The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) originally calculated the first quarter economy at a scale of -1.4% growth. The BEA revises that figure downward today with more data showing a contracted level of consumer spending [DATA HERE]. The economy contracted by -1.5% in the revised numbers.
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is the dollar value of all goods and services produced in the economy, minus the dollar value of goods and services we import. The percentages discussed are percentages of change over time.
♦ What changed in this revision to make the economy worse?
(1) U.S. inflation was revised upward (prices increased); (2) the estimate of calculated inventories was lowered; (3) the estimate of consumer spending was raised (inflation issue); which leads to (4) a massive drop in the calculation of disposable incomes. [See the Change Table]
The preparations and proactive moves to establish the global cleaving are being carried out by Wall Street globalists, the World Economic Forum and the various western politicians who align with the objective. The opinion of the citizens within each nation are irrelevant to the decisions of the leaders.
Fundamentally, the big picture dynamic is to create a global network of allied nations based on one overarching principle, energy and human control through the carbon trading platform. There are multiple moving puzzle pieces, but one big dynamic. Western government leaders are cleaving the world into two economic systems.
One economic system will be based on traditional energy as the underpinning of the economy. One system will be based on renewable energy, with climate change agenda as the overarching basis for all of their economic shifts. Pressure from within traditional alliances like the G7, G20, NATO etc, will create the wedge. Terms like Build Back Better, Green New Deal, Paris Treaty Accords, and other reference points are part of this cleaving agenda.
Each nation will eventually have to make a decision about which team they will join. The entry of Finland and Sweden into the NATO alliance is only one part of this dynamic.
WASHINGTON – Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) plan to present a resolution that will press the Biden administration to rush the paperwork for Finland and Sweden to join NATO.
CTH has been preparing to write about this for a week. Today a serendipitous event took place which highlights the dynamic within the current Biden administration.
During a Senate Energy Committee hearing today, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, a woman specifically appointed for her progressive identity as a native American indian – with no skills to be interior secretary, was questioned by Senator Joe Manchin about a press release [LINK] from the interior department that took place in real time as Secretary Haaland was giving testimony. Secretary Haaland had no idea what the press release was about. WATCH:
The issue surrounds the U.S. Interior Department, which is filled to the brim with left-wing climate activists, pushing out a press release saying that any further oil and gas leases are not going to happen. Secretary Haaland was telling congress the Interior Department was doing everything they can to allow oil and gas leases and expand drilling with additional permitting.
The press release from the dept says the proposal the Secretary was stating “is not a decision to issue specific leases or to authorize any drilling or development,” literally undercutting her testimony in real time, and reaffirming that no further oil drilling will be authorized. Secretary Haaland was caught completely off-guard, stammered and admitted she had no idea what the bureaucrats in the dept were doing.
What this example reveals is something we have noticed and discussed but has become very clear in the past few weeks.
The $40 billion UniParty aid package for Ukraine pass the senate this afternoon in a vote of 86-11 (vote tally below).
The Biden administration had originally requested $33 billion, but congress did not feel he was spending enough. The House added an additional $7 billion and passed the $40 billion legislation last week. Today the Senate voted 86-11 to approve the package which is targeted to last 5 months and includes U.S. taxpayers funding the salaries and pension benefits for officials in the Ukraine government.
11 republican senators voted against the massive money laundering operation. They were Senators Blackburn (R-TN), Boozman (R-AR), Braun (R-IN), Crapo (R-ID), Hagerty (R-TN), Hawley (R-MO), Lee (R-UT), Lummis (R-WY), Marshall (R-KS), Paul (R-KY), Tuberville (R-AL).
In Washington, D.C. today, the House Judiciary Committee held a four-hour hearing about the need for abortion [full video here]. Within the hearing one of the congressional witnesses, Ms. Aimee Arrambide, Executive Director of Avow Texas, was asked about her position. Her response encapsulates the mindset of current democrats in office. WATCH (20 seconds):
Comrade Dissidents, if these people think their views are commonly understood, even fathomable, by the majority of commonsense thinking Americans, I seriously doubt they have any concept of what common sense actually implies. This is just flat-out weird.
I think we all knew the Pennsylvania GOP Senate primary race was going to be close, but wow, it’s really close. As of right now, only 1,750 votes separate Mehmet Oz and David McCormick, or a mere .2% of the more than 1.3 million votes cast.
According to the Philadelphia Enquirer there are approximately 105,000 mail-in ballots to be counted and no one knows how many of them are republican ballots. Politico is estimating around 21,000 of them are republican ballots.
