Posted originally on May 22, 2024 By Martin Armstrong
There is something really wrong at the International Criminal Court. It has been taken over by the Neocons and is violating international law and its own jurisdiction. I had dinner with the ICC, and they were appalled at what was done to me. They expressed how they “wished” they could have charged the judges and prosecutors as well as politicians involved and viewed me as a whistleblower against the bankers and Neocons. I had that dinner, I believe, back in 2012. They said they LACKED THE JURISDICTION to bring charges against NON-MEMBERS.
Here is a list of their members. The United States refused to sign because it did not want it to be charged in a court it did not control. Look closely; you will see that NEITHER Russia nor Israel are members of the ICC. They have NO jurisdiction whatsoever with regard to crimes of aggression, and for that, both states must be members. That is why the prosecution of Putin was clearly a fraud and obviously orchestrated by the Neocons. The charge against Putin and Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova was really a stretch, alleging he was responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population (children) and the unlawful transfer of population (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation (under articles 8(2)(a)(vii) and 8(2)(b)(viii) of the Rome Statute). This was to take children out of the war zone, and they turned that into a war crime of aggression that did not require membership. This was really politically motivated, showing the ICC is a joke. When none of the nations tied to the crimes are ICC Treaty signatories, then the task of contracting the ICC to investigate falls to the United Nations Security Council.
Now, the ICC is acting under political pressure again. Palestine became a special member, so here, there is jurisdiction over only one country. These arrest warrants are for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. They have also issued warrants for Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar, political chief Ismail Haniyah, and Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri, the leader of Hamas’ armed wing, also known as Mohammed Deif. The pressure was that ICC is controlled by the West and is irrelevant. This idea that they can use JUSTICE to stop wars is really absurd. You can have a law against murder, but in the heat of passion, nobody calculates if I do this, I can be charged – the act without thinking about the consequences.
The charges, in this case, are different from non-members. They would face a sentence of up to 30 years in prison and possibly life. Being a member state, they would be under a legal obligation to arrest any of those charged if they traveled to any of those 124 countries, which means Europe. That obligation to arrest them demonstrates how internationally the ICC actually threatens world war by preventing any diplomatic conferences. For example, Putin canceled his plans to attend the BRICS summit in South Africa in the apparent light of Pretoria’s obligation to arrest him.
The ICC’s charges here should not be confused with another similar case pending against the state of Israel, namely the charge of genocide leveled against it by several nations. Among others, South Africa has spearheaded a case before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) based on the high number of casualties in Gaza.
Since Palestine is a member, they should immediately arrest Hamas leaders Sinwar and Deif, who are in Gaza, but Haniyah resides in Qatar, which is a non-member. Will Palestine comply? Israel is not a member and does not have to comply. If the ICC charged Macron in France, is the country then obligated to arrest its own president contrary to its own laws? This introduces the paradox of the ICC questioning if it is even valid under international law. It acts as the supreme authority as if it were a one-world government, which has always been the aspiration and dream of the United Nations.
Some argue that this prosecutor had no choice because Palestine is a member of the ICC and the criticism has been that they are the puppet of the West after the Putin nonsense. So he has charged Netanyahu to politically vindicate the ICC. However, what he has unleashed is breaking the European ties and support for Israel. ICC arrest warrants against Israeli officials he can cleverly use to interfere in the entire backing for Israel. Israel’s European allies could be forced to terminate their relationship with Israel or risk being indicted in the ICC for aiding criminals.
If Palestine now refuses to turn off Hamas leaders in Gaza, then they too would be in a conspiracy, and Europeans who support Palestine could be forced to cut all ties. This illustrates that this idea of the ICC was clearly never well thought out, that they would never prevent war with justice but could promote war with arrest warrants that prevented diplomatic negotiations. For example, Putin can no longer even attend G20 meetings. When you cut off all diplomatic communications, then the ONLY alternative is war. The ICC should be terminated. Like NATO, which exists ONLY for war, the ICC dangerously breaks down the possibility of peace with its political interference in international relations.
For political propaganda purposes, the European countries supported the ICC arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin for purported transporting children, not atrocities in Ukraine. I have videos captured by Ukrainians showing the crucifying of Russian soldiers and setting them on fire. Accounts from French volunteer soldiers who left Ukraine witnessed Ukrainians shooting the heads of Russian prisoners of war for fun. The ICC has refused to charge anyone on the Ukrainian side for war crimes. They never charged the British or Americans for war crimes in Iraq.
