Newsweek Shift – Maybe Putin Not So Bad, He Could Devastate Ukraine, but Putin Is Holding Back


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on March 23, 2022

Well, this is weird.  After weeks of the horrible Putin narrative, Newsweek softens the tone, perhaps sees a larger landscape where Russia is working strategically though a plan and says, “Putin’s Bombers Could Devastate Ukraine but He’s Holding Back.”  Wait, what?

According to the anonymous Newsweek sources – intelligence officials who fear speaking publicly for fear of severe repercussions – it would be very easy for Vladimir Putin to level the key cities and industries in Ukraine, but he’s not doing it.

The strategy Newsweek is seemingly beginning to admit is the same strategy Col Douglas Macgregor has been speaking about.

(Newsweek) – As destructive as the Ukraine war is, Russia is causing less damage and killing fewer civilians than it could, U.S. intelligence experts say.

Russia’s conduct in the brutal war tells a different story than the widely accepted view that Vladimir Putin is intent on demolishing Ukraine and inflicting maximum civilian damage—and it reveals the Russian leader’s strategic balancing act. […] Understanding the thinking behind Russia’s limited attacks could help map a path towards peace, experts say.

In nearly a month since Russia invaded, dozens of Ukrainian cities and towns have fallen, and the fight over the country’s largest cities continues. United Nations human rights specialists say that some 900 civilians have died in the fighting (U.S. intelligence puts that number at least five times UN estimates). About 6.5 million Ukrainians have also become internally displaced (15 percent of the entire population), half of them leaving the country to find safety.

“The destruction is massive,” a senior analyst working at the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) tells Newsweek, “especially when compared with what Europeans and Americans are used to seeing.”

But, the analyst says, the damage associated with a contested ground war involving peer opponents shouldn’t blind people to what is really happening. (The analyst requested anonymity in order to speak about classified matters.) “The heart of Kyiv has barely been touched. And almost all of the long-range strikes have been aimed at military targets.” (read more)

What the article boils down to is an acceptance, albeit couched in the U.S/NATO narrative, that Vladimir Putin is working through a careful and methodical plan to eliminate –with extreme prejudice– one severe faction of the Ukraine military (Azov battalion Nazis), and yet carefully and surgically leave intact the areas of greatest population.

The capture of Ukraine, with as little damage as possible, while eliminating the elements with the connections to western government manipulation, appears to be the process.   This, in addition to the removal of the Zelenskyy government, is what Macgregor has been pointing out from the beginning.

Putin seemingly plans to rebuild most of eastern Ukraine (closest to Russia) where a civil war has been ongoing for over a decade. That region is also the location of the most ultranationalist of the Ukraine forces, so the military targeting has been severe in that area.

With the sanctions and western intelligence efforts of the State Dept./CIA, and western economic group appearing to have little impact, perhaps the media is starting to realize the conflict in Ukraine is more complex and thought out than fits the current western media narrative.

End of Petro-Dollar Begins, Russia Instructs Central Bank to Organize Payments From Hostile Countries in Rubles


Posted Originally on the conservative tree house on March 23, 2022 

It’s a smart move by Russian President Vladimir Putin.  Facing financial sanctions and economic pressures from the U.S, NATO, EU and western allies, Putin stated today that all oil and gas payments must be made in Russian rubles.

The EU has few options as they are reliant upon Russia for energy products oil and gas.  If Putin organizes payment in rubles, his currency will automatically increase.  This sets the stage for other less hostile countries like the BRICS alliance to assist Putin ideologically and financially by transacting in rubles through the Russian central bank.

(Oil and Gas) – […] Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that Russia would start charging the countries it considers “hostile” in rubles for its natural gas.

“I have taken a decision to switch to ruble payments for our natural gas supplies to the so-called hostile states, stop using the compromised currencies in such transactions,” Putin said, per a transcript published on the Kremlin website as carried by Bloomberg.

The Russian President—whose list of “hostile” states includes the United States, all EU member states, Switzerland, Canada, Norway, South Korea, Japan, and many others – has ordered the Bank of Russia, the central bank, to develop a system for payments in rubles within a week.  

