Category War with Russia

Jan 24 2023

Why do Neocons Want War with Russia?


Armstrong Economics Blog/War Re-Posted Jan 24, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

Lindsey Graham is the twin brother of John McCain. I had asked John McCain once why he hated Russia so much. He never responded with any reason. It was always the same nonsense he always spread before Putin and after. It has baffled me as to what the difference is between Germany and Russia. We do not belittle Germany or hate its people solely because of Hitler. When it comes to Russia, it does not matter who is president, nothing ever changes. Graham said:

“If Putin gets away with this, there goes Taiwan. If Putin’s successful in Ukraine and isn’t prosecuted under international law, everything we’ve said since WWII becomes a joke. He will continue beyond Ukraine.” 

Lindsey Graham is an outright neocon who will say anything to achieve his dream – the destruction of Russia even though it is not communist. There is absolutely ZERO evidence since the fall of the USSR that anyone has sought to conquer Europe. Both Hitler and Napoleon were seeking to re-establish the old Roman Empire and rule over all of Europe. Both attempted to take Egypt to relive the glory of Rome. Some say to fulfill the prophecy that the end will come when the Holy Roman Empire Rises for that will be the time when we die. Don’t worry, Putin does not aspire to that dream. I’m not so sure about the American Neocons.

To even say if Putin wins in Ukraine, “there goes Taiwan” is an absolutely delusional statement. If anything, China would be better off taking Taiwan as the US foolishly keeps sending military arms to Ukraine. The US has already transferred thousands of artillery shells from a military weapons stockpile in Israel to Ukraine. They did the same sending weapons from South Korea to Ukraine. It was reported back in March of 2022 that planes take off almost daily from Dover Air Force Base in Delaware filled with Javelins, Stingers, howitzers, and everything else they can fit. Likewise, Germany began the same in February 2022.

Just this past week, the US military warned Biden that Is the U.S. Running Out of Weapons to even send to Ukraine. The EU foreign policy chief  also warned that “the military stocks of most [EU] member states has been, I wouldn’t say exhausted, but depleted in a high proportion, because we have been providing a lot of capacity to the Ukrainians.”

While the US aid to Ukraine came in at $113 billion far greater than Russia’s budget of 65.9 billion, it is double the military budgets of both France and Germany. It is approaching 50% of the annual budget of China. Just looking at the military spending, Russia has not been preparing to invade Europe. This is absolutely an absurd argument.

John McCain has never changed his view of Russia regardless of who is at the helm. Politico called him the “American antagonist of Russia.” It was McCain who kept pushing NATO Eastward up to the border of Russia all on his claims that if the West does not expand NATO, then Russia will. He proclaimed that those in power did not want to restore the “Soviet Union, but the Russian empire.” There was NEVER a single move that Russia ever made to imply that theory was remotely correct post-1991 and the fall of the USSR.

Lindsey Graham is carrying the banner of hatred for all Russians. It does not matter if Russia overthrows Putin, he dies, or retires. He will still hate Russia and want an all-out war to destroy Russia wiping it off the map once and for all.

The Russian people like Europeans and Americans, do not want war. Like everyone else they just want to enjoy life and take care of their families. It is always the leaders who create all the wars. We are just the dirt beneath their feet – the great unwashed who are always expendable because there are too many of us anyway.

This hatred of Russia is a strategic psychological tactic to sell the idea of war to the common people so they are willing to die for something they think is noble. Not much different from the young arab terrorists who are told this is a holy war and God will reward them if they blow themselves up. The leaders there too will never blow themselves up either.

So why do people like Lindsey Graham just hate Russians and wants war at all cost? It is hard to say. We do not hate Germans today because of Hitler. So why do we hate Russians because of Stalin? One thing is for sure, this hatred of Russia is exhausting our own conventional military supplies so while we cheer claiming Ukraine is winning, we will not be in a position to defend even ourselves if China and North Korea, as well as Iran, decide to join the party.

