After Contempt Threat, FBI Director Wray Admits Oversight Whistleblower Report on Shady Biden $5 million Payment Does Exist


Posted originally on the CTH on May 31, 2023 | Sundance 

An interesting series of updates to the FBI whistleblower case of Joe Biden taking a $5 million bribe payment which now looks to have originated in Ukraine.

The background claim is pretty basic. A whistleblower approached congress stating the FBI had a report, an unclassified FD-1023, detailing a conversation with a ‘confidential human source’ (CHS) that outlined Vice President Joe Biden taking a $5 million payment from a foreign national to affect a U.S. policy decision.  The FBI agent responsible for investigating the CHS claim was FBI Supervisory Intelligence Analyst Brian Auten, a sketchy character from the Trump-Russia probe.

The investigative events took place in June and July 2020 during the presidential election year.  The claim is that FBI Supervisory Intelligence Analyst Auten reportedly buried the CHS allegation saying it could not be corroborated, and then wrote an assessment that it was Russian disinformation.  However, the FBI investigative team didn’t see any effort by any FBI member to substantiate it.  Hence a whistleblower, with specific knowledge of the details in the allegation, surfaces and tells congress the FBI is hiding the FD-1023 that outlines the confidential human source allegation of bribery.

Congress requested the FD-1023, the FBI refused to provide it.  House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer then set a compliance deadline while he coordinated with Senator Chuck Grassley.  The FBI still refused to turn it over, saying they would neither confirm nor deny the FD-1023 existence, and said releasing any information like that would potentially compromise Confidential Human Sources (CHS’s).  The proverbial sources and methods excuse.

Yesterday, James Comer told FBI Director Chris Wray he would be held in contempt of congress for refusing the provide the letter to oversight.

Today, Christopher Wray admitted the existence of the FD-1023 and told Rep Comer and Senator Grassley he would let them come to FBI headquarters to look at it.

The FBI is still claiming the allegations have no way to be substantiated or corroborated.  However, there is a very strong possibility, based on records that Comer and Grassley have received from subpoenas for Biden banking information, the substantiation documents are already in the hands of congress.

WASHINGTON—House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) and Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) today issued the following statements after their discussion with FBI Director Christopher Wray about producing to Congress the unclassified, FBI-generated record alleging a criminal scheme involving then-Vice President Joe Biden and a foreign national.

“Today, FBI Director Wray confirmed the existence of the FD-1023 form alleging then-Vice President Biden engaged in a criminal bribery scheme with a foreign national. However, Director Wray did not commit to producing the documents subpoenaed by the House Oversight Committee. While Director Wray – after a month of refusing to even acknowledge that the form existed – has offered to allow us to see the documents in person at FBI headquarters, we have been clear that anything short of producing these documents to the House Oversight Committee is not in compliance with the subpoena. If the FBI fails to hand over the FD-1023 form as required by the subpoena, the House Oversight Committee will begin contempt of Congress proceedings,” said Chairman Comer.

“While the FBI has apparently leaked classified information to the news media in recent weeks, jeopardizing its own human sources, it continues to treat Congress like second class citizens by refusing to provide a specific unclassified record. Director Wray confirmed what my whistleblowers have told me pursuant to legally protected disclosures: the FBI-generated document is real, but the bureau has yet to provide it to Congress in defiance of a legitimate congressional subpoena. This failure comes with consequences,” Senator Grassley said. (read more)

Republicans 2024


Posted originally on the CTH on May 31, 2023 | Sundance 

A person who was a teenager when Obamacare was debated and passed is now around 30 years old.  Put another way, if you were 15 years old when We The People defeated Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley with Scott Brown and took the Kennedy senate seat, you are about to turn 30.  Think about the context of modern Republican politics and time.

This context reminds us that a large portion of the generally distracted population has no foundational understanding of modern Republican politics.

This context is also the baseline behind ‘battered conservative syndrome‘.

You will never, not ever, see a professional Republican politician attack a Democrat with the same level of vitriol, hatred, bitterness and anger as they do toward their own base voter.

