Category Cultural Marxism Destroys Society

May 19 2023

Bud Light Sales Worsening, -23.3% in Week Five of Widespread Boycott


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

In the fifth week since the Bud Light backlash began, the latest scan data released shows a worsening drop in sales.   The overall trend now shows Bud Light has lost a full quarter of its market position, dropping 23.6% in unit volume and -27.7% in dollar sales.

Despite these dollar losses, the parent company does not seem willing to address the root cause.  Despite North American sales impacts, the Diversity Equity and Inclusion outlook of the Anheuser-Busch global company is still strongly entrenched in the branding.  It does not appear the company is going to modify anything as the very vocal Alphabet ideologues have them captive.

(Washington Examiner) – Bud Light sales are down for a fifth straight week as the financial beating endured by the Anheuser-Busch brand following its partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney appears to have no end in sight.

Sales of Bud Light fell 23.6% for the week ending on May 6 compared to numbers recorded in 2022, according to a report citing data acquired by Bump Williams Consulting and NielsenIQ. (read more)

Previously – Across the United States, wholesalers are on the hook for inventories of Bud Light and Budweiser products that no one is buying.  These products have an expiration date, thanks in part to the A/B freshness campaign long ago created.  The wholesalers have to swap out the close-dated products that are not being sold in retailers and restaurants.  The wholesalers are then stuck with out-of-date product and turn back to the corporate office for help.

From reporting in the Wall Street Journal, Anheuser-Busch (A/B) is telling the wholesalers to give the product free to their employees rather than dump it.  By law, they cannot give it away to consumers, and they cannot cross promote the beer by “bundling” alcohol with another CPG product (ie, buy chips, get free beer).

The story is being promoted as A/B being magnanimous in giving the beer to the employees; however, in reality as the product hits its expiration or sell-by date, A/B only has that option, other than to dump it in the garbage and recycle the containers.

May 18 2023

Durham Finds the Importance of Nellie Ohr


Posted originally on the CTH on May 17, 2023 | Sundance 

Paul Sperry at RealClearPolitics has an article today citing one part of the Durham report that deserves a little CTH attention.

I hope you will forgive my indulgent snickers, as the graphic you see below was created by me in early 2018, a full five years before the release of this Durham report.  I even referred to the Steele Dossier as the Nellie Ohr Dossier. lol

As noted by Sperry, “According to the 306-page report, former Justice Department prosecutor Bruce Ohr’s wife Nellie Ohr first plowed the ground for the dossier with a series of research reports she wrote for Fusion GPS, the D.C.-based opposition research firm the Clinton campaign commissioned to dig up dirt on Trump and Russia.”

[…] Durham suggests Nellie Ohr planted the seeds of sourcing for the most explosive allegations leveled by the dossier against Trump, including the oft-cited notion that he and his campaign were engaged in a “well-developed conspiracy of cooperation” with the Kremlin. The dossier attributed this, falsely, to Millian. Durham found that the Belarusian-American realtor was never a source for the dossier and was simply invented as one, along with the allegations attributed to him.

In fact, Durham says that Millian initially wasn’t even on the radar of Steele and his dossier “collector” Igor Danchenko, a former Brookings Institution analyst who’s admitted much of the information he provided Steele was alcohol-lubricated gossip. Millian was called to their attention by Nellie Ohr, who the prosecutor said “implicated” Millian through her own reports. Durham suggests Steele and Danchenko merely followed her leads. 

[…] Bruce Ohr, an anti-Trump Democrat, pushed his wife’s reports that cited Millian — 12 in all — onto the Crossfire Hurricane team at FBI headquarters that was investigating Trump and his campaign for possible espionage. Agents used her reports as a source of corroboration for the Steele reports they received in the summer and fall of 2016, even though it was circular reporting. 
 
“The reports prepared by Ohr and others at Fusion GPS were ultimately provided to Crossfire Hurricane investigators by Ohr’s husband, Bruce Ohr,” according to the Durham Report. 
 
Durham notes that Danchenko was tracking leads on Millian from Nellie Ohr within “approximately one week” of Fusion GPS retaining Steele to compile the dossier. He concludes that this “strongly supports the inference that Fusion GPS directed Steele to pursue Millian.” 
 
In other words, Steele was not the catalyst behind the dossier’s central claims. Rather, it was Clinton’s contractor Fusion GPS — but more specifically, the wife of a senior DOJ official who worked for Fusion. So the FBI wasn’t really investigating “Crown reporting,” as officials referred to Steele’s dossier, implying it was British intelligence. More accurately, it was investigating information from inside its own department that was laundered through Steele and his dossier. (read more)

Smart fella that John Durham.

