Oprah’s Old Posse Weighing in on PA Senate Race


Armstrong Economics Blog/USA Current Events Re-Posted Nov 7, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

The corrupt celebrity Oprah Winfrey (a separate blog post for another day) and her old posse are weighing in on the Pennsylvania Senate race. John Fetterman v Mehmet Oz is quite an odd pairing. Dr. Oz rose to fame through his appearances on Oprah’s daytime show. Yet, Oprah publicly will not support the Republican candidate.

Oprah went as far as arranging an online Zoom event to mobilize PA voters. “There are clear choices out there … to represent the values — this is what we’re talking about — the values we hold dear,” she said on the Zoom presentation. “The values of inclusion, the values of compassion … that so many of us share, so use your discernment,” Oprah word vomited. These are the age-old keywords with no clear definition, such as “values,” “inclusion,” and “compassion.” Why would she promote Dr. Oz on her show as the top medical advisor for years if she felt he was lacking in these values?

Knowing Oprah is a die-hard Democrat, Oz was not surprised. “Doctor Oz loves Oprah and respects the fact that they have different politics. He believes we need more balance and less extremism in Washington,” a member of his campaign said.

Yet, another “doctor” who Oprah rose to fame believes John Fetterman is not mentally competent to hold office. Dr. Phil McGraw, albeit no longer a doctor, appeared on “The Joe Rogan Experience” to discuss his concerns with the candidate. “Just ask yourself,” Dr. Phil added, “Let’s say you were getting on an airplane and the airline pilot had had a similar cognitive impairment. Would you get on? Well, hell no.” After seeing Fetterman struggle to form a coherent sentence during his debate, I would NEVER board an airplane with Fetterman onboard, even if he was a flight attendant.

Dr. Phil said that he did not want to appear “unkind” and said Fetterman had “courage,” but this man clearly is mentally compromised. Joe Rogan called this an example of the media and politicians gaslighting the public. Both men said it was unfair to put Fetterman in this position. There is a long list of violent offenders and murderers in prison waiting for a Fetterman win to be released back into the population. If he were running on a Republican ticket, the media would have turned on him during his first interview, and he would not be viewed as the next savior of Pennsylvania.

DeSantis Megadonor, Billionaire Head of Citadel Investments Ken Griffin, Explains Why He Purchased Ron DeSantis for 2024 and What He Expects from His Investment


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on November 6, 2022 | Sundance 

When politicians in Mexico and South America take financial payments from corporations and billionaires, we call it “corruption.”  When politicians in the United States take financial payments from corporations and billionaires, we call it “lobbying.”  The process is identical.

Billionaire Citadel Investment hedge fund CEO Ken Griffin (pictured above, center) is one of the top purchasers of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for a 2024 presidential bid.  In a recent article for Politico, Mr. Griffin openly explains what he expects from his investment in DeSantis:

WASHINGTON DC – […] He has given nearly $60 million to federal Republican candidates and campaigns this election cycle. That puts Griffin behind just liberal billionaire George Soros, who’s given more than $128 million to Democrats, and Richard Uihlein, who aligns himself with far-right candidates and organizations, at about $62 million.

[…] While he’s supporting one of this cycle’s biggest culture warriors in DeSantis, Griffin said most hot-button issues — abortion rights, battles over sex education and LGBTQ rights — don’t define his interests. He wants to improve the diversity of the GOP and blunt the vein of populism that has complicated the party’s relationship with the corporate world — two things he’s consulted with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy about. (read more)

(1) Stop the populist movement and (2) get the republican party back in alignment with the multinational “corporate world.”

Pretty blunt, but hey, he’s rich enough to be honest.  So, there you have it…. This is what Griffin expects Ron DeSantis to do for him.  Any questions?

(Source)

Sunday Talks, CBS Cybersecurity Expert States Global Crisis More Likely if U.S. Blue Checks are Changed on Twitter


Posted originally on the conservative November 6, 2022 | Sundance

The media pearl-clutching over changes to the Twitter social media platform has become detached from reality.  During a Face the Nation discussion today, a very serious Margaret Brennan and Kris Krebs, former director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) outline the national security risks created by Elon Musk’s change to the “verified Twitter user” system.  The “blue checks.”

