Aug 26 2025

German Chancellor Merz Says Entitlement Programs No Longer Sustainable

Posted originally on CTH on August 25, 2025 | Sundance

CTH noted several months ago, end the Marshall Plan for Europe and things will change quickly.

Germany is in a tight economic place as a result of: (1) former leftist Chancellor Olaf Scholz alignment with climate change policy, radically changing the German energy base and driving up costs; (2) the financial support for Ukraine; (3) the financial burden of mass African/ME migration, and (4) the new Trump-era EU tariffs that effectively end the Marshall Plan.

Put all four elements together and the German economic contraction is only forecast to worsen. This is the reality that current German Chanceller Fredrich Merz is facing. Thus, as a non-pretending former businessman, Merz recently told his party and the German electorate that current financial conditions no longer support the expansive entitlement state.

Pensions, benefits and even healthcare are potentially going to be impacted. Germans are not happy.

GERMANY – The German welfare state is no longer financially sustainable, Friedrich Merz said on Saturday. The chancellor argued for a fundamental reassessment of the benefits system as spending continues to soar past last year’s record of €47bn (£40bn).

In a state-level party conference meeting on Saturday, Mr Merz said: “The welfare state as we have it today can no longer be financed with what we can economically afford.”

Once the export champion of Europe, Germany’s economy has slowed dramatically since 2017, with GDP growing by only 1.6 per cent since then versus 9.5 per cent for the rest of the eurozone.

Germany’s economy shrank by 0.2 per cent last year following a 0.3 per cent dip in 2023 – the first time since the early 2000s the economy has retreated two years in a row.

Industrial production fell under the Left-leaning “traffic light” coalition of Olaf Scholz and continues to slide under the new government, with GDP declining by 0.3 per cent in the second quarter of 2025.

Meanwhile, spending on social welfare has exploded, and is set to increase further this year as Germany’s population ages and unemployment rises. Although the majority of benefit recipients are German, large numbers are non-German citizens.

[…] Germany has in place a so-called “debt brake”, which limits how much the government can borrow to fund its spending plans.

Mr Merz’s views on the welfare state are likely to provoke discontent among his Social Democratic Party (SDP) coalition partners, whom he relies on for a thin majority in the Bundestag.

[…] Lars Klingbeil, the SPD leader and vice-chancellor, hit back at Mr Merz’s announcement with calls for increased taxation on top earners. He called for a summit focused on helping industry leaders respond or adapt to US tariffs and said “no option is off the table” when it comes to plugging the 30-billion-euro gap in Germany’s budget. (more)

A note of caution. Historically speaking, when the German economy gets bad enough, Europe ends up in a war.

Jun 10 2025

FBI Spied on Catholics Under Biden

Posted originally on Jun 10, 2025 by Martin Armstrong

Traditional Catholics were deemed domestic terrorists under the Biden Administration. Newly released Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) records reveal the true extent of the surveillance measures.

In 2023, a whistleblower notified the public that the government was spying on Catholic Churches and patrons who held pro-life views. The whistleblower provided an internal document now known as the Richmond memo, officially titled “Interest of Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremists in Radical-Traditionalist Catholic Ideology Almost Certainly Presents New Mitigation Opportunities.” The internal memo that was distributed to 1,000 FBI agents across the nation deemed “radical-traditionalist Catholics” (RTCs) racially or ethnically motivated extremists.

Then-Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray attempted to retract the memo. Wray claimed that the slander was limited to one memo. As Wray said under oath: The only involvement of the two other field offices was the Richmond authors of the product included two sentences or something thereabouts referencing each of these other offices’ cases, and they sent those sentences about the other offices’ cases to them, not the whole product, and asked them, ‘hey, did we describe your case right?’ That’s all the other offices had. So it was a single field office’s product, and I stand by that. The Department of Justice’s Inspector General reviewed the letter when it was first leaked and determined that there was no religious bias or malicious intent.”

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-IA, continued to look into the matter. On June 2, 2025, he sent a seven-page letter to FBI Director Kash Patel to say that his letters to former FBI Director Wray went unanswered and new findings warranted reopening the investigation. Furthermore, Grassley found that intelligence agencies “produced at least 13 additional documents and five attachments that used anti-Catholic terminology and relied on information from the radical far-left Southern Poverty Law Center.” The extent of spying and internal dialogue regarding Catholics as extremists was far deeper than “two sentences” in one memo. The second of 13 memos was released to the entire FBI department, urging them to continue monitoring Catholics.

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The FBI tracked increases and decreases in mass attendance at traditionalist Catholic churches. They were instructed to monitor the social media accounts of Catholics as a form of “threat mitigation.” The parishioner sitting beside you in the pew could have been a Biden FBI agent in disguise. This was an agency-wide effort that the past administration attempted to hide. The FBI interviewed parishioners and clergy members to instill suspicion and fear in the community.

The First Amendment of the US Constitution grants Americans the right to exercise their religious beliefs. It is hard to believe that the Department of Justice’s Inspector General failed to find evidence of malicious intent when a specific religious group was clearly discriminated against and targeted for their faith. Wray lied under oath and Biden turned on his own faux faith to target anyone who could potentially stand in the way of his pro-abortion stance.

