The revelations pouring out from John Durham is very enlightening which has confirmed that the Democrats for four years led by Hillary Clinton, set in motion the strategy to constantly attack Trump an d thereby prevent him from carrying out his goal to drain the swamp. John Durham has revealed that the “A secret Trump server is communicating with a Russian bank” was a totally fic ticious claim put out their by Hillary which had no basis in fact whatsoever. It was just totally made up.
In a new filing, Durham revealed that the CIA concluded that cellphone data and Internet traffic provided by Clinton attorney Michael Sussmann was “not technically plausible” and “user created.” This proved to be deliberately fabricating evidence which was the same strategy behin the notorious Christopher Steele dossier, twhich they also fabricated facts. Of course, the CIA was against Trump as was the NSA because they were on the agenda of creating war with Russia. Despite all of this evidence which is surfacing, still those on the left continued to ignore these facts and will not relent when it comes to bashing Trump. Clinton’s team simply invented the entire story, forged evidence, and then presented it to the FBI and CIA as if it was something worth pursuing, derailing a presidency for years.
The Director of the CIA, John Brennan, a former aide and campaign advisor to President Obama, had stated that his agency believed the Russians were behind the hacking of the Democrat’ servers. The Democarts even blamed Wikileaks and pushed to imprison Julian Assange for life. WikiLeaks denied that Russian hackers were the source of the emails. But the Democrats were relentless. Trump disagreed with the CIA claim, tweeting that “these are the same people that said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.” Now the Durham report demonstrates that the CIA lied and misled the nation.
There is a serious question is all of these characters have not engaged in treason against the United States. These people will be remembered by History and held in the same regard as Benedict Arnold by future generations when the dust settles. Their names will become synonymous with “traitor” after was the case with Benedict Arnold when his betrayal became public. Benjamin Franklin wrote that “Judas sold only one man, Arnold three millions.” However, these people have done far more damage than merely creating Russiagate.
Because of these people, in 2019, Gallup Poll showed that the Majority of Americans had considered Russia as a critical threat which is mandatory to justy waging war. The nonsense of imposing sanction of Russia under the theory that will force the people to overthrow Putin, are simply out of their minds. Now two-thirds of Russians see the United States as the enemy of Russia. The independent Levada Center published their poll confirming that 70 percent of respondents pointed to the United States as the greatest threat to Russia.
These attitudes have been the byproduct of Russiagate. This is HIGHLY dangerous for the Neocons will get what they dream of – World War III. These people have put out nothing but hatred and this is unfortunately what we the people of the world, Americans and Russians, are the victims of these hateful manipulations of society to press their desire for war.
Armstrong Economics Blog/Politics Re-Posted Apr 18, 2022 by Martin Armstrong
The plot behind Ukraine is far deeper than anyone is willing to talk about publically. Yanukovich was corrupt and his sons were acting like a protection racket. Yanukovich was keen on joining the EU but the treaty had a clause in there that would have put Ukraine in NATO through the backdoor. Ukraine would have to comply will all the rules and regulations of NATO without formally being admitted. Worse still, Ukraine was to trade exclusively with the EU when Russia was its main trading partner and its fuel came from Russia. This was the first attempt by the West to bring Ukraine into NATO.
That is why Yanukovich backed out and that is what began the whole uprising. To appease the protestors, Yanukovich agreed to early elections in nine months. This is where the US Neocons were hard at work to actually see the uprising as an opportunity and they wanted to install their own people. That was all in the leaked phone call of Victoria Nuland.
Zelensky was elected with overwhelming support to create peace which was exactly OPPOSITE of the objectives of the American Neocons. The Ukrainian Nationalists (Nazis) threatened to kill Zelensky if he pushed for peace with Russia. Zelensky did a political flip-flop and yielded to the Nazi movement. Reliable sources insisted that the Nazis threatened to kill Zelensky to prevent any peace with Russia.
Don’t forget McCain and Lesley Graham even addressed the Ukrainian Nazis promising them to support back in December 2016 after Trump was elected, but before he was sworn in. The Neocons were hard at work to ensure that there would be no peace with Russia.
The entire Russiagate has been discredited but we must understand the reality of international relations. Hillary, who is a Neocon and was friends with John McCain to the point he is the one who handed the fraudulent Steel Dossier to James Comey at the FBI, was instrumental in the failed takeover of Russia by the bankers blackmailing Yeltsin and interfering in the 2000 election which brought Putin to power. Hillary clearly concocted the whole theory that Trump was a puppet of Putin. The Neocons even spun the story that Putin was ex-KGB and that meant he wanted to resurrect the old Soviet Union which was also a lie.
With the seriousness of these actions, we are now heading into war over fake news. Obama had refused to provide military aid to Ukraine and the entire Russiagate was to box in Trump who was then advised to provide military weapons to Ukraine to prove he was not a puppet of Putin. It was the Neocons who were trying to push Trump into an eye-to-eye confrontation.
What Kennedy did to the Neocons was reject their advice and in the Cuban Missle Crisis, this resulted in a monumental shift in US-Russian relations. It forced both parties to realize that they needed each other and that confrontation was not the answer. The Neocons disagreed. This probably cost Kennedy his life. I believe the Neocons had him killed and Oswald was hinted that he was somehow connected to Russia. The CIA refused to release the files and the only reason is to hide the fact that the Neocons took out Kennedy.