“At the same time, I want to emphasize that Russia will definitely continue to supply natural gas in line with the volumes and prices, pricing mechanisms set forth in the existing contracts,” Putin said at a government meeting today.

It makes no sense for Russia to export goods to the EU or the United States in U.S. dollars or euros, Putin added.  (more)

It will be interesting to see how quickly they can get this up and running.

Australian Govt Set to Launch New Tourist Ad Campaign – Come to the New Australia, We Won’t Beat You, Shoot You or Lock You Up Anymore, Promise


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on March 23, 2022 


If it seems like only a few weeks ago when Australia was kicking out an international tennis star for not being vaccinated, that’s because it was only a few short weeks ago.

However, with a massive surge in COVID-19 cases ongoing, and heeding urgent instructions from the WEF group, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison announces the land down under is now going to launch a new and improved tourist campaign.

Apparently, the Aussie government is concerned their modern ‘prison camp‘ island image might have a negative impact on visitors.

In an effort to overcome the global image of Australia forcibly locking people in quarantine camps, conducting manhunts for the escapees, shooting people with rubber bullets for not wearing masks and beating people in the streets for non-compliance, the Morrison team is going to spend $60 million on a ‘Happy Oz‘ media campaign to get tourism back with no vaccinations required.

We can only imagine the new two-year ad campaign:

“Come to the New Australia, We Won’t Shoot Now – Swear”.   Or…

“We Only Club the Locals, Mate.”

“The Aussie Courts are Open Again, and This Time We Mean It, Tennis.”

“Come Back, Come Vaxxed, or Not – Who Cares?”

“We’re not as Roo’d as you might think”

“Camping’s Great, Come Visit Our New Facilities”

“See, You Really Can Comply Your Way Out of Tyranny”

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Ukraine & the Nightmare


Armstrong Economics Blog/Ukraine Re-Posted Mar 22, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

One must wonder when Zelensky will stop sacrificing his people for no reason. He has done his best to drag the world into World War III trying to visit devastation upon the entire world. Both China and Russia have supersonic missiles. The US has admitted that China’s supersonic missile flew around the world and then hit its target. The US has been unable to create an evilalent and these type of weapons are FIRST STRIKE meaning they cannot be defeated.

This is not about supporting Zelensky v Putin. This is about preventing World War III. For indeed, as Einstein said, he did not know what weapons would exist for World War III. We are witnessing that with supersonic missiles and biological weapons that can terminate specific ethnic groups on a grand scale (see latest James Bond Movie). But Einstein imagined that World War IV would be fought with sticks and stones.

Zelensky went on Ukrainian television channels and said he would be willing to discuss a commitment from Ukraine to not seek NATO membership in exchange for a cease-fire, the withdrawal of Russian troops and a guarantee of Ukraine’s security. While that complies with the Belgrade Agreement of 1991 when Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons promising to not join NATO and remain neutral, he is still refusing to comply with the Minsk Agreement of 2014 where he was to honor the democratic right of the Donbas to vote on their own sovereignty since they were Russians and Ukraine was merely created by the Soviet Union in drawing borders.

Zelensky said: “It’s a compromise for everyone: for the West, which doesn’t know what to do with us with regard to NATO, for Ukraine, which wants security guarantees, and for Russia, which doesn’t want further NATO expansion.”

Why he just refuses to comply with the Minsk Agreement seems to be a matter of Ukrainian Nazi pride that they simply hated Russians, Jews, and everyone in Poland? The refusal to allow democratic solutions in Ukraine appears to be instigated by the American Neocons have been pushing for war since they instigated the Cuba Missile Crisis with the failed Bay of Pigs. Cuba then struck a deal with Russia for nuclear weapons to prevent the Neocons from invading Cuba again. It has long been suspected that Kennedy was assassinated for standing up against the Neocons.

