Category U. S. Politics

Mar 16 2022

Col Douglas Macgregor Gives His Current Status Perspective on Ukraine Conflict


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on March 16, 2022 | Sundance

Trying to provide alternate perspectives on the status of the conflict in Ukraine, Aaron Mate of the Grayzone asks Col Douglas Macgregor his take on the dominate narrative in the US that militarily this is a disaster for Russia.  Colonel Macgregor outlines that western media has a specific narrative diminishing reality and filled with wishful thinking. Max Blumenthal follows up with a question on the military situation.

Col Macgregor’s take is the entire Russian Operation is focused on the Military Destruction of the Ukrainian Army. The Russian Army is largely successful in this goal, but it is going slow, because of the Russian intent to maintain critical infrastructure. The Azov Battalion’s operations Mariupol also comes up as point of discussion as one of the dynamics of the conflict.  WATCH:

The Full Two Hour Podcast Interview is HERE

Mar 16 2022

Russia, India Exploring New Trade Payment Channels in Aftermath of Sanctions


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on March 15, 2022

The BRICS trade and economic partnership group is made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa {GO DEEP}.  The alliance was originated in part to explore alternatives to the dollar as a global trade currency.  They discussed several options in their prior meetings long before Russia took action into Ukraine.

With western sanctions against Russia now in place, there are increasing reports that China and India have developed alternatives.  This is one such example:

(Via LiveMint) – Russia, many of whose banks have been cut off from the Swift financial network, is exploring opening alternative payment channels with India, including linking Unified Payments Interface (UPI) with the Faster Payments System (FPS) of the Bank of Russia, to continue cross-border trade.

According to Dmitry A. Solodov, a spokesperson for the Russian embassy in New Delhi, his government has also asked Indian lenders to connect to the financial messaging system of the Bank of Russia to facilitate interbank transactions. In addition, the two sides are discussing accepting RuPay and MIR Cards within national payment infrastructures, Solodov said in an emailed statement.

“All these options are on the table and are being discussed by the two governments, the Reserve Bank of India and the Bank of Russia,” said a senior Indian government official, requesting anonymity. (read more)

Xi Jinping (China), Vladimir Putin (Russia), Jair Bolsonaro (Brazil), Narendra Modi (India) and Cyril Ramaphosa (South Africa), the BRICS group.
Mar 15 2022

We’ve just suffered through a global pandemic…


Posted originally by Tulsi Gabbard  Published March 15, 2022 on Rumble

Mar 15 2022

Did Manchin Just Save the Federal Reserve?


Armstrong Economics Blog/Central Banks Re-Posted Mar 15, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

Once again Joe Manchin has broken away from party lines to prevent the Democrats from destroying the global economy. Manchin announced that he would not support President Biden’s pick for Fed chair, Sarah Bloom Raskin, as her personal views on climate change could drastically alter Fed policy. “I have carefully reviewed Sarah Bloom Raskin’s qualifications and previous public statements. Her previous public statements have failed to satisfactorily address my concerns about the critical importance of financing an all-of-the-above energy policy to meet our nation’s critical energy needs,” Manchin stated. “I have come to the conclusion that I am unable to support her nomination to serve as a member of the Federal Reserve Board.”

A group of senators wrote an urgent letter to Joe Biden in February, citing “concern about Ms. Bloom Raskin’s potential abuse of power to inflict harm upon the traditional fuel industry.” The Federal Reserve is intended to operate as an independent body that is not swayed by politics. However, Raskin is an advocate for pushing forward the Build Back Better agenda by banning investments in fossil fuels. In May 2020, Raskin wrote an op-ed that stated the Federal Reserve should simply refrain from investing in energy. “The decision to bring oil and gas into the Fed’s investment portfolio not only misdirects limited recovery resources but also… undermines urgent efforts to counter surging carbon dioxide and methane emissions, which are bringing us closer to the catastrophe of an unlivably [sic] hot planet,” she stated. She reiterated her position countless times and has urged all financial regulators and auditors to “mitigate climate-related threats by stepping forward and incentivizing a rapid, orderly, and just transition away from high-emission assets.”

