Op Ed, DC Foreign Policy Crowd Demands More Weapons and Money for Ukraine, U.S. Southern Border Not So Much


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on August 19, 2022 | Sundance

Amid a lengthy op-ed published in The Hill, you will find this paragraph:

[…] “Although the Biden administration has successfully rallied U.S. allies and provided substantial military assistance, including this month, to Ukraine’s valiant armed forces, it has failed to produce a satisfactory strategic narrative which enables governments to maintain public support for the NATO engagement over the long term.” (link)

Doesn’t that paragraph basically say Biden hasn’t been doing enough to produce good propaganda to keep the public interested?

The signatories of the op-ed are a veritable who’s who of U.S. foreign policy intervention, including the same crew involved in the first Trump impeachment effort.

Apparently, they are losing World War Reddit.

The Outlier of the West, Japan Core Inflation Rises 2.4% Year Over Year


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on August 19, 2022 | Sundance 

If you have been following along, you might remember the note we made in July about not every country willing to go along with the western agenda on energy reduction, climate change, and raising interest rates to shrink their economy down to the scale of diminished energy development {Go Deep}.

In addition to Russia, China, Iran, Brazil, South Africa, Argentina and India vociferously retaining their own economic and monetary independence, Mexican President AMLO literally blasted the program while visiting the White House and the Bank of Japan refused to join the mantra to raise interest rates.   Essentially, all of the aforementioned nations see the collective Build Back Better program for what it is, a path to poverty.

As a result of their non-compliance with the global bankers, which, not coincidentally I would point out, coincided with the assassination of Shinzo Abe, the government of Japan has been getting blasted by the proverbial ‘west’ (U.S, Canada, U.K, Europe and Australia).

Japan is attempting to deal with inflation by focusing on increasing energy production and security (the supply side); while the rest of the western group have been chasing the false promise of decreased inflation by lowering the demand side, ie. pretending not to know their energy policy is creating the increases in costs.

As a result of the distinctly different monetary approaches, the financial system has been trying to punish Japan and the financial media have been trying to point out every flaw in the Japanese economy as a result of their noncompliance.   However, as you will see in this Reuters article, the July inflation within Japan is moderating.  Inflation in Japan is 2.4% for July (year over year).

TOKYO, Aug 19 (Reuters) – Japan’s core consumer inflation accelerated in July to its fastest in seven-and-a-half years, driven by fuel and raw material prices and adding to the costs of living for households yet to see significant wage gains.

In a sign of broadening price pressure, the so-called “core core” index that strips away not just the impact of volatile fresh food but energy prices, also rose in July at the fastest annual pace in more than six years.

While inflation exceeded its 2% target for four straight months, the Bank of Japan (BOJ) is likely to remain an outlier in keeping monetary conditions ultra-loose with price rises still modest compared with other major economies.

“Food prices and a weak yen were the main culprits behind accelerating inflation,” said Yoshimasa Maruyama, chief market economist at SMBC Nikko Securities, adding that he expects core consumer inflation to reach 3% this year. (read more)

It is funny to see Reuters put out a *shock* styled article for 2.4% core inflation.   In the U.S. Joe Biden would be celebrating 2.4% inflation right now; however, his energy policy is driving that CORE inflation number well beyond 6%.

Japan is still in a tough place with increasing prices for their citizens, but it is nowhere near the scale of Europe and North America.

While their currency is suffering from not following the western agenda, they have several upsides.  First, exports from Japan to the United States and the EU now become even cheaper. With a higher dollar value, Japanese imports into the United States come at a discount.  This will help Japan export goods and retain a strong export economy.

Second, with Japan already a massive investor inside the United States, the dollars that are generated in profit from their operations are delivered back to Japan at a higher value.  A higher dollar value, the outcome of their breaking from the western central bank decision to raise rates, does not hurt Japan.  They bring back high valued dollars from their decades in investment into North America, and they continue exporting to the U.S. at a discount.

