Tag Archives: War with Russia

Jan 21 2023

DOJ Tells Republican Congress Not to Expect Cooperation and Thank You


Posted originally on the CTH on January 20, 2023 | Sundance | 200 Comments

The U.S. Dept of Justice (DOJ) has sent a five-page letter to congress, copying Politico for the public distribution therein.  [SEE pdf HERE]

The snarky and passive aggressive Lawfare tone inside the letter is rather remarkable in its sanctimony and condescension.  Essentially, Main Justice is telling congressional oversight, specifically House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan, not to expect any timely responses because there’s a lot going on.

Additionally, as the letter directly implies, Republican oversight is not in the favor of the current administration or DOJ and, well, in general terms, get over it – they aren’t complying.  However, feel free to initiate the formal negotiation process that will likely take several years.

From the letter to Jim Jordan, “Your January 17 requests—made now in your position as Chairman—initiate the constitutionally mandated accommodation process. Under this process, the Legislative and Executive Branches have a constitutional obligation to negotiate in good faith to meet the informational needs of Congress while protecting the institutional interests of the Executive Branch. We look forward to beginning this process in response to your January 17 letters.” (link)

(Via Politico) – […] The letter, addressed to Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), acknowledges the GOP’s multiple requests for information during the last Congress but doesn’t divulge any new information. Instead, Uriarte outlines how he hopes DOJ could have a “productive relationship” with Republicans in the new Congress, as Jordan had in previous letters accused the DOJ of “stonewalling” their requests, raised the possibility of a subpoena and said the committee could resort to “compulsory practices” to obtain the requested information and documents.

It’s an early marker of DOJ’s position as Republicans pledge to probe President Joe Biden’s administration over a laundry list of issues, including with a select subpanel that has a broad mandate to investigate the federal government. Conservatives have hinted they would use that panel to try to look into certain ongoing law enforcement investigations. (read more)

I think at this point everyone outside the professional political class in the Legislative Branch knew this was going to happen.  However, the Republicans in Congress will likely pretend to be stunned by this development, Fox News Sean Hannity will be outraged by it, and then the RNC and RCCC will dispatch fundraising campaigns citing the refusal of the DOJ.   Win, win, win… wash – rinse – repeat.

Predicting this approach was exactly why CTH said the House Subcommittee on Weaponized Government should not waste time looking for assistance, documents and or internal support from the various DC silos.  Instead, the oversight committees need to go through the formal request process (blah, blah, blah) but focus their efforts at getting documents from the private sector collaborators outside the DC silo system.

If it seems like the Democrats always know how to use power more effectively than Republicans, you would be absolutely correct.  However, few people really understand the reason for it.  So, I will repeat.

The Republicans want money.  The Democrats want power.  The Republicans use power to get money. The Democrats use money to get power.  The ideology of the Democrats drives their donor funding.  The donor funding of the Republicans drives their ideology.

This core truism carries forward beyond electoral politics and into the realm of legislative battles and oversight conflicts.  Republicans want money as their primary objective.  If the Biden administration wants to get an ideological bill passed, the Democrats simply buy the votes of Republicans (especially Senators).

As an additional outcome, Republicans in congress have no core values, no core objectives, no goals to achieve.  After all, their structural goal is money.

Give Republicans power and they don’t know what to do with it, because the voters essentially boosted the dog to catch the car… now what?

What you see in the outcome of elections is that Republicans do not have any plan for power, because it’s not the issue that takes up their intellectual time.  That’s reserved for deep analytical thoughts about how to make money from (XXX).

The Democrats know this, they know the main mission of Republicans.  Ergo, the Lawfare DOJ pats the Republicans on the head and waits for the frustrated voters to get sick of the GOP doing nothing again, and the Democrats simply wait them out.

We have been in this repetitious abuse cycle for about two decades.

Battered Conservative Syndrome is a very real thing.

There are an enormous amount of codependent enabling voters in this process.  I call them Seagull Republicans because they are voters who will fly down and shit over anyone who complains about this reality – then they fly up to their high perches and look down their noses.

In case you missed it, the Seagull Republicans are currently aligned to support Harmeet Dhillon and Ron DeSantis.

