This is a little funny, and simultaneously very sad. Folks, this is the state of legislative affairs in Washington DC, this is exactly what it was like when I was asking these types of questions. Senator Lindsey Graham is listed as one of the Republican co-sponsors for Senate Bill 686, the Restrict Act, aka the TikTok ban act.
Fox News host Jesse Waters goes through the bill on live television and then asks Senator Graham why he co-sponsors it. Lindsey Graham has no idea. {Direct Rumble Link} – WATCH:
This is exactly what it is like talking to republicans in the House and Senate.
If you have followed the construct of the Fourth Branch of Government, you will note the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) and current Democrat Chairman Mark Warner play(ed) a key role in the political weaponization of the intelligence apparatus.
In 2015 and 2016, it was the SSCI who were at the tip of the spear in the legislative branch at supporting what Chuck Schumer called the “seven ways to Sunday” approach used by the U.S. intelligence community to target anyone viewed as a threat against their interests. The larger Intelligence Community (IC) is a close alliance of the SSCI as a fictitious oversight mechanism; however, in reality the relationship is co-dependent enabling.
The SSCI constructed the weaponized political agenda of the IC, the SSCI supports the weaponized political agenda of the IC, and the SSCI holds the powerful position of confirmation over anyone who would work in the top tier of the IC. In short, the weaponized IC cannot exist without the support of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Their relationship is symbiotic.
You will note the evidence of this relationship shows up in the coordination between the SSCI and the weaponized Trump-Russia targeting operation, also known as the Trump-Russia investigation. More recently, the purpose of the SSCI as an institution to support weaponized government, appears in the Twitter files as outlined by Matt Taibbi, and the efforts of The Dept of Homeland Security (DHS), FBI and CISA to control speech and content within the platform.
Additionally, it is not coincidental the “TicTok ban” legislation (SB686), which is a fraudulent auspice for total internet control by the intelligence community, comes from within bipartisan legislation spearheaded by the aligned interests of Senator Warner, the SSCI and DHS. None of this is accidental, and the legislative branch is walking into the creation of an online control mechanism that has nothing whatsoever to do with banning TikTok.
In a scorching round of questioning today, Texas Senator Ted Cruz confronts Dept of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas about the immigration crisis at the U.S. southern border.
During one segment of the questioning, Senator Cruz holds up the color-coded wrist bands that are worn by illegal aliens as smuggled to the border by Mexican cartels. Cruz then confronts Mayorkas about the rape and sex trafficking that is required in order to pay the cartels. Mayorkas sits jaw agape as Senator Cruz accuses him directly of facilitating child rape and sexploitation. WATCH:
If there is one additional person that I would be certain is under full spectrum surveillance, it’s dissident comrade Matt Taibbi. With the background of Twitter and the DHS national security interests still part of the social media construct, you can be sure all elements of the administrative state have a focus on his internal search requests.
One of the reasons why I give Matt Taibbi a lot of credit, is because I am well aware how the shadow dwellers, what DC would call ‘stakeholders’, are watching him; yet he persists on his reviews and investigations.
Secondly, given his general Michael Hastings aligned disposition, Taibbi would be the first person to dismiss his own risk status. Something akin to, ‘nah, they wouldn’t‘, but oh yes, they would.
On the day that Taibbi was giving testimony to the House committee reviewing the ‘Weaponization of Federal Government’, an IRS agent just happened to coincidentally visit his home. Committee Chairman Jim Jordan now wants to know if the two coincidences are connected.
(Via Wall Street Journal) – […] House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan sent a letter Monday to IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen seeking an explanation for why journalist Matt Taibbi received an unannounced home visit from an IRS agent. We’ve seen the letter, and both the circumstances and timing of the IRS focus on this journalist raise serious questions.
Mr. Taibbi has provoked the ire of Democrats and other journalists for his role in researching Twitter records and then releasing internal communications from the social-media giant that expose its censorship and its contacts with government officials. This effort has already inspired government bullying, with Chair Lina Khan’s Federal Trade Commission targeting new Twitter owner Elon Musk and demanding the company “identify all journalists” granted access to the Twitter files.
Fox News Host Tucker Carlson did everyone a favor today by sending the warning about The Restrict Act, also known as Senate Bill 686 [SB686 HERE], also known as the bipartisan bill to empower the executive branch to shut down TikTok. {Direct Rumble Link}
The Restrict Act, has very little to do with TikTok and everything to do with the United States government controlling online content. If you read the bill what you quickly discover is that congress is giving the Commerce Department and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence the power to shut down internet content they view as against their interests.
In very specific terms a lot of U.S. websites would be impacted. Why? Because a lot of websites use third-party ‘plug-ins’ or ‘widgets’ or software created in foreign countries to support the content on their site. The “Restrict Act” gives the DNI the ability to tell a website using any “foreign content” or software; that might be engaged in platform communication the U.S Government views as against their interests; to shut down or face a criminal charge. In very direct terms, the passage of SB686 would give the Dept of Commerce, DNI and DHS the ability to shut down what you are reading right now. This is a big deal. WATCH:
Independent journalist Matt Taibbi appears on Fox News with Maria Bartiromo to discuss the current U.S. position on social media platform TikTok and the larger issues with government censorship and control as he has outlined within the ‘Twitter Files.’
Readers and observers should note how Council on Foreign Relations member Ms. Bartiromo again introduces the TikTok narrative around the ability of the Chinese government to request user data from TikTok, while Ms. Bartiromo seemingly ignores the U.S. surveillance policy that grants DOJ/FBI officials identical access to user data from Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Google, Apple, etc.
