The topline of a third-quarter GDP at +2.6% looks good [DATA HERE]. However, a look into the numbers shows alarm.  The domestic U.S. economy, as measured by Main Street creating goods and services for domestic consumption, contracted in the third quarter.

The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) calculation is a valuation of all goods and services created within the economy, minus the value of goods and services imported.  However, even a cursory look under the topline number shows how the import/export dynamic creates the illusion of economic growth.

In the third quarter we exported hundreds of billions worth of energy products, including massive liquified natural gas (LNG) sales to Europe, and oil sales to the global market from the strategic petroleum reserve.  We also sold billions in weapons to Europe. Those sales are calculated as exports, lifting the GDP number (Table 1).  At the same time, imports of durable goods into the United States collapsed; meaning less was deducted from the GDP.  The net import/export impact on the GDP dynamic was +2.77% (Table 2).

Meaning the third-quarter import/export dynamic alone contributed 2.7% growth to the percentage of change for the prior period.  However, the total GDP only rose 2.6%, because the actual economic value created domestically got smaller.  We made less internally, sold less internally and consumers purchased less internally.

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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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The primary reason Katie Hobbs is refusing to debate has to be connected to her complete lack of qualifications and her transparent lack of articulate intelligence.  Having watched a few interviews with Hobbs, it’s obvious more visibility would only hurt her.

Conversely, the more voters see Mrs. Kari Lake the more they like her.  Mrs Lake is a very impressive and articulate candidate on policy and substance. Additionally, she believes her message and speaks directly to the concerns of Arizona voters.

A recent poll released today by Fox10 shows Mrs. Lake pulling ahead:

ARIZONA – […] With less than 2 weeks to go before the November election, Republican Kari Lake leads Democrat Katie Hobbs by 11 percentage points. Only about 2% of voters are undecided. Pollster Matt Towery believes that Hobbs’ reluctance to debate Lake may be a reason why the gap has widened in recent weeks. According to InsiderAdvantage, Lake is polling higher among older adults and Hispanics. (more)

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A lot of people didn’t like Steven Mnuchin as Treasury Secretary, I did.  Secretary Mnuchin was an inside player, a billionaire himself, who worked for the outside team.  He already had a full bank account and carried ‘f**k-off’ money.   That, combined with Wilbur Ross having the same ability, was exactly what we needed to execute the America-First MAGAnomic resurgence.

The U.S. middle-class saw and felt the benefits.  Economic security is national security, at a nationwide and even individual level.  Mnuchin, Ross and Lighthizer constructed that economic outcome guided by the larger strategy of President Donald J Trump.

RIYADH, Oct 26 (Reuters) – Former U.S. treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin said on Wednesday he believed the United States was in a recession and said this would continue.

Speaking at Riyadh’s flagship investment conference FII, he said: “I think we’ll probably see a peak of 4.5% 10-year rates.”

“I think you are going to see inflation in the U.S. begin to come under control, it will probably be a two-year period,” he added.

He said the U.S. and China must learn to co-exist. He added that the Middle East’s economic issues need to be dealt with regionally. (link)

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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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During a vaccine promotion today where Joe Biden received his COVID-19 vaccine booster, he mentioned that only 20 million Americans had decided to remain on the vaccine ronacoaster and get the booster shot.

Interestingly, there was a representative from Albertsons in attendance.  Kroger and Albertsons have a pending merger deal.  Curious timing.

[Transcript HERE]

White House – […] Good afternoon.  I’m here today with my COVID team, as well as leaders from some of America’s top pharmacies: Walgreens, CVS, Rite Aid, Albertsons.  And we’re here with a simple message: Get vaccinated.  Update your vac- — your COVID vaccine.
 
It’s incredibly effective.  But the truth is, not enough people are getting it.  We’ve got to change that so we can all have a safe and healthy holiday season.  That’s why I’m getting my shot updated today. (more)

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As inflation bites the working-class hard, U.S. household savings rates continue dropping fast.  When combined with drops in home values the loss in home equity compounds the issue.  American families are getting poorer much more quickly under Joe Biden’s economic policies.

According to the Wall Street Journal home values dropped in August at their highest monthly rate of decrease since 2011 {link}.  In part this is driven by higher mortgage rates which are pricing home buyers out of the market.  However, the regional impact is worse on the west coast than east or southeast.

