The U.S. economy is 70% driven by consumer spending.  When consumers stop spending the economy shrinks, it is that simple.  The U.S. Dept of Commerce has released the May retail sales [pdf DATA HERE], showing a 0.3% drop in retail sales for the month.  If you are interested in details, look at Table-2.

The critical point to remember is this sentence extracted from CNBC, “the numbers are not adjusted for inflation, which increased 1% for the month on the headline number and 0.6% excluding food and energy.”  Everyone ignores this point, and every MSM economist pretends not to know it.

Retail sales -as measured in units purchased- have been in a contracting position since June of 2021.  When the current data shows a drop of -0.3% in May, the actual drop in retail sales is much, much greater.  The dept of commerce calculates retail sales in dollars.  When prices are 20% higher and sales are low, retailers are selling less stuff (less units) at higher prices.  This has been the reality of our economy for several months.  This is also why productivity has been declining for more than a year.

If you take the 8.6% inflation rate (far understated) and an aggregate drop in sales of 0.3% (again, far understated as a measure of inflation), that means consumers are spending limited incomes on critical or essential purchases like housing, food, fuel and energy.  Consumers are not purchasing durable goods; people are hunkering down.

Yearly retail sales (May ’21 compared to May ’22) are +8.1%.  However, yearly retail inflation for the same period is +8.6%.  Again, reflecting that less stuff is being purchased inside the economy at higher prices.  If the commerce dept was measuring actual units being purchased, we would be seeing massive drops in sales.

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Tucker Carlson used his opening monologue tonight to point out the serious problems with federal “red flag laws” as proposed.  WATCH:

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[Hat Tip Gateway Pundit for capturing the interview] Earlier this evening Tucker Carlson used his opening monologue to highlight recent examples of the two-tiered justice system within Washington DC. {Direct Rumble Link}

At the conclusion of the monologue, Carlson interviews former Senior President Trump economic and trade advisor Peter Navarro.  Mr. Navarro explains more details about the background of his contact with the J6 committee and the DOJ/FBI.  WATCH:

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The CCTV video of this attack is almost too much to watch.  {Direct Rumble Link)

A 17-year-old repeat offender pleaded guilty to two felony charges of assault by means of force likely to produce great bodily injury and one felony count of hit-and-run.  However, in a stunning sentence, Los Angeles DA George Gascon make the unilateral decision to send the guy to 5 to 7 months in a diversionary probation camp. [Fox News Link] WATCH:

The young mom named as Rachel is furious at the wrist slap. Incredibly the young lady and her baby were not seriously injured.  “I thought those were the last moments of our lives; we were dead,” the mother, who asked to be identified only as Rachel, wrote in a victim’s impact statement. “That feeling, along with the memory of a car accelerating directly into us, will haunt me forever.”

[…] “As the car approached me and my child, I stopped walking and moved the stroller and myself up against a building on the right side of the road to ensure that we gave the reckless driver plenty of room to pass,” Rachel said. “As the car got dangerously close to us, [the juvenile suspect] turned the wheels in our direction and accelerated as he aimed to kill us.”

Rachel blasted Gascon for what she feels is an extremely light sentence.

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Former economic and trade advisor Peter Navarro appeared outside the courthouse in Washington DC after his arrest. [Two Videos] WATCH:

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Full remarks and press conference below.

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Last night Representative Matt Gaetz (R-FL) made an explosive announcement as an outcome of a whistleblower providing information to him and Jim Jordan about the FBI having a collaborative relationship with the Clinton/DNC law firm Perkins Coie.  {Go Deep} Specifically, the explosive element surrounds the FBI having a workspace within the DNC law firm that would have given Democrats an open portal into FBI databases for use in opposition research.

Secondarily, Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann being in charge of this working arrangement within Perkins Coie for the past year, since the departure of Marc Elias, becomes a far greater issue. The potential ramifications of this joint collaborative activity are vast.

The FBI can exploit the NSA database to conduct searches of all cell phone, computer, email, text message, social media, electronic communication and all private data/communication belonging to Americans; this would include geolocation.  If the FBI was operating within Perkins Coie since 2012, then the democrats have held access to fully intrusive electronic surveillance of their political opposition, or anyone else – anywhere, for a decade.

Mainstream conservative defenders of the DOJ and FBI institutions, as a result of their prior tenure inside those same agencies, have long denied the Dept of Justice and FBI are corrupt political entities.  The revelation of the FBI and Perkins Coie working collaboratively to exploit this data portal is something that people like Margot Cleveland, Andrew McCarthy, Johnathan Turley and many others need to deny in order to retain the premise of institutional credibility.

