Sunday Talks, John Ratcliffe Questions the DOJ/FBI Classified Designations in Mar-a-Lago Documents


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on September 18, 2022 | Sundance

In this lengthy interview with John Ratcliffe and Maria Bartiromo, the former Director of National Intelligence, the man who has likely seen every document that may have eventually ended up in Mar-a-Lago, is challenging the nature of the classified status of those documents.   Ratcliffe does not believe the Mar-a-Lago documents are true national security documents, but rather documents that outline fraudulent ‘sources and methods’ used by the DOJ/FBI in their Trump targeting operation.

Keep in mind that as the DNI during 2020, Ratcliffe saw the documents that eventually became the material President Trump declassified and left with the DOJ to release after the Durham investigation was complete.  If Ratcliffe’s suspicions are correct, and there is more valid reason to support his suspicions than oppose them, then the entire construct of the DOJ-NSD operation to retrieve those documents from Mar-a-Lago is factually one big cover-up operation.

Ratcliffe suspects the documents are essentially the DOJ and FBI work products, including interviews with ‘sources’ like Igor Danchenko, from their fabricated case against President Trump.  If accurate, the objective of the DOJ/FBI would be to avoid sunlight on their political targeting operation.  This viewpoint makes sense when you consider the DOJ/FBI position that no one should ever be allowed to look at those documents, including the appointed Special Master in the case, Judge Raymond Dearie.  WATCH:

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DeSantis v Biden on Illegal Aliens


Armstrong Economics Blog/Immigration Re-Posted Sep 18, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

Tucker on Immigration


Armstrong Economics Blog/Immigration Re-Posted Sep 18, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

The wealthy Democrats who have no problem cheering Texas to be overrun and Biden secretly dropping immigrants only in Red states were completely outraged in Martha’s Vineyard. They called out the National Guard and had the low-life immigrants flown again to Cape Cod, away from their biggest donors who live to tell everyone else we are racists, but can’t possibly allow immigrants to stay in their cozy privileged town.

Harvard Attorney and TikTok Influencer States Soros Funded Group Offered to Pay $400 For Anti-Trump Propaganda Video About January 6th


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on September 17, 2022 | Sundance 

(HatTip Twitter and The Gateway Pundit) Attorney Preston Moore received his JD from Harvard Law School and currently works at a law firm Beasley Allen in Atlanta, Georgia.  Mr. Moore does videos on TikTok and is considered a well followed influencer on the social media platform.

Mr. Moore recently disclosed on a video that he was contacted by a person from the Good Information Foundation, a non-profit arm of the Good Information Inc organization.  {Direct Rumble Link} Good Information Inc was founded by billionaires Reid Hoffman and George Soros {citation}.  Mr Moore recently stated in one of his videos that he was offered $400 by the Good Information group, to spread false and defamatory information about President Trump related to the January 6 investigation.  WATCH:

According to a 2021 article by Axios, “Good Information Inc. aims to fund and scale businesses that cut through echo chambers with fact-based information. As part of its mission, it plans to invest in local news companies. The group [is] led by Tara McGowan, a former Democratic strategist who previously ran a progressive non-profit called ACRONYM.” {citation}

Put it all together and what we have is George Soros funding a progressive entity under the auspices of providing “Good Information,” that is actually political disinformation and false claims intended to do damage to political opposition and create false narratives.  Mr. Moore is outlining is intentional fraud, funded by George Soros and organized by Democrat strategist Tara McGowan.

President Trump Save America Rally, Youngstown Ohio – 7pm ET Livestream


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on September 17, 2022 | Sundance

Tonight, President Donald J. Trump, is headed to Youngstown, Ohio, for a 2022 midterm Save America Rally to benefit Ohio candidates including JD Vance.  Several speakers are anticipated including Ohio Representative Jim Jordan.  President Trump is scheduled to deliver his remarks at 7:00pm ET.  Livestream Links Below:

RSBN Direct Rumble Link – Trump Campaign Direct Rumble Link – Alternate Direct Rumble Link

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President Trump Shares Article About a Trump v DeSantis Matchup


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on September 17, 2022 | Sundance

The ‘cut to the chase‘ aspect of whether Ron DeSantis is planning to run for the GOP nomination in 2024 is made clear when you realize just how much money the Florida governor has amassed.  A standing total exceeding $200 million.

