Category U. S. Deep State

Apr 29 2022

Madness, Joe Biden Asks Congress for $33 Billion More for Ukraine to Fund Their Government Salaries, Pensions and Budget Obligations


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on April 28, 2022

This is getting seriously out of hand.  On top of the $14 billion already appropriated for Ukraine assistance, Joe Biden is now asking for a supplemental budget allocation of an additional $33 billion for Ukraine.  Good grief, that’s almost $50 billion in aid, plus the billions in distributed weapons.

Biden is asking for U.S. taxpayers to fund the budget, salaries and pension obligations of the Ukraine government.  Biden made his request in a letter [SEE HERE] to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi:

[…] “I am writing to provide you with my request for fiscal year (FY) 2022 emergency supplemental funding for critical security and economic assistance to Ukraine.
 
I appreciate the Congress’ continued bipartisan support for Ukraine, NATO, and other partner countries affected by Russia’s War in Ukraine.  My Administration is committed to providing the Ukrainian people the assistance they need.  Our assistance to date has made a difference on the battlefield, helping Ukraine win the battle for Kyiv. 

This $33.0 billion request for additional funding and authority builds on the Congress’ supplemental appropriation of $13.6 billion on March 15, 2022, and seeks to address immediate and near-term security and economic needs.  Additional security assistance will put urgently needed equipment into the hands of Ukraine’s military and police, including ammunition, armored vehicles, small arms, demining assistance, and unmanned aircraft systems. 

Economic assistance will provide Direct Budget Support to provide rapid, flexible funds to assist the Government of Ukraine.” (read more)

Joe Biden wants U.S. taxpayers, those who are struggling to pay our own bills, to fund the government of Ukraine?  In case anyone is not up on current events, we are broke.

Apr 29 2022

Jack’s Magic Coffee Shop Reports 2nd Quarter Financials, Net Operating Loss of $128 Million


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on April 28, 2022 

Jack’s magic coffee shop posted their latest financial results today.

As suspected, the social media company Twitter said revenue for the first quarter totaled $1.2 billion (+16%). However, costs and expenses totaled $1.33 billion (+35%), resulting in an operating loss of $128 million. (link)

Another unsustainable result for a company that doesn’t make a profit yet continues to operate.   I digress…

REPOST WARNING – The metaphorical Jack had a great idea, open a coffee shop where the beverages were free and use internal advertising as the income subsidy to operate the business.  Crowds came for the free coffee, comfy couches, fellowship, conversation and enjoyment.

It didn’t matter where Jack got the coffee, how he paid for it, or didn’t, or what product advertising the customers would be exposed to while there.  Few people thought about such things.  Curiously, it didn’t matter what size the crowd was; in the backroom of Jack’s Coffee Shop they were able to generate massive amounts of never-ending free coffee at extreme scales.

Over time, using the justification of parking lot capacity and township regulations, not everyone would be able to park and enter.  Guards were placed at the entrance to pre-screen customers. A debate began.

Alternative coffee shops opened around town.  It was entirely possible to duplicate Jacks Coffee Shop, yet no one could duplicate the business model for the free coffee.  Indeed, there was something very unique about Jack’s Coffee Shop.  Thus, some underlying suspicions were raised:

The only way Twitter, with 217 million users, could exist as a viable platform is if they had access to tech systems of incredible scale and performance, and those systems were essentially free or very cheap.  The only entity that could possibly provide that level of capacity and scale is the United States Government – combined with a bottomless bank account.  A public-private partnership.

If my hunch is correct, Elon Musk is poised to expose the well-kept secret that most social media platforms are operating on U.S. government tech infrastructure and indirect subsidy.  Let that sink in.

The U.S. technology system, the assembled massive system of connected databases and server networks, is the operating infrastructure that offsets the cost of Twitter to run their own servers and database.  The backbone of Twitter is the United States government.

FREE COFFEE:

♦ June 2013: […] “Cloud computing is one of the core components of the strategy to help the IC discover, access and share critical information in an era of seemingly infinite data.” … “A test scenario described by GAO in its June 2013 bid protest opinion suggests the CIA sought to compare how the solutions presented by IBM and Amazon Web Services (AWS) could crunch massive data sets, commonly referred to as big data.” … “Solutions had to provide a “hosting environment for applications which process vast amounts of information in parallel on large clusters (thousands of nodes) of commodity hardware” using a platform called MapReduce. Through MapReduce, clusters were provisioned for computation and segmentation. Test runs assumed clusters were large enough to process 100 terabytes of raw input data. AWS’ solution received superior marks from CIA procurement officials”… (MORE)

♦ November 2013: […] “Twitter closed its first day of trading on Nov. 7, 2013, at $44.90 a share. In the years since then, it briefly traded above $70, but more recently, it has struggled.”

