Big Picture Debrief – We Are in an Abusive Relationship, Accepting Isolation


Posted originally on the CTH on December 14, 2023 | Sundance 

I initially considered a password protect post for this, but the issue is important enough that messaging a larger audience carries a greater value.

Someone noted yesterday that after my research trip my tone changed. Perhaps becoming a little more deliberate, perhaps becoming a little more stern. It is an accurate sense, and there is a very good reason for this. I will explain.

I have noted several times in the past few years that the nature of our relationship with government seems to have shifted. Specifically, We The People now appear to be in an abusive relationship with government. In all abusive relationships there is a common set of behaviors; the DC control system is following a familiar pattern. My recent research trips helped me to understand exactly how severe and deep this shift has become.

Certain abusers distort reality in the mind of their victims through gaslighting. Essentially manipulative and strategic lying, to make the abused think something, perhaps even their reality, is completely different. Our government institutions and those who control the information flow into media have been doing exactly that. The examples are numerous, but the deliberateness began to take a severe tone with the COVID-19 fiats.

In my opinion, it was our willingness to buy into the false frameworks surrounding the COVID-19 hysteria, that really opened the eyes of possibility in the mind of powerful people within our government. We accepted too much; we allowed too much; we willingly accepted an almost totalitarian state in response.

The rules themselves were ridiculous.

The mask nonsense, the social distancing, business closures, lockdowns, “essential vs nonessential jobs”, roped off products in certain areas of stores as if the virus couldn’t travel or the types of purchases determined risk; people were arrested on paddleboards in the ocean by themselves, closed parks outside and the police watching; standing in a restaurant was dangerous, but sitting at a table was not; etc. etc.

All of it was madness, yet we complied.

It was almost like a test, to see how much the control of information could influence behavior – and bad actors within our government were paying attention to how easy it was to manipulate action, diminish liberty and control the behavior of free people.

Granted, in other countries it was worse; yet still, in the USA where our DNA is forged in the fire of being suspicious of government, three-quarters of the population took an untested experimental, gene modifying “vaccine.” In hindsight, it is stunning to consider.

Fast forward to my recent research trip(s).  What I discovered outside the USA, is that we are being lied to.

The Russian sanctions are not sanctioning Russia or impeding their economic growth – not even close. Instead, the sanctions have built walls around the USA financial system, not to keep Russians out – but to keep Americans locked in. I have given details about this previously, and I will not repeat here.

Then, if you take the expanding surveillance state and the expansion of DHS authority under the guise of “national security,” adding in the extreme control system now in place through the public-private partnership with social media, you really begin to see the architecture of a massive information control system. Making the reality all the bleaker, no voice in Washington DC is genuinely pushing back and publicly calling out the surveillance state.

Our elected representatives are not representing our interests; instead, they are codependent enablers, willfully blind to the overall system of expanded government control. The abuser is stronger, the victim is weaker (less free), and every element is now in place to block the victim, us, from realizing the scale of their abuse.

Making the issue more alarming, is the seemingly unstoppable censorship and control enterprise that is blocking people from networking, communicating and sharing their current status. This was the primary reason I began the protected “Slowly at First” (SAF) discussion threads. So people could just talk about the reality in their region, and we could all compare notes.

Something very dark is assembling deep inside our nation, and yet we are seemingly distracted from noticing it. The reality of motive behind the U.S. sanctions against Russia, as identified by my fact-finding mission that was not easy to accomplish, really made me reconsider the nature of the control around us.

What I realize now, is that agencies within our federal government are building a matrix of walls to lock us into a severely controlled system.  We are being isolated and we do not see it.

We can debate (and I have) while hiding behind the benefits of “tactical civics” all day long. But what we are really debating and accepting is the size of our cell or cell block.  Yes, locally you can and should fight for liberty – locally.  However, do not blind yourself to the reality of the outcome; in essence, we are creating 15-minute cities.  Is that really freedom?

Within the federal system under construct, information is being controlled. The online systems of sharing contrary information are being changed, modified and ultimately blocked. Our expenditures and costs of living are being used as weapons for control via monetary policy. Our systems of independent ownership and self-determination are being dismantled. Our ability to engage in commerce is being increasingly subject to approvals.  Some of those approvals are self-generated. Our finance system is being changed to a more controlling central bank, and perhaps a digital currency.

