Tag Archives: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Oct 28 2022

Climate Change = Military Strategy


Armstrong Economics Blog/Uncategorized Re-Posted Oct 28, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

COMMENT: Dear Mr. Armstrong,
As always, thank you so much for your incredible insight to what is happening in the world. You are the first news source I read in the morning because I know your site is always two steps ahead of everyone else! I wished to ask you about something you often reference: that many of these globalists are trying to destroy fossil fuels for “climate change”.

However, going by their actual behavior, it seems that they don’t *genuinely* believe in climate change, otherwise they wouldn’t be flying around in private jets, owning ocean-front property, or creating more carbon emissions than many small countries. Do you think they actually believe the earth is in danger or are they trying to force the majority of humanity back into a third world state because without the ability to travel, or heat/cool homes, communicate with one another, or have access to clean water, meat and nutritious food, etc., we not only will lose much of the population to sickness and starvation, but those who are left would become much more dependent on the state (them) and therefore easier to control?

Depopulation and crushing humanity into a smaller, weaker, more controllable feudal-system peasantry seems more like the actual reason for destroying fossil fuels, food security, and private ownership, with “climate change” merely being their flimsy excuse to do so. Do you think any of those pulling the strings on all this really believes what they’re saying about climate change?

ED

REPLY: The elite could care less about climate change. They know it is laughable. Even John McCain was pushing it only because it was to hurt Russia cutting off its resources and he was pushing nuclear energy to replace fossil fuels only as a strategic chess move against Russia – his eternal enemy.

These ELITE people do not care about the climate. They all travel to Davos in private jets. Al Gore and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres at Davos in 2019 told delegates that humanity is “losing the race” against climate change. Al Gore conspires with Greenpeace and used Greta for their publicity stunts. I would say he is a believer, but do not count on his intelligence. He has never questioned the limited data.

The Elite have used climate change as the spearhead for the Great Reset, which is all about coming up with propaganda to cover up the Sovereign Debt default. Trust me. Many at the top are laughing their ass off at how they have sold this nonsense to people who just eat it up. John McCain was preaching nuclear energy back in the 2008 election to end dependency on foreign oil purely for military purposes – not the environment. They have brainwashed many and they just repeat the nonsense without the slightest investigation on their own. Oh, there is a drought, and skeletons are now revealed in Hoover Dam so that is proof of climate change! But they fail to take the next step and ask if that has that taken place before. There are natural cycles to climate so it always changes.

The Elite used Greta, and once they managed to get the press selling their BS and believing this changed the planet, they discarded her. They use people to achieve their goals and that is all this war is really about. To destroy the economy of Russia. Occupy the country and end fossil fuels so that Russia will be reduced to a vassal state. They have not probably reduced the population by 50% ANYHOW. The real powers do not care about Climate Change. They know this is all nonsense.

Oct 28 2022

Climate Change War – US v Russia


Armstrong Economics Blog/War Re-Posted Oct 27, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

As senior U.S. military officers deployed to NATO’s front line against Russia on the border with Ukraine have boasted that they are ready to join the fight. This provoked a response from Russia’s ambassador to the United States told Newsweek that such a move would bring about catastrophic ramifications. The commanders of the U.S. Army 101st Airborne Division who are now stationed just a few miles from the Romanian border with Ukraine are also making comments that they were ready to cross over in response to any escalation or attack on NATO.

This is all calling into question who the hell is the real commander and chief? President Joe Biden has repeatedly stated he was not going to send U.S. soldiers into Ukraine itself. The US has NOT sent troops to the borders of NATO since World War II. The National Security Council Strategic Communications Coordinator John Kirby rushed to then say that “nothing has changed about the commander-in-chief’s decision that there will be no American troops fighting inside Ukraine.” This is raising serious concerns about who is really in charge and do we have a military so eager to jump in that we end up in WWIII because of all of this nonsense.

