Authored by Ross Muscato via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Consumers are spending more money to purchase real Christmas trees in 2022 than they did last year.

There is an abundance of Christmas trees available, but that hasn’t reduced the purchase price.

A survey of wholesale Christmas tree growers that the Real Christmas Tree Board released at the end of September foretold the price jump.

As reported in the survey, tree growing costs are up and a “majority of growers [71 percent] cited a likely wholesale price increase of 5 percent to 15 percent compared to last year, while 11 percent of respondents anticipated increasing their wholesale prices by a more modest amount: up to no more than 5 percent over last year.”

A segment, 11 percent of the respondents, “put their anticipated price increase at 6 percent to 10 percent more than last year.

“Only 5 percent expect their increase to hit 20 percent or more. Fewer than 2 percent of respondents said they don’t anticipate increasing their wholesale prices this year.”

Retailers of Christmas trees are affected by wholesale grower prices and other costs.

Husband and wife Matthew and Megan Krugger have owned Mistletoe Acres Tree Farm in East Bridgewater, Massachusetts, since 2012.

Mistletoe Acres offers pre-cut Christmas trees and also “choose-and-cut” trees. They are those growing in a field on the farm, and which either a customer, or a farm staffer, can cut down with a small hand saw.

This season Mistletoe Acres Tree Farm will sell close to 4,000 pre-cut—and in the neighborhood of 250–400 choose-and-cut Christmas trees. Choose-and-cut trees go fast at Mistletoe Acres—and none remain for 2022.

“Last year, we charged $15 per foot of height of the tree—and this year we are up to $16—even if we probably should charge more,” said Matthew Krugger.

“There are a lot of factors in a rise in price—among them a rise in the labor costs, with the minimum wage going up, and fertilizer and diesel fuel prices going through the roof.”

He said that diesel fuel, which this past summer increased in cost more than $6 a gallon, runs farm equipment and the trucks that transport trees to Mistletoe Acres—and that conflict overseas is having a cost impact in that Ukraine is a major global fertilizer producer.

Matthew Krugger said that a smart strategy in buying from Mistletoe Acres Tree Farm is to shop early.

“‘For that first week after Thanksgiving, our stock is almost exclusively of the highest quality, which the USDA grades as Premium—and which we sell this year for $16 a foot,” said Krugger.

“As we get closer to Christmas, a higher percentage of our stock is at a lesser quality grade … and the price for these trees is $16 a foot.”

Following Thanksgiving the farm is packed with people looking for the best tree, one that will stay freshest and most fragrant the longest, which he says helps families extend enjoyment of Christmastime and the holidays.

“During the weekend after Thanksgiving, we do have some people wondering if we have a $60 or $70 tree, and we don’t.”

Read more here…

The ongoing rage from the snowflakes fired as part of Elon Musk’s new, unwoke version of Twitter continues. 

Most recently, the company has been sued (yet again) related to the layoffs it made when Musk came on board. The latest suit alleges that the company was “disproportionately targeting female employees for layoffs.”

We guess you can take the woke out of the company, but you can’t take the woke out of its former employees…

A class action that was filed Wednesday in San Francisco federal court claims that the company laid off 57% of its female workers compared to 47% of men, Reuters reported this week.

The so called “gender disparity” was more present in engineering roles, where 63% of women lost their jobs compared to 48% of men, the report says. The suit was filed by two women who were laid off last month.

They are alleging Twitter violated federal and California laws banning workplace sex discrimination.

The women’s lawyer claims that they “had targets on their backs” after Musk took over the company. Reuters noted that the lawyer, Shannon Liss-Riordan, also represents current and former employees in three other pending matters against Twitter. 

Among those other complaints were claims that employees were fired without notice, without severance and were forced to work at the office…oh, the horror!

Additionally, Reuters notes that three workers have filed complaints with the  U.S. National Labor Relations Board about working conditions. Twitter has denied wrongdoing.

President Vladimir Putin on Friday vowed that Russia and its economy will endure unscathed in the face of the West’s price cap on Russian oil exports. 

In the fresh comments, he slammed the EU, G7, and Australia sponsored $60-a-barrel cap as “stupid” while again warning it would only backfire for the West, stressing that inevitably energy prices will “skyrocket”.

Additionally, Putin previewed that Moscow’s response and final course of action will be decided upon and announced in the coming days. He reiterated a further threat that among these options being considered is that Russia might not sell oil to countries complying with the cap, causing oil to initially jump on his Friday morning (Western time) comments.

