California Wealth Tax to be Applied to Anyone Whoever Worked in the State


Armstrong Economics Blog/The Hunt for Taxes Re-Posted Jan 27, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

Some people have written in and said I am just a Republican and I hate California. Sorry, I consider myself in the middle. I disagree with a lot on the Republican side as well. Simply put, the government should NOT be in the business of trying to manipulate society any more than the Investment Banks have tried to manipulate the markets and when they blow up, they run to the government for bailouts. The fines they get from CFTC ad SEC and just their 10% take of the amount of money they make on such schemes.

California is the absolutely WORSE state to live in. They are so MARXIST you cannot even imagine. They are proposing to create a WEALTH TAX and apply it to anyone who has ever worked in California. You better know that California has been going after people who worked in that state, but then moved to Florida. They then hunt them down and demand state income taxes arguing that they earned that pension while they were in California.

Plain and simple, California is the state from HELL. It views people as its economic slaves. Yes, you are a slave – the property of the state. It does not matter where you have moved to, they view it that you remain their property.  California is out of control. It will NEVER reduce its size, it looks down upon the people as their endless possession. Slavery ended with the Civil War but that was only private slavery. The state has replaced that and it outright claims you are its property. They never heard of no taxation without representation. If you move out of state, you forfeit your right to vote in California. So we have exactly the very same situation that led to the American Revolution – you are taxed under tyranny and have no right to even be heard.

What California has been doing to those who retire out of state, they will do to absolutely everyone who has ever worked in that God-forsaken land of inequity.

Just for the record, you must report every asset you own everywhere in the world, and then you are taxed on that as if it were a property tax. Every year you will be taxed and if your assets declined, that’s your problem. You will be taxed on what the state says it is worth.

Here’s Why the Big Club and People Managing Ron DeSantis Hate Donald Trump


Posted originally on the CTH on January 26, 2023 | Sundance 

President Trump transmitted a message to congress, warning them not to cut Social Security and Medicare {Direct Rumble Link}.  Many politicians and pundits will look at Trump’s position from the perspective of it being good to campaign for older voters, but that’s not the core of his reasoning.

In 2016 CTH was the first place to evaluate the totality of President Trump’s economic policies; specifically, as those policies related to the entitlement programs around Social Security and Medicare.  We outlined the approach Trump was putting forth and the way he was approaching the issue.   In the years that followed, he was right.  He was creating a U.S. economy that could sustain all of the elements the traditional political class were calling “unsustainable.”

Before getting to the details, here’s his video message and policy as delivered yesterday. WATCH:

Fortunately, we do not have to guess if President Trump is correct. We have his actual economic policy results to look at and see how the expansion of the economy was creating the type of growth that would sustain Social Security and Medicare.  This was/is MAGAnomics at work.

♦ On Social Security – Unlike many other 2016 Republican candidates, Donald Trump did NOT call for rapid or wholesale changes to the current Social Security program; and there’s a very good reason why he was the only candidate who did not propose wholesale changes.

With the single caveat of “high income retirees” (over $250k annually), which previously Trump said he was open to negotiating on, President Trump does not consider these programs as “entitlements”. The American people pay into them, and the federal government has an obligation to fulfill the promises made upon collection.

To fully understand how Donald Trump views the solvency of Social Security, you must again understand his economic model and how it outlines growth.

The issue with Social Security, as viewed by Trump, is more of an issue with receipts and expenditures. If the aggregate U.S. economy is growing by a factor larger than the distribution needed to fulfill its entitlement obligations, then no wholesale change on expenditure is needed. The focus needs to be on continued and successful economic growth.

What you will find in all of Donald Trump’s positions, is a paradigm shift he necessarily understood must take place in order to accomplish the long-term goals for the U.S. citizen as it relates to “entitlements” or “structural benefits”.

All other candidates and politicians begin their policy proposals with a fundamentally divergent perception of the U.S. economy.

The customary political economy theory, carried by most politicians, positions them with an outlook of the U.S. economy based on “services”; a service-based economic model.

While this economic path has been created by decades old U.S. policy and is ultimately the only historical economic path now taught in school, President Trump initiated his economy policy with the intention to change the dynamic entirely, and that’s exactly what he did.