Before he died, Robert McNamara (1916 – 2009) was a leading Neocon that pushed the country into the Vietnam war. He was famous for saying: “I learned early on never answer the question that is asked of you. Answer the question that you wish had been asked of you. And quite frankly, I follow that rule. It’s a very good rule.” McNamara finally admitted that they were wrong particularly in their assessment of Russia as a threat. The perception that Russia is a threat is still dominating the agenda today and there is absolutely no attempt to create world peace.
By creating Russiagate, the main objective was to prevent Trump from working any peace deal with Russia. That was the same objective of McCain and Graham running to Ukraine now that Trump was elected to promise aid to the Ukrainian Nazis to keep up their war against Russians. Can you imagine if the Cuban Missile Crisis took place during the Trump Administration, the Neocons would have been in their glory warning Trump any peace deal would confirm he was just a puppet of Putin. That would have e guaranteed war – not peace. This was the strategic move – a checkmate against Trump seeking peace as did Kennedy.
Reliable sources also claim that the transcript of the phone call between Trump and Zelensky that was used for impeachment was not the full conversation. Trump had assumed that Zelensky was serious about peace and would have supported that decision. But this would have been seen as making Trump the puppet of Putin. This scenario was vital to prevent peace and eventually put the pieces in place for the war that now clouds the horizon.
The DEMONIZING of Trump began to PREVENT world peace and to strip Trump of any ability to reach a peace deal with Russia. Putin did NOT want to reestablish the old Soviet Union, but instead, he saw the rise of China economically and sought to bring Russia into an economic player on the global scale. He wanted to be remembered for being the leader who brought Russia to its economic greatness – not the reestablishment of the USSR which was the dream of Stalin, not Lenin nor Putin.
The image of Trump and Putin had to be manipulated to direct the world into the new political agenda leaving these two leaders who wanted to make their respective nations great again. So far, they have accomplished their goals with strategic cunning and manipulation. To this day, there remain people who are just obsessed with their hatred of Trump. They refuse to come up for air remaining below the surface in the darkness of the depths. To see the plot, they first have to realize that Trump is no longer president and the Neocons will do everything in their power to prevent him from ever running again. That’s what the January 6th hearings are all designed to do – charge him with INSURRECTION to prevent him constitutionally from ever running again. But with that failing, they would more likely than not assassinate him. These people are playing for keeps and they see their goal – the destruction of Russia and China – within their reach.
Posted originally on the conservative tree house on April 17, 2022 | sundance
While no media have a good track record of outlining the conflict in Ukraine, retired Col. Douglas Macgregor has the most consistent perspective that reconciles what little factual information is visible with the reality on the ground.
In this recent interview, Macgregor notes the Russian operation is currently focused on securing the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine, where fighting has been taking place since 2014. During an earlier interview on CNN, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy noted the largest and most experienced elements of the Ukrainian army are located in this region. According to Zelenskyy, approximately 44,000 Ukrainian troops are there; oddly, Zelenskyy seemed to concede that he has no control over what’s happening there.
During this segment, Macgregor notes the current Russian objective is to encircle those eastern Ukraine forces, cut them off from western supply lines, and then slowly and methodically eliminate them – while separating them from Russian speaking citizens in the region. Macgregor notes a particular concern once those Ukraine forces are eliminated. WATCH:
What Col. Macgregor states toward the end rings very true to the practical events being discussed.
The most dangerous time will be when the Russians are close to achieving their objective in Eastern Ukraine, and the western media will be faced with having to reconcile the difference between the propaganda they have been selling to western citizens and the actual truth on the ground. That’s when the western alliance is likely to do something drastic.
Posted originally on the conservative tree house on April 17, 2022 | sundance
This Sunday segment from CBS’s Margaret Brennan allows us to watch narrative engineering in real time. During a segment outlining the reasons behind the major economic issues American’s are feeling, CBS notes everything except the reason the economy is struggling. It really is quite a remarkable example of professional gaslighting.
Watch the segment, note the inflation crisis has been underway for more than 18 months, and notice how many justifications are made-up illusions. (1) A Texas-Mexico cargo checkpoint issue that started less than a week ago; (2) Trucker shortages; (3) Ukraine-Russia which started only 6 weeks ago; and (4) Pandemic lockdowns, now causing an excess in demand. None of these issues are even close to the source of the issue.
The two major drivers of inflation are both Biden policy issues. (1) Extreme federal government spending and the Fed purchasing debt. (2) The shutting down of U.S. energy development (pipelines closed or blocked, oil leases cancelled, permits pulled and refinery permits cancelled). All of this is Joe Biden policy.
On the restaurant pricing side, and likely restaurants soon to close, I would note the CTH outline from a few days ago:
You will note from Table-1 [available here] that food away from home, restaurant food, is not climbing as high as food at the grocery store (0.3% -vs- 1.5%). Restaurants are trying to keep prices down and their profit margins are being eroded. They are in a tough place, because if restaurants raise prices, they may lose customers who are already feeling pain in their checkbooks. However, they cannot hold out much longer before raising prices, because the price increases are permanent. (read more)
Posted originally on the conservative tree house on April 17, 2022 | sundance
The metaphorical Jack had a great idea, open a coffee shop where the beverages were free and use internal advertising as the income subsidy to operate the business. Crowds came for the free coffee, comfy couches, fellowship, conversation and enjoyment.
