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Trump claims that an anonymous donor sent the federal government a $130 million check to cover the shortfall in military troop pay during the ongoing shutdown because he loves the military. “He called us the other day.” Can this possibly be true?

The post Can This Possibly Be True? appeared first on LewRockwell.

 

 

di Francesco Simoncelli

(Versione audio dell'articolo disponibile qui: https://open.substack.com/pub/fsimoncelli/p/il-mondo-dietro-di-voi)

Come si suol dire, “a furor di popolo” quello di oggi sarà una sorta di pezzo riepilogativo di quanto successo finora nel panorama geopolitico ed economico. Andremo a vagliare il contesto reale, quello che a livello generalistico è contorno mentre invece è la vera sostanza di quanto accade sotto i nostri occhi. Capiremo soprattutto come l'incompetenza, in verità, è meno diffusa di quanto si possa credere nelle aule della politica, abilmente mascherata dalla malizia sottostante. La vendita alla popolazione osservante dell'incompetenza delle figure sotto i riflettori è un attenuante di gran lunga più digeribile rispetto alla piena consapevolezza delle loro azioni. In questo modo si scambiano anche “tenenti”, “colonnelli” e “generali” per i veri governanti. Ogni strato in piena vista compie azioni che fanno riferimento a uno strato superiore costituito da altri individui che conoscono le informazioni dello strato inferiore più le loro e così via fino a salire fino in cima a questa catena di comando dove la “cupola mafiosa” fatta di famiglie e interessi antichi, molto antichi, tirano le stringhe delle marionette. Ovviamente non hanno tutte le informazioni del mondo, impossibile per un semplice essere umano, ciò che hanno invece è l'esperienza della storia e la capacità di influenzare pesantemente l'ambiente al di sotto del loro raggio d'azione. E come in ogni cupola mafiosa che si rispetti, ci sono alleanze e tradimenti, interessi circostanziali ed esistenziali. Nessuno è amico di nessun altro, ma la coincidenza d'intenti quella sì che investe di una patina superficiale di amicizia la fugacità di una alleanza.

Se immaginate il caos, vi sbagliate. Esiste un “codice di condotta” e come in qualsiasi gioco esistono delle regole. Certo, possono essere stiracchiate fino alla quasi rottura, ma non possono essere infrante. Il sopraccitato codice è il Diritto marittimo, il quale regola e imposta le relazioni tra gli “uomini” sulla “terra”. Per quanto la Legge naturale dovrebbe essere il faro guida al di sotto del quale tutti dovrebbero sottostare, artifici semantici e capovolgimenti giuridico/religiosi hanno portato al di sopra della stessa il Diritto marittimo. In questo senso la cupola mafiosa risponde certamente a una sorta di “diritto” e regole, ma non sono le stesse cui è sottoposta la gente comune (la formula la “Legge è uguale per tutti” è la legge del più forte, coniata per la prima volta in quella che fu la Battaglia di Milo). La scena della riunione tra le varie bande criminali nel film, Il Padrino, è utile in questo senso per capire meglio quanto detto finora.

È qualcosa di nuovo? No. Vi basta osservare qualsiasi chiesa, ad esempio, e noterete che gli affreschi a sfondo religioso saranno caratterizzati anche da stemmi di casate nobiliari. La propaganda dell'epoca la potremmo definire, sostituita oggi dall'intrattenimento di massa, ciononostante la storia è una cronologia di battaglie, alleanze e tradimenti di famiglie che si sono godute il privilegio di poter “gestire” le persone (inconsapevoli) al di sotto di esse. L'Unione Europea, per fare un esempio contemporaneo, è una tecnocrazia oligarchica dove famiglie di potere (come quella della Von der Leyen) usano un impianto tecnocratico per governare. La guida occulta che sto descrivendo avviene tramite il cosiddetto “sottobosco statale”, lo Stato profondo, e questo si riverbera sugli apparati amministrativi “alla luce del sole” che subiscono pesantemente questa influenza. È una saldatura che permette a suddette famiglie di insinuare i propri sodali e, come in uno schema piramidale, così riesce a sostenersi nel tempo e proiettare maggiore potere.

L'epoca storica moderna non permette più l'imposizione del potere politico tramite quello economico, bensì tramite la tecnocrazia. “Lo dice la scienza” è l'eggregora per eccellenza che, come un grimaldello, apre le coscienze della maggior parte delle persone ed esse diventano disponibili (acconsentono) a sottostare alla direzionalità impostata dall'alto. In tutta Europa, al giorno d'oggi, la politica è stata sostituita dalla tecnica e la magistratura è un braccio armato di quest'ultima. In questo mondo fatto di famiglie/fazioni/bande mafiose e retto da tecnocrati facenti funzione, la popolazione è convinta che tutto sia fatto di tecnica e pensa altresì che le varie “macroaree” (economia, geopolitica, politica estera, ecc.) siano fatte di decisioni tecniche. Lasciare tutto nelle mani dei tecnici, affidarsi ai tecnici che applicano i principi studiati, delegare: la ricetta perfetta per l'assenza di contestazioni o indagini.

L'era moderna della geopolitica è indubbiamente iniziata con la Brexit. Ripensate al giugno del 2016: Trump stava correndo contro la Clinton per la presidenza degli USA e le piazze inglesi erano infervorate da gente come Farage che spingevano per un voto contro l'UE. Alla luce di quanto detto finora, è chiaro come il giorno che anche quest'ultimo non era affatto mosso da scopi individuali e questo a sua volta significa che il movimento di chi voleva lasciare l'UE non era affatto “populista”. Stiamo parlando di quegli oligarchi, quell'aristocrazia inglese, che gravitano intorno alla City di Londra e che hanno “tradito” la Thatcher e venduto l'Inghilterra all'Unione Europea (cfr. The Rotten Heart of Europe). C'è stata la Brexit perché Trump non era quello che doveva vincere la carica di presidente e, col senno di poi, essa s'è dimostrata una lotta su chi avrebbe dovuto controllare le istituzioni post-Seconda guerra mondiale dopo il sacco completo degli Stati Uniti.

La vittoria della Clinton avrebbe dovuto impantanare ancora di più il Paese e permettere alle fazioni globaliste all'estero di prenderne il controllo. Così sarebbe stata una faida su chi avrebbe esercitato il diritto di sedere a “capotavola” ed essere il decisore più influente: l'aristocrazia inglese, i vecchi neoconservatori inglesi, i vecchi membri dell'Impero inglese, o i globalisti continentali (olandesi/tedeschi/francesi). Tony Blair e Jacob Rees-Mogg non “giocano” nella stessa squadra; per quanto siano entrambi globalisti il primo fa riferimento all'UE, ad esempio. Così come Obama... e così come Farage fa riferimento al vecchio conglomerato dell'Impero inglese nella City di Londra. Quest'ultima gente è “l'eredità” di coloro che ci hanno dato la Dichiarazione di Balfour, tanto per far capire i legami. Detto in termini più sintetici, le fazioni e le famiglie che costellano il mondo della geopolitica, della politica e della finanza si preparavano a banchettare sul cadavere degli Stati Uniti e spolpare ciò che ne rimaneva. A quest'ora, infatti, l'UE, l'ONU, l'FMI e la BRI avrebbero dovuto essere i riferimenti cardine del “nuovo mondo”. A tal proposito, cosa pensate che sia la recente linea di swap in dollari con l'Argentina se non l'applicazione della Dottrina Monroe da parte degli Stati Uniti e lo sganciamento della nazione dai prestiti FMI/Banca mondiale?

The $20 billion swap line to Argentina is not a bailout—it's a currency swap with political motives. Washington doesn't want Argentina to look toward non-dollar (China). China provides more in loans to emerging economies than the World Bank.

— Martin A. Armstrong (@ArmstrongEcon) October 16, 2025

Quindi la Brexit era il classico “coltello nella schiena” piantato dagli inglesi nella schiena dell'UE. Si sarebbero alleati con la “nuova” America e avrebbero pienamente riconquistato la colonia fuggita. Sin da allora si è trattato di una lotta ai vertici della cupola mafiosa che governa le persone e chiunque prevalga alla fine non equivale alla “salvezza” della popolazione in generale. Nella migliore delle ipotesi si tratta di una qualità di vita lievemente migliore. La maggior parte delle persone cadrà vittima della divisione tra presunti buoni e cattivi, schierandosi con i primi. Non esistono né i primi, né i secondi; esistono solo opportunità per la gente comune di trarre vantaggio da lotte al vertice come questa, se non altro per non finire schiacciata come formiche da giganti che si prendono a randellate sulla testa. Schierarsi significa perire.

Cos'è successo nel novembre del 2016 poi? Donald Trump è stato eletto e non doveva accadere. Queste due cose hanno richiesto una revisione dei piani in corsa, dato che il tabellone di gioco non era più quello che si credeva dovesse essere. Inutile dire che l'errore è spesso il figlio dell'improvvisazione.

E qui facciamo un passo indietro introducendo nell'analisi la componente economica. Partiamo dal LIBOR.

LIBOR ED EURODOLLARI

Questo è un tema ancora oscuro per la maggior parte delle persone. Addirittura c'è chi crede erroneamente che l'eurodollaro sia il tasso di cambio tra euro e dollaro. Prima del mio ultimo libro, Il Grande Default, c'era scarsa narrativa in italiano a riguardo; dopo di esso, però, non ci sono scusanti. Il background storico di questo mercato l'ho dato in una recente serie che potete recuperare qui, quindi adesso mi limiterò ad affermare che gli eurodollari sono essenzialmente dollari offshore detenuti da banche estere. Come accaduto con l'oro, possedere una cosa passivamente non è redditizio quindi nel corso del tempo si sono studiati modi per rendere queste riserve “attive”. Il problema con i prestiti, ovviamente, era che non esisteva un tasso d'interesse di riferimento in grado di determinare l'ammontare che poteva essere richiesto all'atto di elargizione del credito. Non esistendo un tasso di riferimento che coordinasse il sistema bancario mondiale, permettendo alle singole banche in una nazione di prestare dollari a un'altra di un'altra nazione, emerse una necessità che non tardò a essere soddisfatta.

Così come venne creato il gold fix a Londra per intermediare a livello internazionale i contratti sintetici legati al metallo giallo, nel 1968 una banca greca fece sapere che avrebbe prestato le sue riserve in dollari a un tasso d'interesse tra il 4.5% e il 5%. Il precedente crea il caso e nel 1984 la storia arrivò a mostrare 18 banche della City di Londra che, alla fine della giornata, si riunivano in teleconferenza per determinare il prezzo a cui sarebbero stati concessi i prestiti in dollari tra di esse. A cascata questo avrebbe permesso di adottare un tale riferimento per mutui, titoli garantiti da ipoteca, ecc. Nel mondo di oggi, dove i computer imperversano e le comunicazioni digitali sono più veloci, sarebbe stato meno macchinoso il processo, allora, invece, ci si doveva accontentare di un “giro di telefonate”. E fu così che il LIBOR (London Interbank Offered Rate) sarebbe stato preso come modello mondiale per i dollari circolanti all'estero.

L'anno successivo, il 1985, gli Accordi del Plaza resetteranno le valute fiat dopo lo scisma dall'oro del 1971 e le collegarono alla determinazione del LIBOR. Per allora il sottobosco dei prestiti in dollari al di fuori degli Stati Uniti era andato già fuori controllo e fu esattamente ciò che portò alla crisi economica degli anni '70, la quale non fu risolta da Volcker ma dall'introduzione del LIBOR. La Francia di De Gaulle diede solo una spintarella al sistema finché venisse riformato lungo questi binari e il mio sospetto è che ci fosse un accordo sottobanco con gli inglesi per premere sull'acceleratore: nonostante l'odio tra i due Paesi, esso fu scavalcato dal desiderio di ottenere pasti gratis tramite finanziamenti in dollari offshore a riserva frazionaria e la possibilità di riconquistare la colonia sfuggita al loro controllo. Ricordiamoci che la Francia lavorò insieme all'Inghilterra per fomentare la guerra civile americana.

