New Zealand Prime Minister Jacina Ardern was only exceeded in the leftist hierarchy by former German Chancellor Angela Merkel.   Ardern is to the Australian continent what Barack Obama was to North America and Angela Merkel was to Europe.  Stunningly, Jacinda Ardern has announced she will not seek reelection and is resigning from her position.  Ironically on the timing, her political career was an outcome of Davos recruitment.

Ardern’s extreme COVID-19 dictates and fiats to include isolation, quarantine camps, severe regimented social lockdowns, forced and mandatory vaccinations and subsequent passports etc, made her the visible face of government COVID-19 extremes.  Keeping with her apt description as a smiley-faced fascist, she did not care about the backlash from her totalitarian dictates and fiats.  The government owned the media, and the concerns of Kiwi’s about the government extremes were dispatched without regard.

Struggling to come to grips with the looming defeat she would likely face; an emotional Jacinda Ardern made her resignation announcement to the media.  She exits on February 7th. WATCH:

(Via Daily Mail) – Jacinda Ardern has choked back tears as she announced her resignation as New Zealand Prime Minister in an emotional press conference.

Her resignation comes into effect on Sunday if the Labour Party can elect her replacement, or on February 7 if the process was drawn out. ‘I am human. Politicians are human. We give all we can for as long as we can – and then it’s time. And for me, it’s time,’ she said. ‘I know what this job takes. And I know that I no longer have enough in the tank to do it justice.’

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There is something predictable about Main Street economics, eventually what you see around you overwhelms the great pretending.  CTH has been outlining the state of the consumer economy in great detail for quite a while, and though it is difficult to note when the outcomes will surface, eventually they do surface. [Reminder Here]

CONTEXT. CTH outlined the moment when the purchasing power of the U.S. middle class actually began contracting.  It was March and April of 2021 when that Rubicon was crossed.  We saw it in the second and third quarter data from 2021, but few were willing to admit.

What changed in those two months back in ’21 was a dramatic drop in the “unit sales” of stuff within the consumer economy.  The drop in unit sales was hidden because it happened simultaneously with the first wave of massive spike in prices.  Prices rose so fast the sales data was giving an artificial impression of sales growth, but in the background the actual unit sales dropped.   Those analysts correcting and adjusting historic data to ‘inflation adjusted terms’ are now noticing.

Additionally, and not coincidentally – because the metrics are connected, you will note this line from the Wall Street Journal review of the producer price index. “The producer-price index, which generally reflects supply conditions in the economy, rose 6.2% in December from a year earlier, the Labor Department said Wednesday, the slowest annual pace since March 2021.”  In essence, the current rate of wholesale price increase on materials is now returning to the rate of price increase that happened in the period when prices spiked.  Again, this is predictable.

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Steven Crowder is a smart and witty voice, generally a happy warrior who has been in the battle against the cultural and political progressive movement for over a decade.  He’s been in the fight for quite a while and deserves a great deal of praise for bringing a generation of younger people into the fold.  I respect his long-established time in the trenches of the cultural war, and we are helping him deliver his message.

Crowder’s audience, the “Mug Club”, is likely a mix of Gen-Z and Gen-X rebels throwing sand into the machinery. He does a great job producing content that deconstructs the insanity of the political left in a way that works and expands his audience.  Crowder has almost 6 million YouTube subscribers and while I don’t follow him closely, the message he delivered yesterday is very pertinent.

The problem he outlines is an inside baseball dynamic taking place in the background of the conservative media.  It essentially boils down to a financial issue CTH raised a long time ago when the first signals of this troubling trend started.  Most of the “well known” conservative media outlets have been purchased and co-opted by a financial system that ultimately controls their content.  If you have the time, WATCH:

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What Crowder is discussing is the reason why Michelle Malkin dropped out of the fight.  The “BigCon” Crowder notes is essentially like the Fox News of alternative media. They offer incentives to monetize the content provider (broadcaster, website, pod caster etc.) then lock the content providers into extremely controlling contracts that control the outcomes.

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In an effort to keep the Daily Open Thread a little more open topic we are going to start a new daily thread for “Presidential Politics”. Please use this thread to post anything relating to the JoeBama Administration and Presidency.

“This is no small thing, to restore a republic after it has fallen into corruption. I have studied history for years and I cannot recall it ever happening. It may be that our task is impossible. Yet, if we do not try then how will we know it can’t be done? And if we do not try, it most certainly won’t be done. The Founders’ Republic, and the larger war for western civilization, will be lost.”