Mr Krebs outlined how bad actors from Russia, Iran and China could potentially write mean words on Twitter and create social collapse in the United States as a result of election interference, defined as misinformation and disinformation.  Additionally, the unified western military order is at risk from the national security threat posed by allowing random unmonitored discussion on a social media platform.  With the midterm election this week, people could die if Elon Musk removes the control filters on the global conversation.  WATCH:

[Transcript] – […] BRENNAN: We return to our conversation now about election security with CBS News, cybersecurity expert and analyst Chris Krebs. Chris, I want to talk about something that’s happening right now. Social media has already changed the way we communicate and, certainly, our political world. President Biden said a few days ago that he has concerns about billionaire Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter- said, “the platform spews lies all across the world. There’s no editors anymore in America, there are no editors, how do we expect kids to be able to understand what is at stake?” It’s not just kids, right? What concerns do you have about this happening just days before the election, these changes to Twitter?

KREBS: Well, I think I think the government for one has a mechanism by which they can review the acquisition, the Committee for Foreign Investment in the United States can take a look at particularly the second and third ownership positions in Twitter, including Saudi Arabia. That is something that I’m assuming that the Treasury Department is taking a look at right now to see if they can put in place a national security agreement or even potentially unwind the purchase. But I think more specifically to what’s happening right now with Twitter, I think there are kind of- there are two “Elons” that we are seeing. There’s the public Elon, that’s, you know, trolling and saying $8, please, on all the complaints about some of the shifts in the moderation and other activities. Then there’s what’s happening behind the scenes, the conversations with the civil rights groups, with advertisers, with the teens, which perhaps maybe a little bit more stable. And I think if you look at the platform itself right now, not a whole lot has changed. That may not be a popular opinion, but I think the reality is that most, you haven’t seen too much of a change in the moderation. Now, the concern, though, is what happens tomorrow, where you can buy the blue tick for $8 a month, Twitter Blue–

MARGARET BRENNAN: For our viewers who don’t use Twitter, a blue check is a sign of credibility. 

KREBS: It has historically been a marker of trust, and that Twitter has said, we’ve confirmed and authenticated the identity of this person, which tends to be a politician, or a news media personality or a journalist, an academic or someone that may be a popular voice in certain civil rights, civil liberties issue. 

MARGARET BRENNAN: Now you can buy it for eight bucks a month.

KREBS: Along with a number of other features of editing and longer-form video posting. But again, to have such a dramatic shift in that marker of trust, now you can buy it, in advance of as we’ve been talking about a very contentious and important election. It opens the information space to a broader community of influencers, clout chasers, election denialists–

MARGARET BRENNAN: Foreign actors?

KREBS: Absolutely, I mean, we’ve seen reports lately of Russia, China and Iran, back at their old tricks, and it is going to create a very chaotic environment.

MARGARET BRENNAN: To that point in- in 2018, during the midterms, [U.S] Cyber Command took offensive operations to take out Russian trolls who are spreading misinformation. The New York Times has a story today saying Russia is back at it. What does that say to you about U.S. defenses?

KREBS: Well, I think so Recorded Future and Graphika, two research firms have released information that Russian bots, trolls, associated with the Internet Research Agency, which is a group that targeted since the 2016 and the 2018 election, are back at it and are undermining this time Democratic candidates for Senate in some of the- the more contentious races. I think what it says is that the- there’s a broader community of actors, they recognize that political discourse is very divisive here in the US, and they have more opportunities, probably than ever before, to continue to undermine confidence to create chaos, which is really, their primary objective here. It’s not necessarily that a winner wins, but that we’ve all lost- lost confidence and they degrade the American democracy experiment.