Russian Ambassador Anatoly Antonov said, “we have already officially pointed out to high-ranking members of the US Government that such bravura statements by the U.S. Army commanders are inadmissible.” He further warned that Moscow would take these comments seriously. Behind the curtain, there is serious concern that Biden is just a puppet and has no idea that his administration is pushing the world to WWIII.

Antonov added: “We are not going to tolerate a situation where military threats are mounting on Russian borders… Direct participation of the U.S. military in the fighting will lead to disastrous consequences. I am convinced that further aggravation of the situation is not in Washington’s interests.”

There is absolutely no reason for the US to have troops stationed on the border. Russia is not interested in invading NATO and they too realize what that would mean. Stationing the Hard Rock Company, 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), only increases the chance of war just like in Vietnam. This has been the first time in nearly 80 years that troops have been sent in this manner.

The Russian ambassador Antonov warned that “Washington is becoming increasingly involved in the conflict in Ukraine, turning the country’s territory into a battlefield with Russia.” If Russia sent nukes to Venezuela or stationed troops in Mexico, I seriously doubt the US would stand by silently.

Our War Model globally turned up in 2014 as I laid out at the 2011 World Economic Conference. I have warned that history will call this the Climate Change War. The Biden Administration is being run by climate zealots telling us our pets have to eat bugs along with us and they want to impose a federal tax to even have a pet of several thousand dollars to reoccur annually no less. These zealots want to wipe out Russia because they produce energy and that is 50% of the GDP. Having Ukrainians die for climate change is no problem – there are too many people anyway.

Even the Cuban Missile Crisis on a 51.6-year calculation turned back up on May 4th, 2014. The next 8.6-year wave will be 2023.008 which will be January 3rd, 2023. The peak of that wave will then be 2027.308  which is April 9th, 2027. These people have reignited the U.S.-Russia rivalry intensifying to levels not seen since the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. Zelensky is sacrificing his country for money. You do not put your entire nation at risk for a strip of land that has always been occupied by Russians for centuries. He takes his orders from the Biden Administration and it is public knowledge that he was told not to negotiate for peace.

These Climate Change Zealots are bringing the world to complete disaster over total nonsense when Climate Change has been a natural cycle for millions of years. They ignore the history of the planet past 1850 because they want to simply blame everything on the Industrial Revolution. They have confused pollution with climate change and will not address that there have been warming periods and ice ages without people driving their SUVs.

The military always wants war. They get to play with all their cool stuff. They have been using Ukraine to study Russia’s tactics and weapons. This has been a fantastic learning experience for the military. The problem this time, one Russian nuclear sub can surface offshore and fire 60 nukes and we will not be able to shoot them all down.

Oct 28 2022

Elon Musk Twitter Takeover Nears Completion, Banks Send Cash for Acquisition as Musk Clarifies Intent to Advertisers


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on October 27, 2022 | sundance

By all outward appearances the acquisition of the Twitter social media platform by billionaire Elon Musk looks like it is going through.

According to bank filings and financial transfer documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal {link}, the process to finalize the purchase is taking place.  Meanwhile Mr. Musk used the platform to notify Twitter advertiser of his intent in the purchase {link}:

The cleaving of information on social media and information platforms is already well underway. I doubt anything currently undertaken to slow that process will have any effect. In essence, the ideological Big Tech platforms removed half the potential discussion purposefully and with specific intent; that decision has created alternate platforms where a more honest non-woke conversation about issues and events takes place.

Corporate advertising is part of the attack vector controlled by professional activists who use threats, fear and intimidation to target any advertiser who might want to reach an audience on a platform not directly controlled by Google, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or Big Tech in general.  Musk’s appeal to advertisers does nothing to stop organized left-wing political activist groups from continuing their onslaught against speech they disagree with.  In the modern era few, if any, large advertisers want to enter this mosh pit political brawl.

(Wall Street Journal) […] Mr. Musk describes himself as a “free speech absolutist” and has said Twitter should be more cautious about removing tweets or banning users.

