Posted originally on the CTH on April 19, 2023 | Sundance
Some insider threats are more equal than others; so goes the position of the nation’s biggest leaker of classified documents in modern history, and it’s not Jack Teixeira.
This story shows the importance of what was hidden by the combined efforts of the national security apparatus in 2018.
Readers here are familiar, but most Americans are not, with how Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner leaked a top-secret classified Title-1 FISA application in March of 2017.
Then the Vice-Chair of the SSCI, Senator Warner instructed Senate Security Director James Wolfe to leak the 82-page FISA application assembled against Carter Page. On the afternoon of March 17, 2017, Wolfe took 82 pictures of the “Read and Return” document that was delivered to the SSCI basement SCIF by FBI Supervisory Special Agent Brian Dugan from the Washington Field Office.
Later that evening, Wolfe sent the images to journalist Ali Watkins using an encrypted messaging app. Ms. Watkins then shared the FISA content with her peers and used the information to leverage a top-tier job at the New York Times. The media were off to the races talking about FBI surveillance of the Trump campaign and using the leaked FISA as evidence of the ongoing investigation, later known as Crossfire Hurricane. Three days later, March 20, 2017, after coordinating the intent of the narrative creation with Mark Warner, FBI Director James Comey publicly admitted the Trump-Russia investigation for the first time.
After James Wolfe was arrested for the FISA application leak, his defense lawyers threatened to expose the role of the Senate Intelligence Committee in the leak and subpoena the members as witnesses. The Mueller/Weissmann team, then in charge of all DOJ operations that touched on Trump-Russia, took apart the evidence of Wolfe’s conduct, and DC Attorney Jessie Liu dropped most of the charges against Wolfe. Mueller then ran cover for Mark Warner, and eventually – out of an abundance of caution to maintain the need for the coverup operation – the Mueller/Weissmann team then made the FISA application public. The rest is history.
Keep in mind, I could be civilly sued if anything written above as an asserted truth was false. I’m not, because the truth is the defense. All of this happened.
At the time of the Mark Warner TSCI leak, no one outside the DOJ-FBI and Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) had ever seen a FISA application. Heck, in 2017 through early 2018, it was considered a classified intelligence breech to even discuss the FISA process, the procedures or the court itself. People forget that.
The 2017 leaking of the FISA application was the biggest national security breach in years, perhaps seconded only to the 2017 leaking of the TSCI transcript from National Security Advisor Michael Flynn’s call with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak, given to the Washington Post by the FBI a month earlier.
So, it’s somewhat hypocritical and ironic to see SSCI Chairman Mark Warner now railing against the Pentagon and Director of National Intelligence over not being provided the details of documents leaked by a low-level military servicemember in the Massachusetts Air National Guard.
WASHINGTON DC – The Senate Intelligence Committee is demanding the Pentagon hand over copies of all the classified documents leaked by Massachusetts Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira.
The 21-year-old serviceman was accused by the Department of Defense of leaking “sensitive and highly-classified material” into a chat on the encrypted communications platform Discord. It then made its way onto other social media platforms. He was charged on Friday.
In a letter addressed to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., and ranking member Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said the leak prompted concerns about “serious deficiencies” in the government’s security protocols.
“According to public reporting, A1C Teixeira began sharing classified information and classified documents within a social media platform as early as December 2022—nearly four months before the government’s discovery,” the letter, obtained by Fox News Digital, read. “These disclosures indicate serious deficiencies in the government’s insider threat and security vetting protocols.” (read more)
It’s official – the US is at war with Russia. This is no longer a proxy war regardless of whether an official declaration has been made. Washington confirmed that there is “a small U.S. military presence,” but only made the admission after the Pentagon data leak. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby insists American soldiers are not fighting on the battlefield.
“I won’t talk to the specifics of numbers and that kind of thing. But to get to your exact question, there is a small U.S. military presence at the embassy in conjunction with the Defense Attachés office to help us work on accountability of the material that is going in and out of Ukraine,” Kirby said, claiming the troops are connecting to a specific embassy. The initial data leak showed that there are also at least 50 troops from the UK on the ground in Ukraine, along with military personnel from 33 NATO nations.