That $200 million is not only a staggering amount far beyond the need for his virtually certain governor’s victory, but also the largest amount of campaign money ever assembled by a governor in the history of politics {citation}. Meg Whitman, California ($176 million), and Jay Pritzker, Illinois ($176 million), were both multi-millionaires and funded the majority of their war chest.  Almost all (96%) of DeSantis’ money is coming from multinational corporations, hedge funds, Wall Street firms and billionaires {citation}.

For those who are unfamiliar with the strategies of political funding, there is a timing that also highlights the intent.  A conspicuously aligned timing that coincides with the Trump raid on Mar-a-Lago.  Campaign finance reports are required and filled out quarterly.  DeSantis had a massive war chest assembled through August 5th.

That finance revelation was immediately before the August 8th raid, before the week in the bunker, and before DeSantis reemerged August 14th with a new national branding team and communication change.

DeSantis took in even more billionaire donor checks with the national kick-off.

Everybody familiar with politics knows what that level of preparation and strategy means.  DeSantis wasn’t amassing money of that scale, and simultaneously launching a new national branding campaign, for a state reelection bid.  He was/is preparing for a 2024 presidential run.  The only question was whether DeSantis had direct knowledge of the August 8th raid on Trump in advance, or whether he was just told not to ask questions and follow the advice of his new GOPe team.  The latter is more likely.

That said, the best laid plans of mice and men were disrupted by the MAGA response to the Trump raid.  As noted in the article shared by President Trump today, the professional republican donor class had -not accidentally- done a great job using their piranhas to nibble away at Trump’s support prior to the August 8th raid.  However, the raid rallied the base of MAGA back to defend Donald Trump.

By the time DeSantis came out of his pre-planned bunker phase (Aug 8th through Aug 14th) the support for Donald Trump had surged again.  The professionally republican handlers launched the national DeSantis campaign into indefatigable pro-Trump headwinds.  DeSantis Inc stuck to the plan, but the benefit they anticipated was not there.

Unfortunately for DeSantis there’s no good way to retreat from the 2024 strategy his handlers and donors have mapped out.  They have pushed him ‘all-in.’ I don’t think it’s possible for DeSantis Inc to back-down after accepting all that GOPe money, unless there is a way for them to return or redirect it.

The article President Trump shared today is a good contextual article describing the accuracy of the Trump -v- DeSantis landscape as it existed on August 29th, the date it was written.

One of the citations in the article points to John Thomas who was prepared with a pro-DeSantis PAC if the republican plan against Trump had succeeded.

As noted, the plan didn’t succeed, and with the outcome of the fulcrum event, the Mar-a-Lago raid, not having the desired effect, Thomas has now abandoned the idea of using the PAC to advance DeSantis.

(Business Insider) – […] But at least one GOP operative — John Thomas, founder and president of the political advertising and strategy group Thomas Partners Strategies — thinks it’s better for DeSantis to wait than to try to challenge Trump in 2024. 

“I wouldn’t advise him to go head to head with Trump,” Thomas told Insider. “It’s not gonna go well for DeSantis.” 

Until recently, Thomas was independently readying a political action committee to support DeSantis running for president.

But now he predicts DeSantis would be unsuccessful if he tried to challenge Trump. If DeSantis were to run, he said, he wouldn’t have to just compete with Trump’s name recognition and donor network. DeSantis would also risk seeing what would happen if Trump’s followers suddenly viewed him as anti-Trump.

Right now, DeSantis is seen as not just pro-Trump but as being Trump 2.0, Thomas said. To run against Trump, he said, DeSantis would have to convince Trump’s core electorate to break away from him.