Because so many shifts -policy nudges- have taken place in the past several decades, few academics and even fewer MSM observers, were able to understand how to get off this path and chart a better course.

Donald Trump proposed less dependence on foreign companies for cheap goods, (the cornerstone of a service economy) and a return to a more balanced U.S. larger economic model where the manufacturing and production base can be re-established and competitive based on American entrepreneurship and innovation.  This is the essence of MAGAnomics.

The key words in the prior statement are “dependence” and “balanced”. When a nation has an industrial manufacturing balance within the GDP there is far less dependence on the economic activity in global markets. In essence the U.S. can sustain itself, absorb global economic fluctuations and expand itself or contract itself depending on the free market.

When there is no balance, there is no longer a free market. The free market is sacrificed in favor of dependency, whether it’s foreign oil or foreign manufacturing, the dependency outcome is essentially the same. Without balance there is an inherent loss of economic independence, and a consequential increase in economic risk.

No other economy in the world innovates like the U.S.A. President Donald Trump saw/sees this as a key advantage across all industry – including manufacturing and technology.

The benefit of cheap overseas labor, which is considered a global market disadvantage for the U.S., is offset by utilizing innovation and energy independence.  This was the core of the economic program that created so much immediate GDP growth in 2017, 2018 and 2019.

2017: […]  “This policy will be successful in moving the U.S. economy away from low-growth secular stagnation towards significantly more buoyant performance. We would not be taken by surprise by a doubling of the growth rate of real GDP in the U.S. over the next two years, nor by a further significant move up of equity valuations and a material further appreciation of the dollar.”  ~  David Folkerts-Landau, Chief Economist, Deutsche Bank

The third highest variable cost of goods beyond raw materials first, labor second, is energy. If the U.S. energy sector was unleashed -and fully developed- the manufacturing price of any given product would allow for global trade competition even with higher U.S. wage prices.  This is why President Trump traveled to Saudi Arabia as his first foreign trip, followed closely by a trip to Asia.  He was putting the basics of his U.S. economic policy into place.

Additionally, the U.S. has a key strategic advantage with raw manufacturing materials such as: iron ore, coal, steel, precious metals and vast mineral assets which are needed in most new modern era manufacturing. President Trump proposed we stopped selling these valuable national assets to countries we compete against – they belong to the American people; they should be used for the benefit of American citizens. Period.  This was the central point of the Steel and Aluminum tariffs.

EXAMPLE: Prior to President Trump, China was buying and recycling our heavy (steel) and light (aluminum) metal products (for pennies on the original manufacturing dollar) and then using those metals to reproduce manufactured goods for sale back to the U.S.

As President, Donald Trump stopped that practice immediately, triggering a policy expectation that we do the manufacturing ourselves with the utilization of our own resources.  Then he leveraged any sales of these raw materials in our international trade agreements.

When you combine FULL resource development (in a modern era) with the removal of over-burdensome regulatory and compliance systems, necessarily filled with enormous bureaucratic costs, Donald Trump began lowering the cost of production and the U.S. became globally competitive. In essence, Trump changed the economic paradigm, and we no longer were a dependent nation relying on a service driven economic model.

The cornerstone to the success of this economic turnaround was the keen capability of the U.S. worker to innovate on their own platforms. Americans, more than any country in the world, just know how to get things accomplished. Independence and self-sufficiency are part of the DNA of the larger American workforce.

In addition, as we saw in 2018 and 2019, an unquantifiable benefit came from investment, where the smart money play -to get increased return on investment- became putting capital INTO the U.S. economy, instead of purchasing foreign stocks.

With all of the above opportunities in mind, this is how President Trump put us on a pathway to rebuilding our national infrastructure.

The demand for labor increased, and as a consequence so too did the U.S. wage rate which was stagnant (or non-existent) for the past three decades.

As the wage rate increased, and as the economy expanded, the governmental dependency model was reshaped and simultaneously receipts to the U.S. treasury improved.

More money into the U.S Treasury and less dependence on welfare/social service programs have a combined exponential impact. You gain a dollar and have no need to spend a dollar – the saved sum is doubled. That was how the SSI and safety net programs were positioned under President Trump.  Again, this is MAGAnomics.

When you elevate your America First economic thinking you begin to see that all of the “entitlements” or expenditures become more affordable with an economy that is fully functional.