It didn’t matter where Jack got the coffee, how he paid for it, or didn’t, or what product advertising the customers would be exposed to while there. Few people thought about such things. Curiously, it didn’t matter what size the crowd was; in the backroom of Jack’s Coffee Shop they were able to generate massive amounts of never-ending free coffee at extreme scales.
Over time, using the justification of parking lot capacity and township regulations, not everyone would be able to park and enter. Guards were placed at the entrance to pre-screen customers. A debate began.
Alternative coffee shops opened around town. It was entirely possible to duplicate Jacks Coffee Shop, yet no one could duplicate the business model for the free coffee. Indeed, there was something very unique about Jack’s Coffee Shop. Thus, some underlying suspicions were raised:
The only way Twitter, with 217 million users, could exist as a viable platform is if they had access to tech systems of incredible scale and performance, and those systems were essentially free or very cheap. The only entity that could possibly provide that level of capacity and scale is the United States Government – combined with a bottomless bank account. A public-private partnership.
If my hunch is correct, Elon Musk is poised to expose the well-kept secret that most social media platforms are operating on U.S. government tech infrastructure and indirect subsidy. Let that sink in.
The U.S. technology system, the assembled massive system of connected databases and server networks, is the operating infrastructure that offsets the cost of Twitter to run their own servers and database. The backbone of Twitter is the United States government.
FREE COFFEE:
♦ June 2013: […] “Cloud computing is one of the core components of the strategy to help the IC discover, access and share critical information in an era of seemingly infinite data.” … “A test scenario described by GAO in its June 2013 bid protest opinion suggests the CIA sought to compare how the solutions presented by IBM and Amazon Web Services (AWS) could crunch massive data sets, commonly referred to as big data.” … “Solutions had to provide a “hosting environment for applications which process vast amounts of information in parallel on large clusters (thousands of nodes) of commodity hardware” using a platform called MapReduce. Through MapReduce, clusters were provisioned for computation and segmentation. Test runs assumed clusters were large enough to process 100 terabytes of raw input data. AWS’ solution received superior marks from CIA procurement officials”… (MORE)
♦ November 2013: […] “Twitter closed its first day of trading on Nov. 7, 2013, at $44.90 a share. In the years since then, it briefly traded above $70, but more recently, it has struggled.”
Jack’s free coffee shop has been for sale, but there’s no viable business model in the private sector. No one has wanted to purchase Twitter – it is simply unsustainable; the data processing costs exceed the capacity of the platform to generate revenue – until now….
And suddenly, the people who work in the backroom of Jack’s Magic Coffee Shop don’t want Jack to sell.
Twitter is not making a decision to decline the generous offer by Elon Musk because of stewardship or fiduciary responsibility to shareholders. The financials of Twitter as a non-viable business model highlight the issue of money being irrelevant. Twitter does not and cannot make money. Growing Twitter only means growing an expense. Growing Twitter does not grow revenue enough to offset the increase in expense.
There is only one way for Twitter to exist as a viable entity, people are now starting to realize this.
What matters to the people behind Twitter, the people who are subsidizing the ability of Twitter to exist, is control over the global conversation.
Control of the conversation is priceless to the people who provide the backbone for Twitter.
Once people realize who is subsidizing Twitter, everything changes.
♦ 2021,Public-Private Partnership – The modern Fourth Branch of Government is only possible because of a Public-Private partnership with the intelligence apparatus. You do not have to take my word for it, the partnership is so brazen they have made public admissions.
The biggest names in Big Tech announced in June their partnership with the Five Eyes intelligence network, ultimately controlled by the NSA, to: (1) monitor all activity in their platforms; (2) identify extremist content; (3) look for expressions of Domestic Violent Extremism (DVE); and then, (4) put the content details into a database where the Five Eyes intelligence agencies (U.K., U.S., Australia, Canada, New Zealand) can access it.
Facebook, Twitter, Google and Microsoft are all partnering with the intelligence apparatus. It might be difficult to fathom how openly they admit this, but they do. Look at this sentence in the press release (emphasis mine):
[…] “The Group will use lists from intelligence-sharing group Five Eyes adding URLs and PDFs from more groups, including the Proud Boys, the Three Percenters and neo-Nazis.”
Think about that sentence structure very carefully. They are “adding to” the preexisting list…. admitting the group (aka Big Tech) already have access to the the intelligence-sharing database… and also admitting there is a preexisting list created by the Five Eyes consortium.
Obviously, who and what is defined as “extremist content” will be determined by the Big Tech insiders themselves. This provides a gateway, another plausible deniability aspect, to cover the Intelligence Branch from any oversight.
When the Intelligence Branch within government wants to conduct surveillance and monitor American citizens, they run up against problems due to the Constitution of the United States. They get around those legal limitations by sub-contracting the intelligence gathering, the actual data-mining, and allowing outside parties (contractors) to have access to the central database.
The government cannot conduct electronic searches (4th amendment issue) without a warrant; however, private individuals can search and report back as long as they have access. What is being admitted is exactly that preexisting partnership. The difference is that Big Tech will flag the content from within their platforms, and now a secondary database filled with the extracted information will be provided openly for the Intelligence Branch to exploit.
