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russia collusion hoax, pt-3

friday, march 15th, 2024

The U.S. Intelligence Community asked fellow members of the “‘Five Eyes’ intelligence alliance to surveil Trump’s associates and share the intelligence they acquired with US agencies,” sources told a small team of independent reporters who broke the story yesterday.

[FULL TITLE: "Sources Say U.S. Intelligence Agencies Tasked Foreign Partners With Spying On Trump’s 2016 Campaign".]

Sources say U.S. intelligence agencies ‘illegally mobilized foreign intelligence agencies to target Trump advisors long before the summer of 2016.

In “CIA Had Foreign Allies Spy on Trump Team, Triggering Russia Collusion Hoax, Sources Say,” journalists Michael Shellenberger, Matt Taibbi, and Alex Gutentag reported that top-line takeaway, along with several other key details. According to the authors, “multiple credible sources,” said that “the United States Intelligence Community (IC), including the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), illegally mobilized foreign intelligence agencies to target Trump advisors long before the summer of 2016.”

The article, published on Shellenberger’s Substack, noted, “Until now, the official story has been that the FBI’s investigation began after Australian intelligence officials told US officials that a Trump aide had boasted to an Australian diplomat that Russia had damning material about Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.” That probe, dubbed Crossfire Hurricane, launched on July 31, 2016, although Special Counsel John Durham would later conclude the Australian tip failed to justify the investigation into the Trump campaign.

Spying on Trump

However, British intelligence sources began targeting Trump on behalf of American intelligence agencies possibly as early as 2015, according to Tuesday’s blockbuster article. Several outlets had previously reported that the British Government Communications Headquarters, or GCHQ, had discovered “alleged ties between Trump and the Russian government.”

According to the British-based Guardian, “a source close to UK intelligence” claimed, “GCHQ first became aware in late 2015 of suspicious ‘interactions’ between figures connected to Trump and known or suspected Russian agents.” Yet the Guardian reported:

GCHQ was at no point carrying out a targeted operation against Trump or his team or proactively seeking information. The alleged conversations were picked up by chance as part of routine surveillance of Russian intelligence assets. Over several months, different agencies targeting the same people began to see a pattern of connections that were flagged to intelligence officials in the US.

Not so, according to Shellenberger, Taibbi, and Gutentag’s sources, who were familiar with the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence’s investigation. “In truth, the US IC asked the ‘Five Eyes’ intelligence alliance to surveil Trump’s associates and share the intelligence they acquired with US agencies,” the journalists reported their sources as saying, with the Five Eyes nations being the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia.

Sources also claimed, according to Tuesday’s article, that “President Barack Obama’s CIA Director, John Brennan, had identified 26 Trump associates for the Five Eyes to target.” According to the journalists, a source confirmed the IC had “identified [those associates] as people to ‘bump,’ or make contact with or manipulate,” and claimed the individuals were “targets of our own IC and law enforcement — targets for collection and misinformation.”

A source close to the investigation reportedly told the team of journalists that “[t]hey were making contacts and bumping Trump people going back to March 2016,” and “sending people around the UK, Australia, Italy — the Mossad in Italy. The MI6 was working at an intelligence school they had set up.”

Shellenberger, Taibbi, and Gutentag further reported their sources’ claim that “[u]nknown details about the FBI’s investigation of the Trump campaign and raw intelligence related to the IC’s surveillance of the Trump campaign are in a 10-inch binder that Trump ordered to be declassified at the very end of his term.” The three journalists stressed that this new information “is supported by testimony already in the public record.” In fact, much of the article confirms theories developed from the evidence gleaned over the years.

Years of Evidence

For instance, in “All The Russia Collusion Clues Are Beginning To Point Back To John Brennan,” I highlighted Brennan’s testimony to the House Intelligence Committee in May 2017 that he had “encountered and am aware of information and intelligence that revealed contacts and interactions between Russian officials and U.S. persons involved in the Trump campaign that I was concerned about.” Brennan told the committee back then that he didn’t know whether there was collusion with Russia, but that he passed the information on to the FBI. As I wrote at the time:

The evidence suggests, however, that Brennan’s CIA and the intelligence community did much more than merely pass on details about ‘contacts and interactions between Russian officials and U.S. persons involved in the Trump campaign’ to the FBI. The evidence suggests that the CIA and intelligence community — including potentially the intelligence communities of the UK, Italy, and Australia — created the contacts and interactions that they then reported to the FBI as suspicious.

The known entities of this apparent conspiracy included Stefan Halper, an American confidential human source (CHS) informant for the FBI who, as I wrote at The Federalist, “worked at Cambridge University alongside Sir Richard Dearlove, the former director of the British intelligence service MI6, and Christopher Andrew, the official historian for the British counterintelligence group MI5.”

It has long been known that Halper reached out to several members of the Trump campaign as a CHS for the Crossfire Hurricane team. But Halper’s efforts to ingratiate himself began before the official launch on July 31, 2016. In mid-July 2016, Halper approached Carter Page at a conference at Cambridge. American Steven Schrage, who organized that conference, detailed the happenings in the article “The Spies Who Hijacked America.”

As Schrage told it, “For most of the conference, Halper couldn’t be bothered with Page, about whom he made snarky comments about behind Page’s back.” But that changed after Dearlove arrived at the conference and spoke with Halper. Halper then “seemed desperately interested in isolating, cornering, and ingratiating himself to Page and promoting himself to the Trump campaign,” Schrage wrote.

