Posted originally on Feb 19, 2024 By Martin Armstrong
Vladamir Putin has endorsed Joe Biden as his choice for the 2024 US Presidential Election. “He is a more experienced, predictable person, an old-school politician,” Putin said during an interview, later saying that Russia will work with whomever the America people have confidence in.
Confidence is the keyword here as the people do not have confidence in Biden, and the people supporting him are mainly in the “anyone but Trump” camp. The Democrats believed Russia played a major role in the 2016 Presidential Election. Clinton and her team within the establishment produced the fake Steele Dossier without consequence, even when it was proven to be a falsified document. “The Russians have proved themselves to be quite adept at interfering and if [Putin] has a chance, he’ll do it again,” Hillary said, establishing a plan to blame Russia if the 2024 US election does not go as planned.
The truth of the matter is that Russia does not want an anti-establishment candidate in office. Why would you want to see your enemy succeed when their current leadership is destroying the nation from within? In the Tucker Carlson interview, Putin said it did not matter whether Trump or Biden won. His concern was the “elitist mindset” that wants domination and nothing else. He indicated the true leader of the US was not the president but the establishment promoted by intelligence agencies.
“A job is a job,” the Russian president stated when asked about his time in the KGB. He said that the CIA was their main opponent. Who had the motive and capability to blow up Nordstream? Who had the power to rig Ukraine’s election in 2014? Who follows the direction of NATO? There is not one man in charge of all of these but a group who maintains control over the establishment.
Posted originally on the CTH on February 16, 2024 | Sundance
As Tucker Carlson talks about feeling “radicalized against western leadership,” I find myself rolling my eyes and saying, “welcome to the party pal.” But seriously, it’s good to see him awakening more people.
When I began talking about the western created propaganda in 2023 people had a difficult time understanding it. {GO DEEP} As I began researching and explaining the futility and fraud of the Western sanctions against Russia, the confusion expanded. {GO DEEP}
Nothing makes sense until you realize we are being lied to by every element of Western review, government, media, corporations, academia, financial punditry, the works… all of their claims are based on lies and false information.
Tucker Carlson visits a grocery store in Russia {Direct Rumble Link} and immediately starts to get red-pilled on the truth. WATCH:
Keep in mind that Carlson is only looking at the ‘goods’ side of the ledger. On the ‘service’ side, the disparity in pricing is beyond jaw-dropping. {Example: A 30-mile cab ride for $5}.
From a production side perspective, Russia actually has a larger economy now than Germany, the largest EU nation. The cause for this is “autarchy” or self-sufficiency. Indeed, as the timeline of the sanctions completes the second full year, the Russian production economy is even stronger than when the sanctions began. Quite simply, they are making even more of their own goods now.
The sanctions typically fall into the service side of the economy, as well as financial and economic roadblocks. However, that aspect of the Russian economy was much smaller than most suspected and there were sanctions going back to 2014 which made the outcome of the 2022 western imposed restrictions far less impactful.
I’m very serious when I share with people that almost everything we understand about the geopolitical purposes and impacts of sanctions against Russian economic interests is entirely fabricated. However, because the scale of the propaganda against us is so effective, breaking the mental/cognitive barrier is almost impossible.
It’s not that situations are ‘shaped’ or information is ‘manipulated,’ as in the definition of the term “disinformation.” But rather the entire construct of reality regarding the economic issues -as presented- is fabricated, created by massive financial interests, and flat-out lies; I mean, total unadulterated nonsense. Complete fiction.
We are through the looking glass folks. Literally captive to the narrative as sold by our Western government officials, and there’s a huge one-way mirror; beyond which, massive segments of the grey zone are looking at us as if we are pathetic victims of professional propaganda.
The worst part of this dynamic is how the USA looks insufferably weak, because we are playing this massive game of pretending that only the Yellow Zone is participating in.
MOSCOW, Dec 27 (Reuters) – Almost all of Russia’s oil exports this year have been shipped to China and India, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said on Wednesday, after Moscow responded to Western economic sanctions by quickly rerouting supplies away from Europe.
Russia has successfully circumvented sanctions on its oil and diverted flows from Europe to China and India, which together accounted for around 90% of its crude exports, Novak, who is in charge of the country’s energy sector, told Rossiya-24 state TV.
