Useless Bureaucracy Example – Golden Gate Bridge Nets


Posted originally on Dec 13, 2023 By Martin Armstrong 

California Golden Gate

Government mismanagement comes at a high cost. We saw Argentina’s new president slash half of the useless federal administrations this week on his first day in office.  Governments are incompetent to run even a gumball machine. These agencies come into the fold, create useless regulations, dish out contracts to their connections, and nothing gets done. The current construction on the Golden Gate Bridge is a great example of government incompetence.

A suicide safety net stretching the entire length of the Golden Gate Bridge is nearing completion. The stainless steel mesh net spans across both sides of the 1.6 mile-long bridge. Nearly 2,000 people have taken their lives by jumping from the bridge since it was first constructed in 1937, and officials approved the construction of safety nets in 2014 and allocated a budget of $76 million. Due to the bureaucratic red tape, construction on the project did not begin until 2018 and they are still working on fixing the bridge five years later.

Spokespeople for the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District, announced in March that only 5% of the mesh had been installed. Officials suddenly changed the budget from $76 million to $206.7 million. Contractors and bridge officials are now in a heated legal battle as the new price tag is expected to cost over $400 million. Contactors insist the local government hid the deteriorating condition of the bridge which led to work delays.

The Golden Gate Bridge in its entirety cost $35 million to build in 1937, which would be well over $700 million in 2023. So now the netting for the bridge is nearly as expensive as the bridge itself. The trouble here is that the original budget was less than a quarter of what they will end up spending. This happens with EVERY project the government sets out to complete. Budgets are merely a suggestion to governments because they know they need not adhere to them or pass audits.

Categories:GOV’T INCOMPETENC

The Interference With the 2024 Election Re-Posted Nov 7, 2023 By Martin Armstrong 


Pelosi Son in law Jan 6th

Pelosi’s Son-in-Law was there too – Is He an Insurrectionist?

As state court proceedings get underway in Colorado, Michigan, and Minnesota in lawsuits showing how desperate the LEFT has become to take over the country and strip all of us of our liberty, these lawsuits are targeting their mission to bar Donald Trump from appearing as a presidential candidate on the ballot in next year’s presidential election. These judges in those cases should understand that the text, history, and application of the 14th Amendment make it absolutely clear that they have no legal authority to take any such action.

Those trying to use Section 3 of the 14th Amendment alleging Trump’s supposed actions on Jan. 6, 2021, to disqualify him from being president even if he is elected, in all honesty, is in itself a crime of interfering in the 2024 election and rises to the level of Treason. Not a single person charged by the DOJ who was inside the Capitol Building taking a selfie and was sentenced to up to 5 years in prison for just being a Trump supporter was ever charged with insurrection.

14th Amendment

The Court has no jurisdiction to decide this issue. Trump would have a Due Process right to a Trial by Jury under the Sixth Amendment. Then, the last line of Section 3 states, “But Congress may, by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.” Then the 14th Amendment Section 5 makes it clear that ONLY Congress has the power to make legislation to enforce this Amendment – not some arbitrary judge.

Section 5.

The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

Smither Jack Prosecutor

Everyone with 10% of their brain functioning knows that this is a desperate attempt to interfere in the 2024 election. Special Counsel Jack Smith even sought a gag order on Trump that included that he could not criticize Biden. Now Argentina and Brazil are criminally charging opponents in their elections – copying the US. We are headed into a massive civil war for the LEFT is trying desperately to crush the RIGHT and end capitalism as we know it. Those at the World Economic Forum call it – New Capitalism. But you will own nothing and be happy.

This is Treason and the Overthrow of our Constitution

Voting _18_U.S._Code_594_Intimidation_of_voters

Part II – Something Necessary to Understand About Washington DC


Posted originally on the CTH on October 1, 2023 | Sundance 

The first element of the discussion was here {GO DEEP}.  A short follow up is prudent.

The word “normal” is no longer politically correct to say.  The cultural Marxists have manipulated language to fit their needs; however, there is a need to stop pretending, therefore it becomes necessary to stop playing by their stupid rules and talk to each other in ordinary terms.

You are likely a person of normal disposition.  You go about your affairs with an outlook of decency and general respect toward the goals and aspirations of others.  You have the ability to remain emotionally stable, ignore the swirling nonsense of idiots, boil down the issues to their most common attributes and go about finding the best optimal solution for the events in your life.

The people in Washington DC are not normal. Not like that. If they perceive an event to have negative impact upon them, they cannot independently remain stable and deal with the issue on a level of solution they can independently create.  When they encounter a negative situation, they need to pull other people into the quicksand of their gibberish and stupidity in order to avoid accepting that they are less capable.  At a cognitive or psychological level, this is a defense mechanism.

