Posted originally on the CTH on January 26, 2024 | Sundance
Evidence has been shown to the Biden administration and the United Nations that 12 members of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) were actual participants in the October 7th Hamas terrorist attacks against Israel.
Yes, you read that correctly. The U.N. was an actual participant in the premeditated slaughter of Israeli citizens.
(Via Axios) The State Department on Friday said it is pausing additional funding for the UN Palestinian refugee agency after Israel alleged 12 UNRWA employees were involved in the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack.
The big picture: It’s the first step by the Biden administration against UNRWA since renewing U.S. funding to the agency after the Trump administration completely cut it off.
State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said the U.S. is “extremely troubled by the allegations” and the administration has “temporarily paused additional funding for UNRWA while we review these allegations and the steps the United Nations is taking to address them.”
State Dept – “The United States is extremely troubled by the allegations that twelve UNRWA employees may have been involved in the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel. The Department of State has temporarily paused additional funding for UNRWA while we review these allegations and the steps the United Nations is taking to address them.
Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken spoke with United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres on January 25 to emphasize the necessity of a thorough and swift investigation of this matter. We welcome the decision to conduct such an investigation and Secretary General Guterres’ pledge to take decisive action to respond, should the allegations prove accurate. We also welcome the UN’s announcement of a “comprehensive and independent” review of UNRWA. There must be complete accountability for anyone who participated in the heinous attacks of October 7. (LINK)
Driving the news: A senior Israeli official said the Shin Bet and Israeli military intelligence provided information that pointed to the active participation of UNRWA staffers and the use of the agency’s vehicles and facilities during the Oct. 7 Hamas attack.
“This was strong and corroborated intelligence,” the official said. “A lot of the intelligence is a result of interrogations of militants who were arrested during the Oct. 7 attack.”
State of play: UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said he has terminated the contracts of the accused staff members and launched an investigation to “establish the truth without delay.” (Axios More)
UNITED NATIONS – “The Israeli Authorities have provided UNRWA with information about the alleged involvement of several UNRWA employees in the horrific attacks on Israel on 7 October.
“To protect the Agency’s ability to deliver humanitarian assistance, I have taken the decision to immediately terminate the contracts of these staff members and launch an investigation in order to establish the truth without delay. Any UNRWA employee who was involved in acts of terror will be held accountable, including through criminal prosecution.
“UNRWA reiterates its condemnation in the strongest possible terms of the abhorrent attacks of 7 October and calls for the immediate and unconditional release of all Israeli hostages and their safe return to their families.
“These shocking allegations come as more than 2 million people in Gaza depend on lifesaving assistance that the Agency has been providing since the war began. Anyone who betrays the fundamental values of the United Nations also betrays those whom we serve in Gaza, across the region and elsewhere around the world”. (LINK)
Posted originally on the CTH on January 22, 2024 | Sundance
In a 5-4 ruling today [pdf Available Here], Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined with the radical leftists on the court, Ketanji Brown Jackson, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor, to say that Texas is not permitted to protect itself from illegal border crossers. None of the justices provided any explanation for their vote.
The court majority sided with the Biden administration policy of removing razor wire to permit illegal alien entry without impediment. Justices Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Clarence Thomas voted with Texas, in favor of national border integrity.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A divided Supreme Court on Monday allowed Border Patrol agents to cut razor wire that Texas installed on the U.S.-Mexico border, while a lawsuit over the wire continues.
The justices, by a 5-4 vote, granted an emergency appeal from the Biden administration, which has been in an escalating standoff at the border with Texas and had objected to an appellate ruling in favor of the state.
The concertina wire along roughly 30 miles (48 kilometers) of the Rio Grande near the border city of Eagle Pass is part of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s broader fight with the administration over immigration enforcement. (read more)
God, I pray for stability right now, because this is infuriating.
The irony and hypocrisy of the Supreme Court having a security perimeter for their own security yet dismissing the establishment of a security perimeter for the citizens of the country is not lost on me.
Posted originally on the CTH on January 20, 2024 | Sundance
Good grief, talk about burning cash…. According to Politico, the three corporate super PACs and the Nikki Haley campaign have spent almost $30 million in New Hampshire on ad buys.
Three super PACs backing Haley — SFA Fund (aka Randal and Barbara Smith, Alden Global Capital), Americans for Prosperity (aka Charles Koch) and Independents Moving the Needle (aka Jonathan Bush, the cousin of former President George W. Bush, billionaire CEO Frank Laukien, and Big Pharma) have spent more than $24 million across TV, radio and digital ads targeting New Hampshire, according to data from AdImpact, an ad tracking platform. Haley’s own campaign has chipped in another $4.7 million.
NOTE: Ron DeSantis has not run any ads in New Hampshire since November, and the DeSantis camp have no additional advertising commitments in any state, including South Carolina. It would appear the DeSantis campaign is low on cash and being very selective about spending prior to announcing their exit.
