The curious case of Bill Browder

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A couple of weeks ago I told you the first U.S. Civil War was here.

(Article by Tom Luongo republished from TomLuongo.me)

What I didn’t tell you was the face of that Civil War is Bill Browder.

Browder was responsible for The Magnitsky Act. It handed our government insane sanctions powers on individuals and companies in the name of punishing rogue, evil regimes who torture innocents.

His story is the thing of spy novels.  It reeks of power politics, market collusion and psychopathology.

And if only half of it is true, he and his associates deserve a fate worse than anything dreamed up by Dante and his Inferno.

Putin tried him in absentia for $230 million in tax evasion. Browder talks about Putin’s global reach, but men like him are the real power brokers: shaping policy, moving markets and destroying lives the world over.

Their current target is President Trump.

Let’s connect some dots:

First, Facebook, to salvage its stock price, finds new “PROOF” of Russian election meddling, from the same troll farm Robert Mueller indicted in February.

Second, two days later, Lindsay Graham has a shiny new sanctions bill to get ‘tough on Putin to stop meddling.’

Graham‘s bill will:

1) Cut Russia off from selling sovereign debt,
2) Stop them from funding any energy project the world over
3) Force a two-thirds majority vote before the Trump can pull the U.S. out of NATO.

All to stop election meddling?????

That last part is “curious.” 

Trump hasn’t talked about leaving NATO. So, why is Lindsay got his panties in a bunch over this?

This bill blatantly interferes with the President’s job to pursue foreign policy.

It is unconstitutional and, ultimately, unenforceable.

Graham knows this.  He and McCain will ram it through committee anyway.

There’s a second bill ordering Trump to sanction all companies working on the Nordstream 2 pipeline.

Because Russia isn’t allowed to get rich and Europe isn’t allowed to be free of NATO’s control.

This is Congress over-stepping their bounds to implement a soft coup against the President.

This is espionage, if not treason.

I cover a lot of this in this 6-minute video.

Browder knows Trump will throw him to the Russian Bear if it can avert a war.

To go further, however, we have to go to Istanbul.

Turkish Prison No More

Trump is pushing Turkey and Germany into the arms of Russia through sanctions and tariffs.  It’s counter-intuitive, but so is Trump.  You break NATO not by pulling out yourself but by giving Turkey and Germany every reason to.

Treat them like dirt and they will declare independence.

Hmmm. Turkey froze U.S. diplomat assets after the we sanctioned them for not returning Pastor Brunson, a CIA operative.

When was the last time someone froze the assets of a U.S. Diplomat?  A NATO ally no less?

Then Turkey announces Yuan-denominated bonds to wean itself off the U.S. dollar. 

Both China and Turkey announce they will buy more Iranian oil after sanctions are reinstated.

China joins Turkey in stopping the U.S.’s planned balkanization of Syria by announcing military support to oust the last of the rebels in Idlib province.

If Aleppo was the Battle of the Syrian Bulge, Idlib is the March to Jihadist Berlin.

There may be a method to Trump’s madness here.

The End of History

And this is connected to Browder’s campaign to destroy Russia.  Russia is the key to China’s future.  Without Russia, there is no Chinese century.

Guys like Browder use these post-WWII institutions — The IMF, World Bank, NATO and the EU — as sources of ‘perfect trades’ for themselves which impoverish nations, kill millions and maintain their power.

They aren’t great investors.  They are piranha who fed off the corpse of the Soviet Union. They still want Russia’s vast mineral and energy wealth for themselves.

Trump’s goal, to right the wrongs of world affairs, is the destruction of NATO and the EU.

Their goal is to stay in power and out of prison.  In Browder’s case the worst prison in Russia.

“Men” like Lindsay Graham and John McCain are placed to protect them at every turn.

But Trump is vulnerable.

The Mid-Term’s the Thing

More sanctions signals these mid-terms are their last stand against Trump.  They reek of desperation.
They know the poll numbers.  They know the Senate map is against them.

Trump’s approval rating is 50%.

He’s up double digits, nearing 50%, with Hispanics.

He could pick up at a minimum eight Senate seats, while McCain, Feinstein and others are put out to pasture.

China outed their agent in Feinstein’s office this week to weaken her.

The Deep State needs control of Congress to impeach Trump.  It needs the Senate to block him in committee.

His support from the people and the military are his bulwark against impeachment.

From here to November it will be all Russia all the time from the GOP and the DNC.

Return of the Chaos

The markets will be choppy because of this.  Investors won’t know who is winning from one day to the next.  But, some signals are already clear.

The dollar is rising as the world gets to cash.  Rates are rising.  Gold is falling.  Bitcoin got whacked.  Trade wars loom. Net short open interest on Gold and U.S. Treasuries are at record levels.

The Bank of Japan is losing control of its bond markets.  The euro sits on support.  China is actively devaluing the Yuan.

And Browder is beginning to panic.  That’s the most curious signal yet for a man who’s supposed to be a champion of human rights.

Read more at: TomLuongo.me