Tag Archives: End of Free Speech

Apr 24 2023

Panic of 1857 & Gold


Armstrong Economics Blog/Gold Re-Posted Apr 23, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

QUESTION: Didn’t you also buy gold bars from the SS Central America ship that was discovered? The gold bugs hate you and say you are bearish gold but you buy a lot of it.

All the best

JE

ANSWER: Oh yes. I tend to collect important relics from major economic events.  The sinking of that ship set off a financial panic in NYC because the banks were counting on that gold shipment. I did buy bars. There were some 30,000 pounds (13,600 kg) of gold and about 15 tons were recovered.

They are a piece of history. I would not melt them down.

Apr 24 2023

Central Bank Hoard of Gold


Armstrong Economics Blog/Gold Re-Posted Apr 23, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

It is very interesting that I just purchased a hoard of $20 liberties, all uncirculated like the day they came from the mint and all dated 1904. The source was a foreign central bank. They were going through their reserves and came across this exciting hoard. It just goes to show that sometimes being disorganized results in new discoveries and excitement all the time. This batch was 500. The fact that every coin has the same date demonstrates that it was indeed a reserve asset directly from the Philadelphia Mint.

Apr 24 2023

The Great De-Dollarization


Armstrong Economics Blog/USD $ Re-Posted Apr 23, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

All we hear is the same claims that the dollar is dead and it will be totally worthless any day now. Over the last few weeks, all we hear from the majority now is that the dollar is finished. Virtually every page you turn or site you visit claims the death of the dollar. They are calling this the de-dollarization of the world economy and that the future of the US dollar as well as the American empire itself is now collapsing. The general claim is that the group of economically-aligned nations known collectively as BRICS is a major threat to the greenback. That was the same story we heard about the Euro back in 1997.

As their scenario goes, the BRICS [Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa] have moved to form an anti-dollar colation and Saudi Arabia is considering jumping on board. They insist that once that happens, the “petrodollar” will die and cease to be a reserve currency.

This is then followed by the forecast that the economy will suffer and that any bounce in exports will be short-lived simply because the dollar will be dead for the long term. Of course, this has been the favorite forecast that they keep putting out since Bretton Woods collapsed. They were wrong back then for the dollar rose between 1972 and 1976 against the British pound, with the collapse of Bretton Woods. To try to explain why the dollar did not collapse, that is when they claimed that the dollar was backed now by oil rather than gold. That was just an excuse as always to cover up their wrong forecast.

They sold that story to Newsweek and now the dollar rally was because of oil which replace gold. Suddenly the dollar became de facto backed by oil. They needed an explanation to explain why all the old theories were wrong. They sold this theory and it made the front cover of Newsweek. Everyone said YES! That must be the reason. OPEC priced oil in dollars! Naturally, everything was priced in dollars because, under the fixed exchange rate of Bretton Woods, everything from wheat and corn to copper and gold was all priced in dollars.

Now they are saying the American empire is threatened by the potential commercial real estate collapse and the BRICS anti-dollar venture. So they are forecasting a great depression-style crash is possible in the not-too-distant future. They spin this to forecast the end of the America Empire. The London FT, always anti-American/Pro WEF, reports that the dollar as a reserve currency has declined from  73% in 2001 to around 55% by 2021. Yet the FT did state an obvious fact:

“But if you are a reserve-rich central bank elsewhere that isn’t going to be a lot of comfort. Moreover, would you really feel more comfortable in, say, the renminbi? Even if it was fully convertible and liquid, would you honestly feel more sure that Beijing will behave lawfully than DC? The dollar still looks like the proverbial least dirty shirt in the closet.”

COVID actually has played a major role in shifting the world economy. In 2020, the US economy was 24.75% of the world’s GDP. By the start of 2022, it had fallen marginally to 24.15%. What these dollar-forecasting jockeys do not understand, is that if they were correct and the dollar collapsed, then the very BRICS would collapse even further. Economically speaking, when the United States gets a head cold, the rest of the world catches ammonia. You can’t have it both ways. The strength of the dollar is not gold or oil, it is the American consumer.

The risk to the entire world is runaway inflation thanks to Biden pouring untold amounts of money into the black hole known as Ukraine. The Neocons, who control Biden, are planning to launch a war against Russia and China before 2024. This will only continue to accelerate inflation. That reduces the spending power of the American consumer and in the process, the US economic growth declines in real terms and with it, the rest of the world plunges into recession.