The volume of metadata captured by the NSA has always been a problem because of the filters needed to make the targeting useful. There is a lot of noise in collecting all data that makes the parts you really want to identify more difficult to capture. This new admission puts a new massive filtration system in the metadata that circumvents any privacy protections for individuals.
Previously, the Intelligence Branch worked around the constitutional and unlawful search issue by using resources that were not in the United States. A domestic U.S. agency, working on behalf of the U.S. government, cannot listen on your calls without a warrant. However, if the U.S. agency sub-contracts to say a Canadian group, or foreign ally, the privacy invasion is no longer legally restricted by U.S. law.
What was announced in June 2021 is an alarming admission of a prior relationship along with open intent to define their domestic political opposition as extremists.
July 26, 2021, (Reuters) – A counterterrorism organization formed by some of the biggest U.S. tech companies including Facebook (FB.O) and Microsoft (MSFT.O) is significantly expanding the types of extremist content shared between firms in a key database, aiming to crack down on material from white supremacists and far-right militias, the group told Reuters.
Until now, the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism’s (GIFCT) database has focused on videos and images from terrorist groups on a United Nations list and so has largely consisted of content from Islamist extremist organizations such as Islamic State, al Qaeda and the Taliban.
Over the next few months, the group will add attacker manifestos – often shared by sympathizers after white supremacist violence – and other publications and links flagged by U.N. initiative Tech Against Terrorism. It will use lists from intelligence-sharing group Five Eyes, adding URLs and PDFs from more groups, including the Proud Boys, the Three Percenters and neo-Nazis.
The firms, which include Twitter (TWTR.N) and Alphabet Inc’s (GOOGL.O) YouTube, share “hashes,” unique numerical representations of original pieces of content that have been removed from their services. Other platforms use these to identify the same content on their own sites in order to review or remove it. (read more)
The influence of the Intelligence Branch now reaches into our lives, our personal lives. In the decades before 9/11/01 the intelligence apparatus intersected with government, influenced government, and undoubtedly controlled many institutions with it. The legislative oversight function was weak and growing weaker, but it still existed and could have been used to keep the IC in check. However, after the events of 9/11/01, the short-sighted legislative reactions opened the door to allow the surveillance state to weaponize.
After the Patriot Act was triggered, not coincidentally only six weeks after 9/11, a slow and dangerous fuse was lit that ends with the intelligence apparatus being granted a massive amount of power. The problem with assembled power is always what happens when a Machiavellian network takes control over that power and begins the process to weaponize the tools for their own malicious benefit. That is exactly what the installation of Barack Obama was all about.
The Obama network took pre-assembled intelligence weapons we should never have allowed to be created, and turned those weapons into tools for his radical and fundamental change. The target was the essential fabric of our nation. Ultimately, this corrupt political process gave power to create the Fourth Branch of Government, the Intelligence Branch. From that perspective the fundamental change was successful.
[…] “The vision was first outlined in the Intelligence Community Information Technology Enterprise plan championed by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and IC Chief Information Officer Al Tarasiuk almost three years ago.” … “It is difficult to underestimate the cloud contract’s importance. In a recent public appearance, CIA Chief Information Officer Douglas Wolfe called it “one of the most important technology procurements in recent history,” with ramifications far outside the realm of technology.” (READ MORE)
Posted originally on the conservative tree house on April 17, 2022 | sundance
This is layers of odd. As many readers are aware, the prices of fertilizer have skyrocketed as supplies have been heavily impacted by increased energy costs and supply chain issues. Many people have worried if a shortage of fertilizer may impact farm yields this year.
Against this backdrop CF Industries, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of hydrogen and nitrogen fertilizer, is warning its customers that Union Pacific Railway Lines is now restricting the amount of container tonnage they will permit. [Press Release Here]
CF Industries Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: CF), a leading global manufacturer of hydrogen and nitrogen products, today informed customers it serves by Union Pacific rail lines that railroad-mandated shipping reductions would result in nitrogen fertilizer shipment delays during the spring application season and that it would be unable to accept new rail sales involving Union Pacific for the foreseeable future. The Company understands that it is one of only 30 companies to face these restrictions.
CF Industries ships to customers via Union Pacific rail lines primarily from its Donaldsonville Complex in Louisiana and its Port Neal Complex in Iowa. The rail lines serve key agricultural areas such as Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska, Texas and California.
Products that will be affected include nitrogen fertilizers such as urea and urea ammonium nitrate (UAN) as well as diesel exhaust fluid (DEF), an emissions control product required for diesel trucks. CF Industries is the largest producer of urea, UAN and DEF in North America, and its Donaldsonville Complex is the largest single production facility for the products in North America.
“The timing of this action by Union Pacific could not come at a worse time for farmers,” said Tony Will, president and chief executive officer, CF Industries Holdings, Inc. “Not only will fertilizer be delayed by these shipping restrictions, but additional fertilizer needed to complete spring applications may be unable to reach farmers at all. By placing this arbitrary restriction on just a handful of shippers, Union Pacific is jeopardizing farmers’ harvests and increasing the cost of food for consumers.”
On Friday, April 8, 2022, Union Pacific informed CF Industries without advance notice that it was mandating certain shippers to reduce the volume of private cars on its railroad effective immediately. The Company was told to reduce its shipments by nearly 20%.