Il LIBOR, quindi, divenne il tasso d'interesse a cui sarebbero stati indicizzati tutti i debiti mondiali denominati in dollari, inclusi anche quelli negli Stati Uniti. Per esempio, quando una banca doveva impostare l'interesse da far pagare a un qualsiasi mutuatario, gli chiedeva il tasso del LIBOR + n (dove n era un qualsiasi numero che permetteva all'istituto di credito di guadagnare dal prestito). Lo stesso accadeva con le carte di credito. Quando si prendevano questi due fatti insieme, ovvero il LIBOR che indicizzava tutti i debiti del mondo e il mercato dei dollari offshore che era di ordini di grandezza più grande di quello interno, la Federal Reserve non era affatto l'istituto che determinava la politica monetaria americana.

Facciamo un altro passo avanti adesso. L'economia degli Stati Uniti è di gran lunga la più forte del mondo, dato che può mandare dollari fuori e far entrare beni (Dilemma di Triffin), di conseguenza può permettersi un costo del capitale più alto rispetto al resto del mondo. I mercati esteri, nonostante le loro riserve in dollari, sono molto più suscettibili a una variazione del tasso di riferimento americano (Federal fund rate). Per dirla in altro modo, l'economia americana è più dinamica e capace di assorbire un costo del capitale più elevato per la fabbricazione dello stesso prodotto che potrebbe essere fabbricato in Vietnam. Se, ad esempio, uno volesse costruire una casa in Vietnam ciò sarebbe accessibile a un tasso Fed Fund del 3%; se uno volesse fare la stessa cosa negli USA, ciò sarebbe ancora accessibile al 5,5%. Perché? Perché l'economia statunitense è migliore, più profittevole e più efficiente. Gli americani sono in grado di usare il capitale a loro disposizione in modo più efficiente rispetto ai vietnamiti. Questo è un vantaggio non indifferente quando, ad esempio, la FED, facendo ricorso al suo keynesismo, afferma di dover “rialzare” i tassi d'interesse per “raffreddare” la creazione di credito nell'economia.

Gli Austriaci hanno sempre avuto ragione a criticare la FED perché capitolava “troppo in fretta” nel suo ciclo di rialzo dei tassi e tornava a tagliarli. Con le informazioni che avete a disposizione adesso e la mia ricerca in tal direzione, cari lettori, adesso sapete il perché: non perché la FED fosse stupida o incapace, bensì a causa del LIBOR. Per 40 anni questa giostra ha continuato a girare: la FED vedeva “surriscaldarsi” l'economia americana a causa di un'enorme espansione dei mercati dell'eurodollaro, quei dollari tornavano in patria, svalutavano il biglietto verde ed essa rialzava i tassi d'interesse. Ma qui arrivavano i guai: il Vietnam, come nell'esempio precedente, non poteva gestire tassi d'interesse al 7%, solo al 3%, e i debiti iniziavano ad “andare a male”. Il LIBOR, di conseguenza, esplodeva al rialzo ben al di sopra del Fed fund rate americano, dato che c'era un fuggi-fuggi per accaparrarsi il denaro con cui servire il debito. In particolare esplodevano i tassi sul front-end della curva del LIBOR (la domanda di dollari era più impellente nel breve termine ovviamente) e, superando quelli sul back-end, essi segnalavano inversione e quindi pericolo di recessione.

Le economie meno efficienti, quindi, affrontavano lo spauracchio dell'inadempienza, cosa che accadde, ad esempio, con Long-Term Capital Management quando andò in default a causa della crisi che dapprima scoppiò in Thailandia e poi si diffuse in Russia. La leva finanziaria, infatti, è un'arma a doppio taglio; può dare soddisfazioni, ma piramidarci sopra progetti a lungo termine significa esporsi a un volo da un burrone assicurato. Il LIBOR e la riserva frazionaria nel mercato degli eurodollari alimentavano la sconsideratezza e l'azzardo morale perché si supponeva che sarebbe stato un sistema sempre a disposizione del resto del mondo. Certo, ci sarebbero stati agnelli sacrificali qua e là ogni tanto (es. crisi argentina, crisi asiatica, bolla dotcom, LTCM, ecc.), però poi si sarebbe acceduto alla stessa fonte che aveva causato la crisi per inondare la stessa di dollari e prenotarsi per il giro di giostra successivo.

Il meccanismo era sempre lo stesso: necessità di dollari, prestiti nei mercati pronti contro termine per raccattare qualsiasi finanziamento rapido possibile, esplosione al rialzo del LIBOR. Ma cosa succedeva negli Stati Uniti? Esplodevano al rialzo anche i tassi variabili dei mutui, ma non dell'ammontare equivalente al rialzo dei Fud fund (diciamo da 2% al 5%) bensì di quello del LIBOR (diciamo dal 2% al 9%). D'improvviso le carte di credito passavano da tassi al 12% a tassi al 21%, ad esempio, e così anche per i tassi per i prestiti automobilistici, i mutui immobiliari, il credito revolving, ecc. Cosa succedeva all'economia americana quindi? Iniziava a rallentare ben prima che gli investimenti improduttivi del precedente ciclo potessero essere eliminati, come recita correttamente la teoria Austriaca del ciclo economico, e la FED era costretta a tagliare i tassi ben prima che tale processo potesse concludersi efficacemente. In sintesi, era la City di Londra a controllare l'economia e il sistema bancario americani.

Mentre la stampa generalista veicolava l'idea che la FED fosse gestita da incompetenti, gli Austriaci fungevano da cassa di risonanza e amplificavano il messaggio fraudolento: “End the FED”! Obiettivo legittimo, ma perché non “End the BOE” la fonte primaria di tutti i mali economici? A causa del loro ego: il (presunto) riconoscimento a livello mainstream li ha accecati e ha gonfiato il loro orgoglio, facendoli trincerare nella teoria e abiurando la pratica di ciò accade nella realtà. La teoria è valida, e anche una guida per obiettivi di lungo termine, ma nel frattempo viviamo il presente e i fatti che lo costellano non andranno via chiudendo semplicemente gli occhi di fronte a essi.

Nel 2022, però, tutto questo è cambiato. Per capirlo, riprendiamo la storia dove l'avevamo lasciata quando Trump è stato eletto presidente nel 2017. La prima cosa che fa è nominare un nuovo presidente alla Federal Rserve: Jerome Powell. Janet Yellen stava per lasciare la carica e si rifiutava di rialzare i tassi quando ce n'era bisogno, Wall Street quindi consegna nelle mani di Trump il nome di Powell. Sì, Wall Street, perché non dimentichiamoci delle fazioni di cui abbiamo parlato all'inizio di questo saggio: una di queste negli USA è quella facente riferimento ai cosiddetti New York Boys, ovvero quel gruppo di pressione rappresentato dal sistema bancario commerciale americano la cui capillarizzazione sul territorio è ben radicata. Powell è stato per anni un membro del FOMC e uno di quelli che, sin dall'epoca Bernanke, è stato un fermo sostenitore della necessità di rialzare i tassi e fermo critico dell'obiettivo d'inflazione al 2%. Come seconda mossa, Trump sposta John Williams dalla FED di Atlanta alla FED di New York. Per chi non avesse contezza di come è strutturata la Federal Reserve, esiste la sede principale a Washington DC e poi le 12 Federal Reserve regionali. Quella di Atlanta non ha tanto potere, quella di New York invece organizza l'overnight repo desk (mercato dei prestiti rapidi, linee di swap in dollari, ecc.) e le altre strutture della branca principale.

Perché è importante Williams nella nostra storia? Perché è l'architetto del SOFR (Security Overnight Financing Rate), un tasso interbancario tra la Federal Reserve e le banche americane che comprano dollari nel mercato pronti contro termine americano. Quel che è importante assimilare è che la domanda di denaro nel breve termine viene gestita egregiamente e lo scompenso tra domanda/offerta di denaro viene gestito esclusivamente dal mercato pronti contro termine americano. Se, ad esempio, una banca deve pagare dividendi o stipendi domani, ma ha solo titoli del Tesoro americani e poca liquidità dato che avrebbe ricevuto una grossa somma due settimane dopo, essa può rivolgersi a una sua controparte e farsi prestare dollari ponendo come garanzia i titoli a sua disposizione. Il contratto pronti contro termine è il privilegio di usare dollari di altri, o liquidità di altri, per un breve lasso di tempo in cambio di un interesse pattuito tra le parti.

Quindi il SOFR è una tasso a cui vengono indicizzati i debiti interni degli Stati Uniti e nel momento in cui gli americani richiederanno un finanziamento o un mutuo verrà caricato loro come interesse SOFR + n, non più LIBOR + n. Ma ecco il punto: il SOFR non è dipendente dall'opinione di 18 banche nella City di Londra. Se in passato l'impostazione del LIBOR per i dollari offshore influenzava pesantemente i mercati americani, e quindi le condizioni economiche estere, soprattutto quelle di Europa e Inghilterra, influenzavano pesantemente i mercati americani, ora questi ultimi rispondono esclusivamente alle condizioni economiche interne tramite il SOFR. Sono le differenze più piccole a fare la vera differenza: ora i mercati del dollaro interni controllano il prezzo del dollaro a livello internazionale. Questo mi porta a concludere che gli USA hanno dichiarato la loro, vera e propria, indipendenza dall'Europa quando Powell è diventato presidente della Federal Reserve e John Williams ha avviato i lavori per implementare il SOFR al posto del LIBOR. A fronte di un periodo di test della durata di 4 anni, sarebbe diventato attivo il primo gennaio 2022.

Si capisce che Powell è un alfiere dei NY Boys, la fazione opposta a quella della cricca di Davos/inglese/olandese, quando nel 2021 l'amministrazione Biden ritarda/ostacola la sua rielezione a presidente per oltre 6 mesi e lui stesso viene accusato di insider trading. Quest'ultimo era un tentativo raffazzonato dell'UE di contrastare la stretta monetaria ombra della Federal Reserve che stava iniziando a prosciugare il mercato degli eurodollari: a giugno di quell'anno Powell aveva rialzato di 5 punti base il reverse repo facility della FED. L'obiettivo quindi era quello di liberarsi di Powell, visto che dal lato politico/fiscale l'amministrazione Biden era corrotta, e riguadagnare il controllo anche sulla politica monetaria insediando la Brainard. Infatti fu quest'ultima che fece trapelare ad Axios e Politico i trading sull'indice S&P 500 che apparentemente incriminavano la condotta di Powell e Clarida. Saltò fuori poi che addirittura tali trade passavano sotto la sua firma... a dir poco imbarazzante. La presidenza della FED fu promessa alla Brainard da Obama. L'attacco riuscì ad affondare tre dei membri più fedeli a Powell nell'FOMC (Clarida, Rosengren e Kaplan), ma non lui stesso. Alla fine, come ci si poteva aspettare, tutto si risolse in una bolla di sapone. Ciononostante l'FOMC dovette affrontare lo stesso l'attacco sferrato dalla cricca di Davos per mezzo dell'amministrazione Biden, e lo fece dichiarando Powell presidente fino a riconferma o scelta di un sostituto. Questa indecisione, riconferma o no, è durata 4 mesi, tempo in cui l'amministrazione Biden smosse mari e monti per impedire la continuazione di Powell a guida della FED... fino a quando il Senato non lo riconfermò (non sarebbe potuto passare nessun altro).