The letter penned by concerned senators claimed that Raskin is an “activist” who is unfit to be placed in a top leadership position at an allegedly non-partisan central bank. Interestingly, the letter was penned before the war in Ukraine that has only led to worsening energy prices. The Federal Reserve is the most important financial entity in the United States, and the United States is currently the leader of the global economy. Biden is showing the people once again that he does not care about them or the economy by appointing someone dangerously unqualified to support this New Green World Order. The Biden Administration is continuing to back Raskin and has said that any claims against her are simply baseless lies funded by the evil fossil fuel industry. The only way Raskin could be appointed now would be for one Republican to back her nomination, which seems quite unlikely.

Mar 15 2022

Hispanic Population Abandoning Democratic Party


Armstrong Economics Blog/Politics Re-Posted Mar 15, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

The Hispanic population will now have access to the first conservative network tailored to the Spanish-speaking community in the United States. The network, Americano, will first premiere on SiriusXM radio before hitting TV screens this summer. This comes at a crucial time in US politics ahead of the midterm elections. Americano CEO Ivan Garcia-Hidalgo said that the Democrats should be afraid.

“They’re scared. And they should be. Democrats took Hispanics for granted for too long, and no one thought to create a home for us in conservative media. There is an appetite for this. You see it on social media. You see it in elections,” Garcia-Hidalgo stated.

Countless articles surfaced during the 2020 US Presidential Election condemning Hispanics from voting outside the Democratic Party. Six in ten Hispanic voters selected Biden on the 2020 ballot, but the number who identified as Democrats declined eight percentage points from the 2016 election. Spanish-speakers who lived under Communist rule, such as Cubans, were more likely to vote for the GOP. They have seen the Marxist dream and know it is far from Utopia.

By January 2021, Biden’s support among Hispanic voters plummeted from 59% to 28%. “Sadly, during the course of the pandemic, one-third of our small businesses have closed,” a tone-deaf Kamala Harris stated. Many Hispanic business owners who came to the US for the American dream were affected. The CDC noted that Latinos were hurt by the coronavirus more so than other ethnic minority groups. Although the media would like people to believe that all Hispanics support Biden’s handling of the border, only 23% noted approval in a January Quinnipiac Poll.

Add to this that Latinos are more likely to hold Christian family values, which is in contrast to many Democratic policies and beliefs. A conservative news outlet designed for the large Spanish-speaking population is long overdue.

Mar 15 2022

Elizabeth Warren Promised High Gas Prices, Joe Biden Delivered Them


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on March 14, 2022 | Sundance

In September of 2019, Elizabeth Warren promised to do something on her first day in office that would rebuild the Russian economy, grow China’s influence and support the Maduro regime in Venezuela.  We immediately wrote about it HERE.

SEPT 7, 2019 – Democrat presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren has made a campaign promise that was quite remarkable:

What Senator Elizabeth Warren promised in that tweet is EXACTLY what Joe Biden did on his first day in office.   Now, before going further, let me explain something about that relationship that will likely make a lot more sense.

You might remember when all the democrat candidates in the 2020 primary were told to drop out right before Super Tuesday, as part of the organized effort to stop Bernie Sanders from becoming the nominee.  The lone holdout was Senator Elizabeth Warren.  She was polling essentially even with Joe Biden while Bernie was leading.

It was very well documented at the time that Senator Warren was negotiating terms with the Biden team for her compliance and support.  Eventually, as the controlled party momentum grew, Warren agreed to drop out of the race, and she endorsed Joe Biden.  The terms of that agreement were never made public, but when we look at the priority of Warren (tweet), and compare it to the literal duplication of that pledge that was carried out by Joe Biden, well, the coincidence doesn’t look coincidental.   I digress…

Back to the original statement by Warren.  At the time she made this statement in 2019, we outlined a very specific series of consequences that would happen if she really did target fossil fuel on day one.  Now that Joe Biden has carried out exactly what Warren outlined, let’s go back to that 2019 outline of consequences and compare it to where we are today.

