Category Medical and Illnesses

Apr 14 2020

The Fate of All Nations


Armstrong Economics Blog/ECM

Re-Posted Apr 14, 2020 by Martin Armstrong



The economy like a man seated on a rock among fallen trees in a forest with his chin propped up by his arm resting on his thigh, while high overhead the wind of change blew breaking the tops of the trees as they fell to the ground. He sat on the top of a hill, once the citadel of the modern world, where so many foreign dignitaries once came to pay their homage. The Congressional Hall, once bustling with lobbyists all vying for favors in return for bribes, remained empty, a mere shadow of its former glory.




This citadel of the modern world had descended into chaos instigated for political change. A political virus separated the people turning man against his brother each suspecting the other of a claimed disease. Each in their own way weakening the state unleashing an unintended decline and fall of the whole as each sought only their own individual political gain. The unity of a nation was no more.


This once-mighty establishment, the envy of the world and the defender of freedom, begs the question; how has it fallen? Its principles lay broken scattered on the ground to be swept away by the winds of time and chance. The wheel of fortune, like the eternal sea, is always moving. This time the bell has indeed tolled. The darkness shall not pass for the white of the sunlight can no longer penetrate the corruption protected by thorns and brambles. As with all political states, they fall first from within. In their hour of weakness, we can barely hear any lament for what was once a civilization of cooperation, became divided and crumbled to dust to be buried in a common grave by the hand of history.









			

	
	



				
					


	

		
		

					
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									Unemployment Has Elected 4 Quarterly Bullish Reversals at the End of March
							

			


		

		









Armstrong Economics Blog/Economics


Re-Posted Apr 14, 2020 by Martin Armstrong








The U.S. labor force reached a high of 164.6 million persons in February 2020, just at the start of the 2020 coronavirus pandemic in the United States. Since this shut down over the virus, almost 17 million people have applied for unemployment. More than 10% of the entire workforce has been disrupted. People are losing their jobs, falling behind on mortgages and loans, and the economic devastation is far worse than this virus which has a mortality rate of at best 10% of the annual flu.


As I have made clear, my job has been to simply inform people what Socrates forecasts. I personally could not fathom how the unemployment rate would soar so fast. There is just no such precedent in history to have made that forecast. No human being could have made that prediction. Socrates looks at patterns and the common thread behind all markets and economies is how people react. This forecast was derived from pattern recognition, not fundamental analysis which was useless.


In March, the unemployment rate increased by 0.9 percentage point to 4.4 percent. This is the largest over-the-month increase in the rate since January 1975, when the increase was also 0.9 percentage point. The number of unemployed persons rose by 1.4 million to 7.1 million in March. The sharp increases in these measures reflect the effects of the coronavirus and efforts to contain it. This has continued and has now reached nearly 17 million. Based on our model, the 1st quarter elected ALL FOUR Quarterly Bullish Reversals in one shot. That has NEVER taken place on our unemployment mode even during the Great Depression. This implies we will see this trend unfold going into May. The worst is yet to come.









			

	
	



				
					


	

		
		

					
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									New Zealand Police Can Bust Into Your House & Do Anything They Think is Reasonably Necessary To Enforce Lockdown
							

			


		

		









Armstrong Economics Blog/Disease


Re-Posted Apr 14, 2020 by Martin Armstrong








In New Zealand, civil liberties have been suspended and may not return. The new police powers during the Covid-19 alert level 4 lockdown reveals authorities have the power to set up roadblocks and random checkpoints. However, they also have the power to bust into your house “enter, remain and inspect” any household or office that is suspected of housing an unsanctioned gathering. The new guidance, recently released by the police, revealed that under alert level 4 police may do “anything reasonably necessary, including the use of force, to compel, enforce, or ensure compliance” of the lockdown measures.




