Wow, 72 hours ago no one even heard the name Omicron variant.  Now, in less than three days, a variant has been identified, global travel has been halted, states of emergency have been declared, and now we see a pharmaceutical company announcing the variant specific vaccine trial that will begin in the U.S. in a few weeks.  This government relationship with Big Pharma is certainly generating some fast action, eh?

If a person was cynically inclined; while knowing governments’ need to control inflation yet cannot raise interest rates or stop purchasing debt because current legislative spending continues – a remarkable control option would be to halt demand; and a person might think this was suspicious, or something.

Nov 26 (Reuters) – Novavax Inc said on Friday it had started working on a version of its COVID-19 vaccine to target the variant detected in South Africa and would have the shot ready for testing and manufacturing in the next few weeks.

The company’s COVID-19 shot contains an actual version of the virus’ spike protein that cannot cause disease but can trigger the immune system. The vaccine developer said it had started developing a spike protein specifically based on the known genetic sequence of the variant, B.1.1.529.

Novavax’s vaccine received its first emergency use approval earlier this month in Indonesia followed by the Philippines. Other vaccine developers, including Germany’s BioNTech SE and Johnson & Johnson, have said they are testing the effectiveness of their shots against the new variant, which is named Omicron by the World Health Organization (read more)

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We originally outlined the new COVID-19 variant along with the international motives of the science community for delivering it HERE.  Previously the new worrisome, 10 spike, vaccine resistant variant was called “The B.1.1.529 variant“.  However, those types of names do not work well for larger fear narrative distribution.  As a result, the international scientific community has given it the name “Omicron“.  Perhaps the “Merry Christmas” variant would be culturally insensitive.

Globally, and not coincidentally –politically– the greatest challenge to those in power is a massive rise in direct inflation.  What is the quickest way to eliminate the political risks due to inflation?  Shut down demand….. lock down the economies… turn the values closed on economic activity, and then watch oil prices plummet.

As the science is told, Omicron originated in South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique and Malawi.  Government officials around the world have responded to the Omicron variant by banning travel from those countries.  The U.K and Australia kicked off the latest round of fear porn with their travel bans.  Subsequently, fellow EU nations Austria, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Malta all announced imminent entry bans to all travelers who’ve entered South Africa and surrounding nations in the past two weeks.

In North America, Canada will be “banning the entry of foreign nationals…that have traveled through southern Africa in the last 14 days,” due to the new coronavirus variant Omicron, Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said at a news conference Friday. (link)  And right on cue the Biden administration joins the effort:

WHITE HOUSE – “This morning I was briefed by my chief medical advisor, Dr. Tony Fauci, and the members of our COVID response team, about the Omicron variant, which is spreading through Southern Africa. As a precautionary measure until we have more information, I am ordering additional air travel restrictions from South Africa and seven other countries. These new restrictions will take effect on November 29. As we move forward, we will continue to be guided by what the science and my medical team advises.” (more)

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If the report from Axios is accurate, the nomination of communist Saule Omarova to Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is sunk.

However, this could also be viewed as an Overton window maneuver where the next radical nominated will be only slightly less communist, and thereby gain appointment.

AXIOS – […] In phone call on Wednesday, Sens. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), all members of the Senate Banking Committee, told Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) — the panel’s chairman — of their opposition. They’re joined in opposing her by Sens. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) and Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.). (more)

Senator Mark Warner’s opposition is a little unusual. Perhaps this is a downstream consequence of the recent Virginia election.  Regardless, at least this is one nomination that did not get through.   So far, Biden’s economic, energy and finance policies have been disastrous for Main Street; unfortunately, that also looks like a feature not a flaw.

Eh, this is awkward… and simultaneously so typical of the current administration.   The White House trotted Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm to the microphones today to tell the DC stenographers how brilliant, beneficial and strategically necessary it is to release 50 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in an effort to lower gasoline prices.  The enthusiastic Energy Secretary read the script, gave her talking points and then took questions.

However, after spending 15 minutes talking about the strategic brilliance of the 50 million barrel release, one of the stenographers accidentally asked: “that said, how many barrels of oil do U.S. consumers use every day?”…   Granholm paused, looked down and said: “I don’t have that number in front of me, I’m sorry“…  WATCH:

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♦ The amount we are giving you is so incredible and brilliant it will make everyone’s lives better.  The best ever.

♦ How much do we need?

♦ I don’t know. We didn’t get that information.  But the amount we are giving is awesome.

Yup, that’s the Biden administration encapsulated.