Mr. Musk may have reasons to avoid any drastic changes to Twitter’s ad business. Twitter will take on $13 billion in debt in the deal. The online ad markets already are shaky, amid concerns about the economy, with Snap Inc. and Alphabet Inc. posting lower-than-expected revenue results for the September quarter. (more)

The extreme left-wing mob that occupies space on the internet, along with the corporate media who align with the mob, view the ideological battle as a zero-sum war.  Speech that stands in opposition to their efforts is labeled as violence, while violence that supports their efforts is defined as speech.  They are not going to stop attacking just because Elon Musk appeals to reason or humanity.

Most modern leftists appear, at least from what is openly visible, to hold extremely unstable dispositions.  Their arguments are weak and full of hypocrisy.  As a result, when challenged their initial response is an emotional attack -often filled with vitriol and hate- because they have defined themselves by their belief system.  The COVID-19 vaccination fiasco highlights for many of us the scale of the number of people who have lost connection to logic and discernment.

A person who willingly took the COVID-19 vaccination was in a no-retreat position.  Presenting information that runs counter to their baseline assumptions was futile, they had no way to exit or reverse the decision.  The ideological debate on social media is fraught with the same dynamic.  When people define themselves, define their purpose, through an ideological belief system, it is almost impossible to establish communication.

The conservative believes man is born free and will be who he is, no matter what arbitrary limitations or rules are put on him. The leftist believes man is perfectible, and by extension, believes a society at large is perfectible, and command and control are justified in the quest to a “perfect” utopian society. (Sound familiar?)

The conservative tends to be more faithful – and not necessarily in God, but in the ability of the individual to find great strength in himself (or from his God) to get what he needs and to be successful. Therefore, the conservative has an outlet for his fear and disappointment – trust and faith in something bigger.

The leftist believes the system must be perfected in order to enable success. Therefore, disappointment is channeled as anger and blame at the system. Voids are left to be filled by faith in the govt, which they surely then want to come in and “fix” things.  And therein lies the roots of love and fear respectively.

For the conservative, when life presents great struggles, he knows he has the power to surmount them. Happiness stems from internal strength and perseverance. For the modern leftist, when life presents great struggles, the system failed, therefore they were at the mercy of a faulty system, and they believe that only when the system is fixed can their life improve. Happiness is built on systemic contingencies, which they will then seek to control or expect someone else to.

One holds himself accountable for his/her success in life.  The other blames anyone and everyone but him or herself.

And there it is…. There’s where the hate and violence come from.

The leftist ideology causes that person to cast anger at the world when things go wrong or appear “unfair.” He/she constantly chooses only to see the “injustices” – and that makes for a very miserable, mean, blame-casting existence.

Oct 27 2022

US Schools Have Worst Test Scores Ever!


jeffahern Published originally on Rumble on October 26, 2022 

The worst math scores ever and the worst reading scores in 30 years. Liberal’s gift to you.

Oct 24 2022

A Technical Study of Relationships in Solar Flux, Water and other Gasses in the upper Atmosphere, Using the September, 2022 NASA & NOAA Data


From the attached report on climate change for September 2022 Data we have the two charts showing how much the global temperature has actually gone up since we started to measure CO2 in the atmosphere in 1958? To show this graphically Chart 8a was constructed by plotting CO2 as a percent increase from when it was first measured in 1958, the Black plot, the scale is on the left and it shows CO2 going up by about 32.4% from 1958 to September of 2022. That is a very large change as anyone would have to agree.  Now how about temperature, well when we look at the percentage change in temperature also from 1958, using Kelvin (which does measure the change in heat), we find that the changes in global temperature (heat) is almost un-measurable at only .4%.

As you see the increase in energy, heat, is not visually observably in this chart hence the need for another Chart 8 to show the minuscule increase in thermal energy shown by NASA in relationship to the change in CO2 Shown in the next Chart using a different scale.

