Tag Archives: Money laundering

Aug 1 2023

Anchorage Mayor to Fly Homeless to Los Angeles




Armstrong Economics Blog/USA Current Events Re-Posted Aug 1, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

“We are going to offer them a chance to stay warm this winter,” Anchorage, Alaska, Mayor Dave Bronson stated regarding the growing homeless population. Eight people died of exposure last year, and Bronson said it is cheaper to pay for a one-way flight than to create makeshift housing. Bronson said a one-way ticket to LA would cost the city about $286 per person. In comparison, the city would need to spend over $100 daily for temporary shelter.

The program has not been funded or approved. Obviously, LA is not too happy about the announcement. “Someone says, ‘I want to go to Los Angeles or San Diego or Seattle or Kansas,’ it’s not our business,” Bronson said of their final destination. “My job is to make sure they don’t die on Anchorage streets.” About 40% of Alaska’s population lives in Anchorage, but they host 65% of the homeless population. “The taxpayers to whom I’m responsible to can’t keep footing the entire bill,” he said. “We need a statewide solution to a statewide problem.”

LA Mayor Karen Bass declared a state of emergency in 2022 regarding the growing homeless population. “It will create the structure necessary for us to have a true, unified and citywide strategy to set us on the path to solve homelessness,” Bass said after promising to house at least 17,000 people during her first year in office. This was before the US-Mexico border was opened to the world. The homeless population in LA continues to grow at a record pace.

No one knows exactly what to do about the growing homeless problem in America. Our politicians are willing to send hundreds of billions to Ukraine but refuse to address the issues we face at home.

Aug 1 2023

The Biden Administration From Hell


Armstrong Economics Blog/WOKE Re-Posted Aug 1, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

I have dealt with governments around the world. NEVER in my entire career have I EVER witnessed an administration so intent upon pushing a dictatorial regime that is so against the founding principles of a free society as this Biden Administration. To be VERY clear, this really is not an attack on Biden personally. He is not the one calling all of these insane shots designed to undermine the very fabric of the nation because stupid zealots in so many fields think they have the right to change society to conform to what they think it should be. That is what Karl Marx tried with communism – remove all personal wealth and control the business cycle.

With absolutely NO science behind any of these agendas from transgender pushing, those who go through this procedure have a significantly higher rate of suicide. Instead of ending discrimination, it has caused it and all of this is to push an agenda of reducing population. Just as the BLM movement was taken over for a covert agenda. The same is taking place with this Pride agenda where gay people are getting thrown into the same cauldron as Transgender. The White House does not do the same for all the other groups or religions.

Then we have the CDC moving COVID vaccines to be an annual shot. They are too busy taking money from Pfiszer to protect the people anymore. I know people who have died, others who have heart problems, and even my lawyer took the shot so he could travel, got blood clots, and not can no longer fly. This is outrageous! My next-door neighbor had COVID and was forced to get vaccinated to go on a family cruise. She was 27 and rushed to the hospital, and almost died the day after being vaccinated. I’m sorry, but these vaccines are not traditional, and there is no long-term risk assessment. Mandy Cohen should be in prison for abandoning her fiduciary duty to protect the public.

Then we have the cleanest fossil fuels being outlawed by this insane Biden Administration that has been taken over by every insane group possible. I grew up with gas heat and a stove. They want to claim that such a small fraction of people warrant shutting down this entire industry. What about smoking? How about peanuts? I have been on a flight and you were not allowed to have a pack of peanuts because one person was extremely allergic to peanuts.

Then we have the Neocons who run the White House and push us into World War III. Now, Blinken, the current leader of the pack in the White House, publicly says nuclear war is no worse than Climate Change. So don’t worry; it will be no big deal if he starts pushing buttons and China and Russia.

The Neocons have already destroyed the world economy with sanctions against Russia. Now you have the death of the SWIFT system and alternatives from China and Iran, so now the threat of removing a non-compliant state from SWIFT no longer has the power it once did.

