Dec 13 2022

Governments Are Headed into Major Catastrophe

Armstrong Economics Blog/Gov’t Incompetence Re-Posted Dec 13, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

I pointed out at the WEC that all my efforts to try to defeat my own model have failed mainly because in our Republics, which are not Democracies, no politicians care about the future – only the next election, Whenever I would be in meetings and warn that we cannot keep borrowing indefinitely with no intention of paying anything off, the response was always twofold (1) they won’t be there in 20 years, it will be someone else’s problem, and (2) we are the government so we are the exception.

The Crisis in the London debt market was profound. The institutions no longer wanted the long-term debt for (1) interest rates were rising, and (2) pouring money into Ukraine for a proxy war with Russia always undermines the currency and leads to inflation. With the expectation of rising interest rates, whatever you buy in the long-term today is worth less tomorrow. It is like trying to buy stocks in the middle of a crash. Of course, those in government are indeed ignorant of how the economy functions in addition to science.

We lack expertise in government and the very structure of our governments being Republics dominated by Socialism, means that politicians are always only interested in the next election and constantly run for election with promises of free giveaways like they use to do 30 years ago – open a new bank account and get a free toaster.

There is simply no possible way to prevent the collapse of our Republican forms of government. But since the media promotes always one-sided leftist fake news, they will be leading us down the path of authoritarianism for the cancel culture is all about silencing any opposition. As Sagan points out, without skepticism we are doomed. What we must start planning for is the reconstruction of a new form of government post-2032 when this one collapses like Communism from its own corruption and weight. No revolution will be even needed.

Dec 13 2022

Bill Barr is Contributor to Bari Weiss Twitter File Release Website

Posted originally on the CTH on December 12, 2022 | Sundance

I’m not going to write extensively about this because I respect your intellectual ability to see the obvious. Questions have been raised about why the Twitter File releases appear to have been structured in a fashion to protect government interests.

Well, the new Bari Weiss website that was set up to launch as an exclusive outcome of the Twitter File release, includes a current contributor and former 2020 control officer of the DOJ who would have facilitated the DHS/FBI contact with social media; the stuff that is transparently missing from the Twitter File releases.

[ SOURCE ]

Yes, former AG Bill Barr is a content partner with Twitter File narrative engineer Bari Weiss. Gee, I wonder how that happens?

Oh look, and what a coincidence… they are both promoting Ron DeSantis.

Wait… Elon Musk is also promoting Ron Desantis… and Mr Musk is simultaneously promoting the Bari Weiss website that promotes Ron DeSantis… and contains Twitter File releases that are conspicuously missing the discussion angle of FBI influence in the 2020 election… Almost as if… wait, nah, that would be conspiracy talk. Just ordinary coincidences everywhere, for sure.

Dec 13 2022

Day Before Congressional Testimony, Sam Bankman-Fried Arrested in the Bahamas Awaiting Extradition Request from U.S. DOJ

Posted originally on the CTH on December 12, 2022 | Sundance

The timing is transparent, given all of the political donations organized by FTX Cryptocurrency CEO Sam Bankman-Fried for politicians, mostly Democrats, in office.

On the day before he was scheduled to give testimony to congress, a testimony likely to be entertaining with representatives asking specific questions about political contributions by the known fraud MBS to other specific members of congress, the cryptocurrency executive is arrested in the Bahamas.

(Via Daily Mail) – Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced former CEO of FTX, has been arrested.

The crypto billionaire, 30, was arrested in The Bahamas – where he has been hiding out since his $32 billion empire came crashing down last month – and he is now facing criminal charges in the US.

American prosecutors have filed the unspecified charges against the FTX founder, and are ‘likely to request his extradition.’

In a statement, Bahamian Prime Minister Philip Davis said: ‘The Bahamas and the United States have a shared interest in holding accountable all individuals associated with FTX who may have betrayed the public trust and broken the law.

