2023, The Year of The Great DC UniParty Getting Exposed – Example Coming with Biden and McConnell Making Deal on Debt Ceiling


Posted originally on the CTH on January 22, 2023 | Sundance 

CTH has predicted the most significant political revelation in 2023 will be the exposure of the Washington DC UniParty, and one of the largest moments for this sunlight is going to come with the “debt ceiling” extension.

The background to understand this level of sunlight, comes specifically because 20 House Republicans have taken a stand with bold contrast.  Whenever there is a bold contrast situation, the UniParty is exposed because the lavender hues where red and blue overlay is not possible.  The House20 have created a situation where Speaker Kevin McCarthy cannot hide, and there are enough MAGA Republicans to expose how the conniving UniParty apparatus really works.

Within the CBS political discussion, Robert Costa puts the upcoming ‘debt ceiling’ discussion into context while revealing how the White House is approaching the issue.  Costa is a vested weasel, but what he says in this segment is accurate.  Joe Biden will work with Mitch McConnell in the Senate to subvert the House of Representatives, because the House -as structured by the MAGA coalition- is now viewed as the enemy to both the White House and Senate republicans.

OMG, guys, like how lucky are we right now?

You don’t have to guess if Costa is correct on this, because the evidence is already in place.  What Costa is describing is exactly how and why the 2023 Omnibus spending bill was put together by the White House, Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer before the Republican control of the House took place.  Senate Republicans, led by Mitch McConnell, are structurally aligned with Democrats against the House Republicans.

The CBS panel is essentially having a conversation saying, ‘How lucky are we’ that Mitch McConnell is a Democrat right now?   And this is the truest nature of the UniParty in action.

[Transcriptvideo at 02:21] – MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, I’m glad you bring that up, because the other thing that the departure of the chief of staff raises questions about is this looming policy and political conversation about the debt ceiling.

Who runs point on that? Obviously, the Treasury secretary has a huge role. But in terms of talking to the Hill and the negotiations, who’s doing that if the chief of staff is leaving?

ROBERT COSTA: What I’m told from people inside the West Wing is that President Biden himself has a relationship with Mitch McConnell, the Senate Republican leader, of course, with Chuck Schumer, the Senate Democratic leader.

They are in some ways going to try to cut out Speaker Kevin McCarthy and the House Republicans. There’s not an appetite among Democrats to put spending cuts on the table at all. They would like to see a clean debt limit extension. And Jim Clyburn, one of the top Democrats in the House, recently told me he could see a scenario where centrist House Republicans band together with House Democrats for a clean debt limit extension.

[…] ROBERT COSTA: Privately, I’m told President Biden and Senator McConnell have chuckled behind the scenes with longtime friends about how at this stage in divided government, it’s these two men who have long been friends who are being counted upon to perhaps cut a deal.

I remember, when I first started covering Congress a decade ago, I would remember Vice President Biden was the one…

MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes.

ROBERT COSTA: … who came to the Capitol to meet with Senator McConnell to cut a deal on that so-called fiscal cliff way back then.

So, they have that history, and they were recently in Kentucky together, showing at least, not political solidarity, but in terms of a personal relationship, there’s a real rapport.”  Video Prompted:

December Retail Sales Drop -1.1%, November Sales Data Revised Lower to -1.0%


Posted originally on the CTH on January 18, 2023 | Sundance 

There is something predictable about Main Street economics, eventually what you see around you overwhelms the great pretending.  CTH has been outlining the state of the consumer economy in great detail for quite a while, and though it is difficult to note when the outcomes will surface, eventually they do surface. [Reminder Here]

CONTEXT. CTH outlined the moment when the purchasing power of the U.S. middle class actually began contracting.  It was March and April of 2021 when that Rubicon was crossed.  We saw it in the second and third quarter data from 2021, but few were willing to admit.

