The Best form of Government


Armstrong Blog/Gov’t Incompetence Re-Post ed Mar 31, 2021 by Martin Armstrong

One person wrote, “Have you ever realized that you are the first true psychohistorian ever, as in Asimov’s Foundation?” Many others are writing in and asking if I could elaborate on my recent statement, “So just start planning now for the next real Great Reset which will be the overthrow of the republic.”

I must confess, I never read Asimov’s Foundation. From reading the cliff notes, I gather it was based upon the fall of Rome. Psychohistory seems to describe an amalgam of psychology, history, and related social sciences and the humanities all combined. Quite honestly, history repeats as I have said many times because the passions of man never change. A mother still cries for her son who dies in battle today as she did in ancient times. To me, in order to understand history you must connect the dots, and to do so that requires an understanding of the thinking process of the time WITHOUT imposing your interpretation based upon what is now.

I have given the example of the city of Philadelphia they named because in Greek it meant “brotherly love,” so the Quakers interpreted that in a Christian sense that yes, I love my brother. The true interpretation at that time in ancient Greece meant incest. They called Ptolemy II Pheladelphos because he married his sister. Context is everything, just as it was wrong to interpret the ancient Egyptians as Pagans or the Greeks saying they worshiped many gods, which was not true. The Egyptians believed in one god they called Rha being the sun, because it gave life. The others represented an individual sin or trait but were never seen as gods of creators.

The Sistine Chapel has as its centerpiece Michelangelo’s “God Creating Adam.” All of our representations of God are symbolic. Nobody actually knows the face of God. The Greeks also never saw their many gods as creators. They were really seen as Titans who were mischievous to put it politely. When you died, you were judged, but not by Zeus, but by the three fates. So many ancient statues are beheaded because the ignorant early Christians thought every statue was a God.

Psychohistory examines the “why” of history, which in my mind involved the intention and actual behavior of why people and governments act the way they do. Effectively, what I have discovered is that when confronted with a similar set of events, those in power will always respond in the same manner.

Republics are the worst form of government because they always collapse into oligarchies. Even a dictatorship is better, for they are not prone to such corruption. Republics allow people to be elected, but there is no way to prevent them from doing things that are against the very people who elected them. When the bribes are too tempting, they simply can be bought, and that is always their fate. Unfortunately, the Founding Fathers believed Cicero which was the fake news of the day because he was an Optimate and part of the oligarchy. Hence, he distorted the account of Caesar for when he crossed the Rubicon. In reality, the Senate fled, and the people cheered Caesar as their savior from a debt crisis. (see: Anatomy of a Debt Crisis).

The only form of government that deserves a try in the face of the Democrats insisting on mail-in ballots is a direct democracy. The people must vote on every bill proposed, and there can be no adding of nonsense that has nothing to do with the bill. The Social Security Act was 16 pages. Obamacare was at least 33,000 pages. Nobody reads that type of legislation, and they make it that long to hide bombshells.

The Political Theater of Absurdity


Armstrong Economics Blog/Corruption Re-Posted Mar 30, 2021 by Martin Armstrong

Do we have to wonder just how long will the press allow this complete farse to continue? Journalists have no sense of honor, for what they are allowing to take is devastating their own families’ future. Truthfully, if my children were a journalist selling this BS, I would disown them. The CDC has even reduced the social distancing from 6 ft to 3 ft. Then Fauci has come out and said that you can hug other family members if you are vaccinated. So here we have politicians, who Yellen has become, wearing masks when their own savior of the world, Dr. Antony Fauci, has said it is not necessary when people are vaccinated and they no longer need 6ft of social distancing.

This is all a propaganda agenda because what is coming is nothing but job losses and higher taxes, which will not be just the “rich.” Reliable sources are talking about putting a tax per mile driven as part of the Infrastructure Bill. They will say they need that to pay the $1 trillion cost, but in truth, this is what the real intent of lockdowns was — end commuting. There is no reason for Biden and Yellen to be sitting there with masks. This is all theater counting on the stupidity of the majority of Americans to believe whatever the government tells them.