People have only as much liberty as they have the intelligence to comprehend and the desire to imagine, but history bears witness, they must also have the courage to demand and take it when it is denied. Liberty is attainable when the military and police who enforce the orders from their tyrants, open their eyes and comprehend that their liberty is also forlorn.









			

	
	



				
					


	

		
		

					
				Apr
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									A Post from Spain
							

			


		

		









Armstrong Economics Blog/Disease


Re-Posted Apr 14, 2020 by Martin Armstrong














From Anonymous in Spain:


After more than a month of the strictest possible lockdown, it just keeps being extended… they are conditioning the masses to accept that no return to normal life will be possible until everyone is vaccinated (and, thankfully, the mankind loving Bill Gates is fast developing a vaccine – yay!). Now, while many countries in Europe have lockdowns and closed shops & schools, in Spain it’s completely prohibited for people to even leave home except to go to the nearest supermarket or pharmacy (or to work for those in the few sectors that are allowed to operate).


In some towns, you’re only allowed to go to the supermarket once a week and/or your minimum purchase must be 30 euros. Oh, and supermarkets have drastically cut their opening hours while also canceling home deliveries during the lockdown. As a result, and given that only one person is allowed to enter at a time, there are typically long lines of people (often covering a couple of blocks) waiting to be able to enter the store. How does any of this make any sense? It’s just another insane and counterproductive measure that only serves to condition people and get them used to obey the regime without questioning anything.


Police (and in many areas also the military) patrol the virtually deserted streets and harass anyone who can’t produce proof of why they’re out. The fines are absolutely insane, and when someone is caught out for the second time they can face jail (there have already been people jailed for this in the last week or two). The police are now also using drones to catch people who might venture out to stretch their legs and breathe some fresh air.


It’s not only illegal, under this tyrannical government decree, to go out for a short walk, but it’s also not even permitted for children to go out at all. I have no idea how there haven’t yet been many more tragedies and crimes within families who are locked in in their homes (often very small apartments) 24/7, for months on end, with children of all ages. It’s mental torture for everyone, but I can’t even begin to imagine the long term damage this will do to the kids who need to be able to go out and run around for at least a short period of time each day. Italy, the only other country with as tyrannical a lockdown as Spain, at least permits a parent to take their young kid(s) outside once a day.


The economy has of course been completely destroyed, and most of the small businesses (which is the vast majority of businesses in southern Europe) will never reopen. The tourism and hospitality sector, which is a huge part of their economy, has no hope in hell of recovering. Strangely enough, nobody here seems to be thinking about this… they’re still fully immersed in the panic about the fake “pandemic”.


Yeah, I know, there are the 24/7 MSM headlines counting the alleged corona deaths and infections, and telling people how millions will die if anything gets reopened and people are allowed to leave home. Nevertheless, there’s a lot more skepticism about all this in other countries (US, UK, Germany, etc), so it’s amazing to see just how completely brainwashed the Spanish are, and how they totally trust the media and their Marxist government. When there is any criticism of the government, it’s because – according to the people – the government is still not doing enough to prevent people from dying from the “pandemic.” I suppose they should also make it illegal to go grocery shopping; then everyone will just starve to death and the virus will be defeated.


The government is talking about introducing a Universal Basic Income (UBI), which makes sense from their point of view, because with never seen unemployment rates (and a large share of the population not having any prospect of finding a job), people could perhaps eventually revolt once they’re starving. (I say could because I’m not so sure they would revolt even then… most Europeans seem to be plagued by a suicidal death-wish, and not just since 2020.)


In any case, UBI would prevent that, and the masses would not dare to say (much less do) anything against a government that is providing their daily bread. Actually, their idea is that Germany should be paying for it all. Every day the Spanish government and the press are demanding that the EU cough up more money for Spain and Italy, and they always blame evil Germany (and the Netherlands) for denying them what they see as their right. So, Spain and Italy have deliberately destroyed their entire economies, and now Germany etc have an obligation and duty to pay for it all. You couldn’t make this shit up!


