Tag Archives: Economic Collapse

Apr 20 2023

Two-Tiered Justice, IRS Supervisor Says Political Intervention Taking Place to Protect Hunter Biden – Requests Whistleblower Protection


Posted originally on the CTH on April 19, 2023 | Sundance 

An IRS supervisory special agent with information about intervention, mishandling and ‘political interference’ in the ongoing criminal probe into Hunter Biden is seeking whistleblower protections to share the information with Congress. Apparently, the deep state “theys” are protecting Hunter Biden and the IRS agent has had enough.

WALL STREET JOURNAL – WASHINGTON—An IRS supervisor has told lawmakers he has information that suggests the Biden administration is improperly handling the criminal investigation into President Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, and is seeking whistleblower protections, according to people familiar with the matter.

A letter sent to Congress on Tuesday says a career Internal Revenue Service criminal supervisory special agent has information that would contradict sworn testimony by a “senior political appointee.” The supervisor also has information about a “failure to mitigate clear conflicts of interest in the ultimate disposition of the case,” according to the letter.

The supervisor has details that show “preferential treatment and politics improperly infecting decisions and protocols that would normally be followed by career law enforcement professionals in similar circumstances if the subject were not politically connected,” according to the letter. 

The letter says the supervisor has been overseeing an “ongoing and sensitive investigation of a high-profile, controversial subject since early 2020,” which it doesn’t name. The investigation at issue is into the younger Mr. Biden, the people familiar with the matter said.  (read more)

Apr 20 2023

The Legislative Branch’s Biggest Leaker of Classified Intelligence, Rails Against Small Fry Ability to Leak Classified Pentagon Intelligence


Posted originally on the CTH on April 19, 2023 | Sundance 

Some insider threats are more equal than others; so goes the position of the nation’s biggest leaker of classified documents in modern history, and it’s not Jack Teixeira.

This story shows the importance of what was hidden by the combined efforts of the national security apparatus in 2018.

Readers here are familiar, but most Americans are not, with how Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner leaked a top-secret classified Title-1 FISA application in March of 2017.

Then the Vice-Chair of the SSCI, Senator Warner instructed Senate Security Director James Wolfe to leak the 82-page FISA application assembled against Carter Page.  On the afternoon of March 17, 2017, Wolfe took 82 pictures of the “Read and Return” document that was delivered to the SSCI basement SCIF by FBI Supervisory Special Agent Brian Dugan from the Washington Field Office.

Later that evening, Wolfe sent the images to journalist Ali Watkins using an encrypted messaging app.  Ms. Watkins then shared the FISA content with her peers and used the information to leverage a top-tier job at the New York Times.  The media were off to the races talking about FBI surveillance of the Trump campaign and using the leaked FISA as evidence of the ongoing investigation, later known as Crossfire Hurricane.   Three days later, March 20, 2017, after coordinating the intent of the narrative creation with Mark Warner, FBI Director James Comey publicly admitted the Trump-Russia investigation for the first time.

After James Wolfe was arrested for the FISA application leak, his defense lawyers threatened to expose the role of the Senate Intelligence Committee in the leak and subpoena the members as witnesses.  The Mueller/Weissmann team, then in charge of all DOJ operations that touched on Trump-Russia, took apart the evidence of Wolfe’s conduct, and DC Attorney Jessie Liu dropped most of the charges against Wolfe.  Mueller then ran cover for Mark Warner, and eventually – out of an abundance of caution to maintain the need for the coverup operation – the Mueller/Weissmann team then made the FISA application public. The rest is history.

Keep in mind, I could be civilly sued if anything written above as an asserted truth was false.  I’m not, because the truth is the defense.  All of this happened.

At the time of the Mark Warner TSCI leak, no one outside the DOJ-FBI and Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) had ever seen a FISA application.  Heck, in 2017 through early 2018, it was considered a classified intelligence breech to even discuss the FISA process, the procedures or the court itself.  People forget that.

The 2017 leaking of the FISA application was the biggest national security breach in years, perhaps seconded only to the 2017 leaking of the TSCI transcript from National Security Advisor Michael Flynn’s call with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak, given to the Washington Post by the FBI a month earlier.

So, it’s somewhat hypocritical and ironic to see SSCI Chairman Mark Warner now railing against the Pentagon and Director of National Intelligence over not being provided the details of documents leaked by a low-level military servicemember in the Massachusetts Air National Guard.

WASHINGTON DC – The Senate Intelligence Committee is demanding the Pentagon hand over copies of all the classified documents leaked by Massachusetts Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira.

