Jury Awards Sandy Hook Parents $4.1 Million in Compensatory Damages, and $45.2 Million in Punitive Damages, Against Alex Jones


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

A Texas jury has delivered a financial verdict against Alex Jones, awarding two parents of the Sandy Hook elementary school victim, 4.1 million in compensatory damages and $45.2 million in punitive damages.  However, Texas limits punitive damages at $750,000.  The verdict comes after a civil lawsuit against Alex Jones for defamation relating to his comments around the Sandy Hook school shooting, and his claims of a hoax.

During the trial Mr. Jones admitted his statements were false and accepted the events were horrific, resulting in the deaths of 26 students and teachers in the 2012 Newtown, Connecticut attack. Mr Jones and his media company, Free Speech Systems, were sued his false statements about the mass shooting.

(Via MSM) – […] “Alex Jones is patient zero for our society’s inability to speak without lies,” plaintiff attorney Wesley Ball told the jurors on Friday as he pleaded for them to “take him out of this discourse of this misinformation, of this peddling of lies and make sure he can’t do it again.”

Jones’ defense attorney, F. Andino Reynal, asked the jury on Friday to return a verdict that is “fair and proportionate,” which he suggested was $270,000. He previously asked the jury to award no more than $8 in compensatory damages.

 

[…] The trial was the first of three in which juries will determine how much Jones must pay in damages to Sandy Hook families. (read more)

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I did not follow the trial, but I’m assuming this is a tough verdict for Alex Jones.  It will likely have a chilling effect for his organization.

McDonalds Dumps Trial of Plant Meat Because Customers Would Not Purchase – Next up, Bug Meat


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

McDonalds has announced they are dropping their program testing plant-based meats because people didn’t like it.

As noted by the Washington Times, “other trials at Panda Express and Yum! Brands (KFC, Taco Bell, and Pizza Hut) have also ended without a subsequent product launch. Beyond Meat products at Dunkin’, Hardee’s, and A&W have been discontinued after launching.”

Apparently, American consumers do not want to eat fake meat; at least not fake meat made from plants.

Next up….  Bug meat.

…”The menus will feature items such as cricket tacos or a Thai larb salad and recipes that use an innovative cricket meat-alternative which packs about 30 per cent protein – and requires around 1800x less Greenhouse gas to produce than beef.”  (LINK)

Good News, Gasoline Prices Drop – Bad News, Demand for Gasoline Plummets to Pandemic Era Levels


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

The good news is that gasoline prices have dropped in the past several weeks to an average of $4.13/gal.  However, the bad news is that most of the drop in price is related to gasoline demand dropping to the same level as July 2020 during the pandemic lockdown phase.

Obviously, $4.13/gal is still a very high price for gasoline, and that is leading to fewer people purchasing gasoline.

(Via Fox) – […] New data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) shows that gas demand dropped from 9.25 million barrels per day to 8.54 million per day last week. That’s 1.24 million barrels per day lower than last year and “in line with demand at the end of July 2020,” when there were widespread virus-related restrictions and fewer people were hitting the road, according to AAA. 

The latest demand figures bolster a recent AAA survey that revealed 64% of drivers had changed their driving habits or lifestyle since March to offset the high prices at the pump. (read more)

If you think about the position of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC or OPEC+), it makes sense for them to recognize the intentions of the western leaders to shrink the western industrial economies and respond accordingly.

OPEC knows North American and European leaders are intentionally reducing economic activity in an effort to lower the economy to match the lower level of energy production. This is the “managing the transition phase” of the Build Back Better agenda, the intentional shrinking of the economy through energy and monetary policy.

Knowing that, it makes sense that OPEC would not produce additional oil into a globally shrinking economic system.  Producing more oil would be against their own economic interests.

Labor Report, 528,000 Jobs Gained in July, Large Gains in Restaurants and Services, Unemployment Rate 3.5%


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

A few days ago, we were discussing the disconnect within the economy as it relates to corporate valuations.  The Bureau of Labor Statistics report today [DATA HERE] highlights another economic disconnect, this time with labor.  According to the BLS survey 528,000 jobs were added to the economy in July, the unemployment rate drops to 3.5%.

The household data [Table A] shows the number of eligible workers unemployed dropped 242,000; however, the number of eligible workers no longer in the workforce increased by 239,000.  The total labor force is shrinking as unemployment drops.

