One of the reasons why YOU are part of The Last Refuge, is that together we accept things as they are – not as we would prefer them to be.

This means you, me, and the larger CTH community, does not have the ability, nor the desire, to pretend.  As a consequence, they, DC, essentially hates us.  Hence, you understand the origin of TLR name.

So, summarizing this story today from the video below. {Direct Rumble Link}  House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer has Biden documents…. 3+ million of them…. that were never on the laptop…. that originated within a 2016 FBI investigation of Burisma Holdings in a semi-related fraud case, that the House Oversight Committee is now is sharing with John Solomon… who is generating a brand-new Tick Tock “BOOM” clock, that can be promoted by Bannon.

.

Of course, they could just upload the 3,000,000 pages to a public searchable website, and then let people dig, review, share and discover while pouring sunlight on the entire set of events….  But, then again, that might eliminate Solomon’s “tick tock” time on Hannity.

I digress.

I’m outraged, OUTRAGED I tell ya.

Forgive me!

(more…)

This is a remarkable statistic on illegal immigration that Bill Melugin is drawing attention to.

“NEW: Per multiple federal sources, ICE’s non-detained docket has exploded to 7.4 million cases, more than doubling the Trump years, and it’s on pace to hit 8 million by end of year. Each ICE officer now has to manage an average of 7,000 cases each, an impossible task given the agency’s current staffing levels. ICE currently only has roughly 6,000 deportation officers nationwide, and not all of them work on the non-detained docket.”

“The non-detained docket means not in ICE detention. It is made up of migrants who have crossed the border illegally and have been released into the U.S. with pending immigration cases/future court dates, as well as illegal immigrants who have already been ordered deported by an immigration judge but are still in the country.

The non-detained docket has added more than 1 million cases since October 1st, largely due to mass catch and release policies.

Importantly, these numbers do not include the nearly 1.9 million recorded getaways that have entered the US during the Biden administration, as they have had no contact with DHS – yet overstretched ICE officers are also responsible for tracking down and removing this population as well.

(more…)

It is a very unfortunate situation any time you can easily spot manipulation that is taking place on behalf of hidden interests.

In this example today TPUSA was pushing the results of a poll from this past weekend.

Charlie Kirk and his organization claim that JD Vance won the straw poll of 1,600 attendees to the TPUSA event. However, as quickly identified, the only options presented to the audience were JD Vance, Marco Rubio, Tim Scott and Doug Burgum.  Somewhat of a self-fulfilling presentation.

[SOURCE]

Why only four candidates? According to Charlie Kirk and his pollster Richard Baris, those are the final four as determined by them and media.

Something just didn’t smell right. Lots of media articles have other names including Kari Lake, Ben Carson, Vivek Ramaswamy, Lee Zeldin, Michael Flynn, Devin Nunes, Ron DeSantis and many more. So, what exactly was the agenda of TPUSA and by extension, Richard Baris.

Well, for his participatory role, it appears Richard Baris was only a tool who polled the audience based on names Charlie Kirk gave him.  Then when you consider that Charlie Kirk had already publicly claimed J.D. Vance was the best choice for vice-president {SEE HERE}, the pre-selected names appeared to be chosen to create a specific outcome, ie “the illusion of choice.”

JD Vance won the TPUSA poll because Charlie Kirk wanted J. D Vance to win the poll.  Richard Baris delivered the data to support it by using a pre-filtered candidate list that only included 4 names.

After being called out for the manipulative tactics, their attempts at justification ended up just being silly. [SEE HERE].  The narrative engineering fiasco would be embarrassing and shameful if the issues were not serious.

(more…)

Today, June 12th, is Russia Day, a national holiday in the Russian federation.  The symbolism of the intentionally timed events happening today seems to be lost on most western media.

A Russian Yasen-class nuclear submarine named “Kazan” arrived in Havana, Cuba today after piloting through the Florida straits.  Watching a massive nuclear submarine sail into Havana is something extraordinary considering all the provocations taking place between the USA and Russia surrounding the conflict in Ukraine.

Additionally, in a counteraction to provide clarity to the intents and economic purposes of the Biden administration (DoS, CIA and IC), today the Treasury Dept announces new 2nd round sanctions against Russia.   However, in comparative terms, the physical appearance of a nuclear-powered Russian submarine and a set of accompanying warships carrying hypersonic cruise missiles approximately 30 miles from the USA mainland, is a little more dramatic than western saber rattling about sanctioning two Russian banks, Sberbank and VTB.

The Russian submarine fleet, and specifically the Yasen-class submarine group, is the tip of the spear against any military force the USA might choose to deploy in Eastern Europe.  Russian President Vladimir Putin is essentially signaling the people behind Joe Biden that he is willing to participate in the provocation approach.

(more…)

Congressman Matt Gaetz seemingly cuts across the UniParty grain at key moments; perhaps today is another example.  The better part of good public questioning is not just what question is asked, but also how the question is asked.

The back-and-forth questioning does not need to be performative to be substantial, it only needs to express the same frame of mind that a viewer would have on the subject matter.  If your gut has a sense about an issue and the questioner conveys that same gut-level sentiment honestly, it puts the person being questioned into a non-pretending corner.

AG Merrick Garland says it’s a “dangerous conspiracy theory” to allege that the Department of Justice is communicating with state and local prosecutions against Trump. But former senior DOJ official Matthew Colangelo was appointed Senior Counsel to District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office to “get Trump” – as detailed in Mark Pomerantz’s book.  Congressman Matt Gaetz asks the non-pretending version of the questions. WATCH: 

.

There should be no respect granted to a U.S Attorney General who disrespects the intelligence of the American people.  They work for us, we should all focus on remembering that.

