Posted originally on Jan 29, 2024 By Martin Armstrong |
Businesses are increasingly preventing customers from using cash as NO CASH ACCEPTED signs line Main Street. No federal law requires businesses to accept cash, but some states and cities have implemented laws mandating businesses to do so. COVID accelerated the push toward a cashless society, as physical cash was seen as unhygienic. Then the US mint faced a physical currency shortage as Americans hoarded their cash. Cashless businesses are now widely accepted and normalized in our society.
Around 6 million Americans who do not have a bank account, and therefore are blocked from participating in our cashless society. This particularly impacts the poorest in our nation, as a recent survey found that 40% of unbanked individuals do not have enough liquidity to meet the minimum balance required by banks. The FDIC found that one-third of respondents simply do not trust the banks and prefer cash for privacy purposes.
Then there are those who use prepaid cards or tools like CashApp that fall in “underbanked” bracket. The latest estimate found that 19 million households fall under this category. Combined, one in five Americans are either unbanked or underbanked, and according to the government, these individuals are merely attempting to avoid taxation.
Another lesser known fact is that banks often charge stores for physical currency. Additionally, the costs of providing and handling physical currency, such as the need for security, transportation, and storage make it more costly for businesses to use cash. The crime wave across blue cities is a contributing factor as well, as it is not uncommon to see signs stating that a business does not have cash on hand to deter thieves.
There is no federal law that requires banks to charge for change, but federal law generally allows banks to charge non-interest charges and fees. Interchange fees are transaction fees that the merchant’s bank must pay whenever a customer uses a credit/debit card to make a purchase, which is why you will often see a surcharge of around 3% at certain businesses to cover this expense. So businesses are faced with fees for all transactions whether they go the cash or card route.
The 2010 Dodd-Frank ruling permitted businesses to set a credit card minimum of $10, as the interchange fees nulled the profits on small purchases. Debit cards are treated as cash, whereby there is no set minimum by law.
They will soon force the unbanked and underbanked into the banking system, which is one of the reasons why the Biden Administration continually talks about erasing junk fees so that the 40% who claim they cannot meet the minimum balance are not excluded from government oversight. The push for a cashless society is a global phenomenon tied to the DPI and other initiatives that aim to centralize our individual data.
Posted originally on Jan 29, 2024 By Martin Armstrong
The United Kingdom is in an uproar after it was suggested that they may face a military draft. There is no draft at the time of this writing, but based on the models, you should prepare for one shortly.
Britain relies on voluntary professional fighters but cannot meet recruitment goals. No one wants to fight in foreign wars on behalf of the globalists. The British Army is experiencing a serious recruitment and retention crisis, with the number of fully trained soldiers set to fall to 72,500, the lowest level since the period after the end of the war of Spanish succession in 1714. Then, similar to America, tens of thousands are not fit for combat.
The National Audit Office (NAO) estimates that the budget for new weapons and equipment will reach $387.29 billion for 2023-2033, $21.42 billion over budget. This is the largest deficit since its first report in 2012 and has resulted in a “marked deterioration,” according to the Ministry of Defense. Yet, of course they have enough money to fund foreign militias to protect their borders. Military spending is expected to reach 2.25% of GDP this year but the NAO warns that it will likely rise.
General Sir Patrick Sanders, the outgoing Chief of the General Staff (CGS) has announced that a “whole-of-nation undertaking”may be required if they wage war against Russia. His remarks come one week after Defence Secretary Grant Shapps declared the UK to be in a “pre-war world.” He believes that the army must grow from 74,000 to 120,000 in the next three years, but again, no one wants to fight on behalf of the neocons and their budget is too miniscule to attract the youth.
So they are taking it a step further and requesting a “citizen army.”
"Our friends in eastern and northern Europe, who feel the proximity of the Russian threat more acutely, are already acting prudently, laying the foundations for national mobilisation. As the chairman of the NATO military committee warned just last week, and as the Swedish government has done...taking preparatory steps to enable placing our societies on a war footing when needed are now not merely desirable but essential."
Later adding:
“We will not be immune and as the pre-war generation we must similarly prepare - and that is a whole-of-nation undertaking. Ukraine brutally illustrates that regular armies start wars; citizen armies win them."
The only reason nations prepare all citizens is in the event of an invasion. He declared that Ukraine is merely buying the West time before Russia attempts to conquer lands in a fashion not seen since Adolph Hitler. Russia is now attacking “our system and way of life politically, psychologically, and symbolically,” according to Sir Patrick. The truth of the matter is that the neocons have launched an all-out psychologically assassination of the West where they want us to believe that Russia is moments away from invading.