Keep in mind the previous BLS survey of job openings (JOLTS report) showed available jobs dropped 605,000 in July.  “On the last business day of June, the number and rate of job openings decreased to 10.7 million (-605,000) and 6.6 percent, respectively. The largest decreases in job openings were in retail trade (-343,000), wholesale trade (-82,000), and in state and local government education (-62,000).” [JOLTS survey]

Going back to today’s release, 303,000 part-time jobs were added in July; these are workers working part-time for economic reasons.  The Household Data shows that within the leisure and hospitality sector [Table B-1] restaurants and bars added 74,000 jobs.

If we combine both BLS surveys two days apart is: 605,000 job openings cancelled, and 528,000 new jobs gained.

Of the 528,000 new jobs gained, 303,000 were part time jobs with the largest growth in the jobs in restaurants and bars.

Again, blending data from both reports and focusing on retail.  The retail sector cancelled 343,000 job openings in July, and the retail sector added 21,600 jobs in July.  Within the retail sector (table B-1), jobs at automotive dealers, furniture stores and clothing/apparel stores dropped by a combined 7,200 jobs.

BIG PICTURE:  ♦Energy prices are squeezing consumers and paychecks. ♦Energy driven inflation is high.  ♦Rising housing costs, food costs, gasoline costs and energy costs have hit the consumer hard.  ♦Credit card balances have jumped (highest increase since ’02).  ♦Consumer sales on non-essential items have dropped.  ♦Factory activity around the world (Asia and Eurozone) is slowing or has stopped.  ♦Durable goods inventories have climbed everywhere.  ♦Shippers of durable goods are not shipping. ♦Employment in auto sales, furniture and clothing have all declined.  All of these datapoints align.

Everything in that “big picture” is fact based on current data, and it all makes sense.  However, there is still a disconnect in the big picture.

How does an economy add over 4 million jobs this year, while simultaneously shrinking?

The value of those jobs has to diminish in proportion to the economic contraction.  The disconnect only reconciles if the wages which lead to eventual spending.  With wage growth at 5.2% and the cost of everything up 9.1% (inflation), the difference between the two is how the economy shrinks even with more jobs added.

Think of all the activity (buying stuff, eating out, ordering food etc) as units. All of the unit activity costs more money, but the earnings of the workers is only keeping pace with half of the increase in price.  Therefore, less units are being engaged made, sold and purchased.

The GDP, which measures the value of everything created in the economy (minus imports) dropped 1.6% in the first quarter and 0.9% in the second.  The unit economy is contracting.

As I have said before, “an intentionally managed decline of western economic activity should have a direct impact on the private corporations within those economies.  If the politicians are collectively going to stop energy development, raise energy prices (inflation), then use monetary policy to shrink the economy down to the level of energy available, we would normally think corporations were going to make less money.

However, in our current scenario, as long as price increases (energy inflation) can be passed along and wage gains can remain low, the profitability remains strong.  Here’s the worst part of this dynamic.  The people investing in the profit get richer, the workers creating the profit get poorer.

Our Joe Biden economy, and the economy of the western nations that are following this same climate change agenda, is getting smaller.  Within the smaller economy, the rich are getting richer and the workers within the Joe Biden economy are getting poorer.

Waking Up From a Coma in 2022


Awaken With JP Published originally on Rumble on July 30, 2022

Imagine you woke up from a 19 year coma and it’s the year 2022…

Geopolitical Nightmare


Armstrong Economics Blog/Geopolitical Re-Posted Aug 5, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

My mother died at 99. She had her wits about her til the end. Not everyone loses their mind. Henry Kissinger, I regard as the finest geopolitical analyst in history. That person in the Biden Administration who is the real president writing the scripts is only interested in climate change and the Great Reset. They pushed the sanctions against Russia, which have divided the world and ended the global economy. They are already preparing ways for us to eat bugs. Cricket powder is starting to show up in the food supply.

Meanwhile, there is absolutely no evidence that any sanction against a country has ever worked. Iran has been under sanctions for as long as I can remember. These morons are pushing the world into a serious geopolitical confrontation that will not end nicely. We have reached the 8.6-year turning point from the 2014 Ukrainian Revolution. This does not speak well for what we face in 2023. All I can say is I really hope the Democrats do not allow illegal aliens to vote. I fear that will spark a serious uprising, and then you will get a REAL insurrection — not a fake January 6th event to create publicity for the November 2022 election.

