Category Lindsey Graham A Clear and Present Danger

Mar 20 2023

The Decline & Fall of the United States


Armstrong Economics Blog/Corruption re-Posted Mar 20, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

COMMENT: Hi Marty,

Seems to me the Democrats are following the time honored practice South American governments have resorted to in recent years when one party displaces another in a national election. In Brasil, the current president, Lula, spent 3 years in jail for charges of corruption. His successor was later removed from office. Now Bolsonaro has fled the country and is living in South Florida. In Ecuador, a past president, Moreno ,is under indictment and it appears he too will end up being arrested on trumped up corruption charges. In Bolivia, two term ex-president Evo Morales, after trying to run for an unprecedented third term, fled the country in 2019 when it appeared opposition to his run would potentially result in his being jailed. He fled to Argentina, then later got asylum in Mexico. The woman who replaced him was subsequently arrested on trumped up charges of conspiracy. IN Peru, which has gone through more presidents in recent years than most countries have experienced in a half century, has arrested the past 5 presidents. In Chile, the last president who served in office was run out of office for using the military to suppress protests. This was back in 2019.  The revolution that led to the country abandoning their old constitution has put the country in chaos.. The current president is extremely unpopular and one can imagine he won’t last another year in office. In Colombia, the country now is run by a communist/socialist who is now flirting with an ambitious spending program designed to buy time and slow down the opposition building against him. In Argentina, the former president, Christina Fernandez Kirchner, is dodging charges of corruption(and just avoided being assassinated by a lone gunman) after presiding over another series of IMF sponsored funding that has left the country in a perpetual state of default. The socialist in office today, Fernandez, is one of a long line of failed presidents who is destined to be pulled under by the corruption so deeply embedded in this country.

Now the Democrats appear to have imported South America’s tradition of imprisoning opposition leaders.It’s hard to imagine a party as corrupt as that of the Democrats. But nothing happens in a vacuum. With Republican support in Congress during Trump’s term when they opposed him and did everything they could to undermine him, the uni-party now operates without even the slightest effort to disguise their true intentions. An outsider like Trump is anathema to both parties. It reminds me of the PRI in Mexico. which put forth its candidate every year pretending people there actually had a choice, It took AMLO to break this tradition. Only because the drug cartels today are so powerful, the central government is virtually impotent to extend its reach outside of the capital.

We are watching the dying days of this republic. Biden’s “election” has assured that no serious challenger can ever emerge.Locking up your opponent now has become part of their playbook.  This is the tradition of the Sandinistas, the Peronists in Argentina, and now the Biden dictatorship.

MS

REPLY: People do not realize that Zelensky wants to imprison the former president indefinitely pending a rigged trial for corruption. This is the one man who could probably run against Zelensky and beat him with his high heel shoes. Zelinsky is so perverse and a disgrace to Ukraine when in fact it has been clearly established there is NO accountability for any money handed to Zelensky and any American politician who votes for this money for Ukraine should be removed from office for they are probably tainted as well.

It has been established that Zelensky has been stashing money offshore. When the last Ukrainian fall on the battlefield, the US will have him airlifted in style and he will flee to his mansion in Miami after destroying his own country. Zelensky has been caught. Who will prosecute him? Not the Biden Administration which owed him the Midterm elections for being the 2nd largest donor under the money laundering scheme of FTX which will also be swept under the rug to protect the corruption that has consumed governments.

The United States is NO LONGER the beacon of liberty to the world. We have descended to the lowest possible level of absolute duplicity and corruption. People are bearish about the dollar because of the quantity of money? Get real! The collapse in the dollar will not be because of such petty nonsense. it will collapse because these people are destroying the very foundation of confidence and respect the United States once had.

Mar 20 2023

The Silence of the Shams – Pay Attention to The Specific Silence, and What They Are Waiting For


Posted originally on the CTH on March 19, 2023 | Sundance

It is good that people are starting to realize the deception in the world of politics, specifically Republican politics, by watching what is not done, who does not speak, and what is not being said in the aftermath of a visible effort to indict President Trump by a politically motivated New York district attorney.

