Posted originally on Jul 4, 2025 by Martin Armstrong
Today marks the anniversary of a revolution—not merely against a king, but against tyranny in all its forms. The Founding Fathers didn’t establish a democracy; they created a constitutional republic, understanding full well that democracy often devolves into mob rule and eventually leads to tyranny.
As always, Socrates is tracking the path ahead. The only way to preserve freedom is to understand its cycles and defend it against those who would gladly trade it for security or control.
Enjoy this Independence Day holiday. Freedom is never free, and it is always under siege.
Posted originally on Jun 30, 2025 by Martin Armstrong
QUESTION: You are pessimistic about a resolution in the Iran-Israel conflict. Why is this different from Ukraine or even Vietnam?
Jake
ANSWER: This conflict between Iran and Israel is far more serious because it is Religious, not Ethnic, philosophical, or Conquest. The Ukraine conflict is ethnic. Ukrainians wrongly hate Russians because Stalin took their food and starved millions. What they REFUSE to admit was that this was retribution by Stalin’s right-hand man Kaganovich, who was from Kiev and was a Jew who was in charge of the operation that most saw as retribution for Ukrainian neo-Nazis who were slaughtering Jews.
There are four primary distinctions between war and its underlying causes. I will address this in a report on the 2025 Cycle of War, many have asked for an update. I will address how each can be resolved and what history teaches us. Wars unfold for different reasons internationally, whereas civil wars, more often than not, unfold because of unfair and oppressive taxation that favors one group over another.
There is also a strong correlation between migrations and civil war, as well as disease. Many plagues have followed invasions by the Mongols, bringing the Black Plague to Europe. Alternatively, returning Roman soldiers from waging war on Persia brought the Antonine Plague, which even claimed the life of Emperor Lucius Verus. Here is his coin celebrating his victory over Parthia (Persia).
The Plague of Cyprian (249-262 AD) most likely originated in Ethiopia. Evidence strongly suggests it was brought into the Roman Empire via troops returning from campaigns on the eastern frontiers, once again involving Persia. It was probably the war against the Sassanid Persians or conflicts in the region. Here is a coin of Trebonianus Gallus (251-253AD) appealing to Apollo Salvtari, who they hoped would protect society. Descriptions by St. Cyprian (Bishop of Carthage) suggest symptoms consistent with a viral hemorrhagic fever (like Ebola or a filovirus) or possibly a severe form of influenza or typhus. Some scholars also propose a re-emergence or mutated form of smallpox or measles. The exact pathogen remains uncertain.
Bishop Cyprian of Carthage, whom the plague is named after, and Dionysius of Alexandria) report that bodies were being piled in the streets. There was widespread fear and social disruption. The worst was the significant depopulation of cities and countryside, with an estimated loss of between 10% and 20% of the entire population—the impact on the Roman army and government function was profound. Even the emperor Hostilian died from this plague.
This catastrophic pandemic hit during the tumultuous Crisis of the Third Century. This caused massive mortality, further crippled the economy and military, fueled social unrest, and contributed to the empire’s near-collapse. It coincided with barbarian invasions and political instability.
The Europeans who invaded America brought diseases, and we cannot pinpoint a single exact percentage of the Indian population that died from disease. However, the overwhelming consensus among historians, anthropologists, and epidemiologists is that introduced European diseases killed somewhere between 80% and 95% of the Indigenous population of the Americas within roughly a century to a century and a half after contact. This represents a loss of tens of millions of lives and constitutes one of the most profound demographic disasters ever recorded. It fundamentally reshaped the societies, cultures, and landscapes of the entire hemisphere. (Sources: Alfred W. Crosby Jr. The Columbian Exchange; Noble David Cook Born to Die; Charles C. Mann *1491*; William M. Denevan The Native Population of the Americas in 1492)
The returning soldiers from World War I also brought back the Spanish Flu. In summary, roughly 675,000 Americans died from the Spanish flu, representing about 0.65% of the population at the time, with the majority of deaths occurring during the final stages of WWI and the immediate months following the Armistice. Again, just
Posted originally on Jun 27, 2025 by Martin Armstrong
Iran has been the target for decades. Biden, Harris, and Clinton—all the Democrats have said that they would attack Iran if given the opportunity. It appears that Donald Trump is attempting to mitigate a potentially irresolvable situation. As he bluntly told reporters: We basically — we have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the f‑‑‑ they’re doing.”
A portion of the nation believes Trump acted like a dictator by attacking Iran without Congressional approval. I explained how former President Barack Obama decimated the War Powers Resolution Act when he decided Libya was overdue for a regime change. The War Powers Act, or War Powers Resolution of 1973, grants the POTUS the ability to send American troops into battle if Congress receives a 48-hour notice. The stipulation here is that troops cannot remain in battle for over 60 days unless Congress authorizes a declaration of war. Congress could also remove US forces at any time by passing a resolution.