It’s a known fact that Italy and Spain are counting all the dead who happened to also have a coronavirus (or pretty much any flu-like symptoms) as having died from this virus. Which is a total fraud, of course. Other countries are doing it to some extent too, but at least there have been many doctors in places like the US, Germany, and others coming out and denouncing this. Meanwhile, I have not seen or heard a single voice here telling the truth about any of this.


Doctors, nurses, health “experts” etc are out there lying unashamedly, and nobody in this country seems to have the least integrity to call them out. I know a person who went to one of the hospitals that was supposedly overflowing, and there was nobody there, no chaos, barely any people, staff calm and not busy at all, etc. ie., the same fraud as with the hospitals in the US and elsewhere. Hey, perhaps they’re all determined to continue with this charade until Germany gives in on coronabonds!


As far as the masses here… what more can I say? They are calling the cops and military (i.e. the regime goons out to punish anyone who wants to breathe fresh air for a few minutes) “heroes” and the approval rates of what these thugs are doing are something like 95%. And they’re even more enamored with their medical “heroes”, clapping and cheering from their windows every evening at 8pm to show their support – yeah, the same “heroes” manufacturing fraudulent death numbers, lying about death rates and overflowing hospitals, making this unexceptional flu to be the new Black Death, and demanding that strict lockdown be kept pretty much indefinitely (or until everyone is vaccinated).


It is telling that when so many doctors and epidemiologists in other countries have been coming out to denounce these lies, no such thing has happened here. In fact, none of the actual data and foreign doctors’ statements have even been published here, much like the fact that countries that did not impose any lockdowns whatsoever (i.e. Sweden, Belarus, etc) have actually fared much better or no worse than those with strict lockdowns. Nobody here seems to know about these things, and when you send them the information, they dismiss it or get upset and accuse you of wanting to kill their elderly.


It’s scary to see how an entire country has fallen for the (by now totally disproved) lies and propaganda. They are not only willfully supporting the worst kind of tyranny but are actively calling for more of it. Back in communism in Eastern Europe people did what they had to do to survive but they didn’t actually believe the regime propaganda. So, for instance, people participated in the parades in support of communism once or twice a year, but only because it was mandatory. Well, here they’re doing it voluntarily and from their own initiative – clapping and cheering in support of their jailers every day (and calling the cops on people they see out on the street, or denouncing a neighbor who dared to go to the supermarket twice in a day, etc).


I don’t know whether this totalitarian police state tyranny we’re now seeing in a large part of the world is just a test run or the real thing. I suppose if they complete the few steps still missing (such as abolition of cash, forced vaccination/chipping, etc) within the next 6-12 months, the global NWO tyranny and mass enslavement will be a done deal. Even if it’s a test run, I doubt we’ll get any of our basic freedoms back. Those “temporary” measures are never scaled back once a manufactured crisis is over.













			

	
	



				
					


	

		
		

					
				Apr
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									Letter to President Trump – Send it Everywhere You Can
							

			


		

		









Armstrong Economics Blog/Opinion


Re-Posted Apr 13, 2020 by Martin Armstrong






DOWNLOAD: President Donald Trump Letter- April 13-RF







Please feel free to send this to other world governments. Previous letters have been sent and discussed even in the British Parliament as well as circulated among the opposition of Canada, and Australia just to mention a few. This is an all out battle. We must not shy away from the fight.











			

	
	



				
					


	

		
		

					
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									Phase Five Supply Chain – With a Message From A Dairy Farmer….
							

			


		

		

Posted originally on The Conservative Tree House on April 14, 2020 by 




•Phase One was retail. •Phase two was distribution. •Phase three was the space between processing/manufacturing and distribution. •Phase four was raw material supply to manufacturing. •Phase five is consumer packaging capacity, and bulk storage inventories.




Most Americans were not aware food consumption in the U.S. was a 60/40 proposition. Approximately 60% of all food was consumed “outside the home” (or food away from home), and 40% of all food consumed was food “inside the home” (grocery shoppers).