La prima cosa che fece una volta riconfermato fu rialzare i tassi a marzo 2022. Voleva farlo già a Jackson Hole l'anno precedente ma non poteva, dato che vennero votati il Build Back Better e l'Infrastructure Bill i quali avevano lo scopo di incatenare le mani della FED con $8.000 miliardi in nuova spesa da monetizzare; col favore del SOFR, entrato ufficialmente in vigore il primo gennaio 2022, il suo compito fu semplificato. Nell'esatto momento in cui Powell ha spinto sull'acceleratore nel drenaggio del mercato degli eurodollari, tutti i profeti di sventura sono stati smentiti... per loro anche solo l'arrivo all'1% avrebbe significato recessione automatica. Non avevano idea di cosa fosse stato architettato dai NY Boys per salvare i loro interessi: infatti i rialzi sono andati avanti, addirittura nel bel mezzo di una crisi bancaria quando nel 2023 sono saltate in aria 3 banche del circuito FED di San Francisco! Ulteriore conferma, questa, che la tesi finora descritta qui riguardo il LIBOR è corretta e che la FED, come pronosticato dal sottoscritto, poteva addirittura arrivare al 6% coi Fed Fund e non sarebbe stata scatenata alcuna recessione. In soli 4 mesi la FED è riuscita a drenare da M0 mondiale $2.000 miliardi!

E questo senza che il mercato dei titoli di stato americani diventasse bidless, come invece accaduto nel marzo 2020. All'epoca il SOFR era ancora in fase di test e praticamente illiquido, quindi un qualsiasi attacco nei suoi confronti sarebbe stato vittorioso. E così fu. Powell fu ricattato costretto a tornare a zero coi tassi di riferimento e inondare i mercati, interni ed esteri, di liquidità in dollari a basso costo.

CONCLUSIONE

Gli esseri umani hanno le stesse pulsioni ataviche alla fin fine: vivere al massimo col minimo sforzo quando si presenta l'opportunità. Ciò non è diverso quando si parla di fazioni e famiglie al vertice della piramide sociale. Anzi, vale ancora di più. I contribuenti sono il collaterale col quale avanzare le proprie richiesta al tavolo delle decisioni, ma potere e ricchezze nascono dalle spoglie dei pari che riescono a sottomettere. Gli inglesi, la City di Londra, s'è dimostrato l'Impero più longevo e influente nel corso della storia, usando come proxy gli Stati Uniti la cui indipendenza non è stata una realtà sino al 2022 quando è entrato in vigore il SOFR e il LIBOR, insieme all'influenza finanziaria proveniente da Londra, è stato sostituito. Infatti gli stessi USA sono stati vittime del sovvertimento dall'interno che ha caratterizzato da sempre il modus operandi degli inglesi:

1. Ottenere l'accesso alle risorse naturali come garanzia;
2. Trasformare tale garanzia in un asset 20 volte superiore attraverso la finanziarizzazione;
3. Aumentare il valore degli asset e creare una crisi economica;
4. Ottenere un salvataggio diventando troppo grandi per fallire, a livello sistemico;
5. Impoverire e indebitare quattro generazioni di cittadini per ripagare un salvataggio che è 3-5 volte superiore al valore degli asset finanziarizzati.

Un caso eclatante di come scorrono i fiumi di dollari offshore e come si perda la loro traccia (leverage) nel momento in cui passano tramite il sistema bancario ombra, è la biblioteca di Obama di recente costruzione. È così che l'eurodollaro ha funzionato per decenni ed è così che Bruxelles e City di Londra si sono sostenuti a scapito degli USA. I soldi dei contribuenti americani venivano sottoposti a leva e gonfiati tramite l'eurodollaro. I finanziamenti alle ONG erano pressoché infiniti. La “golden power” e la Guarda nazionale applicati adesso da Trump sono propedeutici alla guerra contro la cricca di Davos. È così che ad esempio Putin ha messo in riga gli oligarchi e scacciato l'influenza delle ONG. La stessa cosa ha fatto la Georgia. La stessa cosa non ha potuto farla l'Ucraina dato che la politica estera degli USA, nel 2022, era ancora appaltata a Londra e Bruxelles. L'ascendente di Washington su Tbilisi, ad esempio, era una propaggine dell'impero inglese. Ecco perché i disordini recenti nella nazione sfoggiando bandiere europee e sfilate di politici europei. Con il prosciugamento del mercato degli eurodollari e la riorganizzazione di Washington lontano dalle influenze geopolitiche estere, nonché la pulizia di quelle aree nel mondo in cui gli inglesi avevano ascendente, viene smantellata una piovra sotterranea vecchia di decenni.

White House releases names funding Antifa, protests and violence in America

We paid for our own protests with over $100 million laundered by Democrats

"We found a network of NGOs”

- George Soros, the Open Society Network
- Arabella Funding Network
- The Tides FIShing Network
-… pic.twitter.com/93FZsh9qnv

— Wall Street Apes (@WallStreetApes) October 8, 2025

Inizia a bussare al proverbiale “dominio pubblico” la selva di ONG che nel corso del tempo ha funzionato da veicolo di riciclaggio di denaro nel sottobosco finanziario e finanziamento occulto di intere nazioni (principalmente UE e UK). Smantellare questa piovra tentacolare, che aveva come nutrimento il mercato degli eurodollari controllato a Londra e come cinghia di trasmissione il settore bancario ombra americano abilitato da traditori nel Congresso che hanno approvato leggi criminali come la Dodd-Frank, sarà arduo ma il processo sta andando avanti piuttosto bene. Per chi ha letto il mio libro, Il Grande Default, tutto questo non è niente di nuovo.

Supporta Francesco Simoncelli's Freedonia lasciando una mancia in satoshi di bitcoin scannerizzando il QR seguente.

Thanks, John Frahm.

The Federalist

 

The post Importing Argentinian Beef Will Destroy American Ranchers appeared first on LewRockwell.

The air is crisp, the temperature cool, and coffee warm. Around us are Paleozoic ridges, adorned with discolored leaves disembarking their boughs as they slowly drift to terrestrial tombs.

Atop our peaceful plateau we pause and reflect. While dew glistens and dawn breaks, we review the recipe for the stew that bubbles in the cauldron below.

Pitchforks and Torches

Last month, we recounted the military and monetary misadventures that marred the first decade of this century. But what may be a more consequential event occurred as the second one approached.

Just before the financial crisis, the initial iPhone was unveiled… enabling unprecedented transmission and tracking of public messaging and private correspondence.

Like many “advances”, smartphones are a mixed blessing. They offer unrivaled flexibility on an electronic leash, and unparalleled convenience under an omnipresent eye.

Few devices save and waste as much time. None so easily enable us to interact with anyone while ignoring those sitting beside us.

No invention has connected so many globally while isolating them locally. It captures events for all time, at the expense of appreciating them as they occur.

Information has never been so accessible, nor more easy to manipulate. The smartphone transformed and catapulted social media, which was instrumental making Barack Obama president.

In most ways that matter (and many that were worse), the Obama Administration was an extension of the one it followed.

The corporate grift, foreign bombings, domestic surveillance, and illegal torture continued. The president created “kill lists” that included American citizens, and unilaterally ordered the elimination of names.

The administration of “hope and change” was also instrumental reigniting racial antagonism and ratcheting up the Culture War.

As connected corporations benefited from bailouts, “Cap and Trade” schemes, the Obamacare boondoggle, and infinitesimal interest rates that enriched the wealthy while pulverizing savers, Americans Left and Right started recognizing who was ripping them off.

As “Occupy Wall Street” grabbed torches, the “Tea Party” picked up pitchforks. Each cast aspersions at the Fed, politicians, and crony corporations. To those in power, this wouldn’t do.

Division has always been a tactic of control, which people in power maintain by convincing the pitchfork people that their enemies are those carrying torches. Better the sheep shear each other while bleating for the wolves to protect the flock.

It’s fine for the rubes to bicker about abortion, homosexuality, racial grievances, women’s rights, or transgender bathrooms. In fact, it’s preferable that they do. But it’s unacceptable for the peons to make waves about their pockets being picked.

Frayed Fabric

It’s no coincidence “social justice warriors” and “wokeness” zealots arose as bailouts, ZIRP, and legal larceny ran riot. “Black Lives Matter” and other purveyors of mayhem weren’t grassroots uprisings or organic accidents.

Suddenly, big corporations and giant financial institutions adopted the “diversity” dogma. “Equity” and “inclusion” became part of the C-Suite catechism.

“Pride” sponsorships proliferated, sex became “fluid”, and homosexual “marriage” went from an obvious absurdity to something only a bigot could oppose. “Toleration” was no longer enough. Only active “allies” were welcome in “respectable” society.

Does anyone honestly believe Bank of America, Lockheed Martin, or the CIA (this recruiting ad was classic) could care less about reducing racial injustice or protecting bizarre sexual preferences? Or was their newfound “awareness” a pacifying diversion while the rails under the gravy train stayed greased?

The questions answer themselves.

After decades of fading social tension as people increasingly got along, angry Americans were urged to distrust or despise each other. Whites were presumed to be “racist” because of their ancestry. Men were vilified as “toxic” because of their sex. Opposing political opinions weren’t merely to be defeated. They had to be vanquished.

Historian Brion McClanahan observed that our recent animosity is the 1850s phase of our ongoing upheaval. But in many ways, division is worse now than in the run-up to Lincoln’s war.

Antebellum angst roiled a common culture. At the time, almost every American descended from western Europe. More than 90% were Christian. Fewer than 10% were abolitionists, and a fifth of that number owned slaves.

Intense as arguments were, the range was relatively narrow. They mostly touched on constitutional topics. Today, the Constitution is among the few things we don’t debate… because nobody cares about it.

The social fabric seems irreparably frayed. Amid distractive squabbles over lunacy almost everyone would’ve considered absurd a decade earlier, castigation of the Fed, wars, and other rip-offs largely subsided.

That was the intent.

“Danger to Democracy”

But most Westerners knew something wasn’t right. For years, standards of living declined, and societal decay increased as liberty receded.

Urban elites openly disdained most Americans. Tradition was ridiculed, Christianity was mocked, and majority populations were portrayed as bigoted oppressors with ancestors unworthy of honor.

Meanwhile, political pilfering continued. For most of the decade, the Fed funds rate stayed stapled to the floor… siphoning wealth from productive citizens to “public servants” and connected cronies.

Beneath the surface, resentment simmered. In 2016, it boiled over. That June, impudent Britons gave eurocrats the bird. Five months later, a more emphatic middle finger rose across the pond.

“Democracy” is the opiate of the administrative state, providing the plebs the illusion of power while Establishment Elites call the shots.

It works well for people in power, but only if the peasants vote the way they’re told. If they don’t, then their decision is “a danger to democracy”.

As when the people choose incorrectly in other countries, the results must be reversed. Before Donald Trump was even inaugurated, the attempted “color revolution” was well underway.

Its most obvious manifestation was the accusation of “Russia collusion” to benefit Trump’s campaign, and that the president remained a “puppet” of Putin after taking office. An impeachment followed over a phone call to the Ukraine. Being devoid of reasonable evidence, these absurdities ultimately failed. But the effort persisted.

Hiroshima and Detroit

With legacy media increasingly discredited, Big Tech consolidated control. Thru them, censorship was enabled and enforced, allowing the State to circumvent the First Amendment.

Amazon removed dissident books, YouTube deleted videos, Google gamed search, and social media erased or squelched contrarian accounts. The sitting president was booted from Twitter.