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The Senate Banking, Housing, & Urban Affairs Committee held a confirmation today for Joe Biden’s communist nominee Saule Omarova to be Comptroller of the Currency.  It really is quite remarkable that Biden would nominate a person who has advocated for government control over all allocation of capital and credit in the U.S. economy.

Ms. Omarova has advocated for government intervention in the allocation of all resources used within the finance and banking system, completely reversing the free market allocation of capital in the economy.   Omarova’s position of federal control is unchanged throughout her life, yet she has attempted to add nuance and denial to a life-long history of working on this process.

Ms. Omarova is the tip of the spear in using finance and banking to implement the regulatory controls needed to support the Green New Deal, where government would intervene and deny capital to private interests who would not be in alignment with leftist energy policy and total economic change via Build Back Better.  Today she was confronted by several senators within the banking committee.  WATCH:

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The southern border is a mess, and border state Latino Democrats are switching to the Republican Party.  The Texas border region overwhelmingly increased their support for Donald Trump in the 2020 election, and are now voting for local Republican candidates.  This is the MAGA influence of Trump and the America-First Main Street realignment.

Inflation is skyrocketing and will continue getting worse through 2022.  Wage growth is nowhere near enough to keep up with food inflation.  Gas prices have almost doubled in some areas and will continue to increase due to Biden energy policy.

The Democrat regulatory environmental programs in coastal areas are creating massive supply chain issues.  Home heating costs this winter will be 60 to 70 percent higher due to Biden energy policy.

The Joe Biden vaccination mandate is creating a workforce crisis and escalating backlash created by toxic federal overreach.  Several blue states (CA, NY, IL) are losing congressional seats due to population losses, while red states are gaining congressional districts due to population growth.  Insane spending by Democrats continues without pause or consideration for the inflation they are creating.  The great ideological cleaving between Democrat communists and middle-class Americans continues.

Polling indicates there is a major storm on the horizon for Democrats, as their ideological thirst for power is transparent {link} and being rejected.  As noted by the Washington Post, “On Tuesday night, voters in Columbia, S.C., elected a Republican, Daniel Rickenmann, as their next mayor — about a year after voters in the county voted for Biden by a 38-point margin,” yet we all know the result will be attributed to racism or something equally as stupid.

Every single policy the Biden administration touches creates a crap storm of anxiety for the ‘Main Street’ American worker.  The only group benefiting from JoeBama is the same group that funds them, Wall Street.  Making matters worse, the political communists behind the policy execution are brazen in showcasing how the destruction of the American economy is their intent.

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A very interesting interview with Chris Spear, president and CEO of the American Trucking Association.

During a House Transportation Committee hearing on supply chain issues, CEO Chris Spear shares an internal survey showing that 37% of truck drivers “not only said no, but said hell no” to the Biden vaccine mandates.

To give some perspective of the downstream consequence, the ATA President noted that “if just 3.7 percent, not 37 percent, just 3.7 percent” of the drivers left the industry, there would be over a quarter million vacancies resulting in a “catastrophic” collapse of the U.S. supply chain.  Mr. Spear also shared his opinion the OSHA rule is completely unworkable and unlawful.

The consequences are grave if just 3.7% did not work.  However, if ten times that many, 37 percent of truck drivers, stopped hauling products because of the Biden vaccine requirement, American civic society would collapse within days as panicked citizens took to the streets.  Desperate Americans would be clamoring for scarce products, and the impact on society could not be measured.  WATCH:

As we have continued to point out, a federal vaccine mandate might sound like a good idea on a think tank, academic or white paper policy level of consideration; but on a practical level, wiping out a large percentage of your most productive workforce over a vaccine mandate is unworkable, and might even end the operation of the entire business.

It is important to note the recent NBC poll on this issue amid the outlook of the vaccine mandates.  A majority of the country do not support the vaccine mandates, and worse still, the number of unvaccinated workers is essentially unwavering in the past six weeks {poll data}.  Remember, the number of Americans who willingly quit their jobs increased to 4.3 million in August {link}, and then increased again to 4.4 million in September {link}. People are not f**king around now.

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Neel Kashkari is head of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve. If you know the financial lingo, you can see the dire forecast behind the opaque language.  In plain-speak, Kashari is saying when it comes to prices and inflation, “we’re screwed“…

In this interview with CBS talking head Margaret Brennan, Kashkari admits inflation is still going up, and it will get worse. Keep in mind, the lingo of the inflation conversation is discussing “percentages of change.” Kashkari claims the percentages of change will start to slow in a few years, but the prices will never return to their former level.