The New York Times reported on Monday morning that NATO members are amassing their troops along the border. “NATO is rapidly moving from what the military calls deterrence by retaliation to deterrence by denial. In the past, the theory was that if the Russians invaded, member states would try to hold on until allied forces, mainly American and based at home, could come to their aid and retaliate against the Russians to try to push them back,” Steven Erlanger wrote. But NATO is going on the offensive rather than the defensive this time around. “To prevent that, to deter by denial, means a revolution in practical terms: more troops based permanently along the Russian border, more integration of American and allied war plans, more military spending and more detailed requirements for allies to have specific kinds of forces and equipment to fight, if necessary, in pre-assigned places,” the journalist wrote.
The war in Ukraine has already cost more than any war since World War II. Ukraine is not a NATO member, and there has never been a situation where NATO prepared its troops to battle a country unaffiliated with its alliance. Russia is completely backed into a corner now and the war must escalate. Putin will not retreat or surrender. Russia does not have the option to surrender as the world powers would swoop in and take over the nation, including its very valuable resources, which they’ve wanted all along. Zelensky is no longer running the show, and the global elites will decide how quickly to escalate this battle. Countless men, women, and children will die, all for the pride of a few who want to destroy the world to Build Back Better.
Chinese President Xi Jinping announced that he is preparing for war. The military budget will grow by about 7.2% this year after it has already doubled over the past decade. This is not a sudden decision. China has been quietly positioning itself for quite some time and has taken notes over Russia’s missteps with Ukraine. The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is now drafting soldiers, and veterans and college-educated students will be at the top of the list.
Wars are now fought through intelligence and strategies rather than pure brute strength. The PLA is seeking out both women and men and is particularly interested in those with a STEM background. China’s announcement comes after Texas Republican Rep. Michael McCaul visited Taiwan to “provide deterrence to China.” Worse, McCaul told the international press that America would fight alongside Taiwan if Congress approved.
In typical political fashion, McCaul proposed a world war! “Taiwan is in a very different position from Ukraine,” McCaul said. “Number one, they’re not battle tested or ready. They are not prepared for war.” His solution? “When you look at Ukraine, they had NATO supporting them. You don’t have NATO in the Pacific,” he continued. “That’s why when looking at Japan, South Korea, Philippines, Australia, we need to start having these discussions as a deterrent for peace.”
Peace was never an option with Ukraine, and Zelensky made it known that he would not meet Moscow on any agreement. In fact, NATO and others directly helped Kiev break its promises to Moscow, such as France and Germany helping to broker the Minsk Agreement hoax to buy time for Ukraine to build up its military. China has a strategy and a mission.
Losing Taiwan would be seen as an unfathomable loss, and they are prepared to go to war against any nation that intervenes. The West has already stretched itself thin by hyper-fixating on Ukraine as their own economies crumble. Interestingly, US intelligence services believe China will invade Taiwan in 2027. The computer also indicates that a world war could peak as early as 2027, with 2024-2027 being a period of concern.
The Biden crime family’s activities are coming to light after a bank with ties to China handed over records to Republican lawmakers. Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa reached out to numerous banks for information without luck. “We are investigating the domestic and international business dealings of President Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, and other Biden associates and family members to determine whether these activities compromise U.S. national security and President Biden’s ability to lead with impartiality,” they stated in a joint letter. Cathay Bank was the only bank that was willing to aid in the investigation.
Cathay Bank revealed that Rob Walker, a Biden family associated, received a $3 million payment from a Chinese firm. Walker distributed these funds to the Bidens the following day. The alleged payments were made to Hunter Biden for $610,692; the president’s brother James Biden for $360,000; Hunter’s mistress and wife of deceased son Beau, Hallie Biden, for $25,000; last of all, $70,000 was paid to an unknown Biden. Twelve additional transactions are currently under investigation.
The corruption began while Biden was Obama’s vice president. As indicated in the joint letter:
“The convergence of the Biden family’s political and business lives began during the Obama-Biden Administration. Obama Administration White House visitor logs show Hunter Biden’s business partner visited the White House at least 27 times during President Biden’s vice presidency. Hunter Biden’s business partner—Eric Schwerin—was later nominated for a position in the Obama-Biden Administration and handled then-Vice President Biden’s tax returns while he was in office and Schwerin was president of Rosemont Seneca Partners— another Hunter Biden-affiliated company. Republicans must track the dollars to uncover whether the current President himself benefitted from these transactions and whether the payments were from nations opposed to U.S. interests.”
