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 3, 2024 by Martin Armstrong
Denver Mayor Mike Johnston has said he would do everything in his power to prevent Trump from deporting migrants. One must question why Johnston is eagerly putting the taxpaying citizens of Denver last. The city may be a sanctuary for illegal trespassers but has become a nightmare for residents. The latest reports reveal that the city spent $356 in taxpayer funds, 8% of its budget, on migrants.
Roughly 45,000 migrants made their way to Denver since 2022, according to the Common Sense Institute (CSI). The city has spent $256 millioneducating 16,000 migrant children. The local healthcare system cannot accommodate the large influx but the city has spent $49 million on migrant healthcare after 8,000 migrants recorded around 20,000 visits to Denver Health alone last year. Doctors are calling the strain on the system a “humanitarian crisis”that has pushed the state hospital system to a breaking point. The hospital was forced to remove 15 beds in 2023 after finishing FY2022 $22 million above budget.
Surrounding suburbs have attempted to sue the city to no avail. Tren de Aragua, the violent Venezuelan gang, has taken over numerous apartment complexes as they terrorize citizens with no repercussions. Yet, Johnston and others in the far-left camp will not admit that open borders have ruined their cities. Instead, they focus on the “human rights” that should be awarded to everyone but American citizens.
Johnston said that he would prevent all measures to deport the migrants syphoning resources from his city AND he will encourage the people to protest. “More than us having DPD stationed at the county line to keep them out, you would have 50,000 Denverites there,” Johnston told reporters. “It’s like the Tiananmen Square moment with the rose and the gun, right? You’d have every one of those Highland moms who came out for the migrants. And you do not want to mess with them.” He is inciting civil unrest with this political rhetoric. Johnston believes he can offer himself as some sort of martyr to the Trump Administration as new border czar, Tom Homan, said he would happily arrest the mayor for interfering with federal law.
The Democrats are planning mass protests on January 20 when Trump is sworn into office, with the hope that he will be perceived as a dictator for calling in the National Guard. These sanctuary city leaders are playing the same dirty game as they are eager to see the National Guard arrive to spin it into a “Tiananmen Square moment.”
Kamala Harris’ campaign may very well be remembered as the WORST in election history. Installed but not elected, the Democrat nominee blew through close to $1.5 billion attempting to make Harris relevant. Top political strategist James Carville believes the Harris campaign has done “almost unfathomable damage” to the Democratic Party who will be met with “resistance” when attempting to raise money in the future.
More people associated with the Harris-Walz failed campaign are beginning to speak out. The campaign managed to dig itself into $20 million worth of debt, and employees and vendors are now concerned that they will not be paid. “The resistance is going to have trouble raising money. These fundraisers are burnt,” Democratic strategist James Carville told Politics War Room. “They’re really pissed now.”
Carville continued:
“I have people that are contacting me to run for DNC chair — promise you I’m not going to to get in the middle of that … But I would say the policy, number one, is we’re going to audit everything. We’re going to audit the campaign. We’re going to audit Future Forward. We’re going to audit the DNC so people can know,” he added. “But I’m telling you, without complete transparency, the campaign — we think — raised a billion and a half dollars. Okay, we know that Future Forward, the last we saw, was $900 million, so we can assume that they got to a billion before election. That’s two and a half freaking billion dollars.”
The strategist who always speaks extremely favorably of the Dems said the number of lobbyists involved in the campaign is “staggering.” Worse, Kamala Harris is now asking her supporters to cover the $20 million in debt. Democrats and political strategists are again warning Harris to STOP sending out requests for funding her failed campaign. Mike Nellis, founder of the Democratic digital firm Authentic, has said that expecting supporters to continue donating money “erodes trust,” to say the least.
