Tag Archives: Epstein

Dec 11 2023

All for Show – Pretending the Border is Closed for the Cameras


Posted originally on Dec 10, 2023 By Martin Armstrong  

Dec 10 2023

Elon Musk Polls Reinstatement of Alex Jones on Twitter – 70% of Respondents Say Yes


Posted originally on the CTH on December 9, 2023 | Sundance 

Elon Musk has polled the users on the Twitter/X platform about reinstating Alex Jones’ account. So far, 70% of the 1.8 million responses have been yes, reinstate the account. [POLL HERE]

Alex Jones responded to the question with a short video, see below.

Dec 10 2023

The Modified FISA-702 Reauthorization Bill (HR 6611) Has Passed the House – The Changes Have Expanded Federal Surveillance of Americans


Posted originally on the CTH December 9, 2023 | Sundance

House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) Chairman Mike Turner is celebrating the passage of HR 6611, the 2023 FISA reauthorization bill.

Chairman Turner would have granted a clean FISA renewal, he’s that kind of Republican; however, several Republicans demanded changes to the FISA-702 authorities that capture the data of American citizens without a warrant.  Thus, the HPSCI modified the authorities within HR 6611, but they made it worse.

(Via CDT) – Tucked away near the end of the bill the House Intelligence Committee reported on December 7 (H.R. 6611, the “HPSCI bill”) is a provision that would dramatically expand surveillance under the controversial Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (“FISA 702”), which sunsets on December 31 unless reauthorized. Section 504 of the bill, innocuously captioned “Definition of Electronic Communications Service Provider,” would expand the types of entities that can be compelled to disclose internet communications whether in storage or in transit.

FISA 702 permits the U.S. government to compel communication service providers to disclose for foreign intelligence purposes the communications of persons reasonably believed to be non-U.S. persons abroad. No warrant is required; a belief that the communications relate to U.S. foreign affairs or national security is sufficient.  Under current FISA 702, only entities that provide communication services like email, calls, and text messaging can be compelled to disclose these communications. 

As FISA Court amicus and longtime practitioner Marc Zwilligener and his colleague Steve Lane have already noted, the HPSCI bill would upend the current system, enabling the government to compel anyone with mere access to the equipment on which such communications are stored or transmitted to disclose those communications.  That could include personnel at coffee shops that offer WiFi to their customers, a town library that offers public computer internet services, hotels, shared workspaces, landlords and even AirBNB hosts that offer WiFi to the people who stay there, cloud storage services that host but do not access data, and large data centers that rent out computer server space to their clients.

The provision is intended to reverse a rare decision of the FISA Court of Review (FISCR), which had rejected the government’s claim that a service that a company provided fit within the scope of Section 702. In its effort to override the FISCR ruling, the HPSCI bill has opened Pandora’s Box.  

Because FISA 702 does not merely give the government power to compel production of communications but rather to require that businesses “provide the Government with all information, facilities, or assistance necessary to accomplish the acquisition,” [emphasis supplied] the government could use this new section to compel changes to the infrastructure and operations of some of the business entities listed above. For example, a provider of computer co-location services whose business model is to rent out and to service space on which its clients place their computer servers could be compelled to engineer its service to facilitate such access. In addition, because the HPSCI bill’s expansion is designed to pull in entities that do not currently even have access to communications, the extent of this forced restructure could be severe.

Such a shift not only affects American businesses, it is also likely to spur on overcollection and improperly sweep in Americans’ communications. The expansion would likely facilitate compelled  “Upstream” collection from these entities, a technique in which the government demands access to the entire stream of communications data, rather than obtaining only the communications to and from surveillance targets. It may be difficult for businesses that have access to equipment on which communications are stored and transmitted, but have never had to access the communications themselves, to ensure that only the data of Section 702 targets is turned over to the government.