“As for our reaction, I have already said that we simply will not sell to those countries that make such decisions,” Putin told reporters at a press event in Bishkek.

Meanwhile, following the EU/G7 price cap taking effect Monday, it’s become clear that China and potentially other Asian countries are not complying with the “Price Cap Coalition”. 

“Russia’s ESPO grade, the crude from Russia’s Far East, is selling in Asia above the $60 price cap as it appears that Russia is currently handling the short Russian Far East-China route with Russian tankers and insurance, traders told Bloomberg on Friday,” OilPrice notes.

The initial spike in crude in the minutes after Putin’s comments hit global headlines was soon after erased…

“Some independent refiners in China—the so-called teapots—have already placed orders for ESPO crude with January delivery of the grade, whose price was assessed at $67.11 per barrel on Thursday by Argus Media,” the report underscores.

According to Russia’s Vedomosti newspaper, as cited in Bloomberg, the Kremlin is mulling three options in response: 

• Full ban on crude sales to those nations that supported the price cap, including non-direct sales via third parties

• Exports ban on those contracts that include price cap, regardless what country will receive Russian crude

• Setting the maximum discount on Russia’s Urals to Brent benchmark

“We will think, maybe even about the possible, if necessary… reduction in production,” Putin added in the Friday comments. He noted such a drastic step remained only a “possibility”, however, as Russia still has firm agreements with OPEC+ regarding production.

“We are thinking about this, there are no solutions yet. And concrete steps will be outlined in the decree of the president of Russia, which will be released in the next few days,” Putin added.

Authored by Lance Roberts via RealInvestmentAdvice.com,

Will a dollar decline be good for stocks? It is an interesting question, given that during 2022 there was a significant non-correlation between the dollar and the stock market. The strong dollar rally was something I suggested could be a problem for stocks, given what happened in 2020. It was a running debate with Michael Brush, who writes for MarketWatch.

We enter 2021 with the $USD extremely oversold and the most negatively deviated from the 200-week moving average since 2018. Given the dollars contribution to the 2020 rally, we continue to watch for signs of life. pic.twitter.com/XiyHzyng9M

— Lance Roberts (@LanceRoberts) January 4, 2021

He argued the dollar would remain weak, leading to a continued stock market rally. Contrarily, our argument also underpinned our thesis to buy energy stocks in November of that year as the most hated assets became leaders.

That last comment is the most important. In 2021, the dollar decline provided a tailwind to stocks. Such makes sense, given that 40% of corporate revenues are from international sales.

As I stated to Michael, the risk to portfolios is a reversal in the dollar decline that would impair portfolio performance. That dollar decline ended in mid-2021, and the dollar rally began.

The problem with a strong dollar is that it makes foreign purchases of U.S. products more expensive. In an already weak economic environment and surging inflation, the strong dollar acts as a “tax” on foreign consumption.

In recent years, allegations of countries “manipulating their currencies” were a topic of hot debate. However, the reality is that all countries, including the U.S., manipulate their currency to maintain a relative balance between currencies. As such, there is ultimately a point where an attack on the strong dollar will occur either through a drop in demand or Central Bank interventions. The dollar rally in 2022 has likely reached the point where interventions or a deep economic recession will reverse that trend.

However, will a dollar decline in 2023 lead to a strong rally in the stock market?

Dollar Bear = Stock Bull?

Given the strong non-correlation in 2022, it would seem logical that a dollar decline would lead to a more robust stock market in 2023. However, since 1993, analyzing the 3-month percentage change between the dollar and equities, there is little evidence of any correlation.

2022 was an excellent example of when correlations fail. A strong dollar should damage energy company profits, given that oil is trading in dollars globally. An unfavorable exchange rate should make global oil demand fall, impacting energy stocks due to weaker earnings. However, 2022 was a banner year for the energy complex with record profits and soaring stock prices.

As we head into 2023, we expect a rather sharp dollar decline. Such should be the consequence of Federal Reserve rate hikes and aggressive policy tightening, sparking an economic recession. As we discussed, our monetary policy conditions index, which combines the dollar with inflation, interest rates, and Fed funds, suggests an economic contraction is the most likely outcome. Historically, a dollar decline coincides with economic slowdowns and recessions, which is not surprising as demand for goods declines.

The presumption is the non-correlation will continue, and a dollar decline will guarantee stock investors positive returns in 2023. While such is possible, as noted, there is no historical correlation. If monetary conditions reverse, such has not initially led to stronger investment returns.