Jan 24 2023

The Good News Nuclear War Will Save the Planet


Armstrong Economics Blog/Energy

Posted Jan 24, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

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Most of these people like Al Gore, Kerry, the mainstream media, Rhinos, democrats, and Bill Gates seem to actually believe in climate change for they are displaying the most stupid form of analysis invented by the lowest possible intelligence level of society. Hey, it’s warmer today than when I was a kid so we must be causing it. There has been ZERO research into climate on any of their parts to even test their theory. They all project that we are headed toward an environmental Armageddon if mankind does not immediately end fossil fuels. Not a single one has bothered to even consider that switching to electricity curiously makes society extremely vulnerable. If I were China looking to take down the West, I would be pushing this agenda at light speed. The first thing you do is take down the power grid and society will crumble in less than 72 hours. Using digital currency would mean you could not buy anything. Without an electric car you would be forced to walk to a store that then could not sell you anything without electricity and no new supply of anything would be able to move so there goes the supply chain – again.

The GOOD NEWS is you can then just nuke your opponent and actually save the planet all at the same time. Without electricity, your opponent could not even make a phone call to launch a response. But if we look at Chornobyl, the nuclear disaster restored the region which became a sanctuary for animals void of humans.

Bikini Atoll 70 years after nuclear tests is thriving. On July 24, 1946, Baker Test shrouded its formidable height over the U.S. Navy’s test fleet. The United States dropped 23 nuclear bombs on the island, including a device in 1954 that was 1,100 times larger than the Hiroshima atom bomb. Now a team of scientists from Stanford University has been stunned. They discovered an abundance of marine life apparently thriving in the crater of Bikini Atoll, which was declared a nuclear wasteland after the bombings.

Strangely enough, the same has been found at Chernobyl in Ukraine. It is starting to emerge that even setting off every nuclear bomb will not destroy the planet or turn Earth into space rocks. We can alter our environment by doing so and ridding the planet of humanity as the dominant species, but Earth will heal itself and life will adapt exactly as scientists have discovered in Ukraine at the site of Chernobyl. Wildlife has thrived because it sent humans running.

This new evidence emerging from Chernobyl and Bikini Atoll is demonstrating that we just may not be as smart as we think we are no less all-powerful. Obviously, the WEF and world leaders who are all pushing for World War III, are obvious far smarter than we are. They are really trying to save the planet from us. Exterminate humanity and we can save the bugs and crickets from becoming our next food source.

Jan 21 2023

WEF Head Creeps Out Crowd by Describing His Weird Future Fantasy | Direct Message | Rubin


The Rubin Report January 20, 2023

Klaus Schwab the Darth Vader of Politics

Jan 19 2023

December Retail Sales Drop -1.1%, November Sales Data Revised Lower to -1.0%


Posted originally on the CTH on January 18, 2023 | Sundance 

There is something predictable about Main Street economics, eventually what you see around you overwhelms the great pretending.  CTH has been outlining the state of the consumer economy in great detail for quite a while, and though it is difficult to note when the outcomes will surface, eventually they do surface. [Reminder Here]

CONTEXT. CTH outlined the moment when the purchasing power of the U.S. middle class actually began contracting.  It was March and April of 2021 when that Rubicon was crossed.  We saw it in the second and third quarter data from 2021, but few were willing to admit.

What changed in those two months back in ’21 was a dramatic drop in the “unit sales” of stuff within the consumer economy.  The drop in unit sales was hidden because it happened simultaneously with the first wave of massive spike in prices.  Prices rose so fast the sales data was giving an artificial impression of sales growth, but in the background the actual unit sales dropped.   Those analysts correcting and adjusting historic data to ‘inflation adjusted terms’ are now noticing.

Additionally, and not coincidentally – because the metrics are connected, you will note this line from the Wall Street Journal review of the producer price index. “The producer-price index, which generally reflects supply conditions in the economy, rose 6.2% in December from a year earlier, the Labor Department said Wednesday, the slowest annual pace since March 2021.”  In essence, the current rate of wholesale price increase on materials is now returning to the rate of price increase that happened in the period when prices spiked.  Again, this is predictable.

