Category War with China
Mid-Tier Donor Class Very Worried About Ron DeSantis 2024 Management Agenda
Posted originally on the CTH on March 25, 2023 | Sundance
...”The GOPe doesn’t quite realize, Donald J Trump isn’t the cause of their failure; he is the result of their failure”…
Before getting to the latest developments regarding the worries of the mid-tier donor class within the Republican apparatus, I want to provide some context for the overall Ron DeSantis (RdS) management agenda.
I can trace the origin of the RdS 2024 scheme to an originating timeframe in late fall 2021. It may go back further than that, but it is at least in place by the late fall of 2021. That means that everything within the professional Republican apparatus, those who manipulate the political events from the controlling wing of the Republican side of the UniParty, had RdS ’24 as the agenda throughout the 2022 midterm calendar.
With that context, the events around the 2022 midterms and the surprising lack of professional Republican gains in the midterm election, start to take on an entirely new Machiavellian light. Not necessarily the RNC corporation; rather, the subsidiary weaponized groups including the Republican Governors Association and the Senate reelection schemes spearheaded by Mitch McConnell et al. In hindsight, those were all done with the context of laying the groundwork for ’22 MAGA defeat and ’24 RdS rise as an outcome.
Throughout the first half of 2022, I was saying there’s no way the GOPe wing would be this stupid. This was based primarily by my own filter saying there had to be a limit to what they think they can pull off.
The Wall St, K-Street, multinational and billionaire funding into RdS during the spring of 2022 was massive, but I held a primary prism that RdS himself had to be smart enough to know it was a suicide mission. However, with the events that unfolded in July and August of 2022, it became obvious that RdS was going all-in on a management program for a 2024 bid.
Perhaps taken in by the intoxicating allure of money, perhaps it didn’t take much convincing, I don’t know. But it was clear the ’24 race was the pretext for everything happening in/around the RdS orbit, including the 5-days in the bunker after the Mar-a-Lago raid and the rebranding national image launch thereafter.
We all know the GOPe operational motive for removing MAGA from the base of influence; it no longer needs to be repeated.
Quite simply the America First agenda puts *their* money at stake, and collectively that amounts to trillions of dollars in multinational globalist financial control. The scale of the money behind the MAGA opposition is really the biggest challenge; it is almost unfathomable, and that scale is represented within the size of the war chest they assembled for RdS.
The top of this financial pyramid holds a grip on political power that is threatened by the worldview, outlook and economic nationalist policy of Donald Trump. The top this system will not ‘lose’ with America-First Trump, they will only gain at a slower rate. This group will not leave their throne, they only see a slower assembling within their vaults.
The Blackrock, Vanguard, State Street and WEF crews will follow the policy and invest in America, they will just hate doing it. They will hate the best-play of slower gains because the returns are not as lucrative, expedient or fraught with the simple indulgences of their custom.
However, underneath that top-tier, there are many layers of vested financial interests at lesser but more generational risk. The Cornwallis crowd will see a much more difficult time with America-First in place advancing their affluence and influence. Loss for them changes things. This is the group being discussed by the NBC article.
Remember, ultimately despite the power dynamic, they are few – the MAGA army is many. It is within these mid-tier donor groups we now see worry about whether RdS can fulfill his assignment as protector of the realm.
WASHINGTON (NBC) – A number of the Florida governor’s donors and allies are worried his recent stumbles suggest he may not be ready for a brutal fight against Donald Trump. Some feel DeSantis needs to accelerate his timeline to run for the GOP presidential nomination and begin directly confronting Trump if he’s to have any chance of thwarting the former president’s momentum. Others believe DeSantis should sidestep Trump altogether and wait until 2028 to run.
At a Sunday luncheon following the annual Red Cross ball in Palm Beach, Florida, a group of 16 prominent Republicans, described by one attendee as a mix of DeSantis backers and Trump “skeptics,” discussed misgivings about the governor’s standing for the future if he tussles with the former president.
“They liked him — many of them might even support him,” the person who was at the event said of DeSantis. “But they thought on balance that his long-term future was better without him trying to take Trump head on.”
“He will get scarred up” by Trump, the person added.
Then there’s conservative billionaire shipping goods magnate Richard Uihlein and his wife, Elizabeth, whose $500,000 in combined contributions ranked them among the most generous donors to DeSantis’ 2022 re-election campaign. A person familiar with the strategy around Uihlein’s spending said that right now, “The brakes are pumped,” adding, “The polling really made different people pause.”
[…] A GOP strategist who has spoken directly with donors in Palm Beach said that this is a week that should be good for DeSantis, considering his chief rival for the nomination could be indicted any day now. And the fact that it’s been so tough for the governor has given some donors pause.
“DeSantis is doing a book tour. He’s barnstorming the country, and his polls are going down,” the strategist said. “Meanwhile, Trump’s potentially under indictment, and Trump’s going up. It’s just not a good look for DeSantis.”