The Democrat party fears their base; the Republican party despises their base.  The truth of this very visible reality will never change. Professional Republican politicians are not ideologues to principle or policy; they are interested in one thing, money.  That’s it.

If you peel the core of any issue involving conflict with the Republican Party, you will find money at the center of it.  Current Democrat politicians focus on advancing an ideological agenda; they swing for the fences in an effort to maximize control and power.  Current Republican politicians are focused, to the detriment of all other facets, on their personal wealth.

When you introduce a newly elected ‘conservative‘ to the DC world of republicanism, it is like sending a new guy/gal into the room to talk policy, only to be met with every face around the table staring back quizzically and dismissively while replying, “We don’t do that here – we are talking about money.”

Once you reset the Schoolhouse Rocks mindset and accept this is the truth of the thing, then everything else that puzzled you about Republican politics reconciles.

Ballot harvesting doesn’t generate money, so why do it?  We can make just as much money in the minority railing against ‘them’, so why be focused on a majority?  Donald Trump is threatening the financial position of our benefactors, so we hate him.  These are the simple truths of modern Republicans.

This is also the context to look at the institutions of professional Republican politics (RNC, RGA, NRSCC, etc) as well as the politicians who operate inside the business of professional republicanism.   Defending the trough is the goal – nothing is more important.  Removing any threat to the billionaires and multinationals who feed the trough, is a priority.  If defending the money means eliminating a pesky conservative thinker, so be it – destroy them.  That’s where the bitterness and anger come from.

If we do not accept this reality, we are doomed to repeat the cycle of abuse.

We can never make a professional Republican a perfect sandwich that will stop him/her from abusing us. Quit trying.

With this in mind, and understanding the nature of our corrupt two-party system controlled by two private corporations, the DNC and RNC, Donald Trump selected the RNC as the best available option to bring a new set of economic priorities back to the forefront.

Making America Great Again is a threat to modern republicanism, because MAGA has a core America-First economic agenda that runs counter to the priorities of the Republican party. {Go Deep}

Every professional Republican politician who enters the 2024 race for the Republican nomination is working toward this goal.  None of them are working on any other goal.  The removal of MAGA from mechanics of the Republican Party is their mission priority.  There is no other higher priority, including election outcomes.

Monmouth has a new poll released yesterday [article here – data pdf here] that was taken just before and during the time Ron DeSantis launched his candidacy.

When you look at the results, you can see why the people managing the Florida governor pulled the trigger a little earlier than anticipated.

DeSantis was scheduled in a very clear and strategic roadmap to launch as the ‘last’ candidate in the 2024 race.  However, despite his national politicking and “book tour”, his support was dropping every week.  They couldn’t wait any longer out of fear the principal would lose all support and the 2024 effort would be useless before they even got out of the gate.

The background managers pushed DeSantis into the race, and now we will see the last set of professional Republicans follow.  Each candidate will have a role and responsibility on behalf of the party.

Chris Christie and Nikki Haley will team up to play the lead role in the party attack against Donald Trump.

Notice how we are not seeing any post-DeSantis announcement polling?   Ron DeSantis launched on May 23rd and May 24th.  Sometimes it is the absence of the thing that tells you a lot about the substance of the thing.

[Monmouth Article Here]

Why would a candidate at 1%, 2%, 3% etc., stay or even launch into the race?  Stop pretending.  They do not have any chance of winning and they are not in the race to win.  They are in the race to defend the interests of the professional Republican apparatus.

They are in the race to destroy MAGA and the American First agenda.

Yet pundits and battered conservatives demand the non-pretending people stop talking about the truth of it and maintain their illusion.

It is all nonsense.

Battered Conservative No More!

Mexico’s President v Ron DeSantis


Armstrong Economics Blog/Politics Re-Posted May 31, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) of Mexico is asking people to vote for a candidate who turns a blind eye to the US-Mexico border crisis. It is out of character for a world leader to dictate to his constituents how to vote in a foreign election, but migrants will be voting in the upcoming election whether we like it or not.