Regardless of the outcome from the mail-in ballots, it seems a recount is a certainty as Pennsylvania state law requires an automatic recount if the difference is less than half of one percent (.50%).
PENNSYLVANIA – […] Pennsylvania law requires an automatic statewide recount if the top two candidates in a race are within half a percentage point of each other, which Oz and McCormick currently are.
Pennsylvania Senate Candidate Kathy Barnette appeared on Fox News Sunday with Shannon Bream to answer questions about her prior positions, statements and current candidacy. Barnette has climbed in the polls and is in a tight race for the PA senate seat.
There has been an onslaught of criticism and critique in opposition to Kathy Barnette. Many political followers are concerned she might win the primary but then get crushed in the general election due to inflammatory statements in her past. This interview was a great opportunity for her to calm the nerves of republican primary voters and instill confidence. Unfortunately, Barnette did not do well in this interview. WATCH:
Shannon Bream was fair and gave Barnette plenty of time to explain her positions. Pennsylvania voters will need to make their own decisions. Trust your instincts; if you sense sketchy, it is likely because sketchy exists.
In the second segment of the interview with Maria Bartiromo, Devin Nunes and Kash Patel discuss the trial of Michael Sussmann which begins tomorrow. {Direct Rumble Link}
Ultimately the issue in the Michael Sussmann trial is quite simple:
Did the DOJ and FBI know the material Michael Sussmann was giving them came from the Hillary Clinton campaign?
We all know the answer to that question, of course they did. However, there has been –and continues to be– a game of grand pretense from the DOJ/FBI group where they pretend not to have known.
Two groups: the “insider group” (DOJ/FBI) and the “outsider group” (Perkins Coie, Fusion GPS, Clinton campaign, Sussmann, Elias, Mook, etc).
Claiming the DOJ and FBI were duped, is the government firewall that protects the inside group. However, this claim is now against the interest of Michael Sussmann who has been accused of false representation and lying to the FBI about the provenance of the information he provided.
NBC is promoting their contracted poll today [pdf HERE] around the lesser-important voting issue of abortion. However, before getting to the poll it is worth noting again who they contracted with. Inside the article you will note this sentence, “[…] who conducted this survey with Democratic pollster Jeff Horwitt of Hart Research Associates.” If that name sounds familiar, that’s because it is the same ideologically aligned polling outfit who spent six months creating the ultra-MAGA branding campaign for Anita Dunn and the White House {link}.
The abortion polling is irrelevant to the issue of larger public opinions of the Biden administration. On abortion, 10% of polled respondents say they are single issue voters [respondents = 790 RV’s, (79 single issue)]. Out of 79 single issue voters, 22% list abortion as their top priority. So, out of 790 registered voters, 17 view abortion as their single issue to vote on. That’s the scale being overemphasized.
On the larger issues of voter priorities, the economy dominates with 40% responses. Additionally, the polling identifies 39 percent of Americans approving of President Biden’s job as president, versus 56 percent who say they disapprove. 75% say the country is heading in the wrong direction, and only 16% saying the country is on the right track. That’s the bigger headline. WATCH:
BASELINE – Boil all international and geopolitical issues down to their common denominator and everything, E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G., every issue, every discussion, every policy, every position, everything -all of it- circles around economics. Everything is secondary to the underlying economics of every single issue. Power or weakness, famine or war, peace or conflict, master or servant, culture or crisis, growth or collapse, the entirety of everything -including the foundation of freedom- centers around the economics. There are trillions at stake.
In this interview Finland’s President Sauli Niinistö made some very interesting remarks when asked about his decision to reverse the long-established geopolitical position of Finland and join the “western alliance,” vis-a-vis NATO.
Listen carefully [01:44] when President Niinistö explains why. Niinistö explains he did not, and does not, consider Russia a threat; however, “what we see now, Europe, the world, is more divided. There’s not very much room for ‘non-aligned,’ in-between. So that was also what we are thinking.” WATCH:
In March of this year CTH noted, “this intentional global cleaving, using the opportunity created by the Ukraine crisis, is going to be the major story of this year. This global splitting can be looked at in multiple ways, but the overarching story is the ramifications of two global trade relationships.”
Two world groupings. One group, oil-based energy (traditional, grey on map below), and one group GREEN energy (the build back better plan, yellow on map). It is not accidental these two groups hold similar internal geopolitical views and perspectives, hence, their alignment or lack thereof with the sanctions against Russia.
