Free Republic

If we learned anything from mainland China's slow-motion take over of Hong Kong, it should be that China has option other than rolling tanks in the streets. In Hong Kong it used legal measures and police action to stop protests and jail activists. Then it threatened everyone into silence and shut down independent news outlets, raiding their offices and jailing publishers. And the bottom line is that freedom from the mainland is now just a memory. Hong Kong's oldest pro-democracy party shut down this month because talk about democracy leads to prison these days.The Democratic Party, one of the leading...

The bottom line is Jerome Powell has screwed up. No, that’s not from President Trump. That comes from legendary investor Louis Navellier.In yesterday’s Special Market Podcast in Growth Investor, Louis weighed in on President Trump’s attacks on Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell:The latest criticism is, President Trump wants to get rid of Jerome Powell. Ok, well, unfortunately, I have to agree with him because Powell is fighting a mythical inflation that hasn’t occurred yet.We’re not going to have more tariffs other than the Chinese tariffs because everybody is caving. Everybody is meeting with the administration; everybody is dropping their barriers....

So far, American consumers have been shielded from much of the impact. But as the world of international shipping adjusts to his policies, the president is facing a potential reckoning. With the US-China trade war starting to gum up container traffic between the world’s two biggest economies, freight companies are warning of plunging bookings and a surge in “blank sailings” – where ports are skipped or voyages are called off altogether. Earlier this week, America’s most powerful retail executives trooped into the White House to deliver a blunt prognosis: tariffs on Chinese goods risked causing “empty shelves” in two weeks...

China just raised the stakes in its standoff with Washington. Despite President Trump's recent attempts to dial down the rhetoric and hint at possible tariff relief, Beijing isn't budging. A spokesperson from China's Commerce Ministry flatly rejected any notion of progress, calling U.S. claims of renewed dialogue groundless. The message: if the U.S. wants to talk, it needs to first undo the damagestarting with a full rollback of unilateral tariffs, now as high as 145%. China also made it clear that future talks hinge on more than just kind words; Washington needs to get serious about core issues like sanctions...

US President Donald Trump has signaled a potential U-turn on his trade war with China amid continued market volatility, saying the high tariffs on Chinese goods will “come down substantially, but it won’t be zero.” Trump’s remarks, made at a White House news event Tuesday, appear to mark a rhetorical climbdown after weeks of tough posturing and tit-for-tat retaliation that sent tariffs on China beyond a staggering 145%. “145% is very high and it won’t be that high,” Trump said in a question-and-answer session with reporters in the Oval Office. “It won’t be anywhere near that high. It’ll come down...

China is doubling down: China has just announced that they will be pulling back from US private equity investments. Chinese state-backed funds are halting new investments in US PE firms due to government pressure. According to PE executives, funds like China Investment Corporation (CIC) have already begun withdrawing planned commitments. Chinese investors are also avoiding US-linked deals, even when managed by non-US based PE funds. Just 24 hours ago, China warned they would retaliate against countries that cooperate with the US in ways that compromise their interests. It's very clear what's happening here: China is seeking to isolate the US...

Chinese researchers have successfully detonated a hydrogen-based explosive device in a controlled field test, triggering devastating chemical chain reactions without using any nuclear materials, according to a study published last month. The 2kg (4.4lbs) bomb generated a fireball exceeding 1,000 degrees Celsius (1,832 degrees Fahrenheit) for more than two seconds – 15 times longer than equivalent TNT blasts – without using any nuclear materials, it said. Developed by the China State Shipbuilding Corporation’s (CSSC) 705 Research Institute, a key player in underwater weapon systems, the device uses a magnesium-based solid-state hydrogen storage material. Chinese researchers have successfully detonated a hydrogen-based...

Not since Herbert Hoover signed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff has a president chosen to disregard a larger body of informed opinion than President Trump did when he instituted his protectionist trade policy. Based on a series of verifiably false grievances—wages haven’t grown in 50 years, manufacturing has been hollowed out by imports, countries with trade surpluses are “ripping us off”—Mr. Trump used constitutionally questionable powers to abrogate congressionally approved trade agreements and undermine the world’s trading system. Markets convulsed in anticipation of the massive wealth annihilation that would accompany the shredding of global supply chains and a transition to a more...

Amid the escalating US-China trade war, a report in the Glitz says China may give free rein to counterfeiters, particularly those which target luxury brands in America, in retaliation for Trump’s tariffs. Amid this, TikTok is flooded with videos that show how luxury brands manufacture their products in China. Trump has imposed 145% tariffs on Chinese imports, and in its own tit-for-tat tariffs, the Xi Jinping government imposed 125% tariffs. China has now urged Washington to “completely cancel” what it calls the unfair practice of reciprocal tariffs... In the video, a man, while showing several bags that resemble luxury brands’...