The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence; however, the silence tells you something very specific when it comes to politics.  The corrupt and manipulative political system is designed to test opinion, that is what most professional politicians do before they take a position.  In essence, the ones who wait are the ones who manipulate.

The politicians who wait to express opinions on substantive issues, are the ones who are comfortable operating in the world where manipulation is the tool, and authenticity is something they do not carry.   In the biggest of big political pictures, this approach is what supports the maintenance of the professional political system.

Without manipulation as the primary agenda of focus, politicians do not need consultants, polling, managers or branding groups.  However, when the creation of an artificial premise, the manipulation itself, is the baseline for the character of the principal – all of these systems are needed.  This video by Vivek Ramaswamy has gained a lot of attention, because at the core of it – he is correct.  WATCH:

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However, the issue extends well beyond individual politicians; the issue goes all the way through the political apparatus into the systems and institutions itself.   This is one of the reasons why, when you fine tune your discernment, you can predict “what systems” are carrying “what motives.”

Remember, CTH outlining the Republican Governors Association (RGA) as one of the manipulative political institutions that was different this time around, for the 2024 race? {Go Deep}  It’s not just Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis that you should notice.  Pay attention to the specific silence, positioning and wind testing that is taking place from within that entire network of the Republican Governors Association.   There’s the *tell* that indicates I was correct.

The good news is that President Trump can also see it.  [LINK]

Why they wait….

The professional Republicans follow the instructions of the professional Republican control agents.  Those control officers are waiting to see if the predictions do come true, and if President Trump is actually indicted.   They want the opportunity for the dates to pass without action so they can use the absence of an indictment as a political tool to advance their narrative against Trump.

The publicity of the statements by Trump and the Mainstream Media, may actually influence the decision by Alvin Bragg and the New York City DA’s office.   However, for the purposes of the RGA and the characters intent on controlling the 2024 GOP nomination, that aspect will be ignored in favor of driving a bigger wedge between Ron DeSantis and President Trump in the absence of an indictment.

DeSantis branding is all about these types of consultant advisors.   This is why I said do not look for a statement from him.  It’s the same reason why the DeSantis managers kept him in a bunker for five days after the Mar-a-Lago raid.   This approach is all about manipulation and narrative creation.

World War Reddit and Ron DeSantis have something identical in common.  It’s the same playbook, the creation of an illusion.

Once you see how much planning goes into these types of operations, then you begin to realize the scope of the financial interests that are involved.  There are trillions at stake.

Mar 19 2023

IS TRUMP BEING INDICTED THIS WEEK? SO MANY HEADLINES! ECONOMY COLLAPSING SOON? MAJOR ICE STORMS HIT THE U.S. & MORE!


Mar 19 2023

Interview with World Affairs Monthly


Armstrong Economics Blog/Armstrong in the Media Re-Posted Mar 19, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

Click here to listen to my interview on 3/16/23 with World Affairs Monthly (also published on Monitoring Risk).

Mar 19 2023

President Trump Says He Expects to Be Arrested Next Tuesday


In a Truth Social post earlier today [LINK HERE], President Donald Trump announced a leak from the Manhattan District Attorney’s office indicates he will be arrested next Tuesday.

[Source Link]

While there has been some attention to the “protest, take our nation back” element to the statement, in totality that reference point appears to be misinterpreted.  President Trump is not calling for a protest in response to his arrest per se’; to me, he appears to be calling upon “protest” in relation to the totality of the corrupt and manipulative state of our nation as a result of the radical leftists tearing our nation apart.

“THESE are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.

Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.

What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated.” 

~ Thomas Paine, The Crisis No. I (written 19 December 1776, published 23 December 1776)

We are engaged in a battle that is much larger than a modern political conflict.  Behind the lies, manipulations and schemes of the corrupt political class, there is a spiritual battle on a larger dynamic.  There is a spiritual war among all people. A conflict between light and dark, morality and corruption, right and wrong, truth and lies, decency and incivility.