While Halper’s outreach to Page came only a couple of weeks before the launch of Crossfire Hurricane, the apparent targeting of Trump campaign volunteer George Papadopoulos first occurred in March 2016. Open-source material reveals that “on March 14, 2016, George met London-based college Professor Joseph Mifsud while traveling in Italy.” At the time, “Mifsud, then director of the London Academy of Diplomacy, claimed connections to the Russian Government.”

According to Papadopoulos, he had traveled to Italy, specifically Rome, at the encouragement of “a woman in London, who was the FBI’s legal attaché in the U.K.” That initial meeting of Mifsud led to several more, including the fateful one where Mifsud supposedly told Papadopoulos that the Russians had dirt on Hillary Clinton — the conversation the FBI claimed justified the launching of Crossfire Hurricane.

As has been detailed at length, most comprehensively by Lee Smith at RealClearInvestigations, Mifsud has numerous connections to Western intelligence services and has taught at the Link Campus University in Rome, a university whose “lecturers and professors include senior Western diplomats and intelligence officials from a number of NATO countries, especially Italy and the United Kingdom.”

Confirming Theories

These details closely match the information that sources revealed to Shellenberger, Taibbi, and Gutentag. And should the raw intelligence reports exist, as those sources claim, there will be concrete confirmation that foreign intelligence services targeted the Trump campaign, which in turn will confirm many of the theories posited about the real start of the Russia-collusion hoax.

It seems unlikely there will be anything in writing to establish John Brennan or another member of the U.S. Intelligence Community solicited assistance from the other members of Five Eyes. Nonetheless, Americans deserve to know what was in that 10-inch binder and which foreign intelligence services interfered in our 2016 election by “bumping” members of the Trump campaign to craft the Russia hoax.

The now-known significance of that binder also raises the specter that the search of Mar-a-Lago wasn’t to protect classified materials but to protect intelligence agencies — American and foreign.

A Day In The Life.

Up at 6:30a on Friday, I went thru my finger stick to check my BSL (Blood Sugar Level) and recorded it on my Diabetes 2 chart, made coffee, had 2 fresh Croissants for breakfast, took two 50mg Tramadol and a 300mg Gabapentin for various back pains, fired-up the Win-7 Pentium HP desktop to let 32 million lines of code load, had a couple smokes in the semi-cool garage. R/S back/hip/leg pain was moderate, so one 50mg Tramadol and a Bayer 500mg Aspirin helped.

Beware the Ides of March.

It was a damp, cool, 36° overcast morning, with a sunny day ahead. Showers and t-storms were forecast for tonight and all day tomorrow. I fired-up the furnace and garage heater, to take the chill off, and scanned the news and weather sites. At least all the rain we've had last week wasn't snow. I'm not going over to the New Eastern Farmers' Market this morning, as I usually do, since I need to cut back on carbs from Pasta Plus, my favorite store at the Market. I tuned into the "Chris Stigall Show LIVE" (CS Show) from 6-9a, and then the "Chris Plante Show LIVE" (CP Show) 9-12noon, and finally to the Rob Carson Show LIVE (RC Show) 12-3p.

The unhinged Husk...

Since I didn't watch the SOTU last night, I got all I never wanted to hear on the "CS Show" and "CP Show" Talk Radio Shows, from 6-9 and 9-12 respectively, all morning. I also saw clips on Fox News, and was glad I didn't watch that old lunatic ranting and raving about the imaginary bullshit which offends him. His advanced dementia is on full display. The usual leftist, socialist, liberal, communist, fascist, progressive, Marxist, hate-America crowd at the DNC-Media stations on TV were replaying all, or parts, of the unhinged, droning, idiotic "nasty speech" endlessly, with fawning commentary for The Husk. The clapping, leftist demonKKKrat seals in the US Congress were a sight to behold; sickening, treasonous and lowlife scumbags, all. Here's Joey Bidet&Co's list of LIES during the unhinged SOTU speech. No, I didn't watch the GOP rebuttal by US Sen Katie Britt to the Husk's speech; I tried, but her whining, 'saccharin' voice was quivering so badly it sounded like she was going to cry. For the few minutes I did listen, it was pitiful. Good message, terrible delivery. I truly hope we can survive the next 8 months of Bidet&Co leftism, and that we win the WH in November, with Trump, our America is truly F•CKED and beyond repair.

And a Gold Star dad was arrested for heckling the shit-for-brains Bidet&Co MORON, on the misdemeanor charge of Crowding, Obstructing, or Incommoding. WTF?!

I lounged around most of the morning, listening to both Talk Radio Shows, sent an email note to Matt and Nick, from York's MBIT Group and the wonderful, now-closed, former Spartan Computer, here in East York, that I went to, for many years, that I wanted to get a new desktop computer. I was on the phone with my Geisinger Gold Health, about an annual home visit, ordered by mu PCP, that I received a denial for. Agent Bianca was very good nd got it handled.

I had a late lunch, took a package two units over to my friend and neighbor for his hot-rodded VW GTI, and did some paperwork, as it was cold and raw outside; not a nice day to be out. Aw shit, we have to set clocks AHEAD this Saturday to DST (Daylight Savings Time). Why can't the freaking gov't scumbags just get out of our lives? Yeah sadly I know the 'answer'. I watched Motor Trend's "Iron Resurrection" until History's "Ancient Aliens" came on, and watched that new season's series until 2a. Lights out.

Up at 9:30a on Saturday, to a cloudy, 41° morning. No, I don't fee "guilty" when I sleep late; I enjoy it. I upped the heat in the condo to 74°, fired-up the garage heater, started coffee, checked the news and weather sites, and reminded myself to get clock set back 1hr, tonite. What a stupid, freaking, idiotic thing we do 2x a year. And the worthless morons in the Congress will never change it to permanent DST. They love their "studies", "hearings", "testimony" and other related worthless crap, costing us Taxpayers tens-of-millions, and nothing ever gets done on an archaic law, in effect since WWI, which was benefiting our farmers back then.

