War Footing or Ukraine? – Biden Waives Section 303 of DPA Related to Weapons, Ammunition, Explosives and Components


Posted Originally on the CTH on February 27, 2023 | Sundance 

The Defense Production Act (DPA 1950 amended, pdf) essentially is a legislative hurdle that stops the executive from stepping into the private sector and restricting trade, commerce or manufacturing, unless the President says a critical shortage of “xxxx” is present and national security is at stake. It prevents citizens from the threat of govt nationalization of resource “xxxx”.

In the event the President makes a national security determination, he/she is required to inform congress, invoke the waiver authority, and identify which sectors he/she is now outlining as a national security… such that government purchase orders take precedent in the supply of “xxxx”.  Yesterday, President Biden invoked this authority.

Given the pandemic shortages are over, and given the sectors outlined, it looks like munitions, raw material, explosives, electronics and certain component issues related to the Defense Dept are outlined.

Key section: “Therefore, I waive the requirements of section 303(a)(1)-(a)(6) of the Act”

…”specifically for defense organic industrial base supply chains critical to the Department of Defense and critical supply chains for electronics, kinetic capabilities, castings and forgings, minerals and materials, and power and energy storage.” (link)

It’s a use of the DPA definitively targeting defense materials.  Which raises the question(s):

Is this to secure weapons for shipment to Ukraine?..  OR, Is this to secure a buildup of weapons for a larger purpose?   Meaning, is this preparing for an expanded war effort?

There is a lack of media curiosity.  However, perhaps drawing attention to it will stimulate someone to ask the Pentagon?

In the interim, ammunition might become a little harder to find.

 Ron DeSantis and Mike Pence Will Skip CPAC 2023


Posted originally on the CTH on February 27, 2023 | Sundance 

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and former Vice President Mike Pence will be skipping CPAC 2023 this year as President Donald Trump delivers the keynote speech.

DeSantis and Pence will avoid the uncomfortable results of the grassroots straw poll outcome, which – given the nature of their political interests – could potentially be embarrassing for the people who are organizing their ‘stop Trump’ campaign.

(Jax4) – CPAC, which is billed as the largest and most influential gathering of conservatives in the world, begins Wednesday.

Governor Ron DeSantis, who spoke at the event last year has other plans, and former vice president Mike Pence has turned down an invitation. (more)

After spending the weekend with billionaire donors and republicans molded purchased by the Sea Island (Big Club) influence, DeSantis will be traveling the country promoting his Rupert Murdoch funded book with stops in Texas and California.  The governor is also expected in Iowa, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Georgia, according to Jacksonville News4.

The Florida governor will finish the week back in his home state as The Club for Growth is hosting DeSantis and a half-dozen presidential prospects at a closed-door retreat next weekend with GOPe top donors {Link}.  Donald Trump is not invited. The meeting, organized by the multinational corporate interests of CfG, is about how to coordinate multiple candidate efforts to defeat Trump.

Additionally, details are surfacing of additional attendees at last weekend’s ritzy “influencers” event at the Four Seasons Resort in Palm Beach, hosted by DeSantis handler Christina Pushaw.  According to news reports in addition to the previously recruited social media group, Laura Ingraham, Ann Coulter and Chaya Raichik (Libs of TikTok) were in attendance doing panel discussions. {link}

Sunday Question – The Inversion and Awakening


Posted originally on the CTH on February 26, 2023 | Sundance

Here’s a question I have.  I am looking forward to your opinion. I have my own.

In the Trump -vs- DeSantis storyline the following data points are generally agreed:

♦Approximately 75% of the Big Con “INFLUENCERS” (Big $) and punditry Support Ron DeSantis
♦Approximately 25% of the Small “Influencers” (Small $) and Indy punditry Support Donald Trump.

Meanwhile, amid the voting base the inverse is true:

♦Approximately 25% of the conservative, working-class, base voters support Ron DeSantis
♦Approximately 75% of the conservative, working-class, base voters support Donald Trump

Reconcile this inversion.  What does it mean?