What changed in those two months back in ’21 was a dramatic drop in the “unit sales” of stuff within the consumer economy.  The drop in unit sales was hidden because it happened simultaneously with the first wave of massive spike in prices.  Prices rose so fast the sales data was giving an artificial impression of sales growth, but in the background the actual unit sales dropped.   Those analysts correcting and adjusting historic data to ‘inflation adjusted terms’ are now noticing.

Additionally, and not coincidentally – because the metrics are connected, you will note this line from the Wall Street Journal review of the producer price index. “The producer-price index, which generally reflects supply conditions in the economy, rose 6.2% in December from a year earlier, the Labor Department said Wednesday, the slowest annual pace since March 2021.”  In essence, the current rate of wholesale price increase on materials is now returning to the rate of price increase that happened in the period when prices spiked.  Again, this is predictable.

Inflation is the measure of the ‘rate’ of price increase over time.  March and April of 2021 were the beginning of the first inflationary spike.

Driven almost entirely by the supply side shock from Biden energy policy, in the subsequent 20 months the rate of price increase skyrocketed, peaked August 2022, and now the rate of increase starts returning.  This does not mean price declines; this means the rate of growth in the price increase is lessening.

This is a cyclical outcome.

After 20 months of dropping unit sales, a result of massive price increases; and as the rate of inflation now starts to moderate created by the cyclical nature of it; what we now see is the inability of the price increases to continue hiding the drop in unit sales.   [Background pdf Data] Total retail sales data is now exposed and that’s why we will see this increasing story about negative sales data as the inflation cycle plateaus.

(Via Wall Street Journal) – Retail spending fell in December at the sharpest pace of 2022, marking a dismal end to the holiday shopping season as rising interest rates, still-high inflation and concerns about a slowing economy pinched American consumers.

Purchases at stores, restaurants and online, declined a seasonally adjusted 1.1% in December from the prior month, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. Sales were also revised lower in November and have fallen three of the past four months.

The decline in retail spending late last year adds to signs that the U.S. economy is slowing. Hiring and wage growth eased in December, U.S. commerce with the rest of the world declined significantly in November, and existing-home sales have fallen for 10 straight months. The Federal Reserve said Wednesday that industrial production slumped in December, led by weakness in the manufacturing industry.

S&P Global downgraded its estimate for fourth-quarter economic growth by a half percentage point to a 2.3% annual rate after Wednesday’s data releases. Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal this month expect higher interest rates to tip the U.S. economy into a recession in the coming year.

“The lag impact of elevated inflation weighs heavily on U.S. households, it’s very clear that the median American consumer is still reeling from the loss of wages in inflation-adjusted terms,” said Joseph Brusuelas, chief economist at RSM US LLP. “We’re moving towards what I would expect to be a mild recession in 2023,” he added. (read more)

When the Baghdad Bob economic pretenders say, “mild recession,” anticipate something more akin to a mild nuclear meltdown, something with breadlines and soup kitchens.

Now, you must keep in mind that almost every financial media outlet used the same Retail Federation talking point about anticipating an 8% increase in holiday sales last year.  [Reminder] Apparently, collective pretenses must be maintained.  Meanwhile, news crews and camera crews were having a desperate time finding any holiday shopping to use as background footage for the claims that sales were strong.  Here we are in January and the pretending has hit reality.

Negative retail sales in November and December when prices are roughly +10% over the prior year, means the unit sales collapse was far more dramatic…. Far more.

Trying to survive policy driven price increases in housing costs, energy costs, electricity costs, home heating, food and fuel costs has forced consumers to reevaluate purchasing decisions.  Consumer demand for non-essential items has collapsed, and Americans are dig deep into their savings just to sustain unavoidable expenses.  Eventually, pretending this is not happening is going to run into the wall of reality.

On one hand the leaders of large multinationals must pretend everything is splendid; after all, the only acceptable position they can articulate is to support interest rates being raised because demand is just too darned high….  pretending.  But on the other hand – those same suppliers and multinationals are furiously trying to calculate how to avoid being stuck with billions worth of unsold inventory and idle industrial equipment.

Who is America’s Enemy? Russia or the other Political Party?