Stanley Milgram, an American social psychologist, did research that peeled back the surface of humanity, which he called “Obedience to Authority.” In one of his famous studies, an assistant stepped out onto a busy street in New York City and stared upward into the sky. At first, people just walked around him and did not bother to look up. However, when four more researchers were added, forming a small collective group now staring into the sky at nothing, people suddenly stopped and joined in to see what was happening up there (Milgram, Bickman, and Berkowitz 1969). If there is an accident, cars will slow down to take a look. The whole line of traffic slows to a crawl, and yet, when you arrive at that spot, instinctively you will look to see what is going on. We call it rubbernecking.

The government knows what it is doing to impose the Great Reset without people noticing the agenda.

Who Raises Taxes During a Pandemic Already Creating Economic Turmoil? JoeBama, That’s Who


Posted originally on the conservative tree house March 30, 2021 | Sundance | 243 Comments

Think about the logical insanity of this position for a moment….  According to the Biden administration the economy is in trouble, people are struggling, and congress needs to spend trillions to bail out state, local and federal governments along with sending income subsidies to all Americans as the economic crisis around COVID continues.

Due to policies on energy, regulation and the COVID virus, simultaneously food prices are going higher, fuel prices are up 30 percent, overall energy prices are rising, transportation costs increasing and the inflationary impact on the middle-class is eating up their limited paychecks.

AT THIS EXACT MOMENT the same administration is now proposing a tax increase.

THINK ABOUT THE LACK OF LOGIC HERE.

(VIA AXIOS) […] The biggest-ticket item would raise the corporate rate from 21% to 28%. That’s worth $730 billion over 10 years, according to the Tax Policy Center.  The other three would:

  • Impose a global minimum tax on profits from foreign subsidiaries: $550 billion.
  • Tax capital gains as regular income for the wealthy and tax unrealized capital gains at death: $370 billion.
  • Return the top individual rate for those making more than $400,000 to the pre-Trump rate of 39.6%: $110 billion.

[..]  Democrats close to the White House don’t expect Biden to fight as hard for other expected proposals, including one that could raise some $740 billion by imposing new Social Security taxes on the wealthy.

  • His campaign plan to impose a 28% minimum rate on the wealthy, which would raise $220 billion, is unlikely to cross the finish line.
  • And making it harder for small businesses to claim deductions, which would bring in $140 billion, will likely encounter serious roadblocks.
  • Changing the ways estates are taxed, which would raise $220 billion, may not make it into the final legislation. (read more)

Terrorism Charges Dismissed by Judge Against Three Men Accused of Plotting to Kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer


Posted Originally on the conservative tree house March 29, 2021 | Sundance | 95 Comments

Jackson County District Judge Michael Klaeren (Michigan 12th District) has removed charges of terrorism against three men accused in a plot to kidnap governor Gretchen Whitmer.  According to the Detroit News, judge Klaeren said: ” “There has to be some form of intent here to incite mayhem”, and no evidence in that regard has been presented.  The terrorism charges fail for lack of evidence.

MICHIGAN – […] The charges were dismissed against Paul Bellar of Milford and Joseph Morrison and Pete Musico of Munith. They are among seven men accused of having ties to the militia group Wolverine Watchmen who are charged in the alleged plot. The others include Shawn Fix of Belleville, Eric Molitor of Cadillac, Michael Null of Plainwell and William Null of Shelbyville. The men had faced a total of 19 felony charges for firearms and terror-related acts.

After onboarding new members through mediums such as Facebook, the group’s conversations took place in encrypted chats. The limited nature of those chats is why the threat charge was dismissed, Klaeren said.

[…] The three will stand trial on the three remaining charges, Klaeren said. Each are charged with gang membership and providing material support for terrorism, both punishable by up to 20 years in prison, as well as felony firearm, punishable by up to two years in prison.

The gang membership charge and the felony firearms charge were dependent on the material support for terrorism charge, Klaeren said. (read more)

Day One – The Trial of Police Officer Derek Chauvin Begins – Open Discussion Thread


Posted originally on the conservative tree house March 29, 2021 | Sundance | 208 Comments

The trial of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer accused of killing George Floyd, began today with opening arguments. Officer Chauvin has been charged with second-degree murder, third-degree murder and manslaughter in the death of Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, who died in police custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Forensic evidence showed that George Floyd died from a “cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression.” Other significant conditions were listed as “arteriosclerotic and hypertensive heart disease; fentanyl intoxication; recent methamphetamine use.” (link)

A memorandum filed by the Hennepin County Attorney’s office on June 1 indicated that chief medical examiner Dr. Andrew Baker, who listed Floyd’s death as a homicide, thought the amount of fentanyl in Floyd’s blood was “pretty high” and could be “a fatal level of fentanyl under normal circumstances.” “[Dr. Baker] said that if Mr. Floyd had been found dead in his home (or anywhere else) and there were no other contributing factors he would conclude that it was an overdose death,” the memo said.