Now-defunct CEFC China Energy, with direct ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), wired $1 million to one of Hunter’s business ventures called Hudson West III. Northern International Capital Holdings, a CEFC associate, sent $5 million to Hudson West III. Hudson West III used the money to send $4.8 million to Owasco P.C. and Owasco LLC, and Lion Hall Group, owned by the president’s brother James Biden. Owasco P.C. sent over 20 wire transfer to Lion Hall Group. Hunter received a $500,000 a month retainer from Hunter West III on top of a $100,000 per month fee. I am assuming that is a lot of crack. James Biden received $65,000 per month.
Senator Johnson believes the CCP may have more dirt on the Biden’s and called this release a warning shot. “They willingly gave us the documents that backed up the Treasury records. Is that a Communist Party’s shot across President Biden’s bow? Listen, this is some of the information we have. If you don’t toe the line and do things that please us, we will release even more information,” stated Johnson. The House Oversight Committee needs to take this matter seriously. America’s national security is at risk if the sitting president is compromised.
Posted originally on the CTH on April 16, 2023 | Sundance
Tucker Carlson has interviewed Twitter CEO Elon Musk and will broadcast the interview on Monday at 8:00pm ET.
If Carlson had the accurate and full context of the background situation, he would be able to ask the right questions. It appears Mr. Carlson does have the key issues well understood. This should be a good interview.
In this preview segment {Direct Rumble Link Here}, Musk admits his mind was blown when he discovered the extent of the full government access to everything that was happening on Twitter. He essentially confirms two key elements. First, our long-held framework of Jack’s Magic Coffee Shop, is accurate. Second, Musk had no idea when he bought it.
There has been an ongoing debate about whether Elon Musk was aware of the U.S. government and intelligence community control over Twitter prior to the purchase; with many people saying there is no way that Musk could not know given the scale of the money involved, $42 billion and the due diligence that generally follows such transactions.
However, in this interview Musk states he had no idea how much operational control and influence the government and intelligence apparatus held over the platform prior to the purchase.
Readers here are so far ahead of the curve on this story, it’s kind of cool, funny, and yet frustrating at the same time. Jack’s Magic Coffee Shop is all a wild conspiracy theory born from the oddly wired brain of some dude in the corner of the internet; until suddenly it’s not.
Factually, it has been visible since the U.S. Government operation began in 2011/2012, yet no one was willing to believe it. For several years, CTH has been outlining the relationship between DHS and social media, specifically Twitter. However, as I said from the outset of this new awakening moment, I promise you things are not what they seem.
As noted earlier, and it is worth repeating, let me put some context to the dynamic that will hopefully clarify the issue and perhaps the context will help explain what we are seeing and not seeing as this unfolds. There are going to be a lot of citations to fill in the details, and understanding the modern Fourth Branch of Government is critical.
♦ Elevator Speech: Twitter was/is to the U.S. government as TikTok is to China. The overarching dynamic is the need to control public perceptions and opinions. DHS has been in ever increasing control of Twitter since the public-private partnership was formed in 2011/2012. Jack Dorsey lost control and became owner emeritus. As he now admits, Elon Musk had no idea.
To explain the background activity of Twitter in a way that readers could understand, I used the metaphor of Twitter as Jack’s Magic Coffee Shop.
…”The metaphorical Jack had a great idea, open a coffee shop where the beverages were free and use internal advertising as the income subsidy to operate the business. Crowds came for the free coffee, comfy couches, fellowship, conversation and enjoyment.
It didn’t matter where Jack got the coffee, how he paid for it, or didn’t, or what product advertising the customers would be exposed to while there. Few people thought about such things. Curiously, it didn’t matter what size the crowd was; in the backroom of Jack’s Coffee Shop they were able to generate massive amounts of never-ending free coffee at extreme scales.
Over time, using the justification of parking lot capacity and township regulations, not everyone would be able to park and enter. Guards were placed at the entrance to pre-screen customers. Some were denied. A debate began.”…
Here’s what happened….
In/around 2011 and 2012 the U.S. Government, Obama administration and the U.S. State Dept., came into Jack’s Coffee Shop and asked him for help.
The govt officials needed to deliver massive amounts of coffee to their allies in Egypt, Libya and the middle east to support the Arab Spring party. Jack told the officials he was willing to help but didn’t have the capacity to deliver on that scale. The officials told Jack not to worry, they would handle that aspect – he just needed to agree to the partnership and let them utilize his business. Jack agreed.
