Senate Blocks Foreign Border Spending Package


Posted originally on Dec 8, 2023 By Martin Armstrong 

BlankCheck

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

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

Invasion is Here

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

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

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


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

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

First the report of the FISA-702 extension.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[OIG Testimony HERE]

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

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

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

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

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

Why April 2024?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Someone might want to talk to Donald Trump about this.

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


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

New York to Provide Homeless Migrants Voter Registration Forms


Posted originally on Dec 6, 2023 By Martin Armstrong 

Ballot Voter Fraud

The deliberate invasion of America was permitted by the same people who want to give illegals the opportunity to vote. Nonprofit shelters will be required to provide non-citizens with paperwork to register to vote in upcoming elections, and New York has stipulated that the paperwork must be available in Spanish as well as Chinese.

Staten Island Rep. Nicole Malliotakis claims that her team discovered that migrants were being encouraged to vote after requesting information through the Freedom of Information law. The Department of Social Services denies her claims against the organization Homes for the Homeless. “These allegations are false and baseless. DHS is legally required to include language around voter registration in shelter contracts and this guidance applies only to eligible clients who are citizens, and would clearly not apply to asylum seekers in shelter,” a spokesperson said. Malliotakis and her team state that they firmly believe the city “intends to register non-citizens to vote” as there is an entire section of the contract with Homes for the Homeless that details voter registration.

Blue cities have been attempting to allow illegals to vote. In January 2022, NYC Mayor Eric Adams celebrated a new piece of legislation that would have permitted 800,000 “Dreamers” to register to vote. The measure was later found to be unconstitutional, but rest assured that the Dems will continue to fight for migrants to have the ability to vote and influence foreign elections. State election laws clearly say, “no person shall be qualified to register for and vote at any election unless he is a citizen of the United States.” Permitting illegals to vote is a direct violation of the Constitution that dictates “every citizen shall be entitled to vote at every election.” I could not enter China and vote in their election as that would be preposterous. Yet countless politicians across the West believe that they should have access to a new demographic of voters.

It is already happening in places like Ireland, where politicians pushed for non-citizen voting in 2019. “Immigration” to Ireland is at a 16-year high as the nation added over 100,000 new people this year alone. Only 30 to 50% of migrants in Ireland have registered, and various political agencies have launched multi-lingual campaign ads to increase migrant voter registration. Millions of migrants have infiltrated Western nations this year. The leverage they could have at the voting booth is of concern.

Sunday Talks – Chris Christie Does Baghdad Bob Impressions on Face The Nation


Posted originally on the CTH on December 3, 2023 | Sundance 

This is kind of awesome in a pathetic and funny way.  Worse still, every time I write about him you guys make me hungry for donuts.  However, that said, and because laughing is a key ingredient to living our best life, if you can get past the Laura Ingraham lip treatment aspect, Chris Christie sounds desperate.

Appearing on Face the Nation, a newly lip enhanced Christie swears he still has a chance. WATCH:

Look, let’s be honest.  If the gastric band didn’t work, there’s only so much Sununu and the cosmetics can do.  The demons inside are beginning to manifest.

[Transcript] – MARGARET BRENNAN: We go now to the former Governor of New Jersey and 2024 Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie, good to have you back on the program. We know, sir, the RNC is supposed to announce tomorrow who will be on that December 6 debate stage. Has the RNC told you you’ve qualified to be there and if you haven’t, will you drop out?

2024 GOP PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE CHRIS CHRISTIE: I don’t think they’ve told anybody yet who all of us are going to be on the stage, but I’m confident, Margaret, that I will be there and that we have all the qualifications necessary to get there.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Because, you told CNN over Thanksgiving, you will stay in the race through the Convention, which would put you into the summer months. Does the field need to consolidate to beat Donald Trump, which you say is one of your prime motivations in running.

CHRISTIE: Look, this field has already consolidated more than any non-incumbent field in this century Margaret. Back this time, eight years ago, we had 13 candidates still in the race. At this time back, you know, in 2011, we had eight candidates in the race. At this time back in 2007, we had nine candidates in the race and so this field is consolidated significantly, and I suspect it will consolidate more after folks vote in Iowa and New Hampshire.

MARGARET BRENNAN: But, isn’t it a little bit different that you have the 45th President of the United states running, a known entity who has this automatic platform. It’s just a different model. It’s a different case.