Nellie Ohr – a former CIA open-source expert on all things Russia; a woman who used HAM radios for communication; a woman who approached Fusion GPS owner Glenn Simpson for a job in December 2015; she was the impetus for the information that ended up in the Chris Steele Dossier.

Gee, go figure.

Darned Suspicious Cats, always being, well, suspicious…

I wonder if Durham tracked down the Michael Cohen art dealer in New York (😂), the guy that went to Prague on business.

Live your best life and laugh more than a little.

May 13 2023

Anheuser-Busch Tells Beer Distributors Not to Worry, This Too Shall Pass


May 12, 2023 | Sundance 

Last week it was reported that Anheuser-Busch CEO Michel Doukeris told investors during a conference call that Budweiser product sales drops in the U.S. and North America were no big deal when contrast against the global sales of the brand. “The Bud Light volume decline in the US over the first three weeks of April, as publicly reported, would represent around 1% of our overall global volumes for that period,” Doukeris said on the call. He focused attention on the company’s global reach, saying that Bud Light is just one beer within its portfolio and it’s not changing the company’s full-year outlook. {link}

Apparently, USA beer drinkers, specifically those who do not want to be identified as transgender men, are an insignificant bunch amid the world of beer drinking consumers.  However, Doukeris might start paying a little more attention as the decline in total A-B products in North America is starting to become more significant. {Source}

It’s interesting that Coors Light and Miller Lite have sales increases surpassing the sales decline of Bud Light.   This would seem to indicate hard brand switches, but Anheuser-Busch in North America held the corporate line and yesterday {source} told their distributors not to worry.

ST. LOUIS – Anheuser-Busch’s distributors from around the country met in St. Louis on Thursday. They heard firsthand about changes being made regarding the Bud Light transgender controversy.

Anheuser-Busch invited the distributors to the downtown Hyatt hotel for a yearly meeting on summer marketing plans. It was the first such meeting since transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney’s viral social media posts with Bud Light in early April. She received a special edition can with her picture on it. 

Market analysts report Bud Light sales are still down more than 20% for the past month. Bud Light boycotts appear to be driving down sales of fellow Anheuser-Busch brands like Budweiser and Michelob Ultra, which are down but not as sharply. 

[…] They appeared to adopt a “deflect and downplay” strategy, which almost never works. […] An Anheuser-Busch spokesperson confirms the company informed distributors of major changes in marketing structure, issuing the following statement: 

“We regularly bring our wholesaler partners and leadership together to share upcoming brand and business plans. Hosting our May meeting in St. Louis is something we started last year and is an opportunity to bring our partners together in our hometown. 

We have communicated some next steps with our internal teams and wholesaler partners. First, we made it clear that the safety and welfare of our employees and our partners is our top priority. Second, Todd Allen was appointed Vice President of Bud Light reporting directly to Benoit Garbe, U.S. Chief Marketing Officer. Third, we made some adjustments to streamline the structure of our marketing function to reduce layers so that our most senior marketers are more closely connected to every aspect of our brands activities. These steps will help us maintain focus on the things we do best: brewing great beer for all consumers, while always making a positive impact in our communities and on our country.”

Anheuser-Busch and its distributors have also sent letters to bars and other retailers explaining the situation, pointing out that a single marketing official engaged with Mulvaney. (read more)  

As you can tell so far, despite the significant North American impacts to the products, the Diversity Equity and Inclusion outlook of the Anheuser-Busch global company is still strongly entrenched in the branding.  It does not appear the company is going to modify anything as the very vocal Alphabet ideologues have them captive.

As noted by Dustin Smith, a business professor at Webster University who teaches college students how to manage the woke transition in corporate life, “the brewer has been supporting “Pride” events for years with no backlash. Smith predicted its brands would recover and most of its core customers would return.” {link}

Comrades, the global command and control authorities have spoken.  The tranny fluid will continue to be supported until such time as those NASCAR watching, line dancing rednecks capitulate and start drinking it again.   Look for significant ad buys on Twitter soon.

Keep watching.

Apr 27 2023

REMINDER: Inflation was at 1.4% When Biden Took Office


Armstrong Economics Blog/Inflation Re-Posted Apr 27, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

Inflation was only 1.4% when Biden took office. He began implementing policies on his first day that directly created the energy crisis in the US. He refused to reopen the economy under the pretense of COVID for as long as possible, disrupting the supply chain and damaging small businesses. Biden has created multi-trillion dollar spending programs that saddled the nation with more debt and increased price volatility. His team has been working to divide the people and create civil unrest. I could go on about his failures, but his worst move was involving America in the Russia-Ukraine war. Inflation has steadily risen to unsustainable levels nearly every month since Biden took office.

