Not that long ago, I would have said to allow the free market to decide if a merger or acquisition was valuable for the consumer.  However, in the era where massive multinational corporations, investment groups and financial institutions have now used corporatism to merge their interests with government, the massive multinationals need scrutiny.

Two major food retailers, Kroger and Albertsons, have announced their intent to merge into one massive company in a deal valued at $24.6 billion.  The majority stakeholders in Kroger are institutional investors Vanguard ($3.72 billion/11.29%) and Blackrock ($3.02 billion/ 9.17%).   The majority stakeholder in Albertsons is institutional investment group Cerberus ($3.90 billion/28.54%).

In the past few years, food has surfaced as a growing national security issue.  Foreign companies and large multinationals continue to expand their control over U.S. farm production and export U.S. farm products (Big Ag).  A major retail level move like the merger of Kroger and Albertsons creates a weaker competitive environment and gives a larger potential footprint to price control.

CBS – […] Together, the companies will have more than 710,000 workers and operate nearly 5,000 stores, along with roughly 4,000 pharmacies. Kroger, based in Cincinnati, Ohio, operates 2,800 stores in 35 states, including brands like Ralphs, Smith’s and Harris Teeter. Alberstons, based in Boise, Idaho, operates 2,220 stores in 34 states, including brands like Safeway, Jewel Osco and Shaw’s. 

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As expected, the Lawfare ideologues have weaponized the legal system to grant special visa status to the illegal aliens flown to Martha’s Vineyard by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.  The aliens have been granted lawful U.S. residency status via “U VISA’s” reserved for victims of crimes.

Their applications as criminally trafficked victims come as the result of Texas Sherriff Javier Salazar certifying they were victims of an illegal human trafficking operation led by the Florida governor.  As an outcome, Ron DeSantis is under investigation by federal authorities and Texas authorities for violations of human trafficking laws.

[Picture Source – With More Detail]

The federal government, U.S. Treasury Dept, has an open investigation into the funds used by DeSantis to conduct the transfer operation. “Documents indicate Florida officials paid Destin, Fla.-based Vertol Systems Co. $1.56 million for the Martha’s Vineyard flight and possibly for a flight to Delaware, the home state of President Joe Biden, that ultimately didn’t happen.” [link]  Meanwhile Texas Sheriff Salazar is conducting a criminal investigation for human trafficking.

The 50 aliens have essentially been designated as victims and received the special VISA’s protecting them from extradition.  They are now considered witnesses for use by the Treasury investigation and Texas criminal probe.

WASHINGTON DC – Texas Sheriff Javier Salazar on Thursday certified that the group of migrants flown to Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., last month by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) were victims of a crime, qualifying them to obtain a visa.

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As the third day of the trial of Igor Danchenko took place a Clinton campaign operative named Charles Dolan was called to the witness stand to explain his relationship to the accused fabricator of information used within the Christopher Steele dossier.  [TechnoFog has a deep dive on the testimony – HERE]

Charles Dolan has deep ties to the Democrat party. He has been a long-term advisor to Hillary Clinton, served as state chairman of Bill Clinton’s 1992 and 1996 presidential campaigns, and was a key player in Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign.  Dolan is an operative within the larger democrat machinery, a leftist version of Karl Rove.

Dolan was also a source for the Steele Dossier by providing information to Igor Danchenko who then sent the information to Chris Steele for inclusion in the Trump-dirt Steele Dossier.

When Charles Dolan was called to the witness stand, he admitted under direct questioning that he “embellished” and manufactured information provided to Igor Danchenko. He also noticed when the Dossier was made public that information he provided was included.  In essence, Dolan was one of the many people who generated nonsense lies, which became fabrications within the Steele dossier that the FBI later used to gain a FISA warrant.

It is infuriating, albeit not surprising, to see leftist media like Politico report on the Dolan lies as if the held no consequence.  This, after years of pushing the dossier material in order for leftist media to engineer completely fabricated narratives.