CHRISTIE: Yeah, the other thing that makes it different, Margaret, is he’s got 91 counts of indictment against him. The day before Super Tuesday, he’s going to start a criminal trial, where his former chief of staff and one of the founders of the Freedom Caucus is going to testify that he committed crimes on his watch and was directed to commit crimes by Donald Trump. There’s a lot of things different about this and that’s why anybody tried to predict this is just shooting in the dark.

MARGARET BRENNAN: But why don’t- why hasn’t that turned off the GOP electorate? When you look at CBS polling, and others, he is leading, as you know. And then I mean, you’ve made clear when some of the other competitors are using really harsh rhetoric that you think that should disqualify them. Why hasn’t that extreme rhetoric turned the GOP off of these other candidates either?

CHRIS CHRISTIE: Well, look, I- first off, I don’t think you know exactly what’s going to happen at all until people vote. Look, if we listen to all the polling, Margaret, Hillary Clinton would be in her second term. So I don’t believe that polling is nearly as reliable as it used to be and I don’t believe that people tell the truth to pollsters. And so at the end of the day, everybody who’s trying to make these decisions now is just wrong. Let’s remember something, in this- in the Republican primary in ’07, do you know who was winning at this time in ’07? Mitt Romney. You know who was winning at this time in ’11? Newt Gingrich. And winning this time and ’15 was Ben Carson. I don’t remember any of those presidencies, Margaret. So you know, my view, we can’t worry about that kind of stuff. What we need to worry about is the direction this country is going in, and most people don’t agree with it. And if you don’t agree with the direction of the country, why would you vote for either Trump or Biden, who have put us in this direction?

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, I have a lot more to talk to you about including on the issues and the things that we know from our own polling voters want to hear from candidates like you. So I’m going to ask you to stick with us because I do have to take a commercial break and we’ll have more questions on the other side of it.

[COMMERCIAL BREAK]

MARGARET BRENNAN: Welcome back to Face The Nation. We have more now from former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, candidate for the Republican nomination. Sir, I want to pick up where we left off. You know, we hear from political pundits all the time, oh, Americans just don’t care about national security when it comes to how they vote, but you are the only candidate who has gone to both Israel and Ukraine during this campaign, at least only one still standing. Why was it important for you to go?

CHRISTIE: So, I think if you want to be President of the United States, you have to see these things for yourself. You can’t count on reports from pundits or the press, or from other folks in public life. You’ve got to see it for yourself and I will tell you, when I went to Israel, Margaret, just a couple of weeks ago, the inhumanity I saw that Hamas rained upon the Jewish people in Israel, I went into one home of a 24-year-old couple recently married, both were murdered in their small three-room home. And there were 140 bullet holes in the walls to kill two people, Margaret, it’s not just the inhumanity that Hamas executes, it’s the joy they take in that inhumanity. And that’s why Israel has to do what they need to do to eliminate that military threat. And I think I would not have completely understood it, and couldn’t be an effective president if I didn’t see it for myself.

MARGARET BRENNAN: We’ll see if some of the other candidates go, one of the things that I also want to pick up on that we see voters responding to thus far is abortion. You know, it’s been a galvanizing issue in favor of Democrats. We’ve seen that a few times now. Are you concerned that in a head-to-head that that will help to buoy the President himself as he runs for reelection? And how does a Republican candidate like yourself, take the issue to the national stage when the message for decades has been it’s a state issue?

CHRISTIE: Look, Margaret, I’ve been consistent on this. I believe the conservative smart approach is to let the states make these decisions and that’s what I think they should do. And that’s why I said, I wouldn’t sign a six-week national abortion ban as Governor DeSantis and now just recently in Iowa, Governor Haley has said she would sign a six week ban. I don’t think you can say one thing in one place and something else in another, you need to be consistent. For 50 years, Republicans have argued that the Supreme Court took this decision away from the people. I think this belongs in the hands of the people of each individual state, we see a great democratic, small d, event going on right now across the country, in places like Michigan and Kansas, in Ohio, where people are voting, but let’s let the American people vote in their individual states, and decide what they want this policy to be.

MARGARET BRENNAN: So better for the party not to have a national policy, essentially, is what you’re saying.