This person added that donors who have given to DeSantis over the past year or two are still open to supporting him for president, but they’re also starting to take a look at other potential candidates like Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., as DeSantis has “fumbled” big moments. (read more)
The problem for the DeSantis management team is the running for office while pretending not to run. However, if RdS were to announce his intent, he would need to resign from the role of Florida Governor due to the “resign to run” rule. Conversely, if RdS asks the Florida legislature to change the rule, it becomes essentially an admission of his intent. It’s the same thing…. So, this annoying pretending -which is obvious- is starting to really annoy voters even more.
As I think back to my own viewpoint in early 2022, I have completely changed my opinion on Ron DeSantis as a smart politician. He is not as smart as I was giving him credit for. In fact, this entire RdS 2024 operation simply affirms they really are that stupid. Desperate and stupid.
Neil Oliver – The Answer to Who Watches the Guards, Is Not Within The Question
For his weekly monologue, Neil Oliver ponders the collapse of checks and balances. The framework of new democratic norms where the government ruling elite police themselves and their conscripts for violations created by their own conduct.
Encapsulated within the question, “Who guards the guards,” Oliver outlines the answer is not within the question. It is not a matter of watching the guards, it is now time for people throughout the west to change the guards and throw out the self-policing bums. WATCH:
[Transcript] – Who watches the watchers? Who guards the guards?
The question was posed by the Roman satirist Juvenal 2,000 years ago, but it has never been more relevant. It’s applied now to remind us of the need to keep a watchful eye on those in power.
This should be our paramount concern now, when lies and liars are everywhere.
This week, former PM Boris Johnson told the House of Commons privileges committee he had not lied when he told the House that his own Covid guidance was being followed in No.10.
Note the word guidance – made especially interesting by the fact ordinary members of the public were, as I seem to recall, arrested, charged and fined for sitting together on park benches or on the beach. I’m not sure that’s how guidance normally works.
In any event, I honestly don’t care whether he lied or not to parliament. I don’t care if they were having cake or coke. This is a red herring, a sleight of hand, a tactic to distract the gullible. The point that must neither be overlooked nor forgotten is that neither Johnson nor anyone else at those gatherings was demonstrably afraid of Covid.
We know that because we have seen the photos of them standing together without masks. Standing apart and wearing masks was for the little people. We might also assume that we were being laughed at by those who knew there was nothing to fear and therefore no reason not to party.
Keir Starmer’s Labour party was the same – we saw those pictures too. He and they called for earlier, longer, harder lockdowns and all the rest, and then met for curry and beer and cosy chats.
Fear was for the little people and so Left and Right, Blue and Red and all positions and team colours in between laughed up their sleeves as the nudge units and the paid propagandists told us anyone breaching the regulations – sorry, I mean guidance – was a granny killing Covidiot and Pandemic Denier.
Look me in the eye and tell me it wasn’t so.
So, who guards the guards, who watches the watchers?
Let’s notice, among much else, that this is the Commons sitting in judgment on the Commons, which is to say politicians sitting in judgement on politicians. This is the guards, judging the guards. This is the same Commons whose inhabitants worked together in unquestioning lockstep to impose policies that ruined lives, wrecked livelihoods and upended the economy. This is the same Commons that, far from accepting responsibility for the carnage, is actively seeking to have us look the other way while they get about the business of doing nothing more than playing politics, all they’re fit for, fiddling while Rome burns. The is the same Commons that empties when one of their own stands to speak up on behalf of people killed or harmed by medical products pushed as vaccines. And trust me, I’ll get back to that safe and effective nonsense they pushed in a moment.
We never quite got to mandated jabs for all, but people all over the world were sacked for opting to live by the ideal of my body my choice, the notion enshrined in the Nuremberg Code that states that a person should at all times: “Have legal capacity to give consent; should be so situated as to be able to exercise free power of choice, without the intervention of any element of force, fraud, deceit, duress, overreaching or other forms of constraint or coercion …”
We didn’t quite get to mandates for the jabs for the general population, but I say it was a damned close-run thing. I say they were itching to mandate the vaccines. I say mandates weren’t pushed across the line in the end because enough of us made plain it would mean civil disobedience if not full-on civil war. I maintain that while they’ve gone quiet about lockdowns and face-masks, it can only be a matter of time before that playbook is brought out for the next crisis they can cook up. More and more are queuing up to distance themselves from the harms done during the last three years, while still priapic on account of all that unbridled power over the everyday lives of the tax-paying public.
Who watches the watchers, who guards the guards?
There are calls for a war crimes trial for Putin. What about a war crimes trial for Tony Blair while we’re at it? We hit the 20th anniversary of his unlawful war in Iraq last week – that unlawful war that led to over a million deaths, that destabilised the entire region to this day and gave birth to Isis. Wouldn’t the moral way to mark that birthday be a war crimes trial for all the people who took us there? And while we’re considering war crimes trials, shouldn’t we look again at precisely what successive United States administrations did in Korea, in Vietnam, and more recently in Libya, and in Syria and in Afghanistan and other sovereign nation-states too numerous to mention? Shouldn’t we look at what was done, and by whom?