AMLO previously had a cordial relationship with former President Trump. However, he is accusing the GOP of being “very hypocritical” for condemning illegal immigration. “[T]hose who persecute migrants, for those who don’t respect migrants, because a migrant – as it says in the Bible – deserves respect,” Mexico’s president stated. More specifically, he does not want people to vote for Ron DeSantis. DeSantis has promised to deliver on Trump’s promise to build a border wall, stating he will declare a national emergency on his first day in office if elected. “I hope that Florida Hispanics wake up and don’t give him a single vote,” said the Mexican president.

Cartels are bringing fentanyl into America, but AMLO insists they are not using the Mexican border as their Silk Road. “(DeSantis) also came out with the same thing, about fentanyl, thinking that he’d get votes with it,” AMLO declared. “Let him start to see, because fentanyl is arriving via Florida (which does not border on Mexico) and we have to be informing people so that they don’t offend Mexico, so that they learn to respect us.” Wishing for a deadly drug to plague your neighbor does not sound like something we would see in the Bible either.

Former President Vicente Fox famously told reporters, “I’m not going to pay for that f—ing wall!” and it seems AMLO agrees. Florida currently has one of the strictest laws in the US to prevent illegal immigration under S.B. 1718, which many call the “anti-immigration bill.” Yet there is a distinctive difference between legal immigration and breaking federal laws by illegally entering a foreign land.

Byron Donalds and Chip Roy Are Furious About McCarthy Debt Ceiling Deal – House Freedom Caucus Says “NO”!


Posted originally on the CTH on May 30, 2023 | Sundance 

As details begin to emerge, many of the House Republicans are furious at Kevin McCarthy for the deal to lift the debt ceiling he has brokered with Joe Biden.

Suddenly, the prior battle and construct of the House Rules Committee is becoming important.   While Kevin McCarthy may have the 218 votes on the floor of the House to pass the deal, he first has to get it out of the House Rules Committee (HRC).  If three Republicans oppose it in the HRC, McCarthy cannot get it to the floor.  Chip Roy and Ralph Norman are on the HRC and oppose the bill.   Thomas Massie is also on the HRC but appears to be supporting Kevin McCarthy (lol, because muh principles).

Byron Donalds also delivered a strong rebuke of the McCarthy deal, as outlined below:

WASHINGTON DC – […] The powerful House Rules Committee will spend Tuesday afternoon debating and — ultimately working to pass — the bipartisan debt deal, requiring a simple majority of at least seven votes on the panel to come to the floor. But some conservatives, including Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), a committee member, have signaled they may use their power on that panel to block the debt plan from receiving a full House vote.

“I’m going to do what’s in the best interest and this bill is not in the best interest of the country. That is why Democrats are voting for it,” said Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), another conservative who sits on the Rules panel and has suggested he will oppose the bill during the panel’s meeting.

[…] Under the panel’s current makeup, Rules Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) can lose two GOP votes — along with all four Democratic votes — and still advance the bill.

Senior Republicans believe that’s exactly what’s going to happen, according to three people familiar with the discussions. Norman and Roy haven’t explicitly said they will oppose, though Massie is expected to vote in support of the measure going to the floor.

GOP Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) said that he is “confident” that the bill will hit the floor on Wednesday, noting that Rules would be considering amendments. Members submitted more than 55 amendments to the debt deal, most of them from Republicans but some from Democrats as well. (read more)

Rep Dan Bishop: The bill is bad

Porkulous – Ernst Rides with Ron


Posted originally on the CTH on May 30, 2023 | Sundance 

In the annals of Freudian graphic design, this apropos logo is one for the history books.

As one of the qualified Diversity Equity and Inclusion spokepeople for Mitch McConnell’s DeceptiCon group, Joni Ernst has always had a very specific role to play.  Today she announces Ron DeSantis is joining the porkulous parade, an apropos name for a pork-filled United States budgetary process that has replaced regular order since fiscal year 2008.

That is correct folks.  All of these debt ceiling arguments, continuing resolutions, stop-gap spending bills, and generally corrupt UniParty spending outcomes, are the result of congress dropping the budget process after fiscal year 2008.  For the past fifteen years in a row, specifically as part of the Obama ‘fundamental change’ process, the budgetary order in the U.S. government has been eliminated.