As always, it started innocuously, with presumed bigots, loudmouths, or ne’er-do-wells whose banishment wouldn’t be perceived as a threat. With obvious coordination among companies and the government, dissidents were simultaneously eliminated from several platforms.

Meanwhile, real menaces multiplied. Unlike Beirut, Baghdad, or Dresden, Americans didn’t need foreign foes to destroy their cities. They’ve done that themselves.

Looking at Hiroshima and Detroit in 1945, then glancing at each today, something in the States went terribly wrong. The roots delve deeper than the 21st century.

In the 1970s, the asylums were emptied. Deranged vagrants and drug-addled derelicts were let loose on law-abiding citizens. Sidewalks and public parks became campgrounds for crackheads.

Some argue that “public” property is open to anyone. If so, should winos, druggies, and bums be allowed to wander into local libraries and public schools? Why should taxpayers endure major cities that are veritable cesspools?

The problem could be alleviated by privatizing everything. Owners would prohibit or police anyone trying to enter their property. This would also mitigate the immigration issue.

But since that wasn’t realistic, the situation kept getting worse.

Urban Decay

I lived in San Francisco most of the ‘90s. My last visit was to officiate my brother’s wedding seven years ago. The decline was evident.

Tenderloin bums encroached on Union Square. Tents sprouted on O’Farrell Street sidewalks. As if they were in Lima thirty years earlier, my parents were warned about leaving their hotel.

Since they were married, they’d loved San Francisco and visited often. After this experience, they pledged not to go back. And they didn’t. Who could blame them?

During the next year, urban uprisings would increase. Donald Trump remained a lightning rod. Bolsonaro was elected in Brazil. Les Gilets Jaune erupted in France, and protesters swamped Hong Kong.

One again, authorities needed a way to crack down. When the new decade dawned, they found it.

This article was originally published on Premium Insights.

The post A Brief History of the 21st Century appeared first on LewRockwell.

As often happens with the most portentous and far-reaching events, the learned and the clever will be the last to know. Something undeniably huge and seismic took place in a tiny town in the Eastern Mediterranean more than two millennia ago, and scarcely anyone took notice. “A star shone forth in the heavens,” wrote St. Ignatius, bishop and martyr, recalling the event near the end of the first century, “and its light was unutterable. Its strangeness caused amazement, and all the rest of the constellations with the sun and the moon formed themselves into a chorus about the star. But the star itself outshone them all.”

It was the great secret, he said, “crying out to be told, but wrought in God’s silence,” and so it escaped “the notice of the prince of this world.” What was this secret? Only that salvation would come through a Virgin giving birth to a Son who would die upon a Cross.

Thus it all began with the coming of a Child in the first century, then ratified in the public life by the Emperor Constantine following his conversion in the early fourth century. And now, of course, no honest historian will dare deny that it was this that Providence intended to be the decisive turning point in all human history. Nothing less than a complete eruption of eternity into time, causing the very Logos of God to assume the flesh and blood of the human being Jesus.

“The hint half guessed,” says T.S. Eliot,

the gift half understood, is Incarnation.
Here the impossible union 
Of spheres of existence is actual,
Here the past and future
Are conquered, and reconciled…

It was, hands down, the single greatest game-changer in the history of the universe. In a book written back in the late 1930s called The Descent of the Dove: A Short History of the Holy Spirit in the Church, Charles Williams, friend and fellow Inkling to C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, provides a precise outline of the event and its profound and far-reaching impact. Something truly momentous, he suggests, transpired during the time between the missionary voyages of St. Paul—who, instructed by the Holy Spirit, will leave Asia behind and thus enter the soft underbelly of Europe—and the arrival of St. Augustine who, fresh from his own conversion, enters the cities of Carthage and Hippo to become their bishop.

“When St. Paul preached in Athens,” recounts Williams,

the world was thronged with crosses, rooted outside cities, bearing all of them the bodies of slowly dying men. When Augustine preached in Carthage, the world was also thronged with crosses, but now in the very center of cities, lifted in processions and above altars, decorated and bejeweled, and bearing all of them the image of the Identity of dying Man…There was offered everywhere “the clean sacrifice.” Men were no longer to die, for Man had died…

There will be no more duels to the death fought out in the Colosseum among gladiators, gaudily staged to amuse the Roman mob; or the sight of Christians being torn to shreds by ravenous beasts. Bloodlust had long been the dark underside of pagan Rome. It broods over every account of the city, like the face of the Emperor Caracalla, who once received the leading citizens of Alexandria, summoning them to a sumptuous banquet, only to have them all summarily butchered. Only Romans would allow themselves to be so brutalized by habitual displays of torture and sadism and still argue, as did Cicero, that such spectacles inspired manly disdain for suffering.

Yes, something truly tremendous, horizon-shattering even, has taken place. And the world will never be the same again. Pope St. John Paul II, standing before the Colosseum 20 centuries following the birth of Christ, spoke of it as a place “once consecrated to triumphs, entertainments, and the impious worship of the pagan gods, but now dedicated to the sufferings of the martyrs purified from impious superstitions.”

The blood that had so freely flowed, soaked for so long into a pagan soil, has since seeded an entirely new world. This was not the result or the flowering of some juridic theory but the fruit of a myriad or more acts of love, gestures of sacrifice, all anchored to a God whose Name is Love and whose life is a Blessed Company—or Family—in the very image and likeness of whom we have all been graced to grow. Christus totam novitatem attulit, semetipsum afferns, announced the martyred bishop of Lyons, Irenaeus, back in the second century. Christ brought all things new by bringing Himself.

Here is the real heart and center of Christian Culture: that Christ, who having entered fully and irrevocably into the human condition, elevating our story to become His-story, has put all the idols to flight. A humanism without Christ, a world shorn of every trace of the sacred, was never intended as a scenario permanently written into the script of history. It is God’s Word that is to be written—and on pages that will never be effaced. He who wedded Himself to our world, pitching the very tent of Heaven into our history, has come to urge us to anneal ourselves at once, and the institutions we form, into the very fire of divine love.

That said, what can only follow but a series of marching orders given to a Church who sees herself as Christ’s Bride and Body, enjoined by no less an authority than God Himself, to carry the Good News of Christ’s Gospel to the very ends of the earth, baptizing everyone in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit—knowing that God will be with us, more present even than the Church is present to herself, until the end of time, the final trumps, the consummation of the world itself.

The only question, then, that matters is this: Is the Church to give the world a Christian shape, or must she instead shape Christianity to the world? Everything turns on the answer we give to that question.

Is she truly an extension of Christ Himself, configured to God in such a way as to lead the world back to Him? And if she is not, if her ambitions have been so circumscribed as to fit the size of the straightjacket the world has designed for her, then we are in a state of despair and nothing good can ever come of our continuing to belong to a Church that has given up on herself and on God. Then she is no longer moved by love—not for God, or herself, or for the world God has given her to help redeem. A whole world awaits us, therefore, whose conquest will depend not only on our prayers but our politics as well.

This article was originally published on Crisis Magazine.

The post Giving the World a Christian Shape appeared first on LewRockwell.

In this video production, Michel Chossudovsky and Drago Bosnic focus on an analysis of the main differences between the United States of America and the People’s Republic of China. The latter underwent a dramatic transformation over the last 40 years, shifting away from a purely socialist system toward a hybrid form typically referred to as “state capitalism”.

And yet, despite this change, China never degenerated into the practice of aggressive expansionism and/or imperialism, instead opting to develop peacefully.

Its massive infrastructure projects on a global scale serve as a testament to this and stand in stark contrast to the US/NATO’s practice of armed aggression against virtually the entire world.

The original source of this article is Global Research.

The post The West vs China – Economy – Society appeared first on LewRockwell.

International Man: Recently, the State Bank of Vietnam deactivated more than 86 million bank accounts as part of its shift toward a new national digital ID system.

Officials call it a ‘security upgrade,’ but it effectively cut off millions from their own money overnight.

In Thailand, we’ve seen a similar push to tie financial and online activity to state-issued digital IDs.

Is this part of a coordinated global push toward centralized control through digital ID systems?

Doug Casey: Without doubt.

Money is a primary manifestation of personal freedom. Money isn’t just an economic good; it’s a moral good. It represents the hours of your life you spent earning it, and all that you hope to provide for yourself and others in the future. It is, in effect, congealed or crystallized life.

Those who want to control other people—collectivists, statists, Marxists, the Woke, socialists, and the like—naturally want to limit the uses and the value of money. Enforcing the use of fiat currencies issued by central banks is the ideal way of doing that. It amounts to a giant fraud. But the average person stupidly accepts it as part of the cosmic firmament.

People have been told that in a democracy, they’re the rulers. In reality, democracy in today’s world is just mob rule dressed up in a coat and tie. It amounts to a secular religion, where the State is a god, and politicians are its priests. When it comes to financial matters, the public has become accustomed to doing what they’re told.

This is nothing new. Few remember that when Roosevelt confiscated gold in 1933, he used an Executive Order—the same vehicle that Trump uses for so many things today. You’d have thought that, almost a hundred years ago, Americans would have resisted the president’s wholesale theft. But they were already used to the Federal Reserve issuing currency, and the government collecting income tax. When ordered to turn in their gold, they acted like obedient little lambs.

The average American is even more supine and indoctrinated now than he was then. So I expect little resistance to digital currency, which will be a final nail in the coffin of economic freedom.

I’m not a religious person, but it may yet turn out that the New Testament, Revelation 13, is correct where it says: “He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.”

That verse is quite predictive.

International Man: In the UK, Prime Minister Keir Starmer recently said people won’t be able to work without a digital ID.

What does it tell you when access to employment becomes the leverage point for forcing digital ID adoption—and could we see the same tactic used in the US?

Doug Casey: Absolutely. Governments would prefer everybody to be an employee. They don’t like entrepreneurs because they have too independent a mentality. Entrepreneurs and independently employed people are in a much better position to avoid or evade taxes and regulations. Employees have taxes extracted from their paycheck before they even see it. Then, when they file their tax return and get a refund for overpayment, they stupidly see it as a gift from the government.

Furthermore, big government likes big corporations partly because government employees can easily move laterally into a big corporation to cash in on favors done. This doesn’t happen with small entrepreneurial corporations. Only big corporations can act effectively in a highly politicized environment, because only big corporations can afford the lawyers and accountants to interpret the regulations, and subtly bribe the politicians to have laws passed in their favor.

Having every individual use a digital ID helps to pigeonhole them, make them less independent, and easier to control. In a bureaucratic world where everything is computerized, if you don’t have a number, you don’t exist.

International Man: In the US, we’re also seeing early steps—things like digital driver’s licenses, biometric airport programs, and proposals tied to central bank digital currencies.

How close are we to a comprehensive digital ID system? How could that unfold?

Doug Casey: Everybody already uses their iPhone for everything— scanning their airline tickets, digitizing their credit cards, keeping their bank records, and so forth. People are quite used to being totally computerized.

I have a question. Is this simply a natural progression because technology can make things smoother, cheaper, and more accurate? Or is it a conspiracy of the elite to better control their subjects? It’s both. I’m not sure that we can avoid this trend, especially as computers become ever more powerful, cameras are everywhere, and everyone has their personal iPhone with them everywhere. Storage capacity is nearing almost infinite levels, and the developing quantum computer will accelerate the trend. It seems unstoppable now.

In a dystopian science fiction book, “This Perfect Day,” written in 1969, all citizens were required—for their own safety, of course—to flash their tattoos whenever they passed numerous identification kiosks. The government always knew where they were. The iPhone does that and acts as a listening device as well.

Technology has been both a friend and an enemy of the average person since Day One. The problem is that the “powers that be”—the State—always get the technology first. Gunpowder is the perfect example of this. The elite of the 14th century got it first and used it to control the plebs. But it wasn’t long before the technology filtered down, so the plebs could use gunpowder to take armored knights off their horses and destroy their castles.

