Political Reality


Armstrong Ecvonomics Blog/Humor Re-Posted Jul 3, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

Fourth of July Celebration Price Hike


Armstrong Economics Blog/Agriculture Re-Posted Jul 3, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

The White House celebrated the measly 16-cent discount that Americans enjoyed last Fourth of July. As a reminder of how our leaders have catapulted our economy and opportunity to prosper, the average cost for Independence Day celebrations is now 17% higher than last year.

The White House actually marketed their $0.16 price decline in 2021. “Planning a cookout this year? Ketchup on the news. According to the Farm Bureau, the cost of a 4th of July BBQ is down from last year. It’s a fact you must-hear(d). Hot dog, the Biden economic plan is working. And that’s something we can all relish,” the White House tweeted last July. They actually thought Americans would believe that the slight price change was an indication of the Biden Administration serving the people.

The American Farm Bureau stated that the average Fourth of July traditional BBQ costs around $59.50 for a party of 10 in 2021. This year, the average party will cost consumers $69.68. That is well beneath normal estimates and does not include liquor costs.

Beef alone has risen 36% in the past year ($11.2 for 2 lbs), and even a hamburger bun package will cost an extra $1.93 this holiday. Nearly every item has risen in cost, and the farmers who provide for us are being paid less. “According to the Agriculture Department’s revised Food Dollar Series, farmers currently receive approximately 8% of every food marketing dollar,” AFBF Chief Economist Roger Cryan said. “The farmers’ share of the retail food dollar is as low as 2% to 4% for highly processed foods such as bread and cereal, and can be 35% or more for some fresh products.”

Here are some of the extra costs you can expect to see this Fourth:

Individual Prices, AFBF 2022 Summer Cookout

  • 2 pounds of ground beef, $11.12 (+36%)
  • 2 pounds of boneless, skinless chicken breasts, $8.99 (+33%)
  • 32 ounces of pork & beans, $2.53 (+33%)
  • 3 pounds of center cut pork chops, $15.26 (+31%)
  • 5 quarts of fresh-squeezed lemonade, $4.43 (+22%)
  • 5 pounds of homemade potato salad, $3.27 (+19%)
  • 8 hamburger buns, $1.93 (+16%)
  • Half-gallon of vanilla ice cream, $5.16 (+10%)
  • 13-ounce bag of chocolate chip cookies, $4.31 (+7%)
  • 2 pints of strawberries, $4.44 (-16%)
  • 1 pound of sliced cheese, $3.53 (-13%)
  • 16-ounce bag of potato chips, $4.71 (-4%)

Someone Controlling the Twitter Account of Joe Biden is Demanding Gas Stations Lower Prices, Because He Said So


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on July 3, 2022 | sundance 

This administration is a lesson in abject silliness.  Everyone knows that Joe Biden has no clue who or what is being done in the energy policy of his administration; heck, he could not even name his Interior Secretary.   That said, whoever controls his Twitter account is now just making him look even more stupid as Biden blames the gas stations.

[Tweet Source]

I would draw attention to the most overlooked quote from Joe Biden as it pertains to gas prices.  This statement was made May 23, 2022, and it proves he knows the gas price is directly related to his choice to implement the Green New Deal by executive policy:

…”Here’s the situation.  And when it comes to the gas prices, we’re going through an incredible transition that is taking place that, God willing, when it’s over, we’ll be stronger and the world will be stronger and less reliant on fossil fuels when this is over.”…  [source]

Neil Oliver Will Not Eat the Bugs


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on July 2, 2022 | sundance

This week Neil Oliver talks about the new Utopia we are being instructed to accept.  A world in which there are no rights, only permissions.

Everything including the modification of diets and the eating of bugs and fake meat; to the type of carbon footprint home we are permitted, to the energy we may use or the acceptable car we must drive; permissions, assuming of course, our social media profile and accompanying score is in line with regulatory inspection.

Nope.  Not happening.  There are more of us than them.  We will not eat the bugs.  WATCH: 

[Transcript] – What’s being done to us, or tried on us at least, isn’t working … and it isn’t working and won’t work because what we’re being pushed to accept as the new world makes no sense. The supposed utopia we’re being promised – or, rather, having rammed down our throats – is one in which there is no universal truth, no absolute and trusted truth, but only personal truth that trumps all else.

There are to be no facts like those observed by biologists, just as a for instance, and only feelings based on personal preferences that change from day to day. It will be a world in which we might have no inalienable rights, rights we are born with – just permissions granted one by one by the state … and then only if we do as we are told and do without cars and warm homes and eat our bugs and fake meat and take our medicine on demand. It is a world in which 2+2 might equal 5 if some faceless, unelected bureaucrat says it does – and if any of us says no, 2+2 always and only equals 4, then our bank accounts won’t give us any money until we accept our arithmetical and moral error.