And now they are moving for a totalitarian state eliminating all cash and moving to a digital currency so they can regulate what you are allowed to buy and sell and make sure they collect every penny of tax they think you have. Just one EMP pulse, even from a nuclear blast, will wipe out electronics, and your wealth will vanish overnight.

This Biden Administration is the final straw that is destroying America. It will never be the same; instead of unity, they create division on every front. Even the EU is moving to separate from the United States policies.

Aug 1 2023

House Oversight Committee Releases Statement Following Devon Archer Testimony


Posted originally on the CTH on July 31, 2023 | Sundance 

Today, Hunter Biden’s friend and business partner Devon Archer testified in a closed session before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

At the conclusion of the testimony, the House committee released the following statement. Hopefully a transcription of the testimony will soon follow.

WASHINGTON—House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) issued the following statement following Devon Archer’s four-hour transcribed interview with the committee:

“Devon Archer’s testimony today confirms Joe Biden lied to the American people when he said he had no knowledge about his son’s business dealings and was not involved. Joe Biden was ‘the brand’ that his son sold around the world to enrich the Biden family. When Joe Biden was Vice President of the United States, he joined Hunter Biden’s dinners with his foreign business associates in person or by speakerphone over 20 times. When Burisma’s owner was facing pressure from the Ukrainian prosecutor investigating the company for corruption, Archer testified that Burisma executives asked Hunter to ‘call D.C.’ after a Burisma board meeting in Dubai.

“Why did Joe Biden lie to the American people about his family’s business dealings and his involvement? It begs the question what else he is hiding from the American people. The House Committee on Oversight and Accountability will continue to follow the Bidens’ money trail and interview witnesses to determine whether foreign actors targeted the Bidens, President Biden is compromised and corrupt, and our national security is threatened.”

Below are key takeaways from Devon Archer’s transcribed interview:

♦Devon Archer testified that the value of adding Hunter Biden to Burisma’s board was “the brand” and confirmed that then-Vice President Joe Biden was “the brand.”

♦Archer admitted that “Burisma would have gone out of business if ‘the brand’ had not been attached to it.” He believed that Hunter Biden being on the board and the Biden brand contributed to Burisma’s longevity. People would have been intimidated to mess with Burisma legally because of the Biden brand.

♦In December 2015, Mykola Zlochevsky, the owner of Burisma, and Vadym Pozharski, an executive of Burisma, placed constant pressure on Hunter Biden to get help from D.C. regarding the Ukrainian prosecutor, Viktor Shokin. Shokin was investigating Burisma for corruption. Hunter Biden, along with Zlochevsky and Pozharski, “called D.C.” to discuss the matter. Biden, Zlochevsky, and Pozharski stepped away to make the call. This raises concerns that Hunter Biden was in violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

♦Devon Archer testified that Hunter Biden put then-Vice President Joe Biden on the speakerphone during business meetings over 20 times. Archer testified that Joe Biden was put on the phone to sell “the brand.” These phone calls include a dinner in Paris with a French energy company and in China with Jonathan Li, the CEO of BHR.

♦Archer acknowledged that then-Vice President Biden had coffee with Jonathan Li, the CEO of BHR, in Beijing. Then-Vice President Biden even wrote a letter of recommendation for college for Li’s daughter.

♦Archer confirmed Joe Biden was referred to as “my guy” by Hunter Biden.

♦In spring of 2014, then-Vice President Biden attended a business dinner with his son, Hunter, and his associates at Café Milano in Washington, D.C. Elena Baturina, a Russian oligarch who is the widow of the former mayor of Moscow, attended the dinner. Notably, the Biden Administration’s public sanctions list for Russian oligarchs does not contain Baturina. (read link)

As noted by Kaneoka:

November 2010: Joe Biden had a sit-down meeting with Eric Schwerin – the president of Hunter’s private equity firm – in the West Wing.

November 2011: Joe Biden met with Chris Heinz — a co-founder of Hunter’s private equity firm — in the West Wing.

March 2012: Joe Biden met with Andres Pastrana Arango — the former president of Colombia who Hunter was doing business with — at his personal residence.

