Tag Archives: FTX

Feb 21 2023

CNN Accidentally Provides Evidence of World War Reddit – No Kyiv Air Raid Sirens in Five Days Before Biden-Zelenskyy Performance


Posted originally on the CTH on February 20, 2023 | Sundance 

I’m not going to re-write anything. [SEE HERE]  Instead, I’m just dropping this little video snippet into the discussion as a confirmational datapoint.

CNN journalist Alex Marquardt: “I’ve been here for the past five days. I have not heard any explosions. I have not heard any air sirens, until about half an hour ago, right when President Biden was in the center of Kyiv.“

Feb 21 2023

DC Report – Team Mitch McConnell Worried DeSantis Might Be Taking Too Long to Enter 2024 Race – FL Legislature Needs to Change Election Laws Quickly


Posted originally on the CTH on February 20, 2023 | Sundance

At this point it’s a little humorous to read the DC inside Republican narrative as they produce their DeSantis messaging.  The Hill has an article {SEE HERE} titled “GOP Impatience Grows for DeSantis to Make Move on Trump.”

However, political followers will notice the tell behind the story in the first few sentences:

(WASHINGTON DC) – Senate Republicans nervous about former President Trump’s lead in presidential primary polls are impatiently awaiting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to jump into the race.  

GOP lawmakers don’t expect DeSantis to make his move until after the Florida legislative session ends in early May, but the waiting game is playing on nerves, with some thinking DeSantis has lost political momentum since his big reelection win in November. (link)

Setting aside the reality that Ron DeSantis cannot run for office without first legally abdicating his role as governor, as required by Florida law, the “Senate Republicans” are “nervous.”  Gee, I wonder who those Senate Republicans might be.

Later in the DC script as written, “I suspect he is going to run. I’ve been told that he’s very focused right now — the Florida legislature is in session — he’s very focused on Florida issues,” Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) said of DeSantis, whom she called “the leader of the Republican Party” after he won an impressive reelection victory in November.”

Ah yes, so very focused on “Florida issues” that Governor Ron DeSantis is in New York, Pennsylvania and Illinois on his not-campaigning, campaigning tour.

The DC stenographers really need to work a little harder to cover the narrative.  Just saying.

Feb 21 2023

Kevin McCarthy Gives Access to Over 41,000 Hours of J6 Capitol Hill CCTV Video to Tucker Carlson Team


Posted originally on the Conservative tree house on February 20, 2023 | Sundance 

According to Axios, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has given Fox News (Paul Ryan) and Tucker Carlson access to the 41,000 hours of CCTV footage.

Presumably Speaker McCarthy figures this approach will support his previous promise to release and “make public” the full unedited House footage.  I’m not sure I would qualify this as fulfilling the pledge.  Why is an intermediary needed?  Why not just release the footage and let people review it raw and unfiltered?

Via Axios – House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has given Fox News’ Tucker Carlson exclusive access to 41,000 hours of Capitol surveillance footage from the Jan. 6 riot, McCarthy sources tell me.

  • Carlson TV producers were on Capitol Hill last week to begin digging through the trove, which includes multiple camera angles from all over Capitol grounds. Excerpts will begin airing in the coming weeks.

Why it matters: Carlson has repeatedly questioned official accounts of 1/6, downplaying the insurrection as “vandalism.”

  • Now his shows — “Tucker Carlson Tonight” on Fox News, and “Tucker Carlson Today” and “Tucker Carlson Originals” on the streaming service Fox Nation — have a massive trove of raw material.

Carlson told me: “[T]here was never any legitimate reason for this footage to remain secret.”

  • “If there was ever a question that’s in the public’s interest to know, it’s what actually happened on January 6. By definition, this video will reveal it. It’s impossible for me to understand why any honest person would be bothered by that.” (link)

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There could be an entirely appropriate reason for doing it this way, but that has not yet been explained.

Feb 21 2023

Annnnd, ACTION! – Traveling by Train Joe Biden Makes Surprise Visit to Kyiv, Ukraine


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on February 20, 2023 | Sundance

The theatre and pantomime of Ukraine, as orchestrated by the White House & State Dept. and summed up in the phrase “World War Reddit,” continues.  I will admit, the air raid sirens were a nice touch.

