Category FED’s goal with the economy is like turning a F350 into a little red wagon

Apr 3 2023

Post-Indictment Polls Show Massive Surge in Support for President Trump – Everyone Can See the Politics of Persecution


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

Generally polling is sporadic depending on the agenda of the pollster.  However, two separate polls released within a 24-hour period show almost identical outcomes.

The YouGov Poll [DATA Here] shows President Trump with a 31-point lead over Ron DeSantis 52/21. No one really close after that. In the head-to-head matchup with only two options, Trump now leads Ron DeSantis 57%-31%.  That up from a 47%-39% last month.  [Yahoo News Article Here]

Another poll [Article Here] “by Trump’s campaign team, found that 51 percent of Republicans see him as their preferred 2024 candidate – putting him ahead of his biggest threat Ron DeSantis who scored 21 percent.”  That’s an almost identical outcome to the YouGov poll.

[Article Here – Data Here]

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President Trump responded to the support he sees via Truth Social. [Source Here]

Apr 2 2023

FIAT – What is it Really!


Armstrong Economics Blog/Foreign Exchange Re-Posted Apr 2, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

QUESTION: Governments create their own sovereign fiat currency, to facilitate trade, among other reasons. So counterfeit is punishable, in some countries, by death, & at minimum, incarceration. Currency is supposed to be sacrosanct, created under the most exacting conditions. So what to do when your own gov’t engages in what is essentially officially endorsed counterfeit? I mean, the “money” has become almost meaningless, unless you’re on the receiving end. For non-insiders like me…buy PM.

HS

ANSWER: I have trouble with this misinformation always about the only money is gold and paper dollars are worthless fiats, which have rebuilt the world many times over since 1861 and the introduction of the paper dollar.

The propaganda of the goldbugs which has led so many to lose so much has been this nonsense that gold is the hedge against inflation. When the gold coin was money during the 19th century, it rose and fell in purchasing power no different than any paper currency. These people sell fiction like a used car salesman just to sell their product.  It honestly does not matter what money is. It always is just a derivative of barter. I give you this for that. You will accept paper money because you know that others will accept it from you. A woman tried to spend a $20 gold coin at Walmart and they refused to accept it because they did not know what it was. She then took them to the back and exchanged them for $20 bills.

Try going to Starbucks and spending a $20 gold coin and asking for change. Unless the salesperson knows what it is, they will refuse.MONEY has always been nothing more than a belief system. That’s all!

FIAT simply means by arbitrary decree. Just because a currency is gold or even silver, does NOT make its value intrinsic. Governments have debased their coinage and reduced the weight declaring its value shall be whatever they say. I have written about how Japan did that and eventually, the people refused to accept Japanese coins and they stopped minting them for 600 years.

The Romans reduced the weight of their silver coinage from 6.5 grams to 4 grams and only because they defeated the Greeks, the Roman monetary system became standard.

During the American Revolution, people accepted the Continental Currency. Money has always simply been predicated upon what people will accept.

Gold has no value whatsoever unless the other person also believes it has value. Gold or silver has no value intrinsically any more than a paper dollar or a bag of rice unless there is an unspoken agreement among people that it is a valuable medium of exchange.

This is the truth. All else is propaganda. Money has been many things throughout thousands of years from seashells to cattle and even slave girls.

StPatrick-tokens

Saint Patrick in the 5th Century AD upon his arrival in Ireland, found that MONEY was expressed in human slave girls. He wrote in his Confession, “I think that I have given away to them no less than the price of fifteen humans.” This passage shows something very important. First, MONEY is not defined as the Medium of Exchange exclusively. It also serves the purpose of a Unit of Account. This becomes the true function of MONEY even more so than what it is. MONEY is a language of value.

FIAT is when the government dictates what something is and that will be Digital Central Bank Currency. But if everyone accepts it, then it becomes the medium of exchange.

Apr 2 2023

REMINDER: The Foundation of DeSantis 2024 Is Built on a Ridiculous Lie


Posted originally on the CTH on April 1, 2023 | Sundance 

I had completely forgotten about this, until someone reminded me today. It is worth revisiting.

