Bidenomics, August 2022 Inflation Data Infographic


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on September 14, 2022 | Sundance 

Someone had requested a simple to see infographic of the Bureau of Labor and Statistics August inflation data with monthly and yearly outcomes.  I thought everyone might find this graphic as a good tool for sharing with your network.  [Data Source Link]

Additionally, the BLS also released the producer price index today [DATA HERE].  The PPI for goods dropped slightly, as we expected, due to the August temporary decline in gasoline and diesel.   However, the PPI for final demand services moved up 0.4 percent in August, the fourth consecutive rise.

We are now seeing service providers having to raise their prices to cover their increased costs.   This could be trouble for employment in the long-term.

DOJ-NSD Frantic That Special Master Might Review IC Defined Classified Documents, Even if Trump Declassified, Because Sources and Methods


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on September 14, 2022 | Sundance

Late yesterday the DOJ National Security Division (DOJ-NSD) filed another motion in federal court urging Judge Cannon not to allow the special master to review documents they alone determine to be “classified.”  [pdf of motion Here]

The DOJ-NSD, officially the Trump targeting division, is frantic that an outside reviewer would be granted access to oversee the DOJ/IC unilateral determinations of the documents, even if…. [watch the goal posts moving now]…  those documents were previously declassified by President Trump.

Yes, even if the documents were declassified (they were), the DOJ is apoplectic that someone would be allowed to see them.  Their reason?…  “sources and methods” might be exposed.

The DOJ-NSD is claiming the Intelligence Community (IC) is the real authority here, not the President of the United States.  It is a rather remarkable position to take.

You might even find yourself wondering by what constitutional authority does anyone in the IC bureaucracy determine whether a president’s declassification of documents was legit?  The President has the power to declassify; however, according to the position of the DOJ-NSD, the president must defer to them.  :::spit:::  Hopefully Judge Cannon sees this for what it is.

However, all of that said, the serendipitous revelation of the FBI hiring Christopher Steele’s source, Igor Danchenko, as a Confidential Human Source (CHS) for three years (March 2017 through Oct 2020) helps to explain the current level of the DOJ-NSD apoplexy, in this motion.

Danchenko was labeled by the corrupt FBI as a Confidential Human Source specifically to shield him (and them) from scrutiny that could be applied by any oversight or inquiry.  In essence Danchenko became shielded by the same “sources and methods” scheme the DOJ-NSD is now worried about retaining in the Mar-a-Lago documents.

As the DOJ-NSD now moves the goal posts to say, ‘yeah, so what if Trump declassified the documents – we still don’t like it, and he might reveal our sources and methods,’ we begin to get a more fulsome perspective on the reason for the Mar-a-Lago raid.

President Trump declassified the documents showing the corrupt DOJ and FBI targeting operation of him.   The corrupt DOJ and FBI went and took back the evidence against them in the Mar-a-Lago raid and now says no one should be allowed to see it.

Everything is becoming increasingly transparent.

Overlay the Durham probe and you discover, the govt people responsible for illegally targeting Trump are the same govt people responsible for investigating the illegal Trump targeting.

We keep watching….

Kari Lake: DOJ Subpoenas ‘Politically Motivated Attack’ on Trump


Newsmax TV Published originally on Rumble on September 13, 2022 

Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake joins us to discuss the Justice Department’s expanding its investigation into the Capitol breach.

Gun Purchases to be Tracked by Global Organization


Armstrong Economics Blog/Regulation Re-Posted Sep 14, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

The far left is eager to repeal 2A. We are not as free as we think. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO), an organization headquartered all the way in Geneva, will be tracking all gun purchases made on credit. The ISO develops standard documentation that is globally recognized. Gun sales were previously listed as “general merchandise,” but the ISO is changing the code.

If you purchase a gun through a credit card, an international agency will document the purchase. Cash is still an option for now, but I expect it will become increasingly difficult to gain access to firearms – at least for those who plan to purchase them legally.

Visa is eager to participate. “Following ISO’s decision to establish a new merchant category code, Visa will proceed with next steps, while ensuring we protect all legal commerce on the Visa network in accordance with our long-standing rules,” they said in a statement. American Express said that they would work with a third-party processor (more people with access to your data) and will implement the code once the details are finalized. Mastercard said they will “turn our focus to how it will be implemented by merchants and their banks as we continue to support lawful purchases on our network while protecting the privacy and decisions of individual cardholders.”