It is a world that makes no sense and that will not work, not for the likes of you and me. It will benefit the few, but it won’t work for the billions.

In the world of before some of us had tried to learn to treat our fellow citizens as equals, and to judge them only by the content of their characters. In the new world we are to be born stamped and cursed with the sins of our ancestors or burdened with the yoke of oppression that was borne on the shoulders of those that went before. And above all else, we are absolutely to judge, and be judged, by the colour of our skins.

This judging of a person by the colour of his or her skin is a glaring example of an idea that makes no sense and does not work.

The trail to the new world is being blazed by those who call themselves progressive. Among much else, progressives say they hate racism and that it is the duty of all of us to be actively anti-racist. Progressives say we must teach our youngest about white privilege, introduce critical race theory to the classroom.

But as soon as the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade and put the individual states of America in control of laws on abortion, the progressive racist knives on the Left were out for a black judge named Clarence Thomas, one of the majority that struck down the 1973 ruling.

Thomas – only the second African American person to sit on the Supreme Court, and having occupied a place there since 1991 is, in the eyes of many who count themselves progressive, evidently the wrong sort of black man.

As a black African American, he ought, the progressives thought, to have belonged to them, and so done their bidding promptly and without hesitation. Justice Clarence Thomas however, had his own mind and made his own decision – which was not the one they wanted him to make.

All at once the N-word was back and being thrown in his face. On social media he was described, among other things, as just another dumb, field … I leave you to fill in the blank, starting with the letter N. He was called a … slave – again with the N-word as a prefix – an N-word slave to his white wife, who was called a nutcase, just for good measure. We might just cut to the chase and say Justice Clarence Thomas was called everything under the sun by the progressive, pro-choice/pro-abortion side of the debate.

Racism is one of the oldest sins of humankind. The N-word might be the ugliest name a human can call another human. In 20th century America the Ku Klux Klan hid their faces within white pointed hoods. In 21st century America it turns out progressive politics provide the necessary cover for naked racism.

Aside from feelings and opinions about abortion, deeply and passionately held – aside from the unforgivable return of one of the most offensive words in any language, and a slew of other racist insults too many to list – this behaviour by self-proclaimed progressives makes no sense – not least because it is simply inconsistent. It is also hypocrisy of the most obvious sort.

Let’s remember these are people who say they hate racism and racists. And yet the moment a man – a black African American man – did something they didn’t like – which is to say step out of line – the vilest manifestation of racist thinking was an instant, easy, comfortable fit in some of their mouths.

When President Joe Biden felt he had to respond to news of black people thinking about voting for Donald Trump at the last election he said of them:

“You ain’t black!”

It seems that in the minds of so-called progressives, from the White House on down, black Americans are to be seen and treated as a monolithic bloc that could and should be counted on to vote as one … specifically the Democrat, leftist, woke … “right” way. In those progressive minds, any black people who do otherwise, who break step with the herd, must have something wrong with them. If thinking that all members of a racial group can be counted on to think and act as one isn’t racist to the core … then I don’t know what is to be described as racist.

Many of those same racists who pilloried a black man for thinking and acting as he saw fit were also among those demanding bodily autonomy for women in the context of abortion. Where were they when women, and men, were losing their jobs for refusing the Covid-19 injections? Where were they when world leaders like Justin Trudeau, Emmanuel Macron, Jacinda Ardern and many others went out of their way to make life unbearable, unliveable for those millions who already understood bodily autonomy and had the courage to make it real by standing up straight and saying no to an unwanted medical procedure and damn the consequences? Where were those bodily-autonomy-demanding progressives then?

It doesn’t make sense, this proposed new world … this new world of say one thing and do another, where racists are evil incarnate until a black man thinks for himself and then quick as a flash the progressives sound like they’re looking for the bed sheets and the burning crosses.

Racism from the progressives might be the most egregious example of the new world making no sense, but it’s hardly alone.

World leaders in the west, for what they’re worth – which is absolutely nothing – are reciting from a hymn sheet, singing in perfect harmony about a world made green by ending fossil fuels.

Footage emerged this week of Canada’s PM, Blackface Trudeau, and our own Boris Johnson, laughing together at the G7 about who had arrived on the smallest jet plane.

They were laughing about their uninterrupted use of jet planes because to them the very subject is a joke. It’s a joke because for them nothing will change, while for us, the peasants, everything must change. Leaders like Trudeau and Johnson find the advent of this new reality very funny indeed, because it’s another opportunity to laugh at us – us every day folk, fearful about feeding our families, heating our homes, ever-rising inflation, that sort of thing.

