A few people like us predicted that once people realized the 2022 reelection bid of Ron DeSantis was a con, there was a strong probability he would lose support. According to polling taken after his launch, that’s exactly what happened.

There are two different YouGov polls. One that shows opinion of the DeSantis launch [Economist – SEE HERE] and one that shows the results of the head-to-head Trump -v- DeSantis matchup [Yahoo – SEE HERE]. The bottom line is that DeSantis has lost ground with voters AFTER his launch.

WASHINGTON – Ron DeSantis was surely hoping for a bump from his presidential campaign launch last week. But a new Yahoo News/YouGov poll shows no sign of improvement.

In fact, the survey of 1,520 U.S. adults, which was conducted from May 25-30, suggests that the Florida governor may have actually lost ground against frontrunner and former President Donald Trump since officially entering the race for the 2024 GOP nomination during a glitchy Twitter Spaces event with the platform’s billionaire owner Elon Musk.

Among potential Republican primary voters — registered voters who identify as Republicans or GOP-leaning independents — Trump now leads the full field of seven declared candidates with 53%. That’s up from 48% in early May, before DeSantis threw his hat in the ring. And DeSantis now lags further behind than he did just a few weeks ago; his 25% is down from 28% in early May. (read more)

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REPOST BY REQUEST – In certain states, the RNC is committed to fighting today’s political battles with yesterday’s weapons. The RNC will not adapt, ever. For everyone else, the baseline reset is understood. If CTH had a small part in helping people to reset their reference points around modern electioneering, well, that’s a good thing.

The difference between “ballots” and “votes” is previously explained {SEE HERE} and absolutely critical to understand before moving forward.

Thankfully, a large percentage of conservatives, intellectually honest independents and even some GOPe donors, have read our research and are now starting to have the ‘votes‘ vs ‘ballots‘ conversation.  That understanding is critical, because any conversation that does not accurately identify and accept the problem is futile.

Having said that, do not think we are smarter than the RNC.  We are not.  The RNC knows exactly what not to do.  They are following instructions from the multinationals and Wall Street Sea Island donors.  Do not miss this point or you miss the ‘ah-ha‘ moment.

In 2022, the RNC club knew exactly what the DNC club were doing in their midterm “ballot submission assistance” program.  Yes, that’s exactly what “ballot harvesting” is called now.  “Ballot Harvesting” is illegal in many states, “Ballot Submission Assistance” is not.

Progressive political activists in the state of Arizona scrubbed the footprints of their ballot submission assistance programs.  Wait, Arizona(?) you say. Yes, Arizona a state where “ballot harvesting” is illegal, but email, fax, online and in person drop-off is possible.  Ballot submission assistance is essentially the same harvesting process but in a smaller and more individualized scale and it is perfectly legal in most states.

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Twitter CEO Elon Musk has provided some convincing commentary about his willingness to forgo revenue in order to retain “free speech.” However, more recently he has qualified that outlook by saying, “Freedom of speech is not the same as freedom of reach.”  Musk noting Twitter will block, remove, censor, shadow ban, deboost, downrank and stop content from amplifying based on the determination of those in charge of Twitter content.

This controlled “freedom of reach” perspective, which is really shadow-banning in practice, is generally accepted and now admitted.  Against this backdrop, it becomes important to understand the priorities of the platform to understand the guidelines of the platform.  Within this context the financials are key to understanding what elements are included within “approved content.” {GO DEEP}

Twitter is now a private company, therefore understanding the financials of Twitter is a little more challenging than when they were required to post their financial statements publicly.  However, Elon Musk gave an interview with the Babylon Bee yesterday and revealed some of the internal financial challenges. [VIDEO HERE]  I am going to summarize the status of the Twitter financial position according to what Musk himself revealed.

♦ Twitter was initially purchased by Musk and his investors for around $44 billion.  The company now estimates its value around $20 billion.  Musk overpaid.

♦ Musk put roughly $30 billions of his own net worth into the purchase and financed the rest.

♦ Current outstanding debt on the financing for the purchase is around $12.5 billion. Per Musk statement.

♦ Current debt service, interest on the loans (from investors), is roughly $1.5 billion/yr.  $120.5 million per month for debt service.  Per Musk statement.

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An interesting series of updates to the FBI whistleblower case of Joe Biden taking a $5 million bribe payment which now looks to have originated in Ukraine.

The background claim is pretty basic. A whistleblower approached congress stating the FBI had a report, an unclassified FD-1023, detailing a conversation with a ‘confidential human source’ (CHS) that outlined Vice President Joe Biden taking a $5 million payment from a foreign national to affect a U.S. policy decision.  The FBI agent responsible for investigating the CHS claim was FBI Supervisory Intelligence Analyst Brian Auten, a sketchy character from the Trump-Russia probe.

The investigative events took place in June and July 2020 during the presidential election year.  The claim is that FBI Supervisory Intelligence Analyst Auten reportedly buried the CHS allegation saying it could not be corroborated, and then wrote an assessment that it was Russian disinformation.  However, the FBI investigative team didn’t see any effort by any FBI member to substantiate it.  Hence a whistleblower, with specific knowledge of the details in the allegation, surfaces and tells congress the FBI is hiding the FD-1023 that outlines the confidential human source allegation of bribery.

Congress requested the FD-1023, the FBI refused to provide it.  House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer then set a compliance deadline while he coordinated with Senator Chuck Grassley.  The FBI still refused to turn it over, saying they would neither confirm nor deny the FD-1023 existence, and said releasing any information like that would potentially compromise Confidential Human Sources (CHS’s).  The proverbial sources and methods excuse.