So, the nationalist outlooks of Japan, Brazil and even our Mexican neighbors are reflecting a pragmatic self-interest that so far has withstood the pressures from the western alliance to fall into line.  This is how those three countries are positioned to push back against the insufferable BBB agenda.

We can use the example of those western industrialized nations to show that not everyone is in alignment with this globalist multinational finance and corporate takeover.

National Bank of Romania Hires Fortune Teller


Armstrong Economics Blog/Central Banks Re-Posted Aug 17, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

The National Bank of Romania (BNR) is turning to ancient rituals to predict future economic movements. Gabriela Dima, 64, often referred to as Minerva, holds two majors in psychology and cinematography. She also happens to be a popular fortune teller, a Bucharest fairy, and the newest hire of Romania’s central bank.

Inflation in Romania reached 15.05% this June. Last month, the National Bank of Romania voted to raise interest rates by 100 basis points to 4.75%. What will the bank do next? Perhaps Minerva knows.

Fortune telling has been a long tradition in Romani culture that dates back hundreds of years. Although the church shunned the practice, people remained superstitious and often looked to tellers for advice. Minerva has not disclosed her position at the central bank, but BNR declared that she is indeed employed there. So perhaps she will lighten the sentiment and give some of the population a boost of confidence regarding the future. Either way, her advice will be better than any analyst following Schwab’s Great Reset agenda to topple the global economy.

The Mar-a-Lago Event


The attached paper is a reasonable analysis of the events from August 8, 2022 to August 15, 2022 which was is an event that will change the Republic forever. In the mad rush to save the planet from total destruction from green house gas emissions from carbon base fuels the worlds politicians are dismantling Western Civilization. Former President Trump is a major obstacle to Klaus Schwab and his fellow radicals in the World Economic Form (WEF) and they have decided to take him out any way they can since he is the only one that can stop them.

North Korea Forms Alliance with Russia


Armstrong Economics Blog/War Re-Posted Aug 16, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

On Korea’s liberation day, President Vladimir Putin responded to Kim Jong-Un’s request to join the fight in Ukraine. In a letter to the North Korean dictator, Putin said North Korea had been a friend to Russia since Japan’s defeat during World War II. Kim is calling for “strategic and tactical cooperation, support and solidarity” between the two nations, and Vladimir agrees that it would be in the best interest of both parties.

Putin is seeking to “expand the comprehensive and constructive bilateral relations with common efforts” with the hermit kingdom. North Korea needs Russia and China to survive. In 2011, Kim J0ng-Un’s father, Kim Jong-il, visited Russia and negotiated a contract to send North Korean workers to Russia. US sanctions were intended to reverse this proposal but it was largely ignored. Both Russia and North Korea have been banished from doing business with the West entirely, so all bets are off.

This arrangement is certainly more beneficial for North Korea as it is desperate for allies. The move will undoubtedly anger the West, but this is the result of failing to hold diplomatic talks with Russia and imposing endless sanctions.

Desperate Times in Lebanon


Armstrong Economics Blog/Corruption Re-Posted Aug 16, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

Desperate times drive people to desperate measures. A Lebanese man made international headlines after holding 10 people hostage in a seven-hour standoff with authorities before surrendering. This man was not attempting to steal from the bank and had no intention of harming anyone. He is a victim of Lebanon’s economic catastrophe, and this is a very sad story of what can happen when banks fail.

Lebanese banks have placed harsh limits on withdrawals since 2019. The man, who entered the bank with a gun and gasoline, was pleading for $35,000 of his own money in order to pay for his father’s healthcare.

The Lebanese lira declined by over 90% against the USD. The country’s GDP fell to $20.5 billion in 2021, and real GDP per capita declined 37.1%. The World Bank deemed the crisis a “deliberate depression” that was “manifested by a collapse of the most basic public services; persistent and debilitating internal political discord; and mass brain drain.” Inflation in Lebanon reached 210.08% in June, and the lira is utterly worthless. Food prices have spiked 332.35%, transportation 462.4%, and housing by 132.38%.