Karim Khan is the Chief Prosecutor at the ICC since 2021. He is a British lawyer whose father was born in Mardan, Pakistan. Issuing an arrest warrant for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel when Israel is not a member is outrageous on the pretense that Palestine is a member. But he got away with it and issued the political arrest for Putin, ensuring there could be no diplomatic meetings, and everyone cheered. If Putin flew to America for a White House meeting and flew over France, do they have the right to send up jets to intercept Putin’s flight and shoot it down if they refuse to land?
This is what I have warned about precedent. He got away with Putin and will obviously abuse his power against non-members, and the ramifications can be dramatic from a political perspective; sure, Israel will not cooperate, and neither will the United States. Will Palestine really arrest and hand over Hamas’s leadership? But what will the members in Europe do now? If they send any support to Israel or Palestine, if they do not comply, they can be charged under the conspiracy theories. The ICC can easily hurl the world into international war over their pretend authority that nobody ever thought through the true consequences of this one-world government approach.
A new film, War and Justice, is about the ICC. It also highlights the jurisdictional issues.
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The ICC has abused its power and should now be disbanded.
Enough is enough!
About the Film:
The International Criminal Court (ICC) seeks arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas’s leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, for war and crimes against humanity.
The award-winning documentary WAR AND JUSTICE by directors Marcus Vetter and Michele Gentile about the ICC in The Hague couldn’t be more spot on. It will have its German theatrical release on June 6, 2024. The film will be shown in the presence of Luis Moreno Ocampo, the first Chief Prosecutor of the ICC, and Herta Däubler Gmelin (former German Minister of Justice), followed by a live Q&A in Tübingen. Due to the events in Israel/Palestine, the directors continued filming after the world premiere at the Munich Film Festival and edited an the final version that sheds light on the role of the ICC in the current Gaza war.
WAR AND JUSTICE is a fascinating documentary that tells the 25-year history of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in its mission to end the most serious crimes against humanity. In recent years, the ICC has made a name for itself by issuing an arrest warrant against President Putin. On October 7, 2023, Hamas carries out a horrific massacre of Israeli civilians. Israel responds with the largest offensive on the Gaza Strip to date. ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan travels to the Middle East and announces that he will prosecute any kind of war crimes on both sides.
WAR AND JUSTICE focuses on Karim Khan, the current Chief Prosecutor, and Argentine lawyer Luis Moreno-Ocampo, who was appointed the ICC’s first Chief Prosecutor in 2003 and whose case against the junta in his country was the subject of the Oscar-nominated feature film “ARGENTINA: 1985“.
Posted originally on May 16, 2024 By Martin Armstrong
Putin keeps trying to warn the American Neocons that they are playing with World War III, which will be nuclear. They issued a Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) that they will be firing missiles in a test just off the coast of northern California coast, thereby alerting pilots of Russian missile launches to LAND / IMPACT in the Oakland Air Route Traffic Control Center ((ARTCC). This will begin tomorrow and continue for 10 days. This is 300 miles offshore in international waters.
What Putin does not get is that our wonderful Neocons care nothing about the country, the people, and certainly not the economy. The Climate Change zealots in the White House agree with them and think reducing the population may be the only way to reach their NET ZERO target for CO2. He keeps warning – is this what you really want? They do not back down and want war so bad they can taste it in their sleep.
The first week of June in a Panic Cycle and the climate change nuts are punching for restrictions on travel this summer and the date is June 6th is what they are shooting for. They want to curtain your summer vacation this year to reduce CO2. If they can throw in war – fantastic! The only question they indeed to ask after World War III – Did we get enough of them to save the planet?
Putin was inaugurated in the Palace of the old Czars. He at least proved that he (1) could walk, (2) did not require an Easter Bunny to guide him, and (3) he could read a complete sentence. I suppose that, in contrast to Biden, it is rather stunning. But in truth, at least Putin does make the decisions in Russia compared to our unelected people really running the White House
Posted 0riginally on May 6, 2024 By Martin Armstrong
Russia is changing its game. I have been warned that Putin has been under pressure to deal with the real threat to Russia, the US, the UK, and NATO. Ukraine is just a mercenary soldier who is expendable as far as the West is concerned. Nobody cares about Ukrainians. They are just there to kill Russians. As I have warned, nobody in Washington has EVER expected Ukraine to win. The real powers, the US, the UK, and NATO, are all stepping up the game, and they are preparing for World War III and want to destroy Russia utterly.
The game is changing here on May 7th. All I can pray is that Ukraine does not do something really stupid because, on May 7th, Putin will be inaugurated.