[Note, the timing here is not accidental. The operational agreement happened at the same time DHS was fine tuning the domestic surveillance systems to monitor social media platforms and target political opposition. See The Fourth Branch.]
Over the next several weeks, months and eventually years, Jack watched as hundreds of new employees flooded into the business to facilitate the rapid expansion. Along with a myriad of new faces, new equipment was delivered, and soon Jack found himself looking at heavy industrial equipment erecting large buildings in the back lots of the property. Coffee urns were replaced with massive industrial coffee delivery systems that far exceeded anything Jack ever imagined.
Business was booming, but slowly Jack realized he had lost control. Jack was riding a dragon.
As the years progressed, thousands of new employees moved into the offices of the new buildings and massive pipelines were producing incredible scales of coffee. Jack noted offices of the United Nations Human Rights Commission were now creating unique blends of coffee for international distribution, and the European Commission had an entire suite of specially trained coffee production engineers creating alternate combinations and flavors.
By 2018, Jack had essentially become an “owner emeritus”; his name was on the shingle, but the day-to-day operation of Jack’s Magic Coffee Shop had turned into an industrial park complex.
Jack saw his personal wealth attached to the success of the business, but operationally, his only responsibility was traveling to symposiums and venues where he would stand on stage and wax philosophically about the future of a coffee delivery organization he no longer controlled. Day-to-day operations were now controlled by experts in the scale of massive industrial coffee. Those experts came from the Dept of Homeland Security.
[The Intercept] – […] Behind closed doors, and through pressure on private platforms, the U.S. government has used its power to try to shape online discourse. According to meeting minutes and other records appended to a lawsuit filed by Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, a Republican who is also running for Senate, discussions have ranged from the scale and scope of government intervention in online discourse to the mechanics of streamlining takedown requests for false or intentionally misleading information.
“Platforms have got to get comfortable with gov’t. It’s really interesting how hesitant they remain,” Microsoft executive Matt Masterson, a former DHS official, texted Jen Easterly, a DHS director, in February.
In a March meeting, Laura Dehmlow, an FBI official, warned that the threat of subversive information on social media could undermine support for the U.S. government. Dehmlow, according to notes of the discussion attended by senior executives from Twitter and JPMorgan Chase, stressed that “we need a media infrastructure that is held accountable.” (read more)
To streamline the operational efficiencies as the industrial coffee system grew, direct portals between the Washington DC government offices and Jack’s Magic Coffee Shop were created. Officials no longer needed to travel to the location of Jack’s Coffee Shop in order to operate the valves, mixers, grinders and systems to generate the scale of blends being produced.
Experts could now use direct portals to the facility to operate the coffee production systems remotely, with a limited number of specially trained (FBI) coffee engineers doing the laborious tasks and maintenance at the facility.
The badges were intimidating to Jack who went to sleep every night under the realization he no longer had any clue about how the coffee shop communication business was operating.
[…] The extent to which the DHS initiatives affect Americans’ daily social feeds is unclear. During the 2020 election, the government flagged numerous posts as suspicious, many of which were then taken down, documents cited in the Missouri attorney general’s lawsuit disclosed. And a 2021 report by the Election Integrity Partnership at Stanford University found that of nearly 4,800 flagged items, technology platforms took action on 35 percent — either removing, labeling, or soft-blocking speech, meaning the users were only able to view content after bypassing a warning screen. The research was done “in consultation with CISA,” the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
Prior to the 2020 election, tech companies including Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, Discord, Wikipedia, Microsoft, LinkedIn, and Verizon Media met on a monthly basis with the FBI, CISA, and other government representatives. According to NBC News, the meetings were part of an initiative, still ongoing, between the private sector and government to discuss how firms would handle misinformation during the election. (keep reading)
After several years of increasing distance from the Coffee Shop operation he initially started, eventually Jack decided it was silly to own an industrial coffee delivery system that he didn’t control. So, Jack decided to sell his shingle to someone else.
Enter, Elon Musk.
Billionaire Elon Musk, a man intimately familiar with large industrial systems and government, had been watching the disgruntled visitors to Jack’s Coffee Shop who were no longer permitted to enter. Musk saw an inequity between the amount of coffee that was available, and the scarcity of the coffee amid a community blacklisted by the operational executives and managers of the shop.