The hypocrisy of the Neocons is just in your face. On March 21st, 2022, spokesman Ned Price for the State Department said in justifying war against Russia: ” the principle that each and every country has a sovereign right to determine its own foreign policy, has a sovereign right to determine for itself with whom it will choose to associate in terms of its alliances, its partnerships, and what orientation it wishes to direct its gaze. In this case, Ukraine has chosen a democratic path, a path – a Western-looking path, and that is something that, clearly, President Putin was not willing to countenance.”

The problem is that Ukraine was never a sovereign nation that ever included Donbass or Crimea. It border was simply drawn by the Soviet Union. Let those regions that were ethnically Russian be their own Republics. This has nothing to do with what is right or wrong. This is simply about the hatred of Russia fueled by the Neocons.

The Neocons had no problem violating that very principle with the excuse to invade Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, their attempted invasion justification against Syria and Cuba. Allowing Ukraine to join NATO would be no different than Russia supplying nukes to Cuba. Perhaps these Neocons were addicted to Battleship as kids and then want to play that on a real world level. The scary part is that both China and Russia have their versions of Neocons who are all striving to create World War III.

Then Japan wonders why after following the West down this Neocon rat hole imposing sanction on Russia, why would Russia then break off all peace treaty talks with Japan? Do we have the same level of incompetent Japanese politicians as in the rest of the West? Are all of these politicians plain outright stupid? Do they really think they can punish Russia and there will be no response? I have never in my 40 year career dealing with governments have I EVER witnessed such incompetence.

Wall Street Lobbying Groups Battle To Remove Transnational Shipping Restrictions To Protect Chinese Business Interests


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on March 22, 2022

The 40-year deindustrialization of America, and the subsequent destruction of jobs and the U.S. middle class, did not happen accidentally. It happened as an intentional outcome of selfish multinational business interests chasing profit, combined with the willingness of congress to accept bribes -via lobbying payments- in order to facilitative corporate greed.

The only disruption in the collective economic manipulation was the forced intermission by the American middle class when Donald J. Trump was elected.

President Trump’s tariffs, countervailing duties and protectionist policies against transnational dumping of steel and aluminum into the U.S. marketplace, was a major impediment to the corporate agenda, and it quickly resulted in the biggest economic resurgence in U.S. history.

As a result, people started demanding Congress take a new approach toward Chinese transnational shipping schemes as Beijing attempted to manipulate markets and avoid the Trump-era policies.   A few in Congress assembled legislation that would prevent companies from evading tariffs by rerouting their products through another country (i.e. transnational shipping).  That legislation has triggered the multinational business groups who are now lobbying congress to remove it.

The business groups opposed to the anti-dumping legislation are the same familiar voices who decry tariffs.  The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Retail Federation and the usual list of lobbying interests are all lining up once again to demand the U.S. remains a ‘service driven economy’, so they can continue their business models and exploit the U.S. market while profiting from cheap imported goods.

WASHINGTON DC – A coalition of business groups on Tuesday urged lawmakers to strip a bipartisan trade measure out of a China competitiveness bill before it goes to President Biden’s desk.

In a letter to congressional leaders, retail, trade and manufacturing groups announced their opposition to the Eliminating Global Market Distortions to Protect American Jobs Act, a measure to combat unfair trade practices included in the House-passed China bill.

The legislation would overhaul anti-dumping and countervailing duty laws to prevent companies from evading tariffs by rerouting their products through another country. American steelmakers have long complained that Chinese steelmakers use this tactic to dodge duties they’d otherwise be forced to pay.

The business groups on Tuesday warned that the proposal would lead to increased tariffs on an array of products from U.S. allies such as Canadian lumber, Italian pasta and Japanese aluminum. They argued that the bill would “penalize legitimate trade and contribute to the inflationary pressures on American businesses” (read more)

Ah yes, we see again, the oft surfaced defense of the ‘it will cost consumers more‘ argument.  I wonder if anyone still believes their nonsense?

DOJ Corruption Continues – Biden Justice Dept Caught Spying on Project Veritas and Lying to Judge


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on March 22, 2022

According to documents reviewed by Project Veritas, the Joe Biden DOJ used subpoenas to Microsoft to gain access to documents and files belonging to James O’Keefe and other journalists at the organization.  The DOJ issued gag orders to the tech firm to stop them from informing Project Veritas about the surveillance, and this DOJ activity continued even after a judge ordered the DOJ to stop exploiting the electronic devices previously seized.