We The People are being isolated, just like a victim of toxic abuse would be isolated. There are walls and barriers being built all around us, even around our nation, and if the government were to take full control over digital communication and internet services (the path we are on), it’s unlikely we would even know the scale of our captivity.

So yeah, my tone is changing.

After my visit to Eastern Europe and the currently forbidden region, both of them, I now see the limits on freedom that exist here at home. Each of the datapoints, each of the stories, articles, research reviews and detailed documented instances of bad behavior from our federal government now takes on a different context.

As I detailed every moment and filled our research library with citation after citation over the past dozen years, I knew the trajectory was bad. I knew it was really bad – really bad. Yet, I had no idea how severe and bad the abuse had become until I stood in the forbidden world and realized everything I was told about it, was a lie.

Remember, I wasn’t there at the invitation of anyone. I wasn’t there with a handler, minder or escort. No one from the forbidden world even knew I was there. I was there as a free and independent person, a sovereign citizen who hacked his way through the jungle with a rusty machete to get there.

When I left the forbidden world, came back through eastern Europe through Istanbul and ultimately back into the west, I spent hours in careful contemplation trying to reconcile the motive for the false information and yet simultaneously put a mental scale together to evaluate the scope of the U.S. propaganda effort.

The only thing that makes any of it make sense, is to accept the datapoints that clearly show the walls being built around us – to isolate us.

I never really understood how people could accept the formation of communism around them.

Now I do.

I see it happening, and that is making me very angry.

I have also spent hours on my knees, deliberately asking our loving God – the one source of purest truth – to guide and help me.

I am shouting now.  We must stop being codependent enablers to our own isolation.

The Truth About the S&L Crisis


Posted originally on Dec 14, 2023 By Martin Armstrong 

Keating Charles SL
Keating Five SL 1991

Some have asked if there wasn’t also a lot of fraud behind the collapse of S&Ls. Many allegations were that they squandered money buying expensive art, etc. They did not tell the public that the art more than doubled in value. Take the prosecution of the poster boy Charles Keating (1923– 2014). A Federal judge overturned the California state court conviction of Keating, ruling that jury instructions by the judge in the state court, Lance A. Ito, had been flawed.

The prosecution of Keating centered on the outrageous claim that he issued bonds, knowing that he would ultimately fail. NEVER in my decades of dealing with people and institutions have I ever encountered someone with legitimate company-issued bonds, knowing that would be an S&L crisis years later. Keating’s prosecution was simply legal persecution so that the government could blame the private sector, not Congress, which changed all regulations.

There was the Keating Five, who were US Senators accused of corruption in 1989 for intervening in Keating’s case. This was spun into a major political scandal involving Senator Alan Cranston (Democrat of California), Senator Dennis DeConcini (Democrat of Arizona), Senator John Glenn (Democrat of Ohio), Senator John McCain (Republican of Arizona), and Senator Donald W. Riegle, Jr. (Democrat of Michigan). This was an investigation of Keating’s Lincoln Savings and Loan Association by the Federal Home Loan Bank Board (FHLBB), which then backed off taking action against Lincoln.

Eventually, the fraud that Keating was charged with in his Lincoln Savings and Loan collapse of 1989 cost the government $3.4 billion. The bondholders amounted to 23,000, and the government claimed they were defrauded because Keating knew he would eventually fail. The substantial political contributions Keating had made to each of the senators, totaling $1.3 million, attracted considerable public and media attention at the time.

Finally, after a very lengthy investigation, the Senate Ethics Committee determined in 1991 that Cranston, DeConcini, and Riegle had all improperly interfered with the FHLBB’s investigation of Lincoln Savings. Cranston received a formal reprimand. Senators John Glenn and John McCain were cleared of having acted improperly. Nonetheless, they were criticized for having exercised “poor judgment,” whereas anyone else would have been charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice.

All five senators eventually completed their terms of office. Both John Glenn and John McCain ran for re-election and won. McCain later even ran for President, but thank God he lost.

Anyone who looks closely at the conviction of Keating is confronted with the plain fact that this was a political prosecution to provide the cover for Congress in this attempt to shift all the blame to the private sector portraying the owners of these S&Ls as greedy rich people seeking to make money.