US libertarian think tank the Cato Institute recently looked again at the behaviour of successive US presidents in relation to the Saudi Arabian horror show in Yemen. They reported, and suggested the appropriateness of war crimes trials for Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Joe Biden:
“Whose administrations serviced the US-provided warplanes, supplied munitions used to bomb weddings, funerals, schools.
“Whose administrations serviced the US-provided warplanes, supplied munitions used to bomb weddings, funerals, school buses and other civilian targets, gave intelligence used for targeting and for a time refuelled Saudi and Emirati aircraft.”
“US officials could not claim to be surprised at their culpability,” they added. “The state department warned that they could be held responsible for war crimes.”
“George W Bush is another good candidate for a trial on his aggressive unjustified attack on Iraq based on manipulated and fabricated intelligence. His war ended up killing hundreds of thousands of civilians as well as triggering years more of conflict. Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair today spending his golden years profiting after acting as Bush’s poodle would be an appropriate co-conspirator.”
Who watches the watchers, who guards the guards?
We are trained to fear Global warming … the warming of the planet … while that world burns still on account of the fire Tony Blair helped light in the Middle East with UK taxpayer-funded missiles and bombs.
Who watches the watchers, who guards the guards?
Let’s look again at the banks and the simmering chaos there … in that world in which banks are secretive, privately owned businesses, in which central banks have the power to create money out of thin air and lend the same sums over and over and over again while growing fatter and fatter on more and more interest and debt. Another former PM, Gordon Brown traded on and perpetuated a myth of being a safe pair of hands when it came to money matters. This is the same Gordon Brown who sold off half of the UK’s gold reserves at a knockdown price so low it was remembered ever after as the Brown Bottom and one of the worst deals in recorded history.
In 2008 Brown bailed out the banks with billions and billions of pounds worth of our money and those banks duly stayed open, the bankers kept getting their bonuses and nothing changed when it came to stopping their reckless games with fantasy money. We were sold down the river and now the banks are shaking on their fantasy foundations once again and for more of the same reasons.
Who watches the watchers, who guards the guards?
The MHRA – the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency is supposed to monitor the information we get about health and the safety and effectiveness of the drugs we are offered. But the MHRA gets 86 percent of its funding from the pharmaceuticals industry. Is that the recipe for unbiased behaviour always and only in the interests of the people? I’m only asking.
It’s the same the world over: 65 percent of the US Federal Drugs Administration comes from Big Pharma. Between 2006 and 2019, nine out of 10 FDA Commissioners went on to secure jobs with pharmaceutical companies. 89 percent of the European Medicines Agency funding comes from Big Pharma. 96 percent of the funding for the Therapeutic Goods Administration in Australia comes from Big Pharma. In Japan, the relevant agency gets 85 percent of its funding from Big Pharma.
No lesser publication than the British Medical Journal asked, in a headline over a recent article:
“From FDA to MHRA – are drug regulators for hire?’
Obviously, I couldn’t possibly say one way or the other. A recent report from Australia’s TGA – the Therapeutic Goods Administration – equivalent to our MHRA – a report made available only by a Freedom of Information Request – makes plain that in January 2021 it was known to anyone privy to Pfizer’s own data that the lipid nanoparticle was widely distributed all around the body.
All of this was known before the so-called vaccines were approved for injection into billions of human beings, from babies up. Those entrusted with our health care knew, in advance, that the tiny oily bubbles carrying the making of the toxic spike protein could and would go to brains, hearts, livers, ovaries, testes, everywhere, and they went right ahead and did it anyway.
Safe and effective they said, over and over and over. Misinformation, anyone?
If they were doing their jobs and reading reports like this, then Chris Whitty would have known, Patrick Vallance would have known, Antony Fauci would have known.
This information is out there now, in the public domain, though heavily redacted – and God alone knows what remains redacted – and so why isn’t this front page and main TV news all around the world? Why not?
Who watches the watchers, who guards the guards?
The answer is as stark as it is depressing:
Westminster awards itself the power to make laws, enforce those laws and decree the punishment for any transgressions of those laws. This is a textbook definition of the tyranny that our constitution, enshrined in Magna Carta 1215, was specifically shaped to prevent. And yet here we are – with the watchers watching the watchers, the guards guarding the guards.
It is as obvious as Boris Johnson’s estrangement from the truth that this tyranny should never have been allowed to evolve and that, since it has, we must not tolerate it a moment longer.
Decisions of importance must be made by those with skin in the game, but with no means to profit either directly or indirectly from the decisions they come to.
Who guards the guards is a 2,000-year-old question. Older by 500 years is the Tao Te Ching, The Book of the Way, by Laozi, the Old Master.
Last week a friend reminded me of words that sound as though they might have been written this morning:
“When rich speculators prosper while farmers lose their land. When government officials spend money on weapons instead of cures. When the upper class is extravagant and irresponsible while the poor have nowhere to turn. All this is robbery and chaos.”
Robbery and chaos – that’s what our leaders and their little wizards have inflicted upon us. It was true two and a half thousand years ago and it’s still true now.
That old book also warns us about:
“Those who try to control, who use force to protect their power … They take from those who don’t have enough and give to those who have far too much.”
