Tag Archives: progressives

Aug 30 2019

The Move To Amend Website where Jack Petsche gets his help from


The Move to Amend (MTA) movement was started in California by hard core progressives and it would seem it either came out of or was part of the occupy movement.. I would not be surprised if they were not also associated with directly or indirectly with Back Life’s Mater BLM  movement.  All of these and other like groups are designed to destroy social order o that that what a different kind of America and have their way. There is no good associated in any of these groups as they all have one one goal which is to create a socialist state with no limiting constitution. The following links are to various section on the MTA website.

https://movetoamend.org/about-us

https://movetoamend.org/board

https://movetoamend.org/brecksville-suppresses-will-voters-over-transparency

https://movetoamend.org/oh-cleveland

The goal of this movement is a socialist government which may start out with only a few changes but as we saw in Venezuela it turns bad quickly and if we allow that to take hold in America our grand kids will be living in a Marxist dictatorship my mid century.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crisis_in_Venezuela

Aug 30 2019

Ingratitude of the Immigrants


by Tabitha Korol

President Trump has been unarguably the most pro-Jewish, pro-Israel President we’ve ever had, surpassing George Washington, John Adams, Abraham Lincoln and Harry Truman.  His stand against Iran (vociferous enemy of Israel), finally moving the US embassy to Jerusalem, cutting funds to the PA and closing the PLO office in Washington, his donations to Jewish causes, and developing housing for Russian-Jewish immigrants in Brooklyn are just some of the points, but many non-Orthodox American Jews are calling him antisemitic.  It is primarily the Democrat Jews who appear antisemitic when they continue to support their party whose members explicitly express their hatred of Israel and Jews worldwide.  It may be that their desire to distance themselves from their heritage in eastern Europe and Israel has rendered them irrational, and psychological projection has them denying their own impulses as they attribute them to others – specifically to President Trump.

Most recently, President Trump spoke out against the antisemitism spewed by Muslim Congresswomen Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, and was himself accused of bias.   It is time to review the backgrounds of both women who are recognized as Islamic extremists and antisemites by such as Senator Lindsey Graham, Speaker Newt Gingrich, media personalities Mark Thiessen and Rush Limbaugh, as well as by Imam Tawhidi, who added Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to the lot.

  • October 2015, Rashida Tlaib joined and praised activists who support terrorist Rasmeah Odeh, who is guilty of the deadly 1969 bombing in Jerusalem.
  • December 2017, Tlaib shared a Facebook post with Linda Sarsour in support of 17-yr-old Palestinian Ahed Tamimi, who assaulted an IDF soldier and promotes stabbings and suicide bombings.
  • February 2018, Tlaib joined Facebook group, Palestinian American Congress, which demonizes Jews and raised funds for her campaign.  She denied both the Holocaust and the Jewish historical claim to Israel.
  • August 2018, for her victory speech, Tlaib wrapped herself in a Palestinian flag and promised to “fight against every racist and oppressive structure that needs to be dismantled,” later telling the UK’s Channel 4 News that she would vote against US military aid to Israel.  Despite her own foreign garb, she accused Jewish Americans of dual loyalty and has since established a record of Jew-hatred and an affinity for radical Islam.
  • January 3, 2019, in a MoveOn.org reception, Tlaib warned that the President’s days were numbered, and she’d “impeach the motherfu**er.”  She took her oath on the Koran, which is the antithesis of our Bible and Constitution, and affixed a sticker “Palestine” to replace Israel on her wall map.
  • A guest at Tlaib’s swearing-in ceremony and private dinner was Abbas Hamideh, who equates Zionism with Nazism, and who voiced his support for Hassan Nasrallah, violent murderer of an Israeli Jew and his 4-year-old daughter.
  • During the week of January 2019, Tlaib condemned her congressional colleagues who did not support BDS against Israel.
  • March 2019, Tlaib posed with a Palestinian activist who had mourned the death of a Hamas murderer of a rabbi in Israel.
  • August 2019, Tlaib compared Israel to apartheid South Africa and Nazi Germany, and co-sponsored a resolution to support the BDS movement. She consistently shows herself to be an enemy of our ally Israel and the Jewish people.
  • Most recently, Tlaib shunned a bipartisan delegation to Israel in order to schedule her own trip to be led by the anti-Israel nongovernmental organization Miftah, where she could agitate for the anti-Israel boycott and use her disinvitation as an accusation against the Jewish state.
  • Claiming racism, oppression and injustice, Tlaib used the event of her entry rejection into Israel to enhance her victimhood, and a way of showing Gaza’s inhumane conditions.  However, videos of interviews of her family show a healthy grandmother, free-standing home, and plentiful grounds with outdoor furniture on a lovely summer night.
  • Tlaib, Omar, AOC and Rep Prammila Jayapal co-sponsored a bill that accuses the Jewish state of torturing non-Jewish children; the bill was re-introduced by Rep. Beth McCollum.