December 2013: Hunter flew with Joe Biden aboard Air Force Two to China, where he introduced him to Jonathan Li, a Chinese businessman.

February 2014: Joe Biden had lunch with Hunter and two of Hunter’s Mexican business partners and was pictured giving them a tour of the White House.

April 2014: Joe Biden met with Devon Archer — another co-founder of Hunter’s private equity firm — in the White House a week before Archer joined the board of Burisma.

June 2014: Joe Biden met Manuel Estrella — Hunter’s Latin American business associate. After the meeting, Estrella emailed Hunter: “Hunter, I just met your father! So exciting!” Hunter replied: “I’m glad it all finally came together.”

August 2014: Pictures show Joe Biden golfing with his son, Hunter, and Devon Archer while they were both serving on the Burisma board.

April 2015: Joe Biden attended a dinner in Washington, D.C., with Hunter’s business partners from Russia, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan.

November 2015: Joe Biden hosted his son’s Mexican business partners — Carlos Slim, Miguel Aleman Velasco, and Miguel Aleman Magnani — at his personal residence.

February 2016: Biden flew Hunter and Jeff Cooper — a family business partner — to Mexico City for a business trip aboard Air Force Two.

May 2016: Joe Biden met with Eric Schwerin — the former head of Hunter’s private equity firm — for dinner in Washington, D.C.

September 2016: Joe Biden attended a fundraiser for Francis Person — a business associate of Hunter’s and a former advisor in Biden’s VP office.

May 2017: Joe Biden met with family business partner Tony Bobulinski TWICE.

June 2018: Joe Biden texted Hunter saying that he was with Jeff Cooper — a family business partner — and that Cooper wanted to “do some work” with him.

Photos, emails, text messages, and White House visitor logs CONFIRM these meetings took place. It’s not up for debate.

So why did Joe Biden lie?

Remember, always temper investigative optimism about foreign policy corruption with two big picture realities.

First, the entire business model of DC politics is designed around politicians selling U.S. government policy for personal financial gain. The Republicans and the Democrats both participate in this endeavor. This is why multi-millionaire candidates will spend $10+ million on a campaign to take a job as a senator earning $400k/yr.

Second, the House Oversight Committee is the Chaff and Countermeasures committee. The congressional committee without specific jurisdiction where all congressional investigations are sent to generate fundraising points, and then die a kick-the-can death.

Aug 1 2023

Lawfare Rep Daniel Goldman Spins Devon Archer Testimony About Intent of Joe Biden Phone Calls During Hunter Biden Business Meetings


Posted originally on the CTH on July 31, 2023 | Sundance 

New York Representative Daniel Goldman, a former DOJ official and member of the Robert Mueller team, has a very specific role to play with his political assignments.

In these brief soundbite segments below, Goldman spins the intent of Hunter Biden calling his father during business meetings with various foreign business officials was just to discuss the weather on behalf of the participants.

This is how far the left-wing is willing to go out on this.  Think about the intellectual dissonance here as the narrative is produced.  Goldman would have the American people believe that Hunter Biden is having meetings with various Ukraine, Romanian and Chinese business officials, and suddenly as the issues of the executives were being outlined and discussed, Hunter would just call Joe Biden in the middle of those conversations to inquire about the weather.  WATCH:

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The narrative engineers are really struggling with this one, even the Lawfare experts are having a difficult time. Perhaps this transcript will be interesting. More below: 

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Aug 1 2023

Illegal Aliens with Work Authorization Now Permitted to Become Police Officers in Illinois


Posted originally on the CTH on July 31, 2023 | Sundance

It may be entirely possible in Illinois now for a police officer to demand to see your papers for identity compliance even though that police officer may be an illegal alien who broke U.S. law to enter the United States.

Under a bill recently signed by Illinois Governor J. B. Pritzker, illegal aliens can now become police officers. The downstream ramifications of this effort are not difficult to imagine.

