I want to talk to you about AAA today. No, not the American Automobile Association which has supported motorists for decades as they get a 10% discount on hotel stays across the country. I want to start with AAA meaning assassination attempt apathy. We talked about Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico being shot and I just can’t find anyone talking about this anywhere. We have a hot land war in Europe going on as we speak, and a European leader gets shots at point blank and we are sweeping it under the rug. Well Craig Murray is talking about it on his blog called consortiumnews.com. He isn’t some protester with a Palestinian flag and Cheeto stains on his shirt, this guy was the British ambassador to Uzbekistan for 2 years. Here is his open, “The collective shrug with which the Western media and political class noted the attempted assassination of Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico has been telling.
Can you imagine the outrage and emotion that would have been expressed by Western powers if not Fico but a pro-Ukraine, anti-Russian leader within the EU had been attacked? The new orders for weapons that would have been presented to the arms manufacturers, the troops that would have been deployed, the sabres that would have been rattled?
Instead we have the media telling us that Fico opposed sending arms to Ukraine and opposed threatening Russia. We are told he did not accept the mainstream narrative on Covid vaccinations. The media do not quite say he deserved to be shot, but they come very, very close.”
I don’t like our current president and don’t care much for the one before him either, but just like my absolute hatred for how Donald Trump left office on Jan.6, I am furious that this story is being swept under the rug because he didn’t believe the standard NATO line. Folks, this is why we have logic and reason, so we don’t have to resort to violence. When someone’s answer is to kill a leader then they have lost the argument, they have no moves left. It is also why cornered honey badgers are so damned dangerous. People with no options left have a very wide range of options to choose from. One is trying to kill someone else because they have no regard for their own life, and that makes for a very dangerous adversary. As a society when groups of people reach that stage, then we have conflicts, and as bifurcated as society finds itself today the conflict could be a major one.
Now this apathy towards Slovakia would be enough to chap my ass for a few days, but then I start reading about how France is sending troops to Ukraine. This is from Zero Hedge, “Ukraine’s military says it is ‘welcoming’ French trainers in Ukraine, in new remarks which strongly suggest that for the first time France is deploying its troops to Ukraine soil. This marks the beginning of major ‘boots on the ground’ escalation in a formal, public capacity by a NATO state. “Ukraine’s top commander said on Monday he had signed paperwork allowing French military instructors to visit Ukrainian training centers soon,” Reuters reported Monday, referencing head of the armed forces Col. Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi…. Syrskyi suggested that France’s commitment and being out front on the “ambitious project” to train Ukrainian forces inside the country would encourage other allies to join the initiative. This follows French President Emmanuel Macron raising the idea repeatedly over the last months of placing Western boots on the ground in Ukraine. He said nothing should be ruled out. President Putin and his top officials have meanwhile repeatedly warned that if the West sends its troops to Ukraine, this risks sparking nuclear war. Starting in February Putin warned that the Western allies were “selecting targets for striking our territory” and “talking about the possibility of sending a NATO contingent to Ukraine.” With Kiev now openly welcoming French military trainers, this serious escalation is already in process.” Are you starting to see and smell smoke?
So let me get this straight, the pissy little country that the US had to bail twice last century is now poking the country with the largest arsenal of nuclear weapons in the eye after that country has told them that if there is any NATO participation that nuclear war is on the table. Can we just pay the Germans to go into France and say, remember us? You are fighting the grandsons of the guys that kicked our asses just like we kicked yours. I feel like this would save lives and remind the French women that their men are a substandard variety. The women are not. Ohh-la -la.
Despite the French doing French things, I again might let this pass, but then I see the soon to be on the outs Rishi Sunak vowing to introduce mandatory national service for 18 year olds if he is re-elected. This from ZeroHedge “It was only in January that the head of the British army, General Sir Patrick Sanders, urged for the populace to get ready to be on a war footing with Russia:
Britain should train a “citizen army” ready to fight a war on land in the future, the head of the Army has said.
General Sir Patrick Sanders warned that an increase in reserve forces alone “would not be enough”.
He highlighted the threat from Russia and pointed to steps being taken by other European nations to put their populations on a “war footing”.
This is part of the continuing theme of Western leaders asking their populations to ‘sacrifice’ for Ukraine amid deep trepidation and uncertainty over possible bigger nuclear-armed confrontation.“
Remember when we discussed the Putin interview when it was strange that Boris Johnson ruined any effort at peace and now the UK is talking about building up an army. What was being printed in the newspapers in the 1930s? Depression, starvation, business failure, political failure, job losses, and that led people to follow, and any leader would do. Mussolini in Italy, a young Juan Peron studied there and took his talents back to Argentina and helped General Arturo Rawson overthrow Ramon Castillo and just a few years later Argentina would fall into 75 years of Peronism. Hitler led his country back to prominence. FDR stole American liberties and set fire to the constitution and everyone in America was so poor they never batted an eye. I can see Putin, Xi Jinping, some American president one or another, Macron in France, Trudeau in Canada, and the new UK Labor party candidate and I don’t see one qualified leader in the west. Not a one, but in the east I see Putin and Xi and I think these are tough men that can demand respect and they do.
I just missed the 1930s so I was unaware of the buildup to war, but I was around before Russia invaded Ukraine and there were hundreds of thousands of troops gathered on the border, so what did I expect? I expected an invasion, and that is what we got. If France is sending troops to help the Ukrainians train and the UK is talking about building an army, what do you expect?
This is a pseudo-wartime training effort slash community service effort, but it again gets worse when I do just a bit of digging. It turns out that all of Europe seems to be readying for war. This is from Denes Albert at Remix news. “The German government would reintroduce conscription based on several scenarios, making it compulsory for all 18-year-olds. Germany is not the only country to revisit the idea of compulsory military service, with Denmark planning to introduce the recruitment of women in 2026.
