Category America is becoming a demented, sick and evil country

Dec 11 2023

American Wealth Declined in Q3


Posted originally on Dec 11, 2023 By Martin Armstrong 

Debt Burden

According to a recent Federal Reserve report, US household wealth experienced a significant decline in the third quarter, largely attributed to deep stock losses. The central bank’s report revealed that household net worth fell by approximately $1.3 trillion, or 0.9%, from July to September, amounting to $151 trillion. The decline was primarily driven by a $1.7 trillion drop in the value of equity holdings.

This comes after a volatile year for the stock market, with all three major indexes experiencing a significant downturn in mid-2023. While the market has since recovered, the report also indicated a continued rise in household debt, which increased at a 2.5% annual rate in the third quarter. The decline in household wealth has raised concerns about its potential impact on consumer spending, borrowing, and investing, as well as its implications for the broader economy.

American Dream

Americans living off credit began pulling from their 401K accounts early during Q3. Hardship withdrawals rose 13% in the beginning of June after already being 27% higher than January. Hardship withdrawals allow employees to pull money out of their 401K for an “immediate and heavy financial need.” No one would recommend doing this unless the situation was dire as individuals must show evidence that the money will be used for a major hardship in order to avoid the 10% early withdrawal fee imposed for those under 59.5.

The year 2023 marked the first time personal credit debt surpassed $1 trillion. Credit card interest rates average 24.56%, according to LendingTree. Credit cards aside, American households are carrying $17.29 trillion in various forms of debt, with the average household hosting $103,358 in debt that continues to compound.

Dec 10 2023

The Modified FISA-702 Reauthorization Bill (HR 6611) Has Passed the House – The Changes Have Expanded Federal Surveillance of Americans


Posted originally on the CTH December 9, 2023 | Sundance

House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) Chairman Mike Turner is celebrating the passage of HR 6611, the 2023 FISA reauthorization bill.

Chairman Turner would have granted a clean FISA renewal, he’s that kind of Republican; however, several Republicans demanded changes to the FISA-702 authorities that capture the data of American citizens without a warrant.  Thus, the HPSCI modified the authorities within HR 6611, but they made it worse.

(Via CDT) – Tucked away near the end of the bill the House Intelligence Committee reported on December 7 (H.R. 6611, the “HPSCI bill”) is a provision that would dramatically expand surveillance under the controversial Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (“FISA 702”), which sunsets on December 31 unless reauthorized. Section 504 of the bill, innocuously captioned “Definition of Electronic Communications Service Provider,” would expand the types of entities that can be compelled to disclose internet communications whether in storage or in transit.

FISA 702 permits the U.S. government to compel communication service providers to disclose for foreign intelligence purposes the communications of persons reasonably believed to be non-U.S. persons abroad. No warrant is required; a belief that the communications relate to U.S. foreign affairs or national security is sufficient.  Under current FISA 702, only entities that provide communication services like email, calls, and text messaging can be compelled to disclose these communications. 

As FISA Court amicus and longtime practitioner Marc Zwilligener and his colleague Steve Lane have already noted, the HPSCI bill would upend the current system, enabling the government to compel anyone with mere access to the equipment on which such communications are stored or transmitted to disclose those communications.  That could include personnel at coffee shops that offer WiFi to their customers, a town library that offers public computer internet services, hotels, shared workspaces, landlords and even AirBNB hosts that offer WiFi to the people who stay there, cloud storage services that host but do not access data, and large data centers that rent out computer server space to their clients.

The provision is intended to reverse a rare decision of the FISA Court of Review (FISCR), which had rejected the government’s claim that a service that a company provided fit within the scope of Section 702. In its effort to override the FISCR ruling, the HPSCI bill has opened Pandora’s Box.  

Because FISA 702 does not merely give the government power to compel production of communications but rather to require that businesses “provide the Government with all information, facilities, or assistance necessary to accomplish the acquisition,” [emphasis supplied] the government could use this new section to compel changes to the infrastructure and operations of some of the business entities listed above. For example, a provider of computer co-location services whose business model is to rent out and to service space on which its clients place their computer servers could be compelled to engineer its service to facilitate such access. In addition, because the HPSCI bill’s expansion is designed to pull in entities that do not currently even have access to communications, the extent of this forced restructure could be severe.