“The fight that fueled our campaign, a fight for freedom and opportunity, that did not end on Nov. 5. A fight for the dignity of all people? That did not end on Nov. 5,” Harris said after her Hawaii defeat vacation. She ran into hiding after her loss and re-emerged disheveled in her first public message. “A fight for the future, a future in which all people receive the promise of America? No,” she continued. “A fight that is about a fight for the ideals of our nation, the ideals that reflect the promise of America? That fight’s not over.” It is interesting that there have been fewer protests since the election ended. Perhaps the DNC can no longer fund these orchestrated civil unrest spectacles. What exactly is Harris “fighting” for when the people have chosen the path of this nation with their vote? Her campaign is now emailing supporters to ask for $50 donations to continue the fight.
She blew through all of the donated money yet has the audacity to request more. This is how she would have operated if elected. Harris and Walz underestimated the intelligence of the American people. She appeared on the scene without any firm policies or platform to run on aside from abortion. All of her hand-selected interviews were disastrous. President Joe Biden did not support Kamala Harris, and Harris refused to acknowledge any mistakes of the current administration while chanting WE CANNOT GO BACK. Why anyone would continue to donate to the Democrats or Harris campaign is beyond comprehension.
Posted originally on Dec 3, 2024 by Martin Armstrong
QUESTION: I want to apologize and thank you. I thought you were just a Trump supporter, but your warning that his tariffs can send the world into a depression demonstrated not just that I was wrong but that you are a genuinely impartial and independent voice in the wilderness. Here in Europe, for the last six months, the newspapers have presented Trump as the devil with no hope whatsoever. Everything you warned here about our economy with climate change and warmongering is correct. The migrant crisis combined with the economy turning down, you warned, would lead to rising civil unrest here as well. With the wave of layoffs in the auto industry, the German economy is in crash mode, as you had forecast.
A friend of mine has followed you since the 1980s. He has been telling me you were the most honest man he ever encountered, and everything you do is to try to steer the world through this chaos into 2032. I can see by your actions that he has been correct. Somehow, we have to get our leaders to listen.
Where do you see Germany headed now on your timeline?
HG
ANSWER: Unfortunately, it has been preordained that we are headed into a recession in some areas and a depression in others, especially in Europe. Trump will be blamed, as Herbert Hoover was, but in both cases, the trends were preordained. Trump, with the bad advice he has been given regarding tariffs, is likely to end up destroying the Republican Party and the implosion we are witnessing in the Democrats.
The core foundation of the entire European economy is Germany, its richest nation. As they used to say about America, if it catches a cold, the rest of the world suffers pneumonia. They say that behind the headlines of “Deutschland,” it has been structured on the automobile, which has also given rise to dubbing it “Autoland.” German cars have long been regarded as the best in the world. Indeed, Europe’s most prosperous business engine has been relying on automobiles, and the climate change agenda has been like you kill a vampire – driving a stake through the heart.
Volkswagen, Europe’s number one car manufacturer, has threatened thousands of job cuts and potential plant closures in Germany as it confronts unions over inflation. The climate change agenda has had a major impact on lowering demand, and on top of that, they are finding stiff resistance to higher-end electric cars. The current cost-cutting layoffs and proposed German plant closings are sending shockwaves into the global marketplace with worldwide implications. Automakers like Mercedes Benz, BMW, Ford, and other industrial giants are all cutting costs and employees across the country. However, Volkswagen announced layoffs for tens of thousands of workers and is considering unheard-of plant closings. The world’s largest auto parts supplier, Bosch, which is one of Germany’s biggest employers, is also reducing both hours and pay for about 10,000 employees. Even Meyer Werft, the German shipbuilder from the 1800s, also recently needed a US$423 million bailout to avoid bankruptcy.
The economic policies of Brussels have absolutely undermined the entire European economy of the EU. As I have also warned many times, Germany has clung to the old Mercantile economic model, keeping taxes high to prevent inflation and manufacturing products to sell to everyone else to bring home the profits. The auto industry will account for up to 17% of German exports in 2023. The total amount of jobs this has accounted for exceeds 750,000 people. German manufacturing has been unable to recover fully since COVID-19 2020. To this day, it has, at best, recovered to only 90% of pre-COVID levels.
The RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA propaganda of the Neocons has severely impacted Germany with the destruction of Nord Stream. The Government refuses to turn on the second pipeline and instead has forced its economy to suffer at least a 300% increase in energy costs. With cheap Russian gas no longer viable and exports to China declining, the war policies of the EU coupled with the economic crisis created by climate change and the cost of funding unproductive migrants, the prospects for the economy of Europe are pointing toward somewhat hard times into 2026. This will most likely contribute to tensions and pointing fingers at Russia to justify war being pushed by NATO.
In late October, Merceds-Benz reported that group profit dropped over 50% year over year, and Ford announced plans to cut its European workforce by 4,000 as well. Germany has depended more on Moscow and Beijing than all other EU countries. With ministers in Germany calling for Article 5 under NATO for a hybrid attack, they are unquestionably undermining the German economy with all of this geopolitical tension thrust on Europe by the Neocons. NATO is pushing to expand operations to Asia, and this is further undermining the German economy in the long term, transforming China from a viable trading partner into a systemic long-term enemy. No leaders are even interested in peace, and they are just doing as directed by the Neocons and NATO, who have no interest in the economy of the people – only waging war.
This lethal combination means that Germany’s entire economic model is under assault from every direction. Then, the tariffs of Trump’s proposals will be added, which will be the final nail in the coffin of the EU. This hybrid Merchantile Model of Germany no longer works. Germany needs major reforms, and that is not likely with Brussels in charge. This immediate lethal combination with a very cold winter expected on our model warns that Germany is headed into a serious recession for the next two years. Brussels is too interested in retaining centralized power and control over the EU member states, and it is ignoring the ripple effect of the decline in Germany throughout Europe.
THIS IS WHY THEY WILL TURN TO WAR
There is no question that the German economy is going to go down hard as this lethal combination of climate change and migration moves to give a death blow to the industrial backbone of Europe, and the politicians are too caught up in the narrative to question the rhetoric. The French head of state met the Finnish president and the Swedish prime minister, and all that came out of it was defense for war. This was an opportunity to carve a new path, but it was dominated by the Neocon speaking points – RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA. Macron only pushed the lifelong dream of Charles de Gaul (1890-1970), which was that France should rise to lead all of Europe – the Napoleon dream.
Macron stressed the need to build a powerful Europe of defense, security, and partnerships, particularly in an international context marked by a multiplication of crises and the continuation of the Neocon theme “Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine,” said the Elysée. They refuse to admit that the Ukrainian civil war was started at the instigation of the West. The solution was clear: the same outcome as the breakup of Yugoslavia into ethnic states. The Minsk Agreement that Merkel admitted was negotiated in bad faith was to allow the Donbas, which are ethnically Russian, to vote on their separation from Kyiv, which was dominated by the old Nazi ethnic cleansing.
Instead of offering any viable solution to the Ukraine War, the leaders kept up this nonsense that Ukraine could actually defeat Russia. I guess they never read the Neocon memo – kill as many Russians as possible until the last Ukrainian falls. The leaders have only stressed the need to step up support for Ukraine with the same nonsense that if Russia defeats Ukraine, they will then turn on all of Europe. This is no longer the 19th century days of empire building, and the Russian people are no longer interested in such a conquest, as Europeans want to occupy Russia.
Macron knows that France is in deep economic trouble as it has one of the highest Islamic populations, about 10%, compared to Germany at 6%. Macron keeps the prowar propaganda claiming that the aim must be thwarting Russia’s war of aggression and restoring Ukraine to its “legitimate rights, which is far from the truth. He added that the important support for Kiev included “strengthening the European defense industrial and technological base, in order to reduce our strategic dependence and reinforce our production capabilities.” Once again, Macron is still pushing France to take the lead and assume the USA under Trump will not support their endless war against Russia.
