White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan gave a press conference today again emphasizing that an attack on Ukraine was likely.  Sullivan also recommended that all U.S. citizens in Ukraine depart within the next 24 to 48 hours.  However, for reference, the White House has been making this “imminent” claim for over a month.

When pushed by media for how these determinations were made, Sullivan reiterated his position that “it’s not his responsibility to convince anyone.”   Overall, the entire situation still looks like a manufactured White House distraction from domestic criticism.

Russia has previously scheduled military exercises in the region.  This could be cover for Russia for the increased military presence prior to a cross border incursion, or the exercises could be the justification, or cover story for the White House to pretend that an invasion into Ukraine is likely.  The latter seems most likely.

Regardless of all of it, the White House has not made a case for why Americans should be worried about what happens between Russia and Ukraine, other than to say the financial interests of a lot of people and groups in Washington DC are connected to U.S. foreign policy toward Ukraine.

WASHINGTON –  National security adviser Jake Sullivan warned Friday that a Russian invasion of Ukraine could come before the conclusion of the Winter Olympics on Feb. 20, but he did not say whether U.S. officials had determined whether Russian President Vladimir Putin had made a final decision on a course of action.

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…Not just any lockdowns, this time Governor Gretchen Whitmer is apoplectic over citizen trucker lockdowns.  This is far beyond irony and is case study in how leftists need to pretend not to know things.

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, the same governor who was full-throated to lockdown businesses in her state and destroy the economic livelihoods of michiganders for over a year, is now deeply concerned, aghast and furious over the “economic impact” being created by the trucker protest and subsequent lockdowns of the supply chain they have created by their effective blockades.

As if she cannot fathom the similarity between her government forced lockdown mandates and the recent citizen inspired lockdown consequences, the insufferable Michigan governor goes on television to decry economic impact from the Ambassador Bridge blockade.  WATCH her give all the reasons why the blockades must be removed so the multinational corporations can get back to work.

How is the business interruption from the trucker blockade any different than the business interruption from the Gretchen Whitmer lockdown?  It isn’t… The difference is who created it.

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During his opening segment today, Fox News host Tucker Carlson discussed the Canadian Freedom Convoy and the results they are achieving.  During a portion of the segment Carlson mentions the YouTube channel ZOT.   Tucker Carlson does a great job outlining the current status of events in/around Ottawa and contrasts the response from the government.  It’s a good segment. WATCH

CANADA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office has indicated the government’s willingness to “respond with whatever it takes,” to bring the trucker convoy protests under control, confirming federal ministers and top Canadian officials are working with U.S. representatives to “resolve” the situation.

This comes as political pressure has been increasing across Canada and in the United States to see the anti-mandate and anti-government blockades end.

Trudeau held a series of late-night meetings on Thursday about the situation, including with key cabinet ministers and senior officials, and opposition party leaders, though no new measures were announced. (read more)

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The people constructing the policies of the Biden administration are the same people who installed him, community activists from Team Obama.  In essence, Joe Biden’s expressed policies unleashed, are Obama term 3 without care for the political fallout.

CNN reports on the results [POLL HERE] and show that exactly what has been discussed here for well over a year. Obama’s ideological crew have pushed disposable Joe Biden directly into the furnace of political consequence.  WATCH:

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The Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS) released the January inflation data [DATA HERE] along with the yearly data from 2021.   The “first round” of retail grocery price increases starts to surface; but this is only the first round.  January inflation was actually much worse than the bad data inside the BLS analysis.

Additionally, the BLS readjusted the weighting for relative price importance, putting added weight to urban economic priorities (ie. food at restaurants), which indicates their intent to downplay the scale of inflation overall.  The topline statistic of 7.5% annual inflation (year over year) is bad; however, because of weighting that figure belies the bigger issue, it’s actually much worse.  In January alone inflation jumped 0.8% (unadjusted), primarily driven by the first-round of 2022 consumer inflation that preexisted since early December 2021.

To give an idea of how much prices have increased, we modified BLS Table 1 to take out some noise.  Look at the single month of January (red box).

Look at January “electricity” price increases.  A jump of 4.5% in one month alone, and keep in mind the BLS puts far less importance on electricity than “food away from home”.

In fact, the weighting for economic importance of restaurants is 5 times greater than the electricity to power your house.

Always keep in mind inflation data is backward looking.  So it is a capture of the price increase at a former moment. In this example the pricing survey was early January.

The timing part is important because gasoline has jumped again since this survey was completed.  The BLS data only has gas increasing at 0.1% in January; in reality it increased much more.

You can see the statistical smoothing to present the softest inflation data by looking at Food at Home, Meats, Poultry and Fish.  The actual rate of inflation in that category is 40%+ at retail.  The BLS deemphasizes the price increase by putting less economic importance on the category and they come up with a 12.2% increase, one third of the actual price we are feeling.

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Whenever we discuss inflation, it is absolutely critical for people to understand that inflation itself is the measure of the percentage increase in a price over a period of time.

