This is just too good.  Need to share. [Source]

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CTH has covered the origin of food inflation since we first raised the alarms in the spring of 2020.  A confluence of events starting with the fracturing of the food supply chain (shutting down restaurants, hospitality venues, schools, cafeterias, etc), created the initial major problem.  Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) sold at retail stores could not keep up with demand after 50% of the food supply system was shut down.

Within the U.S. retail food supply chain (350+ million people), manufacturing CPG products relies on a system of staying one to two harvest cycles ahead of demand.  However, when restaurants and fresh food venues were closed, very quickly frozen, bulk stored and siloed U.S. food storage systems, the storage needed for CPG products, were emptied.

Long after the time when all food distribution was reopened, the shortages of CPG products continued. You saw the result with empty shelves at the supermarket.  It takes a long time (years) for those inventories to refill.

We warned of this in 2020 and then followed the predictable outcome in 2021 and 2022.

When Joe Biden then shut down the U.S. energy production system in early 2021, the massive increases in energy costs -and the shortages of natural gas- became fuel on the inflationary fire of CPG goods.  Again, in October 2021 CTH noted that retail prices were going to rise quickly, and they did.

Throughout 2022 food prices have risen dramatically as the food distribution and processing system was now under pressure from all sides.  The shortage of inputs (to refill food storage and warehousing needs) combined with the much higher costs to generate those inputs -the direct result of the exploding energy costs- created massive inflation pressure.  The pricing result we are seeing now (third wave of food inflation) is exactly what we have stated, discussed and predicted for more than two years.

While all food costs are skyrocketing, the prices for manufactured or processed food are much higher than the price increases for fresh food.

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Elon Musk officially took control of Twitter on Thursday evening.

Immediately after taking ownership, Mr. Musk fired Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Parag Agrawal, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Ned Segal, and the Head of Legal Policy, Vijaya Gadde, the person who took responsibility for banning former President Donald Trump from the social media platform. According to The Washington Post, Sean Edgett, the company’s general counsel was also given the boot.

The CEO, CFO and top legal officers all immediately removed. Nice start. Immediately after the top brass cleaning, Musk Tweeted “the bird is freed.”

According to financial reports, the S&P 500 is exiting Twitter (TWTR) from its stock market index effective November 1st as Musk takes the company private and promises to open source the background code to the public.

While there are many people waiting to see exactly what the changes mean to the user engagement aspects of the intelligence community engaged platform, this is easily the biggest change in the public information space in many years.

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Will big tech and social media remove Joe Biden for violations of misinformation, disinformation and malinformation?  Considering his remarks today, they should.

Reading from a teleprompter loaded with lies about the economy, Joe Biden stunningly states that gas prices are lower today than when he took office. Further claiming that gasoline was $5/gal.  {Direct Rumble Link} Nothing about any of his economic claims is true.  WATCH (1 min):

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Allowing people to return to work after the pandemic lockdowns is not “creating jobs.”  And gasoline was not $5/gal when Joe Biden took office.

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The dissidents at Project Veritas have received leaked whistleblower information from the FBI highlighting a guidance document that puts “disinformation” into the category of an “election crime.” [Source Article Here]   According to the internal guidance, sharing “false or inaccurate information intended to mislead others” may lead the FBI to charge people with election crimes.

[WASHINGTON, D.C. – Oct. 27, 2022] Project Veritas published a newly leaked document today provided by an FBI whistleblower.

The document details how the Bureau will tackle what they consider to be “election crimes.”

It lists “misinformation” as a potential election crime, describing it as “false or misleading information spread mistakenly or unintentionally.”

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Just a quick notice and alert to highlight some common technological ‘glitches’ and occurrences that are appearing around the internet, coincidentally timed as a result of the pending 2022 midterm election.

By now everyone is familiar with Big Tech control mechanisms like blocking, shadow banning, downgrading and throttling.

Essentially, these are methods within the technology space that are designed to influence opinion and block access to information and communication adverse to the ideology of the provider(s).

Most often we associate those terms with social media platforms; however, within the infrastructure of the internet itself the same intent is also carried in various forms you might not be familiar with.  I am seeing a lot of deployed control systems triggered recently, it is worth mentioning in case you notice something different.