Joe Biden made a surprise trip into Kyiv, where the word “surprise” is intended to fall upon the eyes and ears of the American public, not the Ukrainian government or the Russians who were given advanced notice that Joe Biden was traveling to Kyiv to meet with President Zelenskyy.

The White House admits in their on-the-record briefing {Read Here} that Russia was informed of the trip prior to Biden’s departure from Washington DC. So, the New York Times framing of the transportation aspect, “after a trans-Atlantic flight to Poland, Mr. Biden crossed the border by train, traveling for nearly 10 hours to Kyiv, as other American officials have in recent months,” was clearly done as part of the theatre around the visit.

Additionally, as every media article about the visit includes (for additional “color” of the performance) air raid sirens were sounded as Joe Biden and President Zelenskyy stepped out into the streets.  From the screenplay as written. I suggest reading in your best Richard Attenborough dramatic voice:

“Mr. Biden arrived early Monday morning to meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky, and the two stepped out into the streets of Kyiv even as an air-raid siren sounded, a dramatic moment that underscored the investment the United States has made in Ukraine’s independence.“

[…] “Mr. Biden joined Mr. Zelensky for a visit to St. Michael’s monastery in downtown Kyiv, where the sun glittered off the golden domes as the air-raid alarm wailed. Trailing two soldiers bearing a wreath, the two leaders walked along the Wall of Remembrance, with portraits of more than 4,500 soldiers who have died since Russia illegally annexed Crimea in 2014 and first fomented a rebellion in eastern Ukraine.

The air-raid alarm had stopped by the time Mr. Biden got back into his motorcade and departed the monastery. The alarms sound almost daily in Kyiv, but the blare of the siren added to the bristling tension of the moment. (read more)

Everything, and I do mean e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g, about the Russia-Ukraine war narrative, via western media, is a scripted performance using the best deployed messaging and narrative engineering systems as created by Hollywood and corp media.  No western nation can generate propaganda as well as the United States.

White House Deputy National Security Advisor and Deputy Director of the National Economic Council, Daleep Singh, told everyone in February 2022 what the strategic policy of the Biden administration was toward Russia in the aftermath of the Ukraine conflict beginning.  Few were paying attention:

…”Ultimately, the goal of our sanctions is to make this a strategic failure for Russia; and let’s define a little bit of what that means. Strategic success in the 21st century is not about a physical land grab of territory; that’s what Putin has done.  In this century, strategic power is increasingly measured and exercised by economic strength, by technological sophistication and your story – who you are, what your values are; can you attract ideas and talent and goodwill? And on each of those measures, this will be a failure for Russia.” (LINK)

Deputy National Security Advisor Daleep Singh boiled down geopolitical power to a cultural issue of social likeability.  Everything that has followed that February 24, 2022, announcement has been a strategic construct for public consumption.  This is why I called the conflict “World War Reddit.”  As a result, one year later we see the theatrics of the conflict story once again being performed by the White House.

Very few people will recognize this.  Fewer still even paid attention to the statements that preceded the theatrics.

World War Reddit continues….

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Feb 20 2023

Did Caesar Really Say – Et Tu Brute!


Armstrong Economics Blog/Ancient History Re-Posted Feb 20, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

“Et tu, Brute? — Then fall, Caesar.”

These famous lines from William Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar, describing Caesar’s death, are how most of us believe it to have happened. Yet, these words may not necessarily have been the last ones said by the dying Roman general. We actually do not know Caesar’s last words. That may have been true, but there is no written account that preserved that scene largely because the assassins surrounded him.

We know that Caesar was killed on March 15th, 44 BC because Brutus even bragged on his coinage that he killed him on “EID MAR” – the Ides of March.

Gaius Cassius Longinus was the brother-in-law of Brutus. He was a Roman senator and general best known as a leading instigator of the plot to assassinate Julius Caesar. He commanded troops with Brutus during the Battle of Philippi against the forces of Mark Antony and Octavian avenging the assassination of Caesar. When he lost the battle, he committed suicide. None of his coins bragged about killing Caesar.

