Suspicious Cat’s Correct – Johnson and MacGregor Give Details


Posted originally on the CTH on April 14, 2023 | Sundance

In an era of universal deceit, it should not be a surprise for the suspicious cats to be more accurate.

Semi-related context for scope of fraud:  We know with demonstrable certainty that Hillary Clinton, the DNC, Fusion GPS, Chris Steele, DOJ, FBI and SSCI collaborated to create the fictitious premise called broadly “Trump-Russia collusion and interference in the 2016 election.”  The entire thing was bogus soup-to-nuts, all of it… make believe; none of it real.  So, how the hell did Mueller, Rosenstein and Weissmann indict Russians?

Now… Fast forward to the current classified intelligence leaks with the scale, scope and background of everything above in mind.  WATCH:

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In the next segment Douglas Macgregor gives his view, and makes some really good emphatic points about the facts within the intelligence leaks proving the United States government, OUR GOVERNMENT, is completely lying about Ukraine and other matters.

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What we think of as Washington DC is a Potemkin village.

All of it is a fabrication.

The real seat of power controlling government is the part we do not see.  The Fourth Branch of Government!

Only 32% of Lenders Profited on Mortgages in 2022


Armstrong Economics Blog/Real Estate Re-Posted Apr 13, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

The talking heads have been warning of a housing crash, but that is not what Socrates indicated. The 30-year fixed rate is around 6.89% at the time of this writing. Housing costs continue to rise, causing the costs of servicing mortgage debt to rise. Housing inventory is limited, and a recent report explains why we saw mass layoffs in the banking sector. The demand is still there and it is a sellers’ market. Cash is king when it comes to real estate for those who can afford it. Mortgage lenders are in trouble. In fact, only 32% of mortgage companies were profitable in 2022 compared to 98% in 2020.

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) recently announced that independent mortgage banks and subsidiaries of chartered banks lost around $301 for every mortgage they financed in 2022. This marks a 113% decline from the prior year’s average and the first-time banks are seeing losses on mortgage products. This is not 2008 when banks handed out loans to anyone who asked.

“The rapid rise in mortgage rates over a relatively short period of time, combined with extremely low housing inventory and affordability challenges, meant that both purchase and refinance volume plummeted,” said Marina Walsh, CMB, MBA’s Vice President of Industry Analysis. “The stellar profits of the previous two years dissipated because of the confluence of declining volume, lower revenues, and higher costs per loan.” Production costs reached a high of $10,624 per loan last year. Productivity was 1.5 loans originations per production employee, down from 2.5 per employee the year prior, and an indicator of why we are seeing layoffs in the banking sector. No one is refinancing at these rates either and most chose a fixed rate, as we saw what happened in 2008 with adjustable costs.

First-time mortgages reached an all-time high of $323,780 last year, up from $298,324, the largest annual increase since the MBA began collecting data. The increased cost of loans increased the cost of serving mortgages. The MBA expects volume to decline further in 2023 before rallying in 2024 and 2025. The banking crisis may lead to banks and lenders selling off their mortgage debts once they cannot afford to service the debt. Again, the housing crisis today is not relative to the 2008 crash.

Credit Where Due, Glenn Greenwald Nails This Discussion of Media and the U.S. Intel Leaks


Posted originally on the CTH on April 14, 2023 | Sundance 

There are times when CTH and the perspective of Glenn Greenwald do not align. This is not one of those times. {Direct Rumble Link Here}

In this segment with Tucker Carlson, Glenn Greenwald nails the agenda, motives and outcomes of the U.S. media as they relate to the recent classified intelligence leaks. This is a solid three-minute encapsulation of the problem. WATCH:

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Tucker Carlson Discusses U.S. Intel Leaks and Media Effort to Hide the U.S. Govt Lies


Posted originally on the CTH on April 13, 2023 | Sundance 

During his opening monologue tonight, Tucker Carlson outlined the latest developments on the U.S. classified information leaks and the media effort to avoid talking about the government lies within them.

It really is quite a remarkable development to witness in real time.  Corporate media, a completely collapsed fourth-estate, playing the distracting role on behalf of the intelligence apparatus they are supposed to keep in check.  WATCH:

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Social -vs- Economic Priorities


Posted originally on the CTH on April 13, 2023 | Sundance

Prior to the 2012 election and the rise of the Sandra Fluke free birth control narrative, we used to call them social issues; however, the usefulness of cultural wars has morphed into the larger war of wokeism.