One UniParty consisting of two wings, the RNC and the DNC.  One bird, two wings.

The GOPe priority around money is the one constant on the right wing.  But don’t worry, because the Seagulls are promising that Ron DeSantis will protect us from teh geys.

Jan 11 2023

Biden’s Stolen Classified Documents Relate to U.S. Government Activity in Ukraine


Posted originally on the CTH on January 10, 2023

In the final days of the Obama and Biden administration, in mid-January of 2017, Joe Biden visited Ukraine and the people in/around the government were perplexed about the actual intent of the visit.   Why was it important for Joe Biden to visit Ukraine in the last week of the Obama administration? [Source]

Keep in mind that CNN receives information from the State Department.  The Dept of State and CNN have a collaborative relationship; so, when CNN receives “exclusive information” from “exclusive sources”, and the issues generally pertain to foreign affairs, we can be generally confident the information comes from the State Dept.

Apparently, according to CNN sources, the classified documents that Joe Biden took with him from the Obama administration, pertain to U.S. government affairs related to Ukraine, Iran and the United Kingdom.

(Via CNN) – Among the items from Joe Biden’s time as vice president discovered in a private office last fall are 10 classified documents including US intelligence memos and briefing materials that covered topics including Ukraine, Iran and the United Kingdom, according to a source familiar with the matter.

The documents were dated between 2013 and 2016, according to the source.

They were found in three or four boxes also containing unclassified papers that fall under the Presidential Records Act, the source said.

The vast majority of the boxes in the office contained personal Biden family documents, including materials about Beau Biden’s funeral arrangements and condolence letters, the source told CNN. It is not clear if the boxes with classified documents contained personal materials. (read more)

Considering how the Biden family syndicate, specifically Hunter Biden, was deeply enmeshed in the Ukraine energy sector via Burisma Holdings and the family interests as an outcome of the vice president using his influence to sell U.S. policy therein, it would seem that Joe Biden was securing classified documents favorable to his corrupt financial interests.

Those classified Ukraine documents were then transferred to the Penn-Biden office facility. “The documents were discovered when Mr. Biden’s personal attorneys “were packing files housed in a locked closet to prepare to vacate office space at the Penn Biden Center in Washington, D.C.,” Sauber said in a statement to CBS News.” (link)

It would make sense the documents would be related to corrupt U.S. government activity as it relates to the use of foreign policy for financial gain.   The similarity of purpose between the Biden syndicate and the Clinton syndicate are similar, and Joe Biden was previously Chairman of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, prior to Barack Obama selecting him as the 2008 VP nominee.

What the Senate Intelligence Committee (SSCI) is to the CIA and Intelligence Community, so too is the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to the U.S. State Dept.

This larger aspect would also explain why the people in/around Joe Biden selected Anthony Blinken as Secretary of State and Jake Sullivan (former Clinton aide) as National Security Advisor.  Both Blinken and Sullivan are skilled bagmen familiar with the process of selling U.S. foreign policy for their principals, Joe and Hillary.

If the House begins peeling back the layers of the Hunter Biden laptop, eventually they will find evidence of Joe Biden selling foreign policy as a method for personal financial gains.  The trail has been very well documented in the lead-up to his run for higher office.  It would make sense the classified documents relate specifically to this aspect of the Biden crime syndicate.

Jul 17 2022

Biden Visits Saudi Arabia, Returns with an Empty Tin Cup and Urgent Need for More Windmills


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on July 16, 2022 | Sundance

Joe Biden is heading back from an embarrassing trip to Saudi Arabia and the middle east.  Putting aside the fact that physically and mentally Biden looked weak, foolish, and generally incoherent, in an odd way he was appropriately representative of the current of U.S. influence on the global stage.

Before getting to detail, first it is important to emphasize a point that doesn’t get attention domestically.  Democrats are exceptionally weak on all aspects of foreign policy, specifically because their modern ideology is based on hypocrisy of a stunning magnitude.

Domestically, the U.S. media protect democrats by spinning everything into the best light possible.

However, on the world stage the non-western leaders like Putin, Xi and MbS use that hypocrisy like geopolitical ammunition.