Armstrong Economics Blog/Politics Re-Posted Jan 18, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

In writing the Greatest Bull Market in History, published in 1986, I had to do all the original research. I read all the newspapers daily year after year to come to the realization that attitudes shift back and forth. It became very obvious that before FDR and the introduction of Marxism to the United States, the focus was on markets. With Roosevelt, he weaponized the Federal Reserve and just about everything else to further his agenda. Roosevelt demonized Pierre du Pont for he made a lot of money providing the weapons for World War I. Roosevelt called him the Merchant of Death, but then suddenly needed him again for World War II.

The nation is dividing significantly. This is why the United States cannot stand divided. The latest poll demonstrates that the forecast made by our computer is unsurpassed. The question presented was who is our enemy?

For Democrats, the top three results named Russia (31 percent) as our “greatest enemy,” followed by Republicans (26 percent) and China (16 percent).

For Republicans, the top three are China (35 percent), Russia (33 percent), and Democrats (12 percent).

We now are starting to see that we have an enemy within – the opposite political party. This is absolutely essential for it confirms the forecasts of our computer that have been common since our 2011 WEC.

Interview: Martin Armstrong on 32% Inflation


Armstrong Economics Blog/Armstrong in the Media Re-Posted Jan 14, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

Uniparty Peace or Violence? Ray DiLorenzo 


Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable  –  John F. Kennedy Is violent or peaceful revolution on the horizon?  The United States of America as the ‘Great Experiment’ in self-government is failing.  While people slept, elites have been allowed to take over, not in governing, but in ruling.  Elections are awash in fraud.  Government institutions are seemingly impotent in applying checks and balances…corruption is overflowing.  Our culture has been pushed to decline by a godless social ideology.   The elite have taken an active part.  They know the world is about to collapse or be changed, but they are prepared, lifeboats at the ready, while the common folk stare at the cold water nearing their feet. People are now talking about the Uniparty.  Who are they?  What are they? 

The Uniparty is a resurrected buzzword for the joining of the Democrat and Republican establishment to obfuscate the will of the American people and push forward The Great Reset for their own interests.  The perfect marriage.  They’re a veritable fifth column working to destroy America as founded, sometimes competing with each other for lead turncoat.   It includes bureaucrats, members of the media, big business, and academia. The Republicans involved (RINOS) are closer to Democrats than members of their own party, but many are so far up in seniority they dare not leave the party. They have become an unrecognized third party, more recently, a party dedicated to stopping the outsider, Donald Trump.  

Make no mistake, Mitch McConnell would rather be Minority Leader in the Senate than just a senator in a majority Senate.  Why else would he withdraw millions in support of 2022 Senate candidates?  He’s responsible for trillions in spending under Biden and the inflation we are all feeling.  He is a RINO in the first degree, a failure and a disgrace. Polled Democrats and Republicans say they are not well represented in government (PRRI).  Except for a brief respite during the Trump presidency, the GOP hasn’t truly represented their voters for many years.

 The term Uniparty has been applied loosely from time to time from at least FDR, but Ralph Nader gave it proper context in 2000 meaning the Washington establishment.  People have used ‘Uniparty’ for various purposes, neo-liberalism, green causes and the like.  But, it is now used primarily by conservatives to attack the linking of mainstream Republicans and Democrats against America First or conservatism. The Uniparty is not on our side.  They are essentially socialist and globalist or just lowlifes looking for opportunity.  They are a government within a facade of a government.  They have an agenda, and you are not part of it. Even though George Washington abhorred the thought of political parties, the human trait of forming tribes was always too great.  And now the tribe mentality has crossed party lines.

Why does it seem like America is on a fast track to a destination no one voted for?  No matter how we vote, no matter what we say, no matter what we reject in the market place, the country seems headed over a cliff, and we have no control over it.  How is it that Trump was able to turn our country around a full 180 degrees in just a few short years?  We were being held back by past administrations. The Uniparty has put our country on autopilot and programmed that autopilot with no input from the people. 