Those who read“The Plot to Seize Russia” understand that the next world war has been carefully orchestrated. The book reveals never-before-seen documents that confirm numerous attempts to implement pro-Western policies using the Russian oligarchy headed by Boris Berezovsky. Those on the other side longed for a return to the Soviet Union. Putin was in neither camp and has been fighting off extremists in his own country since he took over in 1999. The situation will become dire if and when a new Russian president is installed.
It is clear which nations are eager for war. Admiral Rob Bauer of NATO predicts a long war, stating that civilians must be ready for the next world war within the next two decades. According to my models, it will not take 20 years for World War III to unfold.
The UK government is toying with its citizens by providing hypothetical situations. “There is no suggestion of [a draft]. The Government has no intention to follow through with that. The British military has a proud tradition of being a voluntary force. There are no plans to change that,” Rishi Sunak announced, followed by saying the fear mongering is not helpful at this time. He stands alone as NATO, the military, and the unelected globalists have planted the seed in everyone’s mind that war and a potential invasion may occur.
Who would be called to fight? To join the British Military, one must pass fitness, medical, and security checks. The maximum age to enlist as a soldier is 35 years and 6 months, and for Reserve soldiers, the maximum age is 49.
The eligibility for conscription has varied, but typically it has involved the compulsory enrollment of single men within certain age ranges, and during World War II, men between 18 and 41 were asked to fight. Women will not be exempt. Unmarried women between 20 and 30 were liable to serve under the National Service Act passed in Parliament in December 1941 during World War II. The last conscription ended in 1963 amid the Cold War, and the military has operated on a solely voluntary basis ever since.
Our own nations are leading us into global conflict to create a one-world government ultimately. They have attempted to paint Russia as the villain but there is no patriotic call of duty to fight a meaningless, completely avoidable war. How many people must die before they lose?
Posted originally on the CTH on January 28, 2024 | Sundance
A story surfacing in Politico about the collapse of the office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) and the inability of the entire trade policy group to find any willing trade partners was entirely predictable.
You might remember how the insufferable U.S. business media constantly said the Trump trade team was not going to be successful because the administration was disliked by global trade partners. Every Trump trade approach from tariffs to section 301 compliance, to U.S. demands around foreign policy tied to the economic Trump Doctrine was decried by U.S. multinational corporations as too divisive, too intransigent. However, Donald Trump and his trade wolverines racked up more trade wins and established more trade agreements than any administration in history.
From KORUS (Korea/US) to the Middle East, Saudi Arabia, India, Japan, European energy deals, massive changes with China, new Ag agreements, demanded technology sector investment back in the USA, and the successful renegotiation of NAFTA (Canada, Mexico, USA) into the USMCA – all of it was stunning in scale, scope and success. Trump’s global trade success was exactly the opposite of every predictive declaration by the professional media. All of the Trump strategic policy shift created the framework for the largest domestic expansion of the U.S. economy, evident in every 2019 economic metric prior to the pandemic.
Biden took office with the full support of the lying liars who lie in the media, and they said Biden’s team was a shoo-in for success. Again, exactly the opposite has happened.
The ideological leftists who came with the Obama/Biden plan forcibly tried to push their Green New Deal policies into every trade agreement. The result and response from all U.S. trade partners has been a massive failure of epic proportions.
Despite the international pontifications around support for the globalist energy policies, ie. the “Build Back Better” bulls**t pushed by western government, the World Economic Forum and the globalists, when it comes to where the rubber hits the road no nation is willing to attach themselves to the economically destructive millstone demands of U.S trade. In material fact, many of the BBB agenda priorities are now completely rejected by the same politicians who promoted them.
In part, we in the USA are suffering through some of the most horrific inflationary economic outcomes from this Biden ‘Green New Deal’ program. Any nation that aligned itself is feeling the same impact in direct proportion to how close they followed the program. The more ‘Green’ compliant the nation, the more the economic hardship upon the citizens within that nation. This is just the non-pretending reality of the thing.
So, it doesn’t come as any great surprise to see a thoroughly rejected and dejected career trade group now walking to the exits with zero accomplishments for their last three years of effort.
WASHINGTON – Frustration with a stalled trade agenda and unhappiness with the leadership of President Joe Biden’s trade chief is pushing more than a half-dozen senior trade officials out the door, according to four current and former administration officials with knowledge of the departures.