Examples… Domestically the U.S. media do not bring up the Joe Biden Afghanistan mess, the rise -and current legitimacy- of the terrorist Taliban; or the brutal mess Barack and Hillary created in Libya; or the unauthorized intervention into Syria that created ISIS; or the complete fubar that was an illegitimate invasion of Iraq; or Hillary’s insufferable “reset” in Russia; or their inability to deal with China’s proxy province of North Korea, because they pretend it’s not; or the current circus célebrè in Ukraine.

Each region, and there are many more, a typical example of how modern democrats are fundamentally weak on foreign policy.  It is not just Joe Biden either; just about every leftist head of state within the alliance of “western democracies” are also pathetically impotent when it comes to influence on a global stage.

The U.K’s Boris Johnson, Canada’s Justin Trudeau, New Zealand’s Jacinda Ardern and France’s Emmanuel Macron are collectively as pathetic as Biden when it comes to leadership and influence.  Once they step out of their ‘liberal democracy‘ bubble, and head into a nation that doesn’t have state run media like CNN, MSNBC, The Washington Post, Politico and/or The New York Times, those leaders look like the pathetic fools they are.

Biden and the rest of the leftist heads of state decry “autocracy,” and wax philosophically about “western democratic values”, while standing atop two years of their authoritarian pandemic rules, regulations, mandates and unilateral fiats.   Consider their chase for their beloved climate change energy policy and contrast it against their political pearl-clutching over the energy inflation they created.

Is it any surprise that Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez-Obrador want’s nothing to do with the other two knuckleheaded leaders of North America who are selling windmills while regulating traditional oil, coal and natural gas out of existence?  At a certain point, a good neighbor has to look at the duct-taped landscaping and say this is ridiculous.  I digress.

The point is that the so called “western values” are nothing more than high-minded think tank talking points.  Nowhere in actual policy do you find western values exhibited in real world action.   Biden wants to confront Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS), or Chinese Chairman Xi Jinping over possible human rights abuses, while the same Joe Biden is locking up his political opposition under the justification of an insurrection?  Wait, what?

Yeah, so we started a civil war in Libya and thousands of people are dying in the aftermath. So what?   Biden is here to talk about the Khashoggi splinter your eye, not the Abu Ghraib plank in his.  And, oh yeah, don’t you dare talk about Biden shutting down pipelines and his beloved Green New Deal, just give the U.S. more oil damn you, or something.

I remember well in 2016 when the U.S. media were saying Hillary Clinton was going to mop the floor with Donald Trump at a foreign policy debate.  All Trump had to do was point out the stupid Clinton state dept hypocrisies and it looked like he just threw a bucket of water on the wicked witch.  Hillary melted, and it was hilarious.

Fast forward four years later and another foreign policy matchup was scheduled between Joe Biden and Donald Trump.  Do you remember what happened?  If not, it wouldn’t be surprising, because THEY CANCELLED THE DEBATE.  Why? …

…. Because Trump the peacemaker had just introduced the Abraham Accords.  There was actual peace finally in the Middle east. The U.S. embassy in Israel was built in Jerusalem, without violence.  The U.S. under Trump had a peaceful relationship and mutual understanding with North Korea and Kim Jong Un.  North and South Korea were talking about reunification.  ISIS was destroyed; there was no longer any issue with Syria, and Turkish PM Erdogan was both accountable and on a leash.  There was no conflict with Russia; no expansion of NATO and every NATO country finally paying for their own defense.  Yeah, go figure, THEY CANCELLED THE DEBATE.

Donald Trump had the upper hand in all of his foreign policy engagements, because Trump foreign policy was not inherently based on hypocrisy.

Joe Biden, not so much…

From MbS as interpreted: “We agree on many things, but we differ on a few others. Every country has its own culture and circumstances. I respect yours, you respect mine. Do not impose your culture on us. Do not impose your beliefs on us.” … “We agree we need to do more for climate change, but you guys are doing it wrong by favoring certain energy sources over others. The world needs energy security. We need all energy sources including oil & gas. We are doing our part on both fronts: climate change & energy security.” … “The stage of a country’s economic & social development must be considered in climate change negotiations.” … “We are increasing our production capacity to 13 million barrels per day (from 12 mb/d), but that is it. We cannot do more.”  The message here is: You guys do your part and invest more if you want to avoid energy crises, recessions, and unemployment. Do NOT blame us!