He said that Russia had already started to forge ties with Asia-Pacific countries before the West introduced sanctions against Moscow following the start of the conflict in Ukraine in February 2022.
“As for those restrictions and embargoes on supplies to Europe and the U.S. that were introduced… this only accelerated the process of reorienting our energy flows,” Novak said.
He said that Europe’s share of Russia’s crude exports has fallen to only about 4-5% from about 40-45%. (read more)
What Alexander Novak shares is stunningly accurate, only the ramifications are far more serious. This is why I am spending so much time trying to break the issue down into digestible portions.
Russia and Iran are now trading oil (and other things) in their own national currencies, not the petrodollar. This is the epicenter of a process initially triggered by the BRICS economic alliance and is now taking place in real time while the proverbial WEST pretends it is not happening. Now, it might sound esoteric, as if it is a disconnected or academic issue that doesn’t have real substantive ramifications, but that’s not true.
I can literally see how global trade is now cost-shifting as the dollar starts to weaken (become less used) as a trade currency. Again, like our domestic social issues, this de-dollarization process is “slowly at first,” but eventually this is going to come all at once.
As USA consumers we cannot see it yet, because we are inside an economic system that is entirely dependent on dollars. However, as the devaluation of the dollar continues slowly to happen, outside our dollar-based economy, the cost of goods, products and stuff in the ordinary life of people within the GREY ZONE is now stunningly less. It’s not showing up in currency markets (dollar -vs- fill_in_blank), because the currency trades are not part of the trade/cost dynamic outside the YELLOW ZONE.
Go into the grey zone and compare the price of “product X” to what you would pay in the United States for “product X”, and you will see the difference in the end consumer price is starting to widen faster. Identical goods in the USA cost much more than goods outside the “west.”
As the de-dollarization continues (mostly driven by the lessening of oil sold using the petrodollar), the disparity in price will get even more stark. As a result of this dynamic, wages in the USA (or the “west”) must necessarily rise faster; however, that’s only part of the issue.
If I took $200 into a Russian supermarket, buying only consumable food products, I would end up with about 3 shopping carts full of food. Take that same $200 into the average USA supermarket and you get one shopping cart or less. This is the scale of what is likely to happen in durable goods. The “cleaving” is underway.
Let me say that again, the “cleaving” of dollar-based price/value is underway.
Starbucks pulled out of Russia. The building still exists, the furniture still there, the equipment still there, just a different name, “Star Coffee” lolol. Starbucks is roughly $6 for whatever, the StarCoffee is $1. Same stuff. A cab/uber ride in USA might be $25, or in EU might be €30, but outside the yellow zone around $6 to $10/max. It’s getting crazy how big the difference is.
Now, the price disparity is not in everything, only in the products that do not originate from inside the yellow zone. The increased price of the yellow zone goods transfers into the grey zone when the product is moved. However, if the yellow zone and grey zone both produce an identical product (or service), that’s when you see the massive difference in price. [And no, this is not a lower cost labor issue]
Conversely, prices of goods originating from the grey zone shipped to the yellow zone will be far less than the comparable product created from within the yellow zone.
What is going to happen?
I suspect we are going to import even more products from the grey zone at a greater rate, because there’s a lower origination price and greater opportunity for profit. Wait and see.
China needs energy, Russia needs computer chips and tech. They are trading thusly. Now watch… if the sanctions are ever lifted, we will start importing Russian made electronic goods, because less expensive. It’s nuts.
Remember, our ‘western’ government is doing this to us on purpose.
Posted originally on Feb 16, 2024 By Martin Armstrong
Elected politicians no longer represent us. Amazingly, against all common sense, an elderly British couple received a letter in the mail from their city council (municipal government) informing them that the authorities were preparing to seize their newly purchased £200,000 home and use it to house migrants. They then charge you for any repairs they have to do.
Posted originally on the CTH on February 13, 2024 | Sundance
Republican senators Boozman, Capito, Cassidy, Collins, Cramer, Crapo, Hoeven, Ernst, Grassley, Kennedy, McConnell, Moran, Murkowski, Romney, Rounds, Sullivan, Thune, Tillis, Wicker, Young, and Cornyn all voted to send $95 billion to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan to protect their borders while leaving our borders unprotected.