As the GDP of the U.S. expands, so does our ability to meet the growing need of the retiring U.S. worker. We stop thinking about how to best divide a limited economic pie and begin thinking about how many more economic pies we can create.  Simply put, we begin to….

…. Make America Great Again!

We know it works, because we have the results to cite.

It was the Fourth Quarter of 2019…..

Right before the pandemic would hit a few months later…. Despite two years of doomsayer predictions from Wall Street’s professional punditry, all of them saying Trump’s 2017 steel and aluminum tariffs on China, Canada and the EU would create massive inflation, it just wasn’t happening!

Overall year-over-year inflation was hovering around 1.7 percent [Table-A BLS]; yup, that was our inflation rate.  The rate in the latter half of 2019 was firmed up with less month-over-month fluctuation, and the rate basically remained consistent.   [See Below]  The U.S. economy was on a smooth glide path, strong, stable and Main Street was growing with MAGAnomics at work.

A couple of important points.  First, unleashing the energy sector to drive down overall costs to consumers and industry outputs was a key part of President Trump’s America-First MAGAnomic initiative.  Lower energy prices help the worker economy, middle class and average American more than any other sector.

Which brings us to the second important point.  Notice how food prices had very low year-over-year inflation, 0.5 percent.  That is a combination of two key issues: low energy costs, and the fracturing of Big Ag hold on the farm production and the export dynamic:

(BLS) […] The index for food at home declined for the third month in a row, falling 0.2 percent. The index for meats, poultry, fish, and eggs decreased 0.7 percent in August as the index for eggs fell 2.6 percent. The index for fruits and vegetables, which rose in July, fell 0.5 percent in August; the index for fresh fruits declined 1.4 percent, but the index for fresh vegetables rose 0.4 percent. The index for cereals and bakery products fell 0.3 percent in August after rising 0.3 percent in July. (link)

For the previous twenty years food prices had been increasingly controlled by Big Ag, and not by normal supply and demand.   The commodity market became a ‘controlled market’. U.S. food outputs (farm production) was controlled and exported to keep the U.S. consumer paying optimal prices.

President Trump’s trade reset was disrupting this process.  As farm products were less exported the cost of the food in our supermarket became reconnected to a ‘more normal’ supply and demand cycle.  Food prices dropped and our pantry costs were lowered.

The Commerce Dept. then announced that retail sales climbed by 0.4 percent in August 2019, twice as high as the 0.2 percent analysts had predicted. The result highlighted retail sales strength of more than 4 percent year-over-year.   These excellent results came on the heels of blowout data in July, when households boosted purchases of cars and clothing.

The better-than-expected number stemmed largely from a 1.8 percent jump in spending vehicles. Online sales, meanwhile, also continued to climb, rising 1.6 percent. That’s similar to July 2019, when Amazon held its two-day, blowout Prime Day sale. (link)

Despite the efforts to remove and impeach President Trump, it did not look like middle-class America was overly concerned about the noise coming from the pundits.   Likely that’s because blue-collar wages were higher, Main Street inflation was lower, and overall consumer confidence was strong.  Yes, MAGAnomics was working.

Additionally, remember all those MSM hours and newspaper column inches where the professional financial pundits were claiming Trump’s tariffs were going to cause massive increases in prices of consumer goods?

Well, exactly the opposite happened [BLS report] Import prices were continuing to drop:

[Table 1 – BLS report link]

This was a really interesting dynamic that no-one in the professional punditry would dare explain.

Donald Trump’s tariffs were targeted to specific sectors of imported products.  [Steel, Aluminum, and a host of smaller sectors etc.]  However, when the EU and China respond by devaluing their currency, that approach hit all products imported, not just the tariff goods.

Because the EU and China were driving up the value of the dollar, everything we were importing became cheaper.   Not just imports from Europe and China, but actually imports from everywhere.   All imports were entering the U.S. at substantially lower prices.

This meant when we imported products, we were also importing deflation.

This price result is exactly the opposite of what the economic experts and Wall Street pundits predicted back in 2017 and 2018 when they were pushing the rapid price increase narrative.