Instead, they may be compelled to turn over entire communication streams or permit the copying and dragnet scanning of all the data on a server they host. Upstream collection performed by sophisticated giant telcos who operate the Internet backbone already has a fraught history of overcollection, including sweeping in wholly domestic communications (such as through multi communication transaction and “Abouts” collection). Forcing businesses that do not by practice even access communications to comply with FISA 702 orders—including Upstream orders—is reckless, and very likely to cause domestic communications to be improperly collected. (read more)

Here’s the core problem.  The DATA COLLECTION is not going away, meaning the wholesale gathering of the metadata on all electronic communication is the baseline.  As long as that baseline exists, the debate is about how the metadata can be accessed and what queries into that data can take place without a search warrant.

If FISA-702 was completely removed, the executive branch (DOJ-NSD) would be on the honor system, which essentially- they are now.

As long as the capability to retrieve and store the data exists, it will be exploited.   The data collection horse left the barn long ago.  That reality only leaves the ability to limit access as a solution to the abuses and warrantless surveillance.

Having looked extensively at this issue for years, and accepting the data collection is never going to be stopped, the only pathway to try and ensure rules and regulations are compliant with the 4th amendment, would be an oversight panel from the legislative branch put inside the process.

The only time the legislative branch has any power in the FISA process, is when they reauthorize its use.  Only at these specific moments is the legislative branch currently involved.  At all other times, it is the executive branch (DOJ, DOJ-NSD and FBI) involved, along with the FISA Court which represents the judicial branch.   The absence of the legislative branch in the process could be considered the oversight problem.

FISA, as it applies to American citizens caught up in the “incidental collection,” is clearly weaponized.  The underlying database, the storage system for all data, is the other problem.  As long as thousands of people in the executive branch have access to search this database, that access will be abused.

[CTH] – Office of Inspector General Michael Horowitz testified, April 27, 2023, that more than 3.4 million search queries into the NSA database took place between Dec. 1st, 2020 and Nov. 30th, 2021, by government officials and/or contractors working on behalf of the federal government. These search queries were based on authorizations related to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

Approximately 30% of those 3.4 million search queries were outside the rules and regulations that govern warrantless searches – what the politically correct government calls “non-compliant searches.”  That means during the year 2021, more than 1 million searches of private documents and communication of Americans were illegal and outside the rules.

Additionally, IG Horowitz admitted that somewhere north of 10,000 federal employees have access to conduct these searches of the NSA database; a database which contains the electronic data of every single American, including emails, text messages, social media posts, instant messages, direct messages, phone calls, geolocation identifiers, purchases by electronic funds, banking records and any keystroke any American person puts into any electronic device for any reason. (more)

In my opinion, instead of trying to put the FISA genie back into the bottle, Congress needs to work on the accountability piece.  The punishment for abusing the database needs to be defined – perhaps 5 years imprisonment for each search violation.

The only thing I can think of that will improve the “702” issue, is a legislatively created oversight panel forced within the process (that puts the legislative branch inside the DOJ/FISC relationship) that has full access to see and monitor everything that is being done by the DOJ/FBI.

I don’t know if that would work, but it’s better than what they are doing now.

The Committee on Rules will meet on Monday, December 11, 2023 at 4:00 PM ET in H-313, The Capitol on the following measures:

H.R. 357 – Ensuring Accountability in Agency Rulemaking Act
H.R. 1147 – Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act of 2023
H.R. 6570 – Protect Liberty and End Warrantless Surveillance Act
H.R. 6611 – FISA Reform and Reauthorization Act of 2023  (link)

The current FISA-702 authority will likely be extended to April 19th.

Hopefully the Senate will block the modified House bill, HR 6611, which expands the current authority.

FUBAR

Dec 10 2023

NY Rep Elise Stefanik Asks Simple Questions About Antisemitism, Three Left-Wing Ivy League Presidents Collapse Under Spotlight


Posted originally on the CTH on December 9, 2023 | Sundance 

Last Tuesday, Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) pressed the presidents of the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard and MIT about rising antisemitism on college campuses and whether the speech calling for “intifada” or the elimination of the Jewish people violates their schools’ codes of conduct. The alarming responses are now leading to severe blowback on the presidents.

“Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate Penn’s rules or code of conduct?” Rep. Stefanik asked. “It is a context-dependent decision,” replied UPenn’s Elizabeth Magill. “If the speech becomes conduct, it can be harassment.” Stefanik was stunned.  “‘Conduct’ meaning committing the act of genocide?” an incredulous Rep. Stefanik asked. “The speech is not harassment. This is unacceptable.”

The New York Republican then went on to ask each of the university presidents the same series of questions.

“Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate Harvard’s rules on bullying and harassment?” she asked Harvard’s Claudine Gay. “It can be, depending on the context,” Ms. Gay responded. “What’s the context?” Rep. Stefanik followed up. “Targeted at an individual,” the Harvard president said. “It’s targeted at Jewish students, Jewish individuals,” Rep. Stefanik shot back. “Do you understand your testimony is dehumanizing them? Do you understand that dehumanization is part of antisemitism?” WATCH:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=5VtAZBvmzcQ%3Ffeature%3Doembed

Today, Ms. Liz Magill was removed from her position as U-Penn president.

(Politico) – […] University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill on Saturday voluntarily stepped down from her role after facing intense blowback following a House Education committee hearing this week.

Magill has agreed to stay in her role until an interim president is selected, according to a statement from Penn Trustee Board Chair Scott Bok.

“It has been my privilege to serve as President of this remarkable institution,” Magill said in the statement. “It has been an honor to work with our faculty, students, staff, alumni and community members to advance Penn’s vital mission.”

Magill, along with Harvard President Claudine Gay and Massachusetts Institute of Technology President Sally Kornbluth, participated in a contentious, more than five-hour grilling from lawmakers Tuesday over their response to antisemitism on their campuses.

[…] Magill is the first president to step down over a response to campus antisemitism. Stefanik called for all three presidents to be fired after the hearing. And in response to their testimony, several lawmakers and top officials across the aisle have slammed the presidents for refusing to say calls for “Jewish genocide” violate their codes of conduct around bullying or harassment.

[…] Stefanik, who led the toughest questioning at Tuesday’s hearing and has called for all of the presidents to be fired, wrote on X that Magill’s “forced resignation” is only the beginning for addressing antisemitism on college campuses.

“One down,” Stefanik said. “Two to go.” (read more) 

This is what happens when we stop pretending the leftists are stable people; they are not.

Leftism, in the most modern and culturally Marxist ideology, is fraught with intended hypocrisy.  If the word “Jew” had been replaced with any other characteristic of personage like black, Latino, gay, lesbian etc., and the same question about pronouncements for the elimination of people carrying those characteristics was questioned, the answers would have been entirely the opposite.   This is the nature of hate-filled leftist thought.

Stefanik called it out openly; she did not pretend.  Now we see the consequences.

Let us hope that more people can begin calling out the pretenses, the absurd ideological hypocrisy framed from hate, that forms the culturally Marxist mindset.

Dec 9 2023

When Government Does Not Understand Something – Regulate It Until They Kill It


Posted originally on Dec 9, 2023 By Martin Armstrong 

2023_12_08_21_59_03_Europe_agrees_landmark_AI_regulation_deal_Reuters

The golden rule of government is that whenever something new emerges – regulate it even when you do not understand what you are doing. While the details are not yet set, the EU wants to be the first to regular AI. This new legislation requires foundation models such as ChatGPT and general-purpose AI systems (GPAI) to comply with transparency obligations before they are put on the market. These include drawing up technical documentation, complying with EU copyright law, and disseminating detailed summaries about the content used for training.

AI Artificial Intelligence

The real problem is what is AI? I can right a rpogram that will talk, mimic a human, list all the known diseases in a database, then you answer some questions and it will say you have this or that. That is not AI. That is just a look-up program. How do we even define AI? I fear that they will simply take a look-up program and attribute that to AI. The regulation will become such a nightmare that you cannot participate in such a marketplace.