Billionaire Prime Minister Najib Mikati, one of the richest men in the Arab world, has done nothing to help the people. Time has run out for Lebanon, and the people need a complete political transformation to regain any quality of life.

Argentina Raises Interest Rate to 69.5%


Armstrong Economics Blog/Socialist Re-Posted Aug 15, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

Argentina is out of options. I reported on the ongoing widespread protests occurring across the country. The majority of the nation is unemployed, and the currency is basically worthless. The people can no longer rely on the socialistic promises as the government is unable to fund its programs. Basic necessities are no longer available, and the people are suffering.

After inflation reached 60%, the nation decided to stop printing money entirely. The central bank just voted to raise the benchmark rate by 950 bps to 69.5%. Inflation now sits at 71% after prices rose 7.4% in July.

Estimates state that inflation could reach 90% in Argentina by the end of the year. The government has run the economy into the ground, 6 feet under, and it will need a complete overhaul for the people to begin living comfortably again.

Romania Gifts Moldova One Million Potassium Iodide Pills


Armstrong Economics Blog/War Re-Posted Aug 15, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

The world is preparing for the worst – a nuclear disaster. Romania gifted Moldova one million pills that protect against radioactivity due to fighting near the Zaporizhzhia power plant in Ukraine. Russia has control of the plan but claims it will not begin a nuclear war. Still, the Commission for Exceptional Situations of Moldova is distributing potassium iodide pills to citizens as a precaution.

The pill is supposed to prevent the thyroid from absorbing radioactive iodine and must be taken within 24 hours of exposure.

Romania has personally distributed 30 million potassium iodide pills to its citizens. Romania’s Minister of Health, Alexandru Rafila, is urging everyone under the age of 40 to pick up their tablets. “There is more demand, less demand, I don’t know to tell you. But now, perhaps as things get tense in Ukraine, demand is likely to increase. But family doctors must issue a prescription to those who need to receive potassium iodide.” He added.

Romanian doctors expressed disappointment as citizens immediately panicked and rushed to obtain these pills. The fear of a potential nuclear disaster is now embedded in the minds of many Eastern Europeans.

Brazen Elitists Don’t Care That You Notice Their Hypocrisy


The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show Published originally on Rumble on August 11, 2022

Clay Travis and Buck Sexton know that the Biden family has no shame. Hunter Biden, a man who is in a class of his own when it comes to felonies, flew all the way across the country to be able to ride in Air Force One with Joe Biden, and take advantage of the great photo op, of course.

Neil Oliver, Think the Unthinkable and Accept That is the Better Reference Point


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on August 13, 2022 | Sundance

Neil Oliver returns from a vacation to deliver one of his best contemplative monologues to date.  Mr. Oliver rightly says that if you reset your historic reference points, and you begin to recognize that thinking the unthinkable is actually the best reference point for your current state, it is like a key that unlocks the answers.

We are the battered spouses in an abusive relationship with government. Nothing we can do is going to appease the abuser, it is the inherent state of their disposition. WATCH:

[Transcript] – It is hard to think the unthinkable – but there comes a time when there’s nothing else for it. People raised to trust the powers that be – who have assumed, like I once did, that the State, regardless of its political flavour at any given moment, is essentially benevolent and well-meaning – will naturally try and keep that assumption of benevolence in mind when trying to make sense of what is going on around them.

People like us, you and me, raised in the understanding that we are free, that we have inalienable rights, and that the institutions of this country have our best interests at heart, will tend to tie ourselves in knots rather than contemplate the idea those authorities might actually be working against us now. I took that thought of benevolent, well-meaning authority for granted for most of my life, God help me. Not to put too fine a point on it, I was as gullible as the next chump.

A couple of years ago, however, I began to think the unthinkable and with every passing day it becomes more and more obvious to me that we are no longer being treated as individuals entitled to try and make the most of our lives – but as a barn full of battery hens, just another product to be bought and sold – sold down the river.