Such a shift not only affects American businesses, it is also likely to spur on overcollection and improperly sweep in Americans’ communications. The expansion would likely facilitate compelled  “Upstream” collection from these entities, a technique in which the government demands access to the entire stream of communications data, rather than obtaining only the communications to and from surveillance targets. It may be difficult for businesses that have access to equipment on which communications are stored and transmitted, but have never had to access the communications themselves, to ensure that only the data of Section 702 targets is turned over to the government.

Instead, they may be compelled to turn over entire communication streams or permit the copying and dragnet scanning of all the data on a server they host. Upstream collection performed by sophisticated giant telcos who operate the Internet backbone already has a fraught history of overcollection, including sweeping in wholly domestic communications (such as through multi communication transaction and “Abouts” collection). Forcing businesses that do not by practice even access communications to comply with FISA 702 orders—including Upstream orders—is reckless, and very likely to cause domestic communications to be improperly collected. (read more)

Here’s the core problem.  The DATA COLLECTION is not going away, meaning the wholesale gathering of the metadata on all electronic communication is the baseline.  As long as that baseline exists, the debate is about how the metadata can be accessed and what queries into that data can take place without a search warrant.

If FISA-702 was completely removed, the executive branch (DOJ-NSD) would be on the honor system, which essentially- they are now.

As long as the capability to retrieve and store the data exists, it will be exploited.   The data collection horse left the barn long ago.  That reality only leaves the ability to limit access as a solution to the abuses and warrantless surveillance.

Having looked extensively at this issue for years, and accepting the data collection is never going to be stopped, the only pathway to try and ensure rules and regulations are compliant with the 4th amendment, would be an oversight panel from the legislative branch put inside the process.

The only time the legislative branch has any power in the FISA process, is when they reauthorize its use.  Only at these specific moments is the legislative branch currently involved.  At all other times, it is the executive branch (DOJ, DOJ-NSD and FBI) involved, along with the FISA Court which represents the judicial branch.   The absence of the legislative branch in the process could be considered the oversight problem.

FISA, as it applies to American citizens caught up in the “incidental collection,” is clearly weaponized.  The underlying database, the storage system for all data, is the other problem.  As long as thousands of people in the executive branch have access to search this database, that access will be abused.

[CTH] – Office of Inspector General Michael Horowitz testified, April 27, 2023, that more than 3.4 million search queries into the NSA database took place between Dec. 1st, 2020 and Nov. 30th, 2021, by government officials and/or contractors working on behalf of the federal government. These search queries were based on authorizations related to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

Approximately 30% of those 3.4 million search queries were outside the rules and regulations that govern warrantless searches – what the politically correct government calls “non-compliant searches.”  That means during the year 2021, more than 1 million searches of private documents and communication of Americans were illegal and outside the rules.

Additionally, IG Horowitz admitted that somewhere north of 10,000 federal employees have access to conduct these searches of the NSA database; a database which contains the electronic data of every single American, including emails, text messages, social media posts, instant messages, direct messages, phone calls, geolocation identifiers, purchases by electronic funds, banking records and any keystroke any American person puts into any electronic device for any reason. (more)

In my opinion, instead of trying to put the FISA genie back into the bottle, Congress needs to work on the accountability piece.  The punishment for abusing the database needs to be defined – perhaps 5 years imprisonment for each search violation.

The only thing I can think of that will improve the “702” issue, is a legislatively created oversight panel forced within the process (that puts the legislative branch inside the DOJ/FISC relationship) that has full access to see and monitor everything that is being done by the DOJ/FBI.

I don’t know if that would work, but it’s better than what they are doing now.