Jack’s free coffee shop has been for sale, but there’s no viable business model in the private sector.  No one has wanted to purchase Twitter – it is simply unsustainable; the data processing costs exceed the capacity of the platform to generate revenue – until now….

And suddenly, the people who work in the backroom of Jack’s Magic Coffee Shop don’t want Jack to sell.

Twitter is not making a decision to decline the generous offer by Elon Musk because of stewardship or fiduciary responsibility to shareholders.  The financials of Twitter as a non-viable business model highlight the issue of money being irrelevant.  Twitter does not and cannot make money.  Growing Twitter only means growing an expense. Growing Twitter does not grow revenue enough to offset the increase in expense.

There is only one way for Twitter to exist as a viable entity, people are now starting to realize this.

What matters to the people behind Twitter, the people who are subsidizing the ability of Twitter to exist, is control over the global conversation.

Control of the conversation is priceless to the people who provide the backbone for Twitter.

Once people realize who is subsidizing Twitter, everything changes.

That’s the fight. (more)

♦ 2021, Public-Private Partnership – The modern Fourth Branch of Government is only possible because of a Public-Private partnership with the intelligence apparatus. You do not have to take my word for it, the partnership is so brazen they have made public admissions.

The biggest names in Big Tech announced in June their partnership with the Five Eyes intelligence network, ultimately controlled by the NSA, to: (1) monitor all activity in their platforms; (2) identify extremist content; (3) look for expressions of Domestic Violent Extremism (DVE); and then, (4) put the content details into a database where the Five Eyes intelligence agencies (U.K., U.S., Australia, Canada, New Zealand) can access it.

Facebook, Twitter, Google and Microsoft are all partnering with the intelligence apparatus. It might be difficult to fathom how openly they admit this, but they do. Look at this sentence in the press release (emphasis mine):

[…] “The Group will use lists from intelligence-sharing group Five Eyes adding URLs and PDFs from more groups, including the Proud Boys, the Three Percenters and neo-Nazis.”

Think about that sentence structure very carefully. They are “adding to” the preexisting list…. admitting the group (aka Big Tech) already have access to the the intelligence-sharing database… and also admitting there is a preexisting list created by the Five Eyes consortium.

Obviously, who and what is defined as “extremist content” will be determined by the Big Tech insiders themselves. This provides a gateway, another plausible deniability aspect, to cover the Intelligence Branch from any oversight.

When the Intelligence Branch within government wants to conduct surveillance and monitor American citizens, they run up against problems due to the Constitution of the United States. They get around those legal limitations by sub-contracting the intelligence gathering, the actual data-mining, and allowing outside parties (contractors) to have access to the central database.

The government cannot conduct electronic searches (4th amendment issue) without a warrant; however, private individuals can search and report back as long as they have access. What is being admitted is exactly that preexisting partnership. The difference is that Big Tech will flag the content from within their platforms, and now a secondary database filled with the extracted information will be provided openly for the Intelligence Branch to exploit.

The volume of metadata captured by the NSA has always been a problem because of the filters needed to make the targeting useful. There is a lot of noise in collecting all data that makes the parts you really want to identify more difficult to capture. This new admission puts a new massive filtration system in the metadata that circumvents any privacy protections for individuals.

Previously, the Intelligence Branch worked around the constitutional and unlawful search issue by using resources that were not in the United States. A domestic U.S. agency, working on behalf of the U.S. government, cannot listen on your calls without a warrant. However, if the U.S. agency sub-contracts to say a Canadian group, or foreign ally, the privacy invasion is no longer legally restricted by U.S. law.

What was announced in June 2021 is an alarming admission of a prior relationship along with open intent to define their domestic political opposition as extremists.

July 26, 2021, (Reuters) – A counterterrorism organization formed by some of the biggest U.S. tech companies including Facebook (FB.O) and Microsoft (MSFT.O) is significantly expanding the types of extremist content shared between firms in a key database, aiming to crack down on material from white supremacists and far-right militias, the group told Reuters.

Until now, the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism’s (GIFCT) database has focused on videos and images from terrorist groups on a United Nations list and so has largely consisted of content from Islamist extremist organizations such as Islamic State, al Qaeda and the Taliban.

