Those who followed the 2016 presidential campaign might remember when Senator Ted Cruz was discovered to have hidden $1.3 million in campaign “loans” from Goldman Sachs and Citibank during his 2012 campaign for the senate.

At the heart of the issue was a failure of Ted and Heidi Cruz to list Wall Street “loans” on the required Federal Election Commission financial reports.

Beyond the financing was the most likely reality that Goldman Sachs insiders were actually financing Senator Cruz and using “loans” as a tool to skirt campaign finance laws.

During the heat of the 2016 primary campaign the Cruz Team, and the legions of supporters therein, vociferously defended the revelations and stated there was no issue with their campaign filings.

In response to the issue the Ted Cruz campaign said they’ll go through the enforcement mechanism of the FEC instead of the compliance division for resolution.

By going through the “enforcement division” (took over a year) they would delay any damaging information from discovery until after the 2016 Presidential Election.

Well, the enforcement division of the FEC finally made a decision as to the entire construct of the dubious campaign financing: (more…)

Reuters/Washington Post Puts a Slice of Kushner Cheese on Russian Nothingburger and simultaneously prove the Obama Administration was spying on the Trump campaign.

The extent of the U.S. media’s straw-grasping is boundless, but this one is going to backfire. HOPEFULLY.  For the most recent example consider the Washington Post and Reuters claiming President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner participating in a proposal to set up a back-channel with Russia for communication after the November 8th election.

Firstly, Reuters and The Washington Post are idiots in their claimed “exclusive” bombast, etc.  UPI reported on the nothingburger back-channel Russian construct on April 3rd.  This “breaking” news is old news, and old nothingburger news at that.

Of course President-elect Trump’s staff would consider a back-channel set up for communications with Russian government officials in November and December 2016, just about everyone with a tinge of common sense was saying that exact construct was needed.

Why?

Well, you must remember the atmosphere after the November 8th election during the time period being discussed.  President Obama, in close coordination with his U.S. media allies, was filling the airwaves with toxic anti-Russian narratives in an explicit attempt to make any structural positive relationship between the pending Trump administration and Russia impossible.

(more…)

BUSTED !!

Today former CIA Director John Brennan testified to congress on the Russian counter-intelligence operation which began in July 2016.  Today, John Brennan completely contradicted the March 20th, 2017, testimony of former FBI Director James Comey.

We have previously drawn attention to a particular part of former FBI Director James Comey’s testimony to congress from March 20th.  The issue is when was congressional leadership, specifically the congressional intelligence oversight group called the “Gang-of-Eight”, notified of the Russian investigation (a counter-intelligence operation).

Pay close attention.  On March 20th FBI Director James Comey -together with NSA head Admiral Mike Rogers- testified to congress specifically about this notification (first three minutes of the video):

Rep. Stefanik: [01:12] …”when did you notify the White House, the DNI or congressional leadership”?

James Comey: …”good question.  Congressional leadership, sometime recently they were briefed on the nature of the investigation, as I said.  Obviously the department of justice has been aware of it all along”…

Watch the first 3 minutes of that video.  Notice the discomfort etc.  We have previously outlined why THAT is such a big deal –SEE HERE–  Comey is discussing the recent notification to congress that took place approximately a week earlier.  Prior to that congressional notification FBI Director Comey admits to keeping congress in the dark “because of the sensitivity of the matter” from July 2016 through March 2017.

Now, watch the opening statement from former CIA Director John Brennan today:

(more…)

Fox5 is reporting that a private investigator has turned up tangible evidence that murdered DNC staffer Seth Rich was in contact with Wikileaks.  Which further provides more evidence he was most likely the source of the DNC leaks.  The same report points out the FBI have been trying to cover-up the discoveries.

The motive for the leaks was obvious, the collusion within the DNC, specifically with the U.S. media, to eliminate Bernie Sanders as a potential risk to Clinton’s ambitions. If proven accurate this would also further prove “the Russians” had nothing to do with the DNC leaks.  That’s the basis for the entire “muh russian conspiracy” narrative.

#SheWontGoQuietly
DNC leaker wasn’t the Russians. It was Seth Rich & his computer shows he was emailing #Wikileaks. #SethRich #RIPSethRich pic.twitter.com/404GTppCUt

— AliceNUraniumOneLand (@American1765) May 16, 2017

//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

WASHINGTON DC – […] Rod Wheeler, a private investigator hired by the Rich family, suggests there is tangible evidence on Rich’s laptop that confirms he was communicating with WikiLeaks prior to his death.

Now, questions have been raised on why D.C. police, the lead agency on this murder investigation for the past ten months, have insisted this was a robbery gone bad when there appears to be no evidence to suggest that.

(more…)

One of the reasons CTH writes about economic matters because constructing economic prediction theories based around political policy is a hobby of mine.  Within obscure data, raw and unfiltered up-stream activity, it is entirely possible to see over the horizon.

But newly engaged people also think I’m nuts; so therefore it is also fun conversation at parties to stand above the esoteric academic fray, smile and outline actual forecasts –very specific forecasts– that most would never consider possible from a linear perspective.

People pay a boat-load of money for proprietary ownership of very accurate forecasts.  However, CTH would rather do it open source and break the historic grip of the financial control class.