With expressions of both interest and fellowship, Mr. Elon Musk told Mr. Jack Dorsey he would take ownership of Jack’s Magic Coffee Shop and remove any discriminatory guards that were now controlling permitted entry. Jack had no aversion to Elon and eventually a deal was brokered.
After the transfer of sale was complete, Mr. Musk fired many of the guards and then set about checking the payroll to identify which group of shop employees were actually involved in the generation of coffee, and which employees were involved in promotion of the industrial coffee delivery system that were no longer needed.
Within this process, Elon Musk begins to discover the complex nature of what, at least at the surface, appeared to be an uncomplicated coffee shop. Why is there a 500-room glass walled office building on the backside of the coffee shop? What is going on in that GEC building that has anything to do with selling domestic coffee?
The sunlight revelations began surfacing several months ago, when someone of reasonably intelligent curiosity finally asked Elon Musk the right question about this direct portal from DHS into the coffee shop. Twitter owner Elon Musk had no idea a DHS portal into the coffee shop existed and what it would be for.
To put it in brutally honest terms, the State Dept initially created the partnership between the U.S. government and Twitter (Arab Spring). However, when the operations needed to become domestically centered (post Trump election), another agency stepped in. The United States Dept of Homeland Security (DHS) is the operating system running in the background of Twitter.
The State Dept started it with GEC, but ultimately DHS, via CISA, controlled Twitter. The justification for control was ‘national security.’ Mr. Elon Musk is now the face of a quasi govt controlled enterprise. This is why what we see being released by Elon Musk in the Twitter Files is actually a filtered outcome as a result of this new ownership dynamic.
Put simply, DHS stakeholders, to include the DOJ, FBI and Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), are mitigating any consequential public exposure of their domestic surveillance activity by controlling and feeding Mr. Musk selected information about their prior Twitter operations. DHS is still the ghost in the machine.
The larger objective of U.S. involvement in social media has always been monitoring and surveillance of the public conversation, and then ultimately controlling and influencing public opinion.
I will continue peeling these types of issues apart, applying sunlight as heavily as possible, because the mechanisms and the institutions themselves need to be destroyed. They cannot be reformed because they have assembled too much power. They need to be completely defunded and removed.
[…] “Intelligence agencies backed new startups designed to monitor the vast flow of information across social networks to better understand emerging narratives and risks.” [HERE]
Posted originally on the CTH on April 16, 2023 | Sundance
Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank, appears on Face the Nation to describe the current status of EU success in shrinking the economy to achieve parity with the shrinking of energy development. Ms. Lagarde is very happy with their ‘management of the transition’ so far, and sees slow economic growth combined with a citizenry happily accepting the lower standard of living, the new normal.
As Lagarde outlines, the lowered economic activity is helping the central banks support the objectives of the government officials and corporations who are giving the instructions. Overall, she is optimistic the common man and woman will continue accepting less ability to achieve personal economic and financial success, as the bankers and politicians continue managing the western transition. Things are going swimmingly. WATCH:
MARGARET BRENNAN: We’re joined now by Christine Lagarde, former head of the IMF, now the president of the European Central Bank. Good morning.
PRESIDENT OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK CHRISTINE LAGARDE: Good morning, Margaret. Lovely to be back.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Good to have you here, and your recovery is going all right?
MADAME LAGARDE: Yes, in a couple of days, I think I’ll be fine.
MARGARET BRENNAN: I’m glad to hear that. You have a long list of things ahead of you. And I want to ask you about the global recovery. You were speaking a few days ago and you said the recovery for the economy is fragile and uncertain in this country. The Fed thinks we’ll see a mild recession later this year. What is it that you predict?
MADAME LAGARDE: First of all, there is recovery. That’s, I think, a point that was not really firm only six months ago where we all assumed that there would be a recession, if only a technical one. If you look at all the forecasts at the moment, it’s all positive. It’s been slightly downgraded. But overall, we have a recovery and we are faced with high uncertainty because of multiple factors, you know, from all corners of the world. It’s the war in Ukraine. It’s the financial stability that clearly has been shaken up a bit by the US and Switzerland development. It’s inflation that we are fighting. It’s all that which really create a hollow of uncertainty around a recovery that we want to embed. That’s pretty much where we are.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So there were those recent bank failures here in the United States, also one in Switzerland. Given that, it sounds like you’re saying you don’t see a hard landing, you’re seeing a positive trajectory for the global economy?
