It always puzzles me when I come across an obscure data point that comes directly from the mouths of people who follow politics, and yet watch them not ask the obvious question.  In this video segment, the first 20 seconds by podcaster Patrick Bet-David are interesting.

The video was recorded on Monday May 22nd, two days before Ron DeSantis officially launched his campaign (May 24).  The meeting being described by Bet-David is on Thursday May 18, approximately four days before the interview, and six days before the campaign launch.

PBD notes he was invited with 10 to 15 other people to “watch Governor Ron DeSantis, work” in the governor’s mansion.  In essence, it seems like someone from the DeSantis campaign was continuing to reach out to ‘influencers’ in advance of the announcement the following week.

QUESTION:  Why do none of these influencers ask why they are being invited to “watch” DeSantis?  It just seems odd.   The podcast segment is a pretty good discussion with Sebastian Gorka, but watch the first 20 seconds.

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What PBD outlines rather casually is exactly what I drew attention to last year.  The DeSantis operation was clearly working in the latter part of 2021 to seed the landscape for the 2024 election, including the January 6, 2022, influencer meetup.  Yet for some odd reason, none of the participants questioned what the purpose of the unsolicited engagement request was.

I first wrote about this last July and August, it’s all just weird.

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The boss is back in town and the spontaneous crowd erupted in cheers as President Donald Trump briefly walked from his security detail into Trump Tower.

The people look genuinely happy to see President Trump back in town.  WATCH:

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House Speaker Kevin McCarthy appears on Fox News Sunday to defend his deal with Joe Biden for a debt ceiling increase.

In the past 24 hours many fiscal conservatives have criticized McCarthy for the terms of the agreement. In this interview, McCarthy walks through the details of the terms as he constructed them and pushes back against some of the criticism.  WATCH:

As soon as the bill is in written form, we will be able to make a better determination.  At this moment this is all hearsay based on what people think the legislation says.

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…. “There are Trillions at Stake!”

2,600 people at $15/hr is $39,000 per hour. Anticipating 1,000 hrs per campaign worker, that’s $39 million. At $25/hr that’s $65 million. At $40/hr that’s $104 million.

This is the scale of spending that Ken Cuccinelli and Jeff Roe have for the Never Back Down SuperPAC to support Governor Ron DeSantis in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada on behalf of the Sea Island billionaires who want to manipulate the 2024 election.  That’s just payroll for new hires.

Overall, the New York Times is reporting a campaign support spending plan of more than $200 million. Essentially, these are payments from the billionaire Wall Street donors and multinationals, funneled through the SuperPAC, to influence the ’24 election. The context of the New York Times report sounds accurate.

NYT – A key political group supporting Ron DeSantis’s presidential run is preparing a $100 million voter-outreach push so big it plans to knock on the door of every possible DeSantis voter at least four times in New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina — and five times in the kickoff Iowa caucuses.

The effort is part of an on-the-ground organizing operation that intends to hire more than 2,600 field organizers by Labor Day, an extraordinary number of people for even the best-funded campaigns.

Top officials with the pro-DeSantis group, a super PAC called Never Back Down, provided their most detailed account yet of their battle plan to aid Mr. DeSantis, whom they believe they can sell as the only candidate to take on — and win — the cultural fights that are definitional for the Republican Party in 2024.

The group said it expected to have an overall budget of at least $200 million, including more than $80 million to be transferred from an old DeSantis state political account, for the daunting task of vaulting the Florida governor past former President Donald J. Trump, who has established himself as the dominant early front-runner.

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According to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a deal “in principle” has been reached between himself and Joe Biden.  McCarthy held a brief press conference to announced the deal; however, no details are forthcoming.  WATCH:

WASHINGTON DC – … [B]oth Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy still have to sell their respective parties on the agreement, navigating fraught votes in both chambers. McCarthy immediately hosted a call with members after the deal was announced, calling it a “big win” and claiming Democrats didn’t get “one thing” that they wanted out of the negotiations on a member-wide conference call, according to three people on the call.

While conservative Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.) vocally criticized the agreement — saying he was “extremely disappointed” that the deal didn’t include “any meaningful cuts” — other Freedom Caucus members praised the deal, including Reps. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Warren Davidson (R-Ohio). Though both said they wanted to see the text, Jordan praised McCarthy for a deal where the government is “spending less” than it did before and getting Democrats to move on work requirements.

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Last night I participated in a conversation. This article is written as an outcome of that conversation, as requested by those who participated.

Essentially, the framework of the conversation, as I initially listened, is best described as a series of questions amid a group of smart intellectual types who are very understanding of the nature of our current situation.

In various forms they were asking each other the same question.  What happened in the last several years that caused Democrats, leftists and the traditional political left to switch positions on their advocacy?

Liberalism literally went from railing against Big Govt, to embracing corrupt Big Govt. Why and how did this happen?

In short, it was the same line of questioning I have seen asked by Tucker Carlson, Glenn Greenwald, Tulsi Gabbard and various traditionally liberal people as well as people on the right side of the continuum.

Why and how did traditional liberalism so suddenly flip from being, big picture – ‘anti-government’, to suddenly embracing corrupt government enterprise, and supporting the intelligence apparatus, federal govt (writ large), institutional oppressive law enforcement and FBI etc.?  What happened?

After listening to this conversation quietly, as I am prone to do, my remarks -with citations and examples- silenced the room.

At the conclusion of my remarks, everyone asked me if I had ever written about this, and if not – why not?   I did not have an answer, so consider this a promise fulfilled.  Perhaps you might find value.

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As the geography narrows before us, it is important to remember the stakes and avoid the distractions.  As a consequence, the baseline must be reaffirmed. It is critical to understand that both the DNC and RNC are private corporations with no affiliation to government.