FBI Investigator of Trump-Russia Collusion Sentenced to 4 Years in Prison for Colluding with Russia


Posted originally on the CTH on December 14, 2023 | Sundance

The irony and hypocrisy is thick.  Charles McGonigal was an FBI counterintelligence official in charge of the FBI New York field office. McGonigal was tasked with investigating Russian collusion and Russian sanction violations.

McGonigal was sentenced to four-years in federal prison today for colluding with a Russian (Oleg Deripaska) to avoid sanctions.

As noted by Politico, “McGonigal, who lives in New York, was separately charged in federal court in Washington, D.C., with concealing at least $225,000 in cash he allegedly received from a former Albanian intelligence official while working for the FBI. He faces sentencing in that case on Feb. 16.

NEW YORK — A former top FBI counterintelligence official was ordered Thursday to spend over four years in prison for violating sanctions on Russia by going to work for a Russian oligarch seeking dirt on a wealthy rival after he finished his government career.

Charles McGonigal was sentenced to four years and two months in prison in Manhattan federal court by Judge Jennifer H. Rearden, who said McGonigal harmed national security by repeatedly flouting sanctions meant to put economic pressure on Russia to get results without military force. He was also fined $40,000. (read more)

The Senate Passes 2024 NDAA Bill 87-13 Which Includes Four Month FISA Extension and $300 Million for Ukraine


Posted originally on the CTH on December 13, 2023 | Sundance

As expected, the Senate dropped all the woke restrictions from the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and added $300 million for Ukraine along with a four-month extension of the FISA 702 authority until April 19, 2024.

The vote roll for this bill is here.  With the final vote at 87-13.

[SOURCE]

Only six republicans voted against the $886 billion dollar bill.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Senate backed a defense policy bill authorizing a record $886 billion in annual military spending with strong support from both Democrats and Republicans on Wednesday, sidestepping partisan divides over social issues that had threatened what is seen as a must-pass bill.

Separate from the appropriations bills that set government spending levels, the National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, authorizes everything from pay raises for the troops – this year’s will be 5.2% – to purchases of ships, ammunition and aircraft as well as policies such as measures to help Ukraine and pushback against China in the Indo-Pacific.

This year’s bill is nearly 3,100 pages long, authorizing a record $886 billion, up 3% from last year.

The NDAA “will ensure America can hold the line against Russia, stand firm against the Chinese Communist Party, and ensures that America’s military remains state-of-the-art at all times all around the world,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said before the vote.

But the final version of the NDAA left out provisions addressing divisive social issues, such as access to abortion and treatment of transgender service members, that had been included in the version passed by the House over the objections of Democrats, threatening to derail the legislation.

The 100-member Senate backed the NDAA by 87 to 13. The House is expected to pass it as soon as later this week, sending it to the White House where President Joe Biden is expected to sign it into law.

The fiscal 2024 NDAA also includes a four-month extension of a disputed domestic surveillance authority, giving lawmakers more time to either reform or keep the program, known as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

The Senate defeated an attempt to remove the FISA extension from the NDAA on Wednesday before voting to pass the bill. (read more)

Meanwhile over in the House of Representatives, Speaker Mike Johnson entertained prior House Speaker Paul Ryan for lunch. (link)

Pos

Useless Bureaucracy Example – Golden Gate Bridge Nets


Posted originally on Dec 13, 2023 By Martin Armstrong 

California Golden Gate

Government mismanagement comes at a high cost. We saw Argentina’s new president slash half of the useless federal administrations this week on his first day in office.  Governments are incompetent to run even a gumball machine. These agencies come into the fold, create useless regulations, dish out contracts to their connections, and nothing gets done. The current construction on the Golden Gate Bridge is a great example of government incompetence.

A suicide safety net stretching the entire length of the Golden Gate Bridge is nearing completion. The stainless steel mesh net spans across both sides of the 1.6 mile-long bridge. Nearly 2,000 people have taken their lives by jumping from the bridge since it was first constructed in 1937, and officials approved the construction of safety nets in 2014 and allocated a budget of $76 million. Due to the bureaucratic red tape, construction on the project did not begin until 2018 and they are still working on fixing the bridge five years later.

Spokespeople for the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District, announced in March that only 5% of the mesh had been installed. Officials suddenly changed the budget from $76 million to $206.7 million. Contractors and bridge officials are now in a heated legal battle as the new price tag is expected to cost over $400 million. Contactors insist the local government hid the deteriorating condition of the bridge which led to work delays.