Inflation is the measure of the ‘rate’ of price increase over time.  March and April of 2021 were the beginning of the first inflationary spike.

Driven almost entirely by the supply side shock from Biden energy policy, in the subsequent 20 months the rate of price increase skyrocketed, peaked August 2022, and now the rate of increase starts returning.  This does not mean price declines; this means the rate of growth in the price increase is lessening.

This is a cyclical outcome.

After 20 months of dropping unit sales, a result of massive price increases; and as the rate of inflation now starts to moderate created by the cyclical nature of it; what we now see is the inability of the price increases to continue hiding the drop in unit sales.   [Background pdf Data] Total retail sales data is now exposed and that’s why we will see this increasing story about negative sales data as the inflation cycle plateaus.

(Via Wall Street Journal) – Retail spending fell in December at the sharpest pace of 2022, marking a dismal end to the holiday shopping season as rising interest rates, still-high inflation and concerns about a slowing economy pinched American consumers.

Purchases at stores, restaurants and online, declined a seasonally adjusted 1.1% in December from the prior month, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. Sales were also revised lower in November and have fallen three of the past four months.

The decline in retail spending late last year adds to signs that the U.S. economy is slowing. Hiring and wage growth eased in December, U.S. commerce with the rest of the world declined significantly in November, and existing-home sales have fallen for 10 straight months. The Federal Reserve said Wednesday that industrial production slumped in December, led by weakness in the manufacturing industry.

S&P Global downgraded its estimate for fourth-quarter economic growth by a half percentage point to a 2.3% annual rate after Wednesday’s data releases. Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal this month expect higher interest rates to tip the U.S. economy into a recession in the coming year.

“The lag impact of elevated inflation weighs heavily on U.S. households, it’s very clear that the median American consumer is still reeling from the loss of wages in inflation-adjusted terms,” said Joseph Brusuelas, chief economist at RSM US LLP. “We’re moving towards what I would expect to be a mild recession in 2023,” he added. (read more)

When the Baghdad Bob economic pretenders say, “mild recession,” anticipate something more akin to a mild nuclear meltdown, something with breadlines and soup kitchens.

Now, you must keep in mind that almost every financial media outlet used the same Retail Federation talking point about anticipating an 8% increase in holiday sales last year.  [Reminder] Apparently, collective pretenses must be maintained.  Meanwhile, news crews and camera crews were having a desperate time finding any holiday shopping to use as background footage for the claims that sales were strong.  Here we are in January and the pretending has hit reality.

Negative retail sales in November and December when prices are roughly +10% over the prior year, means the unit sales collapse was far more dramatic…. Far more.

Trying to survive policy driven price increases in housing costs, energy costs, electricity costs, home heating, food and fuel costs has forced consumers to reevaluate purchasing decisions.  Consumer demand for non-essential items has collapsed, and Americans are dig deep into their savings just to sustain unavoidable expenses.  Eventually, pretending this is not happening is going to run into the wall of reality.

On one hand the leaders of large multinationals must pretend everything is splendid; after all, the only acceptable position they can articulate is to support interest rates being raised because demand is just too darned high….  pretending.  But on the other hand – those same suppliers and multinationals are furiously trying to calculate how to avoid being stuck with billions worth of unsold inventory and idle industrial equipment.

Jan 18 2023

Subsidy Wars – EU Promises to Match Joe Biden Green New Deal Subsidies with Even Bigger Govt Spending


Posted originally on the CTH on January 17, 2023 | sundance 

The European Union is hopping mad that Joe Biden was able to pass the “Green New Deal” (aka Inflation Reduction Act) and generate hundreds of billions in government subsidies for climate friendly initiatives.   Essentially, this is an economic war over who can do socialism better.

Fearing the EU may lose their green position, the European Union is now promising to fight back by spending even more, bigger, sums of taxpayer funds to subsidize their green ‘climate change’ energy economy.