In the big picture, keeping the base GOPe voter distracted from the economic expansion of multinational globalism, the corporate ‘masters of the universe’ (ie. the Big Club), need to keep pushing anti-wokeism as a political strategy.

The cultural issues are useful tools to keep control of an alignment of voters.  It has always been thus, and even more important now that people are starting to realize the expansion of the rust belt.

The rust belt, the diminishment of the U.S. economic manufacturing base, was an outcome of corporate control over politics.  Corporations and banks seek profit, those profits are inflated by a U.S. service driven economic model.  Skilled jobs require higher wages.

If the skilled jobs can be outsourced to lower cost labor nations, the subsequent lowered labor costs drive bigger margins.  Again, it has always been thus.

At the core of the U.S. political issue, you discover that both wings of the DC UniParty agree with this basic economic model.  Republicans and Democrats now use the catchphrase ‘service driven economy‘ with bipartisan frequency.

Many voters no longer have any reference to an economic system that is anything except a ‘service driven economy’, yet nothing about that system provides long-term value for U.S. voters or workers.

Within this very specific dynamic, you find the root of the support for Donald J. Trump.  A larger, formerly considered silent majority who comprise the baseline middle class workforce, find common understanding with President Trump because he sees the flaws in the economic model.

Not coincidentally, it is only Donald Trump who has ever discussed these economic issues. Factually, no national politician in the modern era prior to Donald Trump ever dared broach the subject of economic nationalism, economic globalism and the negative consequences therein.  Republican candidates who would disagree on economic policy would find themselves in the target field of the corporations who fund the political system.

A general platform more akin to a code of omerta covered the entire subject of republican economic policy.

As the pandemic years have shown, economic security is deeply tied to national security.  As an outcome, economic policy ultimately drives foreign policy.  When combined, the economic and foreign policy outlooks form the structural alignment of the UniParty platform.

Following the downstream effect of multinational corporate influence, modern Democrats support expansionist and interventionist foreign policy.  Meanwhile, modern Republicans, previously called “neocons” have always supported expansionist and interventionist foreign policy.

Leadership of both parties now align in a singular foreign policy outlook; thus, we see support for the Ukraine spending and intervention by both Democrats and Republicans. However, outside the DC bubble of multinational corporate influence, the support for the interventionist foreign policy doesn’t exist in the same scale and scope.

Voters inside both the Democrat and Republican base do not support U.S. foreign policy intervention at the same level as the political leadership of both parties.  There is a structural break between the priorities of voters and the priorities of the elected officials.  None of this is new discussion, we all accept this basic reality and we see it every day amid the headlines.

With political leadership of both parties supporting the same economic outlook, and both parties supporting the same foreign policy outlook, we find the source of opposition against U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump.

Economic policy and foreign policy form the uniting bond that drives both parties to oppose Trump’s America First ideological outlook.

As long as Donald J Trump singularly represents the only counterforce against this UniParty globalist construct, he will continue to be targeted by the system of financial controllers who fund the political system.  For the sake of brevity this alignment of multinational corporate and financial economic interests is called “the big club.”

As part of the strategic political effort, the Republican wing of the Big Club needs to carve up the supporters of Donald Trump into smaller, easier to target, pieces.  This is where the value of the culture war, what is now considered as ‘wokeism‘, plays into the strategy of those who seek to control political outcomes and remove the threat that Trump represents to their financial interests.

In many ways, this is why we are seeing prominent Republican officeholders pushing the culture war as a tool for their own political advancement.  The same Big Club members who are directly fighting against the America-First economic agenda, are the same Big Club members who are funding the Republican politicians to push the culture war.

The corporations, billionaires and multinationals who are funding the Republican candidates do not have any vested interest in the culture war. For them the social issues are a tool, technique or insurance policy to guarantee security of the interest that does matter, their financial status.

There are trillions at stake, literally trillions.  Additionally, decades of their prior investment interests are contingent upon the ‘service driven economy’ being maintained.

Dollars drive the U.S. global trade and financial exchanges.  The multinationals, both corporations and banks, have pre-deployed investments all around the globe.  However, many of those investments are entirely contingent upon the retention of the U.S. economic system they pre-established before the investment was made.  President Donald J. Trump represents the threat to that entire financial system.

Once you understand this, then a great deal of the more nuanced and granular U.S. political moves, almost all of which are funded by the corporations and billionaires who are attached to the global investment process, begin to make sense.

