Trying to survive current price increases in housing costs, energy costs, electricity costs, food and fuel costs has forced consumers to reevaluate purchasing decisions.  As consumer demand for non-essential items has collapsed, and as Americans dig deeper into their savings just to sustain current unavoidable expenses, major retailers are now cancelling Christmas inventory orders.

On one hand the leaders of large multinationals must pretend everything is splendid; after all, the only acceptable position they can articulate is to support interest rates being raised because demand is just too darned high.  lololol…  pretending.  But on the other hand – those same retailers are furiously trying to calculate how to avoid being stuck with billions worth of unsold inventory.

RetailWire – Walmart, Target, Macy’s and Kohl’s are among retailers that have recently said they are canceling some orders to better balance inventory levels, a replay of a strategy used at the start of the pandemic.

Other steps retailers are using to clear inventories as spending has slowed on some non-discretionary categories are employing markdowns and packing away products for the following year. The elevated inventory levels also reflect intentional over-buying to mitigate shortages and the easing of supply chain constraints.

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The statistics behind the energy impact upon the German economy, the largest economy in the European Union, are almost unfathomable in scale.  There is no way for the German industrial economy to continue with this level of price pressure.  Stick a fork in the current creation of German industrial products and exports, the inflection point of feasibility for continued production has been crossed.  They are done.

According to release statistics from the German economic ministry, energy prices in August were more than double the same period last year, up 139%.  The monthly increase was more than 20.4% higher than July.  Additionally, producer prices for electricity rose 174.9% compared with August 2021 and by 26.4% in a single month.

This jaw-dropping increase in energy cost has resulted in German manufacturing prices for industrial goods jumping 7.9% in August alone, with a year-over-year increase in the cost to manufacture goods at 45.8%.  That is the highest rate of price increase since Germany began recording their statistics in 1939.

BERLIN, Sept 19 (Reuters) – German producer prices rose in August at their strongest rate since records began both in annual and monthly terms, driven mainly by soaring energy prices, raising the chances that headline inflation will surge even higher.

Producer prices of industrial products increased by 45.8% on the same month last year, the Federal Statistical Office reported on Tuesday. Compared to July 2022, prices rose 7.9%, it added.

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Representative Jim Jordan appeared on Tucker Carlson’s evening broadcast to outline the claims by a DC Bureau FBI whistleblower.  {Direct Rumble Link} In his framing of the statements from the FBI insider, Jordan states the FBI are intentionally diverting resources to investigate claims surrounding the J6 narrative in an effort to give the appearance of a national domestic extremist threat.  WATCH:

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The creation of a national narrative to inflate the appearance of Domestic Violent Extremists, would fall directly in line with the prior examples of the FBI politicizing their agency.

In semi-related news, Joe Biden quietly extended the 9/11/01 National Terrorism Emergency today. {LINK HERE} For 21 years the 2001 National Terrorism Emergency has been continued as a tool for the Dept of Homeland Security, through the FBI, to use powers not granted by congress.   Yes, twenty-one-years of continuous extensions.

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Joe Biden’s economic policies, mainly driven by excessive spending and the Green New Deal climate change agenda, are the origins of massive inflation.

In an attempt to diminish the outcomes of his energy policy, the Biden administration has been releasing oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, in an effort to curb gasoline prices.  However, that process is about to end as the SPR is becoming dangerously low and will need to be replaced (more spending).

When asked about the current status of inflation during a CBS interview, Biden responds by saying it could be worse, citing the last two months where the SPR spigot has been running at maximum release.  WATCH (48 seconds):

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An unusual article in The Intercept is noted with the following headline: “House Republicans Planning to Investigate The Chamber of Commerce if They Take Majority.”  The article is framed around the statements of an unnamed congressman, who appears –from the sourcing inference– to come from the House Judiciary Committee.

If you have followed the deep political weeds, you know the CoC is the anti-MAGA element within the America-First economic battle.  However, it is also true the CoC and the Washington DC UniParty members they feed with lobbying dollars are peas and carrots, this includes the entire republican establishment apparatus.

The republican party investigating the CoC is never going to happen.  It would be a move akin to Adam Schiff investigating the origin of Barack Obama’s birth certificate.

The CoC is not only an organization made up of lobbyists for Wall Street, but the members within it are also the close personal friends of just about every influential GOP politician.

The framework for the investigation, as written in the article, surrounds the leftist Environmental Social Governance (ESG) outlook of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which is factually accurate.  The CoC is indeed an organization that is ‘all-in’ to position themselves for the benefits of climate change in the corporate sphere.  If there is money to be made from ESG economics, the CoC is the lobbying firm shaping legislation toward that benefit.

However, the CoC is too entrenched with republican party apparatus to ever have their agenda challenged by the “republican” politicians in DC.  So, what exactly is going on here?  A MAGA-minded republican within the House Judiciary Committee wants to investigate the CoC?

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In this lengthy interview with John Ratcliffe and Maria Bartiromo, the former Director of National Intelligence, the man who has likely seen every document that may have eventually ended up in Mar-a-Lago, is challenging the nature of the classified status of those documents.   Ratcliffe does not believe the Mar-a-Lago documents are true national security documents, but rather documents that outline fraudulent ‘sources and methods’ used by the DOJ/FBI in their Trump targeting operation.