(Via Wall Street Journal) – After his meeting with the crown prince, Mr. Biden said he felt confident that Saudi officials are supportive of increasing oil supply in the coming weeks. But Saudi officials tempered expectations, reiterating that the kingdom would do what is needed to balance the market if there is a shortage of supply.

Any action, Saudi officials said, would need to be coordinated with the rest of OPEC+, a coalition that includes the Saudi-led Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and a separate group of crude producers led by Russia. OPEC+’s current production agreement is expiring at the end of August, setting up some crucial decisions about output for the Saudis and Russians in the next month.

[…]  Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan said after the summit that there had been no discussion of military or technical cooperation with Israel.

Aside from the U.S. saying the Saudis would work to settle the war in Yemen, which it was already doing, the White House didn’t detail any specific human rights-related concessions that the kingdom agreed to during the meeting.

To the Saudis, the benefit of the visit was more immediately evident. From the moment Mr. Biden arrived at the gilded royal palace in this seaside city, Saudi officials enthusiastically held up the meeting as evidence of the crown prince’s renewed influence. State media promoted photos and videos of the two leaders together. Saudi newspapers later showcased images of the duo bumping fists and sitting together at a conference table. “All Weather Friends,” read one local headline.

“The fact that they’ve come and met means we can resolve these matters quicker and faster, because there’s a personal relationship, and the kingdom has historically had a personal relationship with the president of the United States,” said Princess Reema bint Bandar, the Saudi ambassador to Washington. “So, this isn’t a matter of turning the page. This is a matter of strengthening the relationship.”

Mr. Biden is the latest world leader to make the trip to see the 36-year-old crown prince after years of keeping him at arm’s length over the killing of Mr. Khashoggi. French President Emmanuel Macron traveled to Saudi Arabia in December, and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson made the trip in March. (read more)

Apr 20 2022

Too Dangerous to Allow Elon Musk Control Over So Much Data Says Washington Post


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on April 19, 2022 | sundance

The latest developments in the effort to purchase the unsustainable magic coffee shop are quite revealing.

According to the New York Post, “Musk himself is willing to invest between $10 billion and $15 billion of his own cash to take Twitter private, two sources close to the situation said. That’s up from the current 9.1% stake in the company he revealed on April 4, which is worth about $3.4 billion.”

However, more revealing about the overall issue are the comments from the PR firm of the U.S. Intelligence Community, The Washington Post:

(WaPo) […] “Putting so much power in the hands of one company is bad enough, but putting it in the hands of one person, as is largely the case with Facebook shareholder Mark Zuckerberg and would be the case if Twitter were owned by Musk, would be incompatible with democracy.” 

“There are simply no checks and balances from any internal or external force,” … “It would leave Musk, like Zuckerberg, with an amount of assembled data about people and the ability to use it to manipulate them “that cannot be compared to anything that has ever existed, and allows intervention into the integrity of individual behavior and also the integrity of collective behavior.” (read more)

People are starting to catch on to the reality that costs for data processing on many social media platforms (the free coffee), exceeds the ability of the platform to generate revenue.  People are starting to understand that behind the scenes of the Big Tech consortium, there is something else, some other operational construct and mechanism, that subsidizes & facilitates their existence.

It is very revealing how the intelligence apparatus of the United States had no issue with Twitter data and influence, until the potential for private ownership, perhaps uncontrolled private ownership, surfaced.  Do not be naïve in pretending not to know how The Washington Post represents the interests of the intelligence apparatus.

In the long arc of history, I truly believe we will discover the inflection moment for the merge of U.S. Deep State (intel community) and U.S. Social Media, will be identified in the early moments of the Arab Spring of 2010/2011.  That was when Facebook and Twitter became tools for the State Dept operation in Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Syria, Bahrain and beyond.  That was the beta-test of synergy.