On Monday, Der Spiegel reported that Scholz made an emergency visit to Ukraine that was a surprise. He expressed his solidarity and promised Germany would remain “Ukraine’s strongest supporter in Europe.” He promised €650m in further military equipment would be delivered in December. This only prolongs the war, for with the German economy turning down very hard, he needs a distraction, which will be the war with Russia. When Biden imposed the sanctions on Russia, and gasoline prices soared, he called it “Putin’s Inflation,” as if the Ukraine Civil War caused the rise in gasoline rather than the sanctions imposed on Russia. Once again, it diverts everyone’s attention from the domestic economic turmoil to international war.
Even when we look at Renault in France, we see next year as a Panic Cycle and a Directional Change. These European leaders are pushing Europe into World War III at NATO’s direction to the peril of the European community. NATO is not necessary if there is peace. This is why they constantly beat the war drums, fearing their funding would be diverted to something else.
Marine Le Pen in France pledged to bring down Prime Minister Michel Barnier’s government after he failed to meet her demands on a new budget. Barnier invoked a constitutional mechanism allowing a social security bill to be adopted without a vote, thereby eliminating democracy entirely. This only opens the door to no-confidence motions. Le Pen said her National Rally party would join a left-wing bloc to support dissolving the government. The National Rally is the largest party in the lower house of parliament, making Le Pen’s words something that warrants attention.
Peace is not profitable, and it allows the people to benefit from the private sector – rather than the government. NATO does everything it can to fuel the fire of war to ensure they keep the funding going for their pensions. Until we wake up to the plans of NATO under the entire WEF scam that they will become the military world department under the one-world government of the United Nations.
And then there is the serious threat of Trump’s Tariffs. The entire theory of Trump’s tariffs is off the wall. It has two parts. One is because of the trade deficit trying to bring back manufacturing to America, and the second is to fund the government by eliminating the income tax. Companies left not because of cheaper labor but because of insane tax policies in the USA. Eliminate the income tax, and everyone will move back, and other companies will pour into the USA real fast. This idea that we can fund the government with tariffs as we once did before the income tax sounds nice, but it is not practical. This will lead only to protectionism and retaliation against American companies. This is unnecessary, but Trump is harder to convince than getting Pelosi’s magic stock trading algorithm.
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 Dec 2, 2024 by Martin Armstrong
I have warned that there will be an exodus of migrants fleeing the United States for Canada in the wake of Trump’s presidency. The Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada said that the sheer volume of asylum seekers has spiked to the highest on record, with the number of cases rising from 60,000 annually to 200,000. New figures state that Canadian taxpayers are now on the hook for $16 BILLION per year to fund Trudeau’s open borders.
The average processing time per asylum seeker was once 14 months, but due to the uptick in cases, it now takes about 44 months for one person to be processed. Deputy Chair of the Refugee Protection Division, Roula Eatrides admitted that 70% of the agency’s inventory is around a year old. The extended wait time has provided those who do not qualify for asylum status additional time to linger in Canada.
“The refugee program was never supposed to be a backdoor entry into our country to get a work permit. It was supposed to be there to help those that were fleeing persecution, that had an act of war in their country of origin, and that wanted to save their lives,” said Conservative MP Arpan Khanna. “Marc Miller himself acknowledges that most of these cases are likely going to be fake asylum claims for folks whose statuses are expiring but want to stay in this country,” said Khanna.
Khanna said Trudeau is the “bad actor” that he has blamed for the nation’s migrant crisis The costs to fund these migrants is simply astronomical. Conservative MP Lianne Rood launched an inquiry over the spring that found taxpayers were forced to pay $224 DAILY to fund the newcomers, a price that will only rise as more migrants reach the Canadian border.