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The J6 Committee attempted to culminate their super serious grand theatrical performance with their closing effort.  A vote to subpoena President Trump and compel him to testify before the sham committee.   The made-for-television production was as ridiculous as it sounds.  WATCH:

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There is no precedent for the legislative branch to subpoena a former President of the United States, the executive branch.  No court, including the Supreme Court, would validate a congressional subpoena against the President.  The separation of powers would not permit the enforcement mechanism and there is no constitutional authority within the legislative branch to compel the executive. Period.

As a result, the effort of the J6 committee is essentially a made for television performance intended to create some goofy October surprise in advance of the November midterm election.  The transparency of the insufferable political nonsense is clear.   President Trump responded via Truth Social:

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The Bureau of Labor and Statistics released the September Consumer Price Index (CPI) today [DATA HERE].  The financial and business media call the continued rise of consumer inflation “unexpected,” however, the results are not a surprise to those who are not pretending.

This CNBC headline highlights the economic pretense still entrenched: “Inflation increased 0.4% in September, more than expected despite rate hikes.”  Those who are not pretending fully understand the economic dynamic, but you will not find reality expressed by the mainstream media.

FED rate hikes can only impact the demand side of the inflation issue. U.S (and global) inflation is NOT the result of excess demand. It has not been driven by demand for over a year.  The root cause of inflation is on the supply side. That root is grounded in the energy policy making everything entering the marketplace more expensive.

The historic rise in energy prices; the result of Joe Biden’s specific energy policy to limit oil, gas and coal as energy resources; are what have driven inflation throughout the economy.  The monetary policy (Fed policy) continues to pretend this dynamic does not exist.  The FED is trying to support the political policy, but the bloom is off the ruse.

Overall inflation increased 0.4% in September, leading to a result of 8.2% year over year.  Food and energy prices continue driving inflation, additionally core inflation (everything except food and energy) continues to be driven by the originating issue of extreme energy costs.

Everything costs more because energy costs more.  That is the reality of this inflation issue.

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The Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS) released the September wage report [DATA HERE] delivering worse economic news for workers.

Real wages are dropping at a historic rate as inflation continues to rise and as a result wages buy less.

[BLS] “Real average hourly earnings decreased 3.0 percent, seasonally adjusted, from September 2021 to September 2022. The change in real average hourly earnings combined with a decrease of 0.9 percent in the average workweek resulted in a 3.8-percent decrease in real average weekly earnings over this period.” (link)

REAL WAGE CHART:

As the Biden economic/energy policy and Federal Reserve monetary policy merge together, the economy shrinks.  As the economy shrinks, fewer goods and services are purchased.  As less consumer goods are purchased, employment hours drop.  As employment hours drop, wages decline.

Declining wages combined with increased inflation forms the perfect storm against middle-class and working-class families.  This dynamic means lowered income and higher prices for essential goods and services like food, fuel, energy and housing.  It’s not difficult to see why this is happening.

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On February 24, 2022, Deputy National Security Advisor and Deputy Director of the National Economic Council, Daleep Singh, told the world what to expect about the U.S. and allied response to the war in Ukraine.  We called the white house strategy “World War Reddit.”  Here’s what Deputy NSA Singh said:

…”Strategic success in the 21st century is not about a physical land grab of territory; that’s what Putin has done.  In this century, strategic power is increasingly measured and exercised by economic strength, by technological sophistication and your story – who you are, what your values are; can you attract ideas and talent and goodwill? And on each of those measures, this will be a failure for Russia.”  ~ Deputy National Security Advisor Daleep Singh

Deputy National Security Advisor Daleep Singh boiled down geopolitical power to a cultural issue of social likeability.  Realize that what he said is the White House strategy leading our foreign policy.  That strategy is why the White House enlisted TikTok influencers for their Ukraine effort [link].  Remember, the State Dept is also leading this effort.  That is the context for this video. WATCH:

That’s why we called it World War Reddit eight months ago.  Where the State Dept was going with this “war” was obvious.

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The legal case brought by prosecutor John Durham against Igor Danchenko is predicated on the notion that Christopher Steele’s source for his dossier willfully and intentionally lied to the FBI, and therefore Danchenko is guilty of purposefully misleading FBI investigators assigned to the Trump-Russia/”crossfire hurricane” investigation.