“Arab Social Media Report by the Dubai School of Government give empirical heft to the conventional wisdom that Facebook and Twitter abetted if not enabled the historic region-wide uprisings of early 2011.” (LINK)

It was from that original, albeit misguided and manipulative partnership, when the actual details about how to create the social surveillance state was first tested.   Everything after those events more than a decade ago, has been this rapidly evolving blend of social media technology and the capacity of the U.S. intelligence apparatus to create and fund the underlying structures.

Daily, we see numerous examples of the ideological control that surfaces as a direct result of this public-private partnership, the closed-conversations between deep government interests (the Fourth Branch) and social media companies which are dependent on the subsidized technology for them to exist.

Perhaps 2022 represents the first time the commonsense of the American electorate begins to recognize the fallacy of the ‘free coffee’ business model.  Personally, I am very optimistic people will soon recognize what many have suspected for a long time.

Ultimately the question becomes, how far will the U.S. Fourth Branch of Government go to stop people from understanding?

Marc Andreessen believes Govt and Big Tech will double, triple and quadruple down to keep their public-private partnership, the backbone of the Free Coffee Shop, hidden.  I cannot say I disagree, because ultimately it is still only the minority of people who understand the stakes.  However, on the upside, the number of people who are starting to understand it, is growing almost exponentially thanks to Elon Musk.

(Source Link)

This is one of those situations where we should all welcome being called ‘conspiracy theorists’, because no matter how big the crowd is that refuses to believe it, ultimately the impossible business model of Jack’s Magic Coffee Shop will reveal everything.

That’s why the public-private partnership must stop Elon Musk.  As the Washington Post noted, this level of revelation “cannot be compared to anything that has ever existed.”

“Very shadowy” indeed.

Apr 20 2022

CNN New Subscription Based Service Likely to Collapse, Spent $300 Million Only Gained 150k Subscribers


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on April 19, 2022 | sundance

Put this in the tracking file for ratios and such.  Axios is reporting that CNN+ is likely to collapse as Warner Bros has suspended all external marketing and product development and fired the Chief Financial Officer.  The network has spent $300 million, and only generated 150,000 subscribers.  A major fail by any measure.

(Via Axios) Warner Bros. Discovery has suspended all external marketing spend for CNN+ and has laid off CNN’s longtime chief financial officer as it weighs what to do with the subscription streaming service moving forward, five sources tell Axios.

• Why it matters: Inside CNN, executives think the launch has been successful. Discovery executives disagree.

• CNN+ has roughly 150,000 subscribers so far.

• Warner Bros. Discovery wants to eventually build one giant service around HBO Max.

• New leadership has replaced CNN CFO Brad Ferrer with Neil Chugani, Discovery’s current CFO for streaming and international, as part of a broader finance team restructuring.

• Other high-level positions at WarnerMedia across different business functions are likely to be eliminated to cut costs and streamline leadership in coming weeks.

What to watch: Sources say a plan is being considered to replace Chris Cuomo’s 9:00pm EST primetime slot with a live newscast, instead of personality-driven perspective programming. (read more)

Apr 15 2022

Elon Musk Makes a Massive Proposal, Offers to Purchase Twitter for $41 Billion With Plan to Take Company Private


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on April 14, 2022 | sundance

April 14, 2022 | sundance | 553 Comments

The richest man in the world, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, made an offer to purchase the Twitter platform for a price of $41 billion.  The offer represents a value of 38% more than the current evaluation.  [SEC FILING HERE]  The offer is filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission proposing a full takeover for $54.20 per share in cash.

Within the filing Elon Musk states his intentions:

“I invested in Twitter as I believe in its potential to be the platform for free speech around the globe, and I believe free speech is a societal imperative for a functioning democracy.  However, since making my investment I now realize the company will neither thrive nor serve this societal imperative in its current form. Twitter needs to be transformed as a private company.

As a result, I am offering to buy 100% of Twitter for $54.20 per share in cash, a 54% premium over the day before I began investing in Twitter and a 38% premium over the day before my investment was publicly announced. My offer is my best and final offer and if it is not accepted, I would need to reconsider my position as a shareholder. Twitter has extraordinary potential.  I will unlock it. (SEC LINK)

What Elon Musk appears to be doing is perhaps the biggest story that few understand.