The rain started around 10:30, and was forecast to last all day, with a NWS-issued ***WIND ADVISORY*** issued for those driving trucks with a 'high profile' trailer. I had an Onion Bagel for a light breakfast, started 1-of-2 loads of laundry, and did a few condo chores, while listening to some recent "CS Show" Podcasts.

Heh, the national change to CBDC is coming apace; 222 more US Bank branch offices have closed, nationwide. One day, without warning, all banks and ATMs will be closed and unavailable to walk-in customers, and we'll lose our monies/funds in banks, and be subject to the horrors of CBDC. 97% of Americans won't even know it was coming, hit us unexpectedly or know what to do once it has. Stockpile cash in a safe place, plenty of coinage and small bills, as they'll always be a use and 'black market' for it.

Heh, I forgot to watch the LIVE broadcast of the 2024 F1 Grand Prix from Saudi Arabia, at 12 noon, what with all the chores and stuff that I was doing, so I watched the 30min replay of the 2hr race, on F1-TV, and it was another good one. Young Max Verstappen (Netherlands) won, as he's done for the past 2 seasons, and is the two-time World Driving Champion. Next race: Next stop: Australia, then Japan, and off to China... 21 races in the F1 season. F1 is my favorite racing venue.

I set the clocks ahead 1hr, did some more condo chores, had some BBQ for dinner and watched Discovery's "Homestead Rescue" and History's "unXplained" until 11:30 (really 10:30, dammit), and unplugged. Busy day, tomorrow.

★ HIGH WIND WARNING! ★
• HIGH WIND WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 1 PM THIS AFTERNOON TO 8 PM MONDAY
• WHAT... West-Northwest winds 25 to 35 MPH with gusts up to 70 MPH expected.
• WHERE... Portions of central Pennsylvania, including the Susquehanna Valley.
• IMPACTS... Gusty winds could blow around unsecured objects. Tree limbs could be blown down, and power outages may result.
• PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... Use extra caution when driving, especially if operating a high profile vehicle. Secure outdoor objects.

Awake and up at 5:45a on Sunday, a cloudy, drizzly, foggy 41°, with rain or snow showers for this afternoon, and a 47° high. I made coffee, took 2 50mg Tramadol for R/S lower back/hip/leg pain, tuned into some of the recent "CS Show Podcasts" and opened the garage door, for a few minutes, to get some fresh air. I had a couple of Mini-Croissants for breakfast, got ready for the day, and for Sherry who'd be here by 1p. She called just before 12noon, and with the 50-75mph winds, power lines down and snow squalls blowing thru, we decided to reschedule, to Wednesday. Best to err on the side of caution. I saw trash and recycle bins, a pile of cardboard cartons and a beach chair blowing down my street! Wowzer!.

Nothing on TV except a crazy movie on the SyFy Channel, called Scary Movie 5, which reminded me of the old original "Airplane" movie, with all the jokes and gags, weaved into a horror movie. Sort of entertaining. Meh. The wind howled and howled outside, as th Nor'Easter very slowly passed thru, and the forecast predicts it'll be here all day tomorrow, too. I had dinner, watched some weird vampire/Frankenstein movies on the TV's SyFy Channel, and called it a day, at 12midnight.

Awake and up at around 8:30a on Monday -- my Circadian Rythmn is still affected from the time change, but it was NICE to sleep some extra hours! -- it was a beautiful, clear, sunny 36° W-I-N-D-Y morning, as the Nor'Easter continued to move thru the York area. I fired-up the furnace, made coffee in my new, replacement Chemex Ottomatic v2.0 machine, and tuned into the "CP Show" until 12noon. I scanned the weather sites, and checked news headlines on several source sites. I checked MetEd's POwer Outage map status, and only were reported, so not too bad at all.

I lounged around until just after 12noon, and left for points south, to get my washed/starched/pressed jeans and shirts at DeVono's and do a few other errands. 2hrs later -- after 9 "Road Construction Ahead" and "One Lane Ahead" PennDOT chokepoints, I finally got home, unpacked and ordered a 16" Domino's Pizza w/ Marinara Sauce, Italian Sausage, Beef Sausage, Mushrooms, Red Peppers, Yellow Banana Peppers, Extra Cheese, and a 7" Philly Cheese Steak, and Bacon & Cheese-Loaded Tater Tots®, delivered. Yes, the Domino's in East York does make GOOD food. Next timer, when I have some time, I'll call-in and p/u an order from the highly-recommended al Bacio in North York.

I had some condo chores to do, a few calls to make, with one to my CPA to get my tax prep packet to them on Friday afternoon -- I finally have all the WF Bank investment 1099s I need -- tuned into the evening news. After dinner, because Monday is an "NBC Day" -- Nothing But Crap on TV -- I found a horror/comedy to watch on SyFy Channel, called "Van Helsing" (YT clip on L/S of page). After watching until 11p, I unplugged for the day.

Up at 5:11a (4:11a (I'm still on DST time) on Tuesday, a dark, clear, balmy 45°, still windy but not as bad as the past 2 days, and fired-up the furnace anyway, and had a couple smokes in the warming garage, after opening it for some fresh air. I made coffee, tuned into the "CS Show", scanned the news headlines and weather sites. At 9a, I switched to the "CP Show", started a load of laundry, and planned on finishing-up the 2023 tax prep work, to deliver the package w/ questionnaire, to my CPA on Friday, after their lunch hour.