1865 Red Flag Act

The EU legislation stands a high probability of killing AI development in Europe and, in fact, closing off its citizens from even using AI. The classic example is how England lost the Industrial Revolution and effectively outlawed automobiles, so the Industrial Revolution shifted to America. That one decision led to England’s subservient status in America.

The English politicians were bribed by the horse & buggy industry to pass the Locomotive Act (1865), which required self-propelled vehicles (automobiles) on public roads to be preceded by a man on foot waving a red flag and blowing a horn. The legislation succeeded in shifting the Industrial Revolution to Germany and America. The status quo bribed the politicians fighting against this wave of Creative Destruction. The English Parliament finally removed the need for the red flag in 1878 and abolished the law entirely in 1896.

Hed Fund Industry

The Hedge Fund Industry was created by overregulation. In 1985, I warned Congress that unless they merged the SEC and Commodity Futures Trading Commission, they would force serious fund management offshore, which became the hedge fund industry. They would not merge the two agencies, so managing funds for an American became impossible. I was offered to manage $60 billion domestically and declined. Why? Because by law, the maximum I could hedge if I thought the stock market would decline was 17% using futures. If I used more than the equivalent of 17%, I would not be an equity fund regulated by the SEC but a futures fund under the CFTC. If you obey the laws of one, you go to jail under the other. Hence, you had to go offshore. For an American to invest in a hedge fund offshore, they must create a corporation outside the USA and that invests – not an American citizen. Then the IRS snoops around.

Domestically, there are countless funds that are all specialized. It became your burden to understand if you should be in bonds, stocks, real estate, or commodities. Each fund will naturally tell you they are the best. As a hedge fund manager, clients came to me, and I made that decision, which I could not do in a domestic fund because of all the regulations.

With some of the suggestions already being mentioned in the EU, the drastic overregulation will more likely than not mean AI can never be developed in Europe, and we may be looking at the same outcome as England’s Red Flag legislation of 1865.

In the US, the Constitution forbid Ex Post Facto Laws. They cannot put Socrates out of business by suddenly writing laws today that apply retroactively. While we have been working on this project to allow clients to interact with Socrates asking it questions and even minitoring your portfolio, that may become impossible in Europe.

Socrates Real Estate

The Global Market Watch was actually created for one of the top banks in the world. They wanted something that at a glance they could just look down and see what was highlighted instead of reading a 1,000 written reports daily.

The major question, will Europe kill its own future once again?

Dec 9 2023

Chuck Schummer is a Threat to the World


Posted Originally on the CTH Dec 8, 2023 By Martin Armstrong 

Schummer Chuck

The Republicans have blocked funding for Ukraine, demanding restraints on the unrelenting onslaught of illegal aliens. Chuck Schumer has put out the propaganda that will risk everything the world has worked for since World War II. The Democrats are on board with the Neocons. The only way they can continue this insane agenda as we watch the world rising up and turning against the left in Argentina, Brazil, and Germany as the Greens collapse to 7% approval ratings, even in Alberta, Canada, invoking the Sovereignty Act against Trudeau, they know their days are numbered. Trump is 47 points ahead of all Republicans, and if the election were today without illegal aliens voting, he would wipe the floor clean in Washington.

That said, the Democrats are desperate. Schummer astonishingly lied to the world, which promotes World War III, claiming that the Republicans daring to block funding for Ukraine and Israel means we are just a step away from letting Vladimir Putin “walk right through Ukraine and right through Europe.” Not only is Russia not interested in invading Europe. Communism fell, and they REFUSE to acknowledge that fact. The people overthrew Communism and have no intention of going back. They demonize Putin as propaganda for their agenda, as they have done to Trump, Saddam Hussein, Muammar al-Gaddafi, and Bashar al-Assad. That’s a psychological tactic to get people to hate their opponents.