SEPTEMBER 2019 – The consequences of such policy are not esoteric; they are very real and very serious.  Who would immediately benefit from Warren’s policy: Russia, China, Iran and Venezuela. Who would suffer – Americans.  Here’s how…

Within the first 24 hours of Elizabeth Warren’s presidency she is promising to dramatically raise the price of Oil and Natural Gas.  This will:

  • Immediately hand Vladimir Putin hundreds of billions worth of enhanced Russian energy exports.  A windfall of economic growth that will mean Russian policy expansion globally.
  • Support the regime of Venezuelan dictator Maduro who relies on oil production and pricing to keep his socialist government in place.
  • Expand the influence of China; and increase the value of Beijing’s investments in Russian energy and 49% state in PDVSA (Venezuela).
  • Immediately help the Iranian economy; enhance the stranglehold of power by the Mullah’s over the Iranian people; help fund terrorist actions globally, and specifically create terrorist attacks in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Libya and Israel.
  • Return U.S. policy and strategy back to a position of dependence on OPEC nations; so we can expect more U.S. military involvement in the middle-east (as above).
  • Destroy growth in American wages , and set up energy policy that will drive further industrial manufacturing out of the U.S. and into Mexico and Asia.
  • Simultaneously drive up the price of electricity in the U.S, further exacerbating the financial costs and losses to the U.S. middle class.
  • Raise gas prices back to Obama-era rates $5/gal.
  • In turn this will drive up the cost of transported products, and U.S. food prices will jump approximately 20% as massive inflation hits highly-consumable categories first.
  • The collective impact of the four domestic points above will drive down the ability of consumers to spend on other goods.  The U.S. economy is two-thirds dependent on consumer spending…. The collective impact means economic contraction.

Candidate Elizabeth Warren is promising to deliver these results in the first 24 hours of her administration if she was to win the presidency.

Senator Elizabeth Warren has never worked in the private sector, nor has she created anything that is materially not connected to government expansion.  She is proposing policy without any comprehension of downstream impact on a domestic, international, geopolitical or national security basis.  Senator Warren promises these impacts in her first 24 hours in office.

{BREAK}

Everything written above was written in 2019 and predicted to happen if the President were to: “sign an executive order that puts a total moratorium on all new fossil fuel leases for drilling offshore and on public lands. And ban fracking—everywhere.”

On his first day in office, Joe Biden did exactly that.

FORBES – “Through an executive action, Biden revoked permits for the Keystone XL Pipeline and put a temporary moratorium on oil and gas leasing in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, moves hailed by environmental and indigenous activists.” (link)

MONEY MARKETS – “President Biden signed an executive order pausing new federal oil fracking leases. (link)

CNBC – “Biden’s orders direct the secretary of the Interior Department to halt new oil and natural gas leases on public lands and waters, and begin a thorough review of existing permits for fossil fuel development.” (link)

Now, think about where we are right now with gasoline prices and food store prices and inflation.  Scroll back up and look at what was predicted to happen in 2019 if those energy policies and executive orders were carried out.

Don’t tell me no one could see this coming.  Everything from the strength of the Russian position, providing them the economic leverage to enter Ukraine, to the current gas prices and food inflation is a natural outcome of those specific policies.

Last point – While I have no inside knowledge to make the case definitive, it certainly does look to me like the terms of Warren’s exit and endorsement were delivered by Joe Biden on his first day in office.  Now we are feeling the consequences.

Mar 15 2022

Whoops, Narrative Shifting – Ex British Special Forces Reported Among Victims of Russia Strike Against Military Training Facility in Ukraine


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on March 14, 2022 | Sundance 

As with all things Ukraine, when the initial reports of the Russian cruise missile attack against the military training facility located near the border with Poland, we said to be cautious about western reporting of no NATO military personnel present, killed or injured.

The reason is for the warning was simple – if NATO is providing weapons and training, they’ve got to be doing the distribution and training somewhere in Ukraine near the NATO border.  Conduct war operations in a war zone, and you run the risk of war outcomes.