The exits include the White House’s point person on international economics and two of the three deputy U.S. trade representatives responsible for implementing the Biden administration’s “worker-centered” trade policy.
The exodus comes after Biden’s trade agenda ran aground on multiple fronts in 2023: failing to reach a green steel and aluminum deal with the European Union and pulling out of trade talks that were part of the U.S.-crafted Indo-Pacific Economic Framework in November. The administration, meanwhile, remains internally divided on other key trade policy decisions, like how to regulate digital information flowing across the globe.
Those headwinds — and the realization that little real progress is likely to be made in an election year during which former President Donald Trump will put a glaring spotlight on trade — have convinced some officials it’s time to move on. Adding to the frustration: simmering discontent with the management practices of U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai.
[…] Biden’s “worker-centered” trade agenda was designed to smooth over frayed relations with close trading partners and win back those blue-collar workers in battleground states. But his sweeping plans to reshape global trade rules haven’t assuaged concerns from Democrats who worry that Trump will again use trade issues as a cudgel against them in the industrial Midwest — a region that could determine control of Congress and the White House in November.
That disconnect has forced USTR to freeze, abandon, or dramatically scale back its signature initiatives and negotiations, leaving some top lawmakers and staffers frustrated. In particular, Wyden and Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) are fuming that the administration hasn’t matched the Trump administration’s accomplishments on trade, like the binding labor and environmental standards that Democrats got inserted into the rewrite of NAFTA that Trump signed in 2020.
“Sen. Brown and I have consistently said that you need the kind of proposal that you saw in the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement where you open up markets for business and you have tough enforcement,” said Wyden, “and a lot of what’s been put up doesn’t meet that test.” (read more)
Go figure!….
Want success?…
Want trade deals that lift the USA economy?…
Want USA “deflation,” yes, the actual lowering of prices for goods and services?…
Want lower costs of goods, and lower prices for consumers by leveraging the size of the USA market?…
Posted originally on the CTH on January 26, 2024 | Sundance
Evidence has been shown to the Biden administration and the United Nations that 12 members of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) were actual participants in the October 7th Hamas terrorist attacks against Israel.
Yes, you read that correctly. The U.N. was an actual participant in the premeditated slaughter of Israeli citizens.
(Via Axios) The State Department on Friday said it is pausing additional funding for the UN Palestinian refugee agency after Israel alleged 12 UNRWA employees were involved in the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack.
The big picture: It’s the first step by the Biden administration against UNRWA since renewing U.S. funding to the agency after the Trump administration completely cut it off.
State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said the U.S. is “extremely troubled by the allegations” and the administration has “temporarily paused additional funding for UNRWA while we review these allegations and the steps the United Nations is taking to address them.”
State Dept – “The United States is extremely troubled by the allegations that twelve UNRWA employees may have been involved in the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel. The Department of State has temporarily paused additional funding for UNRWA while we review these allegations and the steps the United Nations is taking to address them.
Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken spoke with United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres on January 25 to emphasize the necessity of a thorough and swift investigation of this matter. We welcome the decision to conduct such an investigation and Secretary General Guterres’ pledge to take decisive action to respond, should the allegations prove accurate. We also welcome the UN’s announcement of a “comprehensive and independent” review of UNRWA. There must be complete accountability for anyone who participated in the heinous attacks of October 7. (LINK)
Driving the news: A senior Israeli official said the Shin Bet and Israeli military intelligence provided information that pointed to the active participation of UNRWA staffers and the use of the agency’s vehicles and facilities during the Oct. 7 Hamas attack.
“This was strong and corroborated intelligence,” the official said. “A lot of the intelligence is a result of interrogations of militants who were arrested during the Oct. 7 attack.”
State of play: UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said he has terminated the contracts of the accused staff members and launched an investigation to “establish the truth without delay.” (Axios More)
UNITED NATIONS – “The Israeli Authorities have provided UNRWA with information about the alleged involvement of several UNRWA employees in the horrific attacks on Israel on 7 October.
“To protect the Agency’s ability to deliver humanitarian assistance, I have taken the decision to immediately terminate the contracts of these staff members and launch an investigation in order to establish the truth without delay. Any UNRWA employee who was involved in acts of terror will be held accountable, including through criminal prosecution.
“UNRWA reiterates its condemnation in the strongest possible terms of the abhorrent attacks of 7 October and calls for the immediate and unconditional release of all Israeli hostages and their safe return to their families.