(more…)

When the extreme leftists cannot get their way by manipulating the legal system through Lawfare, they come unglued.

The tribal leadership of Norm Eisen, Mary McCord, Andrew Weissmann and the larger Lawfare community have been waging an open media campaign against Florida Judge Aileen Cannon because in the Jack Smith documents case Judge Cannon is not giving them what they want.

It’s somewhat personal to the Lawfare crew because from the outset it has appeared that Eisen, McCord and Weissmann write the briefs and motions that Jack Smith files with the court.  If the Lawfare effort is being rejected, dismissed or diluted by Judge Cannon, the Lawfare tribe takes it personal and make appearances on leftist media networks, broadcasts and social media telling their followers to file judicial complaints against her.

In response to what the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals calls an “orchestrated campaign,” Chief Judge William Pryor of the 11th CCA has published a blistering order [SEE HERE], informing the clerk of the court not to accept any more complaints and to trash them.

[SOURCE pdf]

Making matters worse for the Lawfare pearl clutchers, Chief Justice Pryor tells the court’s clerk not to even respond to the complaints, just publish this order.  In the larger message the 11th CCA is essentially telling the Lawfare activists to knock it off, and this approach can have profoundly negative implications for Jack Smith’s ability to use the appeals court as a tool to target Judge Cannon.

(more…)

After we checked on Sunday following President Trump announcing his TikTok account he had 800,000 followers.  Today at the same time he has over 3.8 million followers; that is a gain of approximately 3 million followers in the past 24 hours and growing.

Additionally, according to the Trump campaign and Eric Trump, donations have flooded into the campaign as the American public show their contempt for the judicial Lawfare with their wallets and support.  As noted by Eric Trump approximately 30% of the donations came from people who had never donated to a political campaign before, and $70 million of the initial funds raised were small donors (under $250).

.

(more…)

Some of the commentary made by MSM political pundits is so over-the-top biased and fraught with manipulative intent the light from the place where narrative engineering emanates could not reach their bias for a year.  It is infuriating in the extreme.

Entering the game of gaslighting comes one of the most politically conniving narrative engineers in media, George Stephanopoulos.   Today, during an interview with President Trump attorney Will Scharf, Stephanopoulos attempts to claim the Biden administration was not involved in the Alvin Bragg case against President Trump.

Speaking on “ABC’s This Week,” Stephanopoulos claimed, “of course, the attorney general of Manhattan has nothing to do with the Department of Justice.”  Scharf replied: “I vehemently disagree that the district attorney in New York was not politically motivated here, and I vehemently disagree that President Biden and his political allies aren’t up to their necks in this prosecution.”  WATCH:

.

(more…)

I’m just going to throw out a bunch of factual datapoints that seemingly mean something, but the larger ‘intent’ picture is still opaque.  Many readers may not be familiar with the connective tissue between the names, so I’ll just cut to the chase.

According to media reports, Pershing Square Capital Management founder Bill Ackman is preparing to back Donald Trump in the 2024 election {LINK}.  Bill Ackman is the Wall Street money guy backstopping Elon Musk, and Ackman created the financial vehicle to take the X-Platform back to the public market (unused mechanism).

To wit, Elon Musk is reportedly in frequent communication with President Trump {LINK} potentially now as an advisor to the campaign:

“As recently as two years ago, Trump and Musk were publicly trading insults. But in recent months, the two men are developing a friendly rapport and talk on the phone several times a month as the election nears, the people familiar with their talks said. The pair have held discussions on immigration, technology and science, including the U.S. Space Force. Their views and interests have grown more aligned, the people said, with Musk calling Trump directly on his cellphone.” (more)

Elon Musk (Tesla) does not want tariffs against Chinese electric vehicles.  Axios is reporting that Musk plans to host an X-Platform townhall event with President Trump {LINK}.  As the billionaire classes choose sides, Mark Cuban is aligned with the multinationals and Biden; meanwhile, Musk and Ackman now appear to be aligning with Trump.

JD Vance and Vivek Ramaswamy were college roommates.  Both Vance and Ramaswamy were financially backed by Peter Thiel.  Thiel and Musk (now with Ackman, Vance and Ramaswamy) seemingly run in the same tribal circles.

Curiously, this grouping who seemingly support cryptocurrency, along with a few others who do not openly support the Hamas faction of U.S financial interests, are moving deeper into the America-First Trump orbit.  The question of their motive remains.  Do they support the MAGA agenda, or are they worming their way into position in order to undermine it?

You decide.

(more…)

According to Politico and the New York Times the Biden administration has given Ukraine approval to launch U.S provided missiles into Russia.  {LINK} This is a major escalation of NATO engagement, likely intended to provoke Russia to strike alternate targets.  The people inside Ukraine responsible for using these U.S. provided weapons are likely not Ukranian.

CTH is in an unusually serendipitous position to analyze how Russia is responding to this shift in USA position.  The morale inside Russia is very high amid the military age population.  The recruitment efforts of the Russian government appear to be numerous and very effective.

There are thousands of newly enlisted military personnel very visible in/around training facilities.  There is no apparent tension discernable. Overall Russia appears to take great pride in their military, and it is considered a matter of honor and pride to support them.

WASHINGTON – The Biden administration has quietly given Ukraine permission to strike inside Russia — solely near the area of Kharkiv — using U.S.-provided weapons, two U.S. officials and two other people familiar with the move said Thursday, a major reversal that will help Ukraine to better defend its second-largest city.

“The president recently directed his team to ensure that Ukraine is able to use U.S. weapons for counter-fire purposes in Kharkiv so Ukraine can hit back at Russian forces hitting them or preparing to hit them,” a U.S. official said, adding that the policy of not allowing long-range strikes inside Russia “has not changed.”

(more…)