CF Industries believes it will still be able to fulfill delivery of product already contracted for rail shipment to Union Pacific destinations, albeit with likely delays. However, because Union Pacific has told the Company that noncompliance will result in the embargo of its facilities by the railroad, CF Industries may not have available shipping capacity to take new rail orders involving Union Pacific rail lines to meet late season demand for fertilizer. (read more)
Things get increasingly curious when you look at who owns majority stakes in CF Industries (manufacturer), and who owns Union Pacific (distribution):
The top two shareholders of CF Industries are Vanguard and Blackrock:
Posted originally on the conservative tree house on April 16, 2022 | Sundance
oe Biden is visibly and cognitively impaired. We can all see it, yet the powers in charge ignore it and pretend it doesn’t matter. The Hunter Biden laptop was real, despite 50 former and current intelligence officials attesting it was “Russian propaganda,” and they pretend it doesn’t matter. For two years we suffered under ridiculous COVID-19 rules and fiats decreed by western officials, none of it was science-based, and they pretend it doesn’t matter.
In his weekly monologue, Neil Oliver walks through examples of the many naked emperors, and how we can see them completely exposed, yet they pretend it doesn’t matter. Ultimately, Oliver asks if the feeble and cognitively impaired leader of the free world, while everyone pretends not to know it, is not representative of this 2022 we live in? It does matter, and something is coming. WATCH:
[Transcript] – “Remember 2019? Cast your mind back to that year, that oh, so recent time when everything was different. 2019 was not a perfect time, or a perfect world, but it was very different from this one of 2022.
In 2019 the rights and freedoms we’d had for years – and shamefully taken for granted – were still broadly intact, or so it seemed. The idea that we might not be free to be with loved ones, to hold the hand of a dying parent, to earn a living, to leave our homes for more than an hour a day, that taking a holiday abroad would be, for a time, illegal, would surely have been unthinkable.
As long as we could afford the necessary ticket, we had been free to travel the world. Surgical masks were a novelty, worn in places of work by medical professionals and by occasional visitors from Asia where altogether different cultural norms prevailed.
Across The Pond Donald Trump was in the White House. The US were energy independent then and hadn’t got involved in any new wars all the time he was in residence. European states even sneered when he warned against their reliance on Russian gas.
The list of things that were different about here, and the US, and the rest of West in 2019 could be so much longer, of course – almost endless, in fact – but I don’t have enough time.
So where are we now? Where to begin?
For one thing, by now there is a whole new definition of haves and have-nots. Society is split across the divide of the vaccinated and unvaccinated. A large majority of the population of the UK and of the rest of the West HAVE been vaccinated against a disease many now believe to have been made in a Chinese lab that had been funded by the US. It leaked from there, in 2019, to the wider world. The Have-Nots, who chose not to take the vaccine – who are increasingly glad they turned down the multiple offers of multiple jabs – but now metaphorically bruised and battered as a consequence of their resistance to the regime, are still vilified and called anti-vaxxers. Anyone questioning the vaccines and/or lockdown is still branded a conspiracy theorist.
There are many other consequences of the advent of the disease, and those vaccines, but again, I don’t have the time now. I will note that there are widespread reports that young athletes, at the peak of their games and fitness, have died of heart attacks and blood clots in the last two years, and that youngsters from all walks of life have been diagnosed with myocarditis and other serious conditions during the same period. But as I say – no time to go into that now.
Among the most eye-catching revelations has been the rabid enthusiasm, displayed by governments from one side of the European continent to the other, and in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and many more places besides, for high-handed curtailing of citizens’ rights. The pressure to submit to the experimental vaccines, for example, was almost unbearable to resist.
In one country after another, the lives of the unvaccinated were made more and more uncomfortable, impossible. Unvaccinated Canadians still cannot travel within their own country, far less leave their country. The Australian government has only just relented and allowed – I say allowed as though such control was ever right and proper – allowed Australians to flee the prison island.
The nominal leader of the free world is President Joe Biden, a frail and infirm elderly man, visibly cognitively compromised. Some say Mr Biden has senile dementia, but I’m not in the business of medical diagnosis.
Last week there was a sad and worrying clip of him – there are endless sad and worrying clips of President Biden – finishing a speech and turning to leave the podium.
After a few, uncertain moments, he stopped and stuck out his right hand towards the left. This has been interpreted by some as an attempt to shake hands with someone who wasn’t there. To me it looked like he was simply trying to remember whether he should exit to left or right.
He turned his back on the audience then and walked, uncertainly with tiny steps, towards the backdrop provided by the US flag. After a further agony of moments, he turned again, and made his way, shakily, to the right.
For another elderly man, in another context, it would only have been sad – a glimpse of terminal decline. For another elderly man so lost there might have been rescue by a loved one, a guiding arm around the shoulders. But this is the leader of the free world, who must cope alone before the eyes of that world.
Perhaps Mr Biden’s decline is a metaphor for a new reality for the US. The years during which she was generally accepted as dominant in all things – economical, political, cultural – may be drawing to a close.
And then of course there is the present chaos and. we are told, looming threat of catastrophe. We have war in Europe, of the sort we have not had for decades, between Russia and Ukraine and excited talk, from some, of the imminent use of nuclear weapons. Compared to that lost world of 2019 – so near and yet so hopelessly far – this is very different indeed.
The years of lockdown that were our governments’ offering when it came to keeping us safe from the disease have caused economic mayhem such as has not been known in the West for a lifetime.