Opening statements began this morning.  The trial in in recess until 12:15pm ET / 11:15am CT  [Livestream Links Below]

Fox News Livestream – Global News Livestream – Alternate Livestream Link

Australia Committing Economic Suicide – Turning Hard Left


Armstrong Economics Blog/Regulation Re-Posted Mar 29, 2021 by Martin Armstrong

The Greens in Australia want to tax Billionaires 6% Wealth Tax annually (in addition to INCOME) as a property tax on everything this own from art right down to the watch they wear. They claim it will raise $11.2 billion over its first two years, it will cost the Australian Tax Office an extra $110 million to implement the policy and enforce compliance. But it does not stop there. It would apply to Australians who hold more than $1 billion in assets, no matter where they live, and non-residents who hold Australian assets worth more than $1 billion. Therefore, you can see how stupid these people are for they assume those they target would just remain in Australia and that foreign investment would certainly abandon Australia. This is on top of income taxes, and property taxes that already are in place.

I quit managing money domestically in the United States back in 1985. They came in for an audit and government employees MUST find something wrong because their view is nobody is perfect. They said they were going to write me up for improper record keeping. I asked what was wrong. They said my tabs on files were PINK and they were supposed to be RED. I am not one to cower from the government. I demanded their names and told them I would be filing a lawsuit against them personally. They dropped the nonsense and left. I then informed all my American clients that I would no longer manage money inside the United States. I returned all the funds and moved offshore. That incident transformed me into one of the first Hedge Fund Managers. Stupid regulation has an impact and the idiots behind it are too stupid to understand the consequences.

The political left never gets it. If they raised income taxes back to 90% again, I would just quit. Out of principle, I would simply refuse to work as an economic slave. They never read Atlas Shrugged. They think robbing others because they have more than they have is perfectly fine. So if they are walking down the street and someone sticks a gun in their face and says give me everything or your life, they too are justified because whatever they have is still more than the person with the gun.

I find it very interesting that these left-wing policies are actually forbidden by the Ten Commandments for they are built upon avarice and envy. The Seven Deadly Sins are Pride, Anger, Greed, Gluttony, Lust, Envy, and Sloth. What is interesting is the fact that what is in the Ten Commandments can be found in just about every religion since the dawn of time. This appears to be a human problem and they always justify it by saying it is not fair that someone else has something they do not. But then again, then do not want to work for it – Sloth.

Boulder Colorado Shooter Identified as Ahmad al-Aliwi Alissa, Motive Remains “Undetermined”


Posted originally on the conservative tree house March 23, 2021 | Sundance | 641 Comments

Boulder, Colorado, law enforcement have named the suspect in the King Sooper’s grocery store shooting yesterday. The shooter is 21-year-old Ahmad al-Aliwi Alissa.

WASHINGTON POST – Ten people killed at a Colorado grocery store, including a Boulder police officer, have been identified, as has the 21-year-old rifle-wielding shooter.

Law enforcement officials said the suspect, Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, was shot in the leg as he carried out the attack with a rifle, and was in the hospital on Tuesday morning, prior to being booked into jail and charged with 10 counts of murder in the first degree. They offered no details on a suspected motive. (link)

And just like that the media will drop the story, because the shooter is not a white male and subsequently his race and ethnicity does not align with the preferred narrative for gun control suspects.

Monopoly Goes WOK


Armstrong Economics Blog/Human Rights Re-Posted Mar 22, 2021 by Martin Armstrong

Well, WOK means everyone is offended by something. The game Monopoly is caving in and changing all its cards. Winning a beauty contest collect $10 was pictured with a man. So not sure people this is offensive to a guy suppose.