Now the Daily Mail is beginning to report on ‘missing, feared dead’ former British special forces operators likely killed in the blast.  As the story evolves, how long will it be before U.S. headlines carry similar missing U.S. “contractor” stories?

Most of the U.S. and NATO warfighting is carried out by independent contractors or mercenary groups now.  Ukraine is the perfect battlespace for that unofficial type of war fighter engagement.

(Daily Mail) – Three British former special forces soldiers are feared to have been killed in a Russian airstrike near the Polish border. More than 30 Russian cruise missiles targeted the Yavoriv base yesterday, killing as many as 180 people.

Igor Konashenkov, a spokesman for Russia’s ministry of defence, said the base was struck by ‘long-range, high-precision’ weapons because it was hosting ‘foreign mercenaries and a large shipment of foreign weapons’.

He added: ‘The destruction of foreign mercenaries who arrived on the territory of Ukraine will continue.’

Konashenkov said up to 180 people had been killed in the strike, though Ukraine initially said 35 people died and another 134 were wounded.

But a source told The Mirror today: ‘There were many more killed within the site than has been claimed and bodies are still being found.

[…] ‘This is extremely sensitive as there are believed to be no serving British military personnel inside Ukraine as politically that would be extremely controversial.’ 

[…] A Ukrainian officer said there were around 1,000 foreigners at the camp – officially known as the International Center for Peacekeeping and Security – at the time. (read more)

“1,000 foreigners” at the military camp, and we are supposed to believe none of them were American?

There’s a big motive to keep any American or British death quiet, because it would undermine the official narrative being broadcast by western media.  All of these mercenary soldiers know they are operating in an unofficial capacity in order to provide western government with plausible deniability.  That is the risk that “contracted” war fighters assume when they take the very generous money offered.  It’s a mess.

Keep watching.

Mar 15 2022

Steve Harrigan Returns From Ukraine With a Somber Message About the Situation


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on March 14, 2022 | Sundance 

Fox News correspondent Steve Harrigan returns from Ukraine with a somber message about the situation and likely future.   Harrigan notes that Russian victory in Ukraine is a foregone conclusion – Ukraine will be flattened if needed. However, that outcome comes at a serious cost.

The war inside Ukraine will wage on for years as an insurgency against Vladimir Putin.  The western alliance will spend trillions if needed.  NATO will kill as many Ukrainians and mercenary units as needed in order to battle Vladimir Putin in a proxy war.   The industrial war machine will gleefully churn out the material needed for the DC based political war machine to purchase.   First, WATCH:

Harrigan is correct, however, he missed the biggest tell-tale sign of all.  Where are the peacekeepers?  Where are the diplomatic voices, the ranks of the prudent and pragmatic political voices who focus on stopping the death?  Where are those voices?  Where is the faith-based voice asking for leaders to stop, breathe, meet and seek a solution without further war?

Those voices are silent because the western motive is to create a long-term insurgent war in Ukraine.  The geopolitical system views this as an existential battle against Russia.  Both sides in this conflict view this as a zero-sum contest.  The NATO alliance doesn’t view Volodymyr as a hero, he’s a tool.

If Zelenskyy were to walk toward a negotiated ceasefire, the bullet that kills him would come from the rear.  That’s how corrupt this conflict is.

ANNAPOLIS, MD – November 17:
Maryland Governor Larry Hogan holds a press conference to address COVID-19 concerns in Annapolis, MD on November 17.
(Photo by Bill O’Leary/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Mar 15 2022

The Republican Guard Prepares Offensive Weapons Against MAGA Influence – The Right Wing of the National UniParty Begins Assembling


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on March 14, 2022 | Sundance

With the Sea Island professionally Republican convention completed we now enter that time in Republican politics where the people who assembled for the gathering begin to seed the next election narrative.   The timing is not coincidental, yet few people pay attention, that’s where we come in.

The backstory on last week’s Sea Island meeting IS HERE.  We all know these people, though sometimes we can be distracted by their Machiavellian schemes and manipulations.  Exactly on cue, the Associated Press steps up to deliver the advanced revelations of the quiet discussion:

(VIA AP) –  Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan is planning trips to Iowa and New Hampshire. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., is considering a rough timeline for a potential presidential announcement. And allies of Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., are openly talking up her White House prospects.