Every credit company will comply. The National Rifle Association is pushing back, but the change is already underway. “The [industry’s] decision to create a firearm-specific code is nothing more than a capitulation to anti-gun politicians and activists bent on eroding the rights of law-abiding Americans one transaction at a time,” National Rifle Association spokesman Lars Dalseide stated to Fox Business.

As a reminder, criminals have access to guns. Joe Biden continually calls on Congress to ban assault weapons, but that is the beginning. Not so coincidentally, Joe Biden’s own family members illegally discarded a gun in a trash can outside a school, but that’s (D)ifferent. The Second Amendment is under fire, and the people must vote accordingly.

Flashback, July 24, 2019, Robert Mueller “Not in My Purview”


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on September 14, 2022 | Sundance

From the latest court filing by Special Counsel John Durham, we learn that Robert Mueller’s FBI investigators interviewed Christopher Steele’s primary Source, Igor Danchenko, on June 15, 2017.

In addition to being on the payroll of the FBI since March as a confidential informant, exactly two weeks later, June 29, 2017, the Robert Mueller special counsel renewed the Carter Page FISA application to continue their exploitation of the comprehensive title-1 surveillance warrant against the Trump administration.

Additionally, within the court filing against Igor Danchenko, we find that FBI personnel from Robert Mueller’s team interviewed Christopher Steele:

Now consider this specific line of questioning of Robert Mueller, conducted on July 24, 2019, after the Mueller special counsel published their report.  The questioning is from New York Representative Elise Stephanik to Robert Mueller on the specifics of the special counsel questioning Christopher Steele and/or his source, Igor Danchenko.

Keep in mind, ONLY ROBERT MUELLER knew at the time of this questioning that Igor Danchenko remained a paid confidential informant at the time of his answers.  WATCH:

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AFTER originally interviewing Danchenko in January and February 2017, in March the DOJ/FBI then reinterviewed him before refiling the second FISA renewal in April.   With Danchenko on their payroll they FBI did not need to worry about him undermining the Trump-Russia narrative or speaking the truth about the dossier.  This approach protected the fraudulently obtained title-1 surveillance warrant.  The surveillance warrant was renewed in April.

AFTER Robert Mueller is appointed special counsel in May 2017, with Danchenko on the FBI payroll and under control.  When Danchenko is interviewed on June 15, 2017, he is being interviewed as part of the Mueller operation. Special Counsel Robert Mueller and Andrew Weissmann now submit the FISA application for another renewal on June 29, 2017.  The fraudulently obtained title-1 surveillance warrant was again renewed.

The reason to keep Danchenko on the FBI payroll is to mitigate any risk he might present if he were to speak.  A corrupt FBI network in Washington DC put a control mechanism over Danchenko in order to preserve their surveillance warrant, which was built upon fraud by using the Steele Dossier. They renewed the surveillance warrant twice more (April and June) while Danchenko was a paid confidential informant.

As you can see from the Durham filing, a controlled Danchenko was then handed-off to the Mueller probe, who kept Danchenko on the FBI payroll throughout the Robert Mueller investigation (ended in April 2019) until October 2020 when Danchenko was dropped by the FBI and John Durham “officially” took over and was appointed special counsel.

On July 24, 2019, when Robert Mueller is answering the questions about Chris Steele, the dossier and the Steele sources therein, Mueller was able to deflect and dodge answering the questions about it because AG Bill Barr put John Durham into place in May 2019.

AG Bill Barr put John Durham into place in May 2019, immediately following Robert Mueller’s completed investigation, April 2019, for this exact reason.

It is one long continuum.

The Machiavellian Intent of John Durham Surfaces inside His Court Filing, Outlining the FBI Hiring of Igor Danchenko as Confidential Informant


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on September 13, 2022 | Sundance

This is sickening to read, and perhaps even more sickening to accept.  CTH has long outlined the belief that Bill Barr was the Bondo application to cover the DOJ and FBI institutional rot, and John Durham was the ongoing spray paint application.

The bottom line is an ongoing DC operation to preserve the institutional credibility of the justice system. A credibility, which is – at this point, entirely destroyed – yet the effort continues.

In a court motion today [pdf HERE], special prosecutor John Durham outlines the case against Christopher Steele’s primary source, Igor Danchenko.  For more granular information about the filing itself, visit Techno Fog [review article HERE].