[…] The housing market has slowed abruptly this year due to a rapid increase in mortgage rates, which has raised borrowing costs for home buyers and pushed many prospective buyers out of the market. Existing-home sales fell for eight straight months through September. (link)

As noted in The Daily Mail review of a similar analysis: “It’s Northern California that leads the way, with San Jose experiencing a drop of 10.8 percent since September, followed by San Francisco at 8.5 percent, then it’s Seattle at 8.2 percent, Denver at 5.8 percent, San Diego 5.2 percent, Portland 5.1 percent, Las Vegas 4.8 percent and Phoenix at 4.4 percent.” (link)

What we are seeing is a confluence of events, generally brought about by the outcomes of larger Biden administration policy.  Massive increases in energy costs are the result of energy policy; those increases are fueling inflation from the supply side on food, fuel, electricity, home heating etc.  Simultaneously, Fed monetary policy is driving consumer demand down.  The recession debate continues amid the economic think-tanks while Main Street outcomes show we have been in a recessionary period all year.

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The New York Supreme Court has ordered reinstatement for all employees fired over their nonvaccinated status and ordered back pay for those who were unlawfully terminated from employment [Full pdf Ruling Here].

The state supreme court found that being vaccinated does not stop the spread of COVID-19, saying the vaccine mandate and firing of the non-compliant employees was “arbitrary and capricious.”  This is a strong rebuke to the totalitarian fiats created by state leaders including the state governor, mayor of New York City and health commissioner.

(SOURCE)

NEW YORK – The New York state Supreme Court has reinstated all employees who were fired for not being vaccinated, ordering back pay and saying their rights had been violated.

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President Trump and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross both raised serious concerns about the malign intents of Chinese nationals involved in the efforts of Huawei Telecommunications to infiltrate U.S. communication networks.

The Trump administration tried to block Huawei from involvement in the 5G telecommunications system in the United States claiming there were national security interests that could be compromised.

However, Washington DC politicians, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, both of whom were recipients of Chinese donations, defended the expansion efforts of Huawei and accused the Trump administration of “Asian hate.”

In the background, to reinforce a false political narrative surrounding the Asian hate theme, in 2021 the Biden administration removed the China initiative, an investigation of PRC influence in U.S. institutional systems, from the focus of the U.S. justice system.

Yet today, the Biden administration announced the arrest of two Chinese nationals, and the indictment of 11 more, for exactly what the Trump administration had feared:

(DOJ) In three separate cases in the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices for the Eastern District of New York and the District of New Jersey, the Justice Department has charged 13 individuals, including members of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) security and intelligence apparatus and their agents, for alleged efforts to unlawfully exert influence in the United States for the benefit of the government of the [People’s Republic of China] PRC. (more)

Court documents did not name the company; however, Reuters identifies the company as… wait for it…. Huawei:

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With the majority of American voters now positioned to rebuke the political efforts of Joe Biden and federal Democrats, the narrative from the DOJ and FBI does a 180° reverse course.  The transparency of a corrupt and manipulative political justice system is beyond obvious.

• ♦Old Message to support the 2020 Democrat vote initiatives (ballot harvesting, mail-in voting, precinct manipulation): The 2020 election was the most secure election in American history.
• ♦New Message to support the Democrat 2022 vote initiatives: The 2022 election is not secure, subject to manipulation by disinformation and misinformation, and likely to encounter interference by domestic and foreign adversaries.

The transparency of the FBI/DOJ agenda is obvious.

15 days before the 2018 midterm election the FBI promoted a “MAGA mail bomber”, Cesar Sayoc case, claiming the suspect mailed “energetic material that could become combustible when subjected to heat or friction.”

15 days before the 2020 presidential election, the FBI promoted the Gretchen Whitmer kidnapping case, claiming a group of Michigan extremists were foiled in their plot to kidnap the Michigan Governor.  Inside the plot the FBI had used more than a dozen agents, informants and sources to literally construct the events and facilitate the claims.

Today, not coincidentally a repeat of 15 days before the 2022 midterm election, once again the FBI/DOJ is promoting an election interference narrative:

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