MARGARET BRENNAN: There are also a number of sitting Senators, and of note, Ambassador Richard Grinnell former President Trump’s Acting Director of National Intelligence has been posting some misleading information, that’s him on the screen, about the election. He said, “any state which doesn’t count all the votes and announce the winner Tuesday night is incompetent.”–

KREBS: So all 50 states then, by that formulation,

MARGARET BRENNAN: Because what you’re saying is just the fact that votes are never finalized on election night. But why do you think someone who knows better is posting something like that?

KREBS: Well, whether he knows better, I can’t assume that, but the point here is that it’s for clout chasing, it’s for influence. There’s a reward system and structure set up right now within the far-right of the GOP that provides additional engagement. So, you tweet something like that, and you can see your likes, your retweets, your amplification really take off. And if you’re just talking about some other, you know, more mundane domestic issue, nobody cares. But there’s a reward system and incentive structure that’s set up where exactly this sort of messaging is- is rewarded. It’s encouraged, and, and this is again, going back to Governor Sununu’s comments, we need leaders to lead. We need the presumptive leaders of the Republican Party to stand up and say this is unacceptable, this is not how it works. We need to be good faith actors in this process and unfortunately, leaders aren’t leading right now.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Chris Krebs, thank you as always for your analysis and we will see you on election night as part of CBS coverage at our democracy desk here at CBS News.  (LINK)

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“DeSanctimonious” is Not About the Florida Governor


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on November 6, 2022 | Sundance 

In December of 2009 the results of the most consequential special election of the decade were transmitted from a rebellious bunch of misfits who shook the political elite to Washington DC.  Republican Scott Brown was elected to take the “Kennedy Seat” in Massachusetts in an epic battle that surprised both the Democrat and Republican establishment.

The DC political class (both parties) were shook, triggered, jaw-dropped & aghast…  A revolt was visible.

It wasn’t just the Democrats who reacted, organized and responded with the urgency of a 2012 counter-offensive.  The rebellious threat from the working class was as much abhorred by the Republican political class, the Bushes, McCains and McConnells who saw the Tea Party uprising as toxic to their control.

The working-class uprising, the originating assembly of what is now the MAGA movement represented in that Massachusetts winter special election had to be destroyed, and that was why the Tea Party movement had to be co-opted and destroyed by the Republican party.  From their professionally Republican perspective, including the billionaire and Wall Street donors who try to influence the club platform, there are no limits to what they will do to retain control, nothing is out-of-bounds.

That’s why we saw the GOPe primary ‘splitter strategy‘ first deployed to scale in 2012.  Romney was installed as the nominee, and gleefully the GOPe watched as he was defeated by Obama’s reelection bid in November.  The status-quo was achieved.  The DC UniParty was repaired, and all things were back under club control.  Two wings of the same UniParty once again giving the illusion of choice.

For those of us who fully understood what was done, and by that time our 2013 ranks were more significant, it became crystal clear the ‘first-things-first’ approach would require the Republican political elite to be removed and confronted first – before the communists in the left wing of the UniParty could be attacked.  We needed a weapon against them….

…..ENTER Donald John Trump.

Donald John Trump wasn’t just our MAGA candidate in 2015, he was our murder weapon and the professional GOPe elite, the party system within the Republican club, was our intended victim.

The 2016 Republican club counter-offensive to a reenergized movement now carrying the MAGA banner, was led by the ‘Never Trumpers’.   Most of you will easily remember how the professional political class, the Jeb Bush wing within the Republican club, responded.  However, this time in 2016 we had the previous experience, the lessons and a map of their playbook in hand.

The MAGA movement knew what the GOPe club were trying to do, and we defeated them because our candidate was big, snarky, strong and impervious to the professional Republican club throwing everything including the kitchen sink at him.  We The People were not going to retreat.  We held the line, moved forward and won. However, our 2016 victory made the Republican inside club even more furious.

The Bushes, McConnells et al were unwilling to relinquish control of the club and would do anything, say anything and use every institutional lever within their control to remain in power.  The inside DC Republican club used every deceptive resource available to undermine our President and kneecap him from disrupting the system.

It wasn’t just the Democrats trying to impeach President Trump, the Republican wing of the UniParty was more than willing to provide background support, they just couldn’t be visible when doing it.