Add to that the insanity of Carbon Net Zero, and all the sleights of hand concerning renewables – technologies made of interest to industry only by additional tax heaped onto consumers to subsidise wind farms and the rest of the money pits and so create the illusion they might realistically replace gas, coal and oil.
As a direct consequence of all that – lockdowns and Net Zero – the news is all about unavoidable shortages of food and energy – and massive hikes in the price of both. There is talk of rationing, and black outs. Rationing and blackouts are hardly new, but they are unfamiliar to most of the generations alive today. 2022 is a very different place in so many ways. Inflation, dark talk of interest rate hikes. Millions must live in fear of losing everything – their homes included.
As it turns out, 2019 was the last year when the governments of the West could even pretend that the world in which they had had us living – a world of debt and funny money, outsourced production and manufactured dependence on imported energy – was in any way sustainable. What we are witnessing now is only chickens coming home to roost. What we are experiencing is the consequence of those governments, and their bankers, burning down the old house and moving themselves into the only addresses worth living in in the new one to come.
Routine now too is the talk of Digital IDs. A method of electronically tagging every man, woman and child – an intrusion into privacy and individuality that was once unthinkable and roundly dismissed by politicians, including our PM Boris Johnson – has, in 2022, the feel of something inevitable. Like lockdowns and vaccines and the rest, Digital IDs are increasingly a feature, an innovation, we are told will be for the greater good. Claims about the greater good used to be the favoured justification only of totalitarian regimes. They still are.
From 2019 to 2022 – such a brief blink of time, and yet so great a void has been created between the world of then and the world of now. Back then we still trusted that our opinions mattered.
But now, here’s the thing: the fitness or not of President Biden for the role of leader of the free world is debated everywhere.
I watched the latest clip of him tottering around, so apparently lost and confused, and realised that while the jury is out on his mental capacity, something else goes unremarked: it doesn’t seem to matter that the world is watching the President of the United States so enfeebled, so vulnerable.
It doesn’t seem to matter either, about his son, Hunter Biden’s, laptop, the one most of the US media invited us to dismiss as Russian propaganda. Of course, if such a laptop, belonging to a son of Donald Trump, had come to light before Trump was elected, it would have been the end of him. There would have been wall to wall media coverage of its contents, not least the references of payments made from shady deals to ‘the big guy’. But any mention of Hunter Biden’s laptop was suppressed out of existence by Big Tech.
For the duration of his presidency, Mr Trump was dogged with Democrat claims he colluded with Russia to seize power. All of those claims were proven false. Democrats, media and tech giants got away with a cover up. They got away with smearing the president. The world knows it was a smear followed by a cover up and yet it has had no consequences for any of the perpetrators. If one thing hasn’t changed, from 2019 until now, it is apparently the corrupt behaviour of so much of the world’s media.
That it doesn’t matter that we know that Biden is failing, that big tech and others colluded to suppress the truth and affect a US election, reminded me of the ongoing farce labelled Partygate. Whatever has or has not happened in the aftermath of internal enquiries, it is evident they broke their own rules. It is also clear they didn’t fear the disease.
While the rest of the population was missing weddings and funerals, leaving loved ones to die alone, the politicians and their advisors were secure in the knowledge that get togethers posed no risk at all. Most important of all, they know we know all that and have the gall to think it shouldn’t matter.
I don’t care if Rishi Sunak has sworn loyalty to another state while Chancellor of our Exchequer. I don’t care how much tax his wife pays or doesn’t.
I care that they seem to think none of it matters.
This is a recurrent feature of 2022 – perhaps the most important of the many ways in which the world of 2022 is so different from the world of 2019: millions of ordinary, law-abiding, reasonable, tax-paying people, in one country after another, have noticed how different their world has been made without their consent. Those millions – though roundly abused by the authorities and ridiculed and shouted down from all sides – have shouted back, defiant.
Loud has been the cry that The Emperors Are Not Wearing Any Clothes. But nothing has happened because our seeing and knowing and shouting about it isn’t deemed to matter.
However … however … it is only the emperors, and those telling the emperors what to say and do, who THINK it doesn’t matter.
What has been done these past two years or so does matter, is the most important point of all. Millions of us have seen it and will always remember. In the end, when all is said and done, what we have seen and understood about our leaders and the world we live in will matter a very great deal indeed.” (read more)
Posted originally on the conservative tree house on April 16, 2022 | Sundance
The ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) region including India, comprises a combined population of 1.85 billion people, one-fourth of the global population. Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Philippines, Brunei, Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar (Burma), and Laos are included.
As Biden doubles down on a proxy war against Russia in Europe, and given the financial stakes within the western economic sanctions, the global trade cleaving could leave the countries around India with a decision on which financial trade mechanisms they will support.
This is the background for Joe Biden to organize a special summit of ASEAN leaders in Washington, DC, May 12th and 13th.
WHITE HOUSE – President Biden will host the Leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Washington, DC on May 12 and 13 for a U.S.-ASEAN Special Summit.
The Special Summit will demonstrate the United States’ enduring commitment to ASEAN, recognizing its central role in delivering sustainable solutions to the region’s most pressing challenges, and commemorate 45 years of U.S.-ASEAN relations.