This is how we will beat them, how we will win – by remembering what our ancestors learned long ago and finally, finally doing something about it.
Here’s the thing: it’s long past time to watch the guards. What we need, all over the West and once and for all, is a changing of the guards.
March 25, 2023 | Sundance
Medvedev warns The ICC Has Instigated an Act of Arbitrary War
Armstrong Economics Blog/Corruption Re-Posted Mar 24, 2023 by Martin Armstrong
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has warned the West and rightly so that the decision of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue an arrest warrant against his successor, Vladimir Putin, will have dire consequences for international law. But it would also justify immediate World War III. The ICC has been usurped by the Neocons and has lost all its integrity and authority whatsoever.
The Neocons who have seized control of USW Foreign policy are the aggressors and unless we overthrow them, we are headed into a dark period. They have divided the world economy and the loyalty of nations. Just as many who were in league with ancient Athens turned against them for their arrogance, history is repeating. Their usurpation of the ICC crossed the Rubicon.
Medvedev made it clear that the change in International law and the institutions themselves, such as the ICC, that were once to govern the world have been corrupted just like everything else the Neocons get their hands on. The No. 1 goal of Russia and China now in the context of this new divided world order is to reestablish international law.
Medvedev explained this on his Telegram platform.
“They decided to try the president (…) of a nuclear power, which is not a member state of the ICC
for the same reasons as the USA and other countries, … “There is a definitive breakdown of the international law system.”
As I have explained, the rule of the ICC is that they have no jurisdiction over nonmembers, and that includes Russia, China, and the USA. Even the former prosecutor at Nuremberg has come out in protest against the ICC. The Neocons have usurped the ICC and it is now just a corrupt court no longer worthy of any respect.
Full Piers Morgan Interview With 2024 Candidate Ron DeSantis – Video
Posted originally on the CTH on March 24, 2023 | Sundance
If I did not know the background of Ron DeSantis; if I did not have an exhaustive research library on the activity behind Ron DeSantis; if I was not aware of how the professional Republican establishment creates the ‘illusion of choice’; I would watch this interview with a generally good sense about Ron DeSantis.
However, unfortunately for the professionally Republican political class, we do know how they operate, and we are able to see the strings on the marionettes. So, when the selected and managed product of their three-year strategic plan says about fundraising, “I deal better with regular people,” we are able to call it as nonsense with accurate data to highlight the lie.
94% of all Ron DeSantis’ money comes from Wall Street, hedge fund managers, billionaires and multinational corporations. Only 6% comes from small donors, or what you might describe as “regular people.” {LINK} Additionally, you don’t spend 3-days with billionaire donors at Four Seasons donor retreat in Palm Beach, followed shortly by 3-days at a Club for Growth donor retreat in Miami, and then get to claim you “deal better with regular people.” This is just a lie.
There are parts of this interview that many readers here will agree with. There are also many parts of this interview that readers might take exception to. But the entirety of the hour long, mostly softball, Rupert Murdoch organized interview, is based on three years of carefully managed constructs. WATCH
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REMINDER: The Core Battle Begins Within the Republican Party
Posted originally on the CTH on March 24, 2023 | Sundance
Before the next article about the next entrant into the field of the GOP for 2024, a reminder is in order. This was originally written in November of last year in preparation for the 2024 GOP nomination battle that begins now.
An inflection point is coming. In preparation for what we are about to witness, it is critical to understand that both the DNC and RNC are private corporations with no affiliation to government.
It is a difficult shift in thinking to appropriately understand, but the party system in U.S. politics revolves around two clubs that feed from the same corporate trough and position for influence and affluence within a political dynamic they control.
The priority for both clubs, Republican and Democrat, is NOT primarily ideological. In the modern era, the corporate priority first begins with a battle over who controls each corporation.
As long as there is no challenge, the clubs operate without issue. However, when there is a battle for control of the corporation, a battle that will ultimately determine the financial outcome, the internal battle becomes the priority.
2024 is going to be the election season when we see this corporate battle explode inside in the Republican group. Decades of entrenched power are at stake, and there has been four years of counter positioning and backroom discussion leading up to this moment.
As a consequence, and I know this might sound odd to many people – but winning and/or losing elections becomes a secondary issue. The RNC is not focused on winning elections. The RNC corporation is focused on retaining control.
The RNC want to give the illusion of support for MAGA conservatism because they need the base voter, and they need to maintain the illusion of choice. However, every move they make on an operational level is exactly in line with their previous outlook toward cocktail class republicanism. The MAGA base of support cannot trust this corporate group and we must not be blind or unguarded about the Machiavellian schemes they construct.
When you hear the Sea Island influence group, specifically Ken Griffin, saying the two priorities for control of the Republican Club involve, (1) eliminating populism in the ranks; and (2) realigning with multinational corporate objectives (vis a vis Wall Street), what they are publicly expressing is their RNC corporate need to get rid of the America First economic agenda; to get rid of the MAGA influence.
How has this historically surfaced?