The basic legal case brought by Durham is predicated on the notion that Christopher Steele’s source for his dossier, Igor Danchenko, willfully and intentionally lied to the FBI, and therefore Danchenko is guilty of purposefully misleading FBI investigators assigned to the Trump-Russia/”crossfire hurricane” investigation.

This is where we must stop pretending.  The Durham premise of a “duped FBI” is laughable on its face. No one in the FBI or DOJ-NSD was “duped” by false information from Igor Danchenko.

The lies, as they were with Clinton lawyer Michael Sussman, were well known to be false, yet materially beneficial to the unspoken intention of the DOJ/FBI, which was to target Donald Trump.   The corrupt intent of the DOJ and FBI is the basic rot John Durham was appointed to cover over.

John Durham is running a Deep State cover operation to protect the institutions of the DOJ and FBI from evidence of their prior activity. The bulls**t of pretending this is not his motive is, well, quite simply nonsense and needs to stop.  Look at today’s filing itself, overlay the timeline and you can see the corrupt intention of the FBI and John Durham’s clear objective is to cover for them.

The big picture takeaway is right there on the second page.  Pay attention to the dates.

CONTEXT – From January 2017 through October 2020 the FBI was using Danchenko as part of its investigation.  This includes the entire timeline of the Robert Mueller and Andrew Weissmann special counsel operation which took place from May 2017 to April 2019.

Danchenko was Christopher Steele’s primary source for information he put into his “dossier”.   The DOJ-NSD and FBI used the Steele Dossier in lieu of a valid ‘wood’s file’ to support the FISA surveillance and search warrant application against Carter Page.  The title-1 warrant gave the DOJ-NSD and FBI the ability to conduct surveillance over Donald Trump as a candidate and as a President.  The warrant was issued in October 2016 and renewed thrice in 2017 (Jan, April, June).

The warrant was used to conduct electronic surveillance of President Trump during the time he was in office.  Robert Mueller and Andrew Weissmann renewed the warrant to support their targeting of Trump and officials in his orbit.  Most of the evidence gathered by Weissmann/Mueller was captured using surveillance legally authorized by the FISA warrant.

Without the Steele Dossier, there wouldn’t be evidence to support the FISA application.  Without the FISA warrant there wouldn’t be legal surveillance of Trump.  This is the importance of the Steele Dossier and as a consequence the importance of Igor Danchenko who provided the fabricated material within the dossier.

♦ We already knew from the Inspector General report on the Carter Page FISA application, the FBI had interviewed Danchenko in January of 2017, within days of filing for the first renewal of the Carter Page Title-1 surveillance warrant.   However, we learn today -for the first time- the FBI hired Danchenko as a “paid confidential human source” following that interview.

According to Durham, Danchenko remained a paid informant of the FBI all the way to October 2020.  Not coincidentally the same time when John Durham was officially appointed by Bill Barr.

So, let’s just stand back and look at this bulls**t scheme for what it is….

The FBI interviews and questions Igor Danchenko in January 2017 about the information in the Steele Dossier.  Danchenko tells them the material he provided to Chris Steele was all hearsay, word-of-mouth, said in jest, bar talk.  Essentially, nonsense [OIG report on those encounters]

Danchenko tells the FBI the material in the dossier was crap.  Therefore, the underlying information that supported the FISA application was crap.

The FBI knows the information is crap, yet the FBI still used the dossier to get the first renewal of the FISA warrant (January 2017).  The original application (Oct. ’16) and the first renewal (Jan. ’17) are word-for-word and page-for-page identical. The FBI and DOJ added nothing; they simply re-filed the exact same documents for the warrant renewal.

AFTER the January 2017 interview, the FBI hires Igor Danchenko as a paid confidential human source.  This move can only be seen for what it was, the DOJ/FBI needed to mitigate the damage Danchenko could bring to their surveillance warrant authority, so the FBI hired him.

AFTER hiring Danchenko the DOJ/FBI then reinterviewed him before refiling the second renewal in April.   With Danchenko on their payroll they don’t need to worry about him undermining the narrative or speaking the truth about the dossier.  This approach protects their warrant.  The surveillance warrant is renewed.

AFTER Robert Mueller is appointed special counsel in May 2017, with Danchenko still on the FBI payroll and under control…  Special Counsel Robert Mueller and Andrew Weissmann now submit the FISA application for another renewal on June 29, 2017.