The Golden Gate Bridge in its entirety cost $35 million to build in 1937, which would be well over $700 million in 2023. So now the netting for the bridge is nearly as expensive as the bridge itself. The trouble here is that the original budget was less than a quarter of what they will end up spending. This happens with EVERY project the government sets out to complete. Budgets are merely a suggestion to governments because they know they need not adhere to them or pass audits.

Categories:GOV’T INCOMPETENC

DOJ Protecting President Biden – Equal Protection of the Law?


Posted originally on Dec 11, 2023 By Martin Armstrong 

Biden son Hunter 1

COMMENT: Marty: You are very good at law. It looks to me that the DOJ is protecting Biden. When you look at the nine-count tax fraud indictment against Hunter, there is no mention of unpaid taxes from his million-dollar salary at Burisma, a Ukrainian gas company. Even the whistleblower emails suggested that Hunter got that deal with no experience because of a helping hand from then-Vice President Biden in what is influence peddling. While Hunter faces up to 17 years in prison for evading $1.4 million in taxes because of all the counts, we all know that will never happen. Biden or any Democrat in that office would pardon Hunter in a split-second.

The Indictment boldly states: “Between 2016 and October 15, 2020, the Defendant​ spent this money on drugs, escorts and girlfriends, luxury hotels and​ rental properties, exotic cars, clothing, and other items of a​ personal nature, in short, everything but his taxes.” However, omitting anything about Burisma and Ukraine altogether is a cover-up.

REPLY: I am VERY familiar with Ukraine from the inside out. It is the MOST corrupt country on the planet. Biden has supported their war since it was American that began the civil war in 2014, sending countless amounts of money over there, which is unaccountable. In part, it is a payoff. Here you had Biden telling Ukraine not to ask for any more money because it might make Trump suspicious, and he might then investigate.

Biden has been lying about the Ukraine connection from the outset. Here we are sending billions to Ukraine, and the DOJ refuses to investigate that perhaps this has been bribing Ukraine not to spill the beans.

Not only has Biden been sending billions to support the civil war, but he is paying the salaries and the pensions of the government workers of Ukraine. WHY? Then instruct Zelensky there can be no peace agreement with Russia and keep throwing Ukrainians onto the frontlines to be killed.

This was the smoking gun. Biden demanded the firing of the prosecutor investigating the very company Burisma that hired his son with no experience. For the DOJ to omit all transactions with Ukraine tells us that they are protecting Biden at all costs while desperately trying to charge Trump for anything they can find.

Rule of Law Crushed

The Rule of Law no longer means anything. They prosecute what they want, claiming discretion, and they claim complete discretion. What Lord Coke feared is now overwhelmingly the standard exercise of law in this country – legal persecution. Hunter’s indictment is just a dog & pony show omitting Ukraine because it would open a whole new can or worms and justify impeaching Biden.

Coke discretion

We have the Stupidest People in Government in History


Posted originally on Dec 11, 2023 By Martin Armstrong 

2023_12_10_09_31_22_Video_Heart_issues_skyrocketing_in_military_US_Navy_medic_says

The Biden Administration’s stupidity mandating that those in the military submit to this worthless experiment MRNA vaccine or be dishonorably discharged has resulted in not just a shortage of pilots. Still, there has been a dramatic increase in heart problems among those who surrendered their human rights and took the vaccine. Heart problems have skyrocketed, and to add to this insanity, now this braindead government is offering up to $600,000 in bonuses to keep pilots. You can’t make up this stuff.  My own lawyer, who took the shot so he could travel, ended up with the blood clots and now cannot fly. Pfizer should be shut down, and the head should be in prison for treason and manslaughter, but our wonderful “representatives” only represent themselves and will NEVER admit they passed such decrees on the order of Schwab’s WEF. They have indeed fulfilled our model and its forecast for the collapse of “representative” forms of governments post-2032.

2023_12_10_09_27_17_Air_Force_again_dangles_600_000_in_bonuses_to_keep_pilots_in_uniform

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


Posted originally on Dec 10, 2023 By Martin Armstrong  

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


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

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

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

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


Posted originally on the CTH December 9, 2023 | Sundance

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

FUBAR