As if the crisis of confidence in the U.S. legal and law enforcement system was not under enough pressure, the reality of lawbreaking foreign nationals and border crossers now controlling law enforcement is a rather remarkable escalation in social fracture.

NewsWeek – […] The measure—House Bill 3751—successfully passed the Democratic-controlled state House and the state Senate before being signed into law by the Democratic governor last week. The bill, which will come into force on January 1, 2024, allows eligible immigrants who are not in possession of U.S. citizenship to join law enforcement in Illinois—something that federal laws currently forbid.

[…] Eligible non-U.S. citizens are subject “to all requirements and limitations, other than citizenship, to which other applicants are subject,” and must be able to obtain, carry, purchase, or otherwise possess a firearm under federal law.

Foreign nationals “against whom the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services have deferred immigration action under the federal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) process” will also be eligible, according to the bill’s text.

That means that individuals who came to the country illegally as children and received a renewable two-year period of deferred action from deportation—known as the DACA process—will be able to apply to become police officers in Illinois. DACA recipients are protected from deportation and have a work permit, though the program does not grant them official legal status. (read more)

The 2024 Democrat National Convention will take place in Chicago.

Jul 31 2023

Sunday Talks – Elf on Shelf Gives Margaret Brennan a Case of the Vapors


Posted originally on the CTH on July 30, 2023 | Sundance 

During a brief panel discussion of the Hunter Biden plea deal collapse this past week, today the Elf on the Shelf Catherine Herridge gave Margaret Brennan a case of the vapors as she discussed the Delaware courtroom drama.

Mrs. Brennan was pretendingly verklempt at the play-by-play. {Direct Rumble Link} WATCH:

It’s not my fault, my brain notices these things….

Jul 31 2023

Nothing Says Guilt Quite Like These DOJ Cleanup Efforts – Justice Dept Sends Follow Up Telling Judge They Are Not Trying to Block Congressional Witness Testimony, Pinkie Swear


Posted originally on the CTH on July 30, 2023 | Sundance 

Nothing highlights a guilty intent quite like Main Justice backtracking to tell the judge their prior request was really, double dog swear, not intended to intimidate a congressional witness just a few hours before the testimony. [SOURCE]

But seriously….  We all know what this is.  The weaponization of the DOJ is the #1 topic of national discussion; even when they pretend not to notice the weaponization of the justice system is the #1 topic of national discussion.

Main Justice, a network of affiliated Lawfare minds, runs in an echo-chamber of ideological group think.  There’s no one in the room to say, ‘hey guys, um, hold up – this looks like weaponization, targeting and witness intimidation‘, because they really are weaponizing, targeting and intimidating witnesses.

Then suddenly when the world says, ‘damn, do you see this example’?  Suddenly, the corrupt frenzy boil slows to a simmer and the ‘whoops they can see us‘ backtracking begins.

Jul 31 2023

Suspicious Timing – DOJ Sends Letter Asking for Fast Sentence Against Hunter Biden Witness, Devon Acher, on Eve of Congressional Testimony


Posted originally on the CTH on July 30, 2023 | Sundance 

On the eve of very high-profile House committee testimony by Hunter Biden’s business associate, Devon Archer, mysteriously the DOJ from the Southern District of New York asks Judge Ronnie Abrams to schedule a date for Archer to report to prison in an unrelated case.  If the SDNY was attempting to threaten or intimidate Archer in advance of his testimony, this is the path they would take. {Direct Rumble Link}

As noted by Politico, “The court isn’t expected to make a decision before Archer will meet behind closed doors with the House Oversight Committee, meaning that even if the court ultimately sides with the request Archer wouldn’t have to report to prison before the meeting. And his attorney said in a statement that he will move forward with his planned appearance Monday.”  However, the timing of the letter on the weekend before the testimony looks transparently motivated.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer discussed with Maria Bartiromo earlier today.  WATCH:

“I don’t know if this is a coincidence, Maria, or if this is another example of the weaponization of the Department of Justice. But I can tell you this, the lengths to which the Biden legal team has gone to try to intimidate our witnesses, to coordinate with the Department of Justice, and to certainly coordinate with the Democrats on the House Oversight Committee, to encourage people not to cooperate with our investigation, to encourage banks not to turn over bank records, to encourage Treasury not to let have access to those suspicious activity reports, It’s very troubling. I believe that this is another violation of the law. This is obstruction of justice.”  ~ James Comer

Full Interview Below.