Over the next few months, the group will add attacker manifestos – often shared by sympathizers after white supremacist violence – and other publications and links flagged by U.N. initiative Tech Against Terrorism. It will use lists from intelligence-sharing group Five Eyes, adding URLs and PDFs from more groups, including the Proud Boys, the Three Percenters and neo-Nazis.

The firms, which include Twitter (TWTR.N) and Alphabet Inc’s (GOOGL.O) YouTube, share “hashes,” unique numerical representations of original pieces of content that have been removed from their services. Other platforms use these to identify the same content on their own sites in order to review or remove it. (read more)

The influence of the Intelligence Branch now reaches into our lives, our personal lives. In the decades before 9/11/01 the intelligence apparatus intersected with government, influenced government, and undoubtedly controlled many institutions with it. The legislative oversight function was weak and growing weaker, but it still existed and could have been used to keep the IC in check. However, after the events of 9/11/01, the short-sighted legislative reactions opened the door to allow the surveillance state to weaponize.

After the Patriot Act was triggered, not coincidentally only six weeks after 9/11, a slow and dangerous fuse was lit that ends with the intelligence apparatus being granted a massive amount of power. The problem with assembled power is always what happens when a Machiavellian network takes control over that power and begins the process to weaponize the tools for their own malicious benefit. That is exactly what Barack Obama was all about.

The Obama network took pre-assembled intelligence weapons we should never have allowed to be created, and turned those weapons into tools for his radical and fundamental change. The target was the essential fabric of our nation. Ultimately, this corrupt political process gave power to create the Fourth Branch of Government, the Intelligence Branch. From that perspective the fundamental change was successful.

…It’s all Connected Folks, SEE HERE

[…] “The vision was first outlined in the Intelligence Community Information Technology Enterprise plan championed by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and IC Chief Information Officer Al Tarasiuk almost three years ago.” … “It is difficult to underestimate the cloud contract’s importance. In a recent public appearance, CIA Chief Information Officer Douglas Wolfe called it “one of the most important technology procurements in recent history,” with ramifications far outside the realm of technology.” (READ MORE)

One job…. “take the preexisting system and retool it so the weapons of government only targeted one side of the political continuum.”

Knowing they put this much effort into it, does everything going on now to regulate the internet, maintain the public-private partnership, define information and use the weapons of the administrative state to protect the assembly, start to make more sense?…

.

Apr 29 2022

Stagflation Arrives, U.S. Economy Shrinks 1.4 Percent in First Quarter


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on April 28, 2022

The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) released the First Quarter GDP figures today [DATA HERE] showing the U.S. economy contracted -1.4% in the first quarter.

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is the dollar value of all goods and services produced in the economy, minus the dollar value of goods and services we import.  The percentages discussed are percentages of change over time.

The first quarter result was an annualized rate of negative 1.4 percent, meaning the U.S. economy is shrinking.   However, this should not come as a surprise as the primary driver of our GDP is consumer spending.  With everything costing more, less stuff is purchased.  Less stuff purchased leads to less stuff generated.

While the first quarter result of -1.4% is not a surprise, in the commonsense perspective, the fact that BEA didn’t revise the fourth quarter result of +6.9% is a little eye opening.  There’s no way in an apples-to-apples valuation the U.S. economy goes from +6.9% to -1.4% in one quarter.  Instead, what we are seeing is the effect we mentioned when the Q4 result was announced.  The BEA is modifying their assumptions by increasing the inflation rate in their calculations of the value of goods and services.  They really didn’t have a choice.

You might remember my prior opinion that the Q4 numbers were very overinflated because of two factors: (1) they underestimated inflation; and (2) the December 2021 import data from the Port of Los Angeles (POLA) was missing [NOTE: remember, Buttigieg was there in November and POLA supervisors are on team Biden].  I said at the time that if my hunch was correct the first quarter 2022 import data would be magnified by the December POLA data being added.  Remember, imports are a deduction to the GDP equation.

Well, what shows up in Q1?  A massive increase in first quarter import data that surprised everyone.  Go figure… lol.

Let’s look at the data

♦ {TABLE 1 TOP LINES}  We can see the economy contracted by 1.4% overall.

When you look at the +4.1% growth in durable goods we must factor in the BEA inflation assumption.  Did more durable good units get sold, not likely.  It’s likely less units sold but at a higher price, therefore the aggregate value of the durable goods gives a false impression of an increase.

Consider nondurable goods declining by 2.5%.  Did less food, fuel and energy get consumed at higher prices?  Or was the inflation assumption wrong?