This is the battle for control of the Republican Party.  It’s not about voters or candidates per se’, the battle is for the control of a private club – the RNC.  President Trump has loosened the grip, but it is up to We The People of the MAGA movement to pry their fingers from the mechanisms of control.

What I am describing above is what the background battle, within the state of Florida, around Ron DeSantis, is all about.

The Bush clan have wrapped their arms around Governor Ron DeSantis as a 2024 weapon to counteract the MAGA movement. They have poured hundreds of millions into the “acceptable Republican” effort and are in full control of the DeSantis campaign management.

The Mitt Romney’s, Mitch McConnell’s, Paul Ryan’s, Kevin McCarthy’s etc are trying to leverage the club dynamic over Ron DeSantis and provide enticements to maintain the alliance with their internal battle plan to retain full control over the Republican Party.

The Never Trumpers, financed by donors, the professional party system and club officials, are all part of the internecine battle.

When President Trump labels the former congressman, now Florida Governor as “Ron DeSanctimonious,” that background reality is the who, what, when and why.

This battle is about Republican Party control and the use of Ron DeSantis by the club members who refuse to let go of power.

As noted by a comment from Rick Stans:

Watching heads explode over Trump’s “DeSantimonious” comment is exactly what the RINO elite relishes! Sundance has spelled out Ron’s position very clearly over the past weeks and anyone with half a brain could see it! Ron is a tool being forged as the splitter to weaken Trump in his bid to win in ‘24.

Moreso, the “god” man is what the RINO elite like Ryan and McCarthy hope will destroy the MAGA movement and restore the order of Kings & Queens in D.C. verses the serfs in fly-over country! The Coastals are becoming a bit uneasy hearing about Red Waves and MAGA movements! Time to crush these peasants once and for all!

Enter “god” man! Smiling, snarky Ron the Trump slayer! The Rip Van Winkle of Mar-a-Lago post raid! Trump’s friendly shot across the bow is a wake-up call!

No Ron, we won’t sit back and let you be another fraud, a fallen acorn from the dead Bush Oak that was fertilized with our hard-earned tax dollars for decades!

Either we’re all in for MAGA (despite what Trump does) or we’ll all be learning how to say “can I trade my dollars for yuan” in Mandarin one day! Wake up foolish Ron supporters who have become offended by Trump! Haven’t you learned from your parents that “sticks and stones may break my bones…..”

Trump is a gamer and his words were just a precursor to let Ron know that all the money and notoriety he will be promised for distancing himself from MAGA to “Save” America, is really nothing but fools gold in the end if MAGA goes the way of the Tea Party!

The Republican Club would rather lose elections and retain power than win and be held accountable to deliver on their false promises.

Senator Joe Manchin Pretends to be Surprised That Joe Biden is Banning Coal Powered Energy


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on November 5, 2022 | Sundance 

Yesterday, Joe Biden declared that all coal-fired electricity plants in the U.S would be shut down, saying, “we’re going to be shutting these plants down all across America and having wind and solar.”

Today, West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin, the senator who gave Joe Biden the vote he needed for the ‘inflation reduction act’ also known as the climate change investment act that will eliminate all oil, coal and natural gas development, pretends to act surprised that Joe Biden will destroy the West Virginia coal mining industry.

Joe Manchin – “Today, U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) released the following statement on comments President Biden made about shutting down coal plants.

“President Biden’s comments are not only outrageous and divorced from reality, they ignore the severe economic pain the American people are feeling because of rising energy costs. Comments like these are the reason the American people are losing trust in President Biden and instead believes he does not understand the need to have an all in energy policy that would keep our nation totally energy independent and secure. It seems his positions change depending on the audience and the politics of the day. Politicizing our nation’s energy policies would only bring higher prices and more pain for the American people.