The 21-year-old serviceman was accused by the Department of Defense of leaking “sensitive and highly-classified material” into a chat on the encrypted communications platform Discord. It then made its way onto other social media platforms. He was charged on Friday.

In a letter addressed to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., and ranking member Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said the leak prompted concerns about “serious deficiencies” in the government’s security protocols.

“According to public reporting, A1C Teixeira began sharing classified information and classified documents within a social media platform as early as December 2022—nearly four months before the government’s discovery,” the letter, obtained by Fox News Digital, read. “These disclosures indicate serious deficiencies in the government’s insider threat and security vetting protocols.”  (read more)

Apr 19 2023

New Home Buyers Penalized for High Credit Scores


Armstrong Economics Blog/Real Estate Re-Posted Apr 19, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are making some changes to Loan Level Price Adjustments (LLPAs) that will likely hurt those with good credit applying for conventional loans in the US. To ensure “fairness,” the agencies are helping “underserved” first-time home buyers by reducing costs for those with lower credit scores and less money for down payments. Borrowers with a credit score under 680 will be rewarded, while those who spent years maintaining a high level of creditworthiness will see higher rates.

Spent years saving for a down payment? Expect to pay more as they implement fees for borrowers who can put 15% to 20%+ down. Previously, lenders would favor higher down payments in their risk adjustments. So even if someone chose to put down over 20% to avoid PMI costs, they would now be penalized due to these asinine FHFA rules. So those with good pay, credit, and savings will be penalized while low-income earners will receive countless benefits.

In a blog post the other day, I mentioned how banks are not profiting on mortgages as they once did. Fannie and Freddie are looking to track down extra fees as the middle class is continually squeezed. They want the people to pay for mortgage insurance. Perhaps lenders want those with lower credit scores, who are less likely to meet their obligations as a first-time home buyer, to take out loans since they’re more likely to default. This is like giving A test scores to students who only studied enough to earn a C. They are making it difficult for financially responsible people to enter the housing market.

Apr 19 2023

Is Elon Musk Doing Damage Control Using Tucker Carlson Interview?


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

I write the headline in the form of a question but in reality, all of the data points in one direction, yes.

If I am going to be brutally honest, this Elon Musk scenario is like the August 2022 review when it became obvious all of the DeSantis 2024 data only reconciled in one direction.  In many ways, Musk is to social media interests as DeSantis is to DC UniParty interests.

More than half the readers here have picked up on the clues and cues showing Musk has a very real motive to position himself in the best light possible given the situation that surrounds him.  Unfortunately, that position creates conflicts between ideals (what’s possible) and reality (what limits surround one’s ability).  Musk is riding a tiger, and the intelligence community ring masters control the beast.

The damage control motive is a few layers deep.  However, one of the recent events that would lead to Musk’s public need for brand image protection comes from the situation with Matt Taibbi:

…”When we got into the Files, we were caught off guard. The content-policing system was more elaborate and organized than any of us imagined. A communications highway had been built linking the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence with Twitter, Facebook, Google, and a slew of other platforms. Among other things this looked more like a cartel than a competitive media landscape, and I had an uneasy feeling early on that publicizing this arrangement might create a host of unanticipated problems for everyone involved. Still, there was no question this was in the public interest. So we kept going.”  (more)  ~ Matt Taibbi

On the issue of Twitter File access and personal motivation, Taibbi’s best financial and short-term professional interests would be served most by retaining a positive relationship with Musk/Twitter.  The fact that Taibbi would turn away from the lucrative interests, says something positive about his compass heading.

Accepting the COVID-19 files were never released, what some have called the Fauci files, and accepting the revelations within the filtered internal documents stopped abruptly, we can consider that ‘stakeholder’ interests became more consequential as the outside peering gained depth.  Likely the core of the platform, which we now know is based on a U.S Government intelligence relationship, needed a protective boundary.

When you overlay the reality that all of Elon Musk’s ventures are dependent on the same USG for viability, the vulnerability & motive to shape outcomes (via messaging) is stark.  Tesla, SpaceX, Star Link and all of Musk’s endeavors are intertwined with government approvals, authorizations and operations.  Control of the Twitter platform as a tool for public opinion is in alignment with those same Big Gov interests.

Another core issue that should be the focus of attention, a string that can unravel the gordian knot, is the financial mechanisms of Twitter.

As a business model, Twitter never made any sense.  That’s the obvious answer why no other Tech business ever made an effort to absorb or merge it.