I had leftover Pizza and Tater Tots w/ Bacon & Cheese, for lunch, grabbed a 2½hr snooze on the LR couch, and had 2 pints of Häagen Dazs ("Cookies and Cream" and "Rum Raisin") Ice Cream, after getting back up at 4p. Nice nap, but I was very groggy and unsteady for the rest of the evening. I watched the evening news, History's "Curse of Oak Island" until 10p, and unplugged. I need sleep.

Hitlery Rotten Klintoon to prison!

Sleeping-in until 7a on Wednesday, I felt pretty good after getting 9hrs. It was a sunny-turning-to-overcast sky, another warm 45° morning, with a forecast high of 71°, so Sherry and I'd be walking in the nearby Springettsbury Twp Park, today. I upped the heat, made coffee and tuned into the "CS Show" until 9, then switched to the "CP Show" until noon. I scanned the news headlines on several sites, while listening to Talk Radio, and lounged around all morning, and finally got ready for the day, at 11:30.

Yes, this Tik Tok bullshit controversy is just a "shiny thing", meant to DISTRACT the US Congress and American Public, from the world's events, especially the corrupt, criminal China actions. And there are other distractions -- Ukraine-Ukraine-Ukraine!, South America, Haiti, the US Border is a long-running diversion, etc -- meant to divert our National Scrutiny away from the 'bad players', on the world stage. America needs to FOCUS, and get rid of the distraction, on the real danger to itself -- the Southern & now Northern Borders will lead to jihadi muslim(SPIT!) terrorists mounting a massive, nationwide attack on "soft targets". It's coming, and all too soon.

I had a quick lunch and Sherry arrived at 1p. She drove us down to the park, walked for a while -- trees budded-up and some cherries and maples -- ready to break bud and bloom -- drove over to SKH Garden Center and looked around, but not much out for sale yet -- lots of pansies -- and went back to my place. She left at 4:30p, and I continued to enjoy the 75° day. By 7p, temps were dropping slowly, so I closed-up, had some dinner and watched History's "American Pickers" until 11:30, and called it a day.

Bud break is happening early.

Awake and up at 7a, to a beautiful, clear, sunny, warm 45° morning, I fired-up the furnace and garage heater, made coffee, took 2 50mg Tramadol and one 500mg Bayer Aspirin for R/S Sciatica pain, started the desktop and let the code load, while having a couple of Marlboros in the garage. Coffee was great, as usual, and as it neared the end of the vintage Starbuck's Coffee Canister's Medium Roast Italian Coffee, I opened a bag of Dark French Roast, usual Turkish grind. I fed the squirrels a handful of peanuts, as usual, while in the garage, having a smoke. I had Apple Bread Toast for a light breakfast, got ready for the day, and planned to finish-up all tax paperwork by 1p. ✔ Done.

Heh, The InterNet Archive is asking me to review and upload various sites w/ my reviews. Maybe I should? Well, I'll have to hunt around for some new sites of interest, which is hard to do, these days.

Another beautiful day, so I opened-up the condo's windows and doors (I have the Larson Retractable storm/screen doors front & back), finished-up the Domino's Pizza, packaged-up my 2023 Tax Return paperwork for tomorrow delivery to my CPA, south in Dallastown, and also planned to get to the New Eastern Farmers' Market, near my condo in East York. By 2p, temps were nearing 80°, and I had a great breeze thru the condo. After some condo chores, I caught a 2hr snooze, and buttoned-up the place as dusk arrived.

After dinner, it was truly an "NBC Night" (Nothing But Crap) on TV, so I watched a few recent replay episodes of History's "Ancient Aliens" and unplugged at 11p.

Tomorrow starts a new week here in the "Journal", and it's a clear one, so far. I have some lab work/blood tests to get done, but there's no hurry for those, until next month os so.

An Aging Puppet.

The harm President Biden is doing goes far beyond public policy and geopolitical mistakes. The damage has not only stained the presidency, but has permeated American culture and any other culture that has access to audio and video of him. At this point, we must acknowledge that the Democrat party is responsible for the damage, and the president can no longer be held accountable for his actions. In addition to jeopardizing multiple American interests, the president’s deteriorating health -- being allowed to play out as it is on the international stage -- reinforces stereotypes and encourages prejudice and discrimination against elderly people everywhere.

A few weeks ago, I had a nightmare about President Biden. I dreamed he was standing behind the presidential podium looking like Jeff Dunham’s puppet Walter, the grumpy old man. Like Walter, Biden had the severely narrowed eyes, angry eyebrows, and downturned mouth. Also like Walter, Biden was angrily barking at people. It wasn’t just annoying, it was horrifying. I woke up only to realize it was all true: This man really was the leader of the free world.

Let me give you a quick background as to what might have caused a nightmare like this. Firstly, I was raised to respect the presidency, even when the office was held by someone I completely disagreed with. My parents taught me that it was my civic duty not only to vote, but to be actively involved in maintaining the culture and preserving our freedoms intact for the next generation.

I grew up watching every State of the Union speech, no matter who occupied the presidency. It was, after all, my country’s status quo that was being addressed, so I was obligated to watch it. In short, it was ingrained in me to take my native-born citizenship very seriously. We called it “patriotism.”

Now consider this: I had cared for my father with Alzheimer’s for eight years, a journey I documented in an emotional article the year he passed. I did it because I didn’t believe that family members should be shipped off to nursing homes. It was a decision I often regret due to the physical and mental stress I endured; but it was a sacrifice I chose to make. It’s been eight years since he passed and I still have disturbing flashbacks. The disease had slowly turned my father from a laid back, fun guy who drew cartoons and whittled toys -- to a paranoid militant who stashed knives under his pillow and put banana skins at the top of the stairs. It was gut-wrenching.