Let me put it another way: if you have been driving yourself almost demented in an effort to think the best of those in charge – those in senior positions in government, those in charge of the great institutions of State, those running the big corporations – but finding it increasingly impossible to do so … then the solution to the problem might be to turn your point of view through 180 degrees and accept, however unwillingly, that we are … how best to put this … being taken for a ride.

When you find a stranger’s hand on your wallet, in the inside pocket of your jacket … rather than trying to persuade yourself he’s only making sure it doesn’t fall out … it might be more straightforward to draw the conclusion you’re in the process of being robbed.

Once the scales fall from a person’s eyes, the resultant clarity of sight is briefly overwhelming. Or it is like being handed a skeleton key that opens every locked door, or access to a Rosetta Stone that translates every word into a language instantly understood.

Take the energy crisis: If you’ve felt the blood drain from your face at the prospect of bills rising from hundreds to several thousands of pounds while reading about energy companies doubling their profits overnight while being commanded to subsidise so-called renewables that are anything but Green while listening to this politician or that renew their vows to the ruinous fantasies of Net Zero and Agenda 2030 while knowing that the electricity for electric cars comes, in the main and most reliably, from fossil fuels if you can’t make sense of it all and just know that it adds up to a future in which you might have to choose between eating and heating then treat yourself to the gift of understanding that the powers that be fully intend that we should have less heat and less fuel and that in the planned future only the rich will have cars anyway. The plan is not to fix it.

The plan is to break it, and leave it broken. If you struggle to think the best of the world’s richest – vacuous, self-obsessed A-list celebrities among them – endlessly circling the planet on private jets and super yachts, so as to attend get-togethers where they might pontificate to us lowly proles about how we must give up our cars and occasional holiday flights – even meat on the dinner table … if you wonder how they have the unmitigated gall … then isn’t it easier simply to accept that their honestly declared and advertised intention is that their luxurious and pampered lives will continue as before while we are left hungry, cold and mostly unwashed in our unheated homes.

Here’s the thing: if any leader or celeb honestly meant a word of their sermons about CO2 and the rest, then they would obviously lead by example. They would be first of all of us willingly to give up international travel altogether … they would downsize to modest homes warmed by heat pumps. They would eschew all energy but that from the sun and the wind. They would eat, with relish, bugs and plants. They would resort to walking, bicycles and public transport.

If Net Zero and the rest was about the good of the planet – and not about clearing the skies and the beaches of scum like us – don’t you think those sainted politicians and A-listers would be lighting the way for us by their own example? If the way of life they preach to us was worth living, wouldn’t they be living it already? Perhaps you heard Bill Gates say private jets are his guilty pleasure.

And how about food – and more particularly the predicted shortage of it: the suits and CEOs blame it all on Vladimir Putin. But if the countries of the world are truly running out of food, why is our government offering farmers hundreds of thousands of pounds to get out of the industry and sell their land to transnational corporations for use, or disuse unknown? Why aren’t we, as a society, doing what our parents and grandparents did during WWII and digging for victory? Why is the government intent on turning a third of our fertile soil over to re-wilding schemes that make life better only for the beavers? Why aren’t we looking across the North Sea towards the Netherlands where a WEF-infected administration is bullying farmers off their land altogether, forcing them to cull half the national herd.

Those Dutch farmers are among the most productive and knowledgeable in the world, holding in their heads and hands the answers to all manner of questions about how best to produce food, and yet their government is so intent on scaring them out of the business that a teenage boy in a tractor, taking part in a protest to defend ancient rights and traditions, was fired on by police.

Why do you think it matters so much, to the government of the second most productive population of farmers in the world, to gut and fillet that industry? Why? Why have similar protests, in countries all across Europe and the wider world, been largely ignored by the mainstream media – a media that would have crawled on its hands and knees over broken glass just to report on a BLM protester opening a bag of non-binary crisps. Why the silence on the attack on farming?