While Macron has figured it out that the Neocons are in charge of US foreign policy and he is telling Europe to stop being the puppet of the USA, that all sounds nice but Europe is marching into war with Russia. NATO is firmly in control of the American Neocons and they need war or face losing power. With Trump in the lead, they must stop him at all costs for he is anti-war, would haul the Neocons out by the necks, and defund NATO, as well as stop the climate change agenda.

The US dollar in the global economy has been supported by the size and strength of the US consumer-based economy. Its stability and openness to trade and capital flows without restrictions and it has never been canceled, are the major foundation of the dollar in addition to strong property rights and the rule of law. That is why Russians and Chinese buy US property for they are secure in their ownership of US property which cannot always be guaranteed outside the US.

Consequently, the depth and liquidity of US financial markets remain unmatched. For institutions parking billions, the United States represents a large supply of extremely safe dollar-denominated assets. Are they really going to switch to China or buy debt from Brazil?  Not a single institutional client will take that bait.

China has been divesting of dollar reserves because it KNOWS that the American Neocons want war. You do not fund your adversary who intends to wage war against you. China cannot shift reserve assets to Europe or Japan. They have been buying gold because it is geopolitically neutral territory. They are NOT buying gold as an investor thinking it will rally. That is irrelevant. If gold drops 25%, that does not translate into them becoming a seller.

The dollar in international reserves stood at 60+% at the start of 2022 against the US share of GDP at 24.25%. This comparison belittles the argument that the dollar is finished. Eventually, the US will lose the wars it is starting and the dollar will be replaced perhaps as soon as 2028. The IMF is already licking its lips and rubbing its hands together eager to get control of the reserve currency. But they too will collapse. We have a Directional Change next year and a Panic Cycle in 2025. So buckle up.!

Remember one thing, even with the debasement and collapse of the Roman Denarius between 260AD and 268AD, it still took 224 years for Rome to completely collapse. When war breaks out, capital flight will still be to the dollar. It will not be to public assets, but private. The United States is still supporting the entire world economy. The BRICS need the US consumer to keep their economies functioning. All this talk of the dollar being finished is really nonsense. That day will come, but when the US consumer no longer buys.

Remember 1997? The Euro was going to dethrone the dollar. They claimed the new EU will be a bigger economy than the US. The problem was, they lacked a consumer economy, and low taxes, and they routinely canceled their currency to force people to pay taxes. It is always the same story over and over again.

Apr 23 2023

The Contagion of War


Armstrong Economics Blog/Civil Unrest Re-Posted Apr 23, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

QUESTION: You have suggested that we will end up at war with China, Russia, North Korea, and even Iran simultaneously. How does Socrates conclude such an event that perhaps never happened in the past?

ER

ANSWER: Your assumption that such a thing has never happened is not correct. Periods of war of this nature unfold like a contagion of the flu. The English Civil War (1642-1652) which ended with the beheading of the King in 1649 was instigated using religion as the rallying cry.

In France, there was also an uprising that dramatically interrupted monarchy in 1648 by the uprising of a series of challenges to the absolutism of the King that came to be known collectively as the Fronde.  The Fronde (1648-1653) plunged France into civil disorder.  The king was even driven from his capital as several provinces revolted. This was a revolution demanding a right to participate in government. When the Fronde ended, the king was restored to absolute royal authority.

Of course, the Fronde may not have changed the French system of government, but it set the stage for the final French Revolution. Nevertheless, the American Revolution then spread with that spirit to overthrow monarchy becoming the France Revolution in 1789.

Throughout history, if we correlate the civil uprisings and forget about the claimed cause, we will see an amazing correlation. Throughout Europe, there was the communist revolution that spread to all the countries in 1848. When you allow the computer to correlate the world, what pops up is that the same Communist Revolution spread to Spanish Latin America, with Revolutions that appeared in New Granada that led to the fall of the government there.

Looking closer, you will see in Brazil there was the Praieira Revolt between 1848-1852. You also see the Mexican-American War, which was also in part inspired by the Battle of the Alamo (February 23 – March 6, 1836).

If we look closely, we will see that 1848 was a”world revolution” for revolutions broke out almost simultaneously in fifty countries from Europe down to Brazil. This era created resentments that lingered beyond domestic revolution and international war just as the reparation payments demanded by the French following WWI led to the rise of Hitler and WWII. The Revolutions of 1848 set the stage for the period that continued into 1880, marking a bloody century with 177 different conflicts.