Somehow, we survivors -- caregivers who endure despite battle scars inside and out -- eventually learn to remember the lifetime of happiness we enjoyed with our loved ones, even as we push the bad memories of their waning years to the back of our minds.

But when President Biden totters up to the podium and begins a sometimes-unintelligible angry tirade against his target-of-the-day, it all comes back. Combine the bad memories of my father’s last years with the fact that any semblance of reverence or respect is being stripped from the American presidency, and voila! Welcome to my nightmare.

While not all dementia or Alzheimer’s patients show increased aggression or angry behavior, many of them do. They may curse, hurl insults, or yell at you. Short of losing their sanity, the caregiver becomes a kind of expert diplomat, taking note of triggers that might warn of the coming combative behavior. Sometimes there are no clues, just rage.

Victor Davis Hanson wrote in his article “One Angry Biden Lie After Another:” “A demagogic fuming Biden gave another Phantom of the Opera speech blasting conservatives for all the destruction that he has caused… All too aware that he was confused and incoherent, his handlers felt that the antidote was to come out barking and bellowing at his imaginary enemies.”

We also watched in disbelief as the executive branch attacked the judicial branch, with President Biden “having an invective against the Supreme Court justices” sitting directly in front of him in the chamber. I’ve never seen anything like it; it was like watching someone sucker-punch the Constitution.

The American Psychological Association (APA), addressing the issue of ageism, pointed out that “While it is true that the risk of some chronic diseases and dementia increases with age, most older adults maintain quite good health and cognitive functioning,” adding “Aging is a very diverse process, and there are great differences between individuals.”

That’s why Trump denies Biden is “too old” to be president, because you can’t judge a person’s ability based solely on age when they’re exhibiting symptoms of a serious disease like dementia (which I believe President Biden has).

Unfortunately for Trump, the media keep lumping he and Biden together, forcing us to discuss Trump’s age and memory instead of focusing on the elephant in the room.

It's no surprise to learn that a majority of voters now think Biden is too old to be an effective president, as many people are becoming convinced that being 81 looks like the current occupant of the White House. That mistaken belief will eventually manifest itself in people’s behavior toward family members and beyond, contributing to one of the last socially acceptable prejudices – discrimination against the elderly.

Every time President Biden comes out swinging, we don’t hear policy points or intellectual debate, we hear “You kids get off my lawn!” People are laughing not only at President Biden, but at the character of a senile old man he’s become; and that’s just bad for our society on so many levels.

[H/T Pastor Tom].

A Last Look At The SOTU.

A weekend has passed since FJB resumed his insults at the SOTU.

Everybody who matters (and a fair number who don’t) weighed in, and the scales are tipping very much against the president.

Actually, apart from the lies, fabrications, inventions, and poppycock, the old fornicator did O.K. if you tally up his “didn’ts”: Didn’t fall down. Didn’t wander across the stage looking lost. Didn’t shake hands with the Invisible Man. Didn't commit a Swalwell in front of the whole world.

On a brighter note, he also didn't whisper naughty things to an appointee’s wife. Or treat us to another hair-sniffing or feeling up a little girl. Maybe Joe has moved on from performance art?

The production team could put on fiddle music from a John Wayne donnybrook.

You just never know. FJB might have been taking krav maga lessons at night after all presidential duties have been properly ignored.

And you thought he was hitting the hay early. Still and all, Joe without his 6-foot length of chain – I’d be betting on Trump.

[H/T Pastor Tom].

Central Banks and Domestic Spies.

Central banks and espionage agencies are insidious threats to any free people. The former manipulate the value of money, and the latter manipulate the perceived truthfulness of information. Both ostensibly work for the broader public’s “best interest,” but as is true of all institutions, they ultimately serve the interests of those people who run them. Spies and bankers should not have so much power over free citizens.

Both institutions are not only plainly anti-democratic but also inherently authoritarian. The central banker says, “Free markets cannot be trusted to direct the flow of goods and services, so a small collection of experts must be empowered to manipulate markets at their discretion.” The spy agency says, “Free peoples cannot be trusted to make wise decisions based upon available information, so a small collection of experts must be empowered to manipulate what the public knows.” In both instances, freedom is diminished. Adam Smith’s “invisible hand” of the marketplace is replaced with a banker’s gloved fist. Self-government is superseded by a national security surveillance State. A small caste of people exercise enormous power over everyone else.

Should real free markets ever return to the West, future commentators will surely look back at this era and wonder how sensible people could have mistaken their economies for anything but command-and-control enterprises. “The institutions controlling their markets were literally called ‘central banks,’” they will scoff. We will appear quite gullible. Perhaps the biggest “tell” that we have been living under the mere illusion of free markets is the uncomfortable truth that the central banks of closed communist nations are scarcely distinguishable from those purporting to undergird capitalism. Both use their powers to choose economic winners and losers.

As with all human-devised schemes that ultimately betray their stated purpose, centralized control over the supply of monetary currency has been sold to the public as a necessary contrivance for the “collective good.” In this way, free peoples have handed authority over markets to a cabal of bankers who promise to maintain invaluable safeguards against economic volatility, unemployment, inflation, and poverty (even when these goals contradict one another). Just as with mice and men, the best laid plans of central bankers often go awry. On the other hand, if their plan is to create periodic inflationary bubbles that allow wealthy investors to artificially grow the value of their assets before collapsing the economy, destroying middle-class workers’ life savings, and buying up bankrupt businesses for pennies on the dollar, then the central bankers get it right every time.