Well, at a national level there is a unique policy priority that almost every politician, on both sides, will avoid discussing. At a national level a single policy priority determines all other national policy outlooks. That policy is the national economic policy.
The national economic policy of a presidential candidate determines all other national policies that flow from the presidential candidate. The national economic policy impacts the obvious policies like energy and trade, and also determines the lesser obvious policies like regulation and even foreign policy.
It is specifically because a candidate’s national economic outlook impacts all other issues, that most national politicians never talk about it.
It would be impossible to support Main Street USA, a popular talking point, and still support the Paris Climate Treaty, the Transpacific Trade Partnership (TPP) or the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).
To avoid the contradictions, most Democrat and Republican politicians avoid discussing their national economic policy. It is an unspoken rule within the billionaire club and donor game, an economic code of omerta amid most political candidates.
President Trump broke the rule and even went so far as to campaign on an America First economic policy agenda. That core outlook forms the Make America Great Again foundation. MAGA is based on a national economic policy outlook that determines every other national policy as carried by President Trump.
While most Americans may not be able to articulate how the national economic policy impacts them, almost every American feels the consequences through gasoline prices, energy prices, employment, wage rates and the expenses within their everyday lives. To try and hide this reality, often media and economic analysts will say the U.S. President has no control over gasoline prices; however, this is unequivocally false.
Yes, it is true that oil prices are determined by the global market for the product, the supply and the demand. However, the energy policy of the president determines the domestic investment in natural resource development and extraction by oil companies. The energy policy determines domestic supply. The regulatory policy determines the expansion, or lack therein, of oil and gasoline refinery capacity. So yes, it is ultimately the U.S President who determines gasoline prices indirectly through energy and regulatory policy.
If this were not the case, then gasoline would cost nearly the same in almost every nation. It doesn’t. Right now, gasoline in Mexico is almost $1 less than gasoline in the United States, specifically because Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez-Obrador is not trying to reduce oil resource investment, development and/or gasoline refinery capacity.
President Trump was the first presidential candidate who campaigned on a domestic national economic policy. He even went one step further and stated the T-word, tariffs. Yes, the commerce department holds tools to support a national economic policy.
The tariff tool is another aspect to national economics that most politicians avoid discussing because the toolbox is counter to the interests of Wall Street, multinational corporations and hedge fund managers.
For a reference point you might remember the apoplectic fits from financial and economic punditry to President Trump’s 2017 and 2018 steel and aluminum tariffs.
Economic security is determined by national economic policy. National security is also an outcome of national economic policy. Again, President Trump was also the first modern president to put that outlook to work when he said, “economic security is national security,” and then began constructing a foreign policy agenda using the cornerstone of national economic policy. The result was quite remarkable and led to what eventually became the Trump Doctrine.
It was inherently the US national economic policy that underpinned President Trump challenging NATO to meet their financial obligations. It was national economic policy that drove trade policy and created the north American USMCA trade agreement. It was national economic policy that led to countervailing duties on Chinese and European imports. Which had the remarkable effect of actually lowering prices inside the United States.
We began importing deflation through lower priced goods as the value of the dollar increased and China/EU central banks devalued their currency to avoid the impact of tariffs. Asia and the EU also subsidized their export manufacturing with incentives in order to lower costs as an offset to the tariffs, while simultaneously Asian and European companies began investing in production facilities inside the U.S. as a long-term approach to retaining access to the U.S. market. To put it succinctly, this was MAGAnomics at work.
U.S. wages increased, U.S. job growth increased, U.S. energy prices dropped with increased energy development and a massive cut in regulations, and that in turn lowered the cost of domestic goods. Suddenly we were importing goods at lower prices and generating goods internally at lower prices. More MAGAnomic outcomes, which, not coincidentally, was the exact opposite of all Wall Street claims and predictions.
Making America Great Again, was an outcome of national economic policy. At its core, MAGA is a national economic dynamic within a political movement that is represented by President Donald J Trump.
It is critical to understand, the MAGA economic policy is essentially a national policy completely, and uniquely, under the control of the office of the President. The impact to the lives of Americans is a direct outcome from national economic policy. If a president wants to lead an independently wealthy country, he/she applies a very specific economic outlook to all other policy areas including energy, regulation and foreign policy.
It is also true that opposition to President Donald Trump is uniquely connected to the America-First economic agenda.
Multimillion-dollar lobbyist firms like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable, along with dozens of economically established SuperPAC’s funded by Wall Street and multinational corporations, are vehemently opposed to the America-First economic agenda.
All of the national politicians and political candidates taking money from these aforementioned groups necessarily bind themselves to a position that stands against the America-First economic agenda.
In essence, if you take money from the multinationals you cannot deliver on MAGA economic outcomes for banking, trade, finance etc. And that’s exactly where we run into the problem.
Because MAGA national economic priorities conflict with the multinational corporations, hedge funds and the Wall Street donor class, all of the politicians who accept the influence checks from these self-interested groups cannot run on, or deliver, a MAGA national economic agenda.