“Right now he can have his cake and eat it too,” he said. “He can be Trumpy and supportive. But he would have to argue that he’s better, or Trump is bad. And that is a fault line that is probably a bridge too far for the Republican electorate in 2024.” (read more)

Inflation Debate


Armstrong Economics Blog/Inflation Re-Posted Sep 17, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

DOJ Files Appellate Court Motion for Partial Stay Against Judge Cannon Ruling, DOJ Does Not Want Classified Documents Reviewed


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on September 17, 2022 | Sundance 

As the DOJ-NSD originally threatened, they have filed an appeal of the ruling by Judge Cannon in the Trump Mar-a-Lago document case. [Pdf Here]

The DOJ is requesting the 11th Circuit Court to intervene and “stay” or block a part of the ruling surrounding letting the Special Master, Judge Raymond J Dearie, review the “classified documents” and make an independent determination as to the validity of the DOJ-NSD claims.

Having read all the motions in the case, you can get a sense of the authorship from the motion.  From my perspective this effort appears to have been written by the Lawfare group and filed by their allies in Main Justice at the DOJ National Security Division (DOJ-NSD).  The bottom line is they really don’t want any outside party making a determination as to the status of the 100 “classified documents,” and/or consider if President Trump had previously declassified them.

The crux of their position is outlined in this part of the motion, which appears to hold a logical fallacy [pdf link Here]:

The framework of the appeal appears to be built on a false premise.  The DOJ argument is contingent upon the government not having the original documents, and the claim is made *AS IF* there is only one copy.  Even if this appeal is within the framework of a valid issue for an appellate court review (not a guarantee), when you apply commonsense the motion fails on its face.

The original documents are always retained by the originating agency.  No one, not even the President, sees original intelligence documents from within any agency creating the product.  Everything, including what President Trump would have seen while in office, and including any “read and return” version of the intelligence product, is a copy that stems from the originals.  As a result, the executive branch (DOJ) has access to the originals regardless of what copies they may have retrieved from Mar-a-Lago.

Once again, the DOJ -together with the internal intelligence agency, likely the ODNI- is claiming to be the arbiter of the “classification” status of the documents at issue.  If President Trump declassified those documents before leaving office (he did), the “classification” status, another underlying premise, is automatically moot.  This reality is the central flaw in the DOJ case and appears to form the basis for Main Justice to be so adamant against anyone else reviewing the documents.

So, there are two structural flaws: (1) There is more than one copy of the documents being argued, and the DOJ has access to the originals; and (2) the classified status of those documents is unknown (hence a special master), and if they were declassified the DOJ-NSD contention around them is automatically moot.

The Special Master appointed by judge Cannon is a former FISA Judge FISA judge.  Judge Raymond J Dearie likely has seen thousands of classified documents over the years, he is not a national security risk by reviewing another set of defined classified documents.  Additionally, the documents have been in Mar-a-Lago for almost two years, the urgency claims by Main Justice look silly.

The DOJ-NSD looks desperate and nonsensical in this filing because the arguments being made by the DOJ-NSD are desperate and nonsensical.

The currently presented legal conflict is essentially over a judicial ruling that -if implemented- resolves the legal conflict.  Therefore, there is no guarantee the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals will even take the DOJ motion under review.  The legal conflict seemingly resolves if the existing judicial ruling is applied.

We keep watching….

(New York Times) – WASHINGTON — The Justice Department asked an appeals court on Friday to let the F.B.I. regain access to about 100 sensitive documents taken from former President Donald J. Trump’s residence in Florida but did not try to block the appointment of an outside arbiter to review other materials.

In a 29-page filing, the department asked the appeals court not to submit the roughly 100 files marked as classified through the vetting process of the arbiter, known as a special master — acquiescing to the review for 11,000 other documents seized from Mr. Trump’s home and resort, Mar-a-Lago. The review has frozen the government’s access to the material as it investigates Mr. Trump’s handling of the documents.