[NEW YORK – Mar. 21, 2022] Bombshell Microsoft Corporation legal documents released by Project Veritas reveal that President Biden’s Department of Justice filed a series of secret warrants, orders, and a subpoena to surreptitiously collect privileged, and constitutionally protected, communications and contacts of eight Project Veritas journalists from Microsoft Corporation. (more)

The moves by the SDNY, as noted by Project Veritas, should not be considered in a vacuum.   The institution of the United States Dept of Justice was disassembled by Barack Obama and Eric Holder in 2009, with specific intent to restructure the institution as a political targeting mechanism working jointly with the new FBI system simultaneously created.

The radical transformation of multiple executive branch agencies into weaponized political operations is the long-lasting legacy of Barack Obama’s terms in office.  The installation of Joe Biden (Obama term 3) was, in part, done to ensure the systems were protected from dismantling while the corrupt cement dried within the system.

To fully appreciate how the four pillars of our new government were established, I would recommend reading the background of how the Fourth Branch of Government was created.

THE Fourth Branch Explained HERE

Unfortunately, until people realize and accept how the cancerous system was created, we are going to continue being abused by it while surrounded by politicians and people falsely saying they know how to fix it.  The solutions offered are akin to giving aspirin to a stage-3 cancer patient.

The real solution requires extremely aggressive surgery, radical surgery, in order to save the patient.  Entire institutions need to be removed from government and replaced with interim agencies with limited scope.  [Ex. Eliminate the FBI completely and replace the critical services with U.S. Marshals for 1 year while a new, smaller, nimbler agency is built from the ground up.]

Neocon Plot to Overthrow Putin & Xi


Armstrong Economics Blog/Reports and DVDs Re-Posted Mar 21, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

This war has really nothing to do with Ukraine for this country has been used as cannon fodder to overthrow Putin – the second target in this New World Order. The first was the removal of Trump and the last will be the removal of Xi Jinping. This is a major effort to cause regime change in Russia. The sanction has been so outrageous that they are indeed an act of outright war. The strategy to remove all three has been in play and you can tell the very same tactics are used. They DEMONIZE the leader in order to defeat him and to cause people to hate him.

In the case of Putin, they have been doing that in the United States when Hillary, a Neocon herself, manufactured the entire Russia Conspiracy that Putin interfered in the 2016 election.  It was Hillary who allowed the bankers to intervene in the Russian 2000 election which backfired and Yeltsin turned to Putin once he discovered the plot.

Lindsey Graham is also a Neocon who has outright called for Russians to assassinate Putin. All we are getting now is propaganda pushing the agenda of regime change in Russia. The story being put out by Ukrainian Intelligence is that a group of Russian elites are allegedly now conspiring to overthrow Putin and “restore economic ties” with the West. They are posting this on Facebook post from the Chief Directorate of Intelligence for the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. This is clearly propaganda for if there was truly a plot, they would not be warning Putin. Instead, they are creating an imaginary plot in hope for forming one and to create discord in the politics of Russia. It is a ploy as old as history.

Facebook has changed its guidelines to allow for the posting of violence against Russia and calling for the death of Putin. Zuckerberg is also one of these Young Global Leaders of the WEF. As many are praying, his stock should keep going down for the plots that have been hatched in Facebook.

The Ukrainians are even naming Alexander Bortnikov, the Russian Director of the Federal Security Service and a member of Putin’s inner circle, as a successor to the president. They are seeking the conquest of Russia but forcing the people to rise up and overthrow their government because of the sanctions. Biden even threatened China according to the White House stating that serious “implications and consequences” will follow if Beijing decides to give material aid to Russia to support its war in Ukraine. The White House claimed that Biden laid out for Mr. Xi the punishments the United States will inflict upon China and it too would pay a similarly heavy price if it supported Putin.