At a local, county and state level you have direct impact on the political policy agenda in your community. Who you elect to the city council, school board, state house and senate as well as governor’s office has an impact on those local and state priorities. However, national economic policy, national energy and trade policy and national foreign policy are not under your control.
As a result, the same skillset, or policy outlook, that makes a governor a successful state politician doesn’t carry into a federal office, [see the example of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker]. Yes, there are some executive and administration skills that carry over; however, on the bigger issue of steering the national policy agenda, almost every candidate for office comes with the baggage of having accepted donor contributions from a class of people who are paying for economic policy influence.
MAGA cannot be purchased. It is a political outlook that seeks only to enhance the best interests of the American people, regardless of consequence for the multinationals or foreign beneficiaries of globalist U.S. economic policy. Unfortunately, as a result, all of the beneficiaries are aligned to make sure the MAGA economic policy outlook is extinguished. There are literally trillions at stake. This reality underpins the opposition to Donald Trump.
When you understand why the national economic outlook of the President is so important, you can also understand why every political candidate is told not to discuss it by the handlers and campaign managers who are essentially selling their candidate to a millionaire and billionaire donor class who do not want an America-First economic policy agenda.
There is no easy solution for this problem, and ironically this core economic issue is where you find supporters of both Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump in alignment.
Where the Sanders and Trump camps split is on the solution. Team Sanders wants the government to play the role of economic referee (regulation), while Team Trump wants the government to change the rules of the economic game (countervailing duties, tariffs etc).
Before Donald Trump entered politics there was no home for people voting on the issue of a national economic agenda. Both Democrat and Republican candidates had essentially the same worldview on national economic policy because they are all getting money from the same multinational corporate trough. However, President Trump changed that dynamic by presenting an alternative national economic policy called America-First.
For decades middle America was begging the McConnell’s, Ryans, Boehners, Romney’s, McCain’s, Bushes, et al, to make America First economic policies their priority. All of our shouts for help fell upon deaf political ears plugged by corporate donations and influence. Our communities were literally collapsing around us (see rust belt), and yet no national politician would do anything of consequence.
By the time Donald Trump arrived decades of frustration exploded in an eruption of massive applause because he was articulating the central economic issue that was being ignored by the professional political class. The America First agenda is the restoration agenda. From Trump’s national economic policy, the middle-class erosion stopped. Economic security, specifically U.S. employment stability and wage rates, goes hand in glove with border security and immigration controls.
MAGAnomics is the core of the great MAGA republican coalition, a working-class coalition that cuts through all other distinctions and divisions. It is not republican because of political affiliation, it is “MAGA republican” only because the republican party was the political vehicle selected by Donald Trump to install the policy.
This reality creates a problem for the DC professional political class and the corporate media. Because MAGAnomics is the fundamentally binding principle there is no way to fracture the Trump supporter coalition.
I am a “MAGA Republican” by default of my wanting a national economic agenda that looks out for the economic interests of American’s first.
Donald Trump is the irreplaceable Great MAGA King because Donald Trump is the only one who holds that same outlook. Unfortunately, the Republican corporation does not carry that priority. Thus, the Big Ugly battle for control of the Republican Party is being previewed right now, and will grow in scale and consequence very soon.
Let me emphasize the key point. The Republican Party is not positioning to win the 2024 election.
The people in control of Republican Club do not care who is in the White House, that is a secondary objective. What they care about right now is controlling the Republican corporation and stopping the hostile takeover.
Every single Republican presidential candidate for 2024, sans Trump, will be inserted into the race to help the Republican corporation in this battle. When you see them enter, instead of asking, ‘how can they win‘, ask yourself what is their mission on behalf of the Club priority?
Things Are Getting Spicy in France as Mass Protests Turn Violent in Some Areas – Macron Declares This Is France’s January 6th Insurrection Moment
Posted originally on the CTH on March 23, 2023 | Sundance
History tells us the French ‘do revolution’ quite well, the current status of the protests against President Macron’s unilateral pension reform cuts are no exception.
Worker strikes have hampered France for over a week in protest to: (1) the pension reform; and (2) the undemocratic way it was enacted via unilateral fiat by the French President, Emmanuel Macron.
Today the worker strike turned to massive protests in the streets throughout several regions.
As the day wound down, those protests then turned violent as the ultra-left-wing “Black Bloc” anarchists began attacking police.
(Reuters) – PARIS, March 23 – Police fired tear gas and fought with violent black-clad anarchists in Paris and across France on Thursday as hundreds of thousands of protesters marched against President Emmanuel Macron’s plan to raise the pension age.
The ninth day of nationwide protests, mostly peaceful, disrupted train and air travel. Teachers were among many professions to walk off the job, days after the government pushed through legislation to raise the retirement age by two years to 64.
Demonstrations in central Paris were generally peaceful, but groups of “Black Bloc” anarchists smashed shop windows, demolished street furniture and ransacked a McDonald’s restaurant. Clashes ensued as riot police drove back the anarchists with tear gas and stun grenades.
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said 149 police officers were injured and 172 people were arrested across the country. Dozens of protesters were also injured, including a woman who lost a thumb in the Normandy town of Rouen.