“Although the government believes the district court fundamentally erred in appointing a special master and granting injunctive relief, the government seeks to stay only the portions of the order causing the most serious and immediate harm to the government and the public,” wrote lawyers with the department’s national security division.

[…] The Justice Department initially asked Judge Cannon to stay the portion of her order that blocked it from full investigative use of the 100 or so files with classification markings, but on Thursday she refused to do so. That prompted law enforcement officials to ask the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, in Atlanta, to issue a stay instead. (read more)

On The Radar, Wave 3 of Food Price Inflation Soon to Arrive


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on September 16, 2022 | sundance

You know that moment just before the tsunami hits, when the water is pulled out to sea?  Yeah, that.

Media are starting to realize what a destabilizing force ‘food insecurity’ can become as the pre-existing high prices are about to go even higher.

(WASHINGTON, Via The Hill) – […] the five items that have seen the largest year-over-year price increase based on the latest report from the Labor Department, and how much the price has changed: Eggs 39.8%, Margarine: 38.3%, Butter: 24.6%, Flour/prepared flour mixes: 23.3%, Olives, pickles, relish: 19.4%

Many of the items listed in the Consumer Price Index have seen prices rise by more than 15% compared to August 2021. That includes chicken (16.6%), soups (18.5%), cereals (17.4%), and milk (17%).

[…] Worsening food inflation is a particular strain on lower-income families, more of whom have had to turn to food banks and other aid as inflation has worsened. Mary Jane Crouch, executive director of America’s Second Harvest of Coastal Georgia, which works with a network of food banks, told the Associated Press 38% more food was distributed in August compared with July.

Sales at grocery stores rose 0.5% in August, the Commerce Department reported Thursday. Overall spending has slowed and shifted increasingly toward necessities like food, while spending on electronics, furniture, new clothes and other non-necessities has faded. (read more)

The energy driven inflation in seed, fertilizer, diesel fuel, solvents and industrial surfactants is about to travel from the field into the food supply chain with the fall harvest commencing.  Wave 3 food price increases are likely to be higher than the prior two waves combined.

Overlay that pricing issue with global shortages and what do you get?….

Fortunately, I am optimistic that most readers here are well prepared.

The Cost of Illegal Immigration


Armstrong Economics Blog/Immigration Re-Posted Sep 16, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

Former President Trump requested $15 billion to build a wall between the US and Mexico. Everyone called him a crazy racist and dismissed his pleas. The truth of the matter is that the wall would have paid for itself in a year. American taxpayers have been paying around $20 billion annually since Biden took office to support the massive influx of illegal immigrants.

The study by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) conducted an analysis and found that each illegal immigrant costs taxpayers $9,232 per year to support. The actual number of people crossing the border is unknown, and the 1.3 to 2 million estimated illegal immigrants this fiscal year alone is understated.

FAIR noted that money spent annually to support illegal aliens would amount to providing every homeless veteran with $50,000 a year, for a decade. The funds could be used to hire an additional 330,000 teachers across the nation to help the shortage. These taxpayer funds should be invested in America.

Useless Vice President Kamala Harris insists the border is “secure,” despite tons of counties declaring an invasion and begging Washington for help. “The border is secure, but we also have a broken immigration system, in particular, over the last four years before we came in, and it needs to be fixed,” Harris said. This is truly laughable as one of Trump’s main qualms was securing the border.

Southern states have begun to send immigrants to “shelter cities” where they claim they will open their arms and wallets to all illegals. They have been terribly equipped to handle the massive influx of buses arriving in their cities, and the Democrats are crying that the Republicans are playing a dirty game. The truth of the matter is that these politicians do not see the true impact of the border crisis. Until buses of undocumented people arrive at their doorstep and they have to figure out how to help them, they are ignorant to the issue. Even Harris failed to visit the border after first being appointed as the border czar. The truth of the matter is that the Biden Administration has zero plans to fix the invasion crisis because they are hoping those who make it over will vote blue to stay in the US.