Note that I said “initially.”

The Fed Broke Something

Part II of this article will discuss why you want to “own bonds” in the first half of 2023 and stocks during the second half.

If I am correct, it will be because the Federal Reserve broke something economically or, more critically, something credit related. Such was a point we made in the “Policy Pivot May Not Be Bullish.”

“The bullish expectation is that when the Fed finally makes a “policy pivot,” such will end the bear market. While that expectation is not wrong, it may not occur as quickly as the bulls expect.

Historically, when the Fed cuts interest rates, such is not the end of equity ‘bear markets,’ but rather the beginning. Such is shown in the chart below of previous ‘Fed pivots.’

Notably, the majority of ‘bear markets’ occur AFTER the Fed’s ‘policy pivot.’

When an event occurs, and the Fed initially takes action, the market reprices for lower economic and earnings growth rates.”

As stated, the dollar decline will likely not be “initially” bullish for stocks. It will likely be more favorable for bonds as the market reprices for slower economic growth, recession, or some credit-related event. However, once that repricing is complete, the dollar decline will become a tailwind for corporate revenues and commodity-related sales.

Of course, there is no guarantee that 2023 will play out as we think. That is the “risk” of investing in the financial markets. Limitless variables will impact the financial markets, from Central Bank interventions to economics to geopolitical concerns. However, all we can do as investors is pay attention to what history can teach us about how markets are affected by dollar declines and rallies.

The risk of an economic reversion remains a likely probability. Once the reversion sets in, the Fed cuts rates to zero and restarts the next “Quantitative Easing” program, such will start the next bull market cycle.

We will certainly want to buy that opportunity when it comes, regardless of what the dollar is doing.

By Sohrab Darabshaw of AG Metal Miner, via OilPrice.com

China’s steady easing of covid-19 restrictions finally allowed the beleaguered economy to begin reopening. Many experts expect a renewed demand for steel, which means an increased appetite for steel-making raw materials such as iron ore. Both analysts and traders believe the lifting the restrictions was a step in the right direction. This current positivity is clear in the price of iron ore futures, which have started climbing once again.

Ore futures rose this Monday after more cities in China eased their covid restrictions. According to one report, Citi Group believes that the gradual reopening of the economy could propel iron ore prices as high as $150 a ton by June 2023.

In the past month, iron ore prices have enjoyed a significant rise and fresh advancements. According to the report, this prompted Citi to upgrade its forecast for Australia’s top export. The organization also projects that iron ore will reach $120 on a three-month horizon, from its previous price of $110. However,  if China initiates even more credit easing up measures, Citi claims ore prices could rally towards $150 a ton in the next three to six months.

India Set to Benefit From China’s Initiatives

China’s sudden motivation is also good news for neighboring India. A few days ago, the Indian government withdrew an export duty on iron ore lumps and fines of less than 58% Fe. Back in May, the government levied export charges varying from 15% for steel exports to around 50% iron ore (including concentrates), which no doubt impacted iron ore futures.  Steel prices in domestic markets have been falling ever since.

Now, reports emerging in India reference China picking up large volumes of low-grade Indian iron ore in the coming weeks. This is largely due to Chinese steelmakers seeking cheaper raw materials to cope with meager profits.

A report in The Hindu Businessline detailed that traders and analysts were looking to resume buying from India after six months of suspension. In fact, one subset of traders believed that there was still room for prices and iron ore futures to rise. They cited demand for low-grade iron ore fines and pellets, which has received support from steelmakers’ incentives to bring down costs.

Iron Ore Futures Impacted by Price Gaps

The report also detailed how Chinese steelmakers were already increasing the ratio of low-grade iron ore. Their primary goal was to cut down on production costs, thus pushing up the price of the cheaper ores. These days, the gap between high and low grades is less than $40 a ton. This is down from nearly $90 a ton in March and the lowest since April 2021.

Meanwhile, the Indian government’s decision to withdraw export duty comes when India’s steel exports were down 66% (in October), the highest for this fiscal. As iron ore futures rise, experts on all sides continue to watch the Asian markets closely.

Christine Lagarde is no longer the only (alleged) criminal in charge of a money-printing operation: on Friday, French prosecutors said they had opened a corruption investigation into top central banker Sylvie Goulard, who simultaneously stepped down from the Bank of France.

The probe covers suspicions of accepting bribes, influence peddling, illegal conflicts of interest and breach of trust, the national financial prosecutor’s office said, confirming a report from daily Liberation. Graft-fighting group Anticor triggered the probe by filing a criminal report in June, with the investigation launched in September.