What Schummer is really saying is the Democrats are desperate for votes. In other words, under no condition will the Democrats close the border. They intend to grant these people citizenship by executive order so they can win in 2024.

“Republicans just blocked a very much needed proposal to send funding for Ukraine, funding for Israel, humanitarian aid for innocent civilians in Gaza, and funding for the Indo-Pacific,” Schumer said.“If there is a word for what we most need now, it is to be serious.”

They know the tide is turning. Their policies have reduced the living standards for everyone and increased crime. Just wait until we have terrorist attacks next year, thanks to the open borders. The 49-51 vote reflected this disconcerting trend within Congress that has become a source of distress for the Neocons and their puppets – the Democrats. When Russia first invaded Ukraine in February 2022, aiding Kyiv was a bipartisan project. In May of that year, a $40bn Ukraine aid package sailed through the House with a vote of 368-57 and the Senate with a vote of 86 -11.

Many ask me if I will attend the New York Annual Coin Show. The answer is NO WAY! The days of New York City are over. Wall Street is quietly moving to Miami. They tax everything, reform nothing, and the city is in its final stages of decline and fall, following the same path as the collapse of Rome, the city itself. They are swapping economic-producing people they overtax for the unskilled people who have flooded in for free food.

They will now impose a Congestion Tax using the excuse of cleaner air when they are just broke. What’s next? Taxing you for breathing out CO2 to prevent climate change? New York City just voted to slash funding for sanitation. So we get cleaner air and dirty streets? New York City is now a breeding ground overrun with rats, historically the source of plagues. The police budget is declining by $5.6 billion as well at a time when crime is through the roof and the city’s infrastructure is crumbling as busloads of illegals arrive daily. Sorry, last year, two coin dealers were robbed. If you buy anything there, you pay sales tax if you leave with it, so this is taxation without representation.

Hoover Barn Rat

I prefer to stay clear of NYC. When Sshummer, Hochul, and AOC represent it, it is like a foreign country.  Marxism has consumed politics in New York, and the people, with their politicians, refuse to open their eyes to see the decline and fall unfolding. NYC’s days are numbered. Just like Rome, when they opened the border during the reign of Valens, it took at best 6 years for the city to collapse. Representatives throughout the Thirteen Colonies met in New York City in 1765 to organize resistance to Crown policies. That was 258 years ago, and 3 x 8.6 = 25.8. NYC is doomed. The charges against Trump can be brought against any company in New York, whoever borrowed. They can now claim you overvalued your collateral to get the loan as if the Bank does not have its own appraisers. The hatred for Trump by Democrats in NYC reminds me of Herbert Hoover’s apology in his memoirs. They are desperate for money. They will take what they do to Trump and apply it to other companies for the big bucks. If you have property in NYC – it’s time to sell. You are better off just renting if you cannot leave.

Dec 8 2023

Senate Blocks Foreign Border Spending Package


Posted originally on Dec 8, 2023 By Martin Armstrong 

BlankCheck

The Senate has prevented the US government from sending billions to aid foreign wars in a 49-51 vote. Republicans demanded that protections for the US border be implemented in the latest $111 billion spending package. The nation is spending billions on the illegals entering the country and those requesting a secure border are asking for a fraction of what the Biden Administration sent to Ukraine alone. Biden is now threatening to send American troops to Ukraine if he cannot send a blank check.

Biden continued with the claim that Putin wants to build the Russian empire and will not stop at Ukraine. “We’ll have something that we don’t seek and that we don’t have today: American troops fighting Russian troops,” Biden declared. Now some say Biden was merely stating that America would be forced to act if Russia attacked a  NATO nation. The truth of the matter is that Biden is threatening to kill American men and women if he does not secure funding. National Security spokesperson John Kirby reiterated Biden’s threats. “America will not only spend money, but also shed its own blood,” he claimed. “If you think the cost of supporting Ukraine is high now just imagine how much higher it’s going to be not just in National Treasure but in American blood if he [Putin] starts going after one of our NATO allies… we [will] take our Article 5 commitments very seriously,” said Kirby.