MADAME LAGARDE: I think we have a narrow path to navigate, which requires that both the governments and the central banks around the world adopt the right policies.
MARGARET BRENNAN: OPEC just cut output.
MADAME LAGARDE: Hm?
MARGARET BRENNAN: OPEC just cut output, but you don’t see that as a disruption?
MADAME LAGARDE: I know. And- and we have to be very attentive. But in the meantime, if you look at- I’ll have to look at Europe at the moment. We have reduced our overall consumption of gas energy, for instance, by more than 15 percent. So it’s not as if we negotiated here or there. We just cut down our energy consumption, number one. Number two, we have renegotiated with multiple partners ranging from Norway to the United States of America, which is a big supplier of our energy. And I think that our dependency, which we learned the hard way about, has significantly declined. So I think that we moved from the illusion of plenty of energy, free money, to a time of resilience and building buffers. This is what has happened.
MARGARET BRENNAN: It’s interesting to hear that optimism. I mean, given the bank failures we just saw, you hear from bank CEOs in this country, this idea that they’re getting more cautious about lending money, largely that there’s some contraction in credit there. How concerned are you and how does that complicate your planning?
MADAME LAGARDE: It’s funny you should ask, complication because in a way it facilitates my planning and it complicates the future as far as growth.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Because it slows down business activity so you don’t have to raise rates as much or as frequently.
MADAME LAGARDE: We don’t have to reduce. We’ll see. Because we need to really measure what will come out of this- this financial events that took place recently. What impact will it have? How will banks react? How will they assess risk and how much credit will they lend? But if they don’t lend too much credit and if they manage their risk, it might reduce the work that we have to do to reduce inflation, okay? But if they reduce too much credit, then it will weigh on growth excessively. So it’s a fine balance to have between credit risk, good management on the one hand, and on the other hand, financing the economy as is expected by- by the business community. The business community wants to invest at the moment. Some of them have big buffers and they can use those buffers, others are going to need credit financing from the banking sector and the markets, both of them.
MARGARET BRENNAN: I want to ask you about the U.S.. And it’s not a political question, it’s an economic one. But there are predictions that the U.S. could default in its national debt as soon as June, some say September, and we have a political standoff in this country, virtually no negotiation happening on how to resolve this. Does that undermine your confidence in the United States? And what message does that send to the world?
MADAME LAGARDE: I have huge confidence in the United States. You know, ever since my year in this country, and this city in ’73, ’74, I have had confidence in this country and I just cannot believe that they would let such a major, major disaster happen of the United States defaulting on its debt. This is not possible. I cannot believe that it would happen. But if it did happen, it would have very, very negative impact, not just for this country where confidence would be challenged, but around the world. Let’s face it, this is the largest economy. It’s a major leader in economic growth around the world. It cannot let that happen. I understand the politics, I’ve been in politics myself. But there is a time when the higher interest of a nation has to prevail. I’m sorry.
MARGARET BRENNAN: And you think that will happen?
MADAME LAGARDE: I have huge trust in this country yet again.
MARGARET BRENNAN: You’re bringing a lot of optimism to a show where we don’t have a lot of optimism.
MADAME LAGARDE: Oh. I’m sorry (laughs)
MARGARET BRENNAN: No, I like it. It’s interesting. It’s a change. I want to ask you, though, about what you just said in terms of U.S. leadership. You look to the other side of the globe and Xi Jinping has said he wants China to be the world’s leading power by 2049. And Beijing is very interlinked into so many economies, particularly in Europe. Is the U.S. losing global influence?
MADAME LAGARDE: There is clearly a competition between these- these large economies. The U.S. is the first economy in the world. China is clearly competing, and is putting all forces in that competition. I think competition is healthy. It has to stimulate innovation. It has to stimulate productivity. But it’s inevitable that these two large economies are facing each other. What I hope very much is that they can have a dialogue because, you know, all these relationships, whether it’s trade, whether it’s politics, whether it’s economic development, whether it is financial stability, it’s a two-way street. We cannot ignore each other, and trade should not be confrontational. It has to be careful. It has to identify the areas that are strategic for one country or the other- or all the others. But it shouldn’t be confrontational. I’m on the same page as Henry Kissinger on that, or Kevin Rudd, the new Australian ambassador. Conflict is not unavoidable.