I share this perspective having spent thousands of hours in the past several years deep in the weeds of tech operating systems, communication platforms, and the issue of simultaneous users.   What Twitter represents, and what Musk is attempting, is not what most would think.

In the big picture of tech platforms, Twitter, as an operating model, is a massive high-user commenting system.

Twitter is not a platform built around a website; Twitter is a platform for comments and discussion that operates in the sphere of social media.  As a consequence, the technology and data processing required to operate the platform does not have an economy of scale.

There is no business model where Twitter is financially viable to operate…. UNLESS the tech architecture under the platform was subsidized.

In my opinion, there is only one technological system and entity that could possibly underwrite the cost of Twitter to operate.  That entity is the United States Government, and here’s why.

Unlike websites and other social media, Twitter is unique in that it only represents a platform for user engagement and discussion.  There is no content other than commentary, discussion and the sharing of information – such as linking to other information, pictures, graphics, videos url links etc.

In essence, Twitter is like the commenting system on the CTH website.  It is the global commenting system for users to share information and debate.  It is, in some ways, like the public square of global discussion.   However, the key point is that user engagement on the platform creates a massive amount of data demand.

Within the systems of technology for public (user engagement) commenting, there is no economy of scale.  Each added user represents an increased cost to the operation of the platform, because each user engagement demands database performance to respond to the simultaneous users on the platform.  The term “simultaneous users” is critical to understand because that drives the cost.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Twitter has approximately 217 million registered daily users, and their goal is to expand to 315 million users by the end of 2023.   Let me explain why things are not what they seem.

When people, users, operate on a tech platform using the engagement features, writing comments, hitting likes, posting images, links etc, the user is sending a data request to the platforms servers.  The servers must then respond allowing all simultaneous users to see the change triggered by the single user.

Example: when you hit the “like” button feature on an engagement system, the response (like increasing by one) must not only be visible to you, but must also be visible to those simultaneously looking at the action you took.   If 100,000 simultaneous users are looking at the same thing, the database must deliver the response to 100,000 people.  As a result, the number of simultaneous users on a user engagement platform drives massive performance costs.  In the example above, a single action by one person requires the server to respond to 100,000 simultaneous users with the updated data.

As a consequence, when a commenting platform increases in users, the cost not only increases because of that one user, the cost increases because the servers need to respond to all the simultaneous users.   Using CTH as an example, 10,000 to 15,000 simultaneous commenting system users, engaging with the servers, costs around $4,500/mo.

This is why most websites, even big media websites, do not have proprietary user engagement, i.e. commenting systems.  Instead, most websites use third party providers like Disqus who run the commenting systems on their own servers.  Their commenting systems are plugged in to the website; that defers the cost from the website operator, and the third party can function as a business by selling ads and controlling the user experience.  [It also sucks because user privacy is non existent]

The key to understanding the Twitter dynamic is to see the difference between, (a) running a website, where it doesn’t really matter how many people come to look at the content (low server costs), and (b) running a user engagement system, where the costs to accommodate the data processing -which increase exponentially with a higher number of simultaneous users- are extremely expensive.   Twitter’s entire platform is based on the latter.

There is no economy of scale in any simultaneous user engagement system.  Every added user costs exponentially more in data-processing demand, because every user needs a response, and every simultaneous user (follower) requires the same simultaneous response.  A Twitter user with 100 followers (simultaneously logged in) that takes an action – costs less than a Twitter user with 100,000 followers (simultaneously logged in), that takes an action.

If you understand the cost increases in the data demand for simultaneous users, you can see the business model for Twitter is non-existent.

Bottom line, more users means it costs Twitter more money to operate.  The business model is backwards from traditional business.  More customers = higher costs, because each customer brings more simultaneous users….. which means exponentially more data performance is needed.

User engagement features on Twitter are significant, because that’s all Twitter does.  Not only can users write comments, graphics, memes, videos, but they can also like comments, retweet comments, subtweet comments, bookmark comments, and participate in DM systems.  That is a massive amount of server/data performance demand, and when you consider simultaneous users, it’s almost unimaginable in scale.  That cost and capacity is also the reason why Twitter does not have an edit function.