Invasion is Here

Senator Bernie Sanders actually sided with the GOP over this issue as he did not want to send Israel “no-strings-attached money.” Sanders believes Netanyahu is a far-right extremist but does not believe the war can simply end. Rather, he does not believe America should focus on funding foreign wars at this time. “The problem with saying it is, it is not going to happen, because in Hamas, you have a corrupt terrorist organization that has stated before the attack on October 7, and after the attack on October 7, that their goal is to destroy Israel and engage in perpetual warfare,” Sanders continued. “To simply say ‘cease-fire,’ in my view, would be to provide false hope to anybody. I don’t know how you have a cease-fire with a group who says we don’t want a cease-fire.”

As for the Biden Administration, the situation at the US-Mexico border has never been worse. Americans want American taxes to go toward securing our own border and we deserve to have representation.

Dec 8 2023

A Nefarious Intent – FISA 702 Authorization Will Be Extended Through April 19th Inside Bipartisan NDAA Agreement


Posted originally on the CTH on December 7, 2023 | Sundance

Inside the construct of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), Congress has agreed to extend the current FISA-702 authorization through April 19. 2024.  Why April 19th?  I believe, based on DOJ/FBI history, there is a very nefarious intent.  I’ll explain.

First the report of the FISA-702 extension.

WASHINGTON – Congress is preparing to extend its deadline for untangling a complicated fight over warrantless government surveillance – which will mean yet another headache for House GOP leaders.

Top lawmakers are attaching a short-term extension of the government wiretapping power known as Section 702 to a sweeping defense policy bill, according to seven aides and lawmakers familiar with the text of the bill.

The extension would give Congress until April 19 to figure out how to reauthorize Section 702, named for its specific section of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The provision is meant to target foreigners abroad but has long stoked controversy for its ability to sweep in Americans.

Whether to attach a surveillance powers extension was one of the final sticking points on the defense bill, whose text is now finalized and expected to be released later Wednesday. Both the House and Senate still need to pass the defense bill, and there is bipartisan backlash already brewing over the decision to attach a surveillance extension.

Conservatives privately urged Speaker Mike Johnson to separate the two issues. His decision not to do so promises to complicate a final vote on the defense bill, a typically must-pass proposal that could come to the House floor as soon as next week. (read more)

FISA-702 surveillance was the legal mechanism by which the 2016 campaign of Donald Trump was placed under surveillance.  The primary target of the FISA warrant was Carter Page; however, everyone within two contact points (2 hops) of Carter Page was also under full Title-1 surveillance.  Essentially, the entire campaign and later administration of President Donald Trump fell under full electronic and physical surveillance.

Phone calls, text messages, emails and all electronic communication was intercepted by the DOJ.  Robert Mueller extended the surveillance with a June 29, 2017, renewal.  The FISA-702 authorities served as the legal mechanism that permitted the DOJ/FBI to intercept all communication and monitor everything from every position inside the administration of President Trump.

The 702 authorities were weaponized as warrantless searches by the DOJ against their political enemies.  The FISA Court has published several years’ worth of reports showing how the “incidental collection” was not incidentally used.   The abuses of the system have only grown every year since the DOJ National Security Division first started using them as a weaponized process to conduct warrantless surveillance on Americans.

Six years after this issue first surfaced, Office of Inspector General Michael Horowitz testified, April 27, 2023, that more than 3.4 million search queries into the NSA database took place between Dec. 1st, 2020 and Nov. 30th, 2021, by government officials and/or contractors working on behalf of the federal government. These search queries were based on authorizations related to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

[OIG Testimony HERE]

Approximately 30% of those 3.4 million search queries were outside the rules and regulations that govern warrantless searches – what the politically correct government calls “non-compliant searches.”  That means during the year 2021, more than 1 million searches of private documents and communication of Americans were illegal and outside the rules.