Most people just don’t realize the nature of the opposition we face. ¹The elected representatives simply don’t care what our opinion is, they will do whatever serves their interests and too hell with the voters.
WASHINGTON DC – The Senate approved $95 billion in aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan aid by a 70-29 vote early on Tuesday morning, sending the bill to an uncertain fate in the House, where Speaker Mike Johnson is giving the legislation a frosty reception.
Despite a last-ditch effort from conservative opponents of the bill, Johnson‘s cold water and former President Donald Trump’s attempts to kill the legislation, Republican support for the deal actually grew overnight, with 22 GOP senators voting in favor of the package — a kind of rejection of those in the party, like Trump, who argued any aid should be structured as a loan. (read more)
¹Now, imagine if we had some simultaneous triggering mechanism that could abruptly initiate a total work stoppage, a general labor strike, in the states or hometowns of the aforementioned senators. Perhaps that would get their attention.
At least there are a few states where both senators held the interests of their voters in mind. Florida, Missouri, Vermont, Alabama, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Nebraska all voted against the Ukraine spending bill.
Posted originally on Feb 13, 2024 By Martin Armstrong
I do not advise governments to use sanctions for leverage due to the economic implications that may take time to materialize. In April 2020, I wrote, “Once you impose sanctions, you create a cold war. Look at Russia. Nixon opened China to divide and conquer. Are we really that stupid to close China and encourage them to join Russia in a cold war that will further destroy the world economy and most likely lead to real war?” The US and EU attempted to remove Russia from the global economy through sanctions and prohibiting them from the SWIFT network. Putin further explained in his interview with Tucker Carlson why this was a “grave mistake” for the future of the USD.
Using the dollar for political struggles dealt a blow to the USD that has not yet been felt. First, freezing the assets of Russians sent a signal to the whole world that the USD may not be the safest place to park your money if you happen to be in an “unfriendly” nation. Even our own allies have begun downsizing their dollar reserves.
The SWIFT system was never meant to be used as a political instrument. The West began looking into ways to remove Russia from this payment system back in 2014, and when they finally did, Russia began processing its payments elsewhere. Putin also correctly stated in the interview that China, not Russia, is the larger threat to the West in terms of size, population, manufacturing, and, most importantly, the growing power of the yuan.
The BRICS alliance is stronger than ever before as nations are collaborating without the need for the dollar. This does NOT mean that they are planning to replace the dollar, a myth that Putin termed the “BRICS boogeyman” as the Western media portrays the organization as a major threat to global security. However, this does mean that the yuan will grow in strength, as we have seen with the slow death of the petrodollar. The BRICS partnership means that members are no longer dependent on Western energy, and eventually, no one will be dependent on Western trade or debt. Only a fool would buy their enemy’s debt and expect to receive anything in return. Again, this will happen on target cyclically as nothing remains forever. The dollar overpowered sterling, and the yuan is next in line.
There are boogeyman fables that cooperation with China will lead to the destruction of the West, yet that is happening as a result of our leaders abandoning all domestic policies for globalization. Every nation in the EU and North America has made decisions that directly hurt its own economy but are beneficial to the coming globalization that they wish to bring forth, as stated every year at Davos.
“You can’t choose your neighbors like you can’t choose relatives,” Putin stated in regards to China, “We have a centuries-long history of coexistence.” He correctly stated that China always looks for compromise. They are an independent nation that has not fallen to the globalist agenda and there are not neocons within the ranks looking to bring China into perpetual warfare. The media is afraid of the “no limits” alliance between Russia and China, but look at how China has remained relatively neutral since the war in Ukraine began when they could have easily aided their neighbor. Furthermore, Europe is now closer economically to China than Russia is, as Europe is desperate for solutions to its economic issues and sees China as an opportunity.
Putin stated numerous times that US analysts are the ones discussing these problems, and he is simply repeating what he has read. I have not personally advised Putin, but I do believe his people read our work as he was attempting to explain cycles. “It is like the rise of the sun. You cannot prevent the sun from rising. You must adapt to it,” he said as one analogy. Cycles, indeed, are the operating system behind absolutely everything. Civilization does not change; war and periods of economic decline are inevitable. We can merely observe and learn from the trends to adapt accordingly.