When his camera stopped working on his iPhone recently, New Yorker Richard Medina didn't waste any time. With the threat of tariff-fuelled price hikes on smartphones bearing down, he quickly called his phone company for a new one. "I said, 'We've got to switch this out now,'" the 43-year-old recalled. "Let's take care of it." The move was a sign of the pressure rising across the US, where households are being buffeted by what could be staggering price rises, and even possible shortages triggered by the sweeping tariffs that US President Donald Trump announced this month. Some are trying to...

Over the past two days, President-elect Donald J. Trump has made clear that he has designs for American territorial expansion, declaring that the United States has both security concerns and commercial interests that can best be addressed by bringing the Panama Canal and Greenland under American control or outright ownership.Mr. Trump’s tone has had none of the trolling jocularity that surrounded his repeated suggestions in recent weeks that Canada should become America’s “51st state,” including his social media references to the country’s beleaguered prime minister as “Governor Justin Trudeau.”Instead, while naming a new ambassador to Denmark — which controls Greenland’s...

Forgive us if we missed it, but we don’t recall Donald Trump campaigning to invade Panama and retake its famous canal. But there was the President-elect on the weekend, threatening our Central American ally with punishment if it doesn’t meet his demands. “Our Navy and commerce have been treated in a very unfair and injudicious way. The fees being charged by Panama are ridiculous, highly unfair, especially knowing the extraordinary generosity that has been bestowed to Panama—I say, very foolishly, by the United States,” Mr. Trump told a crowd in Phoenix. “This complete ripoff of our country will immediately stop.”...

While 99% of the media keeps staring at official data by the Chinese central bank (PBoC)—misleadingly stating it added 5 tonnes of gold in November following a supposed six-month pause—the PBoC’s "unreported" purchases in London accounted for a stunning 60 tonnes in September and another 55 tonnes in October. And while cross-border trade statistics from the U.K. for November have yet to be released, I foresee another purchase of a similar magnitude. Chinese authorities see a greater role for gold in the future international monetary system, or they wouldn’t continue buying such extraordinary amounts of gold. Via London alone, the...

Quantum teleportation, once confined to the pages of science fiction, is steadily becoming a tangible scientific achievement. Advances in quantum mechanics over the last decade have transformed teleportation from a theoretical concept into an experimental reality. These breakthroughs have revealed innovative methods for transmitting information instantaneously over vast distances, offering transformative possibilities for computing, communication, and cryptography. Scientists are now closer than ever to bridging the gap between imagination and reality in this cutting-edge field.

On Sunday, December 22, the Chinese state-run CGTN's correspondent in Ankara reported, citing an Iranian security official, that Pourhashemi died after being shot by a Syrian officer during a meeting in a joint operations room in Aleppo.According to the report by Yakup Aslan, the meeting included Iranian military advisors and Syrian army commanders and took place amid advances by rebel forces in the outskirts of Aleppo...The report noted that IRGC commanders believed a counteroffensive against Assad's opposition, supported by Russian airpower, was possible at the time. However, Syrian commanders hesitated to issue the necessary orders...Armed opposition forces, in a surprise...

It's December and seems the right time to play music related to Christmas back in the 1970's Boney M... "I'm praying for you China" Those lyrics in that song wow! We were all praying for China when it opened up opening up opportunities for evangelism in my youth. Well, the situation with China today is... It seems to me listening to folks like Gordon Chang a decade before COVID that China was in the crosshairs to become 'the enemy'... COVID was more than its 'origin' it was lockdowns, masks and vaccines... As I reflect on March of 2020 I was...

BlogEventsShopKnowledge Center Contact Us Store Account Blog Economics The Recession into 2028 Trump Does Not Understand The Recession into 2028 Trump Does Not Understand Posted Nov 17, 2024 By Martin Armstrong | SPREAD THE LOVE WEC 2016 Orlando QUESTION: Mr. Armstrong, thank you for the WEC. Many people feel this was your best. Your solution to save our country was spectacular, and you deserved the standing ovation. My question is that you said that Trump and RFK would not listen to you despite everything you have done. You did not explain why. May I ask why? FP ANSWER: As I...

https://metallicman.com/laoban4site/what-the-progressive-liberals-have-in-store-for-conservatives/ I Read this page from Metallica Man. Written 8 years ago. Looks prophetic today

Former President Donald Trump is facing backlash for holding rallies in places described as "sundown towns." A TikTok user pointed out a "troubling pattern" in the locations of Trump's recent rallies in a video that has gone viral on social media. It was also shared on X, formerly Twitter, where it amassed millions of views. "Howell, Michigan; La Crosse, Wisconsin; Johnstown, Pennsylvania," the man said in the video. "What do these places have in common? They're all sundown towns." He added: "This is where Donald Trump is choosing to hold his rallies... You got a presidential candidate for the GOP...

Chinese President Xi Jinping has pledged to deepen agriculture and mineral processing cooperation with the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to help the African nation “transfer resource advantage into development momentum”. Meeting Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi in Beijing on Monday, Xi also vowed to consolidate “mutual political trust”, saying the two countries were “fellow travellers on the road to modernisation, and should be close friends with similar aspirations [and] mutual benefits”.