Posted originally on Dec 3, 2024 by Martin Armstrong
What began as a special military operation has turned into the start of the next world war, and Russia is paying heavily. Russian President Vladimir Putin passed a new budget over the weekend that will allocate 32.5% of the total budget (13.5 trillion rubles) for FY25 to defense spending, which accounts for 6.2% of total GDP.
The amount in proportion to the total budget spent on defense in FY24 was 28.3%. Notably, the budget is factoring in military costs for the next three years – this war will not simply end with Trump. Russia’s pre-war military expenditure was only 3.6 trillion rubles, rising to 5.5 trillion at the beginning of the war from 5.5 trillion rubles in 2022 to 6.4 trillion rubles in 2023.
Russia must find a way to finance this war. The Kremlin estimates GDP for 2024 to come in at 195.8 trillion rubles, although last year’s GDP was 172.1 trillion rubles. The GDP for 2025 is anticipated to be 214.6 trillion rubles. The nation is confident it will continue earning but that is not enough to fund the growing war.
Putin has already raised taxes for the first time in nearly 25 years. The corporate tax rate will rise by 5% from 20% to 25%. The government expects to generate an additional 2.6 trillion rubles in revenue once the tax is implemented in 2025. Russia’s Finance Ministry believes that 2 million people, 3.2% of the working population, will see a rise in their taxes. Taxes on investments will not change. “The changes are aimed at building a fair and balanced tax system,” Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said, adding that the additional funds would bolster Russia’s “economic well-being.”
The flat tax rate of 13% that Putin implemented when he took over for Yeltsin in 2001 accounted for much of his popularity. Still, the people overwhelmingly have a sense of patriotism and support Russia as well as Putin. Even with the ongoing war, Russia still only spends about one-fourth of what America and China do on defense. Even India spends more than Russia on its military. We can obviously see where these nations believe the war effort is heading when looking at future budget forecasts. Three years from now brings us to the pivotal year of 2027/2028, where all bets are off, and it would come as zero surprise if/when Russia raises its military spending budget projections.
Posted originally on Dec 2, 2024 by Martin Armstrong |
The pardon Biden gave his son identified these two cases and any offenses that Hunter Biden “committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from Jan. 1, 2014, through Dec. 1, 2024. However, reliable sources suggest that Hunter was involved with the bio-labs in Ukraine before 2014 to the extent that Putin wanted to discuss Hunter’s involvement with Papa Biden. You cannot accept money from a foreign government without registering as an agent of that government. Ukraine has been the largest money laundering scam in modern history.
Posted originally on the CTH on December 2, 2024 | Sundance
Senator Ron Johnson appears with a very excited Maria Bartiromo to discuss the possibility of Kash Patel taking the lead role in the FBI.
As Senator Johnson notes in the interview, bringing the truth forward to the American public is the greatest challenge. “The truth is a powerful weapon,” Johnson said. However, Johnson also notes “I’m not an optimist in this Maria, quite honestly, I wish I could say I was.”
Posted originally on the CTH on December 1, 2024 | Sundance
President Joe Biden has issued an executive grant of clemency (pardon), “For those offenses against the United States which he has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 1, 2014 through December 1, 2024, including but not limited to all offenses charged or prosecuted (including any that have resulted in convictions) by Special Counsel David C. Weiss.”
WHITE HOUSE – Today, I signed a pardon for my son Hunter. From the day I took office, I said I would not interfere with the Justice Department’s decision-making, and I kept my word even as I have watched my son being selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted. Without aggravating factors like use in a crime, multiple purchases, or buying a weapon as a straw purchaser, people are almost never brought to trial on felony charges solely for how they filled out a gun form. Those who were late paying their taxes because of serious addictions, but paid them back subsequently with interest and penalties, are typically given non-criminal resolutions. It is clear that Hunter was treated differently.
The charges in his cases came about only after several of my political opponents in Congress instigated them to attack me and oppose my election. Then, a carefully negotiated plea deal, agreed to by the Department of Justice, unraveled in the court room – with a number of my political opponents in Congress taking credit for bringing political pressure on the process. Had the plea deal held, it would have been a fair, reasonable resolution of Hunter’s cases.
No reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter’s cases can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son – and that is wrong. There has been an effort to break Hunter – who has been five and a half years sober, even in the face of unrelenting attacks and selective prosecution. In trying to break Hunter, they’ve tried to break me – and there’s no reason to believe it will stop here. Enough is enough.
For my entire career I have followed a simple principle: just tell the American people the truth. They’ll be fair-minded. Here’s the truth: I believe in the justice system, but as I have wrestled with this, I also believe raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice – and once I made this decision this weekend, there was no sense in delaying it further. I hope Americans will understand why a father and a President would come to this decision. (LINK)
Posted originally on the CTH on November 25, 2024 | Sundance
Ignore the prices you see on the supermarket shelves and listen to the Farm Bureau folks. The price of a Thanksgiving dinner for ten people is five percent lower this year. You can feed a family gathering of ten people for a mere $58.08, cool.
Farm Bureau: “Americans stocking up for this year’s Thanksgiving dinner will see a dip in their grocery bills for the second year in a row. The 39th annual American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) Thanksgiving dinner survey finds that the classic feast for 10 will run you $58.08, down 5% from last year. However, this is still 19% higher than five years ago.” (link)
I mean, seriously? A Thanksgiving dinner for ten people for around $58?
Does anyone else find this a little challenging to believe?
Suspicious Cat has gone from, well, suspicious to shocked!
Posted originally on Nov 25, 2024 by Martin Armstrong
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has been criminalizing airline passengers since the Patriot Act gave them the permission to treat everyone as a suspected terrorist. The Justice Department has finally suspended the DEA from most passenger searches after an investigation revealed that the DEA was perhaps violating the Constitution with illegal and warrantless searches.
A Justice Department Office of Inspector General (OIG) memorandum outlined a DECADE worth of “significant concerns” about how DEA agents have been fabricating the criteria necessary to search passengers. In fact, the OIG found that one airline employee was paid tens of thousands of dollars as a kickback for seizing cash from unsuspecting passengers on behalf of the DEA.
The majority of searches and seizures at airports never find an actual crime. That does not prevent DEA agents from coercing passengers into forfeiting their assets. There are countless stories of innocent passengers losing everything for carrying an amount greater than $5,000 on board.
The DEA attempted to steal the life savings of a retired railroad engineer who had $82,373 in cash. The agency was forced to return he funds when the case went public. In another instance, a woman had over $40,000 confiscated without valid reason. Yet again, the DEA had to return the money when the story hit the news. This happens extremely frequently, but it is rare for the agency to return funds once they have been confiscated.
According to the Justice Department Office of Inspector General, the DEA seized $4 billion in cash from potential drug smugglers from 2007 to 2017, but only $3.2 billion was found to be connected to criminal activity. The report concluded: “”When seizure and administrative forfeitures do not ultimately advance an investigation or prosecution, law enforcement creates the appearance, and risks the reality, that it is more interested in seizing and forfeiting cash than advancing an investigation or prosecution.”
What is considered suspicious activity? “When you buy a last-minute ticket, we get alerts,” one DEA officer explained. “We come out, and we talk to those people, which I’ve tried to do to you, but you wouldn’t allow me to do it.” Purchasing a flight with an immediate return could set off the alarm, as could purchasing a ticket within 24 hours of travel. The DEA considers it suspicious if you travel without checked luggage.
Once, I flew back to the States from Europe during the July Fourth holiday. My ticket was originally booked for JFK in New York. I then remembered the traffic would be horrific so I switched to Philadelphia. When I landed, I was met by two IRS agents. Apparently, there was sting they set up at JFK looking for Americans coming home for holidays who do not pay taxes here. I said, “You can check. I pay my taxes here and do not live overseas.” That was not good enough. They thought I was tipped off to their sting in NYC, so they sent two agents to intercept me in Philadelphia simply because I switched planes.
How do we permit government agencies to seize assets on the premise of suspicion? Then, we allow these agencies to split the proceeds they illegally seized even if no crime was committed. Does the Constitution not apply at the airport?
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