Posted originally on May 3, 2024 By Martin Armstrong
Home prices in the US are near all-time highs. As I repeatedly stated, we can no longer look at real estate on the national level. Demand and value are contained to certain states and areas of certain states that the public has deemed most desirable, largely due to political factors such as taxes. Yet, at the moment, buyers are swiping up real estate where available. The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller posted a 6.4% gain in February after January’s 6% spike, marking the fastest uptick in home prices since November 2022.
The 20-city composite jumped 7.3% on an annual basis, rising from January’s posting of 6.6%. The 10-city composite saw an 8% annual rise, up from 7.4% in January. February was the third consecutive month of rising home prices in all cities, with Washington D.C., New York, San Diego, and Los Angeles experiencing all-time highs in price.
San Diego saw an 11.4% annual rise in home prices, the largest jump in the 20-city composite. Detroit and Chicago posted 8.9% annual gains. Yes, we will eventually see the red states surpass the blue. Smart money is moving into assets like real estate. The downside of real estate is that they impose a property tax on it annually, but investors enjoy that passive income.
There is a notion of “now or never” among first-time buyers as it simply no longer makes sense financially to rent. A person’s ability to qualify for that first downpayment has diminished with rising rental costs. Rental costs increased 3.15% from February 2023 to February 2024, further rising to 3.6% annually in March of this year. This is close to the pre-pandemic growth rate of around 4.1%, but rental pricing is up 36.6% from the pre-pandemic era. While difficult to judge on a national basis, the average rental now costs $1,983 per month, but it is much higher in places like New York City ($3,206 average) or San Francisco ($3,024) hence why we are seeing people sweeping up real estate there.
Shelter is 34% of CPI. The April 10 release from the Bureau of Labor Statistics found that shelter costs have risen for the past 40 months. In March, shelter costs were the largest contributing factor for core inflation. Rising home prices will not benefit the economy or lead to any positive indicators that inflation is waning.
Posted originally on the CTH on May 1, 2024 | Sundance
Aleksandr Dugin is the most famous political philosopher in Russia. His ideas are considered so dangerous the Ukrainian government murdered his daughter, and Amazon won’t sell his books. Tucker Carlson talked to him in Moscow.
Watching this interview while sitting in a kitchen in Russia is a little odd, however, what Dugin explains does seem to lineup with my perspective as an American in Russia. The explanation for why leftists (progressives) in the USA seemingly reversed their entire worldview about Russia in a decade does seem to make sense.
I have shared that modern Russian social society is much more traditional than the expressed Western value system you find embodied in progressives. Russia is far more nationalistic and less globalist; meanwhile, the USA has moved far closer to globalism and is less nationalistic. Within this shift, the change in democracy also reconciles.
As Dugin notes, Western democracy is no longer about the majority of the citizens; the national identity has been erased in favor of governing rules by a minority. The commonality of sex (two genders) has been erased in favor of multiple-gender identity, expanded individualism, which is simply a reflection of the fractured bond of commonality. It is an interesting conversation. WATCH:
It should be noted before people in the USA and English speaking “West” start running around with romantic images of Russia, that the Russian people do not think about such issues… AT ALL. The average Russian thinks about social politics about as much as the average American, which is to say – not much at all.
However, all of that said, someone asked me about COVID-19 in Russia and what was the general sensibility of the issue. I have had some rather fascinating discussions thanks to that question.
I never thought I would find a population more cynical about COVID-19, the “pandemic of ’20/’21” and the vaccine protocol than Americans on average. I was wrong. In my conversations with Russians about it, the average person in Russia was far more cynical than the average American.
I’m not sure why, but a larger than 50% group of the Russian people did not buy into the fear and hype. From the conversations I have encountered, more than half the population didn’t trust the claims by the Western medical establishment.
Additionally, fewer than half the population of Russia appear to have accepted the vaccine. We are told the vaccine compliance rate for the first injection in the USA was around 65 to 70%. It does not seem like 70% of Russians took the vaccine; it seems that Russia had a much lower compliance rate based on responses to the question.
I’m not exactly sure why the biggest segment of the Russian population didn’t fall for the COVID-19 pandemic hype; perhaps their cynicism against “institutions” of a totalitarian state helped them on this subject, I don’t know. However, the most frequent response is the average Russian just didn’t believe COVID-19 was as dangerous as the various health agencies were saying it was.
The government of Russia pushed the vaccine, perhaps not as aggressively as the USA and other Western countries, but they did push it hard. However, it appears much less than half the population followed the govt advice.
I’ll have more later on some granular Russian dynamics as they appear to present.
It really is bizarre being here in Russia. There are zero Western tourists or travelers in this country. The only tourists and/or foreigners Russia has seen for over two years are all from Asia (mostly China). When the average Russian hears my American voice speaking English, the immediate reaction is shock, followed by extreme curiosity – it’s wild.