Even the American Civil War ended slavery and became a contagion that spread to Russia and inspired the 1861 termination of serfdom in Russia.

Socrates has correlated everything. I am sad to report that we are looking at a global uprising. This time, it will be our pretend democracies that are no different than authoritarian monarchies that meet their demise post-2032.

Apr 23 2023

Tucker Carlson Keynote Speech During 50th Anniversary Celebration of The Heritage Foundation


Posted originally on the CTH on April 22, 2023 | Sundance 

Fox News #1 rated television host Tucker Carlson delivers a keynote speech at the 50th anniversary celebration of the Heritage Foundation.  Strong off-the-cuff remarks.

While outlining the largest challenges that we all see and feel surrounding us, Tucker Carlson notes there are some positives that deserve to be recognized.

First, no matter how widespread the herd mentality is; no matter how entrenched it becomes amid the mass population; there will always be those voices who do not bend to the pressure of the effort.  There will always be those people who have strength of character, the strongest internal compass heading, that refuse to kowtow to the acceptable narrative.  When you see those people, recognize them, celebrate them, hold them up and cherish their strength.

Second, accept that our current status is no longer a battle of ideas.  Our current battle is a contest between good and evil.  Once you make this admission, first to yourself, then to those around you, only then can you select the correct armor to defeat that enemy.  This is critical, even for the nontheological minds that approach the issues of largest consequence.  The war around us is bigger than an argument about social constructs.  This is a fight between two universal forces, good and evil.

Every action taken within what at times will be an insurgency, must be predicated against these acceptances.  WATCH:

“Put on all the armor that God gives you, so that you will be able to stand up against the Devil’s evil tricks.  For we are not fighting against human beings, but against the wicked spiritual forces in the heavenly world, the rulers, authorities and cosmic powers of this dark age.  So put on God’s armor now.  Then, when the evil day comes, you will be able to resist the enemy’s attacks; and after fighting to the end, you will still hold your ground“…

Apr 23 2023

Dual Justice – IRS and FBI Finished Hunter Biden Investigation More Than a Year Ago…


April 22, 2023 | Sundance 

The context for the IRS whistleblower case of political interference in the Hunter Biden investigation gains a significant amount of context with this new revelation. According to NBC reporting the FBI investigation of Hunter Biden concluded a year ago, and the IRS investigation “completed more than a year ago.”

If the IRS and FBI completed their investigation, then where are the charges?   Now the ‘whistleblower claims’ start to make sense.

(Via NBC) – Federal prosecutors have considered charging Hunter Biden with three tax crimes and a charge related to a gun purchase, said two sources familiar with the matter.

The possible charges are two misdemeanor counts for failure to file taxes, a single felony count of tax evasion related to a business expense for one year of taxes, and the gun charge, also a potential felony.

Two senior law enforcement sources told NBC News about “growing frustration” inside the FBI because investigators finished the bulk of their work on the case about a year ago. A senior law enforcement source said the IRS finished its investigation more than a year ago.

The Washington Post previously reported that federal investigators believed they had gathered enough evidence to charge Hunter Biden with tax crimes and a false statement related to a gun purchase.

The decision on which charges to file, if any, will be made by U.S. Attorney David Weiss, who was appointed by President Donald Trump and retained by the Biden administration to continue the Hunter Biden investigation. There are no indications a final decision has been made, said the two sources familiar with the matter.

The IRS Criminal Investigation division, the Justice Department, the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the District of Delaware and attorneys for Hunter Biden declined to comment. (more)

According to the prior developments in the IRS whistleblower reporting, the “senior U.S. justice department official” who is interfering and lying under oath to congress is U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland.

WASHINGTON — Attorney General Merrick Garland is the unnamed official whose sworn testimony before Congress is being challenged in a bombshell letter from an IRS whistleblower’s attorney that also alleges a coverup in the Hunter Biden criminal investigation, The Post has learned. (more)

The issue stems from Garland testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee that Delaware US Attorney David Weiss would be able to investigate the Hunter Biden issues without interference from the DOJ, and that Weiss would be able to prosecute any crimes that may have occurred outside his Delaware jurisdiction.  As the story is evolving, Main Justice is not following the process as outlined by Garland, and the DOJ is actively involved in approvals or non-approvals of the investigative process.