Because all the export dependent economies were reacting with such urgency to retain their access to the U.S. market, aggregate import prices were actually lower than they were when the Trump tariffs began:

[…]  Prices for imports from China edged down 0.1 percent in August following decreases of 0.2 percent in both July and June. Import prices from China have not advanced on a monthly basis since ticking up 0.1 percent in May 2018. The price index for imports from China fell 1.6 percent for the year ended in August.

[…]  Import prices from the European Union fell 0.2 percent in August and 0.3 percent over the past 12 months.

[Page #4 – BLS Report, pdf] – BLS press release.

So yes, we know President Trump can save Social Security and Medicare by expanding the economy with his America First economic policy.  We do not need to guess if it is possible or listen to pundits theorize about his approach being some random ‘catch phrase’ disconnected from reality.  Yes folks, we have the receipts.

This was MAGAnomics at work, and this is entirely what created the middle-class MAGA coalition.  No other Republican candidate has this economic policy in their outlook because all other candidates are purchased by the Wall Street multinationals.

America First MAGAnomics is unique to President Trump because he is the only one independent enough to implement them.

That’s just the reality of the situation.  They hate him for it… 

Author’s note as said in 2016: “If I absolutely did not believe this economic model was doable, I would never expand the concept and place advocacy upon it. I am an absolute believer that we can, as a nation, reignite a solid manufacturing base and generate an expanding middle class.”  Yes, I bet on Trump, and he was right.    

On Eve of RNC Election, Ron DeSantis Predictably Endorses Harmeet Dhillon for RNC Chair


Posted originally on the CTH on January 26, 2023 | Sundance

The pundits are noting the man who never expends political capital on an issue where he might lose, has finally expended some political capital.  However, what the pundits don’t realize is this has all be gamed-out, strategized and planned by the people who manage Ron DeSantis.  {Direct Rumble Link}

First, Mike Lindell announced he was going to challenge Ronna McDaniel for the RNC chair.  This sent a shockwave through the Big Club because the potential for support from President Trump loomed over the Lindell announcement.  America-First Mike Lindell is not controlled by corporate money, Wall Street, the multinationals or billionaire Big Donors who ultimately control the RNC as a big private club.

So, what happened?…  Facing the possibility that Ronna McDaniel might be unseated, a week after Lindell’s announcement, Harmeet Dhillon steps into the picture.

Dhillion is a tenured Big Club member and voice for the billionaire class who fund her.  Remember, Dhillon was paid over $1 million by the RNC, separate and above any costs connected to the Trump legal defense fund.   Dhillon makes her money from the RNC, and if Lindell won the chairmanship, in addition to her friend losing the seat, Dhillon was financially at risk.  Dhillon enters the race as an insurance policy, on behalf of the Big Club donors.

Notice that this interview is pre-taped.  Charlie Kirk (TPUSA) the same group who organized the national campaign blitz after DeSantis’ 5 days in the bunker, strategically timed after the Mar-a-Lago raid, pre-tapes an interview with Ron DeSantis where the managed principal endorses Harmeet Dhillon for RNC chair.  On the eve of the RNC vote, the interview is aired for maximum exposure.  All of this is planned, coordinated, strategized and mapped out in advance.  WATCH:

It’s not organic.  All of this is scripted.  All of it.  Every bit of it.  Harmeet Dhillon is already part of the DeSantis Big Club operation.  The RNC roadmap in 2008 was for John McCain. The RNC roadmap for 2012 was for Mitt Romney.   The RNC roadmap for 2016 was for Jeb Bush, and the RNC, Big Club, Wall Street, Billionaire and multinational corporate roadmap in 2024 is for Ron DeSantis.  None of this is organic.  All of this is scripted.

Once you see the strings….

Ironically, while advocating for Harmeet Dhillon, Ron DeSantis compares the ideology of Washington DC with the extreme left-wing ideology of Harmeet Dhillon’s hometown, San Francisco. lolol I bet the background manager squinted a little at that remark.

The Big Money that Steven Crowder was talking about in his media conflict with The Daily Wire, that’s the big money behind TPUSA. It’s all a conglomeration of Big Banks and multinational financial institutions, all operated within the same ideological outlook, that are behind the financial system that Charlie Kirk must adhere to.

Charlie Kirk, just like Ben Shapiro, is a puppet to the people in power with the money.  They all have something in common.