Every non-Trump candidate, funded to create the opposition to America First, is part of this process to use anti-wokeism as a strategy.

With this level of money at stake, do not be surprised when you look at how much is being spent to construct the system that guarantees the continuation of globalism. The money spent in funding the Republican candidates to advance the distracting cultural war pales in comparison to the amount of money at risk in the 2024 election outcome.

That’s the baseline for this:

…“GOP leaders and candidates should take from this poll one important lesson: voters expect them to fight wokeness,” American Principles Project President Terry Schilling said. “Support for policies protecting families from gender ideology is off the charts, with the majority of the base showing a strong preference for tackling these issues. Meanwhile, approval of Republican establishment priorities was much more muted, with most of those surveyed even agreeing that GOP elected officials have given up too much ground in the culture war.”  

…“Any candidate who expects to win a Republican primary next year for any office needs to lead on cultural issues in order to win over voters,” Schilling said. “Perhaps the two most prominent leaders on these issues so far have been Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis, so it should be no surprise they are far and away the favorites in the presidential field. It’s time for the rest of the party to pay heed and set their priorities accordingly.” (more)

Candidate Donald Trump understands the real priorities of the Big Club extend beyond this useful cultural war, deep into the world of economics and foreign policy.

As each of the corporate funded Republican candidates hits the cultural war (wokeism) effort as part of the distracting political strategy, watch President Trump generally agree with the ‘social issues’, but then counter the distraction with arguments specifically targeting economic and foreign policy.

The entire field of Republican candidates will hold the same economic and foreign policy outlook (Ukraine example), with only Donald Trump representing an alternative.

Bragg Sued for Election Interference


Armstrong Economics Blog/Corruption Re-Posted Apr 13, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

It is clear to everyone that Alvin Bragg is going after Donald Trump to prevent him from running in the 2024 Presidential Election. The Manhattan DA, who campaigned solely on a promise to take down Trump, but failed over 100 times, has made a mockery of the US legal system. Since no one is above the law, Bragg is being sued for tampering with the upcoming election.

A man by the name of Gabe Whitley (Honest Gabe) filed charges in the US Federal Court in Indiana’s Southern District against Bragg, who he claims violated 18 U.S.C. § 241:

“Section 241 makes it unlawful for two or more persons to agree to injure, threaten, or intimidate a person in the United States in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured by the Constitution or laws of the Unites States or because of his or her having exercised such a right.”

Campaigning on a promise to destroy an individual certainly seems like intimidation. Perhaps Bragg hopes Biden will appoint him to the Supreme Court one day if he succeeds in his mission. In this case, Bragg is violating the American public’s right to vote. Trump has amassed a large group of supporters, and like it or not, they have the right to vote in our elections as taxpaying citizens. The FBI and intelligence agencies did everything possible to hide the dirt on Biden prior to the elections. This time it is (D)ifferent as they are scraping the bottom of the barrel to find anything to use against Trump.

Whitley posted on Facebook:

“Today I filed a lawsuit in the US Federal Courthouse Southern District of Indiana suing Alvin Bragg for interfering in the 2024 Presidential Election. This political persecution of Former President Trump is illegal and we Hoosiers will not tolerate any election interference.

America’s Elections are under attack by the Radical Democrats destroying our country and our free fair elections.

For far too long Democrats have been screaming Election Interference about Russia, Russia, Russia which was later debunked. We Republicans will continue to fight for your right to vote in a secure elections.”

Similar to those who went after the Clintons, people are afraid to directly go after Bragg since he is backed by Soros and all the big money on the left. The timing of Trump’s arrest is no coincidence. The American people were deprived of a fair election in 2020, and look at the state of our nation today. If Biden was really the most popular president in US election history, there would be no need to destroy his opponents.

Fox News Will Host the First GOP Presidential Debate in Wisconsin, August 2023


Posted originally on the CTH on April 12, 2023 | Sundance 

The ever-donor-aligned Republican National Committee has announced the first 2024 GOP presidential debate will take place in Paul Ryan’s home state of Wisconsin. The debate will be organized by Rupert Murdoch (Fox News) and livestreamed in partnership and sponsorship with Rumble and the Young America’s Foundation, a group led by GOPe favorite and former Wisconsin Governor, Scott Walker.  [Ronna Announcement Here]

Yeah…. sketchy.  All of it.   Rupert Murdoch, Paul Ryan, Bret Baier, Martha McCallum and Scott Walker… Gee, what could go wrong?