Complete Foreign Policy Disaster in Alaska During U.S-China Summit – Secretary Blinken Destroyed by His own Arrogance, Had to Recall Journalists to Hear Talking Points After Initial Public Statements


Posted originally on the conservative tree house March 19, 2021 | Sundance | 251 Comments

To say the first major diplomatic summit between the United States and China was an unmitigated mess would be an understatement.  Apparently U.S. Secretary of State Tony Blinken thought it would be of value for the domestic audience if he was to lambast the Beijing delegation in public and on camera.  His efforts were a complete fail as the Chinese knew everything was presented for domestic consumption… so, the Red Dragon threw fire right back onto the purple hair and obviously stunned an unsettled U.S. Secretary.

The train wreck was started by challenging China publicly, in front of the international press, likely believing such an aggressive posture would weaken Republican criticism about the Job Biden administration being soft/weak on China. However, using a joint press conference as the forum only provided insult to the Beijing delegation.

Public insults are expressions of weakness, not strength.

It was visibly obvious that Secretary Blinken stupidly did not anticipate the Chinese officials would retaliate in their remarks responding to him.

The Chinese diplomatic team is exceptionally skilled at verbal combat; they use facts and evident weakness to their advantage. Blinken’s foolish decision gave the Chinese officials a rare opportunity to dress down the Secretary of State very publicly in front of the international media.

Secretary Blinken was visibly shocked and destabilized by the strength of the returning words from the Chinese team. His response was extremely defensive; ‘he doth protest too much’, and he was incoherent. Blinken also repeated JoeBama’s ridiculous catch-phrase “America is back.”

Additionally, despite Blinken and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan’s criticism of China, there was not one word on Beijing’s responsibility for the coronavirus. Nothing about China allowing COVID to become a dangerous pandemic, and no criticism of Beijing for their continued refusal to cooperate with international investigations of the origins of the virus, including inspections of the Wuhan bio-labs.

Overall this was a pathetic (weak) and sophomoric (feeble) attempt at diplomatic confrontation; while being disrespectful and completely devoid of fact points to frame the purpose of the diplomatic meeting. The first rule in any negotiation or confrontation is to use the behavior, the accepted empirical action of your adversary, against them.

The U.S. delegation did not cite any factual examples only platitudes and generalities. This allowed a much more prepared Chinese delegation to use the stage to frame the confrontation as without merit, and embarrass the U.S. contingent. After Blinken used the catch-phrase a “rules based international order”, the Chinese shot back with a big truth: “the United States does not talk for the world, only for the United States government.” The U.S. team was dead silent and without retort.

The U.S. team was so badly beaten by the Chinese, so brutally caught off-guard, Secretary of State Blinken had to call the press back into the room after his team put together counterpoints.  Yes, the U.S. team called the reporters back into the room -after opening remarks- just so they could make statements the international audience would hear.  THAT is embarrassing.

All-in-all a major fail on so many levels. The JoeBama diplomacy now appears weaker and more reactionary than the Jimmy Carter diplomacy. Adversaries will take good advantage of the U.S. ineptitude.

A picture says a thousand words…

Biden’s Border Crisis


Posted originally on GrrrGraphics.com MAR 18, 2021 AT 10:32 AM

The Joe Biden regime refuses to call the situation on our southern border a crisis, even though it clearly is—and it’s one of Joe’s own making.

During the Democratic debates, a question was asked. “Would you provide free health care for illegal immigrants?” Nearly all the candidates raised their hands. Including Biden.

Biden claims he is undoing the ‘damage’ done by President Trump by allowing anyone and everyone in. He also wants to tear down Trump’s walls and leave the border wide open to anyone in the world. Joe’s virtue signaling will end in disaster—for someone else. Average Americans will pay the price in terms of higher taxes as well as endure more crime and less wages for jobs. The virtue signaling among the Democrats is so powerful that they don’t even test the illegal aliens for COVID-19. You can bet they test all American citizens who are returning home from abroad.

Meanwhile, dithering Joe is taking zero responsibility as he continues on his quest to destroy America. Socialism and the promise of ‘free stuff’ are a terrible combo. Joe weakly claimed he wants the flood of illegals to stop, but so far he has done nothing to stop it.

The borders are wide open while troops, fences, and barbed wire surround the nation’s capital. Citizens are unprotected while a walled-up government protects itself. The irony and hypocrisy reeks.

—Ben Garrison