A few days after the terror attack of 9-11-01, someone in media asked George W. Bush what Americans can do to help.  Dubya’s response drew instant criticism, because he asked people to go shopping… but in the big picture, President Bush knew what could happen if the economic freeze continued.

When it comes to politics and economic outlooks, trust your instincts.  The economics of the ‘thing’ is always the reason the ‘thing’ exists or does not exist.

When you are looking at economic news, always remind yourself… the people producing the news have a vested interest in maintaining a very specific outlook.  The motive behind what Dubya said in September of 2001, pertains every bit as much today.  Economic outcomes can topple entire governments.

Remember, this current ‘supply-side energy policy driven inflation‘, a purposeful effort to shrink the economy and yet tenuously maintain control, has never happened before.  The people behind the Build Back Better agenda are, in reality, experimenting with a theory. DATA…

(ISM) – The Institute for Supply Management’s PMI contracted for the fifth straight month in March registering 46.3, the lowest level since May 2020. Any reading below 50.0 indicates contraction.  The employment index declined by 2.2 percent to a level of 46.9.

Most of the impediments to manufacturing growth — such as shortages and lockdowns — have subsided, said Tim Fiore, chair of the ISM’s manufacturing survey committee, with the exception of pricing. ISM’s pricing index fell below 50 in March but at 49.2 remains higher than pre-pandemic levels.

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French President Emmanuel Macron was in the Netherlands today speaking to an audience in the Hague about his vision for the future of Europe.  A remarkably disassociated speech was the outcome.

Speaking of the importance of innovation to maintain economic competitiveness, on his right-hand Macron cheers for capitalism as an outcome of competition from the only venue it exists, the nation state.  Yet on his left hand, Macron proclaims the importance of ‘globalism’ and economic socialism, which is the anthesis of creating innovation.

Economic nationalism is the only way competition between nation states succeeds. Innovation is born from competition, and without the nation state there is no baseline to maintain capitalism.  Globalism creates socialism, equity as the baseline for distribution of innovative outcomes.  Capitalism and socialism cannot coexist if innovation and competition is the goal.  The pillars which form the baseline for Macron’s view of a new Europe, collapse in his contradictory worldview.  Prompted to 10:55, WATCH:

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Macron’s solution to the problem of innovation lacking in ‘globalist‘ economic models, is to force citizens to produce and innovate.  This is what he means by “reforms” in the competitive agenda.  Forced innovation, is the worldview of totalitarians.   Capitalism relies on freedom, not coercion.

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Effective today, the U.S. National COVID-19 Emergency is officially over!   [Details on House Resolution 7 Here]

Led by Republicans in the House and supported by a veto-proof majority in the overall legislative branch, Joe Biden was forced today to officially end the national COVID-19 emergency.  [White House Link]

It passed the House by a vote of 229 – 197, February 1, 2023. It passed the Senate by a vote of 68 – 23, March 29, 2023. And was presented to the White House on April 5th for signature. Biden had no options.  Federal emergency power is stripped, this will help states counter mail-in ballots.

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The United States Treasury Dept is planning to send officials to key parts of the globe to act as enforcers for western sanctions against Russia. Essentially, it’s a blackmail and extortion tour, where Liz Rosenberg and Brian Nelson will visit non-compliant nations and central Western banking hubs to threaten foreign nations against continued noncompliance.

Whether any nation complies with the pressure campaign threats is still unknown. However, against the backdrop of various geopolitical alliances now cleaving the global economy, and with a larger network of non-western nations now forming their own trade partnerships without regard for Washington DC opinion, the effort to draw “with us” or “against us” lines could backfire.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Top sanctions officials from the U.S. Treasury Department plan special international trips this month to pressure firms and countries still doing business with Russia to cut off financial ties because of the war on Ukraine.

The message is that those working with Russia’s government must decide:

1. Continue to provide Moscow with material support or

2. Keep doing business with countries that represent 50 percent of the global economy.

Those are the choices to be laid out, senior Treasury officials told reporters on a call Friday. They spoke on the condition of anonymity to preview the travel plans.

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If you overlay the U.S. intelligence leaks as a potential excuse for the U.S. not getting deeper into the never-ending Ukraine conflict we support, then the comments by Emmanuel Macron about the EU not wanting to get involved with U.S. interests in Taiwan make more sense.

On his flight back from Beijing, French President Macron told traveling media, Europe needs to reduce dependency on the United States.  Remarkably, this is what President Donald Trump has been saying for years as part of his overall EU and NATO policy. However, this could also be an indication of a strategic Taiwan pivot by the U.S. as shared from the Foggy Bottom diplomats who love their French connections.

(Via Politico) – Europe must reduce its dependency on the United States and avoid getting dragged into a confrontation between China and the U.S. over Taiwan, French President Emmanuel Macron said in an interview on his plane back from a three-day state visit to China.

Speaking with POLITICO and two French journalists after spending around six hours with Chinese President Xi Jinping during his trip, Macron emphasized his pet theory of “strategic autonomy” for Europe, presumably led by France, to become a “third superpower.”

He said “the great risk” Europe faces is that it “gets caught up in crises that are not ours, which prevents it from building its strategic autonomy,” while flying from Beijing to Guangzhou, in southern China, aboard COTAM Unité, France’s Air Force One.