Hopefully, all of these dystopian digital developments will have more silver linings than subtle chains. But things are likely to get worse before they get better. Much worse, as the Greater Depression becomes more evident, and the hoi polloi stupidly beg the State to kiss everything and make it “better.”

International Man: What’s your take on whether digital IDs will become required for financial access, travel, or even internet use?

Doug Casey: For the “good of society” and your own good, you’ll have to identify yourself. To fight crime, drugs, climate change, racism, or whatever the flavor of the day might be. But the question is, with controls becoming more onerous, how do you insulate yourself?

Probably the most important thing you can do is to grow your personal wealth. In all areas of life, strive for the equivalent of flying private as opposed to flying commercial—who wants to be herded like a bovine and inspected by the TSA?

Money can’t completely insulate you from government, but there are bright spots emerging, such as the BRIC countries, who are dumping the dollar because they can see that it’s something the US Government uses to control them. Other countries are following suit, since the dollar and the international commercial banking system are the easiest and simplest ways for the elite to control us plebs. The ongoing death of the dollar can be a good thing.

Things happening in places like El Salvador—where Bitcoin is a national currency—give me hope. I expect that other countries will arise in the future to act as replacements for what Switzerland used to be: a haven for financial freedom. Switzerland has mostly lost its old status. But with any luck, others will emerge, especially as World War III develops.

I expect that many of the current nation-states will break up into smaller ones, and many currently oppressive governments will disappear and, at least for a while, be replaced by smaller ones. When it comes to transferring money, I hate using the SWIFT system, the dollar, or the conventional banking system at all. Perhaps the hawala system that the Islamic world uses—or equivalents of it—will arise to move money privately and outside the conventional system. Gold or Bitcoin—not the dollar—will be the numeraire.

With any luck, unregulated private banks will appear that aren’t members of the Federal Reserve System and don’t rely on conventional credit or dollars. In the 19th century, when rich people traveled, if you had an account with a substantial bank, correspondents in major cities around the world would offer you a letter of credit. It was strictly between you and the bank, with no intermediary and no interference from the government.

There was no necessity for Visa or MasterCard, both of which used to be your friends but, like most things in the commercial banking system, are now just arms of the State. Hopefully, the market will come up with informal solutions, especially since most of today’s commercial banks, as well as governments, are actually bankrupt. As they fall apart, there will be a void in the market, and new things can grow up.

International Man: What can the average person do about this growing trend?

Doug Casey: One important thing is to become crypto- and Bitcoin-competent, so that you don’t have to use the corrupt and controlled conventional system and the dollar.

Also, own lots of gold and silver coins for cash—not paper gold or paper silver, but the actual coins in your possession. You should also own them abroad, such as with SWP in the Cayman Islands, the Perth Mint, or other similar outfits.

But most important of all is to make sure that you have as many skills and abilities as possible, so you can prosper no matter what happens in the world. Intellectual and moral wealth trumps physical wealth.

Reprinted with permission from International Man.

The post Global Push for a Digital ID—and Its Threat to Freedom appeared first on LewRockwell.

While the Trump administration has a duty to arrest immigrants who arrived in the country by illegal means, it is failing to enforce the law in a respectable and civilized way.

The United States is increasingly playing out scenes reminiscent of a brutal fascist regime as officers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) show an absolute disregard for human rights as they hunt down illegal immigrants.

In the small California town of Campo, which sits less than a mile from the U.S.-Mexico border, witnesses described the terror they experienced as they watched masked men round up agricultural workers employed on farms – young and old alike – and force them into unmarked cars.

In most cases, the officials wear plain clothes and refuse to identify themselves, thus making it impossible to distinguish between immigration agents and imposters. And with no number to call to track down their loved ones, people have no choice but to report the disappearances as potential kidnappings.

One young man asked as his friend was shoved into an unmarked van, “What kind of police go around in masks without uniforms and identification badges?”

Citizens feel desperate as there is nothing that can be done to rein in the power of the ICE troops. Filing complaints with the Department of Homeland Security is a futile gesture because the office that once handled them has been dismantled. There is little hope of holding individual agents accountable for alleged abuses because there is simply no way to reliably learn their identities. This has led to a situation where people are afraid to venture onto the street to perform simple chores, like go grocery shopping or pick up their children from school.

Across the nation, people must accept the grim reality that there are virtually no limits on what federal agents can do to achieve President Donald Trump’s goal of mass deportations. The town of Campo has proven to be a testing ground for much larger raids and even more violent arrests in places like Portland, Oregon and Chicago, Illinois and elsewhere.

Last month, the Supreme Court cleared the way to permit racial profiling by a local ICE facility in Los Angeles. Earlier this month, a raid on a Chicago tenement building, in which young children were reportedly pulled from their homes at night without clothes, sparked public outrage.

Meanwhile, Trump has warned that he may invoke the centuries-old Insurrection Act that empowers presidents to deploy troops on U.S. soil.

“Don’t forget I can use the Insurrection Act,” he told Fox News. “Fifty percent of the presidents…have used that. And that’s unquestioned power.”

In the view of Trump’s opponents, ICE is worse than having members of the U.S. military patrolling urban areas. It has become an unaccountable secret police force, which is making the United States resemble a third world country.

One retired high-ranking official with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said it was a “sad day in America” as he provided his personal views on the situation. Speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation, the official described the new realities ever since Trump became president: “I’ve seen people outside of their immigration court hearings dragged off to prison where they can’t contact relatives or speak to a lawyer. Groups of masked men nabbing people off the street in broad daylight and sending them to some country – like Ecuador – where there exists torture and severe human rights abuses. This is what America has become in the year 2025.”

Meanwhile, ICE is enjoying a bonanza in financial resources. In addition to its annual operating budget of $10 billion a year, the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill included an added $7.5 billion a year for the next four years for recruiting alone. As part of its hiring efforts, the agency has reduced age, training and education standards and has offered recruits signing bonuses as high as $100,000.

“Moving forward without vetting new recruits is creating a dystopian reality on the streets of America,” the former DHS official said. “This is very frightening.”

White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson praised ICE conduct and accused their political opponents of making “dangerous, untrue smears.”

“ICE officers act heroically to enforce the law, arrest criminal illegal aliens and protect American communities with the utmost professionalism,” Jackson said in a statement. “Anyone pointing the finger at law enforcement officers instead of the criminals are simply doing the bidding of criminal illegal aliens and fueling false narratives that lead to violence.”

Meanwhile, the White House eliminated the Office of the Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman, which was charged with reporting inhumane conditions at ICE detention facilities where many of immigrants are held. The office was brought back after a lawsuit and court order, though it’s meagerly staffed.

The weakening of the office comes as Trump moves to build detention sites with names that do nothing to conceal the harsh conditions inside: “Alligator Alcatraz” in the Florida Everglades, built by the state and operated in partnership with DHS, or the “Cornhusker Clink” in Nebraska.

On April 1, ICE storm troopers showed up at a birthday party in Hays County, Texas, not far from Austin, where they apprehended 47 people, including nine children. The agency’s only disclosure about the raid was that they were searching for members believed to be part of the Venezuelan transnational gang, Tren de Aragua.

Six months later and the government refuses to provide answers as the fate of the arrested.

“We’re not told why they took them, and we’re not told where they took them,” said a neighbor of the family. “By definition that’s kidnapping.”

The Texas Department of Public Safety did not respond to a request for comment.

While the Trump administration has a duty to arrest immigrants who arrived in the country by illegal means, it is failing to enforce the law in a respectable and civilized way. Bands of unmarked vehicles grabbing people off the streets in broad daylight sets a dangerous precedent and only encourages acts of further violence against innocent people. It makes the United States look like a banana republic with no respect for the law or human rights.

The views of individual contributors do not necessarily represent those of the Strategic Culture Foundation.

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Gilbert Doctorow and I have pointed out that Putin’s effort to prevent wider war has caused wider war.  The White House’s cancellation of the meeting of Trump with Putin in Hungary is powerful evidence of Putin’s strategic blunder of pretending that the war the West has declared on Russia was merely a limited military operation in Donbas to rescue the Russian populations there from massacre by the US trained and equipped Ukrainian neo-nazi army. Trump cancelled the meeting, because Putin refused a cease fire that left the root cause of the conflict unaddressed.

The root cause of the conflict is the West’s hostility toward Russia,  The Wolfowitz Doctrine says that the principle goal of US foreign policy is to prevent the rise of any country that could serve as a constraint on American unilateralism,  In addition to Russia and China, declared as American enemies, there is on a regional basis Iran.

Thus, America’s three enemies.

The root cause of the conflict is America’s hegemonic foreign policy ideology.  This together with NATO and US missile bases on Russia’s border creates enormous Russian insecurity.  The solution is to renounce Washington’s hegemonic doctrine and consent to a mutual security agreement that gets NATO off of Russia’s border.

That is not going to happen.  There is no recognition in Western foreign policy of the threat posed to Russia.  Instead the threat is misrepresented as a Russian threat to invade Europe, which is total nonsense.

As facts play no role, no good decision can be made.  That means war, not peace.

The financial markets see the future to be war:

Clearly the US Military/Security Complex Does Not Expect Trump to Deliver Peace.

John Helmer points out that the S&P Aerospace & Defense ETF has risen by more than 50% since Trump took over in January. 

Neither does the European Military/security complex expect peace.

The STOXX Europe Defence Index for shares of the 10 leading UK, Europe weapons companies has jumped by 121% this year to date.

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The Texas secretary of state announced Monday that her office found nearly 3,000 people on voter rolls throughout the Lone Star state who may be in the country illegally.

Secretary of State (SOS) Jane Nelson’s office said the discovery wouldn’t have been possible without access to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ (CIS) SAVE (Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements) database:

After running the entire Texas voter list with more than 18 million voters through the SAVE database, the SOS has identified 2,724 potential noncitizens who are registered to vote in Texas.

Her office has passed on its findings to individual counties so they can carry out their own investigations. After that, anyone confirmed to be an enrolled voter who is here illegally “will be referred to the Office of the Attorney General.” Thirty-three voters have already been referred to the AG.

Texas has completed citizenship verifications of the entire state voter list using the SAVE database, thanks to the federal government’s recent decision to grant states free and direct access to this data set.

Learn more: https://t.co/d6CmR0j53t pic.twitter.com/UhZEJnxd5S

— Texas Secretary of State (@TXsecofstate) October 20, 2025

Using the SAVE Program

Nelson said Texas was one of the first states to partner with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and use the SAVE database. The SAVE program is a search tool that taps into information from several different government databases to verify immigration status.

A county breakdown shows that Bexar, Dallas, and Harris counties had the highest number of potentially illegal voters. Bexar is home to San Antonio, Dallas to Dallas, and Harris to Houston, all densely populated regions.

Some social media commenters have downplayed the find, saying that 2,700 out of 18 million voters has no significant effect on election outcomes. Others have noted that discoveries like this are usually indicative of a larger problem. The find is also a reminder that Democrats who keep saying that illegals can’t vote are wrong.

Texas has been the target of an electoral-conversion campaign much the same way California was in the 80s. Turning Texas blue would yield perpetual power to Democrats.

Other States Cleaning Up

Texas isn’t the only state that’s making an attempt to clean voter rolls.

In July, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced that the Peach State would carry out a multi-phase voter-roll audit to get rid of the people who are inactive or have moved. He expected nearly half a million names to be purged.