Tucker Carlson Interviews Ron DeSantis After the Florida Governor Suspends Activist Prosecutor


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

August 4, 2022 | Sundance | 112 Comments

Tucker Carlson used his opening monologue tonight to discuss George Soros and the efforts of the Soros foundation to fund activist state prosecutors who will not enforce laws. The Soros agenda is an end-run around the U.S. constitution that empowers We The People to enact laws and rules of society through legislative representation.

By selecting prosecutors who will not enforce laws against criminal behavior, the Soros initiative subverts the voice of the people.  Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is the first governor to use his state constitutional authority to remove an activist prosecutor.  Tucker Carlson interviewed him immediately after the monologue. {Direct Rumble LinkWATCH:

The monologue that preceded the interview is below.

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Coordination Between J6 Committee and Politically Motivated DOJ is Intended to Break Attorney-Client Firewalls in Trump Targeting Effort


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

The long-term motives and plans of the J6 committee and their coordination with the DOJ are starting to come into increased clarity as the mid-term elections draw near.

A key indicator of the strategy from within the J6/DOJ effort surfaced when the quasi-constitutional “committee” sent a subpoena to former President Trump legal counsel Pat Cipollone, then leaked the subpoena, then leaked the testimony, then shaped, edited and broadcast the testimony during their prime-time broadcast.   After the J6 broadcast, attorney Cipollene was then subpoenaed by the DOJ and recent reports indicate he is being called to testify before a grand jury.

The legal strategy, hereafter called by what it is, a Lawfare strategy, is now clear.

The legislative branch, specifically the J6 committee, is attempting to use their self-created legislative legal authorities, to fracture long established attorney-client privileges, and then send the results to the DOJ for use against the client of the attorney.  This explains the importance of former White House attorney Lisa Monaco taking up her position as Deputy Asst Attorney General.

The DOJ would be shut down by any ordinary court of jurisdiction, even in the heavily political Washington DC system, if they attempted to get a lawyer to give testimony about his legal advice to a client.  It is one of the most basic tenets and legal privileges in our system.

Attorneys cannot be compelled to give testimony against their clients, it is a standard long accepted in our legal system.  Any attorney who would break the confidence of the attorney-client privilege would lose their license.

Additionally, as the president, other privileges exist for President Trump, specifically the executive privilege to receive counsel or advice -from any person- on any issue that would pertain toward the administration of the executive office.  The president needs to be able to receive information in confidence, and the people giving advice and counsel need to be able to speak freely without fear the content of the conversation would later be used by another entity not involved in the issue at hand.

By compelling testimony to a non-court of manufactured quasi-legal jurisdiction, such as the J6 committee demanding testimony from Cipollone, it now appears the resulting information is being transferred to the DOJ for use against Cipollone’s client, President Trump.

This is an example of lawfare at its worst.

The J6 committee demands testimony and asserts the testimony must be offered without conflict because the J6 committee itself has no criminal authority.

As the issue is argued, the witness cannot be criminally charged by the committee, therefore no criminal liabilities exist for the witness, therefore the testimony can be compelled by the committee (the legislative branch).  However, what we are seeing is the committee being used as a legal shield and enforcement tool by/for the DOJ who could never -on their own- force the same testimony.

The result is President Trump legal counsel Pat Cipollone being compelled to testify before a criminal grand jury, and within that questioning he will be asked about about his prior testimony before the J6 committee.  Essentially, this is one big Lawfare workaround; and likely a legal and constitutional issue that will end up at an appellate court level or higher.

Political elements within the legislative branch (J6) are colluding with political elements within the executive branch (DOJ), to fracture the constitutional protections that exist not only for presidents’ (exec privilege), but also for all Americans (attorney/client privilege).

In ordinary times, this approach would be a jaw-dropping controversy that would come under rebuke from everyone involved in the media and justice system.

What is being described, well, actually what is happening, is what happens in third-world banana republics when presidents of various political regimes take office and then target their opposition using the state police or military.  What is being done under the auspices of the J6 committee and DOJ is an identical scenario using a longer approach that works around the foundation of the U.S. political and legal system.

More alarmingly, there is no one doing anything or saying anything to stop this process.  The republican politicians in Washington DC are as willfully blind to the unconstitutional lawfare scheme as they are to the victims of the J6 FBI and DOJ targeting operation who are languishing in DC prisons.