[…] Police had also fired tear gas at some protesters in several other cities, including Nantes, and Lorient in the west, Lille in the north, and used water cannon against others in Rennes in the northwest. Labour unions fear protests could turn more violent if the government does not heed mounting popular anger over pension curbs.
Unions called for regional action over the weekend and new nationwide strikes and protests on March 28, the day Britain’s King Charles is due to travel to Bordeaux from Paris by train.
The main entrance of the Bordeaux town hall was set ablaze on Thursday, days before the monarch was due to walk through on his visit to the southwestern city.
On Wednesday, Macron broke weeks of silence on the new policy, insisting the law would come into force by year end. He compared protests to the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the U.S. Capitol.
[…] The French Interior Ministry said 1.089 million protested across the country, including 119,000 in the capital which was a record since protests started in January. The CGT union said 3.5 million people marched in the country, equalling a previous high on March 7.
“I came here because I oppose this reform and I really oppose the fact that democracy no longer means anything,” Sophie Mendy, an administrative medical worker, told Reuters at the Paris rally. “We’re not being represented, and so we’re fed up.” (read more)
World War III may break out against Russia in/around Moldova. However, another more widespread war may break out even sooner that has nothing to do with nation states.
President Putin Together with Chairman Xi, Warn NATO About U.K. Plan to Send Depleted Uranium Rounds to Ukraine
Posted originally on the CTH on March 22, 2023 | Sundance
The alarming provocations and escalations continue as the U.K. has pledged to send depleted uranium anti-tank rounds into Ukraine.
During a four-hour public meeting which included international press, Russian President Vladimir Putin noted the NATO intent to use depleted uranium artillery and tank missiles against Russian forces would be met with countermeasures.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu noted the British decision leaves fewer and fewer steps before a potential “nuclear collision” between Russia and the West. “Another step has been taken, and there are fewer and fewer left,” he told reporters in remarks cited by domestic agencies.
(Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday condemned British plans to send tank ammunition that contains depleted uranium to Ukraine, saying Moscow would be forced to respond accordingly.
Speaking in London on Monday, Minister of State for Defence Annabel Goldie said some of the ammunition for the Challenger 2 battle tanks that Britain is sending to Ukraine includes armour piercing rounds which contain depleted uranium.
“If all this happens, Russian will have to respond accordingly, given that the West collectively is already beginning to use weapons with a nuclear component,” Putin said in remarks after a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping. He did not elaborate. (read more)
Keep in mind, all remarks by the heads of state during these sessions are known in advance by both nations. Chairman Xi knew what Vladimir Putin was going to say. Additionally, at the end of their three-day summit, Chairman Xi made comments that were strategically positioned publicly to be overheard by international media.
Chairman Xi is cunning panda and is very well skilled at making statements in front of media that drive his own interests. These comments are always strategically placed by Chairman Xi and his people who plan every possible angle in advancing their agenda.
These end of summit remarks were specifically made by Xi, knowing they would be picked up on microphones by media, interpreted and then broadcast.
[…] “change is coming that hasn’t happened in 100 years, and we are driving this change together”.
I said it yesterday, and I will repeat it again:
All of these tremors point to a larger issue in the background of “western government” policy. Something is going to eventually erupt. Government cannot keep a lid on the chaos they create forever. Sooner or later a spark will ignite something… and it will not just be in France.
Do not focus too heavily on the weeds of any particular issue or nation lest we lose sight of the much larger dynamic. One thing is most certainly assured; Chairman Xi and President Putin can see that larger dynamic clearly, and there’s abundant opportunity within the geopolitical unrest.
I told you So
Armstrong Economics Blog/China Re-Posted Mar 22, 2023 by Martin Armstrong
For the life of me, I have stated the obvious that the Biden Administration has been pushing China and Russia together not to mention North Korea, Iran, and perhaps even Turkey. I cannot believe that I am so brilliant that none of these people in the White House understood the historical event that just took place. That leaves me with the only possible conclusion that they KNEW what they were doing, and that this was DELIBERATE with the intention of creating World War III.
They made it clear that Russia is willing to negotiate but the USA wants war – not peace. All they need to do is honor the Minsk Agreement which they refuse to do. In addition, they expressed concern about the West effectively creating NATO in Asia and the AUKUS (Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States) and their plans to build nuclear submarines that would violate the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
Russian and China came to an agreement concerning a comprehensive partnership in the energy sector. They also expressed concern for the American Neocons who have been pushing military-biological activities and demand full disclosure. They are furthermore pushing for the US to accelerate the elimination of its stockpile of chemical weapons, which the Neocons seem to be dragging their feet intentionally under the Biden Administration.
They also stressed that the United States is pushing Ukraine into this proxy war that they viewed as leading “to an uncontrollable phase.” Moreover, they have also pointed out that the United States and the UK are bypassing the UN Security Council and acting in a rogue manner. The Biden Administration has already divided the world economy. Now, China and Russia are moving to a joint security policy on food and energy which will include defense.