The Committee on Rules will meet on Monday, December 11, 2023 at 4:00 PM ET in H-313, The Capitol on the following measures:

H.R. 357 – Ensuring Accountability in Agency Rulemaking Act
H.R. 1147 – Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act of 2023
H.R. 6570 – Protect Liberty and End Warrantless Surveillance Act
H.R. 6611 – FISA Reform and Reauthorization Act of 2023  (link)

The current FISA-702 authority will likely be extended to April 19th.

Hopefully the Senate will block the modified House bill, HR 6611, which expands the current authority.

FUBAR

Dec 7 2023

Biden Threatens Direct U.S. Troop Fights Against Russia if Congress Doesn’t Fund Ukraine


Posted originally on the CTH on December 6, 2023 | Sundance 

Earlier today Joe Biden threatened U.S. troop engagement with Russian troops if congress doesn’t provide further funding for Ukraine.  As the premise is pushed, a failure to fund the Ukraine war means Russia will move beyond Ukraine into a NATO country.  The premise is nonsense. WATCH:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=_iZv5ursdYg%3Ffeature%3Doembed

White House – […] “Congress needs to pass supplemental funding for Ukraine before they break for the holiday recess.  It’s as simple as that. 

Frankly, I think it’s stunning that we’ve gotten to this point in the first place.  While Congress — the Republicans in Congress is — are willing to give Putin the greatest gift he could hope for and abandon our global leadership not just to Ukraine, but beyond that.   

[…] “I just did a meeting with the G7, which was one of the issues we discussed — all of the European leaders.  We are prepared to stay with us — stay with Ukraine, and our European friends are as well. 

Who in the United States are prepared to walk away from that?  I tell you, I’m not prepared to walk away, and I don’t think the American people are either.

If Putin takes Ukraine, he won’t stop there.  It’s important to see the long run here.  He’s going to keep going.  He’s made that pretty clear.

If Putin attacks a NATO Ally — if he keeps going and then he attacks a NATO Ally — well, we’ve committed as a NATO member that we’d defend every inch of NATO territory.  Then we’ll have something that we don’t seek and that we don’t have today: American troops fighting Russian troops — American troops fighting Russian troops if he moves into other parts of NATO. 

Make no mistake: Today’s vote is going to be long remembered.  And history is going to judge harshly those who turn their back on freedom’s cause.  

We can’t let Putin win.  I’ll say it again: We can’t let Putin win.  It’s in our overwhelming national interest and international interest of all our friends.

Any disruption in our ability to supply Ukraine clearly strengthens Putin’s position.  We’ve run out of money to be able to do that, in terms of authorization.

Extreme Republicans are playing chicken with our national security, holding Ukraine’s funding hostage to their extreme partisan border policies.” (link)

Dec 5 2023

A Walk into the Matrix


The focus on Russia being the aggressor does not make sense when history and facts are looked at.  The following analysis cuts through the propaganda and gets to the core of the thing.

Let me start by saying everything we have read about the Western sanctions against Russia is false.  What sanctions might exist do not have any impact, and Eastern Europe has no intention to anger Putin.  When Brussels threatens to kick Hungary out of the EU/NATO, I can almost hear Viktor Orban saying, “Don’t threaten me with a good time.”  Hungary doesn’t even use or rely on the €uro for domestic financial transactions; they still retain their own national currency, the Hungarian forint or HUF.

First things first with the Western financial sanctions- specifically the SWIFT exchange.  It is true you cannot use VISA, Mastercard or any mainstream Western financial tools to conduct business in Russia; however, the number of workarounds for this issue are numerous.  One of those tools is the use of a cryptocurrency like Bitcoin; and within that reality, you find something very ominous about the USA motive.

Crypto users are likely familiar with stories like Binance and the US regulatory control therein.  Factually, outside the USA Binance is being used to purchase and trade crypto without issue, but inside the USA it is regulated.  That brings me to the MEXC crypto exchange, a Mexican version, again available globally but not allowed in the USA.  The same applies to Metamask, used all over Europe but not permitted in the USA.  Start to ask yourself, why all these crypto exchanges are available to the rest of the world but not the USA, and you start to suspect the Russian sanctions, just like the Patriot Act, are something else entirely.