DC operates like a school of fish stupid fish, a tribe that swarms together looking for consensus which allows them to not hold responsibility for their own shortcomings.  They view systems as solutions in order to avoid responsibility.  They are not emotionally stable, cogent, capable or independent thinkers.  They require tribalism to avoid what they lack.  These are not stable people.

This is not a blanket statement that would be considered hyperbolic.  Every entity, every individual person within the bubble of DC, cannot fathom self-reliance.  It is a concept as foreign to them as the distinction between a ‘constitutional republic’ and a ‘democracy.’  This is not a mistake or flaw in their perception and mindset, this is the reality of how their brain synapses fire.  This is who they are.

Within this dependency, those who assemble the silos of information find great reception.  Each sheeple tribe paying attention only to their immediate surroundings without the capacity to stand back and see the entire world around them.  They do not have this skillset.  They do not possess this ability.  This applies to all of them; every single one.

Within this system of dependency, they are like the crowd in the story of the ‘Emperor’s New Clothes.’  The political representatives and the staff that support them, literally are manifestations of weird minds, brought together by a career that rewards and attracts esoteric thinking devoid of pragmatic common sense.  They care about the opinion of others. They only care about the opinion of others; however, the “others” only apply to their tribe.  Again, tribalism is how they define themselves.  These are not emotionally stable people.

The outcome of their decision-making only flows through the prism of self-interest, where the ‘interest’ is about the preservation of the bubble that provides them a walled-off life of affluence inside the petri dish of toxic identity.  In a general world, the population of advanced and diagnosed narcissists is around 10%.  Inside the DC bubble, far more than half of the residents carry this narcissistic trait.   This is the origin of the abusive relationship that exists between “them” and “us.”

This applies to all of them.

All of them.

If you say the emperor is naked, from their perspective you are the stupid one.  Worse still, if you keep saying it, they view you as dangerous.

They are assembling systems to keep track of the dangerous people.

This is the disconnect that must be understood.

These are not normal people.

Cue the visual aid:

Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) Pulls Fire Alarm in House Attempting to Stall Vote on Stop-Gap Spending Measure


Posted Originally on the CTRH on September 30, 2023 | Sundance 

According to numerous media sources, New York Democrat Representative Jamaal Bowman pulled an emergency fire alarm in the House of Representatives today in an effort to delay the spending bill that was being debated.

In ordinary times, this would lead to arrest and possible removal from office.  However, amid the DC dual justice system, and protected by cultural Marxism, it’s likely Bowman will receive no punishment.  His actions were captured on CCTV video.

(Via Politico) – Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) pulled the fire alarm in a House office building as his party tried to delay a vote on a hurried House GOP stopgap spending bill, according to the Republican-controlled Administration Committee.

[…] Neither the U.S. Capitol Police nor Bowman immediately returned a request for comment on the fire alarm activation, which multiple people familiar with the situation said was caught on camera as the House descended into fresh chaos on Saturday. (link)

Uniparty Speaker Kevin McCarthy passed the 45-day stopgap funding patch, 335-91, with help from more than 200 Democrats and 90 Republicans voting no. {Details}

Federal IRS Contractor Arrested for Stealing and Leaking President Trump Tax Returns, Also Stole Thousands of Tax Returns from U.S. Wealthiest People


Posted originally on the CTH on September 30, 2023 | Sundance 

There is no way you can convince me that a federal contractor unlawfully accessing the tax filings of a sitting U.S. President does not immediately send flags throughout the IRS system.

The amount of pretending needed not to see the background of this story is off the charts.

JUSTICE – An Internal Revenue Service (IRS) consultant was charged today with disclosing tax return information without authorization.

According to court documents, Charles Littlejohn, 38, of Washington, D.C., while working at the IRS as a government contractor, stole tax return information associated with a high-ranking government official (Public Official A) and disclosed it to a news organization (News Organization 1). Littlejohn also stole tax return information for thousands of the nation’s wealthiest individuals, and disclosed this tax return information to another news organization (News Organization 2).

Littlejohn is charged with one count of unauthorized disclosure of tax returns and return information. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison. (read more)

New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez, Chairman of Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, Indicted for Bribery and Corruption Again


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

Not even close to defending this dirtbag who was previous ties to sex trafficking and Epstein level degeneracy; however, given the nature of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee (SFAC), it does make you wonder why exactly they want to take him down now.

What is going on in the background of the DC deep state, that they would want to take out the New Jersey senator?  What’s the other move?  Perhaps asking who is in the DNC pipeline from New Jersey, may reveal some context.