“He made clear what the implications and consequences would be if China provides material support to Russia as it conducts brutal attacks against Ukrainian cities and civilians,” Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, told reporters on Friday afternoon. She declined to say how Mr. Xi responded or give details on the costs the United States has threatened to impose on Beijing, as reported in the New York Times.

China released the transcript of the phone call between Biden and Xi on Chinese state media. Xi expressed opposition to the broad sanctions the United States, European and Asian nations have imposed on Russia, warning they could trigger crises in the global economy. In this score, he is absolutely right. These very same tactics will be turned on China after they are finished with regime change in Russia. Xi referenced a Chinese saying, “Let he who tied the bell on the tiger take it off,” which is an idiom that the responsibility for solving a problem should fall on the person who created it. The transcript does not indicate that Xi would play a role in ending the war.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was a “turning point for the world,” arguing that a victory for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s forces would herald “a new age of intimidation.”

We are looking at the beginning of World War III. In order to pull off this Great Reset, they needed to remove Trump, Putin, and Xi in hopes of then subordinating both China and Russia to the New World Order with the United Nations in control.

We live in very interesting and dangerous times. The Climate Change people have pushed that the world has only 7 years left and the Neocons have usurped this agenda to make their dreams come true. We will be issuing two important reports. The first is now ready – The ECM March 14th, 2022. (Attendees of the last World Economic Conference will receive this report for FREE. It is available for download in the 2021 WEC Documents Portal. Please check your emails and spam for our notification). Otherwise, this report is priced at $95 given its wide range and the seriousness of what we face.

Tucker Carlson Asks, Is Ukraine the Representative Autocracy Washington DC Hopes To Achieve Here?


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on March 21, 2022 | Sundance

Tucker Carlson used his monologue tonight to note something we have discussed at length here.  Western government leaders continue to make statements about “representative democracy” in comparison to “autocratic non-western government”, yet they make these public statements while personifying autocracy itself.

An example was Joe Biden making statements to the media during a 9-11 commemoration visit to Shanksville Pennsylvania. In his remarks, Joe Biden decried Chinese Chairman Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladmir Putin as autocrats, yet Biden had just announced forced mandatory medical procedures for all U.S. workers a mere 36 hours before. It is a fact that throughout the last two years – the leaders of Europe, New Zealand, Australia, Canada and the United States have used declarations of emergency to position themselves with massive power.  This is not debatable.

As a consequence, the prior definition of “western representative democracy” collapsed under the weight of COVID-19 and was replaced with unilateral authoritarian emergency power.   When you look around, every single government in the west is still trying to extend those COVID powers by extending the emergency declarations that provide them.   Again, none of this is up for debate; it is empirically true.

Tucker asks a really good question.  Is the autocratic system of government that existed in Ukraine before the Russian invasion – which is (not coincidentally) identical in many ways to the COVID-19 inspired system of government created by Western leaders – actually, the real motive for those western leaders to unite in their support and current propaganda campaign on behalf of Ukraine?  I think he might be onto something.  WATCH:

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Is western autocracy the real objective, and is modern fascism (i.e. corporatism) the technique to get there?

There is a massive synergy visible if you think about the WEF selecting leaders in this process.  The problem for western leaders, who want to be dictators, has always been the voice of the people.   Replace traditional democracy by merging modern corporatism with a new version of western autocracy, and we end up with a never-ending system of oppressive government just like we have been dealing with for the past two years throughout the pandemic.

“They are starting to notice the quiet part”…

Far Left Boston Mayor Delivers Publicly Racist Comments


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on March 21, 2022 

Every caricature of extreme leftism is personified by Boston Mayor Michelle Wu.

A few days ago, while delivering St. Patrick’s Day remarks to Boston officials at a celebratory breakfast, the exceptionally unprofessional Mayor Wu made some remarkably racist comments about white people.  WATCH (prompted):

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Apparently in her tribe of leftists, this passes for humor.  However, one can only imagine if the situation was reversed how the media would be reacting.

Infowars Interview Martin Armstrong


Armstrong Economics Blog/Press Re-Posted Mar 21, 2022 by Martin Armstrong