If Biden plans to transfer hundreds of billions to corporations as structural enhancements for permanent energy changes, the EU will meet or beat that subsidy scheme. So sayeth, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

(Via Reuters) – The European Union responded on Tuesday to U.S. moves to boost its energy transition with its own plans to make life easier for green industry, saying it would mobilize state aid and a sovereignty fund to keep firms from moving to the United States.

European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen told the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos that the moves would be part of the EU’s Green Deal industrial plan to make Europe a centre for clean technology and innovation.

“The aim will be to focus investment on strategic projects along the entire supply chain. We will especially look at how to simplify and fast-track permitting for new clean tech production sites,” she said in a speech at the meeting.

“To keep European industry attractive, there is a need to be competitive with the offers and incentives that are currently available outside the EU,” von der Leyen added.

Earlier, International Energy Agency (IEA) executive director Fatih Birol told a WEF panel that energy security was now the biggest driver of climate investment.

Birol said the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which was signed by President Joe Biden last year, would drive investment into cleaner energy and represented the most important climate deal since the landmark 2015 Paris Agreement.

This view was echoed by Larry Fink, chief executive of the world’s biggest asset manager BlackRock, who told an event on the sidelines of the WEF meeting that moves by the U.S. government to finance a faster shift in the world’s biggest economy, through the IRA was a “game changer”. (read more)

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Carbon trading…. digital currencies… taxation on carbon footprints…. limits on what will be permitted for purchasing…. It’s all coming together swimmingly.

Jan 18 2023

Prostitutes Attending WEF Summit in Davos Create Business Opportunity for EU Sex Workers


Posted originally on the CTH on January 17, 2023 | sundance

January 17, 2023 | sundance | 84 Comments

As noted by Steve Bannon during a summary of events at the World Economic Forum, the Daily Mail is reporting {SEE HERE} how the attending prostitutes are creating a business opportunity for European sex workers. Among the other topics up for discussion at this year’s summit are the Ukraine war, global inflation rates, climate change and inequality. {Direct Rumble Link}

Noor Bin Ladin Live From Davos: Climate Change Is The Globalists’ Trojan Horse To Introduce Social Credit Scores

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[L-R] Alain “SpankMe” Berset, president of Switzerland, Olena “MoMoney” Zelenska, First Lady of Ukraine, Ursula “FemDom” von der Leyen, president of the European Commission and World Economic Forum founder Klaus “WigglyBits” Schwab.

On a more serious note, the World Economic Forum describes itself as a collection of corporations, “shaping” government “policies.”

Fascism was traditionally defined as an authoritarian government working hand-in-glove with corporations to achieve objectives. A centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, using severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition.

That system of government didn’t work in the long-term, because the underlying principles of free people reject government authoritarianism. Fascist governments were destroyed, and the corporate beneficiaries were nulled and scorned for participating. Then, along came a new approach to achieve the same objective.

The World Economic Forum (WEF) was created to use the same fundamental associations of government and corporations. Only this time, it was the multinational corporations who organized to tell the government(s) what to do. The WEF was organized for multinational corporations to assemble and tell the various governments how to cooperate with them, in order to be rewarded by them. Corporatism was/is the outcome. The government is now doing what the multinationals tell them to do, and in return the multinationals install the compliant politicians.

Fascism, the cooperation between government and corporations, is still the underlying premise; the World Economic Forum simply flipped the internal dynamic putting the corporations in charge of handing out the instructions.

What results is a slightly modified definition of fascism:

…A massive multinational corporate conglomerate; telling a centralized autocratic government leader what to do; and using severe economic and social regimentation as a control mechanism; combined with forcible suppression of opposition by both the corporations and government.

Doesn’t that define our current reality.

The instructions from the multinational corporations to government would be called the “Great Reset“, or as previously transposed by the government officials receiving the instructions in the era following the COVID-19 pandemic, “Build Back Better”.