When you overlay the government activity, then overlay the financial value to the government for the access and control that everyone now admits was in place, the Occam’s Razor of financial operations would indicate some form of government subsidy (direct or indirect) along with some form of financial funding (again, direct or indirect) was in the background of the platform.

As CTH has said for several years, a financial agreement in the background of Jack’s Magic Coffee Shop just made sense.  The platform held/holds a value to the U.S. govt, so a subsidy in operations for sustainability of the influence seemed obviously motivated.

While there are some important datapoints showing Musk trying to take steps to make Twitter a viable business without govt support (80% staffing reductions, monthly fees for premium content, etc.) the prior financial relationship is almost certainly still in place.  The internal operations, the preestablished public-private partnership, at the core of the platform also appears to retain the same general executive operators as before the takeover.

Again, I go back to Twitter File Release #8 – […] “The United States intelligence apparatus was/is actively using and working with the Twitter platform to align with U.S. government interests.  The govt was coordinating, instructing, assisting and benefitting from the relationship.  Pro govt positions were amplified, and information adverse to the interests of the Pentagon and State Dept was removed, hidden, throttled.

Unfortunately, as admitted by Twitter File #8 Author Lee Fang, a writer for The intercept, “The searches were carried out by a Twitter attorney, so what I saw could be limited.” There is no ‘could be‘ in that statement.  The searches were limited, specifically time limited putting all of the scrutiny on the timeline when Donald Trump was in office.

CTH has no vested interest in this pretending nonsense.  We all know, hell, its public record, the use of Twitter and Facebook as a tool to advance U.S. foreign policy began during the Obama administration.  There are dozens of mainstream press accounts of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton reaching out to Twitter and Facebook for support during the ’11/’12 Arab Spring.   This is not controversial, it happened.

However, the current release uses a carefully applied time filter only showing DoD and DoS use of the platform (to assist foreign policy) starting in 2017, when President Trump took office.  This is intentional.  The origin of the practice starts with Barack Obama. (more)

Twitter file release #8 was curated, fullstop!

That curation reality is empirical within the data itself.  That acceptance stands as a solid foundation to recognize that all of the releases are filtered and curated to protect certain levels of interest.  And within that larger truth we discover the reason why the government sponsored COVID-19 operations were never fully revealed.

Just as AG Bill Barr was shown to be mitigating damage that could come from the American public discovering that Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches of government all collaborated in the Trump-Russia fabrication, presumably Barr motivated to save the country from the reality within the scale of corruption, so too does the network around Elon Musk hold a similar motive.

You put all this together and the sheer weight of it indicates Elon Musk appeared on the Tucker Carlson broadcast to shape public opinion favorably away from the reality of what the real Twitter story reveals.  Government control is even bigger than general public understanding.  Elon Musk was/is doing damage control.

Outhouse Counsel – “He voted for the cabal behind Obama, Clinton, and Biden. Not Biden. He placated the low-info left audience with his Democrat “credentials”, impressed the hopeful with the sincerity of his little nonsequitorious “admissions”, and then sought to appease the appalled on the right with another “admission” that he’s not happy with Biden and why can’t we have a common-sense moderate middle. He then frosted this cake with humble sweetener that was designed to reinforce his naivety in certain areas; the posturing that when he bought Twitter he really didn’t understand the EXTENT of the government infiltration.

And he did this over and over again, gently saying rather alarming things quietly and in a way that could be taken multiple ways because they were tempered by seemingly guileless admissions, hopeful commentary, and witty self-deprecation (he was fooled by erstwhile competitor google/Ai founder , he sheepishly shrugs at his losing money by buying during bad timing, he fired employees from “Twitter” but he’s also implicitly a victim of those who voluntarily left but no mention of who now works for X Corp…)

He is a genius at more than computer coding. Please don’t fall for it.”

There are trillions at stake… 

Apr 18 2023

US Troops on the Ground in Ukraine


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

It’s official – the US is at war with Russia. This is no longer a proxy war regardless of whether an official declaration has been made. Washington confirmed that there is “a small U.S. military presence,” but only made the admission after the Pentagon data leak. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby insists American soldiers are not fighting on the battlefield.

“I won’t talk to the specifics of numbers and that kind of thing. But to get to your exact question, there is a small U.S. military presence at the embassy in conjunction with the Defense Attachés office to help us work on accountability of the material that is going in and out of Ukraine,” Kirby said, claiming the troops are connecting to a specific embassy. The initial data leak showed that there are also at least 50 troops from the UK on the ground in Ukraine, along with military personnel from 33 NATO nations.