Feb 20 2023

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis Takes His “Not Campaigning, Campaigning Tour” to New York, Illinois and Beyond to Promote Law Enforcement


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

Keeping up the coy and deliberately managed strategy of not running for 2024 while running for 2024, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis will embark on a multi-state promotional effort to showcase his pro law enforcement outlook.

DeSantis starts Monday in Staten Island, New York, and the managers are counting on being able to do the ’24 run for office without angering the base Republican voters who see duplicity and deception in the construct.

As George Soros said of DeSantis personality, he’s “shrewd, ruthless, and ambitious,” the perfect blend of characteristics to operate as a pliable vessel operating on behalf of his Machiavellian management team.

NEW YORK – Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis will visit New York City Monday for a pro-law enforcement rally at a catering hall in Staten Island – a holiday incursion into one of former President Trump’s most loyal strongholds.

The 7:30 a.m. President’s Day speech at Privé will be the governor’s first stop on a multi-city tour to showcase his pro-cop bona fides as he gears up for an expected 2024 White House campaign, insiders said.

 “On Staten Island, we are proud to support our law enforcement,” said Assemblyman Mike Tannousis, the Staten Island GOP chairman. “I’m happy that our law enforcement community will get some recognition and support.”

The city’s reddest borough is packed with Trump backers, who gave him 57% of the island’s vote in 2020 – making Monday’s foray a crucial test of DeSantis’s chances among the former president’s remaining devotees. (read more)

Feb 19 2023

Strange Stuff – Two Weeks After East Palestine Toxic Chemical Spill, EPA Administrator Tells CNN Site Not Safe for EPA Workers


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

I missed this a few days ago; however, given the “official” narrative that East Palestine, Ohio, water and air are safe it seems rather contradictory for EPA Administrator Michael Regan to tell CNN’s Erica Hill two weeks later that things might not be safe for EPA officials.

I mean seriously, what the heck is the message here?  And the state and federal officials wonder why the residents of the area would have concerns about being told everything is safe.  In this soundbite (prompted to the question at 07:39) CNN’s Erica Hill speaks with EPA administrator Michael Regan and asks him if things are safe.  The hedge and qualifiers are off the charts alarming. WATCH:

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Yikes.  Never has “we are from the government, and here to help” seemed sketchier.  Even the CNN lady doesn’t seem to be buying what EPA Administrator Regan is selling.

Feb 19 2023

It’s a 2016 Big Club Redux – RNC Likely to Demand Loyalty Pledge as Part of Debate Requirement


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

The Washington Post is framing this as a potential Ronna McDaniel requirement, however given the RNC under Reince Preibus ended up having the same 2016 pre-debate loyalty demand, the requirement is more likely an institutional Big Club proposal and not the idea of the chair.  The board and RNC charter members of the professionally Republican apparatus are the ones creating the litmus tests.

Essentially, you will remember in 2015 and 2016 the RNC demanded that all of the candidates swear an oath to whomever won the GOP nomination.  In the first Fox News debate of August 2015, the candidates were told to raise their hand if they were not willing to swear or affirm their intent to support the eventual nominee.  Everyone except Donald Trump (and Ben Carson) lied.  WATCH:

The construct of the loyalty oath was predicated around the fact the RNC institution did not support an outsider like Donald Trump using their club system to achieve the office of the presidency.  Trump was independent minded and held his own platform positions on trade, economics, border security and immigration that ran counter to the approved policy positions of professionally Republican members.

The RNC, as an institution of life-long tenured club members, viewed Donald Trump as not an acceptable RNC candidate, and therefore were worried he would mount an independent run if the RNC effort to remove him from their party was successful. The alternative fifteen candidates were all previously approved by the RNC establishment, except Donald Trump.

As a consequence, in the 2016 contest the RNC sought to portray Donald Trump as unapproved, yet they simultaneously needed to keep up the false pretense that U.S. politics was not subject to the whims and approvals of two monopolistic private corporations (RNC and DNC).  In the decade that preceded the 2016 election, CTH was one of the few places not pretending about this dynamic.

However, in the years following the 2016 revelations, there has been a much larger awakening.  The 2012 result of Mitt Romney (7% primary support) combined with the 2016 Hillary outcome (22% primary support) and the 2020 Biden outcome (6% primary support) have solidified as examples of how these corporation’s function.