MARGARET BRENNAN: But there is, it seems, increased political pressure to choose between the United States and China in many ways in some of these political capitals. Is that even practical from an economic point of view?
MADAME LAGARDE: It would lead to economic downside, the amount of which is uncertain. Is the global economy going to be affected by one or X percent? There are multiple forecasts, all of them are negative. So the decoupling and the sort of bipolarization of the world would lead to less economic growth, less prosperity in the world, more poverty across the world. So I think that this is something that should be by all means avoided.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Madame Lagarde, it’s always wonderful to have you here. Thank you. We’ll be right back.
Delivering statistics on gun deaths among teenagers, NBC News Chuck Todd discovers that black teenagers are killing each other at a much higher rate than white and asian kids. Todd is shocked, shocked, at the outcome. WATCH:
The rumors of cultural violence have Chuck Todd perplexed….
Posted originally on the CTH on April 15, 2023 | Sundance
I am a reasonably intelligent person, generally of mild and polite disposition; perhaps blessed by the grace of a loving God and brutally practical outlook therein, and with the acuity to look at things from a slightly less complicated perspective.
I have watched, viewed, read and consumed the Potemkin Village discussion across a broad spectrum of platforms for several weeks. I have watched the news, read the headlines, researched the general promotions from a wide variety of sources and personalities. Heck, yesterday, I even forced myself to watch a painful podcast [LINK], which included the insufferable pontifications of Buck Sexton and Clay Travis as they discussed the Trump -vs- DeSantis popular genre of domestic 2024 politics.
The world is full of small voices shouting the exact same shiny things in unison. However, one thing is abundantly clear… everyone in conservative and republican politics is consumed by the 2024 puppet show and focused, to the exclusion of all other intelligent review, on the Potemkin Village of federal political constructs.
Let me be clear…. Nothing, not one single thing…. about candidates, debates, endorsements, media support, branding, imaging, leadership, effectiveness, policy, polling, communications, digital outreach, social media platforms, rallies or love of country matters in the 2024 election. None of it matters. The outcome of the 2024 presidential contest will be determined by ONLY ONE THING….
….ENVELOPES!
That’s it.
That’s the sum total of what matters.
Envelopes containing ballots.
Red envelopes -vs- Blue envelopes, and who can gather the most envelopes. That’s it folks. That’s the only thing that matters.
When Team Obama watch their opposition deciding on who is the best person to reach the “independent”, “middle”, or “swing voters”… as if voters really mattered, the David Axelrod’s, Marc Elias’s, David Plouffe and Barack Obama’s of the world laugh. I mean straight up hysterically belly laugh.
…”the RNC is still conducting ‘voter outreach‘!”….
More than half the country is still focused on a political pretense that is akin to using a flip phone in a smart phone world.
When the DNC sees the RNC focused on selecting the best congressional candidates who can be the best representatives for a district in Virginia… the entire mechanism of the donor class behind the DNC orders another round of drinks.
Debates don’t matter…. Did you forget Arizona 2022? Katie Hobbs giggled when asked about why no debates.
Candidates don’t matter…. Did you forget Pennsylvania 2022? When grunge clad, hoodie-wearing, John Fetterman promoted pancake syrup as the best solution to the Medicare crisis (or something equally as bat-shit crazy from his compromised mental state).
Rally size doesn’t matter…. Did you forget the Biden campaign audiences that could fit into one mid-sized SUV?
Qualifications do not matter. Intelligence, policy, legislative accomplishments, executive experience, success or lack thereof in any life endeavor… NONE of this matters.
All of these former aspects of the political industry are gone, they have absolutely no bearing on the outcome of federal elections.
The only reason these insufferable discussions still exist is to maintain the illusion of a political business that generates money. The business they are pretending to still exist is like Blockbuster video being subsidized by corporations who sell streaming services. The media pretend the traditional business model of elections is still viable because without it, there is no need for them.
There is only one function of modern political industry that matters… Collecting envelopes. That’s it!
It doesn’t even matter whose name is on the paper inside the envelope. The people who switched from Flip Phones to Smart Phones don’t even pay attention to the candidate names on the ballots any longer. We elect dead people now.
The entire mechanism of American political outcomes is now one really simple process. There are Blue envelopes to locate, and there are Red envelopes to locate. Tune in to the news in November of 2024 and find out which team collected the most envelopes.