With only 15% of Americans saying our country is going in the right direction (AP), did we really vote for increased crime, inflation, higher taxes, open borders, more drug trafficking, censorship, the elimination of any morality?  Do Americans want 4,000 page bills smelling of pig, made into law in the middle of the night that no one has read?  Do Americans want legislation written in the shadows? Why can’t we win an election that reflects the voter’s sentiment? 

Even Democrats are getting nervous (80%).  Why do Disney and Hollywood keep releasing movies that shock our moral conscience, even when they fail at the box office? Hollywood complains that their earnings have fallen, yet they continue to give us junk.  Why is it more profitable to stay home rather than work?  Why do politicians seem to ignore their constituents?  Why do the Biden, Clinton and Pelosi families get to break any law they want?  Why does Congress name bills that don’t reflect content.  Over a year and a half ago, Congress approved Biden’s $2.5 trillion infrastructure bill.  Where’s the infrastructure?  Now we find out that only 25% of the bill had anything to do with infrastructure. We did get a $20 million heated sidewalk.  

 Americans were lied to with regularity during the Bush and Obama administrations and now with Biden.  We were not allowed to get what we wanted during the Trump administration… nor were we allowed to get what we voted for in 2020 and in 2022.  Not allowed?  By whom?  The Globalist Uniparty.  Since Tucker Carlson reported that the CIA had a hand in the JFK assassination, one can imagine Uniparty implication.   Representative Constitutional Democracy is dead in America!  It is dead because the Uniparty has willed it so.  Their power is more important than your freedom and liberty. It is considered ultra-conservative today to preserve our nation as founded. There is, however, a cadre of Republicans like Andy Biggs (AZ), Bob Good (VA), Andy Harris (MD), Lauren Boebert (CO), Matt Gaetz (FL), Matt Rosendale (MT), Eli Crane (AZ), Chip Roy (TX), and Byron Donalds (FL) that are determined to fix Washington, and they will not be deterred.   They refuse to compromise with a political cartel that is destroying America, or Kevin McCarthy who has a Conservative Review score of 54% (F).  They are our last refuge in this government…true courage!  These Representatives are doing their job.  They are representing their constituents who put them there and standing for the principles for which this country was founded.  What a concept.

Maybe McCarthy will lower his head a bit in remorse for his past political transgressions.  We are no longer the same country. It’s in the hands of the globalist establishment and they are not about to let go.  Oh, they may have allowed us to win a thin margin in the House because the number of votes couldn’t be overcome, or they just want us to think everything is normal, but who is the Speaker of the House?… an establishment shill?   Trump was sold as the anti-establishment president, yet many of his appointments were head scratchers.  It was a swinging door.  It was no surprise that he couldn’t get the wall built or the swamp drained.  Paul Ryan was Uniparty. Trump constantly criticized Bush’s WMD/Iraq war and then he appointed Bolton as National Security Advisor.  Go figure. I am not an anti-Trumper, but during the Trump administration, it became apparent that it was going to take more than a president to fix this country.  Trump was checked at every turn until his checkmate in 2020. In times of emergency, some react quickly, some slowly, needing time to process, in many cases to their detriment.  Now that agents from Hell are working to undermine our nation, removing the foundation holding it up, people are still trying to process what is happening in spite of all the evidence. 

Time is running out. My great fear is that the Uniparty is going to continue destroying our country for their purposes without opposition. Elections now seem futile.  The judicial system has been neutered.  Congress and the judiciary does not act even when they have legal precedent. Partisanship has taken the place of patriotism. Too many of our patriot politicians are mealymouthed, instead of expressing outrage. Profiles in courage seems relegated to a remote past. The new Congress must take the lead in fixing our country.  If the people take the lead, it is not going to be pretty. If enough people feel they no longer have a say in our government, my fear is that they will push back, and push back hard.  Americans will put up with just so much. 

Admiral Yamamoto recognized this after Pearl Harbor and said with regret, “I fear all we have done is awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.”    Will the Uniparty relent, give power back to the people and bring us peace and stability or hold on to their power with a jealous obsession and inevitably bring about violence?  What does history say?