In a statement, the Bank of France said Goulard — a former Member of the European Parliament and briefly defense minister under President Emmanuel Macron in 2017 — would be leaving her post as one of the institution’s deputy governors on December 5.

So what’s next for the corruption-tainted Goulard? Will she quietly ride off into the sunset of retirement? Why of course not – she will do what so many alleged criminals ends up doing: work for the government.

According to the Bank of France, Goulard Se wished to “return to the foreign ministry” where she started her civil service career.

“After five years as deputy governor of the Bank of France, Sylvie Goulard wished to join the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs, which is her initial Ministry, to pursue her recognised European and international commitment,” the Bank of France said in a statement.

A source close to Goulard told AFP that her departure had “nothing to do with the investigation”, which of course is a lie.

“Neither Sylvie Goulard nor her lawyer were informed that the investigation had been reopened,” the source said. A previous probe in 2019 was closed the following year after no crime was found, case files seen by AFP showed, just like Christine Lagarde never faced any actual punishment even though she was convicted of “financial negligence.”

Anticor questioned in its complaint the work Goulard performed for the California-based Berggruen Institute think-tank.

She has acknowledged accepting 10,000 euros ($10,530 at current rates) per month working as a “special adviser” to the Council for the Future of Europe, an offshoot of Berggruen, between 2013 and 2016.

Goulard, who was also an MEP at the time, said her work had “no relation of any kind with the business activities” of the group’s founder, German-American billionaire Nicolas Berggruen. She said her role included “reflection, moderating groups, organizing meetings”.

The Berggruen Institute denied in 2019 that Goulard had been given a fake job, highlighting that she organised meetings in Brussels, Paris and Madrid.

Goulard has also been charged in a probe into suspected fake jobs among assistants to MEPs from the Democratic Movement, a small centrist party that supports Macron.

President Emmanuel Macron had tapped Goulard, a former member of the European Parliament, to be his defense minister after his 2017 election victory. However, she resigned barely a month into the job after an investigation was opened into the way her political party, MoDem, hired parliamentary assistants in the European parliament. She joined the Bank of France in January 2018 for a six year mandate.

By Zoltan Simon, Bloomberg Markets Live reporter and commentator

Hungarian inflation accelerated toward one of the European Union’s highest levels as a deepening rift between Prime Minister Viktor Orban and the central bank raised questions about economic policy.

Consumer prices rose an annual 22.5% in November, exceeding the median estimate of 22% in a Bloomberg survey, according to the Budapest-based statistics office. That compares with a 21.1% jump in October, when Hungarian price growth was already the third-worst in the EU.

Central bank Governor Gyorgy Matolcsy warned lawmakers this week that Hungary was on the brink of an economic crisis — and possibly a prolonged period of stagflation with anemic growth and high inflation — as various price controls under Orban’s rule collide with “the basic rules of the economy.”

The November price surge didn’t take into account the effects of the removal of a fuel price cap following a nationwide gasoline shortage. The measure, in place for more than a year, buckled under a spike in demand, a drop in supply and maintenance work at Hungary’s only refinery, which cut domestic output almost in half.

The scrapping of the fuel cap may add 2 to 2.3 percentage points to headline inflation, much of it from December onward, Portfolio news website reported, citing estimates from Economic Development Minister Marton Nagy.

He also announced late Wednesday a 1.5 trillion forint ($3.8 billion) subsidized corporate loan program to avert a recession, offering forint loans at a maximum of 5% interest.

It’s the latest step that may undermine central bank policy aimed at reining in inflation with a key interest rate at 18%, by far the EU’s highest.

Despite a removal of the fuel price cap, which raised prices at the pump immediately by as much as 46%, other caps remained in place including some food staples, mortgages and student loans.

The government had forecast an inflation peak of 25% before the removal of the price cap. Matolcsy said price growth may average between 15% to 18% in 2023, which he said would be the EU’s worst.

A continuing cold blast across Europe, something we pointed out at the first of the month was forecasted to happen, has led to higher energy prices and drawn down NatGas inventories. 

We explained on Dec. 1 that a weather phenomenon known as a “Greenland blocking” event would pour cold Arctic air over Europe in the first half of the month.

Dear Europe:

Winter IS Coming

The world is about to see how well just the beginning efforts of NetZero policies handle a small cold outbreak.