Food ‘outside the home’ included: restaurants, fast-food locales, schools, corporate cafeterias, university lunchrooms, manufacturing cafeterias, hotels, food trucks, park and amusement food sellers and many more. Many of those venues are not thought about when people evaluate the overall U.S. food delivery system; however, this network was approximately 60 percent of all food consumption on a daily basis.


The ‘food away from home‘ sector has its own supply chain. Very few restaurants and venues (cited above) purchase food products from retail grocery outlets. As a result of the coronavirus mitigation effort the ‘food away from home’ sector has been reduced by 75% of daily food delivery operations. However, people still need to eat. That means retail food outlets, grocers, are seeing sales increases of 25 to 50 percent, depending on the area.


♦ Phase Five – The retail consumer supply chain for manufactured and processed food products includes bulk storage to compensate for seasonality. As Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue recently noted “there are over 800 commercial and public warehouses in the continental 48 states that store frozen products.”


Here is a snapshot of the food we had in storage at the end of February: over 302 million pounds of frozen butter; 1.36 billion pounds of frozen cheese; 925 million pounds of frozen chicken; over 1 billion pounds of frozen fruit; nearly 2.04 billion pounds of frozen vegetables; 491 million pounds of frozen beef; and nearly 662 million pounds of frozen pork.


This bulk food storage is how the total U.S. consumer food supply ensures consistent availability even with weather impacts.  As a nation we essentially stay one harvest ahead of demand by storing it and smoothing out any peak/valley shortfalls. There are a total of 175,642 commercial facilities involved in this supply-chain across the country


Few Americans are aware of this.  However, that stored food supply is the supply-chain for food manufacturers who process the ingredients into a variety of branded food products and distribute to your local supermarket. That bulk stored food, and the subsequent supply chain, is entirely separate from the fresh food supply chain used by restaurants, hotels, cafeterias etc.  For almost 8 weeks the retail supply chain has been operating beyond capacity and the burn rate of raw food products is up a stunning 40 percent.


Those bulk warehouses, the feeder pools for retail/consumer manufactured food products, are starting to run low. Believe me: (1) we don’t want to find out what happens when those 800 mass storage facilities run out; and (2) the food supply chain will be a big part of President Trump’s decision-making on reopening the economy thereby re-opening restaurants, cafeterias, etc…. and switching consumption back to fresh supply.


This “bigger picture” is not being considered by politically-minded governors, DC politicians, and public health-centric advisors who focus exclusively on the virus.


Additionally, there are very specific issues within each supply chain (commercial and consumer). It is not as easy as people think to move the commercial supply-chain (restaurants etc.) into the consumer supply chain (grocers). First, there are simply packaging capacity issues.  Additionally, there’s an entirely different set of regulations on the processing side for the consumer supply chain.


One dairy farmer helps explain:


Are we dumping milk because of greed or low demand, no. It’s the supply chain, there are only so many jug fillers, all were running 24/7 before this cluster you-know-what.


Now demand for jug milk has almost doubled.  However, restaurant demand is almost gone; NO ONE is eating out. 


Restaurant milk is distributed in 2.5 gal bags or pint chugs; further, almost 75 percent of milk is processed into hard products in this country, cheese and butter. Mozzarella is almost a third of total cheese production; how’s pizza sales going right now??


A bit of history – Years ago (40+) every town had a bottler, they ran one shift a day, could ramp up production easily.  Now with all the corporate takeovers (wall street over main street) we are left with regional “high efficiency” milk plants that ran jug lines 24/7 before this mess, no excess capacity.


Jug machines cost millions and are MADE IN CHINA. Only so many jugs can be blown at a jug plant.  We farmers don’t make the jugs, damn hard to ramp up production.


I’m a dairy farmer, believe me NO dairyman likes dumping milk; and so far there is NO guarantee they will get paid. Milk must be processed within 48 hours of production and 24 hours of receipt in the plant or it goes bad. Same with making it into cheese and butter, and neither stores well for long.