It is entirely possible, I would say absolutely guaranteed, that prices will increase even more this year as inflation begins to drop. This will be the economic story on the backside of the inflation hurricane as the Fed starts to increase interest rates. Example:

♦ 2021: A loaf of bread increases in price 50¢ from $1.00 to $1.50, a rate of inflation of 50%.

♦ 2022: That same loaf of bread increases in price by 60¢, from $1.50 to $2.10, a rate of inflation at 40%.

The price of the bread increased more in 2022 than 2021, but the rate of inflation dropped from 50% to 40%.

The White House and Federal Reserve state, correctly, that inflation is likely to drop.  However, the actual prices of the products are rising at a greater rate. This is the critical component of the inflation story that will remain with us throughout 2022.  Inflation is not measuring the increase in the price of an item.  Inflation is measuring the rate of the price increase as a percentage.

This is the context for the Federal Reserve to state today, they “hope” inflation slows down, because they are going to raise interest rates regardless of what is happening with the price of goods and services:

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CTH has been waiting to write this because we first needed to see how both wings of the Uniparty vulture in DC were positioning.  Now, with clear vision, eyes wide open and clarity of focus the issue must be centered.

How are Americans going to respond when Washington D.C, the Fourth Branch of the security and surveillance state, and all the institutions of the United States government, officially declare that Donald John Trump will not be permitted to run for office?

If you have not thought about that question, we had better hurry up and get that conversation front and center.

It’s about to happen, and President Trump knows it.

The specific phrase, “They are so desperate to hide the truth, they’ll make it criminal to speak it,” does not only pertain to the election fraud.

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When hardline leftists (fascists, communists, et al) are successful in advancing their political ideology, we always reach a point where all opposition must be silenced.  Dissent is a risk to the totalitarian state; that’s also why communists always ban religion.

Totalitarianism needs total control.  Free speech is antithetical to that control.  The natural evolution of any totalitarian state is to use the justification of security as a method for that control; hence, the U.S. received The Patriot Act, and all of the longer-term slippery slope consequences that are never fully discussed at the outset.  I digress.

So, here we are today – facing a U.S. Dept of Homeland Security (DHS), under the current control of the far left, stating that free speech is now the biggest domestic threat for terrorism.  Whereby the voices to target are those voices who might: “sow discord and undermine public trust in government institutions to encourage unrest, which could potentially inspire acts of violence.”

Undermine trust in government, as defined by anyone who does not blindly trust the policies from Biden administration, and you are now subject to be labeled a terrorist.

DHS Alert (Feb 7, 2022) – The United States remains in a heightened threat environment fueled by several factors, including an online environment filled with false or misleading narratives and conspiracy theories, and other forms of mis- dis- and mal-information (MDM) introduced and/or amplified by foreign and domestic threat actors.

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Something has changed in the past several days.  Likely the private COVID fear polling continued to show an overwhelming number of Americans are just done with the constant COVID-19 fear porn and mandates.

Today, several states including New Jersey and California announced they were dropping their mask mandates and many COVID-19 regulations.  In the past week there appears to have been a big shift in the narrative.  To highlight that point, the biggest fear porn and mandate seller on CNN, Dr. Leana Wen, completely reversed her position, and said it’s time to let people make their own choices.  WATCH:

Notice also how there’s been virtual silence on any further White House efforts to push the booster or vaccination program.  Last we saw the booster compliance effort, it was less than 50% of those who were previously vaccinated.  There’s definitely been a change in narrative engineer pressure for more COVID pushing overall – vaccinations, regulations and/or masks.

Last point, Zach on Twitter had been searching for a video for quite some time that he just recently found again and shared.  It’s a video of Dr. Leana Wen from several years ago.  It really makes you stand back and think.  The video is very weird.

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Gasoline prices have risen, on average, 40% in the past 11 months.  This leads to higher consumer costs across the board.  Oil, currently $90/barrel, is going to go even higher as a merge of Biden economic, regulatory, energy and foreign policies are going to make things worse.

As the Obama-Biden administration previously said when they achieved their last historic increase in gas prices, “U.S. energy prices will necessarily skyrocket“, in order to achieve their ideological climate change objectives.

(VIA CNBC) Gas prices rose to the highest level in more than seven years Friday, on the heels of the U.S. oil benchmark topping $90 per barrel for the first time since 2014. 

The national average for a gallon of gas stood at $3.423 on Friday, according to AAA, slightly surpassing the prior high-water mark of $3.422 from Nov. 8.  Friday’s price means consumers are now paying the most at the pump since Sept. 10, 2014, AAA data shows.

The national average stood at $2.44 a year ago.  The rapid rise in prices is contributing to inflationary fears across the economy and is creating a headache for the Biden administration. (read more)

Yes, a president can and does control the price of gasoline.  What can a U.S. President and administration specifically do?  We have abundant U.S. energy resources.  Quite literally the strongest in the entire world.

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