Also check out the Exports change from Q4 (2021) to Q1 (2022).  From +23.4 to -9.6.  That’s a big change in exports.

.

♦ {Table 4 Tells a story}  Now we are looking at prices.

The value of our exports leaves the U.S. carrying the increased rate of U.S. inflation to produce them.  A whopping +22.9% in price.

However, the value of the imports (again in dollars) is only 15.9% higher.

All things being equal, there’s a 7% price difference between exports and imports.

Inflation is high globally; however, inflation is higher here in the U.S. than overseas.

.

Remember, the GDP isn’t a measure of the actual outputs of stuff created, the Bureau of Economic Analysis is only measuring the aggregate value of the stuff, ie. what it’s worth.

  • 20 trillion units at $1.00 per unit equals $20 trillion dollars.
  • 20 trillion units at $1.05 per unit equals $21 trillion dollars.
  • An increase of 5% in economic valuation (GDP), but we haven’t created a single product more.

Did our economy contract by only 1.4% in the first quarter?  Or are we seeing inflation continually skewing the valuation of goods and services, while the actual outputs in the economy are shrinking by much more?

Did you pay 20% more at the grocery store and leave with more food stuff?  Or did you pay 20% more at the checkout and leave with less food stuff than previous?

I think we all know the answer to those questions.

Checkbook economics is the only economics that matters.

“Stagflation” is here.

Apr 29 2022

White House NSA Organizes Security Summit With 50 Nation Peers to Discuss Future of the Internet


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on April 28, 2022

Given what we discussed yesterday, this announcement {SEE HERE} should leave us all feeling warm and fuzzy… NOT!

(SOURCE)

What could possibly go wrong when the National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan, organizes a “minister level launch of the Declaration for the Future of the Internet.”   Put more succinctly, that would be 50 nation intelligence ministers getting together to decide what they will permit on the internet.

Apparently, a collective partner rule book is forthcoming.   Big Tech will be given specific instructions on how to comply.

The global rulebook on how to handle, define and eliminate ‘disinformation’, ‘misinformation’ and ‘malinformation’ on the world-wide internet.

Sounds like satire, but it’s totally legit.

This meeting provides more context for the formation of a Homeland Security “disinformation board.”

Apr 28 2022

US Asks Germany to Hold Off on Russian Energy Sanctions Until Midterm Elections


Armstrong Economics Blog/Energy Re-Posted Apr 28, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

Reports are circling that the Biden Administration has begged Germany to hold off on banning Russian oil until after the midterm elections. The Democrats are so desperate to win amid their record-low popularity that they are openly asking other nations to alter major policies at the expense of the people. Biden has banned Russian energy imports, but the EU, which is more reliant on Russian energy, must wait.

Banning Russian energy will backfire on Europe and send aftershocks throughout the market. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock initially announced that Germany would cease purchases from Russia but quickly changed her stance. Finance Minister Christian Lindner said that Germany would support Ukraine but not at the expense of the German people. “It was a mistake that Germany became so heavily dependent on energy imports from Russia,” she admitted after avoiding warnings years ago.

Germany is the #1 importer of Russian energy, with 34% of its total petroleum coming from Russia. Nearly half of Germany’s coal is tied to Russia, and one-third of homes are heated with Russian imported oil. Germany purchased 27 billion tons of crude from Russia in 2021 alone.

Zelensky has cried that the EU is spending “blood money” on Russian energy without understanding there is no immediate alternative. Zelensky accused nations who purchase Russian oil of being guilty of genocide and war crimes. “If Russians are committing war crimes, even genocide, whoever is supplying Russia with this bloody money is guilty of the same war crime.” If he had his way, he would punish each nation accordingly.

Germany recently stated they will ban Russian oil by the end of the year, regardless of the repercussions, and will ban gas imports by next year. While it is unconfirmed whether Biden begged Scholz to hold off on additional sanctions, the prospect is highly likely. In the end, Biden, Scholz, and Zelensky are subservient to the Build Back Better agenda, and policies will be aimed at that socialistic goal rather than what is best for the people.

Apr 28 2022

The Useless Class


Armstrong Economics Blog/WEF Re-Posted Apr 28, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

Yuval Noah Harari, a self-described historian and one of Schwab’s loudest mouthpieces, believes that we will see the rise of the “useless class.” Harari noted how during the industrial revolution, people went from working on the farm to working in a car factory. He described it as transferring from one low-skilled job to another low-skilled job.