However, independent thinking Matt Taibbi does a great job with that question and reminds Ms Bartiromo the Senate Select Committee functions in the USA exactly as she is concerned about the CCP acting in China. [lolol.. Go Matt!] Bartiromo quickly dodges the point and moves on. WATCH:
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I like Matt Taibbi, even when he was a willfully blind lefty, he was always a curious cat. Deep State gotta Deep State. The cause of the “dramatic change” Taibbi notes has a name, it’s called Donald Trump.
Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) Chairman Mark Warner is very concerned about the U.S. government inability to control, restrict and censor the information within the TikTok social media platform.
As outlined in this Face the Nation interview with Margaret Brennan, Chairman Warner states it is very alarming that China may permit content that is against the interests of the U.S. government to control it. Additionally, by law, the Chinese platform “has to be willing to turn over data to the Communist Party“.
Now, if you find yourself thinking, how is this different from U.S. laws that force Twitter, Facebook, Apple or Google to turn over user data to the DOJ/FBI, well, you are probably too smart for this regime narrative and should officially consider yourself a dissident American intellectual. Just sayin’.
The bottom line is very simple when you look at TikTok from the position of the U.S. surveillance state. The Dept of Homeland Security can only monitor TikTok content, they cannot do anything to modify, remove, censor or control the content, as a result TikTok exists as an existential threat. WATCH:
[Transcript] – MARGARET BRENNAN: We go now to Senator Mark Warner, the Democratic Chairman of the Intelligence Committee. He joins us from King George Virginia. Good morning to you, Senator.
SEN. MARK WARNER: Good morning Margaret.
MARGARET BRENNAN: It was a pretty intense five hours of questioning of Tiktok CEO this past week. Your bipartisan bill has White House support, and it would deal with Tiktok by giving the Commerce Department power to review and potentially ban technology flagged by US intelligence as a credible threat. Will it pass in a divided Congress?
SEN. WARNER: Well, Margaret, will – we’re now up to 22 Senators. 11 Democrats. 11 Republicans. We’ve had strong interest from the House. I think they wanted to get through their hearing. And clearly while I appreciated Mr. Chew’s testimony, he just couldn’t answer the basic question. At the end of the day, Tiktok is owned by a Chinese company Bytedance. And by Chinese law, that company has to be willing to turn over data to the Communist Party. Or one of my bigger fears, we got 150 million Americans on Tiktok average of about 90 minutes a day, and how that channel could be used for propaganda purposes –
Almost as soon as German Chancellor Olaf Schulz said, “The banking system is stable in Europe – Generally, I think we are in good shape,” shares of German-based Deutsche Bank began dropping.
After a Friday loss of 14%, the bank came back to close -9.8%, and on the heels of the Credit Suisse collapse and subsequent purchase, concerns are still reverberating.
After a meeting in Brussels, the EU government heads said lenders in Europe are generally in sound health and in a position to weather a combination of rising interest rates and slowing economic growth.
“The banking system is stable in Europe,” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told reporters after the summit. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said: “Generally, I think we are in good shape.”
The EU deliberations came in the wake of U.S. regulators’ shutdown of two U.S. banks, including Silicon Valley Bank, and a Swiss-orchestrated takeover of troubled lender Credit Suisse by rival UBS.
The European Central Bank (ECB) raised interest rates again today, while simultaneously promising to support further bank bailouts that might come as an outcome of raising the rates again. In the bigger picture there are two dynamics supported by the ECB playing out.
The first issue is the ideological effort to change the economic models based on climate change. The Build Back Better (Green New Deal) policy, a traditional energy production control effort, is being supported by the ECB effort to shrink the EU economy to meet the rate of diminished energy production. Make the economy smaller to meet the lower energy production rate.
Lowered energy production (oil, coal and natural gas) has raised energy prices; this is the fuel behind supply side inflation. The Western (policy-created) energy inflation is hitting every aspect of the EU, US and western global economy. The prices of all downstream goods and services have risen dramatically as a result. The European banks are not going to stop trying to make the economy smaller just because banks are failing. That brings us to the second issue.
Like the first issue with BBB controls, the World Economic Forum action plan for government also includes the creation of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). The collapsing of the traditional banking system supports the agenda to create CBDCs. Raising interest rates puts more pressure on already weak banks. This is a feature not a flaw of the intent.
Shifting the economy from traditional oil, coal and natural gas is one control aspect (climate change). Shifting the banking system from traditional currency to central bank digital currencies is the second control aspect (total govt financial control). The banking instability is the crisis that facilitates the CBDC solution. Ergo, continue raising rates and continue making the crisis more useful.
If you wonder about whether people are really starting to understand the UniParty operation in Washington DC, the answer appears to be a resounding “Yes.”
According to the latest Rasmussen poll [LINK HERE], even a majority of Democrats admit that Republicans likely conspired with Democrats to keep President Trump from winning the 2020 election. The exact wording of the question is:
How likely is it that Republican politicians in DC worked secretly with Democrats to keep Trump from being reelected in 2020?
55% – of all voters agree it is likely.
67% – Republicans
51% – Democrats
Rasmussen’s Mark Mitchell appeared on the Steve Bannon podcast to discuss the results of the poll. WATCH:
https://youtu.be/FuTdJHjVHwc
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As CTH has continued to outline, the Republican Party of Bush, Romney, McConnell et al, is dead. Voters who support President Trump reject the Wall Street professionally Republican donor class. The Republican Party is the party of MAGA, America First and Donald Trump now.
Recently on Twitter I stated, “There are not enough people who take pictures of their lunches to post on Instagram to support Ron DeSantis for president.” This is the essential core of the issue. Working people and people on fixed incomes understand the value of America First and Donald Trump in/on their lives. Every other coalition is a small segment of elite minded snobbish people who think they know better. Keep watching.