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According to NBC and confirmed by Politico, former Indiana Governor Mike Pence is scheduled to launch his bid for the GOP nomination in Iowa on June 7th.

Oddly, and speaking to the framework of the larger GOPe operation, Pence isn’t making his announcement in his home state; instead, he is going to launch his campaign during a speech in Des Moines, Iowa.

Mike Pence is a well-known name to voters having previously been vice-president to Donald Trump, and he is currently polling around 3% support according to Monmouth.

In his biggest role as Vice-President, Mike Pence was in charge of the federal COVID-19 emergency response as head of the White House COVID taskforce in 2020.

Pence is a well-known traditional Republican who identifies with voters primarily on social issues.  Pence will make an appeal to the evangelical community in Iowa and is organized in that effort by GOP brand consultant Chip Saltsman, the architect of former Gov. Mike Huckabee’s 2008 Iowa caucuses victory.

(Via NBC) – Mike Pence plans to enter the GOP presidential nomination fray June 7 with a campaign video and a kickoff speech in Des Moines, Iowa, according to a person familiar with his launch schedule.

The former vice president, a longtime advocate of the priorities of traditional conservatives on social and economic issues, will join the race at a time when his onetime boss, former President Donald Trump, claims a majority in most national polls and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is in a clear second place.

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A person who was a teenager when Obamacare was debated and passed is now around 30 years old.  Put another way, if you were 15 years old when We The People defeated Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley with Scott Brown and took the Kennedy senate seat, you are about to turn 30.  Think about the context of modern Republican politics and time.

This context reminds us that a large portion of the generally distracted population has no foundational understanding of modern Republican politics.

This context is also the baseline behind ‘battered conservative syndrome‘.

You will never, not ever, see a professional Republican politician attack a Democrat with the same level of vitriol, hatred, bitterness and anger as they do toward their own base voter.

The Democrat party fears their base; the Republican party despises their base.  The truth of this very visible reality will never change. Professional Republican politicians are not ideologues to principle or policy; they are interested in one thing, money.  That’s it.

If you peel the core of any issue involving conflict with the Republican Party, you will find money at the center of it.  Current Democrat politicians focus on advancing an ideological agenda; they swing for the fences in an effort to maximize control and power.  Current Republican politicians are focused, to the detriment of all other facets, on their personal wealth.

When you introduce a newly elected ‘conservative‘ to the DC world of republicanism, it is like sending a new guy/gal into the room to talk policy, only to be met with every face around the table staring back quizzically and dismissively while replying, “We don’t do that here – we are talking about money.”

Once you reset the Schoolhouse Rocks mindset and accept this is the truth of the thing, then everything else that puzzled you about Republican politics reconciles.

Ballot harvesting doesn’t generate money, so why do it?  We can make just as much money in the minority railing against ‘them’, so why be focused on a majority?  Donald Trump is threatening the financial position of our benefactors, so we hate him.  These are the simple truths of modern Republicans.

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As details begin to emerge, many of the House Republicans are furious at Kevin McCarthy for the deal to lift the debt ceiling he has brokered with Joe Biden.

Suddenly, the prior battle and construct of the House Rules Committee is becoming important.   While Kevin McCarthy may have the 218 votes on the floor of the House to pass the deal, he first has to get it out of the House Rules Committee (HRC).  If three Republicans oppose it in the HRC, McCarthy cannot get it to the floor.  Chip Roy and Ralph Norman are on the HRC and oppose the bill.   Thomas Massie is also on the HRC but appears to be supporting Kevin McCarthy (lol, because muh principles).

Byron Donalds also delivered a strong rebuke of the McCarthy deal, as outlined below:

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In the annals of Freudian graphic design, this apropos logo is one for the history books.

As one of the qualified Diversity Equity and Inclusion spokepeople for Mitch McConnell’s DeceptiCon group, Joni Ernst has always had a very specific role to play.  Today she announces Ron DeSantis is joining the porkulous parade, an apropos name for a pork-filled United States budgetary process that has replaced regular order since fiscal year 2008.

That is correct folks.  All of these debt ceiling arguments, continuing resolutions, stop-gap spending bills, and generally corrupt UniParty spending outcomes, are the result of congress dropping the budget process after fiscal year 2008.  For the past fifteen years in a row, specifically as part of the Obama ‘fundamental change’ process, the budgetary order in the U.S. government has been eliminated.

[SOURCE]

Everything associated with federal spending is a corrupt and arguably unconstitutional system of base-line budget growth, continuing resolutions, no budget constraints and debt ceiling increases.  The media like to play the budget narrative game without ever mentioning the source of the issue.

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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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Everything I have outlined about Twitter is going to surface as accurate over time.  There are two major elements: (1) DHS govt influence, now evidenced in the Twitter Files, and (2) the Twitter financial issues, which explain the recent hiring of Linda Yaccarino, which are soon to surface.

Yesterday, Elon Musk responded to criticism of Twitter censorship, vis-a-vis government demands, with this Tweet: “Please point out where we had an actual choice and we will reverse it.”

The Musk supporters are saying Musk has to comply with government demands if their national laws require it. However, that angle doesn’t take into consideration the choice that Musk/Twitter always have.

If the platform content is not approved by a government, and that govt then demands removal or censorship of that content, Twitter always has two options. One, to comply with the demand and block or restrict the user content (which is the direction they have taken) – or two, stop allowing the platform to operate in the country demanding the censorship. It is the latter option that everyone always avoids mentioning.

However, the issue appears to be bigger and goes to the heart of the second aspect of Twitter we have noted.

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