The Canadian government spends about $140 daily on shelter accommodations and $84 on food and other expenses. Liberals created the Interim Housing Assistance Program to house anyone who enters Canada legally or illegally, and those 3,800 rooms were said to have cost $557 million annually as of November 2023. That program was intended to be temporary and fails to provide even a fraction of the space needed. Then the taxpayers are also on the hook for healthcare and legal costs. The public offices catering to the migrants must also receive their pay.
New data has revealed that costs per asylum seeker have rose to $81,760 annually. In comparison, the average Canadian earned over $11,000 less per year. If the 200,000 people registering for asylum are granted permission to stay, the total bill will reach $16.35 annually and counting.
Posted originally on Dec 1, 2024 by Martin Armstrong
Well, as expected, Biden pardoned his son. I suppose Trump could pardon himself, but he does not have a federal conviction. What difference does it make when you are always remembered for the last thing you do? The NEOCONs are trying really hard to create World War III, so Biden may be remembered for that just as Bush Jr. was remembered for Iraq when he, too, was the patsy for the NEOCONs led by Dick Cheney.
So, when history is written, Biden will be remembered as the most incompetent president in American history, and if Antony Blinken has his way, he may be the one remembered for World War III. So, in the scheme of things, he should just pardon Obama and all the Democrats. History will be concerned about war more than corruption.
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 Nov 29, 2024 by Martin Armstrong
Zelensky continues to betray his own country following orders from the Neocons, who used Biden to authorize long-range missiles to be launched deep into Russia, which cannot be targeted without American satellite information and coordinates. There is no way he can launch missiles into Russia and expect that Russia will not respond. This was not intended to force Russia to peace talks when the Neocons sent Boris Johnson to kill any peak deal, and now we see more than one million Ukrainians have died since. As the NY Times wrote, General Mark A. Milley, then President Biden’s chief military adviser, suggested that neither Russia nor Ukraine could win the war. This is all about trying to get Putin to attack anything so NATO can invoke Article 5 to try to force Trump to send troops to Europe to wage this war against Russia.
Putin has told why he ordered his troops to bomb Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. Putin dispatched as many as 90 missiles and 100 drones. More than a million Ukrainians were left without power by the bombing. ‘This was a response to the Ukrainian attacks with British and US strikes last week,’ Putin said. He added that Russia is still selecting new targets in Ukraine, which may include decision-making centers in the capital Kiev.
Meanwhile, European leaders are desperate to create World War III as the European Union is in economic trouble. The head of the German secret service, Bruno Kahl, is arguing to invoke Article 5 over any hybrid attack. They can now create a false flag, calling it sabotage to justify triggering Article 5. Handing Ukraine these long-range missiles has shifted the focus inside Russia, and it can no longer be denied that World War III is underway for this is NATO and the USA are in a proxy war with Russia, and they are escalating it rapidly, fearing Trump takes office and then he would be anti-war. It is no joke that even the Greens in Germany are pro-war under the theory that (1) it will destroy the energy production of Russia and (2) reduce the population making Bill Gates, Buffett, and Soros so happy.
Did we get enough to save the planet?
The increase in Russian armed forces means that Putin has been forced to accept that this is World War III, and there will be no peace negotiations before Trump comes to power if they don’t try to assassinate him again. A military confrontation with NATO and the USA is a very possible outcome. Already, they are spinning the Russian Risk of interference in the upcoming German elections. German intelligence chief Bruno Kahl said at an event organized by the international relations think tank DGAP in Berlin that Russia’s hybrid warfare raises the risk that NATO may have to consider triggering the mutual defense clause, Article 5 of the treaty. They want World War III so bad that they can taste the blood.
Putin has been trying to sit on his hands. He knows that a direct confrontation will be devastating to much of the world. He is NOT a warmonger, but those behind him are just as insane as our Neocons and the leader of Europe, who have collectively been drugged, it seems, by NATO. Putin has had no choice but to increase the Russian armed forces as he is compelled to confront that a direct military confrontation with NATO becomes more likely with every passing day.
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