Internet Service Providers (ISP’s) are increasingly directing your background internet travels and blocking you from access to content they define as against their interest.  Major players in the field of providing online access (comcast, Xfinity, AT&T, etc.) as well as regional operators also have a vested ideological stake.  If you find yourself having difficulty navigating the internet, especially during this election season, be aware the ISP provider could be in control.

Cell phone communication networks also have the ability to control data transmitted through their systems.  Text messages containing links to unapproved or dissident websites can be blocked by code and algorithms assigned to monitor traffic.   Phone browsers and portable internet hot spots may also be controlled by the provider.  You may not be aware, but your agreement with your cell phone provider gives them the ability to filter data on your device according to their individual standard.

Again, just be aware.

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By all outward appearances the acquisition of the Twitter social media platform by billionaire Elon Musk looks like it is going through.

According to bank filings and financial transfer documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal {link}, the process to finalize the purchase is taking place.  Meanwhile Mr. Musk used the platform to notify Twitter advertiser of his intent in the purchase {link}:

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During a White House announcement today, Joe Biden pledged to have all agencies in the federal bureaucracy begin to target private industry for charging service fees, or what the administration calls “junk fees.”   The junk fees relate to everything from bank overdraft charges, to hidden cleaning fees on car rentals, to hotel resort fees and even fees on airlines for seats with more legroom.

According to the White House, the junk service fees disproportionately impact marginalized communities, minorities and low-income households.  The airline fees are particularly racist because the airline prices for more comfortable seats have a “disparate impact” (legal term for federal intervention) on protected categories of people.

Poor people cannot afford bigger seats.  Poor people are disproportionately minority. Ergo a higher percentage of minority people cannot afford the comfortable seats.  That makes charging more for comfortable seats an illegal practice according to the legal theory of ‘disparate impact.’  WATCH:

[Transcript] – […]  Some airlines, if you want six more inches between you and the seat in front, you pay more money.  But you don’t know it until you purchase your ticket.

Look, folks, these are junk fees.  They’re unfair, and they hit marginalized Americans the hardest, especially low-income folks and people of color.  They benefit big corporations, not consumers, not working families.  And that changes now.

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According to a released article in Time Magazine, Twitter employees have drafted a letter containing several ‘demands.’ In addition to demanding they are not fired, they demand assurances against discrimination for their political beliefs.

(TIME) […] TIME reviewed a draft of the open letter circulating among Twitter employees on Monday. “Elon Musk’s plan to lay off 75% of Twitter workers will hurt Twitter’s ability to serve the public conversation,” said the draft of the letter, which has not yet been published. “A threat of this magnitude is reckless, undermines our users’ and customers’ trust in our platform, and is a transparent act of worker intimidation.”

The letter demands that Musk commits to preserving Twitter’s current headcount if his takeover of the company goes through. It also demands he does not discriminate against employees based on their political beliefs and that he commits to “fair” severance policies and more communication about working conditions. “We demand to be treated with dignity, and to not be treated as mere pawns in a game played by billionaires,” the list of demands says. (read letter here)

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The extreme vitriol against the recent OPEC+ decision to cut oil output, specifically the extreme Biden anger toward Saudi Arabia, now takes on additional context as the New York Times writes about a secretly negotiated deal between the Kingdom and White House officials that was never executed.

As the Times reveals, over the summer the White House thought their team had negotiated a deal with Saudi Arabia for increased oil production that would have lowered oil and gasoline costs in the U.S, strategically timed before the midterm election.

With that agreement in mind, Joe Biden went to Saudi Arabia a few months ago. However, as the western alliance began putting more pressure on Russia and increased the activity within Ukraine, the Saudi’s aligned with OPEC+ to support Russia via lowered oil outputs.  The White House felt double-crossed, hence the fury.

(New York Times) –  WASHINGTON — As President Biden was planning a politically risky trip to Saudi Arabia this summer, his top aides thought they had struck a secret deal to boost oil production through the end of the year — an arrangement that could have helped justify breaking a campaign pledge to shun the kingdom and its crown prince.  It didn’t work out that way.

Mr. Biden went through with the trip. But earlier this month, Saudi Arabia and Russia steered a group of oil-producing countries in voting to slash oil production by two million barrels per day, the opposite of the outcome the administration thought it had secured as the Democratic Party struggles to deal with inflation and high gas prices heading into the November elections.

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