Additionally, IG Horowitz admitted that somewhere north of 10,000 federal employees have access to conduct these searches of the NSA database; a database which contains the electronic data of every single American, including emails, text messages, social media posts, instant messages, direct messages, phone calls, geolocation identifiers, purchases by electronic funds, banking records and any keystroke any American person puts into any electronic device for any reason.

If we were in a functioning system of government, everything would have been stopped, and no other conversation would take place that was not about this issue. This was the total and complete surveillance state being talked about as if Congress was discussing what’s for dinner.

If the FISA-702 authorities are extended, this surveillance is what has been authorized to continue through April 19, 2024.  House Judiciary Ranking Member, Democrat Jerry Nadler, organized the date for extension.

 I believe we have struck the right balance here and perhaps the only balance that can pass the House at this time,” Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) said about the bill.

Why April 2024?

Quite simply, and brutally honestly if we apply prior precedent to the extension timing, what you realize is the primary election of 2024 takes place between January and April of 2024.  If things go as predicted by most, Donald Trump will have likely secured enough delegates for the nomination by the end of April.  The extension will give the surveillance apparatus the ability to conduct searches of information throughout this period.

On/around April 19, 2024, the GOP nominee will likely have locked down the nomination.  The nominee is likely to be Donald Trump.

Beyond the extension motive, the previous counterintelligence investigation by the FBI never stopped.  Crossfire Hurricane evolved into the Mueller special counsel investigation.  The same investigative units from the FBI then transferred into the Jack Smith special counsel.  There is no reason to believe a counterintelligence investigation does not underpin the legal authorities by which the current DOJ is keeping candidate Donald Trump under surveillance today.

Using the wording within the criminal indictment, the DOJ-NSD could -likely is- considering Donald Trump a national security threat.  All indications from the Jack Smith prosecution point in this direction.  There is no countervailing data that would suggest the DOJ is not considering Donald Trump a national security threat.  As a result, it is very likely candidate Trump is once again under a FISA authorized Title-1 surveillance warrant….. and everyone within two hops of him would be under the same.

On/around April 19, 2024, if Trump is the presumptive GOP nominee, the FISA court might look at any renewal authorities differently.  It’s one thing to have American citizen Donald Trump under title-1 surveillance, it is another thing entirely to have the opposing candidate to the current administration under legally authorized surveillance by the DOJ-NSD.

The end date of April 19, 2024, would align with a need to have more than reasonable suspicion to retain the surveillance. At least, that’s the way the FISC would likely look at it.

If Occam’s razor is applied to the current datapoints, the most likely scenario for the DOJ-NSD, FBI and Jack Smith special counsel investigative units, is that Donald Trump is currently under FISC authorized title-1 surveillance.

Retaining the 702 status quo through April allows the surveillance to fall upon anyone in his campaign orbit.

The DOJ’s position in 2024 would then simply be a repeat of the DOJ’s position in 2016.

Someone might want to talk to Donald Trump about this.

Dec 7 2023

What Happened Yesterday Was A National Disgrace (Ep. 2144) – 12/06/2023


Posted originally on Rumble on the Dan Bongino Show on: Dec 6, 11:00 am EST

Dec 2 2023

Walmart Joins List of Companies that Withdraws Advertising from Twitter – Looming Collapse of Platform Evident


Posted originally on the CTH on December 1, 2023 | Sundance

At dinner last night, I was questioned about Twitter and the recent remarks of Elon Musk.  My opinion is somewhat out of variance with the mainstream considerations.

I believe the demise of Twitter was essentially determined long ago.  Musk stepped into a scenario that was tenuous at best, and the government control of the platform was always the fulcrum issue.  Musk’s prior intent with the platform may be up for debate; however, against his recent remarks, I would argue Musk is presenting the potential collapse of the platform as a martyr scenario.

Musk said recently the platform may collapse without advertisers, but he will not acquiesce to corporate blackmail.  Sounds great, but keep in mind that Musk has known about the fulfillment of the DOJ search warrant for user data since January of this year; we only recently discovered it.  Put that background reality into the overlay of your opinion, given the year of comments about users shared by Musk, and the known lack of platform privacy.