Military service is compulsory in the following European countries: Cyprus, Greece, Austria, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Sweden, Cyprus, Denmark and Sweden.”
Why is the baby boomer generation still trying to overspend their welcome? I find them to be the worst generation in history of our country period end stop and now these dunce caps on a pickleball court are trying to provoke wars around the world and putting our precious soccer team tying but no one wins soldier children to be in a fight against the Russians or the Chinese… Oh yes, let’s not forget the Chinese and maybe who is wagging the tail of this whole war dog anyway.
Janet Yellen came out and threatened German Banks with sanctions if they didn’t cut down on their support and financial workarounds with Russia. From ZeroHedge “In a rare moment of tensions among allies, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is demanding that German bank executives get serious about complying with anti-Russia sanctions, warning further that German banks could find themselves under sanctions.
She warned them of secondary sanctions meant to thwart deals with Russian entities in a meeting among bank leaders in Frankfurt. “Russia continues to procure sensitive goods and to expand its ability to domestically manufacture these goods. We must remain vigilant and be more ambitious,” Yellen said. “I urge all institutions here to take heightened compliance measures and to increase your focus on Russian evasion attempts.”
But the US has gone further than that. The US unveiled almost 300 on new anti-Russian sanctions focusing on 3rd parties at the beginning of May and the Chinese have now begun to answer. The Chinese slapped sanctions on American companies or the Americans slapping sanctions on their country for supplying weapons to Taiwan. That’s right, names you know like Lockheed, Raytheon, and General Dynamics are all on the Chinese list. In addition, the Chinese exercises around Taiwan intensified, no that doesn’t mean they did pushups til exhaustion, but a show of force like we can seize your country show of power.
Nectar Gang, Eric Cheung, and Brad Lendon wrote for CNN, “The drills are the largest in more than a year and come just days after Taiwan swore in its new president, Lai Ching-te, who is openly loathed by Beijing for championing the island’s sovereignty and distinct identity.
Beijing has denounced Lai as a “dangerous separatist” and decried his inauguration speech on Monday, during which he called on China to cease its intimidation of Taiwan, which has grown much more pronounced under Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
The PLA, which dwarfs Taipei’s outgunned military, kicked off the exercises on Thursday morning, sending warships and fighter jets around Taiwan and its outlying islands in what it called “a strong punishment for separatist acts of Taiwan independence forces.”
I want to pause and interject just a financial nugget here. Nvidia is going to pass Apple in total market cap by the end of the week it seems. I don’t know that, but they seem to be growing by $100 billion a day or a week. This is the most important and biggest chunk of the American stock market, and all its chips are made in Taiwan and China just surrounded the island and said, keep it up and we will take you over. Geopolitical risk is never important to consider in a portfolio until it is, then it is the most important thing. Ask anyone who was invested in cheap old Russia three years ago and now will never see a dime of that investment or the companies that had to leave investments there.
So back to what we were talking about, we have Europe seemingly inching toward a greater war in Europe and the Chinese itching to put Taiwan into the same headlock that it did Hong Kong, what does that mean for America? Well, we are sworn to protect NATO by compact and we have said that we would defend Taiwan. That leaves us, an economy spending foolishly in peacetime faced with two financial kindergartners running for office. If war breaks out on either or both fronts, they will have no choice but to spend money, lots and lots of money, and that means inflation doesn’t just kick in. It kicks in like it did in 1914 to the world’s reserve currency the UK’s pound sterling. It was effectively the end, and I wonder if that will be the catalyst for the US dollar’s demise. A multi-front war when we are already having a tough time selling Treasury bonds. Monday had another ugly auction of 5-year paper and rates climbed sharply. This is with multi decade low employment, a stock market at all-time highs, and garages and closets full of toilet paper. We are struggling to sell treasuries because there are so god damned many of them. Try selling a war budget worth or better yet two wars? Impossible.
Is this what happened in the 30s where countries just couldn’t pull themselves out of it so they said to hell with this, let’s invade Poland or bomb Pearl Harbor. Is that what people felt when they heard that Archduke Ferdinand was shot and that kicked off World War I? When European leaders start getting shot, I get a little nervous.
Before we close, I want to circle back to Craig Murray. “What has China done that makes it an enemy? China has no military designs on the West. Of recent purchases most of us have made of physical goods, a high proportion have come from China. Why is an important trade partner an “enemy”?
Why is Russia our enemy? The notion that the Russian army is going to land on the Wash is utterly implausible. The Russian state, over centuries and wildly differing regimes, has never had the slightest desire to invade the British Isles. In the U.K., under various governments, for almost three centuries charlatans have been claiming a threat of Russian invasion to justify higher defence expenditure.
Why the need to have “enemies” at all?”
My only response Craig is that the world is full of insecure people. When your own house isn’t in order then sometimes you have to distract that audience from your own poor performance with games, gladiators, and gun battles. I’ve been digging into this country’s action for two years trying to figure out why we are making foolish decisions, but I think we are starting to see what happens if this continues. There is a lot of smoke now, and it concerns me that soon front-line soldiers will soon hear ready aim fire.
Sincerely Yours,
C Thomas Printer
On this date in history… 571 years ago to be exact, Constantinople and the Byzantine empire fell to the Ottomans.
Also born on this date …the man who proclaimed ”Give me liberty or give me death” Patrick Henry. I feel like these newly conscripted soldiers of late teenage variety would try to tweak that statement just a bit by saying, “I’m not overly wild about that second part, How about “Give me liberty or give me a like on my Twitter? No, how about a Chipotle gift card, no? How about following me on Insta?
Thank you for listening today and you can find all of our articles and more on our website cthomasprinter.com.