Georgia was the site of major alleged voter fraud in 2020, when the traditionally red state supposedly voted for Joe Biden. President Donald Trump has consistently maintained that he erroneously lost the state, a view many there hold. He has railed against state leadership, Raffensperger included, for not doing enough to get to the bottom of what really happened. And Georgia’s GOP leadership is still suspect in regard to true election integrity, in the eyes of some election reformers.

After he was reelected, Trump took steps to address the systemic election vulnerabilities. In March, he signed an executive order written to keep foreigners from voting in U.S. elections. The president’s vision for U.S. elections is encouraging:

We’re going to fix our elections so that our elections are going to be honorable and honest and people leave and they know their vote is counted. We are going to have free and fair elections. And ideally, we go to paper ballots, same-day voting, proof of citizenship, very big, and voter ID, very simple.

These are fundamental steps that need to be implemented. And no matter what, the states need to remain in control of elections. Our parent company, The John Birch Society, endorses these very remedies in its Restore Election Integrity action project.

Changes Critically Needed

There may be more voting-related changes coming. Last week, the Supreme Court heard arguments in a case that raises the question of whether states should draw districts with race in mind. The case has national implications. True the Vote summarizes the case this way:

Activists on the Left argue that the Voting Rights Act requires race-conscious districts to ensure minority representation. Meanwhile, those on the Right contend that such mandates violate the Constitution, warning that “separate but equal” solutions cannot deliver genuine equality.

The idea that any policies or actions should be determined by race is contrary to the law of the land. Louisiana Solicitor General Benjamin Aguiñaga made this exact argument, saying the current practice “requires striking enough members of the majority race to sufficiently diminish their voting strength, and it requires drawing in enough members of a minority race to sufficiently augment their voting strength.”

Election integrity was a hot topic during Joe Biden’s presidency. And for some who dove into the battle head first, they are still paying the price. Tina Peters, the former county clerk and recorder of Colorado’s Mesa County, has been in prison since October 2024. MyPillow founder Mike Lindell is awaiting judgment after a Minnesota judge ruled that he defamed election-technology company Smartmatic. He could lose what he has left of his fortune. And even now, Conrad Reynolds, a supporter of paper-ballot elections, is being prosecuted in Arkansas for allegedly violating the “anti-loitering” statute while carrying out exit polling.

The power to choose its leaders is one of the most fundamental elements of a free society. Americans must not become complacent because they’re happy their candidate won. The vulnerable system that likely resulted in the stolen 2020 election is largely still in place. This latest discovery in Texas is proof of that. The system must be dismantled, and a sensible, simple system with transparency and safeguards must be put in its place.

This article was originally published on The New American.

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King he may not be, but he is acting  like one on the high seas.

Donald Trump’s attack on seven small boats in the Caribbean, killing at least  27 people who were not interrogated or tried and who may or may not have been carrying drugs—when you blow up and sink a boat it is a little difficult to know exactly—has no support in law of any kind. Yesterday he compounded his malfeasance with the destruction of another boat in the Pacific similarly said to be carrying drugs to harm innocent Americans.

It isn’t that he’s pushing the envelope of legality—he’s ignoring it altogether.

In justification, with an attitude that says he doesn’t really have to, Trump has said that the boats were committing “hostile acts against the citizens and interests” of the United States because they had cargoes of drugs.  The boats were not stopped and searched so it is difficult to prove that they had drugs, even harder to prove they were intended to go to the U.S. and not Europe or elsewhere.  And to declare that the sailing of those boats in international waters were committing  harmful acts somehow equivalent to “armed conflict” and therefore justified America acting in “self-defense,” though no actual arms were ever evident—well, that is a stretching of the truth beyond anything that the Truth-Stretcher-in-Chief has ever come up with before.

It is difficult to know where any check on Trump’s actions can come from—certainly not Congress, which long since gave up being in charge of declaring war, nor the judiciary, nor worldwide bodies like the United Nations or the International Court that this administration disdains.  And when Trump uses all this to declare war on Venezuela and sends in the 10,00 troops he has assembled in the region, it looks like Americans will go bluntly and dumbly into war without significant protest.

Some peace president.

There is at least one honorable man in all this. Admiral Alvin Holsey, head of the U.S. Southern Command and the who should be in charge of such an American offensive, has stepped down.  He has made no public statement, but that very act should stand as a strong rebuke to his nominal superiors.

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The Nobel Peace Prize is officially dead. It was good news that the Norwegian Nobel committee did not award the warmongering US president, Donald Trump with the Nobel Peace Prize, but they still managed to hammer the last nail in their coffin by awarding one of the main right-wing opposition leaders in Venezuela, Maria Corina Machado, a long-time far-right “political activist” who for years has asked every US president since 1999 to lead a coup against the late Hugo Chavez and the Nicolas Maduro-led governments. 

There is an agenda behind his highly controversial Nobel Peace Prize win as Venezuela’s Telesur news agency explains why the decision was made to normalize the idea of the US government to wage a “freedom war” against Venezuela:

A firestorm of international criticism has erupted, creating a significant Nobel Peace Prize controversy following the award to Venezuelan political figure María Corina Machado. The Network of Intellectuals, Artists and Social Movements in Defense of Humanity issued a powerful statement from Caracas, condemning the decision as a “cynical escalation” within a U.S. “war operation” against Venezuela.

The declaration, signed by prominent progressive cultural and activist figures, describes the prize as a “premeditated maneuver” within a hegemonic discourse. It aims to normalize a narrative of invasion disguised as a “freedom war” in the collective imagination, the statement alleges

So how can the world ignore a newly crowned “peace” activist who wants nothing more than democracy and freedom from an “evil dictator” who is destroying her country, at least that’s what the regime in Washington, DC and the radical right-wing opposition in Venezuela are thinking. According to the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Machado has received the prize for her “tireless work promoting democratic rights” and for the “struggle for a peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy,” so they decided to become a propaganda mouthpiece for the US government in hopes of removing the Maduro government, therefore, by making this horrible choice, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has managed to become the laughing stock of the world.

The Road to War? 

Washington’s push to start a new war in Latin America is not about spreading “freedom or democracy” or whatever else they claim, it’s about oil and Wall Street controlling Venezuela’s economy. The Venezuelan people believe that they are sovereign nation and that its up to them, not Washington or anyone else to decide who will lead their nation. A report on a recent national survey in Venezuela shows that the people believe in their nation’s sovereignty:

A recent national survey by Dataviva reveals that the Venezuelan people are united in their defense of their national sovereignty. The poll, conducted between September 1 and 15, also shows a notable increase in affinity toward Venezuela’s constitutional president, Nicolás Maduro, attributed to his handling of recent US aggression.

The pollster’s study reveals that nearly nine out of ten citizens (89%) believe that Venezuela is a sovereign country that cannot be threatened by any foreign power. Only 11% disagreed with this statement

Now the Trump regime came up with a new excuse to launch a war by accusing Venezuela of smuggling illegal drugs such as “fentanyl” into the US, but didn’t they blame China and then Mexico for shipping in the deadly drug? Venezuela was never mentioned, in fact, according to the US government-based Congressional Research Service (CRS), it was supposedly “China and Mexico” who was smuggling illegal drugs into the US market:

Since approximately 2019, Mexico has reportedly replaced the People’s Republic of China (PRC, or China) as the main source of U.S.-bound illicit fentanyl. As a major production and transit country for other U.S.-destined illicit drugs, Mexico has long been a key collaborator in U.S. drug control policy. With Mexican criminal groups becoming the primary producers of illicit fentanyl, U.S. counternarcotics policy shifted to focus mainly on addressing synthetic opioid production, the trafficking and diversion of precursor chemicals, and dismantling organized criminal groups engaged in such activities. U.S. policy continues to emphasize law enforcement cooperation to target key organized crime figures in Mexico and to combat crimes such as arms trafficking and money laundering, which often facilitate the trafficking of synthetic opioids

In Trump’s comical UN speech, he said that Venezuela was importing “fentanyl”:

For this reason, we’ve recently begun using the supreme power of the United States military to destroy Venezuelan terrorists and trafficking networks led by Nicolás Maduro. To every terrorist thug smuggling poisonous drugs into the United States of America, please be warned that we will blow you out of existence. That’s what we’re doing. We have no choice. We can’t let it happen. They’re destroying, I believe we lost 300,000 people last year to drugs, 300,000, fentanyl and other drugs. Each boat that we sink carries drugs that would kill more than 25,000 Americans. We will not let that happen

Clearly, it’s about the oil. Since 2023, it is estimated that Venezuela has more than 303 billion barrels of proven oil reserves.  Executives from Big Oil conglomerates have been licking their lips for a chance to get their hands on Venezuela’s oil since the late Hugo Chavez became the president.  If the US starts this war, it’s not about fighting for freedom or stopping the flow of drugs, it’s all about who will control all of that oil.

Why the US Military Will Face Another Vietnam in Their “Backyard”

On October 8th, The New York Times reported that more than 10,000 US troops are in the colonial territory of Puerto Rico, some troops are also on naval battleships and on a submarine in the Caribbean Sea awaiting Trump’s orders:

The Gulf Arab nation Qatar is trying to act as a mediator in the conflict between the United States and Venezuela, even as President Trump continues building up military forces in the Caribbean and striking civilian boats, according to three people with knowledge of Qatar’s diplomacy.

Qatar’s efforts have been encouraged by the Venezuelan government led by President Nicolás Maduro, but they have not been embraced by the Trump administration, which appears more focused on military options than on diplomacy.

The Pentagon has deployed 10,000 U.S. troops to the region, most of them to bases in Puerto Rico, a senior U.S. military official said. Troops are also on eight surface warships and a submarine in the region

However, if the US government and the pentagon believe that they can defeat the Venezuelan military and the civilian militia, but they might have to look back at the history of the Vietnam war. The US military had engaged the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese Army who used unconventional tactics such as Guerrilla warfare that involved hit-and-run tactics, the extensive use of underground tunnels and other traps set up by the Vietnamese resistance made it a difficult task for the US military to achieve any form of victory.

Venezuela will develop a form of resistance to a US invasion because they can use the same tactics as the Viet Cong. Keep in mind that Venezuela does have a smaller military force with only 123,000 active members with another 220,000 paramilitary forces, and we must add the civilian militia that can exceed 8 million people ready to defend their homeland.

However, Venezuela’s military does not have the same capabilities that the US military has since Washington spends most of its taxpayer’s money on the Military-Industrial Complex, so its no surprise that the US is stronger, at least on paper. But that was the same argument before and during the Vietnam war and most recently, the war in Afghanistan. Vietnam and Afghanistan had less advanced military, weapons and capabilities which meant that they were at a disadvantage militarily speaking, yet they still managed to defeat the US military. Can the same thing happen to today’s US military if they decided to invade Venezuela?  The answer is yes.

The Consequences of a US Invasion of Venezuela

Not only would the Venezuelan people be willing to fight, so will the rest of Latin America.  Venezuela would be a rallying point for all Latin American revolutionaries whether in Central or South America and in the Caribbean, a new call to remove all US military assets in the region will take center stage. Latin American governments under Washington’s control will also have serious problems with their own citizens, therefore, mass protests would erupt leading to violent clashes between governments and their people. The situation in Latin America would become a powder keg of anti-US sentiments.

Russia, China, Cuba and Nicaragua would support Venezuela, and some of these governments would even send weapons and possibly military personnel as advisors. Then there’s always the possibility that if the US were to attack Venezuela, many revolutionaries, anti-imperialists and others all over Latin America would be ready to mobilize and fight the US empire.

Colombia’s president also said they will back Venezuela at all costs. On August 20th, Colombian President Gustavo Petro warned Trump that any incursion into Venezuelan territory would be a regional disaster for US invading forces,

“The president warned that an invasion of Venezuela could cause a civil war similar to the one that has destroyed Syria since 2011. The civil war also led to spillover conflict in neighboring countries like Iraq and Lebanon.”  Petro said that “The gringos are in trouble if they think invading Venezuela will solve their problem. They’re putting Venezuela in the same situation as Syria, only with the added problem that they’re dragging Colombia into the same mess.”

