to further world peace. It was shocking that President Joe Biden has nominated Victoria Nuland for the third-highest position at the State Department, Under Secretary for Political Affairs.

Yes, I know Bill Kristol and he even attended our WEC I believe back in 1996. Bill has become a hard-core neocon and his book on Iraq provided the blueprint for the overthrow of Saddam. From 2003 to 2005 Victoria Nuland was THE principal foreign policy advisor to VP  Dick Cheney who in fact helped to both plan and manage the war to overthrow Saddam Hussein. Nuland was advising and assisting the Bush administration’s case for a preemptive military strike against Iraq for what they alleged were weapons of mass destruction. She argued that removing Saddam Hussein and installing a US “ally” would be simple and secure the Middle East – WRONG!. Nuland was also for the occupation of both Iraq and Afghanistan. Both were to be a strategic acquisition for her neocon agenda.

During the spring of 2011, Victoria Nuland became State Department spokesperson under Hillary Clinton. It was Nuland who pushed for “regime change” to also overthrow Moammar Ghaddafi of Libya. UN Security Council resolution 1973 authorized a “No Fly Zone” for the protection of civilians so she claimed. Then Nuland turned to try to do the same in Syria. Instead of looking at how dangerous Nuland was becoming to world peace, the Clintons retained Nuland for she argued to overthrow Ghaddafi who they always paint as the devil just as she did with Saddam.  Demonizing these heads of state, Nuland turned the same strategy on Assad of Syria. She has always demonized her opponent to justify sending in arms to insurgents seeking to overthrow this time the Syrian government. In January 2012, Nuland claimed that the US is “on the side of those wanting peaceful change in Syria.” She has lied to the people every time to support her neocon agenda that people of the United States are never allowed to vote on. While professing she wanted a peaceful overthrow of the regime, she was supplying weapons for the violent overthrow. This was confirmed in secret DOD documents which state:

“During the immediate aftermath of, and following the uncertainty caused by, the downfall of the [Qaddafi] regime in October 2011 and up until early September of 2012, weapons from the former Libya military stockpiles located in Benghazi, Libya were shipped from the port of Benghazi, Libya to the ports of Banias and the Port of Borj Islam, Syria.”

This brings us to Ukraine and the Biolabs. In September 2013 Victoria Nuland was appointed Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs. While the people were rising up against Yanukovich on their own, she and Senator John McCain passed out food and McCain made a speech to the crowd saying that the US stands behind them. Nuland worked hard to push for the overthrow of Yanukovich and I can confirm that the people were being told to accept the replacement government selected with the approval of Nuland or they would lose the support of the West. It was in early February 2014 when an audio recording of Nuland talking to the US Ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt, was leaked to the public. The conversation showed the world just how ruthless Nuland truly is for she then said “Fuck the EU.” It is always her neocon agenda which neither Congress nor the people are ever informed even exists.

So when Biden then promoted Nuland, it has been VERY disturbing for what she does is always hidden from the truth and I would not put it past her for one minute to stage a Biological Attack in Ukraine and blame Russia. I have long suspected that she may have been behind the Ukrainian firing of an old Russian missile that shot down the Malaysia flight for which the US immediately blamed Russia and imposed sanctions when in fact Russia no longer used those missiles and the plane was shot down in Ukraine, not Russia.

The US has Biolabs, 1340 according to sources, and has REFUSED to allow international inspections. This is NOT the type of government we voted for regardless of whether you are Democrat or Republican. Nuland has worked there clandestinely through all administrations and the tactic is always the same – demonize your opponent to justify war even when the facts are total bullshit – i.e. Weapons of Mass Destruction that never existed.

Mar 14 2022

Bill Riley on Biden & Progressives


Armstrong Economics Blog/Politics Re-Posted Mar 13, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

Mar 14 2022

Trying to Figure Out Why the World is So Precise


Armstrong Economics Blog/ECM Re-Posted Mar 13, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

QUESTION #1: Marty;
Long-time reader, pro member. First of all, thank you for confirming suspicions from my youth that there are cycles everywhere and for expanding the ideas enabling me to see that everything is connected.
I agree w/ you that the financial center of the world is headed back to China. My question, however, is this. China is currently undergoing its own economic problems in banking and real estate putting pressure on the populace and hence, upon the CCP. What does Socrates say China will look like come 2032+? How will the Chinese society change and how will this change influence the world at large post-2032?

VT

QUESTION #2: Marty, I am flabbergasted that you said in 2013 that Ukraine was the place this all begins. Your long-range forecasts are beyond what anyone has ever done. I find it appalling that these sites like ______  post everyone but you because they are closet gold bugs. This is about helping society understand how the world works for which you should get the Noble Prize. These sites ignore you because they too are no different than the people they claim to oppose. They only preach their own theories.

My question is, have you made any progress in understanding how your model makes these forecasts nobody else can do?

HF

ANSWER: I believe the world is so COMPLEX that there is no possibility of humans analyzing and forecasting the future from a personal gut feeling on a consistent basis. Yes, there are people who hate me because they do not like a forecast. They are just fools and you cannot ever win an argument with a fool. Life is all about keeping an open mind and learning everything we can. Perhaps that is what people call an old soul.

It is true that you see advertisements of some guy who claims he called some crash. One forecast can be nothing but dumb luck the same as a broken clock is still correct twice each day. I have been pursuing this phenomenon of trying to understand how the world REALLY works for decades. I too have found it fascinating how the model can make so many forecasts to the very day – not just one and it is all mathematical which cannot be fudged. I believe this simply reveals that there is a hidden order to everything. It reminds me of the conflict I saw in school between Physics class and Economics. The first said there is nothing random and the latter said everything was random so we can eliminate the business cycle and prevent depressions and recession. Physics was correct – economics was wrong.

Yes, on December 3rd, 2013, I posted: “Ukraine Maybe The Most Important Country To Watch.” I wrote:

“The War Cycle turns up next year. Because Kiev was the first capital of Russia, this is really important. Ukraine is between Russia and Europe and is being torn apart. Russia’s pride is on the chopping block and this is the real center of the struggle for Russia.”

If you watch Ukraine of Fire, it will help you better understand this critical crossroads that will bring the world to WWIII. Perhaps you will understand that there is a lot more to Ukraine than the fake news presents. We face a crisis where there are people who once again think they know better than everyone else and that they alone have the answer as to how the world should work. They are the typical academic economists who think that the business cycle is nonsense and that they can temper, control, and manipulate society into a perfect state of harmony.

What 2032 represents is the complete collapse in government precisely as we saw with the American Revolution which brought the downfall of the monarchy. This was the birth of republics once again and we will move back to a new form of government that may be hard to visualize. The current system of socialism is collapsing. Politicians only know how to bribe people for votes rather than present themselves as efficient managers of the state. Socialism has allowed the invasion of all of our rights. They can put in a billionaire’s tax and everyone will cheer. You then must file revealing your wealth to prove you are not a billionaire. Every regulative imposition on one group necessitates the same control on everyone else.

I hope that when the system falls like a tree being sawed off at its base, it will fall in the direction of democracy rather than a republic. But all forms of government will be confronted with a new wave of change.