Ilhan Omar claimed to love America but shows her disdain for our country at every turn with a decided detestation for Israel and the Jews.  She called herself the President’s “biggest nemesis”; said of the terrorist attacks on 9/11, “some people did something”; and wants our greatest ally, Israel, wiped off the face of the earth.  The following are examples of her words and deeds:

  • In November 2012, Omar called Israel an apartheid regime that “hypnotized the world” in order to conceal its “evil doings.”
  • In 2013, Omar said on PBS that she took a college course in terrorism, saying that the professor spoke with pride (his shoulders raised in intensity) about Al Qaeda and Hezbollah, but not when we say America.
  • During 2013-15, Omar, then a member of the Minneapolis City Council, acknowledged her friendship with Al-Shabab, a Somali jihad terror group.
  • Omar often characterized Israel as the “Jewish ISIS,’ on Arab-American television, comparing members of Hamas to Holocaust victims.
  • Following the 2013 terrorist bombing that killed ~70 people in a Kenyan shopping mall, Omar blamed the act on a reaction to American injustices, and how the world contributed to Islamic radicalization.
  • After her election to the MN House of Representatives, November 2016, Omar wrote a judge for leniency in the sentencing of nine Somali-born men found guilty of attempting to join ISIS, blaming their desire for violence on alienation.
  • In 2016, Omar wanted the University of MN to divest its Israel bonds, and in 2017, she opposed a bill designed to counter economic boycotts against Israel, likening Israel to apartheid South Africa.
  • In 2017, Omar was one of two MN House members (out of 129) to vote against a bill that would allow life-insurance companies to deny payments to beneficiaries of suicide terrorists, and one of four to oppose legislation to make it a felony for parents to subject their daughters to female genital mutilation (FGM).
  • After only five days of winning her congressional seat in 2018, Omar worked to institute BDS to financially cripple the state of Israel.
  • In February 2019, Omar tweeted that pro-Israel lobby AIPAC was guilty of paying politicians to favor Israel: “It’s all about the Benjamins, baby.”
  • March 2019, Omar’s disdain for Israel won praise from Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke.
  • March 2019, Omar was keynote speaker for an Hamas-linked CAIR benefit event, along with Hassan Shibley, who will not call out Hezbollah and Hamas as terrorist organizations.
  • April 2019, Omar called for the release of a senior Muslim Brotherhood member detained in Egypt.
  • July 2019, Omar, Tlaib and John Lewis co-sponsored House Resolution HR496 for BDS,  comparing Israel to apartheid South Africa and Nazi Germany.

There is no question that both Omar and Tlaib are antisemites who seek to destroy Israel and endanger Jews worldwide, and that the Democrat Jews who support those policies are collaborators.  Those who speak ill of President Trump and PM Netanyahu and side with the Marxist-Islamic ideology emanating from the Democrat party, who compare the southern-border invaders to the Holocaust’s Jewish refugees, and who failed to attend and celebrate the dedication of the US embassy in Jerusalem, Israel’s capital, cannot be judged otherwise.  Yes, President Trump’s honesty may sting, but it is nevertheless honesty.

According to Jewish law, the Democrat Jews are still Jews, but the betrayal of their own brethren and heritage confirm that they are not in consonance with the laws and morality of Judaism – their hearts are elsewhere.

 

Tabitha Korol
With appreciation to frontpagemag.com for their detailed reporting.

 

Tabitha Korol

https://tinyurl.com/y7e6z63d

Aug 30 2019

Democrats Threat to Stack the Supreme Court to Impose Their Views Upon the Nation


Armstrong Economics Blog/Rule of Law

Re-Posted Aug 30, 2019 by Martin Armstrong

QUESTION: Marty; What is your opinion on the Democrats threat to stack the Supreme Court if they win the presidency?