Keep in mind that as the DNI during 2020, Ratcliffe saw the documents that eventually became the material President Trump declassified and left with the DOJ to release after the Durham investigation was complete.  If Ratcliffe’s suspicions are correct, and there is more valid reason to support his suspicions than oppose them, then the entire construct of the DOJ-NSD operation to retrieve those documents from Mar-a-Lago is factually one big cover-up operation.

Ratcliffe suspects the documents are essentially the DOJ and FBI work products, including interviews with ‘sources’ like Igor Danchenko, from their fabricated case against President Trump.  If accurate, the objective of the DOJ/FBI would be to avoid sunlight on their political targeting operation.  This viewpoint makes sense when you consider the DOJ/FBI position that no one should ever be allowed to look at those documents, including the appointed Special Master in the case, Judge Raymond Dearie.  WATCH:

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“Gaslighting” is essentially a term used to describe an abuser continually lying to victim in order to make the victim misbelieve reality.

Economic “gaslighting” is a process of lying about the nature of true cause in order to continue advancing the abusive policy.

Combine the economic gaslighting with the historic leftist approach of pretending not to know things, and you get this dynamic on CBS Face the Nation today.  In this brief segment describing inflation, we see all the classic strategies deployed by ideological media.

First, notice they blame: (1) the pandemic recovery, (2) consumer demand, (3) Ukraine, and (4) a supply chain ‘muddle’.  Not only are these issues ridiculous, but none of them are the cause of supply side inflation.  Blaming “consumer demand,” which has transparently collapsed for the last year, is beyond nonsense.  WATCH, and also pay attention to the graphics they use to manipulate the audience:

The true cause of inflation, and yes that includes ‘global inflation‘, is the collective western economy jump into climate change energy policy known as “build back better.”  Stopping the use of oil, gas and coal as the source for cheap energy, has resulted in every element of the inflation they outline.

As an outcome of their ideology, the central banks of the western economies are now trying desperately to lower economic activity to reduce energy consumption.  The goal is to lower human activity to the point where windmills and solar farms can sustain it.  Everything else is pretending.

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The ‘cut to the chase‘ aspect of whether Ron DeSantis is planning to run for the GOP nomination in 2024 is made clear when you realize just how much money the Florida governor has amassed.  A standing total exceeding $200 million.

That $200 million is not only a staggering amount far beyond the need for his virtually certain governor’s victory, but also the largest amount of campaign money ever assembled by a governor in the history of politics {citation}. Meg Whitman, California ($176 million), and Jay Pritzker, Illinois ($176 million), were both multi-millionaires and funded the majority of their war chest.  Almost all (96%) of DeSantis’ money is coming from multinational corporations, hedge funds, Wall Street firms and billionaires {citation}.

For those who are unfamiliar with the strategies of political funding, there is a timing that also highlights the intent.  A conspicuously aligned timing that coincides with the Trump raid on Mar-a-Lago.  Campaign finance reports are required and filled out quarterly.  DeSantis had a massive war chest assembled through August 5th.

That finance revelation was immediately before the August 8th raid, before the week in the bunker, and before DeSantis reemerged August 14th with a new national branding team and communication change.

DeSantis took in even more billionaire donor checks with the national kick-off.

Everybody familiar with politics knows what that level of preparation and strategy means.  DeSantis wasn’t amassing money of that scale, and simultaneously launching a new national branding campaign, for a state reelection bid.  He was/is preparing for a 2024 presidential run.  The only question was whether DeSantis had direct knowledge of the August 8th raid on Trump in advance, or whether he was just told not to ask questions and follow the advice of his new GOPe team.  The latter is more likely.

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Judge Aileen Cannon has rejected the DOJ motion to stay her previous order and appointed a special master, Judge Raymond J Dearie, Senior United States District Judge for the Eastern District of New York, [pdf of Ruling HERE]

As to the dispute of the 100 “classified” documents, Judge Cannon writes, “the Court does not find it appropriate to accept the Government’s conclusions on these important and disputed issues without further review by a neutral third party in an expedited and orderly fashion.”

Judge Cannon urged Special Master Raymond Dearie to complete his review by Nov. 30, 2022, more than a month longer than DOJ requested.  However, she did say Trump’s legal team has to pay the full cost of the special master.  [Full Ruling Pdf Here]  In a signed filing, Judge Dearie accepted the task.

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According to The Boston Globe, officials in Martha’s Vineyard are holding an emergency meeting to deal with the crisis of 43 illegal alien arrivals, including one four-year-old child.  The group arrived via a chartered flight dispatched by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

According to state representative Dylan Fernandes, “when you look at the limited housing options on Martha’s Vineyard, as I’m sure many of the folks here are aware, it’s likely we’re going to need an off island location.”  As noted by the Globe …”a Zoom meeting has been scheduled for emergency management officials from the island along with people from the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency to discuss the next step for the immigrants.”

(Boston Globe) […] Fernandes also strongly condemned DeSantis and Governor Greg Abbott of Texas for sending the migrants to the Vineyard.

“To use women and children as political pawns is cowardice. Governor DeSantis is a coward,” Fernandes said. “Their communication on this, Governor DeSantis’s on this, was to jump on Fox News and beat his chest about how tough he is on immigration. It’s inhumane. It’s depraved.”

DeSantis defended the move in remarks to reporters on Thursday during a briefing at Northwest Florida State College.  

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