Posted originally on the CTH on February 12, 2024 | Sundance
Here’s the baseline context of my review on this discussion provided by Tucker Carlson, as he takes part in the “World Government Summit at What’s Next for Storytelling?”
Tucker is shocked, shocked to see with his own eyes that Russia is a modern, beautiful, safe, clean, well-run nation filled with generally happy people who are just like you and me – only they don’t pretend. That’s it, that’s the major difference.
If you were to analyze all of the varying realities around the opinions of those few people from the West who have literally put boots on the ground in Russia, the major thing that everyone would have a hard time explaining is this non-pretense. However, as soon as you say, “They don’t pretend,” anyone who has visited Russia in the last two years says, “Yes – that’s it; exactly that.” Essentially, that’s what Tucker is trying to explain also.
Yes, we in the West are being played by Western interests in creating our opinion of Russia. Yes, to just about everything Tucker Carlson is saying in this segment – only more. Tucker didn’t even go to the beautiful places like St. Petersburg; he was limited by self-choice to being stuck in Moscow. WATCH (prompted):
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Any independent journalist who writes about the constructs in/around Russia, yet has not been there in the last few years, can be completely disregarded. Yes, we are all getting played, and I have repeatedly said the same thing openly.
Why should you care?
There are a lot of really good answers to that question. However, the most substantive answer revolves around our perception of the world we live in. I cannot emphasize enough how the Western World has flipped the dynamic, and now “propaganda” is the government tool of the West.
At the end of this rainbow of propaganda, we will find this is not a place we want to live. We do not see it now because the propaganda is so all encompassing, but eventually people will see it.
Without trying to sound more important than we want to be, you can see for yourself that Tucker Carlson and his producer team are about 4 to 6 months behind me in putting the big puzzle pictures together. Carlson is starting to figure out that it’s worse than he suspected – much worse….. and keep in mind Tucker’s world view is framed through the prism of only a very small group of people with whom he text messages and gets all of his information.
Tucker doesn’t watch TV, doesn’t participate in social media much and relies upon others to guide his vision and hearing. However, even with those limitations, he’s starting to figure out that our current situation in the USA is much more dire than the average person realizes.
The communists behind Obama know they can rely upon the hubris of the American psyche to overlook the boiling water around them until it’s too late. Very few people can fathom how far the USA is falling by staying in place and/or losing ground in the era of GREAT PRETENDING (Obama era), while the rest of the world doesn’t collaboratively pretend.
The USA still has the edge on most “free” societies thanks to the incredible foresight of the founding fathers who wrote the Constitution and Bill of Rights. However, the rate of our loss in freedom is accelerating exponentially now, as the DHS models conduct internal surveillance to keep us in line. Typing that seems like something odd, but trust me this is the soft and gentle version of our reality.
As the U.S. goes ever further into this world of pretending, where we continue to hold on to the quaint ideas that manipulation and governmental targeting can be reversed with a few elections…. the rest of the modern West is awake to the reality that conflict with government, actual physical confrontation, is now the only recourse for unaddressed and dismissed grievances.
The WEF Corporations and Bankers are controlling most Western governments; the rise of the farm protests throughout the EU now are really starting to become very problematic for the EU leadership. They are retreating from the original goals of the Build Back Better movement.
(CNBC) – The European Union prides itself on being a champion for the environment.
But that reputation is now being firmly tested, after it toned down its climate policies following angry farmer protests that are taking place across the continent.
The European Commission, the executive arm of the EU, now intends to scrap a plan to halve pesticide use. In addition, the institution also decided last week to omit the agricultural sector out of a strict timeline for cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 90% before 2040. (read more)
This confrontational approach is the direct and targeted approach we will need for the upcoming political war over an American, Dollar-Based, Central Bank Digital Currency. This war is looming; do not poo-poo or dismiss it. Look at the current financial structures of the USA. Everything, and I do mean e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g, is in complete alignment with this process that is seemingly guaranteed to happen.