It will build on President Biden’s participation in the October 2021 U.S.-ASEAN Summit, where the President announced $102 million in new initiatives to expand our engagement with ASEAN on COVID-19 recovery and health security, fighting the climate crisis, stimulating broad-based economic growth, promoting gender equality, and deepening people-to-people ties.
It is a top priority for the Biden-Harris Administration to serve as a strong, reliable partner in Southeast Asia. Our shared aspirations for the region will continue to underpin our common commitment to advance an Indo-Pacific that is free and open, secure, connected, and resilient. (link)
…”So, well, I told them we needed to focus on cat food for transgender kittens.”
Posted originally on the conservative tree house on April 16, 2022 | Sundance
…Rule two, there is no bigger rule than the first rule.
“It must be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to plan, more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to manage than a new system. For the initiator has the enmity of all who would profit by the preservation of the old institution and merely lukewarm defenders in those who gain by the new ones.”
~ Niccolo Machiavelli
Never has that Machiavelli quote been more apropos than when considering the MAGA movement and the rise of Donald Trump.
Thankfully, we are now in an era when the largest coalition of American voters have awakened to the reality that, to quote the former president: “Economic Security is National Security.”
As we live through the economic mess of a Biden administration hell bent on eroding the middle class of the United States, there are numerous pundits contemplating 2024 Republican presidential candidates other than Donald Trump; consider this group the lukewarm defenders Machiavelli noted.
At the same time the leftist coalition, writ large, are apoplectic about the base of the Republican Party now belonging to Donald Trump. This group consists of those affluent Wall Street agents and politicians set on retaining the profits derived from decades of institutional objectives.
Institutional Democrats hate Trump, and institutional Republicans are lukewarm, at best, in defending Trump. Both wings of the DC UniParty fear Trump. Extreme efforts at control are a reaction to fear. In this outline, I rise to explain why Donald Trump is the only option for the America First MAGA coalition; and I make my case not on supposition, but on empirical reference points that most should understand.
Everything, is about the economics of it.
If you accept that at its essential core elements the phrase “economic security is national security” is true – meaning the lives of the American citizen, person, worker, individual or family are best when their economic position is secure – then any potential leader for our nation must be able to initiate policies that directly touch the economics of a person’s life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. As a result, economic security and economic policy must be the fulcrum of their platform.
Now, look around and ask yourself this question: “What separated Donald J. Trump from the remaining field of 17 GOP candidates in 2016?” An honest top-line answer would be immigration (border control), and his views on American economic policy. In essence, what set Donald Trump apart from all other candidates was his view on the U.S. economy, and that was the driving factor behind ‘Make America Great Again’, MAGA.
Now, look around. Look at every other potential candidate for political office. Is there another person in the field of your political view who comes from the starting point that economic security is national security?
Put aside all other issues and shiny things that may change from moment to moment as the political winds swirl and settle, and ask yourself that question. Who can deliver MAGA, if not the central person who lives, eats, sleeps and thinks about U.S. economic security from every angle at every second of every hour of every day. That’s Donald J. Trump.
Trump knows the extremely consequential sequence of BIG things that lead to a structurally strong American economic foundation.
We don’t have to guess at whether Trump can deliver on that policy sequence, we have reference points.
♦ Donald Trump knew that independent U.S. energy policy was a condition for a strong U.S. economy. He also knew there would be negative consequences to allies and partners if the U.S. energy policy was independent. Trump knew that OPEC nations in general would be negatively impacted, and he knew that Saudi Arabia specifically would be weakened geopolitically. That is why the very first foreign trip by Donald Trump was to Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States that make up the majority of OPEC.
Look at what President Trump did on that trip. First, he assured Saudi Arabia that the United States would stand with the Gulf Cooperation Council and Mid-East nations as it pertained to their security. Trump knew making the largest energy consuming nation independent from foreign oil would be adverse to the economic stability of the Mid-East, and as an outcome, could open a door to destabilization from extremist or ideological groups therein.
Take away top-line economic revenue from Saudi et al, and the leaders of those oil economies have a more difficult time remaining stable and controlling unrest and extremism. Generations of Arab citizens know nothing other than the trickle down benefits of oil exports. President Trump knew this, and he approached our need for energy independence by first assuring the Arab states of his commitment to their stability and safety.
President Trump delivered to those states a list of approved arms and defense agreements during that trip. In essence, what he was doing was putting the promise of security into actual delivery of tools to retain that security. Actions speak louder than words. President Trump also promised to work diligently on peace in the region; a real substantive and genuine peace that would provide security in the big picture.
Over the course of the next few years, Trump delivered on that set of promises with the Abraham Accords. Yes, economic security as national security applies to our allies as well as ourselves. Again, actions speak louder than words.
With the U.S. energy independence program in place, President Trump then moved in sequence to the next big thing.
♦ Donald Trump moved to face the challenge of China. A major shift in U.S. policy that is likely considered the biggest geopolitical shift in the last 75 years. Trump strategically began with Trade Authority 302 national security Steel and Aluminum tariffs at 25% and 10% not only toward China but targeted globally.
The entire multinational system was stunned at the bold step with tariffs. But remember, before Trump went to Saudi Arabia, he held a meeting with Chairman Xi Jinping in Mar-a-Lago. The global trade world was shocked by the tariff announcement, but I’ll bet you a doughnut Chairman Xi was not.