More than two years before the next presidential election, a shadow primary is already beginning to take shape among at least three fierce Republican critics of former President Donald Trump to determine who is best positioned to occupy the anti-Trump lane in 2024.

Their apparent willingness to run — even if Trump does, as is widely expected — represents a shift from previous years when “Never Trump” operatives failed to recruit any GOP officeholders to challenge the incumbent president. But with the 2024 contest almost in view, the question is no longer whether one of Trump’s prominent Republican critics will run, but how many will mount a campaign and how soon they will announce.

Those close to Cheney, Hogan and Kinzinger expect one of them, if not more, to launch a presidential bid after the 2022 midterms. While all three are nationally known to some degree, their goal would not necessarily be to win the presidency. Above all, they want to hinder Trump’s return to the White House, at least compared with 2020, when his allies cleared the field of any Republican opponents and persuaded some states to cancel primary contests altogether.

“It’s there as an option, but it’s not necessarily because this is all some big plan so I can be in the White House,” Kinzinger told The Associated Press when asked about his timeline for deciding on a presidential run. “It’s looking and saying, ‘Is there going to be a voice out there that can represent from that megaphone the importance of defending this country and democracy and what America is about?’ There certainly, I’m sure within the next year or so, will be a point at which you have to make a decision.

“If it’s not me doing anything, certainly we’ll be all in for whoever can represent us,” Kinzinger said.  (read more)

Look, let’s cut through the bulls**t, because time is of the essence,and I have far too much respect for you to play the pretend game.  View that Associated Press article for the reality that it represents.

We all know the DC political system is fully aligned against We The People.  We are the threat to them.  The ordinary citizens of this great nation are the elements of society they must control in order to retain their illusions, power and influence.

There is only one overarching political party in Washington DC, and it is made up of two wings, Democrats and Republicans.  As voters enter the 2022 mid-term cycle, the aspect that matters to the DC UniParty is their ability to influence who we select as candidates for the November election.

Despite their earnest efforts, there is still a framework of a voting system that runs adverse to their interests.  To the extent that free thinking people can vote independently, the voting public will always be viewed as a threat.  Mitigating that threat is their primary objective right now.  THAT is the big takeaway from the Sea Island conference that just concluded.

The goal is always the same, protect the business operations in Washington DC at all costs.  With the 2022 election year upon us, and with the primary season starting soon, the GOPe wing of the UniParty must share and discuss their strategic defense initiatives.

People used to call this the “establishment” Republicans, but really, that’s too generic a word for what they do.  These are the deceptive elites – the lying, conniving, scheming bastards. They represent the vile pus at the bottom of a lanced boil from a rotting blue whale carcass that can stink an entire city.

They call themselves conservatives, hence “DeceptiCons” gets the specificity of their intent.

Engage deliberately.

Let’s roll…

Mar 14 2022

Trump Warned NATO of Europe’s Reliance on Russian Energy


Armstrong Economics Blog/Energy Re-Posted Mar 14, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

Everyone criticized Trump for condemning his NATO allies in 2018. At the time, only five nations were meeting their 2% GDP spending requirement on NATO defense, with the US paying around 5%. Trump suggested that everyone contribute 4% to build a stronger alliance. He never wanted to back away from NATO to support Putin, rather, he wanted to back away from NATO because he felt the US had been taken advantage of by its European allies.

Trump called Ukraine the wall between Russia and Europe and stated that America had become the “sucker country” by shelling out millions to Ukraine when they received far less in return. He warned Europe that their reliance on Russian imported energy would spell disaster and went as far as declaring that Germany was “totally controlled by Russia.” Instead of looking for energy alternatives, Germany went through with the Nord Stream 2 Pipeline and wasted billions as sanctions were implemented before the pipeline was fully functional.

Western world leaders failed us by using Russia as the easy solution for energy while simultaneously failing to have any diplomatic relationships with the country. The energy crisis was preventable.