As previously noted, this weekend Team DeSantis held an event. “Four Seasons resort in Palm Beach, Florida, including wealthy Republican donors and conservative social-media influencers.” 

From my perspective the framework was clear in the middle of last year.  This weekend’s gathering in Palm Beach is essentially an outcome of the Billionaire Sea Island group meeting.  The Four Seasons event is an assembly of key people those managing Ron DeSantis have organized.

Christina Pushaw has been working on this operation since she entered the orbit of Ron DeSantis.  All of the activity is a previously planned series of events.  The current emphasis is to enlist the former Cruz Crew in the DeSantis effort.

According to surfacing reports attendees this weekend included: Governors: Kim Reynolds, Kevin Stitt, Bill Lee. Senators Tom Cotton, Mike Lee, Ron Johnson. Congress: Thomas Massie, Chip Roy as well as Adam Laxalt, Jim Lamon and Dana Loesch. All former Cruz Crew members.

About the Inversion – Money is flowing from the billionaire multinational and Wall Street groups (Sea Island folks) into various political action committees, SuperPACs, RGA networks and right-leaning establishment republican think tanks and NGO type political organizations.  This is all “stop Trump” money.

The money is being doled out from those political organizations into the BigCon media influence group.  The “influencers” are downstream beneficiaries of the Sea Island billionaire cash.  The lure of the financial benefits forms the basis of the inversion.

Pushaw is in charge of the cash flow operation; essentially creating an astroturf network to give the illusion of greater support than actually exists.

BigCon has money, but not the majority of the voters.  This was the issue that BigCon could not overcome in 2016 with Jeb, Rubio and eventually Cruz.

This time around, the Sea Island group planned more deeply to enlist a single candidate who could put themselves forward as the 2024 MAGA Trump alternative; that’s DeSantis. Then this same group began structuring all of the support systems to overcome the voter hurdle.

However, the Sea Island and supporting BigCon influence group have one major problem.  Voters can see and feel astroturf operations, even when it is cleverly disguised as authentic or organic support.

The former ’16 Cruz Crew in combination with the former GOPe ’16 Jeb! Crew form the cornerstone of the DeSantis political support system.  Recruiting social media influencers to join that assembly is the job of Christina Pushaw.   This is what I noticed in the middle of 2022 and began warning about.   This is not at all organic.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ entire narrative as governor, including the anti-wokeism efforts, has been designed to support a previously planned outcome.  DeSantis was always going to be elevated as the 2024 non-Trump alternative.

Pushaw is essentially doing an “influence operation” inside the U.S. political system that parallels what was done in Ukraine to install Volodymyr Zelenskyy.  It’s not some whacky theory, just look at what they are doing.  DeSantis is as controlled and subsequently inauthentic as Zelenskyy and World War Reddit.

That’s why we are seeing this extreme inversion.  It’s all about the money.

Remember, in the big picture the Sea Island group doesn’t care who wins the 2024 election, Democrats or Republicans it doesn’t matter, as long as it’s not Trump.

What matters to the Sea Island group is stopping Donald Trump and the America-First platform he represents.

Is the Biden Administration Just Completely Brain-Dead?


Armstrong Economics Blog/War Re-Posted Feb 23, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

Russia has deployed tactical nuclear weapons on all its ships. The US arrogantly told China not to support Russia or that they would impose sanctions on China as they have done with Russia. That is like waving a red flag in front of a bull. Once you make such a public demand on China, they now MUST  act against it or their leadership will lose face.

I have dealt with governments for some 40 years +. Warnings of this nature have ALWAYS been communicated privately – NEVER publicly for that is confrontational and will necessitate the opposite side to vote against your demand. I cannot imagine that even I know far more about diplomacy than anyone in the Biden Administration. That suggests to me that this is deliberate. They just cannot be this stupid. They seem to be deliberately moving Russia and China together against the arrogant West in the very same manner that resulted in the Peloponnesian War with Sparta taking down Athens for its arrogance.