In the United States, the privately owned central bank known as the Federal Reserve provided so much stability (sarcasm alert!) that within two decades of its creation, its centralized management of the economy helped usher in the Great Depression. Instead of recognizing the social cost of that economic crisis as demonstrable evidence that central banks cannot prevent catastrophe, or worse, actually facilitate catastrophe, the Federal Reserve used its own failures to further justify its continued existence. Without us, things would have been so much worse! Where have we heard that excuse recently? Oh, right, it’s what the Centers for Disease Control, the Food and Drug Administration, and pharmaceutical bigwigs keep saying about their experimental “vaccines.” Birds of a feather scam the public together, after all.

The worst part of central bank tyranny is that it has destroyed sound money and private savings. In every country, a similar story has played out. First, people trade goods and services using some form of precious metal as a medium of exchange because gold and silver have historically retained their value over time. Next, a government mints coins made from those metals in order to promote lucrative trade. Then, inherently worthless paper currencies are introduced that are backed by the government’s promise that they may be redeemed for gold or silver at any time. Finally, after people are accustomed to using paper currency, its tether to gold and silver is cut. So long as people continue to participate under the delusion that paper currencies have innate value, central banks and governments can print more worthless notes whenever bankers or governments need money. Inflation is the inevitable result. Whereas a person who earns an income in gold coins can store that gold and find that the value of his labor remains the same fifty years later, a person who earns an income in paper banknotes will find that the value of his savings (his stored labor) has evaporated. Central banks have destroyed sound money, middle-class savings, self-sufficiency, and private property.

What they have created is a government money tree that uses central bank inflation to steal from the public in order to finance the military infrastructure, policy preferences, and bureaucratic armies of the State. Espionage agencies — with their black budgets and covert mission directives — should be aberrations for any free society. Instead, central bank funny money ensures that they are well funded and independent operators whether the public wishes them to exist or not.

In every society, two monopolistic drives exist — one that seeks control over wealth and another that seeks control over information. Eventually, these monopolistic forces combine in order to maximize their power over ordinary citizens. Markets, after all, react to publicly released information, and spy agencies are only as robust as their operating budgets. It should be no surprise, then, that former intelligence operatives fill the ranks of not only defense contractors and weapons manufacturers, but also of news corporations, social media powerhouses, pharmaceutical companies, and global investment banks. There is a symbiotic relationship between those who possess secret knowledge and those who generate wealth. Just as central banks manipulate the supply of money for profit, spies manipulate the supply of information for profit, too. Companies that track and data-mine our private information are in the espionage business. Intelligence agencies that warp public knowledge for institutional gain are in the business of destroying democratic republics.

Unfortunately, the mother lode of profitable surveillance-gathering lies just up ahead: central bank digital currencies. If governments are permitted to foist CBDCs upon the public, the unholy marriage between central banks and espionage agencies will be complete. In a world where money is created at the stroke of a key and private transactions are tracked in real time, there will be no such thing as private property, let alone real privacy.

However, there is a corollary to this emerging nightmare of total financial surveillance: the reintroduction of sound money based in gold and silver will support not only a return of free markets, but also a return of relative privacy. In order to curtail the tyranny of central banks and espionage agencies, ordinary citizens must starve the State. The easiest way to do so is to reject funny money for good.

If we were trying to explain to an enslaved society what freedom entails, we might say that free peoples own the fruits of their labor, communicate without external constraints, and trade among themselves according to their wants and needs. Free markets, private property, and free speech are the bedrock of any free society. We would not, however, describe freedom as a condition in which property rights are heavily regulated, trade is heavily supervised, labor is heavily taxed, monetary currencies are heavily inflated, or information is heavily censored. Enslaved societies are already intimately familiar with these attributes because they are the essential constraints burdening anyone living in bondage. If an enslaved people were trying to explain to us why anyone would ever choose to live in a state of bondage, they might say that most enslaved people don’t realize that they’re already living as slaves.

Central bank manipulation of money turns free citizens into debt slaves and finances the national security architecture that keeps them permanently chained.

Biden's 2024 Advantage: An Alliance of Elites Rigging The Game.

By a strange process of transformation, Joe Biden has become Jimmy Carter.

Everything he touches turns into a crisis.

Like Carter, Biden has presided over an inflationary economy, spiking interest rates, shortages of essential goods, and danger and disaster abroad.

By a strange process of transformation, Joe Biden has become Jimmy Carter.

The world responded with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the agonizing hostage crisis in Iran.

Biden’s self-inflicted rout from Afghanistan was followed by the release of $6 billion to the religious mafia that rules Iran.

In return, the Iranian regime has encouraged its proxies to kill American soldiers and attack American warships.

The most important way in which Biden resembles Carter is this: Voters have made up their minds about him.

They think he’s a loser, and they want him gone.

Biden is a loser.

If 2024 were a normal presidential election, Donald Trump would beat him like a drum.

Nikki Haley would beat him.

Spongebob Squarepants would beat him.

Unlike Carter, who really was the Democratic front man, Biden is a sock puppet for an institutional conglomerate that exercises enormous influence over our national politics, our government, and our culture.

I’m not talking about Trump’s complaint that he was robbed at the polls in 2020, a sterile controversy best passed over in silence.

The options available to Our Democracy are, in reality, far more tentacular and oppressive than crude ballot-stuffing.

Or it can take the truth and bury it so deep that it has suffocated to death by the time some determined soul unearths it -- think Hunter Biden.

Well, here is a partial roster of the institutions Our Democracy controls at the moment: the White House, half of Congress, the federal bureaucracy, the scientific establishment and expert class in general, the old prestige media, the new digital media (minus Twitter/X), the universities, the arts and entertainment world, and famous corporations from Coca-Cola to Nike.

When these gigantic entities synchronize their voices, the chorus is so deafening little else can be heard within the information sphere.