Then there’s app wallets.  You might be familiar with Apple Pay as a process to handle transactions from your iPhone.  Apple Pay is linked to your bank account.  Well, the “wallet feature” exists on other apps also, like Telegram; however, you can find the wallet feature, but if you try to use it from a USA cell phone… “This feature is not allowed in your region.”  Why are digital wallets available for the rest of the world but blocked by the U.S. government?

This brings me to several crypto conversations in the EU at various cafes with people who have a deep understanding.  The commonly accepted bottom line, the Western sanctions, organized by the Biden administration and US Treasury, were not intended to put financial walls around Russia; they were designed to put control walls around the USA.  Russia was the useful justification.

Here’s how it really looks from the outside looking at the USA.  The same way the Patriot Act was not designed to stop terrorism but rather to create a domestic surveillance system. So too were the “Russian Sanctions” not designed to sanction Russia, but rather to create the financial control system that will lead to a USA digital currency.

Now, does the exploding debt and seeming govt ambivalence take on a new perspective?  It should, because that unspoken motive explains everything.  This is not accidental folks.

Again, the western sanctions against Russia are not having an impact against Russia; they are having a quiet impact in the USA that no one is permitted to talk about.

♦LOGISTICS – Despite popular opinion to the contrary, it is entirely possible to travel all over Europe without being tracked.  If you pick an entry point into the EU (Schengen Area), once inside, you can travel without any national checkpoints or passport checks.  It is also entirely possible to fly all over the EU without ever giving a passport number when you book the flight.  The trick is to know which airline.  You are a name on a passenger manifest, nothing more.

Bottom line, travel around the EU is less controlled, tracked and monitored, than travel inside the USA.  Yes, let me emphasize; freedom of travel is greater in the EU than it is in the USA.  This was completely unexpected.

♦GROUND REPORT – You might ask how I know the Russian sanctions are ineffective – here’s an example.  After doing advanced research, I went to three separate banks as a random and innocuous customer.  I put my reason in the kiosk at each bank, got my ticket number and sat down to listen to the conversations. When my ticket number came up on the digital board, I just ignored it and sat for hours listening to conversations.  No one ever noticed or questioned me – not once.

At every one of the banks, the majority of the customers, at the “new account” desk, were foreign nationals asking about setting up business accounts to trade with Russia. In every bank the conversations were friendly and helpful, with the bank staff telling the customers exactly how to set up their account to accomplish the transactions.  No one was saying no; instead they were explaining how to do it in very helpful detail.

Within Russia, there are now 3rd party brokers with international accounts, an entirely new industry, which creates a layer of transactional capability for the outside company to sell goods into Russia.  A Samsung TV travels from South Korea to the destination in the RU with the financial transaction between manufacturer and retailer now passing through the new ‘broker’ intermediary. Essentially, that process is what was happening in the banks for small to medium sized companies.

♦ Back to the crypto and digital wallet angle.  In addition to financial/transactional brokers for durable goods into Russia, there is now an entire industry of selling telephone id’s with EU phone numbers to process the transactions that are blocked by the USA sanction regime.

Meaning, a person could buy a phone and register a phone number from within the EU, and then go back to the USA and access all the blocked/restricted financial processes [Binance (non-US), Metamask, MexC, Telegram digital wallet etc].  This would permit them to do untracked financial transactions into and out of Russia from the USA without the USG knowing about them (sanction workaround).

[DISCLAIMER: in the interest of my own legal risk, I did not do this; I’m just explaining.]

I am not smarter than the U.S. intelligence community, so what does this mean?

This means the U.S. government knows exactly why the Russian economy is thriving, the Ruble is stronger against the dollar, and there is nothing -not one thing- visible or different on the ground in Russia that an ordinary Russian citizen would notice.  In fact, the Russian economy is doing fine, better than before the Ukraine conflict initiated, albeit with new financial industries created by the sanctions.

If the US government knows this, then why the sanctions?

Asked and answered.  The Western sanctions created a financial wall around the USA, not to keep Russia out, but to keep us in.  The Western sanction regime, the financial mechanisms they created and authorized, creates the control gate that leads to a U.S. digital currency.