And it’s only mid-December… pic.twitter.com/l1yWMBjsbm

— ClimateCharts (@ChartsClimate) December 8, 2022

Latest forecasts via Bloomberg show average temperatures across Northwest Europe are expected to continue sliding well below a 30-year trendline to around 27 degrees Fahrenheit by Dec. 18. 

The cold blast has already boosted heating demand across the energy-stricken continent. The forecast for even colder weather next week will indicate even larger future NatGas draws from storage. 

After building up inventories to nearly 96% full last month due to warmer autumn weather, the injection to withdrawal flip is about a month in and drained about 5% of storage to 90% full. Seasonally, the withdrawal period is well underway, so draws will continue for the next several months (as long as there is cold weather). 

What could drive levels down even further are vicious cold snaps. 

Europe’s winter temperatures have taken a while to arrive, but now seem to be coming in at full strength. Gas storage sites are still relatively full for the time of year, but risks still linger that a severe cold spell could quickly deplete stocks, leaving the continent exposed to any new supply curtailments. -Bloomberg 

most of poland and half of germany will be near 0-5 degrees F next week pic.twitter.com/g6oKfXIzzi

— Zambo (@ailliwre) December 7, 2022

Australia’s ANZ Bank wrote that forecaster Maxar said the weather outlook for the next few weeks would be extremely cold for the UK and Nordics. Heading into the cold season, traders saw NatGas supplies at ample levels, and some expected Europe would easily survive this winter without a crisis. However, politicians in France are already warning about potential power cuts due to issues with nuclear power generation, while the lack of grid interconnectivity with other countries could result in power crunches. 

Dutch front-month NatGas futures, Europe’s benchmark, have rebounded more than 52% to 150 euros per megawatt-hour since Nov. 11 on colder weather forecasts. 

Month-ahead German, French, and UK power are rising as it becomes more expensive to fuel the continent’s power generation stations. 

As we explained earlier this month, this cold blast will be the first proper test of the EU’s power grid. 

Authored by John Cody via Remix News,

A majority of extremist-related investigations in the last year have been against Islamists, but the latest Reichsbürger case is getting around-the-clock media coverage for a reason…

Germany saw what is perhaps its largest police raid in history, involving 3,000 officers targeting 130 properties across nearly the entire country. With 25 “Reichsbürger” suspects arrested, that amounts to 120 police officers per suspect. It was quite the show of force, and in a sign that the media knew well in advance about the coming arrests, a number of suspects, including German aristocrat Heinrich XIII and former AfD MP Birgit Malsack-Winkemann, were photographed and filmed as they were perp walked out of their homes.

It was a real coup for Germany’s left-wing government and Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, who has made it her political goal to wipe out the right.

German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser has long threatened to crack down on the right. She is now taking a victory lap after 3,000 officers arrested 25 Reichsbürger suspects. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

It is worth noting that nobody has been found guilty yet, but of course, even with the notoriously left-wing German media using the incident to whip up fear of the German right, the past may indicate the case could end up being more PR than reality.

The notorious “Nordkreuz” terror group, which was trumpeted by the media in 2017 as a far-right extremist network preparing for “Day X” — or the day when the group would carry out assassinations of left-wing opponents following the collapse of the German government — mostly fizzled out. At the time, politicians, journalists, and various anti-racist organizations jumped on the case, which involved up to 50 people, as an example of Germany’s growing far-right scene.

Ultimately, the Office of the Attorney General halted its investigations into the group, saying they had “no probable cause” to keep going. Like this most recent case involving “Reichsbürger,” the “Nordkreuz” group also contained a variety of individuals with military and police experience.

The supposed ring leader of “Nordkreuz” was only given a suspended sentence of 21 months, as the judge in the case said that nearly every weapon and piece of ammunition he owned was legal, and that although he had made some “unconstitutional” comments in a group chat with other members, there was no evidence he had any active plans to overthrow the government or carry out any terror attacks.

In the end, even if some members of the group “fantasized” about a Day X, there was no indication they had any concrete plans to partake in any direct action. Many in the left dream of a communist overthrow of the German government, or a society based on anarchist collectives, and some of them may even discuss what such a society would look like in various groups scattered across Germany’s cities, but would such discussions constitute an imminent threat to Germany’s democratic order?

The question is always when does fantasy start to cross into the realm of reality.

If the plan was real, it was crazy to begin with

The details from the current Reichsbürger case remain unclear, as the case has yet to go to trial. However, if Prince Heinrich XIII, who authorities deem the leader of the group, truly planned to imminently storm the Reichstag and seize power, then he and his cohorts are delusional, potentially insane, and acutely unaware of how power actually works. Power is not a capture-the-flag game where you can run into a government building and scream: “Look, now I’m in power!”