If you’ll permit me a little Funday indulgence; the other reason to share predictable consequences is so patriotic readers can take a pro-active and empowering position in their own decision-making.  That motive was one of the reasons for previously sharing:

[…]  Until the two economies gain parity – any fed activity, taken as a consequence to their familiar traditional measurements (interest rates etc.), will have minimal to negligible impact on Main Street.

• Regional areas which benefited from high yield and high rates of return from Wall Street, ie. investment benefactors, will begin economic contraction. The downstream effect on state finances, and the retail and high-end service industry will also be negatively impacted.

• However, industrial areas/middle-class areas, with affordable housing and reasonable infrastructure, which have suffered in the past 20+ years, will see home values increasing as the local economy expands.

National policy (Trump Policy) which benefits Main Street also benefits local economics which are founded in manufacturing, production, and ancillary services.  In essence, the Middle-Class.

Those who benefited from high-yield international investment income will see less income.  Those who live on savings will see a moderate benefit.  However, those living day-to-day and week-to-week on their paychecks will see much more income.  Believe it. (link)

Now check out this headline from AP today discussing Connecticut:

(more…)

Earlier today President Donald Trump signed HR244 into law.  The provisional spending bill that funds government through September 30th, the end of fiscal year 2017.

There has been a great deal of anxiety amid punditry about the spending outline itself, and the spending priorities as determined by both houses of congress.  Some of the criticism is warranted, most is not.

The basic principle the entire professional political class seem to overlook is the reasoning for the CR itself.  Congress has been unable to fulfill its budgetary obligation since 2007.

In fact, the last federal budget (fiscal year ’08) was signed into law in September of 2007.  By the conclusion of this CR it will have been an entire decade without a federal budget.

Perspective: ♦ Over half of all elected federal politicians have never held elected office in any year with a federal budget in place.  ♦ Almost two-thirds of Republicans in congress have never known a federal budget for a single day in office.

THAT FACT should be the target of the ire from all Americans, particularly conservatives.  However, hypocritically, it is not.

For some reason ankle-biters, antagonists, and crony constitutional punditry amid the various CONservative outlets, choose instead to focus their criticism toward the first president in our lifetime to actually deliver on conservative policy, conservative values and expressed policy objectives/outcomes that benefit all common sense Americans.

(more…)

The UniParty is sly, I would say professionally and expertly so, and before readers feel the need to point out the obvious – when it comes to legislation, yes, I am professionally cynical.

The reason is simple, having trained ourselves to see when the pea is never under the shell, the legislative conversations that really matter are always behind a Potemkin Village called K-Street.

You have to know the unwritten legislative rules of the UniParty as they have been evidenced for almost 15 years to understand the ruse.

♦ First, the reason a vote, any vote, is “announced”, and just doesn’t take place, is because it provides the controlled opposition time to frame their anti-(fill_in_the-blank) talking points.  This is by design.  When a legislative vote is “announced” it is a dog-whistle call out to the institutional lobbyists that the legislation will be rail-roaded and ultimately fail.

(more…)

Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney did an excellent job today pushing back against the UniParty and their slobbering media water-carriers today.

Mulvaney was unexpected by the White House Press Corps who were apoplectic at the conclusion of the briefing:

.

The media response was priceless:

(more…)

Sir Spitsalot was not having a good day today when asked to join a panel discussion of how Democrats have responded to the first 100 days of President Trump’s administration.

The gist of the discussion centered around the Democrat party’s decision to focus on social and environmental justice issues.  Spittles was asked if dancing naked around a campfire chanting anti-Russian rainbow memes while selling sustainable algae cakes was an effective strategy to reach most American voters.  The video is below:

(more…)

…“Literally 30-thousand jobs could be lost if Trump is sworn in. Washington as we know it, and how business is conducted, will change instantly.”… ~DC Lobbyist

Over the past few days we have been providing background explainers on why congressional legislation is frozen.   The lack of legislative action in the era of Trump is one of the least understood political realities.  Corporate media cannot discuss the issue because they are part of the system itself. The election of President Trump threw a wrench into the gears of the entire DC legislative and lobbying machine.

Part I HERE -and- Part II HERE -and- Part III HERE.

The entire political and legislative apparatus is frozen, and it is genuinely impossible to predict what happens next.  Where we stand is the outcome building a very targeted system over the course of three decades.  The entities and institutions which assembled the system became functionally obsolescent overnight on November 8th 2016.

To fully grasp the tectonic shift, and understand the current challenge, it helps to revisit the words by a key DC machine operator, lobbyist Jack Burkman, who was contemplating the unthinkable prior to the unthinkable becoming a reality:

DC Public Relations2016 […]  seismic panic has ensued on K Street as lobbying firms brace for a reality of a possible Donald Trump presidency and what that might mean for them and their futures.

Prominent D.C. lobbyist Jack Burkman said today that he started assembling a delegation of lobbyists and lobbying firms to meet with the New York billionaire and begin building a bridge to the Trump organization.

“Trump is a Washington outsider. We need the outreach now or Trump will bring in a whole new team made up exclusively of New Yorkers, effectively ending our grip on the White House and The Capitol which will bring about the end of life as we know it here,” says Burkman, who represents a diverse set of national and multi-national clients.

(more…)