In essence, the Ukraine war response justified a system that creates a digital dollar.

I will have more revelations, but for now just think about this aspect.

Dec 4 2023

40 Day Countdown


Posted originally on the CTH on December 3, 2023 | Sundance

The Iowa caucuses are January 15, 2024, and represent the first opportunity for the GOP nomination contest to highlight candidate support.

Initially, I was going to wait to post this information later, mid-December.  However, based on conversation earlier today, and my pledge to be publicly consistent and transparent, here’s an advance review of my expectations.

(#1) The full-throated DOJ, Jack Smith, Georgia and New York legal cases will likely trigger, like scud missiles in a blitz attack against Donald Trump, around 10 days prior to the Iowa caucuses.  I’m not sure what the granular details of the Lawfare assault will look like; however, the timing will certainly be in/around these dates.  The deepest part of the DC system that is in full alignment against Trump will be looking at this time frame as the first opportunity to hit Trump hard.  The main battery comes after the 2024 RNC convention (Wisconsin, thanks Ronna).

(#2) Simultaneous to this, keep in mind the Sea Island group have spent hundreds of millions on an organizational process for Ron DeSantis, that is now contingent upon an Iowa victory.  Just like the timing of the Mar-a-Lago raid, there will likely be some background coordination between the administrative state in DC and the organizational assemblies of DeSantis and Nikki Haley. Again, this is the first opportunity for the ‘stop Trump’ apparatus to create an inflection point.  If President Trump crushes the Iowa caucuses, he will destroy the GOPe narrative.

(#3) This also creates the context timeline for us to consider an urgency by the deepest part of the DC control apparatus to influence public opinion.  As a result, and given the recent remarks by platform operator Elon Musk, we may also see something happening with Twitter that blocks the ability of the assembled masses to communicate about whatever happens in #1.  To a significant extent, MAGA has assembled discussion into a large Twitter stadium per se’.  If the people controlling U.S. political outcomes want to hit hard, they will need a significant and timed disruption in the system of public communication.  Scattering that stadium would be very effective.

The DHS artificial intelligence (AI) rollout into the ¹overall communication system, specifically social media, can also be considered as part of a disruption effort to influence the 2024 election.  The national security labeling, definitions that establish censorship, removal and content control, will almost certainly flow through the pre-existing Public-Private partnerships.  I would not be surprised to see the timing of that launch, in a full scale, somewhat in this same calendar period.

We all know the 2024 election is for all the marbles, so we just await the predictable incoming fire.

Smart wolverines will have preestablished iron dome defenses at the ready.

¹[GO DEEP] DHS’ AI task force is coordinating with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency on how the department can partner with critical infrastructure organizations “on safeguarding their uses of AI and strengthening their cybersecurity practices writ large to defend against evolving threats.”

RESOURCES:

Using AI for Content Moderation

Facebook / META / Tech joining with DHS

Zoom will allow Content Scraping by AI 

AI going into The Cloud

U.S. Govt Going into The Cloud With AI

Pentagon activates 175 Million IP’s

Big Names to Attend Political AI Forum

DoD to use AI to monitor U.S. Internet for Disinformation

DHS Announces Guidelines for Using AI to monitor Americans.

DHS Announces “Expert Group”

Nov 27 2023

Senator Ron Wyden Asks AG Merrick Garland to Release Information About AT&T “Hemisphere” Dragnet Surveillance Agreement With U.S. Government


Posted originally on the CTH on November 26, 2023 | Sundance 

For several years many people have made inquiries about CTH content not being available on their devices.  I have always responded with the same answer, check your Internet Service Provider (ISP) and if you are using AT&T or a regional subsidiary therein, that’s the source of the issue; it’s not a CTH technical problem.

For what follows, keep in mind that AT&T is not just an internet service and cell phone service provider.  AT&T is also Turner (CNN) and Time Warner (HBO) etc. {link}  Also you might notice the CNN aspect in hotels and airport broadcasts.  Additionally, pay attention to the segment underlined below that applies to all other providers that join in technical collaboration with AT&T to provide services.  Meaning it’s not just AT&T that ultimately is the issue here.