With 217 million users, you could expect 50 million simultaneous users on Twitter during peak operating times.  My back of the envelope calculations, which are really just estimations based on known industry costs for data performance and functions per second, would put the data cost to operate Twitter around at least $1 billion per month (minimum).  In 2021, Twitter generated $5.1 billion in revenue, according to the Wall Street Journal.

There is no business model, even with paying subscribers, for Twitter to exist.  As the business grows, the costs increase, and the costs to subscribers would grow.  So, what is going on?

The only way Twitter, with 217 million users, could exist as a viable platform is if they had access to tech systems of incredible scale and performance, and those systems were essentially free or very cheap.  The only entity that could possibly provide that level of capacity and scale is the United States Government – combined with a bottomless bank account.

If my hunch is correct, Elon Musk is poised to expose the well-kept secret that most social media platforms are operating on U.S. government tech infrastructure and indirect subsidy.  Let that sink in.

The U.S. technology system, the assembled massive system of connected databases and server networks, is the operating infrastructure that offsets the cost of Twitter to run their own servers and database.  The backbone of Twitter is the United States government.

There is simply no way the Fourth Branch of Government, the U.S. intelligence system writ large, is going to permit that discovery.

Apr 6 2022

Die Vaccinated


Armstrong Economics Blog/Vaccine Re-Posted Apr 6, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

A reader shared this story from last year, highlighting the stupidity of vaccinations. Germany permits legal euthanasia for those suffering from terminal illnesses who meet specific qualifications. One of those qualifications is that they must be vaccinated against COVID-19. The German Euthanasia Association announced in November 2021 that they would only assist patients who have received the vaccination or recovered from the illness. So although you may be ready to depart from this world and cannot handle any additional side effects, Big Pharma still needs to be paid.

The group demanded that suffering patients follow Germany’s 2G rule that permitted them to deny access to the unvaccinated (geimpft) or those who have recovered (genesen). The mental gymnastics needed to create this rule stated that since patients will come in close contact with caregivers, “human closeness” could be a “breeding ground for coronavirus transmission.” The associated declared, “[T]he 2G rule applies in our association, supplemented by situation-related measures, such as quick tests before encounters in closed rooms.” The phrase “encounters in closed rooms” is a delicate way to word suicide. I suppose St. Peter is checking for vaccination passports at the pearly gates in line with the pope’s guidelines.

The German Constitution protects personal freedom and the right to choose how to die, but you may not choose how to live.

Apr 6 2022

Joint Chiefs Chairman, General Mark Milley, Sees Ukraine as a Long-Term Protracted Battle


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on April 5, 2022 | Sundance

April 5, 2022 | Sundance | 152 Comments

In the lead-in to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, all of the U.S. involvement in the country was operated by bureaucrats and politicians from the U.S. State Dept, CIA, Intelligence Community and Senate.  The Pentagon played a far lesser supportive role.

As a consequence of that previous investment, the current U.S response to the Russian “special military operation” has been spearheaded by the same DoS officials, intelligence agencies and politicians.  The Ukraine engagement is a political operation using NATO and western allies.   As we saw in the Afghanistan withdrawal, the Pentagon is a tool for the politics.

The division between the two interests (Pentagon vs State Dept) surfaces most quickly and easily when things SNAFU, and the blame casting begins. That’s when the division becomes noticeable to the public.  The important point to remember is this… despite the involvement of NATO in the current Ukraine response, it is not the Pentagon calling the shots, it’s the state dept.

Earlier today, Army Gen. Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the House Armed Services Committee “[Ukraine] is a very protracted conflict.”  Milley anticipates many months, if not years, of combat fighting inside Ukraine as Putin carves out the eastern side of the country permanently.

According to Milley, “I think it’s at least measured in years… this is a very extended conflict that Russia has initiated. I think NATO, the U.S., Ukraine and all of the allies and partners supporting Ukraine are going to be involved in this for quite some time,” he said.  The nature of Milley’s remarks outlines what will likely become an insurgency/proxy war funded by the United States for years against Russia.