The New York Times reported on Monday morning that NATO members are amassing their troops along the border. “NATO is rapidly moving from what the military calls deterrence by retaliation to deterrence by denial. In the past, the theory was that if the Russians invaded, member states would try to hold on until allied forces, mainly American and based at home, could come to their aid and retaliate against the Russians to try to push them back,” Steven Erlanger wrote. But NATO is going on the offensive rather than the defensive this time around. “To prevent that, to deter by denial, means a revolution in practical terms: more troops based permanently along the Russian border, more integration of American and allied war plans, more military spending and more detailed requirements for allies to have specific kinds of forces and equipment to fight, if necessary, in pre-assigned places,” the journalist wrote.

The war in Ukraine has already cost more than any war since World War II. Ukraine is not a NATO member, and there has never been a situation where NATO prepared its troops to battle a country unaffiliated with its alliance. Russia is completely backed into a corner now and the war must escalate. Putin will not retreat or surrender. Russia does not have the option to surrender as the world powers would swoop in and take over the nation, including its very valuable resources, which they’ve wanted all along. Zelensky is no longer running the show, and the global elites will decide how quickly to escalate this battle. Countless men, women, and children will die, all for the pride of a few who want to destroy the world to Build Back Better.

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 18 2023

Welcome to the New Totalitarian One World Government


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

QUESTION: Marty, You are the only worthwhile analyst. You were alerting us a year ago that the IMF was creating its own digital currency. We have all these people claiming this will kill the dollar just as they proclaimed the euro when that was created. It is also well known that you were called in about revising the world monetary system numerous times. I heard that you were called in on this one and refused to assist them. You warned back in May of 2021 that the IMF was creating a new reserve digital currency.

Is this all part of the rise of the United Nations, World Bank, and IMF all becoming this one world government? I that why you declined to get involved?

LW

ANSWER: I am not at liberty to speak to issues where I am solicited. Suffice it to say, I took no part in creating this currency. This is part of what I have been warning about digital currency. They can restrict its use and anyone who thinks that somehow Bitcoin will be some independent white knight rushing in to save the day, they have drank too much of the cool aid.

Look, try depositing $10,000 in cash. Watch what happens. I have a friend who owns a bar in a college town. He takes in a lot of cash because the customers often do not have credit cards. Some banks did not even want to accept an account from him. Others required inspection and monitoring because cash CAN BE a way to launder money. Europe has been restricting cash to transactions capped at €1,000.

There is serious talk of restricting purchases for cash or CRYPTOCURRENCY and the way they enforce it is precisely restrictions on businesses and noncompliance means you are out of business when no bank will accept your account. That eliminates business in credit cards as well. This is why I say, they will create a black market through their sheer authoritarianism. Human rights will no longer be respected. This is point 8 of Schwab’s Agenda.

Back in 1980, the press was all over my firm. NPR came in with cameras rolling and could not believe we had just paid a woman $6,000 for a heavy silver serving plate. We had lines all day long at all my locations in addition to the fact I was making markets for all the stores nationwide. Whatever they bought that day they sold immediately;y to us and shipments were coming in from everywhere. I had a team just handling that and we would bundle it all up and send it out in Armored trucks to be refined at Engelhard which was 30 minutes away.

Because of all the publicity, the IRS came in and declared me to be a bank under the theory that Nixon only closed the gold window and gold was never demonetized. Sure, it was a novel theory that just because I was one of the 3 largest gold dealers in the country, that made me a bank without applying for a banking license. They claimed I had to report every transaction of $10,000 or more buying for selling. They sent in their stormtroopers and began going through every transaction. They then went out and audited over 3,000 clients. I decided to retire. That was it. I was not about to become a rat on everyone that walked in the door.

The point is this. They can declare everyone mining cryptocurrency to be a bank. Already, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 (IIJA) requires any transaction of $10,000 or more to be independently reported to the IRS. The government can declare you to be anything. You can fight them in court and you will lose and it will take years. In the meantime, you will have to comply. They can do ANYTHING they want. It is then your burden to argue that what they are doing is illegal. Good luck. We are no more living in a free country than Russia or China. The government can do anything it desires. It will always be your burden to say they are acting unconstitutionally.

You will NOT be able to travel internationally with even gold coins. You may not even be able to hop on a plane domestically with gold or cash. Over the past several years, a common question for U.S. taxpayers across the globe is whether or not a foreign-based virtual currency such as Bitcoin that is held overseas is reportable for FBAR (Foreign Bank and Financial Account Reporting) or FATCA (Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act) purposes. The Treasury was already pushing since 2021 for any transaction of $10,000 or more in cryptocurrency must be reported to the IRS.