As the world teeters on the edge of World War III between Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran against the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan, and Europe,  diplomatic efforts to reach a peaceful settlement are seriously lacking. Europeans should be storming their own parliaments demanding the end to supporting Ukraine and honoring the Minsk Agreement to forestall a potential conflict the likes of which Europe has not seen since the end of the second World War and will certainly not survive.

The Biden Administration appears to be taking the advice of Adolf Hitler given the complete lack of any diplomacy whatsoever. China has offered a peace settlement but the Biden Administration wants war. China had no choice but to respond to Biden:

‘The US is in no position to tell China what to do’

The United Nations has become a joke. The Security Council can take action to maintain or restore international peace and security under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter. Sanctions measures, under Article 41, encompass a broad range of enforcement options that do not involve the use of armed force. The UN has refused to remain unbiased and should have imposed sanctions on Germany, France, the UK, and the United States for their bad faith in negotiating the Minsk Agreement and for their unwarranted sanction of Russia that even began before the 2022 invasion. The UN no longer represents an independent body of nations but has been usurped with lofty ideals of becoming the one world government thanks to Schwab’s World Economic Forum and the pressure from the American Neocons directing US foreign policy.

The United Nations took its marching order from the United States and suspended Russia from the Human Rights Council on April 7th, 2022. They have courted world war with the vision of emerging as the new one-world government. They self-proclaim: “Now, more than 75 years later, the United Nations is still working to maintain international peace and security, give humanitarian assistance to those in need, protect human rights, and uphold international law.” Sanctioning private individuals claiming that will put pressure on Putin was a blatant violation of international war. Under this theory, then the Republicans could confiscate all the personal assets of Democrats until the Democrats agree to their terms. This is absurd.

The United Nations has REFUSED to be impartial and to prevent World War III. They are a total failure and a disgrace to humanity. Here is the simple pattern they should have investigated if they really cared about preserving world peace.

  • (1) In 2014 US installs an interim government in Ukraine which is unelected and immediately sends troops to attack the Donbas for wanting to separate from Ukraine after its own revolution
  • (2) West engages in the Minsk Agreement whereby Merkel has come out and acknowledged it was in bad faith and intended only to allow Ukraine to build its army while making a fool out of Putin for trusting the West
  • (3) Zelensky is elected promising to end corruption and the civil war with Russia
  • (4) VP Kamila Harris at Munich Security Conference tells Ukraine they should join NATO
  • (5) On February 23rd, 2022, Zelensky announces that Ukraine should rearm itself with nuclear weapons

February 24th, 2022, Putin intervenes to support the Donbas when the West ignores their human rights. If the United States even exists after World War III which they are promoting, then we would no doubt have a similar investigation into the deliberate policies that have rejected any possible peaceful negotiations and promoted war for the total destruction of Russia.

When not just diplomacy fails we get war, but when the United Nations acts in its own self-interest against all the member states that fund it and ignores the very foundation upon which it claims any authority. That seems to be in line with the World Health Organization to dictate its policies to the world.

Putin Says NO To US Inspecting Nukes, Dr. Pierre Kory’s War For Ivermectin, & Will Aliens Save US?


By Kim Iversen Posted originally on Rumble on February 21 2023 at 9:00 pm EST

Ukraine – The Pawn of Foreign Powers


Armstrong Economics Blog/Ukraine Re-Posted Feb 21, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

QUESTION: Hi Marty,

Would it not be better for Putin to follow the American model and invade all of Ukraine vs. using nuclear weapons? There is still time to execute such a strategy.

Taking control of all of Ukraine would give Russia control of the borders, hence no more major offensive weapons would cross to Ukraine from Poland.

On the flip side, using nuclear weapons is bad PR. The public opinion is against nuclear weapons, so if Putin were to use them, NATO would then have an excuse to enter the conflict directly. All it would take is a PR spin.