“These shocking allegations come as more than 2 million people in Gaza depend on lifesaving assistance that the Agency has been providing since the war began. Anyone who betrays the fundamental values of the United Nations also betrays those whom we serve in Gaza, across the region and elsewhere around the world”. (LINK)
Posted originally on the CTH on January 26, 2024 | Sundance
In this brief video below {Direct Rumble Link Here} Former Blackrock portfolio manager, Ed Dowd, explains why every last remnant of human freedom depends on mass resistance to Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs). “Once the central bank digital currency is linked to all your credit cards and bank accounts, then social controls can be implemented. If you’re a dissenter like me, talking about truth, they shut you down.” WATCH:
I know at first blush a lot of this CBDC discussion seems esoteric, difficult to understand, and there are a lot of other issues happening simultaneously in the background. However, if you contemplate the biggest threat on this overarching power arc of western government, you arrive to understand how serious this seemingly opaque issue really is.
I first started to deep dive research into these CBDC datapoints when the Russian sanctions were triggered. You see, nothing about them really makes sense from the way they were structured; additionally, the intensity of the drive to make the sanctions the tip of the western spear was just too pointed, something about it didn’t make sense. That’s what took me to dig deep into the impact and realize nothing said about these financial sanctions makes sense when compared against their actual irrelevance {Go Deep}.
When the White House first started openly saying the Biden administration was reviewing how to implement CBDC’s, yes THAT Announcement ACTUALLY HAPPENED, September 2022, then things from a research perspective really started to get serious. “While the U.S. has not yet decided whether it will pursue a CBDC, the U.S. has been closely examining the implications of, and options for, issuing a CBDC.” Whenever the U.S. govt says they’re “undecided,” pay close attention.
First things first with the Western financial sanctions- specifically the SWIFT exchange. It is true you cannot use VISA, Mastercard or any mainstream Western financial tools to conduct business in Russia; however, the number of workarounds for this issue are numerous. One of those tools is the use of a cryptocurrency like Bitcoin; and within that reality, you find something very ominous about the USA motive against crypto.
“I’ve always been deeply opposed to crypto, bitcoin, etc.,” Dimon said in response to a question from Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. “The only true use case for it is criminals, drug traffickers … money laundering, tax avoidance because it is somewhat anonymous, not fully, and because you can move money instantaneously. “If I was the government, I would close it down.” (read more)
Dimon was/is positioning JPMorgan to be a facilitating beneficiary of the financial control system evident within any CBDC process.
Here’s how it really looks from the outside looking at the USA. The same way the Patriot Act was not designed to stop terrorism but rather to create a domestic surveillance system. So too were the “Russian Sanctions” not designed to sanction Russia, but rather to create the financial control system that will lead to a USA digital currency.
The Western sanctions created a financial wall around the USA, not to keep Russia out, but to keep us in. The Western sanction regime, the financial mechanisms they created and authorized, creates the control gate that leads to a U.S. digital currency.
Now, does the exploding debt and seeming govt ambivalence, the stuff Ed Dowd is talking about, take on a new perspective? It should, because that unspoken motive explains everything. It all just makes sense when reviewed through this prism of motive and intent. Again, the western sanctions against Russia are not having an impact against Russia; they are having a quiet impact in the USA and western dollar-based economic system that no one is permitted to talk about.
Bottom line, the non-pretending reasoning. The US Treasury has set the financial system on an almost unreversible path to a U.S. Central Bank Digital Currency. As direct consequence crypto currency alternatives are a threat to the establishment of that western objective. This reality also pulls in the explanation around why the USA is so all-in for the banker-driven World War Reddit, the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
How did the Obama administration go from all efforts to be on good relations with Russia 2009 through 2015, then suddenly pivot to the exact opposite with the Trump-Russia collusion conspiracy, the Russian election interference nonsense, the expulsion of Russian diplomats in Dec/Jan 2017 and suddenly Vladimir Putin as the archvillain for the world? Apparently, few have ever really asked how that happened.
Here’s the big picture, as seen through the prism of the EU and the non-pretenders in Eastern Europe.
The Marxists in the Obama admin needed a boogeyman in order to pull off their domestic heist and secure the “fundamental change.” The CIA and State Dept were deployed to utilize Ukraine in 2014 to create the boogeyman, Russia. Ukraine would be the stick to poke Russia. The USA needed a proxy; they created one and made the participants rich.
Provoked, Russia fell into the trap and took control of Crimea as they perceived the NATO expansion and likely control of the Black Sea as a threat. The Crimea move gave the CIA and State Dept the exact response they intended.