All of these networked interests and stakeholders must make sure the RNC as a Big Club organization, is protected from those like Mike Lindell who they do not control. That’s the essential underpinning of all of this.  The same stakeholders who were/are opposed to Donald Trump but were forced to back down a little after he became president.

It’s all about the money folks.  That’s all this is about… Multiple millions for the RNC, multiple billions for the donor class on Wall Street and multiple trillions for the multinationals who operate in combination with government.

There are trillions at stake, and everything is about the economics of the thing.

Posting this on the road…. back soon.

California Judge Orders Police Bodycam Footage of Paul Pelosi Attack Incident to Be Released, Possibly Today


Posted originally on the CTH on January 26, 2023 | Sundance 

FYI – Due to travels, I will likely be out of the loop most of today but will check in sporadically.

This could be interesting…. According to multiple media sources [LINK] a California judge has ordered the police bodycam footage of the incident at Paul and Nancy Pelosi’s home to be released to the public.

The order to the clerk of the court was made immediately on Wednesday and the released footage could come as soon as today.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Footage of the attack on former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband will be released to the public after a judge on Wednesday denied prosecutors’ request to keep it secret.

San Francisco Superior Court Judge Stephen M. Murphy ruled there was no reason to keep the footage secret, especially after prosecutors played it in open court during a preliminary hearing last month, according to Thomas R. Burke, a San Francisco-based lawyer who represented The Associated Press and a host of other news agencies in their attempt to access the evidence.

The San Francisco District Attorney’s Office handed over the evidence to Murphy on Wednesday following a court hearing. Murphy asked the court clerk’s office to distribute it to the media, which could happen as soon as Thursday. (read more)

Suspicious Cat is not quite sure if he wants to see it….

Tucker Carlson Asks Questions About Jeffrey Epstein’s Death in Prison, Bill Barr’s Explanations Don’t Add Up


Posted originally on the CTH on January 25, 2023 | Sundance

For his opening monologue tonight, Fox New host Tucker Carlson asks questions about the death of Jeffrey Epstein in question.   Carlson walks through the series of events and comments by then Attorney General Bill Barr that no longer seem to add up.  WATCH:

.

Mr. Carlson has been asking a lot of uncomfortable questions lately.

Bizarre – DeSantis Campaign Official Denies Organizing Social Media Influencer Support for Boss, Despite Overwhelming Evidence


Posted originally on the CTH on January 25, 2023 | Sundance

If you have followed the management and branding efforts of the team around Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, the protestations today by campaign official and registered foreign agent Christina Pushaw are quite bizarre.

The Daily Beast wrote an article [SEE HERE] about how Ms. Pushaw organized an astroturf campaign of support for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, which included the recruitment of several conservative influencers.  The substance of the article is generally well known.

In late 2021, early 2022, Ms. Pushaw invited a group of “influencers” to spend time with Governor DeSantis.  It’s not a debatable event. Factually, the collective group took gleeful pictures of their first visit on January 6, 2022, and continued to post frequent pictures on their social media of events throughout last year.  The group went to the reelection celebration and inauguration of DeSantis earlier this month.

However, for some odd reason, likely more concerned about people realizing the ‘organized‘ nature of the creation, in a bizarre turn of events, Ms Christina Pushaw is now denying she ever organized the assembly and stating that without any documentary evidence, saying she organized the group is just a conspiracy theory. [Tweet Link]

If Ms. Pushaw is to be believed, the random group of Florida conservative “influencers” just happened to show up at the Governor’s office on January 6, 2022, without any invitation, organization or coordination on her part.

Even lacking the invitation details, hanging your defense on the absence of a paper trail under these circumstances, seems like a very odd position to take.

Why does the DeSantis team fear sunlight on the origin of how this outreach and subsequent meetings took place?  Very odd.

I sincerely doubt this group just randomly showed up at Ron DeSantis office on January 6, 2022, without an invitation or organizing.

The same group then continued meeting throughout the year….

.

Nothing about their recruitment, continued meet-ups and aggressive promotion of Ron DeSantis for the GOP nomination in 2024 would be that interesting or even noteworthy if Ms. Christina Pushaw didn’t paint them all into a box by denying she ever organized their first assembly.

