The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) released the First Quarter GDP figures today [DATA HERE] showing the U.S. economy contracted -1.4% in the first quarter.

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.

The first quarter result was an annualized rate of negative 1.4 percent, meaning the U.S. economy is shrinking.   However, this should not come as a surprise as the primary driver of our GDP is consumer spending.  With everything costing more, less stuff is purchased.  Less stuff purchased leads to less stuff generated.

While the first quarter result of -1.4% is not a surprise, in the commonsense perspective, the fact that BEA didn’t revise the fourth quarter result of +6.9% is a little eye opening.  There’s no way in an apples-to-apples valuation the U.S. economy goes from +6.9% to -1.4% in one quarter.  Instead, what we are seeing is the effect we mentioned when the Q4 result was announced.  The BEA is modifying their assumptions by increasing the inflation rate in their calculations of the value of goods and services.  They really didn’t have a choice.

You might remember my prior opinion that the Q4 numbers were very overinflated because of two factors: (1) they underestimated inflation; and (2) the December 2021 import data from the Port of Los Angeles (POLA) was missing [NOTE: remember, Buttigieg was there in November and POLA supervisors are on team Biden].  I said at the time that if my hunch was correct the first quarter 2022 import data would be magnified by the December POLA data being added.  Remember, imports are a deduction to the GDP equation.

Well, what shows up in Q1?  A massive increase in first quarter import data that surprised everyone.  Go figure… lol.

Let’s look at the data

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Given what we discussed yesterday, this announcement {SEE HERE} should leave us all feeling warm and fuzzy… NOT!

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What could possibly go wrong when the National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan, organizes a “minister level launch of the Declaration for the Future of the Internet.”   Put more succinctly, that would be 50 nation intelligence ministers getting together to decide what they will permit on the internet.

Apparently, a collective partner rule book is forthcoming.   Big Tech will be given specific instructions on how to comply.

The global rulebook on how to handle, define and eliminate ‘disinformation’, ‘misinformation’ and ‘malinformation’ on the world-wide internet.

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At the same time as Russia has targeted railway lines as part of the effort to block U.S. arms shipments into Eastern Ukraine, Vladimir Putin has now followed through on the previous warning to stop Russian gas supplies unless payments are made in non-sanctioned Rubles.

Poland is obviously the primary target for retaliation here, as the NATO alliance is using Poland as the gateway for arms deliveries into Ukraine.

According to multiple reports from the EU Russia has halted gas shipments into Poland and Bulgaria.  (Reuters) “Gazprom Russia’s gas export monopoly, suspended gas supplies “due to absence of payments in roubles”, as stipulated in a decree from Russian President Vladimir Putin that aims to soften the impact of sanctions.”

There are conflicting reports as to whether Germany is paying Russia, or whether they are trying to avoid running afoul of the NATO alliance by reducing Russian imports.

Ukraine President Zelenskyy is using the opportunity to reinforce his position that all European countries need to stop purchasing energy from Russia, or else they are not supporting Ukraine.   However, it’s not as simple as it seems because multiple EU countries are dependent on Russia for energy products and there are no immediate alternatives.  Russia is leveraging this dependency in an effort to break the western sanctions.

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Joe Biden, the same authoritarian who mandated that every American worker undergo a medical procedure in order to qualify as a person who might earn a living, sits atop his high-horse and pretends that he has never abused his power.

I know Joe Biden would like to believe we do not remember the past year plus of unilateral dictatorship he carried out while hiding behind the shield of “emergency authorization,” but the American people are fully aware of the brutal reality.  WATCH (24 secs):

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Does he really think we have forgotten how he never once asked our representative government for authorization before triggering his unilateral fiats from CDC, FDA, TSA and OSHA?  The economic lockdowns, the loss of liberty, the collapse of freedom, the shutting down of any form of petition for grievance, the use and weaponization of the regulatory system, the manipulation of courts, the unilateral mask and vaccination mandates, the demands for compliance to some of the most ridiculous rules and regulations, and yes, even the lies and double standards his administration applied to the masses while they themselves ignored the rules they forced upon everyone else….  Does he really thing we have forgotten this?

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Dennis Prager asks Dinesh D’Souza if his opinion of the 2020 election changed as a result of his research, organizing and collaborating with True The Vote, and reviewing all of the 2020 ballot harvesting work.  The results of the effort are assembled in the soon-to-be-released documentary, 2000 mules.

D’Souza explains that following the review of the specific precincts in the specific key targeted states, it became obvious the election was manipulated by an organized political effort to use fraudulently obtained ballots to stuff remote ballot collection boxes in those key precincts.   By taking this precinct level ballot harvesting action in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Georgia, Nevada and Arizona the 2020 election result was a manipulated to provide Joe Biden a win.

According to D’Souza, the documentary will show the specific number of ballots that were fraudulently harvested in each of the key precincts, which then documents the precise number of fraudulent votes that were obtained by the ballot mules. WATCH:

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I think we are now seeing the outlines of how the Fourth Branch of Government are planning to keep control over information, specifically public discussion on Big Tech platforms, even as Elon Musk moves to open the valves of information from the social media platform Twitter.

Previously the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) announced a new Dept of Homeland Security priority to combat disinformation {LINK} on technology platforms including social media.

Many eyebrows were raised as the announcement appeared to be an open admission that the U.S. government was going to control information by applying labels, that would align with allies in social media, who need a legal justification for censorship and content removal.