The Russia boogeyman was created.
But why? Why would the effort of the U.S. Government be to provoke and create this crisis?
In the biggest of big pictures, the domestic fundamental change needed it. We needed a reason to put walls around the U.S – not to keep Russia out, but to keep Americans locked in. Conflict with Russia became the Obama version of Bush’s conflict with Iraq. Putin now cast to play the role of Bin Laden.
The Patriot Act was never intended to stop foreign terrorists from attacking the USA. The Patriot Act was intended to create the DHS surveillance system for domestic control. It succeeded. The Russian sanctions were never intended to sanction Russia (and they don’t). The Western sanctions against Russia were intended to build walls around the U.S. financial system.
Ostracizing the world’s global trade currency, the dollar, from the global trade system was/is a necessary step in controlling domestic currency. If there is a threat, the government needs to respond. That’s how the crisis is created and not wasted.
Yes, what I am saying is there was a longer and deeper play afoot, a ‘trillions at stake’ game by those who control money and power, using foreign threat as the justification for something that just would not be possible without it. That’s why Trump was never allowed to breathe for a moment, whenever Russia or Vladimir Putin was mentioned. The control forces needed Trump to be adversarial to Russia, regardless of whether the threat was real. After all, it was supposed to be a willfully blind Hillary Clinton in place during this phase.
Conflict with Russia created the opportunity for the USA to create a sanctions regime that doesn’t truly sanction Russia, instead it controls the world of USA finance. At the end of that control mechanism is a digital dollar, a Central Bank Digital Currency…. and by extension full control over U.S. citizen activity. The Marxist holy grail.
That moment is closer than most can fathom, and that is exactly why the counterforce of a cryptocurrency, a rebellious mechanism for free people to exchange payment for goods and services, must be stopped by the same USG that is triggering the CBDC. Crypto is a threat. Jamie Dimon, along with all the major banks and financial institutions, is one key beneficiary that CBDC (a transactional player for fees therein) so long as JPMorgan stays on task.
Republicans, really financial beneficiaries of the largesse, oppose crypto currency.
The narrative…. Only criminals, that means those who would be defined as domestic terrorists like pesky remnants of our nation who demand freedom and liberty, would support cryptocurrency. Criminals, tax cheats, bad people support crypto. Don’t be a bad person comrade citizen. Insert vote, pull lever, get pellet, go back to sleep. You will own nothing and be happy comrade.
Yes, that’s the bigger picture.
Can it be stopped? I laugh, look in the mirror, think about the reality of how many people think this is an absurd conspiracy theory, and respond with…. How many people even know about the thing you are asking to oppose?
How many people would believe the Western sanctions against Russia were really the USG building a cage to keep us in. How about we start there. That’s my answer.
During remarks in New Hampshire, President Trump announced he would never allow the creation of a central bank digital currency. WATCH:
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Of course, it should be noted….. As if the entire global system didn’t already oppose Donald Trump, this position against CBDC’s just puts an exclamation point on how the multinational financial systems will hate/oppose him even more.
This 2024 election is critical for a variety of reasons. However, high atop that list is this issue of how a dollar based CBDC is a threat to every liberty we cherish.
Posted originally on Jan 26, 2024 By Martin Armstrong
They say the only two certainties in life are death and taxes. And taxes on dying if you’re in the US. That’s right, the luxury of death comes with a price in the land of the free, thanks to the death tax. Now, Republicans are working to introduce legislation that would allow Americans and their families to rest in peace, free of charge.
The estate tax, or death tax, was first executed in the United States in 1916 as a means to generate revenue for the federal government. Supporters said it would address concerns about wealth concentration. The tax has been rewritten and revised over the years and numerous states have imposed their own death tax on top of the federal one. This is not the same as the inheritance tax that directly taxes beneficiaries.
US Representative Randy Feenstra, a proponent of eliminating this absurd tax, believes this bill is hurting farmers in particular. I have heard similar sentiments from my own clients. People fled England to America to avoid government confiscation of property through taxation. Britain has a 100-year land lease program whereby you pay the actual fair value of the property you bought outright. At the end of that 100 years, the next tenant must pay the full fair value once again. This is how the “rich” made their money keeping it in the family and never selling land. It is also why Britain was forced to hand Hong Kong back to China after 100 years.