♦ Dear President Donald Trump, go ahead and hold the rallies…. continue putting out the platform…. continue using your podium to promote vision, excitement and direction in the largest scale possible to save the nation. Continue providing fuel for the cultural battle and primary battle being waged in the social media sphere by warriors for the MAGA movement…. However, in the totality of the 2024 presidential contest, this effort should be -at most- 20% of the industrial political campaign.
80% of the entirety of the money spent, the effort exhausted, the assembly constructed, the people and supporters assembled, should be focused – to the exclusion of all other things – on the process of maximizing envelope collection.
Make that paradigm shift, and 2024 is easily within reach. Ignore it, and you might as well use a carrier pigeon to send your next email.
The RNC is no help. The RNC is focused on EVERYTHING that doesn’t matter.
You cannot win an election if you rely on the RNC to make this adjustment. You are going to have to organize this assembly on your own while enlisting the resources of the MAGA army.
The DNC already has the network of thousands of community activist organizations and business units at work in preparation for the 2024 envelope gathering operation. They do not care about voters; the wants and needs of the people on the front of the envelope are an arcane annoyance, irrelevant to the DNC objective.
For the Republican presidential primary, whoever contracts Catherine Engelbrecht and the coast-to-coast organization of True The Vote first, will likely win.
Book sales, TV ads, legislative accomplishments, cultural wokeism, school choice, education policy, fiscal policy, foreign policy, debates, political experience, candidate qualifications, polls, rallies, crowd sizes, endorsements, not one single part of any of that matters in this electoral combat. There is only one thing that matters,…. collecting the most envelopes.
… And with that message clearly stated, here’s the metaphor for a brutally honest visit to the next national RNC meeting, along with a prediction for exactly what their reaction would be…..
…Enjoy your day!
“Here lies the career of Hill-a-ree; forgotten in twenty twenty-three. For fifteen years she ran for president; not a bad record for a New York resident.”
Posted originally on the CTH on April 14, 2023 | Sundance
Always keep in mind that retails sales from the Dept of Commerce [DATA HERE pdf] are always calculated in dollars. Inflation can artificially skewer retail sales if prices increase, and yet consumer purchases decline at a rate lower than the increase in price. Fewer units sold at higher prices can give the false impression of increased sales.
During an inflationary environment, when prices increase yet retail sales drop, there are substantially fewer units being purchased. Overall purchases at stores, restaurants and online declined a seasonally adjusted 1% in March from the prior month.
During the time measured gasoline was less expensive, so that led the drop in fuel sales; however, drops in dept stores (-2.5%), General Merchandise (-3.0%), electronics (-2.1%), and building supplies (-2.1%), shows another broad-based pullback of Main Street consumer spending. (pdf here)
These outcomes are in general alignment with what many people have shared via regional ground reports. Grocery store sales are flat despite major increases in grocery store prices (+10 to +20%). People are buying fewer grocery store units and making their food budget stretch as far as possible.
Durable goods are not considered essential, and sales of cars, electronics and department store products are much lower.
I am actually a little (pleasantly) surprised to see restaurant sales holding (+0.1%), despite the massive increase in fresh food costs. I thought people would eat out less, but the total decline in restaurant foot traffic seems to be in the single digits. I guess people can afford it more than I anticipated.
(Via Wall Street Journal) – […] The retail-sales report mainly captures spending on goods rather than most services such as travel, rent and utilities, offering only a partial picture of spending. The Commerce Department will release more complete figures later this month.
Spending on air travel was robust in March but outlays on other services like hotels declined, transaction data from Bank of America credit and debit cards showed. And the cost of shelter has increased faster than the overall rate of inflation, federal data show.
Some Americans have had to make adjustments to allow them to keep spending.
Recent data suggest many consumers are more cautious about purchases of goods they often have to borrow money to buy. In March, spending declined in big-ticket categories including vehicle sales, electronics, furniture, and at home-improvement and department stores.
“The current challenges in the used auto industry are well documented,” CarMax Inc. Chief Executive Bill Nash said on a call with analysts this week, “with affordability pressured by broad inflation, climbing interest rates, tightening lending standards and prolonged low consumer confidence.” (more)
I have created this site to help people have fun in the kitchen. I write about enjoying life both in and out of my kitchen. Life is short! Make the most of it and enjoy!
This is a library of News Events not reported by the Main Stream Media documenting & connecting the dots on How the Obama Marxist Liberal agenda is destroying America
Centinel2012 