The opposition arguments are weak and based on lies and deceptions.  Steel your resolve to the landscape that surrounds us, but do not let yourself become victim to dark imaginings.  There is protection around Donald John Trump that even he could never explain.

Steadfast in this conflict, we will not fail.

Posted originally on the CTH on March 18, 2023 | Sundance

Mar 18 2023

Interview: The World According to Martin Armstrong Part 3, The Rise of the Neocons


Armstrong Economics Blog/Armstrong in the Media Re-Posted Mar 18, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

Summary:
Martin Armstrong joins us in this episode to give his perspective on what’s happening in the world—addressing topics like the war in Ukraine, gold, central bank currencies, cryptocurrency, and more. We discuss what’s in store for the war and whether there is an end in sight, noting the US’ tendency to get involved in endless wars with no strategic defense. Furthermore, Russell emphasizes that the market will eventually break to the upside, and that capital will move from the bond markets and into the private sector. Tune in to this episode for more expert insight. 

Press play on the audio player above or click here for my latest interview with Kerry Lutz: “The World According to Martin Armstrong Part 3, The Rise of the Neocons.”

Mar 18 2023

The International Criminal Court (ICC) Issues Warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for Human Trafficking, Child Abduction and Other Heinous Misdeeds


Posted originally on the CTH on March 17, 2023 | Sundance

Before looking at the absurdity of the International Criminal Court (ICC) position, it is worth noting that Russia, Ukraine, Saudi Arabia, India, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, the United States and China do not recognize the jurisdiction of the ICC and are not member states in the organization {LINK}.

Additionally, I doubt the countries of Kiribati and Malawi are going to launch a military offensive against Russia; so, one has to ask, exactly what is this latest production about – amid the theater of World War Reddit.

The essential accusation is that Vladimir Putin took orphans out of orphanages in the Ukraine war zone and moved the children to safety in Russia.  Ergo, Putin is guilty of human trafficking and abducting children.

THE HAGUE (AP) — The International Criminal Court said Friday that it has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for war crimes, accusing him of personal responsibility for the abductions of children from Ukraine.

It was the first time the global court has issued a warrant against a leader of one of the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council.

The ICC said in a statement that Putin “is allegedly responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of (children) and that of unlawful transfer of (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation.”

The move was immediately dismissed by Moscow. […]  Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia doesn’t recognize the ICC and considers its decisions “legally void.” He called the court’s move “outrageous and unacceptable.”  Peskov refused to comment when asked if Putin would avoid making trips to countries where he could be arrested on the ICC’s warrant.

[…]Lvova-Belova, who was also implicated in the warrants, reacted with dripping sarcasm. “It is great that the international community has appreciated the work to help the children of our country, that we do not leave them in war zones, that we take them out, we create good conditions for them, that we surround them with loving, caring people,” she said. (read more)

Mar 18 2023

If You Can’t Beat Him, Indict Him – NBC Testing Water with Anonymous Source Report that New York Is Planning to Indict President Trump


Posted originally on the CTH on March 17, 2023 | Sundance

The pearl-clutching apoplexy is thick in the latest report from NBC claiming the Dept of Homeland Security, FBI and New York City officials are conducting preparation drills in anticipation of President Trump being indicted for…. wait for it – paying porn star Stormy Daniels.  Good grief, I mean they might as well have said the Pentagon is positioning satellites, NORAD is conducting drills and the National Guard has been put on alert… for something.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is investigating Trump for felony falsification of business records because President Trump paid his attorney, Michael Cohen, with business funds identified as ‘legal services’.

(Via NBC) – Local, state and federal law enforcement and security agencies are preparing for the possibility that former President Donald Trump is indicted as early as next week, according to five senior officials familiar with the preparations. 

Law enforcement agencies are conducting preliminary security assessments, the officials said, and are discussing potential security plans in and around the Manhattan Criminal Court, at 100 Centre Street, in case Trump is charged in connection with an alleged hush money payment to Stormy Daniels and travels to New York to face any charges.