Jan 17 2023

Neil Oliver Interviews Dr. John Campbell About the “Breakdown of Trust” Toward the Medical Establishment Due to COVID-19 Vaccines


Posted originally on the CTH on January 16, 2023 | sundance

Another great albeit lengthy interview for consideration.  U.K. political pundit Neil Oliver interviews Dr. John Campbell amid a “knowing what you know now”.. type outlook and discussion over the current status of the COVID-19 vaccination protocol.

In the arc of his pandemic discussion and evaluation, Dr Campbell is now in facing considerable discomfort as he outlines the “lost trust” in the healthcare industry, as an outcome of manipulated science.  This has been a painful journey for John Campbell as he outlines in the interview.  Dr. Campbell himself took two doses of the mRNA vaccine, based on the professional advice of the industry.  However, as he states in the interview, he can no longer assert his belief in the science that led him to his original decision, and given what he knows now, he would not have taken the vaccine.  WATCH (prompted):

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A conversation following the journey of a pragmatic believer down the path to uncomfortable cynicism.

Jan 16 2023

Roman Gods & Religion Was Not as it Might Seem


Armstrong Blog/Ancient History Re-Posted Jan 16, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

QUESTION: You mentioned that Rome actually believed in the freedom of religion. I am correct then that the multitude of gods was the result of that? And you are saying they were not pagans in the sense that the Christians portrayed?

GH

ANSWER: Yes. They allowed all their conquered states to worship whoever they believed. Yet the fascinating thing is that these were more like Christians envisioned saints insofar as each was in charge of something. The Romans believed in an afterlife, but they did not believe that all these “gods” were actually those who created them. For example, you would go to Posiden if you were Greek to plead for a safe voyage and if you were Roman you would go to Neptune. Neptune is the Roman sea and freshwater god, while Poseidon is the Greek god of the sea. So there were subtle differences where Neptune was in charge of even lakes while the Greek Poseidon looked over the sea exclusively.

Here is a rare coin of Philip I (244-249AD) struck in Phrygia. The Reverse shows the story of Noah with his wife emerging from the famous Ark. This coin was sold at auction by Leu Numismatik AG in Winterthur, Switzerland for 240,000 Swiss francs. Even the story of Jesus was not so strange for Zeus was said to have sent his son to earth to help mankind. His name was Hercules.

The Christians called everyone else pagans. But these various “gods” were never seen as the person who created the earth and humans.  Athena was merely the “goddess” who was the protector of Athens. She did not create the world or humans. So the definition of what was a “pagan” is not exactly as the early Christians presented. This is also why so many then converted to Christianity for those to whom they prayed were never seen as the “almighty” for created everything.

Jan 16 2023

Interesting Discussion – David Sacks Provides Context on Using the Twitter Files as Gateway for New House Subcommittee


Posted originally on the CTH on January 16, 2023 | sundance 

I generally hit and miss most podcasts, often stumbling across content as an outcome of other people sharing and asking for review, analysis and opinion.  You could spend all day listening/watching various podcasts, and quite frankly who has that much time.  That said, this discussion has some great content as outlined by David Sacks.

Mr. Sacks is connected to some of the Twitter aspects and has a good perspective on processes being revealed in the Twitter Files.  Essentially the internal filtration team is applying keystroke inquiries into the Twitter electronic archives, based on terms given by the journalists.  Similar to FOIA but in a public company.  Something akin to how the discovery process would work if being done by lawyers.  {Direct Rumble Link}

Sacks has a very pragmatic outlook on the bigger picture but shares his overall perspective on what he views as the most disturbing revelations about the entire Deep State connection to efforts at controlling public speech.   Forward the interview to around the 00:07:50 point, for a great several minutes of analysis.  WATCH:

Twitter Files, Deep State and the Future of the GOP – A Discussion with Tech Visionary David Sacks

Jan 14 2023

Davos 2023 – the A Threat to the Entire World?


Armstrong Economics Blog/Climate Re-Posted Jan 13, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

QUESTION: Marty, I think Schwab’s great reset is all about your 2032. He seems to be a Socrates subscriber and is just trying to manipulate the outcome in his direction. What do you think?