The nonsense – or rather, the absolute absence of sense – trickles down from on high and puddles around the feet of the gullible and the hypocrites.

The Glastonbury music festival was the return of the annual pilgrimage of the woke and worthy – fittingly enough, at Worthy Farm of all places. It is the gathering, all in one place, of the hundreds of thousands who think they know best and are ready and able to part with hundreds of pounds just to get beyond the high fences and onto the holy ground. Talk about no borders.

When it was all over, they left in their woke wake uncountable tons of rubbish – single use plastic among it – scattered across the fields so that the farmland looked like a pop up landfill site. Best of all, the organisers had provided chargers for electric cars. The initial price to top up a virtue vehicle was 80 pounds … dropped to a bargain low of 50 pounds after complaints. But wait … the chargers were powered by … diesel generators. There, at the heart of the high church of woke, was the very life blood of Satan himself – filthy old diesel. A statement on behalf of the festival even said that using the farm’s own diesel power had been deemed less harmful – less harmful – to the environment than installing a Tesla supercharger.

On and on it goes, the litany of the nonsensical.

We’re told to fear overpopulation – when reproduction rates throughout the West are way below the level needed even to sustain present numbers. All across the globe – from the US to Spain to here in the UK to Singapore and to Japan – population numbers are set to fall off a cliff. Who will work to earn the taxes? Who will take care of the elderly? Countless questions and not enough people demanding answers. It makes no sense.

At a time in history when we have the technology and the ability to feed all 7 billion people on the planet and more besides, we have global food shortages, the promise of famines in the Third World. We have a fuel crisis while coal, gas and oil lie untapped under the lands of the west, and while nuclear power remains pariah in the minds of those who would rather the poor got poorer, the hungry got hungrier and the cold got colder. Boris Johnson and Joe Biden find yet more billions of pounds to send to Ukraine and won’t lift a finger to do anything meaningful to help their own people face the advent of crisis and hardship.

It makes no sense. It makes no sense because, and here’s the hardest pill to swallow, it’s not supposed to make sense. This is planned. This is on purpose. It’s supposed to make us do what we’re told. It’s supposed to make us stop asking impertinent questions and just submit to The Man. It’s supposed to divide us, one from another until everyone feels alone. It’s supposed to make us scared, angry, cold, hungry and sick to death. And when enough us are scared enough, angry enough, cold enough, hungry enough and sick enough or dead … we’re expected to welcome the new world with open, spindly, incessantly jabbed arms.

But here’s the thing, my prediction is that it won’t work, this new world. It won’t work because it takes no account of the human spirit – the human spirit that learned more than two thousand years ago why totalitarianism was the enemy of freedom and life itself. That human spirit is still alive and kicking, by the millions.

I’ll tell you this much right now – I want nothing of their new world and so I’m having none of it. I know right and wrong when I see them.

I will not eat the bugs.

I’ll see you on the other side.

EU Caves Putin Wins, Transportation of Russian Goods to Kaliningrad Through Lithuania Will Resume


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on July 2, 2022 | sundance 

Two weeks ago, a NATO blockade of Kaliningrad, an outpost of Russia, was triggered when Lithuania blocked the transport of goods through Suwalki corridor.  According to the Lithuanian justification they were following through on NATO sanctions against Russian goods.  However, the escalation was very provocative toward Russia and discussions between Russia and NATO countries were tense.

Apparently, Germany was increasingly concerned the blockade was creating a scenario where Russian military were going to escort the transport of railroad goods to Kaliningrad, and that would lead to escalated military conflict with Russia. “German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is eager to avoid unnecessary provocations of Russia. He has repeatedly emphasized that he would do everything in his power to ensure that NATO does not become a party to the war between Russia and Ukraine. German soldiers are stationed in Lithuania and could become involved in a possible conflict.” {link}

The EU has now dropped the blockade and the transport of goods between Kaliningrad and Russia will resume.  The EU decision was made before the NATO meeting in Madrid concluded; however, it looks like NATO postponed the announcement until after Biden left in order to save face on the reversal of position.

GERMANY – The European Commission plans to issue a clarification that will allow Russia to resume sending supplies to the exclave of Kaliningrad via Lithuania. Berlin supports the idea, but some in Vilnius are not pleased.

[…] The move will put an end to a disagreement that had not only been a significant source of tension between Russia and Brussels – but also exposed deep rifts within the EU regarding the correct approach to Moscow.

