Category John Bolton A Clear and Present Danger

Apr 5 2023

Japan Secures Oil Deal with Russia


Armstrong Economics Blog/World Trade Re-Posted Apr 5, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

Japan is an energy-dependent nation that relies on imports to function. Despite being a G7 member, Japan has remained largely silent on the Russia-Ukraine war and is the only member to deny Zelensky’s pleas for weapons. The prime minister was the last in the alliance to visit Ukraine amid the war. The G7 nations set a $60 per barrel price cap on Russian crude but granted Japan a pass.

Japan has purchased nearly 748,000 barrels of Russian oil for $70 a piece in the first two months of the year alone. All of the MSM headlines read: “JAPAN BREAKS ALLIANCE WITH WESTERN ALLIES,” as if there were an alternative. Even conservative outlets are saying that Japan has broken ties with the West. Japan is unwilling to deliberately allow its nation to crumble from an energy shortage, unlike the “Build Back Better” nations.

Oil prices surged on Monday after OPEC+ announced plans to limit production, which will lead to a rise in global prices. Energy costs affect the cost of everything from the supply chain to food. Yet, the countries that have the ability to drill, such as the US and Canada, are refusing to do so despite energy prices significantly contributing to overall inflation and economic instability.

The West chastised India and China for purchasing Russian oil. They don’t want to lose their Japanese ally and are attempting to give them a “free pass,” but only until September. What happens then? Will Japan be forced to break its alliance with the G7? The West was hoping that longstanding tensions between China and Japan would push them into this proxy war, but the Japanese government is not willing to implode its economy. Let us also remember that Japan was forced to close numerous nuclear power plants after the earthquake hit in 2011. They are completely reliant on imports. It seems that only nations willing to surrender their economies in the name of abandoning fossil fuels, with no alternative, are ousted from the West’s good graces.

Apr 5 2023

The Blacklash against Indicting Trump Maybe Greater Than Anyone Thinks


Armstrong Economics Blog/Politics Re-Posted Apr 4, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

COMMENT #1: Mr. Armstrong,
As I watched the media coverage of Trump’s arraignment, not guilty plea, and release of the indictment with the charges I’ve concluded as you have been arguing that we have crossed the rubicon. The 34 counts of the indictment to my legally untrained mind read as the criminalization of standard politics. What political campaign doesn’t include hiring people to look out for potentially negative press and seeking to limit the candidate’s exposure? By this indictment’s standard, pretty much every political campaign is a criminal enterprise. This is insane. I’ve generally been more libertarian-leaning in my politics and didn’t vote for Trump and even I can see this is a joke. I’ll be voting for him if we get an election in 2024. Unfortunately for the rest of us it isn’t funny and essentially seals the fate of the nation going into 2027-28 as you’ve indicated. Thanks for keeping us informed during these tumultuous times.
All the best from East Texas,
Greg

COMMENT #2: Good evening Mr. Martin,

As I’m watching this Trump shitshow on live french tv I’m wondering…

It seems that he got out to free, waiting for the trial that won’t take place before the next election.
Can he still run for presidency?
If yes, the fact that he is not in jail, does this mean that the deep state has no choice but to go to war as soon as possible ?

By the way, the French minister of defense announced today that the limit age to be on the reserve army is now 70 years old… that alone is telling a lot !

Despite all this news, the cac40 and Dax are almost at their ath. It is a mystery for I was expecting the capital to go to the US already…

I wish you and your team the best! Keep up the amazing work for this is the only light at the end of the tunnel, and it is not a fret train this time 😉

Regards,

Adem

REPLY: I can’t even count all the emails coming one. Many are from those who never voted for Trump and all say that they would now vote for him in 2024. I myself must admit that I had thought Trump had gone past the “Best by Date” but instead of this hurting Trump, it seems to be boosting his support. When I look at the computer and even just the chart patterns, we can easily see that the Democrats are in a major decline and they have not even reached the Downtrend Line where as the Republicans have broken through.

Even the Arrays showed an important Directional Change in 2023. This indictment of Trump is outrageous and it will backfire on the Democrats according to the computer – NOT my personal opinion.

Apr 5 2023

Finland Officially Joins NATO Creating the Largest NATO Land Border Directly Attached to Russia


Posted originally on the CTH on April 4, 2023 | Sundance 

CONTEXT:  There is no currently visible outcome where the Build Back Better collective western global alliance energy policy can succeed without escalating to a direct NATO war against Russia.