The percentage of inflationary change (this year vs last year) will continue going up, as prices continue to skyrocket over almost every sector. CTH points out this issue, because as the Fed continues printing current money, the value of future money drops and the price of goods continues to climb. The fast-turn goods rise in price quickest (now recorded at 6.2%), and the inflation on slow-turn durable goods lags but hits even harder.

Current real inflation inside the ‘total’ economy, the cumulative snowball that is coming down the mountain, is over 20% and still growing. This situation puts the forecast prices of 2022 goods at an alarming level. WATCH:

The fed has no tools to slow the rate of current inflation, as interest rates are disconnected {Revisit The New Dimension in Modern Economics} from the cost of goods produced. The only thing the Fed can do is to stop purchasing debt (Quantitative Easing), stop purchasing our own bonds, at a slower rate.

Despite being a progressive himself, even Neel Kashkari is telling congress to stop spending money.

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One thing CTH does is to look at proposed leftist advancements through the prism of previously blocked moves.  The Joe Biden nomination of avowed communist Saule Omarova to the Treasury Department Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) should be considered in a similar perspective.

There’s a couple of different issues surfacing in the Omarova nomination.  Obviously, she is aligned with the view that controlling money is another way to control the behavior of businesses and people; Omarova’s previous statements {Go Deep} about intentionally bankrupting oil and gas companies is indicative of the former – and the most recent statements are aligned with the latter.  WATCH:

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Obviously, Saule Omarova is interested in the concept of an all controlling central bank that would eliminate the need for private banking interests.  As she states, “There will be no more private bank deposit accounts, and all of the deposit accounts will be held directly at the fed.”  The basic premise is that all employers would funnel their payrolls into a centralized federal depository, where they would be then be taxed and re-distributed, electronically, to the workers.

One central bank, owned and operated by the federal government, would replace all the purposes within the private banking system.  Given her upbringing in the former Soviet Union, and considering her education at the University of Moscow, perhaps this outlook shouldn’t be surprising.   However, her nomination alone should be viewed as astonishing.

♦ Big Picture – The COVID Passport concept, now currently deployed in Europe and Australia, then becomes the vector for entry into a digital identification process.  At the end of that digital ID process is a centralized database, which, not coincidentally, directly aligns with the capability of the U.S. federal government to trigger what Omarova is advocating in that video – a centralized system to control all financial deposits and transactions through the digital ID previously created.

It doesn’t take a deep thinker to see how the federal government would eventually respond to having that much power over the financial accounts of Americans.  Cue the visual reference:

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I’m not sure what is more blood boiling: that Joe Biden thinks it is okay to mock the American electorate, or that he actually believes the horse crap that comes out of his twisted, stupid brain.

The question was a perfectly well presented inquiry about the Biden administration’s incompetence to put policies in place to streamline the supply chain chaos that he has created.  His response is disconnected, absent of anything even remotely accurate, and entirely disconnected from factual substance.  This guy is a complete and utter failure of staggering and stunning incompetence.  WATCH:

I do not use the word ‘hate‘ lightly.  I have a solid grounding on what that word actually means.  However, the only people I hate worse than the current occupants of the White House, are the complicit DC media stenographers who sit there and giggle as this pontificating pustule of an idiot spouts nonsense. They clap and comply as if this is the professional or normal state of a functioning government.

COVID didn’t do squat to disrupt supply chains, impact prices or create massive shortages and inflation… people did.  Specifically, the people in the background of this administration who intentionally trashed the U.S. economy, because they are ideologically aligned with that destruction.  The current economic team is devoid of any real world experience that would shape their outlooks on how to solve problems. Example: Transportation Secretary, Pete Buttigieg.

[Transcript] – […] THE NATIONAL FOOL: (Laughs.) (The fool covers his eyes and points towards the press.) (Laughter.)

Q Mr. President, Democratic Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger said of your presidency this week: “Nobody elected him to be FDR. They elected him to be normal and stop the chaos.” How do you view your mandate after Tuesday’s election losses for Democrats? And is she wrong?

THE NATIONAL FOOL: Well, Abigail is a friend. We had a long talk. She joked and said that I have a picture — she said I have a picture of Roosevelt hanging in my office — her office, okay?

I don’t intend to anybody but Joe Biden. That’s who I am. And what I’m trying to do is do the things that I ran on to do. And, look, people out there are — ordinary, hardworking Americans are really, really — been put through the wringer the last couple years, starting with COVID.

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