Even if the group was planning to storm the Reichstag, which is a claim we should take with a grain of salt until all the facts come to light, there is little possibility of such a “coup” succeeding in the modern era. If the group managed to defy all odds and take control of the Reichstag, the individuals allegedly involved in this case would have been promptly handcuffed and ushered into prison. After all, any successful coup requires a base of power. That means support from the military, a segment of the current elite, or a mass of the country’s populace — with all three being ideal, but the former two prerequisites far more important.

Of course, if the group was procuring illegal weapons and making concrete plans to conduct a coup, then the authorities are no doubt going to take action and are likely justified in conducting searches on the houses of the suspects, but the question will remain how far along were their plans, how many of the weapons were actually illegal, and how concrete these plans actually were.

According to media reports, there are about 25,000 people in Germany who identify with the Reichsbürger movement, a loosely defined movement but one that generally believes that the country’s current government is illegitimate and that the old monarchy was never properly dissolved in a legal manner. While some of them may be doctors, lawyers, former soldiers, and engineers, this does not represent a base of support for ushering in a new government. Many of them would also likely balk at a few members storming the Reichstag and seizing power through violent means.

We can take it a step further. If the Reichbürgers in this case actually managed to take power, all it would take is one negative report from German public broadcaster ARD and the whole Reich citizens government would promptly see an angry Twitter mob perform a reverse coup, this time with the full support of a very woke populace and increasingly woke security service. As the saying goes, China has state-run media, and the West has media-run states. The Reichbürger movement has no media, no backing, and therefore no power.

If Heinrich XIII truly wanted to rule, as the media claims was his plan, then he would have been better off taking out some Facebook ads first, perhaps explaining things a bit beforehand. Did most Germans even know what a Reichsbürger was before this case? Probably not.

Even the Islamists who dream of sharia in Germany, and there is no small number of them, are not looking to “seize power” through their terror attacks. They instead often cite revenge for Western actions in Muslim lands and sometimes sheer hate for what they describe as an atheistic and godless Western culture. For those Muslims serious about overthrowing democracy and ushering in sharia law, they openly say that demographics and time are on their side, and most hold no illusions about a band of Muslims storming government buildings to seize power. In other words, Islamic rule, if it were to ever happen, will come through the humdrum affair of “democracy.”

Fuel for a crackdown on the right

Regardless of the merits of the Reichsbürger case, the latest raid will be used to justify further oppression against the right, including of the Alternative for Germany (AfD). That means more surveillance and even more police raids. Even the notorious left-wing RAF terror group active in the 1970s and 1980s, which committed a number of high-profile murders, never had such a police response as the latest Reichsbürge arrests, but with the AfD rapidly growing in popularity, the public needs a spectacle.

The media also welcomed the distraction from the brutal random murder of a 14-year-old German girl by an Eritrean migrant in Illerkirchberg, which has once again raised questions about mass immigration at the national level and led to the city of Ulm to suspend intake of all refugees.

This is the same media that has also mostly ignored that of the 226 investigations launched by the Federal Public Prosecutor up until June 30 of this year; 131 were targeted at radical Islamists, 68 against foreign extremists, and only nine against right-wing extremists.

However, nothing should contradict the government’s narrative that the right is the “biggest threat,” and if an Islamist was perp walked out of their home in front of the camera for every terror investigation, the evening media would indeed have a very hard time keeping this narrative up.

It is also the same media that has also long disregarded the fact that the right-wing AfD is routinely subjected to assaults, vehicle arson, doxing, and in Germany’s celebrated liberal democracy, threats of an outright ban on the political party. In fact, it’s the most attacked party in all of Germany, according to government data.

The latest Reichsbürger case, regardless of how valid the allegations may turn out to be, is necessary for the left-wing government to shape public opinion of the AfD, which from a political standpoint, is the main target of this investigation, even though it has little do with the case. After all, there are just not enough “right-wing extremists” prepared to use violence to really justify the government’s claim of the right being the biggest threat. That is why the media was informed well in advance of these raids and was ready to record just in time for the evening news.

Coups are very hard in the modern age

On a side note, most revolutions and coups, which were always difficult to pull off, are especially difficult in the modern age and doubly so in Germany where — despite inflation and a souring economy — most people live in relative comfort and a deep fear of anything the media labels extreme right or even right-wing. Most of the coups that do work in the modern era require NGO funding, support from the CIA, Big Tech, and repetitious media messaging, such as the color revolutions seen across Eastern Europe and the Middle East over the last two decades.