The reason to keep Danchenko on the FBI payroll is to mitigate any risk he might present if he were to speak.

As you can see from the Durham filing, Danchenko was kept on the FBI payroll throughout the Robert Mueller investigation and the special counsel also interviewed him several times.  When Danchenko is interviewed on June 15, 2017, he is being interviewed as part of the Mueller operation.   That interview was before Mueller renewed the FISA application on June 29th.

Igor Danchenko was kept on the FBI payroll from March 2017 through October 2020.

So, what happened in October 2020?

John Durham was officially appointed as Special Counsel by Bill Barr.

Follow the timeline:

Danchenko interviewed by FBI in January 2017. Tells FBI dossier is junk.

FBI hires Danchenko in March 2017 just before renewing the FISA they now know is based on junk.

May 2017 Robert Mueller appointed to cover up all of the DOJ/FBI corruption that existed in the Trump targeting.

June 2017 Mueller interviews Danchenko, then renews the FISA.

February 2019, Bill Barr enters as Attorney General.

April 2019 Robert Mueller completes investigation.

May 2019, Bill Barr appoints Durham just to look into things.  Immediately then begs Trump not to declassify any documents.  Trump writes executive order giving Bill Barr ability to review and declassify documents.

October 2020, Bill Barr officially (and quietly), makes John Durham a special counsel.  We don’t find out until December (after the Nov election).

October 2020, FBI drops Igor Danchenko as paid informant.

Put it all together and you see the continuum.

(1) Donald Trump was being targeted by a corrupt DOJ and FBI.  (2) Robert Mueller was installed in May 2017 to cover up the targeting.  (3) When Mueller is nearing his completion, Bill Barr steps in to mitigate institutional damage from 1 and 2. (4) Barr maintains damage control and installs Durham. (5) Durham takes over the coverup operation from October 2020 (Danchenko safe to exit) through today.

Main Justice kept a bag over Danchenko until they needed a scapegoat, created by Durham, to sell a narrative that Main Justice was duped. John Durham is charging Danchenko (working outside govt) with lying to the FBI while simultaneously avoiding drawing attention to the FBI/DOJ officials (inside govt) who knew Danchenko was lying and were willfully blind to it in order to continue attacking and investigating President Donald Trump.

James Comey, Robert Mueller, Bill Barr, John Durham, the Mar-a-Lago raid…  it’s all one long continuum of the same targeting and coverup operation.

Bill Barr was the Bondo application and John Durham is the spray paint.

The entire system is corrupt.

Despite Temporarily Lower Gasoline Prices, August Inflation Skyrockets with Biggest Jump in Food Prices Since 1979


Posted Originally on the conservative tree house on September 13, 2022 | Sundance

We are in an abusive relationship with our own government. If you want a real-time example of how governmental bureaucracy fits into this statement, look no further than the footnote at the bottom of this article ¹cited from the BLS report today.

The Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS) has released the August inflation data today [DATA HERE] with a top line at 8.3 percent year over year.  Unfortunately, things are unfolding exactly as we previously shared.  [Modified Table 1 at left]

Despite the temporary drop in gasoline prices (-12%), the costs of food (+13.5%), electricity (+15.8%) and housing (+6.7%) are crushing U.S. consumers.  The stock market is responding accordingly.  We can only imagine the inflation data if the heavily weighted gasoline factor was not pushing overall toplines down.  Estimation of inflation would be well over double digits.

Keep in mind, as you read this review the price of the current harvest (prior field costs) is only right now coming into the food supply chain.

Food inflation is running at its highest rate since 1979 (+11.4%) and it will go higher as the third wave in this sector hits.

To give you an example, margarine increased in price 7% in August alone, that’s an annualized rate of 94% [Table 2 details].  Flour is also on pace for another 22.8% increase right as the holiday baking season begins.

We cannot eat gold, silver or durable goods.  Electricity, home heating (natural gas), food and housing costs are priorities right now.  Main Street USA is being crushed by Joe Biden overall economic and energy policies.  It’s bad now, and going to get worse – much worse, as the third wave of food inflation has only just begun.

¹Before sharing a MSM perspective I want to draw your attention to the BLS notation for 2023.  This innocuous footnote tells us just how manipulative the governmental bureaucracies are:

In order to give the statistical appearance of things being better than they are, the BLS is going to reset their weighting for the CPI to only compare against 2021.  This is being done with purpose to give the illusion next year that things are not as bad.  2021 was when Joe Biden’s inflation policies first surfaced. By comparing consumer prices to the timing when those prices first increased, the scale of future price increases will be statistically diminished.  We are in an abusive relationship with our government.