SK

ANSWER: I believe that the Supreme Court should be restructured. The Constitution ONLY created the Supreme Court and Congress could not shut it down. However, all other lower Federal courts are statutory, created by Congress. It was Congress that unconstitutionally refused to expand the Supreme Court and instead, granted it the right to pick and choose what cases it wants to hear. This, in my opinion, violated the Constitution because it was the ONLY court created by the Founding Fathers and not expanding it to hear every case presented, to me means you are denied a tripartite government.

The lower courts know that the odds of ever being reviewed are slim to negligible. So people can be tortured, abused, and they do not have to comply with the law by any means. There is no rule of law because each circuit has its own rules and precedents. In theory, the Supreme Court is supposed to resolve conflicts between the circuits. But that is purely on a discretionary basis. This current structure means you are denied the right to Equal Protection of the Law when each circuit acts independently.

However, the Democrats’ threat to pack the Court if it doesn’t rule the way they want is a threat to intimidate the court which is in itself UNCONSTITUTIONAL. The very reason Justices are appointed for life is because the King would fire judges who ruled against him. So here we have the Democrats demonstrating that they seek to impose by dictatorial powers their view on the majority of the people even if they cannot win the votes of the people. That is an outright affront to the separation of power and the very principle of a Free Society.

The Democratic lawmakers have openly threatened the court with political retribution if it did not dismiss a gun-rights related case in which they submitted a brief in support of New York City urging the Supreme Court to dismiss a case involving the transportation of locked and unloaded handguns. The Democrats brief stated that “courts do not undertake political ‘projects,’ or at least they should not.” The Second Amendment is not political – it is the Constitution.

Clearly, this attempt by Democrats to intimidate the Court is outrageous and very dangerous. It demonstrates how and why the United States will decline and fall. There is no respect for the rule of law. The polarization in the country is just off the charts and this will undoubtedly lead to violence.

I believe the Supreme Court should be restructured, but I would add sub-justices and allow the Supreme Court to hire them on the recommendations of the American Bar Association (ABA) who should nominate unanimously each candidate – not Congress or any President. It should be life in prison for anyone to lobby the ABA from any outside group to select a particular candidate. There should be a lower tier of courts in the Supreme Court and then the Nine Justices sorts out any conflicts. This will give the ABSOLUTE Right to be Heard which is the foundation of Due Process of Law.

The Due Process Right to be Heard comes actually from the Bible. The basis is that of Cain and Able where one kills his brother and obviously God knew what he did. He still summons Cain to give him a Right to be Heard despite the fact he knows he is guilty.

And the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother? And he said, “I do not know: am I my brother’s keeper?” And He said, “What have you done? Listen! your brother’s blood cries out to me from the soil. 11And so, cursed shall you be by the soil that gaped with its mouth to take your brother’s blood from your hand. 

Therefore, knowing that Cain killed Able, he still gave him a Right to be Heard which is the foundation of Due Process of Law. In my view, one can be tortured and abused in any Federal Court. If you are denied the Right to be Heard in the Supreme Court you will die denied everything that we ask citizens to defend in war with their lives.

What the Democrats are proposing is effectively the overthrow of Democracy and to impose one-party rule of law. This illustrates the importance of the 2020 elections. This polarization is going to explode in 2020.

A look at the voting records of individual justices clearly shows that they DO NOT rule on party lines. It was Chief Justice Roberts who upheld Obamacare as a Tax joining the Democrats when he was appointed by George W. Bush. It just does not work on party lines all the time.

Even a Justice appointed by a Republican would still uphold Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973), was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that the U.S. Constitution protects a pregnant because it cannot interject religion into the rule of law. What if the court became mostly Muslim? Would divorce then be up to overrule along with Polygamy, the practice of marrying multiple spouses?

Religion cannot be allowed to become the rule of law then you deny the freedom of religion no matter how much it offends someone’s individual beliefs. That’s God’s job to make those types of judgments. He will sort them out – not politicians.

Categories: Rule of Law
Aug 30 2019

Mortgages & Banks when times are bad!