Cheers from Canada,
Lucas

ANSWER: If Russia nuked Ukraine, that would not provide a legal excuse for NATO since Ukraine is not a member of NATO. The whole criticism of Putin in Russia is that he has been too “soft” because he is too nostalgic and regards Kiev as the first capital of the Rus. To him, nuking Kiev would be like the US nuking London. He launched his “special” operation to defend the Donbas because the West lied about the Minsk Agreement to buy time for Ukraine to create an army.

The problem we really face is that the West has conspired to create war with Russia and to use Ukraine as cannon fodder. From the start, Zelensky has drafted 18 to 60-year-olds. Tass has reported that Ukrainian prisoners taken recently are 16 and 17-year-olds.

The West does not care about the Ukrainian people. The more civilians killed, the better. That will enable the West to rally troops for revenge. This war could have ended in 10 minutes. All the West had to do was to allow Ukraine to seek peace and honor the Minsk Agreement – nothing more.

But the West is outright trying to destroy Russia and the bankers are in line once again licking their lips at all the wealth of Russia from gold and platinum to rare earths, diamonds, and energy. Just as I was solicited to join them back in 1999 and I refused, they are back again cheering war.

The Ukrainian people have nothing to gain from this. The Donbas is occupied by Russians for hundreds of years. The Ukrainian people NEVER had a country. They finally got one in 1991 and they are throwing that all away for the Donbas. Zelensky will fly at the last moment to Florida when Ukraine falls. This is the leader of a country who takes orders from foreign powers.

Chairman Xi Plans Moscow Visit, Putin Suspends START Treaty, Maersk Exits Russia, Biden Talks Moldova, Planets Aligning for War


Posted originally on the CTH on February 21, 2023 | Sundance 

First things first, history may not always repeat, but it always rhymes.  Secondly, history tells us that only two things have ever pulled what we now call “western nations” out of a collective economic depression; (1) war, and (2) housing starts.

If you accept the WEF climate control agenda of a ‘managed transition‘, where economies are reduced in size to match lowered energy production, as generally speaking akin to a western economic depression.… then, you begin to ask the logical question.  How do the managers avoid the consequences?

If global (non BRICS) economic contraction is akin to a western economic depression, I would argue the consequences are identical.  Then, when major economies are in a state of shrinking and the citizens are feeling the horrible effects, something large is needed to change the economic equation.

With central banks raising interest rates to achieve the policy supporting contraction, the option for ‘housing starts’ to change the dynamic is removed.  That leaves, ‘war’.

President Putin and Chairman Xi are not stupid men.  They are big picture strategists.

DATA POINT – Russian President Vladimir Putin’s move to suspend his country’s involvement in the last remaining arms control treaty with the U.S. came as a disturbing surprise to multiple former officials who negotiated the pact and nonproliferation experts committed to ending the expansion of nuclear forces. (read more)

Can you blame him?  The Western Alliance has already blamed Putin for the global food crisis they created by the World Economic Forum energy policy shift.  The Western Alliance accepts no responsibility for advancing hostility -through NATO expansion- on to Russia’s doorstep.  The Western Alliance has attempted to sanction Russia out of the global economy.  With the same Western Alliance now positioning for war, why would Putin adhere to their limitations?

♦DATA POINT – Chinese leader Xi Jinping is preparing to visit Moscow for a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the coming months, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the plan. (read more)

Can you blame them?  Pay no attention to the Reuters narrative woven inside the article about China wanting to negotiate peace.  To accept that narrative is to believe there is no dragon behind the panda mask.  We are too far into the geopolitical awakening to say the dragon doesn’t exist and simultaneously hold its own interests (belt & road, and/or Taiwan) within the context. Ignoring the dragon behind the mask is really quite silly.  BRICS exists as an economic alliance of like-minded nations for exactly this geopolitical dynamic.