If you have followed the management and branding efforts of the team around Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, the protestations today by campaign official and registered foreign agent Christina Pushaw are quite bizarre.

The Daily Beast wrote an article [SEE HERE] about how Ms. Pushaw organized an astroturf campaign of support for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, which included the recruitment of several conservative influencers.  The substance of the article is generally well known.

In late 2021, early 2022, Ms. Pushaw invited a group of “influencers” to spend time with Governor DeSantis.  It’s not a debatable event. Factually, the collective group took gleeful pictures of their first visit on January 6, 2022, and continued to post frequent pictures on their social media of events throughout last year.  The group went to the reelection celebration and inauguration of DeSantis earlier this month.

However, for some odd reason, likely more concerned about people realizing the ‘organized‘ nature of the creation, in a bizarre turn of events, Ms. Christina Pushaw is now denying she ever organized the assembly and stating that without any documentary evidence, saying she organized the group is just a conspiracy theory. [Tweet Link]

If Ms. Pushaw is to be believed, the random group of Florida conservative “influencers” just happened to show up at the Governor’s office on January 6, 2022, without any invitation, organization or coordination on her part.

Even lacking the invitation details, hanging your defense on the absence of a paper trail under these circumstances seems like a very odd position to take.

Why does the DeSantis team fear sunlight on the origin of how this outreach and subsequent meetings took place?  Very odd.

I sincerely doubt this group just randomly showed up at Ron DeSantis’ office, on January 6, 2022, without an invitation or organizing.

The same group then continued meeting throughout the year….

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Nothing about their recruitment, continued meet-ups and aggressive promotion of Ron DeSantis for the GOP nomination in 2024, would be that interesting or even noteworthy if Ms. Christina Pushaw didn’t paint them all into a box by denying she ever organized their first assembly.

And there’s the rub…  Why is Christina Pushaw denying that she first organized them on behalf of the political aspirations of her boss, Ron DeSantis?

The only logical reason to make such an outlandish and transparently false claim, is if that original assembly was intended as seed material to use the “influencers” for another purpose, like a 2024 presidential bid.  Yet, Ron DeSantis hasn’t announced a 2024 presidential bid…. so that issue is a nonstarter, unless that announcement is eventually going to come forth.

If Ron DeSantis is going to announce his candidacy for the GOP nomination, then suddenly all these background moves look like proactive steps on behalf of the management team.  The January 6, 2022 meeting would then infer the presidential aspirations as far back as December 2021.

In combination with the $200+ million in Wall Street money assembled by DeSantis, perhaps that 2024 plan is the risk necessitating the absurd denial.

[Daily Beast Article Here]

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They all just randomly showed up to hang out with DeSantis.  Yep, that’s the story and Pushaw is sticking to it.

For those interested, central planning and organization is the difference between “organic support” and “astroturf.”

Slava Ukraine!

Apr 1 2023

Former DNI Ric Grenell Has a Message for All Republicans – This is Saint Crispin’s Day!


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on March 31, 2023 | Sundance 

I know you are angry, I’m angry, we are all angry. However, in the past 24 hours I am more filled with resolve than ever before.

Every whiteboard is cleared, every distraction is removed, everything is now singularly focused on this corrupt and manipulative war that is going to take place in the battlefield of presidential politics with Donald John Trump at the center of it.  I have prayed more in the past several weeks than in my entire lifetime and now we reach the phase where we lift our heads, get off our knees and confront this corrupt, conniving system.

I will share more later. In the interim, what former Acting Director of National Intelligence, Ric Grenell, describes in this video {direct rumble link here} is 100% what should happen.  However, I doubt the corrupt professional political class behind the schemes and manipulations would agree to it.  Grenell explains that every GOPe candidate should withdraw from the 2024 race, and immediately position their battlements in full alignment with President Trump.  WATCH:

“That he which hath no stomach to this fight,
Let him depart; his passport shall be made
And crowns for convoy put into his purse:
We would not die in that man’s company
That fears his fellowship to die with us.”

“This day is called the feast of Crispian:
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when the day is named,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.

He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say ‘To-morrow is Saint Crispian:’
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars.
And say ‘These wounds I had on Crispin’s day.’

Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot,
But he’ll remember with advantages
What feats he did that day: then shall our names.
Familiar in his mouth as household words
Harry the king, Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester,
Be in their flowing cups freshly remember’d.

This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remember’d;
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition:
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.”

[From Henry V, Act IV]

Cold anger is displaced with the sense of resolute and purposeful rage…

Delicate sensibilities now dispatched like a feather in a hurricane…

This is a zero-sum conflict now!

Mar 31 2023

Can We Really Last until 2032?


Armstrong Economics Blog/ECM Re- Posted Mar 31, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

QUESTION #1: Martin,

Since Trump was already not guilty of having the affair (to which Stormy Daniels admitted never took place), does that mean that the New York Court has indicted him on the charges of “being blackmailed”?

DB

QUESTION #2: Bill Clinton committed perjury. That was legal grounds to indict him and remove him from office. Nobody wanted to indict Richard Nixon either. I can now see why Socrates is forecasting the collapse of the United States. I just realized that the Declaration of Independence was approved by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, announcing the separation of 13 North American British colonies from Great Britain. What I did not know was it was only a vote of 12 and New York abstained. It seems like New York is at it again. Do you really think we can last until 2032?

ANSWER: What Bragg has done is so undermining to the entire country and he has accepted money from a foreign power seeking to undermine the United States – George Soros. That is treason in my book. He is doing the bidding of a declared enemy against the United States and everything our way of life has stood for.

Yes, the Declaration was designed 1776.506. The United State will exist no more after 2034.50. I am very concerned that the 2024 Presidential election is not going to be fair. By the time we get to 2025.90, this does not look good in the least. It is highly unlikely that we are looking at this lasting as we have known it until 2032. It looks like everything unravels starting in 2027.

Mar 31 2023

Earn Six Figures Without Working


Armstrong Economics Blog/Politics Re-Posted Mar 31, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

The US government has been on a spending spree over the past few years and there is absolutely no way they can ever pay the bill. Federal spending hit $4.45 trillion in 2019 in the wake of the pandemic, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). That figure hit $6.21 trillion as of the latest report, marking a 40% uptick in four years. What has changed?  

 This goes far beyond the Ukraine fiasco. While defense spending rose 18% over the past four years, nondefense spending shot up 43% to $941 billion. Spending on Social Security and retirement increased 33% from 2019 to 2023 as the Baby Boomer generation began to exit the workforce. Retirement has become a luxury with the current cost of living and many are opting to continue working rather than retire. Yet, the mentality of hard work paying off is dwindling. The effects of the pandemic can still be felt as the workforce dynamic has changed. The supplemental unemployment income distributed freely during the pandemic has had disastrous consequences. 

Spending on food stamps has increased by 102% from $63 billion in 2019 to $127 billion in 2023. Welfare support rose 50% as well from $32 billion to $48 billion. Unemployment costs have increased 32% over the past four years, despite the record-low unemployment rate. The US spent $53 billion on educational pandemic aid and $71 billion to help failing PBGC plans. The CBO now foresees a federal budget deficit of $1.4 trillion in 2023, and this number is expected to rise. 

Biden’s Build Back Better Act pushed for the largest welfare spending in US history. It pays NOT to work in Biden’s America. According to the Heritage Foundation: 

"Total government spending on the average poor family will rise from $65,200 per year to more than $76,400. When limited private earnings are added to this massive government spending, combined total resources will reach nearly $94,600 per year for the average poor family."

Biden repealed some of the reforms issued by the Clintons to boost reliance on government aid. People who choose not to work are eligible for unconditional cash grants funded by working taxpaying citizens. “Taxpayers would be required to pay larger sums to support welfare recipients, but recipients would have no reciprocal obligations,” the Heritage Foundation continued. Those who decide to marry receive less funding. Mothers who have children by multiple fathers receive more funding. Traditional values are punished. Why rely on family when you have the government? 

Some states pay six figures to “low-income” families through benefits and subsidiaries. A family earning nearly a quarter million per year could still qualify for ObamaCare subsidies, and in some states, families earning $300,000 annually still qualify. Unemployment benefits plus ObamaCare subsidies for a family of four are equivalent to the national median income in 24 states. Some states offer more than others. In New Jersey, a family of four can receive benefits up to $108,000 even if no one is working.  