The whistleblower’s attorney, Mark Lytle, appeared on Fox News with Brett Baier to outline the issues at stake in the matter and why congressional approval is needed before the IRS whistleblower can give specific evidence and testimony to the committees with jurisdiction.  WATCH:

Knowing what we know about how Main Justice is being operated in the era of Joe Biden, I would not be surprised to discover that Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco is actually the main character in this DOJ manipulation.  AG Garland may be the front man giving what amounts to false testimony, but it is likely Lisa Monaco pulling the strings behind Garland that are making his congressional statements false.

Apr 23 2023

A Decade After the Media Shifted Their Objective and Began Framing the Transparently Innocent


Posted originally on the CTH on April 22, 2023

CTH Admin Stella reminded me of an article written in May of 2013 when CTH was urgently, desperately, trying to awaken people to follow events to their logical conclusion as they were unfolding.  Events we chose to challenge.

At the time in 2013 George Zimmerman was under attack; then came Ferguson (Darren Wilson -vs- Mike Brown); then Baltimore Maryland (Freddie Gray -vs- Baltimore Six); but the natural alignment… the purpose of the events… was a leftist probe into weaponized narrative engineering in order to advance completely false and fabricated stories.

U.S. corporate media were testing how far they could control the outlook of Americans.

The shift in attack direction from media at the time was alarming.

No longer was U.S. corporate media content trying to excuse the transparently guilty from accountability; starting in 2012 the new-era corporate MSM attack angle was to falsely accuse the transparently innocent.

Read that again, because it was a profound difference, an inflection point.

Leftists in politics and media were probing their ability to engineer entirely false positions of guilt and establish fraudulent assertions of fact to support the framing of the transparently innocent.

This was new because media were now targeting the innocent.  In many ways what happened in 2016 and 2017, the dynamic of the Trump-Russia fabrication, was an outcome of these tests they ran in 2012 and 2013.

In 2013 CTH was trying to warn; to tell the story of where this was going to end up.  The clarion call has a similar resonance today, albeit with an increased urgency.

2013 – A Paradigm Shift is needed, urgently. It cannot be provided to you; you must develop it within your own mind – and you’d better do it quick; or you will lose.  (* Disclaimer – This post is a collaboration of thoughts from both Sharon and Sundance. Sharon has the keen insightful bits, and Sundance reflects the indignation – any curse words are Sundance’s – because Miss Sharon don’t cuss, ever.)

If you are a regular reader of this site you are generally a person who engages in intellectual discussion on daily events and more than likely a root cause thinker. This means you are able to grasp events at their cause and not at their consequence.

However, for some reason, even those who understand big picture dynamics are still comfortable sticking their heads in the sand about “motive”. Most people are still clinging to actual beliefs around a principle of ‘rule of law’ that applies to National Leadership.

You’d better change that thinking quickly – or you’ll be asking ‘what happened’ far too late.

There seems to be a willful blindness on the part of the American people, a chosen refusal to acknowledge the implications of the unAmerican and unConstititional behaviors, actions and outcomes we are being served on a daily basis.

It can no longer be presumed to be a matter of “I can’t see what’s happening” because a whole lot of normal Americans really are clean and articulate.

“I can’t see it” just doesn’t cut it.

Bullsh!t! You can see it, you are just choosing to reconcile the irreconcilable because it is more comforting to ignore the truth of it. You are scared:

    • You are scared of being labeled
    • You are scared of being belittled
    • You are scared of being Alinsky’d.
    • You are scared of being targeted.
    • You are scared because you have never been here before.
    • You are scared of being right.

Just be honest. Avoidance has become your survival mechanism.

It’s more along the lines of “I see what’s happening, but it’s scary and complicated and confusing, and if I admit that I see it, I will become responsible in a way that I am not if I keep pretending I can’t see it or hear it or maybe I don’t understand it.”

Our Republic has become Kitty Genovese screaming in the darkness, being assaulted repeatedly and viciously, while onlookers sitting in the darkness startle onto their feet–some trying to reach for phones or light switches while others try to hush them, accusing them of exaggerated reactions.

The screams reach some homes where the residents look nervously and silently at one another, really hoping that someone else will call the cops, because obviously something really bad is happening out there.

Now, like then, you, like those people in New York, look around and say well someone is going to do something about this usurpation of power and unconstitutional action. So you pull the comfy blankies of historical public leadership reference over your head, cover your ears, block out the sights and the sounds, and do nothing.