Even in the “old days,” coups were rarely successful, and even in cases such as Castro and Che’s communist overthrow of Cuba, they were won against all odds. When Castro and Che’s ship arrived in Cuba with 81 armed revolutionaries, Batista’s army was already waiting for them. Only 19 men survived, including Castro and Che, who escaped into the Sierra Maestra mountain range and waged an extraordinary guerilla warfare campaign that saw them eventually overthrow the entire government.

Even for those who despise the politics of Che and Castro, what they pulled off from a military and propaganda perspective has rightly gone down in the annals of history. Most men would have thrown in the towel after 85 percent of their comrades were killed in the first minutes of the “revolution.”

The fact that Batista knew Castro was coming indicates informers were already in the group, or Western intelligence or Batista’s own agents used other means to know from top to bottom what the group’s plans were. This intelligence leak was before the era of smartphones and internet surveillance.

In contrast, German domestic intelligence is inside encrypted chats, they are inside people’s computers, and they are openly monitoring members of one political party but also a large variety of political groups. For those “planning” a coup, regardless of whether they are on the left, right, or adhere to some other political or religious ideology, the odds have never been more stacked against you.

Authored by John and Nisha Whitehead via The Rutherford Institute,

“That was when they suspended the Constitution. They said it would be temporary.”

– Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale

If there is one point on which there should be no political parsing, no legal jockeying, and no disagreement, it is this: for anyone to advocate terminating or suspending the Constitution is tantamount to a declaration of war against the founding principles of our representative government and the rule of law.

Then again, one could well make the case that the Constitution has already been terminated after years on life support, given the extent to which the safeguards enshrined in the Bill of Rights—adopted 231 years ago as a means of protecting the people against government overreach and abuse—have been steadily chipped away at, undermined, eroded, whittled down, and generally discarded with the support of Congress, the White House, and the courts.

Consider for yourself.

• We are in the grip of martial law. We have what the founders feared most: a “standing” or permanent army on American soil. This de facto standing army is made up of weaponized, militarized domestic police forces which look like, dress like, and act like the military; are armed with guns, ammunition and military-style equipment; are authorized to make arrests; and are trained in military tactics.

• We are in the government’s crosshairs. The U.S. government continues to act as judge, jury and executioner over a populace that have been pre-judged and found guilty, stripped of their rights, and left to suffer at the hands of government agents trained to respond with the utmost degree of violence. Consequently, we are at the mercy of law enforcement officers who have almost absolute discretion to decide who is a threat, what constitutes resistance, and how harshly they can deal with the citizens they were appointed to “serve and protect.” With alarming regularity, unarmed men, women, children and even pets are being gunned down by the government’s standing army of militarized police who shoot first and ask questions later.

• We are no longer safe in our homes. This present menace comes from the government’s army of bureaucratized, corporatized, militarized SWAT teams who are waging war on the last stronghold left to us as a free people: the sanctity of our homes.

• We have no real freedom of speech. We are moving fast down a slippery slope to an authoritarian society in which the only opinions, ideas and speech expressed are the ones permitted by the government and its corporate cohorts. In more and more cases, the government is declaring war on what should be protected political speech whenever it challenges the government’s power, reveals the government’s corruption, exposes the government’s lies, and encourages the citizenry to push back against the government’s many injustices. The ramifications are so far-reaching as to render almost every American who criticizes the government an extremist in word, deed, thought or by association.

• We have no real privacy. We’re being spied on by a domestic army of government snitches, spies and techno-warriors. This government of Peeping Toms is watching everything we do, reading everything we write, listening to everything we say, and monitoring everything we spend. Beware of what you say, what you read, what you write, where you go, and with whom you communicate, because it is all being recorded, stored, and catalogued, and will be used against you eventually, at a time and place of the government’s choosing.

• We are losing our right to bodily privacy and integrity. The debate over bodily integrity covers broad territory, ranging from forced vaccinations, forced cavity searches, forced colonoscopies, forced blood draws and forced breath-alcohol tests to forced DNA extractions, forced eye scans, and forced inclusion in biometric databases: these are just a few ways in which Americans continue to be reminded that we have no real privacy, no real presumption of innocence, and no real control over what happens to our bodies during an encounter with government officials. The groundwork being laid with these mandates is a prologue to what will become the police state’s conquest of a new, relatively uncharted, frontier: inner space, specifically, the inner workings (genetic, biological, biometric, mental, emotional) of the human race.