Whether you are a visitor to the United States or a U.S. citizen arriving in the United States, you must complete one or more entry forms.

At the end of the day, they want their pound of flesh and they want absolutely everything to be restricted and monitored. Welcome to the new law of totalitarianism.

Categories: Regulation

Apr 18 2023

IMF New Currency on ECM April 10th


Armstrong Economics Blog/ECM Re-Posted Apr 17, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

COMMENT #1: On April 10th the IMF released UNICOIN, est Voila! Zee beginning of zee end?

Lawrence

COMMENT #2: Marty, the ECM target was way too much. The Pentagon Papers was one thing, but precisely April 10th is when the IMF announced its new currency to dominate the world. Your ECM is just incredible. Why so many things of great importance take place on this model is proof that there is a hidden order behind everything.

TJ

COMMENT #3: Marty, As you know, I was there at your 1987 conference for the Crash which was caused by the G5 manipulation of the currency that began in 1985. That culminated in the collapse of communism and the Japanese crash of 1989. Here we have once again the IMF announcing on the very day of the ECM April 10th, that they are releasing their new currency to replace the dollar. This looks like it will impact the entire world economy and the war you have been warning about post-2024.

I don’t know how this model works even to the precise day. It is easy to see why they tried to kill you thinking it was just your opinion and influence. They refuse to consider that perhaps there is something much more at stake than anyone’s opinion.

Thank you for this eye-opening discovery.

EK

REPLY: I do not know why this will work to the price day in wave after wave. Even the 2007 target was the very day of the crash in the mortgage-backed market. They were calling it Armstrong’s Revenge on the floor. They locked me up but it still was working as scheduled proving it was never my “influence” that they were so convinced about. There is something there, and it is about time we acknowledge it.

The government was furious when the New Yorker wrote about this model and called it the Secret Cycle. I believe that caused the journalist a lot of trouble. If there is a hidden order, that means the government cannot manipulate society as it thinks it can. This is why we are headed into 2032. They are fighting for their survival. They are pushing for digital currency, will terminate all paper money, and then you will see that they will restrict us from buying or selling anything they do not approve

Welcome to the 21st century of Economic Slavery. This is also the Third Millennium of the Anno Domini or Common Era in the Gregorian calendar spanning the years 2001 to 3000 (21st to 30th centuries).  As I have warned, reactions are always TWO or THREE units of TIME and everything is FRACTAL. We are in the same position on a grand scale as April 10th, which was 2.15 years into this cycle. We are approaching the 2150 years target and our republican forms of government globally will not survive.

I am working long days to finish this book on the ECM. I promise it will be an eye-opener as you have said.

Apr 18 2023

Tucker Carlson Interview With Elon Musk – Full Interview as Broadcast


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

A very interesting interview conducted by Fox News host Tucker Carlson with billionaire entrepreneur, CEO and owner/operator of Twitter, Elon Musk.   The interview is interesting on a variety of subjects, specifically artificial intelligence, public speech, government control of the public information networks and the broad picture of freedom in a digital era.

The interview is extensive and provided below in multiple parts.  The first part discusses the big picture issue of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the potential of AI to disrupt society through the control of public opinions and perceptions of reality.  WATCH:

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The second segment continues discussing AI, more philosophical aspects of what defines humanity, and then the conversation transitions to the issue of government control within the Twitter social media platform that Musk now owns.

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Part Three:

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Part Four:

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Apr 18 2023

Video – For The Professional Republicans Who Say “Candidate Quality” Matters, John Fetterman Returned to the Senate Today


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

Watching Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman return to work in the Senate reminded me today of all those professional republican voices who shout about ‘candidate quality’ when explaining GOP election losses.

Here’s the video as an audio/visual exclamation point about the irrelevance of “candidate quality.” WATCH (30 secs)

It’s the Envelopes, Stupid!

Nothing, not one single thing….  about candidates, debates, endorsements, media support, branding, imaging, leadership, effectiveness, policy, polling, communications, digital outreach, social media platforms, rallies or love of country matters in the 2024 election.  None of it matters.  The outcome of the 2024 presidential contest will be determined by ONLY ONE THING…. ….ENVELOPES!

Book sales, TV ads, legislative accomplishments, cultural wokeism, school choice, education policy, fiscal policy, foreign policy, debates, political experience, candidate qualifications, polls, rallies, crowd sizes, endorsements, not one single part of any of that matters in this electoral combat.

There is only one thing that matters,…. collecting the most envelopes.