Libya is one of seven nations that Obama bombed without Congressional approval, yet no one remembers him as a wartime president, as the United States was not technically at war. Over 26,000 bombs were deployed across 7 nations under his command in 2016 alone. Libya, Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Iraq, and Pakistan were attacked without a single vote. Donald Trump’s recent orders saw 36 bombs deployed in Iran.
The majority of those bombings happened in Syria, Libya, and Iraq under the premise of targeting extremist groups like ISIS. Drone strikes were carried out across Somalia, Yemen, and Pakistan as the Obama Administration accused those nations of hosting al-Qaeda affiliated groups. Coincidentally, USAID was also providing funding to those groups.
The 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) was initially implemented to hunt down the Taliban and al-Qaeda after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Obama broadened his interpretation of the AUMF and incorporated newly formed militant groups that were allegedly expanding across the entire Middle East. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism believes there were up to 1,100 civilian casualties in Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia. Thousands of civilians died in Syria and Iraq but the death toll was never calculated. At least 100 innocent people died in the 2016 attacks in Afghanistan alone.
The government will always augment the law for their personal agenda. The War Powers Resolution was ignored and the AUMF was altered. Congress was, however, successful in preventing Obama from putting US troops on the ground and fighting a full-scale war. In 2013, Obama sought congressional approval for military action in Syria but was denied. Obama again attempted to deploy troops in 2015 but was denied. Congress has to redraft the AUMF to specifically prevent Obama from deploying troops in the Middle East. “The authorization… does not authorize the use of the United States Armed Forces on the ground in Syria for the purpose of combat operations.” Obama attempted to redraft the AUMF on his own by insisting he would prohibit “enduring offensive ground combat operations” or long-term deployment of troops. He was met with bipartisan disapproval as both sides believed he was attempting to drag the United States into another unnecessary war.
The United States should not be involved in any of these battles, but here we are. Those living in fear that Donald Trump is a dictator fail to recognize that past leadership had every intention of sending American men and women into battle unilaterally without a single vote cast.
Posted originally on Jun 16, 2025 by Martin Armstrong
Pope Leo XIV hosted Argentina’s President Javier Milei at the Vatican. The head of a Catholic nation, Milei, clashed with former Pope Francis on social reforms, with Milei publicly bashing the pope and the Vatican. This did not sit well with the people of Argentina, and despite being the first Argentine pope, Pope Francis never returned to his homeland during his 12-year papacy.
Pope Leo XIV announced that he plans to visit Argentina in the near future. President Milei presented the pope with two books before their departure: “The Fatal Conceit” by Friedrich Hayek and a Spanish book by Libertarian economist Jesus Huerta de Soto. The latter advocates for free markets, private ownership, and voluntary cooperation. The author emphasizes non-coercive methods for giving compared to state interventions. Friedrich Hayek believes that society cannot be controlled through centralized planning. Fatal conceit is the belief that reason alone can control a society, yet no human has the ability to control society or the economy.
The Catholic Church has never embraced the concept of socialism. The pope’s namesake, Leo XIII’s 1891 book Rerum Novarum, condemned centralized control while supporting worker rights. The poor are to be protected and served from one’s own goodwill. The church believes that denying people the right to own private property threatens the family unit.
There is a reason that the far left hates Christianity and Catholicism. Joe Biden went as far as to order the FBI to spy on Catholics during his regime. Marxist philosophy is anti-Christian and anti-family. Friedrich Engels, a pioneer of Marxism, argued that the nuclear family was merely a “unit of consumption.” He advocated polygamous group marriage and the abolishment of private property and generational wealth.
Hillary Clinton recently admitted that she fears a return to the nuclear family. “It’s all in there,” Clinton said of the debunked project 2025, “The return to the nuclear family, the return to being a Christian nation, return to producing a lot of children, which is sort of odd since the people who produce a lot of children are immigrants.”
Father Mike, a popular online sensation for the younger generation of Catholics, has come out to explain that the Catholic Church does NOT support socialism. He acknowledged that both Christians and Socialists believed in giving to the poor, however, there is a key difference. “’The Christian says ‘Where can I give my stuff to help the people in needs?’ And the socialist says, ‘Where can I take someone else’s stuff and help the people in need?’”
“One is charity and one if theft,” the priest explained, calling socialism “genuinely evil.”
The Vatican has famously clashed with governments over its stance on immigration, taking the “Welcome the stranger” stance. The Catechism stated that developed nations are “obliged, to the extent they are able, to welcome the foreigner in search of the security and means of livelihood which he cannot find in his country of origin.”
Yet, the church does not believe that governments should usurp all power, as we see in socialism and communism. Why does it matter what the Vatican believes? Well, the Catholic Church is one of the most powerful and influential institutions in the world, with over 1.4 billion followers across every continent. The pope is not only a spiritual leader but a global diplomat whom heads of state treat with respect (besides Milei regarding the late Pope Francis). It is no coincidence that the church is asking influencers like Father Mike to expose the cruelties of socialism at this particular moment.
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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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