Armstrong Economics Blog/Real Estate

Re-Posted Aug 30, 2019 by Martin Armstrong

QUESTION: Hi Martin.. thanks so much for all your world/economic content and perspective. I was reading a comment you made recently concerning real estate mortgages. In the comments, you suggested carrying a low fixed-rate mortgage rather than paying off the property.

My question is what happens when a financial institution goes bust. You’ve taken out a mortgage on your house and deposited the excess money from the mortgage in your bank account. Doesn’t this expose you to bankruptcy risk? If the bank collapses you could potentially lose what’s not covered by FDIC insurance. In one case the house is paid off and the money is out of the banking system. In the second case, the money is held in the banking system and is at risk. Or am I missing something?
Cheers,
Bob

ANSWER: If you have cash at a bank, then you have the risk of the bank failing. However, if you are the borrower and the bank holds the mortgage, then as long as you are current on your payments it cannot foreclose. It will typically sell its assets to raise cash so your mortgage could be resold to another bank or an investment pool.

The problem you will have in a crisis is that real estate is illiquid. When I was growing up, a friend of my father owned virtually the entire main street in town. I recall talking to him and he said that he bought the entire main street in town back in 1937 because he had cash and bought it for 10% of its 1929 value.

If you borrowed and have the cash on the side, you will be in a far better position to sell liquid assets and buy the house at a discount if the bank is in trouble.

Categories: Real Estate
Aug 29 2019

Dollar Contagion & Trump


Armstrong Economics Blog/USD $

Re-Posted Aug 29, 2019 by Martin Armstrong

President Trump just does not understand the dollar. This old school idea that lowering the currency will increase domestic jobs and exports sounds logical, but the value of any currency is determined by the level of international confidence. It is absurd to think you can lower interest rates and the dollar will decline to support more exports. Nobody considered that you then wipe out pensions and force the elderly to work because they cannot live off the interest from the savings.

I really get tired being called into meetings over the same childish one-dimensional theories that it seems only an idiot would believe in. Trump has voiced his dismay over the strong dollar claiming U.S. manufacturers are at a disadvantage. “With substantial Fed Cuts (there is no inflation) and no quantitative tightening, the dollar will make it possible for our companies to win against any competition.”  I testified before the House Ways & Means Committee how the greatest deterrent to American exports are TAXES. An American company bidding on a foreign project must pay domestic taxes on worldwide income. A Germany or British company pays taxes ONLY on domestic business — not international. American companies are at a greater disadvantage because of taxes rather than the value of the dollar.

You would think that a child with a calculator could figure this out. Those in power just cannot bring themselves to address the issue because of class warfare is the main argument the Democrats use to inspire people to vote for them. I have been in meetings with Democrats and never will they listen because they do not know how to run for office without inspiring hatred of the rich and blaming them for every failure in their own policies. The only Democrat to ever listen to me was Governor Jim Florio of New Jersey who I debated at Princeton University. I pointed out that the poor and middle class have to pay income taxes and wait for a refund at the end of the year, so you are borrowing from the poor and middle class and cheat them on interest.

Many analysts believe the Federal Reserve will yield to the demands for a further rate cut at the September meeting. This is due to the world economy imploding outside the USA not simply because of Trump-bashing the Fed. We live in a world where we are in the midst of a Dollar Contagion that is impacting the entire world because SOCIALISM is collapsing outside the United States first.

Aug 29 2019

Big Bang in Full Motion Set to Collide In a Real Mess


Armstrong Economics Blog/Sovereign Debt Crisis

Re-Posted Aug 29, 2019 by Martin Armstrong

COMMENT: Marty,
The central banks tell us they will lower interest rates, even into negative territory, in order to stimulate the economy through bank lending. YOU tell this is an outdated theory that has NEVER worked and I believe you.
Surely the central banks persist will this excuse not because they think it will work but because they can use the theory as a smokescreen to hide the real reason.
The real reason is, I believe, that they are being leaned-on by politicians to keep rates low or negative because our governments cannot afford to pay higher interest on the massive debts they have accumulated over the decades and have never paid off.

AB

REPLY: You are correct. We warned that when the Economic Confidence Model turned in 2015.75, it would be the beginning of the Sovereign Debt Crisis. Today, the ECB owns 40% of all Eurozone public debt with no end in sight. They have destroyed their bond market. This cycle should collide with the Monetary Crisis Cycle, so we will have some very interesting times ahead.