There’s nothing to be fearful about or worried about. Everywhere seems to be safe, orderly and exceptionally well cultured; maybe even a little annoyingly so. The polite and unwritten social rules are followed by everyone with a general compliance unlike anything I can remember seeing in the USA. Everything from how you cross the street to obeying social standards on subway travel is extraordinarily polite and mannerly; factually it’s a little weird.
Do not romanticize Russia in your mind’s-eye; there are major issues here, and the quality of life in the average USA neighborhood is much higher. However, on the cultural part of polite social norms, most Russian social life is like a step back into the 1950’s USA with perhaps a bigger dose of visible counter-culture evident.
The USA boomer generation would recognize the shallow coldness behind the eyes of Russians who avoid eye contact and appear to be task oriented in life. Oddly, if you grew up as a USA Gen-Xer, socially current Russia is probably more like the place of your fond memories, and going to a large shopping mall is like stepping back in time 30 years. If, however, you have a gen-Z or ‘zoomer’ in the familial crew, they would think modern social Russia is backwards and too regimented.
From what I can tell, those Western (generational) viewpoints are entirely due to the speed of transition that Dugin notes from the rising of Vladimir Putin to the leadership of Russia.
There ain’t no welcoming room for Barack Obama, Bill Ayers, Cass Sunstein, Samantha Power and/or any of the progressive crew here. Russian patriotism is probably at the highest generational point in a long time, and I doubt President Putin is going to miss the opportunity to perma-ban all the Western corporations that exited Russia after the sanctions came along.
The reality of the Western sanction regime is really going to take an entire series of articles to explain. T-mobile cell phone service works here (go figure, no blocks at all), as long as you don’t interface your device with Russian internet wifi, which is really funny.
Yes, you can connect to all the banned Western stuff through the cell phone network (value of a yellow phone in Russia), and simultaneously you can connect and access all of the banned stuff the USA government controls and stops Americans from seeing/using if you have a grey zone originating phone and cell phone number. lolol
It really is bizarre how an individual person can operate, in this fragmented communication world, once they teach themselves the tools and techniques. Perhaps the most stunningly obvious difference between Yellow and Grey – anyone with a passport can open a bank account in Russia. The RU banks even have their computers set up to plug in to your device and upload apps, because the Apple/Google app stores don’t permit it (sanctions).
There is a lengthy learning curve, but it is well worth the time figuring out how to navigate the financial matrix the West has constructed. The sanctions against Russia are stunningly irrelevant, and were not designed to keep Russia out of the western financial system. The Sanctions were created to keep Americans, Canadians, AU/NZ, Japan and EU locked into the West.
Posted originally on Apr 25, 2024 By Martin Armstrong
Nearly $300 billion worth of confiscated frozen Russian assets have been set to the side by the West. Some of the world’s leading decision-makers have been urging the powers that be to release these funds into Ukraine, arming Russia’s enemy with the private wealth of its own citizens. Russia has finally responded to these threats near our critical turning point during the week of April 19/20, 2024.
Russian authorities released a statement to say that they are fully prepared to implement retaliatory measures.
“We also have a prepared answer,” Valentina Matviyenko, the speaker of the Russian upper house of parliament, was quoted as saying by state news agency RIA. “We have a draft law, which we are ready to consider immediately, on retaliatory measures.” While the precise retaliatory measures have not been stated, it is safe to assume that Russia will begin to confiscate Western assets. “And the Europeans will lose more than we do,” Matviyenko, who is a member of Russia’s powerful Security Council, said.
The response also comes ahead of the critical target of May 7, which also happens to be the next Russian election. The computer selected the date many years ago. The people want a strong leader who will fight to return what is rightfully theirs. The West has never technically been at war with Russia and Russia has been overly patient in awaiting a response. As it seems the funds will be released in the slush fund which is Ukraine, Russia has been forced to respond.
It is unclear how much Russia holds in foreign assets. Russian Parliament speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said he believes that Russia would be justified in seizing these assets, especially after the US House of Representatives recently voted on legislation that will expand the illegal seizure of private Russian assets. Russia noted that Europe has more to lose than America because Europeans have more invested in Russia. Europe holds the majority of Russian assets, freezing around $224 billion in assets compared to the $5 to $6 trillion held by the US.