No doubt former President Obama and his crew are laughing as they watch this play out, while the media cheer.  After all, these are all former Obama officials who are carrying out the targeting operation. [ SEE WHY HERE ]  The Republicans and Democrats created the Fourth Branch of Government as a political targeting mechanism.  Both parties are now protecting themselves from discovery of its intent.

Support CTH Here ~

DC Dick Begs Wyoming Voters to Support DC Liz


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

Despite the overwhelming support of mainstream corporate media, Wyoming DeceptiCon Liz Cheney is likely to be crushed in the republican primary race on August 16.

In addition to voting to impeach President Trump and being removed from her congressional leadership position, DC Liz was one of only two republican votes to support the formation of the J6 Committee (the other was Adam Kinzinger).  DC Liz has been begging Wyoming Democrats to vote for her in the republican primary contest so she can save her seat.

In an embarrassing and genuinely pathetic last-ditch effort, her father, DC Dick, recorded a campaign commercial begging the people in Wyoming to support his daughter.

Another Former Governor of Puerto Rico, Wanda Vázquez, Indicted for Bribery, Corruption and Wire Fraud


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

Keeping with historic trends in Puerto Rico, another corrupt governor has been arrested and indicted on corruption, bribery and fraud charges.  Wanda Vazquez Garced replaced Ricardo Rosselló after he was accused of racism and having a homophobic cabinet.

During her term in office, millions of dollars’ worth of Hurricane Maria aid was discovered being stored and sold on the black market from various warehouses. [Go Deep]

The hurricane supplies provided by U.S. taxpayers were never given to citizens and were instead being used by government officials and sold to retailers. The Housing Secretary (Fernando Gil), the Department of Family Secretary (Glorimar Andújar) and the director of Puerto Rico’s emergency management agency were all fired as part of the scandal.

Governor Wanda Vazquez lost her primary reelection bid in August 2020, and today was indicted for corruption, bribery and wire fraud.

(Via DOJ) -A former governor of Puerto Rico was arrested today on bribery charges related to the financing of her 2020 campaign.

Relatedly, a political consultant for the former governor and the president of the international bank have also pleaded guilty to participating in the bribery scheme.

“The alleged bribery scheme rose to the highest levels of the Puerto Rican government, threatening public trust in our electoral processes and institutions of governance,” said Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite, Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.  “The Department of Justice is committed to holding accountable those who wrongly believe there is one rule of law for the powerful and another for the powerless.  No one is above the rule of law.”

According to the indictment, from December 2019 through June 2020, then-Governor of Puerto Rico Wanda Vazquez Garced, 62, of San Juan, allegedly engaged in a bribery scheme with various individuals, including Julio Martin Herrera Velutini, Frances Diaz, Mark Rossini, and John Blakeman to finance Vazquez Garced’s 2020 gubernatorial election campaign. (read more)

Puerto Rico has a long history of public corruption and abuse of federal funds.  Back in 2015 ten government officials in Puerto Rico were arrested for corruption, bribery, honest services wire fraud, extortion and various schemes related to giving payments to friends and family via federal contracts. [LINK]  This is the typical corruption PR is known for.

In June 2019, the FBI, Public Corruption Unit, posted a notification of an ongoing corruption probe and provided a tip-line for leads related to bribery and/or corruption of public officials. [LINK] This probe is connected to the billions of dollars U.S. taxpayers have provided to Puerto Rico for recovery after hurricane Maria (2017).

So much money was poured into the island after hurricane Maria that hundreds of local and regional officials seized the opportunity to indulge their friends and family with funds from recovery accounts.  This is the widespread corruption President Trump previously drew attention to.

This open corruption was also why Nancy Pelosi took the entire Democrat caucus to Puerto Rico in January 2019 for a vacation with her favorite lobbyists.  Everyone in/around PR knows this level of corruption is the norm, not the exception.

Later that same year, six more officials were indicted under new federal charges, including two government officials: Julia Keleher, who served as Puerto Rico’s education secretary until April; and Ángela Ávila-Marrero, who was the executive director of the Puerto Rico Health Insurance Administration. They were all variously charged with wire fraud, money laundering and conspiracy, according to the 32-count indictment.

President Trump was exactly right when he both informed and warned voters of what would happen with money dumped into Puerto Rico.