Since automation is leading the new world, future job prospects in 20 to 30 years are unknown. Harari believes it is impossible to know what to teach children today to make them productive citizens in the future. There will be “a new massive useless class that has no military or economic usefulness, and therefore no political power,” he stated. This is another push toward the World Economic Forum’s goal of government control – you need us but we don’t need you.

History tells us that farming is certainly not a low-skill profession. Look at what happened when Mao killed off all the farmers in China. A low-paying profession does not mean it is low-skilled. Our society could not function without farmers or automotive workers. Additionally, he does not take into account the beauty of creative destruction cited by Schumpeter. The brick and mortar retail stores may be gone in 20 years, but new positions will arise and people will develop skills and adapt to those roles. As for education, schools can begin by teaching children to think independently and question everything (not their gender). Claiming that there will be countless people out of work, “useless” to society, opens the door to government welfare programs becoming commonplace.

I cannot help but to be reminded of Hitler’s classified “useless eaters.” Like those at the WEF, Hitler believed there was a class of humans among society who simply consumed but did not contribute. Instead of hoping they’d rely on government aid, he simply murdered them. Be on high alert when a global agency begins referring to portions of the population as “useless.”

Apr 28 2022

Socrates & the Ruble


Armstrong Economics Blog/Russia Re-Posted Apr 28, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

QUESTION: Marty; I just wanted to comment that I am amazed that Socrates forecast the ruble through this mess showing a directional change in April leaving the March low intact. The ruble turned with your ECM target of March 14. Congrats. Your accomplishment is worth a Noble Prize for it actually works. Nobody had correctly forecasted these events. It is not hard to see how the government tortured you and your family for your accomplishment.

Do you think Putin took your advice on backing the ruble with gold?

PN

REPLY: Thank you. People fail to understand that events like these are just beyond human capability to reason and rationalize what will unfold. Nobody has lived through such events before so there is no possibility to rely upon personal experience. There are analysts who hate me and see this as competition. There are some things that just go far beyond human forecasting. Just compare the two Monthly Arrays from December and now. March was showing as a knee-jerk reaction and then there was a Directional Change in April. I do not think anyone in December could have foreseen the events of war and how the world economy would have been destroyed by Biden and his unimaginable sanctions. Even SWIFT refused in 2014 to remove Russia when asked by Obama. So how could anyone foresee such events?

Every government central bank and intelligence entity tunes into Socrates. Yes, my recommendation to Russia I published on March 23rd was to back the currency with gold in a reverse manner of FDR restricting the gold convertibility to domestic use rather than international. I did not speak with the Russian central bank, but I’m sure they understood the implication of what I suggested. The Russian Central Bank announced on April 5th that the ruble would be backed by gold making one gram of gold equal to 5,000 rubles.

Those pulling the strings connected to the mouths of Western world leaders are simply braindead. One day after Russia halted natural gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria due to “nonpayment in rubles“, Putin confirmed that he was willing to go ahead and shut down supplies to “unfriendly” nations. He has sent European natural gas prices soaring. It is clear that Europe’s united front is cracking. Already four European gas buyers have paid for supplies in rubles. Europe is DOOMED without Russia and they better wake up and stop following whatever dribble comes from Biden’s mouth for they are words he himself does not even comprehend.

The European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was put in that position by Klaus Schwab and his World Economic Forum. Like Biden, she is selling war and the destruction of the world economy to achieve Schwab’s dream of his Great Reset to conquer the world with his vision of how it should operate.

Apr 28 2022

Foreign Money To Stop Fossil Fuels Pouring into Canada


Armstrong Economics Blog/Canada Re-Posted Apr 27, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

Apr 28 2022

Russia Stops Gas Supplies to Poland and Bulgaria Amid Ongoing Ukraine Battle


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on April 27, 2022

At the same time as Russia has targeted railway lines as part of the effort to block U.S. arms shipments into Eastern Ukraine, Vladimir Putin has now followed through on the previous warning to stop Russian gas supplies unless payments are made in non-sanctioned Rubles.

Poland is obviously the primary target for retaliation here, as the NATO alliance is using Poland as the gateway for arms deliveries into Ukraine.

According to multiple reports from the EU Russia has halted gas shipments into Poland and Bulgaria.  (Reuters) “Gazprom Russia’s gas export monopoly, suspended gas supplies “due to absence of payments in roubles”, as stipulated in a decree from Russian President Vladimir Putin that aims to soften the impact of sanctions.”