NATO is by no means a defensive organization. They violated the agreements of 1991 and moved Eastward to the border of Russia. In return, China and Russia have called on NATO to strictly observe the defensive nature of their organization and respect the foreign sovereignty of nations, which they have not. Aside from the fact that they invited Russia to join in 1991 which led to the Gorbachev coup, the need for Russia to be the evil empire has been vital. Without an enemy, NATO serves no purpose.
They have also expressed concern that the United States has clearly intensified its activities in the field of missile weapons and has called out the US insisting that it is undermining international security. The Biden threats have been rejected and imposing sanctions on China will only further destroy the world economy.
Without question, this alliance between Russia and China has been created by the American Neocons who assumed that they could intimidate China into remaining distant from Russia so they could wage war and destroy Russia once and for all. This has undone everything that President Nixon did to separate the two MNixon went to China on February 21, 1972, and this is 51.6 years from that target – just UNBELIEVABLE. This also confirms that we are staring into the eyes of history in the making.
Consequently, the China-Russian alliance is historically a true game changer. The Neocons have upset the entire world and NEVER do they ever consider what if their judgment was wrong. The world we have known it is changing and the Neocons have succeeded in undermining not just our future in the United States, but that of the entire world.
Just as World War I and World War II marked the collapse of the British imperial empire, the stupidity of the Biden Administration has sealed the fate of the world and the United States. The world is now firmly divided and the future will never be the same. Welcome to the 2023 Financial Crisis.
The Decline & Fall of the United States
Armstrong Economics Blog/Corruption re-Posted Mar 20, 2023 by Martin Armstrong
COMMENT: Hi Marty,
Seems to me the Democrats are following the time honored practice South American governments have resorted to in recent years when one party displaces another in a national election. In Brasil, the current president, Lula, spent 3 years in jail for charges of corruption. His successor was later removed from office. Now Bolsonaro has fled the country and is living in South Florida. In Ecuador, a past president, Moreno ,is under indictment and it appears he too will end up being arrested on trumped up corruption charges. In Bolivia, two term ex-president Evo Morales, after trying to run for an unprecedented third term, fled the country in 2019 when it appeared opposition to his run would potentially result in his being jailed. He fled to Argentina, then later got asylum in Mexico. The woman who replaced him was subsequently arrested on trumped up charges of conspiracy. IN Peru, which has gone through more presidents in recent years than most countries have experienced in a half century, has arrested the past 5 presidents. In Chile, the last president who served in office was run out of office for using the military to suppress protests. This was back in 2019. The revolution that led to the country abandoning their old constitution has put the country in chaos.. The current president is extremely unpopular and one can imagine he won’t last another year in office. In Colombia, the country now is run by a communist/socialist who is now flirting with an ambitious spending program designed to buy time and slow down the opposition building against him. In Argentina, the former president, Christina Fernandez Kirchner, is dodging charges of corruption(and just avoided being assassinated by a lone gunman) after presiding over another series of IMF sponsored funding that has left the country in a perpetual state of default. The socialist in office today, Fernandez, is one of a long line of failed presidents who is destined to be pulled under by the corruption so deeply embedded in this country.
Now the Democrats appear to have imported South America’s tradition of imprisoning opposition leaders.It’s hard to imagine a party as corrupt as that of the Democrats. But nothing happens in a vacuum. With Republican support in Congress during Trump’s term when they opposed him and did everything they could to undermine him, the uni-party now operates without even the slightest effort to disguise their true intentions. An outsider like Trump is anathema to both parties. It reminds me of the PRI in Mexico. which put forth its candidate every year pretending people there actually had a choice, It took AMLO to break this tradition. Only because the drug cartels today are so powerful, the central government is virtually impotent to extend its reach outside of the capital.
We are watching the dying days of this republic. Biden’s “election” has assured that no serious challenger can ever emerge.Locking up your opponent now has become part of their playbook. This is the tradition of the Sandinistas, the Peronists in Argentina, and now the Biden dictatorship.
MS
REPLY: People do not realize that Zelensky wants to imprison the former president indefinitely pending a rigged trial for corruption. This is the one man who could probably run against Zelensky and beat him with his high heel shoes. Zelinsky is so perverse and a disgrace to Ukraine when in fact it has been clearly established there is NO accountability for any money handed to Zelensky and any American politician who votes for this money for Ukraine should be removed from office for they are probably tainted as well.
It has been established that Zelensky has been stashing money offshore. When the last Ukrainian fall on the battlefield, the US will have him airlifted in style and he will flee to his mansion in Miami after destroying his own country. Zelensky has been caught. Who will prosecute him? Not the Biden Administration which owed him the Midterm elections for being the 2nd largest donor under the money laundering scheme of FTX which will also be swept under the rug to protect the corruption that has consumed governments.
The United States is NO LONGER the beacon of liberty to the world. We have descended to the lowest possible level of absolute duplicity and corruption. People are bearish about the dollar because of the quantity of money? Get real! The collapse in the dollar will not be because of such petty nonsense. it will collapse because these people are destroying the very foundation of confidence and respect the United States once had.
Centinel2012 