2022, Perhaps the Apex Year for an Era of Pretending


Posted originally on the CTH December 31, 2022 | sundance 

If 2022 was not the apex year for the era of great pretending, then we remain sitting in a handbasket – destination, full speed ahead.

When asked for the topic of a ‘big picture‘ podcast this 2022-year ending, the obvious answer from me was We Need to Quit Pretending.

For the past two years I can only encapsulate the entire social, political and socioeconomic dynamic that surrounds us by saying we are living in an era of great pretending.  Why?  Because nothing else adequately explains it.

A recession is no longer two negative quarters of economic growth.  Elections are no longer defined by votes cast, but by ballots counted.  Meanwhile, women are claimed to have penises and people will argue -strenuously and with commitment- that men can give birth to babies.

Simultaneously, vaccines are no longer about medicines to avoid viruses, and Americans have some moral obligation to fund the administrative salaries, pensions and expense accounts for a nation of European politicians, in a country that few taxpayers could find on a map.

We must pretend the occupant of the oval office is not a dementia patient, at the same time we must pretend the Dept of Homeland Security and FBI is not telling online speech platforms that identifying the dementia patient, as a dementia patient, means you are a domestic violent extremist.  The absurdity of the pretenses are off-the-charts.

However, on the upside, we now see even blissfully ignorant people starting to realize something is wrong when their electricity and heating bills quadruple, while the same system of governmental caretakers are telling us to embrace a new earth friendly normal of $12 dollar eggs.  We been knew, but more are now knowing – thank God.

History provides reference points, and prolonged pretending never ends up in a good place.  So, there is room for optimism on a couple of points.

First, there is more support than ever for the ‘burn it all down‘ approach.  Whereby we keep the basic U.S. Constitution in place and shred every other institution created that has nothing whatsoever to do with it.

This includes both the DNC and RNC wings of the UniParty apparatus.  I mean, really, at the core of it, what do we have to lose?  Why not just get rid of the dysfunctional systems that abuse us.

Second, in a weird way, we are in a rare space where we can feel the history around us.  Normally we would have to look in retrospect at the events as they unfolded to recognize the inflection point historians would use – not now.  We can look around us right now and have full confidence the most influential voice in the next two decades will be the man, woman or entity that starts openly and publicly calling out this ridiculous pretending.

How messed up does society have to be, and how low to the ground does the actual bar have to rest, in order to realize the most important and influential person in our lifetime will simply be the one who stops pretending?  Ultimately, this is the source of my optimism for the future.

When it becomes so easy to deconstruct the madness simply by pointing out the reality, eventually anyone can do it.  In an era of great pretending, when you speak factual and pain truth, people thirsting will come for the sanity.  Yes, there’s only so much hypocritical nuttery that can possibly fit into the social fabric of a nation, and we’re full.

I see that dynamic starting to play out now.  Mainstream media are openly mocked everywhere for being the Baghdad Bob’s they are.  The MSM credibility and influence essentially destroyed by the Potemkin villages and Eco-chambers they built around themselves.

The congressional J6 committee is yet another example of a proclaimed thermonuclear ICBM missile that ended up delivering a contrasting reality. The fading whistle & pop akin to a dysfunctional bottle rocket.

There’s no help on this pretending issue coming from the political side of the American spectrum; sneeze that thought into a tissue and flush it.

The big movement that will end this era will come from ordinary people laughing, mocking and belittling the pretenders.

I do genuinely believe this phase is well underway, albeit we are in the beginning phases of the great mocking.

Whenever possible, we should do all we can to fuel both mocking and shame when discussing the great pretenders.  There’s only so much ridicule they can take before they must change course.  Ridiculing is another way to throw sand in the machinery.  Again, I think we are beginning to see that pendulum shift taking place right now.