There are conflicting reports as to whether Germany is paying Russia, or whether they are trying to avoid running afoul of the NATO alliance by reducing Russian imports.

Ukraine President Zelenskyy is using the opportunity to reinforce his position that all European countries need to stop purchasing energy from Russia, or else they are not supporting Ukraine.   However, it’s not as simple as it seems because multiple EU countries are dependent on Russia for energy products and there are no immediate alternatives.  Russia is leveraging this dependency in an effort to break the western sanctions.

(NBC) – […]  After months of threats, the Kremlin cut off gas supplies to two European Union nations Wednesday and warned others could be next.  The long-feared move against the continent’s energy supply marks a dramatic escalation of Moscow’s bid to weaken the collective resolve of Ukraine’s allies as they send growing numbers of weapons to help Kyiv fight.

[…] Russian state-controlled energy giant Gazprom announced Wednesday it had halted gas supplies to Bulgaria and Poland for failing to pay for gas in rubles, something Putin had demanded last month in response to tough sanctions imposed by the West on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. European buyers condemned Putin’s demand, saying it violated existing contracts with payments usually agreed on in dollars or euros, and called into question Russia’s reliability as a supplier.

[…] Russia is one of the world’s largest producers of petroleum and natural gas, and Europe is heavily reliant on imports from Russia for its energy supply. “In 2021, the European Union imported 155 billion cubic metres of natural gas from Russia, accounting for around 45% of EU gas imports and close to 40% of its total gas consumption,” according to a recent report from the International Energy Agency. 

Meanwhile, Bulgaria imported more than 70 percent of its natural gas from Russia in 2020, E.U. data showed. In the same year, Poland relied on Russia for around 45 percent of its natural gas.

[…] Notably, the decision to cut off supplies to Poland and Bulgaria came the day after the United States and its allies gathered in Germany to pledge more heavy weapons for Ukraine as it steels its defenses for what could be a decisive battle in the eastern Donbas region.  (read more)

Somehow, on top of the $14+ billion in direct aid to Ukraine, Joe Biden is likely to figure out a way to put the U.S. taxpayer on the hook for most of the EU energy problems in an effort to save face for the White House in a U.S. proxy war against Russia.  Both wings of the UniParty congress are likely to support that effort.

FUBAR

(Reuters) – […]  So far, it was unclear whether Poland or Bulgaria will comply with Moscow’s demands. Both countries rely heavily on Russian imports via pipeline.

Polish gas company PGNiG, whose gas deal with Russia expires at the end of this year, has repeatedly said it would not comply with the new scheme. It has also said it would not extend the contract.  Poland says it does not have to cut supplies to customers. The country can source gas via two links with Germany including a reverse flow on the Yamal pipeline, a link with Lithuania with an annual capacity of 2.5 bcm that will open on May 1 and via an interconnector with the Czech Republic for up to 1.5 bcm.

Bulgaria also had a contract with Gazprom due to expire at the end of the year. The country relies almost completely on Russian gas imports, and has taken steps to find alternative arrangements for supply, its energy ministry said in a statement. Bulgaria consumes about 3 billion cubic metres of gas per year and imports over 90 percent of it from Russia.  Previously, Bulgarian Energy Minister Alexander Nikolov had said a counterpart in Sofia could handle transactions in roubles, without giving details. (more)

Apr 28 2022

New York State Appellate Court Rules Against Democrat Gerrymandering Effort, 2022 Primary Likely Delayed


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on April 27, 2022

New York state democrats attempted to mitigate the bloodbath coming their way in the 2022 elections by drawing a redistricting map that eliminated three republican congressional seats.   Today a New York State appeals court ruled the maps were unconstitutional efforts to gerrymander the districts and now the primary races will likely be delayed.

The 78-page ruling is available here.  The state appeals court ruled 4-3 against the democrats. The June 28, 2022, primary will likely be moved to August because the state now needs to redraw the congressional districts.

(Via MSM) – […] The New York State Court of Appeals said the three maps violated the state’s Constitution by creating political bias. The maps were “procedurally unconstitutional, and the congressional map is also substantively unconstitutional as drawn with impermissible partisan purpose,” the court said.

[…] With no more appeals and time running out, the court ordered the adoption of a neutral map by an outside expert. The court also recommended the state’s June 28 primary be moved to August.

“We are confident that, in consultation with the Board of Elections, Supreme Court can swiftly develop a schedule to facilitate an August primary election, allowing time for the adoption of new constitutional maps,” the court said.  (read more)