The officials stress that the interagency conversations and planning are precautionary in nature because no charges have been filed. 

The agencies involved include the NYPD, New York State Court Officers, the U.S. Secret Service, the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, and the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, the officials said.  NBC News has reached out to all of those agencies for comment, and all have declined to comment.  (read more)

Meanwhile, the real motive of the issue surfaces in the New York Times…

NEW YORK – […]  In surveys taken since the Trump offensive began two months ago, Mr. DeSantis, the Florida governor, has steadily lost ground against Mr. Trump, whose own numbers have increased.

It can be hard to track who’s up and who’s down in the Republican race, since different pollsters have had such wildly divergent takes on Mr. Trump’s strength. In just the last few days, a CNN/SSRS poll showed a tight race, with Mr. DeSantis at 39 percent and Mr. Trump at 37 percent among registered voters, while a Morning Consult poll found Mr. Trump with nearly a two-to-one lead, 52 percent to 28 percent.

Over the last two months, we’ve gotten about a dozen polls from pollsters who had surveyed the Republican race over the previous two months. These polls aren’t necessarily of high quality or representative, so don’t focus on the average across these polls. It’s the trend that’s important, and the trend is unequivocal: Every single one of these polls has shown Mr. DeSantis faring worse than before, and Mr. Trump faring better.

A Widening Gap Between Trump and DeSantis – Every recent poll has shown Mr. DeSantis faring worse than he did two months ago — around the time Mr. Trump began publicly attacking him.

Over the last two months, we’ve gotten about a dozen polls from pollsters who had surveyed the Republican race over the previous two months. These polls aren’t necessarily of high quality or representative, so don’t focus on the average across these polls. It’s the trend that’s important, and the trend is unequivocal: Every single one of these polls has shown Mr. DeSantis faring worse than before, and Mr. Trump faring better. (read more)

The professional political class have done everything they can to promote Ron DeSantis as the MAGA alternative to their arch nemesis Donald Trump.  However, the support for President Trump is only growing, and DeSantis keeps dropping.

The reason is simple.   People are realizing that everything in the Ron DeSantis orbit is managed, manipulated and controlled.  That system around him was constructed in late 2021 and he was always going to run for the 2024 GOP nomination.  That realization has become increasingly clear in the past few weeks and people do not like being lied to.

Ron DeSantis was the fake $100 bill on a fishing line being dragged through the MAGAhood.

That’s the bottom line.

Mar 17 2023

What Reagan Would NOT Do


Armstrong Economics Blog/Politics Re-Posted Mar 17, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

America should violate international law to begin World War III, or as Senator Lindsey Graham worded it: “We should hold [Russia] accountable and say that if you ever get near another U.S. asset flying in international waters, your airplane would be shot down.” Graham suggested last year that we simply assassinate President Putin, so this was not in response to a Russian jet clipping an unmanned US drone. Graham is so invested in destroying Russia that he has been the only Republican senator to visit Ukraine since the war began.

All the Neocons point to Ronald Reagan. In this same interview, Graham asked, “What would Ronald Reagan do?” Liz Cheney recently criticized DeSantis for saying Ukraine should not be a priority by invoking the Reagan card. Her dad even ran on a platform of wanting to exemplify Reagan’s policies as his own. Reagan was against communism, but the current conflict has absolutely nothing to do with communism or a fallen empire.

Ronald Reagan was the most respected Republican president since Abraham Lincoln. The Neocons, like Graham, effectively stand for everything that Reagan rejected. When I wrote to Reagan warning in 1985 that the formation of what became the G5 would lead to a crash by 1987, he ordered the Chief Economic Adviser Mr. Sprinkle to respond to me directly.

Reagan initiated the arms race to outspend the USSR during the Cold War. This too was a proxy war against the generally democratic Western bloc and the Communist Eastern bloc. He tried to avoid direct battle with the USSR as he was said to be fearful, rightly so, of nuclear war. Senators were not advocating shooting down planes, and causalities remained minimal as far as war is concerned.