Biden’s team toys with the numbers to tout that inflation has gone down, but they are comparing the high and low both created under Biden. Wages cannot support the increase in costs and absolutely no one is better off under Biden. Considering the dire situation, it is infuriating that the US had a 1.4% inflation rate not long ago.

Inflation has soared by over 15% since Biden’s inauguration in January 2021. The “Presidential Inflation Rate,” (PIR) developed by the Winston Group, measures a president’s progress in handling inflation over time, from their inauguration month to the month of the most recent CPI report. As of March, inflation under Biden is 15%, which makes him the most inflationary president since Carter. Biden’s 24% “Presidential Inflation Rate” for rising electricity costs is higher than any of the previous seven presidents as it is now up 37.2%. The cost of food rose 18.3% under Biden, and eggs alone have soared by nearly 80%. Shelter costs are now at a 42-year high, and Biden’s PIR for rent has surpassed 13.5%.

Joe Biden takes no responsibility for the inflation caused by his policies and failures as a president. Inflation will continue to increase under Biden. He has absolutely no plans to address the issue, and the legislation he creates to address the problem only exacerbates it. Biden is a corrupt politician who lines his pockets with money from Ukraine and China. The investigation into his crime family that the media is sweeping under the rug reveals the truth. This man needs to be removed from office immediately, but the people alone must decide when they’ve had enough.

Apr 18 2023

China v Taiwan – The Draft Begins


Armstrong Economics Blog/War Re-Posted Apr 18, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

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.

Apr 14 2023

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.

Apr 6 2023

Why Trump’s Indictment is an Absurd Abuse of Power


Armstrong Economics Blog/Rule of Law Re-Posted Apr 6, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

Bragg has seriously exposed the core of real immoral prosecution practices that really have to stop. Let’s say you made one phone call and defrauded someone out of $100,000. You will be charged with (1) count of wire fraud. However, let’s say you had to call the person 34 times to get the same $100,000. The prosecutor will then charge you with 34 counts of wire fraud. Now let’s say the penalty is 5 years in prison. So if you called 34 times for the same amount of money,  the judge could then sentence you to 170 years claiming it is his “discretion” to run them all consecutively.

Bragg charged Trump with 34 criminal counts connected to the payment of $130,000 to porn star Stormy Daniels in 2016 as part of a nondisclosure agreement that was intended to keep Daniels from exposing their 2006 affair. Those charges are all various counts of filing false business records in the first degree, which could carry a sentence of up to four years in prison per count. That’s a crime that is normally a misdemeanor that can ONLY be upgraded to a felony if the alleged fraud is meant to cover up another crime.

This is where the ABUSE of power becomes self-evident. The other crime, in this case, is a federal campaign finance violation for which Trump has NOT been charged and Bragg would have no jurisdiction to charge. The indictment claims that Trump allegedly committed the underlying fraud as part of an effort to boost his chances of winning the 2016 presidential election.

So, to put this in plain layman’s terms, he is effectively charging you for something like buying a bullet in NYC, that you used in Paris in some attempt to kill someone but you are not being charged with that because you cannot be in the United States.

It is an ABUSE of power to take a single incident and turn it into multiple crimes all because of multiple emails and phone calls. This is standard abuse that all prosecutors engage in to try to force people to plea for a reduced sentence or risk going to jail for life. The legal system in the United States is in NO WAY fair, equitable, or even constitutional. Our legal system is so corrupt, we make a Banana Republic look like the leader of freedom and liberty in the world.

.

This was our Forecast back for the 2016 election. Out of 4 models, 3 of the computer models forecast that Trump would win and one was tied. Our computer had also forecast that BREXIT would win against all odds. Trump would have won and just as the Democrats swear the 2020 elections were NOT rigged, then neither was 2016.

Apr 6 2023

Politicians & Scandals – Always


Armstrong Economics Blog/Politics Re-Posted Apr 6, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

QUESTION: I recall there was some scandal between a bank that failed and Senator Dodd of the Dodd-Frank bill that revised banking. Do you have anything on that?

Thank you for being the only reliable sources these days

RK

ANSWER: You must be referring to the 2008 Countrywide Financial Scandal. There was a political loan scandal in 2008-2009 that involved U.S. politicians who allegedly received favorable mortgage rates. In June 2008 Conde Nast Portfolio reported that numerous Washington, DC politicians over recent years had received mortgage financing at noncompetitive rates at Countrywide Financial because the corporation placed the officeholders in a program called “FOA’s”–“Friends of Angelo“, Countrywide’s Chief Executive Angelo Mozilo.

The politicians who obtained such favorable financing included the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, Christopher Dodd (D-CT), and the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, Kent Conrad (D-ND). Countrywide’s political action committee had also made large donations to Dodd’s campaign.