It has been reported that Trump has suspended aid to Colombia claiming that Petro “is an illegal drug leader,” Trump further criticized the Colombian President by saying that

“Petro, a low rated and very unpopular leader, with a fresh mouth toward America, better close up these killing fields immediately, or the United States will close them up for him, and it won’t be done nicely.”

Trump’s aggression is not new; it started with all previous US presidents since the day Hugo Chavez was elected to office in 1999 and changed the dynamics of Venezuela’s economy. Chavez and the Bolivarian revolution managed to take control of Venezuela’s oil industry and other natural resources, therefore, the US government and its Big Oil executives became hostile and wanted regime change, but they were unsuccessful with a failed coup attempt against Chavez in 2002 and Maduro in 2020, so it was just a matter of time before they would start taking about starting a new war to “take-out” the Maduro government.

The “War on Drugs” is not about drugs; it’s about the oil.  If the US government and their self-proclaimed “Peace President” decides to start another war, it will be an endless war, but this time in their so-called “backyard.”

The original source of this article is Global Research.

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Now that last weekend’s “No King” mass protests came and went with 2,700 alleged rallies held across America on Saturday, to publicly airing their strong dissident disapproval toward what protest organizers call President Donald Trump’s “authoritarian agenda.” According to CNN, nearly 7 million protesters took to the streets in both small town communities and all the largest cities with over 100,000 demonstrators in New York City alone. Apparently outside of a few isolated incidents, the massive countrywide protests remained relatively peaceful. With Halloween a few days away, with a desire to preserve unity and calm, a number of the protestors dressed in costumes or in yellow. Common were hand held signs and placards opposing Trump’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), his authoritarianism and billionaires supporting Israel. Many Americans at the protests expressed objection to Trump’s overt attempts to expand his executive “kingly” powers as clear intent to dangerously undermine America’s democratic principles. His polarization of the American populace came under attack along with loss of free speech and increasing level of censorship.

President Donald Trump’s dictatorial tendencies during his first nine months back in the White House are clearly seen by a growing number of Americans within all political parties as a serious threat to our nation. On more than one occasion, Trump keeps hinting at a third term in office as a would-be lifelong dictator, in clear violation of the 22nd Amendment. Moreover, at 79 he is already American history’s oldest elected president and now showing signs of both ill physical and mental health decline.

Essentially, Trump has also declared a state of de facto martial law emergency in America. Though the Posse Comitatus Law of 1878 expressly prohibits US military from policing duties in domestic civil affairs, by August Trump released his ambitious plan to deploy 1,700 National Guard troops across 19 states in support of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as part of his major crackdown on illegal immigration and urban crime.

The designated states where US soldiers will be conducting armed patrols on our civilian streets are Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia and Wyoming. Though Trump often cites violent chaos and crime plaguing Blue State cities like DC, Portland, Seattle, Los Angeles, New York City and Chicago as justification for his massive boots on the ground, note that a number of these 19 states are Republicans controlled in rural, low crime states like Idaho, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming. Many Americans view his militant police state agenda a transparent ploy for unprecedented US military troops stationed on domestic soil as a psyops prepping Americans for extreme chaos to come under undeclared martial law emergency amidst a most divided nation since the American Civil War. He was installed by his Luciferian masters as the battering ram to take down America with multiple World War III warfronts that includes civil war at home.

In record time Trump has shown America his true colors as a dictator. Barely a month into his second term presidency, a PRRI (Public Religion Research Institute) poll taken between February 28 and March 20 found that 52% of the 5,025 Americans polled agreed with the following statement:

[Trump is a] dangerous dictator whose power should be limited before he destroys American democracy

Since then, now over 7 months later, Trump continues criminal complicity arming and unconditionally supporting Israel’s most bloody, visible genocide ever, Trump’s failed promise to end the Ukraine war within 24-hours, and now he’s ready to start a new illegal war in Venezuela. Plus, his disastrous tariff policy collapsing our national economy, his constant flip flopping, his thuggish threats and ultimatums have humanity currently teetering on the edge of nuclear annihilation.

So, nine months into his debacle of a presidency, that 52% US majority calling him a dictator must be closer to 92% convinced he’s a reckless dictator and danger to the entire world. Deranged Trump is a fully compromised, owned and controlled Zionist puppet for Israel, having been pedo-blackmailed for raping children per Mossad’s Epstein-Maxwell operation. And now Trump’s about to pardon fellow pedophile Mossad operative Ghislaine Maxwell just 2 years in to her 20-year prison sentence. Trump is caught between a rock and a hard place, knowing he’s not going to heaven following Rothschild’s depopulation orders, ultimately killing millions if not billions of people on this planet.

Additionally, with the deceased, highest profile Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre’s tell-all book release this week, Nobody’s Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice, it’s now come out that former Israel Prime Minister Ehud Barak is the likely culprit who not only is alleged to have raped Virginia, but also it appears the former general as Israel’s most decorated soldier in history also mercilessly beat Giuffre. In Virginia’s words:

He repeatedly choked me until I lost consciousness and took pleasure in seeing me in fear for my life. Horrifically, the Prime Minister laughed when he hurt me and got more aroused when I begged him to stop. I emerged from the cabana bleeding from my mouth, vagina, and anus. For days, it hurt to breathe and to swallow.

Seven years after Epstein’s 2008 conviction as a registered child sex offender, Barak partnered with  the pedo who invested $1 million in Barak’s Carbyne, an emergency 9-1-1 tech startup (coincidentally Barak was also Israel’s Prime Minister right up to 9/11) specializing in invasive global surveillance utilizing Peter Thiel’s Palantir Technologies. Of course, this is the same Palantir that provides Israel’s precision targeting on its decapitation strikes in Gaza genocide but also in Lebanon, Iran, Qatar, Syria and Yemen. Of course, under a multibillion-dollar contract with Trump’s fascist techno-government, Palantir is also now busily engaging in thought crime data-processing analysis on every US citizen who speaks against Israel’s genocide racing toward the ultimate digital control grid gulag worldwide. It’s one very small world when it comes to genocidal psychopaths plotting human genocide once finished exterminating all the Palestinians.

Since the October 10th ceasefire, Hamas has counted 46 more dead Palestinians and 132 injured with IDF opening deadly fire on civilians, wiping out families and mostly children. Meanwhile, even though the US confirms that Hamas is honoring the ceasefire unlike the Jewish State, on Monday October 20th Trump vows he will “eradicate” Hamas if they violate this latest pause. In his own twisted, hypocritical words:

We made a deal with Hamas that they’re going to be very good, they’re going to behave. And if they’re not, we’re going to go and we’re going to eradicate them. If we have to, they’ll be eradicated.

So as predicted, evil Israel sinks even lower measuring up to its evil fork-tongued name. Yet Trump still continues rewarding evil Israel instead of punishing evil by sending more of our tax dollars and weapons so the pariah can kill more innocents in cold blood. American taxpayers are complicit in this genocidal blood sacrifice slaughter.

With Trump continually saying he will not get to heaven, probably his only true statement, leave it to his sycophantic Health & Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in an Oval Office press briefing actually uttered these words to Trump:

You didn’t believe you were gonna get to heaven… You are doing God’s WORK here.

King Narcissist Trump demands only ass-kissers surround him in his regime. What prompted RFK Jr’s cringeworthy flattery was more Trump-Big Pharma dealmaking to lower the cost of fertility drugs because the US fertility rate is so low that it’s half of what is needed just to keep the species going. The pathetic King Trump administration only appears more erratic, rudderless, reckless and desperate. As there’s never a dull moment, stay tuned for more of the King [who’s not going to heaven’s] Chronicles.

This article was originally published on JamesHFetzer.org.

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I was raised Catholic—the kind of Catholic who knew the smell of incense before the sound of morning cartoons. My father was (and still is) a farmer, my mother a care nurse tending to the elderly in their final days. We weren’t poor, but we were acquainted with struggle. So when Pope Leo recently declared that “love for the poor—whatever the form their poverty may take—is the evangelical hallmark of a Church faithful to the heart of God,” I felt something between irritation and déjà vu. It’s not that I disagree with loving the poor. It’s that many Catholics seem to have mistaken poverty for holiness itself.

It’s an old Catholic habit, this romanticizing of suffering. Somewhere between St. Francis stripping naked in the square and the endless talk of “blessed are the meek,” the Church began confusing destitution with decency, as if the less you own, the more your soul shines. It’s a comforting fantasy, especially for those sitting in marble halls. But equating poverty with purity is as false as equating wealth with wickedness. The poor can be cruel, the rich can be kind, and goodness cannot be measured by one’s bank balance or battered boots.

The truth is, the Bible never glorifies poverty; it simply refuses to lie about it. Scripture speaks of the poor often, not as paragons of virtue but as people to be helped, fed, and treated with respect. Christ dined with fishermen and tax collectors alike—not to canonize deprivation but to shatter the hierarchy that measured worth by wealth. The command was clear: feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and lift the fallen—not idolize their condition. Poverty was never meant to be a stage for holiness, but rather, a challenge for justice.

What Pope Leo calls an “evangelical hallmark” has become a badge of humility for those who rarely live it. The modern Church doesn’t love the poor as much as she loves being seen loving them. Somewhere between the sermon and the snapshot, poverty becomes a prop.

It’s a dangerous delusion because it infantilizes the very people it claims to uplift. Treating the poor as sacred objects rather than self-determining people robs them of agency. It’s pity masquerading as faith. My father used to say, “Work is the prayer God answers fastest,” and he was right. Real compassion isn’t tossing coins into the collection plate and calling it charity; it’s creating conditions where people don’t need your coins at all.

But the Church doesn’t like that kind of talk. She prefers symbols to systems. She prefers the image of a barefoot priest over the idea of an educated laborer. When the pope praises “love for the poor,” what he rarely mentions is the love for competence, for responsibility, for the dignity of work.

There’s a reason Catholic art is filled with weeping Madonnas and bleeding saints. The Church has long treated suffering as currency, as if pain itself buys salvation. This is a mistake. Misery isn’t a sacrament but a condition—often man-made, sometimes preventable, and always undeserving of worship. The Gospels tell us to feed the hungry, not to glorify hunger.

To his credit, Pope Leo speaks often about “different forms” of poverty—not just material but emotional, spiritual, and social. Yet this only dilutes the meaning further. By broadening the word to include everyone, he drains it of weight. If everyone is poor in some way, then no one is. It’s linguistic inflation. It’s compassion without clarity.

And yet, I write this not as a cynic but as a Catholic who still believes in redemption, both personal and institutional. My mother, after 10-hour shifts lifting bodies and spirits, embodied Christ far more than any sermon I’ve heard from Rome. Her faith was, and still is, simple and without show. She never confused poverty with purity because she saw both up close, sometimes in the same person.

The poor aren’t moral mascots. They’re people navigating life with whatever scraps of self-respect they can find. Some succeed. Some fail, just like the rest of us. To elevate poverty to sainthood is to patronize the very souls Christ treated as equals.

Still, I remain proud of my Faith. Catholicism gave me a vocabulary of discipline, sacrifice, and genuine awe. But awe without awareness becomes sentimentality, and that’s where the Church too often lives today. If love for the poor is to mean anything, it must involve helping them stop being poor—not through pity, not through pageantry, but through opportunity, through the structure of education and the restoration of self-reliance.