• We no longer have a right to private property. If government agents can invade your home, break down your doors, kill your dog, damage your furnishings and terrorize your family, your property is no longer private and secure—it belongs to the government. Hard-working Americans are having their bank accounts, homes, cars electronics and cash seized by police under the assumption that they have allegedly been associated with some criminal scheme.

• We have no due process. The groundwork has been laid for a new kind of government where it won’t matter if you’re innocent or guilty, whether you’re a threat to the nation, or even if you’re a citizen. What will matter is what the government—or whoever happens to be calling the shots at the time—thinks. And if the powers-that-be think you’re a threat to the nation and should be locked up, then you’ll be locked up with no access to the protections our Constitution provides.

• We are no longer presumed innocent. The burden of proof has been reversed. Now we’re presumed guilty unless we can prove our innocence beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law. Rarely, are we even given the opportunity to do so. The government has embarked on a diabolical campaign to create a nation of suspects predicated on a massive national DNA database. Having already used surveillance technology to render the entire American populace potential suspects, DNA technology in the hands of government coupled with artificial intelligence will complete our transition to a suspect society in which we are all merely waiting to be matched up with a crime.

• We have lost the right to be anonymous and move about freely.  At every turn, we’re hemmed in by laws, fines and penalties that regulate and restrict our autonomy, and surveillance cameras that monitor our movements. Likewise, digital currency provides the government and its corporate partners with a mode of commerce that can easily be monitored, tracked, tabulated, mined for data, hacked, hijacked and confiscated when convenient.

• We no longer have a government of the people, by the people and for the people. In fact, a study conducted by Princeton and Northwestern University concluded that the U.S. government does not represent the majority of American citizens. Instead, the study found that the government is ruled by the rich and powerful, or the so-called “economic elite.” Moreover, the researchers concluded that policies enacted by this governmental elite nearly always favor special interests and lobbying groups. In other words, we are being ruled by an oligarchy disguised as a democracy, and arguably on our way towards fascism—a form of government where private corporate interests rule, money calls the shots, and the people are seen as mere subjects to be controlled.

• We have no guardians of justice. The courts were established to intervene and protect the people against the government and its agents when they overstep their bounds. Yet through their deference to police power, preference for security over freedom, and evisceration of our most basic rights for the sake of order and expediency, the courts have become the guardians of the American police state in which we now live. As a result, sound judgment and justice have largely taken a back seat to legalism, statism and elitism, while preserving the rights of the people has been deprioritized and made to play second fiddle to both governmental and corporate interests.

• We have been saddled with a dictator for life. Secret, unchecked presidential powers—acquired through the use of executive orders, decrees, memorandums, proclamations, national security directives and legislative signing statements and which can be activated by any sitting president—now enable past, president and future presidents to operate above the law and beyond the reach of the Constitution.

Unfortunately, we have done this to ourselves.

We allowed ourselves to be seduced by the false siren song of politicians promising safety in exchange for relinquished freedom. We placed our trust in political saviors and failed to ask questions to hold our representatives accountable to abiding by the Constitution. We looked the other way and made excuses while the government amassed an amazing amount of power over us, and backed up that power-grab with a terrifying amount of military might and weaponry, and got the courts to sanction their actions every step of the way. We chose to let partisan politics divide us and turn us into easy targets for the government’s oppression.

Mind you, the powers-that-be want us to be censored, silenced, muzzled, gagged, zoned out, caged in and shut down. They want our speech and activities monitored for any sign of “extremist” activity. They want us to be estranged from each other and kept at a distance from those who are supposed to represent us. They want taxation without representation. They want a government without the consent of the governed.

They want the Constitution terminated.

“We” may have contributed to our downfall through our inaction and gullibility, but we are also the only hope for a free future.

After all, the Constitution begins with those three beautiful words, “We the people.” Those three words were intended as a reminder to future generations that there is no government without us—our sheer numbers, our muscle, our economy, our physical presence in this land.

As I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People and in its fictional counterpart The Erik Blair Diaries, when we forget that, when we allow the “Me” of a self-absorbed, narcissistic, politically polarizing culture to override our civic duties as citizens to collectively stand up to tyranny and make the government play by the rules of the Constitution, there can be no surprise when tyranny rises and freedom falls

Remember, there is power in numbers.

There are 332 million of us in this country. Imagine what we could accomplish if we actually worked together, presented a united front, and spoke with one voice?