[…] According to an additional tracking service, AdImpact Politics, the last DeSantis ad to air on television was Monday, the night of the Iowa caucuses, which he lost by 30 points. That is reportedly the longest period his campaign and PACs Never Back Down, Fight Right, and Good Fight have gone without appearing on the airwaves. (MORE)
President Trump is leading Nikki Haley in New Hampshire polling 53% to 36%. Ron DeSantis has 6.6% support. {source}
President Trump played this primary contest brilliantly, with a little assist from divine providence.
President Trump kicked off his campaign in South Carolina and now has the teams of the governor and both senators on his side. The South Carolina electorate is filled with MAGA base supporters, and Trump has essentially funneled DeSantis and Haley into a no-win position.
Knock out Haley in New Hampshire, crush them both in Nevada with an Iowa like outcome, then stomp them in their fallback position, South Carolina.
This primary contest should be over immediately following South Carolina.
Posted originally on Jan 18, 2024 By Martin Armstrong
My humorous post about McDonald’s celebrating Davos with the McKlausbug burger deluxe was a pretend advertisement, for now, but McDonald’s is a World Economic Forum partner. This is relevant as McDonald’s is the second-largest private employer in the world. Their chains run across 100 countries, in nearly 40,000 stores, serving about 69 million customers daily. The yellow arches may be one of the first images that come to mind when you think of capitalism and the United States in general, but the company has set its sights on the nation that will replace America as the world’s financial capital.
CEO Chris Kempczinski has said that the Israel-Palestine war had a “meaningful business impact” as people on both sides are boycotting the restaurant chain, with most believing the establishment is pro-Israel. Less than half of their locations are located in the US, and although their business is performing well in America, the fast-food chain is betting on the future of China.
McDonald’s plans to expand by 10,000 new restaurants by 2027, with one-third of those establishments opening in China. The company expanded its dealings in China from 20% to 48% in November 2023 after purchasing shares owned by investment firm, the Carlyle Group. Their analytics found China to be the fastest-growing consumer economy, but it was not always this way. Due to low demand, McDonald’s was forced to sell off nearly 80% of its Chinese interests in 2016.
So, what was happening in China during 2016? In 2016, China’s growth dropped to 6.7%, marking the slowest pace of growth in 25 years. Fixed asset investment was no longer coming from the private sector, posing a challenge to the economy’s growth and development. The government’s attempts to inject funds into the economy through various means, including easing credit in the real estate sector, did not yield the desired results. This raised concerns about the effectiveness of the stimulus measures. China also faced challenges related to a weak banking system, overreliance on fixed investment and government support for state-owned firms, and increasing debt levels.
Additionally, the world could not see China as anything but a Communist nation. Corporations and institutions see it otherwise; they see the lucrative business potential and a growing middle class eager to spend. Hence, they are heavily investing in future business ventures there.
China’s economy turned around in 2017, as predicted by our computer. Large-scale capital investment, financed by large domestic savings and foreign investment, and rapid productivity growth helped the economy recover. These two factors appeared to have gone hand in hand, with consumption being a major growth driver, contributing 58.8% to GDP growth in 2017.
The 2018 special report, “China on the Rise,”further explains how Socrates has been honing in on China, whose economy is expected to surpass that of the United States by 2032. With special attention to the Chinese yuan and Shanghai composite, this report examines how, when, and why China will become the new financial capital of the world.
China now has a growing middle class with some expendable income. Big corporations like McDonald’s see China as the next big opportunity, as our computer has been outlining for some time.
Published originally on the CTH on January 12, 2024 | Sundance
Everything about the case in New York City against the Trump Organization business operations is ridiculous. There are no victims. There was no fraud. All of the lenders did their own due diligence. All of the loans were paid back without issue, and the statement of financial condition was factual and accurate. There were no defaults or banking interests adversely impacted. There are no victims of what the State calls “fraud.”
New York Attorney General Latisha James campaigned for office with promises to target the Trump Organization and Donald Trump himself. This is malicious Lawfare in the extreme. Additionally, the statute being used as the predicate for the case is a consumer fraud statute, intended to protect borrowers from predatory lenders. In the four corners of this case, Trump is the borrower, and the banks were the lenders. New York is flipping the statute to claim the borrower defrauded the lenders, despite the lenders denying there was any fraud and there was no harm. The entire case is ridiculous.
Appearing on CNN, O’Leary Ventures Chairman Kevin O’Leary outlines, to a perplexed Laura Coates, why Donald Trump’s civil fraud trial in New York is political nonsense. WATCH (prompted):
TRANSCRIPT – O’LEARY: Well, let’s leave out Trump for a minute, and let’s leave out politics, and just talk about what happens in real estate development anywhere. So, if you’re a developer and you’ve got a building on the block, anywhere in America, and it’s worth, let’s say, $500 million, and you want to build a building right beside it, you go to the bank and say, “This building is worth $500 million. I’d like to borrow a construction finance loan against this asset, and I want you to tell me it’s worth $500 million too.”