This CISA announcement was quickly followed by various government officials and agencies saying it was critical to combat Russian disinformation, as the events in Ukraine unfolded.  In essence, Ukraine was the justification for search engines like Google, DuckDuckGo, and social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube to begin targeting information and content that did not align with the official U.S. government narrative.

Previously those same methods were deployed by the U.S. government, specifically the CDC and FDA, toward COVID-19 and the vaccination program. All of this background aligns with the previous visibility of a public-private partnership between the bureaucracy of government, the U.S. intelligence agencies and U.S. social media.  That partnership now forms the very cornerstone of the DHS/CISA effort to control what information exists in the public space.  It is highly important that people understand what is happening.

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Perhaps no media paragraph more perfectly encapsulates the issues around the Twitter debate than this one from New York Times writer Shira Ovide:

…”The 2016 U.S. presidential election and the Brexit vote that same year gave Silicon Valley executives, U.S. elected officials and the public a peek into what can go wrong when social media companies opt not to wade too deeply into what people say on their sites.”… (link)

In essence, that would be the quiet part said out loud and matter-of-factly.  If people are allowed freedom of communication, they end up doing things without our approval.

That paragraph perfectly encapsulates the reason why so many media and leftists are having mental breakdowns.

Elon Musk has the audacity to purchase one, just one, social media platform with the intent to allow Americans the freedom to speak to each other freely, without limit and control.  That is the expressed risk the Democrats, media and leftists in every institution are enraged about.

As Fox News highlighted, “several Twitter employees expressed serious concerns and fear over Musk’s $44 billion acquisition of the company including a prominent worry that Musk would undo censorship mechanisms they had worked to implement over the years.”  It’s all about control.  We are living in a cyber version of Poland circa early 1980’s.

The solidarity movement results in millions of Polish citizens taking to the streets, looking around and suddenly realizing there are more of us than them.  That is what the collective left is now desperate to avoid, and they will do anything to stop people from seeing the scope of the control effort they have deployed in order to carry out their agenda.  Those are the stakes at play.

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Another item in the long list of ‘thanks Joe Biden‘ stuff.  Shortages in natural gas in windmill chasing Europe have driven up the prices significantly.  The conflict between NATO and their targeted villain in Russia is only making matters worse.

As the EU prices jump to $33/$34 per million British thermal units (BTU’s), the U.S. natural gas selling at $6 per million BTU’s is an absolute bargain.

Liquify that stuff and send it across the pond says any smart energy capitalist.

However, that comes with a problem for us.  Our supplies of natural gas are depleting quickly, our exports are now almost three times more than our production.

LONDON, April 8 (Reuters) – U.S. gas prices have climbed to their highest level in more than a decade as strong demand from overseas has emptied storage and left inventories well below average for the time of year despite a mild winter.

Front-month futures for gas delivered at Henry Hub in Louisiana have risen to $6.40 per million British thermal units, the highest in real terms since 2010. Wholesale prices in the United States are still far below those prevailing in Northeast Asia ($33 per million British thermal units) and Northwest Europe ($34).

[…] U.S. LNG exports rose 13% in the three months from November to January compared with the same period a year earlier, while gas production was up by less than 5%.

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Another significant filing by John Durham’s special counsel team to the court was made last night.  {READ HERE} Within the filing the staff accidentally did not seal the attachments which are emails between Fusion GPS and many major media outlets.  Whoops.

♦ First, the background.  In a previous liable lawsuit by Alfa Bank against Fusion GPS, the Russian bank was able to get the internal emails between Fusion GPS and major media outlets as part of the lawsuit discovery phase.  Despite the lawsuit failing to advance, those prior emails now become evidence for John Durham to use in the case against Clinton lawyer Michael Sussmann.

Michael Sussmann, a Perkins Coie lawyer, is accused of lying to the FBI about who he was working for when Sussmann was trying to push the Trump-Russia collusion story to trigger an investigation.  Former FBI legal counsel James Baker has said Sussmann told the FBI he was operating independently as a concerned citizen.  However, Sussmann is defending himself by saying: (a) he never said he was not working for Clinton at the time he brought the FBI the material, a demonstrable falsehood; and (b) he was motivated by altruism, unrelated to efforts to help Clinton, another demonstrable falsehood.

As the case has proceeded all of the parties are now claiming legal and work product ‘privileges’ to stop Durham from using their communication and networked conspiracy against Michael Sussmann, and by extension them, in court.  Fusion GPS, Perkins Coie, Marc Elias, Michael Sussmann, Hillary for America (Clinton campaign), Robby Mook (Campaign Manager), along with Tech-Executive-1 Rodney Joffe, are all claiming some form of privilege.

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Many of the media responses to Elon Musk purchasing the Twitter social media platform are epic.  However, a couple from yesterday stand out insofar as they are incredibly revealing about the current state of the leftists in media.

Every intellectually honest American admits the Big Tech social media platforms were supporting Joe Biden in the 2020 election.  Uncontested empirical examples include, but are not limited to: (1) Facebook and Instagram owner Mark Zuckerberg spent $500 million to support ballot harvesting efforts; (2) Twitter and Facebook banned and blocked any discussion of the Hunter Biden laptop story; and (3) Google executives openly admitted using their search engine ranking system to promote the Biden campaign over Trump.  Those are just three uncontested references -amid a sea of many more- that showcase a small part of their 2020 bias.

With that in mind, consider this from MSNBC. {Direct Rumble Link}  WATCH:

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CNN’s media pundit Brian Stelter also had a rather humorous take showcasing the bubble of isolation that must encompass his own life.

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