[…] The European Commission clarification expressly applies to all EU member states, but it mostly only affects the situation in Kaliningrad. According to the document, Russia will be allowed to transport sanctioned goods to Kaliningrad, but only in amounts comparable to pre-invasion deliveries.

The policy that has been adopted by the Commission largely reflects the position of the German government. Berlin had been critical of the approach taken by Lithuania.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is eager to avoid unnecessary provocations of Russia. He has repeatedly emphasized that he would do everything in his power to ensure that NATO does not become a party to the war between Russia and Ukraine. German soldiers are stationed in Lithuania and could become involved in a possible conflict.

The rules for the transit of goods, Scholz said at the conclusion of recent NATO summit in Madrid, “must of course be established in light of the fact that this is about shipments between two parts of Russia.” The comment made it clear that Berlin has a different interpretation of the legal situation than the government in Lithuania. (read more)

Massive Implications, Saudi Arabia in Discussion to Join BRICS Coalition – The Outcome Would be Global Energy and Economic Cleaving


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on July 2, 2022 | sundance

It is very curious timing in this article from Newsweek, containing massive geopolitical implications, using identified Saudi Arabia sources, would come in advance of Joe Biden’s visit to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Is this strategic geopolitical pressure from Saudi leader Mohamed Bin Salman (MbS) ahead of the meeting with Biden; or is this a genuine possibility that looms as likely?  If the former, then Joe Biden is being geopolitically slow roasted by Saudi Arabia for his previous disparagements and ideological hypocrisy in his visit.  If it is the latter, well, then the tectonic plates of international trade, banking and economics are about to shift directly under our American feet.

We have been closely monitoring the signs of a global cleaving around the energy sector taking place.  Essentially, western governments’ following the “Build Back Better” climate change agenda which stops using coal, oil and gas to power their economic engine, while the rest of the growing economic world continues using the more efficient and traditional forms of energy to power their economies.

This article from Newsweek is exactly about this dynamic with Saudi Arabia now potentially joining the BRICS team.

NEWSWEEK – Finland and Sweden’s green light to join NATO is set to bring about the U.S.-led Western military alliance’s largest expansion in decades. Meanwhile, the G7, consisting of NATO states and fellow U.S. ally Japan, has adopted a tougher line against Russia and China.

In the East, however, security and economy-focused blocs led by Beijing and Moscow are looking to take on new members of their own, including Iran and Saudi Arabia, two influential Middle Eastern rivals whose interest in shoring up cooperation on this new front could have a significant impact on global geopolitical balance.

The two bodies in question are the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and BRICS. The former was established in 2001 as a six-member political, economic and military coalition including China, Russia and the Central Asian states of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan before recruiting South Asian nemeses India and Pakistan in 2017, while the latter is a grouping of emerging economic powers originally consisting of Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) upon its inception 2006, and including South Africa in 2010.

Here is the money quote:

[…] “China’s invitation to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to join the ‘BRICS’ confirms that the Kingdom has a major role in building the new world and became an important and essential player in global trade and economics,” Mohammed al-Hamed, president of the Saudi Elite group in Riyadh, told Newsweek. “Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 is moving forward at a confident and global pace in all fields and sectors.”

[…] “This accession, if Saudi joins it, will balance the world economic system, especially since the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is the largest exporter of oil in the world, and it’s in the G20,” Hamed said. “If it happens, this will support any economic movement and development in the world trade and economy, and record remarkable progress in social and economic aspects as Saudi Arabia should have partnerships with every country in the world.” (read more)

That would essentially be the end of the petrodollar, and -in even more consequential terms- the end of the United States ability to use the weight of the international trade currency to manipulate foreign government.  The global economic system would have an alternative.  The fracturing of the world, created as an outcome of energy development, would be guaranteed.

Keep in mind, in early June Federal reserve Chairman Jerome Powell stated, “rapid changes are taking place in the global monetary system that may affect the international role of the dollar.”  {LINK}

The western alliance (yellow) would be chasing climate change energy policy to power their economies.  The rest of the world (grey) would be using traditional and more efficient energy development.  The global cleaving around energy use would be complete.

This is not some grand conspiracy, ‘out there‘ deep geopolitical possibility, or foreboding likelihood as an outcome of short-sighted western emotion.  No, this is just a predictable outcome from western created events that pushed specific countries to a natural conclusion based on their best interests.

You can debate the motives of the western leaders who structured the sanctions against Russia, and whether they knew the outcome would happen as a consequence of their effort, but the outcome was never really in doubt.  Personally, I believe this outcome is what the west intended. The people inside the World Economic Forum are not stupid – ideological, yes, but not stupid. They knew this global cleaving would happen.