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The classification statement of NOFORN (meaning “no foreign nationals “) is applied to any information that may not be released to any non-U.S. citizen.

The classified documents, as released in the recent NYT/White House/Pentagon storyline, carried the NOFORN designation.  That means the source documents describing U.S. geopolitical and intelligence strategies were contained inside U.S. compartmented intelligence silos, prior to their surfacing in the social media platforms as discussed. Keep this in mind.  WATCH:

First, the story surfaces from the New York Times.  What does that tell us?  It tells us the stakeholders in a background narrative surrounding the issue as constructed are domestic intelligence interests.  If there was a State Dept stakeholder interest, the story would have been presented by CNN.  If there was a U.S. foreign intelligence operation stakeholder interest, the story would have surfaced in the Washington Post.

The story surfaces in the New York Times indicating a U.S. domestic intelligence interest, and the story is sourced directly to the White House via “senior Biden administration officials.”  What does that mean?  It means the narrative that flows from the story has a direction to shape opinion from the perspective of U.S. government domestic public relations.  It means the narrative is intended to sway a domestic audience with a motive toward something else.

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I’m not sure what is going on at the Twitter with Elon Musk, but apparently either his team is misleading their CEO, or Musk is just shooting from the hip.

In a reply to Matt Taibbi’s report about Substack content being blocked by Twitter and Taibbi’s decision to exit the Musk platform, the Twitter CEO fired back, calling Taibbi a liar.

(Source)

Twitter’s own internal checkers put a community note, citing the claims by Taibbi were essentially correct.   Then, Substack CEO Chris Best weighed in on the issue, claiming the assertions by Elon Musk were false and the weird claim about Taibbi being an employee of Substack is completely without merit.

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Read this as many times as needed to contemplate the nature of our problem.

Former FBI Director James Comey openly admitted to Congress on March 20, 2017, how the FBI, FBI Counterintelligence Division, DOJ and DOJ-National Security Division, together with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and the CIA, had been conducting independent investigations of Donald Trump for over a year without informing Congress [the Gang of Eight]. When asked the question, Comey winced, then justified the lack of informing Go8 oversight by saying, “um, because of the sensitivity of the matter?”

Stupidly, Congress never pressed James Comey on that issue. The arrogance of Comey was astounding, and the acceptance by Congress was infuriating. However, that specific example highlighted just how politically corrupt the system had become. In essence, Team Obama usurped the entire design of congressional oversight…. and Congress just brushed it off.

This event, and everything in the background as outlined within the James Comey admission, factually happened.  It is on the record, admitted and nothing about the reality of what took place is subject to conjecture or refute.

Yet somehow, we, specifically our Congress, just moved on as if what FBI Director James Comey outlined and admitted wasn’t a total usurpation of the U.S. Constitution and a collapse in the structure of our coequal branches of government.

We cannot fight our way through the issues until we first realize what lies at the root of the problem.

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By now people are familiar with a New York Times (original source) story of a leak of sensitive classified information regarding U.S. operations in Ukraine and other geopolitical efforts.  The New York Times was the first with the story, as shared with them by “senior Biden administration officials.”

WASHINGTON — Classified war documents detailing secret American and NATO plans for building up the Ukrainian military ahead of a planned offensive against Russian troops were posted this week on social media channels, senior Biden administration officials said. (more)

Now, let’s use this opportunity to expand our knowledge base, overlay the known frameworks that operate within our government, and simultaneously give a perspective that will not surface anywhere else.

First, the story surfaces from the New York Times.  What does that tell us?  It tells us the stakeholders in a background narrative surrounding the issue as constructed are domestic intelligence interests.  If there was a State Dept stakeholder interest, the story would have been presented by CNN.  If there was a U.S. foreign intelligence operation stakeholder interest, the story would have surfaced in the Washington Post.

The story surfaces in the New York Times, indicating a U.S. domestic intelligence interest; and the story is sourced directly to the White House via “senior Biden administration officials.”  What does that mean?  It means the narrative that flows from the story has a direction to shape opinion from the perspective of U.S. government domestic public relations.  It means the narrative is intended to sway a domestic audience with a motive toward something else.

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Ehh, this could be problematic for the progressive leftists and the orange-man bad persecution efforts.  Sunlight dear friends.  Fear not, no weapon formed against us shall prosper.

Judge Juan Merchan, the judge in charge of President Donald Trump’s criminal case in Manhattan, apparently donated money to Joe Biden and Democrat efforts to remove President Trump from office.  At least that’s what the FEC records say.

However, the FEC records show Judge Merchan made the donations through “Act Blue,” the DNC funding mechanism; the same Act Blue organization now shown by James O’Keefe to have laundered money through various unaware Democrat donors.  So, there’s a possibility Judge Merchan may not have made the actual donations but is just another random name the Act Blue laundry used.  A possibility I might add, that’s buckets of irony.

NEW YORK – Judge Juan Merchan, the jurist handling former President Donald Trump’s criminal case in Manhattan, donated $35 to Democratic causes in 2020, including $15 to President Biden’s campaign and $10 to a group dedicated to “resisting … Donald Trump’s radical right-wing legacy.”

Federal Election Commission records show Merchan made three small-dollar donations within the span of two days in July 2020 through ActBlue, the Democratic Party’s preferred online fundraising platform.

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