And the bank negotiates with you, and says, “Well no, we think it’s worth $400 million,” and you fight it out. You are always trying to show your assets in the brightest light with the sunshine you can possibly determine for them. You want them to be worth the very most because you’re only going to get a 40 to 50 percent loan to value, as it’s called. Then you borrow that money, in the case of a $500 million asset, maybe you get $250 million, and you build the new building with a construction finance loan. So that’s what this case is all about.
And by the way, forget about Trump, every single real estate developer everywhere on earth does this. They always talk about their asset being worth a lot and the bank says no. That’s just the way it is. So in this case, what I’m trying to figure out, and I’m not pro or con, or I don’t care about the politics, who lost money? Nobody. The bank got paid back the construction finance loan, and a new building was built. If you’re going to sue this case and win, you’ve gotta sue every real estate developer everywhere. This is all they do. This is what they do all day long every day. So I don’t think this thing will ever survive appeal regardless of what the fine is. This doesn’t even make sense.
Now look, I understand Trump has a lot of problems in other indictments and everything else, but if you’re a real estate developer, you’re watching this and saying, “What is this? This is ridiculous.”
Posted originally on Jan 11, 2024 By Martin Armstrong
Let me explain about labor statistics. Back in the ’90s, one staff member was in charge of verifying all government statistics worldwide. That project produced some really eye-opening facts. We discovered that in GDP, the government counts total government spending and total personal income (private & public). We could not find where they were backing out of the government payroll. I called the head of the BLS and said that this mistake was so egregious that they had to be backing it out somewhere. I was told they would get back to me. After some time passed, I called and said, hey, I don’t remember you getting back to me. The response was – NO COMMENT.
This means when Biden hires 87,000 IRS agents to harass small businesses, from a statistical basis, it is the economic function in GDP or creating 174,000 jobs. Every small business must now reveal who is the beneficial owner and they must report to the government where they live and if they dare to change residence. Failure to do so is prison time. This is why the Founding Fathers outlawed any direct taxation. They knew people would then be accountable to the government for absolutely everything they do. If you own a small business, it reminds me of what I saw behind the Berlin Wall. You were not allowed to move without the permission of the government. Oh, how power always consumes everything.
In high school, I had to read George Orwell’s 1984. That would probably be on the disinformation list along with Atlas Shrugged today and banned in most schools. Nevertheless, the one line that stuck with me was none other than:
“Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.”
The US government consistently lies on their jobs reports released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The agency initially cheered at the 3,140,000 new positions created in 2023, but later revised the figure down to 443,000. But wait, the BLS made another miscalculation in March to the tune of 306,000 jobs. This means that one-third of all new positions added in 2023 were a LIE.
Obviously they fabricated job growth under Biden in the wake of COVID regulations. Of course the economy added thousands of new jobs – you prevented businesses from remaining open for years! The Federal Reserve used this false data for monetary policy, continually citing a strong job market as one of the economy’s saving graces.
These calculations were FAR off to the point where the math cannot be seen as a mere error. The calculations were off for 11 out of 12 months last year. Let us look at history and ask the most important question: has this been done before? YES!
“By the time you include all the monthly revisions and the annual benchmark revision, about one-quarter of all the jobs we thought were added last year have been revised away,” E.J. Antoni, a research fellow at the Heritage Foundation’s Grover M. Hermann Center for the Federal Budget, told the DCNF. “That pattern of consistent downward revisions has happened in two prior recessions. It is a result of market conditions changing too rapidly for the BLS to adjust their methodology, which in turn causes consistent errors in measuring nonfarm payrolls.”
The BLS has continually tailored their method for calculating employment. One of the key surveys used is the Current Population Survey (CPS), which is a monthly survey of households conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau for the BLS. The unemployment rate is calculated as the number of unemployed individuals divided by the labor force, multiplied by 100. BLS creates occupational employment projections in a product called the National Employment Matrix, which describes the employment of detailed occupations within detailed wage and salary categories, including those who are self-employed or employed by a private household. The BLS also develops participation rate projections using data from the CPS conducted by the Census Bureau. So there is inaccurate data coming from multiple places.
In 2023, the agency made changes to its calculations in 2023, including the implementation of a new weight smoothing procedurefor state and metropolitan area employment data. They have recalculated this figure for Q1 of 2024 and will check back to see if the numbers are where they want them to be. Procedures for reducing nonsampling errors, such as data collection reinterviews, observed interviews, and systematic reviews of collected data. They claim that falling survey responses are reducing the accuracy of their reports. The agency also claims their statistical calculations are subject to a widening difference between preliminary and final releases.
So they have a general idea of employment in the country when they initially release their reports. Why bother to release them at all until the data settles? They know that the markets jump on anticipation of the monthly jobs reports and central banks and institutions factor that data into their planning.
So coincidentally, the BLS happens to be far off the mark during economic downturns. These must be the same people budgeting for the Pentagon or IRS, as the numbers they provide to the public simply do not matter and no one is ever investigated.
I have created this site to help people have fun in the kitchen. I write about enjoying life both in and out of my kitchen. Life is short! Make the most of it and enjoy!
This is a library of News Events not reported by the Main Stream Media documenting & connecting the dots on How the Obama Marxist Liberal agenda is destroying America
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