For a deep dive on BRICS, as predicted by CTH, {SEE HERE}.  The bottom line is – the 2022 punitive economic and financial sanctions by the western nations’ alliance against Russia was exactly the reason why BRICS assembled in the first place.

Multinational corporations in control of government are what the BRICS assembly foresaw when they first assembled during the Obama administration.  When multinational corporations run the policy of western government, there is going to be a problem.

In the bigger picture, the BRICS assembly are essentially leaders who do not want corporations and multinational banks running their government. BRICS leaders want their government running their government; and yes, that means whatever form of government that exists in their nation, even if it is communist.

BRICS leaders are aligned as anti-corporatist.  That doesn’t necessarily make those government leaders better stewards, it simply means they want to make the decisions, and they do not want corporations to become more powerful than they are.  As a result, if you really boil it down to the common denominator, what you find is the BRICS group are the opposing element to the World Economic Forum assembly.

The BRICS team intend to create an alternative option for all the other nations. An alternative to the current western trade and financial platforms operated on the use of the dollar as a currency.  Perhaps many nations will use both financial mechanisms depending on their need.

The objective of the BRICS group is simply to present an alternative trade mechanism that permits them to conduct business regardless of the opinion of the multinational corporations in the ‘western alliance.’

The BRICS team, especially if Saudi Arabia, Iran and Argentina are added creating BRICS+, would indeed be a counterbalance to the control of western trade and finance.  This global cleaving is moving from a possibility to a likelihood.  If Saudi Arabia joins BRICS the fracture becomes almost certain.

Lab Leak theory gets HUGE boost from WHO Chief in secret report | Redacted with Clayton Morris


By Redacted News  originally Published on Rumble on June 26, 2022

A whistleblower is calling out the origins of Covid as a lab leak. Is this anti-China propaganda or a fault of the World Health Organization? Who is undermining WHO?

Biden Reality


Armstrong Economics Blog/Humor Re-Posted Jul 2, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

Hypocrisy


Armstrong Economics Blog/Uncategorized Re-Posted Jul 2, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

New York State New Gun Laws Include, People applying for a gun license will have to turn over a list of their social media accounts for officials to verify their “character & conduct”


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on July 2, 2022 | Sundance

New York Governor Kathy Hochul called a special session of the state legislature after the Supreme Court knocked down their firearm restrictions.  The new law, which passed both chambers of democrat-controlled government, takes effect Sept 1st and is unlikely to hold up once challenged in court.  The new law is stunningly over the top.

Keep in mind, when writing the majority decision Justice Clarence Thomas concluded there was no historical requirement that law-abiding citizens show the kind of special need for self-defense required by the New York law to carry a gun in public. Indeed, as Thomas wrote, there is “no other constitutional right that an individual may exercise only after demonstrating to government officers some special need.”

The latest effort from the New York assembly is outlined in an Associated Press report which includes:

(Via AP) […] Among other things, the state’s new rules will require people applying for a handgun license to turn over a list of their social media accounts so officials could verify their “character and conduct.”

Applicants will have to show they have “the essential character, temperament and judgment necessary to be entrusted with a weapon and to use it only in a manner that does not endanger oneself and others.”  As part of that assessment, applicants have to turn over a list of social media accounts they’ve maintained in the past three years.

[…]  The bill approved by lawmakers doesn’t specify whether applicants will be required to provide licensing officers with access to private social media accounts not visible to the general public.

People applying for a license to carry a handgun will also have to provide four character references, take 16 hours of firearms safety training plus two hours of practice at a range, undergo periodic background checks and turn over contact information for their spouse, domestic partner or any other adults living in their household.

[…]  Under the new system, the state won’t authorize permits for people with criminal convictions within the past five years for driving while intoxicated, menacing or third-degree assault.  People also won’t be allowed to carry firearms at a long list of “sensitive places,” including New York City’s tourist-packed Times Square.

That list also includes schools, universities, government buildings, places where people have gathered for public protests, health care facilities, places of worship, libraries, public playgrounds and parks, day care centers, summer camps, addiction and mental health centers, shelters, public transit, bars, theaters, stadiums, museums, polling places and casinos.

New York will also bar people from bringing guns into any business or workplace unless the owners put up signs saying guns are welcome. People who bring guns into places without such signs could be prosecuted on felony charges.

[…]  Gun advocates said the law infringes on rights upheld by the Supreme Court.  “Now we’re going to let the pizzeria owner decide whether or not I can express my constitutional right,” said Sen. Andrew Lanza, a Staten Island Republican. “This is a disgrace. See you in the courts.”  (read more)

New York state government is nuts.