♦DATA POINT – Shipping and logistics group A.P. Moller-Maersk (MAERSKb.CO) has agreed to sell its two logistics sites in Russia to IG Finance Development Limited, it said on Monday, nearly marking the end of its business activities in the country. […] After that, Maersk will not have any business in Russia. (read more)

The major multinationals always position themselves to avoid the consequences of war.  Additionally, Moller-Maersk is already going to feel a major financial impact from the shrinking of the Western economies they generally service with their cargo transportation.  Smaller economies = less cargo = less ships = less revenue.  Moller-Maersk has to pick a side; they are aligned with the Western Alliance.  Hence their exit from Russia.  China/India will eventually fill the void. Again, BRICS.

These are data points just in the last 12 hours.  In addition to these data points from today, the saber rattling from the DC foreign policy and war machine financial system is on display in the Biden policy as transmitted from Warsaw. Again, just today.

Like us, I’m pretty sure from watching his statements and eventual policies over the past several years, President Donald Trump views foreign policy through the prism of economics.   If “economic security is national security,” then what is it when economic insecurity is an intentional design policy?

All of the economic data points have aligned toward direct military conflict between the Western Alliance and Russia that expands beyond the proxy war in Ukraine.

If the path is continued, this process eventually ends up with World War III.  Which, not coincidentally, boils down to the Western Economic Alliance -vs- BRICS, with a few remaining neutral and the middle east as the unknown variable.

Sound familiar?

Look below, you might find a familiar visual reference:

Yep, history rhymes.

Any questions? 

West’s Duplicity – Biden’s Surprise Visit Before Putin’s Speech


Armstrong Economics Blog/Ukraine Re-Posted Feb 21, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

Biden made a surprise visit to Ukraine one day ahead of Putin’s National Address scheduled for February 21st. Biden had the audacity to put out the West’s constant propaganda:

“One year later, Kyiv stands. And Ukraine stands. Democracy stands,” he declared. “The Americans stand with you and the world stands with you.”

Putin is elected the head of Russia by its Parliament the same system that takes place in Britain, the EU, Canada, and every country with a Parliamentary system. Only the United States is where the head of state stands for election by the people. This nonsense that Ukraine stands for democracy against Russia is just total outright lies. This only demonstrates that we cannot trust a single word from governments in such times. As they say, truth is the first casualty in war.

Had the West simply been honest and honored what they negotiated that the Donbas under the Minsk Agreement was to be allowed to vote on their own separatist movement. All the deaths in Ukraine and their blood are on the hands of the West. This war would have NEVER taken place if the Minsk Agreement was honored.

Blinken has made it clear that the US will NEVER accept the Minsk Agreement and it was indeed only to buy time for a war they wanted from the start. The Biden Administration changed the arrangement with Ukraine in 2021 altering all previous agreements since 2008. This is a Neocon’s dream come true – a direct confrontation with Russia. He outright said that there shall be no peace by returning any land to allow the Russians of the Donbas to live in peace free of Ukrainian domination.

“If we do that, we will open a Pandora’s box around the world, and every would-be aggressor will conclude that, ‘If Russia got away with it, we can get away with it,’” Blinken said. “And that’s not in anyone’s interest, because it’s a recipe for a world of conflict.”

This illustrates the duplicity of the West and the desire for World War III. These are the people who are cheering the destruction of our future all for a strip of land that has been occupied by Russians for centuries.

Even China has come out and bluntly stated: “We would like a political solution to provide a peaceful and sustainable framework to Europe.” The US refuses to seek peace on any reasonable terms whatsoever. The arrogance of the United States is just astounding. They have told China not to aid Russia. As Fox News reported, China is furious after the US warns against arming Russia: “The US is in no position to tell China what to do.”

In all my years of dealing with governments, NEVER have I ever even once witnessed such stupidity and arrogance on the part of any government. This Biden Administration seems to be going out of its way to piss off just about everyone in the world to create World War III. This is just unimaginable. They seem to want to “shrink” the world’s population by 50% with war to get their pat on the back from Gates, Rockefeller Foundation, and Schwab. When you say it is your way or no way, that is not how you negotiate anything.

History will remember the Biden Administration with contempt as the Hitler or Napoleon of the 21st Century.