It is a difficult shift in thinking, but the party system in U.S. politics revolves around two distinct private corporations – two clubs that feed from the same corporate trough and position for influence and affluence within a political dynamic they control.

The priority for both clubs, Republican and Democrat, is NOT politically or culturally ideological.  In the modern era, the corporate priority first begins with a battle over who controls each corporation.

As long as there is no challenge, the clubs operate without issue.  However, when there is a battle for control of the corporation, a battle that will ultimately determine the financial outcome, the internal battle becomes the priority.

2024 is going to be the election season when we see this corporate battle explode inside in the Republican group.  Decades of entrenched power are at stake, and there has been four years of counter positioning and backroom discussion leading up to this moment.

As a consequence, and I know this might sound odd to many people – but winning and/or losing elections becomes a secondary issue.  The RNC is not focused on winning elections. The RNC corporation is focused on retaining control.

The RNC want to give the illusion of support for MAGA conservatism because they need the base voter, and they need to maintain the illusion of choice. However, every move they make on an operational level is exactly in line with their previous outlook toward cocktail class republicanism.  The MAGA base of support cannot trust this corporate group, and we must not be blind or unguarded about the Machiavellian schemes they construct.

When you hear the influence group saying the two priorities for control of the Republican Club involve, (1) eliminating populism in the ranks; and (2) realigning with multinational corporate objectives (vis a vis Wall Street), what they are publicly expressing is their RNC corporate need to get rid of the America First economic agenda – to get rid of the MAGA influence.

How has this historically surfaced?

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According to Florida lobbyists, they have been contacted by state employees with instructions to send payments to the campaign of Ron DeSantis.  The ethical problems within this effort are numerous and could potentially be legally liable for DeSantis government officials participating.

At best, the issue is extreme swamp behavior, where DeSantis officials are pressuring lobbyists in Florida to donate to the DeSantis 2024 election campaign or their advocacy may be disregarded in state budget considerations.

When state employees use their offices to solicit payments to political entities, the legal issues become very murky.  Then again, this is swamp behavior – and when you hire the swamp to push your agenda, these are the types of outcomes that surface.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Officials who work for Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration — not his campaign — have been sending text messages to Florida lobbyists soliciting political contributions for DeSantis’ presidential bid, a breach of traditional norms that has raised ethical and legal questions and left many here in the state capital shocked.

NBC News reviewed text messages from four DeSantis administration officials, including those directly in the governor’s office and with leadership positions in state agencies. They requested the recipient of the message contribute to the governor’s campaign through a specific link that appeared to track who is giving as part of a “bundle” program.

“The bottom line is that the administration appears to be keeping tabs on who is giving, and are doing it using state staff,” a longtime Florida lobbyist said. “You are in a prisoner’s dilemma. They are going to remain in power. We all understand that.”

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Everything I have ever written about Jack’s Magic Coffee Shop is true, even if it takes a little longer for the more complex details about the data processing, govt subsidies and the DHS financial side of the operation to surface.   The DHS, ODNI and FBI control elements were proven in the Twitter Files before the lawyers shut down the pertinent line of inquiry. That horse left the barn as everyone stood jaw-agape.  The second aspect, the financial side of the operation, remains more elusive – but slowly even the biggest tech detractors are coming around to the realization.

Into this foray came the question of whether or not Musk knew about it.  A debate on these pages took place.  In the background, unbeknownst to the general public, the tech insiders within the rebel alliance had formulated a thesis about the takeover. The key part of their overlaid thesis was a timeline of sorts, showing the rise of Truth Social – and the partnerships therein (Rumble) – contrast against the entry of Musk into the coffee shop and the official DHS position about TikTok, – another competitor.

Was the Musk intervention timed to coincide with a rise in strategic competition against the interests of DHS?  Go back and look at the timeline and decide for yourself. It is certainly suspicious when contrast against the ‘new features‘ being advanced within the coffee shop business model.

Regardless, if you overlay the recent Musk decisions, and then overlay the deployed alignment of the Musk enterprise and DeSantis presidential launch, you can make a solid argument the Trillions at Stake group, the collaboration between govt, billionaire multinationals and Big Tech, have a multi-faceted approach to control public information in advance of the 2024 election.  Subtle like a brick through a window:

Fingers placed.  Scales tipped. Interests aligned.

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Special Counsel John Durham previously submitted his 306-page report on Matters Related to the Intelligence Community Efforts in the 2016 Election [pdf HERE]. There is also a 48-page classified appendix available to cleared members of Congress.

On Tuesday June 20th, Durham will deliver a classified briefing to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI); the following day, Wednesday June 21st, Durham will testify in a public setting before the House Judiciary Committee.

WASHINGTON DC – Special Counsel John Durham will testify in front of the House Judiciary Committee about his report in June, a source has told Fox News on Friday.

The hearing will happen on Wednesday, June 21. The day before, Durham will appear before the House Intelligence Committee in a closed-door briefing.

Durham has found that the Department of Justice and FBI “failed to uphold their mission of strict fidelity to the law” when it launched the Trump-Russia investigation. (read more)

We have a little less than a month to assemble questions for both the classified (HPSCI) briefing, and the public (HJC) hearing.

If you have traveled the deep weeds and have a specific line of questioning you think might be pertinent to either committee 😉, I am including the Republican names of both the HPSCI and HJC below.   The HPSCI members can ask anything – including questions directly related to classified intelligence.  The HJC members will not be limited in their questions but might find a non-answer in return to anything considered classified.

The FISA silo would likely fall into the classified questioning, depending on the specifics of the inquiry.  Questions involving the CIA and/or ODNI involvement may also be best explored in the HPSCI briefing.

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