However, the FBI and DNC law firm working collaboratively on issues of joint importance goes far beyond the ‘image of impropriety or conflicted interest‘ and extends to the actual corruption within the foundational institutions of government.  Transparently, if these reports are accurate all of the inexplicable dynamics within the “two tiers of justice” suddenly reconcile.  The FBI and Perkins Coie having the ability to conduct electronic surveillance of any target is a thermonuclear level of sunlight, that reconciles years of visible issues.

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There is very little that surprises me, but this is completely stunning.  An FBI whistleblower came forth to inform Rep Jim Jordan and Rep Matt Gaetz that the FBI maintains a workspace inside the law firm of Perkins Coie.  {Direct Rumble Link}

In response to a letter sent by Rep. Matt Gaetz and Jim Jordan, Perkins Coie, the legal arm of the DNC and Hillary Clinton, admitted they have been operating an FBI workspace in their Washington D.C. office since 2012.  Pay attention to that date, it matters.  WATCH:

This is a huge development.  Essentially, what is being admitted in this claim is that a portal existed into FBI databases within the law firm that represents democrats.  This means access to FBI database searches exists inside the office of the DNC and Clinton legal group.  Think about the ramifications here.

CTH has long claimed there was some kind of direct portal link between the Clinton campaign team and the FBI databases.  There were too many trails of extracted non-minimized research evidence in the hands of the Clinton team that CTH could not trace to a transferring FBI official.  If Perkins Coie operated a portal in their office that allowed them to conduct search queries of American citizens, then everything would make sense.  That access portal is exactly what is being claimed and admitted in this report.

The start date of 2012 is important for several reasons, not the least of which is FISA presiding Judge Rosemary Collyer criticizing the scale and scope of unlawful FBI database access going back to exactly 2012.  Keep in mind a FISA-702 search, is simply an unlawful FBI warrantless electronic search of an American (“702” represents the American citizen) into the central database -maintained by the NSA- that contains all electronic data and communication.

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…..Quit Pretending

Joe Biden is not running this economy.  Joe Biden’s economic advisors are not running this economy.  Joe Biden’s cabinet members are not running the economy. The people running this economy are the climate change activists behind the scenes who have been elevated into positions in all economic cabinet offices throughout the administration.  This was the deal in 2020 that led to Biden’s installation.

Professional political activists, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders types, within the Interior Dept., Energy Dept., EPA and other regulatory agencies related to the energy economy are in control. Not a single operator within the system looks to the White House or executive office for guidance.  They knew they had a short window to carry out the unilateral agenda regardless of damage it does.

This is a full-throated assault on the energy industry under the auspices of the climate change agenda. And that is what is collapsing Main Street and pushing massive costs onto consumers via inflation.  That’s it. That’s the background. No one in/around the White House has any control over the consequences. That was the 2020 deal made, and the reason why Biden was selected as the nameplate.

Oil prices have shot up to $120/barrel.  Russia and Ukraine are being used as a smokescreen for the ‘Build Back Better’, or domestically, the “Green New Deal’, agenda.  The same climate agenda supported by the entire Western government alliance who bow to the altar of the World Economic Forum.

Damn the consequences, full speed ahead. Main Street citizens are collateral damage.  They don’t care. In the view of the operators, their urgent goals are bigger than our needs; and their high-minded, filled with superiority justification is, they are trying to save us from ourselves.

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All media reporting of this case will be done through the prism of their own cooperation in the perpetration of the fraud. The MSM knew along with everyone else inside and outside of government, that their efforts to create the Trump-Russia conspiracy and collusion narrative were based on fraudulent pretext manufactured by the Clinton campaign. They all knew it. They all acted collaboratively, and they all engaged purposefully.

Michael Sussmann was accused of lying to the FBI about working for Hillary Clinton at the time he took fraudulent information to the FBI about Donald Trump.  A Washington DC jury has found Sussmann NOT GUILTY.

While Sussmann was pushing fraudulent information into the open hands of FBI Legal Counsel James Baker, another Clinton campaign contractor, Glenn Simpson from Fusion GPS, was pushing similarly constructed fraudulent information -including the Christopher Steele dossier- into the media and DOJ via Bruce Ohr.

The not guilty verdict simply means the FBI knew, or should have known, Michael Sussmann was delivering the fraudulent Trump-Russia collusion nonsense directly from the Hillary Clinton team.   The FBI claims they didn’t know, the jury by finding Sussmann not guilty, says the FBI did know.

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Earlier today, during a press conference the Director of Texas DPS, Steven McCraw, admitted the obvious. It was the “wrong decision” for responding police officers not to go into the Uvalde school classroom where the active shooting suspect was located.   The decision to wait was made by the local police chief.   WATCH:

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Full Press Conference Below.

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