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(CNBC) – Inflation rose more than expected in August as rising shelter and food costs offset a drop in gas prices, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Tuesday.

The consumer price index, which tracks a broad swath of goods and services, increased 0.1% for the month and 8.3% over the past year. Excluding volatile food and energy costs, CPI rose 0.6% from July and 6.3% from the same month in 2021.

Economists had been expecting headline inflation to fall 0.1% and core to increase 0.3%, according to Dow Jones estimates. The respective year-over-year forecasts were for 8% and 6% gains.

Energy prices fell 5% for the month, led by a 10.6% slide in the gasoline index. However, those declines were offset by increases elsewhere.

The food index increased 0.8% in August and shelter costs, which make up about one-third of the weighting in the CPI, jumped 0.7% and are up 6.2% from a year ago. (read more)

For readers who do advanced preparation to offset prices.  THINK BEEF right now, you will thank me four months from now.  If you see a deal now, buy it and freeze it now. Anticipate retail ground beef costs be somewhere around $10 to $15/lb by spring to mid 2023 perhaps even higher.  Also remember, processed foods will increase in price at twice the rate of the fresh food sector.  Both fresh and processed food prices will rise, but the increased costs associated with the food processing will double the price.

Social Media Weaponized for Political Propaganda


Armstrong Economics Blog/Corruption Re-Posted Sep 12, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

It is no coincidence that every social media data leak seems to target conservatives. Snap (formerly Snapchat), an app known for short videos, recently admitted that they leaked Republican voter data to the Democrats. In turn, Snap showed these mostly young voters a barrage of ads in an attempt to change their political stance prior to the midterms.

These ads quickly appear in between videos, and many users may not notice the subconscious level of propaganda they’ve received. The groups TargetSmart and i360 both used the leaked data to their advantage. Ads from the Democratic National Committee, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, and Georgia Democrat Stacey Abrams’ gubernatorial campaign were sent to Republican users of the platform, as first reported by Axios. Snap claims that this was a glitch in the system, but that seems utterly impossible.

“Unfortunately, due to an internal mistake, we didn’t follow this usual process — which resulted in these two companies’ services being used by advertisers outside of the process, impacting a small number of ads,” a Snap spokesperson told Axios. Both i360 and TargetSmart deny any involvement as well.

If Republicans did this to the Democrats, they would declare it a national emergency and an attack on democracy. YouTube consistently removes any video that goes against the Democrat’s agenda, and Twitter has no problem banning accounts. Facebook’s Zuckerberg admitted that the FBI tipped them off and asked them to hide the Hunter Biden laptop leak before the 2020 US Presidential Election. All of the main social media platforms are now far-left propaganda tools, and freedom of speech does not exist on the main social networks.

A Message from God via Jeff Tauring Pastor of Liberty Valley Church in Northfield, Ohio


For Those Who Do Not Remember 9/11


Armstrong Economics Blog/North America Re-Posted Sep 11, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

Those in college do not recall 9/11/01. College freshmen were only three or four years old at the time of the attack. They do not recall the ongoing search for Osama bin Laden or the frequent briefings from former President George W. Bush. Even young adults beyond college do not recall life before the Patriot Act and the abandonment of our privacy. They have always seen TSA at airports and terrorism warnings. The Patriot Act changed everything, and all Americans were forced to surrender their freedom to the government under the guise of “national security.” National security has been used to justify government surveillance ever since that tragic morning.

This may be why they are comfortable handing over power to government, and tend to vote blue, as they do not know of a life with fewer government restrictions. It is hard to explain how that event shaped the trajectory of America. It was used as a convenient excuse to begin a war that became one of the longest in America’s history. In addition to the 2,996 people who were killed on 9/11, countless soldiers have lost their lives. First responders are still facing the repercussions of the asbestos and debris that caused an array of health issues. Before the attack, America felt it was invincible. Yes, there was Pearl Harbor, but again that event was too far back to remember and was directed at a military base. An attack on American soil at the Twin Towers that signified capitalism in all its glory was completely unfathomable.

For those who do not remember 9/11 – America was a different place once upon a time. I encourage you to dig deeper as the true events that occurred on that day are NOT what they teach in school.