People fled to America so they could actually pass property down to their children like the rich landholding families in Britain. This was the origin of the term “freehold” meaning you could actually own the land. America was the land of opportunity because it was all freehold and people could for the first time rise from the poor rank to that of the rich by hard work, saving, and being able to create wealth for the family unit. This was the American Dream.
Failing to repeal this tax will change American agriculture. As Rep. Feenstra notes:
This is one of the reasons why the wealthy in China are buying US farmland. The manner in which governments globally treat farmers is shameful. The government is not our next of kin; we do not save our entire lives to provide a better life for government.
Posted originally on Jan 26, 2024 By Martin Armstrong
The globalists refuse to declare the migrant crisis an “invasion,” but we have history’s guidance to show us what happens when an unsustainable number of people enter a nation. The Goths, a non-military group considered migrants, are a perfect example. These men, women, and children sought refuge within the Roman Empire. This was not an invading army but rather a fleeing population seeking safety from the Huns. The Goths, long-time foes of the Romans, appealed to be admitted to Roman territory due to the threat they faced and needed to seek asylum. This event led to significant consequences and marked a turning point in the history of the Roman Empire.
The great Gothic migration involved hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children. While, to some degree, the growing unrest in the East pushed them southward, there is also little doubt that the border defenses of the Roman Empire had also been seriously weakened by the political instability and economic pressures that were building within Rome itself. Of course, the rumor of great plunder and riches available in Roman territory acted like a magnet much in the same way as the rumors of streets paved in gold in America prompted great European migrations during the 19th and early 20th centuries or the outdated stereotype of the American Dream.
By 238 AD, the Gothic position was so threatening to the Roman Empire that Emperor Maximinus was forced to pay them vast amounts of tribute, similar to how countries currently pay all expenses for migrants. While his aim may have been to buy time, this demonstrated weakness on the part of the Romans, who were still in the middle of internal political struggles for power. Internal imperial rivalries ultimately defeated Maximinis. Within less than four years thereafter, the Goths began a series of raids along the Danube.
A decade later and Philip I attempted to quell the influx of migrants, but died while battling his successor, Trajan Decius. Rome was simply decaying gradually from internal struggles, which weakened the economy and constantly pitted one legion against another in a struggle for power. We see internal struggles today throughout the West as politics continue to divide the people. The Romans did not consider the Goths to be a force that would threaten the entire Empire, but rather more as a barbarian force looking for plunder rather than power.
Trajanus Decius declared the Goths an enemy and attempted to force them out of the empire, only for the masses to return a year later. The Goths were prepared this time and formed several strategic alliances with enemies, such as the Dacian Carpi. This led to a full-scale invasion, and the Roman Empire suddenly found itself besieged as war raged on in Moesia, Dacia, and even in Thrace, while the main body of the Gothic invasion was preparing a descent into the region of the Black Sea.
After many battles, the Goths emerged as the new masters of the entire Danube territory, all the way to the Black Sea. Trebonianus Gallus emerged as the new Emperor who could do nothing to reverse the Empire’s humiliating defeat. The Goths now turned to Illyricum and Thrace, burning and plundering their way across the region. By 253 AD, the Goths set sail along the Black Sea, headed straight for Asia Minor, which was wide open and waiting to be plundered.
The Roman Empire was declining until Emperor Aurelian came to power and began restorative efforts, including anti-immigration policies. He not merely launched defensive measures, he moved on the offensive against the Goths and demolished them through a series of battles. The Goths were driven out of the Balkans and into Dacia. Aurelian also greatly restored the Black Sea defenses, which helped those regions rebuild their economies as well. However, Aurelian failed to pursue the barbarians into the Roman province of Dacia, pulling back and establishing the new border once again along the natural border as originally defined by Augustus – the Danube.
Aurelian’s decision to redraw the borders left Dacia in the hands of the Carpi and the Goths. Once the Goths were contained, they began to divide into two distinct groups – Ostrogothic and Visigothic kingdoms. These groups would evolve into powerful states that would ultimately bring down the Roman Empire in the West.
Those in favor of the Gothic migration stated that the newcomers would increase tax revenue and benefit the Roman economy. It was a humanitarian crisis and Rome’s responsibility to solve. Instead, the unsustainable influx of Gothic refugees contributed to the eventual fall of the Western Roman Empire. The event marked a turning point in Roman history and was part of a period in which the Roman Empire nearly collapsed under the combined pressures of invasion, civil war, plague, and economic depression. History always repeats.
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This is a library of News Events not reported by the Main Stream Media documenting & connecting the dots on How the Obama Marxist Liberal agenda is destroying America
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