“Let me be clear, this is something the President has never said to me. Being cavalier about the loss of coal jobs for men and women in West Virginia and across the country who literally put their lives on the line to help build and power this country is offensive and disgusting. The President owes these incredible workers an immediate and public apology and it is time he learn a lesson that his words matter and have consequences.” (read more)

Hitch Yer’ Wagon – The Club Branding of Ron DeSantis Continues, and The Transparency is a Little Funny


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on November 5, 2022 | Sundance 

Tomorrow, Sunday November 6th, President Trump will be holding a rally in Miami-Dade, Florida, for the slate of republican candidates.  All of the main republican candidates, including both Florida senators, who rely on the diverse America-First MAGA movement for election victories will be there…. Except Ron DeSantis.

Now, I get it. I mean, I understand why the people managing Florida Governor Ron DeSantis cannot have their principle appearing at a MAGA rally to receive the endorsement of President Trump, an almost certain 2024 candidate they are planning to challenge a few months later.  However, I get it because I see the roadmap they’ve laid in front of him; a roadmap he is following.

But again, it takes a level of intellectual honesty to accept the basic point that if Ron DeSantis was not planning to run for higher office, or at least leave that option available, there is nothing to lose for DeSantis to appear with Trump.  The only downside to attending the Miami MAGA rally is if DeSantis would want to challenge President Trump a few months later.  Honesty is the cornerstone of accepting things as they are, not as we would wish them to be.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis will not be at the Miami-Dade County Fair and Exposition Center, because the team managing Ron DeSantis national branding campaign don’t want him there.

Since July/Aug {Go Deep} the new management in charge of DeSantis have been positioning him as the Trump alternative, the more acceptable republican candidate, ie. the club candidate

Instead, the republican club and Wall Street financed “Friends of Ron DeSantis” superPAC ($150+ million) have organized another optical event in the much deeper red, Southwest Florida (advertisement left) [LINK HERE].

Notice who is paying for the DeSantis event.  Parker Yancey McCollum is an American Americana and country singer-songwriter based in Texas, and if you follow the granular details of the GOPe branding effort, you might notice the DeSantis management team have deployed the strategy of hitching the governor’s wagon to popular music stars [Luke Bryan example].

This specific branding approach is familiar to professional political consultants and those who follow the deep weeds around ‘imaging’ in political campaigns.  The objective is to use the popularity of the Hollywood or music star as a draw for the crowd.  The managed politician benefits from the optical illusion of a large crowd gathered to support the candidate.

The image and branding approach is useful in avoiding a campaign event at a venue where the crowd doesn’t show up, which looks horrible for the candidate.

While President Donald Trump rallies the MAGA movement in Miami-Dade, specifically going to the formerly deep blue region to drive the proverbial stake through the heart of the left-wing political machine in Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis will hold court within deep red southwest Florida, using Parker McCollum to hopefully offset the optics of DeSantis absence at the MAGA rally.

Rising country music star Parker McCollum was not scheduled to perform in SWFL [Schedule Here] and the DeSantis event is advertised, promoted and financed by the GOPe SuperPac ‘Friends of Ron DeSantis’.   The motives and intents being the DeSantis branding and management team remain clear to those with eyes to see.

To emphasize… Governor Ron DeSantis is a good governor, a good manager, well liked and should be well supported by the Florida voting base.   There are several large issues for Florida that voters are counting on Governor DeSantis and the Florida legislature to tackle quickly in 2023.

Florida has a major housing crisis combined with a serious issue of unaffordable insurance rates crushing the finances of Florida residents.   For many Floridians their homeowner’s insurance costs, now the highest in the nation, are equal to -or higher than- their mortgage payments, and it’s getting worse.  Energy costs have skyrocketed and that is making overall inflation that much more impactful.

The costs to live in Florida are putting an even more severe burden on those with a fixed income.  All of the working-class residents and retirees in Florida are feeling the issue, and there are things the state can do to help.

Charlie Crist would be an absolute nightmare scenario for Florida, but thankfully his hopes of election victory next week are virtually nil.  That is a good thing.

Florida needs Governor DeSantis to focus on Florida.

We are at a very critical juncture in the state and there are some major decisions that need to be made about the future of the state.