In Europe, their tactical resistance is being done to stop the EU Build Back Better agenda. However, in the USA we will need a modified version of this approach to stop the dollar-based CBDC.
Democrats and Republicans are both in alignment and agree to trigger the CBDC as the financial crisis/debt solution. Every wish in the list of all things progressive becomes easier to manifest with the dollar-based CBDC in place.
Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping and a host of other nations are in alignment to avoid the worst aspects of the dollar-based CBDC.
Things are going to get very interesting when the legislative debate over the creation of the digital dollar begins.
Posted originally on Feb 12, 2024 By Martin Armstrong
The globalist overlords are attempting to block every option we have to remain independent from government tyranny. The World Economic Forum (WEF) has proposed a full ban on homegrown food, citing their favorite excuse – climate change.
That’s right, the WEF believes that home gardening is destroying the planet. “The impact on the environment is almost five times higher at 0.34kg per portion for individual gardens, such as vegetable patches or allotments,” they stated, alluding to a study by the University of Michigan that was funded by the very people supporting this agenda. “The carbon footprint of homegrown foods is five times greater than produce from conventional agricultural practices, such as rural farms, data show.”
Fruit is apparently 8.6 times more eco-friendly when grown by government-controlled agencies, and vegetables are 5.8 times safer for the planet when grown under the same conditions. Tomatoes and asparagus were the only produce they identified as safe to grow at home. “We find that urban farmers and gardeners can reduce their net impact by focusing on foods that are high-carbon in conventional agriculture,” one of the study’s researchers claims. Obviously, all of this is absolutely ABSURD.
The elites want complete control over our food supply. They have already implemented numerous regulations to prevent people from hunting and fishing. Now, they demand that we peasants cease gardening at home and use studies they are funding as examples.
Ironically, the US government and others were promoting at-home gardening, such as “Victory Gardens,” during the last World War when food supplies were diminished. The people will be easier to control when they are hungry and weak. The globalists feel the need to control us in every aspect of life. Any agency associated with the World Economic Forum is not to be trusted, and the governments who comply with their demands are traitors who want to watch society crumble.
Posted originally on the CTH on February 11, 2024 | Sundance
I made the notation during the Tucker Carlson interview that Russian President Vladimir Putin knows everything below in this article about Russian Sanctions and the formation around a dollar-based U.S. CBDC. Unfortunately, Tucker Carlson does not know the specifics of how it is being constructed.
I went to the EU, because deep inside all of my research on Russia, things did not make sense. I was very prepared and organized to expect everything sketchy, and what I found surprised me. Putting boots on the ground, I now have a completely clear and different view.
Let me start by saying everything we have read about the Western sanctions against Russia is false. What sanctions might exist do not have any impact, and Eastern Europe has no intention to anger Putin. When Brussels threatens to kick Hungary out of the EU/NATO, I can almost hear Viktor Orban saying, “Don’t threaten me with a good time.” Hungary doesn’t even use or rely on the €uro for domestic financial transactions; they still retain their own national currency, the Hungarian forint or HUF.
First things first with the Western financial sanctions- specifically the SWIFT exchange. It is true you cannot use VISA, Mastercard or any mainstream Western financial tools to conduct business in Russia; however, the number of workarounds for this issue are numerous. One of those tools is the use of a cryptocurrency like Bitcoin; and within that reality, you find something very ominous about the USA motive.
Crypto users are likely familiar with stories like Binance and the US regulatory control therein. Factually, outside the USA Binance is being used to purchase and trade crypto without issue, but inside the USA it is regulated. That brings me to the MEXC crypto exchange, a Mexican version, again available globally but not allowed in the USA. The same applies to Metamask, used all over Europe but not permitted in the USA. Start to ask yourself, why all these crypto exchanges are available to the rest of the world but not the USA, and you start to suspect the Russian sanctions, just like the Patriot Act, are something else entirely.
Then there’s app wallets. You might be familiar with Apple Pay as a process to handle transactions from your iPhone. Apple Pay is linked to your bank account. Well, the “wallet feature” exists on other apps also, like Telegram; however, you can find the wallet feature, but if you try to use it from a USA cell phone… “This feature is not allowed in your region.” Why are digital wallets available for the rest of the world but blocked by the U.S. government?