CHRISTIE: I believe that’s- I believe that’s true. I believe that’s what the Constitution guides us to do. And that’s where we should stay and that’s where I’ve been. And I’m concerned, quite frankly, Margaret, that, you know, candidates in this race have been all over the block on this. And it’s not right, people deserve to have a straight answer from you and that’s my straight answer.

MARGARET BRENNAN: So, also, giving a fairly straight assessment is Liz Cheney, the former Congresswoman who just did an interview with my colleague, John Dickerson, and told him, ‘the United States is sleepwalking into a dictatorship.’ Bob Kagan, writer in the New York- in the Washington Post had an op ed saying, ‘after Super Tuesday in March, Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee and what happens there will be a swift and dramatic shift in the political power dynamic in his favor,’ saying all Republican critics, perhaps even yourself will fall silent out of self preservation. Is that how you see your party behaving after March?

CHRISTIE: Look, I can’t speak for everyone in my party, I can only speak for myself, Margaret. And anybody who knows me knows I will not be silent. I haven’t been silent since the day I got into this race. And in fact, unlike others, you know, Nikki Haley says he was the right president for the right time and that for some reason, you know, drama and chaos seem to follow him. The reason is that he acts like someone who doesn’t care about our democracy acts like someone who wants to be a dictator. He acts like someone who doesn’t care for the Constitution. In fact, he’s even said himself he’d be willing to suspend the Constitution if an election wasn’t going in his direction. Margaret, I was the only one on that stage going back to August, when I- when we were asked would you support someone who, you know, was convicted of a felony for President of the United States? Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis, Vivek Ramaswamy, they all raised their hands. I did not and I think I’ve made it very very clear how I feel about this and if folks want to return to some decency and civility why would you ever vote for Donald Trump.

MARGARET BRENNAN: All right, Chris Christie, we’ll watch. Thanks for your time, we’ll be right back.

40 Day Countdown


Posted originally on the CTH on December 3, 2023 | Sundance

The Iowa caucuses are January 15, 2024, and represent the first opportunity for the GOP nomination contest to highlight candidate support.

Initially, I was going to wait to post this information later, mid-December.  However, based on conversation earlier today, and my pledge to be publicly consistent and transparent, here’s an advance review of my expectations.

(#1) The full-throated DOJ, Jack Smith, Georgia and New York legal cases will likely trigger, like scud missiles in a blitz attack against Donald Trump, around 10 days prior to the Iowa caucuses.  I’m not sure what the granular details of the Lawfare assault will look like; however, the timing will certainly be in/around these dates.  The deepest part of the DC system that is in full alignment against Trump will be looking at this time frame as the first opportunity to hit Trump hard.  The main battery comes after the 2024 RNC convention (Wisconsin, thanks Ronna).

(#2) Simultaneous to this, keep in mind the Sea Island group have spent hundreds of millions on an organizational process for Ron DeSantis, that is now contingent upon an Iowa victory.  Just like the timing of the Mar-a-Lago raid, there will likely be some background coordination between the administrative state in DC and the organizational assemblies of DeSantis and Nikki Haley. Again, this is the first opportunity for the ‘stop Trump’ apparatus to create an inflection point.  If President Trump crushes the Iowa caucuses, he will destroy the GOPe narrative.

(#3) This also creates the context timeline for us to consider an urgency by the deepest part of the DC control apparatus to influence public opinion.  As a result, and given the recent remarks by platform operator Elon Musk, we may also see something happening with Twitter that blocks the ability of the assembled masses to communicate about whatever happens in #1.  To a significant extent, MAGA has assembled discussion into a large Twitter stadium per se’.  If the people controlling U.S. political outcomes want to hit hard, they will need a significant and timed disruption in the system of public communication.  Scattering that stadium would be very effective.

The DHS artificial intelligence (AI) rollout into the ¹overall communication system, specifically social media, can also be considered as part of a disruption effort to influence the 2024 election.  The national security labeling, definitions that establish censorship, removal and content control, will almost certainly flow through the pre-existing Public-Private partnerships.  I would not be surprised to see the timing of that launch, in a full scale, somewhat in this same calendar period.

We all know the 2024 election is for all the marbles, so we just await the predictable incoming fire.

Smart wolverines will have preestablished iron dome defenses at the ready.

