This guy is really a piece of work.  Fed Chairman Jerome Powell delivers remarks to the pontificating pustules at the DC Economic Club.  Within his remarks, notice how Powell used the word “disinflation” to describe how prices are starting to drop in the “goods sector.”

Of course, durable goods are dropping in price, fewer consumers have any money to buy them.  Yes, excess manufactured goods created by the disappearance of buyers will naturally lead to lowered prices by those who need to sell them.  Our economic problem is not, and was not, ever an outcome of excessive demand for durable goods.

Our economic problem is the scale of energy price increases that are chewing through paychecks and driving up the costs of high-turn consumables like food.

Massive price increases for food, fuel, energy, electricity, home heating and natural gas eating up paychecks.  There is no room for discussion about the next phone, refrigerator, or new car that might be needed.  Simultaneous to ignoring this issue, Chairman Powell is giddy that wages are not rising.  WATCH:

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Interesting background stuff.  The House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government has scheduled their first committee hearing for Thursday, February 9th at noon [LINK].  There are no details on the agenda for the first meeting; however, there are indications of the seed and targeting process that is being used.

According to a press announcement today from House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, who is also the Chairman of the select subcommittee, the larger Judiciary Committee is currently taking transcribed testimony from FBI whistleblowers about the political targeting within the Dept of Justice.

Against that backdrop, it is possible -perhaps likely- the agenda for the select subcommittee will be tailored as an outcome of those whistleblower depositions.  This would seem to make sense as the scope of the subcommittee needs to be narrowly tailored and focused on specific operations by government officials.  Using the whistleblower testimony to frame the investigation of the subcommittee makes sense, in that the testimony creates the basis for the investigation to follow.   First, here’s Jordan today:

The FBI whistleblower depositions will likely form the first material for the Select Subcommittee to discuss.   This structure provides a two-prong approach toward sunlight on the larger issues at stake.

The main House Judiciary Committee has constitutional oversight over the DOJ and by consequence the FBI.  The detailed discoveries are then passed down to the select subcommittee for further investigation.  Hopefully, everyone can see the benefit to that approach.  Judiciary holds bigger issues, then hands-off the smaller, perhaps deeper individual cases to the subcommittee for follow-up.

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Mark Steyn, the only man qualified to replace Rush Limbaugh, has announced his departure from GBNews after the British media company requested a contract making Steyn legally accountable for any speech or wrong-think as identified by British regulators within the Office of Communication (OfComm). {Direct Rumble Link}

Within Britain, all media speech is monitored by the Office of Communications (OfComm), where official government censors track commentary according to regulatory and compliance rules established by the government.  Previously, Mark Steyn ran afoul of the OfComm investigators when he began questioning the efficacy and safety of the COVID-19 vaccinations.  There are two investigations ongoing with possible fines pending for violating rules on government approved speech.

Into this mix comes the now capitulating GBNews organization, where Mark Steyn and Neil Oliver have both pushed the boundaries of acceptable thought.  While Mark Steyn was offline, recovering from two heart attacks, I noticed something was shifting in the past several weeks at GBNews; from the presentation of Oliver to the way the content was being shared (no uploads and missing transcripts).  It seemed like something tenuous and opaque was happening in the background.  Steyn confirms. WATCH:

As noted by Steyn in the contract he rejected: “To the extent that the presenter and/or the US producers do not incorporate Ofcom regulatory input into an edition of the program, this shall be considered a material breach of this agreement, and the Mark Steyn Company shall indemnify GB News for any and all direct loss, liability, costs, including reasonable legal costs, damages, or expenses that it suffers as a result of any regulatory breach.”

GBNews is acquiescing to the thought police, and Mark Steyn is rightly leaving. Good for him.  Enough with this controlled corporate speech nonsense.  The voices of the resistance should not cower to the regime.  CTH stands with Steyn, AGAIN!

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As Mr. Carlson notes, everything about the Biden administration’s claims, reversals, contradictions and justifications surrounding the China spy balloon is ridiculous in the extreme.  All of it, just plain nuts.  WATCH:

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… He still hasn’t identified the source code, the proverbial ghost in the machine, buried deep in the algorithmic code; however, Twitter owner Elon Musk has finally identified the agency within the U.S. government who spearheaded the creation.  The “Global Engagement Center” (GEC) of the State Dept.

The GEC mission is described as, “To direct, lead, synchronize, integrate, and coordinate U.S. Federal Government efforts to recognize, understand, expose, and counter foreign state and non-state propaganda and disinformation efforts aimed at undermining or influencing the policies, security, or stability of the United States, its allies, and partner nations,” (link).   However, when you overlay the expanded Dept of State mission that Obama delivered, transferring GEC intent to domestic operations, suddenly the background of Jack’s Magic Coffee Shop makes sense.  [Musk Tweet Link]

[Musk Tweet Link – GEC Center Link]

Readers here are so far ahead of the curve on this story, it’s kind of cool, funny, and yet frustrating at the same time.  Jack’s Magic Coffee Shop is all a wild conspiracy theory born from the oddly wired brain of some dude in the corner of the internet; until suddenly it’s not.