This brings me to several crypto conversations in the EU at various cafes with people who have a deep understanding. The commonly accepted bottom line, the Western sanctions, organized by the Biden administration and US Treasury, were not intended to put financial walls around Russia; they were designed to put control walls around the USA. Russia was the useful justification.
Here’s how it really looks from the outside looking at the USA. The same way the Patriot Act was not designed to stop terrorism but rather to create a domestic surveillance system. So too were the “Russian Sanctions” not designed to sanction Russia, but rather to create the financial control system that will lead to a USA digital currency.
Now, does the exploding debt and seeming govt ambivalence take on a new perspective? It should, because that unspoken motive explains everything. This is not accidental folks.
Again, the western sanctions against Russia are not having an impact against Russia; they are having a quiet impact in the USA that no one is permitted to talk about.
♦LOGISTICS – Despite popular opinion to the contrary, it is entirely possible to travel all over Europe without being tracked. If you pick an entry point into the EU (Schengen Area), once inside, you can travel without any national checkpoints or passport checks. It is also entirely possible to fly all over the EU without ever giving a passport number when you book the flight. The trick is to know which airline. You are a name on a passenger manifest, nothing more.
Bottom line, travel around the EU is less controlled, tracked and monitored, than travel inside the USA. Yes, let me emphasize; freedom of travel is greater in the EU than it is in the USA. This was completely unexpected.
♦GROUND REPORT – You might ask how I know the Russian sanctions are ineffective – here’s an example. After doing advanced research, I went to three separate banks as a random and innocuous customer. I put my reason in the kiosk at each bank, got my ticket number and sat down to listen to the conversations. When my ticket number came up on the digital board, I just ignored it and sat for hours listening to conversations. No one ever noticed or questioned me – not once.
At every one of the banks, the majority of the customers, at the “new account” desk, were foreign nationals asking about setting up business accounts to trade with Russia. In every bank the conversations were friendly and helpful, with the bank staff telling the customers exactly how to set up their account to accomplish the transactions. No one was saying no; instead they were explaining how to do it in very helpful detail.
Within Russia, there are now 3rd party brokers with international accounts, an entirely new industry, which creates a layer of transactional capability for the outside company to sell goods into Russia. A Samsung TV travels from South Korea to the destination in the RU with the financial transaction between manufacturer and retailer now passing through the new ‘broker’ intermediary. Essentially, that process is what was happening in the banks for small to medium sized companies.
♦ Back to the crypto and digital wallet angle. In addition to financial/transactional brokers for durable goods into Russia, there is now an entire industry of selling telephone id’s with EU phone numbers to process the transactions that are blocked by the USA sanction regime.
Meaning, a person could buy a phone and register a phone number from within the EU, and then go back to the USA and access all the blocked/restricted financial processes [Binance (non-US), Metamask, MexC, Telegram digital wallet etc]. This would permit them to do untracked financial transactions into and out of Russia from the USA without the USG knowing about them (sanction workaround).
[DISCLAIMER: in the interest of my own legal risk, I did not do this; I’m just explaining.]
I am not smarter than the U.S. intelligence community, so what does this mean?
This means the U.S. government knows exactly why the Russian economy is thriving, the Ruble is stronger against the dollar, and there is nothing -not one thing- visible or different on the ground in Russia that an ordinary Russian citizen would notice. In fact, the Russian economy is doing fine, better than before the Ukraine conflict initiated, albeit with new financial industries created by the sanctions.
If the US government knows this, then why the sanctions?
Asked and answered. The Western sanctions created a financial wall around the USA, not to keep Russia out, but to keep us in. The Western sanction regime, the financial mechanisms they created and authorized, creates the control gate that leads to a U.S. digital currency.
In essence, the Ukraine war response justified a system that creates a digital dollar.
I will have more, but for now just think about this aspect.
I have created this site to help people have fun in the kitchen. I write about enjoying life both in and out of my kitchen. Life is short! Make the most of it and enjoy!
This is a library of News Events not reported by the Main Stream Media documenting & connecting the dots on How the Obama Marxist Liberal agenda is destroying America
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