“But I tell you this: We will not go gently into that bloody collectivist good night. Indeed, we will make with our defiance such a sound as ALL history from that day forward will be forced to note, even if they despise us in the writing of it.”

~ Mike Vanderboegh

This thread will refresh daily and appear above the Open Discussion Thread.

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Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. THY WILL BE DONE, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but DELIVER US FROM EVIL.

For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen †

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In an effort to keep the Daily Open Thread a little more open topic we are going to start a new daily thread for “Presidential Politics”. Please use this thread to post anything relating to the JoeBama Administration and Presidency.

“This is no small thing, to restore a republic after it has fallen into corruption. I have studied history for years and I cannot recall it ever happening. It may be that our task is impossible. Yet, if we do not try then how will we know it can’t be done? And if we do not try, it most certainly won’t be done. The Founders’ Republic, and the larger war for western civilization, will be lost.”

“But I tell you this: We will not go gently into that bloody collectivist good night. Indeed, we will make with our defiance such a sound as ALL history from that day forward will be forced to note, even if they despise us in the writing of it.”

~ Mike Vanderboegh

This thread will refresh daily and appear above the Open Discussion Thread.

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Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. THY WILL BE DONE, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but DELIVER US FROM EVIL.

For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen †

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Former House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes appears on Fox News to discuss the release of Twitter File #14 which was centered around the legislative branch attempting to censor his “Nunes Memo.” {Direct Rumble Link Here}

The essence of Twitter File #14 was how the Senate Intelligence Committee, senators Feinstein (D-CA) and Warner (D-VA) along with House Intel Committee Adam Schiff (D-CA) pressured Twitter to remove content that supported the assertions of HPSCI Chairman Devin Nunes.  WATCH:

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Their names will not make national headlines, and generally everyone has moved on, but to their families and friends Ilonka Knes and James Hurst mattered.  As CTH readers may remember, in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian we shared that many missing people would be found in the months after the storm, and unfortunately many more will likely never be found.

The body of Mrs Ilonka Knes (82) was found in the mangroves and back bay salt marsh near Fort Myers Beach and has been positively identified. The body of her husband Robert was found in the days immediately following Hurricane Ian.

Additionally, the sailboat “Good Girl” was found submerged with human remains believed to be the body of James ‘Denny’ Hurst (73).

Mrs. Knes and Mr Hurst bring the total number of Hurricane Ian victims in Lee County, Florida, to seventy-five.  Mr. Hurst was the final “official” missing person on the local list; however, there are many more yet unaccounted that were not from this immediate area.   The physical devastation is widespread, but the emotional toll on the families and friends of the missing has been beyond imagining.  Tonight, two more families have answers.

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Back in the Wilmington, Delaware, stash house where Hunter Biden used to bring his hookers and dope dealing friends; what is also described as the home of Joe Biden, where the alarm system was so dysfunctional the Secret Service apparently turned it off; according to the Biden lawyers today, they have found a fourth set of classified documents.

This brings the total in the Delaware stash house to three sets.  One batch in the garage, next to the corvette; another set in an adjacent room; and apparently in yet a third location in the same home where needles, bongs and useful heroine tools were customary tableware, they have found more.

Go figure.

Wall Street Journal – Additional pages marked as classified were found at President Biden’s Wilmington, Del., residence and have been given to the Justice Department, the White House counsel said Saturday, the latest revelation over the handling of classified information that has emerged this week.

The documents were discovered after Mr. Biden’s attorneys said earlier that some classified material, likely dating from his time as vice president, had been found in his garage at the residence in December.

One document marked as classified also was found at his residence earlier this week, the White House had said. In addition, documents marked as classified were found at his office at a Washington think tank in November.

In a statement Saturday, Richard Sauber, special counsel to the president, said he accompanied Justice Department officials to Wilmington on Thursday to retrieve the initial document from the residence—and during that process “five additional pages with classification markings” were found among the material, bringing the total to six pages discovered this week.

All material was immediately taken into possession by the Justice Department, Mr. Sauber said. The Justice Department declined to comment Saturday. (read more)

It sure seems odd that the FBI were tasked with investigating everything back on November 9, 2022, according to AG Merrick Garland; yet here we are two months later, and it is not the FBI finding these documents, it’s Biden’s legal housekeeping crew.  Odd that.

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