Welfare was supposed to be a tool to help people during times of need. It should incentivize people to get back to work. Biden is giving your money to foreign countries. He is giving your money to US citizens who chose not to work. This is clearly socialism at play, as it does not pay to work in Biden’s crumbling America. 

Mar 31 2023

NYC – The Most Corrupt Legal System in the USA


Armstrong Economics Blog/Rule of Law Re-Posted Mar 30, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

Jacob Chansley, 35, who pleaded guilty to breaching the U.S. Capitol and was sentenced to 41 months in prison, was released from prison after Fox News aired footage of him being escorted by police officers inside the U.S. Capitol on January 6th, 2021. The videotapes confirm that Chansley was innocent. Why would he plead guilty to a false charge by a prosecutor who knew he was innocent? Because the judges do whatever the prosecutor tells them. If he says life, he is given life. The first thing a corrupt court-appointed lawyer tells you, you cannot win, just plead guilty.

The United States has one of the MOST corrupt legal systems in the Western World. We do not honor the law or the constitution, and it is standard practice to force innocent people to plead guilty under threats to their family or terms of imprisonment for life by stacking multiple charges. They will routinely call every email a separate crime even though they were all part of a single transaction.

Judge Jed S. Rakoff was probably the most honest judge in New York City Federal Court. He wrote a book to explain why the innocent were pleading guilty and the guilty go free as long as they bring in more people for the prosecutors like Bragg. Every person I met who was an actual big drug importer, said the same thing. If they had $500,000 in cash they confiscated, the indictment would say $250,000. When they would tell the court-appointed lawyer who is professional at selling citizens to the prosecution to maintain their 97%-99% conviction rate, tell them to keep their mouth shut. More money means more time. They arrest drug dealers and spread the cash among themselves. This was not just one person, but EVERY drug dealer said the same.

Trump is about to step into the most corrupt court system in the United States. Bragg will claim he is a flight risk living in Florida and should be denied bail. They will then fall back and try to say that he must remain in New York City to prevent him from campaigning around the country. If the corrupt judge grants any such relief of that nature of Bragg, you can turn the lights out on NYC. I for one will never set foot in that place for it is the modern-day Sodom and Gomorrah.

NYC is nop longer the Big Apple – it is the Cesspool of Political Corruption

Mar 31 2023

Why America Will Lose this War As every one Since WWII


Armstrong Economics Blog/Neocons Re-Posted Mar 30, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

A number of people have asked why does Socrates say that the United States will lose this war. One states: “The standalone American firepower without UK/ France, etc, itself is tremendous. How does Socrates say that America will lose the war? It may lose financially. The Chinese have the worst track record in any war.” Perhaps I should just say, cyclically – it’s just TIME.

The Neocons are in charge of this war. They are trying conventionally for their constant goal of REGIME CHANGE. They are doing what Khrushchev had threatened Communism would win and we will bury you. This is their mantra and they think forcing a Republican form of government upon the rest of the world will bring peace. Those were the dreams of Hitler and Napoleon as well. Communism collapsed because it is simply unsustainable. Nevertheless, the Neocons have never backed down. They objected to Reagan even meeting with Gorbehev saying you can never trust Russians.

The Neocons have pushed endless wars for their hatred. They have NEVER won a single war. The US has lost EVERY war post WWII. Korea was a standoff, and Vietnam, along with Afghanistan were all losses and for what? They remove Saddam Husein and unleashed ISIS where Saddam kept the religious fanatics in check. Their theory was to remove all dictators in the Middle East and that would bring peace to Israel. They supplied arms and that led to the overthrow of Quadaffi in Libya and they were trying the same in Syria.

Now Nukes are no longer a deterrent when you are playing with nuclear powers. They have used Ukraine as cannon fodder to weaken Russia and they hope they can then invade under any excuse and conquer Russia, which has been their end goal for decades. They bank on that they can defeat Russia and it will never go nuclear. I am flabbergasted by some of these Neocons and their sheet hatred of the Russian people like Adam Kinzinger who proclaims we can defeat Russia in 3 days. I suppose we could then turn and defeat China perhaps in 5 days. These people play with the lives of innocent civilians and send other people’s sons and daughters to war to be sacrificed for their personal hatred. The claim Putin is evil but never look in the mirror to see the hatred in their own eyes.