The same supply line problems exists where restaurants are supplied with bulk 1 pound blocks of butter or single serv packs or pats; and cheese is sold in 10 to 20 pound bags (think shredded Mozzarella for pizza).  Furthermore, it is not legal for this end of the supply chain to sell direct to consumers in most states.


Take cheddar cheese for instance; it goes from mild to sharp to crap in storage. Butter, frozen, only stores for so long and then must be slowly thawed and processed into other uses as it gets “strong”.  At Organic Valley we cook it down into butter oil or ghee for cooking.


We are headed for the same problem with canned veggies.  The vast majority of produce comes off and is processed in season; canned or frozen.  The supply is already in cans for the season; restaurants use gallon cans or bulk bags of frozen produce.


At some point we will run out of consumer sized cans in stock because home size sales are up (40%+) and restaurant sales are almost nonexistent.  Fresh produce out of U.S. season comes from Mexico (different climate).  I’m talking sweet corn, green beans, peas, tomatoes, all veggies are seasonal in the USA.  Fresh, out-of-season, row crops are  imported.  (There are exceptions, like hydroponic grown, but small amount of total).


Someone mentioned “time to raid all those bins of corn”.  Those bins on the farm contain yellow corn, cattle feed and totally unfit for human consumption, now or at harvest.


Eggs? Same problem.  Bakeries and restaurants of any size use Pullman egg cases, 30 dozen at a pop, 30 eggs to a flat, 12 flats to a case.  There are only so many 1 dozen egg cartons available and only so many packing machines.


Industrial bakeries and processors of packaged food buy bulk liquid eggs, no carton at all.  Also in many states it is illegal to sell this supply-chain directly to consumers. 


On your standard buffet of any size, do you really think they boil eggs and peel them? They come in a bag, boiled and diced; those nice uniform slices of boiled egg you see on your salad, a lot of them come in tubes boiled and extruded at the same time, just unwrap and slice. Your scrambled eggs come in a homogenized bag on most buffets.


Another example of Main Street being gutted and “improved by wall street” NO local egg processors available or many small egg producers either, all corporate and huge, contracted to sell to the corporate masters.


This is a warning the same problems exist in all supply chains.


The supply chain is farked.


David Osterloh,

61-year-old dairy farmer















			

	
	



				
					


	

		
		

					
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									The LA Sheriff Who Released 4,276 Inmates Now Fears a Crime Wave…
							

			


		

		

Posted originally on The Conservative Tree House on April 13, 2020 by 




This story is so far beyond predictable that the light from where predictable exists wouldn’t catch up for a year….  The LA Sheriff released the inmates fearing the Wuhan virus, now he worries he may have put the public at risk….. you just can’t make this up.  Save the criminals, destroy the community.




“We were faced with a choice, if we left the jail system overpopulated, the pandemic would have swept through easily.”


[LINK]















			

	
	



				
					


	

		
		

					
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									Dr. Fauci: President Trump Followed Health Recommendations Every Time They Were Made…
							

			


		

		

Posted originally on The Conservative Tree House on April 13, 2020 by 




This guy is sketchy.  Sometimes within a 24 hour period Fauci will make a statement, then contradict the initial assertion, then attempt to cloud his own conflict with obtuse and wordy explanations.  After watching for several weeks, we first called it out HERE.


Yesterday Fauci told CNN if the country had been shut down in February lives could have been saved.  Today Fauci is in the contradiction and wordy explanation phase.  Obviously, reversing course on any issue while the media is in a frenzied attack against the president is like removing a bloody carcass from the piranha pool before the frenzy is over.