Senate Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Bob Menendez was indicted for bribery, corruption and using his position in power to enrich himself through payments by foreign actors.  This isn’t the first time his propensity to sell influence for financial gain has surfaced, but this is the one likely to take him out. [Read Indictment Here]

The gold bars are a nice touch.

Menendez has long been known as a deep DC corrupt actor; this is not new.  However, the existence of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee is based on the participants selling U.S. policy and influence for their personal financial gains.  New York Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer knew this when he put Menendez into the Chair position. A position formerly held by Joe Biden, who did the same thing as Menendez albeit with a greater level of plausible deniability.

WASHINGTON DC – […] The indictment published Friday accuses Menendez (D-N.J.) and his now-wife Nadine of having a corrupt relationship with three New Jersey businessmen: Wael Hana, Jose Uribe and Fred Daibes. He’s accused of accepting money, a luxury car and lavish gifts in exchange for using his power to help them and the Egyptian government. (read more)

And today is just another Friday; meaning that’s what the SFAC does.  Menendez was, perhaps, more conspicuous about it.  Perhaps that was the problem.

WASHINGTON DC – […] During a search of the Menendezes’ New Jersey home in June 2022, federal agents probing the alleged scheme found “over $480,000 in cash — much of it stuffed into envelopes and hidden in clothing, closets, and a safe” along with $70,000 in Nadine Menendez’s safe-deposit box, the indictment says.

The indictment — the culmination of years of investigation by federal prosecutors in New York — is the latest legal blow for New Jersey’s senior senator and the powerful chair of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. Menendez has survived two previous federal investigations. (read more)

I do not mean to be overly cynical; however, at a certain point you do eventually have to stop the pretending game.

The Senate Foreign Affairs Committee (SFAC) is structurally designed to sell U.S. foreign policy.  We all know the game of multinational corporations positioning their investment assets in various countries based on the expectation of U.S. foreign policy to support those investments.  It is inside this network of long-established relationships that all of the various quid-pro-quos originate.

The Senate chamber as an institution is where most of the generational level corruption emanates; when the 17th amendment was created, this was the function and purpose for the constitutional change as organized by banking interests.  In the decades since inception, the corruption within the upper chamber has become systemic.  The Senate became entirely predicated on having greater power within the legislative branch.

Inside this institutional system, each Senate committee has an operational objective in alignment with the interests of the DC business.  The Senate is detached from any operational function that would be considered representative of the American voter.  The Senate Intel Committee supports the weaponized intelligence state. The Senate Finance and Banking committee supports the interests of big banks, who then reward the committee members.  The Senate Judiciary Committee is structured to lean into the corruption needed in the Judicial branch, by controlling appointments and nominations.  And so it goes, and so it goes.

Every member on the SFAC uses their position for personal and familial gain.  For their specific expertise, the SFAC funding mechanism is by foreign governments and multinational corporations with foreign policy interests. It’s what they do.  Menendez is charged with the crime of doing what the Senate Foreign Affairs committee does; participate in bribery and corruption – although the pretending term is “lobbying.”

So, what’s the play?  What’s going on in the background that would permit the system to remove Menendez? … and why now?

That’s where the focus should be.

WASHINGTON – […] Allegedly Menendez, starting in mid-2018, privately maintained close relations with Egyptian officials and businesspeople and readily shared sensitive information with his associates about U.S. policy toward Cairo.

In May 2018, Menendez allegedly disclosed to Hana at a private dinner that a U.S. government ban on sales of small arms and ammunition to Egypt has been lifted, which Hana passed on to the Egyptian official.

Later that month, Menendez allegedly ghost-wrote Cairo’s lobbying pitch to other U.S. senators seeking support for the release of $300 million in U.S. aid to Egypt.

In July, after meeting with Egyptian military officials, Menendez allegedly had Nadine tell Hana that he was signing off on the sale of 46,000 120mm target practice rounds and 10,000 rounds of tank ammunition worth $99 million.

“NOTE: These tank rounds are for tanks they have had for many years. They are using these in the Sinai for the counter-terrorism campaign,” Menendez allegedly said in a text to Nadine, which she forwarded to Hana.

The State Department two months later announced it had approved the sale of the package of General Dynamics-made high-explosive and armor-piercing rounds, to help Cairo fight Islamic State militants, and the target rounds, to train M1 Abrams tank crews. (read more)

Ukraine is getting more than $150 billion.

…. and tomorrow is just another Saturday.

Zelenskyy Brings Tin Cup to Congress, House Cool – Senate Warm, American People Frustrated


Posted originally on the CTH on September 21, 2023 | Sundance 

Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited the White House and both chambers of congress today, as Joe Biden pledges hundreds of millions more in military weapons.