And while we’re on the subject of farmland ownership, why is computer salesman Bill Gates buying so much farmland in the US – more than a quarter of a million acres in 19 states at the last count, while simultaneously promoting the production and sale of fake meat? And why have so many small planes crashed into massive food processing plants in the US, sparking fires and thereby hobbling the production and distribution of yet more of the very stuff of life? Why is this happening to farmers and farming … all across the hitherto developed world …?

Isn’t the simple obvious answer … the answer that makes most sense and that is staring us in our trusting faces … that power for the power-hungry has always rested most effectively upon control of food and its supply? Why are the powers that be attributing this to a cost-of-living crisis when everyone with two brain cells to rub together can see it’s a cost of lockdown crisis – the inevitable consequence of shutting down the whole country – indeed the whole world – for the best part of two years. Soaring inflation, rising interest rates, disrupted supply chains.

Might they be calling it a cost-of-living crisis as part of their bare-faced attempt to distract us from the fact that while ordinary individuals face a life and death struggle in the coming months, the corporations have celebrated their share of the greatest transfer of wealth in history? Doesn’t that seem more likely? However unthinkable, might it not be more compelling to ask why our government, and governments around the world, have effectively stood by and held the coats of huge corporations while those money magnets pulled almost all of the world’s wealth into their already creaking coffers?

Are our governments more interested in enabling, in aiding and abetting the rich, than in lifting so much as a finger to protect our livelihoods, our ways of life? I’m only asking. What about the money in our pockets? Why is it getting harder and harder to use good old cash, notes and coins? Why are we being nudged further and further away from spending-power we can see and hold, and towards a digital alternative that exists only on the hard drives of the banks that run the world? Why is that do you think?

Rather than dismiss as yet another conspiracy theory the idea of cash being ultimately replaced with transactions based on the exchange of what amount to glorified food stamps that will only be accepted if our social credit score demonstrates that we’ve been obedient girls or boys … how about taking the leap and focussing on the blatantly obvious … that if we are not free to buy whatever and whenever we please, free of the surveillance and snooping of governments and the banks that run them, then we have absolutely no freedom at all.

And while we’re on the subject of money and banks, why not pause to notice something else that is glaringly obvious – which is to say that the currencies of the West are teetering on the abyss, and that one bank after another is revealed, to those who are bothering to watch, as being as close to bankruptcy as its possible to be without actually falling over the edge.

Then there’s the so-called vaccines for Covid – I deliberately say “so-called” because by now it should be clear to all but the wilfully blind that those injections do not work as advertised. You can still contract the virus, still transmit the virus, still get sick and still die. Denmark has dropped their use on under-18s. All across the world, every day, more evidence emerges – however grudgingly, however much the various complicit authorities and Big-Pharma companies might hate to admit it – of countless deaths and injuries caused by those medical procedures.

And yet here in Britain and just about everywhere else, governments continue to try and get those needles into as many arms as possible, even the arms of the smallest and youngest. The ripe stink of corruption is everywhere. I trusted authority for most of my life.

Now I ask myself on a daily basis how I ignored the stench for so long. Across the Atlantic, the Biden Whitehouse sent the FBI to raid the home of former president Donald Trump. Meanwhile Joe Biden and his son Hunter – he of the laptop full of the most appalling and incriminating content – fly together on Airforce 1. No raids planned on the Obamas, nor on the Clintons. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi flew to Taiwan and onwards to China. Her son Paul, an investor in a Chinese tech firm and with seats on the board of companies dealing in lithium, was along for the ride, into that part of the world where three quarters of the world’s lithium batteries are made. Taiwan leads in that technology.

It is hard to think the unthinkable. It’s hard to think that all of it, all the misery, all the suffering of the past and to come might just be about money, greed and power. It is hard to tell yourself you’ve been taken for a fool and taken for a ride. It’s hard, but the view from the other side is worth the effort and the pain. Open your eyes and see. (link)