The economic outcomes of the BBB agenda are currently being felt via western, energy driven, supply side inflation.  The monetary countermeasures to that inflationary damage, raising central bank interest rates, creates instability in finance and subsequent banking collapse.

Simultaneous to the ‘western’ central bank intervention, the BRICS alliance members are withdrawing from dollar dependency as a trade mechanism.  When all those unneeded dollars return home, the dollar value collapses – and all western economies attached to the dollar as a trade currency collapse along with it.

The Western bankers need a war to generate the industrial economic activity that uses the returning dollars.  Unless and until the dollar is digitized, there is no currently visible outcome where the Build Back Better agenda is not dependent on an expanded war with Russia.

(Via Axios) – Finland became the 31st member of NATO on Tuesday — a once-unthinkable step that significantly changes the security landscape in Europe.

Why it matters: Finland’s membership more than doubles NATO’s borders with Russia and formally ends Helsinki’s decades of official nonalignment. It’s also a blow to Russian President Vladimir Putin who, in launching the Russian invasion of Ukraine, vowed to block the alliance’s eastward expansion. It’s the alliance’s ninth enlargement since its founding in 1949.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg sent a message to Moscow while officially welcoming Finland into the alliance: “President Putin wanted to slam NATO’s door shut. Today we showed the world that he failed, that aggression and intimidation do not work. Instead of less NATO, he has achieved the opposite: more NATO. And our door remains firmly open.”

Finland President Sauli Niinistö said it was a “great day for Finland” but also an important day for the security and the stability of the alliance.

[…] Putin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov earlier Tuesday called Finland’s NATO accession an “encroachment on Russia’s security” that would require Russia to take unspecified countermeasures.

Putin had previously said that Russia had no “territorial differences” with Finland or Sweden, so it was “up to them” whether they joined — but Russia would respond to any deployments of NATO military units or infrastructure to their territories.

The Russian embassy in Sweden issued an even more pointed warning last week, saying on Facebook that any “new members of the enemy block will become a legitimate target” of “Russia’s retaliatory measures,” including those of military nature. (read more)

Apr 5 2023

RSBN Livestream From New York City


Posted originally on the CTH on April 4, 2023 | Sundance 

RSBN broadcast team LIVE from New York City as President Donald J. Trump is expected to surrender himself to New York prosecutors after being indicted by a grand jury last week. Protests against and rallies in support of Trump are expected and RSBN will bring you wall-to-wall coverage of the entire day’s events. {Direct Rumble Link}

RSBN Livestream From New York City

There is also a Reuters Link below

https://youtube.com/watch?v=62T8JJSmZlk%3Ffeature%3Doembed
Apr 4 2023

The End of the Petrodollar?


Armstrong Economics Blog/World Trade Re-Posted Apr 4, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

Another oil deal has been initiated without the use of the dollar. The India Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) announced that their latest trade deal with Malaysia would be settled in Indian rupees. “This initiative by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is aimed at facilitating the growth of global trade and to support the interests of the global trading community in Indian Rupees (INR),” the formal statement noted.

Indian has benefitted from the West’s distraction from the Ukraine war. The RBI is allowing 18 counties to open Vostro accounts and has been attracting new deals in trade and manufacturing. New Delhi and Moscow have strengthened their relationship as India is not imposing sanctions.  The Indian Commerce Ministry said its five-year plan is to “encourage” the use of the rupee on an international scale, while also planning to expand exports $2 trillion by 2030. Trading in rupees will also allow India to save on conversion spreads and limit the country’s dependence on the volatile dollar.

The BRICs treaty (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) remains strong and oil giants Saudi Arabia and Iran would like to join the partnership. The Saudis stated at the beginning of the year that they were open to settling trade in currencies other than the USD. “There are no issues with discussing how we settle our trade arrangements, whether it is in the US dollar, whether it is the euro, whether it is the Saudi riyal,” Al-Jadaan said during Davos. As we have seen in recent months, Saudi Arabia is aligning itself with China over the US.