Thankfully, today more voters understand that U.S. political candidates are controlled by two private corporations and the billionaire financial donors/institutions who fund them.

Here we enter the 2024 contest, again with the same pretenses needing to be maintained; thus, we see a replay of the loyalty test being demanded by the RNC to qualify the candidates for debate stage entry.

Unfortunately for the RNC, the overwhelming majority of 2016 RNC approved candidates, those who made and affirmed the pledge, lied about it.  The reality of their effort to tear down and diminish the eventual nominee Donald Trump, including during the general election and well into his administration, stands as empirical evidence of the bullshit construct of the loyalty oath. Insert the reminder of Senator Ted Cruz saying “vote your conscience” at the 2016 RNC convention and getting booed off stage.

The only honest person on that debate stage in August 2015, was the guy who raised his hand, Donald J Trump.

(WASHINGTON DC) -Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel is so concerned that party disunity will sink GOP hopes in the 2024 presidential election that she plans to require all candidates on the official primary debate stages to first pledge their support to the party’s eventual nominee.  But many of the likely contenders are pushing back.

Former president Donald Trump said this month that he won’t commit to supporting the winner if he loses the nomination. “It would have to depend on who the nominee was,” he told a conservative radio host. Former Maryland governor Larry Hogan, another potential candidate, recently tweeted that he “won’t commit to supporting” Trump.

Others have settled on more nuanced hedges. New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, who just created a new organization to help him explore a possible campaign, says he will support the eventual nominee, but is certain Trump won’t be that person. Former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson, who has not decided on whether to sign a pledge, has gone so far as to speak with McDaniel about his opposition to it, arguing that Republicans should not be enforcing litmus tests.

“Historically, our party has not taken party loyalty oaths,” said Hutchinson, who returned to Iowa this week as he explores a possible campaign launch in early April. “For leaders such as myself who believe Donald Trump is not the right direction for the country — and I said specifically that Jan. 6 disqualified him — that would certainly make it a problem for me to give an across-the-board inclusion pledge.”

The pushback has underscored McDaniel’s concern but has not shifted her plans, according to multiple people involved in the process who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the planning. The Republican National Committee’s Temporary Standing Committee on Presidential Debates plans to meet next Wednesday and Thursday to formally set the rules for officially sanctioned debates this year. They intend to require candidates to sign a pledge to support the eventual nominee modeled on a similar document circulated by the RNC in 2015.  (read more)

Oaths, loyalty pledges, litmus tests… all of it… None of it makes a damned bit of difference.  Because in the big picture, the professional Republican apparatus will never support Donald Trump… because the multinational RNC donors at risk from the America First economic agenda, will not allow it.

Feb 18 2023

Hours After Trump Announces Upcoming Visit to East Palestine, FEMA Reverses Course and Will Support Ohio Community


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

The announcement by President Trump with his intent to visit East Palestine next Wednesday, followed moments later by a reversal announcement from FEMA stating they will now offer support to East Palestine, do not seem coincidental.

The Biden administration, including the EPA, FEMA and Transporation Secretary, was likely very worried about the optics of getting blasted by President Trump very visibly next week for their lack of urgency and concern.   Moments after Trump announces his visit, FEMA reverses their prior denial of aid. lol

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Just hours after saying he “[did] not expect” members of the Federal Emergency Management Agency to be in East Palestine, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine now confirms the government entity will, in fact, be sending a crew to assist with the aftermath of the train derailment in the village.

In a joint statement released Friday night, DeWine and FEMA Regional Administrator Thomas C. Sivak said the agency would deploy a Regional Incident Management Assistance Team (IMAT) to Columbiana County starting Saturday, along with a senior response official. The workers will “support ongoing operations, including incident coordination and ongoing assessments of potential long-term recovery needs.”

[…] DeWine had previously requested federal help, and today the Department of Health and Human Services announced toxicologists from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would be journeying to East Palestine to assist with public health testing. However, the governor’s request for FEMA assistance was initially denied, with the agency apparently telling his office the current situation “[did] not quality for assistance.” (read more)