‘While the United States is pursuing criminal charges against SBF individually, The Bahamas will continue its own regulatory and criminal investigations into the collapse of FTX, with the continued cooperation of its law enforcement and regulatory partners in the United States and elsewhere.’ (read more)

Dec 12 2022

Maker of Electric Jeep Vehicles Closing Illinois Plant and Moving to Mexico

Posted originally on the CTH on December 11, 2022 | Sundance

Stellantis is a multinational automaker contracted for the electric version of the Jeep Cherokee. Citing high costs to produce electric vehicles, on Friday Stellantis announced a decision to idle the Belvedere, Illinois plant starting on Feb. 28, 2023, and notified 1,350 workers of the layoffs.

(Via Fox) […] “This difficult but necessary action will result in indefinite layoffs, which are expected to exceed six months and may constitute a job loss under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act. As a result, WARN notices have been issued to both hourly and salaried employees,” it said. “The company will make every effort to place indefinitely laid off employees in open full-time positions as they become available.”

Today The Daily Mail is reporting that production of the electric Jeep will take place in Mexico.

Hundreds of workers are expected to be laid off when automaker Stellantis closes an assembly plant in northern Illinois early next year, citing the challenge of rising costs of electric vehicle production.

The company, which employs about 1,350 workers at the plant in Belvidere, Illinois, said the action will result in indefinite layoffs and it may not resume operations as it considers other options.

Stellantis said the industry ‘has been adversely affected by a multitude of factors like the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the global microchip shortage, but the most impactful challenge is the increasing cost related to the electrification of the automotive market.’

The Belvidere plant, produces the Jeep Cherokee SUV, will be idle starting on February 28, 2023, Stellantis said. The plant in Toluca, Mexico will now produce the vehicles. (read more)

One aspect of this move that deserves additional attention is the U.S. and Canada focus on new energy policy, against the backdrop of Mexico telling the Biden administration the USMCA partner was going to continue development of traditional oil, coal and natural gas energy production.

Should Mexico continue to maintain a more traditional energy policy, they will likely create a greater cost incentive for all manufacturers. With electricity rates skyrocketing in the U.S. and Canada, any energy dependent manufacturer would see an additional advantage to production in Mexico.

It will be worthwhile watching this dynamic closely and seeing what type of pressure the Biden administration will apply to Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez-Obrador to fall in line.

Dec 9 2022

A First Amendment Issue Beyond Belief

Armstrong Economics Blog/Rule of Law Re-Posted Dec 8, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

You have to understand that we actually have ZERO rights. The Constitution is NEGATIVE meaning it is actually a restraint upon the GOVERNMENT rather than a positive list of rights that we have. That is how the media and social media have been violating the principles of free speech we thought we had. That is why any private platform can do whatever it wants because we have no actual right to freedom of speech – only that the government SHALL NOT restrict our speech.

This introduced what I believe will be an explosive issue in 2023. Already the Emails between an employee at the United States (US) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Twitter have revealed that at least one CDC staff member and the US Census Bureau had access to Twitter’s dedicated “Partner Support Portal” which allows approved government partners to flag content to Twitter for censorship. New Zealand has already admitted to having access to Twitter in the same manner to censor speech.

This is a MONUMENTAL event for linking the government to the backdoor of Twitter means that the government has violated the First Amendment right to Free Speech and that then becomes actionable. It will not be long before we see class-action lawsuits and this is not excusable under Sovereign Immunity for this is DELIBERATE. The emails that have been released by the nonprofit organization America First Legal show that Twitter was enrolling a CDC employee into this portal through their personal account in May 2021 (pages 182-194).

Then we have the Missouri v. Biden case which has the potential to become perhaps the most important civil liberties case of 2023 and may rise to that of decades. The case was brought by Missouri and Louisiana, along with other individual plaintiffs and it asks the court to bar the government from colluding with social media companies to limit free speech. Now even Jen Psaki will be deposed.