And there’s the rub…  Why is Christina Pushaw denying that she first organized them on behalf of the political aspirations of her boss, Ron DeSantis?

The only logical reason to make such an outlandish and transparently false claim, is if that original assembly was intended as seed material to use the “influencers” for another purpose, like a 2024 presidential bid.  Yet, Ron DeSantis hasn’t announced a 2024 presidential bid…. so that issue is a nonstarter, unless that announcement is eventually going to come forth.

If Ron DeSantis is going to announce his candidacy for the GOP nomination, then suddenly all these background moves look like proactive steps on behalf of the management team.  The January 6, 2022, meeting would then infer the presidential aspirations as far back as December 2021.

In combination with the $200+ million in Wall Street money assembled by DeSantis, perhaps that 2024 plan is the risk necessitating the absurd denial.

[Daily Beast Article Here]

.

They all just randomly showed up to hang out with DeSantis.  Yep, that’s the story and Pushaw is sticking to it.

For those interested, central planning and organization is the difference between “organic” support and “astroturf.”

Slava Ukraine!

Adam Schiff Predicts Political Operatives in U.S. Intelligence Community Will Not Assist House Intelligence Committee, or House Subcommittee on Federal Govt Weaponization


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on January 25, 2023 | Sundance 

While these remarks are cast against the backdrop of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy refusing to seat Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Eric Swalwell (D-CA) on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI), the larger point within his remarks about the intelligence community need to be emphasized.  {Direct Rumble Link}

While claiming McCarthy has no right to stop himself or Swalwell from participating in the 118th Congress HPSCI, Schiff claims the larger intelligence community will no longer share information about national security matters with the committee if he is not present.  Essentially, without Schiff in attendance to politicize the intelligence information, the larger intelligence community will not cooperate.

Additionally, and somewhat in direct alignment with CTH predictions about the House Subcommittee on the Weaponization of Government, Schiff declares the intelligence agencies of the United States government will not cooperate with the subcommittee.  Again, as the argument is made, if democrats are not positioned to defend the Deep State, the Deep State will not cooperate.  WATCH:

Watermelon head, Adam Schiff play the victim card.

Nothing within these remarks should come as a surprise to CTH readers; however, the open hostility within the prediction by Adam Schiff should serve as a stark underline for the challenge the House subcommittee will face.

Washington DC was built on Hypocracy


Armstrong Economics Blog/Politics Re-Posted Jan 25, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

Let’s get real. Washington DC was built on hypocrisy. No matter what decade you look at we find that perhaps more than any other setting, the political environment has always been characterized by organized hypocrisy. Now with the blow-up of Biden having classified materials, Hillary’s private server had classified documents. Now you have people trying to twist things around and claim that the classified documents that Trump had were somehow more related to national security than Biden’s. The spin doctors are working overtime.

When Biden was a senator, he helped kill President Jimmy Carter’s CIA director nominee all because he allegedly mishandled classified materials. The hypocrisy in Washington knows absolutely no limitation.

Even the interpretation of the Constitution by the courts, the press, and politicians leave a lot to be desired. When Jefferson wrote “all men are created equal” in the preamble to the Declaration, people argue about what he meant. Was that individual liberty, or was he speaking collectively to diminish personal liberty? Some argue that Jefferson was not talking about individual equality. He was really talking about how the American colonists, as a people, had the same rights of self-government as other peoples. Therefore, they had a right to declare independence, create new governments and assume their “separate and equal station” among other nations.

Today, if a state wishes to separate, the courts claim they have no such right just as England did during the 18th century. Suddenly, the “all men are created equal” was individual liberty including slaves, and not collectively as a body of people. As you can see, even writing down words that may sound magnanimous, can be flipped around depending on the desired outcome. For example, if you want to outlaw carrots, it becomes simple. Do a study that establishes every person who has EVER eaten a carrot had eventually died! OMG – outlaw carrots! They will kill you! I grew up with a gas stove and gas heating. All of sudden, out comes a study to justify new regulations to outlaw gas stoves. Why? Because the bug we are supposed to be eating in the future will taste better if microwaved.

If you cannot twist your words where they can have two meanings depending upon your end goal, then you have no qualification to be a politician.