And when they withdraw their attention -- as they have from Americans left behind in Afghanistan or taken hostage by Hamas -- it’s as if it never happened.

What does Our Democracy want?

The measure of success is the number of Americans placed in a position of dependence to the elite class.

More immediately, the objective is the permanent dominance of the Democratic Party, political home and bastion of that class.

Thus when Hunter Biden, son of the Democratic presidential candidate, abandoned a laptop crammed with all sorts of scandalous material, Our Democracy conscripted 51 intelligence executives, who surely knew better, to dismiss it all as a Russian "hack."

And behold, there was no laptop.

And when Trump, a Republican president, speculated about COVID-19 having started with a laboratory leak in Wuhan, China, Our Democracy dragooned five scientists, several of whom had speculated along the same lines as Trump, to author a "study" contradicting him and themselves.

Suddenly, blaming China betrayed a racist predisposition.

Consequently, Trump, the likely Republican candidate, must always be a moral impossibility -- a "dictator," an "authoritarian," a Mussolini from the fascist heartland of Queens.

Listen to The New York Times, Atlantic, Politico: Trump isn’t merely a bad candidate -- he’s beyond the pale.

The harsher the attacks, however, the higher Trump seems to climb: to the horror of the elites, he’s presently trouncing Biden in most opinion polls.

So he must be disposed of somehow.

He must be prosecuted in heavily Democratic venues and indicted, not once or twice but 91 times.

And just in case, his name must be removed from the ballot: the ideal election under Our Democracy, is a choice of one.

Fear and loathing of Trump is a defining feature of elite sensibility, but any politician who threatens Biden’s re-election will get the same treatment. Robert Kennedy, Jr., who is making a third-party bid, has been called "vile" and "racist."

The No Labels group, which is considering fielding a candidate, has been accused of "brain-breaking logic" that promotes "less democracy."

Nikki Haley has so far been spared because she is thought to weaken Trump.

The moment she endangers Biden, we can be sure that The New York Times will reveal her participation in a sex trafficking ring or possibly ritual cannibalism.

Nobody is so insignificant as to avoid the tentacles of the conglomerate.

Only in this sense is Our Democracy truly democratic: all of us, high and low, are given our marching orders, which we defy at our peril.

Parents of schoolchildren who dissented from the identity creed have been treated like domestic terrorists.

Participants at the pro-Trump Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol building were prosecuted as subversives and punished with long prison sentences.

Other critics have been subjected to harassment from federal agencies like the IRS and the FBI.

A convoluted censorship apparatus was erected at the start of the pandemic, eventually giving the White House control over what was allowed to be said on all the major digital platforms.

President Biden appears in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 28. Biden took credit for declining crime rates in parts of the U.S. as he seeks to reverse potentially damaging public perceptions that violence and lawlessness are on the rise.

The FBI, faithful servant of the system, stood guard over forbidden speech: unorthodox opinions about the virus at first, but soon, inevitably, the ban spread to topics that favored Trump and the Republicans, identity heresy, Ukraine war criticism, mockery of the Biden administration — pretty much everything the First Amendment was enacted to protect.

Without warrant or warning, millions of posts by ordinary Americans were taken down.

Some of those posters were permanently silenced.

Trumpist websites were arbitrarily "deplatformed."

Nothing like it had been seen in our country since John Adams rubbed his hands with glee over the Alien and Sedition Acts.

One might have expected members of the entity formerly known as "the press" to investigate the abuses and raise the alarm.

That idea is too retro for words, literally.

Today, the great organs of the news media are happy to serve as attack dogs of the elite class and obedient apologists of institutional power.

Our Democracy aims to dominate the information sphere -- as things now stand, it can speak loudly to everyone, while its opponents, shoved into an informational ghetto, speak mostly to themselves.

This is the array of forces standing behind the doddering, stupefied figure of Joe Biden, eager to foist him on American voters.

Our Democracy is the true candidate and ultimate question to be settled by the 2024 election.

It is battling mightily, with every weapon available, to destroy Trump and other obstacles to its continued rule.

Sooner or later, I imagine, it will succeed.

The wisdom of Ecclesiastes tells us that the fight does not go to the strong — but a political analyst would be crazy to bet any other way.

Is it possible to identify a glimmer of optimism somewhere in this bleak landscape?

I can think of two strategic vulnerabilities that should trouble Our Democracy.

One is the massive unpopularity of its policy positions.

Large majorities of Americans of all races and political leanings question the sanity of open borders, for example, and believe that merit rather than grievance should determine outcomes.

If the 2024 election is fought on the merits of the case, the Democrats lose big.

The second vulnerability is Biden’s obvious and extraordinary unfitness to stay on as president.

The report by Special Counsel Robert Hur, which characterized the president as "an elderly man with poor memory," was official confirmation of what we can plainly see with our own eyes.

Old age is terminal: there’s no fixing Biden, and there’s no clear way out of this mess for the Democrats.

If he clings to power, he will continue to decline physically and politically, opening the door to a Republican victory in 2024 -- in the person, it may be, of the dreaded Trump.

If Biden turns down a second term at this late hour, his vice president, Kamala Harris, would be the natural heir to the party leadership, but she’s even more unpopular than he is.

With Harris as candidate, defeat would be virtually certain.

If a free-for-all erupts over the top spot, either because Biden has offered to abdicate or because the paladins of Our Democracy wish to shove him aside, the internal trauma to the Democratic Party would probably prove fatal, regardless of who the winner might be.

The Democratic establishment is solid but brittle.

Once it crumbles, the agents of chaos will be in command, as they have been for some time in the Republican Party.