Factually, it has been staring at everyone since the operation began in 2011, yet no one was willing to believe it.  Apparently, Elon Musk is starting to realize what is inside the communication platform he purchased.

For several years, CTH has been outlining the relationship between DHS and social media.  Currently, the headlines are filled with stories about Twitter and revelations of censorship and government influence coming from the purchase of the platform by Elon Musk.  However, as I said from the outset of this new moment, I promise you things are not what they seem.

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This is so stunningly incredulous, and transparently politically orchestrated, it’s laughable.

The U.S. Intelligence Community (IC) defended the actions of the Biden administration last Saturday by saying three Chinese spy balloons had previously been deployed during the Trump administration.  However, President Trump and all national security heads including Mike Pompeo (CIA), Richard Grenell and John Ratcliffe (DNI) denied ever hearing about these balloons.

To reconcile the claim of historic Chinese spy balloon operations, against the denials and absence of briefings for the Trump IC officials, the current Intel Community (and Biden Administration) are now claiming they only discovered the prior balloon flights *AFTER* President Trump left office.

Oh, and due to national security issues, the IC cannot explain how they found out after the fact.

Yes Alice, that’s their story, and they’re sticking to it.

WASHINGTON DC – The Biden administration is willing to brief former Trump officials on newly discovered intelligence that China sent spy balloons into U.S. airspace during their time in charge.

The offer, described by senior Biden administration officials on Sunday night, comes as former President Donald Trump and senior members of his national security team say they were never briefed on such an incursion by a Beijing-sent aircraft.

“This information was discovered after the prior administration left. The intelligence community is prepared to offer key officials from the Trump administration briefings on [China’s] surveillance program,” one of the officials said. The official, along with several others, asked not to be named in order to discuss sensitive information.

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John Boyd Jr., President of the National Black Farmers Association appears on Newsmax TV to discuss the ongoing issue of higher farm input costs.  Energy costs, fertilizer costs, fuel costs as well as all packing and distribution costs that are associated with petroleum manufacturing, are continuing to drive farm costs throughout the supply chain.

After a review of the current farm output status, there is a very strong possibility we will see the fourth wave of food inflation hit this spring, in combination with several manufacturing and production facilities.  Again, the lack of consumer spending on durable goods has moderated the price in hard goods (supplies up, demand down); however, the highly consumable products like food, fuel and energy continue to experience upward price pressure as a direct result of Biden energy policy.  WATCH:

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If consumers could eat missiles and weapons, the U.S. government would be offsetting the costs.  Unfortunately, for actual farming products, there is no government attention, policy or support.  Apparently, food is still not considered a national security issue.

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Axios is positioning this announcement as FTX asking for political donations to be returned.  However, the request is realistically from the FTX debtors.

(Via Axios) – Bankrupt crypto exchange FTX is sending notices to former donor recipients asking for the donated funds to be returned, the company said in a press release Sunday.

Why it matters: Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX Digital Markets Co-CEO Ryan Salame were two of the largest political donors during the last election cycle. Now the company’s debtors want the money back.

• • Bankman-Fried primarily backed Democrats and was the party’s second-largest donor last cycle with around $37 million in contributions.
  • Salame’s $19 million to Republicans made him the party’s 10th largest donor.

The big picture: FTX’s debtors are confidentially contacting “political figures, political action funds and other recipients of contributions or other payments.” (more)

Additionally, the Twitter Account “Unusual Whales” which tracks and researches financial transactions, has published the first list I have seen that makes it easy to see who FTX donated to.  The list IS HERE and is alphabetized.

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The more I see how much attention was exhausted focusuing on the Chinese balloon, the more I am inclined to believe the attention was manufactured by internal deep state operatives.

Secretary of State Anthony Blinken cancelled his trip to China over the spy balloon issue, and beyond the general cancellation, he also cancelled a rare meeting with Chairman Xi.   Xi never almost never meets with foreign ministers, only Presidents and Prime Ministers.  So, what gives?  Did the intelligence community expose the balloon crossing to stop the Xi/Blinken meeting?  I don’t know, but something is fishy.

Former Director of National Intelligence (DNI) John Ratcliffe gives his .02 cents.   Ratcliffe takes the position that it was an intended spy and surveillance operation by China, and it was successful. WATCH:

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House Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI), Chairman Mike Turner (R-OH) appears on Meet the Press to discuss his perspective on the motive of China to send a massive surveillance balloon over key U.S. military facilities.

According to Chairman Turner, it appears (a) the balloon was designed to capture some intelligence that satellites cannot; and (b) the flight path of the surveillance balloon was steered to cover areas housing key the strategic military bases and missile defenses. WATCH (Transcript Below):

CHUCK TODD: Joining me now is the Republican Chair of the House Intel Committee, Mike Turner of Ohio. Chairman Turner, welcome back to Meet the Press.

REP. MIKE TURNER: Good morning, Chuck.

CHUCK TODD: All right. Let me start with what you know here. So the decision to take this down – what more have you learned? And you’re part of the so-called Gang of Eight. I don’t think you guys have gotten a personal briefing, but I know staff has. What more can you tell us about the take-down operation?

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