To wit Fauci saddens the media and makes himself a target; the media immediately focus their anger toward him. Fauci was good, now bad. Spontaneous anger leads the media to question Fauci if he was being forced to reverse himself.  Quite remarkable. WATCH:






Paula Reid (CBS) …”Are you doing this voluntarily, or is the President making you do this?”…





			

	
	



				
					


	

		
		

					
				Apr
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									It Begins – East and West Coast Blue States Team Up To Begin Economic Civil War…
							

			


		

		

Posted originally on The Conservative Tree House on April 13, 2020 by 




It seemed clear several weeks ago this was going to happen.  East coast blue state governors and West coast blue state governors are uniting to begin the economic civil war planning to block any White House effort to re-open the U.S. economy.  The founders planned for this in Article I, Sec 10 (paragraph 3):




“No state shall, without the consent of Congress, … enter into any agreement or compact with another state”..




The three step plan seems predictable: (1) Get out ahead of President Trump. (2) Defy the ‘all clear’ and shape economic benefit to their political allies. (3) Then use Fauci’s upcoming dossier to hit the administration for heartlessly opening the economy too early.




♦ On the East Coast the governors of New York (Cuomo), New Jersey (Murphy), Connecticut (Lamont), Pennsylvania (Wolfe), Delaware (Carney) and Rhode Island (Raimondo) have started assembling their economic war council with the intent to keep the northeast region shut down.  Controlling critical ports and infrastructure is a key part of their strategy.


EAST COAST — Six Northeast governors will form a working group to come up with a plan to restart [control] the regional economy, they announced on Monday. (link)


♦ On the West Coast the governors of California (Newsom), Oregon (Brown) and Washington State (Inslee) are also assembling their economic war council for similar intents and purposes.  Combined with their political northeastern allies, controlling two-thirds of U.S. ports will give them a strategic advantage to keep choking the economy until after they can install their commanding general in the White House.


WEST COAST – The governors of Washington, California and Oregon on Monday announced they were working on a joint plan for reopening[controlling] their states’ respective economies once it is safe to lift coronavirus-related restrictions.


 




It appears the Governors did not want to assemble their plans openly; however, they rushed to publicity to avoid their enemy, U.S. President Donald Trump, striking strategically against their schemes.   During this economic war residents within the Blue occupied territories will be held captive to the political whims of their regional generals.


The economic freedom and liberty zone will encompass the Red region.  The center of the country, mid west, southern region (surrounding the Gulf of Mexico) and south eastern Atlantic region.   These areas will be open to commerce and economic freedom.


However, the urban dense populations (Blue pockets within Red zones) will push-back against the efforts of the Red generals in an attempt to retain alignment with their Blue team generals.  Depending on the strength of the urban forces there may be roadblocks, sabotage, skirmishes and political violence against the freedom & liberty Red team.


Red captives within the Blue zones will have to be smart and strategic.  Big Blue tech will be assisting the totalitarian Blue generals. Direct confrontation against the Blue forces should be avoided, and it will likely be a better strategy to fight stealthily as insurgents.


Any Red team member of the economic freedom alliance, trapped within a Blue region, is warned to evaluate their connection to their electronic devices.  Your cell phones could be used as portable transponders expose your movement and your political views.


This is going to be one hell of a battle.  A Spring and Summer conflict like we’ve never seen in the history of U.S. politics outside of actual, physical, civil war.  Fortunately for team freedom and liberty, this time the Red zones control most of the citizen armory.















			

	
	



				
					


	

		
		

					
				Apr
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									White House Coronavirus Task Force Briefing – 5:00pm ET Livestream…
							

			


		

		

Posted originally on The Conservative Tree House on April 13, 2020 by 




Unfortunately, with President Trump effectively communicating the latest information on the federal efforts to mitigate COVID-19, more corporate U.S. resistance media have decided not to carry the live broadcasts from the White House task force briefings.


Today at 5:00pm ET the White House will hold a briefing for the public and media on the latest mitigation efforts against the coronavirus. [Livestream Links Below]


White House Livestream Link – Fox News Livestream Link – CSPAN Livestream


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