Pope Leo may believe poverty is a mirror reflecting the heart of God. I think it’s a mirror reflecting our own failures—political, human, and moral. The world doesn’t need more saints of sorrow; she needs fewer spectators to it.

That’s not heresy but honesty. And if there’s one thing Catholicism should have learned after two millennia, it’s that truth, however uncomfortable, is still the closest thing we have to grace.

This article was originally published on Crisis Magazine.

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Click here:

Steve Watson

 

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Regarding his boat bombings, Trump said: “Every boat that we knock out we save 25,000 American lives so every time you see a boat and you feel badly you say, ‘Wow, that’s rough’…It is rough, but if you lose three people and save 25,000 people.”

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Ricordo a tutti i lettori che su Amazon potete acquistare il mio nuovo libro, “Il Grande Default”: https://www.amazon.it/dp/B0DJK1J4K9 

Il manoscritto fornisce un grimaldello al lettore, una chiave di lettura semplificata, del mondo finanziario e non che sembra essere andato fuori controllo negli ultimi quattro anni in particolare. Questa una storia di cartelli, a livello sovrastatale e sovranazionale, la cui pianificazione centrale ha raggiunto un punto in cui deve essere riformata radicalmente e questa riforma radicale non può avvenire senza una dose di dolore economico che potrebbe mettere a repentaglio la loro autorità. Da qui la risposta al Grande Default attraverso il Grande Reset. Questa la storia di un coyote, che quando non riesce a sfamarsi all'esterno ricorre all'autofagocitazione. Lo stesso accaduto ai membri del G7, dove i sei membri restanti hanno iniziato a fagocitare il settimo: gli Stati Uniti.

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di Kane McGukin

(Versione audio della traduzione disponibile qui: https://open.substack.com/pub/fsimoncelli/p/bitcoin-affronta-il-suo-1913)

La battaglia tra Bitcoin Core e Bitcoin Knots è un attacco alla sua rete, una lotta non diversa da quella per l'istituzione della Federal Reserve nel 1913.

Il Novecento, come accade anche oggi, iniziò con i banchieri in guerra per le regole che governavano il denaro. Due fazioni in competizione, il Piano Aldrich e il Piano Glass-Owen, lanciarono un attacco alla moneta sana/onesta perché alcune persone cercavano più potere e le nazioni chiedevano più controllo.

L'oro, come Bitcoin, è denaro per via delle sue origini fondamentali. Eppure, l'idea sbagliata, allora come oggi, è che la sopravvivenza richieda maggiore complessità.

La storia dimostra quanto possano essere fragili le convinzioni. Un'offerta di un posto al tavolo delle trattative è sufficiente a trasformare coloro che un tempo erano ferventi difensori del denaro sano/onesto in sostenitori del credito e del debito illimitato. I primi sostenitori dell'oro come Keynes negli anni '20 e Greenspan negli anni '80 si sono dimostrati incapaci di ignorare l'attrazione emotiva della notorietà, della valuta fiat e del controllo. Ogni volta si reintroducono tattiche inflazionistiche che corrodono i principi e il valore del denaro.

Spesso progetti furbi e piani corrotti si sono rivelati troppo grandi affinché il singolo essere umano potesse emanciparsene.

Mai un momento di noia

Non c'è mai un momento di noia in Bitcoin o nel mondo della finanza.

L'ultima divisione all'interno della comunità Bitcoin potrebbe sembrare l'ennesima diatriba su tecnicismi, ma indica qualcosa di più profondo? Sebbene sembri esserci un bisogno infinito di avere qualcosa di tecnico su cui discutere, sotto i commit di GitHub e i dibattiti nelle mailing list si nasconde un fantasma del passato: la lotta ideologica che ha dato vita alla Federal Reserve.

La creazione della FED è stata inquadrata nei termini della decentralizzazione e della rappresentanza regionale.

Ciononostante le sue fondamenta si basavano su due forze: filtri e controllo (qui e qui). Dietro le quinte i veri motori del 1913 erano gli stessi di oggi: desiderio di potere, profitto e capacità di produrre moneta partendo da una base con un sottostante reale. Un Bitcoin sintetico, se vogliamo.

Fonte: The Princes of Yen di Richard Werner

Chiedete a qualsiasi massimalista di Bitcoin cosa disprezza di più e le risposte più probabili saranno: la Federal Reserve, o l'innegabile svalutazione del dollaro.

Ecco cosa rende l'attuale scontro tra Bitcoin Core & Knots così affascinante: non si tratta solo di una guerra civile tra nerd all'interno dello sviluppo di Bitcoin. Osservato attraverso la lente della storia monetaria, i parallelismi emergono con chiarezza. Un promemoria del fatto che solo poco più di 100 anni fa si tracciarono i confini e si decise da che parte schierarsi tra due visioni contrastanti per un nuovo sistema finanziario: il Piano Aldrich (centralizzazione delle grandi banche e delle aziende) e il Piano Glass-Owen (ideologia populista e individualista). Col senno di poi, entrambi promuovevano la decentralizzazione solo di facciata.

Entrambi sostenevano di voler difendere il denaro sano/onesto, entrambi i piani avrebbero portato inevitabilmente alla centralizzazione dell'oro, il “denaro sano/onesto” originale.

Espandendo la dimensione di OP_RETURN (inflazione del protocollo), non stiamo forse reintroducendo la degradazione sradicata da Satoshi?

Offrendo un client Bitcoin più centralizzato, non stiamo forse centralizzando la fiducia?

Entrambe le opzioni non stanno forse seguendo un percorso simile, ovvero quello della “Federal Reserve”?

Indipendentemente da quale sia la vostra posizione, la domanda che dovremmo porci è: anche Bitcoin nasconderà la centralizzazione nel linguaggio della decentralizzazione?

Bitcoin è un asset che si fonda sui principi

Come ricordato sopra, nel 1913 una simile situazione di stallo nel settore bancario portò all'approvazione del Federal Reserve Act alla vigilia delle vacanze di Natale. Andare avanti a tutti i costi non era la risposta giusta. La storia ci ricorda che solo perché si può, non significa che si dovrebbe.

I dibattiti accesi tendono a consolidarsi in una mentalità “noi contro loro”, in cui l'emotività prevale sui principi. Il più delle volte la soluzione definitiva non ha risolto le controversie, ma ha aperto la strada al controllo politico e centralizzato del denaro.

«Le mucche intelligenti mostrano alle altre mucche come aggirare gli ostacoli. Sapete, come se aprissero un cancello. Quindi, sapete, è sempre stato così. Si potrebbero sempre aggirare queste cose, ma non credo saremmo d'accordo che se aggirassimo la commissione sul dust relay inizieremmo a vedere un'enorme quantità di dust intasare la rete.»

~ Samson Mow

Nel mondo bancario poliziotti e ladri sono sempre esistiti. Cumuli di asset e valore monetario hanno sempre allettato l'idea di una rapina in banca. Bitcoin e il denaro digitale non fanno eccezione. La fonte di archiviazione è cambiata, ma la mentalità rimane la stessa. È un promemoria di come si integra un piano della Banca Centrale Europea all'interno di un sistema finanziario americano. Dividi et impera.

«Se guardate agli ordinal, quello è un esempio. Sono un po' come una ICO, ma con le immagini. Sapete, vendono questi PFP, o qualsiasi altra immagine di maghi e gatti, e poi scatenano guerra, ma non gli importa. Possono semplicemente stampare più roba.»

~ Samson Mow

Che si tratti di stampare denaro tramite la FED, le ICO, i DAT, o le Bitcoin Treasury Companies, la mano invisibile è la riserva frazionaria.

Inoltre ciò che Samson descrive con ordinal e compressione delle commissioni fa rima con la storia. Modificare il costo di elaborazione di una transazione a $0,01 sat/vbytes comporterà conseguenze indesiderate a un certo punto. Proprio come il “trading a basso costo” ha alimentato speculazioni sconsiderate ad alta frequenza sui titoli azionari intorno al 2008. Blockspace a basso costo e incentivi a zero commissioni rischiano di ripetere lo stesso ciclo e diluire il valore della rete Bitcoin.

Ridurre gli attriti può sembrare un'innovazione, ma la storia dimostra che di solito finisce con la centralizzazione e la fragilità sistemica.

Le commissioni basse, in sostanza, eliminano la sicurezza di un fossato finanziario.

La tentazione e il richiamo dell'avidità

Al culmine della crisi del 1914, a John Maynard Keynes fu chiesto di informare il Cancelliere dello Scacchiere sull'opportunità di mantenere la sterlina legata all'oro. Keynes sostenne con enfasi che doveva farlo:

«[...] lui (Keynes) si era schierato con fermezza a favore del mantenimento del legame: “La posizione di Londra come centro monetario dipende dalla completa fiducia nella sua incrollabile disponibilità” a soddisfare i propri obblighi in oro e sarebbe stata gravemente danneggiata se “al primo segno di emergenza tale impegno fosse stato sospeso”.

[...] Ma mentre prima della guerra aveva pensato che il modo migliore per raggiungere questo obiettivo fosse garantire che valute come la sterlina fossero completamente convertibili in oro a un valore fisso, ora era giunto a credere che non ci fosse motivo per cui collegare l'offerta di moneta e il credito all'oro dovesse necessariamente comportare prezzi stabili.»

~ Lords of Finance

Se gli esempi di John Maynard Keynes e Alan Greenspan, insieme al parallelo tra il 1913 e l'attuale divario in Bitcoin, rivelano che le pressioni inflazionistiche, sebbene spesso nascoste, sono sempre presenti. La storia della moneta è una lunga serie di individui che alla fine si sono piegati all'erosione dei sistemi di valori.

Le loro parole difendevano i mercati e la moneta sana/onesta, ma le loro azioni si basavano sul controllo centralizzato.

Lo scontro tra Bitcoin Core & Knots sembra lo stesso che guidò Keynes e Greenspan e che definì i piani di Aldrich e Glass-Owen. È la stessa tentazione che si ripresenta oggi con Bitcoin.

Fonte: The Princes of Yen di Richard Werner

Ciò che è chiaro è questo: è facile elogiare la moneta sana/onesta in teoria, ma è molto più difficile difenderla una volta che la “gente in vista” vi offre un posto al tavolo delle decisioni.

Fonte: The Princes of Yen di Richard Werner

Il fascino dell'accettazione e la ricerca del rendimento sono droghe potenti. Entrambe hanno il potere di trasformare un appassionato d'oro in un drogato di credito senza lasciare traccia.

La lezione è semplice: è difficile vivere

I principi fondamentali non sono negoziabili. Sono come i colori primari nell'arte: toglietene uno e le fondamenta strutturali di ogni innovazione futura crollano. Offuscate la tavolozza con troppi colori e il valore fondamentale viene soffocato da un eccesso di abbondanza. Troppe funzionalità e ci si ritrova con i problemi che ha Ethereum. Infinite svolte a sinistra mascherate da innovazione, quando la missione potrebbe essere raggiunta con poche e semplici svolte a destra.

L'importante ruolo dell'oro come moneta sana/onesta è stato messo da parte, non perché abbia fallito, ma perché gli esseri umani non sono riusciti a resistere. Bitcoin si trova oggi ad affrontare la stessa prova.

Se Bitcoin Core & Bitcoin Knots, ordinal, o giochi sulle commissioni erodono i principi di Bitcoin, allora il fantasma del 1913 vincerà di nuovo, solo che questa volta in forma digitale. In un mondo futuro, il credito in Bitcoin sarà di gran moda.

[*] traduzione di Francesco Simoncelli: https://www.francescosimoncelli.com/

Supporta Francesco Simoncelli's Freedonia lasciando una mancia in satoshi di bitcoin scannerizzando il QR seguente.

Thanks, Jesse Trentadue.

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