That February 2017 meeting, only one month after his inauguration, was President Trump graciously informing Chairman Xi, in the polite manner that respectful business people do, that a new era in the U.S-China relationship was about to begin. New trade agreements, new terms and conditions were to be expected in the future. The tariff announcement hit Wall Street hard, but not Beijing – who knew it was likely.
U.S. financial pundits proclaimed the sky was surely falling. These tariffs would cause prices to skyrocket, the global order of all things around trade was under attack by Trump. They waxed and shouted about supply chains being complicated and intertwined amid the modern manufacturing era that was too complex for President Trump to understand with such a heavy handed tariff hammer. Remember all of that? Remember how cars were going to cost thousands more, and beer kegs would forever be lost because the orange man had just triggered steel and aluminum tariffs?
Did any of that happen? No. Of course it didn’t. Actually, the opposite was true and no one could even fathom it. Communist China first responded by subsidizing all of their industries targeted by the tariffs with free energy and raw materials, etc. China triggered an immediate reaction to lower their own prices to offset tariffs. Beijing did not want the heavy industries and factories to start back up again in the U.S, so they reacted with measures to negate the tariff impact.
China’s economy started to feel the pressure and panda was not happy. Eventually, as the tariffs expanded beyond Steel and Aluminum to other specific segments and categories, China devalued their currency to lower costs even further for U.S. importers. The net result was something no one could have imagined. With lower prices, and increased dollar strength, we began importing all Chinese products at cheaper rates than before the tariffs were triggered. Yes, we began importing deflation. No one saw that coming…. but Trump did.
While all that initial U.S-China trade shock was taking place, Donald Trump took his next foreign trip to… wait for it…. Southeast Asia.
Just like in the example of the trip to Saudi Arabia, economically-minded Trump told partners and leaders in the export producing countries of Japan, Malaysia, South Korea, Vietnam, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and ASEAN nations to prepare for additional business and new trade agreements with the U.S., as factories inside China might start to decouple. Look at how they responded, they did exactly what Trump said would be in their best interests.
To seriously gather the focus of this SE Asia group, President Trump started direct talks with North Korea and Chairman Kim Jong-un for peace and regional stability. It’s easy to forget just how stunning this was at the time, but generations of people in Asia were jaw-agape at the U.S. President confronting China, engaging with North Korea, and opening his arms to new trade deals with ASEAN partners.
On the world stage of geopolitics and global trade, any one of these moves would be a monumental legacy initiative all by itself. But together, simultaneously, you can see how the entire continent physically stopped midstride and stood staring at this, this man, this American President, who was just about to step across the Demilitarized Zone in North Korea and shake hands with Chairman Kim…. and, wait for it…. they are smiling.
√ Energy security triggered and friends in Mid-East supported.
√ Mid-East peace initiatives triggered.
√ A return of heavy industry and manufacturing security triggered.
√ A confrontation of Chinese economic influence triggered.
√ Stability between South Korea and North Korea, triggered.
√ New trade deals and economic partnerships with Japan and South Korea, triggered.
And then, as if that was not enough… just as multinational investment groups started realizing they needed to change their outlooks and drop the decades long view of the U.S. as a “service driven economy”… just as they realized they needed to start investing domestically inside the United States for their own growth and financial security… as if all that wasn’t enough… President Trump kicks off an entirely new trade deal and renegotiated standard for all North American trade via NAFTA.
We don’t have to guess at whether Donald Trump can put together a program to ensure Economic Security is National Security. We don’t have to guess at whether Donald Trump can deliver on economic policy. We don’t have guess if Trump’s policy platform, proposals and initiatives would be successful. We have the experience of it. We have the results of it. We have felt the success of it.
We also don’t need to guess at who is the best candidate to lead Making America Great Again, we already know who that is.
There is no other 2024 Presidential Candidate, who I am aware of, who could possibly achieve what Donald John Trump has achieved, or who could even fathom contemplating how to achieve a quarter of what President Trump achieved.
Do not tell me Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is a better option. DeSantis is an unknown commodity, a blank slate, when it comes to big picture economic outlooks. DeSantis doesn’t have an economic agenda inside his administration from which to contemplate or analyze his economic views.
Governor Ron DeSantis has a lot of really good skills and policies on the domestic front unique to his position in Florida; however, it is not a slight toward him to point out he has never expressed any larger economic proposal that would give any confidence in a national economic policy.
Look at the sum total of it, and there’s so much more that could be outlined to what Donald Trump achieved and could yet still achieve, it’s not even a close question.
And that my friends is exactly why Donald Trump is under relentless attack from both wings of the UniParty in DC. Additionally, it is clear the Wall Street Republicans are trying to position Ron DeSantis as an alternative to another Trump term. Look carefully at the current advocates for DeSantis, Nikki Haley and/or Kristi Noem, and you will note every one of those early voices are attached to favorable Wall Street politics and multinational corporate advocacy.
Look at what Donald J. Trump was able to achieve while he was under constant political attack. Just imagine what Trump 2.0 would deliver.
They, the leftist Democrats and Wall Street Republicans, are yet again absolutely petrified of that.
I have created this site to help people have fun in the kitchen. I write about enjoying life both in and out of my kitchen. Life is short! Make the most of it and enjoy!
This is a library of News Events not reported by the Main Stream Media documenting & connecting the dots on How the Obama Marxist Liberal agenda is destroying America
Centinel2012 