You don’t even accept the fact a woman, Lady Liberty, our republic, is being repeatedly stabbed, carved up and her flesh torn from her body. She is bleeding on your grass and her bloody hand prints are on your trees and sidewalks. You know it, yet you lie there.

Doing what? Really? If not you,….. WHO? Who is “them”?

Remember the visual illusions on big cards, (Rorschach tests) just black and white splotches that required you to “stare just right”– and when you did, you could see the ink-drawn cow in a snow drift? That’s the one we grew up with–yours might have had palm trees in it or something else. But you stared hard, knowing that eventually you would see a clear picture —ah! There it is! For just a minute, but you saw it there–for just a minute.

How many are sitting in the midst of this implosion still believing that if they stare hard enough at the national mess they will still see a Constitutional government and a Representative Republic?

Well, stare as long as you want. The details of a Constitutional Representative Republic will no longer come into focus because it turns out that the Republic was apparently stitched together with dissolvable thread like the surgeons use.

Why don’t we dare say what is so? Are we a bit afraid that if we give up the willful blindness we will perhaps start screaming and not be able to stop? Do we think we have so little courage? Do we really believe that we have no resources to bring to the battle? Or nothing more to contribute to the turning of the battle?

There are patriots who some might say resemble one of those slightly mad orchestra conductors who keep yelling, “More trumpet! More TRUMPET!” Many of you are such slightly mad orchestra leaders. Don’t be alarmed by some of the strange looks you are getting these days.

What is the source of this passive willingness that accepts illegal activity behind phrases like “they wouldn’t do that….” when they obviously are doing it?

In 1974, Patty Hearst was kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army. She lay in a California closet in her wet and smell for days that turned into weeks. Finally, it made sense in what was left of her 19 year old mind to pick up an M-1 carbine and carry it into a bank to assist the SLA with an armed robbery. Passive willingness, no matter how troubled underneath, is a choice: there’s something that’s being purchased by the passivity –and something that’s being traded away for it. Transactions are happening.

Why do normal Americans get swept into accepting these somewhat silent transactions that result in their cooperation with those who care nothing for our Constitutional Republic? (Be sure of this–they really don’t mind if we disagree, if we vent, if we vote, even if we organize…as long as they get to keep doing what they are doing. They really don’t mind us. At all. Isn’t that obvious by now?)

But back to the question–why do the silent transactions happen? Perhaps because the alternative to passive willingness is active refusal–and there it is: the price tag for active refusal may actually be quite high–and will often be perceived of as just being too high–and besides that, is an unknown.

There’s a deep deception involved with survival instinct that prevents a true comparison from being made between what’s being gained and what’s being lost as judgments are made (often by default) in the midst of confusing and threatening events. Patty Hearst’s M-1 probably bought her a momentary sense of safety in her personal world gone crazy.

Those whose hold on power depends on deception are always able to find an audience of those willing to be deceived. Now, the audience of those willing to be deceived is a flexible group in terms of numbers and identities. Even those who have been in that audience for some time may one day walk away from it.  However, what is it that makes folks stay in that audience? What price are they afraid of paying? What deception are they unwilling to let go of?

While we use the word passive to describe this “willingness to continue in deception,” this is not an experience shaded in peaceful lavenders, mint greens and dappled sunlight. This is the deadly passivity of muscles that no longer fire; tiny electrical charges that no longer leap from one synapse to the next.

This is as passivity says: “I won’t begin resisting, because I know that once begun, I must continue. Rather than assert myself and perhaps fail (or get really scared), I will sustain myself where I am trapped. I will muffle my moans so as not to risk exposure and I will call it self-control. Winston Churchill would have called it cowardice but I will call it pragmatic caution.”

It’s desperately necessary for our survival that we become disillusioned–and quickly.

…It’s desperately necessary for our survival that we become disillusioned–and quickly!

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Our ally right now is anyone who stands beside us.  Our enemy is anyone who doesn’t.

The new sons and daughters of the revolution are going to look completely different. The Green Dragon Tavern may be a church, a park, a picnic table or a tailgate. The assembly is not focused on the labels of the assembled.  This mission is the purpose. The fight is wherever it surfaces.