Musk knew as an outcome of the platform fulfillment of the court order, the release of all user metadata who supported, followed, liked, or shared the tweets of Donald Trump, that the government created the “his kind” list earlier this year.   Yet, he never discussed the issue of compromised privacy throughout his commentary; he did exactly the opposite while assuring people the platform would protect users.  [Ex. How did the encrypted DM promise work out?]

Now Musk positions himself as the martyr, the victim of leftist targeting…. and his hired CEO Linda Yaccarino is doing the same thing [SEE HERE].  What better way to guide the platform into a controlled collapse than to be a martyred hero as the Twitter platform potentially disappears.  Just think about it.

Simultaneously, all prior DOJ/FBI/IC datamining and intelligence gathering operations against conservative or liberty-minded Americans becomes legal when contrast against the fulfilled subpoena.  That’s the same DOJ/FBI/IC motive behind the Carter Page FISA application.   All prior surveillance legalized ex-post-facto, history rhymes.

VIA CBS – Walmart said Friday that it is scaling back its advertising on X, the social media company formerly known as Twitter, because “we’ve found some other platforms better for reaching our customers.”

Walmart’s decision has been in the works for a while, according to a person familiar with the move. Yet it comes as X faces an advertiser exodus following billionaire owner Elon Musk’s support for an antisemitic post on the platform. 

The retailer spends about $2.7 billion on advertising each year, according to MarketingDive. In an email to CBS MoneyWatch, X’s head of operations, Joe Benarroch, said Walmart still has a large presence on X. He added that the company stopped advertising on X in October, “so this is not a recent pausing.”

“Walmart has a wonderful community of more than a million people on X, and with a half a billion people on X, every year the platform experiences 15 billion impressions about the holidays alone with more than 50% of X users doing most or all of their shopping online,” Benarroch said.

Musk struck a defiant pose earlier this week at the New York Times’ Dealbook Summit, where he cursed out advertisers that had distanced themselves from X, telling them to “go f— yourself.” He also complained that companies are trying to “blackmail me with advertising” by cutting off their spending with the platform, and cautioned that the loss of big advertisers could “kill” X. (read more)

Twitter has $12.5 billion in debt from the initial investor purchase of the platform.   The debt service costs around $1 billion per year ($100 million/mo).   There was never a viable path to profitability and/or platform solvency; the operating costs when combined with the debt service are just too high.

Now, think carefully…. In late September, Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino made a bold statement.  Yaccarino stated that from her review of the current status, Twitter would start to turn a profit in the first quarter of 2024 {link}.  However, with $100 million per month in debt service alone, this statement seemed too far of a stretch.  At pre-Musk levels of revenue, maybe; but that $1.5 billion debt service is a heavy nut to carry.

Timing – Remember, in early October the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) gave special regulatory approval to Bill Ackman’s firm, Pershing Square (hedge fund), for a new investment vessel called SPARC, whose purpose is to invest in private companies in order to take them public.  As noted by CNBC, “In a SPARC, investors will know what company the financing vehicle would be used to merge with before they have to pledge their investments.”  The financial mechanism avoids some of the issues with typical IPOs.

•It was October 2023, inflection time.  •Yaccarino says a strategy is underway for profitability in Q1 2024.  •Ackman gets SPARC approval.  If you ask me what was going on, I’d say they were positioning a mechanism to get the debt removed and the investors repaid – sell the debt via Ackman.

Once the new advertising boycott began, the Ackman story disappeared completely.  The debt holders are naked with a platform that is worth less than the original investment.

Was this just naive stupid thinking?  Was the current scenario the result of failed foresight…. or, was this a guided and controlled outcome?   If you ask me, I’d say the latter.

Who wins?  The surveillance state…

….while everyone proclaims Elon Musk a hero for trying.

Brilliant!

Welcome to the 2024 election season.