Robert McNamara (1916 – 2009) was a leading Neocon that pushed the country into the Vietnam war.  He was famous for saying: “I learned early on never answer the question that is asked of you. Answer the question that you wish had been asked of you. And quite frankly, I follow that rule. It’s a very good rule.”

Before he died, he finally admitted that they were wrong particularly in their assessment of Russia as a threat. The perception that Russia is a threat is still dominating the agenda today. The propaganda that Putin is a KGB guy who wants to re-establish the Soviet Empire is absurd. In the 22 years that he has been in power, he has neither tried to re-establish communism nor has he sought to retake the old Soviet states like Poland, the Czech Republic, or even Ukraine. The same claims today about Russia are the very same ones that justified Vietnam.

Apparently, McNamara died with the guilt of sacrificing 58,000 Americans on the Neocon altar of war for at the end of his life, he admitted they were wrong. They are NOT Americans. They DO NOT serve American interests. They only serve their own International interests and are dragging countries into endless wars and carnage.

While these neocons only focus on war, they are destroying the United States economy. They are pouring money into this undeclared war on Russia when in fact the Constitution states that ONLY Congress can declare war – not the President. The United States will lose the war, and we are losing our title of Financial Capital of the World. Just as WWI & WWII took that title away from Britain, WWII will take it from the United States and hand it squarely into the arms of China.

Than the warmongering Neocons for destroying your future all because of their personal hatred.

Mar 31 2023

President Trump Attorney Alina Habba Speaks to Tucker Carlson About Political Indictment


Posted originally on the CTH on March 30, 2023 | Sundance

Tucker Carlson frames the context of the accusations against President Donald Trump and then interviews one of President Trump’s civil attorneys Alina Habba. {Direct Rumble Link}

While Ms. Habba is not a criminal attorney for President Trump she notes the legal ramifications to the justice system from a radical leftist District Attorney running amuck. WATCH:

Mar 30 2023

Meanwhile, The Petrodollar Just Got Smaller Today as The First LNG Shipment Between UAE and France Is Traded in Yuan


Posted originally on the CTH on March 29, 2023 | Sundance 

Two major energy trade developments today highlight how the Western Alliance is quickly losing a grip on the world energy market, as an alliance between China, Russia, Iran and the Middle East Gulf Cooperation Council starts to take shape with actual trade exchanges that are not in dollars.

Last year, in response to big panda’s own interest and seeking to exploit two western alliance self-created weaknesses; (1) sanctions against Russia and (2) weakened investment in LNG production; China spearheaded the Shanghai Petroleum and Natural Gas Exchange.

The exchange was aimed at group purchasing services for liquefied natural gas (LNG) though the use of the yuan to replace the dollar.  Essentially, team Gray operating without the global trading system of team Yellow (map).  The Shanghai exchange allows purchases of LNG portions by small and medium-sized buyers in yuan.

Today, CHINESE national oil company CNOOC and France’s TotalEnergies have completed China’s first yuan-settled liquefied natural gas (LNG) trade through the Shanghai Petroleum and Natural Gas Exchange, the exchange said on Tuesday (Mar 28).

Approximately 65,000 tonnes of LNG imported from the UAE changed hands in the trade, it said in a statement. TotalEnergies confirmed to Reuters that the transaction involved LNG imported from the UAE but did not comment further. (read more)

This exchange between the UAE and France is taking place without dollars. If the process continues the dollar weakens.  In the geopolitical world of currency valuations and trade, this might be considered the Archduke Ferdinand moment for the end of the petrodollar.  The question will become, can they grow this process with OPEC+ support and begin eventually trading oil in yuan?

A second energy targeted development comes from a shipment of Russian diesel fuel into Mexico.  The raw material was: (A) sold at an originating discount; and (B) presumably refined in Spain, making it exempt from the current energy embargo against Russia.

(READ ARTICLE)