As much as JC Milley is a political figure, Milley is operating his role under the assumption and direction of what the State Dept is creating.  As a consequence of that long-term conflict prediction, the Pentagon is recommending several new rotating military bases for U.S. troops in eastern Europe.

It is also critical to recognize what is not being said by those same DoS and U.S. intelligence officials.  The absence is deafening. What is not being advanced is any discussion of a diplomatic resolution or negotiated settlement.  Milley’s defense request is predicated on a position that no diplomatic solution will be advanced.  This is a key part of both General Milley and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s testimony.

Ukraine cannot fight without the United States sending money and weapons.  Combine that with Austin and Milley’s statements about Ukraine, and what you quickly see, albeit undiscussed in media, is that a long-term war is baked into this cake.  The United States will not allow Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to enter negotiations with Vladimir Putin.

When we review western media statements about Putin not willing to enter “peace talks” with Zelenskyy, keep the testimony from Milley and Austin at the forefront of your mind.

Why would Putin enter any negotiations with Zelenskyy, knowing the U.S. position is to carry out a long-term insurgency war in Ukraine against Russian military forces?   What would be the purpose of Putin talking with Zelenskyy when the U.S. is openly saying the Ukraine military will be used by the State Dept. to maintain a conflict against Russian forces?

Russian President Putin knows the only group he could negotiate with are in the United States.   However, that truth would expose the puppet strings, so the United States government must play the pretend game.

The position of Volodymyr Zelenskyy as a puppet to the U.S. State Dept and Intelligence Community interests, is inherent in the Pentagon position.  If Zelenskyy was free to make decisions, Austin and Milley could not be so assured as to put a timeline on the Ukraine conflict.

This context becomes increasingly important as we look at how the media are positioning all resources to support a protracted war.  Anyone who is not 100% pro war in Ukraine, for whatever length of time the DoS/IC determine is needed, is immediately cast as a Putin apologist.

This war emanated from the bowels of politics via U.S. political influence in Ukraine to the extreme.  This level of U.S. involvement in Ukraine ultimately triggered Putin to say enough, and he started the “special military operation.”   In many ways the operation is not so much against Ukraine – but more against the U.S. involvement in supporting Ukraine against Russia.

Because it started from political origins, the Ukraine conflict will continue to be run from the nerve center of U.S. politics, the U.S. State Dept, the U.S. Senate, and CIA operations.  The actual Pentagon involvement will be transport and logistics for State Dept military operations.

Do you remember when the DoS Benghazi mission was attacked, and the Pentagon had no idea there was even a U.S. operational mission taking place in eastern Libya?  That same “Operation Zero Footprint” disconnect is what I am describing above.  It’s likely the Pentagon has very little idea what the State Department and CIA are doing in Ukraine right now.

This context is also why the propaganda around Ukraine in the United States has been so critical and important.  We will see this level of propaganda continue so long as it is the DoS/CIA running the western response to the war.

What makes this conflict a little more interesting, is the need for the U.S. to control the information.  We have seen the initial first phases of their control with Big Tech saying they will not permit anything that does not follow the official U.S. government narrative on social media.

Additionally, the State Department launching their own cyber-control division is an extension of this same intent.  They are planning for the long-term usefulness of Ukraine as a proxy battle against Russia.

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Websites like CTH, who talk honestly about the background of what is happening in Ukraine, may eventually need to start using coded language in order to share information.  There are trillions at stake, and the people who control the events are not going to permit too much exposure.

Apr 6 2022

Glowing Reviews, Sean Penn and Sean Hannity Team Up to Support U.S. War Against Russia


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on April 5, 2022 | Sundance

Sean Penn appears on Fox News with Sean Hannity to discuss their unity message that U.S. military forces should begin combat operations against Russia in Ukraine.   The Hollywood actor follows a familiar intelligence community script complete with wardrobe to match the theme.

For those who have watched the process the U.S. govt and intelligence apparatus use to pull the American public into war, the repeating pattern visible in 2022 is transparent.   If you don’t support the U.S. war effort, you’re a bad American or something.  Also, pay no attention to the tens-of-thousands of illegal aliens pouring in through the undefended southern U.S. border, it’s the Ukraine borders that matter.

All the world is a stage…