The House of Representatives has a significant faction of Republicans who are not going along with the demands to continue the bottomless pit of spending; however, in the Senate there are fewer in opposition.

.

WASHINGTON DC – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited Capitol Hill on Thursday seeking more U.S. assistance for the war against Russia — but his full-court press showed no signs of significantly shrinking resistance to further aid among a large bloc of Republicans.

After meetings with both House members and senators, Zelenskyy did not take questions on what — if any — commitments he secured from Speaker Kevin McCarthy on aid for his defense against Russia, or other subjects. Inside Zelenskyy’s huddle with senators, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said the Ukrainian leader received two standing ovations from those gathered to hear his plea for the $24 billion in additional assistance requested by President Joe Biden’s administration. (read more)

It’s a sad situation when we find the White House, and both chambers of congress taking the time to show support for Ukraine while our own borders are in such a state of intentional crisis.  Apparently, congress has never heard the term, “charity begins at home.”

WASHINGTON DC – The Biden administration announced a new round of military aid for Ukraine as President Volodymyr Zelensky visits Washington, D.C., and meets with top United States government officials.

The assistance, announced on Thursday, will include weapons such as air defense systems, artillery ammunition, anti-armor capabilities, Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System rockets for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, and Javelin anti-tank missiles. It will also include controversial cluster munitions, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan confirmed. (read more)

Our U.S. government has no problem giving Ukraine cluster munitions to repel invaders….  Our borders, not so much.   See the hypocrisy?  Blood boiling.

“Between Two Ferns”

Mitt Romney Says He Will Not Run for Reelection and Will Work to Block Trump in 2024


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

The approved Republican, ala a true DeceptiCON and man of lightly held stances, Mitt Romney, has announced he will not seek reelection in 2024.

During a video presentation announcing his decision, the conniving conman used the opportunity to disparage President Trump, and proclaim himself too old to run for reelection.  “It’s time for a new generation of leaders to step forward,” the Utah Senator said.   WATCH:

The announcement is not really a surprise as Romney was likely to face a serious primary challenge, and given his track record unlikely to win.

“Loser!”

Audit the Pentagon – Trillions Still MIA Since Pre-9/11


Armstrong Economics Blog/Corruption Re-Posted Sep 11, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

“On September 10, 2001, former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said, “Our financial systems are decades old. According to some estimates, we cannot track $2.3 trillion in transactions. We cannot share information from floor to floor in this building because it’s stored on dozens of technological systems that are inaccessible or incompatible,” the Sanders-Grassley Audit the Pentagon Act states. A day after Rumsfeld’s announcement, the building was targeted in the 9/11 attack where the alleged accounting effort was taking place. The $2.3 trillion remains unaccounted for to this day.

The WTC7 collapse, shown above, was the only building not hit by a plane. The government simply said a fire managed to melt steel beams and destroy the building. The demolished area was the precise location of the Pentagon audit, and also happened to be the location of my computer system. Here is the letter I received from the SEC explaining that everything had simply been destroyed on 9/11. That was the final answer and no questions were permitted. The government managed to evacuate all the government employees prior to the attack; the civilians in other towers were not so lucky.

The Pentagon must be held accountable. I comment Bernie Sanders for remaining consistent over his career, even if I disagree with him on most issues. Sanders and Senator Grassley have been asking the government to determine why trillions in taxpayer funding continually disappears. The Pentagon controls nearly 70% of the budget of the Federal government. And yet, when they make announcements like the $600 billion in aid missing to Ukraine, no one bats an eye. The Deep State funnels money through the Pentagon without issue. Congress ordered the Pentagon to pass an audit, and yet it remains the only government agency that has failed to do so.

We the people deserve to know where TRILLIONS in funding have gone. Clearly, this is deeper than an accounting error. The missing $2.3 trillion was first noticed in 1999, during Clinton’s presidency and not that of Bush. Is any government agency for the people? The FBI, CIA, FDA, DoD, SEC, and every three-letter agency seem to be the guard dogs of the Deep State. Rumsfeld had this to say about the Pentagon:“It governs by dictating five-year plans. From a single capital, it attempts to impose its demands across time zones, continents, oceans and beyond. With brutal consistency, it stifles free thought and crushes new ideas. It disrupts the defense of the United States and places the lives of men and women in uniform at risk. Perhaps this adversary sounds like the former Soviet Union, but that enemy is gone: our foes are more subtle and implacable today. You may think I’m describing one of the last decrepit dictators of the world. But their day, too, is almost past, and they cannot match the strength and size of this adversary. The adversary’s closer to home. It’s the Pentagon bureaucracy.”

I See Dead Voters


Armstrong Economics Blog/Humor Re-Posted Sep 10, 2023 by Martin Armstrong