This is Chart 8 which is the same as Chart 8a except for the scales. The scale on the right side had to be expanded 10 times (the range is 50 % on the left and 5% on the right) to be able to see the plot in the same chart in any detail. The red plot, starting in 1958, shows that the thermal energy in the earth’s atmosphere increased by .40%; while CO2 has increased by 32.4% which is 80 times that of the increase in temperature. So is there really a meaningful link between them that would give as a major problem?

Based to these trends, determined by excel not me, in 2028 CO2 will be 428 ppm and temperatures will be a bit over 15.0o Celsius and in 2038 CO2 will be 458 ppm and temperatures will be 15.6O Celsius.

The NOAA and NASA numbers tell us the True story of the

Changes in the planets Atmosphere

The full 40 page report explains how these charts were developed .

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Oct 24 2022

Sweden Will Not Meet Agenda 2030


Armstrong Economics Blog/Climate Re-Posted Oct 24, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

New Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson is not heeding to the Green agenda. He promptly eliminated the entire Ministry of Climate and Environment, marking the first time in 35 years that Sweden does not have a specific climate ministry. People are crying that the world will crumble without funding bureaucrats who pretend they have the ability to alter the weather cycle with enough funding.

Klaus Schwab’s plans for Agenda 2030 are in jeopardy. “Environmental issues are going to be given a disadvantage at the same time when we have a huge challenge in Sweden when it comes to biodiversity and forestry,” stated Stockholm University professor Karin Bäckstrand. “We won’t meet the Agenda 2030 goals on biodiversity.”

Democratic leader Ebba Busch will serve as the new Minister for Energy, and 26-year-old Liberal Romina Pourmokhtari will serve as the Minister of Climate and Environment, The Nationalist Sweden Democrats do not support the goal of achieving net zero emissions.

Instead, the new government is prioritizing nuclear power initiatives that will make it increasingly difficult to shut down existing plants while using €36 billion to build new nuclear power stations. The new government is also considering reopening two nuclear power plants that discontinued operations in recent years. Yet another example of how Agenda 2030 and Schwab’s plan to alter the world will fail.

Oct 22 2022

Twitter Stuff, Reports of Anticipated Turnover of Employees, Combined with Reports of Treasury Dept Considering CFIUS Review


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on October 21, 2022 | Sundance 

Whenever we begin to evaluate how the U.S. government may respond to Elon Musk buying out Twitter and changing the dynamic behind Jack’s Magic Coffee Shop, it is always worth remembering a key point.  Elon Musk is not in an adversarial relationship with the U.S. government.  Indeed, almost every Musk venture is tied into the matrix of multiple government institutions.

That said, only Elon Musk knows the full intent of his objective to utilize Twitter and his larger aspirations to open information systems to all people (Iran example).

Having listened to a lot of Musk’s explanations for his endeavors, I’ve yet to nail down how his statements mesh with the public-private partnership that forms the baseline of revenue for his various engagements.

The Washington Post is reporting that Musk may RIF (reduction in force) to 75% of Twitter employees.  “Elon Musk told prospective investors in his deal to buy the company that he planned to get rid of nearly 75 percent of Twitter’s 7,500 workers, whittling the company down to a skeleton staff of just over 2,000.” {link}

(WaPo) […] On Thursday evening, Twitter’s top lawyer Sean Edgett sent out a note to all employees saying the company did not have any confirmation from Musk about his plans. Twitter’s own, smaller-scale “cost savings discussions” were put on hold once the merger agreement was signed, Edgett said, according to an email viewed by The Post.

In internal Slack groups, Twitter employees reacted to the news with anger and resignation, supporting each other and making jokes about the turmoil of the past few months, according to people familiar with the conversations.