[SOURCE]

Everything associated with federal spending is a corrupt and arguably unconstitutional system of base-line budget growth, continuing resolutions, no budget constraints and debt ceiling increases.  The media like to play the budget narrative game without ever mentioning the source of the issue.

Can you think of a more apropos logo to represent the interests of Washington DC and the right-wing of the UniParty agenda?

Quite a remarkable and Freudian optic.

We are in an abusive relationship with our government.

I digress…

Sea Island


Posted originally on the CTH on May 30, 2023 | Sundance 

Sea Island, GA, is a go-to place for those who operate in the background of U.S. politics. Similar in purpose to Jackson Hole, WY.  Sea Island serves as an East Coast meeting place where the globalists strategize and the paid for performance politicians are given instructions.

We do not have details. However, even for the exclusive Sea Island high security protocols, this notice is unusual. 

Given the timing, watch for news that follows.

The Odd Questions Never Asked About the DeSantis Operation – And a Florida Grassroots Activist Explains the Sense in the Sunshine State


Posted originally on the CTH on May 29, 2023 | Sundance 

It always puzzles me when I come across an obscure data point that comes directly from the mouths of people who follow politics, and yet watch them not ask the obvious question.  In this video segment, the first 20 seconds by podcaster Patrick Bet-David are interesting.

The video was recorded on Monday May 22nd, two days before Ron DeSantis officially launched his campaign (May 24).  The meeting being described by Bet-David is on Thursday May 18, approximately four days before the interview, and six days before the campaign launch.

PBD notes he was invited with 10 to 15 other people to “watch Governor Ron DeSantis, work” in the governor’s mansion.  In essence, it seems like someone from the DeSantis campaign was continuing to reach out to ‘influencers’ in advance of the announcement the following week.

QUESTION:  Why do none of these influencers ask why they are being invited to “watch” DeSantis?  It just seems odd.   The podcast segment is a pretty good discussion with Sebastian Gorka, but watch the first 20 seconds.

.

What PBD outlines rather casually is exactly what I drew attention to last year.  The DeSantis operation was clearly working in the latter part of 2021 to seed the landscape for the 2024 election, including the January 6, 2022, influencer meetup.  Yet for some odd reason, none of the participants questioned what the purpose of the unsolicited engagement request was.

I first wrote about this last July and August, it’s all just weird.

If you have followed the management and branding efforts of the team around Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, the protestations today by campaign official and registered foreign agent Christina Pushaw are quite bizarre.

In early January of 2023, the Daily Beast wrote an article [SEE HERE] about how Ms. Pushaw organized an astroturf campaign of support for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, which included the recruitment of several conservative influencers.  The substance of the article is generally well known.

In late 2021, early 2022, Ms. Pushaw invited a group of “influencers” to spend time with Governor DeSantis.

It’s not a debatable event. Factually, the collective group took gleeful pictures of their first visit on January 6, 2022, and continued to post frequent pictures on their social media of events throughout last year.  The group went to the reelection celebration and inauguration of DeSantis in January before the Daily Beast article.

However, for some odd reason, likely more concerned about people realizing the ‘organized‘ nature of the creation, in a bizarre turn of events, Ms. Christina Pushaw was denying she ever organized the assembly.  Then she stated, without any documentary evidence proving she organized it, saying she organized it was a conspiracy theory. [Tweet Link]

If Ms. Pushaw is to be believed, the random group of Florida conservative “influencers” just happened to show up at the Governor’s office on January 6, 2022, without any invitation, organization or coordination on her part.

Even lacking the invitation details, hanging your defense on the absence of a paper trail under these circumstances seems like a very odd position to take.

Why does the DeSantis team fear sunlight on the origin of how this outreach and subsequent meetings took place?  Very odd.

I sincerely doubt this group just randomly showed up at Ron DeSantis’ office, on January 6, 2022, without an invitation or organizing.

The same group then continued meeting throughout the year….

.