(Via Fox News) – “I am excited to announce that our first debate in Milwaukee will be in partnership with Fox News, Young America’s Foundation, and Rumble,” RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said in a statement first shared with Fox News on Wednesday.

The chairwoman, asked during an interview on News’ “Fox and Friends” on Wednesday morning, if there will be one or two debate stages, said “we’ll put the criteria out soon. We don’t know how many candidates there’s going to be so that will dictate whether there’s one or two stages. Right now I don’t see there being two stages but I could be wrong on that. The field’s forming later than usual.”

[…] The debate will be televised exclusively on Fox News, and Rumble is the live-streaming partner.

Rumble chairman and CEO Chris Pavlovski said in a statement that “Rumble’s mission to protect free speech is not just a slogan, it runs through the DNA of our company. We are thrilled to partner with the RNC to bring the debate stage online and help promote open dialogue. Rumble saw record traffic and user engagement during the 2022 midterms, and we’re ready to be the premier platform for all candidates in the 2024 elections.” (read more)

Follow the bouncing ball and Debates #2 and #3 will likely follow in Florida and/or Virginia.  We’ll see.

I’ll get to work on updating everyone’s favorite graphic 🙂

Pentagon’s Leaked Documents Anger South Korea


Armstrong Economics Blog/Politics Re-Posted Apr 12, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

South Korea’s diplomatic policy dictates that it will not send ammunition to countries at war. The recently leaked documents from the Pentagon reveal that the US is bullying South Korea into breaking its policy to arm Ukraine. Worse, the documents reveal that US intelligence agencies have been spying on South Korea. This is an unfortunate start to President Yoon Suk Yeol’s meeting with President Joe Biden scheduled for April 26.

CIA personnel has been warning Washington not to speak to Seoul over the phone until they agreed to arm Ukraine. Former presidential secretary for foreign affairs Lee Moon-hee, named Yi Mun-hui in the documents, told former Director of National Security Kim Sung-han that South Korea would have two options. The first would be for the nation to change its stance. The second would be for South Korea to send weapons to Poland, using Poland as the middleman to avoid breaking policy as “getting the ammunition to Ukraine quickly was the ultimate goal of the United States.” The documents also reveal potential wiretapping against South Korea who is supposed to be an ally.

Yoon is under pressure from both the US and his own policymakers. Opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) floor leader Park Hong-keun is urging Yoon to demand an apology from Biden. “If confirmed, it is an unacceptable practice that cannot be tolerated in the 70-year alliance and a clear infringement of South Korea’s sovereignty that shatters bilateral trust … The U.S. government should be faithful to its ally and apologize to the South Korean public and the government, if those reports are true,” Park stated.

Why is the US risking its international alliances to fight a foreign war? The Biden Administration has completely abandoned domestic policy in favor of fighting a war on behalf of Ukraine. Countries previously yielded to the demands of the US as its military and economic power made it the key ally. Things have changed. Nations are increasingly distancing themselves from the US as the country spirals down a dark path that has already shaken its superpower status.

Jim Jordan Responds to Alvin Bragg Lawsuit as Manhattan DA Tries to Block Congressional Investigation and Review


Posted originally on the CTH on April 12, 2023 | Sundance 

In the BIG PICTURE a local New York City District Attorney has created a criminal case, structured on a federal crime, that the federal government has stated was not a crime.  This is the Rubicon that has been crossed by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. In essence this is extreme Lawfare in action.

In response to the jurisdictional issue; in addition to the substantive political construct of the case; the largest mechanism within congress, the House Judiciary Committee has subpoenaed officials from the District Attorney’s office to answer questions about the construct of the case.  A return-fire lawfare response.

In reaction to the federal response and inquiry, DA Alvin Bragg filed a lawsuit against the House Judiciary Committee [Filing Review HERE].  District Attorney Bragg also asked for intervention against the subpoena, an injunction against the authority of the House oversight, that was immediately DENIED by the court.  Alvin Bragg really doesn’t want the House to investigate his case.

Appearing on Fox News to outline the House response, Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan explains the issues at hand {Direct Rumble Link} – WATCH:

Jim Jordan is correct in the unprecedented action from Bragg, that preceded the unprecedented action from congress. This is a battle of Lawfare operations with significant long-term consequences for the entire justice system.  The political motives for the New York, Atlanta (GA) and Washington DC cases are transparent.