Twitter and Musk are expected to close the purchase by Oct. 28. Planning for the closing is moving forward in apparent good faith after months of legal battles, say people familiar with the negotiations who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. If the deal closes, Musk would immediately become Twitter’s new owner. (read more)

Meanwhile Bloomberg was reporting yesterday the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US (CFIUS), a Treasury Dept agency, was considering a national security review of the purchase due to foreign nationals investing and participating in the funding mechanisms for the buyout.  However, Bloomberg updated that angle today noting any CFIUS review would be unlikely:

(Bloomberg) Alarm over Elon Musk’s recent Russia-friendly tweets is driving Biden administration officials to explore using a secretive review panel to assess the national-security risks of his business interests.

Yet experts say that deploying the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US to investigate Musk’s dealings — including his pending $44 billion purchase of Twitter — is unlikely to work and would face legal challenges. 

There may be an argument for some sort of CFIUS review, but it’s thin, according to Emily Kilcrease, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security. The panel would only get involved if foreign investors were taking a controlling stake in the new company, she said, something Musk doesn’t appear ready to allow.

CFIUS has the right to look at foreign investors, not Musk, Kilcrease said. “So if there’s concerns around Musk, CFIUS is a really messy, imperfect tool to try to deal with that — and I suspect would be subject to legal challenge,” she said. (read more)

Two things about Twitter and the U.S. government are true, and that makes predicting where this ends up quite challenging to game out.

♦First, the U.S. intelligence apparatus is actively involved in the background operations of Twitter.  The extent of the IC involvement may be debatable, but the IC being involved in Twitter is fundamentally true.

♦Second, if the U.S. government wanted to stop Elon Musk from purchasing Twitter, they could – very easily.  As noted, Musks network of business operations is heavily dependent on a partnership with the U.S. government (SpaceX, Starlink, Tesla, etc.)  The State Dept, Pentagon, NASA, FAA, and various intelligence agencies are all parts of a deep network of relationships with Musk’s organizations.

The fact that the U.S. government does not intervene in any Musk effort, including Twitter, is not evidence of Musk being outside the system.  Factually, it would be challenging to find another company with tentacles as wide, far reaching and connected to the U.S. government.

Musk is purchasing Twitter because the U.S. government wants to allow Musk to purchase Twitter.  Musk may be ‘dirty dancing‘ with the government while trying to retain the patina of an outsider, but the network of his company attachments to the U.S. government run counter to that outlook.

Again, I don’t know what Musk’s intent is, and hopefully the Twitter outcome is something much more open and transparent than currently exists.  However, that said, we should not assign too much weight to any media outline of the dynamic until we have actual reference points to any possible change.

Oct 19 2022

New England Power Officials Warn of Pending Winter Crisis as Natual Gas Prices Skyrocket and Electricity is Likely to be Rationed


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on October 18, 2022 | Sundance

New England consists of six states in the US Northeast, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont.  The states have been warned by regional ISO electricity providers for several years about their vulnerability if the winter weather is harsh and there is a significant increase in demand for home heating.  Those warnings are now multiplied by the massive price increases for natural gas.

Keep in mind as all these natural gas and LNG issues surface, the U.S. has been exporting natural gas to Europe as part of the Biden effort to subsidize the NATO effort against Russia.  Prices for natural gas have skyrocketed, and now shortages of the fuel source for energy production may create even bigger problems for New England.

[Via Zero Hedge] – […] The region’s power mix changes have left it increasingly reliant on international NatGas spot markets. State governors have asked US Energy Secretary Jennifer Graholm to waive the Jones Act and allow foreign-owned tankers to ship LNG from the US Gulf region. 

All of this has led to New England residents facing some of the highest electricity bills in years. Heating season is already underway. 

New England ISO expects the grid will be stable if there’s a mild-to-moderate winter. However, if there’s an extreme cold spell across the Northeast, then grid chaos could unfold: “The grid overall is in a much tighter position.

“If we get a sustained cold period in New England this winter, we’ll be in a very similar position as California was this summer,” Nathan Hanson, a senior vice president of energy and commercial management of LS Power Development LLC, which has two NatGas power plants in New England, warned. (more)

According to the U.S. Energy Information Association (IEA), U.S. storage of Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) is 12% below the five-year average (LINK).  Additionally, the IEA is expecting the U.S. to export 11.7 billion cubic feet of LNG per day during the fourth quarter of 2022 — up 17% from the third quarter. The destination of that export is Europe.