Joe

ANSWER: I know, Many people have noticed this trend. This is coming up more and more. Back in 1983/1984, a major player there in Geneva was trying to buy my name to start Armstrong Brokerage. I was offered $5 million and told I did not have to do anything. It did not smell right. I declined. But they put on a huge party in Geneve to honor me which was really about trying to impress me with how powerful they were.

Back then, Geneva was like one masquerade party. You never knew who anyone really was. I ended up managing money TWICE for Muammar al-Qaddafi. Even Aristotle Onasis was a client. When Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos fled the Philippines with the February 1986 revolution, that is when the FBI came to me asking me where Marcos had taken the $5 billion in gold reserves. I said I did not know Marcos. It turned out he was a partner with Qaddafi and they were part of the group behind trying to use my name for a brokerage house.

It was October 1985, when the Bank of England and the Monetary Institute of Luxembourg (Luxembourg’s bank regulator) ordered BCCI to change to a single accountant after they became alarmed at reported BCCI losses on the commodities and financial markets. They ended up coming to us for they lost a fortune with the turn of the ECM in 1985 and the Plaza Accord’s desire to manipulate the dollar lower. Geneva has always been a magnet for interesting conspiracies and the WEF appears to be in the middle of interesting times.

The Swiss government has sent in 5,000 troops to protect DAVOS. That is interesting and it does reflect the rising security problem that is surfacing because of Klaus Schwab’s insane authoritarian proposals. I have been told people will often have his photo up in gun target ranges.  The lies are staggering. Zelenskyy told the Golden Globes audience: “There will be no third world war.” Back in March 2022, he said that World War III may have already begun. Then in June 2022, he was saying that Russia would invade Europe within a year. He manipulated audiences all the time. That is what he is good at. Some believe he is also in league with Schwab.

The report released ahead of the WEF’s annual conference was based on interviews with 1,200 members of the WEF including academia, business, and politics. They provided their views regarding major short- and long-term risks facing the world in the decade ahead. Naturally, they think that they can be activists to avoid these risks. They include the rising cost of living created by COVID and Russian sanctions, slow economic growth which cannot be solved with rising taxation, and tight global food and energy supplies which they are creating between the Russian sanctions and their anti-fertilizer war for climate change. They focused mainly on an ecological crisis. Some are calling this a ‘polycrisis’ which is defined as a cluster of related global risks with compounding effects.

The WEF report made the same case that while global cooperation is normally a “guardrail” against global risks, geopolitical dynamics in the first half of the 2020s stemming from U.S.-China tensions and the Ukraine war threaten to weaken international ties to tackle climate change and global development when they are most needed.

The WEF concluded:

“In the years to come, as continued, concurrent crises embed structural changes to the economic and geopolitical landscape, they accelerate the other risks that we face.” 

It is an idea of Schwab’s that we even have the power to manipulate the future when in fact, it has been these very manipulations that are causing the problem. You have people already experimenting with shooting particles into the atmosphere to cool the planet. The company is named Make Sunset. It is experimenting on its own without any supervision or regulation that can screw up the entire planet all for climate change. What if this entire idea of manmade climate change is wrong? The New Yorker warned we are moving toward using particles to block the sun last November. We can be destroying civilization and sending the earth into an Ice Age with just a couple of volcanoes. Thank you Schwab for making your insanity worldwide acceptance.

I do not know if Schwab’s “Great Rest” is rebranding our 2032 ECM. Perhaps, since whatever I do he seems to copy. But the difference is he sees this as an opportunity to force the resolution into his world of authoritarianism. I believe the solution is to try Democracy just once and end career politicians. He is trying to train and install politicians everywhere to force his ideas upon the world. The one thing that is certain is that 2032 will mark the end of Republic forms of government – the most corrupt in human history.

Will a modern-day Caesar emerge to cross the Rubicon to defend the people and end our corrupt republics all over again? Will the elite assassinate him as they did to Caesar as this coin boasts of Brutus that he killed Caesar on EID MAR (Ides of March, 15th, 44BC)?