Jonathan Clarke and Stefan Halper wrote in “America Alone: The Neoconservatives and the Global Order” that Republicans have “attached a Reagan bumper sticker to their motorcade [but they] ignore much of the substance: the intense arms control commitment, the summitry, the minimal use of direct American military power.” Gene Healy published an article for the CATO Institute: “Reagan Was No Neocon.” Reagan wanted to protect American democracy, but he did not want to act as a missionary spreading democracy to foreign countries.

Margaret Thatcher famously said that Reagan won the Cold War without firing a single bullet. When reading his eulogy, Thatcher did not describe a warmonger.

"Yet his ideas, so clear, were never simplistic. He saw the many sides of truth. Yes, he warned that the Soviet Union had an insatiable drive for military power and territorial expansion, but he also sensed that it was being eaten away by systemic failures impossible to reform. Yes, he did not shrink from denouncing Moscow’s evil empire, but he realized that a man of good will might nonetheless emerge from within its dark corridors.

So the president resisted Soviet expansion and pressed down on Soviet weakness at every point until the day came when communism began to collapse beneath the combined weight of those pressures and its own failures. And when a man of good will did emerge from the ruins, President Reagan stepped forward to shake his hand and to offer sincere cooperation.

Nothing was more typical of Ronald Reagan than that large-hearted magnanimity, and nothing was more American.

Therein lies perhaps the final explanation of his achievements. Ronald Reagan carried the American people with him in his great endeavours because there was perfect sympathy between them. He and they loved America and what it stands for: freedom and opportunity for ordinary people."

Ronald Reagan would be appalled to see how his own party tosses around his name to promote murder. Reagan would not sacrifice domestic policy, send “blank checks” to Ukraine, or push America into a global war with nations that have comparable nuclear capability. So what would Reagan do? He would prioritize his own nation and end this complete nonsense.

Mar 16 2023

Potential GOP Presidential Candidates – Spot the Neocons


Armstrong Economics Blog/Politics Re-Posted Mar 16, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

Can you spot the Neocons? Trump and Biden seem to be alone amongst GOP members in their desire to end America’s role in the Ukraine-Russia conflict. Trump said he would end the conflict within 24 hours, while DeSantis said Ukraine is not a vital national interest. Trump has already been attacked for merely existing, but now the establishment Republicans are going after DeSantis for his comments.

Florida Senator Marco Rubio criticized DeSantis for calling the war a “territorial dispute.” “Well, it’s not a territorial dispute in the sense that any more than it would be a territorial dispute if the United States decided that it wanted to invade Canada or take over the Bahamas,” Rubio stated. “Just because someone claims something doesn’t mean it belongs to them.” Clearly, this has no validity. The Donbas region has always been primarily Ukrainian. Those along the Canadian border don’t identify as American nor has their land been American territory since about 1846, when a treaty established the 49th parallel from the Rocky Mountains to the Strait of Georgia. Rubio also falsely claimed that the war is about Russia’s “sphere of influence, not so much about the land.” America had no reason to fear Russian influence at any point.

Nikki Haley, a popular potential candidate, is also pro-war. She claimed DeSantis is merely copying Trump on his opposition to mass deaths. “America is far better off with a Ukrainian victory than a Russian victory,” Haley said after claiming she does agree with Trump on “most policies.” Why would it be more beneficial to see an insignificant trading partner win? Is the result really worth the “blank checks” that we are sending Ukraine, as DeSantis said?

Lindsey Graham voices his terror of big bad Putin, and failed politician Liz Cheney is keeping her dad’s legacy alive by reiterating her desire to rid the world of Russia. Clearly, we can spot the Neocons and within the Republican Party who are within the establishment and will make choices based on the greater agenda rather than the wishes of the people. The issue of Ukraine will be a hot topic for the 2024 US Presidential Election, again, if the election is even permitted.