We are on the verge of cracking open the entire corruption of government insofar as their deliberate acts to skirt the First Amendment by pretending that it is the private sector that is engaging in the Cancel Culture – not at the direction of the government. There is enough ammunition here to possibly blow a hole in this entire Cancel Culture. The problem will be getting the press to report the truth when they are the very people who have conspired with the government to circumvent the First Amendment.

We may be looking at the very beginning of the collapse in confidence long-term, which is what 2032 is all about.

Dec 9 2022

Latest Release of Twitter Files Highlight the Mechanics of Controlling Platform Information, With Former U.S. Intel Officials

Posted originally on the CTH on December 8, 2022 | Sundance

The latest release of information behind the controversial “Twitter Files”, comes from Bari Weiss complete with the strategic promotion of a new website [The Free Press] launching via the booster provided by their access to the internal Twitter documents.

Curiously intelligent people will note the Weiss website is structured to support the 2024 presidential bid of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who is, not coincidentally, riding atop a multi-staged booster guided by Elon Musk and fueled by Wall Street billionaires.

For the moment, just note and I digress – but please do not miss the connections.

As noted by the former New York Times journalist, Ms. Weiss states, “the [website] authors have broad and expanding access to Twitter’s files. The only condition we agreed to was that the material would first be published on Twitter.” You can read the entire Twitter Thread Here, and with that, we look at what the current narrative consists of.

Overall, the story as released walks through the process that Twitter used to control users and as a consequence control the flow of information on the platform. Accounts were subject to restrictions, manipulations and other inorganic engagement controls depending on the ideology of the content being provided.

Twitter had teams set up to attach limiting flags within the Twitter platform that would essentially hide content the platform control officers did not want to see reaching a wider audience. As noted by Twitter employees Weiss writes, “we control visibility quite a bit. And we control the amplification of your content quite a bit. And normal people do not know how much we do,” one Twitter engineer told us. Two additional Twitter employees confirmed.”

What I find interesting is in segment/tweet #12 where Ms. Weiss reveals the existence of the top tier of Twitter control officers. “The group that decided whether to limit the reach of certain users was the Strategic Response Team – Global Escalation Team, or SRT-GET. It often handled up to 200 “cases” a day.”

I find it curious that Ms Bari Weiss mentioned several names in her expose’ yet failed to mention the name or curriculum vitae of the head for the Strategic Response Team, a fellow named Jeff Carlton.

Like former CIA head Mike Pompeo, Mr Jeff Carlton was a former U.S. Naval Intelligence Officer responsible for briefing White House officials where his responsibilities included his former work within the FBI counterintelligence division and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Apparently, these intelligence skillsets transferred nicely to his position as the head of Twitter’s Strategic Response Team.

[Source]

You can decide why Ms. Weiss failed to identify this intelligence operative, again – I digress. However, all of these revelations only align in one direction.

In the background of Jack’s Magic Coffee Shop (aka Twitter), was a system set up by the U.S. Dept of Homeland Security.

Controlling information, and ultimately shaping public opinion, was/is the primary responsibility of this internal Twitter network that was/is operating in a public-private partnership with the United States Government.

I have yet to see a single data point from any release that runs counter to the basic outline, in the background of Twitter you find DHS.

Twitter is simply a discovery vector to reveal the larger dynamic of DHS being in control of social media. That was the DHS/ODNI problem James Baker was trying to mitigate by his filtration of the released documents. The “Twitter files” are one tentacled element in a much larger story.

#1 Jack’s Magic Coffee Shop and #2 The Fourth Branch of Government

To put it in brutally honest terms, The United States Dept of Homeland Security is the operating system running in the background of Twitter.

You can debate whether Elon Musk honestly didn’t know all this before purchasing Twitter from his good friend Jack Dorsey, and/or what the scenario of owner/operator motive actually is. Decide for yourself.

For me, I feel confident that all of the conflicting and odd datapoints only reconcile in one direction. DHS, via CISA, controls Twitter.