Commodus Hoard – Decline & Fall of Rome


Armstrong Economics Blog/Products and Services Re-Posted Jan 24, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

A lot of people have asked if I still have any Commodus denarii left. I have a few. Best to just send an email if you are interested. They are generally VF as you can see. This is the Emperor pictured in the movie, The Gladiator. He was the son of Marcus Aurelius and it is with him that they draw the line for the start of the decline and fall of Rome. Not shown in the movie was his, Crispina, whom he banished to the Isle of Capri and then had her executed. His sister, Lucilla, is also shown in the movie, was terrified of her brother, was also banished to Capri, and then executed. The full version of the 1964 film, the Decline, and Fall, is free on YouTube.

When Commodus was assassinated, the full corruption of the Roman Deep State, the Praetorian Guard, auctioned off the throne to the highest bidder. That was  Didius Julianus (193AD) who offered them 25,000 Sestertii per man.  He lasted just 66 days on the throne who the Praetorians then abandoned and he was beheaded.

Edward Gibbon wrote of Commodus: “Suspicious princes often promote the last of mankind, from a vain persuasion, that those who have no dependence, except on their favor, will have no attachment, except to the person of their benefactor.

Edward Gibbon wrote of him: Each

distinction of every kind soon became criminal. The possession of wealth stimulated the diligence of the informers; rigid virtue implied a tacit censure of the irregularities of Commodus; important services implied a dangerous superiority of merit; and the friendship of the father always insured the aversion of the son. Suspicion was equivalent to proof; trial to condemnation. The execution of a considerable senator was attended with the death of all who might lament or revenge his fate; and when Commodus had once tasted human blood, he became incapable of pity or remorse

(Book 1, Chapter 4).

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Multiple Ukraine Officials Removed or Resigned as Widespread Corruption and Embarrassing Financial Graft Discovered


Posted originally on the CYH on January 24, 2023 

While Volodymyr Zelenskyy was on tour banging his tin cup for NATO donations, apparently his top government officials were skimming the books and building an extravagant life on the backs of the U.S. taxpayers.  Slava Ukraini!  However, on a brutally obvious note, I mean the wife of Zelenskyy went Christmas shopping in Paris and spent over €40,000 in a few hours on ritzy Avenue Montaigne.  Where did people think she got that money?

In an effort to stop the embarrassing revelations of internal corruption from weakening support for the inbound flows of cash from corrupt U.S. officials, the government of Zelenskyy has begun getting rid of the officials who were stealing the war money.

But hey, don’t worry, remember, President Zelenskyy decreed rules making it illegal for any political opposition to exist; so, there’s nothing to worry about – just a seating rotation of the same corrupt group.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Several senior Ukrainian officials, including five front-line governors, lost their jobs Tuesday in a corruption scandal plaguing President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s government as it grapples with the nearly 11-month-old Russian invasion.

Ukraine’s biggest government shake-up since the war began came as Poland formally requested permission from Germany to transfer a modest number of its Leopard 2 battle tanks to Ukraine. Germany builds the high-tech armor, and Warsaw needs Berlin’s permission to send them to a non-NATO country.

Zelenskyy was elected in 2019 on an anti-establishment and anti-corruption platform in a country long gripped by graft, and the new allegations come as Western allies are channeling billions of dollars to help Kyiv fight against Moscow.

Officials in several countries, including the United States, have demanded more accountability for the aid, given Ukraine’s rampant corruption. While Zelenskyy and his aides portray the resignations and firings as proof of their efforts to crack down on graft, the wartime scandal could play into Moscow’s political attacks on the leadership in Kyiv.

The shake-up even touched Zelenskyy’s office. Its deputy head, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, prominent for his frequent battlefield updates, quit as the president pledged to address allegations of graft — including some related to military spending — that embarrassed authorities and could slow Ukraine’s efforts to join the European Union and NATO. (read more)

What do Harmeet Dhillon, Ron DeSantis and Volodymyr Zelenskyy have in common?

They are all financial beneficiaries of multinational corporations.

Addressing a Chambers of Commerce meeting in Boca Raton today, Zelensky thanks BlackRock, JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, and others for their support of Ukraine. Adds that sending Ukraine heavier weapons, like Abrams tanks, represents a “big business” opportunity for US corporations pic.twitter.com/N1h8OVECLt

— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) January 24, 2023