Now Volodin is prepared for more than mere economic warfare. In January, he stated that Russia was prepared to unleash a “global catastrophe” upon all unfriendly nations for creating this proxy war in Ukraine. “Arguments that the nuclear powers have not previously used weapons of mass destruction in local conflicts are untenable. This is because these states have not faced a situation in which the security of their citizens and the territorial integrity of their countries were threatened,” he stated in January 2024. He then stated on Telegram: “With their decisions, Washington and Brussels are leading the world to a terrible war … foreign politicians making such decisions need to understand that this could end in a global tragedy that will destroy their countries.”
Now, the amount frozen surpasses Ukraine’s entire GDP, but world leaders are using it as a ruse to cover up the fact that their own nations are in a liquidity crisis. US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen falsely claims that sending off these assets to Ukraine would “incentivize [Russia] to come to the table to negotiate a just peace with Ukraine.” She knows that Moscow has been prohibited from seeking a peace treaty since this war began. Putin went on a live stream that was broadcast around the globe and said he would welcome a call from Zelensky at any time to arrange a peace treaty.
The wise have been pouring money out into anything tangible. Everything from collectible cars to art, antiques, coins, and stamps have been rising. Geopolitics have collided with plans for the Great Reset, and private assets will be used on the economic battlefield.
In this wholesale confiscation of private assets, these politicians are using the excuse of Ukraine to implement a completely new normal procedure – the confiscation of billions without asking who the funds belong to and whether there is a connection to the Ukraine war. There is no check or balance for where the money is spent or sent.
For all intents and purposes, the people who lost their life savings are mostly private citizens who have been victims of circumstance. They did not fund Russia’s invasion or have a say in their government’s decisions. Russia now states that they view this as a complete violation of international law as an act of war and they are willing to play the same dirty game.
This will change world trade entirely. People will be wary of international investments in places where they too may face illegal seizures. Why would, say, someone in China continue investing in Europe and the US when hostilities are building with Taiwan? These politicians simply fail to see the longterm damage that their policies create.
The West deliberately pushed Russia to suspend servicing their debts to Western lenders in preparation for their own excuse to suspend their own servicing of debts. As usual with sanctions, not only the person against whom the sanctions are directed, in this case, Russia, is harmed but also this has undermined the entire world economy ensuring its collapse in the years ahead. In this context, it cannot be stressed enough that sanctions historically have never worked and they know that they are generally pointless.
There is absolutely no question that we are headed into a very serious sovereign debt default. Western governments have been engaging in a Ponzi scheme, and the house of cards comes crashing down when they can no longer sell new debt to redeem the old. They need this war as an excuse to cover up their fiscal mismanagement, and they will then start all over again with digital currencies.
Posted originally on Apr 21, 2024 By Martin Armstrong
Russia tested a new missile last week that has many concerned that this is a new supersonic version of a nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) on April 12th, 2024, that is capable of attacking NATO and the USA undetected. The Russian Ministry of Defence only claimed this was part of “state testing of prospective missile systems, as well as confirmation of the stability of missiles in service.” This has caused chatter down the line when the Neocons are pushing for war.
Switzerland-based Nord Stream AG filed a lawsuit against the insurers for refusing to compensate the company. Nord Stream estimated the cost incurred by the attack to be between €1.2 billion and €1.35 billion and is seeking to recoup over €400 million in damages. The insurers, Lloyd’s Insurance Company and Arch Insurance Company responded that since the Nord Stream explosions were “more likely than not to have been inflicted by… a government,” they have no responsibility to pay for damages to the pipelines.
British insurers took the position that they have no obligation to honor their coverage of the Nord Stream pipelines because they were blown up in September 2022, because they were destroyed as an unprecedented act of sabotage, most likely carried out by a national government. They have contradicted reports of the Washington Post and others claiming that a private Ukrainian team was responsible for the massive act of industrial sabotage.
In their legal brief, you can download above, filed by Lloyd’s and Arch Insurance Companies, they state that the “defendants will rely on, inter alia, the fact that the explosion Damage could only have (or, at least, was more likely than not to have) been inflicted by or under the order of a government.”
Consequently, they argue, “the Explosion Damage was “directly or indirectly occasioned by, happening through, or in consequence of”the conflict between Russia and Ukraine and therefore falls under an exclusion relating to military conflicts. This is important because regardless of your insurance, going into war means they will never pay any claims. Personally, I have NEVER had any insurance company EVER pay what I was covered for. When I die, I am sure they will claim that he is a clone and he is hiding somewhere.
A tree once fell on my brand-new car in a storm. It was then sent to Bordentown Autobody to be repaired. They burned down with my car in it. Allstate Insurance screwed me because I paid cash for the car, and as soon as they knew no bank was involved, they claimed there were two deductibles and subtracted about 25%, knowing that would be my legal fees to make it UNREALISTIC to sue them. Insurance is ALWAYS a scam.
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