Nothing about their recruitment, continued meet-ups and aggressive promotion of Ron DeSantis for the GOP nomination in 2024, would be that interesting or even noteworthy if Ms. Christina Pushaw didn’t paint them all into a box by denying she ever organized their first assembly.

And there’s the rub…  Why was Christina Pushaw denying she first organized them on behalf of the political aspirations of her boss, Ron DeSantis?

The only logical reason to make such an outlandish and transparently false claim, was if original 2022 assembly was intended as seed material to use the “influencers” for another purpose, like a 2024 presidential bid.  This truth would cut through the pretense of the “book tour”, national branding launch and subsequent nonsense.

However, with Ron DeSantis announcing his candidacy for the GOP nomination, suddenly all these background moves look like proactive steps on behalf of the management team.  The January 6, 2022 meeting would then infer the presidential aspirations went as far back as December 2021.

In combination with the $200+ million in Wall Street money assembled by DeSantis, it certainly appears that hiding the long-constructed 2024 plan was the motive for the absurd denial.  To give you an idea of how Florida voters feel about this campaign fraud, watch this twitter video:

That Trump-supporting DeSantis organizer is exactly how the majority of Florida grassroot activists feel.   He’s 100% spot on.

The Decline & Fall of the FBI?


Armstrong Economics Blog/Ethics Re-Posted May 29, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

When James Comey just spoke to Trump, he took notes. When he formally interrogated Hillary, he claimed he never took notes. Those who question if there has already been a coup by the Deep State should rejoice in this testimony before the Home Land Security Council.

Musk Admits He Doesn’t Control Platform Censorship Decision making – Watch the Twitter Financials


Posted originally on the CTH on May 29, 2023 | Sundance 

Everything I have outlined about Twitter is going to surface as accurate over time.  There are two major elements: (1) DHS govt influence, now evidenced in the Twitter Files; and (2) the Twitter financial issues, which explain the recent hiring of Linda Yaccarino, which are soon to surface.

Yesterday, Elon Musk responded to criticism of Twitter censorship, vis-a-vis government demands, with this Tweet: “Please point out where we had an actual choice and we will reverse it.”

The Musk supporters are saying Musk has to comply with government demands if their national laws require it. However, that angle doesn’t take into consideration the choice that Musk/Twitter always have.

If the platform content is not approved by a government, and that govt then demands removal or censorship of that content, Twitter always has two options. One, to comply with the demand and block or restrict the user content (which is the direction they have taken); or two, stop allowing the platform to operate in the country demanding the censorship. It is the latter option that everyone always avoids mentioning.

However, the issue appears to be bigger and goes to the heart of the second aspect of Twitter we have noted.

Twitter is not viable as a business model, under the construct of its creation. Twitter operates on Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud, and Google Cloud.

Both big tech monopoly systems are extremely expensive and as a result Musk is stuck in contracts with AWS and Google that are major financial drains. Twitter does not operate any server infrastructure; the only asset that Twitter has on the tech engineering side is the software to operate the platform.

Absent any hardware infrastructure, Musk is vulnerable to the excessive costs of AWS & Google.

Keep in mind that all cloud-based systems are arguably U.S. government subsidized and end in server farms built and owned by the U.S. govt. Send something to a cloud-based system, or operate your tech through a cloud-based system, and you are essentially operating on govt hardware.

[This is the background #2 issue to Jack’s MAgic Coffee Shop.]

As you can see from this article in March 2023 [MUST READ], Musk was behind in his payments to Jeff Bezos (Amazon, AWS) but up to date on his payments to Google.

In essence, even as the article admits, Elon Musk is making payment decisions based on determinations of how best avoid advertising revenue interruptions.  Keep this in mind.

As you can see in the article, Musk is on the hook for contracts with AWS through 2025.  As written, “AWS is not willing to renegotiate the five-and-a-half year contract it signed with Twitter in 2020.”  That is before Musk took ownership. “That contract required Twitter to pay $510m over that period. It was signed when Twitter was expecting to move its main timeline over to AWS, but that never occurred (instead it hosts Twitter Spaces and other services), meaning that Twitter is not fully making use of the contract.”  So, Jeff Bezos (AWS) has a hook into Musk for roughly $100 million a year.