Apr 22 2023

INTERVIEW – WORLD WAR 3 IS WHAT “THEY” WANT AND ARE ON TRACK TO GET IT


Armstrong Economics Blog/Armstrong in the Media Re-Posted Apr 22, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

Apr 22 2023

House Judiciary Committee Releases Evidence of U.S. Intelligence Community Conducting Domestic Political Disinformation Campaign


Posted originally on the CTH on April 21, 2023 | Sundance 

The House Judiciary Committee has released evidence {Letter Here}, gained from a transcribed interview with former Acting CIA Director Mike Morell, showing a coordinated plan by former and current Intelligence Community officials (both parties) to work with the political campaign of Joe Biden in order to influence the 2020 election outcome.

Within the transcribed interview, Mike Morell admits to receiving a phone call from current Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, with a request to create disinformation and protect Joe Biden from scrutiny over the Hunter Biden laptop revelations.  Morell then coordinated with 50 intelligence officials to fabricate a claim that Russians had created the Biden laptop story as a disinformation campaign.  The reality was that Morell organized the U.S. intelligence community to create disinformation on behalf of Joe Biden.

[House Judiciary] – […] “Based on Morell’s testimony, it is apparent that the Biden campaign played an active role in the origins of the public statement, which had the effect of helping to suppress the Hunter Biden story and preventing American citizens from making a fully informed decision during the 2020 presidential election. Although the statement’s signatories have an unquestioned right to free speech and free association—which we do not dispute—their reference to their national security credentials lent weight to the story and suggested access to specialized information unavailable to other Americans. This concerted effort to minimize and suppress public dissemination of the serious allegations about the Biden family was a grave disservice to all American citizens’ informed participation in our democracy.” (more)

[SOURCE]

The United States federal police force, the FBI, is politically weaponized against American citizens.

The United States intelligence community is politically weaponized against American citizens.

The United States justice department, the DOJ, is politically weaponized against American citizens.

We need to take down the four pillars that support the Fourth Branch of Government.  The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), the Dept of Homeland Security (DHS), the Dept of Justice National Security Division (DOJ-NSD), and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), all need to be dissolved.

After those four pillars are removed, the Patriot Act needs to be abolished and the FBI placed under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Marshals service.

.

Apr 21 2023

Russian Spies Infiltrate Tinder


Armstrong Economics Blog/War Re-P osted Apr 20, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

Do your passions include walks on the beach, traveling, and Wilhelm’s tank coordinates? Germany is warning both soldiers and politicians to be wary of Russian spies who are using dating apps, namely Tinder, to gather intel. Germany’s Military Counterintelligence Service (MAD) told the newspaper Welt am Sonntag that “members of other intelligence services (e.g. Russia) use social media to specifically establish contacts with members of the Bundeswehr.”

Germany’s Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution said Russian spy efforts are on par with the Cold War. However, trained young spies are looking to meet all of the men from “unfriendly nations.” Before the war began, Australia’s counter-espionage agency ASIO reported that spies from foreign nations were on popular dating apps such as Tinder, Hinge, and Bumble. ASIO director-general Mike Burgess claimed that spies were attempting to interfere in Australia’s election and said that spying efforts began at the start of the pandemic. “ASIO is also tracking suspicious approaches on dating platforms such as Tinder, Bumble and Hinge. My message for any potential victims on these sites is a familiar one – if it seems too good to be true, it probably is,” Burgess stated.

Beautiful women are extremely effective spies and this tactic has been used throughout history. In fact, some of the gadgets used in James Bond films were inspired by the 39 female spies in Britain’s Special Operations Executive (SOE) who helped defeat the Axis powers during World War II. “Women are really good at talking to a teenage boy, listening to his problems, using the powers of persuasion and concern and consideration to get them on board [to join the resistance in France],” author and historian Sarah Rose explained.

Women excelled in espionage during World War II and there are countless examples of heroic women gathering priceless intel. William Stevenson’s “Spymistress: The True Story of the Greatest Female Secret Agent of World War II” discusses the young Romanian woman Vera Atkins who only permitted her story to be published posthumously. Atkins (real surname Rosenberg) met “agent Intrepid,” the man who inspired the James Bond stories, in Bucharest when she was only 23. He introduced her to the German ambassador to Romania and she quickly became Churchill’s top spy. Atkins even used her charm on William Donovan, the creator of the CIA, and convinced him to push America into the war.

Nearly all countries employ beautiful women for espionage. Unlike the last global war, the internet will make it far easier for these women to complete their missions. Modern wars will be fought with technology and intelligence over brute strength. Human nature never changes, and men will fall victim to their allure.