Lastly, if you have followed my research outlines on how the Obama administration weaponized the Patriot Act to target political opposition in 2009 {Go Deep}, please note the date underlined on page #2.   This public-private partnership should make a lot of other things (previously outlined) make sense.

[SOURCE]

[Source With Attachments]

You can see how the Obama administration originated the issue in 2009.  Then, following the controversy of the Tea Party targeting by the DOJ/IRS, if you have read the CTH articles about the 2009 creation of the Fourth Branch of Government, this letter from Senator Ron Wyden outlines the source of the 2009 origin we have been talking about.

Barack Obama and Eric Holder did not create a weaponized DOJ and FBI; the institutions were already weaponized by the Patriot Act.  What Obama and Holder did was take the preexisting system and retool it, so the weapons of government only targeted one side of the political continuum.

This point is where many people understandably get confused.

Elevator Speech:

(1) The Patriot Act turned the intel surveillance radar from foreign searches for terrorists to domestic searches for terrorists.

(2) Obama/Biden then redefined what is a “terrorist” to include their political opposition.

In the era shortly after 9/11, the DC national security apparatus, instructed by Vice President Dick Cheney, was constructed to preserve continuity of government and simultaneously view all Americans as potential threats. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) were created specifically for this purpose.

After 9/11/01, the electronic surveillance system that was originally created to monitor threats from abroad was retooled to monitor threats inside our country.  That is when all of our electronic ‘metadata’ came under federal surveillance.

That inflection point, and the process that followed, was exactly what Edward Snowden tried to point out.

What Barack Obama and Eric Holder did with that new construct was refine the internal targeting mechanisms so that only their political opposition became the target of this new national security system.

The problems we face now as a country are directly an outcome of two very distinct points that were merged by Barack Obama. (1) The post 9/11 monitoring of electronic communication of American citizens; and (2) Obama’s team creating a fine-tuning knob that it focused on the politics of the targets.  This is very important to understand as you dig deeper {Keep GOING } …

Can you see it now?

Nov 19 2023

The future is coming fast, best prepare yourselves…


Posted originally on Rumble By Hot_Topic On: Nov 19 7:35 AM EST

Nov 19 2023

Listen to the pure hatred that white Christian kids have to face every day.


Posted originally on Rumble By Terrence K Williams On: Nov 18 at 6:30 PM EST

Nov 15 2023

The Authoritarian Agenda: Presidential Candidates Stump For More Surveillance, More Social Media Censorship and Cracking Down On “Hate Speech”


Posted originally on Rumble By Kim Iversen on: Nov 14, 9:00 pm EST

Nov 15 2023

86% of Americans Admit They’re Worse Off Under Biden Re-Posted Nov 15, 2023 By Martin Armstrong 


https://youtube.com/watch?v=XD0f9h2pYg4%3Ffeature%3Doembed

It took a few years for people to admit the truth – life in America has drastically downgraded under Biden. Inflation has surged to 40-year highs under Biden. The US trade deficit has increased by 24.6%. Public debt has increased 22.5% as most Americans rely on credit for basic necessities. Home prices have increased well over 30%, gas prices have doubled, and the CPI in general spiked 17.1% in Biden’s first 32 months in office. I do not believe the inflation statistics produced by government agencies for a moment. Simply look around and you can see that we pay more for absolutely everything.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=DfzXhndVUlU%3Ffeature%3Doembed

A recent poll published by the Financial Times found that only 14% of Americans believe they are better off financially under Biden. Those people are likely on welfare. The poll also found that 70% of American voters feel Bidenomics have hurt the economy or had no impact, with 33% saying they “hurt the economy a lot.” These numbers are staggering, as no president in recent history has managed to catapult the country into such a dire situation.

Over half (52%) of respondents to the poll said they had no idea what the president even had planned to revive the economy. Now Biden, who is not campaigning, is touting he needs to “Finish the job!” All Americans are begging him not to finish the job, as that would include completely destroying America and passing it over to the globalists to Build Back Better.