Additionally, “Twitter uses Google Cloud to a greater degree, with its own five-year contract worth $1bn. While Twitter is also looking to reduce its Google Cloud costs.”  That puts Musk on the hook for $200 million a year to Google, and Google controls the vast majority of advertising revenue on the web.

Each system, AWS and Google, represents a threat vector for Twitter (Musk), insofar as Twitter cannot operate without the cloud services each provider contributes to the data processing.

Absent his own data processing systems, Musk is vulnerable to the AWS/Google demands. $300,000,000/yr just for them.   Again, keep this in mind.

This is all part of the financial section I have written about extensively, and it has an impact on the content.

With this information as the overlay, how much freedom does Musk actually have with the platform when he is dependent on Google and Amazon to operate?  The same Google who controls the majority of his revenue (advertising) controls his data processing.  See the problem?

On content, look at what AWS did to Parler as an example of what they could do to Twitter if Musk is not compliant.  On revenue, consider how Google already has influence over the monetization of any platform on the internet; combined with terms and conditions for content control they can exert through their revenue power.

♦ Amazon (AWS, CIA, U.S. Govt) then becomes the primary control lever for rules and guidelines on content, the government compliance stuff.  How does it surface?  Musk saying, he must censor Turkish political opposition parties.

♦ Google then becomes the primary control lever for Twitter revenue.  How does that surface?  Musk hiring Linda Yaccarino as CEO of Twitter.

Can you see it now?

Do the irreconcilables start to reconcile?

Does Elon Musk saying, “Please point out where we had an actual choice and we will reverse it,” start to make sense now?

Given that Musk is on the hook for $300 million/yr, and that’s just one expense, I suspect Musk is closer to bankruptcy with Twitter than most people think.

The operating costs are too extreme for the business model.  They always were; however, I suspect the USG was indirectly subsidizing Twitter through data processing when Jack Dorsey had ownership.

The subsidy would be part of the private-public partnership, where the USG was benefitting from their ability to control public information and public opinion.

With the USG control via DHS and FBI now in sunlight (Twitter Files), the financial side has always been the second -and hidden- big picture element around Jack’s Magic Coffee Shop.

Bottom line, Musk has to make decisions through one prism, THE ECONOMICS.  Musk’s decision-making, pro freedom or not, is constrained by this financial dependency. Hence, a lot of the platform censorship elements remain (including some personnel) and now the outreach to appoint Google/WEF approved Linda Yaccarino in an effort to enhance the revenue.

As the end dates of the contract terms with AWS and Google start to come closer, decisions will have to be made if Musk wants a sustainable platform.  Either he builds out new hardware (extremely costly and likely cost prohibitive) or he looks for an existing platform that he might be able to merge with and operate.

If you are a platform owner of reasonable scale, and you control your own servers and data-processing, watch out for David Sacks (repping for Elon) to tap you on the shoulder.  Twitter is in a bind, or Musk needs to sink buckets of money he doesn’t have into building something.  The financial viability is now the primary prism, not principles of free speech.

On the content side Elon Musk needs content providers, which explains the thirst for Tucker Carlson and even the DeSantis launch to gain some operational impact.  That’s likely where his key tech advisor David Sacks again comes into play.  On the type of content, that’s where Linda Jaccarino steps in as the Google/WEF bridge to approved content revenue.

[Support CTH Research Here]

Sunday Talks, Kevin McCarthy Makes His Case for the Debt Ceiling Bill


Posted originally on the CTH house in May 28, 2023 | Sundance 

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy appears on Fox News Sunday to defend his deal with Joe Biden for a debt ceiling increase.

In the past 24 hours many fiscal conservatives have criticized McCarthy for the terms of the agreement. In this interview, McCarthy walks through the details of the terms as he constructed them and pushes back against some of the criticism.  WATCH:

As soon as the bill is in written form, we will be able to make a better determination.  At this moment this is all hearsay based on what people think the legislation says.