The national GOPe club looking to leverage Governor Ron DeSantis as the more acceptable alternative to Donald Trump’s America-First economic platform in 2024, are in a general sense selfish billionaire Wall Street and multinational types [Example].

That said, if in midyear 2023 the professional financial and political class leverage their donations to Ron DeSantis to abandon his post in order to help them nationally combat the MAGA agenda…. DeSantis will not only lose the contest for the republican presidential nomination, but he will also destroy his political career in an instant.

I know the DeSantis national management and branding team read here, so be forewarned.  Step out of your cocktail class donor bubble for a few weeks and listen to the people who matter.  If you push the principal to repay the $200+ million in donations by attempting to combat the MAGA agenda – you, your candidate, and his tenuously constructed reputation will be destroyed.

Wisdom would dictate that Governor Ron DeSantis work on the critical economic issues for Florida that will have ramifications and impacts for many years forward.  Prove himself skilled at large economic problem solving, and then position your principal to receive the support and appreciation of the hometown MAGA base for 2028….

….But step into the national arena for 2024 and DeSantis will be destroyed by angered MAGA like a feather in a hurricane.

Watching…

WASHINGTON DC – […] Save America PAC raised a total of $24.7 million during the third quarter— a 38% increase from the second quarter. A source familiar with the fundraising told Fox News that 98.8% of those donations totaled less than $200 each.

Trump raised $10.2 million in August after the FBI’s unprecedented raid on his private residence at Mar-a-Lago—the most Save America PAC had raised in a month since Trump was in office. (link)

Tucker Carlson Draws Attention to Imprisonment of Catherine Englebrecht and Gregg Phillips


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on November 5, 2022 | Sundance

True the Vote founder Catherine Englebrecht and election data security analyst, Gregg Phillips, were previously in contempt of court and placed in jail for failing to outline the participants in a 2020 hotel discussion that revealed the Konnech election data compromise that was transmitted to Chinese networks.  {Go Deep} Konnech CEO Eugene Yu was arrested for exploiting access to U.S. election data, including election worker information, and transferring the files to China.

Eugene Yu and Konnech sued True the Vote and are using the U.S. civil judicial system to find out who told the FBI about the Chinese data harvesting operation. Federal Judge Kenneth Hoyt demanded that Phillips and Englebrecht reveal the names of everyone who was present when the original data files were shown to True the Vote.

Englebrecht and Phillips stated they did not ever possess the data file, do not have it and refused to name all the participants who may have seen it.   Judge Hoyt threw them in jail last Monday until Englebrecht and Phillips give up the names to the court and the Chinese Communist Party.  Tucker Carlson discusses {Direct Rumble Link} – WATCH:

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NBC Broadcasts, Then Deletes, a Report From San Francisco That Directly Contradicts FBI Statement About Pelosi Attack


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on November 4, 2022 | Sundance

Something sketchy is going on here.  NBC aired a report on the attack against Paul Pelosi that directly contradicts the FBI affidavit of the events when police arrived at the Pelosi home.  NBC then deleted the broadcast report from Twitter and their website saying it “did not meet their journalistic standard.”

It’s worth noting the contradiction stems from the FBI report written by FBI Agent Stephanie Minor, who is relatively new to the FBI: “I am a Special Agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”) and have been an FBI Special Agent since 2019.” [Source, page 2, item 4 “affiant background“] Why would the FBI use such a junior agent for such a high-profile case?  It seemed odd when the FBI affidavit was released.

The NBC broadcast {Direct Rumble Link} says that Paul Pelosi opened the door, didn’t declare an emergency….. and then walked back to his attacker and was attacked.  NBC Scrubbed this report, but not before it was captured on the internet. WATCH:

Compare the NBC report to the probable cause affidavit {Page 3, PCA LINK}

That’s not a minor discrepancy.

NBC reporting from San Francisco about what happened when the police arrived at the home of Paul Pelosi directly conflicts with the FBI affidavit about what the police saw when Paul Pelosi opened the door.

After people noted the discrepancy, and began sharing the report, NBC quickly scrubbed the report.