Consider that 43% of U.S. households use natural gas for home heating, and power suppliers use natural gas to create electricity.  With the massive 2022 exports of LNG to Europe (+17% in fourth quarter alone), that means lower domestic supplies and increased prices here in the United States for electricity and home heating.  We are seeing and feeling these massive price increases right now.

Barrons – […]  If you need more evidence of the impact of natural gas exports on prices, just compare supply and demand fundamentals for the year leading up to February 2020 (the last pre-pandemic month) versus the year leading up to this May (the most recent month with full federal data). Annualized production rose over the period, while domestic consumption remained roughly flat. Yet LNG exports almost doubled—a surge that tightened U.S. gas markets and doubled the price that U.S. consumers pay for the fuel. 

The growth of global demand for U.S. LNG can be tied to many market forces, including the shortfalls in Europe due to Russia’s manipulation of European Union gas markets. Sustained high demand in wealthy Asian nations has contributed to export growth as well. And so has the U.S. gas industry’s dogged determination to ship its wares to the highest bidder, foreign or domestic. 

Russia’s role has been particularly critical in the rise of global LNG demand. As Russia choked off gas shipments to Europe, EU buyers have turned to global LNG markets to make up the shortfall. Global LNG prices rose in response, and U.S. LNG companies ramped up output, shipping more cargoes to Europe. But Russia responded by further clamping down on gas supplies to the EU—a vicious circle that has hurt Europe’s economy even more severely than it has harmed America’s.

There’s little sign that U.S. gas prices will ease in the coming years. Freeport’s demand will be back online soon enough, and there are three other massive LNG export projects under construction, with more than a dozen of others waiting for financing.

[…] Curiously, federal regulators have consistently found that the gas export projects are in the public interest—meaning they were in the economic interest of LNG companies and gas drillers. But now, exports are creating sky-high costs for U.S. consumers, and drillers are reluctant to boost gas output lest prices fall back to earth. So, it’s high time to consider whether soaring U.S. LNG exports are actually in America’s interest—or if, instead, runaway LNG exports are fueling energy inflation and undermining the nation’s economic competitiveness. (read more)

Not only are U.S. taxpayers directly paying for the majority of costs in Ukraine, but we are also subsidizing the European Union by exporting LNG and driving up the price for energy here at home.  Here’s the Wall Street Journal talking about the risks to New England:

[Via Wall Street Journal] – New England power producers are preparing for potential strain on the grid this winter as a surge in natural-gas demand abroad threatens to reduce supplies they need to generate electricity.

New England, which relies on natural-gas imports to bridge winter supply gaps, is now competing with European countries for shipments of liquefied natural gas, following Russia’s halt of most pipeline gas to the continent. Severe cold spells in the Northeast could reduce the amount of gas available to generate electricity as more of it is burned to heat homes.

The region’s power-grid operator, ISO New England Inc., has warned that an extremely cold winter could strain the reliability of the grid and potentially result in the need for rolling blackouts to keep electricity supply and demand in balance. The warning comes as executives and analysts predict power producers could have to pay as much as several times more than last year for gas deliveries if severe weather creates urgent need for spot-market purchases.

“The most challenging aspect of this winter is what’s happening around the world and the extreme volatility in the markets,” said Vamsi Chadalavada, the grid operator’s chief operating officer. “If you are in the commercial sector, at what point do you buy fuel?”

Power producers in New England are limited in their ability to store fuel on site and face challenges in contracting for gas supplies, as most pipeline capacity is reserved by gas utilities serving homes and businesses. Most generators tend to procure only a portion of imports with fixed-price agreements and instead rely on the spot market, where gas prices have been volatile, to fill shortfalls. (more)

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