¹[GO DEEP] DHS’ AI task force is coordinating with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency on how the department can partner with critical infrastructure organizations “on safeguarding their uses of AI and strengthening their cybersecurity practices writ large to defend against evolving threats.”

RESOURCES:

Using AI for Content Moderation

Facebook / META / Tech joining with DHS

Zoom will allow Content Scraping by AI 

AI going into The Cloud

U.S. Govt Going into The Cloud With AI

Pentagon activates 175 Million IP’s

Big Names to Attend Political AI Forum

DoD to use AI to monitor U.S. Internet for Disinformation

DHS Announces Guidelines for Using AI to monitor Americans.

DHS Announces “Expert Group”

Chris Christie Fails to Qualify for Maine Primary Ballot


Posted originally on the CTH on December 3, 2023 | Sundance 

In the state of Maine, the deadline for candidates for president to turn in a sufficient number of signatures to be on the March 5, 2024 Primary Election ballot was 5 p.m. on Friday.  The candidates needed 2,000 valid voter signatures to appear on the ballot.  According to the Secretary of State, candidate Chris Christie did not make the cut.

[Source Link]

Dec. 2 (UPI) — Former New Jersey governor and Republican presidential hopeful Chris Christie will not be on the Maine primary election ballot after failing to obtain the required number of in-state petition signatures.

In order to be on the ballot for Maine’s March 5, 2024, primary election, candidates must have 2,000 in-state signatures, but state officials said Saturday he didn’t make the cut.

“The deadline for candidates for president to turn in a sufficient number of signatures to be on the March 5, 2024, primary election ballot was 5 p.m. today,” Maine’s Secretary of State said in a press release.

Christie only received 844 signatures, Maine Director of Elections Heidi Peckham told CBS News. (link

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Who wins?  The surveillance state…

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

Brilliant!

Welcome to the 2024 election season.

105 House Republicans Voted with Democrats to Expel Representative George Santos, Final Vote 311-114


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

Apparently 105 Republican members of Congress have decided that “due process” is no longer needed for anyone who stands accused.  Regardless of how you feel about New York Representative George Santos, the expulsion from Congress, without any judicial or court hearing, is a remarkable development.

The final vote was 311 for, with 114 against expulsion. Reps. Jonathan Jackson (D-Ill.) and Al Green (D-Texas) voted “present,” and Reps. Bobby Scott (D-Va.) and Nikema Williams (D-Ga.) voted against the measure.

Santos becomes the first Republican ever expelled from Congress and only the sixth member in history to suffer such a fate.

A special election will be held in New York CD-03 to replace him.  The Republican House majority now sinks to four seats if all members are present.

Democrats rally around their accused with political ferocity.  However, the jellyfish Republicans can never elevate to see the bigger picture.  The big winner in this outcome are House Democrats who can now strategically use the small majority to defeat Republican legislation.

WASHINGTON DC – Top GOP lawmakers have a new problem on their hands: Rank and file Republicans frustrated with their leaders’ late-game opposition to expelling George Santos.

The New York Republican’s intra-party critics finally succeeded Friday in their push to expel their indicted colleague. They prevailed despite the opposition of all four top House Republican leaders, who lined up in the 24 hours before his ejection to say they would support keeping Santos in office.

Republican leaders also didn’t whip votes against Santos, arguing that his expulsion was a vote of conscience. In the end, their members split almost evenly — 105 voted to bounce him and 112 voted not to. But some who voted to expel took issue with their leaders’ decision to come out as opponents of expulsion at the last minute, warning that it risked looking like an attempt to tip the scales for Santos.

Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.) said he was “very disappointed” with how GOP leaders handled the vote.

“Too many people, including leadership, were using excuses that simply cannot be successfully argued with everyday Americans,” Womack said in an interview. “Had leadership had its way, we would have reset the bar on standards of conduct at a level that we would live to regret.”

Womack, a respected senior appropriator, added that “I am thankful that there were enough thoughtful members of Congress, on both sides of the aisle, that recognize that there was only one course of action here.” (read more)

The Republican wing of the Uniparty are experts at losing while proclaiming they held on to their principles.

Santos deserved due process.  However, if you look at the litany of Republicans who voted against him, you will discover the same aligned names were with the Nancy Pelosi impeachment effort against Donald Trump.

UFO’s are being hidden