Wittingly or unwittingly (you decide) Elon Musk is now the face of that govt controlled enterprise.

If you concur with my researched assessment, then what you see being released by Elon Musk in the Twitter Files is actually a filtered outcome as a result of this new ownership dynamic. And with that intelligence framework solidly in mind, I warn readers not to take a position on the motive of the new ownership.

Put simply, DHS stakeholders, to include the DOJ, FBI and Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), are mitigating public exposure of their domestic surveillance activity by controlling and feeding selected information about their prior Twitter operations.

If TikTok is a national security threat, then TikTok is to Beijing as Twitter is to Washington DC.

The larger objective of U.S. involvement in social media has always been monitoring and surveillance of the public conversation, and then ultimately controlling and influencing public opinion.

Dec 8 2022

Yellen Direct IRS to Audit Everyone for $600 Transactions Anyway

Armstrong Economics Blog/The Hunt for Taxes Re-Posted Dec 8, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

I really do have to wonder if my dog is smarter than most Americans who seem to have just lost their minds. My dog makes connections, anticipates what I will do, and studies my habits to predict and respond. I never knew a dog was really smart. She has learned numerous words and I have had to even spell certain words for she will respond if she hears the word. Dogs are indeed far more intelligent than I ever expected. Various studies show a dog is typically as intelligent as a two-year-old human. I can point in the sky at an airplane and she looks up. Not even a chimpanzee does that, or apparently most Americans. If you point to evidence they will not look.

The majority of Americans just listen to the propaganda, never questions anything, and assume the government is always telling them the truth because they care. Janet Yellen tried to get Congress to pass a formal act that banks and everyone had to report on Americans for every $600 transaction. Congress refused and her story was they were after the evil super-rich. The problem, the rich really are not selling stuff on eBay, using cash apps for side deals. That is the realm of the young and lower income.

So after the Biden Administration lost that battle, they simply told the IRS to do it on their own. Any transaction online over $600 is not subject to audit and you will find out the real reason they hired 87,000 armed IRS agents. You certainly do not need 87,000 IRS Agents to hunt down the 735 billionaires in the United States. They outright lie to your face, and many cheer.

People will NEVER wake up it seems. I have known politicians who actually believe that EVERYTHING belongs to the state, they decide on how much you are allowed to keep. They must have sipped history class for virtually EVERY Revolution in history was inspired by taxes. Even the famous line from Shakespeare “the first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers” actually refers to the king’s prosecutors for private people had not right to a lawyer. It was all about a revolution and the “lawyers” were confiscating people’s houses for their inability to pay taxes.

The American Revolution was also sparked by taxation. Remember the French Revolution and the slogan they attributed to the King’s wife – let them eat cake was also all about taxes and oppression

Dec 8 2022

Time Magazine Bestows “Person of Year” Award to the World’s Largest Beneficiary of Taxpayer Funding

Posted originally on the CTH on December 7, 2022 | Sundance

Comrade rebels, this is as fitting an attribution as one could make, given the state of international affairs.

Time Magazine has decreed their oft coveted “Person of The Year” award to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the world’s richest man as delivered by congress via U.S. taxpayers.

The actor-turned-president was bestowed the honor during an announcement on Wednesday by Time Magazine Editor-in-Chief Edward Felsenthal on the TODAY show.

The media outlet credits Zelenskyy’s courage, leadership and magnanimous stewardship of Ukraine’s defense, as well as victory in framing the international public image of the embattled nation.

(Via NPR) – […] “Whether one looks at this story of Ukraine with a sense of hope or a sense of fear, and the story is, of course, not fully written yet … Zelenskyy has really galvanized the world in a way we haven’t seen in decades,” Editor-in-Chief Edward Felsenthal said when revealing the news on the TODAY show.

The cover features a profile of Zelenskyy in his classic army-green sweater, surrounded by individual figures and crowds of protesters. They are interspersed with bright yellow sunflowers and blue-and-yellow Ukrainian flags. (read more)