The Vietnam war and other government missteps made it impossible for the US to maintain the fixed price of gold established under Bretton Woods. The USD relative to gold fell as the supply of dollars grew, pushing Nixon to abandon the Bretton Woods system entirely. US government debt was rapidly rising as confidence in the dollar plummeted. America needed an enticing way to sell its debt, and that was when Nixon convinced Saudi Arabia, the largest crude exporter, to purchase Treasurys in dollars in exchange for military aid. Hence the “petrodollar” was born. The creation of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) only further enhanced the dollar’s dominance in energy purchases.

Here we are yet again amid another war and a high budget deficit. The Saudis no longer need protection from America, and siding with Western interests would be a deterrent to its international deals with countries in the BRICs alliance and some in the OPEC+. Despite the green agenda, the world cannot operate without oil. The major oil exporters are now aligning and cutting out the US as their middleman.

Apr 4 2023

Manhattan DA Office Leaks Details of Trump Indictment and Process to Media


Posted originally on the CTH on April 3, 2023 | Sundance 

President Trump is not happy as Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has leaked the details of the Trump indictment as well as process details for what will take place tomorrow in New York City. [Truth Social Link]

The DA office leaks went to Michael Isikoff at Yahoo News:

New York – Donald Trump will be placed under arrest on Tuesday and informed that he has been charged with 34 felony counts for falsification of business records, according to a source who has been briefed on the procedures for the arraignment of the former president.

A New York City police arrest report summarizing the charges against Trump will then be prepared and entered into the court system before he is led into a courtroom to be formally arraigned on the charges, none of which are misdemeanors.

But, the source said, Trump will not be put in handcuffs, placed in a jail cell or subjected to a mug shot — typical procedures even for white-collar defendants until a judge has weighed in on pretrial conditions. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office, which has been consulting with the Secret Service and New York City court officials, concluded there was no reason to subject the former president to handcuffs or a mug shot.

The stated reason for handcuffing defendants is that they might be a flight risk or a threat to the district attorney or court personnel, neither of which was judged to be relevant to the handling of a former president protected at all times by a phalanx of Secret Service agents.

The charge of falsification of business records can be prosecuted in New York state as a misdemeanor. But Bragg’s office bumped up all the charges to Class E felonies — the lowest level of felonies in the New York state penal code — on the grounds that the conduct was intended to conceal another underlying crime, according to the source.

Under the New York State penal code, a conviction for the Class E felony of falsifying business records can result in a prison term of up to four years. But as a practical matter, that seems extremely unlikely. “No one gets jail time for that as a first offender,” said a New York law enforcement official.

The evidence for the underlying crime that escalated Trump’s alleged misdemeanors to felonies is still not clear and won’t be until the indictment is unsealed on Tuesday. But it is believed to relate to the payment of $130,000 in hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels during the closing weeks of the 2016 election to conceal an extramarital encounter with Trump.  (read more)

Apr 4 2023

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban Sends Message of Support for President Donald Trump


Posted originally on the CTH on April 3, 2023 | Sundance

The aligned interests of the geopolitical world are always visible, even when the corporatist media ignore them.

Hungary, a nation proud of its heritage, has been under assault from the U.S. State Department, the EU collective and the western NATO alliance for their refusal to acquiesce to the World Economic Forum and western globalist ideology. {background here}  Today Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban sends his official message of support for President Donald Trump.

(SOURCE)

Apr 3 2023

The US Begins to Arm Taiwan


Armstrong Economics Blog/War Re-Posted Apr 3, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

The evidence of the coming global war is overwhelming. In a move that will prompt a direct response from China, the US announced that it would deliver 400 Javelin man-portable anti-tank systems to Taiwan. The delivery is strategically planned to begin during the second half of this year into 2024. Reports claim that this deal was created under Trump, of course, but the timing could not be more on point for the international conflict our computers have been indicating.

These advanced weapons can penetrate armor 800 millimeters thick and come equipped with fire-and-forget technology. Ukraine has used these American-made missiles to repel troops and they are extremely effective. This is not intended to prevent China from invading. It is in preparation for when they do invade.

China will never relinquish Taiwan. It would be considered a great shame for the nation and an embarrassment on an international scale. They will do everything possible to keep Taiwan under the One China policy. China is taking notes on how Russia is operating in Ukraine. Russia had little time to prepare, whereas China has had 75 years. China is the second-largest economy in the world and will surpass the United States. The US is no longer a feared nation as it has lost every war since the second world war. The woke ideology prominent in American politics makes our nation appear weaker than ever before. America became the financial capital of the world after the second world war; China will secure that title after the third.