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Jul 29 2023

Trying to Make Heads or Tails about Recessions


Armstrong Economics Blog/Economics Re-Posted Jul 28, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

QUESTION: Looking at Socrates,  do you think that these people who were constantly calling for a recession because there were two quarters that declined with covid really need revision? Socrates was correct, no recession. But it is showing major turning points in 2024 which seem to align with your old ECM forecast calling for commodity inflation into 2024. How would you define a recession?

EJ

ANSWER: In trading, reactions are 1 to 3 time units. I believe that the same definition should be used for classifying a recession. They define a recession as two consecutive quarterly declines. If you look at the “Great Recession” of 2008-2009, you will see three consecutive quarterly declines and a rebound. If we look at the COVID recession caused by locking everyone down, that was just two consecutive quarterly declines.

I personally would argue that a true economic recession MUST exceed three consecutive declines. Here is the chart of GNP from 1929 to 1940. There were three years of negative growth. I simply think that this definition of two quarters is wrong. You can have a slight decline of 1 to even 5%, but that does not suggest a recession. In the case of 1929, that was a decline of 9.5% in 1930 – the first year. Now look at the COVID Crash, which was also a decline of 9.53%. But the difference is that the COVID decline was forced and not natural. That is why it rebounded so quickly. Now the so-called “Great Recession” of 2008-2009 only saw a decline in GDP of 3.47%.

The “Great Recession” was not really so great. It wiped out real estate and bankers but did not fundamentally alter the economy. So who is right and who is wrong will always depend upon the definition. Yes, the AI Timing Arrays point to a recession starting Next Year by their definition. This will most likely be caused by the decline in confidence that will lead to UNCERTAINTY, and as such, the consumer will contract. Up to now, the continued expansion of the economy into 2024 has also been fueled by the shift in assets from public to private.

As originally forecast, we should have seen a commodity boom into 2023,

and we should expect a highly authoritarian attempt by 2028.

Jul 28 2023

The Man Who Will Destroy America


Armstrong Economics Blog/Rule of Law Re- Posted Jul 27, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

Trump Superseding Indictment

This is the man who will tear the United States apart at the seams – Special Counsel Jack Smith who has filed a superseding indictment against Donald J. Trump (see above). This is not a big deal. It is simply more charges on the same theories to interfere with the 2024 election. Smith is actually violating the civil rights of everyone in the country by trying to prevent Trump from running for office.

No person, whether acting under color of law or otherwise, shall intimidate, threaten, coerce, or attempt to intimidate, threaten, or coerce any other person for the purpose of interfering with the right of such other person to vote or to vote as he may choose, or of causing such other person to vote for, or not to …

Even this aside, the real purpose of this superseding indictment is not more charges. That is just to make the headlines and hide the real purpose.  He has indicted a new defendant: Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos De Oliveira. They cannot win a case without a co-defendant. They need someone to take the stand and perjure themselves as the prosecutor, then will rehearse them on what to say in return for no time. This is how they win CONSPIRACY cases. They desperately need a co-defendant. They threaten them with 20 years to life unless they testify for the government. They need that to prove “intent,” for otherwise, they can just infer from something. The co-defendant will get on the stand and say Trump told him x, y, z, and the jury would have to find him guilty.

For virtually every crime in this country, you are charged with CONSPIRACY, and then they threaten someone to testify against you. This is the law of tyrants. They always go for the conspiracy charge if they cannot prove a direct crime.

By doing this to Trump while ignoring everything done by Biden and his son, it is a slap in the face to all Americans, proving that there is no rule of law. It is as Thrasymacus warned Socrates who they sentenced to death – there is no justice – it is always the self-interest of those in power. Nothing has ever changed in 6,000 years.