Jun 3 2025

Boulder Officials Hold a Press Conference to Discuss Updates on Terrorist Attack Against U.S Israelis by Mohamed Sabry Soliman

Posted originally on CTH on June 2, 2025 | Sundance

JDetails about the terrorist attack by Egyptian illegal alien Mohamed Sabry Soliman are surfacing.

[…] 45-year-old Mohamed Soliman, told investigators “he researched on YouTube how to make Molotov Cocktails, purchased the ingredients to do so and constructed them.” … Soliman allegedly told police “he wanted to kill all Zionist people and wished they were all dead,” the document said. “SOLIMAN stated he would do it (conduct an attack) again.”

“Throughout the interview, SOLIMAN stated that he hated the Zionist group … and needed to stop them from taking over ‘our land,’ which he explained to be Palestine,” the documents said. … At the scene, police recovered “at least fourteen unlit Molotov cocktails, comprised of glass wine carafe bottles or Ball jars containing clear liquid and red rags hanging out of the bottles,” documents said. They also found a “backpack weed sprayer, potentially containing a flammable substance. The clear liquid in the glass bottles and weed sprayer were determined to be 87 octane gasoline, which was determined to contain xylene.” (Source) Investigators held a press conference.

Mar 14 2025

American’s Support for Israel Wanes

Posted originally on Mar 14, 2025 by Martin Armstrong

Americans are more likely to support Israel amid the Middle East conflict, but support is waning. A Gallup poll found that 46% of Americans feel sympathy toward Israel, marking the lowest support in Gallup’s 25 years of tracking.

Around 33% of Americans reportedly sympathize with Palestine, a six percentage point rise from 2024 and the highest reading on file. Democrats are far more likely (45% v 18%) to sympathize with Palestine over Israel compared to Republicans. This shift for the Democrats occurred in 2022, as prior to that there was bipartisan support for Israel.

Around 40% of Americans say they approve of Donald Trump’s handling of the war. Yet, most Americans want to see a two-state solution where Palestine establishes clear national lines. Around 55% of American adults support this measure and want to see an independent Palestine. Republicans are split on the issue, with 41% in favor and 49% in opposition.

Israel has received $12 billion in foreign military sales from the US since January 2025. A $3 billion arms deal was approved on the first of this month, and a $4 billion military assistance package was also approved on the same date. A $8 billion arms package was sent to Israel in February, with the bulk going toward bombs and guidance kits. Israel already received $3.3 billion annually from the Foreign Military Financing grant provided by the US.

America will continue funding Israel indefinitely. Turning Gaza into the “Riviera of the Middle East” will not likely go over well and we will see a massive humanitarian and refugee crisis as millions of Palestinians will be displaced. As the economy turns down, so will America’s overall support of Israel.

Mar 13 2025

Sanders’ Rally Mocks Christianity

Posted originally on Mar 13, 2025 by Martin Armstrong

The Trump Administration added protections for Christians for a reason. Christians have been relentlessly persecuted by the far-left who have turned wokeness into a religion. The media is split after Bernie Sanders, 83, launched his “stop oligarchy tour” with an introduction from a transexual singer who deliberately mocked God, Jesus, Holy Easter, and Christians in general.

The singer in question, Laura Jane Grace, uttered such filth that I do not want to repeat it on this blog, but many of the lyrics were extremely sexual and outright profane. All hell would break loose if this message was directed at anyone other than Christians.

Legacy media outlets are cheering Sanders “as the leader of the anti-Trump resistance.” People who deemed themselves anti-Biden were considered dangerous potential domestic terrorists. Intelligence agencies actually monitored such people and they were often prohibited from speaking out against Joe Biden online. Conservative rallies were closely monitored, unless someone wanted to attempt to assassinate the GOP candidate, and were often compared to Nazi rallies. Who seems to be intolerant here?

“What all of this tells me, is not just in Michigan or in Vermont, the people of this country will not allow us to move toward oligarchy. They will not allow Trump to take us into authoritarianism,” Sanders yelled. “We’re prepared to fight. And we’re going to win.”

Democrats believe that we are under an oligarchy because their candidates have lost. The people VOTED FOR DONALD TRUMP and the policies he campaigned on. Sanders is effectively asking the public to boycott democracy and refuse to accept the leader chosen by the people.

Christians were frequently debanked under the Biden regime for holding opposing views. They were often prohibited from adopting children, and many had their children taken away for refusing to allow their children to switch genders. Pro-abortion protestors stormed churches during mass, shouting at churchgoers for holding differing beliefs. They were fired from their jobs for refusing to take the COVID experimental injection that used stem cells. Bibles were removed from schools and replaced with pro-trans literature for children. Drag queens received public funds to read these books to children, and parents were not allowed to question what was happening.

The woke movement is an anti-Christian movement. Christians cannot express their dissenting views without being perceived as intolerant. Imagine if Trump opened a rally with a singer who sexualized a leader of any other faith?

The newly established White House Faith Office should look into this rally that urged thousands to mock a religion out of pure hate. The Dems know that the woke agenda angers those who live in reality, which is exactly why Sanders’ rally began with a transexual mocking Jesus.