Transparently everyone knows the FBI were not duped by Danchenko and records indicate Danchenko told them the Steele dossier was full of fabricated nonsense. Additionally, to keep the revelation of the dossier as nonsense hidden, the FBI hired Danchenko as a confidential human source, technically shielding him from being questioned or exposed.  The FBI decision to hire Danchenko was to keep the fraudulent dossier useful for their Trump targeting operation.

So, what’s going on?

This is where John Durham is doing two things: (1) He is protecting the corrupt DOJ and FBI institutions by not investigating any government action; and yet, (2) Durham is exposing corrupt FBI and DOJ action through his court filings and cases.  Yesterday Durham provided more evidence of just how corrupt the FBI was in the lead-in to the 2016 election.

FBI supervisory analyst Brian Auten testified Tuesday that Hillary Clinton’s contracted opposition researcher, Christopher Steele, hired by Fusion GPS to dig up dirt on Donald Trump, was offered up to $1 million by the FBI in early October 2016 if Chris Steele could prove the claims within the Trump dirt dossier he authored.

Steele was never paid the money because he could not prove the claims within the dossier, nor would he give up the name of the primary source for the information, Igor Danchenko.  However, despite the FBI knowing the dossier could not be proved, validated or verified, later that same month they used the dossier as evidence to support a Title-1 FISA warrant against former Trump campaign aide, Carter Page.

The details provided by Durham only prove the researched outline we made almost 5 years ago.

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In a statement today from the White House, Joe Biden has pledged “to continue providing Ukraine with the support needed to defend itself, including advanced air defense systems.” [link]  The statement comes as a result of a phone call between Biden and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Two days ago, a bridge between Russia and Crimea was bombed by Ukraine causing a section of the bridge to collapse.  Yesterday, Vladimir Putin retaliated with missile strikes against several cities in Ukraine and key infrastructure for energy.

The U.S. State Dept and CIA are continuing to lead and coordinate the Ukraine war effort with U.S. personnel in place to organize operations. [link]

Like the bombing of the Nordstream pipeline, it is highly likely the Kerch Strait bridge targeting was planned by Ukraine and the United States.  However, we are not permitted to speak about these coordinated efforts. The bottom line is the U.S. Biden administration going further toward direct engagement with Russia via the proxy state of Ukraine.

KYIV, Ukraine — President Vladimir V. Putin unleashed a far-reaching series of missile strikes against cities across Ukraine on Monday, hitting the heart of Kyiv and other areas far from the front line, in the broadest assault against civilians since the early days of Russia’s invasion.

Mr. Putin said the strikes on almost a dozen cities were retaliation for a blast that destroyed sections of a bridge linking Russia to the Crimean Peninsula, though they also seemed intended to appease hard-liners in Russia who had been openly critical over the prosecution of the war.

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Students from the University of Florida (Gators) showed up to protest against the installation of Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse as their university president.

According to the Tampa Bay Times, “the protesters made five demands. They wanted Sasse to decline the president’s job and the UF board of trustees to release the names — thus far withheld — of all 12 people they had interviewed for the post. They also demanded more transparency during the selection process and the repeal of a new Florida law that makes presidential searches at state colleges and universities largely secret.” (more)

Everyone in Florida knows Governor Ron DeSantis cleared the field for his friend Senator Ben Sasse.  As noted by Politico: “Sasse’s sherpa through the university search process was Gov. Ron DeSantis’ chief of staff James Uthmeier, who was put in contact with Sasse several months ago after he quietly expressed interest in becoming UF president.“ (link)

Senator Sasse is a never Trumper reelected in 2020 and his term doesn’t expire until 2026.  Sasse is expected to depart this year and the Nebraska governor will make an appointment to fill his senate seat.

…”Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts would then appoint a replacement for Sasse under state law, with the seat then up for a special election in 2024. One of the people familiar with Sasse’s plans said Ricketts himself is viewed as a potential appointee for the seat.”

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