We must separate the USA from the rest of the world. Europe especially cannot allow official rates to rise without blowing up the entire EU austerity move. The Fed was raising rates because that was the proper policy. He ran into stiff resistance from outside the USA because Europe left its banks with all the toxic bombs and cut rates hoping they would make enough money to cover their losses. This is why Deutsche Bank is in trouble and rumors are flying about HSBC.

But the Fed cannot stand against the entire world. The USA has the ONLY viable bond market. Lowering rates in the USA will also destroy the US bond market and then we are looking at a not so happy ending to the debt crisis.

Categories: Sovereign Deb
Aug 29 2019

Constitution Scholar Ocasio-Cortez Understands Democracy Better Than Republicans


Published on Aug 29, 2019

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-NY, understands democracy better than Republicans do because she wants to abolish the electoral college and choose the president by national popular vote, according to Jamelle Bouie in The New York Times. Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-TX, says AOC doesn’t grasp the difference between a democracy and a republic. But did the Framers intend to establish rule by minority? Is AOC the leading Constitutional scholar of our day?
Aug 28 2019

Private v Public Rate


Armstrong Economics Blog/Interest Rates

Re-Posted Aug 28, 2019 by Martin Armstrong

QUESTION: I am a bit confused. You have forecast that interest rates will rise but official rates will decline. Exactly how does this materialize?

Thank you

GF

ANSWER: People seem to look at just the official interest rates set by the central bank and assume what I am saying is wrong. They have to look at what is really going on in interest rates. We have witnessed the greatest gap between official rates and private rates in history. While deposit rates are virtually zero, car loans which are secured, are at about 4.5% in the United States (up to 9.5% outside the USA). The Bank of America, N.A. prime rate was 5.25% as of August 1st, 2019.

In 1981, the Fed’s Discount Rate for banks was 14% at the peak back in 1981. The Prime Rate peaked at 21.5% at that time. This meant that the Prime Rate was 53.5% above the Fed’s Discount Rate. In August 2019, the Fed’s Discount Rate is 2.75% and the Prime Rate is 5.25% or a 90% markup. The spread between public and private rates has nearly doubled.

Official rates can be manipulated by the central bank for it can control the short-term rates, but not the long-term without instituting some form of capital controls. But they close the free markets in government bonds.

The spread on the private rates v official rates has doubled! I am nor forecasting the superficial trend in manipulated rates by central banks, but the real world rates in the private world. I have stated numerous times, the bankers have NOT passed on the lower interest rates to the people. The spreads have doubled – not declined nor did they even stay the same. If the spread was the same as it was in 1981, then the Prime Rate should be 4.2% instead of 5.25% and a secured car loan should be 3.4% instead of 4.5%.

Categories: I
Aug 28 2019

Is the Thai Baht Finally Ready to Decline Against the Dollar?


Armstrong Economics Blog/Thailand

Re-Posted Aug 28, 2019 by Martin Armstrong

QUESTION: The Thai baht has been very strong for some time now. It doesn’t seem to be affected by the China – US trade war. Is the Thai baht a safe haven in your opinion?

MW

ANSWER: Thailand has been benefiting from the China-US trade war as manufacturing has been moving to Thailand from China. Thailand’s automotive industry has contributed to 12% of the GDP with more than 1.94 million vehicles produced. Thailand is now ranked as the largest automotive producer in Southeast Asia and 12th in the world. Many people now call it the “Automotive Hub of Asia.”

On top of that, you have countless Americans who have gone to Thailand to retire on their visa program. Americans can even open bank accounts in Thailand, unlike in Europe. Many have moved out of Bangkok to the southern region in Cho Brui.

People from Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar, also known as Burma, often move to Thailand to find work. The Thai economy has been stable and a magnet for foreigners. The culture is one of the friendliest in Southeast Asia, more akin to Japan than Hong Kong. The Thai even take their shoes off at the door as do the Japanese.

As far as the currency is concerned, July fell and bounced off of an important Monthly Bearish Reversal for the dollar. As long as the July low holds, the dollar may now begin to rise simply because of the tensions in Asia as a whole.