Evidence for my optimism can be found in the most obscure places, including this paragraph from a recent NPR article:

…[…] “Only 15% of people eligible for the Covid booster shot that targets the omicron variant have gotten it — a rate that is even lower than the perennially disappointing rates for flu vaccine uptake. Vaccine fatigue seems to have spread to other shots, too — including those to prevent measles and polio — according to a recent poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation.”

Think about it.  “Eligible for the Covid booster” means that 85% of those who took the COVID-19 “vaccine” are not taking the booster.  Eighty-five percent of the people who took the shot have stopped pretending the covid shot had anything to do with public health.   That’s 85 out of 100 people who took the shot, not taking the booster. That’s a lot of simultaneous pretense quitting.

Yes, 2022 was another year in this great pretending era, but along with it comes a new enlightenment for a whole bunch of people.  From where we sit at the end of this year, it looks like the pretending has apexed.

Eyes are wide open; people are starting to be intellectually honest and more curious.

Yes comrade rebels, slowly, albeit painfully slowly, there is hope emerging.

Exposing the Real Reasons the RNC Ignores You (Pt. 1) | Harmeet Dhillon | POLITICS | Rubin Report


The Rubin Report Published posted originally on Rumbal on December 26, 2022

Dave Rubin of “The Rubin Report” talks to candidate for RNC Chair Harmeet Dhillon about why the RNC suffered major losses in the 2022 midterm elections under the failed leadership of RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel; how she would change the political strategy of the Republican National Committee; why Republicans don’t seem to know how to win an election; and the free speech litigation she has done on the behalf of the Daily Wire and Project Veritas.

Arizona Judge Orders Kari Lake to Pay $33,000 in Witness Fees but No Legal Sanctions


Posted originally on the CTH on December 27, 2022 | Sundance

Arizona Judge Peter Thompson has ruled that Mrs. Kari Lake must pay witness costs associated with her civil election lawsuit against Maricopa County officials.  However, the judge denied hundreds-of-thousands in defense lawyer fees for Marc Elias and did not issue financial sanctions against Lake.

PHOENIX — A judge has ordered Kari Lake, the Republican who lost the Arizona governor’s race, to pay $33,000 in fees for witnesses who helped defend election officials against Lake’s failed challenge of her defeat to Democrat Katie Hobbs, but rejected a request for hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees for the attorneys who defended the officials.

In an order Tuesday, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson declined to impose sanctions against Lake and her lawyers, saying Lake’s failure to prove her case doesn’t “equate to a finding that her claims were, or were not, groundless and presented in bad faith.”

Thompson, who was appointed by former Republican Gov. Jan Brewer, pointed to a statistical analysis by a pollster who had testified on behalf of Lake. The witness, who conducts public-opinion polls and is not an election worker, claimed technical problems at polling places on Election Day had disenfranchised enough voters that it would have changed the outcome of the race in Lake’s favor. (read more)

Mrs Lake appeared on the Steve Bannon Warroom podcast earlier today to talk about her intent to file an appeal to the decision. {Direct Rumble Link}

Kari Lake:We’re going to the appeals court this week.

.

The Government Unconstitutional Manipulation of News


Armstrong Economics Blog/Corruption Re-Posted Dec 27, 2022 by Martin Armstron

Perhaps you will recall when Edward Snowden exposed the truth that the government was spying on American citizens, they called him a traitor and want to imprison him for life or even execute him for revealing that the government no longer complies with the Constitution.

Absolutely NOTHING came out of that and the government claimed it was Snowden who was risking national security. Now with everything coming out from Twitter, the same thing is taking place at YouTube, Google, Microsoft, you name it. That little backdoor that Microsoft uses with these endless updates to see what you are searching supposedly for target advertising, you can bet your life that also includes the very same scheme.

And these are the people pushing us into World War and they are desperate to misrepresent absolutely everything. Zelensky is destroying his own country and he will live comfortably with a golden deal with the USA when the final collapse unfolds in Ukraine. These people have no regard for human rights no less our constitutional rights. They think they will rule the world, but our computer shows they will destroy everything and they will not retain power. But naturally, they do not want to hear that.