To my mind, these are low-probability events, as the elites realize how much they stand to lose and will huddle in a conformist herd for protection.

Fortunately, however, history is not a mathematical proposition -- and one can always hope.

Mortifying State Of The Union.

Seldom in American history has a president so boldly insulted the American people, played demagogue, or taken us for fools – as Joe Biden did last week in his bag-of-air State of the Union. It was mortifying.

If you did not hear it, he began by comparing himself to FDR in 1941. A starker contrast is hard to imagine. FDR faced real war, with thousands of Americans and allies dead, while Biden failed to deter our enemies, hemorrhages credibility with inaction, condemned tens of thousands of US allies to death by Taliban torture, killed Americans there with his incompetence, and bowed to Iran and China. Not FDR.

Biden then extends his audacious analogy, saying “Hitler was on the march,” again. Who is Hitler? Donald Trump. “Freedom and Democracy were under assault,” but who is the real Assaulter-in-Chief, sowing fear, oppressing rights? How about Biden?

Citing the Civil War, grossly inapt, Biden calls it an “…unprecedented moment in the history of the union.” Yes, when a president calls those who vote against him enemies of the people,” tries to jail his opponent, like Putin did. What next?

Biden punishes critics, FBI and IRS whistleblowers, lawyers, parents. “Not since President Lincoln and the Civil War have freedom and democracy been under assault at home as they are today.” Hmmm.

Biden trashes the rule of law, the Supreme Court, separation of powers, and border security. He ignores the High Court -- panders to voters with unconstitutional loan forgiveness, and waves in illegals. He demoralizes police, pushes wokeness in the military, arrests peaceful anti-abortion protestors, criminalizes parents, puts the FBI in churches, and calls patriotic Christians dangerous “Christian nationalists.

Biden takes his son globetrotting to shake down foreigners, meets 20 times with his partners, and denies it all. More than rankling, that is criminal. The Attorney General? Busy prosecuting his chief opponent.

Deflecting failure, Biden says, “If anyone in this room thinks Putin will stop at Ukraine, I assure you, he will not.” Well, an interesting assertion, as Putin’s stated aim is – while wrong – is Crimea, which was once part of Russia. France never was. Plus, Putin’s army is weak, shrinking, and losing.

“No American soldiers at war in Ukraine…” Maybe, maybe not. That’s what Kennedy said before Vietnam; advisors were already there. Biden the demagogue: “Assistance to Ukraine is being blocked by those who want to walk away from Ukraine.” No, they want accountability, sir.

He says Trump does not support NATO. He does of course, but wants accountability, a word Biden hates. Make no mistake, 90 percent of NATO’s fighting force is US troops, planes, and ships.

He says Trump is “emboldening others to what they wish to do us harm.” Those are Biden’s mangled words, but he is after Trump. This from Biden who told Putin “a minor incursion” into Ukraine was okay, bows to Iran, China, and others who “wish to do us harm.” Really?

He dwells on the idea of “insurrection,” presumably pushed by Trump. Does demagoguery purer? Where is a prosecution of one person for insurrection? Plus 9-0, the Supreme Court does not buy it.

Having seen real insurrections around the world, as Powell’s Assistant Secretary of State running operations, that event was not it. No automatic weapons, hundreds dead, just bad behavior, ugly, criminal, inappropriate, but not about to flip our nation.

Biden says, “January 6^th posed the gravest threat to democracy since the civil war.” Really? Not WWI, WWII, Pearl Harbor, Battle of the Bulge, China’s hydrogen bomb, Korean War, Cuban Missile Crisis, Vietnam, near-nuclear Mideast crises in 1973, 1991, not 9-11? Not that Russia collusion falsehood?

Biden wants us to “respect free and fair elections,” sure, so let’s guarantee them with mandatory identification of citizen-voters, no ballot harvesting, and no shooing poll watchers out.

He lectured us. “Restore trust in our institutions.” Hmmm, the ones he daily trashes, Supreme Court, Congress, churches, school boards, families, police, or for that matter the presidency, in free fall?

Like a school Marm late to tell kids not to be late, Biden says “Political violence has absolutely no place.” Like your peaceful allies in 2020, who burned 200 cities? That kind of peaceful? Look in the mirror, sir.

Biden, had no accomplishments, then went to Roe v. Wade. He confuses state abortion limits and the IVF process, allowing a woman’s eggs to be frozen for future fertilization, a process 85 percent of Americans, including virtually all Republicans, support.

Most Americans do not want all this ugly deception. They do not want the Democrat fiction, that killing a child late term is fine, or that any wan to end IVF. To assert that we lack compassion is disgraceful.

Biden says, “without regard to party, I ask you to support democracy.” Sure. All patriotic Americans love their constitutional democracy; what they do not love is lies by someone dismantling free speech, worship, self-defense, security in their homes, basic consumer decisions, and choices from energy to cars.

Biden says his giggly, disengaged, morally compromised vice president is “an incredible leader.” Yeah, right. He says Republicans fail a “duty to care,” “unforgivable.” Fascinating, for a guy who would not recognize his own granddaughter, since she was born to a stripper, offspring of his criminal son.

He praises “vaccines that saved us,” bizarrely saying they are curing cancer. No, they were untested, left damaging side effects, and he punished those of faith who resisted them. As for thinking they stop cancer, Mr. President, go get that cognitive test, would you?

He distorts numbers on the economy, staggering under 34 trillion in debt, with inflation twice what it was when he assumed office, forgetting he cut oil and gas production and overspent by trillions..

So, “Mr. Chinese Big Bucks,” we do not believe what you say, but keep talking. We have had enough of your lies. That speech confirms where you stand, even if mortifying.